All Eyez On Me 2.0

[adamsz]

<3 liniments. I use one that has a strong menthol smell...which I personally enjoy...but I get a few people every now and then asking me about it

So far all the one's I've used have a pretty strong menthol smell - whenever I put them on at my gym everyone's like what the hell is that smell?!? lol. So far I've tried 2 different kinds of tiger balm, EFS blue lotion, and the JR Watkins warming balm. I think thus far the JR works the most effectively - chit burns like hell lol.

It's good that the groin problem seems to be settling. Dropping to the 19" box from 21.5" gets you a third of the way back to parallel so that's a good start and it sounds like a smart move to give it a few more weeks at that depth. It may be a major pain for you to have had to take it easier on the squats and deads, but the payoff is that your benching is getting really strong --- nice work on 280 going superwide and paused, and especially since it was 'easy'.
14 sets on the bench and 11 on the squats in 2 hours so maybe 3 to 4 minutes between sets ... that's pretty good stamina when you're going so heavy and now on a cut
Great work on training around the injuries Zack

Yeah I think it's slowly but surely settling down. It's damn frustrating it's taking so long, but I suppose it is partially my own fault. I definitely could be doing more to help with the rehab, like spending money to go see the chiro and get a professional diagnosis/prescription of what I should do to rehab it but instead I decided to just kinda do it my own way. Hopefully it all works out lol.

My thoughts exactly, great work just using a higher box rather than completely cutting out the squats.

gotta keep some weight on the back na'mean.

That's the problem with WG benching, so much stress on the delts. I don't even bother anymore because unless I do it really light or little volume I get aches in my shoulders. Mostly just isn't worth it, if you want more activation in the chest in the bench use DBs. That's what WG does anyways.

I agree for the most part. When I ran 5/3/1 a long time back I used wide grip throughout the program and it ended up just completely destroying my shoulders. However I also had completely crap bench form back then and just benched like a bodybuilder (flat back, elbows flared, etc).

The reason I do it now is to help ensure that I don't have any weaknesses on any portion of my bench. This is why I train close grip, medium grip, and wide grip - and since I bench 3x/week it works out pretty well. I've been training the medium and close grip for over a year now, but I was talking with one of the older guys at my gym a little while back and he recommended training all of them for that purpose. He's in like his 50's and can bench 400+ raw and has world records in his masters class so he's a pretty legit source of info. Whenever I go above 85-90% though I always revert to my medium-grip because it's what I'm strongest with and it doesn't really tax my shoulders at all with the heavier weights.

[BigJon55]

4/15/13

30 minute dynamic warmup

5:30ish - 7:55PM

skipped the deficit pulls because of the groin

Alternating DB Hammer Curls
15's x 25 per arm x 4 sets

Bench Press Pinky on rings, all reps paused
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 4
255 x 3
255 x 3
290 x 2
290 x 2
290 x 2
310 x 2 <-- vid
310 x 2 <-- vid
290 x 3
290 x 3



Box Pulls 6.75" blocks
135 x 10
185 x 8
225 x 5
315 x 5
365 x 4
365 x 4
add belt
405 x 3
405 x 3
455 x 2
455 x 2
455 x 2

Multi-Angle Rear Delt Band Flyes
6 sets

no mobility / stretching afterwards because I needed to get to the grocery store before they closed

Thoughts

This week the elbow tendonitis in my left arm has slowly been creeping back, so I made sure to do a ton of curls before benching and used a bunch of tiger balm on the area beforehand. Got through the benching alright without any pain, so that's good, but it looks like I'm going to have to be pretty aggressive with my prehab if I'm going to be able to keep up with the high volume of benching on Sheiko.

Box pulls were pretty fukin hard, but got through them alright. Groin didn't seem to get aggravated from them luckily. Going to add in the Sheiko squat work on Friday with a conservative max imput of 405, and continue to use the high box for the time being. I'm excited to squat again.

