03/05/15 The rebuild- Phase 1 Injuries- Left shoulder (3/10) right hip (2/10), general soreness from Hapkido Warm up- Got the body warm, bw squats, push ups and inverted rows Squat- bar x 8 60 x 5, 5 80 x 5 Incline Bench- bar x 8 40 x 6 60 x 5, 5, 5 Ring Dips- bw x 5, 5, 5 Focus is on maintaining good glute activation throughout all squats. Pretty much got there today. Had a little more forward lean in my squats than usual. Figure I can afford this on back squats and save the quad focus for when I do front squats. All in all felt pretty good and there was no real strain. Will use 80 again next week and add as many reps are comfortable, strong and stable. Once I get to 80 x 10 I will increase the weight. Seriously considering putting dips in front of bench. The only reason I haven't done as yet is I was trying to prioritize the upper chesticles and even though I am still trying to build a bigger upper body I think I will have better luck overall doing dips first then adding incline bench for potentially more reps after. I can even add another exercise after that if required.
So I've been struggling with the motivation lately as you can probably guess from the lack of posting. Definitely doesn't help that it's winter like conditions here atm. Anyway, am going to check out a gym that's a bout a 3 minute walk from work and that I can do on my lunch break (quite flexible working environment) and am pretty stoked. Even if it's only for a few months till the weather starts warming up again. Will do a quick workout whilst I'm there to get a gauge of the equipment too. Potentially more excited than I should be which is a good thing.
08/05/15 Checking out new gym workout: Wide Grip RDL- 60 x 5, 5 Deadlift- 100 x 5 130 x 3 Chins- bw x 5, 5, 3 Front Squat- bar x 8 60 x 5 80 x 3 100 x 3 Overhead Press- 20 x 8 40 x 5, 5 Think I'm going to enjoy the new gym. Have to get the music situation sorted though cause as per usual the selection playing in the gym was average at best.
08/05/15 Hapkido Class Worked kicking for the first hour of the class. Good for me considering how long I've been out of the game. After black belt all our kicks are trained from a skip off the front foot and jumping for back kick and dollyo chagi. Whilst I have a pretty good vertical and height is not an issue I have a problem in getting the trailing leg tucked up instead of letting it just dangle during the kick. Was some much needed practice though. Then worked some 2nd Dan stuff for about 45 mins. Ran through jinakbop (sp?) which are circular redirection techniques. Then worked some basic 2nd Dan sombaggi. Ended up totally buggered at the end and both hips, legs and upper back super sore afterwards but had a great sesh.
12/05/15 BW- 93.1 Injuries- Left hip (2/10) Left shoulder (2/10) Warm up- Dynamic stretches Skipping, hip flexor stretch, pigeon stretch, goblet squat stretch Squat- Bar x 8, 60 x 5, 80 x 5, 90 x 5, 100 x 5 Incline Bench- Bar x 8, 40 x 6, 60 x 5, 5, 5 Dips (bar)- BW x 6, 6, 6, 3 Hanging Leg Raise (bent knee)- 6, 5, 6 Circuit- 1 min on heavy bag (punches and kicks) 1 min skipping X 4 So…..I was going to be more patient with the squats but they just felt so solid. Will aim for 10 clean reps at 100 before I increase the weight. I suck at hanging leg raises and probably every other core exercise out there. This should yield me some good returns if I can get it right. Was meant to do 5 rounds of the circuit but was totally stuffed after 4. Nice having the equipment there though. Will do some prowler work tomorrow so that will be nice…in theory.
13/05/15 Injuries- Left shoulder/neck (2/10), Left hip felt great Warm Up- Joint rotations, skipping, hip flexor stretch, pigeon stretch, foam rolled thoracic spine Wide Grip RDL- 60 x 10, 10 Deadlift- 100 x 5, 120 x 5, 130 x 5 (last two reps mixed grip) Chins- BW x 4, 3, 4, 3, 3 BB Curls- 30 x 6, 4, 6 Farmers Walks- 45kg DB x 20m, 20m, 25m (considering I’m 6’4 I figure 1 of my steps is close enough to a metre) Prowler- 10m x 16 +75kg Felt like I was running on empty during chins and curls. Had absolutely nothing and had tension headache like symptoms down the left side of my neck. They actually disappeared after the first set of farmers walks which is bizarre. Think I need to address my pre-workout eating habits. I’m used to working out at 7-8pm at night so either I wait till I adapt to the new times on less food or I eat more in the morning. Don’t know which to do yet. All in all an ok sesh.
