Calling myself out.

[I Declare War]

Did Workout 2A today

For Squats I did a drop-set. Well, I was hoping to get at least 6 reps on 180kg. I got 3 nice paused reps but it just didn't feel right - I need to get used to squatting heavy. So I did a drop-set. I took about 30 seconds rest between the sets. I ended up doing:

180kg x 3

160kg x 8

140kg x 11

I took a little bit longer rest between 160kg and 140kg, to set up on the 140kg set because I wanted to video it... I was going for 20 reps but I bitched out. Ah well.

Here's the video:

On Friday I will do 160kg for 20... it's do or die. Then I'll try 180kg again.

[tinytraps]

Mint squats bro! Im sure if you can do 160x20 you will smoke 180-200 with ease.

Oh and Happy Birthday :grin:

[olympia]

Mean squatting bro. Those widowmakers used to rape me, id be dry reching all over the show. Can definately see you pushing 160 for 20 .

Yep and happy birthday.

[Android]

Cheers guys!

Monarchking! No lol only 28! Phew it'd suck to be 30!

Was gonna say Happy Birthday...

My misses bites her bottom lip just like you do in that clip, except she isn't in the gym at the time :pfft:

[I Declare War]

Cheers tinytraps and olympia. I'll try record it so noone can say I'm talking bullshit. :-)

Cheers guys!

Monarchking! No lol only 28! Phew it'd suck to be 30!

Was gonna say Happy Birthday...

My misses bites her bottom like you do in that clip, except she isn't in the gym at the time :pfft:

Lol, yea it's a bad habit. They've bled once or twice because of it... will try cut that out.

Now... I'm not sure when your misses bites her lips but I'm guessing it's where you're behind her doing something nasty! hahahaha been making some home videos have ya Android. :pfft: :pfft:

[Growth]

Quads look pretty strong bro, good upper / lower body proportion.

As the others have said, happy birthday! Hope your birthday cake wasn't the obligatory breast fillet with a candle in it

[I Declare War]

Quads look pretty strong bro, good upper / lower body proportion.

As the others have said, happy birthday! Hope your birthday cake wasn't the obligatory breast fillet with a candle in it

Cheers Growth.

Nah man, I'm not stupid enough to do that... Way to far away from competition time for me (if I even do one) to worry about what I eat.

[I Declare War]

Rack Pulls were up today

60kg 10

100kg 10

140kg 10

180kg 10

220kg 5

300kg 6 drop-set 260kg 15-20 (lost count)

300kg felt like nothing tbh, not sure why I stopped at 6 reps. Kind of happy that I did though... I hate rack pulls turning into a grind.

Back feels mint.. nothing broken or sore.

Next week I'll slap on some more plates and go for 340kg. I'll get a video of that one.

[Android]

Some serious tin moved there mate.

Be keen to watch the 340kg, I can't pick up 250kg let alone 300+ good work :clap:

[Pete_S]

I'd like to see a video of those rack pulls mate - anything over 300 is good going

[I Declare War]

Cheers Pete_S and Android. Will post a video of my arms being ripped off in due course. 8)

Today I did Workout 2B (See page 1 of this thread for outline).

Hack Squats toe presses, did up to 6pps

SLDL did up to 180kg (After viewing the vid I see that didn't keep 'em legs as stiff as I thought...)

This is one exercise where I have to restrain myself, there's a fine line between working the hamstrings/errectors and getting a broken back.

Squats did two sets at 130kg. I've had a niggle in my left leg's quads since the last squatting session. So I decided to keep it light today. I did:

100kg to failure

120kg to failure

130kg to failure (16 reps... Just posting the vid for entertainment value - "crazyfacials")

130kg for 10 (reps done very slow so that I'd fail at 10)

That was it.

[Phedder]

You can't really call the 16 reps at 130kg to failure...Your final rep looks about the same as my first rep at 130 Had 20+ there easily!

[I Declare War]

You can't really call the 16 reps at 130kg to failure...Your final rep looks about the same as my first rep at 130 Had 20+ there easily!

Hehe, yea bro I felt like an "easy" failure today. 8)

Sometimes when I get real serious I go until I can't rack the barbell anymore. It's good being 5'6"... as you can see I can go right down to the safety pins and rest it out.

[Phedder]

A proper power rack with adjustable safeties is the only way to go :nod:

Funnily enough the only time I've trained with the style of rack you're using, I kept bottoming out on front squats. Had to walk right out of the rack just to get deep

[I Declare War]

A proper power rack with adjustable safeties is the only way to go :nod:

Funnily enough the only time I've trained with the style of rack you're using, I kept bottoming out on front squats. Had to walk right out of the rack just to get deep

Yep I agree about the power rack. It beats me why tall guys even bother squatting in these squat racks. Many can never really test their depth and build a proper squat for fear of not being able to fail. A couple of days ago a guy that's quite tall was using the rack next to me doing 180kg knee bend Squats. And this is a guy who dumbbell benches 60kg dumbbells with good form. He's a bit slow and stupid though, maybe has a mental illness... but, it kind of proves my point.

The guy in the example above is not Android BTW. :pfft:

[olympia]

Good going man. Your quads are looking mint.

[I Declare War]

Good going man. Your quads are looking mint.

Thanks man. They're coming up! Hopefully me going light this round will get rid of that niggle... next week I'm going to go ape-shit on them if it's all go!

[Android]

Good going mate but u reckon that 1st vid is a deadlift :pfft:

A bend in the knee is preferable, but have heard that maximum hammy use comes if u can raise toes off the floor and wiggle them. Doesn't mean that's part of the exercise lol. It means heels first lean back and take weight off front of foot. I've backed off from 140kg SLDL to get this form right otherwise I was using everything I had to hold weight up...everything except hammies!

