Give me strength, or give me death!

[Phedder]

Did measurements this morning, Arms 40.5cm, Waist 85cm, Thighs 63.5cm.

Spent most of yesterday digging at work, so the back wasn't feeling the greatest. Also had to get home for a family xmas dinner so tried to keep rests down a bit.

Week 1 Day 2

Front Squats

5xbar

5x40kg

3x60kg

5x5x70kg

Overhead Press

5xbar

5x5x40kg

Deadlifts

5x60kg

5x100kg

5x5x130kg - These were feeling way harder than they should have, until Traps came in and threw some slipknot on the speakers :grin: sets 4 and 5 flew up.

Weighted Chins (Supposed to be 5, 10, 15, chain and belt weigh 2kg.)

5x7kg

5x17kg

5x12kg

[Phedder]

Week 1 day 3

Back squats

10xbar

5x60kg

5x75kg

5x80kg

5x90kg

5x95kg

5x100kg

Bench press

2x10xbar

5x60kg

5x5x70kg

Power Cleans

5x5x60kg - Supposed to be 50kg :shifty:

Turkish Get ups - each side, so 10 reps per set.

5x10lb DB

5x20lb DB

5x10kg BB

Extra Stuff:

4x5xGHR negatives

DB rows

3x10x30kg

Face Pulls, kinda. Used a straight bar with D handles instead of ropes.

15x45

20x45

2x15x55

Good session, and I've actually found a core exercise I enjoy! \:D/ First time doing Turkish Get ups, and they felt awesome. Great movement for shoulder and core stabilisation. The 3rd set called for 15kg, but no DBs of that weight so Steak suggested using a 10kg BB instead. Pretty much same weight as my 2nd set but the BB is so much harder to balance :shock: Great challenge, will be interesting trying it with 40kg by the end of the program :nod:

[steak]

when i saw you start doing those turkish get ups i thought

"you poor bastard" but you nailed them bro...personally I hate them :pfft:

[hhhh1]

why are you lifting lighter weights now?

[Phedder]

when i saw you start doing those turkish get ups i thought

"you poor bastard" but you nailed them bro...personally I hate them :pfft:

Thanks, I spose you can't really do them with bad form if you want to keep the weight balanced Maybe there's something wrong with me, I thought they were kinda fun :shifty: Greg thought I was a bit crazy the other day for saying I enjoy front squats as well haha.

why are you lifting lighter weights now?

I've started on a 9 week 5x5 program. Well, 4 weeks 5x5 then deload then 4 weeks 3x3. Starts off light and ramps the weight up quite quickly. Just finished week 1, so still quite light. Week 4 has me doing 5x5 with 175kg on deadlifts. Not used to much deadlift volume, I usually just worked up to 1 top set or banged out a few singles or doubles. 5 reps at 175kg would be a PB, then do another 4 sets of it

[Phedder]

Week 2 day 1

Weekly weigh in at 92.6kg

Back Squat

10xbar

2x5x60kg

3x80kg

1x100kg

5x5x105kg - Still getting used to heels, making mm adjustments on foot positioning each set. Some popped really well, some made 105 feel heavy :pfft: Gotta find the sweet spot and then get it consistently.

Bench press

2x10xbar

2x5x60kg

5x65kg

5x70kg

5x75kg

5x80kg

5x85kg

Power Cleans

5x40kg

5x5x50kg

Weighted press ups

5x10kg

5x15kg

5x25kg

Extras:

Pull ups - 2x6

Chin ups - 2x6

Ezy bar curls

20xbar

10x30kg

3x10x40kg

20x30kg

15x30kg

20xbar

First bicep pump I've had in months

[OnlyHuman]

Week 2 day 1

First bicep pump I've had in months

:pfft: me 2 :grin:

[drizzt]

I've started on a 9 week 5x5 program. Well, 4 weeks 5x5 then deload then 4 weeks 3x3. Starts off light and ramps the weight up quite quickly. Just finished week 1, so still quite light. Week 4 has me doing 5x5 with 175kg on deadlifts. Not used to much deadlift volume, I usually just worked up to 1 top set or banged out a few singles or doubles. 5 reps at 175kg would be a PB, then do another 4 sets of it

Peerrrrrsonally, I'd back that off to 3 x 5 (and will be on the next run-through of 5 x 5), but by all means give it a try and see how you go first. Interested to see how that 4th week is for ya! :grin:

[Monarchking]

Embrace the guns 8)

[Phedder]