14/05/2015 Injuries- None present Was quite low on time today and wanted to do a lightish session as the last couple of days have been relatively heavy for me. Warm up- Joint rotations, leg swings, arm swings, banded hip flexor, pigeon stretch, foam roll thoracic spine Squat clean & Hang cleans- Did a SC, HC, SC followed by 5 push presses at- 40, 50, 60kg In between each set I did 3 box jumps at 23” and then 35” Power Clean – 80 x 1 followed by front squat x 3 Superset- Front plate shoulder raise- 15kg x 15, 10, 8 Lateral Raise- 8kg x 10, 8, 8 Rear Delt Raise- 5kg x 8, 8, 8 Machine shoulder press for 3 sets x 30 odd reps. First time I’ve ever done a full squat clean. Was mildly impressed at my ability to hit myself in the face with the bar with 50kgs on it. Felt pretty good though and will work towards a bodyweight clean. That sounds like a nice goal to have.
Just got around to checking this out. Great video! Love the 5 cues he gives and also the banded overhead squat warm up. Will get to try these guys out next week.
15/05/2015 Injuries- None Soreness- 4/10 from working out last 3 days in a row Warm up- Joint rotations, leg and arm swings, banded hip flexor, pigeon stretch, shoulder dislocations, band resisted overhead squat (highly recommend) 12:20 in this video (thanks HarryF) http://youtube.com/watch?v=U5zrloYWwxw Power Snatch- Bar x 5 40 x 3 50 x 3 Snatch Grip High Pull- 60 x 5 70 x 5 Panda Full- 80 x 5 Snatch Grip DL- 90 x 5 Squat Clean & Jerk- 60 x 3 70 x 1 75 x 1 (no jerk) Parallel Bent Row- 60 x 6, 6, 6 Pull Ups- BW x 4, 3 First real time doing snatches. Felt ok. Got more extension in the ankles with 50. Snatch grip deadlift was interesting. 90 is challenging on the grip and I’ll probably use straps from here but the body felt really good here. Wearing my power perfect II’s so no doubt helps with positioning but I’d like to think I can get these up to where my regular DL is in a relatively short period of time. Rows felt great. Pull ups no so much. Was running short on time and my grip was shot. Am considering working in chins and pull ups every time I’m in the gym in between sets. Even just for sets of 2-4.
Thanks again for that link. When I can tear myself away from this IG page https://instagram.com/australianstrengthcoach/ I will get over there for some more info. Cheers.
18/05/2015 Injuries- Left shouder (3/10)- need to work on this one. It’s all lat/pec related so stretching and rolling both should yield some good results. Warm up- joint rotations, hip circles, wide stance bw rdl, band resisted hip flexor, pigeon stretch, band resisted oh squat, foam rolled thoracic spine Squat- bar x 8, 60 x 6, 80 x 4, 100 x 1, 110 x 1 100 x 10 (rep PR) Bench- bar x 8, 40 x 6, 60 x 4, 70 x 3, 3, 3 Squats felt good. 10 @ 100 was hard. Probably an 8 PRE and the legs were wobbly after rep 10 but at no stage did I feel out of alignment or lacking technique. Was following the cues from the Duffin video- ribs down, lats tight, screw feet into ground, pull bar to back and brace. I think they’re the ones anyway. Will likely jump to 110 next week and work up from there. I’ve been hanging to do flat bench for a while. Chase the big 100 I suppose. Most likely from watching too many lifting videos on instagram. Don’t know if I’ll do it long term but thinking either way with my bench/incline that I’ll add in some doubles and triples every few weeks to get used to heavier weights. I normally get to 70-75 on incline and get crushed.
