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A strength training journal

Week 7 - Day 19A

Heavy, heavy workout today.  6.5 hours of sleep and not enough eating are the likely factors to a pretty difficult workout.  I think I'm going back to rushing my squats again.  I tweaked my lower back while squatting on the 3rd set.  Still managed to finish my sets.

Bench was pretty heavy, but sufficient rest is key to getting all sets done.

Rows were heavy as well, I think I jerked the weight up on a few reps.  More rest needs to happen between latter sets to avoid cheating and using hip drive.

Warmups:

2 x 10 Shoulder dislocations

2 x 10 sec. Doorway pec stretch

2 x 10 Leg swings

2 x 30 sec.  static Squat stretch

Squats:

2 x 5 x Bar

5 x 125

3 x 145

2 x 165

5 x 5 x 185

Walkouts:

10 sec. x 235

10 sec. x 255

Bench:

2 x 5 x Bar

5 x 65

3 x 85

5 x 5 x 1110

Rows:

5 x 5 x 115

Warmdown:

1 x 15 sec. warrior lunge + twist

1 x 15 sec. butterfly

Week 6 - Day 18B

Over all a very good workout.  No pain in lower back when doing the squats.  I focused a lot on form for the press and made sure I was pressing straight up and not forward and up.  Deadlifts were fairly easy.  Used chalk on my workset and the lift felt like a breeze- had no grip failure.

After 2 more weeks, I'm sitting steady at around 170-172 lbs.  I'm fairly happy with this, but my body fat percentage shot up and I can feel most of it around my mid section.  I'll have to ease up a bit on the carb intake, I think this may be the reason why I have excess fat gain.  My thighs are considerably thicker and larger than when I first started.  Even my loose pants are slightly tight fitting.  My goal for the next 2 weeks is to try and get up to 175 lbs and stay under 20% body fat.  I'm getting to the point where I no longer don't really know what to expect workout to workout.  The lifts are getting considerably heavy.  I've never done this much volume at this amount of weight for any of my lifts except for Deadlifts.  I will be very pleased if I can reach 225 lb squat without a deload.

Bodyweight:  171.5 lbs

Body Fat:  20%

Warmups:

3 x 10 Shoulder dislocations

3 x 10 sec. Doorway pec stretch

3 x 10 Leg swings

3 x 30 sec.  static Squat stretch

Squats:

2 x 5 x Bar

5 x 120

3 x 140

2 x 160

5 x 5 x 180

Walkouts:

10 sec. x 230

10 sec. x 250

Press:

2 x 5 x Bar

5 x 5 x 65

Deadlift:

5 x 145

3 x 165

2 x 185

5 x 205

Warmdown:

1 x 15 sec. warrior lunge + twist

1 x 15 sec. butterfly

Foam roll

Week 6 - Day 17A

Had a really good workout.  Started a bit late today.  The free weights area was pretty much empty, so I got my subtle grunt on.  "Looping" underneath the bar helped with getting a tight upper back and keeping it.  I forgot to bring my camera, but I think I'm twisting my body when I go down.  Seems like I twist my waist right and some of the weight is brought on to my left leg.

Bench press was alright.  Lift seems to be heavily a mental mind game with myself.  Extended rest for the 4th and 5th set.

Rows were still fairly easy.

Warmups:

3 x 10 Shoulder dislocations

3 x 10 sec. Doorway pec stretch

3 x 10 Leg swings

3 x 30 sec.  static Squat stretch

Squats:

2 x 5 x Bar

5 x 135

3 x 155

5 x 5 x 175

Walkouts:

10 sec. x 225

10 sec. x 245

Bench:

2 x 5 x Bar

5 x 65

3 x 85

5 x 5 x 105

Rows:

5 x 5 x 110

Warmdown:

1 x 15 sec. warrior lunge + twist

1 x 15 sec. butterfly