Starting to get serious

[lazyaj]

Sunday am with the ladies at University gym

Had a new member this week, bringing us up to 5. Super fun!

Paused bench up to 130x3x5 rep PR
BB rear lunge 65x2x10, 75x8 (steps per leg)
DB incline 37.5x5x8
DB incline flys x3
Skull crusher, low incline, upper arms angled back, 40x5x10
Adductor/Abductor misery sets 4x12
Bicep trisets x2
Planks: 1:00 with 45, about 15 s with 70, :30 with 60

Beaten so soundly on planks wth?? My two friends both did a minute with 70# like it was nothing. Guess I need to start practicing those again lol. Anyway psyched about the paused bench pr, that one's been a long time coming, now that I think of it. I would always get up to about 125 in my 5x5's then that would be THE END lol. Still baby weights and probably always will be, but slow improvement is better than no improvement.

In other news, I'm going to do RP diet for at least four weeks. Today is my first day back on. It's not super different than how I was eating, except no carbs for breakfast any more, and I get different amounts of carbs per day based on the workouts. I don't have a target weight, mostly I just want to get my bf% down. I was 167 this am, so probably cut down to ~160 and then do a maintenance phase. But if my workouts are getting harder, I'll probably quit early lol.

[itsagoodday]

Heya aj! Congrats on the meet, loved the write up and and all the programming talk as well Very cool you've got a nice stretch of training time before your next meet, too!

Pause dl, 2s pause mid-shin, beltless 96kg/211x6x5
Pause SSB squats, 3s pause in the hold, beltless: up to 82.5kg/181x4, four working sets
Axle bar dl (double overhand) up to 70kg/154x5, 62.5kg/138x2x5 backoff

Not sure if crazy or just glutton for punishment, lol

[lazyaj]

Heya aj! Congrats on the meet, loved the write up and and all the programming talk as well Very cool you've got a nice stretch of training time before your next meet, too!

Thanks! It's funny, after all the talk about programming plans, and putting together a template for a lot of it, I'm just back doing Dan's programming! Haha. But even so, it will still help to have thought about that stuff in the coming months.

Not sure if crazy or just glutton for punishment, lol

Yeah seriously, something is wrong with me because I actually can't think of an exercise I'd rather do than pause SSB squats! Not even joking.

[lazyaj]

Monday @ BBBC

Squat up to 178x5x5
DL off 2" blocks against doubled minis 225x5, 230x4x5
RDL 185x8 210x4x8
Chest supported row 45x8 50x4x8 45x8
Hammer curl 20x2x10
GHR situp bwx25
Captains chair leg raise 16+10, 15

Tuesday @ BBBC
Paused wg bench sets of 8: 110, 115.7, 118x2, 112
Pullups xsome
cg floor press 105x5x8, 75x20
Incline bench chest supported row 40's, 45's
Skull crushers, various angles, six sets

Wednesday am w/Dan
Front squats for technique (tons of sets of 8 but up to 50kg/110 only)
Ohp
Trap bar farmer walks 4 laps with 185
Close grip cable rows x a bunch
Back extensions on GHR 5x10

Fun workouts. The Monday night one is brutal and took close to three hours. The squats were so easy, I foolishly assumed the dl's would be too since it was the same percent. But those bands are murderous! lol. Tuesday I felt kind of weak and tired basically until I got to the gym, since I didn't have any carbs until the afternoon - but I had enough carbs around the workout that it went well. Wednesday am, Dan was basically trying to totally change my front squat lol. I basically do front squats like a high bar squat with the bar in front of me. My ankle and hip flexibility are both somewhat poor, so it's really challenging for me to do "strict" front squats. But I think it will help with quad activation and awareness, in the end.

