Van's Training Log

[Van]

Squat:
warm up: 1x5 - BW, 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 95lbs, 1x3 - 135lbs, 1x3 - 185lbs
3x5 - 215lbs

Bench Press:
warm up: 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 85lbs
5/4/4/4/4 - 130lbs

Barbell Row:
warm up: 1x10 - bar, 1x4 - 95lbs 1x3 - 135lbs
4/3/3 - 160lbs

Dips:
warm up: 1x5 - BW, 1x3 - 25lbs
3/4/3 - 50lbs

Farmers Walk:
4x70feet - 100lbs


What a fucked up world we live in. So officially I have to leave my gym after this month is over. Lets start today's adventures.
Squat >> Last set, I'm tired, it's heavy, I squeeze out that last rep! YES! I got 5. I fall into the rack and drop the barbell on the pins. I step out, turn around looking for my water bottle, instead I come face to face with the biggest trainer in the gym, easily 250lbs bodybuilder.
trainer: Don't slam the bar into the rack
me: I'm sorry, it's my last set, I'm tired and it was either i rack it or drop it.
trainer: Slow and controlled. Don't slam the barbell into the rack. - and he walks away.

bench press >> some assholes were curling in the power rack, so I couldn't bench there. I had to use a regular bench. I had nobody to spot me so I was pretty much too scared to try the last rep on any of my sets. That, and I was already thrown off my game a bit by the trainer reprimanding me

Rows >> I do Pendlay rows. I quote Pendlay "The bent row is actually best done as an explosive movement and the bar is moved fast." You rip it off the ground then you let it fall somewhat as you prepare for the next explosion! Well, apparently I let the barbell fall too hard allong comes by good friend Mr. Asshole as i now refer to him.
Mr. Asshole: Din't I just talk to you about droping the weights?
Me: Uhhh, actually you talked to me about falling into the rack...
Mr. Asshole: What are you doing? Are you trying to deadlift?
Me: *laughs* It's actually a variant of the Barbell Row. A guy named Pendlay came up with it.
Mr. Asshole: Don't drop the bar. Do it slow and controlled.
Me: That's not the point of the the exercise. The idea is to develop powerful explosive pulling power. --he cut's me off here
Mr. Asshole: You can't do this anymore. If you continue dropping weights your membership will be revoked.
so i stop rowing. take the plates off and head off to do my dips.

Dips >> I'm in a shitty mood now. Not really excited to do my dips like i was last time. And things are about to get worse...Different trainer this time. I call him Frodo. He's 6'5" and a juiced up 220lbs.
Frodo: You shouldn't be doing dips with that much weight.
Me: Why?
Frodo: because it's too heavy. you only got 3 reps. take off the belt and just do three sets of 8.
Me: I'm trying to get 3 sets of 5. If i can't do it today, I'll try again next week.
Frodo: that doesn't make sense. It would be better to just drop the weight now and get the 8 reps.
Me: Thank you for your advice, I'll consider you suggestions.

I skip my ab work, decided to do a couple farmers walk to cheer myself up. grab two 100lb dumbells and set them down on the floor. last week i measured the distance, it's 70feet. I chalk up and get started on my first lap and then abut 40feet down.....Mr.Fucking Asshole <Yes, he just earned himself a first name steps out in front of me. I loose balance, dumbbells fall and i drop with them, tryin to regain balance and hopefully not let the 200lbs crashing down not make too much noise. Long story short, I'm not banned from the gym yet, but I am banned from squatsg, rows, inverted rows(got banned from this a couple months ago) farmers walk and deadlifting. What am I giving these people my money for?
It's time to find a new gym. I might have to drive 40 minutes to get to it, but what are my choices. I can't afford a power rack, It will cost a fortune to ship to Trinidad.

[WhiteGorilla]

Have you thought about building a power rack or squat stands?

[Van]

I'm looking into it right now. For the moment, I'm rather concerned about the quality of work that the welders in my country do. I need to find someone with the skill enough to do proper welding that won't break when I rest that 300lb barbell on it.
But that's still not solving the major issue, shipping a 20kg olympic bar is going to be expensive by itself too. There are a couple sports shops in my country, but none of them have proper olympic bars or plates. they have the smaller ones. Then theres the plates, everything is just going to cost a whole ton. I don't see it as being possible in the near future.
A couple of the gyms do have proper equipment so I'm checking on those. Hopefully I will find one that won't hate on me so much for trying to get strong.

[Van]

I'm supposed to train today but I'm really not motivated at all, especially after what happened last time.
I know I shouldn't let it affect me and I should probably drag my ass to the gym anyway. It's early. the gym won't close for another eight hours. hopefully I'll feel a little better in a bit and get to it. I just hate missing my lifts because of something stupid like this. It's fine if i'm just not strong enough yet and it will take a couple more tries to get there, but when it's some stupid people or not enough sleep or food, that just pisses me off

[atypical1]

Don't let these dudes mess with your lifts. Ask to see the rules regarding what you can and can't do in the gym and see if they even have the authority to make these decisions. If they do then, great and you work out there until you find another place to go.

Nobody said you have to follow their instructions regarding the dips so you're probably safe there. For the rows I'd do my best to not slam them on the ground. The descent should be fast but controlled much like deadlifts.

Sometimes squats are just going to happen the way they did. I wouldn't make a habit of it but I'd also comment to the trainer about the reason that the pins are there to begin is is for the reason that you said.

You could also feign interest in their ideas and ask them what they would recommend for legs instead. Doesn't mean you have to do it but it might fake them out a bit.

james

[Van]

thanks for taking the time to read through all my woes james!

