Saturday, March 31, 2012

Day 14

Day 12
Front Squat @ 100
DB Press @ 25

Day 13
Back Squat @ 120 3xDoubles @ 100
DB Rows @ 37.5

LOL. 1 week later and I PR another 5kg LOL.

It's 3:00AM, I'm driving back from S's house, thinking whether or not I should go to gym because I will need to sleep soon to get up for my gym date with C at 12pm that day (AKA in 9 hours). I decide to just go in and quickly ramp up to SRM and then fit in as many working sets as I can before 4:00AM (I wanted to get home before Mum woke up). So I'm there, spending about the first 15 minutes warming up and getting ready. Trying to give my quads a reeeeally good stretch (the problem I mentioned earlier was that my quads are EXTREMELY tight at the moment; I'll need to stretch alot more/ask B for some advice), just doing different stretches at different angles and also just sitting at the bottom of the squat for a few moments. I was contemplating not doing squats at all because I realised I really need some hamstring development, and that squats are too quad dominant (my quad to hamstring ratio looks like Tuan Tran's arms, except instead of his biceps he has my triceps LOL). Anyway yeah, so I went bar, 40 (PL style, just wanted to know what it was like..waste of my time), 60 for an easy 5, 80 for an easy 3, 100 for an decent 2, and an easy 110 single, and then boom 120. I was pretty happy, but it was quite laughable as well. I am PRing every single week. If this goes on, 140 is 4 5kg jumps away. Let's say they take around 2 weeks each from now on; that will mean that 140 is 8 weeks away aka around the end of May.

So yeah, May 31 I'm giving myself to hit 140. Oh and it'd be nice if my deadlift goes up too, but I won't be specifically training it. From now on it's going to be hamstring hamstring hamstring. Anyway, Mum's up soon. Will check back for Day 13 (in about 7 hours time).

Day 14
Deadlift 140
DB bench fives @ 32.5

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Day 11

Day 9
Back Squat - SRM @ 115
DB Rows - SRM @ 35

Day 10
Cleans - SRM @ 70
Deadlift - SRM @ 140
DB Bench - SRM @ 37.5 Doubles @ 35 Triples @ 32.5 Fives @ 30 Eights @ 25

LOL. I actually technically did 142.5kg, but stopped before I fully locked because my grip was slipping, and there was a nice old lady training there at 3am with me who I did not want to disturb and give the impression that I was some hooligan. But LOL, I got that thing off the floor and if anyone knows me, my sticking point is the floor - if it gets up then it will be locked out for sure (excepting grip). The reason why I am LOLing in caps is because I haven't trained the deadlift in a long time. I've done probably a few sets once every few months, but not actual deadlift training since last year when I hit 140. Now, out of the blue and without meaning to, I randomly decided to do deadlifts because I was too shmeh to go on with the cleans, and PR at 142.5 LOL. Man, this Squat Every Day thing is working all too well. I'm also referring to my BS PR a few days ahead of this (yes I can see into the future), and how ridiculous that was. There's only one problem, which I'll address on Day 12.

Day 11
Back Squat @ 110
Weighted Pullups @ 16

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Day 8

Day 6
Deficit Pulls - Triples @ 70
DB Bench - SRM @ 35 Triples @ 32.5 Fives @ 30 Eighttotens @ 25

Day 7
Back Squat - SRM @ 110 Doubles @ 100 Doubles/Triples @ 90 (1 Triple @ 100) Triples/Fives @ 80
Weighted Pullups - SRM @ +18 Doubles/Triples @ +10 Fives @ +0

Day 8
Front Squat - SRM @ 90
DB Press - SRM @ 25

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Day 4

Back Squat 115. Doubles @ 95, Triples @ 90. Fives @ 75.
Push Press 55. Triples @ 50, Fives @ 40.

5kg PR in a week, from squatting almost every day too. 110 PR was on Friday. Saturday I didn't do any squats. Sunday and Monday I SRMed Back Squats, and Tuesday I SRMed Front Squats. Yesterday (Wednesday, as I start writing each daily post in the AM of the next day), was my 115 PR so I'm very happy. I will want to SRM the 37.5 on DB Bench on Friday, hopefully.

So tired.

Peace.

