Alex Training 2011

[Power12]

How's your eating and resting? If both of those are in line, you should be able to just keep chugging away.

That's the thing, rest levels aren't that great. I'm adapting to a new schedule and trying to figure out optimizing sleep. This is only temporary until I get back on track. Trying to engineer my life with the least stress possible, and I'm down to reducing the training for the time being, just because I have other responsibilities.

[Power12]

How's your eating and resting? If both of those are in line, you should be able to just keep chugging away.

That's the thing, rest levels aren't that great to say the least. I'm adapting to a new schedule and trying to figure out optimizing sleep. This is only temporary until I get back on track. Trying to engineer my life with the least stress possible, and I'm down to reducing the training for the time being, just because I have other responsibilities.

[Power12]

Today's Training.
10 mins on treadmill. feels good to get some cardio.
A bunch of sets of a variety of different curls. Felt them all mostly in my upper back, but that's OK, nothing wrong with having a strong upper back. Still feeling run down, although a bit better today. Got to push through and get out of this rut.

Also picked up some sushi on the way home. Ended up spending way too much money on the stuff, and while some of it tasted ok, I'd much rather have some regular fish fried in olive oil, or steamed. Way more satisfying imo.

[Cork]

Sounds like you might need to just relax in the gym this week. The cardio and curls seem like a good start.

[Power12]

Today- 3 sets of 20 on the ab wheel.

[Power12]

Yesterday, did a bit over 100 band pullaparts, with the red miniband, and black monster mini.
Today. Shoulders and Tris
Hang clean and Press
3 sets of 10 with 95
3x3 with 135.
Some bent over side raises
3 sets
1 set of press machine
Dbell Skull Crushers Nuetral Grip
3 sets of 10-18 with 35s
lastly 3 sets of cable pushdowns.

Changed up my routine a bit. Feels good to get a change from the same old movement patterns. I like the hang clean and press, because I think it gets the rear delt a lot more, thus resulting in more shoulder balance.

[Power12]

Back Day
Warmup, treadmill jog for 15 min.(can't wait for weather to warm up so I can do some real outdoor running)
1 set of pulldowns, 1 set of cable rows.
Bentover Dbell Rows.
3 or 4 sets of 14 with 65s
Power Cleans
1 set of 10, then glutes started cramping.
Chest supported Rows
A few sets
Standing Dbell Curls
35s, 4 sets of 10.

Feeling really off today, I won't go into all the symptoms. Just pushing through. I felt I had strength, that's what matters. Didn't feel up to deadlifting though which is unfortunate, I was making such good progress in that. Also, planning on doing an outdoor pull up, bodyweight training session later this week.

[Cork]

Good luck keeping that motivation up. At least you're still hitting it.

[Power12]

Good luck keeping that motivation up. At least you're still hitting it.

Thanks, I redeemed myself with a deadlift session today. No excuses!

[Power12]

Deadlift Redemption-
Wasn't feeling up to deads yesterday, so came in today for a dead only training session.
10 minutes on the mill, stretching.
Deadlifts
warmups, 5x5x225
Finished with 2 sets of 10 bentover rows with 135.

Actually felt pretty good today. Left with some fuel in the tank.

[Cork]

Dead lift redemption and you left with some fuel in the tank?!!? You need to go back and do some more!

[Power12]

Dead lift redemption and you left with some fuel in the tank?!!? You need to go back and do some more!

haha, I'm going with the Wendler 531 philosophy of showing some restraint.

Chest, triceps, abs
Incline Bench
135-4x10
Incline Press Machine
2x12
Pullups 5x5
also did one set of 12 pulldowns
Dbell Nuetral Grip Lying extensions
5x10
2 sets of cable triceps
2 sets of ab leg/knee raises.

Murdered my triceps today. Felt awesome. Psyched to train back. Maybe tomorrow. Feel like beasting out some PRs.

[Power12]

Today
Treadmill for 1 mile
2 sets of abs.

Feels great. Looking to clean up my diet right now just by eliminating the junk food, cutting back on carbs. The other day my room mate came home with an entire cheesecake from his work, then also made croisants and ravioli for everyone. Not exactly the best bodybuilding foods.

