icecold's training log

[icecold]

Well it literally must be affecting my squats, but I can't feel it. I might see about doing a heavy single tomorrow.

Hopefully now that I fully know what's wrong and have had some work done on it the little barsteward will go away. It's definitely no where near as serious as it could have been, physio man was saying that the tissue was responding nicely to his gentle hetero caress as well.

 

[icecold]

Don't worry, even at this point I can probably add 20kg to my total if I wanted to

 

[icecold]

Literally all of my injuries are because of my retarded adductors

 

[icecold]

So, also timed pretty well with my deload week, this week I've been struck down with immune system fatigue and throat/tonsil AIDS. Had all kinds of fever until today, so obviously I jump at the chance to get to the gym to do something. I decide to see what's up with my squat with my new functional hip gains. Went up in singles from 160. 210kg moved like a bit of a douche, but 220 was a blinder, probably the tidiest heavy rep I've ever done. Put a cheeky 232.5 on the bar next, but massively ballsed up my descent and only got a few inches out of the hole before I hollered at my spotters. I kind of wanted to do it again, but sense regarding being a diseased ridden fatigued wreck and some very slight irritation of some distal adductor bits (around my knee) dragged me back to reality. Warmed down with 8 reps at 160, which was actually bloody hard!

Also benched 5x5x95kg with rests as short as I could get lift offs for. Shortest was 30 seconds, longest 90.

Health wise I feel a lot better. I now await a joocy test and GH spike in my sleep to complete the restoration process. I'm going to smash myself with a load of conditioning work tomorrow, including SOME SPRINT STARTS!!!!!!one. inb4 my legs tear themselves apart.

In terms of the squat...meh. There is a small local comp happening in a few weeks that I'll aim to get some decent numbers in, but the really big PBs are planned for around 8 weeks time. Being patient sucks, but now I'm in the middle of a plan I'd be a bell end to switch for the sake of a quicker peak and massive snaps.

 

[icecold]

Hah!

The big killer today was this bug that I've had all week. Missed a few days of work, and generally felt like arse. I only really intended on doing something to get the blood flowing today but, well, you know what it's like All of my squats have been below parallel in my 2 and a bit months of crazy hypertrophy, so that problem is kicked to the curb. I do need to get used to the feel of heavy weights again though, even through diseased brain fog I was very aware of the weight on my back.

 

[icecold]

I can't say that I've noticed that. I do find great value in working out when I'm ill, but obviously certain types and levels of illness preclude this.

I have consistently noticed that having a gym session way before I'm recovered properly normally results in me getting better a lot faster. For example, right now I about 95%, which I probably wouldn't have hit for a few more days otherwise.

 

[icecold]

Bros.

Bros!

Tonight, I started my modified Stoodles pump week as part of my notsrs deload.

Chest and arms day, yo!

30 second rests on everything.

Bench Press - 12x90, 12x85, 8x82.5, 8x77.5, 8x72.5

Incline DB Press – 10x30, 10x25, 10x20 slow negatives!
Dips 12xbw x3
Skull Crushers – 12x3
Cable Pushdowns/Overhead Extensions - 12/12, 12/12, 12/12
Hammer Curls - 8, 8, 8
21s x3
Straight Bar Pyramid - 15/15/15 x3


Don't know the weight for the arm stuff because no care. Tiny, tiny weights by the end though!


Status: pump dragon.


Time for loads of stretching at the end

 

[icecold]

Painful pump. Back was too pumped to stay tight after the first few sets of bench!

 

[icecold]

BRO WEEK DAY 2

Back and shoulders

Again, 30 second rests. Even between exercises. Don't lose the pump bro, that's game over.

(some gay deadlifting to see teach my hip how to work again - 70x5, 110x5, 150x3, 160x3x2)

Wide Grip Pull Ups (1 second hang at bottom) - bwx8, +10x8, +10x8, bwx8 - sudden and drastic fatigue

Lat Pulldowns - something x 8, something slightly more x8

Bent Over Rows - 77.5x12, 75x10, 70x10
Seated Machine Row Wide Grip/Superset Cable Pullovers - 10/10, 10/10, 10/10 some kind of weight on these

Single Arm Cable Row – 12, 12, 12

Seated DB Press - 27.5x12, 25x12, 20x8, 15x8 dat inevitable cliff of fatigue!

One Arm Upright DB Row - 15x12, 15x12, 15x12
Face Pulls - 15, 15, 15
Lateral Raises/front raise barbell – 25/15, 25/15, 25/15 - in so much lactate pain!!

 

[icecold]

BRO WEEK DAY 3

Legs and legs (as close to 30 second rests as possible)

Leg extension
50x some pin
50x one pin up
15x moar weight, no rest into 15x slightly less weight, 15x less weight
Walking already an issue after this!

