Drizzt Lifts Things

[drizzt]

25/01/10 - Sheiko 13 Weeker W3/D1

95.2 today!... until I took my hoodie and hat off and came in at 94.5 Happy with the weight hovering around here :nod:

Did some slow cardio before the workout by walking to the gym (took about 1.5hours).

• Squats (sets, reps, weights)
  bar/60 warmups
  1 x 4 @ 90kg
  1 x 4 @ 107.5kg
  3 x 3 @ 125kg
  4 x 3 @ 145kg
  
• Bench
  bar/40 warmups
  1 x 3 @ 65kg
  1 x 3 @ 77.5kg
  2 x 3 @ 90kg
  3 x 3 @ 105kg
  
• Flat DB Flies
  5 x 5 @ 12kg
  
• Dips
  5 x 8 @ +10kg
  
• Squats
  1 x 4 @ 90kg
  1 x 4 @ 107.5kg
  4 x 5 @ 125kg
  
• Good Mornings
  5 x 5 @ 72.5kg
  

Comments

• Squats were great, only really started getting tough on the very last set or two of the day, but they weren't too bad. Felt a worrying twinge in the previously-injured part of my back when doing the 145s (probably dropping into the hole with less control than I should've had) but thankfully it didn't get worse, and feels fine now. All reps were nice and deep. Probably should've had a belt on too, but that was in my locker at work (which for some reason is locked up on public holidays, unless you have after hours access :roll:)
  
• Bench was awesome, bar speed felt really good. All reps had roughly a 1sec pause on the chest.
  
• All assistance exercises were fine, knocked out with very little rest between sets + getting a good stretch on with them.

Good workout today, will need to give the back more rest though, especially because this week ramps the volume up a bit on it. Think I'll definitely be needing a flexibility/stretching session in somewhere.

[Chillicat]

Did some slow cardio before the workout by walking to the gym (took about 1.5hours).

From J'ville? Always wondered how long it would take. What route did you take - down the gorge? Or another more scenic route?

[drizzt]

From J'ville? Always wondered how long it would take. What route did you take - down the gorge? Or another more scenic route?

Nah, I live in Churton Park these days so it's a tiny bit longer than it used to take me to walk to/from Jville - about 20-30mins extra from where I am depending on how fast you're going

From central Jville (say, the mall) it's about 1 hour 10mins at a brisk pace to Thorndon (my best time last year was just under an hour, but I was very nearly jogging :pfft:). I just go the main way (down the gorge, along Old Hutt Road), unless I'm after a longer walk, in which case I'll go through Khandallah which adds 30-45mins.

[Chillicat]

From J'ville? Always wondered how long it would take. What route did you take - down the gorge? Or another more scenic route?

Nah, I live in Churton Park these days so it's a tiny bit longer than it used to take me to walk to/from Jville - about 20-30mins extra from where I am depending on how fast you're going

From central Jville (say, the mall) it's about 1 hour 10mins at a brisk pace to Thorndon (my best time last year was just under an hour, but I was very nearly jogging :pfft:). I just go the main way (down the gorge, along Old Hutt Road), unless I'm after a longer walk, in which case I'll go through Khandallah which adds 30-45mins.

Sweet. I'm in Churton Park too and it takes me 20 mins to walk to the train station, so that is useful to know at least in a ball park kind of way how long it would take.

[Old Bull]

Drizzt visited "The House" for some Implement training did well :clap:

[Growth]

geez thought you were about to start repping out shoulder presses with that log! :shock:

[drizzt]

Thanks OB :salute:

geez thought you were about to start repping out shoulder presses with that log! :shock:

Pfft, I wish! That was a tough bastard. I've push pressed 100kg in the gym for a few reps before (late last year), but the log is definitely a different beast, especially having to clean it up from the ground as well :?