As far as this diet - I'm definitely not used to cycling my carbs throughout the day/week. Today is my first non-training day on this diet, and I haven't had any carbs yet today (it's 3:30 pm here). Can't wait for afternoon snack! Hopefully this will get easier, but right now it's a little tough. Weight was 165.6 this am, fwiw.

insta block pulls, last set toughest set lol http://www.instagram.com/p/BVRFQPkDO...-by=irfpdotnet

[lazyaj]

Friday night @ BBBC

Pause dl 2 count mid-shin 104kgx5x5
Pause SSB 3 ct in the hole 70x4 80x4 82.5x2x4 85x3 (failed 4th rep) 70x4
Seated DB shoulder press 30x5x12
DB rows
Some front raises

Good with the bad. :/ Lacking energy and focus tonight. Glad I had a back spotter for the squats lol. But the fourth rep of that set, I got totally pinned and barely moved at all. It's only the second time I've failed a back squat (first was at my meet last Oct) - feels really weird. I was surprised, third rep was slow but ok. Sometimes your heart's just not fully in it, and you can't change it.

[lazyaj]

Sunday at University gym with the ladies

Paused bench 130x5x5 rep PR
BB shrug 155x10 185x10
Leg extension x3 to failure (85x20,15,12)
Adductor/Abductor supersets 4x
Hangling leg raise with dumbbell: 5x10, 10x10
Farmer carry 135xtwo rounds
DB Incline bench 40x5x8
DB incline fly up to 25x8
Dips bwx3x10

Tuesday at crowded globogym in Boston Metrowest

Squat up to 190x5x4
Rack pulls (below knee) four's: 260, 275, 295, 315
RDL's eights: 135 165 180 185
Row machine, suppinated high grip x4
Bicep triset x2
Calf raise on low hack squat machine x3
Various hanging leg raises

Sunday was SUPER fun! There were six of us this time, our group keeps growing lol. Definitely felt confusing to walk after the leg extensions and add/ab sets. Was too out of it from taking a red eye to the east coast to get to the gym last night, but tonight was super fun. Really humid and I was basically drenched after my second set lol but overall felt good. Particularly happy with the rack pulls, it was only a little bit higher than the blocks I usually use, and that was definitely not max effort. Wow!

[lazyaj]

Wednesday night at globogym Metrowest

Incline bench up to 85x8
Paused wide grip bench 115x5x8 rep PR
Pullups (neutral close grip) 5, 4, 3, 3.5 2.5
Chest press machine x5
High grip supinated row machine x5
Low grip supinated row machine up to 55x10 per hand
DB floor press 45x2x8, x2x7
Skull crusher drop sets: 40 to 30, x3
DB tricep pullover 40x3x10

Was freezing cold at work all day, then felt really hungry and shaky when I got to the gym. But once I remembered to keep my chest tight on bench (after the second set, when I was about to give up) things turned around, and I got a second wind. This gym is full of literal bozos, tons of quarter squatting, bro benching where the spotter is working on rows, weird exercises with super light dumbbells that make no sense, full-body cable curls, etc. So glad I get to train at BOSS!

[tina722]

wow! that is a large group to train with. What fun! My colleagues/friends are always interested/say they want to go to the gym, but I would NEVER reorganize my training because I know they will never commit.

and haha! you got (re) exposed to real gym-life and all its horrors. It's ironic, because most gym goers would be intimidated to go to BOSS or other PL gyms.

Nice training and nice volume!

[lazyaj]

wow! that is a large group to train with. What fun! My colleagues/friends are always interested/say they want to go to the gym, but I would NEVER reorganize my training because I know they will never commit.

and haha! you got (re) exposed to real gym-life and all its horrors. It's ironic, because most gym goers would be intimidated to go to BOSS or other PL gyms.

Nice training and nice volume!

Thanks Tina!

The group on Sunday wasn't all doing the same exercises, that would be a little crazy - though the week before four of us were doing curls at the same time, which made for a pretty funny snapchat video. The only problem with groups like that is sometimes there's too much chatting. Then I have to break off and do my own thing! But I also like to bounce around and do other people's exercises with them, because my own are never enough lol. But yeah I hear you on being selective, I brought a grad school friend to the gym with me one time and she had literally no interest in doing any weights. I basically just had to leave her on her own on a cardio machine lol.

