Ive been squatting- conjugate programme based on WS.

[Spitterkat]

go the the physio man, if you can move it, he will tell you, you arent allowed to squat for x amount of time, so it gets better! (i.e squat more)

[Ash]

about an inch below knee level.

I was told rack deads start at knee level. Am I doing it right ?

Somewhere around knee height is cool AFAIK. I start mine about an inch above my knees because that's the closest level in the power rack at my gym. The next level is about 6 inches lower, which doesn't feel right for me.

[bleat]

Hey dude, good to see another journal, esp with someone with goals similar to my own

Nice to see your diet write ups as well. What sort of mass gainer shakes are you taking? I tried N-Large2 and another one for a while, but didn't find them too good, as/plus most of the carbs came from sugars. They're also expensive.

I make my own by blending together:

1/2 Cup Yogurt

2 Scoops Whey

1 Cup Oats

3 Tbs Flaxseed Oil (or similar)

Milk

When I worked it out it came to about ~1200 calories (the exact make up is in the eariler pages of my journal), and imo tasted better than the N-Large2. Looking foward to seeing your results

[Varven]

Hey Bleat,

Im using Pharmasports "growth" at the moment.

30g protein,

50g carbs,

BUT, all the carbs are from simple sugars, mostly destrose.

So i use one about 20 mins before a work out and one instantly after my workout.

Yeah its quite expensive.

Plus the more I think about it, its pretty darn stupid to buy a mass gainer.

First off, your recipe sounds yumm, i will try it soon

What we need is carbs + protein mostly, healthy fats would be welcome too.

So Im thinking along the lines of:

40g of protein from whey.

Simple sugars about 20g carbs : dextrose ( Brewers sugar basically ).

Banana for flavour and slower releasing energy, usually about another 20g of carbs.

Oats, enough to add about another 20g of carbs.

Appropriate EFA such as Flax seed oil.

Im sure that works out quite nutritious :

proteins 40g, fast and slow realeasing carbs 60g, fats as added.

PLUS, for 12 servings of pharmasports I pay 65$. Now for $ 70 I can get a tub of whey alone that would give me 35 servings of whey @ a RATE OF 40G OF PROTEIN !! PER SERVE !

oats, bananas and dextrose ( brewing sugar from a home brewers store of pak n save) costs virtually nothing .

Definitely a reason to cut off the mass gainers and make our own eh ?

Only downside is, if you spend all day at uni like me, I dont have the luxury of being able to build a mass gainer and go lugging it around, I need to carry dry powder, mix with water and down.

Im pretty annoyed, missed a meal today. Plus tomorrows work out will be pushed over to thursday as I have my last exam then . ah well at least om getting all my work outs in for the week.

[Varven]

This week has been a disaster in terms of workouts.

Managed only 1.

Well I had exams on so I can only say it was for a good cause.

Waiting to jump right back in next week.

Diet has mostly been in shape.

Cut off some carbs though to account for lack of energy expenditure.

Feel like crap overall and trouble sleeping cause I havent been hammering myself in the gym !

Cant wait for Monday. I really really wanna squat.

[Varven]

Sadly, Im off the creatine loading and lost a nearly 1 kg .. well I guess it was all water so big deal.

[Ash]

Having a short break is no big deal. You probably needed it anyway given how hard you've been pushing lately.

Just think how intense your next few workouts will be :grin:

[jono]

time to get serious man. drink water in huge amounts all day. eat rediculous amounts of food all day till you feel bloated and can hardly move. also dont 4 get to workout hard :grin:

get that food/water into you.

[Varven]

Back on track today

Knee feels good ( touch wood ), so I went for full deadlifts.

60 KG 1X 10

90KG 1X 8

100KG 1X6

115 KG: 1X4, 1X4, 1X4

Lat pull downs :

felt very very weak for some reason. Couldnt manage to do them properly. Furthermore Ive been stuck on this weight for a while

60kg: 1x8, 1x6 paused then 2 reps, 1x7paused then 1 rep, 1x4 paused then 4 reps.

Clearly I was struggling to get 8 reps. Not sure how to break out of this rut.

The weight before this on the machine is 54kg, i maxed that out to 4 sets of 8 reps, so dont know why Im stuck here

Oh with all the rest pausing I threw up at the end of the work out but no biggie as it was all water, clearly I was over-hydrating like a moron during my workout.

Bent over rows. Last week was on 45 kg, inspired by Jono i pushed to 50kg.. Thus reps were low and a bit of sacrifice on range of motion. Not too fussed as I will improve over the next 2 sessions.

50kg: 11x7, 1x7, 1x5, 1x6

45kg: 1x8

Thus my immediate next goal is to maintain this weight till i get 4 sets of full 8 reps in perfect form. My lats werent pumped by now as they usually are so chucked in 3sets of 1 arm db rows.

1 arm db rows

18.5 kg 1x8, 1x8, 1x8

There Ive got my satisfactory lat pump lol satisfied

BB curls added new weight .

27.5 kg: 1x7, 1x4,

25 kg 1x7 ( last weeks weight )

1 arm hammer curls

11kg: 1x7, 1x5

10 kg: 1x8

Now i must say about half way into my back work biceps are bashed beyond belief. Thus I can never go heavy and hard for biceps at the end. Im not too bothered as I figure as long as the muscle is getting stimulated directly or indirectly it is going to adapt and grow.

But for my next routine Ill make sure I stick biceps on chest day and triceps on back day.

Diet has been ok. sacrificed tuna for another chicken breast today . Finding it very hard to eat again. Usually I spend all day at uni and thus get hungry. But being on holidays its hard to feed myself since im on a more sedentary lifestyle.

