icecold's training log

icecold · 13 Apr 2013 at 20:49

Bro down and training 13/04/13

Quality times with the bros once again. A few PBs scattered around, some shirtless times, good lifting and lots of food.

I didn't really do much lifting at all, which was kind of planned. I tested my deadlift and there was no sign of the weird hip flexor thing, so I think if I keep stretching for the next few days it'll be fine for next Wednesday.

However, despite doing some stupid squats last night, I felt that this was in order...

Squats
bar x some
60x some
100x5
140x5
160x1
180x1
200x1 - so far this was just to prime my self for the main event. Tbh, all of these were painful and slow, but that isn't going to matter!

Challenge: 145kg for as many reps as possible
Managed 25, and was completely spent. I did 15 before I had a little rest, but I possibly could have done 20 all in one go. 25 was definitely the limit on the day, my legs were mounting a full blown rebellion by the end. Might try 150 for 20, but certainly not soon!

icecold · 13 Apr 2013 at 21:36

It was 6 sets of 5 reps :mad:

Delvis, "My me lol". Que?

I'm not actually sure which was the harder workout. At least I had the use of my glutes today, but that advantage was wiped out by being completely fatigued by last night.

Legs still feel small, more food and gains required.

icecold · 13 Apr 2013 at 23:08

You beat me to it Syla5

My video is still uploading...

Nitefly, some of the guys were in the showers for a while. Even after I'd warned them about the "cruisers" that are apparently frequenters of the gym.

See also: http://oxford.tab.co.uk/2013/03/11/university-gym-is-a-gay-cruising-hotspot/

icecold · 13 Apr 2013 at 23:29

...all of which were painful! Next time I might try and have at least 1 rest day after my normal squatting, but I couldn't pass on the opportunity to get topless with the bros.

5 mins left to upload, aint no body got time for that...

Squats
bar x some
60x some
100x5
140x5
160x1
180x1
200x1 - so far this was just to prime my self for the main event. Tbh, all of these were painful and slow, but that isn't going to matter!

Challenge: 145kg for as many reps as possible
Managed 25, and was completely spent. I did 15 before I had a little rest, but I possibly could have done 20 all in one go. 25 was definitely the limit on the day, my legs were mounting a full blown rebellion by the end. Might try 150 for 20, but certainly not soon!

icecold · 14 Apr 2013 at 16:49

Horrible. I don't want to move.

However, I did weigh 92kg this morning. This means that I can start tapering down the aggressiveness of my food shovelling after this training block. That gives me 3-4 weeks to gain another couple of kgs. Now that I'm benching moderate weights again, hopefully I can put some mass on whatever is holding me back there.

Also, out of feeling that my legs had definitely grown but were still small, I whipped out the measuring tape. At the widest point that doesn't include my arse, my legs are 27".

Unfortunately, I have no idea what this means.

icecold · 14 Apr 2013 at 18:06

Cheers Chong!

Yeah I'm still aiming for (powerlifting!) leanness. I've actually worked hard to eat enough to see a bit of fat gain.

icecold · 14 Apr 2013 at 18:11

King Damager said:
I really thought I wasn't lifting anything yesterday. Somehow I have tightness when hip hinging in my hamstrings, and my upper back is lit up... I don't know what wizardry this is.....

kd

Excellent. This means you were using the right bits.

I'll think some more about stuff for your shoulders, but what you're saying about your DOMS kind of indicates that you just need to keep practising what we talked about (scap pinch, scaps down your back, lats on...).

Then just loads of face pulls and rowing/pulling movements with the same stuff going on to strengthen those positions.

I don't think you need to stretch, you ****

icecold · 14 Apr 2013 at 20:02

Thanks

I think 100 reps with bodyweight on the bar would be cool, or 160 for 20. Or 200 for 10. Or 272.5 for 1.

icecold · 14 Apr 2013 at 20:28

Recent PBs?

220x3 squat
97.5x5 bench (injured, but not over trained...)
230x5 deadlift

???

icecold · 15 Apr 2013 at 22:59

Training 15/04/13

Mobility x about 1.5 hours

Squats
bar x lots
60x12 pealing my fascia off itself with every rep. Grose
100x6
140x3
160x1 surprisingly nice rep
180x1 blurgh
195x2 nice shape, just really slow. 90 secs into
195x2 a little faster. Some form of short rest into
195x2 not bad. Got videos of these sets in the hopes I could show what "normal" squatting looks like, but they were horrendously slow. Then my battery died, so I missed the rest. Might post tomorrow.
195x2 managed to catch a fold of skin under the bar on both shoulders. FFS! So painful that I almost lost the last rep, lol
195x2
195x2
195x2 last rep was fast and bearuiful. WHY?!
Accidentally did 7 sets again. Form was really nice today, but the reps felt really slow.

Bench
bar x lots
60x8
80x5
100x5x5 all paused reps. Fantastic again. I might actually be approaching some kind of PB now, and it's still really easy

Lat pull downs
12
8
6
6
6 all getting heavier with 90 second rests
6 same weight
8 lighter
8 lighter
10 lighter
10 same
Das volume!

Skipped high bar squats today for obvious reasons. Finished off with some big pec, lat and glute stretching.

icecold · 17 Apr 2013 at 23:48

Doubles are cool, but I expect you'll be going for higher % stuff than I'm doing. These are primarily technical doubles (80% of 1rm), just to make sure my form doesn't wander again/reinforce the bejesus out of my pattern.

Training 17/4/13

Mobility x lots

Deadlifts
bar x lots
60x12
100x5
140x5
160x1
180x1
200x1 all short rests so far to get some warmth going on
200x5x3 ~2 min rests
Just ticking these over today. Adductor/glute tightness is basically gone, but it would be stupid to load these up.