[Big john]

impressive stuff bro....house vids never fail to please :clap: :clap: :clap:

[drizzt]

impressive stuff bro....house vids never fail to please :clap: :clap: :clap:

Chur big fulla, the 'House is a great environment to spur you on to greater heights, that's for sure :nod:

[drizzt]

27/10/10 - Sheiko 13 Weeker W3/D2

Bodyweight is 95.5 today, a couple kilo in 8-9days. Quite honestly the diet hasn't varied too much from the norm, but I guess the cardio hasn't been happening much... or at all really :pfft: So that is probably it. That, and I've been smashing water by the bucket load. Still, not worried about the weight, as I got up to about 96 (from 92ish) at the beginning of rugby season when I was on creatine, and that quickly dropped off once I went off the creatine. I was doing a lot more cardio back then too, so will need to even it out some if I can handle it on top of the Sheiko. May have to make it more low impact though, as opposed to the HIIT I prefer to keep the back in order

Anyway, to the workout.

• Deads (to knees) (sets, reps, weights)
  bar/60 warmups
  1 x 4 @ 115kg
  1 x 3 @ 140kg
  1 x 4 @ 160kg (+belt)
  3 x 4 @ 172.5kg (+belt)
  
• Bench
  bar/40 warmups
  1 x 4 @ 65kg
  1 x 4 @ 77.5kg
  2 x 4 @ 90kg
  2 x 3 @ 97.5kg
  2 x 2 @ 105kg
  2 x 1 @ 110kg
  2 x 2 @ 105kg
  2 x 3 @ 97.5kg
  1 x 4 @ 90kg
  1 x 6 @ 85kg
  1 x 6 @ 72.5kg
  
• Deads (from knees)
  1 x 4 @ 140kg (+belt)
  1 x 4 @ 160kg (oops, meant to be 3 reps) (+belt)
  
• Deads
  1 x 3 @ 160kg (+belt)
  3 x 4 @ 185kg (+belt)
  
• Lunges
  5 x 5 @ 72.5kg
  
• Weighted Crunches
  1 x 15 @ +10kg
  2 x 10 @ +20kg
  

Comments

• Deads to knees were exactly as bad as I thought they were gonna be today - terrible. All sets up to, and including the first set of 172.5 were pretty good with a decent pause at the knees, but the next 2 sets were pure grind, about 2 secs between reps.
  
• Bench was fine again, I'm loving the volume on it as I have done high volume on bench before, so it's not as much of a shock as deads, and to a lesser extent, squats. Easy 1 sec pause on each rep, 110 flew up very fast, I reckon I could rep a fair few out at the mo... but will keep the ego in check and stick to the program
  
• Deads from pins were ok, nothing to report. But the deads from the floor were torture again. I pride myself on having a pretty strong stomach, but this was the closest I think I've ever been to vomiting in a gym session, could feel it welling up at about rep 3 on each of the final 3 sets. Found these a little easier than the "to the knees" deads, but the fatigue from the earlier sets definitely made these a struggle. Gonna be sore tomorrow :pfft:
  
• Lunges were all good, did a variety of foot placements (straight in front, slightly to the side, more to the side), hammys and glutes were quite sore from Monday's squats, and this loosened those areas up quite nicely. Abs were all good too, was going to do weighted rope crunches but the stations were taken up, so did these instead. Actually thought +10 would be harder than it was, but it was pretty easy, so went to +20 which was much more of a challenge :nod:

So yeah, body (particularly back!) is feeling quite beaten up at the mo, but I'm not gonna let it get the better of me. The satisfaction at the end of each workout is a good enough reward to keep pushing through it The mental struggle is proving to be about as hard as the physical one at the moment, particularly when it comes to the deads. So I'm starting to learn that I just need to suck it up and get on with it.

Intend to get in for a good core/flexibility session tomorrow, loosen a few things up and do some more ab exercises.

