Monday 04.02.08
Strenght day
A1 Back squats PL
4x3 220
last set was belted, which felt easier. Only bad thing was that something on the belt dug into my stomach when I got low which really hurt, so I'll use a different belt next time.
I quit the tripples early because my hip hurt, not a whole lot though and I can't feel it anymore now (just got home). I think I'm gonna wait a bit more before starting to do heavy back squats again. Either that, or I'll throw in a few sets of heavy weight on my strenght days after deadlifting to ease into it. I might have to just start slow as I did with high rep squatting, as low rep and high rep squatting = two different animals
B1 PL Bench
Done with a pause at the chest
1x3 176
7x3 187
Video:
Technique: Found out what I actually do to engange the back more in stabilizing. I puff the chest out (not just retract shoulderblades, but actually puff the chest out) flex the lats and sort of pull the bar down with my back (not literaly, since that would make it go down out of control, but I sort of lower with controlling it with my pressing muscles, and at the same time pulling a bit with my back) this made it a lot easier to use the lats to stabilize the bar out of the hole.
Progress: Not a whole lot of progress I'm afraid. In one month only up 2.5kg (about 5lbs). A lot of variety seems to do the trick for deadlifting, since I there have about 7.5kg increases month to month, but pushing seems to be falling behind. I'm not expecting as much as 7.5 on bench press, since it's a smaller exercise, but getting 5kg more on the bar per month would be great.
Maybe I need less variety? Coming back to the same exercises every 2 weeks maybe and varying the help exercises. something like this:
Bench press
Close grip bench
bench press
PL bench press
Bench press
incline bench press
Bench press
etc.
catch my drift? bench will repeat itself every two weeks, the exercise on the weeks in between will change. Don't know if it's a good idea though, would love some input.
C1 Flared elbow BB bent row
1x10 110
1x12 110
2x08 121
C2 single arm Rev grip cable pushdown
3x8 27.5
D1 Leg press
1x2:50min @88lbs
Can you say lactic acid?
E1 Knee ab wheel rollout
1x8 BW
2x4 BW
1x3 BW
Dunno how the hell I got 8 the first time, but I did get it ...
I actually found an ab wheel in this god forsaken gym!
E2 Cable bench rev false curl
3x12 47.3
E3 DB Cuban press
1x06 15.4
3x10 13.2
PWO: The usual
After my workout I did some contrasts shower/sauna. Some time in the sauna - some time in a cold shower - back to sauna, etc. It actually feels really good to heat up after being cooled down and visa versa!