Macros:

Hey, I didn't know you were on MFP. Add me, my screen name's Loftearmen

[adamsz]

Hey, I didn't know you were on MFP. Add me, my screen name's Loftearmen

done

[adamsz]

5/6/13 Today's macros: 348C/109F/285P 3411cals

30 minute dynamic warmup

5:00PM - 8:15PM: lifting - I lifted with 2 other guys today and one of them always drags ass so the squatting/benching was kinda slow but the accessory work was done at a pretty high pace

Box Squats 19" box
145 x 5
195 x 5
215 x 5
255 x 4
295 x 3
295 x 3
340 x 2
340 x 2
340 x 2
340 x 2
340 x 2

CGBP all reps paused
135 x 10
185 x 5
225 x 4
260 x 3
260 x 3
left elbow was bothering me too much, so decided to widen the grip a bit

Medium Grip Bench Press all reps paused
300 x 3 (was supposed to be 2)
300 x 2
left elbow was killing me, decided to widen the grip further and do some curls between sets

Wide-Grip Bench Press index finger on ring, all reps paused
300 x 2
300 x 2

Box Squats
235 x 3
275 x 3
325 x 3
was supposed to like 3 more sets, but wasn't feeling it so decided to call it

Band Pressdowns
6 sets of 25

Pull-ups
4 sets of 8, widening the grip a little bit each set

Band Facepulls with Rope Attachment
2 sets of 25

"Cat Back Lat Pulls" got the idea from Brandon Lillies youtube upload (vid below)
green band x 5 sets



Ez Bar Curls 30 second breaks
30 x 30
30 x 25 x 3 sets

1 hour of mobility work / rumble rolling / stretching after

Thoughts

First round of box squats went pretty well. I tried to work on sitting back even further and not having my knees travel as far forward. This was a little more uncomfortable for the groin. 2nd round of squats just started feeling uncomfortable so I thought there's no need to overdo it. Slow but steady wins the race.

Was originally planning on doing all of my bench sets with a close grip today. I didn't use any liniments today at all, and my left elbow was fuking killing me on every rep. Every rep it would click and it would hurt pretty bad after. The wide grip definitely was the least stressful of all the grips on the elbow, so I might have to stick with that for now I really need to get that chit looked at/worked on.

Tried the "cat back" lat pulls for the first time. I got a great stretch and contraction on them, and will definitely be adding them in as accessory work on a regular basis.

[fittofattofit]

That was still great squatting considering where you've been with that groin strain so no bad in cutting the second round short ... the idea of spending 3 hours lifting heavy just slays me anyway
You're stuck a bit now with the close grip killing your elbows and the wide grip stressing the delts. Still strong ass benching with 9 paused reps of 300 going medium and wide grip. You've got the strength to work around it once you settle on the most comfortable grip (sounds like it might be wide for the heaviest reps at least)
You seem to have your groin in hand (so to speak ), but the elbow may be more worrying, so if you get the chance get it looked at by an ortho/physio .. much better to get onto something remediable early than to wear out a tendon or joint

[adamsz]

That was still great squatting considering where you've been with that groin strain so no bad in cutting the second round short ... the idea of spending 3 hours lifting heavy just slays me anyway
You're stuck a bit now with the close grip killing your elbows and the wide grip stressing the delts. Still strong ass benching with 9 paused reps of 300 going medium and wide grip. You've got the strength to work around it once you settle on the most comfortable grip (sounds like it might be wide for the heaviest reps at least)
You seem to have your groin in hand (so to speak ), but the elbow may be more worrying, so if you get the chance get it looked at by an ortho/physio .. much better to get onto something remediable early than to wear out a tendon or joint

Surprisingly the wide grip hasn't really been aggravating the delts too much this week, I think it was just really that one session after incline benching 275 x 2 where my delts hurt. I think the incline bench was the culprit in that case. Given how bad the elbow has been feeling it might have to be wide grip from here on out for now. I did make an appointment with the massage therapist this weekend though so maybe that will help (keeping my fingers crossed).