It is definitely a different kind of "education" out there in the real world. These poor teen/early 20's guys were trying to show off to each other on deadlifts today - one of them eventually got 405 up with a hideous catback, then they all were laughing when he put it down - "Oh my god bro, the whole gym shook!" I just thought, "at my gym, that's a weight women lift." That made me super happy!

[lazyaj]

Thursday 6/22 at Metrowest globogym

Front squats 8's up to 125x2, 130x2
BB rear lunge 65x10 (each leg), 75x10, 85x5
Leg press narrow stance 8's up to 290 (3 plates +10's per side)
Overhead press 60x2x8 55x2x8 50x9
Shrug machine up to 2 plates +10's per side for 10 reps (with squeeze at top)
close grip cable row - 5 or so sets
Hypers - bw x 2x15

Good workout. I have to adjust my weight expectations down a bit due to the volume on this program, and also the diet. I don't have a scale here so I can't weight myself, but I've definitely been feeling the effects. The overhead presses today were frankly embarrassing, but then again I just benched yesterday. I really need to do more leg presses. Squatting really hasn't added much mass to my quads, it's mostly been my glutes and adductors. In the long run, extra leg work will pay off a lot more than extra bench work, because even if I was a "decent" bencher for my age/weight, it would only add 15kg to my total. Whereas if I was a decent squatter, my dl would also go up and I'd be looking at more like 30-40kg.

[lazyaj]

Saturday 6/24 at TPS Malden

pause deadlift (2 count mid-shin) 225x4, 245x4x4
Cambered bar squats pause 3ct in the hole 175x2x4 180x4
Power squat machine up to 150x8
DB press 10-12x6 plus drop sets, last two sets
DB row 50x3x15 mostly strict

Sunday 6/25 at hotel fitness room

DB bench sets of 10: 40 45 50 45x2
DB incline sets of 8: 35 40x3 35x2
Inc db fly: 25x4x8
Unilateral pullover/tricep extensions x a lot, including drop sets
DB rear flys 20x3x10

Saturday workout was great. The gym was totally packed but luckily I found someone to work in with on dl's. They had some safety bars there but they were all weird ones, so I decided to have fun and try a cambered bar. It's even worse than the SSB! I couldn't believe it. Pretty sure that will be my new favorite. The only problem was I didn't know anybody there and had to get random spotters. And for that bar, you definitely need spotters! lol

Couldn't make it anywhere for actual benching tonight, but worked with what I had and got in a great pump workout.

[lazyaj]

Tuesday at a random gym in the suburbs

Squat up to 205x4x4
DL Hyper up to short bar + 95 x6 paused at the top, controlled eccentric (not sure how much bar weighed)
Hack Squat/hamstring curl supersets x a lot
Chest supported row machine up to 2 plates x 6
Abs - crazy decline bench 3x15, leg raises/toes to bar 2x10, broomstick twistsx100 (what is the point of this?), DB side bends 4 sets per side
Wide grip lat pulldowns, close grip lat pulldowns, DB rear delt fly machine, face pulls

Mostly geat workout. For the squats had to use a "homemade" buffalo bar aka bent lol. I don't know how people squat facing a mirror, I absolutely hate it! Anyway they felt strong and smooth. Couldn't figure out a way to do block or rack pulls at this particular gym (the plates weren't flat), so I did dl hypers. Not sure what the weight was but my erectors were cramping pretty hard. Did a bunch of leg isolation also. I am so bad at hack squats, and they never feel good, but I'm hoping if I force myself maybe I can learn to enjoy them? I like leg extensions, just wish they were more useful.