[Power12]

Back stimulation day.
warmup 9 min treadmill run and 3 sets of seated cable rows with 100lb
Bentover Rows
4x10x135
supersetted with rear delt raises, also sets of 10.
Chest Supported Rows with Dbells on slight incline bench
2x10 with 45s and 35s for one last set of 15
1 set of chest supported row machine
Some cable pullover stuff at the end.

Just getting in some quality work. Dbell rows on the bench felt great. Did NOT train spazzing with super explosive seizure movements as recommended by the internet gurus. All movements done swiftly, but with control. No funny gym stories as of late, haven't had the energy to focus on anything but my own training I guess.
The fish market was completely mobbed today. I learned it is ash wednesday, where apparently you're supposed to eat fish. I'm not religious at all so that was new to me. Fortunately I know the guy there, so I got my order in right away.
Pre-training meal-0.8 lb cod with broccoli. Post training meal-2 pieces fried flounder with salad and rice crispy treats.

Adding on an assortment of more random thoughts from today.
- I weighed myself today I am 194, up from 185 a few months ago. A few pounds of that gain has got to be water, but I'm still pleased. Same body fat as before as well. This was a big motivator for me, especially with 200 right around the corner. Everything on me has seemed to go up in size. My arms have gone from "terrible" to "just really bad". When short sleeve weather comes around I really want to have some "GUNZ" for once in my life, but probably not this summer. I know by now that with genetics, my muscles pack on size surely but slowly, with consistent training. Also, my neck seems to have gotten visibly bigger. It feels stronger as well, which seems to help my pull up strength.
-I've noticed my hamstrings get really sore from bent over rows.
-Instead of going on diets, why don't people just resolve to eat healthier. I was talking to one guy I remember who was on the "All Juice Diet". He literally ate no food, just drank blended juices. lol. So I asked him if he knew that juice has a lot of sugar in it? He got really offended by that question and actually never talked to me again. Its not like I was trying to be mean.

[Power12]

Deadlift Day

Warmup consisted of stretching and cobra back extensions at my place as well as 1/2 mile walk to the gym. Also warmed up to working weights on deadlift.
Deadlift
225x5x4 sets
225 x 5 singles
255 x 5 singles
Standing Dumbbell Curls
5x10 with 35s
Rounded Back Back Raises
3 sets of 10 with 25lb plate.

My back always feels great after the back raises, I feel this is a good posture improver. Deads at 255 were still fairly easy. Feeling good. Also found this great article from the onion. I think it would be awesome if they did have this channel!

Empowered Man Murders Controlling Wife In Lifetime For Men Original Movie | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

[Power12]

Delts
-Hang Clean and press 115lb
8
8
6
6
4
-A bunch of shoulder raises and a set of seated clean and press.
-3x10 bodyweight dips

[Cork]

Digging the singles on dead lift day. Keep up the intensity.

[Power12]

Digging the singles on dead lift day. Keep up the intensity.

Thanks, unfortunately tweaked my lower back yesterday due to bad form on hang cleans. Who knew? Won't be able to do anything low back intensive this week, but I think I can still do pullups and probably chest supported rows. Sucks to delay deadlift progression.

[Power12]

Back + Biceps
Pullups-9 sets of 5
Curls-4x10
2 sets of chest supported row machine, about 16 reps each.

