Mattonaise's Training Log

Well I don't feel as if its logical to disregard all their ideas simply because a giant group of people collectively use one bad idea. And to be fair, a bodypart split works wonders in enhanced lifters.

Can you provide a simple example? From what youre saying I'm getting the idea you hit rows a day either after or before deads, wouldn't that hurt your recovery even more than doing both on the same day?
 
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Monday (2/9/2015)

Weight: 145

Paused Bench: 5x5x110
Overhead Press:5x5x87.5
Dips: 5x5xBW+5
Finished with a set of external rotations, a set of rear delt cable flies, and some shoulder dislocations.
 
Enhanced lifters are not a good sample of what works. These people have much higher recovery ability than a typical lifter. That's why they can go into the gym and smash their chest and biceps for 2 hours.
 
TangoDown said:
Enhanced lifters are not a good sample of what works. These people have much higher recovery ability than a typical lifter. That's why they can go into the gym and smash their chest and biceps for 2 hours.
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Of course what an enhanced lifter does won't necessarily be good for a natural, I just made the point that that is why it is used in bodybuilding, cause it does work for enhanced lifters. Your typical gym bro only does a split either cause he doesn't know any better or he just doesn't care enough to change it. I'm not going to discredit the opinion of many bodybuilders just because their less informed counterparts are making mistakes.
 
Mattonaise said:
Well I don't feel as if its logical to disregard all their ideas simply because a giant group of people collectively use one bad idea. And to be fair, a bodypart split works wonders in enhanced lifters.
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That's my point. It's not logical to disregard nor is it logical to hold in high regard an idea just because a lot of people collectively endorse it. Tons of people think vaccines are going to put your kid on the autism spectrum too, unfortunately, the science disagrees. Just because everyone says something is great doesn't mean it is great. A lot of people smoke tobacco and plenty more use meth, neither of those things are great for you. If you went by sheer numbers of people using those substances, you'd think tobacco and meth are staples of a proper lifestyle.

Can you provide a simple example? From what youre saying I'm getting the idea you hit rows a day either after or before deads, wouldn't that hurt your recovery even more than doing both on the same day?
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I'm saying lift 3 or 4 times a week, do deads on one or two of those days, do rows on one or two of the days you do not do deads. And no, doing so would not hurt your recovery more than doing both on the same day. That's not how the CNS works. Doing too much volume in one day will cause your CNS to take longer to recover than spreading that volume out across the week. This is one of the basic components of HST. And since you aren't doing all that volume on one day, which results in enhanced protein synthesis for only 24 hours or so after the workout session, you will be getting more hours of increased protein synthesis, which is one of the most important parts of increasing muscle fiber cross sectional area. This is also part of the fundamental principle of chronic vs acute stimuli within the HST framework.
 
Totentanz said:
I'm saying lift 3 or 4 times a week, do deads on one or two of those days, do rows on one or two of the days you do not do deads. And no, doing so would not hurt your recovery more than doing both on the same day. That's not how the CNS works. Doing too much volume in one day will cause your CNS to take longer to recover than spreading that volume out across the week. This is one of the basic components of HST. And since you aren't doing all that volume on one day, which results in enhanced protein synthesis for only 24 hours or so after the workout session, you will be getting more hours of increased protein synthesis, which is one of the most important parts of increasing muscle fiber cross sectional area. This is also part of the fundamental principle of chronic vs acute stimuli within the HST framework.
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That makes a lot of sense, so essentially doing HST is what you're endorsing? How would you adjust it to provide better strength gains?
 
Tuesday (2/10/2015)

Weight: 145.5

Deadlift: 1x5x225
Wide Grip Cable Row: 5x5x105
Pullups: 5x5xBW+5
Finished with a set of facepulls, some band pull-aparts, and some shoulder dislocations.



Here is a video of the set of deadlifts, they felt smooth and nothing really pops out at me about my form, maybe my hips should extend a bit sooner? I never noticed how much I bend my neck though, I should fix that. Some input on that would be great as I did feel the lower back soreness afterwards, especially when reracking the weights that sucks ass. The wide grip rows felt good especially on my mid traps so I'll keep them for now. Pull-ups were fun and I felt them nicely in my lats.

Also my friend Michelle said I had a booty. Ayyyyyyy ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
 
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225lb doesn't look particularly heavy for you, maybe not heavy enough to elicit the form breakdown we'd be looking for. Notice that you're getting into hyperextension and maintaining hyperextension throughout, and I don't think you'd be able to maintain that when the weight gets heavy which is okay because it's not particularly natural to be pulling in a hyperextended fashion anyway.

Things don't look terrible. Other people may disagree but I'd prefer a more vertical shin angle during your setup (leaving your butt higher in the air as a result). I think that when things get heavy, your hips are going to start shooting up some before the bar comes off the ground to compensate, which is going to pull the bar away from you and make things harder.

Wait for others to comment too before you change things up.
 