19/05/2015 Set a nice PR today. Made it to 35. I’m hoping there’s plenty more PR’s in the bank for this one. Injuries- Left shoulder (2/10) Warm up- Joint rotations, leg and arm swings, band resisted hip flexor, pigeon stretch, foam rolled thoracic spine, Wide Grip RDL- 60 x 10, 10 Deadlift- 100 x 5, 120 x 3, 140 x 5 (mixed grip last set) Chins- BW x 5, 4, Band assisted x 5, 4 Curls- 30 x 10, 8, 7 Farmers Walks- 40kg DB x 25m x 3 (hard to walk around in my gym with all the weaving in and out) Some more curls, db rows and hanging leg raises. Basically had 10 mins spare and just stuffed around. Deadlift felt really damn good. Was due to pull 135 but 120 went up seriously quick so figured I should take advantage of it. Will do the same next week. Aim for 145 and see how I’m feeling. I’ve been having a protein/carb shake before training so maybe that’s having a positive effect. Who knows. Chins = suck! Think I’m going to drop the individual chins/pull ups sets and just do 2-3 reps in between exercises for the next few weeks. Will try it out and see where it leads me. Figure I should get 30-40 reps per session that way.
21/05/15 Warm Up- The usual Power Snatch- Bar x 5 (from hang) 40 x 5, 50 x 3 Squat Clean and Jerk 50 x 3, 60 x 3 Snatch Grip DL 80 x 5, 90 x 5 OHP 40 x 8, 8, 5 BB Row 60 x 8, 8, 8 Had to combine two days into one here so was a bit all over the place. Really unsure of where my training is taking me at the moment. Will be dropping power snatch and squat clean from the program for the time being as I think they’re distracting me from the bigger picture. A power clean or snatch grip high pull/panda pull I’ll keep in as they can be done as warm ups to the main lift a bit easier. Thinking very hard about doing some powerlifting comps. The thought of actually getting up there and competing is quite a scary one to me which I take as a good thing as it’s way outside my comfort zone. My dilemma is that I’ll need a 180-200ish squat, 125-150ish bench and a 220-250ish deadlift just to not place last at my bodyweight. These lifts may be realistic over the next 12-24 months who knows. Part of me thinks I should just keep training the way I am now and wait till I get some decent strength up before doing a powerlifting oriented program (which if I stick to the meat and potatoes of my program, eat well and recover well I get good results) and the other part of me says why wait, you’re missing out on strength gains that could be had from a more specialised program. I ran with the Pavel 80/20 program a couple of years ago with good results. I’ve heard good things about is Candito’s 6 week program which can apparently be run back to back. There’s 531 (normal and powerlifting) and probably 1,000 other programs I could do as well. I’ve also got a session booked in with a coach in a couple of weeks to assess my technique on the three lifts. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. Overall I think it would tie in well with my Hapkido training. Provided I keep up (actually do) some form of conditioning on top. Either way I think I’ll keep doing what I’m doing for the next couple of weeks before making a call.
So I’ve tried not focusing on the numbers when I train and that just doesn’t work for me. I have literally no focus or motivation to train when thinking like that. I’m obviously just not wired that way. Anyway, going to run the 531 for powerlifting offseason strength template. It has a nice mix of volume and strength work for my liking. Also it has a big focus on upper back work which is a weak point of mine and I like the idea of separate upper and lower body days. Current stats- 193cm 92.4kgs Est- 16.9% bf Ideally I’ll be huge and strong and really low bodyfat but I’m just going to concentrate on eating to win and see how I go from there. All time maxes- Bench- 85 x 5 (est. 99) Squat- 145 x 1 Deadlift – 170 x 1 OHP- ? 60 x 1 Training Maxes- OHP- 50 (90%- 45) Bench Press- 70 (90%- 63) Squat- 130 (90%- 117) Deadlift- 160 (90%- 144) Goal Maxes (intermediate goals to 18/10/15 or 6 cycles)- OHP- 80 Bench Press- 100 Squat- 160 Deadlift- 200 I’ll be deloading every 2nd cycle or every 7th week.