[adamsz]

5/8/13

30 minute dynamic warmup

9:40PM - 11:35PM: Lifting

DB Hammer Curls
15's x 30
17.5's x 30
15's x 40
25's x 25
get some blood in the elbows before benching

Wide Grip Bench Press all reps paused
95 x 10
135 x 10
185 x 5
225 x 5
225 x 5
265 x 4
265 x 4
265 x 4
275 x 4
275 x 4
top 5 sets were only supposed to be 260... hope I didn't dun goof

Chest-Supported Row
45 x 20
90 x 10
90 x 10
90 x 10

Hammer Strength Isolateral Row
90 x 15
140 x 12
140 x 10
140 x 18

Cable Rope Face Pulls
50 x 25
60 x 20
50 x 20
50 x 30

Good Girl Machine static holds
1st pin x 10 reps of 10 second static holds
2nd pin x 60 second hold
3rd pin x 60 second hold
2nd pin x 15 normal reps
1st pin x 60 second hold
1st pin x 60 second hold

Hyperextensions
BW x 25
+45 x 20
+90 x 15
+135 x 10
+90 x 12

Leg Press
180 x 20
180 x 20
180 x 20
180 x 20
180 x 20

50 minutes stretching / lacrosse ball work after

Thoughts

Bench press + rear delts + back erry day.

Benched today with only minimal elbow pain. I think the key is to do a chit ton of curls beforehand and to use a chit ton of JR warming balm on my elbow before benching lol. I didn't even use elbow sleeves today, which I have been for like the past 2 months every bench session.

The sheiko programming only called for 260 x 5 sets of 4 today (this is with a 371 max in the spreadsheet), so at first I was like I'll round it up to 265. That was feeling easy and I let the ego get the best of me so I bumped it up to 275. Other than the elbow pain, benching has just been feeling really easy lately. Pretty much any weight feels manageable as long as my elbow holds up.

Decided to skip the deadlift portions today and use some of the equipment at 24 that they don't have at EPC like the slanted leg press and adductor machine. I know my groin is getting better because right after the injury even doing the 1st pin on the good girl machine my adductor would like violently shake and it would be really hard, but now I can do the 2nd pin with minimal pain/shaking. I was also reading about how medicine ball static holds were a good rehab technique for groin injuries, so I tried to mimic this on the adductor machine and I think it worked quite well. I should probably be doing some kind of groin static holds everyday honestly, I need to go buy like a soccer ball or something cheap to do it with.

Tried the "Mr Hyde" preworkout for the first time this session. Dat dere beta alanine tingle... they must put a chit ton in because when I use my own beta alanine (I think something like 5 grams) it barely tingles at all. Overall seemed like a good preworkout that got me pumped up and going, and this is coming from a complete stim junky. Inb4 I use it next session and I don't feel anything like most PWOs...

[AirForceV]

why would pushing more weight be a problem lol

???:l

[adamsz]

why would pushing more weight be a problem lol

???:l

Because on my programming I bench 3x a week, so there's usually like a heavy day, light day, and medium day, and it's all set up to allow enough recovery between the sessions. Can't go HAM every session brah... not all of us are like you.

[fittofattofit]

Good news about the elbow Zack .. it seems the way to get through a tendonosis is to work it through the full range of motion, light weights and lots of reps + some good deep local massage. It looks like you've got it sorted now --- no pain and that was a big pressing session
Nice work with the 'good girl' machine as well
I've been doing some of those swiss ball static holds and swiss ball bridges with my feet wide on the ball and they have been good for my groin stability

And LOL at the amount of benching you're doing every week ....... and you're telling me off for doing some piddling amount of deads

[adamsz]

Good news about the elbow Zack .. it seems the way to get through a tendonosis is to work it through the full range of motion, light weights and lots of reps + some good deep local massage. It looks like you've got it sorted now --- no pain and that was a big pressing session
Nice work with the 'good girl' machine as well
I've been doing some of those swiss ball static holds and swiss ball bridges with my feet wide on the ball and they have been good for my groin stability

And LOL at the amount of benching you're doing every week ....... and you're telling me off for doing some piddling amount of deads

Brah I haz got sum bad newz: benching frequently is not that taxing on the CNS. Deadlifting frequently is much more taxing on your CNS... deadlifts are the hardest lift to recover from.