In diet news, I'm definitely used to eating this way now. I started (unintentionally) skipping fat at some of my meals, which is essentially moving to the first cut phase, from maintenance. Carb cycling is working well for me. However I'll have to adjust my breakfast because I always have eggs, and they have too much fat. And speaking of fat, I would love to see an independent nutrition audit of Greek yogurt. There are some brands that clearly aren't fat-free, despite claiming to be. (eg Green Mountian Creamery Strawberry 0% fat, though maybe the ones I got were a bad batch?) But I also really wonder about the protein content. When you compare Siggi's and Chobani, obviously Chobani is a lot sweeter, but it's also way more watery - just thin and insubstantial. It seems like a much bigger protein difference than the 2g the label says!

[itsagoodday]

Good with the bad. :/ Lacking energy and focus tonight. Glad I had a back spotter for the squats lol. But the fourth rep of that set, I got totally pinned and barely moved at all. It's only the second time I've failed a back squat (first was at my meet last Oct) - feels really weird. I was surprised, third rep was slow but ok. Sometimes your heart's just not fully in it, and you can't change it.

It's funny that I read this after the post I made in my journal earlier today. Very similar... I was squatting and my strength was fine, but my heart and mind weren't in it and I failed several times, which I almost never do anymore.

This gym is full of literal bozos, tons of quarter squatting, bro benching where the spotter is working on rows, weird exercises with super light dumbbells that make no sense, full-body cable curls, etc. So glad I get to train at BOSS!

Nothing like some perspective to make you fully appreciate the good stuff lol.

wow! that is a large group to train with. What fun!

Seriously this! That sounds like a blast.

In the long run, extra leg work will pay off a lot more than extra bench work, because even if I was a "decent" bencher for my age/weight, it would only add 15kg to my total. Whereas if I was a decent squatter, my dl would also go up and I'd be looking at more like 30-40kg.

^^ I know these feels lol. My bench frustrates me endlessly and is my "worst" lift, but whenever I try to step up my game and push it harder, I have to wonder if my time and energy would be better spent on squats and deads. Sigh.

[tina722]

Is the diet through online coaching? And organized by cals/macros? Glad it's working out for you! So does that mean a few months of dieting? IIRC November is your next meet, so that gives a lot of room to plan.

[lazyaj]

It's funny that I read this after the post I made in my journal earlier today. Very similar... I was squatting and my strength was fine, but my heart and mind weren't in it and I failed several times, which I almost never do anymore.

Yeah. It's weird, some days I'm psyched to train and I'm all in from the beginning. Other days I think I'm psyched but I can tell I'm a little unfocused because I'm not moving smoothly and/or getting distracted. Then other days, I want to want to give it my all, and I just can't. Lol this is basically how I feel about work right now, just could not possibly motivate myself to care. Except with work, I actually don't care! With the gym, I care!!! haha

^^ I know these feels lol. My bench frustrates me endlessly and is my "worst" lift, but whenever I try to step up my game and push it harder, I have to wonder if my time and energy would be better spent on squats and deads. Sigh.

For me, my overhead press is even worse, but I just gave up on that one. I haven't been able to let go of the dream of benching reds (with collars) some day, but that day keeps looking farther and farther away in the future. I know that there are other women of similar weight and age to me who are still able to make progress - I think Leah Lutz (who lifts on the US masters team for IPF classic) has added 20 pounds to her bench the last two years. But whenever I feel like I'm getting somewhere, suddenly I'm not haha.

[lazyaj]

Is the diet through online coaching? And organized by cals/macros? Glad it's working out for you! So does that mean a few months of dieting? IIRC November is your next meet, so that gives a lot of room to plan.

I'm doing Renaissance Periodization. I have really mixed feelings about it because their science is sound, but Mike Israetel is a disgusting racist. My friend bought the template and gave me a copy, so at least I didn't support RP. We're similar size and weight, so the template has been working ok for me. Basically, I eat 6 meals on training days, though one of those is just a whey/dextrose shake during workouts. The other meals all have 24-30g protein, and varying amounts of carbs and fats depending on what time of day it is in relation to when you're training. I've been staying in a hotel with a kitchenette the last two weeks so I've been cooking a steak every night, then I have part of it for dinner and part for lunch the next day.

