The Vegetarian Buddhist Aspiring Powerlifter

[KrazyEyezKillah]

solid workouts lately. still killing the OHP. I know you got more in the tank on those CGBP sets. Triceps/Delts have always seemed a strong point

Correct you are, arms and delts have always been freaky strong compared to everything else. I probably did have more in the tank, but I also gotta say, I don't bench how I used to back when I was hitting 275 5x5 and whatnot. I used to have a massive arch, ass off the bench a lot, and weighed 15 lbs more. Now I guess I'm more interested in "full power" kind of stuff - a smaller arch on bench, less leaning back on OHP (which had gotten absurd by the time I was doing 185 5x5), deep squats, deadlifts without my back looking like a rainbow. That's a decent transition into..

I've had to take a serious look at my training the past few weeks. Certain things are really not working for me. The number one concern has been me ****ing my body up due to lack of mobility, not stretching, sacrificing form for weight, not resting properly etc. I can literally not low bar squat the bar at this point without terrible pain in my right gluten and the other day some awful painful stuff happened to my right TFL in my quad while squatting. This was a wake up call for me. I went out and bought a Rumble Roller and have committed to doing deep tissue full bodies rolls every day. After two days of this, literally 80% of my quad pain is gone and the glute is coming along. That being said, I still want to take a break - perhaps permanently - from low bar squatting and instead focus on full high bar squats, at which I am only about ~25 lbs weaker so I'm not really losing much. Plus, as a sumo deadlifter and someone who is very quad dominant, I think I can do good things fast with high bar.

The other big issue has been my lack of commitment to a program. I have bounced around, sometimes literally multiple times in a single workout, with what I want to do. I have come up with something, utilizing the key points about what I know will make me stronger, what lifts I actually care about and want to get good at, what rep range I see the most growth in, and what frequency won't **** me up. The entire thing is based off the RPE scale, so it is auto regulated in the sense that I will hit a top set @ RPE 9, drop down to usually 90% or so, and do sets with that until I hit an RPE 9 set with that weight. So it might be only one back off set on crappy days, and other days it could be many more.

The program is pretty much:

Squat or Front Squat
Bench
Lat work

Rest

Deadlift
OHP
Face pulls / mobility stuff

Rest

Squat or Front Squat
Close Grip Bench
Incline Press or Fly if I want

Accessory Day:
Deficit Deads if I want
Shoulder, Lat, arm, calf work

Rest.

So the vast majority of the focus is on heavy compounds which is really what I enjoy nowadays, but I still get a dose of bodybuilding stuff which is cool too. I also get to rest a lot which is good for where I am in my life right now. Frequency is also there too, as I'll be squatting twice a week (front squats likely every third session since I do like them), benching twice a week (one being close grip, might change to Spoto press later), and pulling one or two times a week.

So today was deads and OHP. I didn't push deads too much for fear of my quad but it felt fine. Rumble Roller is the sht.

- Deadlift: 365x6, 385x6, 405x1, 355x6, 355x6
- Overhead Press: 170x6, 157x6, 157x6, 157x6, 157x6, good volume today
- Facepulls / Lat work

God bless anyone who just read all that.

[KrazyEyezKillah]

I don't get why squatting is so painful for me. Ass really hurt, quad was ehh okay.

-Olympic Squat: 345x5, 320x5, 320x5, 320x5, 320x5
-Close Grip Bench: 252.5x6, 233.5 x6, 233.5 x6, 233.5 x6, 233.5 x6, 233.5 x6
-Incline Bench: 185x9, 205x5, 190x5

Wouldn't be surprised if my CGBP ends up passing my normal bench again.
I dunno what I'm going to do about this squat. If the pain persists much longer, I'm going to be forced to drop back squatting entirely for a long while. Obviously don't wanna do that, but front squat never seems to give me hardly any trouble.

[Neverenough43]

I don't get why squatting is so painful for me. Ass really hurt, quad was ehh okay.

-Olympic Squat: 345x5, 320x5, 320x5, 320x5, 320x5
-Close Grip Bench: 252.5x6, 233.5 x6, 233.5 x6, 233.5 x6, 233.5 x6, 233.5 x6
-Incline Bench: 185x9, 205x5, 190x5

Wouldn't be surprised if my CGBP ends up passing my normal bench again.
I dunno what I'm going to do about this squat. If the pain persists much longer, I'm going to be forced to drop back squatting entirely for a long while. Obviously don't wanna do that, but front squat never seems to give me hardly any trouble.

Damn man always running into setbacks. Keep pushing brotha you're tough!

[KrazyEyezKillah]

Damn man always running into setbacks. Keep pushing brotha you're tough!

I know, getting tired of it, and it always revolves around the squat.
I think I found out why though. It dawned on me that I have never, ever focused on actually keeping my knees out on the concentric or eccentric. When I squat the way I'm used to, just back, straight down, and up, with even my bodyweight alone, I feel the pain in my glute. But when I focus on keeping my knees out the pain is mostly gone and I feel a lot of power in the hips...interesting..

[Neverenough43]

I know, getting tired of it, and it always revolves around the squat.
I think I found out why though. It dawned on me that I have never, ever focused on actually keeping my knees out on the concentric or eccentric. When I squat the way I'm used to, just back, straight down, and up, with even my bodyweight alone, I feel the pain in my glute. But when I focus on keeping my knees out the pain is mostly gone and I feel a lot of power in the hips...interesting..

That's what I do, keeping knees pointed and spread out. No pain whatsoever!

[Neverenough43]

Still alive brotha, how's everything? I assume you're busy with other things in life at the moment.

[KrazyEyezKillah]

Still alive brotha, how's everything? I assume you're busy with other things in life at the moment.

Yo dawg, yeah, just grabbing life by the balls and haven't really been on here much. Been lifting every other day or so and just doing full body stuff. Dawned on me that I'm gonna start forgetting my numbers if I don't log it. Even with the foam rolling, pushing knees out, etc, high bar and low bar squatting are both just off the table for me right now. I need to be realistic with myself. Can still front squat and apparently safety bar squat - just can't be doing stuff where the weight is really taking a toll on my injured glute.
How you doing man? Hope you are well.

The other day:
-Overhead Press: 172.5 x4, 160 6x4
-Front Squat: 265x5, 245 2x5
-Rows and Curls

Today
-Close Grip Bench Press: 255x5, 235 5x5
-Safety Bar Squat: 275x4, 255 4x4 - Gotta get used to this. The foam pad (which I'm told is needed to use the SSB properly) came off in the middle of one of my sets and threw me forward, scared me.
-Pull-ups: +45x7, x12, x12
-Calves

[KrazyEyezKillah]

Keep pluggin along. Deadlift is either hit or miss due to the glute (can either pull well into mid-high 400's, or not even 315 once lmao), and squatting continues to just be out of the question. So I've been box squatting on a box that is just a tiny bit above parallel (parallel and below hurts my ass).

Recent stuff:
-Paused OHP 175x5, 162 6x5
-CGBP 275x5, 255 5x5
-Box Squat 360x6 easy, 335 4x6
-Deadlift 395x6, 425x4
-Incline Bench 235x6, 217 4x6
So upper stuff continues to go pretty well, especially since I'm just 188 lbs now. Lower stuff is just bleh, I'm plugging along with exercises that don't give me pain. Happy about incline, 235x6 is an all time PR.

[nwskier]

Keep pluggin along. Deadlift is either hit or miss due to the glute (can either pull well into mid-high 400's, or not even 315 once lmao), and squatting continues to just be out of the question. So I've been box squatting on a box that is just a tiny bit above parallel (parallel and below hurts my ass).

Recent stuff:
-Paused OHP 175x5, 162 6x5
-CGBP 275x5, 255 5x5
-Box Squat 360x6 easy, 335 4x6
-Deadlift 395x6, 425x4
-Incline Bench 235x6, 217 4x6
So upper stuff continues to go pretty well, especially since I'm just 188 lbs now. Lower stuff is just bleh, I'm plugging along with exercises that don't give me pain. Happy about incline, 235x6 is an all time PR.

really strong close grip bench work. especially at 188

[KrazyEyezKillah]

really strong close grip bench work. especially at 188

Thanks man.
Taking some time off the heavy stuff and focusing on more bodybuilding-ish-style training to give my ass and knees some time. They are injured, I keep b*tching that they're injured, then I try to squat and injure them more. No squats for quite a while, I think. Deads will probably be doable soon since they only hurt when I'm also squatting.

Killin it with higher rep stuff though.
The other day I did some back,and incline 205x12, 225x8, 245x3 (lol) and back down


Today:



-Bench 225x18, 250x10, 275x5, 275x4, 250x6
-Incline 225x4, 225x4, 205x7, 185x10
-Dips BWx20, 1 chain x 15, 2 chainz x 10
-Tricep Pushdowns 130x20, 150x15, 170x10

[ardee2124]

Great stuff my man! Hope you can keep logging the bodybuilding style workouts consistently. I for one enjoy reading about big volume and major pumps for than heavy ish haha.

[WolfRose7]

In on this, girlfriend is a long time veggie who likes lifting
and I'm quite engaged with Buddhist philosophy via my martial art, if not strictly speaking one myself.

Awesome numbers btw

[KrazyEyezKillah]

Great stuff my man! Hope you can keep logging the bodybuilding style workouts consistently. I for one enjoy reading about big volume and major pumps for than heavy ish haha.

In on this, girlfriend is a long time veggie who likes lifting
and I'm quite engaged with Buddhist philosophy via my martial art, if not strictly speaking one myself.

Awesome numbers btw

Thanks bros. I'll be more consistent with logging. Legs tomorrow. Squats are out (maybe will front squat down the road, pain-permitting) and I'll see how sumo deads feel. If those hurt too, it will be a pretty boring workout with a lot of machines and maybe some light barbell hack squats.

[KrazyEyezKillah]

Couple days off squatting and my deadlifting abilities shot right back up, into a rep PR. First set felt good (well, terrible, because highrepdeadlifts, but good due to no pain), second one started to hurt a bit so I stopped. Probably could've gotten another rep or two on the second set but I said fuk it. Anyway, I'll continue to say no squatting for a long while. Deadlift strength seems to be fine, if not actually increase faster, when I do it infrequently (once every two weeks or so), so what may end up happening is I'll do deads one week and front squats the next.

-Sumo Deadlifts: 365x12, brutal, 385x8, bit of pain so I stopped
-Hyper Deadlifts (Pete Rubish style): 155x12, 155x12, 155x15
-BB Hip Thrusts: 255x15, 255x15, 255x15, for glute rehab
-Leg Extensions: stack x20, stack x20, stack x12
-Seated Calf Raise: 4 plates x10, 4 plates x10, 4 plates x10

[KrazyEyezKillah]

-Overhead Press: 135x20, 155x11, 175x5, 175x5, 155x6
-Dumbbell Bench: 90x12, 100x10, 80x20
-Shrugs: 315x20, 405x20, 455x20
-Facepulls: 160x20, 160x15, 160x15

Rep PR with 135 is 21, so I didn't quite get it, but that's okay. Glad to see that even after my light sets, my strong sets seem to be almost as strong as they are if they were my first set. Usually on OHP I'm hitting 175x6 and on bench 275x6, yet during these workouts once I'm already 30 working reps in, I'm still hitting them for 5. Might go in and do back work tomorrow. Peace

[ardee2124]

Physique pic?

[nwskier]

you've got an awesome combo of muscular endurance and power. If you reversed the order on your bench and SOHP sets, you could probably go quite a bit heavier and then hit even higher reps on those rep out sets on the way back down.

[KrazyEyezKillah]

Physique pic?

****, saw this and told myself I'd take one at the gym and forgot. I'll post some on Thursday.

you've got an awesome combo of muscular endurance and power. If you reversed the order on your bench and SOHP sets, you could probably go quite a bit heavier and then hit even higher reps on those rep out sets on the way back down.

I'm finding myself surprised by the fact that that doesn't seem to be the case for me. I know what you're saying makes total sense and should be true for everyone, but for some reason, heavy weights feel lighter to me if I already have a set or two down. When I look at every big PR I've ever had, 445 lb squat, 330 bench, 465 deadlift, 225 OHP, they were all after multiple heavy sets. I really dunno why. In time I'll likely work back towards something in the lower rep ranges and then do some drop down sets from there, but for now this is working out okay.

Today was good for a few reasons. First is I hit a 385x11 deadlift which is a pretty big pr, up until last week's 385x8, my rep pr with 385 was 7 from like a year ago. Then I hit 405x5 and could have gotten maybe 8, but stopped because my glute started acting up. Not worth hurting myself over a few reps. 405 has never felt so light though. Next week, I want it for 10.

The other reason it was good is that my glute rehabbing appears to be working (despite what I just said). I was able to use the plate loaded hack squat with almost no pain..I don't give a **** about how much I can hack squat, but a few weeks ago, I couldn't even do 1 plate per side due to how bad the pain was. Today I repped 4 plates! So the combo of hip thrusts, not squatting, deadlifting 1x week seems to be helping. I do miss my squats but it's not just worth it at this point.

- Sumo Deadlift: 385x11, 405x5
- Incline Bench: 225x8, 225x5, 225x5, 225x5, 225x5 Want this for 10 next week.
- BB Hip Thrusts: 265x15, 265x15, 265x15, working on externally rotating the hips and driving with the glutes, feels good
- Plate Loaded Hack Squat: 1pps x 10, 2pps x 10, 3pps x 10, 3.5 pps x 8, 4 pps x 5
- Hack Squat Calf Raise: 3pps x 12, 3pps x 12, 3 pps x 12 (drop) 2 pps x 12 (drop) 1 pps x 12

[KrazyEyezKillah]

The other day I was tired af and OHP'd 155x13, which was decent but felt not good. Then I did 175x6 and 185x3 and then went home, lol. I think what I'm gonna do, is peak. I plan to add 10 lbs a week to my bench, 5 to OHP, 20 to deadlift, and maybe 7.5 to incline. I'll go for rep outs just as I have been, but this way hopefully I can hit some new maxes in a month or two.

[KrazyEyezKillah]

Today I did:

-Front Squat: 235x10, 235x10, 235x8, gonna do 8's on these, 10 is too fukin hard
-BB Hip Thrust: 275x15, 275x15, 275x15
-Barbell Hack Squat: Worked up to a top set at 375
-SLDL, bodybuilding style: 135x??, 185x12, 235x10
-One-Leg Leg Press: 1 plate for a lot of reps
-Seated Calves: 3 plates 3x15

[guy169]

lol love this title

[KrazyEyezKillah]

lol love this title

Aha thanks.

Really good bench day yesterday considering I'm weighing 187ish. Hoping to break the old 275x8 PR in the next month or two.

-Bench: 265x5, 265x5, 265x5, 265x5, 265x7
-Incline: 210x5, 210x5, 210x5
-Incline DB: 90sx6, 85sx6, 80s x7 been a while
-Rope Pushdown: 150x12, 150x12, 150x12
-Hanging Leg Raises 3 sets
^got a job as a trainer so need to get dem abs poppin son.

[gomil]

-Front Squat: 235x10, 235x10, 235x8, gonna do 8's on these, 10 is too fukin hard
-Barbell Hack Squat: Worked up to a top set at 375

Checking in after a long time; looks neat. Just curious, is that hack squats for 5 reps?

[KrazyEyezKillah]

Checking in after a long time; looks neat. Just curious, is that hack squats for 5 reps?

Not that time, no. I can BB hack squat 455, though, with bad form lol.


Today was the first good leg workout I've had in months. My right glute is still very, very bad. I have talked with a doctor (whose solution is to stop training legs at all until it gets better), and a physical therapist over the interwebs who has had the same issue. He said he found the solution was strengthening his glutes with movements that aren't painful. He recommended BB hip thrusts, which I've already been doing, trap bar deads which are incredibly painful for me, and safety bar front squats. Tonight I gave those a shot. I fuking LOVED them.

Not only was it pretty much painless, but once I got past the initial awkwardness of getting under and unracking the bar, I found it to be overall the best feeling squat I've ever tried. No pitching forward, perfectly upright, knees naturally track properly, and I felt my glutes actually work and push the way they should, which was not painful and actually felt good. Quads felt great and it's nice to give my wrists a break from the clean grip of the normal front squat. My glute now feels really nice. I think as I strengthen this and the BB hip thrust, continue to lay off back squatting and deadlifting, and keep up with rolling and stretching, I can work through this. Honestly, though, I don't know that I want to go back to back squatting if/when I can - I really like these, and right now I'm focused on getting a little bit leaner, so I'm focused on more bodybuilding style stuff anyway.

- Safety Bar Front Squat: 140x5, 160x5, 180x5, 200x5, 220x5, 230x5, 235x5, 240x5. Next time will do 245 3x5 and go from there.
- Barbell Hip Thrust: 280x15, 280x15, 280x15
- Seated Leg Curl: 170x10, 140x20
- Leg Extensions (all drop set): 190x25, 130x17, 90x12, 60x10
- Seated Calves: 2 plates + 25 x 20, 3 plates + 5 x 15, 3 plates + 30 x 10
- Abs and HIIT

Tomorrow bench. I'm running a funky experiment on my bench and OHP which is a lot of fun and should hopefully get me much stronger, but slowly.

[KrazyEyezKillah]

Bench is getting strong for what I weigh. About 187 lbs BW, today hit 270 4x5 and then a set of 6.
I'm fukin around with some oly lifting lately which is a lot of fun. I suck at it so far but am still learning the movements, my best snatch is 125 lbs and clean and jerk is 190x2, lmfao. I have a tendency to just OHP the jerk part.

OHP is going well too.

[KrazyEyezKillah]

Expect this log to get busy again..I can finally squat again. I am addressing the injury and fixing it up, finally, and can now do real, legit, back squats again. I am taking it slow and practicing beltless, perfect deep form, so I'm only on 270 3x5 currently, but am going twice a week so expect to see that take off soon.

Fuking finally.

[KrazyEyezKillah]

The other day I hit bench 273 lbs for a tough 5x5, but will keep microloading 5x5 until I can't anymore, then will switch to RTS. Same goes for OHP, on which I recently hit 171.5 5x5 which was pretty easy. Tomorrow is 173 5x5.

Today - everything was done beltless. The way I have been fixing up my injured glute has been squatting with a resistance band looped right above my knees, which forces me to hold my knees out and get that glute contracting properly. Two weeks has made SUCH a difference. For the past six months 315 has been undoable for anything more than a single because during the lockout the pain level gets to like a 9 out of 10. Today I hit 315x5 with no band (or belt or anything), and the first three reps were painless, the fourth and fifth were maybe a 4 out of 10. So I am stoked af. I will continue to do almost all my squatting with the band until the pain is gone. Can't fuking believe it's working, finally, some relief.

Deads weren't bad either. I'm still doing sumo but have pointing my feet much more forward and that seems to be sparing me the glute pain there as well, feeling good. 375x6 isn't particularly good but for beltless, and no pain, it is okay with me.

-Squat: 275x5, 315x5 rehab PR, 275x5*, 275x5* (* with band)
-Deadlift: 375x6, 340x6* (*deficit)
-Pin High Bar Squats: 225x5, 235x5, 235x5 kinda like these, gets the glute firing well.
-Hip stuff
-Calf stuff

Currently hitting the gym 4 days a week. Squatting twice, benching twice, deadlifts once, OHP once. Feelsgoodman. Let's get as strong as we used to be and then stronger.

[KrazyEyezKillah]

Good OHP day. Oddly enough the first set was like a 10 RPE but all the following ones were like 8's.

-Overhead Press: 175 5x5
-Feet Up Spoto Press: 225x6, 225x6, 225x5 humbling exercise
-Lat Pulldown Close Grip: 200x10, 200x9, 200x8
-Standing Face Pull: 120x20, 140x13

[JustBulk]

Expect this log to get busy again..I can finally squat again. I am addressing the injury and fixing it up, finally, and can now do real, legit, back squats again. I am taking it slow and practicing beltless, perfect deep form, so I'm only on 270 3x5 currently, but am going twice a week so expect to see that take off soon.

Fuking finally.

Glad to hear that you are fixing your injury. Good luck fellow 2011-er lol.

[saramartin9285]

Yah, Its really good. You are on right track.