Misc Leg Work and Conditioning

6 November 2011


Totally random training day, some leg exercises and some conditioning work tacked on.


Safety bar squats (right shoulder was in agony this morning - got to sort that out soon):

Bar x 5
155 lbs. x 5
205 lbs. x 5
245 lbs. x 3
265 lbs. x 3
295 lbs. x 3
315 lbs. x 2
295 lbs. x 1
245 lbs. x 5

Deadlift: sumo stance 335 lbs. x 2 sets x 2, conventional 1 set x 2

One-arm KB swings 5 sets x 20 (10 per arm)

Farmer's walk 5 sets x 40 meters

Repetition barbell power cleans, light 4 sets x 10

Finished off with some planks and even some cardio work.

Overhead Press Day

27 October 2011

Overhead press from rack:

Warmup - triples, doubles, singles
185 lbs. x 2
205 lbs. x 2
215 lbs. x 1
225 lbs. x 1
235 lbs. x fail x 2

Two-DB press 65 lbs. x 5, 70 lbs. x 5

Overhead press is not progressing, still can't match or beat my PR of 235 lbs. I've been focusing on the bench for a while now and was not expecting it to progress much. I just do a bunch of random singles whenever I think/feel about it. The good news is that 225 lbs. is easy now, I can get it any time. I just need to move that "light weight" threshold to 230, then onward and upward.

Pullups/chinups 8 sets x 5 - very weird scapular pain (right side) when doing pullups

Double KB clean and bottoms-up press 4-5 sets, light to heavy weight ('heavy' being 35 lbs.)

One-arm KB dead stop snatches (from floor to overhead) 4 sets, up to 53 lbs. for triples

Incline ab board situps, weighted, heavy, 3 sets

Squat Training - Week 3 of 3-Week Cycle

19 October 2011

Back squat:

Bunch of sets to warm up - from just the bar to 185 lbs.
225 lbs. x 6
300 lbs. x 4
370 lbs. x 2
425 lbs. x 1
450 lbs. x 1 (target weight)

I was supposed to max out after the target weight, but didn't feel particularly strong today so:

460 lbs. x 1
405 lbs. x 3 (no belt or wraps)

Paused squat 315 lbs. x 5 (took a lot of weight of and made the pauses count)

Moderate OH pressing - up to 205 lbs. x 1

KB swings 4 sets (went a bit too heavy on the last one, lost my footing and tweaked my back a bit)

Incline ab board weighted situps 4-5 sets

HammerStrength hack squat 3 sets (last one 2 plates x 5)

Bench Press Training - Week 3

15 October 2011

Experimented a bit with foot placement, etc. Found out that feet flat all the way is the best way for me to bench press and that I have no business doing arched-back bench presses; I can never get my feet right when I try to tuck them under and go on the balls of my toes, and I just end up unstable and wobbly, making even light weight difficult to press.

Bench press:

Warmup several sets
225 lbs. x 5
260 lbs. x 3
280 lbs. x 1
295 lbs. x 1
310 lbs. x 1 (all nice and crisp, as they should be at this weight)
285 lbs. x 4 sets x 2

Paused BP 235 lbs. x 5

Close-grip BP 235 lbs. x 5

Overhead press from rack: 135x5, 155x3, 175x3, 195x2, 205x1

Tricep pushdowns, heavy, 3 sets (gripping the bar with a close-grip-bench grip - a novel exercise that I think has a lot of potential)

Burn-out exercise (light weight, lots of reps):
Two-DB front and lateral raise combo 2 sets x 8-12
Pec deck machine 1 set x 12

Double-KB bottoms-up presses 3 progressively heavier sets

Squat Training - Day 1, Week 2 of 3-Day Cycle

12 October 2011

Back squat:

Bar x 2 sets
115 lbs. x 10
225 lbs. x 6
290 lbs. x 4
360 lbs. x 2
415 lbs. x 1
440 lbs. x 1
410 lbs. x 2
420 lbs. x 2
430 lbs. x 1

Paused squats 340 lbs. x 2 (felt a strange pain in my left shoulder blade and stopped here)

Double KB swings 2 x 12, 2 x 8 (35s and 44s)

Incline ab board situps, weighted 3 sets

KB side bends 1 set

KB farmer walk x 1 set

Bench Press Partials Training

11 October 2011

Started out with some heavy overhead pressing, then switched to bottom-position bench presses. These hurt my left shoulder in a weird way, so I did some board presses instead.