Bench
warm ups x lots
102.5x5x5
Shoulder still not snapped, no danger of these stalling any time soon.

Dips
bw x 10
25x10
50x5x3
Decided to start a 5 rep progression today, I think my PB is 60x5...

Tricep isolation
Hundreds

Low intensity day today, saving myself for friday...

icecold · 18 Apr 2013 at 08:14

To be fair, my glutes would disagree!

icecold · 19 Apr 2013 at 23:34

Training 19/04/13

Felt pumped for today. It was going to be tough, but I was feeling pretty much recovered after the weekends stupid volume. Still got a lot of tightness that's accumulated in my glutes, adductors and quads (essentially legs minus hamstrings then!). I did a lot of stretching and soft tissue work yesterday to combat this which helped a lot.

Squats
bar x lots
60x12
100x5 somehow, I'm flexible!
140x5 hmm, it turns out I missed a part of my glutes. This lit me up for all remaining sets. No injury, just full of ache and DOMS
160x1 silly fast
180x1 kind of went full retard as I initiated, but it was still probably the fastest 180 I've ever done
195x6 comfortable. Shape not perfect, but only I seem to see it. Short rest into
195x6 harder! Still nice
195x6 these three sets were completed pretty quickly. Needed to let some bros get some work done so took a longer rest
195x6 horrible
195x6 first 5 felt like AIDS, last one I buried and it came up much better :confused:

short ish rest into
195x4... I'd noticed straight away that there wasn't a collar on one side. Thought I might get away with it, but by the 4th rep the plates were really wandering and weight distribution was ****ed. Asked a bro to try and push the plates back on, but the bend in the bar meant that I was just being push sideways. Not ideal with this much weight and massive fatigue! Racked the bar, sorted the plates, gave myself 10 or so breaths...
195x3 so 7, just to compensate. This was genuinely some of the hardest squatting I've done from a mental point of view. A large part of me just craved the sweet release of death. A strong number of bros were there to provide shouts of encouragement, otherwise I might have just bailed.

So after that mess, I basically decided that I was done for the day. Did a little bit of stretching, then I figured that it would probably be a good idea to do some kind of warm down.

High bar squats
100x5x3
Felt horrible at first and I thought my legs might capitulate, but eventually they really loosened me up.

This is the true meaning of fatigue. It's also almost time for some more interesting weights to be squatted. It's going to take me a while to peak properly, because right now I'm suppressed as some kind of something. A deload beckons, too.

icecold · 20 Apr 2013 at 00:11

Cheers bros!

I'm going to bathe in my deload! Seriously looking forward to it, although I know I'll hate it by the first session

Project up until the deload is to work on my calves so that they can handle some running. I feel like I've said this too many times, but I'm determined to do some delicious sprinting again.

icecold · 20 Apr 2013 at 00:24

That's exactly what's happened every time I've tried to get back into it since I was 17

One of the more recent times I really felt that my legs could rip themselves apart because of the massive strength:control/unsnappedness ratio I'd built up since starting lifting.

icecold · 20 Apr 2013 at 20:39

Training 20/04/13

Quick sun's out guns out bro day.

Long pause deads
bar x lots
60x10
100x5 paused
140x3
180x1
200x1
212.5x3 PB
215x3 PB
202.5x3
If these gave you a pump they would be marvellous. Instead, they just hurt.

Bench
warmed up and it turns out that wearing a vest rips my squat burns. Wasn't meant to do these today anyway, so instead...

Dips with chains (set up so the chains deload at the bottom)
4x10 short rest
These are awesome!

Single arm machine row
3x8

High grip machine row ss w/slow face pulls
12/12
12/12
12/12
12/12

Swole

Also, the "athlete" that I'm using for my certification decided to do some 1 rep testing on squats. This guys max was a stupidly dirty 135x5 high box squat before he started with me before Christmas. Today, 180kg easy and a few inches below parallel. Not even a max, but I stopped him there as he's going to have to wait for my scheduled peak. He also used to have lots of knee pain, not any more. Gains.

icecold · 20 Apr 2013 at 21:15

UKSCA

Started it last year. I'm lazy. I could probably write up and present now actually.

icecold · 22 Apr 2013 at 23:07

Training 22/04/13

Sweating out the alcohol from Saturday night. Not pleasant! Recovered approximately zero too.

Squats
bar x lots - back to do some mobility!
60x12
100x5 still tight

140x6 better
160x1
180x1
195x2x6
Nothing dramatic, but pretty gruelling. My body woke up half way through, but my legs were still none the wiser the work they were supposed to be doing.

Bench
bar x lots
60x10
90x5
105x5x5
Nice. Long pauses and very slow negatives are starting to make these tough!

Medicinal high bar squats
60x8
100x8x2
120x8x2
120x10
Legs woke up! Hips and knees were overjoyed at having to work through full rage. Stupid low bar. I think I'm going to avoid lower reps for these, they're just so good for my legs when I smash out some reps and the muscles have to work through those ranges for volume.

Chins
bw x 10
+10x5
+15x5
+20x5x3

icecold · 23 Apr 2013 at 13:20

At the rate that my ankle mobility is increasing JUST by doing high bar (strictly and with pauses at the bottom for some reps), fronties may be back on the menu. I think I'd like a 200kg high bar first though.

icecold · 23 Apr 2013 at 13:31

Yeah mine don't look like that yet

There is a whole technique to using bar whip and ankle rebound to get momentum for large parts of the ROM. I'm trying my best not to do that, although it does give a good stretch at the bottom. Which is the other thing, I literally can't get any deeper doing these until my ankles improve. My hammies are hitting my calves. More upright and more knees forward and out: gains.