Had a really good day today, in spite of some things. First my low back problem from a couple days ago is almost completely better. I only feel it very slightly when walking, and not at all painful. Its only really evident when I bend all the way over, a la deadlifts and bent rows, which are unfortunately the two main back movements in my program. Fortunately, I ended up having a really good back workout anyway, I used pullups as the main movement instead, and really hammered that.
After that went to go take a test in a class I'm taking which I studied for all day today and yesterday. Well, the test questions ended up being on some completely different things than what we were told to study, so I politely brought this to the teacher's attention. He conceded my point, and will issue us a new test instead! I sure am glad I brought this up, and I'm surprised nobody else did. Several people even left the class without mentioning a word about it. Idiots! In any case things in this school semester are going very well, and I'm exactly on track for my major which is bio-medical science.
A few more random thoughts.
-I am starting to lean out as a result of my "diet". Its not really a diet though, its a lifestyle change I am making, which amounts to vastly reducing the amount of unhealthy junk food, and replacing it with food I know is healthy and non-excessive. Diets don't work in the long term!
-I noticed during pullups, when you arch the spine, it brings in the lats a lot more, thus making the movement much easier, since the lats are way larger and more powerful than the small muscles of the upper back.
- Standing bicep curls are really about halfway in between an isolation movement, and a compound movement. You are only bending at one joint, but the entire upper body comes in to play for stabilization.
-I've been reading about all the equipment used by powerlifters. It all looks awesome! I seriously wish I had access to some of this stuff.
-My arm development is still woeful, but I should not be surprised, because I've known all along, that it will take consistent work over time to bring it up, since I'm clearly not genetically blessed with naturally huge arms.

[Power12]

Had some time to kill, so just came back from a PM bodyweight session at the park.
Did 4x4 pullups.
3x10 fat man rows.
I'm going to be hitting a lot of quality bodyweight stuff at my park this summer. They have a bunch of things that are perfect for plyo pushups. I'm thinking of even starting up a Bodyweight Training club to meet at the park at a certain time to train. We have a great outdoor gym area at my local park. I really like these fat man rows. I feel like they mimic the bottom position of a bench press more than anything. I think one of the major causes of injuries about benching is that we develop immense pushing strength off the chest, but do not develop enough of the opposite strength needed to pull to the chest in the same bar path.
Passed by a gym in my neighborhood called the Brooklyn barbell club. I'd like to check it out it looked like it might interesting. There were some weightlifters inside, and outside a bunch of girls doing some kind of ridiculous crossfit/p90rx/aerobics workout. It might have been just the girls that caught my attention though, which my gym is unfortunately devoid of. My gym definitely has its pros and its cons.

[Power12]

Today, Triceps
Close Grip BP
4x12x115
Lying Dbell Skulls
30sx10x4 sets
2 sets of Rope pushdowns.

Really good session today. This was the first time I've done close grip benches, so started out on the light side for sure.
Observations
-For Lying Tri extensions, I feel it much more in the entire tricep if I keep my entire back completely flat against the bench the whole time.
-I have certain strength goals and when I finish with them I might enter a show. This is because I seem to gain lean mass pretty easily just from lifting, even when strength gains are not happening.
Another thing is that I'm not pushing the weights super heavy right now, because I can't deal with the added stress it would cause. I have a lot going on right now, being a Biomedical science major, and lifting has never been my main thing. Its not like I was ever going to be at pro level in this anyway.
My goals are as follows.
All exercises need to be done in control and with good form, so the real "max" will actually be higher.
Pendlay Rows- be able to do 225 for sets of 10, and 300-315 for a single.
Deadlift-315x5
Bench-225x5
Squat-315x1
Overhead press-225x1
With these goals accomplished, at least I can feel like I've come out of mediocrity and into "pretty good". Of course for a powerlifting standard it would still be weak as hell, but I'm thinking more along the lines of general athletic prowess.

[Cork]

Some real good observations in your lifting, Power. Observations like that will definitely give you an advantage for learning what works for you. You can tell you're a science major, haha. Experimentation and observation are key skills that you just can't teach.

Those are decent goals, but they might be a bit lopsided. By the time you overhead press 225, you'll be benching way more than 225x5. Good goals nonetheless, even though you'll definitely hit some sooner than others. And with regards to competition, are you thinking about powerlifting or bodybuilding? It seems like you're talking about both.

[Power12]

Some real good observations in your lifting, Power. Observations like that will definitely give you an advantage for learning what works for you. You can tell you're a science major, haha. Experimentation and observation are key skills that you just can't teach.

Those are decent goals, but they might be a bit lopsided. By the time you overhead press 225, you'll be benching way more than 225x5. Good goals nonetheless, even though you'll definitely hit some sooner than others. And with regards to competition, are you thinking about powerlifting or bodybuilding? It seems like you're talking about both.