[adamsz]

5/10/13 Today's Macros: 412C / 87F / 287P : 3499 cals

45 minute dynamic warmup

7:30PM - 10:40PM: Lifitng - trying to get on that AFV time

DB Hammer Curls
15's x 30
15's x 30
15's x 30
15's x 30
all supersetted with band pull aparts 50 reps each time

Wide Grip Bench Press all reps paused
95 x 10
135 x 10
185 x 6
225 x 5
260 x 4
260 x 4
280 x 3
280 x 3
315 x 2 (was only supposed to be 300)
315 x 2 (was only supposed to be 300) --> ******* ass spotter kept his hands under the bar the whole time even though I kept saying "I'm good", so decided to do an extra set
315 x 2 --> no spotter
280 x 4
260 x 6 --> feet up
225 x 6 --> feet up
185 x 7 --> feet up
benching took 1 hour

Cable Rope Pressdowns
60 x 20
60 x 20
40 x 20
40 x 20
every time I do these after doing a ton of benching my right tricep always goes out super quick, even on the ridiculously light weights. Never happens with band pressdowns though, kinda interesting...

Rackpulls in powerrack, safeties on lowest holes, standing on 45 plate: pull from mid knee cap
135 x 20
225 x 10
315 x 10
405 x 5
405 x 5
405 x 5
405 x 5
405 x 5
315 x 10
225 x 20 <--- snatch grip

D-Bar Pulldowns 60 second rest times, thumbless grip
135 x 10
135 x 10
135 x 10
135 x 10
135 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10

Good Girl Machine static holds
1st pin x 60 seconds
2nd pin x 60 seconds
3rd pin x 60 seconds
2nd pin x 60 seconds
1st pin x 60 seconds
1st pin x 60 seconds

Squats
Bar x 10
Bar x 10
Bar x 10
Bar x 10
Bar x 10
Bar x 10

Lying Leg Curls
50 x 20
50 x 20
50 x 20
50 x 20
50 x 20
50 x 20
50 x 20
50 x 20

1 hour stretching / lacrosse ball work

total timein gym: 5 hours (spent about 30 minute shooting the chit with a buddy I hadn't seen in awhile though). Feelsgoodman.

Thoughts

Long workout was long. I'm really liking this Mr. Hyde PWO so far, I had major concentration throughout my workout and good energy. Don't think it's only placebo considering how many PWOs I go through and how few of them have any effect on me.

About 3/4s of the way of my workout I made it a goal to just keep lifting until I ran out of space on my workout journal page:



The only other time that's happened is when I lifted with the pro bodybuilder at my gym once, lol.

I was going to do about another 30 minutes of recovery work, but my phone died so I couldn't listen to my music and the music they play at the gym is on that ****gy time so I finally called it quits after being there from 6:45P - midnight. Strong life is strong

JR Watkins warming balm + 100+ curls +wide grip = benching went alright with pretty minimal pain. Still felt some discomfort and clicking, but it was managable, and I even bumped up my top sets and made the sets on the down side of the pyramid harder by putting my feet up.

Did some squats with just the bar after the adductor static holds to feel it out. I can still see how I'm favoring my left side, and my right side (the injured side) kind of collapses in a tiny bit in the hole, even with just the bar. Slowly getting better, but not close to squatting with real weight yet slow recovery is slow... In the mean time I'm just gonna try and get on that AFV time and hammer a ton of volume and get jacked

Lat spread:

[fittofattofit]

Lat spread:

Fcuk Zack --- that lat spread!
You've never hit that pose properly before and never got the photo angle right before, and now that you have you are as wideasfuk.
Really broad shoulders and back and you've filled it with a lot of mass. Great v, loads of definition and great posing ---- you're looking like a bodybuilder


Nice 5 hour gym session Zack ... you've made 315 your b!tch on the bench press ... easy paused reps
And you're not that far off AFV in size either ... there's only 7lbs in it

Brah I haz got sum bad newz: benching frequently is not that taxing on the CNS. Deadlifting frequently is much more taxing on your CNS... deadlifts are the hardest lift to recover from.

