Building The Beast

[BeastBuilder]

16/07

Delts & Arms

Standing Behind The Neck Press > 40x15, 50x15, 60x10, x10

Bradford Press > 40x12, 50x12, x12

Seated Side Raises > 12.5x25, x25, 20x15, 30x10, 12.5x12/15x12/17.5x12/20x6/17.5x8/15x10/12.5x12

Chest Support Rear Raise/Rear Row/Standing Side Raise > 3 sets of 20/20/20 > 8kg/8kg/10kg

Low Incline Yates Press/Alternating DB Curls > 6 sets of 30/24 - 37kg/20kg

Neutral Grip Face Away Pressdowns/High Cable Curls > 6 sets of 40/20 - 14pl/10pl

Fuuuaarrkkkk ! Body is loving the change in food, still amazed at the stupid pumps from the extra carbs and muscle fullness.

Wee bit more Delts focus then usual this week. Just wanna try improve them a little bit extra to balance out the Arms haha. Also hopefully help along a Bench PB in a few weeks. So planning on doing a bit of extra pressing, probly mostly behind the neck variations to really hammer the Delts and bring about a nice roundness to the physical side of things as well.

Tickle over 1,000 reps overall this week, feels like a bit of a sweet spot, plenty of energy the whole workout and don't run out of gas. Workout partner loves working hard too so we go go go pretty much the whole time which is sick, how the gains are made.

Separates the men from the boys haha.

First time at four plates on Deads in the last six weeks or so tomorrow. Will be nice to start ramping things up again, body is craving it ! Will ramp up pretty quickly so am peppering my angus haha

[BeastBuilder]

17/07

Deads

Deadlift > 165x10, 170x10, 175x10, 180x10

Squat > 100x10, 3 sets of 12 - 135kg

Lying Leg Curl > 30x12, 4 sets of 12 - 65kg

Romanians > 2 sets of 10 - 100kg

2 sets of 10 - 140kg

Double Pump Lunges/Leg Extension - 3 sets of 2 lengths/30 - BW/10pl

High Decline Sit Up/Band Face Pulls - 4 sets of 30/30 - BW/Blue Band

10/10 session, session of the week tbh.

One of those times where everything just felt good and clicked. Big contractions, could really feel the muscles working and seemed to pick just the right weights for each exercise.

Deads were mean. Programmed weight was 165kg but if feels good and my technique is tight I'm allowed to up the weight. It's awesome cos I always want to push the weight up so it makes me work even harder on technique. I think he secretly programs me a little light cos he knows I'll treat it like that, the cheeky c*nt hahaha. But yea all reps were tight, quick, every rep looked the same really. Kept rest short too so ended up getting a sick sweat on, looked like a pedo at a wiggles concert with the sweat and waddle I had going on lol.

Sick Leg pump the rest of the session, definitely guna havta grow from this !!

Heaviest I've gone on Romanians in awhile, doing double overhand atm on them, forearms were pretty wrecked from yesterday, so they pumped up like f*ck after that, a big set of forearms looks boss so hopefully all this pays off with a bit of growth.

Happy to be hitting some heavier weights, guna be ramping up every week from now, can't wait ! Think will be good for a PB pull in six weeks hopefully.. That 700lbs is calling my name !

Rolling, Mobility and Cardio tomorrow, nothing too exciting, necessary evil at this stage.

[Pseudonym]

Unsure why mine is tagged as "Bodybuilding". Definitely a Powerlifter but who wants to be jacked as well, so I dunno what that is classed as.

This forum software now allows us to add tags to topics. So rather than have a separate forum for bodybuilders' journals, powerlifters' journals, etc, as we used to do, we now have one forum containing everyone's journals, and tag them by the appropriate category.

 

In migrating to this software, we assigned a "powerlifting" tag to every journal that was in the old Powerlifting Journals forum, and a "bodybuilding" tag to all other journals. Yours must have been one of those others.

