Weights, cardio and stuff log

Going to delay deads day until Wednesday, so hit the legs again today. Pretty exhausted in general these last few days - you know, life etc. blah blah.

14 clustered leg press; 3 - 160kg, 3 - 200kg, 3 - 240kg, 3 - 280kg (warm ups), 4 - 320kg, 3,4,3 - 350kg.

25 clustered leg extensions; 5,5 - 75kg, 5 - 80kg, 5,5 - 85kg. Will probably try and keep these in more often. This leg press is not especially quad-centric, as it uses a much more natural path, which is great, but the fallout is that quads can be left behind a little. Need to keep these up to scratch for deads.
 
13 max-stim rack pulls; 3 - 60kg, 3 - 100kg, 2 - 140kg, 1 - 180kg, 1 - 200kg (warm ups), 7 - 220kg, 4 - 230kg, 2 - 240kg. reps 4-7 @ 220kg were a cluster and kind of confirmed a theory of mine for rack pulls, being that your lower back is much more involved for consecutive reps than perhaps max-stim or singles. Maybe that's just me, but that's how I've been feeling lately. 2nd rep at 240 was sloppy, 1st was perfect, but they both count.

13 clustered flat bench; 2 - 110kg (warm ups), 1 - 120kg, 1 - 125kg, 2,2,2,2,3 - 130kg.



Getting close to SD in terms of fatigue. Would prefer to time it for a week away (work) at the end of November, so I may just dial back the loads a bit and/or miss a work out. Will continue to delay deads at least until Friday, as have a pretty massive work week.
 
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It may be time to go with straps as well, I think I'd prefer double overhand grip for cautionary reasons (rib). Not really too motivated to try another pair of Versa's, as they keep tearing, despite being fantastic until that point.
 
11 max-stim rack pulls; 2 - 100kg, 1 - 140kg, 1 - 180kg, 1 - 200kg (warm ups), 4 - 220kg, 4 - 230kg, 3 - 240kg. Man, my form was tight today. I've been working on it for a few sessions now, am really happy with it. The last of the 240's is what some might call 'RPE 10', a tiny bit sloppy.

10 clustered flat bench; 3 - 100kg (warm ups), 1 - 120kg, 1 - 125kg, 2,2,2,2 - 130kg. Skipped the last cluster because had to wait before rack pulls and again for bench due to lazy wankers taking too long between sets.

Spent about 80mins in the gym, but should have only taken 60 or so, realistically.
 
Why do you call your reps clustered? I mean, how are clusters different from regular 2,2,2,2 130kg sets? Are you using the word to distinguish 5RM done in a series of 2 reps from your true 2RM?

And regarding max-stim, let me attempt to decipher this one: "4 - 220kg, 4 - 230kg, 3 - 240kg"
220kgx2, rest 10-15 secs, 220kgx1, rest 10-15 secs, 220kgx1. Rest a few minutes.
230kgx2, rest 10-15 secs, 230kgx1, rest 10-15 secs, 230kgx1. Rest a few minutes.
240kgx1, rest 10-15 secs, 240kgx1, rest 10-15 secs, 240kgx1.

Is this what you mean?
 
130kg is not my 5RM for flat bench.

They are referred to as clusters, because that is what they are. I am using 2 reps because that is what is currently confident for me, although I expect that come Friday there will be 3-rep clusters in there, keeping approximately the same total volume.

Max-stim: think of them as 'spaced' singles, if you like. The "4" indicates the number of reps that were done for each load. The M-time for each rep tends to increase as the load increases. 220kg has a very brief M-time, probably 15 seconds, maybe 30 if I get distracted by something for a moment or two. It's more like 3mins between 240's.

There is no special spacing between load increases; they're all just reps.
 
Regarding clusters; this is merely a way to categorise the number of consecutive reps performed in a different manner to traditional 'set' terminology. You might perform 18 reps of flat bench, and do it at 3x6, despite the fact that you could have gotten 8 on your first set.

I prefer to do what I can for each series of consecutive reps, and accomplish an overall workload for the session, rather than aiming for fulfillment of a predetermined set-rep matrix.

