Raising The Bar

Phew, that was a tough session, made harder by the fact I've picked up a chest infection from the cold I had.

Squats
3x291.5
3x291.5
3x291.5
6x269.5 - I thought number 6 might not go back up
10x247.5 - The last few reps felt like a mission not to die before I finished, lol

Romanian Deadlifts
3x10@264
My form must be so much better on deads because there was absolutely no stiffness after these

Seated Calf Raises
3x10@176

Lunges are getting done tonight
 
I thought I had to post this because it's golden, I love the second page

TESTOSTERONE NATION - Training Disasters
 
holy cow batman!! you are lifting major! I can't believe there are actually other people in the world besides me. What a revelation I am having today!
hahaha

great workout.. that is a ton of squats bro!
 
flyinfree said:
holy cow batman!! you are lifting major! I can't believe there are actually other people in the world besides me. What a revelation I am having today!
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Yeah dude, there's a whole world outside your colon, you should pop your head out and take a look more often ;) (just teasing)

It was tough going today, the cold has cleared up but I've been left with a chest infection which doesn't seem to effect my strength but it's badly affecting my breathing during lifts

Incline DB Chest Press
3x5@ 176lbs
7x 167

More confusion with this lift, the 3x5 @ 176 are going up like the dumbells were made of cotton wool but the 8x167 is knocking me out. Should I try going up in weight for the 3x5 and down a bit for the 8?

Seated row
5x262
5x262
5x246
8x231 (leaning back at the end :mad:)

My performance on rows seems to be dropping

Elevated Iso Press Up Holds
3x45 sec +33lbs

I was back with the 2 medicine balls this week and this proved so much easier than before. I might need to either up the weight or raise my feet to make this a little harder

Bent Over Pull Downs
3x10@198

Again this was a little easier than I remember it. I actually did the Iso holds and pull downs seperately today and added BW pull ups in with the pull downs, I won't be doing that regularly but it felt good for today :)
 
I thought I'd add this in a seperate post because I didn't want the other one to get so big that people didn't read it.

The biggest change I think I've seen in my body with my current schedule is the development of my shoulders. I had pretty skinny shoulders a few months back but their starting to make my arms look small now. The Iso hold especially seems to have made a difference and the difficulty I used to have with the int/ext rotations makes me realise that I had some serious flaws in my upper body

My lower body has seen really big strength gains but as my legs are very long the difference isn't as obvious yet (apart from my butt) but it's only a matter of time
 
More confusion with this lift, the 3x5 @ 176 are going up like the dumbells were made of cotton wool but the 8x167 is knocking me out. Should I try going up in weight for the 3x5 and down a bit for the 8?
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That is a good idea. You also rarely do more reps. Work in sets of 10, 12 and 15. You will find out that your muscular endurance is low. 15 reps will probably be done at a much lower weight than you think.

Work in all different reps ranges.
 
reps and endurance

I'd second the idea of trying some reps of 12 and then seeing what that does for your 8 rep set.

After training for months where the max I used for pretty much anything was 8 reps, I switched over to 12 reps last month for some stuff. I was amazed to see the drop-off at rep 10. It did not seem to bear a relation to how fatigued I had been at rep 8.

In short, I had trained my body to think that 7 or 8 reps was "it" and anything beyond that just killed me, even at lower weights far lower than your normal 1RM percent estimates would predict.

After only a few weeks in that 12 rep range, my numbers at 4, 8, and 12 all shot up...
 
goergen1 said:
That is a good idea. You also rarely do more reps. Work in sets of 10, 12 and 15. You will find out that your muscular endurance is low. 15 reps will probably be done at a much lower weight than you think.
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Cheers, I'll probably do that. Tomorrow may be my last day using this schedule anyway, my trainer thinks I need to rest during my week off from work next week :)mad:) and I think there is something new being planned for the near future.
 
One more question for all you wise people. What happens when you're too strong for all the dumbells at the gym? I have a little way to go yet but I'm using the 40kgs for my incline press and I think they only go up to 46, as I plan to try using the 42's next workout anyway I'll only have 2 more weight ranges to go.

George - This has to apply to you. Does your gym have DB bars with spinlocks or do you have tough guy DB's made that commercial gyms don't bother to stock?
 
First, I'd ask about it at the gym and see if they can do anything about it.

In a small work gym I was using, I noticed that I was within 2 DB weights of their max, so I talked to the guy in charge at that point. He was happy to buy the next few weights up (before I got there) and said that it was always nice to see people aiming heavy and high and then achieving their goals!

A 'quick' fix for the DBs they've already got are those magnet pieces you attach to the weights, though that doesn't buy you more time than one range up.

A long term fix is to get the adjustable DB sized bars that can be used with normal plates and clips. It's a pain to have to rack and unrack DBs, but I think that's what you have to do if you want to go heavier with them. [And due to the stability issue, I think it's a smart idea to keep at the DBs rather than switching everything to the BB.]
 
George - This has to apply to you. Does your gym have DB bars with spinlocks or do you have tough guy DB's made that commercial gyms don't bother to stock?
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It only applies at some gyms. You biggest DB's are only 101.2lbs. The gym I train at they go up to 150lbs. (they are really nice DB's with different logos of the sports teams whose weight rooms they have built) Most gyms I have been to at least go up to 120lbs. (granted I do not go in crappy gyms)

What happens when you're too strong for all the dumbells at the gym?
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The answer is simple. As you get stronger, the dumbbells become more and more of an assistance exercise where you do volume training and not heavy training. (DB's are really more suited for that purpose)
 
Thanks sig and Goergen, I guess I'll have to ask my gym to invest in heavier weights as I'm really not a fan of benching. I don't think my structure is suited to the movement as I can't get the bar anywhere close to my chest even without weight, maybe my forearms are too long?

I'm just about to go into a meeting with my new boss, if I don't reply back in a couple of hours it didn't go well and I post again when I've found a new job :)

Deadlifts
3x3@330
6x286
10x264

Split Squats
3x10@154 (each leg)

Good Mornings
2x8@154

I just didn't have time for steps ups today, the deadlifts can take ages if I have to search around the gym for spare plates. I'll try getting them in tonight
 
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Only last night I was thinking about how much better I've been feeling since I cleaned up my diet and then this morning Channel 4 (a TV network) dropped off a cake at our offices for their 25th anniversary. This is one hell of a cake and I what must be a 1,000 calorie slice sat on my desk.
 
I tried, and failed, to eat it all. On my surplus I don't have the capacity to consume that much extra fat and sugar. I have a bit of a sugar rush now
 
The less that's said about that session the better, I think the big cake for lunch left me powerless and my lifts were shameful

I did up the weight on my back for the iso holds to 44lbs though and I think my shoulders at least are looking pretty damn strong now
 
CCR said:
The less that's said about that session the better, I think the big cake for lunch left me powerless and my lifts were shameful

I did up the weight on my back for the iso holds to 44lbs though and I think my shoulders at least are looking pretty damn strong now
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I think that routine has taken you as far as it possibly can. Time for bicep curls right? Have a good time.
 
That's the plan, bicep curls, tricep kickbacks and leg extensions for the next few months :)

Sorry, I know I'm holiday but I forgot to do loads of stuff at work last week so logged back on today to tie up loose ends.

I'm cutting calories this week to see if I can drop a few pounds and continue to gain strength. I think the 400lb deadlift is in the bag already so I'll start to cut back a bit bofre starting my new routine and going back into surplus
 
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