The nice thing about the way they set up the diet, is that while it's kind-of macros based, there's no tracking. It's more like, eat X size portion of one the foods on this list, plus x size portion of one of the foods on this other list. You basically ignore trace nutrients - for example, nuts count only as fat, which makes sense since fat is the dominant contribution, plus nut proteins aren't as complete as meat or fish.

The other thing that's handy about this approach is it makes it easier to realistically estimate. For example, 1 TBPS of olive oil is 14 grams of fat; so is 27 almonds, or 50 pistachios, or 1/2 an avocado. Super simple!

The main difference from how I was eating before (which was more or less IIFYM) is the carb cycling. It definitely took getting used to, but now I can really feel the energy from carbs on workout days. Fortunately, I'm working out five days a week right now! I think if I had more non-training days I would get sad about missing carbs haha.

[lazyaj]

Wednesday 6/28 at LA Fitness in the suburbs

Paused wide-grip bench 115x8 120x7 125x5 (plus 1 tng) 115x2x8
Pullups 3 3 2 3 2
DB floor press 45x6x10
Isolateral front rows/isolateral incline supersets (2 plates + change x10, 25's x 10 paused at the bottom and pause before lockout), 4 sets
Dips 8, 7x3
L-sits on dip bars 2 x 15s
Leg raise 3x10
Plank 45# :30s 2 sets

Good workout. I got confused and thought I already did 115 for 8's last week. I was feeling down that it felt so hard so I decided to keep adding weight lol. Then I realized I only did 110 for 8's last week (and it felt hard haha) so I went back to 115. Pullups were a lot worse than last week, but I think it was the rows and upper back work from the night before catching up with me. Dips were awful! Lol my triceps were so fried, could barely straighten my right arm at the end of each set.

After the gym I went to a bar for happy hour with my coworkers. Normally that would be fun but it was impossible to get any reasonable food at this place, just 100% fat. I woke up this morning feeling like I got run over by a truck, which is unusual. My mid-upper back hurt, my biceps hurt, and my traps hurt. I went back to sleep and finally got up at 11 am but I think it was a good idea all things considered. Moral of the story, I used to really love going out but it's just not compatible with my current training/eating schedule! Lol.

[lazyaj]

Thursday 6/29 Gold's gym north of Boston

few sets on hack squat and leg extension to kill time while squat racks were busy
Front squat 135x8, 140x3x8 rep PR
Overhead press 60x8 65x2x8 60x3x8
Farmers carries, 60# db's, 70# db's by a bunch
Cybex seated calf raise - 70x5x8-12
DB lateral raise 10x3x15,
close grip cable rows 8's from 85 to 120 in 5 pound increments
Back extensions 0x12, 25x2x15
A few more leg extensions

Fun workout. Front squats seemed to get a little better as the progressed. Really curious to see what I could do for a max! Ohp was better than last week, which surprised me given how trashed my triceps were last night. Farmer carries were a struggle, thick-handled db's, humid and sweaty, and no chalk. The calf raise they had is different than the ones I usually see. The seat pad is a little further back, so your calves aren't totally perpendicular to the floor, and the plates are carried out further in front than I'm used to. The footrest had a very well-designed bevel, so you could get a crazy stretch. Definitely the best seated calf machine I can remember using! Wish we had that one at Boss.

[itsagoodday]

I know that there are other women of similar weight and age to me who are still able to make progress - I think Leah Lutz (who lifts on the US masters team for IPF classic) has added 20 pounds to her bench the last two years. But whenever I feel like I'm getting somewhere, suddenly I'm not haha.

