Rev's Freaky Athlete Log

[Rev]

Upper Body DE Day 2/26/05

-warm up-
db pullover
db tricep extention
bench press x bar, 95

Speed Bench Press 65% 1rep max
135 x 3
135 x 3
135 x 3
135 x 3
135 x 3
These are getting easier. I should have gotten a little more warmed up before I did these, I felt pretty cold in the beginning.

Cable Row
100 x 8
110 x 6
115 x 6
115 x 6
120 x 6
Technique got a little funny so I did 115 twice to make sure I was getting a full squeeze in my upper back. Felt great.

Narrow Grip Bench Press
145 x 3
155 x 3
165 x 3
170 x 3
These were awesome! It was a battle on the last rep of 170lbs but I pushed through and set a PR today with narrow grip bench presses. The second rep was really slow so I held at the top for 2-3 seconds and said "no matter what", lowered it under control and had a good five second battle to lockout and got it done maintaing good technique.

Pull-Up (over hand wide grip)
25+ x 5
25+ x 5
25+ x 4
25+ x 4
Full 20 reps are going down next week for sure. My pull-up strength just keeps on rising and rising. I'm also adding chins on the first upper body day of the week by making the dips 3 sets versus 6 and sharing that volume with chin-ups so I can get in 3 sets of them as well. This is a move to further balance out my push to pull volume which it will do, plus I hope to enhance arm hypertrophy as well.

DB L-Lateral Raise
12 x 15
12 x 15
Going to have to increase weight on this next time.

I lifted with my old buddy today for the first time in six months. We caught up on old times, discussed tragedies and remembered funny ass shit we used to do and basically had a hell of time and enhanced each others workout. Every time I saw him letting up I would blurt something out and he did plenty of screaming in my face on my narrow grip benches. I convinced him to go for a 500lbs half squat, he already hits 405 regularly...and this dude is 165lbs, granted he is 5'5". That is still a hell of a lot of weight. It was a great workout and a very good time on top of that.

[Rev]

I just did body composition measurements and compared from two weeks ago. Everything is virtually exactly the same (body measurements, body weight, body fat). The only change was growth in my calves and chest (funny, I don't train calves directly). I'm going to up my calories a hair to see more hypertrophy. A hair = 200-300 calories.

[Rev]

Lower Body ME Day 2/28/05

-warm up-
squat x bar
good morning x bar

Good Morning
95 x 5
115 x 3
135 x 3
145 x 3
155 x 3
155 x 3
145 x 3
135 x 3
These destroyed me today. On the first set at 155 I felt my back starting to round so I barely pulled off another set with 155 after that. My plans were to get to 165 on these today but it just wasn't in the cards. I over stressed the right side of my low back on this one which dictated what I did the rest of the work out.

Full Squat
135 x 6
155 x 6
175 x 6
195 x 6
215 x 5
225 x 6
I beat my personal record of five reps with 225 last week and pulled out a set of six versus my previous five. I went for a seventh rep, legs trembling, and got buried. I set the pins too low because it squashed me and over flexed my neck and gave me a huge headache for like five minutes but it went away. I noticed if I lean forward a hair, not a lot, but just enough to get my butt out farther behind me it helps my squat a lot, is this cheating? Do I need to keep my hips in and keep my back as upright as physically possible, it shifts more weight to my quads for sure and keeps my knees out farther over my toes, comments?

Ab Pull-Down
100 x 10
100 x 10
My range of motion toward the end of these was more or less like an isoloation contraction lol. I work these down until I can't really move.

Todays work out was weird. I feel negative about it...I just feel negative in general, I feel weak and tiny. I was looking at myself in the mirros noticing how small I am again, doesn't help that all I had was a tight black teeshirt to wear. I feel like my lifts will never go up, I feel like I am destined to be stuck fucking around with 225 for a squat and never get past 185 on my bench and nothing will ever change it. I only got five hours of sleep last night because I stayed up talking to D about training forever. I cut out my hypers and romanian deadlifts due to over stressing the right side of my low back, its totally fine but one of those things where you shouldn't push your luck. I DO NOT need an injury. I did add more total weightage to my Good Mornings and I did add an extra rep to my full squats. So it was a good work out, like I said I am a little concerned on squat form although. I'm not bending at the waist too much at all, like I said its enough to get my butt to sit back farther which makes me feel more hamstring and glute action but maybe this is cheating and I need to keep my uppper back like perfectly lateral?

[Rev]

I think I am sitting back better and box squats are helping my form. Although, I think the weight balance was shifted over to my toes more than I am comfortable with allowing and I need to get the weight focus a little more back to my mid foot to heel on the last reps. That is my squat self assesment after analyzing it. By the way I just watched this thing on 50 cent, that dude is huge, it would be awesome to have his physique.