 

TBH, I never finished setting the tags here properly, so you couldn't have changed it yourself anyway. But I have worked on it a bit more now, so you can add/change tags by editing the first post, and hitting the Use Full Editor button. (There's a new version of the forum software coming which should make this process easier, too.)

[BeastBuilder]

This forum software now allows us to add tags to topics. So rather than have a separate forum for bodybuilders' journals, powerlifters' journals, etc, as we used to do, we now have one forum containing everyone's journals, and tag them by the appropriate category.

In migrating to this software, we assigned a "powerlifting" tag to every journal that was in the old Powerlifting Journals forum, and a "bodybuilding" tag to all other journals. Yours must have been one of those others.

TBH, I never finished setting the tags here properly, so you couldn't have changed it yourself anyway. But I have worked on it a bit more now, so you can add/change tags by editing the first post, and hitting the Use Full Editor button. (There's a new version of the forum software coming which should make this process easier, too.)

Ahhh I see, that makes sense !

Hard to even remember the old forum now lol.

Good stuff bro, working hard on it for us, always bringing a bigger and better package. Must be some kinda PB haha

[BeastBuilder]

19/07

Bench

Bench Press > 120x5, 125x5, 3 sets of 5 - 130kg

Wide Grip Incline Bench > 60x20, 100x12, 130x5, 150x4+1 assisted, 120x12

DB Row > 4 sets of 20 - 45kg

Hammer Strength Chest Press > 2ppsx15, 3 sets of 12 - 3pps

Hammer Strength Front Lat Pulldown > 2ppsx15, 3 sets of 10 - 3pps

High-Low Cable Fly/Straight Arm Pulldown > 3 sets of 20/20 - 8pl/12pl

Good session today, getting a little extra weight in my hands so better for practicing tightness, leg drive etc. Basically all speed reps today on Bench, tech work felt solid as.

Incline I was happy with, kinda pissed I missed the last rep, only got a tiny bit of a spot but a spot is still a spot lol. Lost my tightness after the fourth so should have probably racked it but too young and dumb ! Still the heaviest I have ever gone on Incline and felt pretty good to get a few reps so can't complain.

All the other work felt good, solid pump and flowed through everything well. Really feel like the extra emphasis on some weak points in paying off, physique wise and strength wise.

[BeastBuilder]

20/07

Squat

Squats > 182.5x5, 187.5x5, 3 sets of 5 - 192.5kg, 155x10

Deficit Deadlift > 5 sets of 3 - 165kg

Leg Press > 4ppsx50, 6ppsx50, 8ppsx30, 10ppsx30, 12ppsx20, x20

Paramount Squat/Sissy Squat/Leg Extension - 3 sets of 15/10/20 - 1pl/BW/10pl

Barbell Ab Rollouts > 6 sets of 12 - BW

Average feels before, during and after yesterday's session. Just wasn't there.

Squats felt slow, on the vids look a lot better than it felt, tech was tight and never any doubt on the reps of course, just felt meh and slow. Think Posterior Chain and CNS might have needed an extra day to recover from Friday but time is of the essence lol. Also f*ck all sleep compared to usual on the weekend so probably a factor as well.

Accessory work was better as could just focus on the Quads, didn't have to worry about technique/speed etc. Haven't done heavy Leg Press in awhile, felt good, Quads were pumped as f*ck after just a couple sets.

Circuit style to finish, I find throwing these in for Quads is magic, sometimes we've gone up to five exercise giant sets but you have to be having an awesome day or be sick in the head to want to do them again haha.

Abs is legit, two to three times a week atm, feel like it's paying off on my big movements, Coach commented on how my core strength has improved on my Deads the other day so must be doing something right !

[Realtalk]

Strong leg press man!

[BeastBuilder]

Strong leg press man!

Lol thanks bro, what's my squat...

Always havta laugh when Bros tell you they don't Squat but they Leg Press 300x5 (and you know it's barely a knee bend) so they can easily Squat 220-260+ they just don't cause they have a bad back lol.

