icecold's training log

[icecold]

Training 31/05/13

Squats
Still can't squat Did 4 sets of 25 reps of weird stance leg pressing with my knees out as far as possible to try and get some blood through my adductors. Kind of worked. Did loads of stuff with bands and lots of stretching.

Short rest paused bench
bar x lots
60x8
80x4
100x3
110x1
115x4
110x4
110x4
110x4
120x3 why do these reps feel harder? Is the bar misloaded? Yes, yes it is. Did 2 reps of 110 immediately to compensate
110x4
110x4
Well these weren't getting any harder so I stopped there. It's fair to say that bench has improved! These are still meant to be easy sets, and I only stopped the 120 set on the 3rd rep because it felt different. Some kind of stupidity rep PB

Pull throughs
some x some

OHP (all strict)
bar x 10
40x6
70x6 PB
62.5x6
62.5x6
62.5x6
62.5x6
Gains! Feels so strange and alien to set any kind of pressing PB.

Bench
70x22 fatigue!

Lateral raises (<60 second rest)
7.5x25
7.5x20

Face pulls
20
20


If you ignore the squatting, it was a great session. However, I can't ignore the squatting

 

[icecold]

It's partly that, but my physio also says that the tissue is so jacked up that it has to be from chronic misuse. He speculated that in my days of being more athletic I was sprinting with some rotation in my femurs that caused my adductors to take the job of my hamstrings. My body is an idiot!

I'm going to try again tomorrow, and see if I can do some high bar.

 

[icecold]

The Theatre of Dreams (aka OUS off Iffley road), Oxford

 

[icecold]

Training 01/06/13

Warmed up outside by the track in the sun. This, while awesome, can be a massive time sponge when the bros are all out and chatting. **** you social life, gimmie dem gains.

Squats
Still nope. Did several high bar sets with 60kg but the tightness was still creeping in at the end.

Long pause deads - knew I would have to work around my adductor and go light, but I NEEDED to do some kind of big lift
bar x lots
60x12
100x5
140x3
180x4
180x4
190x4
190x4
180x4
That'll do.

Machine row
lots

Roll outs

Band face pulls


Well that's annoying. Going to take two weeks off all lower body work and replace that gym time with millions of mobility. Bugger.

 

[icecold]

Training 03/06/13

Mobility stuff

Short rest bench
bar x lots
60x10
80x5
100x3
112.5x5
107.5x5
107.5x5
107.5x5
107.5x5
107.5x5
107.5x5
107.5x5
107.5x5
107.5x5

Wide grip bench
100x6
105x6
105x6
100x6

Gunz
Medium amounts

Farmers walks
46kg per hand x~60m there and back x4 with not enough rest = gassed


Well that was a lot of benching. I think I need to pick me weights better, this is getting silly.

 

[icecold]

Cheers to Thundy!

Training 05/06/13

Mobility: not enough, got bored. Will make up the time.

Board press
bar x lots
60x10
80x5
100x3
110x1
125x5 PB nice
120x5
117.5x5
117.5x5
117.5x5
117.5x5
Ended up drastically shortening the rests on these. Continued progress! I don't think I've ever set so many pressing PBs in succession, and yet I'm still not enthused

BOR
10x4
Just slapped some weight on the short bar until ten reps felt about right and then did 4 sets, didn't pay attention to weight

Chain dips
all the chains x8x3

Machine row
10x4


Learning a lot about benching at the moment. I'm definitely getting a very different training stimulus using the exact same movements. The only thing that I've changed is that I've worked on being able to access certain positions in my shoulder. This basically a long winded way of me saying that it's not my fault that my bench has so far sucked, but it's at least possibly true.

 

[icecold]

Chain dips are hnnnnnngg. Adding more weight to them is going to be interesting, it's going to look like I've got a poorly made crotch necklace hanging around my waist.

Did a load of glute and adductor stretching before bed. This made some big changes to the way my hips moved, but there I can still feel tightness in my adductor today. So boring!

 

[icecold]

Steeds, just to keep you updated, Josh has recently been doing curls with 80kg + the weight of the EZ bar.

 

[icecold]

Training 07/6/13

Mobility for adductor - lots

Short rest bench
bar x lots
60x10
80x5
100x3
110x1
120x4
115x4
115x4
115x4
115x4
115x4
Some kind of PB I'm sure. Reps were joocey and tight. Bench is feeling better and better.

OHP
bar x lots
50x5
72.5x6 PB
62.5x6x3

Running out of time...

Bench
70x22 - same as last week, but with far less rest


Right. So. Yes. I'm hoping that I'll be able to squat again next week, as long as I'm careful with the weight. In light of that, I'm going to reset the rest of the training block. The rest of my lifts have been going well. This 4 rep bench day is up 7.5kg in 3 weeks to a weight I was board pressing in week 1, and board press is up 5kg. Also set strict press PBs. In other news, I've definitely slapped some mass on my pecs, delts, traps and triceps - ah the benefits of not training squats or deads for a couple of weeks!

ALSO, a guy I'm training squatted a pretty comfortable 200kg today. That is a modest increase of at least (old PB was off a high box) 55kg. Broner achieved.

 

[icecold]

mirin' dat OHP. Those numbers have really shot up

Cheers bud, it's ACTUALLY MOVING!!!!!