[Big john]

Deads from pins were ok, nothing to report. But the deads from the floor were torture again. I pride myself on having a pretty strong stomach, but this was the closest I think I've ever been to vomiting in a gym session, could feel it welling up at about rep 3 on each of the final 3 sets. Found these a little easier than the "to the knees" deads, but the fatigue from the earlier sets definitely made these a struggle. Gonna be sore tomorrow :pfft:

always some hard yard on weds bro, Make sure u get some big air before each rep to bro, can be a saving grace from time to time. Dont know if this would work for you on IF but id suggest eating something carby(fruit) with a huge helpin of yoghurt b4 deadzone. keep it up thou bro :clap: :clap:

stack panadol/ibuprofen/votaren for the recovary cocktail :twisted:

[drizzt]

always some hard yard on weds bro, Make sure u get some big air before each rep to bro, can be a saving grace from time to time. Dont know if this would work for you on IF but id suggest eating something carby(fruit) with a huge helpin of yoghurt b4 deadzone. keep it up thou bro :clap: :clap:

stack panadol/ibuprofen/votaren for the recovary cocktail :twisted:

Ahh sweet, not just me then :pfft: I've been smashing Ibu lately, have some Volt handy too so might give that a dig. And yeah workouts have been fasted which I'm getting used to, so will keep at it for now and see how it goes. Am gonna add calorie watching in next week too which will make things interesting.

Tell you what, I've had terrible headaches after deads sessions, and they flare up at night... have been wondering if it's something to do with the creatine, or ZMA/Trib stack, but could just as well be the effort deads are taking :shrug:

Have a few blisters springing up on the hands as well after today's session - lucky I sanded the callouses down the other day or they'd have torn - I'm being stubborn and sticking to double overhand grip for all working reps which is causing the bar to roll a bit further down the hand than normal. But I also had a really odd finding today when warming up; when I did alternate grip (right under/left over) it flared my old back injury directly. Swapped the hands over (left under/right over) and I didn't feel it at all, nor did it effect me when doing DOH :-s

So hopefully by sticking to DOH grip I can stave off the injury flaring up anymore

[Big john]

you may even want to look at hookgrip later down the line, But OB would be the master as the HG martial art!

[drizzt]

Yeah hook is an option, I use that grip to powerclean with, but haven't really tried anything heavy with it... Have done the odd dead with it here and there but never got used to it.

But yeah, will hit OB up next time I see him and check I'm doing it right :nod:

[drizzt]

29/10/10 - Sheiko 13 Weeker W3/D3

95.5 again today.

• Bench (sets, reps, weights)
  bar/40 warmups
  1 x 4 @ 65kg
  1 x 4 @ 77.5kg
  2 x 3 @ 90kg
  3 x 3 @ 105kg
  
• Squats
  bar/60 warmups
  1 x 5 @ 90kg
  1 x 5 @ 107.5kg
  1 x 5 @ 125kg
  4 x 4 @ 135kg (+belt)
  
• Bench
  1 x 5 @ 72.5kg
  2 x 6 @ 85kg
  5 x 4 @ 90kg
  
• DB Flyes
  5 x 10 @ 12kg
  
• Good Mornings
  5 x 5 @ 72.5kg
  

Comments

• Bench was a bit tougher than expected, putting that down to end of the week blues. Still, all reps were paused on chest, fair bar speed.
  
• Squats were actually ok today. Widened the stance a little bit which seemed to take a bit of pressure off the back. The first two sets at 135 were tough, but found once I got angry and put a bit of agression into the final couple of sets they flew up pretty easy. May be the way to go from now when I'm finding it tough - doesn't really come too naturally for me, but I find I can turn it on when need be so we'll give it a try on Monday.
  
• Assistance exes were all good.

Gym is going through renovation at the moment which is a tad annoying as they were moving lots of stuff during the session - Dumbbells and the like included. Also seems to be a new wave of people not putting weights away - especially around the racks - which is slightly annoying when trying to move benches around. But ah well.

On the positive side the back has handled this week well, and a couple days ago was probably the toughest Weds session so far, so I'm really happy with how it's beginning to adapt. Core was bloody sore though - from the weighted crunches on Weds - so that made things almost as difficult as a sore back did Ah well flex/core/stretch tomorrow - postponed from yesterday as I had a couple of things to get through at lunch instead. And I get to have the walk into the gym tomorrow as well for some slow cardio :nod:

[tinytraps]

if your only going to use doh then hook grip will be a must down the line as grip will eventually be a problem

[drizzt]

if your only going to use doh then hook grip will be a must down the line as grip will eventually be a problem

True, yeah I'll probably start chucking it in on deads day this week :nod:

30/10/10 - Assistance Day

93.5 today, had heavier shoes on too... 2kg down from yesterdays weight, obviously just a bit of water has dropped off. Still, I think it's a surprising drop in 24 hours!

