23 Dec 2013
Weight: 177.4 lbs
Duration: 53min.
December and it's 55 degrees out. Start of the 8th week on SL5x5 and I've gained roughly 7-8 lbs of weight. On heavier days, I actually sit a pretty 180/181 lbs on the scale.
Squats: 3x5xBar + 5x95 + 3x115 + 5x5x135
Not much shoulder pain today. I think it's a combination of two things. 1.) It's really warm out so the joints were probably nice and loose. 2.) I kept a relatively high bar position with a fairly wide grip. The downside to this, however...is that I was probably using my low back more than I wanted to- I felt it. Inherently, with the way I'm using the high bar, I'm not able to keep my chest up as much as I want which inadvertently makes me "hunch" a bit, creating a greater moment arm from my hips and ultimately transferring some of the load to my low back. My left knee also feels...tingly. That's the best word I can use to describe how it feels after squatting. It doesn't look or feel as if it's swelling, but it's just...strange.
Seated Plate Raises: 3x10x25
Seated Lateral Raise: 3x10x10
Seated DB Shrug + Clean + Half Press: 3x10x10
Since these exercises are primarily isolation and not compound, I do really well with the first round. Afterwards, the fatigue build up and slow recovery just makes these super grueling. I didn't have much neck strain like I did the previous time I did this. Tried to make sure I wasn't jerking my head around and kept my head stable. This is especially hard to do on the lateral raises. For the half presses, I pressed a bit farther up where I was close to doing a full press, but not quite. They were probably 85% to 90% from being a full press.
Deadlift: 5x125 + 3x145 + 1x165 + 5×185
These weren't bad. I was definitely grinding the bar against my shins hard on the top set. One of the employees from the front desk was looking around towards the free weights area, most likely from all the loud weight dropping noise. I was fairly gentle with dropping the weight on the deadlifts. I can only do so much before I hurt myself trying to lower the weight lightly.
*Accessories:
*Preacher BB Curls 10x40
Preacher EZ Bar Curls 20x30
Seated DB Curls 10x25
Incline DB Press 10x30 + 10x35 + 4x35
Hit the chest today instead of triceps.
20 Dec 2013
Weight: 181.2
Duration: 11:25pm - 12:25pm ~ 1 hour
Squats: 3x5xBar + 5x85 + 3x95 + 3x115 + 5x5x135
Not bad, felt some strain on the lower back. Stance was probably a bit too wide, was going a bit lower than parallel causing a greater degree of arch in the low back since I was keeping my torso up right.
Bench: 3x5xBar + 2x5x65 + 5x5x85
Shakey, but not as heavy as last time. I think I performed the best rep on the last rep of the last set. I'm noticing that I'm shrugging considerably more on my right shoulder vs my left shoulder under load.
Rows: 5x65** + **5x85 + 5x5x100
Made sure to maintain extremely strict form on these. In other words, no jerking of the bar up and cheating using momentum. This involved pretty much a whole body contraction, core, glutes, upper back and bracing before every rep. I always feel my legs working during these, not sure if this is expected or not. Banged the bar on the bottom of my left knee cap on one rep. Definitely not a pleasant feeling.
Accessories:
Preacher *BB *Curls: 10x40
Preacher EZ Bar Curls: 10x40
Incline DB Press: 10x30
Standing BB Curl: 10x40
DB Bench Press: 10x35
Tricep Extensions: 10x40
Tricep Pushdown: 20x25
Dumbbell bench pressing is bothersome to my right shoulder the less I tuck my elbows. Pretty much did tucked pressing on these. I think I might go with pushups over these next time. The incline dumbbell press isn't too bad, there's less strain on the shoulder doing them so I'll keep doing them.
19 Dec 2013
Weight: 181.2 lbs
Duration: 12:08 - 1:15 ~ 53min.
Squats: 3x5xBar + 5x55 + 3x75 + 2x95 + 5x5x125
Right shoulder wasn't cooperating much again today. The bar doesn't seem balanced on my back, there is a slight "twist" in the way the bar is position as if I'm driving the bar forward more on one side than the other. I can feel my right traps engaging more than my right. Since my right shoulder isn't as mobile, I've been resorting to having a slightly wider grip on the right side. This relaxes my traps and rear delts, this could explain the twist.
Seated Plate Raises: 3x10x25
Seated Lateral Raise: 3x10x10
Seated DB Shrug + Clean + Half Press: 3x8x10
Not bad, went down to 10lbs today from 12 lbs. There's this strain that I get sometimes in the back of my neck when doing the lateral raises. Should look up what's going on. I'm banking on it being bad form.
Deadlift: 5x115 + 3x135 + 1x155 + 5×175
I may need to get some pads on the plates, dropping the bar to the ground is really loud in the gym and I get the feeling one of the workers is going to come up to me and say something. I think I was using a little of my lower back, but I don't have much DOMs today from the deadlifts, just slight bruising on the shins. This is definitely getting a bit heavy
*Accessories:
*Preacher BB Curls 10x40
Seated DB Curls 10x25
Tricep Extensions 10x40
Incline Bench 10xBar
Tricep Pushdown 10x40
Tricep pushdowns were fairly heavy, probably shouldn't have done 40 lbs!