Oh yeah, technically the guy I'm coaching had a one month break in the middle.

So we'll say 145 --> 200kg in 5 months, of which the first couple were almost purely mobility, positional training and core development. Oh, and he weighs 85kg.

 

[icecold]

He'd been training for a while, but was completely broken. When I say his max was to a high box, he used to literally slam down onto it and try to get some kind of bounce. Then his core would crumble and twist... it was groce.

So he had maybe 6 months to a year of squatting experience but in reality there would have been no chance of him getting 145 to parallel and back up.

To massively blow my own trumpet, this is mostly down to good programming and good coaching.

 

[icecold]

Training 08/06/13

Pull ups
some

Lat pull down
some kind of pyramid with lots of steps up to a few top sets of 6, then down again to 10s

DB row
45x10x3

Machine high row
12x3

Face pull
15x3

Lateral raises
15x3

Sprints
some
Lawd, my mechanics are gash.

 

[icecold]

Yeah I'm having to build up slowly because of exactly that. The massive amount of stretching I'm doing helps.

Things get particularly interesting if I try to lengthen my stride as much as I'd like. Lots of work required!

 

[icecold]

Training 10/06/13

Mobility x lots

Long paused SQUATSSSSSSS!!!!!! HNNNNNNGGGG
bar x lots - easily hitting depth, zero discomfort <3
60x10
100x4
140x4
170x4 PB
162.5x4
162.5x4
162.5x4
Horrible, but wonderful

Short rest bench - slight deload
bar x lots
60x10
80x5
100x5 too easy
110x1
115x5
110x5
110x5
110x5
110x5
110x5
Not as much of a deload as I'd planned. All easy.

High bar squats
70x6
80x6
90x6
110x6
150x5
140x5
140x5
140x5
120x5 all paused
Slightly random weights to make sure I wasn't going to snap my adductors up

Wide grip bench
100x6
100x6
100x6
Too easy. These may not be useful any more...

Adductor stretching

Fin.

My legs are ruined.

 

[icecold]

Cheers bros.

Yeah it felt good. I'm going to take it easy for a few weeks to be safe, and I'm keeping adductors in my daily stretching routine.

Next mobility goal: Handsome snatching positions.

 

[icecold]

Good lord leg DOMS!

 

[icecold]

^ you already know all you need to know...

 

[icecold]

Training 12/6/13

Legs all kinds of tight today so warmed up very thoroughly. Possibly should have kept the squats lighter on monday.

Deads - decided to be extremely careful with these. Aimed to be...not exactly slow, but very deliberate of the floor to make sure the load was being distributed evenly in my hips. Also did controlled negatives to make up for the lack of load and further try to keep everything in my hips behaving.
bar x millions
60x10
100x5
140x5 kept these beltless for a change to help my feel what was going on
160x6
180x5
200x5
210x5
210x5
210x5
Well that was exhausting! Kept the rests quite short, sweaty mess status achieved.

Board bench
bar x lots
60x10
80x5
100x5 to board
110x1
120x2 - was thinking of doing this as my top set but it was too light
125x5 PB easy
127.5x5 PB easy
125x5
120x5
120x5
120x5
120x5
Well that was ridiculous. The bar is feeling so deliciously light in my hands at the moment.

Did some token good mornings but there were more of a warm down.

Sacked off tricep isolation, did mobility instead.

 

[icecold]

Training 14/6/13

All kinds of fatigue today. Time to take it easy on dem der squats so I don't snap in half.

Squats
bar x lots - still tight from monday!
60x10
100x5
140x5
170x5
160x5
160x5
160x5
160x5
Short rests, extreme fatigue. Erectors are also massively out of condition and tired from wednesday. I'm imagining a lot of these initial things will clear up after I've been back at it for a week or two, but it's definitely a sign that I need to keep an eye on load for a while.

Short rest bench
bar x lots
60x10
80x5
100x4
110x1
115x4
117.5x4
112.5x4
112.5x4
112.5x4
112.5x4
Pecs felt really tight today so I avoided completely killing myself with volume.

Pull throughs
some pin x10x3
some heavier pin x10x2

Saving OHP for tomorrow.

Almost getting a bit bored of these easier benching weights. I'm going to stick to the plan though and only hit higher percentages later on. Also, my adductors are phaggots.

 

[icecold]

Training 17/6/13

Long pause squats - beltless
bar x lots
60x10
100x4 paused
140x3
150x3
142.5x3
142.5x3
142.5x3
142.5x3
So much harder beltless! Adductor still isn't perfect, but significantly better. It's such a relief to have found stuff that actually works for the right bits.

Short rest bench
bar x lots
60x10
80x6
100x5
110x1 - had a huge rest before this and a bad hand off. Rep was terrible!
110x1 - perfect
117.5x5
112.5x5
112.5x5
112.5x5
Less volume today

High bar squats
60x6
100x6
120x6
120x6
120x6
Made sure every rep was 100% perfect with these.

Wide grip bench - slow negs with a pause
75x8
90x6
90x6
90x6
Again, less weight to focus on mechanics. This results in more load in the right places anyway, so it isn't much of a trade off.

Nice session, and my adductors are continuing to improve.