I feel Im getting a little fat so Im cutting off some simple carbs from my diet ( only about 40g of sugars that I was having preworkout in a mass gainer ).

Im off job hunting now.

[Ash]

Clearly I was struggling to get 8 reps. Not sure how to break out of this rut.

My advice is don't waste your time trying to break a rut on a specific exercise if you're making progress on the other exercises you are doing for that bodypart. It's inevitable that you'll hit a wall on an exercise eventually so get rid of it and find something you can keep gaining on.

Maybe look at changing the grip on the pulldowns or bin it completely and try something else.

[jono]

nice dls man. stop the pulldowns and do chins for a while. chins are far better than pulldowns anyway :grin:

[Varven]

Only problem is Im too weak to go past 4 reps of wide grip chin ups.

What do you guys reccomend ? .. Just hanging in there and doing half reps and what not till I can manage full sets of 8 ?.

Assisted reps out of the question as I train by myself.

[Varven]

Guys, one more problem : grip exhaustion.

After heavy deads and pull downs, my grip is failing on the rows. What do you reccommend: straps maybe ?

I have no idea as to how straps work but I guess it will help the problem right ?

BTW I also use no gloves, only chalk, only girls need gloves LOL.

Dont think gloves/chalk is a problem but seriously considering double loop straps.

Will that suffice ?

[jono]

4 chins is fine. the next workout juts make sure you do 5 etc.

i would use straps if you think your back work is suffering.

dont need double single is fine.

[Growth]

I would keep trying to rep out as many as you can, they will go up eventually, i also think you should use straps, if you feel it is compromising your forearms or grip strength then train for that seperately, dont let your back suffer because of your grip.

[waldo]

Don't sacrifice range of motion for weight either. It's all about working said muscles in a FULL RANGE OF MOTION, otherwise they won't develop properly.

[Varven]

Chest and Triceps Day>

Todays main goal was to add on weight into most of the chest work.

Dips.

Body weight : 1x 15

+ 10 kg plate: 1x6, 1x5, 1x3.

( last week I had 3 sets of 8 reps with a 5kg plate. Doubled the weight, now gotta catch up with reps).

Flat DB press:

26.5 kg: 1x8, 1x7, 1x6, 1x5.

( last time: 4sets 8 reps at 23.5 kg )

Incline DB press:

21kg: 1x10, 1x8, 1x8,1x7

This weight will be pushed up next week.

Close Grip Bench

By this point, tris were fully pumped and totally exhauseted.

32.5 kg 1x6 , wasnt happy, so:

30kg : 1x10, 1x10

DB O/H extension

16kg: 1x10, 1x10, 1x8.

This weight will be pushed up next week.

By the end of the year I wanna be able to do Flat Db press of 39 kg for 8 reps. Chest work out felt real good today, compared to the usual lousy feeling I have.

Still a bit saddened about my girlish Close Grip Bench, but have to consider its after all that tricep pre exhausting work anyway.

Missed a meal today. Sever DOMS along my entire back from Mondays workout. Thank god for the deep tissue massages I get from the missus.

Im working all of Friday day so Leg workout will be performed tomorrow. Dont Like to workout on consecutive days But Im just going to have put up with it .

[jono]

nice work there man.

[Ash]

Looks like you're adding weight to everything and that's the main thing. Keep it like that and the gains will come but don't miss those meals.

Don't worry about close grips - the weight will increase if you stick with it.

It's always good to have a weight goal for an exercise - DB pressing 39kg for 8 sounds achievable. I've decided I want to max out the weight stack on the Hammer/Lifefitness chest press machine at my gym. It's 145kg, I did 120kg today, so I think it can be done but I don't want to wait until the end of the year.

[Varven]

DOOMED FROM SQUATTING.

Forces of nature have conspired against me to stop me from squatting.

Last week my knee was screwed.

The week before that I had exams.

This week Ive had 2 excellent workouts and was really looking forward to leg and shoulder day today since Im working tommorow.

Alas, I awoke at 0600 hrs in severe pain. My throats all red n swollen, the oesophagus entry has constricted to the size of a 5cent coin with the swelling.

I seem to have come down with a sever sore throat/fever outta nowhere.

Cant so much as to talk or eat. Stting around sipping green tea and warm water with honey in it all day

Goddamnit ! I just wanna frigging squat !

This is unimaginably frusturating.

Thought about forcing myself to squat but Im definitely too weak today. Cant stick with diet either, appetite completely lost and furthermore nothing fits down my throat.

[Ash]

Thought about forcing myself to squat but Im definitely too weak today. Cant stick with diet either, appetite completely lost and furthermore nothing fits down my throat.

Good call - don't do it! :shock:

A hard gym workout when you're coming down with something won't do your body any favours. Just chill out and you'll get back into it soon.

Check your PMs.

[waldo]

No squatting? That's ok, when you can't squat anymore you should work on your weak points, and for every BB that is chest. I prescribe a good old bench press session. Nothing like puffing those titties up to get those flagging parts back up to speed. Don't forget to wear long pants though.

Sorry everyone, I've had farrrrrr too much caffeine for my own good today.

[Growth]

Alot of people seem to be getting sick, i had an incrediabley sore abdomen last week, flu type muscle aches, lasted about two days.

Ps - try to suck down a protein shake once in a while if you can mate.

[Varven]

Protein shakes and glutamine is on the menu for the rest of the day.

Waldo, forget the chest, I still have 100 sets of bicep curls left :pfft:

If not, my 13 inch GUNS might fade into oblivion

[deegee]

bad luck there. I never try to lift when I am sick, it never seems to work and I worse often later. agree with the protien shakes.