Did some slow cardio via a walk into the gym today, roughly 1.5hours to walk in, bused back to within 30mins walk of home after the gym and walked the rest of the way, so 2hours walking all up.

• Face Pulls (sets, reps, weights)
  1 x 10 @ 60kg (felt heavier than intended, so dropped down)
  2 x 10 @ 50kg
  
• Rear Delt Raises
  3 x 10 @ 7kg
  
• Calf Raises
  3 x 12 @ 178kg
  
• Lat Pulldowns (hammer strength)
  3 x 10 @ 10kg (per arm)
  
• Core/Stretching/Flexibility Work
  Incl:
  Hypers
  Stabilizing holds
  Dislocations
  Swiss ball work
  Foam rolling (legs/back/ITB)
  Crunches
  

Comments

• All weights were very light (except maybe calves), just intending to give the upper back/shoulders a bit of work. All reps slow and controlled, just trying to focus on the mind-muscle stuff.
  Stretching/foam rolling felt good.

Felt awesome to have a light session for once! Saturday seems like a good day to keep this session on, as the week's sessions are done and it'd be handy to stretch them out after the fact, rather than in the middle of the heavy stuff on a Tues or Thurs. Can also get my walk cardio in as obviously there's a day off so plenty of time at my disposal.

[drizzt]

01/11/10 - Sheiko 13 Weeker W4/D1

95.8 today pheeeew.

• Squats (sets, reps, weights)
  bar/60 warmups
  1 x 4 @ 90kg
  1 x 3 @ 107.5kg
  2 x 3 @ 125kg
  1 x 3 @ 145kg
  2 x 2 @ 152.5kg
  
• Bench
  bar/40 warmups
  1 x 3 @ 65kg
  1 x 3 @ 80kg
  2 x 3 @ 90kg
  4 x 3 @ 105kg
  
• Flat DB Flies
  5 x 10 @ 12kg
  
• Dips
  5 x 8 @ +12kg
  
• Squats
  bar warmups
  1 x 4 @ 90kg
  1 x 3 @ 107.5kg
  1 x 3 @ 125kg
  4 x 2 @ 145kg
  

Comments

• Squats felt awesome today, best they've felt in a long time. Added a little bit of agression, had a brief "eureka" moment when I finally figured how best to "sit" into the squat (but just as quickly slipped back into the usual :pfft:). I think the lower reps here are suiting me. All reps below parallel, trying to keep the knees from travelling too far forward so I can get lower without leaning as far forward, which is working with some success. More work needed. No belt used today either and it felt great 8) On a side note there was a guy with excellent ATG form in the rack next to me, up to about 140 or so with the same depth. Didn't look like there was much of him, but he made it look damned easy :clap:
  
• Bench was pretty sweet too, paused on chest for all reps, bar speed felt great.
  
• Assistance exes were good, upped the dip weight by a couple kilo because I felt I could, and because things were going so well today. Good mornings were light on the back.
  

Think I'm getting some grazes along my traps from where the bar has been digging in from squats/good mornings/lunges :pfft:

Stopped the creatine today, purely because I don't want to get any heavier at this stage. Am watching calories from today as well, and am going to make sure I get a couple of cardio sessions in per week to maintain weight/cardio.

[Chillicat]

95.8 today pheeeew.

Yes, you were looking pretty hefty - must be all that Halloween candy :pfft:

(joking!)

[drizzt]

Yes, you were looking pretty hefty - must be all that Halloween candy :pfft:

(joking!)