If on Friday my 130kg reps go 2,3,3,2,2 then it's 12 clustered. That's how the term is used and applied. They aren't distinct from 'sets', per se, it's just that the number of reps you do is one short of failure and is not predetermined.
 
I find myself doing the same thin lately... increase reps by one each w/o until I reach 10-12. Then add some load and start over. Although I'm not sure how singles or doubles (with loads not lighter than 5-6RM) are going to help hypertrophy? True, such loads provide full recruitment from the get-go. But is full recruitment equal to stimulus for hypertrophy? How about the importance of minimal constant TUT done in a very short period time, have you considered it? Or do you simply add some higher rep metabolic work for that purpose?
 
TUT increases as Tension increases. Graph time vs tension, then shade the area that the graph creates; that's your total 'work' (not using the term in it's specific physics sense).

I've put on more muscle in the last year using this method than I did using standard-HST loading for the previous three years.

It isn't a case of 'singles' or 'doubles'. I'm not particularly interested in how the reps are grouped, I'm interested in progressive load (= microdamage & growth stimuli) and minimum volume (CNS sparing) at those loads. I'd rather grow from 8 reps at 3-4RM (or even 5RM) than burn my nervous system hitting 15 reps at 5-6-7RM.
 
AlexAustralia said:
Also, the irony of you slowly adapting to how I train, intentionally or not, knowingly or not ... ;)
Click to expand...
Haha, that's me desperately trying to get into some effective volume... I'm really using more load than I'd like to. That's why I no longer add more load, but wait until I can do 6 reps in 2 sets with it... or at least a total of 12 reps, with at least 6 reps in the first set. I'd really like to keep loads at 85-86% of 1RM, although it's hard to do after I add some load, because I can then only do about 3-4 reps with it. Actually I'm attempting to do double progression (first load, then volume, which is similar to walking - you do one step with your left foot, then with your right foot, you never do two steps with any leg), similar to how it's done in Lyle's Generic Bulk.
 
Double progression is how most of us increase over time. Anyway, time to exit my log and continue in the main forum somewhere.
 
18 clustered squats; 3,3 - 80kg (warm ups), 3,3 - 100kg, 2,2,2,2,2 - 110kg. Felt good to do these again. Leg press compresses the torso a bit, and the rib is feeling a bit sore today. Might continue these, alternating w/leg press across lower workouts.

10 max-stim seated leg curls; 10 - 70kg. Slow bastard on the lying-leg curl machine.
 
I too dropped leg press in favor of squats recently. Leg press is great, but the sled I was using tended to emphasize my glutes no matter what form I used and as you mentioned compressed the ribs a little. Squats seem a little more balanced overall on the quads, hips and even has a nice lower back contribution. Looking forward to squatting heavy numbers soon.
 
10 clustered deads, from the floor, no shoes; 1 - 120kg, 1 - 170kg (warm ups), 1 - 190kg, 1 - 200kg, 2 - 190kg, 1 - 190kg, 1 - 190kg, 4 - 190kg. Just felt like doing regular deads today. 200 is a PR form the floor, so pretty stoked. Took a bit too long to get my glutes involved after the squatting yesterday, just went a bit quickly I guess.

12 clustered flat bench; 3 - 100kg (warm ups), 1 - 120kg, 2,2,3,4 - 130kg. Felt good at the end.

10 max-stim WG pulls, I-beam using finger-grip - BW + 20kgs.

15 max-stim hammer curls; 30kg. Just cos. This is 6-7RM range, I think.
 
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Congrats on the PR. Breached the big 200kg! As you said, that was a very short warm up. Do you do any generall warm-up before lifting, ie. row/bike?
 
Not really. I do a fair bit of mild movement during the day, staying 'warm' or 'flexed', trying to keep the joints fluid etc.

I just warm-up into the exercises, but just got a bit ahead of myself today.
 
Great deading, yet again. Welcome to the 200 club.

How you feeling in your legs today after squatting? Ive started alternating presses and squats. I think a combo of the two is best. Are you high och low bar squatting?
 
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