Okay bro, I can Leg Press 400-500kg for quite a few reps, and you don't see me squatting 400kg..

Brologic 101

[Realtalk]

Lol wasn't taking piss mate. 12pps is a lot of weight. Personally I don't like going over 7 or 8 I just do mine real slow and controlled I use to load more on and dump the weight down and heave it back up but get too much flexing in my lower back and I actually think that was what was giving my knees trouble with that quad tendinitis rather than the squats. But I really rate the leg press for my squat assist. Good muscle builder.

[BeastBuilder]

Lol wasn't taking piss mate. 12pps is a lot of weight. Personally I don't like going over 7 or 8 I just do mine real slow and controlled I use to load more on and dump the weight down and heave it back up but get too much flexing in my lower back and I actually think that was what was giving my knees trouble with that quad tendinitis rather than the squats. But I really rate the leg press for my squat assist. Good muscle builder.

Oh I know bro, I appreciate the acknowledgement. I was more meaning like sure I can Leg Press a fair whack of weight but I'm a tad sad that it doesn't translate to a big Squat haha.

Yea for sure, see a lot of people doing that, I do mine with a bit more control and constant tension, otherwise it's just extra weight on there for no extra benefit. And like you say, can easily cause issues for your other lifts which is the complete opposite of what you want from accessories, meant to build the big lifts not bring them down !

Definitely agree on Leg Press being a good muscle builder, can focus on the muscle a lot more and get some good heavy volume in without ruining yourself too bad haha

[BeastBuilder]

22/07

Bench

Bench Press > 120x8, 125x8, 3 sets of 8 - 130kg

Hammer Strength Iso Row > 2ppsx15, 4 sets of 12 - 3pps

Incline DB Press > 30x20, 45x15, 55x12, 60x10, x10/30x8 (Fly Press)

Wide Grip Pull Ups > BWx12, +15kgx8, +15kgx8, BWx13/-20kgx5/-45kgx7

Wide Grip Dips > BWx15, +20kgx15, +40kgx15, +60kgx10/BWx10

Bent Arm Barbell Pullovers > 3 sets of 20 - 30kg

Mint session today, nailed Bench easy as, tech was solid, body felt tight and bar speed was quick as.

Feels good to start holding a bit of weight again even though it's still pretty light compared to my top end weights.

Accessories were on point, Lats were contracting really well so felt awesome !

Flatmate bought a Dip Belt off GetStrength cos the one at the gym sucks dick so took that for a spin. Worked out awesome.

Felt like a right bitch using the assisted machine for Pull Ups for the dropset but felt sick and idgaf, had the biggest back in the gym so haters guna hate hahaha

Feeling strong coming into this Strength phase nicely !

[BeastBuilder]

23/07

Delts & Arms

Seated Behind The Neck Press > 40x20, 60x12, 80x10, x10, 60x12, 60x12/40x10

Snatch Grip > 2 sets of 12 - 40kg

Seated Side Raises > 2 sets of 30 - 10kg, 2 sets of 20 - 15kg, 5 rounds of 12 with 10sec rest- 17.5kg, 12.5kgx40

High Cable Face Pulls > 4 sets of 25 - 12pl

Straight Bar Pressdowns > 8 sets of 40 - 12pl (Alternate Sets of Overhand/Underhand Grip)

Single Arm Pressdowns (Underhand/Overhand/Pushdown) > 3 sets of 20/20/20 - 4pl

PoundStone Curls > 20kgx132

Incline DB Curls > 4 sets of 20 - 12.5kg

Standing DB Curls > 10kgx10(both arms)/x20(alternating)/x10(both arms)

Was left to Lone Wolf this session today, and it was a prime example of why I shouldn't be left to my own devices lol. Filthy pump.. Absolutely disgusting haha.

Behind the Head Press felt mint, reps were easy, wouldn't be too much of a fan of going overly heavy on this, dunno how the body would handle it, more of a make it feel heavy movement if you know what I mean. Really feel it all over my whole Delt rather than just exclusively Front Delt so it's great for first up movement.