I know benching isn't as taxing but those damn Sheiko and Smolov regimes with squats and deads were huge. I'm still only doing pussy volumes and weights

[adamsz]

Fcuk Zack --- that lat spread!
You've never hit that pose properly before and never got the photo angle right before, and now that you have you are as wideasfuk.
Really broad shoulders and back and you've filled it with a lot of mass. Great v, loads of definition and great posing ---- you're looking like a bodybuilder


Nice 5 hour gym session Zack ... you've made 315 your b!tch on the bench press ... easy paused reps
And you're not that far off AFV in size either ... there's only 7lbs in it





I know benching isn't as taxing but those damn Sheiko and Smolov regimes with squats and deads were huge. I'm still only doing pussy volumes and weights

What, I think I've hit a lat spread decently before in my journals:



(newest to oldest)

Thanks for the compliments though, although I don't think I quite look like a bodybuilder (yet?). I think Corey would probably dwarf me in real life. We might only be 7lbs different in BW, but his muscle mass and sheer size is ridiculous. That fawker is hyyuggeee. When will it be my turn...

[adamsz]

5/13/13 Today's Macros: 409C / 80F / 222P - 3191 cals

30 minute dynamic warmup

8:00PM - 10:55PM: Lifting

DB Hammer Curls
20's x 25 x 4 sets
all supersetted with band pull aparts (200 total reps)

Wide Grip Bench Press all reps paused
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 4
260 x 3
260 x 3
300 x 3
300 x 3
300 x 3
300 x 3
300 x 3

Good Girl Machine
1st pin x 15
2nd pin x 1 min static hold
2nd pin x 1 min static hold
2nd pin x 1 min static hold

Squats
Bar x 10
95 x 5
95 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 5 <--- too much discomfort
135 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 6 (lol)
135 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5

Leg Press
180 x 20
270 x 15
270 x 15
270 x 15
270 x 15
270 x 15
270 x 15

Bad Girl Machine
1st pin x 50
2nd pin x 50
3rd pin x 100
4th pin x 50
7th pin x 30
10th pin x 15
9th pin x 15
9th pin x 20

Hammer Strength High Rows thumbless grip
90 x 20
90 x 20
140 x 15
140 x 15
140 x 15
140 x 15
140 x 15
140 x 15

Rear Delt Cable Crossovers
40 x 25
50 x 20
50 x 20
50 x 20

Roman Chair Leg Raises
10
10
10
10
10

Thoughts

Got a massage yesterday. I told her I really wanted my left elbow area worked on because of the tendonitis. I definitely didn't feel like she pushed as hard on me as she did the other session I had, and my elbow still didn't feel that recovered today during the workout. I need to find a massage therapist who can really throw some weight into me lol...

Tried some more squats today. I tried squatting with my toes pointed completely forward, wide stance. I also played around with a few different stance-widths but found that wide had the least impact on my groin, which kinda seems a little counter-intuitive to me. 135 had minimal discomfort, which is a small improvement because before even 135 to parallel/below was too much on the groin. Tried 185 for 1 set and it just wasn't right... Slowly improving, but holy chit this is taking forever.

Once again worked out for nearly 3 hours, and didn't leave the gym until my phone had died on me lol.

[fittofattofit]

What, I think I've hit a lat spread decently before in my journals:



(newest to oldest)

Thanks for the compliments though, although I don't think I quite look like a bodybuilder (yet?). I think Corey would probably dwarf me in real life. We might only be 7lbs different in BW, but his muscle mass and sheer size is ridiculous. That fawker is hyyuggeee. When will it be my turn...

