Black_Spit's training Journal

[Backbrah]

Hey Black_Spit, i'm enjoying reading your day to day log, thats a fantastic transformation, and i'm also admiring your strength, keep up the great work!

[Black_Spit]

Hey Black_Spit, i'm enjoying reading your day to day log, thats a fantastic transformation, and i'm also admiring your strength, keep up the great work!

Hey thanks a lot man. I don't feel quite transformed yet, I still have that big ole gut to work on, but, I feel pretty good about the progress I'm making. It is pretty cool to increase strength at this rate and still drop a significant amount of weight at the same time.

edit: Reps on recharge.

[Backbrah]

Never give up beleive in this, also consistency is the key and this gut problem you say you have will diminish with hard work i garantee it

[Black_Spit]

It feels really good to do some singles this week and push myself a little harder. I'm motivated like I haven't been in a while.

I'm thinking hard about adding in some singles on week 3 again next cycle. What I'd really like to do is only singles like I've done so far this week. Hitting that 455 DL, and realizing that I could have done quite a bit more still, makes me want to try 495 next month.

Any suggestions or criticisms regarding that idea? I've done the program as outlined almost exactly for almost 4 months now, but I really like the added motivation of singles in week 3.

[dtaps24]

It feels really good to do some singles this week and push myself a little harder. I'm motivated like I haven't been in a while.

I'm thinking hard about adding in some singles on week 3 again next cycle. What I'd really like to do is only singles like I've done so far this week. Hitting that 455 DL, and realizing that I could have done quite a bit more still, makes me want to try 495 next month.

Any suggestions or criticisms regarding that idea? I've done the program as outlined almost exactly for almost 4 months now, but I really like the added motivation of singles in week 3.

What about the 5/3/1 Singles version? I kinda liked running that, if I felt good I could push the singles if not either keep them the same or not do them.

[dtaps24]

Here it is if you wanna look at it, I ran it at 95% not 90.

[Black_Spit]

What about the 5/3/1 Singles version? I kinda liked running that, if I felt good I could push the singles if not either keep them the same or not do them.

I'm not familiar with that. Is that something from his new book? Bc I wanted to buy it but I didn't think it was out yet. If it the original, I might need to dust it off and re-read bc that sounds exactly like what I'm after.

[dtaps24]

It's up there, bad timing of posts. It is basically exactly what he outlines in 5/3/1 for powerlifting (at least I've heard I haven't bought the book) but the idea came from Matt Rhodes originally, the numbers I have in there are basically with a 90-95% training max but more often than not I kept going up on the heavy single(s) to close to a Max. It worked very well for my deadlift.

[Black_Spit]

Thanks Dtaps, I think I'll probably try that weekly order next cycle... and maybe that 3rd week, too, or maybe just singles on the 3rd week. It's been a long time since I've done any singles, and it feels good. I'm new to powerlifting style training, but, there's nothing inherently wrong with doing singles for a week out of the month, right?

Just did 10 minutes of foam rolling tonight. Should be mobile and ready to go in the morning.

Was planning on doing Bench today and Squat tomorrow, but I've had a long week at work. But, I slept very well last night, and will hopefully do so tonight and I'll get a couple of PR's tomorrow.

If I'm feeling good, I might throw in some sprints tomorrow morning, too.

[dtaps24]

Nah it's good to do singles in my humble opinion, I love singles though

[Black_Spit]

Well, as "on" as I felt on Monday, I was that far "off" this morning. I couldn't get warmed up, especially my knees and elbows were stiff and kind of hurting on squats. My damn gym felt like a meat locker, and it's 20 degrees outside. Bottom line is my squats sucked. I didn't even get to depth on 365, and I knew as much after watching the 365 video, but I went ahead on to 405 anyway lol. Also, as I'm writing this I see I didn't warmup thoroughly enough at all. I can make 100 excuses, but, I just didn't get it done on squats. I guess the bright side is I tied my bench PR. I thought my bench PR was 315, but looking back through my old log, I think it was actually 300. I missed 315 though. :/ I actually kind of embarrassed myself in the gym today. Squatting high, missing 315 in fromt of a half a dozen people doing leg extensions. Whatever.


Squats-
135x5
225x1
315x1

365x1 blah... kind of embarrassed to even post the next 2 videos. (@ :20)


405x1 not good at all


Bench Press-
135x3
225x1
250x1
275x1
300x1 PR tie

315x1 miss

[ArchDukeOfTops]

300 bench !

nice man, mirin the power rack safety set up

strong avatar change too, you had that other avi like forever.

[Black_Spit]

300 bench !

nice man, mirin the power rack safety set up

strong avatar change too, you had that other avi like forever.

Thanks, and lol yeah, I've had that avatar since bb.com started allowing avatars. The new one is from Monday's DL workout.

