Very easy workout, just to get some extra volume to hit my chest and lower back/hamstrings a bit – these are two of my biggest weaknesses and frankly, chest isn’t really getting too much work on this current training block.

• DB Bench Press – sets of 20 to a top set
  • 10, 20, 30, 40, 50lbs by set
• SSB Good Mornings – 6×10
  • 2 sets with narrow stance, 2 sets with moderate stance and 2 sets with wide stance
• Sprints – 10 sets of 10ish yards
  • Trying to rebuild some athleticism and explosiveness – it’s been a while since I’ve really done anything particularly explosive with body weight, so short bursts of sprinting was nice.

This marks the end of Week 5 of this training program, and I’m feeling strong.  My strength is definitely going up, and I need to make sure to stay on target with my programming – don’t make concessions just to lift more weight because I want to lift more weight.  The key is to follow the program as it’s written, and to not divert from that, so here we go:

• SSB Squats – 275x9reps
  • Warm-ups: 65×10, 65×5, 115×5, 155×3, 205×1, 245×1
• Seated OHP/BTN – 50x16reps/5reps
  • Warm-ups: 45×10/5
• HB Squats – 235×18/2reps
  • Warm-ups: 45×10, 95×5, 135×3, 185×1, 205×1
  • My inability to complete the straight 20 reps wasn’t a strength issue today, or at least it didn’t feel like a strength issue.  My arms just started going numb from gripping the bar so tightly, plus my wrists were bent back further than usual, so I think that contributed to the numbness too.  Anyway, I’m just glad I kept it in my head to finish the 20 rep total with an extra double.  Just need to get through all 20 straight next workout is all.
• DLs – 235x10reps
  • Warm-ups: 45×15, 135×5, 185×3, 225×1
  • Grip strength played a big role in my inability to go beyond the 10 reps.  Between the numbness and pump in my forearms from the HB squats, and the fact that I was pulling more deliberately with constant tension throughout the entire set caused my grip to get incredibly taxed.  I have the strength to probably hit at least 15 reps with this weight, but I need to bring my grip strength up too.  So here we go with slower reps for deadlifts.

I’m pretty happy with where my strength levels are currently at, using the top sets in this workout I’m looking at estimated 1RM’s for SSB Squats, HB Squats and DLs, respectively: 357, 375, 313.  My DLs are definitely lagging behind, but I know that the strength is there in the posterior chain, just need to get my forearms up to par.

So today was the first workout where I had the feeling that I was going to start hitting strength plateaus.  Last week was a jumble where I trained too many consecutive days so I didn’t expect to make progress (but I did, which is always nice).  This week I knew the weights were going to get to the point that given that I’m cutting weight, they would start to be a challenge.  Based off of 1RM estimated calculations, I’m still moving in a moderately decent direction, but this is where the eventual stall out will probably start:

• SSB Squats – 265x11reps
  • Warm-ups: 65×10, 65×5, 115×5, 155×3, 205×1, 245×1
• CGBP – 175x10reps
  • Warm-ups: 45×15, 45×10, 65×10, 85×10, 95×5, 115×5, 135×3, 155×1
• HB Squats – 235x11reps
  • Warm-ups: 45×10, 95×5, 135×3, 185×2, 225×1
  • This is where the plateau on strength is going to start happening, since I wasn’t able to do 225×20 w/o sleeves last workout, I knew that 235×20 was going to be really challenging with sleeves.  I think I could have completed this, but I really got in my own head and made excuses so I racked it.
• DLs – skipped
  • I’m still hoping to get to the DLs at some point, but at the moment I had to leave as I ran out of time.  Next workout is on 03/24/2017, so I’m hoping I can hit the DLs for this workout prior to that at some point.

Time to move on, and keep trying to make as much progress as I can!