Yeah, haha, now that I look at them, the goals don't seem like they match with each other. But they are achievable for me!

[Power12]

Triceps
3x10 dips
4x10 skull crushers
2x20 rope pushdowns
2x20 ab leg raises.

[Power12]

Back
Seated Cable Row with bar, underhand grip.
1x20
4x12
Deadlift
Sets of 5 worked up to 5x5x225
Pendlay Row Overhand
3x10x135
V Grip Pulldowns
3x10
Straight arm pulldowns
5x12
Bodyweight Back Raises
3x10
Hurt my back last week, just minor strains, in both lower and upper regions. Still not feeling 100% so I just did this lighter weight high volume style workout. Went really well. It seems my biggest weak point is back erector strength, so I really need to get more consistent with deadlifting and get the work in every week.
Just came from the store, I was looking for a sauce to put on my chicken and beef. Every single one though had either refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup as one of the first 2 ingredients. I went with miso powder which has no sugar, so we'll see how that turns out. Can't wait for the day to be over.

[Power12]

Chest/Back Day
Warmed up with some pushups
Incline Dumbbell Press
4 sets, went too heavy and didn't get what I wanted.
Pullups
40, 8 sets of 5
Some other Chest work, few sets of pushups and press machine.
T-Bar Row Station
-3x12
Curls-4x10
Back Raises-4x10 with bodyweight.

All in all went pretty well. I really want to be a lean 200lb, but I still have a ways to go. My traps, really have to get stronger and more resilient. The thing is you use traps in every single workout, and almost every exercise as well.
Curling-upper back trap involvment
Deadlifting-uses traps
Bench-Traps are engaged to keep the back flat on the bench.
Shoulder day? also a significant use of traps.
Squatting?- The whole back is engaged, including the traps.
The only thing that doesn't really hit the traps is tricep movements, with the exception of close grip bench.
I say this because my right trap feels like there's something wrong with it, and it never really gets a chance to totally recover.

A final message. NEVER let what other people are doing or saying influence your decisions! For example, if people who are puny and weak say something negative about strength training or exercise, don't let that alter your course of action and keep you from doing what you know is right. In order to truly thrive in this world we have to become champions in every way and you know that's true!

[Cork]

I don't know about you, but I hold a lot of stress in my mid traps. You should try a sports massage to see if you have a knot in your traps. Or a lacrosse ball. You can pin it up against the wall and just lean away. It hurts so good!

[Power12]

I don't know about you, but I hold a lot of stress in my mid traps. You should try a sports massage to see if you have a knot in your traps. Or a lacrosse ball. You can pin it up against the wall and just lean away. It hurts so good!

I'll give it a try. I actually bought a spiky ball just for that purpose, so I'll use that method.

[Power12]

Triceps and Abs
Warmup of pushdowns
2 sets of 20 leg raises
2 sets of 10 straight leg situps
Superset 3 sets of 10- neutral grip dumbell lying extensions with palms facing up.
-some more pushdowns
Going to do some ab wheel this evening as well.

Those straight leg situps are by far the hardest ab exercise I've done. Felt pretty good today, plenty of energy.
-I've gotta stop doing the 'disappearing ab trick' (eat a bunch of cookies, and watch your abs disappear!)

-Ended up doing ab wheel 5x10. Its tough, a very hard pullover exercise as well as ab. Having a really good week, feel energetic, training and eating like a manimal! Had 2 large chicken breasts. 2 protein shakes. 2 protein bars, and 1 and quarter pounds of fish. Tomorrow I'm thinking day off from lifting.
I've been both craving and eating bananas lately, I bet that the increased potassium and good carbohydrate has helped.

[Power12]

Today-
Cardio-20 minutes jogging
ab leg raises- 3x20.

Weight is down to 190. I am lean everywhere except for abs and glutes. If I'm going to get 200 as lean as I want to be, I'll probably have to get up to 210 and then diet down. We'll see how things go.