whistle's training log

12 rep session #5

Warm up: jump rope for several minutes - couldn't string many together, feeling clumsy this morning; bench 10 reps @ 100 lbs; squat 10 reps @ 115 lbs

Bench Press - 125 lbs
Pullup - BW+15 lbs
Dip - BW+15 lbs
Back Squat - 140 lbs
Shoulder Press - 85 lbs (failed)
Shrug - 150 lbs

Cool down: Close grip bench 12 reps @ 95 lbs

Couldn't get any rhythm going skipping rope this morning. I gave up after a few minutes since I was on a strict time table.

Everything felt good up to the shoulder press. I got 10 reps and 1 push press on the first set, tried again after a couple of minutes and only got 9. I'll try 85 lbs again on Thursday and see if I can get 12.

Back squats were a thrill. I maxed out at 130 lbs for 10 reps during my last cycle. Today, I got 140 lbs for 12! I may end up with a 1RM over 200 lbs before this cycle is complete and that would be quite rewarding!

I should've went heavier on the shrug. Live and learn.
 
whistledixie said:
Back squats were a thrill. I maxed out at 130 lbs for 10 reps during my last cycle. Today, I got 140 lbs for 12! I may end up with a 1RM over 200 lbs before this cycle is complete and that would be quite rewarding!

I should've went heavier on the shrug. Live and learn.
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Good deal on the squats! HST builds strength as well as size.

I try to use the same weight for my shrugs that I used for my deadlifts.
 
Great job Dix! As far as your Shrugs go I’ve started to light on a few lifts before so as soon as I figure that out I just start incrementing that lift faster, like adding 20 lbs instead of 10 lbs, or 10 lbs instead of 5 lbs until it catches up to where I want it.
 
Thanks guys - yeah, I'm going to start going heavier on the shrugs, maybe even try to keep them even with my deadlift like TR suggested. I don't know if I have the grip for that, but I'll give it a shot!

Today:

Cardio/Ab day

2 miles on treadmill

10 minutes of ab work:

Side crunches (right side) x 48
Alternating leg lift x 32
Side crunches (left side) x 48
Crunch x 64
Long arm crunch x 40
Knee to elbow x 40
Jack knife x 32
Bicycle kick x 40

Getting to the end of the 12 rep series. The past 4 weeks have been endurance-focused. I'll finish it up tomorrow and next week start on 2 weeks of 9 reps.

The next 4 weeks will be 9 rep and 6 rep series. The loads will be getting heavy, so the intensity of the weight lifting days is going way up.

I'm going to cut down the cardio days to twice a week. And I'll throw some weighted ab work in the ab sessions, so the overall volume on abs will decrease.

Very happy with this cycle so far. It's been tough, but I'm seeing the results I was looking for and feeling great/sleeping great.
 
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12 rep session #6

Warm up: 350 jump rope singles, bench: 8*95 lbs, 5*115 lbs, deadlift: 5*115 lbs, 4*135 lbs

Bench Press - 130 lbs
Deadlift - 165 lbs
Shoulder Press - 85 lbs
Pullup - BW+15 lbs
Dip - BW+15 lbs
DB Row - 130 lbs (total)

Cool down: Reverse grip bench, 2 mile walk

Since I failed 85 lbs on the shoulder press Tuesday, I put it before pullups and dips today and made it! I wasn't worried about the pullups and dips, I'm strong with those - in fact, I'm certain I could've gotten BW+20 lbs, but I focused my energy on the other lifts. The session as a whole was tough and I'm happy to be moving on to sub 10 rep phases.

Great news: I maxed out 10 rep bench press last cycle at 125 lbs. Today I got 130 lbs for 12. Nice.

Tried out the reverse grip bench after and definitely felt it in my upper chest. I might have to play around with those a bit more - thanks iwealth!
 
Nice work on the Bench Press Dix. That’s always been my weakest of the power lifts.