Overhead press:

Warmup - sets of five, then triples, then singles  to 185 lbs.
200 lbs. x 1
210 lbs. x 1
215 lbs. x 1
225 lbs. x 1
235 lbs. x fail

Bottom-position presses - 2 inches off chest:

135 lbs. x 10
185 lbs. x 5
225 lbs. x 3

Board presses - to around 5 inches off chest: worked up to 315 lbs. x 1. Might do these more often.

Pullups 3 sets x 8

Bent-over rows 135x8, 185x5, 205x5, 225x5, 245x4

Tricep pushdowns 3 sets x 12

EZ bar curls 4 sets

Double-KB bottoms-up presses 3 sets

Double-KB muscle cleans (without bending legs) 3 sets

Mixed Squat and Bench Press Training

6 October 2011

Combined two sessions as I'll be away for the weekend.

Squat:

115 lbs. x 10
225 lbs. x 6
280 lbs. x 4
360 lbs. x 1
405 lbs. x 1
430 lbs. x 1

Paused squat 330 lbs. x 5 (not much of a pause)

Bench press:

225 lbs. x 3
255 lbs. x 3
275 lbs. x 1
290 lbs. x 1
305 lbs. x 1

Paused bench press 225 lbs. x 5

Close-grip bench press 235 lbs. x 5

Then did a bunch of kettlebell stuff as assistance:

Double KB swing outside knees 3 x 12 (light)
Double KB clean and bottoms-up press 3 sets, various reps (also light)
Double KB power cleans with no knee bending 3 sets

Incline ab board weighted situps, 3 sets

EZ bar and two-DB curls, 5 sets total

Squat Training - Week 5, Day 2

28 August 2011

Back squat:

115 lbs. x 10
225 lbs. x 6
245 lbs. x 4
265 lbs. x 4
310 lbs. x 1
355 lbs. x 1
380 lbs. x 1

Paused squat 280 lbs. x 5

Deadlift - worked up to 385 lbs. x 1 Still taking it nice and easy.

Leg curl 1 x 10

Leg extension 2 x 10

Seated calf raise 3 x 10

Weighted incline ab board situps 2 sets

Farmer's walk with a pair of 76 lb. kettlebells - 3 sets (around 30 meters each set)

Overhead Press Training - Week 2, Cycle 7

3 June 2011

Overhead press from rack:

Warmup 2 sets
160 lbs. x 3
180 lbs. x 3
205 lbs. x 5

Back-off set 160 lbs. x 5

Behind-the-neck press x 5 w. light weight

Pullups (no chinups) 5x5

Light bench press 195 lbs. x 2 sets x 10

Incline bench DB curls 3 sets

Tricep pushdowns 3 sets

Standing rubber band crunches several sets

Finished off with some light KB work:

One-arm KB snatch 4 sets x 10 per arm

One-arm KB swing 6 sets x 10 per arm

Bodyweight this morning - 199.4 lbs.

Kettlebell Day - Deload Week

20 May 2011

Mixed kettlebell day instead of deadlifting:

One-arm KB snatch:

18 lbs. x 1 set x 10 per arm
24 lbs. x 1 set x 10 per arm
35 lbs. x 4 sets x 10 per arm
44 lbs. x 2 sets x 10 per arm

One-arm KB swing:

44 lbs. x 4 sets x 10 per arm
35 lbs. x 2 sets x 10 per arm

Two-hand KB jerks 35 lbs. x 3 sets x 10

BW this morning - 199.4 lbs.

