_tim's Log

I doubt I'd even get though the first part of the lift, colby. I was having trouble at 225 - I can't even imagine 405 without straps. I'm working my grip, so hopefully in time I won't need the straps anymore. For now, though, I'm eliminating that weakness so I can maximize the lift.
 
Cardio

I was going to do Hang Snatch work today but just really didn't feel it. I did a few reps and decided to make the most of my time instead of just going through the motions. So, I did 15 minutes of HIIT on the treadmill.
 
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(_tim @ Oct. 02 2007,10:43)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I doubt I'd even get though the first part of the lift, colby. I was having trouble at 225 - I can't even imagine 405 without straps. I'm working my grip, so hopefully in time I won't need the straps anymore. For now, though, I'm eliminating that weakness so I can maximize the lift.</div>
I worked up my grip strength pretty good with reverse curls, farmer's walks, and rack pulls. I don't do the rack pulls anymore, but I still do the first two every day as shown in my log.
 
Thanks for the advice, colby. I appreciate it! I've been using my Ivanko Super Gripper, but a bit of variation would be great. I'll give your recommendations a shot and see what happens.

Good luck getting to 10%!
 
Back

Pendlay Rows: 125 x 20; 135 x 14, 8

Cable Pulldowns (supinated grip, close): 110 x 20; 120 x 12, 11

DB Rows: 50 x 11, 16, 8


10 minutes HIIT treadmill

Looks like I won't be doing chins, pullups, or any other variation for a while. I did a set of chins with bodyweight, and got 11 reps. No good. By the time I got to my rows, I was shot, but I did the sets anyway with my current 20-rep weight. I'm not sure why I was able to get 16 reps on the second set. I'll take it, though.
 
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(_tim @ Oct. 01 2007,14:25)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Deadlift Day

I'm currently at about 190 pounds.  That will become relevant when you read my top two weights today.

I gave the hook grip a good shot today and don't understand how the thumb doesn't get broken.  I'll keep trying it and hopefully all will work out.

All these were done sumo style.  Oh - and I didn't scrape up my legs today.  Better form maybe?


385 x 1 PB, TWO OF ME!

405 x 1 PB, BROKE 400!


OK.  So I feel incredible about today's workout.  I'm very curious, though, why the deadlift is given so much credit for mass building.  If anyone knows of a good article I could read in that regard, could you let me know?</div>
Firstly, BIG congrats on breaking the 400lb barrier! Awesome lifting.

To save your shins, wear some kind of jogging pants for deads.

Why Sumo? I know some folks find it more comfortable to do them that way. My feeling is that Sumo generally doesn't require you to lift the bar so high. Better for a competition lift perhaps but maybe not as good as a way to really work your quads and back. On the plus side, it should cause less fatigue in your spinal erectors as you can generally keep a more upright stance.

If you don't exercise for a while and then you do deadlifts you will be able to answer your own question on why the deadlift is given so much credit for mass building!
biggrin.gif


If you can get hold of a copy, the chapter on deadlifting in Rippetoe's Starting Strength has some very useful info.
 
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(Lol @ Oct. 08 2007,10:40)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Why Sumo? I know some folks find it more comfortable to do them that way. My feeling is that Sumo generally doesn't require you to lift the bar so high. Better for a competition lift perhaps but maybe not as good as a way to really work your quads and back. On the plus side, it should cause less fatigue in your spinal erectors as you can generally keep a more upright stance.

If you don't exercise for a while and then you do deadlifts you will be able to answer your own question on why the deadlift is given so much credit for mass building!
biggrin.gif


If you can get hold of a copy, the chapter on deadlifting in Rippetoe's Starting Strength has some very useful info.</div>
Thanks so much, Lol. I really felt a sense of accomplishment I hadn't in a very long time breaking 400. To answer your question on why I'm doing Sumo deads, it all comes down to my lower back and hips. I can keep much better form using Sumos than conventionals - mostly because the stance is wider. I've found that when I squat, I'm using a wider stance too, with great results. This may be due to the fact that I have extremely wide hips; the wider stance makes the lift just feel more natural.

