grow stronger comrade

[rockhuddy]

Hi everyone. This log will chart my strength and physique progress over the next year. I am 20 years old, 6'1", and currently 220-225 lbs at around 17% bodyfat. I have been lifting for high school sports since 2003 but have only been training seriously for 2 years, and strength training for 1. I squat 405, bench 315, and deadlift 500. By the end of September I'd like to reduce my bodyfat 2-3% while staying around 220 lbs, squat 455, bench 335, and deadlift 555. Over the next several years I want to reach 240 lbs at under 15% bodyfat, bench 400, squat 500, and deadlift 600.

Training:
I train primarily for strength. I also like to look good, but I don't particularly care about symmetry and proportion like a competitive bodybuilder would- building overall mass is more my goal. I use a standard westside template that looks like this:

Max effort upper body
Dynamic effort lower body
rest
Dynamic effort upper body
rest
Max effort lower body
rest

On my max effort days I select one major movement and work up to a max, followed by 1 heavy assistance exercise for 3-5 reps and 2-3 supplemental exercises for higher reps. Dynamic effort days will look the same, but will have dynamic box squatting or bench pressing instead of a max effort exercise. Someteimes I will do GPP or lighter recovery exercises on my rest days. If you have any questions on the setup or conjugate training in general please ask.

Diet:
I'm not overly concerned with eating clean. I try to get at least 200 grams of protein per day, but other than that I don't care as long as I'm not deficient in anything. Usually my diet consists of lots of eggs, ground beef, and milk, plus whatever else I want. Outside of occasional junk food binges I don't ingest many carbs, and my macro breakdown tends to be around 15c/35p/50f for a total of 3,000-3,500 calories. I'm aware that many of you may think this is horrible, but I feel good and seem to do well on it so I'm going to keep it up. Any specific questions are welcome.

Supplementation:
I think most supps are a waste of money, and that if people focused on their training and diet more than looking for outside help they'd reach their goals much faster. I take casein protein at night along with a few fish oil caps and a cheap multi. I also have whey protein, but don't use it all that often.


Any tips or suggestions throughout will be appreciated. I certainly do not pretend to be an expert on anything.

[mjw8204]

In before lock/ban. Good luck, rock!

Your diet sounds a lot like mine. I hate answering diet questions in my journal because people seem to automatically assume that I am as meticulous and neurotic about my diet as they are.

[LSU1]

sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

im IN

[Baker19]

Let`s grow stronger comrade.

[ossizen]

Schweet. I'm in.

[Baker19]

Btw- You should take a new package shot and put it in your progress pics "down .1 inch, cut is going well" I'd lol so hard.

[rockhuddy]

Hey guys.

I'll try to get some pics up within a few days.

[rockhuddy]

Originally Posted by Baker19

Btw- You should take a new package shot and put it in your progress pics "down .1 inch, cut is going well" I'd lol so hard.

Lol. We'll see.

[rockhuddy]

CGBP: 45x5, 135x5, 185x3, 225x2, 245x1, 275x1, 295x1, 245x3, 245x3, 245x3

T-bar row: 5x7, 160 lbs


PR on the close grip bench, done with 1 finger on the smooth part of the bar. Afterwards I did triples with 245, really trying to work on staying tight, getting good leg drive, and pressing explosively. I did the rows with one end of the bar in the corner. I'd actually never done them this way before, so it was a new movement for me. I didn't like how the plates limited my ROM though, so I probably won't do them again except as an occasional change of pace.


Normally I would do 3-4 more exercises today, but I'm having to change my lifting schedule around this week because I can't lift on Friday or Saturday. So tomorrow I'll do half of my normal dynamic lower body work and then all the iso stuff I would normally do today, then I'll take Wednesday off and be ready for my max effort lower workout on Thursday.

[LSU1]

huge PR bro!

[rockhuddy]

Sumo deads (on bumper plates): 335x8; 10x1, 335 lbs

Leg press: 405x10, 405x10, 495x10, 585x10, 585x6

Elbows out db extensions: 4x8, 45 lbs

EZ bar preacher curls: 3x8, 75 lbs

Reverse hypers: 2x10, 110 lbs


I didn't want to go too heavy on the deads since I plan to max on them on Thursday, so I focused on speed and form. I'm weakest off of the floor so I've been standing on plates to deadlift for a couple weeks now, and it's really helping me get my hips down and start the pull stronger. The bumper plates are about 2 inches thick.

[LSU1]

good stuff man. what max are you going for on deads?

[rockhuddy]

Originally Posted by LSU1

good stuff man. what max are you going for on deads?

I don't know, my sumo has always been a lot lower than my conventional. If I end up going off of the plates, I guess 455ish would be pretty good. Otherwise I'd like to get 495ish.