I’m very interested in hearing how the Reverse Grip Bench works for you as my upper chest is almost nonexistent and doing inclines seems to hit my shoulders more than I like.
 
From yesterday:

9 rep session #1

Warm up: 2 mile walk, 400 jump rope singles, bench: 10*105 lbs, squat: 10*air squat, 6*105 lbs

Bench Press - 120 lbs
Dip - BW+10 lbs
Back Squat - 125 lbs
Shoulder Press - 75 lbs
Shrug - 150 lbs
Pullup - BW+10 lbs

Cool down: reverse grip bench, decline bench, DB fly

Zigging back to some lower weights at lower reps allowed me to work with a slower tempo on the eccentric portion of the movements. It felt really good. Much more sore today than I have been as a result.

Ran a couple of miles and did some different ab stuff on Saturday. I can't recall exactly what I did, but it was effective. I was going to run and hit the abs this morning, but I did tons of yard work yesterday and decided to simply recover today.
 
whistledixie said:
I was going to run and hit the abs this morning, but I did tons of yard work yesterday and decided to simply recover today.
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Wise. I notice that a lot of the new guys don't seem to leave enough rest time in their workout schedules. Food is the fuel, and the workouts are the trigger, but we grow during our rest time.
 
9 rep session #2

Warm up: 2 mile walk, bench: 85 lbs, 105 lbs, deadlift 85 lbs, 105 lbs, 125 lbs

Bench Press - 125 lbs
Deadlift - 150 lbs
Shoulder Press - 80 lbs
Pullup - BW+10 lbs
Dip - BW+10 lbs
DB Row - 120 lbs (total)

Cool down: close grip bench, stretch
 
From yesterday :

9 rep session #3

Warm up: jump rope 5 minutes, 10 thrusters, 65 lbs

Shoulder Press - 85 lbs
Back Squat - 140 lbs
Bench Press - 130 lbs
Pullup - BW+15 lbs
Dip - BW+15 lbs
Shrug - 165 lbs

Cool down: freestyle sets of up rows, curl, skulls, raises

Experimented with clustering a little. I did 9 reps, racked the bar for 5 seconds, did 2 more, racked the bar for 5 seconds, did 2 more, etc. On some sets I could only do an extra 2, some I could do up to 4 more sets of 2.

With squats, I didn't re-rack the bar - I left it on my back and took a few breaths in between. Intense.

With the pullups and dips, I did 3 extra sets of 2 and took the opportunity to do some slow negatives.

With the shrugs, I just repped out.

This session felt more productive than the last few sessions.
 
From yesterday:

9 rep session #4

Warm up: 2 mile walk w/dog, jump rope, warm up sets of bench 55 lbs, 115 lbs & deadlift 115 lbs

Bench Press - 130 lbs
Deadlift - 165 lbs
Dip - BW+ 15 lbs
Pullup - BW+15 lbs
Shoulder Press - 85 lbs

Cool down: stretch

Didn't feel up to it yesterday. Still recovering from Friday's epic session. I actually had forgotten that I did a set of sumo deadlifts on friday - demonstrating them to my workout partner, but the mega-DOMS that followed reminded me. I figured I'd work out anyways and just repeat a few of the same loads. Dropped the rows I had planned. I feel a lot better today.
 
From last night:

9 rep session #5

Warm up:

Bench Press - 65lbs*12, 65lbs*10, 80lbs*6, 110lbs*3, 125lbs*1
Back Squat - 80lbs*12, 80lbs*10, 100lbs*6, 125lbs*3, 140lbs*1

Work sets:

Bench Press - 135 lbs
Back Squat - 155 lbs
Shoulder Press - 90 lbs
Pullup - BW+20 lbs
Dip - BW+20 lbs
Shrug - 185 lbs

No cool down

This session was supposed to happen this morning, but the schedule this week got switched around at the last minute and we had to hit it last night instead. Not much warm up - short on time.

