Cookeh's 6 Week Strength Training Log

Day 9: Upper Body Split:

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Managed to get 14 reps @ 50kgs with relative ease... Might have had another 1-2 in there, but with no safety pins or spotters I wasnt feeling confident enough if I had to bail.

Dumbbell rows still seem rather easy, might have to up the weights again.

Military press was really good today, used to give me some mild lumbar irritation before but now I'm really focusing on squeezing my glutes and bracing my core to give me a strong foundation, seems to help.

Pulldowns were okay, upped the weight to 60kgs. Question, what kind of weight in a pulldown correlates to '1 rep' of a chin-up? Wondering how long it will have to be before I start to be better able to perform pullups, as I prefer them as an exercise.

Finished off the session by supersetting barbell and dumbbell curls. Got a crazy forearm pump (bigger than my bicep pump) which was interesting but I guess not unexpected given the previous exercises.
 
Week Three; Linear OT Phase: Day 1

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Sqwaats were easy peasy, think my form has improved nicely and my bracing is coming along now that I'm adding glute-squeezing into the equation. Ended up working in a with a newbie doing 5x5, 60 seconds rest made it surprisingly intense.

Deads were a challenge... Managed to get 6 and then 4. Could have closed out with 6 on the last set, but the lower left hand side of my lumbar had been aching a bit all day and it flared up a little bit - not sure if its form related as Im starting to hip hinge properly and my spine is neutral from what I can see in the odd glance in the mirrors (really need someone to record a set...shame Im a loner :D). Anyone recommend any good lumbar stretches?

Im now here sat drinking one of MyProteins 'ProMilk' cartons - 20g of protein in 250ml and better BCAA make-up than their Impact Whey. Not bad considering they're currently giving away 9x cartons for free with certain whey purchases. Really tasty too, coming from a guy who normally detests milkshakes.
 
Keep forgetting about that link.... I swear Im stupid.

Today was more mobility work, was getting some mild irritation in my psoas towards the end of 'heavy' squats - stretched that out for 2 mins a side and boy did that hurt, grief. Unofrtunately Im writing my disso and studying for exams atm so Im spending a lot of time sat down, doing all of the hip exercises haha.
 
Week 3, Day 2: Upper Body:

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Super quick session, all the weights just flew up - even bench felt like nothing. Really starting to feel the contraction during lat pulldowns now too. Core bracing was tight too, no irritation or excessive arching during the OHPs.
 
Week 3; Day 3: Lower Body

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Squats were super easy, absolutely flew out of the hole. Did some mobility work before the sets (psoas, hamstring, quad, and anterior stretching along with some smr - my IT band was excruciating...)

Deads I dropped the weight to really work on my hip hinge, seems to be coming along nicely. I then threw some snatch grip deads in to see what the fuss was about. I like them. I like them a lot. Crazy contraction in my rhombs, rear delts and lats - which now hate you mrthingyx ;)
 
Week 3; Day 4: Upper Body

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Easy peasy. Bench was slightly harder than last session (so it should be) but I was focusing on not 'over-tucking' my elbows so there were reps that were very easy - those being the ones in which I got my form right, allowing me to activate my pecs more.

OHPs were easy too, time to up those weights again methinks as with the dumbbell rows.

Should really work on some mobility now but I've had about 5 hours sleep total in the past two nights and I just cannot be bothered.
 
Cookeh said:
Easy peasy. Bench was slightly harder than last session (so it should be) but I was focusing on not 'over-tucking' my elbows so there were reps that were very easy - those being the ones in which I got my form right, allowing me to activate my pecs more.
Click to expand...

Recently read the article/video released by Greg Nucklos (Strength Theory) by any chance?
 
Who? Me? Nooo...

Strength Theory is probs my favourite resource, its rather comprehensive and I do like the fact he links to the references so you can go off and read them too.
 
Week 4; Day 1: Lower Body Split

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Too easy... Had to wait to use the rack (some monster was repping out 140kgs on bench in there) so did some leg press instead, 60x10; 100x10; 150x6x3 as a warmup, essentially. Hips felt good during the sets, no tightness.

Slight rush so only managed the one optional exercise, but they're optional anyway! :D
 
Week 4; Day 2: Upper Body Split

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Not too bad, overall. Had to randomise the order because for some reason the gym was 3x busier than normal... :eek:

Awesome forearm pump is awesome.
 
Week 4; Day 3: Lower Body

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Had to move this a day early - full day of Uni and then off to see Dropkick Murphys so no time tomorrow :(

Sqwaats were super easy, felt like I could have 6-8 reps on the last set, not 2!

Deads were nice too, went up pretty quickly.

Any opinons as to whether or not 'heavy' deads and then snatch grip deads after each other is too much to recover from sufficiently or is that something to be decided if I start to feel it impacting my lifts?
 
I generally do snatch grip stuff first whilst my grip and upper back are still in a sensible condition...

Looking at your routine, however, I do not think you are going to struggle to recover after that last workout as the volume is quite low...
 
That's exactly what I thought, low volume with 2-3 days off in between should be plenty. Thought I'd get the opinion of others far more knowledgeable than I am though.
 
Week 4; Day 4: Upper Body

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Bench was super easy, but I really wasnt feeling OHP, was so much harder than it should have been and indeed has been over the weeks - really burning out my rear delts, and the bottom of my traps.
 
Week 5; Day 1 - Lower Body:

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Tried out pause squats for my warms up (20, 40, 60kgs) - these really stretched and opened my hips out, especially my psoas... Was awesome.

Early morning bar math was utterly atrocious too, instead of 75, 77.5 and 80kgs and I managed to rep out 95, 97.5 and 100kgs... Shocking, but no issues getting them up so its a non-issue :D.
 
Week 5; Day 2 - Upper Body:

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Bench was..err.. easy? Felt great after four reps so figured I'd carry on. Managed 9 reps, probs could have gotten 10 but lacked confidence with no safety bars/spotter. Extremely unexpected - rest of the workout was spot on too :)
 
Week 5; Day 3 - Deads:

Final day of the cycle - next week is 1RM calculations or deload.

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Managed four reps with relative ease, could have pushed for more but I had time to kill (waiting on gf to finish her cardio - boo), so went for some 1RMs. Smashed it! :)
 
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