[Black_Spit]

So far my deload has been great. I have slept 8-9 hours every night this week. I feel awesome. I think tomorrow and Saturday I'll hit the gym and do my 4 core lifts with 135 lb's, (less than the 50% recommended, but I'm just trying to keep in the groove and still keep it light) and do some sprints too if I can keep from making any excuses. I really need to make a focus on doing these every week. I think for cycle 5 I'm going to do one session a week, make it a habit, then maybe add a second day in cycle 6. We'll see.

I'll base my training percentages off of the following for cycle 5.

Press- 200 (actual max is 200 from last week)
Deadlift- 405 (going to try to hit 495 in 4 weeks, pulled 455 last week)
Bench- 290 (Benched 300 last week)
Squat- 365 (After a bad performance last week, I'm resetting this lift and focus on depth for a month or two).

I made a thread in the PL section about maxes vs training %'s, and the consensus was that if I pulled 455 while training with 365-395 as a max, to just keep doing it that way until it stops working. And that made sense. Any more opinions on that would be great.

As far as dropping weight, it's kind of staying put, weighed in at 249 yesterday, but my pants are looser, and I just feel more mobile, so something is working.

[Black_Spit]

Press-
45x5
95x5
95x5
95x5

External Rotators-
3x20

Deadlift-
135x5
135x5
135x5

Still sleeping better. If I can continue this sleeping pattern on into the next month, I know I'll make better progress than I have in 2 previous cycles.

[Black_Spit]

This week is the closest thing I've done to a proper 5/3/1 style deload week since starting 5/3/1. I did forget to do bench press this morning somehow, but I'm not too worried about it.

Squat-
135 lb's 3x5

Calves
3x10

Curls 1x10, 2x5 (in the power rack, lol, and not ashamed of it)
Curls hurt my wrist so bad. I haven't done curls in so long. I guess I'm just unable to do them with a straight bar, because damn, that hurt. Slept 8-9 hours every single day this week. I hope I can carry that through to this upcoming cycle, bc that's been the missing link for the past 4 months between good progress and great progress I think.

[Black_Spit]

Ok I went back and watched my videos and I guess there is no reason to deload my squat just bc I had a bad day. My strength has been going up, so I'll wait until I stall before I do something like that. I just need to focus on depth and mobility.

So, I'll use these numbers for cycle 5.

Press- 205
Dead- 405
Bench- 290
Squat- 400

[Black_Spit]

Well, I spent half my day yesterday with an icepack on my left shoulder, and now I've hurt myself doing deadlifts this morning. It happened on my 455x1 set. I had intended, if I was feeling ok, which I was, to go higher than 455 if I thought I could get it, which I probably could have. But, I felt a sharp pain behind my right collar bone when I got the deadlift up. It still hurts pretty bad, especially when I breathe. It doesn't hurt to touch though. Anybody ever had this? Is it possible I pulled some muscle under there that connects to the collar bone? Anyway, I'll deal with it later if it's still hurting.

Maybe this 5/3/1 Reloaded thing is a bad idea for me after all. Maybe I should just keep doing what I've been doing lol. Doing heavy singles after 3 work sets might just not suit me very well.

Deadlift-
135x1
225x1

275x3
315x3
365x3

405x1 (go to :30 sec)

455x1 <ties PR>

[SgSpartan]

Grats on your PR tie.

[Black_Spit]

Grats on your PR tie.

Thanks.


I've damaged something though lol... Hurts pretty bad. Hopefully I didn't tear something in there. Watching the video I don't see anything I did wrong or anything.

[Black_Spit]

Well, I'm not going to be able to do OHP due to my right shoulder that I hurt Monday. My left shoulder is no good either, but, it's not nearly as bad as the right. I got my shoulders all warmed up and feeling pretty good, and attempted to start pressing. I did the bar which felt fine, then went to 95 lb's and I could immediately tell it wasn't going to work. So, that's out for a while until I can heal it up. All that work the last 6 months to get the lift up for nothing.

But, at least Bench Press felt ok.

Started with this: Band traction (which I picked up from EliteFts)-


Press-
45x5
95x5

External Rotators-
2x20

Bench Press-
45x5
135x5

185x5 65%
225x5 75%
245x5 85%

[Black_Spit]

I think I got the hint that the reason I'm so banged up and hurting myself all the time, especially my shoulders, is that I've been dieting too long and trying to force myself to get stronger at the same time. So, I'm taking a break from the weight loss and just eating as much as I need without being hungry, keeping it 75% healthy. Lots of eggs, oats, beef, peanut butter, etc... I'm trying to keep it at about 2500-4000 calories, about 300g protein. We'll see if the extra nutrients help me recover better.


Band traction-

Squats-
45x5
135x5
225x5

275x5 65%
315x5 75%
340x5 85%

Abs-
3x10

Foam Roller-
10 minutes

[Black_Spit]

Deadlift-
135x3
225x3

275x3
315x3
365x3

Hang Cleans-
3x3 135 lb

Shrugs-
3x10

Barbell Preacher Curls-
3x20/10/10

Stadium Stair Sprints today. I was winded after 5, and I ended up doing 10... It's cold outside, and I busted my ass on a patch of ice walking to the stadium. Thought it was water. Here is where I do them. It's on the way home from the gym, so that makes it easy.