Food for thought :-)

[Monarchking]

Good going mate but u reckon that 1st vid is a deadlift :pfft:

A bend in the knee is preferable, but have heard that maximum hammy use comes if u can raise toes off the floor and wiggle them. Doesn't mean that's part of the exercise lol. It means heels first lean back and take weight off front of foot. I've backed off from 140kg SLDL to get this form right otherwise I was using everything I had to hold weight up...everything except hammies!

Food for thought :-)

seen mat kroc i think had plates under his toes to raise them? could try that..might have to my self

[I Declare War]

Good going mate but u reckon that 1st vid is a deadlift :pfft:

A bend in the knee is preferable, but have heard that maximum hammy use comes if u can raise toes off the floor and wiggle them. Doesn't mean that's part of the exercise lol. It means heels first lean back and take weight off front of foot. I've backed off from 140kg SLDL to get this form right otherwise I was using everything I had to hold weight up...everything except hammies!

Food for thought :-)

No Android.. that was definitely not a conventional Deadlift (or an actual SLDL).

Now that I've seen the video and had some time to reflect I think that the exercise I did there would best be described as a Romanian Deadlift. During the warmups what I did was close to a SLDL though, without much change in leg bend during the motion.

What do you think about Dorian's SLDL form here? That's what I was aiming for, although I have a tendency to try and lower it right to the ground. I hadn't seen this clip before so I might take his advice and not lower the bar completely to the floor next time I do them.

[Luigi]

that 1st vid just looks like a normal deadlift bro, far from a sldl but looks like you know that now. did sldl's the other day for first time in ages, only used 60kg and hamstrings were sore for days ! so if your using 180kg would love to know how big your normal deadlift is ?

quads looking solid too.

[aln]

Interesting read and viewing. .

[southernsamurai]

Are you 5ft6? What's your goal weight/bf before you cut for the stage?

Similar height bro, my long term goal is to get to 90kgs at 10-12% bf.

[Android]

Good going mate but u reckon that 1st vid is a deadlift :pfft:

A bend in the knee is preferable, but have heard that maximum hammy use comes if u can raise toes off the floor and wiggle them. Doesn't mean that's part of the exercise lol. It means heels first lean back and take weight off front of foot. I've backed off from 140kg SLDL to get this form right otherwise I was using everything I had to hold weight up...everything except hammies!

Food for thought :-)

No Android.. that was definitely not a conventional Deadlift (or an actual SLDL).

Now that I've seen the video and had some time to reflect I think that the exercise I did there would best be described as a Romanian Deadlift. During the warmups what I did was close to a SLDL though, without much change in leg bend during the motion.

What do you think about Dorian's SLDL form here? That's what I was aiming for, although I have a tendency to try and lower it right to the ground. I hadn't seen this clip before so I might take his advice and not lower the bar completely to the floor next time I do them.

My Yates is demonstrating a strict SLDL :clap: well done Dorian!

Your's my friend wasn't one of those primarily because by totally bending your knees towards the bottom of the movement you are missing out on the stretch...that's a major part of the exercise. The raise off the bottom with stiff-legged or slightly bent knees is the other major part of it and you're lifting the weight off the ground like a deadlift.

Try Dorian's weight of 60kg, it's what I've gone back to since last October to nail the form.

[I Declare War]

My Yates is demonstrating a strict SLDL :clap: well done Dorian!

Your's my friend wasn't one of those primarily because by totally bending your knees towards the bottom of the movement you are missing out on the stretch...that's a major part of the exercise. The raise off the bottom with stiff-legged or slightly bent knees is the other major part of it and you're lifting the weight off the ground like a deadlift.

Try Dorian's weight of 60kg, it's what I've gone back to since last October to nail the form.

That's only his demonstration weight. Way too light for me to do a workset on.

Mine wasn't a SLDL, granted... but it was a RDL. And my Hamstrings are still feeling worked and in a different way to when I do lighter SLDL's. Infact the previous workout I did 3 sets of 100kg SLDL with proper form (no bending) followed by some lying leg curls. That gave my Hamstrings a completely different feel.

What I'll do is keep Romanian Deadlifts on one of the days in my schedule and do the stricter SLDL on the other. This way I'll get the benefit of both. The raw intensity and work that RDL does on the hip flexors (?) and hamstrings is something that I don't want to miss out on. It's an exercise that'll really bring up my deadlift as well.

It'll look like this:

Workout 2A

Preacher Curls (Finisher = None)

Hammer Curls Across Pec (Finisher = Hammer Curls Straight Up)

Leg Press Toe Presses (Finisher = None)

Stiff Legged Dead-lifts (Finisher = Lying Leg Curls)

Squats (Finisher = More Squats - Widow maker)

Ab Cruch Machine

Workout 2B

Seated Incline-Bench Dumbbell Curls (Finisher = None)

Hammer Curls straight Up (Finisher = None)

Hack Squat Toe Presses (Finisher = None)

Romanian Dead-lifts (Finisher = None)

Squats (Finisher = More Squats - Widow maker)

Ab Crunch Machine

I'm a man with a plan. 8)

Are you 5ft6? What's your goal weight/bf before you cut for the stage?

Similar height bro, my long term goal is to get to 90kgs at 10-12% bf.

Currently sitting on 90kg at approx 12%, Abs slightly visible.

I'll bulk up to 100kg over the next several months and compete at 90-95kg.

Interesting read and viewing. .

Cheers aln.

that 1st vid just looks like a normal deadlift bro, far from a sldl but looks like you know that now. did sldl's the other day for first time in ages, only used 60kg and hamstrings were sore for days ! so if your using 180kg would love to know how big your normal deadlift is ?

quads looking solid too.

Third workout this week I'm planning on doing 220kg, fairly confident of doing 6-9 good reps with that weight. I'll video that one.