[Ian Kay]

Ok: don't make judgements about anything, especially your own goals, when you're working on just five hours of sleep.

Be careful on the GM's. Don't forget to clench your upper back and glutes when you lower; otherwise you risk those kind of imbalances, shifting slightly to one side and straining it. If you're going to push yourself this hard, then you have to get more sleep. The combo of extra exertion and no sleep=injury and failure. be careful!

As for the squat form: I'm no coach, and I only think I get what you're saying. I do know that you certainly aren't supposed to keep your upper body straight up and down. A forward lean is expected. You just want to make sure it's not too far.

When you feel like you're rolling onto your toes, start your next rep with heels dug into the ground and your toes pointing upwards. In other words, purposely take your toes off the ground, which will force yourself to sit back on your heels (so only the heels and balls of your feet touch the ground.)

[Rev]

COOL! I've been walking around my apartment practicing squating with toes off the ground, dude it helps A LOT! I'm sitting waaaaaaaaay back and all the pressure is on my heel...although it would really suck to fall backwards, I'll just have to practice it a lot. YOU'RE THE MAN! thanks!

I always have moments of discouragement because I am so hard on myself. I was seriously shooting for 10 reps with 225 when last time I pulled off 5. Kind of setting myself up for failure I guess. I've bounced back, if other people can squat and bench big so can I! Its funny that my strongest lifts are things like pull-ups, things i put no pressure on at all.

[Ian Kay]

Glad it's helping! Just make sure to push out with your knees. This should keep you from falling backwards.

One question: If your goal is to get stronger, then why the attempt at more reps on the squat, instead of more weight? Why not got for 5 reps again, but with 235? Just curious.

[Rev]

Because the 225 squat has been staring at me and laughing in my phase and taking up residence in my nightmares for over a year. I thought it would be awesome to bust out 10 perfect reps for it but you're right, once I work up to six sets of six reps climbing all the way up to 225 I should probably adjust to 235 or 245. Its weird because its not even my ME lift but its the focus of my workout on ME lower days. I get all nervous and shit before I do it, even before I get to the gym. The squat has haunted me forever. I think next ME lower day ill do my good mornings, (last time for good mornings as ME lift, time to rotate) and then try to get six PERFECT repetitions for six sets for the same pyramid I did today (hopefully 7 reps or more for the last set) and then I'll go ahead and move on in weight and lower to five reps six sets pyramid up. I probably wont ever take full squats out of the program weither they be ME or assistance. I haven't chose my next ME and DE lifts yet.

[Ian Kay]

That's cool. Whatever your goals are, stick to it! I was just curious. It's a fairly different set up than my routine, so I wasn't sure.

[GqArtguy]

Originally posted by Rev:
COOL! I've been walking around my apartment practicing squating with toes off the ground, dude it helps A LOT! I'm sitting waaaaaaaaay back and all the pressure is on my heel...although it would really suck to fall backwards, I'll just have to practice it a lot. YOU'RE THE MAN! thanks!

You dont want all of the weight on your heels or else youre not going to come back up. There have been times where I cleaned and pull back too far without shifitng the body and had all of the weight on my heels. Couldnt get up to save my life.

Now, a 45 degree tilt in the torso is acceptable, just look at what positions o-lifters are in and make sure youre at about that same level. A perfectly verticle torso isnt going to happen, not even in a front squat.

What I do to minimize the lean is to point my toes outward (about 45 degrees) and make sure that I open my hips on the way down so that my hip, knee, and shin are all in line with my toes. Also, think about lower body as a cradle, like a hammock, and youre lowering your torso directly down the center of it. Doing this I get a very elastic feeling when I squat and can definately feel the hips involved. In this rock bottom position, you should be able to flex your glutes a bit. Theyre already flexed to control the descent, but you should have a little latitude left and youll find if you squeeze them, your body will automatically come up despite your legs. Its like squeezing something in your hand having it pop up out of your hand because of the pressure.

I hope this makes sense, it takes practice to know your body and feel this and more practice to utilize this at the right time, but it will come. It will leave you sore as hell the next day too.

[Rev]

I'm going to have to work on this, thanks for the excellent advice! I just squat down to try to flex my glutes in the full squat bottom position. Aside from forgetting I did squats yesturday and feeling the PAIN, I couldn't get my glutes to flex in the bottom position. I'm going to have to work on this. I know when the weight starts to feel heavy on the last couple reps I shift my weight towards the front and it becomes not as centered. I need to cut that shit out, I used to do it A LOT worse so I dropped weight to work on correcting it. Just a bad habit. It shouldn't affect my weightages much, like I said I was more or less doing it correct, just that the last couple reps I notice I'm holding myself up right with my toe strength. [img]redface.gif[/img] I'm going to practice squating on a low box around the apartment with my body weight and trying to flex my glutes in the bottom position with feet 45 degrees angle.

