Ryan's Journal

Front Squat

10xBW
10x20kg -- Stretching out my legs by doing all these reps made them feel a bit better for working with. All my running around yeterday seems to have utilised my leg muscles in some manner. Don't let the bodybuilders find out.
5x35kg
3x50kg
1x65kg
3x3x77.5kg

Deadlifts

10x60kg
5x80kg
3x100kg
1x120kg
3x5x135kg -- I think I need more hamstring strength.

GHR/Trap Bar Shrug/Calf Raise

3x10xBlue/15x74kg/20x220lb

Decline Sit Ups

4x8

I also did 2 rounds of skipping towards the end of the session. I have no idea how long each round went for, but I'm confidant both rounds were more than a minute. To my surprise I didn't feel overly puffed afterwards.
 
Incline Bench Press

10x20kg
5x30kg
3x40kg
1x47.5kg
3x8x53.5kg

Press

10x20kg -- Actually, this may have been more like 14. I got to a point where I said the number of the last rep in my head, then instantly forgot whether it was "nine" or "five," (they just sound so similar) so I did 5 more just to be safe. That wasn't overly pleasant.
5x25kg
3x30kg
1x35kg
3x5x37kg

Pull Ups

10xBW
3x5x16.5kg

Fat Gripz Row

4x15x50kg
 
Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
1x80kg
1x100kg
5x121kg -- PB :)
4x121kg -- I knew there was no way I was getting a 5th rep in this set. After this set, I stripped the weight back and did paused squats, which let me know how much I'd been getting out of my stretch strength reflex.
3x5x100kg -- "4 sec" pause at the bottom, although you know how relativity works, so it was probably only 2-3 sec in reality.

Goodmorning

8x30kg
5x35kg
5x40kg
5x50kg
5x60kg
5x70kg

Barbell Glute Bridge

10x20kg
3x10x30kg

Calf Raise/Decline Sit Up

2x12x320lb/8
2x10x320lb/8
 
Let's just get this out in the open: Today's session sucked. My body was all like: "Well, I could lift heavy, but ain't nobody got time for that!"

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x35kg
3x50kg
1x65kg
4x77.5kg
5x77.5kg
3x77.5kg
2x5x70kg -- 5x5x77.5kg did not exactly happen.

CGBP

2x10x40kg

Pull Ups

2x10xBW
2x8xBW

Seated Row

3x10x62.5kg
30x30kg

And then I finished off with some resistance band exercises.
 
Some days are like that. I think there are still gains to be made, maybe in terms of mental toughness? It may be a slogan, but "just do it" has some merit in my opinion.
 
Bad days are inevitable. I still don't like them :p



Front Squats

10xBW

10x20kg

5x35kg

3x50kg

1x65kg

2x3x80kg -- This was less difficult than I expected. I like it when that happens.

Pause Squats

10x80kg

Deadlift

10x60kg

5x80kg

3x100kg

1x120kg

2x5x140kg -- Prior to this day, the heaviest I'd ever done for 5 reps was 137.5kg, which was just 1 set and mixed grip. Getting 140kg for 2 sets with hook grip made me quite happy.

3x140kg

GHR/Shrug/Calf Raise

3x6xDk Blue/15x76.5kg/15x300lb

Decline Sit Ups

4x10
 
Bench Press

10x20kg
5x35kg
3x50kg
1x65kg
1x75kg
1x85kg -- Harder on the eccentric than the concentric, funnily enough. Dat der control and tightness. I was safe for 2-3 reps, which I'll likely be going for on Tuesday before backing off and doing 3x5.

Incline Bench Press

3x6x55kg -- Going straight from flat bench to incline without warming up on incline at all made the first set a bit unco, but second and third sets were better technique (except for the very last rep, which had final-rep elegance to the fullest).

Press

3x5x37.5kg -- Again, straight into the work sets. I was pleasantly surprised to find that apparently I didn't need any warm-up sets to do the work sets properly.

Pull Ups

10xBW
3x3x17.5kg

Fat Gripz Row

3x15x52.5kg
15x40kg
20x30kg
 
Squats

10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
1x80kg
1x100kg
1x112.5kg
3x5x122.5kg -- Booyah! More weight and more sets than last week! Not the 5x5x125kg I'd been aiming for in this week when I started 5x5 a month ago, but still a firm PB.
2x3x100kg -- Pause Squats. Whether you want to call this 2x3 or 1x6 is fairly arbitrary. I reracked the bar after 3 reps so that I could adjust my belt as it was digging into my side in a painful manner, and then got straight back into it; probably 10-20 sec with the bar racked between triples.
5x100kg -- Pause Squats.

RDL

10x60kg
3x8x80kg -- Fairly easy.

GHR/Calf Raise

3x7xD.Blue/16x220lb

Decline Sit Ups

4x10

I also did some unco skipping, and some rack pulls, deadlifts and sumo deadlifts for demonstration purposes.
 
