AVERAGE to SAVAGE

[OnlyHuman]

No training. 

 

Sick with a head cold / + possibly bronchitis.  :boohoo: Been on antibiotics and other meds for the last 3 days. 

 

So many disappointed feelz that I got taken out by this bug right in the middle of my training cycle just as I started to hit some lifetime PBs.

 

I so post to squat today but I try to be sensible and take some time off from the gym.

 

Unsure if I want to just take a full week off and pick up where I left off or repeat last week's worth and continue on from there? I never been this sensible in the past. I used to just tried to soldier on (not the best option so I learned).

 

What would you do? Repeat the last week or pick up where you left off?

I think I might be in favour for taking a week off and than repeating the last week of training.   

[FellowshipOfTheRon]

dam sucks about the bronchitis, good that you chose to take time off. i remember having bad chest infections and still going in, didn't accomplish a damn thing just makes recovery time slower. as a broscientist with no justification around anything, i usually would repeat the last week of training with the exact same weights as logged (unless failed) rather than pickup up where i left off, though i've always been on mostly linear progression type programs so that makes sense in some ways

[OnlyHuman]

dam sucks about the bronchitis, good that you chose to take time off. i remember having bad chest infections and still going in, didn't accomplish a damn thing just makes recovery time slower. as a broscientist with no justification around anything, i usually would repeat the last week of training with the exact same weights as logged (unless failed) rather than pickup up where i left off, .....

 

Yeah, I am inclined to repeat the training week. The program I am doing builds each week on the previous one. 

[OnlyHuman]

A2S W4 D1

 

 

 

5 days off from the gym is as sensible as I could manage. This is progress on the sensibility part   on the other hand I do feel somewhat better. Still have a sore throat, some snot issues and the head aches, but it seems to be getting less and less severe. 

 

 

Squats ... I was prepared to repeat the last session of 140 for 6 x 6 but when I was warming up things felt "ok". I put 140 on for a single to get a feel for it and decided that I will not repeat my last weeks numbers, but overcome "my fear" of uncharted territory and do the week's worth as planned. Figured if I fail badly I drop the weight back to last week's one, and repeat the weight, sets and reps and give it an other go the following week. 

 

150 x 5 x 5 Volume PB  :jive:  was hard tho. Had to take longer than usual rest between sets  as I was getting out of breath pretty fast. 

 

 

RDL 120 x 10 x 3 sets 

 

 

Hack squats 2 sets of 10 (medium effort) had to stop here was getting a pretty bad head ache...

 

 

It is pretty Ironic that my previous pb of 150 for a single set of 5 was achieved under similar conditions, I was having a cold or flu. That set was hard tho , barelly got the 5th rep....  

[Skeletor]

Nice man congrats on the p.bs. Nothing wrong with longer rest periods between sets either.

[OnlyHuman]

A2S W4 D2

 

 

Bench 110 x 5 x 5 Volume PB  :D/

 

Incline bench press 90 x 6 x 6 

 

Machine flies 4 sets of 12

 

 

I was so - so over due for a bench PB... happy feelz!

 

#pancake gainz  

[OnlyHuman]

A2S W4 D3

 

 

Speed deadlifts 150 x 3 x 8 sets EMOM 

 

 

Front squats 130 x 2  :snooty:

 

 

Some light leg extension / leg curls for 3 sets each... 

 

 

 

Deadlifts went ok, but I did found it hard to put some leg drive into them. legs are still shot from Monday's session ... so I was using my lower-back quite a bit on these. Lower-back is pretty sore / tied as well. 

 

As far as the front squats go  :pfft:   Well, so much for smashing 2 sets of 8 on these last week lol .... even the warm up felt heavy. Simply not recovered from Monday's volume / intensity. I am not surprised being sick, coughing and all this mucus / phlegm. Can't expect the body to deal with the stress I put on it on top of the sickness and antibiotics (goodbye healthy gut flora), impaired sleep (due to blocked nose / cough).  

 

Thus, I am not worried about today's session. I had two PBs this week on the lifts that I am concentrating on during this training bloc so f*ck yeah  :jive:

 

I rest for a few days for now... 

[OnlyHuman]

A2S W/5  D/1

 

 

Went in on Saturday ... after a night shift with only 5 hours of daytime sleep, and still sick ... not one of my better judgment calls  :think:

 

 

Squats 160 x 4 Life time PB ... than I failed the second rep on the next set  :smackbottom:

 

Front squats ... just worked up to 130 for 3 (Had a few more rep in the tank, felt better than Wednesday but not 100%.)

 

Did a few sets of lat pull downs and called it the day.

 

 

Happy with the 4 reps at 160 but I know I made a bad call by choosing to go in on Saturday (instead on waiting for squat day to come around.) 

 

 

W/5 D/2

 

 

Bench 117.5 x 4 Rep PB, Happy!!!! (could possibly get the 5th one if tried... maybe)

 

 

Just worked up to a set of four on the bench to see if my progress ticking along according to the plan. I am very pleased but I decided to take off 6 days from the gym. Let my body catch up a bit. Trying to peak for my maxing out while being sick is anything but smart. I have to make better decisions... rest and get stronger/healthy. 