But everything felt really good. Well, the squats felt hard as crap, but my form was solid. Shrugs were hard, but good . Traps are already a little sore.

I felt stronger last night than I have felt the past week. I originally set up my cycle projecting continued strength gains (based on how well the last cycle went). So, I programmed loads for weeks 3 - 10 above what I was capable of when I started - expecting that my strength would increase after a couple of weeks.

I was getting a little frustrated last week, feeling like my strength gains weren't where I hoped they would be at this point. I worried that I would start failing towards the end of this week because the weight I was lifting last week felt really quite difficult. I took an additional day off last week and had a great session Friday, but then another sluggish session on Sunday.

I started increasing my calories and protein on Sunday and rested well, slept a little bit longer each night, and I think it has paid off. I felt good last night and think I will definitely reach my goals during tomorrow's session.
 
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whistledixie said:
I started increasing my calories and protein on Sunday and rested well, slept a little bit longer each night, and I think it has paid off.
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Yes, I am always surprised by how much better I am able to do when I am well rested and have eaten well. My struggle over this past cycle has largely been because of the severe lack of calories (no carbs...) on my diet. I'm glad that's over for a bit.
 
TR: I couldn't tell you were struggling during your cut at all - your sessions have been awesome!

Today:

9 rep session #6

Warm up: 2 mile walk, warm up sets on bench, dead, and strict press

Bench Press - 140 lbs
Deadlift - 180 lbs
Shoulder Press - 95 lbs
Pullup - BW+25 lbs
Dip - BW+25 lbs
DB Row - 140 lbs (total)

Cool down: overhead squats

Hard session. But I didn't fail anything. I did 2 sets of each lift with about 4 minutes rest between sets. The 9th rep felt 1 rep short of failure on everything except the pullups and dips.

Like I mentioned earlier this week, I was worried I wouldn't be able to make these. I'm very pleased.

Highlights of the 9 RMs:

145 lbs was my previous 5 RM on bench press - so 5 lbs shy of that today for 9 reps.
185 lbs was my 1 RM on deadlift back in August '10 - so 5 lbs less today for 9 reps
95 lbs was my previous 5 RM on shoulder press - did same weight today for 9 reps (I'm probably most proud of this one, the shoulder presses have been rough this cycle)
 
From Sunday, Feb 13:

6 rep session #1:

Bench Press - 130 lbs
Squat - 140 lbs
Shoulder Press - 85 lbs
Pullup - BW+15 lbs
Dip - BW+15 lbs
Shrug - 165 lbs


I felt weak during this Sunday morning session. I was able to do everything, but I wasn't driven at all. I didn't know what was wrong until later that day I started feeling the tell-tale signs of a cold or sinus infection or whatever the heck this is/was. Spent Monday and Tuesday in bed. I slept probably 30 out of 48 hours. I'm back at work today and I feel a lot better, but I'm going to keep away from the iron until tomorrow to make sure I'm fully recovered.

I managed to avoid getting any colds all winter long - despite the wife and baby getting sick more than once. I've not had any kind of cold or allergy in over 6 months I'm not too disappointed that my program was interrupted this week.
 
I know exactly how you feel, I got the flu during my 2nd week of 15 reps and its a pain in the ass. All i can say is lots of fluids and lots of rest. Hope you feel better soon and can get back on your training.

All the best
 
Back from the dead!

6 rep session #2

Warm up: 2 mile walk, warm up sets on bench, shoulder press, and deadlift

Work sets:

Bench Press - 135 lbs
Deadlift - 165 lbs
Shoulder Press - 90 lbs
Pullup - BW+20 lbs
Dip - BW+20 lbs
DB Row - 130 lbs (total)

Cool down: stretch, DB incline press

Felt really good today. Felt strong on every lift. I took it a little easy overall, easing back into it. I hit all the weights I had planned, but took longer rests between sets and walked instead of skipping rope as my warm up. I'm glad to be back at it and look forward to hitting it hard on Saturday.
 
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