PS. If anyone is reading this, please let me know. No one is meant to know this exists at the moment.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Day 3

It's late. Had 2.5 hours sleep and had a HUGE day and still managed to pull myself into gym. Then I do it again (staying up late). Gotta sleep so I'll be quick.

Front Squat 85 SRM (70 dubs)
Weighted Pullups 72.5 SRM (70 dubs)

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Day 2

Hopefully it's a Day 2 of a revelation, not Day 2 of the worst decision I've ever made. Moving on..

So today I started with a DB Bench + Squat workout. Worked up to an SRM of 100, then did doubles of 90, triples of 80, fives of 65. I find that for squats, these will work well: doubles @ 85-90%; triples @ 75-80%; fives at 60-70%. For DB bench, I worked up to an SRM of 35, and I found these worked well: doubles @ 95%; triples @ 85-90%; fives at 75-80%. Didn't get to go on to eights or tens but I would estimate eighttotens @ 60-70%.

There are four reasons why the numbers are different:

1) Failing on DB bench is not as exhausting and dangerous as failing a squat.
2) Going heavy on the squat breaks form and stresses the lower back and also the knees.
3) I want power in my squats in case I ever transition into Olympic Weightlifting. Don't need so much speed in my bench (but I'll still practise it as much as I can).
4) I will be doing squats almost every day.

Decided for the time-being that I will NOT do the Lifts and I will include Push Presses and Rows, like so:

Snatch Pulls + DB Bench
Back Squat + Weighted Pullups
Front Squat + Push Press
Back Squat + Bench Rows

Excepting the Snatch Pulls (which will only be done in triples or more), these will be done in SRM-pyramid fashion.

My goal of 40s doesn't seem so far after all. I will probably have to move to BB bench once I can hit 40s for triples (but still have working sets on DB). That is, if I continue this regime. Excited though. Don't want to expect too much though or else I might be disappointed, but I do expect to hit 37.5 in the next few workouts and then 40 within the next few weeks at least. Anyway, it's late.

Peace

Monday, March 19, 2012

Day 1 (for the manyth time)

So. I'm back.

Not technically Day 1 of this period but a Day 1 of starting my Squat Every Day workouts. Been reading some advice from Coach John Broz, who trained with none other than Antonio Krastev, a Bulgarian Olympic Weightlifting champion who pulled 216kg in the Snatch. This record still stands (but is not currently recognized as the weight classes got reshuffled). Anyway, having read into how Coach Broz trains his lifters, I thought that I, too, could benefit from his Bulgarian-influenced training regime. He explains a number of reasons that training every day is beneficial in many ways. I, personally, am quite convinced that I will respond to this type of training well. The students of Broz' workout twice a day, six days a week, and once on Sundays. This is a total of thirteen workouts a week but I think a more lenient number would just be to say ten to fourteen times. This is definitely a huge number of workouts, and one would normally think that is extreme, especially with all the Personal Trainer's blabbing about overtraining (and form..and hypertrophy..lol) but I'm sold. Or gullible. No, seriously, John also said something very insightful: "Research, do what flows with your logic the most, and stick to it. The best thing you can do is get a good coach and fully and blindly follow him." I completely agree with his logic and his claims - though I didn't bother to do the research bit. I think I know enough anyway, to keep my work efficient. Anyway, the basic workout schedule for the Average Broz student might be to do the Olympic lifts up to specific weights in the morning, followed by some higher-rep squats. In the late afternoon session his lifters will go for single-rep maxes (SRM) in the snatch and clean and jerk, then perform doubles based upon those results, and then finish with squats, also in SRM style.

My goal will be to eventually build up to seven days a week of SRM squatting. It will be the first exercise of every workout (unless it's Olympic day), and if there are rest days then I will just come in and just do squats.

I hope to improve my current max of 110 Back Squat (BS), to at least 140 for reps. Same with the Front Squat (FS) but I'm not too fussed about the weights on that, just doing them once a week, and decent numbers in the FS I will be happy with. I hope to do some fast deadlifts also mixed in once a week, just explosive triples of around 80%. I can feel when my form begins to break down so I'll have to just work with whatever weight that is (around 80-90 I start struggling).

If I ever want to, I might start doing the Lifts again, however, they take extreme time and patience and it's not so encouraging when I walk away with nothing (noticeably) improved.

Anyway enough chit-chat. See you all soon enough.