This wasn't an off day. This was a day where something was wrong. From the first set of bench press, my left arm was giving me all sorts of grief. It felt like my bicep was in trouble, but I'm 99.999% sure that the issue was my left shoulder.

Bench Press

10x20kg
5x35kg
3x50kg
3x60kg
3x70kg
0x80kg -- This should have been an easy triple, but with my left arm/shoulder doing its thing, the bar didn't come off my chest even once.
10x60kg
9x60kg

Seated Row

3x10x40kg -- Narrow grip.
3x10x40kg -- Wide grip.
 
^ I'm seeing a physio about it on Saturday morning.



Front Squat

10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
3x72.5kg
2x3x82.5kg -- So far so good as far as my left shoulder goes.

Pause Squat

6x82.5kg
6x95kg
3x6x102.5kg -- Alas, now my left shoulder was being unfriendly, and it caused problems for my whole left arm.

Deadlift

10x60kg
5x80kg
3x100kg
1x120kg
1x135kg
3x3x145kg -- Last rep of each set felt like it mustn't have been pretty to watch, however this did (surprisingly) make my left shoulder/arm feel better.

GHR

3x6xD.Blue
 
Incline Bench Press

10x20kg -- Not nearly as bad as benching on Tuesday, but I could feel undue tension in my left bicep, which was the first sign of trouble earlier in the week. So I concluded that continuing wasn't as good an idea as trying something else.

Press

10x20kg -- I had my suspicions that this exercise would feel good, and my suspicions proved to be correct. So I started loading up the bar.
5x25kg
3x30kg
1x35kg
5x5x38kg

Fat Gripz Row

3x12x52.5kg

Wide Grip Seated Row

3x12x40kg
 
^ Yep, kinda buggers things up for me a bit. Had this not happened until 7 weeks from now, it'd be no biggie. Comp's on 27th of April; not a lot of time for me to rest.

I saw the physio this morning, was given some stretches and exercises to do for rehab, some modifications to exercises I've done before for rehab, and the advice to see her again in two weeks if things aren't better.

Good thing that, while I'm thoroughly single, I'm about as undesparate as they come, or I might be inclined to sabotage my recovery so as to see the pretty lady physiotherapist again.
 
I saw the physio at 8:30 this morning. Looking at what I had been experiencing, she agreed with my analysis that it's probably a nerve doing something wrong in my shoulder, and even narrowed down which nerve it's likely to be (addressing two nerves that would cause my symptoms). She gave me some mobility exercises, some strengthening exercises and some stretches to do for my shoulder and my neck, and said that if the problem's still there in 2 weeks, come back for a second appointment.

Squats

I forgot my gym bag, somehow, which had my belt and knee sleeves in it. My knees didn't like training without sleeves very much. Fortunately, I had no competition for the gym's communal belt (as is usually the case -- those of us who use belts usually use our own belts, with few exceptions), so I was still able to do the target weights for this session.

10xBW
10x20kg
5x40kg
3x60kg
1x80kg
1x100kg
3x5x118kg
5x110kg
8x95kg
15x88kg

RDL

8x60kg
3x8x85kg
 
The physio described the mobility exercise as being "like an Egyptian dance," and without a hopelessly convoluted explanation, I'll have to stick with that as the description. It's a nerve glide technique. Haven't seen anyone do those since 2008.
 
Ryan, sorry to stick this in your journal. Tom, I have a video by Todd Durkin (personal trainer in San Diego) with 30 minutes of shoulder mobility and joint integrity exercises that are great. Quite a few of them are on youtube such as this one:

Do these with very light weights - this is the case for the pink barbie dumbbells, really! Egyptians, scarecrows, John Travoltas - they can really make a difference.
 
No worries :) The John Travolta's new to me. I'm doing daily exercises with a resistance band -- external rotations, internal rotations, flexion and extension. At my old gym, which had a cable machine, after 4 years (on and off) of doing rotator cuff exercises I moved all the way up to 9kg external rotations. I remember I used to see guys doing them with 25-30kg; if these were 200kg roidmunchers, that might be appropriate, but these were guys who were as skinny as me, so no chance they were doing it right.
 
Two days worth of training in here. I spent all last night working on an assignment, and to make sure I got it done I had to shut out all thought of updating this thing. My shoulder let me bench press yesterday without pain, although I didn't feel quite as stable or tight at the bottom as I normally do, which was a bit off-putting. Keeping up with rehab work. Deadlifted 5x2x150kg today.
 
Bench Press

10x20kg
5x35kg
3x50kg
1x65kg
3x4x80kg -- First and last rep of each set were a little off, but the middle reps felt really smooth and solid. Very last rep, my spotter moved to get the weight, so I had to race against him and protect the bar from his hands.
10x65kg -- Light touch of assistance from spotter on final rep.
 
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