Growths Journal

[Growth]

Or i could use that strange metallic morphing technique that Pseudonym uses :pfft:

[jono]

Or i could use that strange metallic morphing technique that Pseudonym uses :pfft:

:grin: god damn photoshop experts

[Pseudonym]

Heheh... it's a sign of far too many hours wasted.

[Growth]

Todays Workout

Flat Bench Press

60 x 8

60 x 6

100 x 4

120 x 4

120 x 3

120 x 2

Flat DB Press

47.0 x 6

52.5 x 5

52.5 x 5

Arnold Press

33.5 x 6

33.5 x 3

33.5 x 4

Lateral Raises

28.0 x 8

28.0 x 8

31.0 x 6, 16.5 x 6

16.5 x 8, 8.5 x 8

SkullCrushers

45 x 7

50 x 6

50 x 5

Tricep Pushdowns

86 x 8, BW x 6 (Double Pully, Ropes)

39 x 8, BW x 6 (Single Pully, Ropes)

42 x 8, BW x 6 (Single Pully, Angled Bar)

45 x 7

51 x 4, 39 x 4, 24 x 4, 18 x 6

Bit of a different workout than usual today. My shoulders are really sore, especially the left one, ive had this type of injury before. The high volume i have been doing has finally taken its toll on the tendons. Shoulder tendons, bicep tendons, and tricep tendons are the ones effected. So i decided to lighten up a bit on the volume today. Wasnt really sure if i could have hit 125 again so just did 3 sets of 120. Pleased with the Db's though, starting to establish the 52s, new PB. Shoulders are still improving with PBs in both arnol and lateral raises. Had some extra time at the end of the workout so did alot of tricep sets. I belive the 51kg tricep pushdown is a new PB given that my previous best was 91 on a double pully machine, where as 51kg was a single pulley ie 91 / 2 = 45.5. Correct me if im wrong. Felt pretty heavy though :grin: Overall pleased with the workout, starting to wind down this week.

[Marcus]

If you're getting tendon injuries man, you need to check your form.

[Growth]

Thanks for the concern Marcus but ive had this type of injury many times before during by BBing career and its genreally not form related.

Ive gained quite a good amount of strength over the past 4-5 weeks and it is a fact that muscle strength grows about 3 times as fast as tendon strength. This can lead to connective tissue injuries if you go too far, too fast.

Based on the assumption that muscle strenght develops faster than tendon strenght, then strenght training would inevitably lead to a tendon injury after a certain time.

Also i do heavy skullcrushers which are notorious for elbow connective tissue injures.

In the contrary, having good form and rom can actually lead to more tendonitis. For example, for my tricep work i use a full range of motion, from full extension to full collapse, and know people in my gym who never do tricep exercises past 90 degrees simply because partial reps are far more forgiving on tendons.

Bad form can cause connective tissue injuries, but not in this particular case.

[jono]

nice workout and prs man. i can relate on the connective tissues issue. i can get a sore left elbow on skullcrushers if im not ultra careful. and i always use max rom on all ex as well :grin:

[Growth]

i can relate on the connective tissues issue. i can get a sore left elbow on skullcrushers if im not ultra careful.

mm hm :nod: Skullcrushers place alot of stress on connective tissue, but IMO one of the best tricep exercises. Defenitily my favourite anyway.

[Marcus]

All I'm saying is that on certain exercises there are ways you can make the movement harder, hence doing lighter weights. 31's on lateral raises are a prime example of this. I haven't torn a tendon on thsi exercise but I have torn the muscle sheath in my wrist. Here you could drop the weight a bit & slow the movement down, reducing chance of injury. That's whats helped me anyway.

[Growth]

All I'm saying is that on certain exercises there are ways you can make the movement harder, hence doing lighter weights. 31's on lateral raises are a prime example of this. I haven't torn a tendon on thsi exercise but I have torn the muscle sheath in my wrist. Here you could drop the weight a bit & slow the movement down, reducing chance of injury. That's whats helped me anyway.