[GqArtguy]

Yeah you should be able to move your body up and down slightly in the hole just by flexing your glutes. Its weird because you dont have to use your legs, its just the result of the pressure that lifts you up a few inches. Took me a long while to figure out what it meant to use your glutes and hips in squatting but thats what it is. The difference is like night and day. If I dont do it, 315 feels like a ton, but when Im consistent with it, the bar pops up easily.

One thing I notice is that when I go too deep, the lower back begins to round. When that happens, my glute activation is compromised. So if I were you Id make sure Id go down until the saccrum begins to round. Youll still be flexed at this point and be in a better position to feel what I described above.

[Rev]

Upper Body ME Day 3/1/05

-warm up-
bench x bar

Pin Press off chest
95 x 5
135 x 3
145 x 3
155 x 3
165 x 2, F
155 x 2, F
135 x 3
135 x 3
Ever since I have started using the westside template my bench pressing strength has steadily decreased, huge dissapointment. It took some relaxation and some musical therapy to get over the upset and stay positive after my workout.

Bent-Over Row
95 x 8 w/3s iso
95 x 8 w/3s iso
95 x 6 w/s iso
95 x 6
95 x 6
Left shoulder was killing me at the end so I took out the last two iso's.

Incline DB Press
60 x 5
60 x 5
60 x 3
60 x 3
60 x 3
I had to struggle through these very slooooow repetitions.

Incline DB Curl
30 x 5
30 x 5
30 x 5
30 x 5
30 x 5
These were a piece of cake and the light weight was welcome.

Low Cable External Rotation
10 x 15
10 x 15
I was going to move up to 10+ pounds but since my left shoulder was bothering me I stayed where I was last week.

As you can see I took dips out due to the fact its becoming increasingly hard on my shoulders. I replaced it with 5x5 of db incline press and curl.

My pressing strength is something that seriously needs to be addressed as it's steadily decreasing. I have a few ideas which consist of, a) too much volume (overtraining), b) not enough pulling strength, c) westside template just flat out doesn't work well for my pressing. Whatever it be, something needs to change and I think thats obvious. Something isn't working, something is holding me back and I need to figure it out. I'm not going to get all negative and depressed, that will accomplish nothing. I have a problem and need to pinpoint it then fix it, simple as that, just another hurtle.

[Ian Kay]

I know you took a rest week back in January. However, you've been at this new routine for over 4 weeks now, never taking more than one day off in between workouts, sometimes doing them on back-to-back days.

I'd say take 3 full days off before your next workout. You may very well be overdoing it (especially if sleep/nutrition aren't optimal). You might be surprised.

[Rev]

Good advice Rock, thanks. I realized the westside guys change up ME lifts for a reason, they're easy to overtrain. With the advice of Danny and Rock I'm going to change the movement and perhaps that will help the overtraining effect. I'm going to switch to board presses, I need to go buy some boards first though... As far as my lower body ME movement...uhhhh, I have no idea. I'm considering making it a deadlift variation though I plan on keeping my low box squats for my dynamic effort lift and my speed bench for dynamic effort lift. Full squats will most likely keep there same place in my routine and I will replace either stiff leg or romanian deadlifts with good mornings. I'll get it figured out and post it pretty soon.

[Rev]

Here is my next three week cycle starting monday.


Monday ME Lower

Deadlift work up to 8 x 3-5 rep max
Full Squat 6 x 5-8
Natural Hamstring Raise 3 x 5-8
Ab Pull-Down 2 x 6-10
Hyper Extension 2 x 6-10

Tuesday ME Upper

3 Board Press work up to 8 x 3-5 rep max
Bent-Over Row 5 x 5-8
Incline DB Press 4 x 5-8
Incline DB Curl 3 x 5-8
External Rotation 2 x 10-15

Thursday DE Lower

Speed Box Squat 5 x 3 @ 65%
Good Morning 6 x 5-8
DB Lunge 3 x 5-8
Leg Raise 2 x 6-10
Hyper Extension 2 x 6-10

Saturday DE Upper

Speed Bench 5 x 3 @ 65%
Cable Row 5 x 6-8
Close Grip Bench 5 x 3-5
Pull-Up 5 x 3-5
External Rotation 2 x 10-15

[Rev]

I thought I would note my biceps are TRASHED today. Good god, my biceps never get sore. The ol' incline db curl man, the golden boy of biceps isolation for me. Heavier weight also (5x5 vs. 3x8-12) seems to be the only way I can make my biceps sore also, not that soreness has anything to do with anything. Although I get a better pump with higher rep ranges, interesting. I've gained weight as well, today I weighed in at 169lbs.