Two days in row really sucks, and frankly, 3 days is going to suck even more. I’m beyond beat after this workout, but it’s just about getting the work in and making as much progress as I can.  We’ll see what happens tomorrow, I’m really hoping that today’s workout will act as a slight intensity/volume deload since I didn’t hit as much volume as desired.  Tomorrow will finally get back on track, here’s today’s workout:

• SSB Squats – 255x9reps
  • Warm-ups: 65×10, 65×5, 115×5, 155×3, 205×1, 245×1
• CGBP – 170x11reps
  • Warm-ups: 45×15, 45×10, 65×10, 85×10, 95×5, 115×5, 135×3, 155×1
• HB Squats – 225x12reps
  • Warm-ups: 45×10, 95×5, 135×3, 185×1, 205×1

• DLs – 215x13reps
  • Warm-ups: 45×15, 135×5, 185×3
• EZ Bar Biceps Curls SS w/ Skull Crushers
  • 4×20/15/10/5 w/ 35lbs – utilized Blood Flow Restriction (BFR)

Four weeks down on this training plan, another 4 weeks to go.  I’m making solid progress on SSB Squats and CGBP – luckily, I’ve continued making progress on HB Squats and DLs too, but these are secondary movements right now.  I know that when I really put the work in, my DLs will skyrocket because my strength base is there, and also, the SSB Squats really work the musculature that supports the movement.

Progress in the two main movements is great, but I’ve had a long-term goal of hitting 225 for 20 reps on HB squats for the past 2 years.  I think if I’d had a day off before today I would have been able to hit the 20 reps without too much trouble.

Anyway, for the next 3 weeks I’m going to start incorporating some overhead pressing into the mix.  My goal is to alternate the CGBP with seated overhead press (OHP).  The seated OHPs will be done with a slight quirk – I will be performing super sets of 10 OHP and 5 behind-the-neck (BTN) press.  I need to get some shoulder hypertrophy and working the two movements should hit all three sections of the my delts pretty effectively.

I still have no idea how I’m going to be feeling tomorrow, but we’ll see how it goes.

This was the best workout of this cycle so far, and I’m really excited about it!  I’ve been shooting for reps on 245.  So here we go:

• SSB Squats – 245x12reps
  • Warm-ups: 65×10, 65×5, 115×5, 155×3, 205×1
• CGBP – 165x11reps
  • Warm-ups: 45×15, 45×10, 65×10, 85×10, 95×5, 115×5, 135×3, 155×1
• HB Squats – 215x20reps
  • Warm-ups: 45×10, 95×5, 135×3, 185×1
• DLs – 205x12reps
  • Warm-ups: 45×15, 135×5, 155×3

I’d have to say that between the SSB squats and the HB squats set I’m flying pretty high!  The dangerous thing, though, is that to get back on track with my schedule, I’m going to need to train tomorrow and Sunday…that’s 3 days in a row.  I’m not excited about tomorrow, but it should be entertaining to see how I do.

Since I’ve been dealing with the oblique strain for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been doing more running (which is part of my training because I want to run a half- or full-marathon some time this year) instead of going to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.  Since we had a ridiculous snow storm the other day, and there’s 2ft of snow on the ground plus ample ice, running was out of the question today.  I figured it was time to get creative and decided on kettlebell swings for volume followed up with some simple bodybuilding work for my back.

Kettlebell (KB) Swings

• Performed 30/30 (work/rest), adding 10lbs per set, pyramiding up until the kettlebell handle couldn’t fit more plates and then back down.
• 15/25/35/45/55/45/35/25/15 – I could have started adding in 50lbs plates, but the purpose wasn’t the weight, but the intensity and duration.
• Got a pretty decent cardiovascular hit from this, but I think shorter rest intervals are in order the next time – 30 seconds gave me too much time to recover.

Dumbbell (DB) 1-arm Rows

• 4×20/15/10/5 – 30/50/70/90lbs

Band Pull Aparts

• 100 reps

Band Rows

• 50 reps

Band Lat Pulldowns

• 50 reps

Band Seated Crunches

• 50 reps

This gave me a pretty decent back pump, but i think I can use a higher level of band tension moving forward, or just a lot more reps to really get some serious work in.  Feeling good overall, definitely looking forward to squatting again tomorrow!

So this was a pretty solid workout, especially after the amount of suck I was experiencing the day prior – pretty much drinking a protein shake 4 hours prior to lifting weights was too much for my stomach to handle.  This is not acceptable and I need figure out exactly what is going on, and why my body was feeling this way.  Granted, I also had a 6 oz bag of honey roasted peanuts and a white Monster energy drink on the car home…but my stomach issues all felt like it was due to the protein shake.  I’ll get it straightened so I don’t have this issue again.