High bar back squat ss with fronties
100x15/70x15 - shhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
90x15/50x15
90x15/45x15
Sweet jesus! Destroyed myself with the high bar, front squat weight took a pummelling as a result. Coped much better than I did last time with Steedie though.

Single Leg Leg Press - 12, 12, 12 (After last let, go straight to double leg for 15)
Increased the weight for the double leg burnout thing and went to failure, thing I got over 20

Walking Lunges (No Rest between sets, just grab the next weight and go, start at BW) - 12/12/12/12
Kind of messed this up, but it was still hard. My precious quad pump was draining away though

RDL - decided to bail on this. Quads were so destroyed that I couldn't get up to a challenging weight without my knees buckling.

Hamstring Curls - 15, 15, 15, 15
Did more of this to compensate

Lying band hamstring curl - some x some
Kind of a stretch with they way I set it up and a nice little isolation movement at the same time.


Well that was brutal. Had to sit for quite a while before I could interact with anyone.

Bro week over No for some serious lifting

When I can be arsed, I'm going to put together comparison shots between the two bro weeks that I've done. First one I weighed 84.5kg, this one I weighed just under 93kg.

 

[icecold]

Yeah it's really horrible!

There is no way more than two people can do it at the same time unfortunately. A key part of it is the 30 second rests, and the supersets are literally a case of change weights, breath, complete set.

 

[icecold]

Nope no rest between exercises either.

Went to the gym today in the hope of doing some track work, but my legs were in tatters. Did lots of stretching instead.

 

[icecold]

Right then, enough of this off season business.

New block starts tonight, and its looking handsome if I do say so myself. I'm thinking that I'll run something similar back to back for a couple of cycles to try and farm some strength from my freshly acquired size gains, and then change things up in the run up to nationals.

Injury status is pretty good. Left shoulder is completely pain free when benching, but I do need to find a way of getting my scap to function properly. Right hip flexor thing isn't 100% yet, but its moving in the right direction. Adductors and ankles are a work in progress as always.

 

[icecold]

In for strength gains.

Fingers crossed for no snaps and great gains!

In b4 undiscovered water retention.

You wish MrDYELx

 

[icecold]

I saw you recommend working a lower % for deadlifts and still make strength gains. I'm trying to figure out how to put something together for deadlifts and not really sure. Lifting at too high % is very taxing and so I don't think my usual approach is optimal.

I also thought about doing deadlifts after squats on Monday, because deadlifting fatigued is how it normally goes down at a meet.

I did say that those basic progressions would catch up with you eventually!

I'll reply properly tomorrow, too tired to be constructive right now. A fair few powerlifters do a squat and deadlift day though.



NEW BLOCK!!!!!!!!

Training 20/05/13

Still absolutely crippled with leg DOMS, not the best start! Can't walk up stairs, and of course I'm squatting today Also, the gym is like a sauna this evening, the windows are jammed shut

Long pause squats
bar x 1 billion with some good mornings with all kinds of stances. Even Voodoo wrapped my knees, but it didn't help much
60x10
100x4 - pauses started here
140x4
160x4
165x4
157.5x4
157.5x4
I think those are all PBs, but literally every rep was painful because of DOMS. Kind of weirdly enjoyable still, but absolutely exhausting in the heat of the gym.

Short rest paused bench
bar x 20
60x10
80x5
100x3 - feeling really joocy, I was only planning on doing 100
110x1
115x3 - instant fatigue! Meant to be 5 comfortable reps, but the set went to **** so quickly. Drenched in sweat PB
110x5
102.5x5
102.5x5
102.5x5
102.5x5
102.5x5
It probably didn't help that the first couple of heavy sets were super setted with my paused squats. I couldn't breath.

Wide grip bench
80x6
90x6
100x6
102.5x6
97.5x6
97x5x6
95x6

High bar squat beltless
50x6
95x6
140x6
132.5x6
132.5x6
100x6 all paused
This were horrible with my quad DOMS, but they still managed to make my legs feel better overall.

Bicep curls
12x12
15x12
17.5x12

Lessons learnt: Biceps get stronger in the heat, everything else is ****ed.

 

[icecold]

Voodoo is magical. I think I might plan it monthly even when I don't need it.


Training 22/5/13

Short rest deads
70x8
110x5
150x5
190x1
215x5 - no hip pain! \o/
205x5
205x5
Easing back into it, but these felt good, if not quite up to speed. Focussing on making sure my femur is in the right position relative to my hip, which is extremely confusing.

Board press
no board warm ups bar, 60, 80
100x5
110x1
120x5 PB?
115x5
115x5
115x5
115x5
These got better as the sets went by. I think this is the most coordinated my left scap has ever been, all kinds of fire in the muscles around my scap and my left tricep. Weirdly, I've never actually felt that my left side was weaker, although I'd worked out ages ago that something must be going on. Progress? Maybe!

Deadlift stance good mornings
60x6
100x6
130x6
135x6
130x6
130x6
Weight is easy enough, stabilisation is horrible though. They look rock solid on video though.