TangoDown said:
225lb doesn't look particularly heavy for you, maybe not heavy enough to elicit the form breakdown we'd be looking for. Notice that you're getting into hyperextension and maintaining hyperextension throughout, and I don't think you'd be able to maintain that when the weight gets heavy which is okay because it's not particularly natural to be pulling in a hyperextended fashion anyway.

Things don't look terrible. Other people may disagree but I'd prefer a more vertical shin angle during your setup (leaving your butt higher in the air as a result). I think that when things get heavy, your hips are going to start shooting up some before the bar comes off the ground to compensate, which is going to pull the bar away from you and make things harder.

Wait for others to comment too before you change things up.
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Noted, thanks for the input. Any idea what may be causing the intense soreness then? Maybe I'm hyper-extending too much? Or maybe my back is just being a little bitch? The pull felt nice and smooth today so I could have gone heavier. And you mean before I change my deadlift up correct?
 
Looks like good tekkers on the deadlift if you ask me, and the bar path also looks spot on. Only thing I would say is try and keep your head in a neutral position, but thats about it. Good work!
 
Wednesday (2/11/2015)

Weight: 144.5

Pause Squats: 5x5x145
Front Squats: 5x5x105
Seated Leg Curls: 5x10x80

Those front squats definitely get difficult to maintain an upright torso as the weight increases. I can see their usefulness now.
 
Thursday (2/12/2015)

Weight: 145.5

Paused Bench: 5x5x115 (may start incrementing with 2.5 lbs soon, not sure)
OHP: 5x5x90
Weighted Dips: 5x5xBW+7.5
Finished with a set of external rotations, band pull-aparts, and shoulder dislocations.
 
Friday (2/13/2015)

Weight: 145

Deadlift: 5x230 (Felt a lot harder than on tuesday despite only being 5 pounds heavier)
Wide Cable Row: 5x5x110
Pullups: 5x5xBW+7.5 (Really like the way these feel in my lats, and what they're doing to my back)
Finished with a set of facepulls, shoulder dislocations, and band pull-aparts.

Also, I get Chipotle today. Fuuuark yes.
 
Mattonaise said:
Wednesday (2/11/2015)

Those front squats definitely get difficult to maintain an upright torso as the weight increases. I can see their usefulness now.
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Front squats certainly sort the men from the boys! Stick some small weight plates under your heels, this should help. Also work on your ankle flexibility.
 
Sunday (2/15/2015) (Was supposed to do it on Saturday, but I woke up at 12:30 and slept from 2:30 - 5, so I figured it wasn't the best day to do a leg workout)

Weight: 142.5

Paused Squats: 5x5x150 (got tough towards the end)
Front Squats: 5x5x110
Seated Leg Curl 5x10x85

Browner said:
Front squats certainly sort the men from the boys! Stick some small weight plates under your heels, this should help. Also work on your ankle flexibility.
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I've got a pair of Adidas Powerlifts 2.0, and ankle mobility isn't a problem. I just have to put a lot more effort into maintaining an upright torso than I do in a back squat, so it should be useful to me!
 
One cue to help with the torso is to focus on keeping your elbows up as high as possible throughout the movement.

I own the Powerlifts too and the heel is only like .55," so they're not that great for anything olympic like a front squat, but they're doable.
 
Mattonaise said:
That makes a lot of sense, so essentially doing HST is what you're endorsing? How would you adjust it to provide better strength gains?
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I really don't think you need to adjust anything in the regular HST template to make better strength gains. Once you are lifting 2xbw for deads and 1.5xbw for squats you might then want to add in some heavier triples and doubles after 5s and even multiple heavy singles at the end of a cycle. This will train your CNS to deal with what is actually a heavy load for you. ie. >95% 1RM. It is something you have to get used to if you want to hit maximal strength levels for any given amount of muscle mass.
My advice would be to use HST cycles to achieve your muscle mass (and bodyweight) goals and then when you are happy with that, focus more on maximising your strength with that level of muscle mass. That would be my preferred way of doing things. You will get a lot stronger along the way even doing non-strength specific training like HST. In fact, if you don't get stronger doing HST then you most likely aren't growing which means that something is out of whack (probably diet).
Re deads: tighten abs hard at the start of each rep. That may keep you from hyperextending. I'm not that fussed about your neck not staying neutral because many lifters do that with stupidly heavy loads without issue. However, I got used to lifting with a neutral spine (a la Rippetoe's advice) which was fine for deads but is not so great for cleans so I'm "unlearning" it for that (where a more head-facing-forward style seems to help with a necessarily more upright torso position during the second pull).
All the best with progressing your numbers.
 
Sorry for the late training logs, I can get lazy with these.

Monday (2/16/2015)

Weight: 142.5

Paused Bench:5x5x120 (Felt strong on this day, the pause benching and better form is really improving my ability to bench off my chest more strongly)
OHP: 5x5x92.5 (OHP seems to be progressing well, I haven't pressed this much before. Getting tough though)
Dips: 5x5xBW+10
 
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