We had this discussion before though when you posted those pics ... in those first two pics you were taking the photo from a height so that it looked like you were leaning back ... it made your torso look fore-shortened so that you looked wide at the top but much narrower through the lower lats ... you didn't really have those manta wings displayed in them.
The bottom (oldest) pic was a good lat spread pic but you can see the thickness you've added between that and the latest one

Your turn for dat Corey-mass will come when you get that 595 deadlift

And it's a PITA about the squatting and the groin pain, but that was a seriously strong session with the paused benching

[adamsz]

We had this discussion before though when you posted those pics ... in those first two pics you were taking the photo from a height so that it looked like you were leaning back ... it made your torso look fore-shortened so that you looked wide at the top but much narrower through the lower lats ... you didn't really have those manta wings displayed in them.
The bottom (oldest) pic was a good lat spread pic but you can see the thickness you've added between that and the latest one

Your turn for dat Corey-mass will come when you get that 595 deadlift

And it's a PITA about the squatting and the groin pain, but that was a seriously strong session with the paused benching

fuarkkkkk I want a 600 DL by the end of the year, but with the way things are going I don't know how realistic that is

[adamsz]

5/15/13 Today's macros: 402C 89F 240P, morning weight: 210

45 minute dynamic warmup

4:45PM - 7:45PM: Lifting

Deadlift to Knees pull to knees, pause for a few seconds, then lower
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 4
250 x 4
300 x 4
315 x 4
335 x 4
335 x 4
335 x 4
335 x 4

DB Hammer Curls
20's x 25 x 4 sets

Wide Grip Bench Press all reps paused
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
260 x 4
260 x 4
280 x 3
280 x 3
315 x 2 (was supposed to be 300)
315 x 2 (was supposed to be 300)
280 x 3
280 x 3
260 x 4
240 x 5 feet up
225 x 6
205 x 7
185 x 8

tried the block pulls that the Sheiko called for, but even with 275 it was tweaking my right glute at the lockout

GHRs
10
10
6
5

Band Pressdowns
25
19
aggravated elbow so stopped

Catback Lat Pulldowns green band
15
12
12
12
12
12
13
13

Band Rear Delt Multi Angle Flyes
20
18
18
15
15
15

Reverse Hyperextensions
no weight x 10
+15 x 10
no weight x 10
no weight x 10
whenever I've tried the reverse hyper I always feel like it is so much pressure on my stomach and it is just too damn uncomfortable lmao. I don't know how the fat guys with guts manage to do this exercise, seriously...

1 hour rumble rolling / mobility work / stretching after

Thoughts

Glutes/abductors were still pretty sore from Monday's session where I did a ton of bad girls. Pulls to the knees felt pretty good, but I still kept them pretty light to play it safe. I skipped the box pulls because of how it was making my right glute feel, which is interesting because last week I did rack pulls at 24 Hour Fitness and they felt fine on the glute... I wonder if the box vs. pins changes the dynamics of the movement, or maybe I was just pulling from a different height, who knows.

After getting the massage over the weekend I was expecting more of my body ailments to feel better, but benching is still really rough on the left elbow and the groin is still at about the same place. Only 4 more days of Sheiko 37 benching then I think I'll do 32 for the benching so I can deload it which should help with the elbow issue and then I can also test my max.

Pretty depressing that even the box pulls are still not feeling good enough to do because of the glute issue, but by this point I'm just like shiet what's new. Slow recovery is slow. I'm thinking I should probably make an appointment with the chiro and get his opinion on it since it is taking so damn long.

[fittofattofit]

It's interesting that you can do the deadlifts to the knee and hold it for a pause, but that you can't lockout the block pulls without pain. I can't really explain that, especially when you got plenty of 405s on the rack pulls
Did the GHRs tweak the glute at all, and what about benching with the feet up?
I'll be keen to see how you go with testing your 1RM on bench. Are you planning that for next week or after 32?

[BabyOilBrah]

god damn sheiko is nuts bro, killin it nice work adam.

[The Shoeless Wonder]

from what ive read, pull to knees is a pause, then a lock out

[BabyOilBrah]

from what ive read, pull to knees is a pause, then a lock out

I also thought this as well.