Got prettt trigger happy with everything tbh but it all added up and felt really good.

Triceps I think is a muscle group where you can really change the emphasis with the change of hand position hence all the different grips. Obviously the Tricep is one muscle but can definitely emphasise different heads by executing things with slight tweaks.

Biceps... I love Biceps.. I swear they must have a carry over to my Deadlift lol.

Hadn't done Poundstone Curls in ages, it's nothing special but brought to my attention in one of Derek Poundstone's videos. He's awesome btw, one of my favourite Strongmen, if not my favourite. Max reps with an empty bar. That's it, doesn't get much more simple lol. No sitting at the bottom resting obviously except for like a one count, tbh each time you do this tiny stop it makes it worse cos the next reps hurts ten times more than the previous. And also let's be fair if you stop at the bottom and rest and keep counting after that your only cheating yourself into more reps, that's not the point of the exercise, and it's not like anyone is going to give two fucks about how many times you can curl an empty bar lolol.

But stiffening pump, like ridiculous, wasn't much more I could do tbh.

The DBs finished it off nicely.

[Skeletor]

Lol sounds brutal. You do it with an ezi bar or flat? I used to follow Derek when I had Facebook. Unreal strength.

[BeastBuilder]

Lol sounds brutal. You do it with an ezi bar or flat? I used to follow Derek when I had Facebook. Unreal strength.

Empty Straight Barbell broski, hence the 20kg lol

An empty EZBar would be strange I'd imagine, I think it'd be too light but once you got to a few reps you'd be wishing it was over haha

[BeastBuilder]

24/07

Deadlifts

Deadlift > 205x6, 210x6, 2 sets of 6 - 215kg

Squat > 100x8, 3 sets of 6 - 147.5kg

Front Squat > 60x20, 100x12, x12, 100x10/x10/60x12/x12 (Front/Oly Squat/Front/Oly Squat)

Romanians > Sumo > 60x12, 2 sets of 10 - 100kg

Conventional > 2 sets of 10 - 100kg

Leg Extension/Leg Curl > 4 rounds non-stop - 60x20/60x10

High Decline Sit Ups/Band Pull Aparts/Reverse Bench Crunches > 3 sets of 25/25/25

Pretty mean session today. Felt good and easy. Tightness was on point.

Coach pointed out that I should try bring my hips through earlier on my pull so been working on that, feels good, will take a bit to get right but feels like a good work in progress.

Front Squats were stupid. I don't know what made me think that dropset thing was a good idea, but it was sick. Legs were ruined after that tbh, walking the rest of the session was a workout in itself.

Tried out the Sumo Romanians like RealTalk suggested. Felt pretty darn good tbh. I kept tension on the whole time though as it felt a lot more comfortable than putting it down in between. Glute and Adductors were hit pretty dam hard, glutes were pumped. Not that they need to get bigger, but f*ck it the road to a big squat and pull is a big booty !

Sick session, happy with progression.

Cheat night tonight, all kinds of gains to be made !

[BeastBuilder]

26/07

Bench

Bench Press > 135x3, 140x3, 2 sets of 3 - 145kg, 2 sets of 3 - 150kg

Flat DB Bench > 40x15, 50x12, 60x12, x12

Pendlay Row > 60x15, 100x12, x12, 120x10, 140x8

High Cable Flys > 8plx20, x20, 10plx15, x15/7plx10 (2-0-2-0 Tempo)

Close Neutral Pull downs > 100x12, 115x12, 130x12

Single Arm > 2 sets of 10 - 50kg

Happy with today's session. Pressing felt strong as getting more weight on the bar. Tightness is really coming along with the heavier weight. Hoping for that PB feel come test time !

All reps easy today obviously, just getting some volume in with a bit more weight.

Accessories were top notch as well, good energy and flow through everything. Must say I do enjoy doing Chest & Back together, the whole upper body pump feels mint and makes me look about 5kg bigger hahaha.

Weights going up again this coming week will see how we go, looking forward to it !