Looked like water... plus it was dark when I got there.

[Black_Spit]

Bench Press-
135x5
185x3

205x3 70%
235x3 80%
260x3 90%

Upright Rows-
3x15

Face Pulls-
3x10

Pressdowns-
3x10

Track and Stadium was completely frozen, so I decided to come home and hit the heavy bag for a couple of rounds instead. Since I just started, I did 2 rounds instead of 3. It was a pretty good alternative to sprints/stairs, so I think I'll start doing that once a week instead, probably 3 rounds instead of 2.

Heavy Bag-
2 x 5 minute rounds

[Black_Spit]

I was low on time this morning to type it out, but 2 things of note. First is I'm adjusting my grip out some on Bench Press. You can see on my videos that its a very close grip (closer than shoulder width, pinkies on inside ring) that I'm wondering if this isn't contributing to my shoulder pains.

And second, after much reading I'm also thinking that too much pressing and too little back and more specifically rear felt work is partially to blame. So I'll be doing more face pulls/upright rows.

So today, I started with a wider grip on bench with warmups (index on inside ring) and worked in a little bit to middle finger on ring. Eventually I want to get there even on top sets, but I didn't want to completely change it overnight and miss my reps or something due to that.

Anyway it felt easy enough, so I think by next cycle I'll be using the wider grip 100% of the time.

[Black_Spit]

Running very short on time again this morning. No time for accessories, barely time for my cardio work. But, I made a deal with myself that I could eat what I wanted for a while and see how strong I could get if I would do some form of cardio after my workouts 3 days a week. I was going to do stadium stairs, but, the track/stadium was occupied by the football team. So, I came home and hit the heavy bag again for 2 rounds. Next week I'll start doing 3 rounds when I do the bag.

Squat-
135x3
225x3

275x3 70%
315x3 80%
360x3 90%

Heavy Bag-
2 x 5 min rounds

[Black_Spit]

Deadlift-
135x3
225x3
275x1

315x5 75%
345x3 85%
385x3 95% +2 over prescribed reps

Hang Cleans-
135x3
185x2

BB Curls-
3x15

Stadium Sprints-
x10

I feel like puking right now. (srs)

[Black_Spit]

Right ankle/shin/knee (mostly ankle) have been sore since Tuesday. I'm assuming it's from the stadium stairs. But, I bought a bottle of Advil and toughed it out again today. Doing intense GPP/HIIT (it all amounts to about the same thing) 3x week is a lot to recover from in the beginning, so I'm sure I'll adapt to it soon enough. In the meantime, I can literally feel myself getting stronger now that I've put the diet on hold temporarily. And I can see my traps growing in the mirror now after only a few weeks of eating 3500 calories or more. Kinda crazy. My shoulders haven't hurt in a week now after dropping OH Press a couple of weeks ago. Now that I've started doing more rear delt work, I would like to experiment with putting them back in next cycle, and see if I will be able to continue doing them or not.

Bench Press-
45x5
135x5
185x3

225x5 75%
245x3 85%
275x3 95% +2 over prescribed reps, and I still had a couple left in the tank, but I wasn't in the power rack, so I didn't push my luck, after everything was going so well.

Face Pulls-
3x10

Cable Upright Rows-
3x10

Pressdowns-
3x12

Stadium Stairs-
x10

Don't feel like puking today... that must have been a product of doing them after deadlifts on Tuesday.

[Black_Spit]

I imagine if Jim Wendler were here he would say I moved south of vag today. I just wasn't feeling it. I knew I wasn't when I woke up, on the drive over, and as I was warming up. I was tired, sore etc... So I just did my warmups and left lol. When my 275 warmup felt heavy and my knees cracked, I knew better. Oh well.

Also, today I did some football mobility/agility drills instead of stadiums. And, I think they actually were harder than the stairs. lol you know you're in bad shape when the warmups you did in high school leave you huffing and puffing.

Squats-
45x8
135x5
225x3
275x1

3 rounds of (each one 10 yards there, and 10 yards back):

Side shuffle
Backpedal
Karoake
Power Skip
Sprint

[Black_Spit]

Tues and Thu I did a little conditioning and ab work.

Heavy Bag- 3x 5 min rounds
Abs- 3x15

Tomorrow I think I'll do some sprints, and maybe some agility drills.

I'm trying to decide if I want to throw Press back into the mix next cycle.

So I think cycle 6 lift % will be as follows:

Press 185
Deadlift 415
Bench 300
Squat 365

Resetting squat. Going to focus on form and depth. Edit: I'm thinking about a cycle or two of box squats to really zero in on form/depth...