They've got rules posted around and I think one of them is to not drop the weights. The shitty thing is that the really big guys get to drop their 100lb dumbells after doing their incline dumbell presses and whatever other nonsense they're doing over there at the dumbbell rack. Perhaps it's jealousy, I'm really small and BBers who do quarter squats with the same weight, won't like seeing me going below parallel with 200lbs on my back. people are always telling me about wearing a belt.

Falling into the rack on squats should be a normal thing at a gym. I could probably get away with failing on this lift. As for pendlay, I'm going to cut him out of the routine for now. I will have to deload the lift and switch to strict BBR's. I love Pendlay style rows, I've crossed BW with them; controlled, yes but slow enough to not make any noise, that's not possible.

One last thing, after a hard set of squats, do you really have the time/patience to listen to their bullshit advice? especially when they're coming over to tell yuo don't squat below parallel, don't lock out your knees at the top, Switch to leg presses, have you tried the smith machine? >>> FUCK NO!!!

[Van]

Squat:
warm up: 1x5 - BW, 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 95lbs, 1x3 - 135lbs, 1x2 - 185lbs
3x5 - 220lbs
only thing going right for me these days.

OHP:
warm up: 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 65lbs, 1x3 - 85lbs
5/5/3/3/3 - 95lbs
worse than last week.

Deadlift:
warm up: 1x5 - 135lbs, 1x4 - 225lbs, 1x1 - 285lbs
1x4 - 305lbs
I lowered the weight really really slowly. If the baby Jesus was sleeping on the floor next to me, he wouldn't wake up, or maybe he might, to cheer me on.
Slow deadlifting is insanely hard!!! I simply could not get it up for that fifth rep.

Pull-ups:
3/4/3
tired...

feet elevated prone bridge:
4x30secs
It's always good to know, your core is getting stronger.

[hardestgainer]

On your last day at that Gym maybe you should try Clean and Jerks. When they tell you not to drop the bar ask them to show you how to do those exercises their nice, slow and controlled way. You could do with a laugh after listening to them.

[Van]

Squat:
warm up: 1x5 - BW, 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 95lbs, 1x3 - 135lbs, 1x3 - 185lbs
3x5 - 225lbs
Slight wrist pain on right side. need to keep doing my shoulder and wrist mobility warmup exercises.

Bench Press:
warm up: 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 85lbs
5/4/3/2/2 - 135lbs
Why is bench press so hard!!

Barbell Row:
warm up: 1x10 - bar, 1x4 - 95lbs 1x3 - 135lbs
5x5 - 135lbs
Major deload again to lear how to do these slowly. Not allowed to drop the bar and make noise else i be banned!

Dips:
warm up: 1x5 - BW
1x5- 50lbs
on my second set, i felt a sort of pain in my chest. I didn't push it. First time something like this has happened. must have just been the bench press that tired me out.

Dragon flag negatives:
3x5
The lower portion from about 45 degrees diagonal is really hard. Trying to hold it from that angle and lower to horizontal as slowly as possible. Gravity is a bitch.

[Van]

So guess what! Yesterday I squatted 225lbs. Today I jumped on a scale and I weight 150lbs.

225/150= 1.5

Know what else? Last Sunday I deadlifted 305lbs.

305/150= 2.03

Time to start eating again. I still got a bit of midsection fat, but I can live with it for now. Shit's gettin heavy and I wanna be a strong ass mofo. Got to eat lots to lift lots right!

Next challenge > nailing three plate deads tomorrow and if I'm lucky, the half plate press.
Lookout one plate bench I'm coming for you next sunday !!

Longish term is to Bench bodyweight. this strength training shit's getting exciting now!

I suppose that I qualify as an "intermediate" lifter now, I best start doing research on intermediate programs. More on that later, for now I'm milking the noob gains as long as I can!

[wrenchhands]

Van, you make me proud. Get that OHP lift up for, and I'll start getting my squats up eh?

[Van]

Squat:
warm up: 1x5 - BW, 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 95lbs, 1x3 - 135lbs, 1x2 - 185lbs
3x5 - 230lbs

OHP:
warm up: 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 65lbs, 1x3 - 85lbs
5/5/4/4/4 - 95lbs
Improvements, but still not there yet. I will get it next time!!

Deadlift:
warm up: 1x5 - 135lbs, 1x4 - 185lbs, 1x3 - 225lbs, 1x2 - 285lbs
1x2 - 315lbs
Really slow deadlifting again today. If I lowered it a bit faster like I normally would, I might have gotten 2 more reps

Pull-ups:
5/5/5

feet elevated prone bridge:
3x30secs

Despite the stalls, I felt strong and positive throughout the whole workout. I've found that the pullup numbers very accurately reflect my mental and physical state of being. Poor eating or not enough sleep, and by the time I'm done deadlifting there will be very few pullups, sometimes none! Despite the low number of reps, I was still in a good mood and did my core work before leaving.

[atypical1]

Good lifts!

james

[Van]

Thanks for the support james!
Any of you experienced guys who happen by my log, I'm researching for my next(intermediate) program, any ideas or suggestions are welcome and appreciated!
I've gotten really strong off the beginner program, but I don't see it working for more than a couple stall filled months.

[Van]

Squat:
warm up: 1x5 - BW, 1x5 - bar, 1x2 - 95lbs, 1x4 - 135lbs, 1x3 - 185lbs
3x5 - 235lbs

Bench Press:
warm up: 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 85lbs
4/3/2/2/1 - 135lbs
Stall again!! Worse than last week...

Barbell Row:
warm up: 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 95lbs 1x3 - 135lbs
5x5 - 160lbs

Dips:
warm up: 1x5 - BW, 1x4 - 25lbs
3x5- 50lbs

One Legged Dragon flags:
3x8

Barbell Curls
3x8 - 50lbs