[rockhuddy]

Sumo deads (on bumper plates): 135x5, 225x3, 315x2, 375x1, 405x1, 425x1, 445x1, 455x1, 405x1, 405x1

Front squats: 4x5, 185 lbs; 225x5, 225x5

Face pulls: 3x12, 80 lbs

DB floor press: 3x10, 80 lbs


Well, I hit my goal on the deads. My hip flexors were really tight today, and it affected my lifts quite a bit; I'll have to start stretching them out more often. My hips were shooting up early too, which made things even harder because I was already at a 2 inch deficit. Still, 455 from the plates isn't bad at all.

225x5 is a personal best on front squats, especially for 2 sets and after 4 sets at 185. For the last set I was planning to try for 10, but I had to rest/pause just to get to 5 so I decided not to go for it. Maybe next time.

I wanted to get some upper back work and a bit of chest/tris in since I won't get to lift again this week. DB floor presses are supposed to emphasize the triceps, but my pecs and delts really get pounded by them.

[mjw8204]

Congrats on hitting your deadlift goal. So you pull both sumo and conventional style? I think it's interesting that some people do well at both. I do fine conventionally, but I found sumo style offered me no mechanical advantage whatsoever. In fact, I think it actually put my back at a less than ideal angle. I wonder if body style - i.e. longer arms, legs, shorter torso - plays a big part in it.

Strong front squatting too. It's always impressive to see someone front squatting heavy weight. I can't wait for BOLT's video!!!

[spirit3530]

Nice work Rock. Keep it up. I expect this thread to last atleast 25 pages (with max post setting at max per page) or more

[rockhuddy]

Originally Posted by mjw8204

Congrats on hitting your deadlift goal. So you pull both sumo and conventional style? I think it's interesting that some people do well at both. I do fine conventionally, but I found sumo style offered me no mechanical advantage whatsoever. In fact, I think it actually put my back at a less than ideal angle. I wonder if body style - i.e. longer arms, legs, shorter torso - plays a big part in it.

Strong front squatting too. It's always impressive to see someone front squatting heavy weight. I can't wait for BOLT's video!!!

Yeah, it seems like sumo deadlifting is a lot more technique and conventional pulling is more brute strength. I think the reason my conventional has always been stronger is because I can use my lower back more than with a sumo stance.

Originally Posted by spirit3530

Nice work Rock. Keep it up. I expect this thread to last atleast 25 pages (with max post setting at max per page) or more

Lol. Thanks.

[LSU1]

beastly deads man. i have probs with tight hip flexors on sumos as well. looks like you have alot of room to improve on those

[rockhuddy]

Incline bench: 45x10, 95x5, 135x5, 185x3, 225x3, 245x3, 245x3, 245x3, 245x3

DB row: 5x7, 90 lbs

OH db extensions: 4x7, 85 lbs

Reapers: 4x15ish, 45 lbs


I wanted to add incline benching into my ME rotation, but I haven't done it in what seems like forever so I didn't want to jump right in and go for a max. I was expecting to be weak since incline benching is about as far as you can get from flat benching with an arch, but I still wasn't happy with my numbers. Oh well, as I get better at the movement I'm sure I'll improve.

Reapers are a very uncommon exercise. Basically you stand with a barbell, reverse curl it to chest level, snap it out in front of you horizontally, and just as quickly snap it back in to your chest, lowering the bar back down for each rep. This being the first time I'd done these I wanted to use a fairly light weight for higher reps, but even with just the bar these were very taxing. My front, rear, and side delts all got worked very hard, and my biceps were fried as well. I wish I had a vid for these ,but I don't. Regardless, they are not hard to get the hang of and I strongly recommend them for anyone. I will certainly be doing them often from now on.

[rockhuddy]

I had no real motivation to do anything today, so I just kind of jumped around from exercise to exercise. I did 2 or 3x8 pin pulls from mid shin with 315, 5 or 6 sets of 8 good mornings with 135, 3 walkouts with 405, and 3x8 glute ham raises. None of these are anything special weight wise; in fact, they're all pretty much warmup weights for me. I have days like this every few weeks, and I've learned to pass them off as deload days. No big deal.

Also, my hip flexors have really been acting up lately; they are tighter than (insert your own lewd reference here). I've been really going after the foam rolling and static stretching for them throughout the day (yesterday too), along with extra hip mobility drills. Maybe that's why I felt weak today??? I don't know, but fixing my hips is my top priority right now. I think taking a break from all the wide stance everything I've been doing will help, but other than that I'll just have to wait and see.

[Lencho]

F*ckin' commie!











In.

[rockhuddy]

Originally Posted by Lencho

F*ckin' commie!




In.

Ha ha.