As to the results - I hear you that I may not fully realize the results that I would were I doing conventionals, but that's OK with me. I figured that I'd do Sumos exclusively (during the heavy week anyway) for this cycle and see where I come out. My quads are plenty big and are still growing - to the point that I had to buy pants two waist sizes bigger than normal to account for the gains in my leg size. My butt has grown too, in all fairness, but my body composition remains at just under 10%. I think all this experimenting has been one giant slow bulk! I've gained about 17 pounds since my first HST cycle, and each week I seem to grow a bit more - ESPECIALLY during my volume (a.k.a. lots of reps) week.

Thanks for the nod to Rippetoe's book. I'll check it out!
 
I missed your post on front squats. Basically, I think you just have to work on your wrist flexibility. I find it helps to do plenty of wrist stretching warmups before you do a set. Releasing a couple of fingers from the bar on each hand can help relieve some of the pressure. It is possible to front squat without holding the bar at all if you hold your arms out straight in front of you.

Another tip is to keep your shoulders high so that bar sits across them which also keeps the bar away from your throat. This happens naturally if you keep your elbows up. Try different hand spacings.

The main thing is to persevere and to start out nice and light until you feel you have the movement and hand positioning sorted.

It'll be worth it in the end. All the best.
 
Thanks Lol.

Make-Up Squat Day

This has been a horrid week. I have a feeling that the rest of this year could fall into this category - lots of software to deliver before year's end.

Regardless, it sorta worked out; I missed this workout during my heavy week, and my volume week stalled after Monday. So, I'll re-start the volume week next Monday with lessons learned from this past Monday.

ATG's:

135 x 15

185 x 8

225 x 5

275 x 3

305 x 1


Step Down:

245 x 4
185 x 8
135 x 3 + a bunch of constant tension reps (didn't count)

10 minutes of interval training followed - but the intervals were done using much slower speeds than normal.

All in all, happy with the 305, but I would have liked to have gotten more than 1 rep. All in due time, I suppose.

GO BUCKS!
 
Back Day

Felt kinda sloppy this morning - a typical Monday morning.

Pendlay Rows: 135 x 20, 11, 6 - heavily clustered the first set, on purpose. Wanted to start heavier than I have lately.

Cable Pulldown, Pronated grip: 110 x 20; 120 x 11, 9

DB Row: 50 x 16/15, 9

Then, a finisher I found on some website that I think will help with endurance. Essentially, you do variations of chins and pullups with 10 second breaks. I did my own version as far as the grip variation went. There's no rep goal - just go until you can't, rest, go again. You're supposed to do this twice, but I only needed one set.

Chins: 3
Pullups: 1
CNGP: 1 1/2

10 minutes HIIT treadmill.
 
Great job with the PB on deads _tim. I am a bit confused now though. If I am correct, you are switching weekly between volume and power. During the volume week you are doing a body part split and hitting each 1xweek, and for power yo are still doing full body 3x/week? Sorry if I'm totally wrong. Also, why do you think your size gains are being relized during the volume week...maybe because of the extra rest hitting each muscle group only 1x/week? Anyway, keep up the good work!
 
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(soflsun @ Oct. 15 2007,16:48)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Great job with the PB on deads _tim. I am a bit confused now though. If I am correct, you are switching weekly between volume and power. During the volume week you are doing a body part split and hitting each 1xweek, and for power yo are still doing full body 3x/week? Sorry if I'm totally wrong. Also, why do you think your size gains are being relized during the volume week...maybe because of the extra rest hitting each muscle group only 1x/week? Anyway, keep up the good work!</div>
Hey soflsun -

Thanks! I'm proud of the 405!

For the power week, I'm doing basically one exercise per session, and varying between 3-5 sessions per week. So no - I'm not doing full body 3x per week, unless you count core exercises (deads/squats/bench) as full body. Every power week, I do a day of deads, a day of bench, and a day of squats. I may add in a day of Snatch work or Clean work as well - just depends how I feel.