20 pounds in two years. Ohhhhh, I wish I could figure that out!!! That would put me closer to where I should be for my weight class and length of time lifting. I think with my bench, I keep hoping there's one little thing I'm missing, like maybe if I figure out one new technique, or do one little form tweak, suddenly it's going to take off like crazy. Eventually I'm going to have to admit that I'm kidding myself lol.

Definitely the best seated calf machine I can remember using! Wish we had that one at Boss.

You can't stow it away in your luggage? For really good equipment, it might be worth trying

[lazyaj]

20 pounds in two years. Ohhhhh, I wish I could figure that out!!! That would put me closer to where I should be for my weight class and length of time lifting. I think with my bench, I keep hoping there's one little thing I'm missing, like maybe if I figure out one new technique, or do one little form tweak, suddenly it's going to take off like crazy. Eventually I'm going to have to admit that I'm kidding myself lol.

My personal fantasy is that at some point things will turn a corner and I'll make a bunch of progress, but I never bother thinking about a mechanism that would allow this to happen lol. But in seriousness, I think I have a really difficult time activating my pecs, which has been and still is a big road block to progress. Like, it's only the last few months that I could routinely feel them working while I was benching. I think doing more pec isolation two years ago would have been really helpful, but the best I can do is to do it now.

But I think I'm similar to you, my squat and deadlift are reasonable for my weight class, and my bench is definitely low. It's frustrating.

You can't stow it away in your luggage? For really good equipment, it might be worth trying

Hah I wish. I actually liked this thing so much, I've been trying to decide if it's worth looking for a used one and then trying to convince Dan to exchange the one we have. The biometrics on the one I've been using just stink.

[lazyaj]

Saturday 7/1 at BBBC

Pause deadlift (2 second mid-shin, beltless) work up to 120kg/264# 4x4 rep PR!!
Pause ssb squat (3 count in hole, beltless) work up to 80kgx2x4, 82.5kgx2x4
DB shoulder press (seated) 25x6x12 (1 minute rest between sets)
DB rows (strict) 50x3x15

Good workout today. DL's were hard as cr@p but really happy to get through them all! Some very slow reps lol. Just fighting as much as I could to keep my chest up/low back straight. Really glad I got them all. After that, didn't have energy to push super hard on SSB squats. But it's ok, next week I will do those first thing, and I will definitely crush 85kg!

Starting a new program tomorrow. I made a template for the month of July that's mostly more of the same, but a bit experimental. Trying to do a little bit more body-building approach again, to bring up lagging areas (specifically: quads, pecs, calves). Should be fun.

[itsagoodday]

Great job pushing through on deads!

My personal fantasy is that at some point things will turn a corner and I'll make a bunch of progress, but I never bother thinking about a mechanism that would allow this to happen lol. But in seriousness, I think I have a really difficult time activating my pecs, which has been and still is a big road block to progress. Like, it's only the last few months that I could routinely feel them working while I was benching. I think doing more pec isolation two years ago would have been really helpful, but the best I can do is to do it now.

One of the things that drives me crazy is that my wide grip bench is all back, but I struggle to get other areas engaged. And my moderate grip bench gets everything else working well, but I struggle to get my back engaged. It's like oh come on, you're not even that many inches apart from each other! I've tried to split the difference, but instead of getting the best of both worlds, I couldn't get anything working right

[lazyaj]

...I've tried to split the difference, but instead of getting the best of both worlds, I couldn't get anything working right

lol yeah I can relate to that! Totally don't get it. :/

[lazyaj]

Sunday morning at University gym

Paused wide grip bench 132.5x4 (failed 5th), 130x5, 125x3x5
Incline bench 45x10, 70x10, 80x5 85x5 90x5 95x5 100x4 (failed 5th)
Isolateral shoulder press, bunch of sets
Isolateral high pulldown, bunch of sets
Seated close-grip cable rows x2
Pullovers with 30# straight bar, 3x15
Facepulls
DB incline flys x5
Decline crunch 0x15 8x15 14x2x15

Kind of a meh workout. Two of the women I usually train with were out drinking last night so they were mia, and my other friend mostly just wanted to complain. I mainly did what I had planned for today. Was hoping bench would move better, but if it did it wouldn't be in keeping with my life! lol.

