Ryan's Journal

09/09/11

So, the plan was to do the deadlift session yesterday and the press session today. But, with my quads being so muddled up (which I've come to the conclusion was probably due to a muscle spasm that was ongoing until I did some hip flexor stretches on Wednesday night), I decided to take Thursday off and train today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday), then try and get back to the planned rhythm of things next week.

Onto today's session.

DEADLIFTS

WARM UP
8xBW squats
Hip flexor dynamic stretches -- Starting to feel they might be important!
10xBW squats
5x60kg deadlifts
5c80kg

WORK SETS
5x92.5kg
5x105kg
8x120kg

ASSISTANCE WORK

RDL 3x8x60kg

Squats 10x20kg, 3x10x50kg -- I'm thinking next week I should probably do these in my warm up instead of later in the session. They're a lot harder to do after deadlifts than beforehand, and I've never had any problems doing deadlifts after squats, even when the squats are heavy.

Standing Calf Raise 12x70kg, 2x8x80kg

CONDITIONING
Walk home
 
Sat 10/09/11

It's Saturday, Saturday, getting down on...okay, no. Yesterday it was very cold and windy, and wet right in the middle of the day (heavy sideways rain FTW?). Today it's bright and sunny, but still very windy. I think I got a cardiovascular workout just making it to the front door of the gym, fighting off wind resistance.

PRESS

WARM UP
10x20kg
5x27.5kg

WORK SETS
5x32.5kg
5x37.5kg
6x42.5kg -- I was hoping for more reps than this, but oh the well.

ASSISTANCE EXERCISES
Press 2x8x30kg

One-Arm DB Row 8x12.5kg, 8x17.5kg, 8x22.5kg

Bench Press 3x10x32.5kg

Lat Pull Down 10x30kg, 8x43kg, 10x36kg

CONDITIONING
Elliptical 22min
Walk home
 
Mon 12/09/11

Ahh, today went much better than last Monday. I feel good and fresh having just come home from the gym.

SQUATS

WARM UP
20xBW
8x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg

WORK SETS
3x82.5kg
3x95kg
6x107.5kg

When I got to the the gym, I opened up my training journal and realised I hadn't written down my planned weights for my work sets, but I knew the top set was supposed to be 107.5kg, so, knowing that I'd be adding 5kg onto the top set from last week, I just added 5kg onto the other 2 work sets. Figured I couldn't be too far off. When I checked the spreadsheet I'm using (to stop me from feeling the need to use a calculator) upon arriving home, I realised I was supposed to add an extra 2.5kg to each of those sets. Oh well. No harm done.

ASSISTANCE WORK
Squats 3x8x65kg

Deadlift 3x10x62.5kg

Standing Calf Raise 13x70kg, 2x9x80kg

CONDITIONING
Walk home
 
Tue 13/09/11

I saw something very odd today while I was warming. Someone was on the bench press, with 15kg loaded on one side, and nothing loaded on the other. He then proceded to try and hold the light side up without moving the arm on that side, and bench only with the loaded side. I have no doubt that this was difficult, but I can't see how it could have possibly been more useful than just loading up each side evenly and benching normally.

BENCH PRESS

WARM UP
10x20kg
5x32.5kg
3x45kg

WORK SETS
3x55kg
3x62.5kg
7x70kg

ASSISTANCE WORK
Bench Press 8x60kg, 7x60kg

Pull Ups 3x8xBW -- the first set was done before I started benching. Second set after the warm up and before the work sets. Last set after the final work set.

Superset: Press 3x10x22.5kg, Cable Rows 3x10x43kg

CONDITIONING
Elliptical 20min
Walk home
 
Thu 15/09/11

DEADLIFT

WARM UP
Squats 10xBW, 10x20kg, 3x10x52.5kg
Deadlift 5x60kg, 5x80kg

WORK SETS
3x100kg
3x112.5kg
5x125.5kg -- I'd honestly hoped for more reps than this.

ASSISTANCE WORK
RDL 3x8x62.5kg

Seated 1-legged Calf Raise 3x8x40kg/side

DB Tibialis Raise 22x12.5kg, 2x8x17.5kg

CONDITIONING
Walk home
 
Fri 16/09/11

It's my birthday today. I've now made my way around the sun 23 times and counting!

PRESS

WARM UP
10x20kg
5x27.5kg

WORK SETS
3x35kg
3x40kg
5x45kg -- Like with deadlifts yesterday, I'd hoped to get more reps than this. Dangnabbit!

