Entry #966

Squats:
280 x 5 (forgot that I was only supposed to do 3)
320 x 4
360 x 5
> Smoothest and easiest set of squats I've done in quite a while. After months of changing forms and trying to find a sweet spot to accommodate my shoulder I've finally found my groove. I'm doing low bar squats now, too. All sets were ATG, since I'm descending quickly and taking advantage of the stretch-reflex to bounce out of the hole.

Step-ups:
145 x 5, 6, 6, 6

Leg press:
5 plates x 10
> Just getting some easy extra volume in since I've been skimping on the accessory work for squat day lately. Wanna know what's sad? I can let the machine come all the way down on me and it's still not enough to equal the range of my squat depth.

RKC planks:
60 secs, 15, 9 

Using PWO shakes less and less, pretty much only on upper-body days. After this I simply had dinner.

Entry #965

Woke up at 5:22 today. 5 hours of sleep, but it was worth it to get my schedule back on a sane level where I'm not going to bed at 5 am. Felt hyperactive on the drive over.

Bench press:
215 x 3
245 x 3
280 x 7
> Last rep was tough.

Incline bench press:
190 x 8, 7, 5
155 x 8
135 x 10

Kroc rows:
125s x 20, 18, 15, 15
> Felt like I was going to vomit. Awesome. Still no straps in the mail and I forgot to bring my wrist wraps, so I gutted it out raw again. Next week I'll bring my own dumbbell handles and go much heavier. 

Preacher curls:
70 x 8, 5

Jacuzzi after. I felt dead and on the verge of puking and being in the hot tub made me feel like I wanted to take a nap right there, but after I stepped outside I felt perky and hyper again. 

Entry #964

Yesterday I employed Wendler's INDST method: I'm not doing shit today. Felt shabby so I went in, deadlifted 415 x 5 after working up, and went out. Might do planks today for some ab work and use my Crush grippers.

So pissed about losing my Fat Gripz.

Entry #963

I weighed 214.8 today, which is about half a pound less. It's slow-going but that's perfectly okay.

I'm going to start getting even stricter with carbs during the week while getting more cardio in. After a while of doing that I'll reduce my cheat days from two days a week to one. I think I'm going to go all the way to 200.

I'm also drinking way less milk, which is good because this organic shit is expensive. I'm not sold on that whole line or anything, but I read an interesting excerpt from Thibaudeau about regular milk containing more estrogens. Maybe, maybe not, but it tastes way better. It's just milk, anyways. Why are you brainless mutants reading this far of my post about it? Jesus.

Overhead press:
145 x 3
165 x 3
185 x 7
> Still a little sore going in. All the great ab work I've been doing has been helping with stabilizing the weight. 

Dips:
50 x 8, 8, 8, 8, 6
> Failed a 7th, watch out for that. Supremely deep and making sure to keep my elbows tucked.

Incline lat flyes:
17.5s x 20
12s x 15
6s x 15
> The front of my shoulders have been consistently sore lately and it makes me worry about muscle imbalances. Getting some rear delt work in for shoulder health and stability. Not heavy, just focusing on getting a pump there.

Chin-ups:
50s x 8, 8, 8, 7, 6 

Realized at this point that I lost my Fat Gripz. Fuck!

Entry #962

Yesterday, benched 365 x 8. Came so close to getting a 9th but couldn't lock my right arm completely out. Lesser men would have counted it. Chest and shoulders were and still are majorly sore from weighted dips, which affected performance.

Did Kroc rows with a 125 lb dumbbell for 15 reps, 4 sets. Should definitely get straps. I'm all for training my grip but the dumbbell just starts to tilt to one side and gets anchored to my hand by the bell so grip is out of the equation anyways. Also might be good to get wrist wraps when supporting myself on the bench. Dollar Tree has $1 ones.

Today~

Squats:
260 x 5
300 x 5
340 x 6
> Didn't push to max reps because my right knee was bugging me. It's crazy. When I went under the bar to unrack it my knee hurt, but squatting all the way down resulted in no pain at all. Just goes to show what good form can do for you. Not 100% sure what's up with the knee but it might be from when the chain on the belt I was using for dips swung smack into it and left a huge bump. I thought it was just superficial damage, but maybe not. Guess I'll chalk it up to that for now, but it wouldn't hurt to look into doing my HIIT sessions on grass instead of roads from now on. 

No quad work because of knee.

Standing cable crunches:
130 x 10, 5 sets

Round Table pizza post-workout.

Have a $5 gift certificate for anything in the gym store. Asked the guy how much a 5 lb case of ON whey is and he goes "$86? $87, $87." Who the fuck would be dumb enough to buy that? Jesus.

Entry #961

Did 10 minutes of HIIT, 12/45. One of the best sessions I've had. Going to try reducing HIIT frequency to only twice a week and see if I can keep it up.

Foam rolling and stretching after. Used powerlifting bands to stretch my hamstrings.

Entry #960

Deadlifts:
300 x 5
350 x 5
395 x 10 or 11
> Lost count again and I don't really care. I wasn't going for max reps anyways. One thing I noticed, though, was the grip in my left hand kind of faltering. Looks like I'm stronger with left hand being pronated than supinated.

RDLs:
275 x 10, 10, 8
> Haven't done these in years, so going easy for now.