[Skeletor]

Nice going on the rep p.bs man. Always good to see people progressing.

[OnlyHuman]

Nice going on the rep p.bs man. Always good to see people progressing.

 

Thanks, appreciate the kind words. 

[ThreeWhiteLights]

Vids pls

[OnlyHuman]

End of first A2S training cycle squat check .... 

 

 

Decided to to see whats up with the squats, could not wait till Sunday. was to keen to test. Feeling much better as far as the head cold goes... no more daily head aches and barely any congestion. Still have some sore throat issues, and a dry irritating cough. 

While a few more days would have "may" helped. I am keen to start a new training cycle as I feel this bug had messed with this present one enough already. Still happy, and found this a productive training cycle. 

 

BW @ 81kg 

 

Squats ... worked up to 170 for a double, felt like I may had a 3rd one in me. 

Happy with the squat. See video below...

 

 

 

Bench was shit today. Warming up felt heavy and unstable, so i will leave it at that and I will program off of my Sundays 117.5 x 4 numbers. Today 120 for a single was a struggle. I started to do some mobility work for my shoulders (my shoulder flexibility blows...) and every time I do start work on it it effects my bench. I am pretty sure I wrote about this in my journal a while back.. 

 

 

Than I did some ....

 

Lat pull downs 4 x 10 

 

BB rows 4 x 10 

 

Nothing to heavy... 

 

 

 

Next training cycle will run about 8 weeks or so and still focusing on squats, and bench mainly. 

[OnlyHuman]

Average to Savage round 2 (A2SR2) 

 

 

Squats 

 

160 x 1 

145 x 3 x 6 sets 

 

 

Front squats 

 

115 x 3 x 3 

 

 

BB step ups 

 

Just the bar x 12 x 3 sets 

 

 

 

Squats: Managed them all, but I am still fatigued from Wednesday's session. Looking forward to giving it a go next week. 

 

Front squats: My lower-back was so fatigued by this I was genuinely concerned with snapping my shit up. I called it at 3 sets deep into it. Good decision, can't train/progress when injured. I will smash these next week.

 

BB step ups: New movement. I have been avoiding it for a long time. I think I need it tho.

 

 

 

Trained fasted (sort of).  Had my pre-workout and BCAA about 30 - 40 min prior to workout. Than had 50 grams of glycofuse during the session. I want to see / curious to know if it will help me with sustaining energy levels during my workouts. 

[OnlyHuman]

A2S R2

 

 

Bench 6 sets of 3 @ 107.5 

 

Low-incline bench 6 x 3 @ 97.5 

 

Slingshot BP 3 x 5 @ 110 

 

Some fore-arm work (light) 

 

15 minutes of light cardio (stationary bike). 

 

 

Below average session. My daily shoulder mobility work is wrecking havoc with my bench press as expected. Sorting out my shoulders get a priority over bench progress, even if it means I have to reduce my numbers for a while. 

[OnlyHuman]

A2SR2 

 

Bench 

 

100 x 5 

105 x 4 x 2 sets 

100 x 10 

92.5 x 9 

 

 

Low-incline DB press  3 x 8 @ 32 - 35 - 37

 

 

Chest supported row  4 sets of lots of reps...

 

Curls, reverse DB flies, cable triceps push downs 3 sets of lots of reps... 

 

 

 

 

Woke up with a funny/stiff neck/facet lock  :???:  makes things a bit akward in the gym. Cant brace my self on my traps / neck for bench and stops me from deadlifting. Shouldn't last too long. 

 

Funnily.....  I was thinking that how much the head cold have messed with my last training cycle and now when it is pretty much gone I should have smooth sailing over the next few weeks / this cycle. Than I "woke up" and realised that that is the least likely scenario to happen. It is more likely that I will have niggles, will miss out on sleep, might even be stressed out way more than I like for one reason or an other... I will just have to buckle down, grind as hard as I can when I can and make adjustments when/if necessary. "Do the best you can till know better, than do better." 

[Pseudonym]

What are you doing for shoulder mobility, mate?

[OnlyHuman]

What are you doing for shoulder mobility, mate?

 

Very basic stuff. My shoulders are in such atrocious shape mobility wise that I struggle on the very basics.

 

 

 

 

A2SR2   1/4

 

 

Deadlifts 130 x 8 x 3 sets 

 

Summo 125 x 10 x 3 sets 

 

Deficit stiff leg 60 x 12 x 3 sets 

 

Leg curls 3 x 12 reps (medium) 

 

 

Just a quick catch up session on my deadlifts. Would be rude to start the new program with missing out on the deadlifts on the first week :pfft:  

Conventional felt nice and snappy, summo not so much. I lost some conditioning by not pulling for a few weeks. Thankfully the program starts out fairly light and with high-ish reps conditioning should improve fairly fast. 

[OnlyHuman]

A2SR2 2.1

 

 

Bench 

 

75 x 8

92.5 x 6 

100 x 5

105 x 4 x 3 sets 

100 x 6 

 

 

Reverse DB flies 4 sets of 20 reps

 

 

 

The struggle was real. Below average session. 