Anyway, moving onto the work:

• SSB Squats – 235x12reps
  • Warm-ups: 65×10, 65×5, 115×5, 155×3, 205×1
• CGBP – 165x8reps (repeat weights during next workout)
  • Warm-ups: 45×15, 45×10, 65×10, 85×10, 95×5, 115×5, 135×3, 155×1
• HB Squats – 205x20reps
  • Warm-ups: 45×10, 95×5, 135×3, 185×1

Took a pause here since I was lifting during my workday over my lunch break, and I still needed to get outside and clean up some snow.  I figured I’d finish the workout after work was done:

• DLs – 195x13reps
  • Warm-ups: 45×15, 135×5, 185×3
• EZ Curl Bar Curls SS w/ EZ Curl Bar Skullcrushers – 35×20/15/10/5reps
  • I did these following a blood-flow restriction (BFR) protocol – the idea is to restrict venous return blood flow so that arterial blood pools in the muscles and acquires the “pump” that bodybuilders are always vying for.  There’s some science behind why and how it works, so I figured it was reasonable to include it every now and then.
  • The best part is that it provides an absolutely brutal pump, and I don’t need to use heavy weights to get there.  The important factor for me was squeezing each rep at the top and getting maximum contraction in the muscle.
• Shoulder Tri-set (Seated rear delt raise/lateral raise/front raises) – 3x15x10lbs
  • Just getting some decent shoulder work in, I tend to neglect my shoulders as they are a little harder to train heavy in my garage.  The ceiling is very low, so I can’t perform standing presses the way I would prefer, and I’m just not a huge fan of seated pressing.  I will be incorporating them as one of my main movements soon, but just not yet.

That’s it for Workout 10, I got some extra cardio/conditioning work in with shoveling and clearing the driveway…I think next year I’m going to have to invest in a snowblower, because this is just crazy.

As part of my journey, I’ll be chronicling not only the steps I take to achieve my goal, but my training day to day, as well as status updates in the way of pictures and weight check-ins.  I’ll put an overview of my training plan in my blogs, with my actual workouts being logged here.  For the sake of expediency, I’m just going to give you the top sets for each exercise for each of the first 9 workouts, and then go more granular moving forward.

Workout 1 – 02/19/2017

• Safety Squat Bar (SSB) Squats – 155x12reps
• Close-grip Bench Press (GCBP) – 95x20reps
• High-Bar (HB) Squats – 135x20reps
• Deadlift (DL) – 135x15reps

Workout 2 – 02/21/2017

• SSB Squats – 165x16reps
• CGBP – 100x20reps
• HB Squats – 145x20reps
• DL – 145x15reps

Workout 3 – 02/23/2017

• SSB Squats – 175x16reps
• CGBP – 105x20reps
• HB Squats – 155x20reps
• DL – 155x15reps

Workout 4 – 02/28/2017

• SSB Squats – 185x14reps
• CGBP – 115x17reps
• HB Squats – 165x20reps
• DL – 165x16reps

Workout 5 – 03/01/2017

• SSB Squats – 195x12reps
• CGBP – 125x20reps
• HB Squats – 175x15reps
• DL – Skipped due to strained oblique; I couldn’t take the pressure on the muscle by the 14th rep of HB squats and it felt like my oblique was going to burst by the 15th and stopped it there.
• EZ Bar Curls SS w/ EZ Bar Skull Crushers – 3×20

Workout 6 – 03/03/2017

• SSB Squats – 2015x12reps
• CGBP – 135x15reps
• HB Squats – 175x20reps
• DL – Skipped again due to the oblique strain; I was able to finish all the requisite reps on the first 3 movements without excessive pain, but it felt like the right idea to stay away from DLs for one more day.
• EZ Bar Curls SS w/ EZ Bar Skull Crushers – 3×20
• Shoulders Tri-set – 3×15

Workout 7 – 03/05/2017

• SSB Squats – 215x15reps
• CGBP – 145x12reps
• HB Squats – 185x20reps
• DL – 175x15reps
• EZ Bar Curls SS w/ EZ Bar Skull Crushers – 3×20
• Shoulders Tri-set – 3×15

Workout 8 – 03/07/2017

• SSB Squats – 225x12reps
• CGBP – 155x13reps
• HB Squats – 195x20reps
• DL – 185x13reps
• EZ Bar Curls SS w/ EZ Bar Skull Crushers – 3×20
• Shoulders Tri-set – 3×15

Workout 9 – 03/13/2017

• SSB Squats – 235x5reps
• CGBP – 160x10reps
• HB Squats – Skipped because I felt like I was going to pass out, stopped the whole workout here and decided to leave for tomorrow.  I’m going to try and do the full workout tomorrow that I was supposed to hit today.
• DL – Skipped