:pfft: me 2 :grin:

Great minds :wink:

I've started on a 9 week 5x5 program. Well, 4 weeks 5x5 then deload then 4 weeks 3x3. Starts off light and ramps the weight up quite quickly. Just finished week 1, so still quite light. Week 4 has me doing 5x5 with 175kg on deadlifts. Not used to much deadlift volume, I usually just worked up to 1 top set or banged out a few singles or doubles. 5 reps at 175kg would be a PB, then do another 4 sets of it

Peerrrrrsonally, I'd back that off to 3 x 5 (and will be on the next run-through of 5 x 5), but by all means give it a try and see how you go first. Interested to see how that 4th week is for ya! :grin:

I'm expecting (hoping :pray: ) My belt will have arrived by the 4th week, so that may be a saving grace. I have actually thought about 3x5, I want that as a minimum really. Don't care after that if I have to do 10 singles, but I'd still like to hit all the prescribed reps. Might change my mind when I actually get there though :pfft:

Embrace the guns 8)

They've been neglected for far too long :oops: Funny how the general pop. perceives things though; I always get remarks from mates about my arms, yet they're easily my most lacking bodypart

[Monarchking]

They've been neglected for far too long Funny how the general pop. perceives things though; I always get remarks from mates about my arms, yet they're easily my most lacking bodypart

haha yea same here, its kinda silly. I have more recently been taking them a lil bit more seriously tho :oops:

[Phedder]

Todays session came after a verrrrrrrrry long day, but managed alright.

Front Squats

10xbar

5x60kg

5x5x75kg

Overhead press

10xbar

5x5x45kg

Deadlifts

5x60kg

5x100kg

1x140kg

5x5x150kg - May have let out a big scream before my final set :shifty:

Weighted Chins

5xbw

5x +22kg

5x +17kg -DS - 5x + 7kg DS - 5xbw

Extra Stuff - Done non stop, just alternating exercises.

Chins - 5x5xBW

Landmines 20xbar, 15xbar+10kg, 3x15xBar+15kg

Tried to get through it quickly, girlfriend had already been waiting to be picked up from work for 35 mins before I left the gym :pfft:

Again deadlifts felt harder than 150 should, but on reflection I didn't really fatigue either. 1st rep of 1st set felt the same as the last rep of last set. Hands got a little ripped up though, grip's never an issue but they're just not used to this much deadlift volume. According to the tracking number my shoes are now in NZ too, hopefully have them for Fridays session, but definitely Mondays :grin:

[Phedder]

Week 2 day 3

Blargh. Just felt low energy today, last few days sleep hasn't been great. Might start trying some afternoon siestas when possible. Got my weightlifting shoes though, so was very keen to test them out. Highlight of the session really, they feel great to squat in. Much better than some slip on dress shoes

Back Squats

lotsxbar

3x5x60kg - playing around with foot position

5x85kg

5x95kg

5x100kg

5x110kg

5x115kg - last rep was a bit of a grind, still supposed to be easy :shifty: Lower back felt a bit weak from Wed so wasn't sitting back as much as I should.

Bench press

lotsxbar

5x60kg

5x5x80kg

Power Cleans

5x5x60kg - first set felt horrible, had me thinking 'here we go :roll: ' but the rest all just fell into place quite nicely.

Turkish Get ups - alternating reps per side

10x10lb DB

10x25lb DB

10x15kg BB - holy crap the BB murdered me :shock: Had a 15-20 sec rest after 6 reps to finish the final 4, had some real trouble keeping the BB balanced and controlled.

Extra stuff:

GHR negatives - 3x5

Face Pulls - 3x15x35

Bit disappointed with todays session, wanted to tag on a fair bit more assistance at the end but was just drained and running out of time anyway. I usually sweat a lot but today I was just saturated, insane. Wes asked if I had been outside in the rain :pfft:

[OnlyHuman]

New shoes :grin: I love my oly shoes!

I remember that while it felt great from the get go it did take me like 2 sessions or so to accustom to them. After that they just felt like GOLD tho :nod:

How is your eating? Trust you getting in enough calories to support the program?

[Phedder]

Yeah still trying different foot positions with them, glad I had been using a heeled dress shoe beforehand too so it's not too drastic of a change. The heel in the dress shoe felt great, and now these oly shoes have the heel with the added bonus of great support and stability.