[Boosting]

Nice db bench bro. 60kg heaviest at your gym or just wanting high reps?

Good journal too. Following religiously, 10/10, wank bank literature, would read again etc.

Id start up my own journal except id probably make you look like a little bitch and also i dont even lift anymore so unsure what exactly id write about.

[BeastBuilder]

Nice db bench bro. 60kg heaviest at your gym or just wanting high reps?

Good journal too. Following religiously, 10/10, wank bank literature, would read again etc.

Id start up my own journal except id probably make you look like a little bitch and also i dont even lift anymore so unsure what exactly id write about.

Thanks bro, yea 60s are the heaviest DBs we got so kinda gay but I just mix up the angles instead. Still lame lol. Change up the tempo etc to make it harder but only so much you can do in that respect.

Shot bro, I'll sleep happy knowing I'm contributing to someone's wank bank. Achievement unlocked haha.

Lol go hard man, I love feeling like a bitch. Might even add you to my own Wank Bank..

Must be hitting some big numbers without much effort then. Be interested to see how you manage these amazing gains with little lifting haha.

[Boosting]

Lol just talking shit about the 'making you look like a bitch' thing. I could probably do most of your sets atm if i actually trained but it looks like youre going light and nowhere near failure.

Always hard to get back into lifting again when i stop. When im into it its hard for me to skip days, almost an addiction. But then i stop going for anything more than a couple of weeks and think about going again i really just cant be fucked.

[BeastBuilder]

Haha I guessed that bro, still be good to see another good journal up here, I read everyone's stuff cos so many different variables so good to see how people all train differently.

The solution to that is easy, just don't stop going lol

[BeastBuilder]

27/07

Squat

Squats > 197.5x4, 202.5x4, 207.5x4, 212.5x4, 162.5x1.....

Deficit Deadlifts > 2 sets of 3 - 100kg

Cable Ab Pulldowns > 18plx30, 4 sets of 20 - Stack

Cable Pull throughs > 4 sets of 12 - 15pl

Sooooooo..... Things didn't quite work out as planned today as you can see..

Got through the work sets of Squats and on the second last rep on my last set felt a twinge in my knee, thought f*ck it and finished the last rep. Chucked wraps on for first time since Nationals today and so as I took my wraps off my knee felt pretty dam tight and sore to move. Gave my down set a go but as I was going down hurt like hell, and when I pushed up it just got worse ! Fucking lame...

Wasn't sore but felt tight as doing Deficits, couldn't do any squatting/pressing movements. Tried Extensions, hurt even more just getting into the machine so just thought f*ck this and did some Abs. Felt like a piece of shit so tried some Pull Throughs, didn't hurt so jammed a few of those but just lost interest cos was too bummed..

Had this happen just before the Anzac weekend comp, felt basically the same. Hurts in flexion and if I have to put pressure through it.

Fixed it up last time with ice and anti inflamms over a few days to a week. So hoping same thing works now !

Think the issue is a sleepy glute/tight hip on that side. Always my left hip that gives me issues if I have any and the same knee too.

Have been nailing mobility work etc but must just be needing more and need to target other issues.

Here's hoping it comes right soon !

[Realtalk]

No good bro! Recover well

[BeastBuilder]

Update on the knee issue

Iced it on and off a couple times last night, took a few anti inflammatorys. Feels ten times better today. Pain mostly gone, was just tight during the day, only hurt if I put a bit of extra weight on it. Was okayish to walk on.

Iced it straight after work and had some more anti inflam goodness then went to gym for some Mobility and Cardio work.

Don't usually log these but will give an overview.

Started off with 10minutes on Bike to warm up/get heart rate up a bit.

Then into mobility stuff.

Started with Upper Back/Shoulders, did some foam rolling, dislocations overhead with broomstick, internal rotation stretches, couple baseballs into my Traps to get knots out.

Moved onto Quads. Rolling and stretching, hip flexor stretching too.