ASSISTANCE WORK
Press 2x8x30kg

Cable Row 8x23kg, 3x8x50kg

Dips/Pull Ups 6/6, 6/6, 6/4, 6/4

CONDITIONING
Burpees 8/8/4 -- Pretty pathetic, really. I came in telling myself I'd do 10x10 of these, but I just got slow and sluggish, and then my left shoulder got irate, so I stopped.

Elliptical 16min with 2 high intensity intervals, each lasting 1min.

Walk home.
 
Happy Birthday! It's funny, I always assumed you were older than me I guess cause I'm always hitting you up for training advice... didn't realize you were actually a year younger. Hope you enjoy the day! :)
 
I get that a lot on the interwebz. From what I hear, where my age isn't displayed people typically think I'm about 30. It's produced some rather entertaining encounters, like one time, about a year or two ago, when a woman in her 30's decided to try flirting with me, and was then horrified to find she was hitting on someone 10 years younger than her. But joke's on me, sometimes, too. I remember when I was about 17 (and everyone assumed I was about as old as I am now) I got interested in a 15-year-old on the net, and everyone thought I was a creepy pedobear.
 
*groan* Training this week be failtastic. My squats session on Monday was craptacular, and then I woke up on tuesday morning with the worst neck pain I've experienced. It's one thing to wake up and not be able to turn your head left...it's another to have the pain radiating down from your neck to your deltoids and upper arm. Called the physio first thing in the morning and had a 1hr appointment at 10:30am. After the appointment, I was able to move again without horrible pain, so that was something, but I'm still recovering. On anti-imflammatories at the moment. Probably won't be back in the gym til Friday.

Mon 19/09/11

SQUATS

WARM UP
8xBW
8x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
1x75kg

WORK SETS
5x90kg
3x102.5kg
2x115kg -- Not cool. Not cool at all.

ASSISTANCE WORK
Squats 3x8x67.5kg

Deadlifts 2x10x67.5kg, 1x5x67.5kg

And then I said "Screw you, weights, I'm going home." Glorious, glorious tale -_-
 
Fri 23/09/11

Okay, so after being out of action since Tuesday due to the neck business, I finally returned to the gym today. I did both bench press and deadlift today, and plan on doing overhead press on Monday, then the light recovery work for squat and bench on Wed and for deadlift and press on Fri, then start a new cycle the following week.

I'm finding that the first 2 work sets of 5/3/1 are a bit of a nuisance. I'm sure Jim Wendler had a reason for putting them in, but I'm finding that they're too great a work load to function as warm up sets, and too low a work load to function as good work sets. I think next cycle I'll just do the final work set of the day, after warming up properly for it, and then the assistance work afterwards. And I'll probably use the same weights that I used for this cycle again next cycle, and aim for more reps on the top set, then increase the "1RM" weight by 2.5/5kg the following cycle after that.

BENCH PRESS

WARM UP
10x20kg
5x30kg
3x40kg
1x50kg

WORK SETS
5x57.5kg
3x65kg
6x72.5kg -- Went for a 7th rep, but needed a spot on the way up.

ASSISTANCE
8x60kg
6x60kg

DEADLIFT

WARM UP
5x60kg
3x80kg
1x95kg

WORK SETS
5x105kg
3x120kg
3x135kg

ASSISTANCE WORK
Pull Ups/Chin Ups 8/8, 6/6, 4/4 (total 36)

CONDITIONING
Walk home
 
Mon 26/09/11

PRESS

WARM UP
10x20kg
5x27.5kg
2x32.5kg

WORK SETS
5x37.5kg
3x42.5kg
4x47.5kg

ASSISTANCE WORK
Press 2x8x30kg

One-Arm DB Row / Bench Press 3x15x17.5kg/side / 3x10x35kg

Pull Ups / Chin Ups 9 / 8 / 8 / 9

CONDITIONING
Walk home
Walk dog
 
Wed 28/09/11

SQUATS

WARM UP
8xBW
8x20kg
5x40kg

WORK SETS
5x50kg
5x60kg
5x72.5kg

BENCH PRESS

WARM UP
10x20kg

WORK SETS
5x32.5kg
5x40kg
5x47.5kg

ASSISTANCE
Bench Press 3x3x40kg

Pull Ups/Chin Ups 7x5

CONDITIONING
Elliptical 20min
Walk home
 
Fri 30/09/11

I didn't end up going to the gym today. My whole afternoon, from 1:00 to 5:30pm was wasted on worthless stuff I had to do to keep Centrelink happy. Being a Friday, I knew the gym closes early, and I wasn't sure if it would still be open for long enough for me to train by the time I got there. So I just did something like 5 or 6 sets of 10 burpees in the park...while some snotty nosed brats called out obnoxiously at me over their fence. I was mildly tempted to jump into their backyard and start throwing them around a bit...it WOULD have made up for not doing any overhead presses today, but it also would have probably landed me in court/jail. >=[
 
