Frank's log - Shut up and CURL

[Frank.S]

Todays weigh in
206lbs -down 1 lb??

After today I may be taking a few days off of training. Going to go see the girlfriend, shes sick and probally wont want to goto the gym (shes the one that got me into lifting in the first place!). Who knows, maybe ill goto her sketchy gym with a huge squat rack with no saftey pins!

On another note, weird thing happend yesterday.

I was in an outdoor store that i used to go on mountain bike rides with (All i did was cardio and eat bad.. 180lbs 20%bf) and the guy there said it looked like I gave up on life and started to eat potato chips! ahhhhh. I need to hit this deadlift asap being fat is not as awesome as I thought it was going to be! (ok ok, its still pretty cool).

Im thinking of putting in some plyometrics. I mean, the cardio from them is going to be benificial, and I think that I could become a bit more 'explosive' making my lifts go up. Going to look into this.

[Frank.S]

Originally Posted by ryan122185

How about some board presses and GHR they may help you.

weird. We posted at the exact same time.

Yeah, those would help for sure.

But I train by myself right now so board presses arnt an option, and the gym I goto for now (in september I get a good gym) doesnt have a ghr.

I much perfer the board presses to rack lockouts due to the fact that Ill keep my form better. On the rack lockouts I find it really hard to keep my elbows tucked.

[Frank.S]

a1 Power Cleans
3 x 115lbs
3 x 115lbs
3 x 115lbs

a2 Pullups
3 x bw + 10
3 x bw + 10
3 x bw + 10

b1 Rack lockouts
3 x 230
3 x 220
3 x 220

b2 Lunges. 65lbs dumbells.
x3
x3
x3


First time ever doing powercleans. Ummm in short, I suck. I dont have the wrist flexibility to hold the bar in a front squat position. So I kin of rest it on my chest. I could have gone alot heavier I think. But, im sure this is just in the program to work on explosivness, which I did.

Lockouts were lower numbers then usual. But the bar was only about 2 inches from my chest. I should have probally moved the rack up one. Oh well.

Prety easy/quick workout. Going to do some jumprope or somthing tonight.

[Frank.S]

Big ass update.

Went to see the GF for a few days. forgot to bring my workout plan. So I just messed around. Here is what I did.


Tuesday (no break after last workout).

BB RDLS
185 x 6
185 x 6
185 x 6
185 x 6

db curls (hahaha)
50 x 5
50 x 5
50 x 5
50 x 5

Close grip bench
185 x 6
185 x 6
185 x 6
185 x 6

Push Presses
135 x 4
135 x 3
135 x 2

BB Bent over Rows
185 x 8
185 x 8
185 x 8
185 x 8

HERE IS WHERE I BECOME AN IDIOT.
God damn, My girlfriend seriously does 2 hours of cardio every day. I have standing around at the gym.

BB back squats - no box for once. 2 inch below paralell.
225 x 5
275 x 2
315 x 2
365 x 2
405 x 1 easy too..
225 x 5

The rack didnt have safety pins and my sketchy spotters didnt want to spot over 4 plates for some reason. Thats after a long ass workout too. Im pretty sure I could hit 450-500lbs.

Thursday - tired. mostly isolation.

DB shrugs
110 x 10
110 x 10
110 x 10

Cheat curls (haha arm isolation.. everyone else was doing it!)
120lbs x 6
120lbs x 5
100 x 5
100 x 5

Machine Horizontal calf extensions
(machine maxed out. 10 x 45lbs plates)
x 10
x 10
One footed:
x 8
x 8
x 8
x 8

Standing calf raises with DB
40lbs x 20
40lbs x 20
40lbs x 20

DB RDLS
80 x 6
80 x 6
80 x 6
80 x 6

Machine Shoulder press
100 x 6
100 x 6
100 x 6
100 x 6

Then some rotator cuff work.
(internal rotation, external rotation, cuban press)


Yes Im tired.

Tomorrow im going to rest.

My diet for the weekend consisted of cookies, muffins and peanut butter balls. It wasnt pretty. But my gf cooked all this good foof for me! I was 'forced' to eat it. hahaha.

[pjb923]

Nice work on the squats Frank.

And all those curls were done in the squat rack, right?

[Frank.S]

haha of course.

Actually it was pretty funny. Last time I was there at that gym and bent the sqaut bar. This time there was someone in the squat rack.. using the bent bar with a dime on each side doing curls haha. Also.. people on cell phones all over the place. Pretty halarious gym.

And I also taight my gf how to bb back squat. In the middle of me teacher her she says "If a trainer tried to teach me this the way you are, hed already be fired!" haha.