Went to Hips next. Foam Rolled Glutes (Min and Max), stretching Adductors, Hip mobility squence (Mobility WOD on Youtube is sick for this stuff).

Then decided to hit a quick circuit for a bit of extra work and add to the cardio as Steady State gets boring lol. Went like this:

4 rounds with 30 sec rest between - Heels to Heaven 20 Reps, Wide Grip Pull Ups 10 Reps, Hanging Leg Raises 20 Reps, Band Pull Aparts 25 Reps

Was mint, then back on the bike for another 10minutes. Sweating like a pedo at a wiggles concert but felt good, had been depressed about not training all day so felt good to do something reasonable.

Knee felt good the whole time really, obvs didn't do anything to stress it. Back under the ice atm, will do a couple more rounds tonight. Will keep icing on and off over the next week and see how we go but feeling like it'll be ready for Squats next Monday.

[BeastBuilder]

29/07

Bench

Bench Press > 130x6, 135x6, 140x6

Hammer Strength Incline Press > 2ppsx20, 3ppsx12, 4ppsx10, 3ppsx10/2ppsx6/1ppsx10

Hammer Strength Dorian Yates Row > 2ppsx15, 4 sets of 12 - 3pps

Low Incline DB Fly > 20x20, 25x15, 30x12, 30x12/30x12 (Pressing as continuation)

Hoist Close Neutral Grip Pulldowns/Straight Arm Pulldowns > 3 sets of 12/20 - 3pps/50kg

Solid session today.

Bench was tight and fast. Reps are moving awesome on Bench. Technique is on point for sure, Coach is really happy with it. Looking forward to taking the strength improvement for a spin with higher end weights soon.

Accessories were mint today too. Couple machine movements we hadn't done in awhile so they felt good. Had three of us today so was jusy right for hitting sets with enough rest etc.

Pump was sick, muscles felt worked but not absolutely raped which is more the feeling I end up going for, seems to work well enough.

Knee is little to no issue today, fucking wrapt. Will keep icing over next few days and only really do a few light knee flexion movements on Friday so can go hard on Monday. Ready for the gains !!

[BeastBuilder]

30/07

Delts & Arms

Seated Behind The Head Press > 40x20, 60x12, x12, 80x10, 90x10, 100x5/60x15

Snatch Grip > 50x15, 60x15, 60x15

Seated Incline Side Raises > 5 sets of 12 - 15kg

Chest Support Rear Raise/Standing Side Raise > 3 sets of 25/20 - 12.5kg

Flex Lewis Giant Tris Set > 5 rounds - 25 reps per exercise - 35kg each (Will explain further down)

Buddy Buddy Barbell Curls > 10 passes - 12 reps - 35kg

11th set - 35kgx25

Overhead DB Extension/DB Curl > 3 sets of 25/20 - 15kg

Mean session today, pump was insane, felt like I was guna die lolol

Had couple of the lads to train with today so had a lift out for Presses. Felt sick. Did 90kg pretty comfortably so would have been rude to not have a jam with two wheels. My delts were more fucked/pumped than I realized and only got 5 so dropsetted that motherfucker and we were away.

Rest of Delts was mint after that, all good contractions etc.

Triceps did a giant set that I stole from the Welsh Dragon's youtube vids. It's basically five exercises in a row compromising of Rope Pressdowns with hands apart, Rope Pressdowns with hands together, Wide Underhand Pressdowns, Close Tri Bar Pressdowns and finish with Overhead Cable Extensions with Rope. Use the same weight for each exercise and hit 20-25 reps each one. Obvs opted for 25 cos I ain't a phaggot. Can confirm the pump is real. 625 reps in about 10-15 minutes lol.

Buddy buddy curls are dope as f*ck too. Kills the guns. My arms are stronger than everyone else so I did 12s the whole way through but the cheeky c*nt I was with dropped down each set, was doing 5-6s by the end so my rests were getting shorter and shorter lol. Did an extra set at the end to failure just to be a good c*nt.

Arms and Delts officially done and dusted lol