Dips with chains
All the chains x6x4

Tricep rope stuff

Fin.


Good session, pretty quick too. STILL had leg DOMS from friday to the extent that I'm walking like I've got wooden legs and occasionally fall over (srs), but I think it'll be gone by tomorrow.

 

[icecold]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who suffers from leg doms, mines always primarily my 'upper' hamstring, stupid thing

Mine have been mostly in my lower quads above my knees.

To be honest, DOMS this long is probably indicative of jacked up tissue quality!

Looks like a good session, board presses look strong!

You had a sec to think about my post on deadlifts?

Yeah I'm hoping to add steadily more to board presses. They should be a lot stronger than my bench, whereas at the moment I could probably have done those weights.

Sorry I completely forgot to post about it, busy week! Before I do, you could investigate some of the common deadlift programmes:

http://tsampa.org/training/scripts/coan_phillipi_deadlift/

http://ironmillstrong.com/review-of-magnussonortmayer-deadlift-program/

 

[icecold]

I saw you recommend working a lower % for deadlifts and still make strength gains. I'm trying to figure out how to put something together for deadlifts and not really sure. Lifting at too high % is very taxing and so I don't think my usual approach is optimal.

I also thought about doing deadlifts after squats on Monday, because deadlifting fatigued is how it normally goes down at a meet.

RIGHT THEN

Second point first.

Deadlifting after your main squat session is pretty popular, but probably something you'd have to try to see if you got on with it. There would definitely be room for a "legs" assistance day too.

The first point is kind of more important though. As a guy who is now quite advanced in his training age you can't just smash yourself with small fluctuations of high percentage work every week. It's not even a case of accumulating too much fatigue (well, that is part of it), it's that your body will not adapt in such a way as to give you a bigger 1 rep max.

There are MANY ways of dealing with this, the simplest being to not max out on deads or squats and to programme increases within a range that sits lower down the percentage scale (not going above 90% on deads, for example).

 

[icecold]

Nope, not necessarily more volume either. Remember that fatigue is not a perfect approximation for training effect induced adaptation.

On the other side of that particular coin, however, is that it is possible to lift at a relatively high percentage if you slash the volume.

 

[icecold]

Too lazy to log!

24/05/13

For reasons known only to my retarded body, loosening up some stuff in my quads/knee allowed my to load my right adductor in a way that it wasn't happy with. So, had to abort this days squats. It just feels really tight, and over the weekend you could literally see the contours of jacked up fascia... not good!

This is definitely an indication that I need to stop using pain as a measure of whether my adductors are ok or not. Annoyingly, there dosen't seem to be a huge amount of stretches that actually expose the tight bits. More mobility planning needing.

The rest went something like this:

Short rest paused bench
warm ups
100x3
112.5x4
107.5x4x5
Comfortable

OHP
warm ups
65x6
60x6x4
Still feeling easy. Not complaining!

Sacked off pull throughs too just in case.


25/05/13

Got to the gym quite late so had to rush through this!

Paused deads
warm ups
180x2
200x1
210x3
190x4x3
Horrible

Machine row
some pins x12x4

Pull ups
some x some


27/05/13

Adductor still a phaggot. Took advantage of the nice weather (training just after midday, bank holiday gains) and did a thorough warm up outside. Shoulders felt awesome, but as I started doing my paused squats my adductor was complaining. I decided that I was basically going to run my first week again, so my programme isn't too messed up provided that I can squat on friday.

Not much to do without squats, but here it was:

Short rest paused bench
warm ups
110x5
105x5x5
Lovely! All kinds of pumps

I'm sure I did some kind of row here to fill out the day, can't remember what it was.

Wide grip bench
100x6
95x6x5
Also good. These really challenge my scap mechanics so the fact that they are moving well is a good sign.

BB curls
some

DB curls
some


Training 29/05/13

Not sure how today was going to go as I really don't want to load up my adductor before it's ready. The last thing I need is to turn some minor snappage into a tear.

Deads (short rests)
bar x lots
60x10 did these as slow deads instead of RDLs to make sure that I was properly warm.
100x5 slow deadsx4 +1 fast
140x5 as above
180x1
200x1 feeling ok so far
217.5x5 token increase over last week to be careful, but felt significantly easier
205x5 good
then my adductor tightened up so I stopped. Not bad, but not great. Spent ages making sure my adductor didn't seize up, and it didn't.

Board bench
122.5x5 PB
117.5x5x5
Couple of messier reps because I was rushing.

Deadlift stance good mornings
60x6
100x6
140x6
150x6 PB
145x6
145x6
Some minor pulling on my adductor, but I think these actually helped.

Tricep stuff


So not a complete write off over the last few sessions, but I really need to get on top of my timing and get my stupid adductors completely fixed. Undoing a lifetime of gash loading, fun times.