RKC planks
> Had some guy interrupt me on these to ask me how many reps he should be doing to bulk up because his bench press was stalled. Tried to open his eyes to what strength training is. 

Been going on hungry walks on every off day, just haven't been recording them. Looking lean.

I also got a pair of cheap-ass $7 mitts from Ross. My shoulder has been feeling really stable for a long time, so I'm going to tip-toe back into fight training now.

Entry #959

Weighed 215.4 lbs this morning. Wow, 5 lb drop. I'd be concerned but last week I was loading on creatine so it's probably water weight.

Overhead press:
135 x 5
155 x 5
175 x 8
> Easy, almost no struggle or grind on any rep. I'm learning to not kill myself in the early stages of the cycle and to save the gut-wrenching efforts for the last week.

Dips:
45 x 8, 8, 8, 7, 7
> Going much deeper and staying much more upright than I used to. My elbows almost go up past my ears.

Chin-ups:
45 x 8, 8, 8, 6, 6
> Bar is a pain to hold, thin and slippery. 

Seated alternating curls with Fat Gripz:
40s x 16, 12, 8

Refreshing deload. Actually picked up quite a few things, namely that I've been doing high step-ups wrong. I lowered the platform and stopped pushing off so much with my back foot and got a much better contraction in the working leg. My new favorite unilateral movement.

New maxes for this cycle:

Overhead press: 225
Deadlift: 510
Bench press: 345
Squat: 440 

Entry #957

Trained at Crunch yesterday. Fuck them. I did squats in the MaxRack (using a freeweight barbell, of course) for up to 365 x 3. Unracking the bar is so precarious in this retarded machine; I have to practically do a lunge to get the bar in and out. I feel pretty proud of myself for being the only person in the short history of this gym to manage freeweight squats.

Next, I wanted to do high step-ups. Derp, no can do, because the only way to get a barbell on my shoulder is the MaxRack, and its frame is too short to stand up on anything. This means I can't overhead press anywhere, either. I settle for Wendler's I'm Not Doing Shit method and leave after squats. 

Today was good, though. Did about 8 minutes of HIIT in the morning, and then went gym-hunting. My first choice is an actual powerlifting gym called Sledge, but they have to "accept" you after you shoot them an email. I'm still waiting for them to return mine and set up an interview.

I went to a community center, which had the crappiest gym ever (forget racks, they didn't even have benches), and Portland Athletic Club, which kicked ass. About two minutes from the apartment and there was literally nobody else there. As hole in the wall as you can get. As such everything was retro, old and shabby, but that's the way I like it. Plus since it's so secluded and it being a private facility I can probably stash my own equipment there.

Our lease is up in November, though, so my God-tier option is to get an apartment with a parking garage and build my own gym.

In the meantime I'm signing up for another month at 24 Hour using cash. Shoot me.

After all that I went to the gym for a second round of cardio, with high depth jumps, TGUs (2 sets of 3, both arms), and jump-roping.

Entry #956

Did 430 x 5 on deadlifts Tuesday and felt overtrained. Actually looking forward to next week's deload. Could have done more than 5 but something didn't feel right about busting out 10 reps of 430. Looks like this is the end of my high rep run, I'm gonna keep things 5 and under on deadlifts from now on.

Bench press:
230 x 5
260 x 3
290 x 5 or 6 (lost count)
> Hate it when that happens. I was listening to Scott Mendelson being interviewed on Iron Radio during warm-ups and it just so happened to give me a pretty good briefing on bench pressing. I've also decided I really want some steel-toe boots to bench in.

Neutral-grip dumbbell press:
125s x 5

Supinated cable rows
205 x 8, 5 sets 

Entry #955

Overhead press:
150 x 5
170 x 3
190 x 5
> Felt glyco-depleted, despite sipping a protein shake between sets. Eat more carbs pre-workout.

Arnold press:
85s x 7, 5, 5, 5, 5

NG pull-ups:
55 x 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Bilateral hammer curls with Fat Gripz:
55s x 8, 7

TGUs:
25 x 3
30 x 3, 3

A change I'm making is to no longer do intense cardio on the same day as lifting. My reasoning before was to relegate those days to the fatiguing training and then have recovery days of walks, yoga, etc. I find that recovery is better if I space things out more evenly.

Also, I've been reading old entries and goddamn, I miss the crazy exercise variety I used to do with Westside. Gonna stick with the plan until I finally hit a true 5/3/1 and then stall on my weight for singles before I bring in floor pressing, board pressing, box squats, reverse-band stuff, etc.

Entry #954

Squats:
270 x 5
310 x 5
350 x 5
> Fibula pain is completely gone. Gonna start doing more cardio this week and doing Turkish get-ups again, this time never without a padded surface for my knee. Really wish I could do low bar squats, but my shoulder has come so far in so little time that that's just me being greedy. Stability before flexibility, like McGill says.

High step-ups:
65 x 6
85 x 3
105 x 3

Weighted crunches 

I'm doing depth jumps as a warm-up and I feel like it's translating fantastically to squat performance. Currently I'm going up to 9 plates stacked on top of a waist-high platform. Assuming the stool is 28 inches and each plate is 1.29 thick, I've estimated it to be about 40 inches, more or less.