[lazyaj]

Monday at 24hr Fitness

Leg sled 5x10
A few lame high bar squats
Hack squats 5x8
Adductor/Abductor supersets
Leg Extensions
Lying hamstring curls
Rear delt flys

Tuesday at BOSS Barbell

Safety Bar squats 176x6 187x6 rep PR 192x6 198x6 big rep PR!
SSB good mornings up to 154x5
Barbell glute bridge up to 205x4x10
Standing calf raises up to 165x10, 132x2x20
Chest supported row neutral grip 45x15 50x12 52.5x3x8 55x2x8
GHD situps 0x20 10x2x20

Whenever I'm on a program I rebel against it, so it makes perfect sense that I'm rebelling against my own program! Haha. Monday was just feeling really perturbed about some personal stuff, so I wanted to just fool around on machines. Yesterday I went to Boss and saw the new program that Dan put up, and decided I'd just start doing his program again. Pretty easy sell, when I get to do three of my favorites in one day! (SSB squat, SSB gm, and GHR situps!!!!) Really happy with the squats, they moved really well. My old PR on those is 209x3, and they looked gruesome as hell. Very excited to smash that next week lol.

Top set SSB from yesterday: http://preprod.instagram.com/p/BWLEA...-by=irfpdotnet

209x3 from January: http://preprod.instagram.com/p/BP0qp...-by=irfpdotnet

[lazyaj]

Thursday with Dan @ Boss

Paused wide grip bench 6's: 44 77 94 110 115 125x2 (misloaded) 121x2 115
Close grip bench to 2 board (bench blox) 110x5x5
Neutral grip pullup bwx5x5
DB chest supported row w/squeeze at the top 45x4x8 50x3x8
Dips bwx12x3

Had "too much fun" on Tuesday afternoon so took yesterday off. But felt pretty good this morning. For the top wg sets, Dan and I had a miscommunication and he added a 2.5kg plate to his side, but I put a 5 on my side. The first rep of the first set I thought "Why the heck is my left arm coming up so much slower?" - so then I consciously shifted the bar to the right by an inch which evened things out. Didn't think to check the bar though. We didn't notice until after the second set when we dropped the weight lol. For the close grip sets, had two fingers on the smooth, slow eccentrics and a short pause, and really focusing on squeezing the triceps and keeping the bar moving in a straight line. Those were fun! Really happy with the pullups too. I thought I would get one set of 5, so I set up some bands to help me finish. Didn't even need them!!!

Taking today off, and my husband and I are driving up to Reno this afternoon. It will be nice to spend time together and have a mini vacation. Also, he wrote a web-based app to keep score at powerlifting meets, because we're sick of nextlifter, so we'll be testing it at the USAPL Southwest regionals. Should be fun!

[lazyaj]

Friday @ American Iron gym in Reno

Front squat 45x8 85x5 105x5 135x3 160x2 180x1 190x1 PR 150x3x5
Overhead press 55x8 60x8 60x3x10
Trap bar farmers walk up to 205
Low cable rows 5x10
Abs
DB front raises
Prime pullover machine - a few sets

Saturday @ American Iron

Deficit dl up to 275x5
GHR situps x5-6 sets
Bent over row 135x8 then I injured my rhomboid lol

Sunday @ University gym w/the ladies

Paused bench 105x5 115x2x5
Speed bench 100x3x5
Paused wide grip bench (long pauses) 95x3x6
DB incline bench 25x12 35x12 37.5x3x12
Iso shoulder press/iso chest press supersets, 15-20 reps each, 3-4 sets
Leg press 3x15
Decline crunches 0x30, 10x20
Glute kickback machine 3 sets
Some calf raises
Bicep triset x2

Well, frankly Reno is depressing except for American Iron, which is awesome. Tamara from American Iron befriended a programmer who also lifts, and he wrote a scorekeeping program called liftingcast that blows Nextlifter out of the water - and is also better than my husband's. They ran the meet with liftingcast and it appeared to work perfectly. The only changes I would want are mostly cosmetic. I'm so so glad that this will mean the end of Nextlifter!