Eating could be better. Scale hasn't moved backwards at all, and slowly going up, so calories are okay. Quality could definitely be improved but I am at home now eating the parents food, complaining would only land me with the food bill :pfft: There's a lot of eggs and whey going down the hatch to keep protein up, olive oil to help calories and then I suppose what would be considered the regular 3 square meals a day to keep me going.

[bar-belle]

humid session in there today bro..we all sweated through 2 tees each with the speed work :roll:

[Phedder]

Week 3 day 1

Weigh in: 93.3kg. Went away to a mates batch in Waihi Beach for NYE, thought my eating hadn't been up to scratch but apparently not so Could be extra fluid, but we did have a few really solid meals and then grazed a lot. I'm just happy it hadn't gone backwards, started on creatine again today so expecting it to be up mid 94s next week anyway.

Back Squats

lotsxbar

2x5x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

5x5x115kg - Volume PB

Bench press

lotsxbar

5x60kg

5x70kg

5x80kg

5x85kg

5x90kg

5x95kg

Power Cleans

5x50kg

5x55kg

5x60kg

5x65kg

5x70kg

Weighted Press ups

5@bw

5@ +5kg

5@ +15kg

5@ +25kg

Extras

8 more press ups at +25kg

DB rows

3x10x35kg - strict

10x45kg - less strict, but not ugly.

Really need to get more organised with training sessions, I'm not giving myself enough time to do the extra assistance I want. Didn't get back home until 6 tonight, and was at the gym by 7 so I did my best. Wednesday the tris and core will get a good thrashing after the programmed lifts :nod:

[OnlyHuman]

5x5x115kg - Volume PB

:clap: keep them coming Phed!!!

[Phedder]

Wow, what a bloody day :roll: Quick(ish) rundown:

Was supposed to be working until 8ish, so decided I'd go in before work instead. Not used to training earlier in the day with less in the stomach, felt weak and tired. Ended up tweaking my back a little on my final set of deadlifts, so left it there and decided I'd come back in at night to finish off the session. Ended up finishing work early because of the rain, so I would have had time to do the full session tonight anyway. And for a little kick while I was down, my belt finally arrived this arvo, so if I had have done the entire session tonight, I would have had my belt, and possibly not injured my back Ah well, at least my belts here \:D/

Week 3 day 2

Front Squats

10xbar

5x40kg

5x60kg

5x5x80kg - Felt heavy, 80kg never feels heavy

Deadlifts

10x60kg

5x100kg

1x140kg - Sign of bad things to come.

2x5x165kg - 5th reps were way too much of a grind for training, so broke down the reps, upped sets to complete same total reps.

5x3x165kg - On the final set I tweaked right SI joint, nothing major but enough to annoy. Should be back to normal in a week with some rigorous stretching and rolling.

Spent the next 15 mins stretching and rolling it out, and cut the session short. Went to work, came back later and did;

Seated DB shoulder press - didn't want to aggravate anything by doing standing press.

10x20lb

5x5x20kg

Weighted chin ups

5@bw

5@bw+22kg

5@bw+17kg

5@bw+7kg

Extras:

More chins - 2x5@+12kg, 5@bw

Close grip Bench - 10x40kg, 3x10x60kg

Alternating Landmine Press - 3x20xbar+10kg

SS

DB curls - 3x10x20kg

Triset:

Tricep press downs - 3x10x55

DB Hammer curls 3x20x25lb

DB Shoulder press 3x10x25lb

Stoked to finally have my belt here, hopefully make Fridays squats a bit easier :shifty: They ended up sending me a Toro Bravo belt, instead of the standard Toro Powerbelt. The Bravos are more expensive, so not complaining, but I can't figure out why? The standard Powerbelt is 13mm the Bravo is 10mm. Might be for the best as it's bloody stiff as is. Both are roller buckle belts, so really don't know why the bravos are more expensive :-s

Turns out the wrist wraps were out of stock as well and they refunded my money for those, will just order them when I get knee sleeves.

[Phedder]

First session using my belt, awesome :grin:

Week 3 day 3

Back squats

10xbar

5x60kg

3x80kg

3x80kg (b) - belt on early to get used to it.

5x95kg (b)

5x105kg (b)

5x110kg (b)

5x120kg (b)

5x125kg (b) - rep PB and easy at that, another 3-4 reps in me. Got Steak to come check my depth for this set as I found it harder to gauge with the belt on. All well below, and encouraged me to try 140kg.