[adamsz]

It's interesting that you can do the deadlifts to the knee and hold it for a pause, but that you can't lockout the block pulls without pain. I can't really explain that, especially when you got plenty of 405s on the rack pulls
Did the GHRs tweak the glute at all, and what about benching with the feet up?
I'll be keen to see how you go with testing your 1RM on bench. Are you planning that for next week or after 32?

I think part of that might be me having really bad firing patterns for my glutes so when I do the DLs to knees it is primarily lowerback and hamstrings, but that's just a guess. As for the difference between rack pulls and block pulls, that's pretty fukin weird. Don't really know what the hell is going on.

GHRs don't really do anything bad for the glute, but again I mainly feel it almost entirely in my hamstrings during the movement because of poor firing patterns in my glutes.

As for max testing on bench, I'm doing the last week of 37 starting next Monday, followed by 32 the following monday and I'll do the initial test the Wednesday after that. I imagine I might only get 355 or so on the initial testing, but then that will be followed by 3 weeks of gradual deloading on the bench culminating in another testing at the end of 32 where I suspect I should be good for 365 if all works out

god damn sheiko is nuts bro, killin it nice work adam.

Thanks BoB! Hope dem cutz are comin along well.

from what ive read, pull to knees is a pause, then a lock out

This is how I did them the first time around on Sheiko last year. I asked a lot of people on the forums and also Layne Norton and a lot of people said to do it that way. However there is a guy at my gym who has around a 1700 total @ 198 who runs Sheiko and he says that for 29/37 and most the preps the pulls to the knees is just to the knees and then down. He said on some of the MS/CMS ones there is pulls to the knees then followed to lockout as well, but not on 29/37. I'm pretty sure he had read a lot of different translations of the work, and I trust his judgement (he pulls 750 and this is how he does his Sheiko pulls).

[adamsz]

5/17/13 Today's Macros: 384C / 92F / 244P

30 minute dynamic warmup

7:20PM - 9:40PM: Lifting

Widegrip Pullups
5
6
7
7

Closegrip Cable Rows
75 x 20
90 x 20
105 x 20
120 x 12

Bandpull Aparts
100 reps from chest
100 reps from above head

Super Widegrip Bench Press pinkie on end of knurling, just inside the bar rack. All reps paused.
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 4
260 x 3
260 x 3
295 x 2
295 x 2
295 x 2
295 x 2
295 x 2
245 x 6
245 x 6
245 x 6
245 x 6

Cable Rope Facepulls
50 x 25
50 x 25
50 x 20
50 x 20
biceps give out before delts lol

YWTLS
4 sets of 20

Hammerstrength Isolateral Rows doing the inside narrow grip was bothering my left elbow area, so went with outter widegrip which felt better
90 x 20
140 x 18
180 x 13
180 x 10

1-Arm Preacher Curl Machine
40 x 12 left, 20 right
40 x 20 per arm
50 x 12 left, 15 right
50 x 12 per arm
40 x 15 left, 19 right
40 x 15 left, 20 right
not sure if my right arm is just way stronger or this is related to my elbow issue lol

Good Girl Machine static holds
1st pin x 60 secs
1st pin x 60 secs
1st pin x 60 secs
1st pin x 120 secs
1st pin x 120 secs

afterwards about 30 minutes mobility work, followed by 4 miles on the stationary bike in 20 minutes (low intensity steady state, just seeing if it helps the groin at all)

Thoughts

Decided to take my grip out even wider on this session to help alleviate the elbow pain. I'm now as wide as you can go on the benches at 24 before hitting the bar stands lmao. The sets all felt pretty good, I considered bumping the 295 sets up to 315 but I hate asking for spotters at 24 because they always try and help when you don't need them to and I figured I should probably take it easy on my elbow. The sheiko workout today was supposed to be bench / squat / bench but because I skipped the squatting I just combined the 2 bench rounds but chopped off the warmup sets for the second round. Felt like I did a great job on my technique tonight with keeping everything super tight and making sure I went through the mental checklist on every rep/set.

It's now been 7 weeks since I injured my groin with no real end in sight for when I'll be able to squat/deadlift again pain-free. I'm gonna make an appointment to see the chiropractor this week to get some professional advice because my own rehab plan doesn't seem to be working fast enough and I'm tired of this chit.