[OnlyHuman]

A2SR2 2.2

 

 

Squats 145 x 4 x 6 sets 

 

 

Front squats 115 x 4 x 3 sets 

 

 

Paused back squats 100 x 4 x 3 sets 

 

 

Box BB step ups 3 x 12 / side @ 30 

 

 

Better than yesterday. I felt so flat and low on energy yesterday... no idea why. Today was somewhat better. I wasn't bursting with energy but it was at a decent, sustainable level. I am happy with the 6 x 4 on the squats. It is a small pb for me. Never done this rep/set scheme on this weight before. 

 

Front squats felt better than last week. I managed them without a belt. Last week it felt like that my lower-back will snap in half WITH a belt on. So some small progress here as well. One step at the time... I just have to remember that each session builds on the previous one. 

[OnlyHuman]

A2SR2 2.3

 

 

 

 

Bench

 

75 x 8

92.5 x 6

100 x 5

105 x 4 x 2 sets

100 x 10

100 x 8

 

 

Sling shot

 

110 x 5 x 2 sets 

110 x 8 

 

 

 

45 degree incline bench ... slowly worked up to 75 x 8 reps  

 

 

Curls 3 sets ...

 

 

 

Better bench session than Sunday despite only getting 5 hours of sleep. 

Them feels when your job fucking with your plan to make gainzzz. 

[OnlyHuman]

A2SR2 2.4

 

 

Paused deadlifts 

 

100 x 3 x 6 sets 

 

 

 

3" block summo pulls 

 

Slowly worked up to 140 x 5 

 

 

 

Good morning 

 

40 x 10 x 3 sets 

 

 

Back raises 

 

3 sets of 10 @ BW

 

 

 

Lower-back is still toasted from Monday's stuff... even putting on my shoes were a struggle  :pfft:

I adjusted some stuff in the program to work around it. 

[OnlyHuman]

A2S R2  3.1

 

 

 

Squats 150 x 5 x 6 sets 

 

 

Bench 

 

70 x 8

92.5 x 6

97.5 x 5

107.5 x 3 x 2

107.5 x 6 

 

 

Speed deadlift (short rest, 1 rep on every 30 sec or so) 125 x 1 x 15 sets 

 

 

 

Good session. Very happy with the squats. It is a small volume PB for me (an extra set of 5) felt somewhat easier than the last time I had to do 5s with 150. Could be a confidence issue as well, knowing that I had done 5 x 5 in the past ... going an extra set this time around should be doable.  

 

Bench was ok, deadlifts felt snappy as. 

[OnlyHuman]

A2S R2 3.2

 

 

Front squats 

 

120 x 5

130 x 5

140 x 3 

 

 

Bench 

 

70 x 8 

87.5 x 6

95 x 5

100 x 4

107.5 x 8

95 x 10 

87.5 x 12 

 

 

Summo 

 

132.5 x 8 x 2 sets

 

 

Good mornings 

 

40 x 10

50 x 10 x 2 sets 

 

 

Back extension  @ BW 3 sets of 10

 

Chest supported hammer strength row 4 sets of 12 reps 

 

 

 

Some stretching , foam rolling.... 

 

 

 

 

Good session. Happy with the front squats. I think I had one , maybe two reps in the tank on the top set. 

 

I would have liked to do more sets on the sumo pulls but the knees were unhappy with it, so I played it safe. 

[OnlyHuman]

Some good and some bad news... 

 

 

Good stuff = got a rep PB on squats (+2 reps @ 150) I could perhaps get one more rep if I had to, I think... 

Bad stuff = I'have tweaked my shoulder (quite bad for now, but it will heal ...)

 

 

The shoulder injury did mess my plan up quite a bit as I was focusing on the squats and bench during this training block. I think the smart thing would be to stop benching and sort my shoulder range / mobility out for once and all. This would be the sensible thing to do for the long term but likely to keep me away from benching for quite a while. 3 months or more perhaps. 

 

It has been an uphill battle with the shoulders as I feel as soon as I make some and gain some ground in range of movement I end up loosing it as soon as I train the lats of bench heavy enough. I have very interiorly rotated shoulders and pretty much no internal rotation (maybe 5 degrees when Ideally it would be more like 70-75) similar issue with external rotation I would say I have like 20 degrees after a decent warm up and it should be closer to 90 degrees) Overhead extension I get to about 130 degrees and thats all she wrote....  :boohoo:

 

I think it is time for me to focus on a daily soft tissue, mobility/flexibility routine with a shit load of added mid-low trap, rhomboid, serratus, rear delt, etc work 

 

Not even upset that much to be honest. I am at fault for letting it get so bad in the first place  :smackbottom:

 

I think in the mean time I still try build a better base for squats and deadlift and shoulder health (thus bench) A bit a hypertrophy work for the back thrown in there for all kindz of aesthetic and shoulder health gainz as well lol 

 

I be still hopping in and updating stuff at least once a week.... 

[ThreeWhiteLights]

Just build a huge juicy squat and dead and you will have a big total lol