25/05/15 531- Powerlifting- Off Season Strength Week 1 (5+)- Day 1 BW- 92.4 Warm Up- Agile 8 plus some thoracic work OHP- 20 x 5, 25 x 5, 30 x 3 30 x 5, 35 x 5, 40 x 8, 30 x 10 10 band pullaparts between warm up sets and 3 chins between all work sets DB shoulder press- 10kg x 10, 10, 10 Dips- BW x 5, 5, 2 Was meant to do face pulls and BB curls. Started face pulls but left shoulder was fatigued and started pinching. Still working on that shoulder. All in all felt pretty good today. No conditioning today. Ran out of time. Will get on the prowler tomorrow though. Time to eat!
25/05/15 531- Powerlifting- Off Season Strength Week 1 (5+)- Day 2 Warm Up- Agile 8 plus thoracic spine rolling Wide Grip RDL- 60 x 5 Deadlift- 75 x 5, 90 x 5, 95 x 5, 110 x 5, 125 x 8 (rep PR) Good Mornings- 40 x 10, 10, 10 Bent Rows- 50 x 10, 10, 10 Leg Curls- 27 x 10, 24 x 10, 43 x 10 Cable Crunches- 23 x 10, 30 x 10, 10, 10 125 x 8 was pretty good. Thought I’d get 10 but oh well, next time. Have never done leg curls or cable crunches before so just figuring getting the movement sorted out.
27/05/15 531- Powerlifting- Off Season Strength Week 1 (5+)- Day 3 Warm Up- Arm swings, shoulder dislocations, that was it. Bench Press- 30 x 5, 35 x 5, 40 x 3 45 x 5, 50 x 5, 55 x 15, 45 x 10 Incline DB Press- 12.5 x 10, 10, 10 Chest Supported Row- 55 x 10, 10, 10 Ring Push Up- Bw x 8, 6, 6 Rear Laterals - 5 x 20, 15, 20 Pretty happy. Using a powerlifting style of benching. Arched without being over the top. Actually find it much easier on my left shoulder. Basically benched pain free which was great. Incline DB was way too easy but wasn’t sure what weight to use. Haven’t done this for years.
Finally bit the bullett and caught up with the trainer/ex powerlifter to get myself sorted. Was really interesting. Spent nearly 90 mins with him and I'd say it was extremely good value. He has previously squatted 3xBW (I've seen the video) and hearing him speak he knows what he is on about. He covered the following items (this is mostly so I can remember what happened): - movement screen- tight hips, tight lats and shoulders - big 3 form- my form is pretty good for someone who's never been coached apparently although there are definitely things to work on: 1. Squat- Slight buttwink at bottom due to loss of tightness, slight shift to left near bottom due to lack of tightness, depth and mobility no problem 2. Deadlift- Used a slightly different set up the bar over midfoot and the knees slightly more forward, lats tight, break the bar. He gave me a new set up routine which felt great. 3. Bench- more of a straight wrist, lat activation, bringing the bar lower on the chest - we did activation exercises out the yin yang. These repeatedly highlighted my tight hips, lats and shoulders. Did one called the pretzel and another that was even worse but loosened up the entire pos chain. - discussion on programming going forward. Importance of single leg work, especially initially to get some imbalances sorted out. Will be working in the 5RM range for deadlift and 3RM range for squat and avoiding, intially at least, too much 1RM or grinding work. Need to work on the hook grip for deadlift given my left hand is not as strong due to injury. He is going to draw up a 4 week program for me to run with including all warm up/activation/mobility exercises and then after 4 weeks will reassess and go forward from there. Overall I felt it was terrific value for money and I cannot wait to get stuck into it. It's kind of like starting again but I was only 1 week into 513 and this will be far more tailored for me which I'm liking the sounds of.
02/05/2015 Still waiting on my program from the trainer so I just got trained and got a couple of lifts in. Warm Up- Wall squats, wall slides, band resisted oh squats Squats- Bar x 5, 60 x 5, 80 x 4, 100 x 2 120 x 3, 3 Bench- Bar x 5, 40 x 5, 60 x 3 70 x 5, 5 And I’m done.