Sat 01/10/11

Press

5x20kg -- Obviously no warm up sets, since this was the first work set weight for the day.
5x25kg
5x30kg
10x25kg -- Cus I couldn't seriously just leave it at 5x30 and go away. I don't care if this is a recovery/deload session, that just wouldn't have been cool.
10x20kg

DEADLIFT

5x60kg -- Again, no warm up sets. Actually, according to the spreadsheet I used for this month's weights, the first set should have been 57.5kg...but I'm not doing that. Not for deadlifts.
5x70kg
5x85kg

PULL UPS/CHIN UPS
10, 8, 6, 6 -- 30 total.

CONDITIONING
Elliptical 17min
Walk home
 
03/10/11

First session of the second round.

SQUATS

WARM UP
10xBW
8x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
2x75kg
1x90kg

WORK SET
8x102.5kg -- I actually felt like I could have gotten more out, but technique would have gotten ugly. I think I overloaded my hamstrings doing this, because they've been having a cry ever since. Hmm, last month it was the quads playing up, this time it's hamstrings. I guess next month, to keep with tradition, my glutes will have to walk away from the power rack crying rape.

ASSISTANCE WORK
Squats 8x70kg -- I was going to do 3x8, but with my hamstrings bitching up, I decided to leave it. I was also going to get back into doing power cleans today. I decided against this plan after squatting.

Calf Raise 2x10x40kg/side, 1x12x40kg/side.

CONDITIONING
Walk home.
 
04/10/11

BENCH PRESS

WARM UP
10x20kg
5x32.5kg
3x45kg
2x55kg

WORK SET
10x65kg -- I tried for an 11th rep, but it never made it past the sticking point on the way up.

ASSISTANCE WORK
Bench Press 9x50kg, 10x50kg, 10x45kg, 10x40kg

Pull Ups/Chin Ups 8/6, 5/5

Overhead Press 3x10x20kg

Upright Row 10x10kg, 3x10x20kg

CONDITIONING
Elliptical 17min
Walk home
 
Thur 06/10/11

SQUATS
8xBW
10x20kg
3x10x50kg

POWER CLEAN
3x20kg
3x25kg
2x30kg
1x35kg
5x1x40kg

DEADLIFT

WARM UP
5x60kg
3x80kg
1x100kg

WORK SET
8x120kg -- No rep PR this time. Oh well.

ASSISTANCE WORK
RDL 3x8x65kg

One-Legged Calf Raise 3x12x40kg

CONDITIONING
Walk home
 
I weighed myself this morning. 74.1kg. 6 weeks ago I was about 77kg. Looks like I'm losing weight at about the right pace :)
 
07/10/11

PRESS

WARM UP
10x20kg
5x25kg
3x30kg
1x35kg

WORK SET
9x40kg -- It doesn't indicate a higher 1RM than what I've indicated having before, but it is still a PR, so I'm happy.

ASSISTANCE WORK
Press 2x8x32.5kg

Cable Row 25x36kg, 15x36kg, 30x23kg -- Funny thing is, I think those high rep sets took about the same time to complete as a 5 rep set with loads of weight.

Bench Press 10x3x32.5kg -- Lots of quick, easy little sets. I think I'll need to add more weight to the bar next time I do this sort of thing so that I can get more out of the dynamic effort.

Lat Pull Down 2x10x30kg, 10x36kg, 2x10x43kg

Lat Raises 10x2kg, 10x3kg, 2x10x4kg -- Performed one side at a time. It's been about 400yrs since I've done this exercise.

CONDITIONING
20min elliptical
 
On Saturday morning, at about 7:30am, there was some severe weather where I live. Lightning struck very close to my house and it fried the modem. We've only got the internet back as of this morning, and it's only on my brother's computer until my parents get back from holidays this weekend (dad knows how to set everything up so that we'll have internet on all computers, my brother and I don't). So, while he's out and about, I'm here updating my journal, finally.

Mon 10/10/11

SQUATS

WARM UP
10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
2x77.5kg
1x92.5kg

WORK SET
5x107.5kg

ASSISTANCE WORK
Squats 4x10x60kg

Power Clean 3x20kg, 3x25kg, 2x30kg, 1x35kg, 5x3x40kg

One-Legged Calf Raise 3x8x45kg

CONDITIONING
Walk home
 
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