[Frank.S]

210lbs today

Took the day off. Still sore. Back at er tomorrow.

Something must be going well. Ive made 2 workout routines for friends in the past week (I really dont make them.. they are pretty much a waterbury or similar workout with a few changes.. I give credit dont worry). Now im working on finding something for my girl, this should be fun.

[pjb923]

I didn't realize you were using Strength Focused Mesocycle. That is what I am planning to start tomorrow. Your log is giving me some nice numbers to strive for since we seem to use similar weight for some of our lifts (although you are way ahead of me on squats).

I'm concerned about the power cleans. I have wrist flexibility issues also. They give me trouble during front squats, so I would image that catching the bar in a power clean would be even worse. I also don't have anyone to check my technique. I doubt any of the useless trainers at my gym have ever heard of a power clean.

What do you think about replacing the power cleans with deadlifts, since there are no deadlifts in this routine?

[Frank.S]

Originally Posted by pjb923

I didn't realize you were using Strength Focused Mesocycle. That is what I am planning to start tomorrow. Your log is giving me some nice numbers to strive for since we seem to use similar weight for some of our lifts (although you are way ahead of me on squats).

I'm concerned about the power cleans. I have wrist flexibility issues also. They give me trouble during front squats, so I would image that catching the bar in a power clean would be even worse. I also don't have anyone to check my technique. I doubt any of the useless trainers at my gym have ever heard of a power clean.

What do you think about replacing the power cleans with deadlifts, since there are no deadlifts in this routine?

Yes I was doing westside and I stll firmly beleive its the best program out there. But I wanted to give this one a try.

I dont have the wrist flexibility to do front squats with the olympic grip. I have to cross my arms. This works well for me though I find (mind you I cannot do very much weight on the front squats, I think I have an imbalance somewhere).

For the cleans.. Im hack. I just throw the bar up, rest it on my chest for a second then clean it. Very bad technique. I figured that this excercize was put into the program to work on explosivness, well, what im doing is accomplishing that.

But I think your best bet would be changing it for 'pulls' there was a recent t-nation article on these and they look very interesting and are going to work alot of the same muscles. Im pretty sure im going to exchange the cleans for these as they look better for me.

[Frank.S]

I was looking at your log too,

I found it kind of funny how much more you front squat then me, yet somehow my back squat is a little higher. Might have something to do with mechanics I would think.

Actually looking at it a bit more. Your a better squater then me for the back squats too. Anything past about 225lbs and im not hitting it for much more then 3 or 4.

[pjb923]

Thanks Frank, I think i'll try incorporating some high pulls.

I may be better at the high rep squat work, but you are the one that said 405 lbs was easy. My current max is 315. Hopefully after this strength cycle that number will improve.

I may try westside after this routine. Do you have any templates that I can take a look at?

[Frank.S]

http://www.elitefitnesssystems.com/d...ng-program.htm

here is a pretty basic one. With westside you of course can change it up how you like and throw in some new stuff. Elitefts has lots of good information.

[Alcoholiday]

the key to an effective WS program is knowing your weakness. You shouldn't follow that template, but use it as a guide, and alter it to how you see fit. If you're thinking of doing a WS geared program, read up about it, alot.

[pjb923]

Thanks for the link Frank. I don't want to turn your log into a westside discussion.
I am planning on reading a whole lot more about westside before starting a routine. I'll give the waterbury routine a chance for now, and over the next month I can work on creating a westside routine that will work for me.

[Frank.S]

a1: Good mornings
195 x 5
195 x 5
195 x 5

a2: Bench
200 x 5
200 x 5
200 x 5

b1: front squats
165 x 5
165 x 5
165 x 5

b2: Chinups
10lbs x 5
10 x 5
10 x 5

2.5% progression. Not to bad. Front squats were hard everything else was easy.

[Alcoholiday]

Originally Posted by pjb923

Thanks for the link Frank. I don't want to turn your log into a westside discussion.

why not? :p

[Frank.S]

hahaha. Westside is awesome.

Probally start back on it in a month or so. Im not possitive I really have the stregnth to benifit from that style of training yet. Got to build some sort of base first I think. Ive been looking at things wrong for to long of a time I think. Ive been lifting seriously for about 7 months now (cardio junkie before!) and ive already done 2 diets in the time span where I made little/no/lost gains. I think I just need to work up some stregnth using basic principals then try something else.

When school is back on and im not training in a 'fitness center' anymore, and with real powerlifters/strongman ill do westside im sure.

Looking forward to that. I think a couple guys may be a little surprised with my progress as just last april I was squating 150lbs if I was lucky.