Tricep progress pic, cold-flexed no pump:

[Mitch666]

Crazy that you can handle that volume of assistance work on top of sheiko.

[adamsz]

Crazy that you can handle that volume of assistance work on top of sheiko.

to be fair I'm only really doing the benching portion of Sheiko which leaves plenty of room for assistance work. Last year when I was running the full program I would usually only average about 2-3 assistance exercises after the main lifts. Pretty much always some kind of flies/good mornings/hyper extensions and that's it. Lots more room to play around since I'm not doing the full squat/DL portions as well.

[fittofattofit]

Great work on the benching Zack --- going super wide for paused reps with 295. Do you feel it more in the pecs and less in the tris anyway when you go wide? Would that grip be legal in a PL comp or will you have to move in closer
Triceps are looking really thick in that pic, but I'm really mirin' those spinal erectors

[adamsz]

Great work on the benching Zack --- going super wide for paused reps with 295. Do you feel it more in the pecs and less in the tris anyway when you go wide? Would that grip be legal in a PL comp or will you have to move in closer
Triceps are looking really thick in that pic, but I'm really mirin' those spinal erectors

Thanks Andrew With the super wide bench grip I honestly don't feel it that much in my pecs for the most part. This might just be because it's low reps for the most part, but pecs haven't felt super fatigued at all with the wide grips. The grip I used last session and the session I'm about to write out is called an illegal grip because it's so wide and is not allowed in competitions. It's probably an extra inch on each side of what is the legal limit.

[adamsz]

5/20/13 Today's Macros: 93F / 400C / 208P : 3269 cals

15 minute dynamic warmup

4:45PM - 7:00PM: lifting

Illegal-Wide Grip Bench Press superset with Wide-grip Pullups all reps paused
95 x 10 - 5
125 x 5 - 5
135 x 5 - 5, 5
185 x 5 - 5
225 x 4 - 5, 5
275 x 3 - 5
315 x 3 - 5
315 x 3 - 5
315 x 3 - 5
315 x 3 - 5
315 x 3 - 5
all 315 sets are PRs

Catback Latpulls medium green band
15
12
15
15
15

Shoulder Horn
5's x 10
5'sx 20
5's x 15
2.5's x 35
2.5's x40

30 minutes lacross ball work / rumble rolling / band stretching after

Thoughts

First off, it's been damn near 2 months since I pulled my groin and it still hasn't recovered. I'm gonna go see the chiropractor, so until then I'm pretty much gonna put the lower body stuff on hold (at least the compound lifts). I need to get this chit straightened out.

I was out running errands all day, and by the time I was done with them and because it was rush hour I decided to just go straight to the gym without going home to get my gym chit. Just bought a rockstar low carb, went in, borrowed a pair of wrist wraps, and lifted. Was kinda nice to just go in and lift like that without all the ritualistic stuff like liniments, workout journal, my own gear, etc. Surprisingly, my left elbow felt fine the whole session without the liniments and just doing the pull up supersets.

Benching went great. There was like 10 people in the rotation tonight so there was a lot of time between sets so I decided to superset all the bench sets with wide grip pullups. I changed the numbers around a bit tonight though - instead of doing 2 sets of 260 for 3, I just did one set of 275 for 3, and instead of 300 x 3 x 5 sets I upped all those sets to 315. Since the beginning of this cycle I told myself I wanted to eventually bump up my heaviest triples to 315, and I finally did it. Only on the very last rep of the very last set did I get out of groove and really struggle with the weight, and since I hit the bar stand on the way up I got a tiny bit of help at the very top. Either way, I had never done 315 for more than a double before tonight so that's awesome.

Got hella sunburned working on my car outside before going to the gym:



lobster status: achieved.

[AirForceV]

****in LOL at that sun burn.

shoulda just went shirtless brah damn! lmao


solid benching m8 I lol at illegal. what does that mean. I thought you could grip the bar anyway you wanted?