Anyway, great workout on Friday, really happy with the front squat PR. But the highlight of the day was definitely the pullover machine. I've always been curious to try one, and it was super awesome. That one in particular has multiple cam settings so you can change where the hardest part in the ROM comes. It's amazing!

Saturday I only got through deficits. The top set was really difficult and I was happy to finish it. I was supposed to do block pulls but there wasn't an easy way to set them up. I decided to do the bor's but didn't do any warmups and pulled my right rhomboid. It was already unhappy from sleeping in the terrible hotel bed. It's getting better though, and I'll go see my chiro tonight so hopefully I won't have to take any more days off from pulling.

Hubby and I decided to get out of Reno early because our hotel was awful, so we drove back Sat night. That meant I could go to the gym with the girls on Sunday. For some reason bench was programmed super easy this week (basically a deload week), which was probably for the best because it didn't bother my rhomboid at all. Overall a good session, though anti-biceps girl is mad at me (and everyone else it seems) and taking it out in unpleasant ways. While I was crossing the street to the gym, she was driving up the road, and as a "joke" layed on her horn while driving directly at me. It was frankly scary and I kind of don't want to deal with her at all for a while. :/ lol [/deardiary]

Insta front squats: http://preprod.instagram.com/p/BWQsn...-by=irfpdotnet

[tina722]

I'm always rebeling against the program I'm on, so I'm glad to see someone else suffer.


Nice PRs!!! and especially nice fs PR, I think you have 200+.

[lazyaj]

I'm always rebeling against the program I'm on, so I'm glad to see someone else suffer.


Nice PRs!!! and especially nice fs PR, I think you have 200+.

Thanks Tina! Actually seeing your front squat videos a few weeks ago are what inspired me to push myself on those!

[lazyaj]

Tuesday 7/11 @ Boss

Safety bar squat 5's up to 203 rep PR
Pause ssb squat 165x3x5
Deficit stiff-leg deadlift 8's up to 176
GHR bw x 3x6
GHR situp bw x 3x15

Thursday 7/13 with Dan

Paused wide grip bench up to 58.5kg/128.9# x6, x5 (failed 6th rep)
Very close grip tempo bp to 2 board up to 110x3x5
Pullups (neutral grip for 3x5, regular grip for 4,3,3)
Incline bench db chest supported row w/2second squeeze at the top, 6x8
Dips bw x 10 10 12

Went to chiro Monday night and she mostly worked on my right rhomboid. That helped a lot. However, my allergies have come back full force, and/or I have a cold. It's miserable. Anyway Tuesday by the time I got home from the gym I basically had to go straight to bed. Squats felt way more difficult than the previous week, and I was hipping everything up. I think my quads were m.i.a. from too much isolation work on Sunday. I took Wednesday off with the hope of getting better, but I didn't get better. Thursday workout was fun. My wg bench technique has really improved, though the last rep of the second top set I got out of position and it was hopeless. Dan gave me a two-finger spot but it was the kind of grinder that's actually painful and leaves you winded. I finally learned how to do the ultra-close grip presses where it's basically only triceps and my shoulders are out of the movement, basically pure bodybuilding style. Those are so hard! I mentioned the pullover machine at American Iron to Dan, which turned into Dan showing me all of these Dorian Yates training videos. The suffering is unreal! Gave me some perspective on why Dan is always programming insanely heavy block pulls for people.