I think the size gains I'm seeing are due to increased blood flow over bigger fibers. I'm seeing very consistent, incremental size gains about every two weeks, and seeing in during the volume week - so it's probably that I'm healing from the power week as I challenge myself with the high rep work, and the result is what I see in size gains. That's my going theory, anyway. Bottom line, I feel great, and love what I'm seeing.

Thanks for the post!
 
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(fearfactory @ Oct. 15 2007,20:24)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">great job breaking 400 on deads tim!</div>
THANKS FF!
 
Chest Day

Finally getting around to posting this.  Been a rough day.

Incline Bench: 115 x 20; 135 x 13, 6 - What the heck?

Decline Bench: 160 x 11, 7 - Don't know what's going on here.

Flat DB Flyes: 20 x 20; 25 x 20; 30 x 9 - Given the previous two exercises, I don't know how I even got these in.

Dips: BW x 13, 7, 2.25 - An afterthought.  Wanted to see how bad my tri's had been hit as I felt like maybe they were the cause of my bad benching.  At the same time, it was a nce gauge of how bad I hit my chest.

8 minutes HIIT treadmill

Um, not so great.  Not at all what I expected.
 
Legs

I forgot my little notebook, so I'm hoping that I'm remembering this stuff correctly...

SLDL: 135 x 20; 185 x 12, 11 - Kinda dumb to jump 50 pounds, but I wanted to try it and see what happened. Figured these would be great to do during the volume week to help with lower back strength for the power week.

Single-Leg Standing Calf Raise: 40 x 17, 15, 8 - Saw a guy doing these and wanted to give it a shot. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Granted, this was after my SLDL work, so my calves were compromised to begin with, but WOW.

Front Squat Work: 115 x 15, 12 - I wanted to give these another shot, and mostly just worked on form (read: I did a veritable ton of reps with the bar, in varying arm and leg positions). One question for anyone who cares to answer: the bar sits on the upper chest and front part of the shoulders, right? That's where I was best able to balance the bar and keep proper alignment - but boy, even with a measly 115 pounds, my delts complained about the weight. I hope I get used to it - seems like a great exercise.

All in all, pretty good workout. I'm already sore - I can't imagine what I'll feel like tomorrow.

One footnote - that workout I did yesterday that I was so unhappy with? My chest is DESTROYED today.
cool.gif
 
Biceps (Yesterday)

Yeah - just biceps.  If there's one part of my upper body that constantly hold me back, it's my bi's.  So, with a very short workout, I killed 'em.

Hammer Strength Curl: 60 x 20; 65 x 13, 7 - Great beginning.

DB Hammer Curl: 20 x 20; 25 x 20; 30 x 6 - Much better than expected; maybe 20 was too light to start.

BB Curl (wide): 55 x 13, 6 - Pretty dead at this point...

V Curl: 30x8/50x12; 60 x 9 - You know that V handle for tricep pulldowns?  That's what I use for these.  The range of motion is everything right in the middle of the normal curl motion (so it's not a full range of motion), but I never stop, and I do the whole rep very slow.  Great way to finish off the bi's, and this absolutely was the case when I did 'em.

Today:  SORE AS HELL.  Can't remember the last time my biceps were sore.  Love the DOMS!

EDIT: One thing I forgot - my legs still hurt from Thursday - my hammys, my calves, my quads. This too is surprising - I can;t remember the last time my calves really felt sore. Cool stuff.
 
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(colby2152 @ Oct. 20 2007,14:49)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Tim, CG Chins will hit your biceps more than anything - they are a must add for your routine!</div>
I completely agree, colby. My back was pretty fatigued though, so that's why they were missing from the bicep decimation.
 
Deadlift Day.

Pretty happy with this.

135 x 15

185 x 10

225 x 7

315 x 3

365 x 1

415 x 1 PB
cool.gif


Step down:

225 x 10

185 x 10

I really think this is working (the heavy week/volume week thing). I'm growing, and I'm getting stronger, and I feel great. I won't tomorrow, mind you, because heavy deads KILL me the next day, but by Thursday, I'll be ready to go.
 
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