Haha well you joke, but it's true! :nod: I've actually had the comment from pretty much all of my mates that I haven't seen for 2-3 weeks (had a get together on Friday night) that I'm looking huge - which appeals to them because most of them find it hard to gain weight, but I don't like too much, because I know the majority of it is water weight :think:

I'm a bit more of a well-rounded 95kg than I was when I weighed 95 last year (can still see abs at this weight - don't think I could last year), but it's still a bit more weight than I want to carry around right now, and it was gained in a very short space of time too (with a fairly clean diet). So creatine is out, diet/cal watch is on (although not strict) and cardio will be more consistent. For my test day at the end of this Sheiko cycle I want to be within 1kg of where I was on my initial test day :nod:

[Old Bull]

Good monday workout Drizzt, you hugeness side effect of Boris ha ha great work keep it up.

[drizzt]

Thanks OB, best start to the week so far :nod:

You know Boris is getting to you when you start training in a hoodie rather than the usual tee. Next up is swapping the shorts out for loose trackpants :pfft:

[Old Bull]

Thanks OB, best start to the week so far :nod:

You know Boris is getting to you when you start training in a hoodie rather than the usual tee. Next up is swapping the shorts out for loose trackpants :pfft:

The change is coming, Keep it UnderCover Comrade

[drizzt]

03/11/10 - Sheiko 13 Weeker W4/D2

95 flat today, can notice clothes loosening up and a bit of definition coming back :nod:

• Bench (sets, reps, weights)
  bar/40 warmups
  1 x 3 @ 65kg
  1 x 3 @ 80kg
  1 x 3 @ 90kg
  2 x 3 @ 105kg
  3 x 2 @ 110kg
  
• Deads
  bar/60 warmups
  1 x 3 @ 115kg
  1 x 3 @ 140kg
  2 x 2 @ 160kg
  2 x 3 @ 185kg (+belt)
  2 x 2 @ 195kg (+belt)
  
• Bench
  1 x 5 @ 75kg
  1 x 5 @ 85kg
  3 x 4 @ 100kg
  
• DB Flies
  5 x 10 @ 12kg
  
• Lunges
  bar/60 warmups
  5 x 5 @ 75kg
  

Comments

• Bench felt good, all paused on chest as usual. Did start getting a bit sloppy with form (drifting further up the chest) towards the end of the second bunch, but still knocked all reps out with relative ease. Rounded weights up to the nearest 5kg today, rather than up or down to the nearest 2.5. This meant an increase of a couple kilo on some exercises which didn't seem to increase difficulty too much.
  
• Deads were awesome, I love the low rep/high weight sessions. Hands were absolutely torn up by the final couple of sets, so switched back to alternate grip for these. Went sans belt up until the last 4-5sets when the lower back started to twinge a bit. Have a new mantra that I recite to myself before each lift... probably shouldn't say it here, but it reminds me of what I should do
  
• Assistance exes were all good, nothing to report.
  

Another great workout, felt awesome, workout took not much longer than an hour, surprisingly short today.

Aaaaand had boxing for cardio last night, might do another session tomorrow depending on how the back pulls up (going by how it is now, I should be fine)

[drizzt]

5/11/10 - Sheiko 13 Weeker W4/D3

95 flat again.

• Squats (sets, reps, weights)
  bar/60 warmups
  1 x 4 @ 90kg
  1 x 3 @ 110kg
  2 x 3 @ 125kg
  5 x 3 @ 145kg
  
• Bench
  bar/40 warmups
  1 x 5 @ 65kg
  1 x 5 @ 80kg
  4 x 5 @ 90kg
  
• DB Flies
  5 x 10 @ 12kg
  
• Dips
  5 x 8 @ +12kg
  
• Good Mornings
  bar/60 warmups
  1 x 5 @ 72.5kg
  2 x 5 @ 75kg
  2 x 5 @ 80kg
  

Comments

• Nothing really to note today, fast workout (bout 70mins). Upped weights on the good mornings for the first time as felt they were stretching the back out well. Back seems to have acclimatised (sp?) to Fridays finally.
  Squats and Bench were as per usual, nothing interesting.
  

Noticeably lower volume this week which is a relief! Another implements session coming up at the house on Sunday, probably also walk into town again tomorrow for some slow cardio and hit some stretch + flexibility work.

Business as usual...