Overhead Press Training - Week 2, Cycle 4

25 March 2011

Clean&Press:

Warmup 1 set
145 lbs. x 3
165 lbs. x 3
185 lbs. x 8 reps

Behind-the-neck press 2 sets x 8 (light weight - getting back into this exercise and it feels very hard)

Close-grip bench press - worked up to 295 lbs. x 2, which was a pleasant surprise

Incline bench DB curl 4 sets

Concentration curl 2 sets

Kettlebell clean&press - one arm: 35 lbs. x 1, 44 lbs. x 1, 53 lbs. x 1, 62 lbs. x 1, 70 lbs. x 1, 78 lbs. x 1

Weighted ab work 3 sets

Kettlebell and Cable Madness!

5 February 2011

Today I did the kettlebell work first. It was simple and straight-forward:

One-arm KB swings @ 35 lbs. x 200 reps (100 per arm), interrupted several times to gasp for air

One-arm KB clean and military press (cleaned twice, then pressed one after the second clean): 53 lbs. - 62 lbs. - 70 lbs. - 78 lbs. Repeated once for each arm.

Much easier than cleaning and pressing a dumbbell of equivalent weight. The 78 lb. kettlebell went up easily even with my left arm.

As for cables, I did something from the Syd Devis book All About Strand-Pulling - his third month course. I will from now on follow this progression in my cable training - best to heed the words of a champion expander puller and notable oldtime strongman:

One-arm FCP, anyhow - resistance used: three orange cables (OOO)
One-arm upward push, anyhow - two greens and a yellow (GYG)
Two-arms FCP, anyhow - two yellows and an orange (YOY)
Two-arms back press, anyhow - GOG
Dislocation, anyhow - double oranges
Overhead downward pull, knuckles out (substituted for press behind neck) - YRY
Two-arms upward front chest pull, legs apart - double reds
One-arm military press - double greens (too light - next time I'll try triple reds)

Assistance exercises:

Front lateral raise - double reds x 10
Bicep curl - ROR x 10 per arm
Behind-the-back lateral raise - single orange x 10

Some of these exercises are new to me, it was an interesting experiment. As prescribed, I did all of these for five consecutive reps and will be adding one rep until I get to 10, after which I will add resistance.

This should be a good alternative routine, I had stalled on the one I was doing before which just consisted of rest-pause sets with as much resistance as I could use. Hopefully the wisdom of Syd Devis will help me out of the slump.

New 5/3/1 Program - Week 4, Day 4

4 February 2011

Deadlift:

Warmup 2 sets
255 lbs. x 5
295 lbs. x 5
335 lbs. x 13 reps (a puker)

One-arm DB rows @ 105 lbs. x 15 each arm (rest-pause)

Back raise 3 sets x 10

Leg curl 3 sets

Breathing KB shrug 35 reps from 26 to 70 lbs. and back

Hanging leg raise 3 sets

Ab wheel rollouts from knees 2 sets

My deadlift is suffering from being the last exercise of the week - the lower back is severely beat up by the time I get to it. Will have to figure out a way around this. Grip is also fried and I feel the bar slipping even at light weights. Fewer sets of abdominal work will also be in order.

Extra Day - Cables and Kettlebells

29 January 2011

Cable pulls - rep totals are given (done as singles, doubles and triples):

Front chest pull YRY x 4, YYY x 6

Overhead downward pull YRY x 3, YYY x 8, YGY x 2

Back press YYY x 5, YGY x 5, GYG x 5

Bicep curl YY x 10

Straight-arm pulldown YY x 10

Kettlebell session:

Double KB swing @ 18 lbs. each x 20 reps
One-handed KB swing @ 36 lbs. x 20 reps (10 left, 10 right) x 2 sets
OA KB swing @ 45 lbs. x 20 reps (10 left, 10 right) x 2 sets
OA KB swing @ 53 lbs. x 20 reps (10 L, 10 R) x 2 sets
Double KB swing @ 18 lbs. each x 20 reps

One-arm KB clean: 53 lbs. x 5 reps, 62 lbs. x 5 reps, 70 lbs. x 3 reps, 78 lbs. x 3 reps (per arm)

KB breathing shrug - from a pair of 18 lbs. to a pair of 70 lbs., 10 reps at each weight, total 40 reps