2x140kg (b) - rep PB 1st rep sweet as, 2nd a little grind. Steak noted my elbows coming right back in the hole - Something I'm usually very conscious of, but I was focusing too much on using the belt properly I forgot the tight upper back and elbows forward. All good, with time and self cues I'll get used to bringing everything together again. Again very deep, probably sacrificing some weight for depth so need to make sure I don't drop heavier weights deeper than needed as well.

Bench press

2x10xbar

5x60kg

5x80kg

5x5x90kg

Power Cleans

5x5x65kg

Turkish Get ups - uhhh....totally forgot about them :doh: :oops: Will do on Monday.

Extras:

Romanian Deadlifts - GHR broken

10x60kg

5x80kg

3x5x100kg

Decline sit ups

20xBW

3x10xBW+red band around shoulders

SS

Seated Face Pulls

4x15x45

So, I officially love my belt Feel so stable and supported at the bottom. Definitely going to have to up the squat numbers for the rest of the program, the two heaviest sets are 5x130kg at the end of week 4, and then 3x140kg at the end of week 9. Could knock them both off now, so up it goes. Looking forward to Wednesdays deadlifts (can't believe I just wrote that :shock: ) really keen to see how a belt helps (or doesn't) my deadlift. Could make 5x5x175kg manageable, which would be awesome. Just hoping I don't have to resort to reducing reps and increasing sets.

On the drive home from the gym, I pulled in at the beach to eat my sandwich...Right next to a guy toking up in his car haha. He was mirin' the sandwich :pfft:

[drizzt]

2x140kg (b) - rep PB 1st rep sweet as, 2nd a little grind. Steak noted my elbows coming right back in the hole - Something I'm usually very conscious of, but I was focusing too much on using the belt properly I forgot the tight upper back and elbows forward. All good, with time and self cues I'll get used to bringing everything together again. Again very deep, probably sacrificing some weight for depth so need to make sure I don't drop heavier weights deeper than needed as well.

Grats on the PB, Phed! Aaaand all of the above sounds like my squatting issues ha ha. Too deep and lazy with the elbows/upperback/chest. Definitely gets easier once you get used to the weight, keep it up bro :nod:

[Phedder]

2x140kg (b) - rep PB 1st rep sweet as, 2nd a little grind. Steak noted my elbows coming right back in the hole - Something I'm usually very conscious of, but I was focusing too much on using the belt properly I forgot the tight upper back and elbows forward. All good, with time and self cues I'll get used to bringing everything together again. Again very deep, probably sacrificing some weight for depth so need to make sure I don't drop heavier weights deeper than needed as well.

Grats on the PB, Phed! Aaaand all of the above sounds like my squatting issues ha ha. Too deep and lazy with the elbows/upperback/chest. Definitely gets easier once you get used to the weight, keep it up bro :nod:

Thanks Yeah I really just need to check everything off in my head. My upper back used to be an issue, so tightness and elbows forward was something I always prioritised. Being the first time in a belt today all my attention was on trying to use it properly, everything else went out the window. With practice and familiarity I'll get it all back together again :nod:

[drizzt]

Thanks Yeah I really just need to check everything off in my head. My upper back used to be an issue, so tightness and elbows forward was something I always prioritised. Being the first time in a belt today all my attention was on trying to use it properly, everything else went out the window. With practice and familiarity I'll get it all back together again :nod:

Awesome bro, good stuff. I know you've got good people to show you up there, but the way I was taught (when I got to the House, after I thought I knew how to use a belt from the Shiny gyms :shifty:), was to put it on loose enough so you can slip a hand down the front (not sure if you saw the Chad Aichs video floating about), and then I was told to walk around the gym practising breathing into it/the diaphragm. Did it for about 60mins before the Doc (who made me do it!) was convinced I had learnt to breathe into the belt properly and told me I could start squatting :pfft: Definitely has helped!

I used to just yank it on off the rack to get it as tight as possible, but that definitely limits the amount you can brace your core against it.

[OnlyHuman]

Sounds like you spent your $$$ wisely Phed and enjoying your belt.

Well done with the squats! :clap: :clap: :clap:

[Phedder]

Cheers for that Drizzt, will look into that vid. I have been breathing into the diaphragm then pushing my abs out for a while now even squatting without a belt. Wearing it so it feels 'comfortable' with normal breathing, and then once I breath deep into the diaphragm and push my abs out it feels tight and rock solid. Was much better today as it felt a bit more familiar, so I gave my upper back and elbows some attention too and they kept in line the whole session, so happy with that

Very wisely spent OH, kicking myself for not doing it sooner :doh: