Heisman's log

[AdamWW]

Today's workout:

Paused zombie squats: 165x5x5

That's it. I had a bit of tightness in the back of my right knee after this for a couple of hours but that cleared up. I'm not concerned about it. Quite happy with how this felt. I think I will solely do zombie squats for lower body the next couple of weeks and just work on ramping up the weight, though I may throw in 1 day a week for glutes/hams as well.

Are you limiting movements due an injury or is it something else? I tried scanning your posts here but didn't see mention of the reason behind limited volume/movements for the zombie squats. I actually didn't know what those were: had to look it up!

Did you end up passing your exam?

I have to say, you do a LOT of sets per session. I'd burn out on that kind of volume!

[Heisman2]

Are you limiting movements due an injury or is it something else? I tried scanning your posts here but didn't see mention of the reason behind limited volume/movements for the zombie squats. I actually didn't know what those were: had to look it up!

Been having knee pain on/off for years and have been adjusting squat form for years to accommodate. All started with a torn meniscus in my right knee way back in my college days. Now instead of working around the issue I'm attacking it head on (should have done this years ago, lol). I determined a good squat stance with heel elevation and am able to do the zombie squats well. Pausing is to help minimize any joint issues at the bottom. I'm doing zombie squats to also help force me to maintain excellent form (if you lean forward the bar comes down). As this is working I want to just do these for a few weeks until linear progression stalls (or slows significantly) so if I do develop any worsening knee issues I'll know I can attribute it to this.

I don't have knee pain outside of lifting though except at times when standing up from a kneeling position, so the knee pain isn't limiting my quality of life in any way. Just limiting my squats.

Did you end up passing your exam?

It'll be another month before I find out. Pass or fail I'll post the results.

I have to say, you do a LOT of sets per session. I'd burn out on that kind of volume!

This is new for me and I'm keeping all sets far from failure (other than the isolation sets). Taking each set to the point of noticeable velocity loss. Just trying this out for a couple of weeks. Then I may start recording some of my sets to try to more accurately gauge how much velocity I'm losing. At some point I may consider purchasing equipment to do this rigorously but I don't plan on spending money to do that any time soon. I do anticipate cheaper options will become available over the next few years.

[AdamWW]

Been having knee pain on/off for years and have been adjusting squat form for years to accommodate. All started with a torn meniscus in my right knee way back in my college days. Now instead of working around the issue I'm attacking it head on (should have done this years ago, lol). I determined a good squat stance with heel elevation and am able to do the zombie squats well. Pausing is to help minimize any joint issues at the bottom. I'm doing zombie squats to also help force me to maintain excellent form (if you lean forward the bar comes down). As this is working I want to just do these for a few weeks until linear progression stalls (or slows significantly) so if I do develop any worsening knee issues I'll know I can attribute it to this.

I don't have knee pain outside of lifting though except at times when standing up from a kneeling position, so the knee pain isn't limiting my quality of life in any way. Just limiting my squats.



It'll be another month before I find out. Pass or fail I'll post the results.



This is new for me and I'm keeping all sets far from failure (other than the isolation sets). Taking each set to the point of noticeable velocity loss. Just trying this out for a couple of weeks. Then I may start recording some of my sets to try to more accurately gauge how much velocity I'm losing. At some point I may consider purchasing equipment to do this rigorously but I don't plan on spending money to do that any time soon. I do anticipate cheaper options will become available over the next few years.

Ah i see, that makes sense.

I tend to suffer from overuse pain personally for squats, and usually what ends up happening is my form slowly starts degrading over time, and before I know it I get knees/hip pain, and I have to scale back and effectively 'deload' to fix it again and make more progress.

I actually did this for my last 2 workouts... dropped the highest weight to 155lb and focused mainly on keeping a neutral spine and maintaining tightness through the whole motion... much more TUT, etc. It actually felt REALLY good doing it.

I also added in 3 sets of 10 of lightweight split squats and my vastus medialis has seriously started growing within 3 weeks. VERY surprising.

That's wild they take such a long time to review the test. I assume it must not be multiple choice then, right? Probably have to review essays, etc?

Your volume approach actually makes sense to me honestly. I haven't gotten to THAT amount yet, but I've started adding in way more 'metabolic' work at the end... and I mean very, VERY light weight just to feel the acid buildup and fully stretch the muscles and tendons. Time will tell if it yields any added growth over time, but I do feel I at least LOOK way more full in my chest, lats, and arms, in addition to my quads.

[Heisman2]

That's wild they take such a long time to review the test. I assume it must not be multiple choice then, right? Probably have to review essays, etc?

Nope, it was all multiple choice. Why it takes longer than 24 hours to grade all of this I have no idea.

Your volume approach actually makes sense to me honestly. I haven't gotten to THAT amount yet, but I've started adding in way more 'metabolic' work at the end... and I mean very, VERY light weight just to feel the acid buildup and fully stretch the muscles and tendons. Time will tell if it yields any added growth over time, but I do feel I at least LOOK way more full in my chest, lats, and arms, in addition to my quads.

So I wouldn't consider what I'm doing to be "metabolic" as I'm still getting fairly close to failure (RIR 4 or less at times). Studies indicate using 30% of your 1RM can still yield good hypertrophy gains but you need to get quite close to failure (likely RIR 2 or less) for it to work well.

Today's workout:

Paused weighted dips: BW+60x7, BW+45x10, BW+45x6
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+60x7, BW+45x7, BW+25x6
Paused flat bench press: 155x10, 155x7, 155x8
Paused seated rows: 160x10, 160x9, 160x9
Paused incline dumbbell bench press: 60x9, 60x7, 60x7
Paused lat pulldowns:160x8, 160x7, 160x6

Happy with all of this.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused zombie squats: 175x5x5

Felt this more in my quads than any set of squats I've done in a very long time. Happy with this. Actually quite challenging so I think Friday I will do other lower body stuff.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

FT bench press: 55x8, 55x7, 55x6
One-armed pulldowns: 100x8, 100x6, 90x7
Seated dumbbell shoulder press: 45x7, 40x8, 40x6
FT rows: 60x10, 60x7, 60x7
Push-ups: BW+25x12, BW+25x8, BW+25x6
Inverted rows: BW+25x9, BW+25x6, BWx11
Cable laterals: 10x10-4-2
One-armed low cable curls: 25x10-3-2
Lying tricep extensions: 60x12-3-1

All of this was good.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused zombie squats: 185x5x5 - this time I did not elevate my heels and things still felt good. Very pleased with this. No pain at all. Very minimal buttwink at the bottom and it was likely my pelvis going from APT to more neutral. Felt good all around.
Nordic leg curls: 6
Dorsiflexion: 10x14
Hip flexion: 15x10

Very happy with all of this.

[Heisman2]

Paused weighted dips: BW+60x6, BW+45x6, BW+25x9
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+60x6, BW+45x6, BW+25x6
Paused flat bench press: 165x6, 155x7, 155x6
Paused seated rows: 165x8, 165x7, 165x6
Paused incline dumbbell bench press: 60x8, 60x7
Paused lat pulldowns: 160x9, 160x6
Cable laterals: 10x11-3-3
Low pulley cable curls: 25x10-2-1
Lying tricep extensions: 60x12-3-1

Good all around though was weaker with the dips/pullups. It's hard to do those as fast as possible with the extra weight due to momentum. Need to think about that aspect a bit more.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused zombie squats: 195x5x5 (starting to get hard)
Nordic leg curls: 7, 7
Dorsiflexion: 10x13, 10x12
Hip flexion: 15x11, 15x8

Felt good all around. I may start putting my hands on the edge of the bar with the zombie squats so they may technically become front squats but it would just be for reassurance to ensure if the bar starts to roll forward a bit I won't have to drop it. So I'm gonna keep calling them zombie squats but just want to make this clear.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

FT bench press: 55x9, 55x8, 55x7
One-armed pulldowns: 100x9, 100x7, 100x6
Seated dumbbell shoulder press: 45x8, 45x6, 40x8
FT rows: 55x11, 55x8, 55x7
Push-ups: BW+25x12, BW+25x7, BWx11
Inverted rows: BW+25x9, BW+25x6, BWx10
Cable laterals: 10x11-4-3
One-armed low cable curls: 25x12-3-2
Lying tricep extensions: 60x14-3-2

I did not feel good going into this workout as I'm still tired from daylight saving's time. Also I let the garage get too warm which was not smart. Nonetheless, this was decent. After I was done it now feels like I pulled my left lat a bit, similar to a few weeks ago. Once again I do not know how as I had no issue during or after any of the sets. I am starting to think that velocity-based training may not be a good idea for the pulling exercises due to the negative strength curve associated with them. I may keep stopping the sets at significant velocity dropoff but I'll probably start doing the reps with a slightly more controlled concentric phase.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused zombie squats:
205x4, 205x4, 205x4, 205x2, 185x3 - felt good, thoracic extension is the limiting factor, may start doing 2 or 3 sets of these and then 3 or 2 sets of front squats so I can push my legs a bit more
Nordic leg curls: 7, 7
Dorsiflexion: 10x13, 10x11
Hip flexion: 15x13, 15x10
ATG split squats: 15

Happy with this.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused weighted dips: BW+60x7, BW+45x7, BW+25x7
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+60x7, BW+45x6, BW+257
Paused flat bench press: 165x7, 165x6, 155x7
Paused seated rows: 165x10, 165x8, 165x7
Paused incline dumbbell bench press: 60x8, 60x8, 60x7
Paused lat pulldowns: 160x9, 160x7, 160x6
Cable laterals: 10x12-4-2
Low pulley cable curls: 25x12-3-2
Lying tricep extensions: 60x14-2-1

Only slept 4.5 hours overnight for no good reason at all but nonetheless this was a great workout and no pain/soreness in my back at all.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused bulgarian split squats: 30x5, 50x5, 60x5, 70x5, 80x5
ATG split squats: 2-7-4, 10-4, 14 (3 sets total, when there are dashes I did that many reps on each leg before moving back to the other one)

That's it. The bulgarian split squats do a lot of good for my glutes/hamstrings so I wanted to do them again. The ATG split squats were for the quads as they pump my quads a lot. Happy with this.

[EliKoehn]

Today's workout:

Paused bulgarian split squats: 30x5, 50x5, 60x5, 70x5, 80x5
ATG split squats: 2-7-4, 10-4, 14 (3 sets total, when there are dashes I did that many reps on each leg before moving back to the other one)

That's it. The bulgarian split squats do a lot of good for my glutes/hamstrings so I wanted to do them again. The ATG split squats were for the quads as they pump my quads a lot. Happy with this.

That looks like a lot of volume. Are you notating sets and reps as "A x B" or is is each block one set and the weight?

[Heisman2]

That looks like a lot of volume. Are you notating sets and reps as "A x B" or is is each block one set and the weight?

I typed out a long response and the forum glitched. Irritating. Bulgarians are weight * reps, so 30x5 is 30 pound dumbbell in each hand for 5 reps. ATG split squats the first set was 2 reps each leg then 7 each leg then 4 each leg alternating, then break before the second set. So not too much volume. I'm keeping these Friday sessions on the less taxing side as I'm hitting squats hard Wed/Sun.

That said, my glutes/hams are quite sore from the Bulgarians. I don't understand why they are not a more popular exercise. I realize I do them differently than most people but nothing has ever come close to hitting my glutes/hams as hard as they do.

Today's workout:
FT bench press: 55x10, 55x8
One-armed pulldowns: 100x10, 100x7
Standng barbell overhead press: 95x7, 95x7, 95x7
FT rows: 60x11, 60x10, 60x9
Push-ups: BW+25x13, BW+25x8, BWx13
Inveted rows: BW+25x10, BW+25x6, BWx11
Cable laterals: 10x14-4-2
One-armed low cable curls: 25x14-3-2
Lying tricep extensions: 60x16-3-1

This all felt great.

[Heisman2]

Tried to do zombie squats today and worked up to a last warmup of 185x2 and it wasn't happening; glutes/hamstrings still too sore. So I just did:

One-legged leg extensions: 90x6, 80x7, 80x6, 70x8, 70x8-5-2

That's it. Felt fine. I did not expect to be this sore from the bulgarians as I just worked up to 80x5 but lesson learned, lol. Should hopefully get in a good squat session Wednesday.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused weighted dips: BW+60x7, BW+45x9, BW+45x8
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+60x7, BW+45x7, BW+45x6
Paused flat bench press: 165x8, 165x7, 165x6
Paused seated rows: 170x8, 170x8, 170x8
Paused incline dumbbell bench press: 60x10, 60x9, 60x8
Paused lat pulldowns: 160x10, 160x9, 160x7

Felt good, rested more than I have between sets previously at the expense of the isolation exercises at the end. We'll see how things on Thursday. I definitely feel recovered enough to squat tomorrow.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused front squats: 205x2x5
Paused high bar back squats: 205x3x5

That's it. Barely offering any support to the bar with my arms with the front squats. Backsquats actually felt pretty good and I had my hamstrings touching my calves so happy with the depth. We'll see if my knee acts up at all in the next 1-2 days and then try to build on this.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

FT bench press: 60x7, 60x6, 55x8
One-armed pulldowns: 110x7, 110x7, 100x6
Standing barbell overhead press: 95x9, 95x8, 95x8
FT rows: 65x7, 65x7, 65x7
Push-ups: BW+25x14, BW+25x9, BW+25x8
Inverted rows: BW+25x10, BW+25x8, BW+25x6
Cable lateral: 15x8/10x5/5x4
One-armed low cable curls: 35x5/25x5/20x5
Lying tricep extensions: 70x10/50x7

Good all around. Switched the isolation exercises to dropsets from rest pause sets.

I had a patient yesterday with gastroenteritis and we have norovirus going around the community. I tried to be safe but we will see what happens. So far my stomach is feeling good.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused front squats: 207.5x5
Paused high bar back squats: 207.5x5
Paused bulgarian split squats: 80x6
Resisted dorsiflexion: dropset with 15/10/5
Resisted hip flexion: 15x13

That's it. Probably not gonna squat on Fridays moving forward and just squat Wed/Sat. The squats felt fine though. The bulgarians felt good. My hope is that by only doing 1 set I won't be too sore to squat Sunday. Very excited about my leg training overall.

[Heisman2]

Paused weighted dips: BW+60x7, BW+60x6, BW+45x8
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+60x7, BW+60x6, BW+45x8
Paused flat bench press: 165x7, 165x6, 155x8
Paused seated rows: 170x9, 170x9, 170x8
Paused incline dumbbell bench press: 65x7, 65x7, 65x7
Paused lat pulldowns: 165x7, 165x7, 165x7

Good workout all around. A bit weaker on the benching but I did 2 sets with 60 pounds on the dips and it's the last upper body workout of the week so not a problem.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused front squats: 185x7, 185x7, 185x6
Paused high bar back squats: 185x7, 185x7
Resisted dorsiflexion: 15x8, 10x13, 10x10
Resisted hip flexion: 15x13

That's it. Knees were not super happy with the squats but I think that's ok depending on how I feel the next couple of days. They felt good on the muscles. We'll see. If I'm good to go when I try to squat Wednesday I'll stick at the same weight.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

FT bench press: 60x7, 60x6, 60x7
One-armed pulldowns: 110x8, 110x6, 100x7
Standing barbell overhead press: 95x10, 95x7, 95x7
FT rows: 65x9, 65x8, 65x8
Push-ups: BW+25x13, BW+25x9, BW+25x7
Inverted rows: BW+25x8, BW+25x7, BW+25x7
Cable laterals: 15x9/10x4
One-armed cable curls: 35x7/25x4
Lying tricep extensions: 80x5/60x6

Pretty happy all around. Also, knees were fine yesterday and today so squats should hopefully be good tomorrow.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused front squats: 185x8, 185x6, 185x6
Paused high bar back squats: 185x8, 185x1 - felt a ligament/tendon slide over something the lateral side of my left knee with no pain but stopped after 1 rep
ATG split squats: 9-3

No knee pain now so not really worried about the weird thing on set 5. Knees felt good the entire time otherwise.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused weighted dips: BW+60x8, BW+60x6, BW+45x7
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+60x8, BW+60x6, BW+45x7
Paused flat bench press: 165x8, 165x7, 165x6
Paused seated rows: 170x10, 170x10, 170x9
Incline dumbbell bench press: 65x8, 65x8, 65x8
Paused lat pulldowns: 165x8, 165x8, 165x8

Happy with this, making slow & steady progress.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Deadlifts: 365x5, 365x5
Paused bulgarian split squats: 80s x7

Tweaked my left knee at the end of the bulgarian split squat set. Pretty sure it's a follow-up injury from what happened 2 days ago as while 80s for 7 reps may be the most I've done it was nowhere near the most challenging bulgariant split squat set I've ever done. I think my LCL is mildly sprained. I felt it kind of strain a bit but there was no pop/tear and no bruising/discoloration. It could also be my lateral meniscus but feels more in the location of the LCL.

We'll see how it feels Sunday before I do another leg workout. I may give up squats for a long while and focus on leg extensions/leg curls/GHRs. Hopefully I can continue deadlifting and will just focus more on that. I'll work up more slowly with ATG split squats.

I have thoughts on how to make the leg extensions more efficacious for full quad development; if I'm able to do them without pain on Sunday I'll play around with this.

[Heisman2]

Quick update on me:

The left knee has felt better each day, which is great. I don't think this is going to hold me back. Could be wrong, we'll see when I push it again.

Yesterday I woke up and my stomach was bothering me and I ended up having diarrhea all day. Had pretty significant nausea but didn't vomit. Didn't eat anything yesterday. I've had ~1000 kcal today thus far and tolerated it but my energy isn't where it needs to be to push myself productively with working out. Hopefully I'm fully recovered by Tuesday.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

FT bench press: 60x7, 60x6
One-armed pulldowns: 110x 8/6 (R/L), 110x 5/7 (R/L) (didn't rest enough between the R and L arm on the 1st set)
Standing barbell overhead press: 100x6, 95x6
FT rows: 65x10, 65x8
Push-ups: BW+25x14, BW+25x9
Inverted rows: BW+25x10, BW+25x7

That's it. Not too shabby, haven't really lost any strength despite still being down 3 pounds or so. Appetite has mostly come back. I kept the volume lower to help make sure I'm not too sore for Thursday. Definitely did not lose nearly as much strength as I could have.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 135x8x3
Leg extensions: 135x7, 160x7(P)/135x4, 160x7(P)/135x4, 180x7(P)/135x4

The back squats felt a bit weird where I hurt my left knee the other day but there was no pain and it did not worsen throughout the sets. I will continue doing 8x3 with short rest periods and go up by 2.5 pounds per session. This is going to slowly let me build up the connective tissue while I am able to focus on good form.

The leg extensions felt good. When I put "(P)" that means partials. So the first set I did 135x7 full reps. The 2nd set I did 7 partial reps with 160 then went down to 135 and did 4 full sets. I want to see how my quads feel tomorrow from a soreness perspective and then I'll decide what to do next for this.


Also, I got my exam results and I passed! I'm officially a Diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine. Should give me more credibility academically.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused weighted dips: BW+60x7, BW+60x6, BW+45x7
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+60x7, BW+60x6, BW+45x7
Paused flat bench press: 165x8, 165x6, 165x6
Paused seated rows: 175x8, 175x7, 175x6
Incline dumbbell bench press: 65x9, 65x6, 65x6
Paused lat pulldowns: 165x9, 165x6, 165x6

Happy with this, more or less the same as last time so I should be in good form to start making progress again.

My quads are not sore at all from yesterday. The leg extensions were heavy but I did not really incorporate an eccentric component. I will do this next time and see how this impacts things.