AD69's Training Log

[AD69]

Did a weigh-in, and I'm still at 14st 5. Have been at that weight for a month now. Pretty happy, don't seem to have gained much fat (in fact I would say I've lost fat). Chest and shoulders seem bigger too. Would be happy to get up to 15 stone now, without gaining fat, if I can.

[pangram]

Your numbers are looking good AD69, I aspire to reach those. Keep it going

[AD69]

Thanks Pangram, there is a lot to be said for consistency (i.e. training regularly), have been pretty stop/start due to my work & life, but recently getting 3 sessions per week and it does help.

Monday 12th October:

Squats: 45kgx5, 60kgx5, 77.5kgx3x5
OHP: 30kgx5, 40kgx5, 48.7kg 3/3/0
Deadlift: 60kgx5, 100kgx5, 130kgx5
Prones: BW 60/60/60s

Squats: Not too happy with form, will stay at this weight this week before increasing.

OHP: This is why we love to hate this exercise. No sooner have you broken your PR, it tells you its still the daddy. Surprised at getting 3 reps on the first two sets, but it must have used all my energy. 3rd set started too far away from my face and therefore didn't go anywhere. At least it gives me something to shoot for next time.

Deadlift: Not happy with how these went. I had trouble resetting the bar, as I raise them up on some 10kg plates so they start at the right height. But this makes it hard to pull the bar back to the correct starting position. As such, some reps didn't start against the shins and were messy as a result. Got them up, and didn't need to pause. Last rep grip started to fail too, so probably didn't achieve proper lockout. I also got shouted at by the wife, as although our garage is not connected to the house, the sound apparently woke up the babies and shook the house! Grr! I have some rubber matting from my children's play room (coloured, interlocking tiles) so will use a couple of those instead of my 10kg plates to raise the bar but also muffle the sound of 130kg+ hitting a concrete floor or metal disc.

Prones: Think normal prones are harder than the push-up position ones. Last 10 seconds could feel the ab muscles start to cramp up. Managed to hold out for these. May try to get to 90 seconds, at least on the first one, then look into stacking or TGU.

[Foxybass]

Looks like you're flying at the moment AD69. Great work.

Yep, consistency is the key. It looks like I may only be able to get two sessions in this week and it frustrates the f#ck out of me.

Keep on it.

Dave

[groundskeeperwillie]

OHP: This is why we love to hate this exercise. No sooner have you broken your PR, it tells you its still the daddy.

Which is still a bastard!

gkw

[AD69]

Its used as an instrument of torture willie, this is the one exercise that you can never break 2 PRs in a row with.

[nburge]

Its used as an instrument of torture willie, this is the one exercise that you can never break 2 PRs in a row with

breaking 1 PR in a row would be nice!!! I find it utterly unfathomable - one day I'll be failing to lift 52.5kgs 5x5 by one rep, the next I'll deload by 10kgs and STILL fail to get 5x5!??! I'm hoping that all this buggering about with snatches and jerks makes me stronger when holding weight above my head, and that this somehow transfers to the OHP. None of the other methods I've tried have had any effect!

[AD69]

Yeah, I've had that too (although not at 52.5kg!). You really need to be in the zone for the weight to go up, otherwise it justs kicks you in the ass (maybe a form issue there...).

I reckon the jerks will help, I read about using push presses to break plateaus on the OHP, so imagine it would be a similar deal here.

[nburge]

I hope so. With a lot of these things it's a confidence issue too - the same reason people suggest doing heavy walkouts on squats etc. Hopefully the experience of holding >60kgs above my head will help the OHP up. At the moment I find that my traps and deltoids are a bit too beaten up out of the monday night sessions to hold much up on the OHP though. At least they're getting a workout!

[AD69]

Wednesday 21st October

Session at the BGWLC

Bench: 1RM: 85kg, 62.5kgx3x5
Dumbell neutral grip bench press: 20kg 5x3
Seated OHP: 1RM 47.5kg
EZ Bar Tricep curl
EZ Bar Bicep curl
Hammer curls: 12.5kgx10, 10kgx3x8
Seated row: 25kg each side 8/8/10/8/10
Incline sit ups: 3x10
Plank: 2x40s

Annoyingly got there late, and had missed out on squats. They'd moved on to upper body exercises and I worked in. Determined my 1RM on the bench, got up to 85kg, but not sure if there was some assistance - spotter had hands near the bar but not 100% sure if he was touching or not.

Moved on to narrow, neutral grip dumbbell bench press. Tried the 20s and they were fine, tried the 25s and almost crushed my chest! Switched back to 20s to finish the sets.