[rockhuddy]

BW dips: 17, 13, 10, 10

Alternating grip pullups: 6x7 with bodyweight

Floor press with light band: 4x6, 155 lbs

Face pulls: 4x12, 80 lbs

Reapers: 4x10, 55 lbs


This is week 1 of a 3 week repeated effort cycle, during which I'm replacing my dynamic benching with high rep, low rest period lifting. Today I gave myself 90 seconds rest between sets of dips. Overall I was fairly happy with my performance. I need to start incorportating dips into my workouts again, as I think they're excellent for upper body strength.

I alternated between wide grip, hammer grip, and fingertip (on the frame of the power rack) pullups, stopping a rep short of failure on each set. For the floor press I wrapped the light band around my back, as attached below. I don't know how much tension it adds, but I'd guess it's around 60 or 70 lbs at the top. After the dips, it was pretty hard. Reapers felt just as good as last time with the added weight.

[rockhuddy]

High box squat: 135x5, 135x5, 225x3, 275x2, 315x1, 355x1, 385x1

GHRs: 3x10


Well, it's official: I'm broken. My hip flexors are so crazy tight that I can't do jack ****. I thought that box squatting to a couple inches above parallel and bringing my stance in a bit would help, but it didn't. Apparently anything emhpasizing hip extension is going to aggravate things, and the worst part is that it's not only pain (which I could deal with), but it's actually making me weaker; my hips are so tight that it's making it hard to extend my hips at all. So I'd like to say I quit at 385 today because of the pain, but nope. It was actually kind of hard.

Anyway, the good news is that I think I can fix it. Here's the plan: For the next week (possibly 2 weeks) I'm going to drop almost all of my lower body work. I'll do upper body 3 days now, and maybe add in a couple sets of leg press after 2 of them, but that's it. In place of my other workouts, I'll go out and jog a bit ( ) or maybe walk around with a 60 lb sandbag for 20 or 30 minutes. I'll also aggressively stretch my hip flexors and do my foam roller work at least once a day. If everything goes as I expect, the combination of dropping leg work, adding in more conditioning, and stretching/soft tissue work will take care of the problem. In the meantime I'll look into buying a pair of groove briefs to hopefully prevent this kind of thing from happening in the future. I'd love to hear any advice/experience regarding this.

[Lencho]

I hate to admit this, but I saw someone doing reapers once before I knew what they were. I called the guy an idiot.

<---- n00b

I shall try them!


WTF is up with the hips? Why have they gone so tight on you? WTF are groove briefs? Why don't I seem to know a damn thing?

[gymratluke]

Um...Subbed!

[LSU1]

toughbreak man. good luck with the`hip bull****e

[rockhuddy]

Originally Posted by Lencho

I hate to admit this, but I saw someone doing reapers once before I knew what they were. I called the guy an idiot.

<---- n00b

I shall try them!


WTF is up with the hips? Why have they gone so tight on you? WTF are groove briefs? Why don't I seem to know a damn thing?

Ha ha. I get some weird looks doing them. It does seem like the kind of thing your average gym-idiot would be doing.

I think what f*cked up my hips was all the sumo deadlifting work I've been doing. For the couple months I was really working on it I was doing 10 or 12 sets of sumo speed pulls every week, sometimes off of plates, plus whatever max effort work I'd do would usually be with a wide stance. I even went wide stance for things like pulldown abs, etc. in an effort to get more carryover. I think just because I wasn't used to it it kept building up and building up till I got where I am now.

These are groove briefs:
http://www.inzernet.com/search_resul...earch&iLevel=1

They're kind of like a squat suit, but not as tight and without straps. They can increase your lifts, sometimes a lot, but that's more with the hardcore ones made by Metal and not the ones like in the link. But aside from that, I guess they somehow protect your hips. All the guys from Westside use them or a suit with the straps down when they box squat for this purpose, and lots of articles and training logs I've seen recommend them too. They're not too expensive, so it can't hurt to give em a shot. At the very least I'll get 5 or 10 more lbs on my squat and deadlift.

Originally Posted by gymratluke

Um...Subbed!

Oh hai.

[ElSpaceBandito]

IN!

[Lencho]

Originally Posted by rockhuddy

These are groove briefs:
http://www.inzernet.com/search_resul...earch&iLevel=1

They're kind of like a squat suit, but not as tight and without straps. They can increase your lifts, sometimes a lot, but that's more with the hardcore ones made by Metal and not the ones like in the link. But aside from that, I guess they somehow protect your hips. All the guys from Westside use them or a suit with the straps down when they box squat for this purpose, and lots of articles and training logs I've seen recommend them too. They're not too expensive, so it can't hurt to give em a shot. At the very least I'll get 5 or 10 more lbs on my squat and deadlift.

Thanks.

After a couple of WO's in them, give an assessment of how much you think they added to the squat and DL, if you don't mind.