Seated OHP, worked up to a 47.5kg 1 RM, it went up easy enough, but I got cocky and tried to increase by 5kg for the next rep and failed it. Reckon would have got 50kg.

Moved on to some tris and bis work with the EZ curl bar.

Hammer curls with dumbbells again easy enough.

Used a seated row machine, weights were independent, so it was 25kg each side. Was aiming for anything over 8 reps, and got a few extra in.

Finished with some core work.

Its been a frustrating week, I missed last weeks session at BGWLC due to work, and have not been to the gym since last monday. To miss out on squats last night was annoying too. Will get back into the swing of things tomorrow. Aiming to do some heavy deads to make up for lack of work recently.

[nburge]

That's a bit of a shitter - couldn't you do some squats at the end of the session?

Interesting to see what they get you doing in the powerlifting side of the gym ... I'm still debating what I'm going to do next term and whether or not I should join the British Weight Lifting Association. I'm enjoying the Olympic lifting but don't think i'd get much out of doing sessions alone at the moment, so I doubt I'll use it much over the winter break.

Hope things calm down a bit at work so you can get back in the groove!

[AD69]

Nah, by the time I'd been through that lot it was time to go home! I live down in Kent too, so wasn't back home until 945 as it was.

No offence, but I do think that unless you want to compete in the oly lifts, then to stay away from it. I've read lots of discussions on it, see here: http://wwwneilmctcom.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html#3818169221700426256

Its just far to technical for anyone other than those who want to focus on oly lifts completely.

With the powerlifting side, they'll get you doing box squats, squats with chains, deads, etc, so the focus is getting stronger in squats and deads, which is more appealing to me.

[nburge]

i think I needed something to break up the monotony, and this was a good thing to do. I'm not sure whether I want to compete or not, it will eat up a lot of time and require more from me than I'm prepared to give at the moment, but could be just what I'm looking for.

I won't be doing snatches or clean and jerks outside that gym - it would be dangerous. It has made me want to get a place of my own and build my own Oly gym though. I'm also hoping to develop more power than strength - I think it will make my cycling to work quicker and will be functionally useful to me.

I don't envy your trip home - it takes me a bit longer to get back from there and I don't like being in after 8pm..... still, it is a good environment to learn.

[nburge]

Had a quick look through the site - interesting points and a lot of them I'd agree with myself. I'll only learn under the tuition of Giles and am happy to progress that way. I might see if he'll do some 1-1 sessions next year. If you watch him perform the snatch or the jerk you will notice an AWESOME amount of speed. Too fast to see. There's a huge stomp and all of a sudden this heavy weight is above his head. I'd love to get to that.

[AD69]

Friday 23rd October:

Squats: 42.5kgx5, 55kgx5, 70kgx3x5
OHP: 30kgx5, 40kgx5, 50kgx3, 50kgx0, 45kgx2x5
Deads: 70kgx5, 100kgx5, 135kgx5 PR BABY!
RCs: 15kg dumbbell 3x10


Squats: Despite not squating since a week on Monday, my legs were surprisingly loose. Was expecting to be really tight, especially as my left leg has felt really gnarled up lately. I think its tightness in hip muscles which is causing everything else to tighten up. However, today it felt fine and good ROM. I went for 70kg so as not to over do it, but I now need to push on past 85kg.

OHP: Glad to get some reps out at 50kg, but first set killed me and couldn't shift anything on the second set. Did a deload to 45kg and knocked out two sets which weren't easy (but the OHP is never simple!). Mind you, I did do a lot of upper body work, including seated press on Wednesday, which may have fatigued me slightly.

Deadlifts: Well, I've been dicking around for ages with the deadlift, not really getting anywhere past 130kg so decided I'd try a PR attempt to try and break the plateau. It worked. Although grip was giving out on 4th and 5th reps - so much so that lockout wasn't great on the last rep. I need chalk! Will move up from here but only with chalk!

Reverse crunches: Lowered the weight of the dumbbell again. Not sure I actually need it that much, but easing in gently. The last few reps of each set were tough, but got there. Quite enjoying doing core work.

All in a decent session despite not shifting weights in anger for a while. Surprising really as in a shit mood recently. My wife has been in a shitty mood for a while and when I said that I wasn't feeling too sharp either, she flew into a bigger mood and basically doesn't ever support me emotionally. Whenever she is down I'm there for her, but when I'm down she somehow turns it around to make me the bad guy. I tried to take my feelings and turn them against the iron, and seemed to work today. Feeling better from working out - thank god for endorphines.