Thanks for the advise Marcus but im really training for strength at the moment. Obviously i wouldnt be able to do a slow, say 3 seconds up, 3 seconds down movement with the 31s, but like i said at the moment im really training for strength, and what im doing is working well for me. Even though i am training for strength, the size of my shoulders and back have increased quite a bit, i get quite a few comments that my shoulders are starting to look big.

Reducing the weight an slowing down the movement would result in less chance of injury mostly due to the fact that its a lighter weight. Take bench press for example, we could all bench 60kgs all day long, doing slow concentric and eccentric movements and not get an injury, but your not going to improve your strength as much as if you were to force yourself to press a higher weight, and of course injury will be more prevalent at 120kgs over 60kgs. I do agree with you that you make the exercise harder by doing very slow ecc. and conc. movements, but hey, who wants to say "yeah i bench 60kg, 5 seconds eccentric, 3 seconds concentric".

Like i said in my previous post., connective tissue injuries are generally the result of the tendons not being able to grow as fast as mucle. Couple this with heavy full rom workouts on tricep and bicept work etc, and sooner or later your going to have tendon issues. I have bad tendonitus in both my bicep tendons because i do heavy full rom bb curls. Noone wants to do partial reps and have 'midget biceps' (the type of bicep that when you flex it, it looks like a small ball in the middle of your arm as apposed to a longer bicep over the full arm), so you do full rom curls, this of corse puts alot more strain on the bicep tendon because when the arm is at full extension and the bicep flexes to bring the bar up, all the strain is on the tendon.

Reducing the weight and doing slow reps does have its place in BBing for sure, but in the 4 years that i have been going to the gym, the people i see using light weights and doing slow reps are always the smallest, subsequently weak. All the big guys do explosive reps, controlling the weight on the eccentric movent and then exploding through the concentric. This is the philosophy i use on all my exercises, including the lateral raises...controlled eccentric, explosive concentric.

Thanks for your input Marcus.

[Marcus]

I see what you mean man, & I really enjoy these types of discussions & viewpoints.

Since, I've started DC training my weights have dropped, because DC style you have a slow, 5+ sec eccentric & explosive concentric. However I am getting stronger because I am squeezing out extra reps or increasing weight every workout. I've dropped the weights & made the movement harder for myself.

For example:

This week I'm having a "cruise", not trying to beat my notebook every workout & no rest pause sets. Yesterday I did chest. Last week I got 6 reps @ 37.1kg + 4reps + 2reps rest paused on incline DB's. Yesterday I got 8reps @ 40.1kgs with a less focussed eccentric & explosive concentric. I've never been able to manage 8reps before on this exercise. So I have gotten stronger.

What I am saying is there is more ways of gaining strength other than hitting your top weights all the time.

Powerlifters rarely go for PB's in their gym training. They might do 6sets of 6reps deadlifts. Bench pressing with a 2sec pause at the bottom. If they were training for Pb's everytime they worked out what would happen? Injury & lots of it. They save the PB's for comps because it puts so much stress on the body. That's where you need to be careful man, because you are putting your body under "competition" stresses everytime you train.

There are many ways to skin a cat.

[Growth]

I see what you mean man, & I really enjoy these types of discussions & viewpoints.

Indeed so do i mate.

Like you say there are many ways to increase your strength, pushing yourself to hit new PBs is one, and so is eccentric training. Obviously your current method of training is working really well for you, and mine for me.

IMO, my tendon issues are not the result of bad form, but the result of heavy strength work and heavy volume. Like you said ive basically been putting my body under competition stress every week which is liekly to have contributed as well.

Thanks again for your advise Marcus, sounds like youve got a good knowledge of BBing.

Id be really interested in following your journal, you should start one up ASAP. I have thought of trying DC training but havent gotten around to it.

[Growth]

Todays Workout

Lat Pulldowns

94 x 6

100 x 6

103 x 6

109 x 5

DB Bent Over Rows

57.0 x 12

57.0 x 10

57.0 x 8

BB Bicep Curls

50 x 6

55 x 4

57.5 x 4

Incline DB Curls

28.0 x 6

31.0 x 6

32.0 x 6, 16.5 x 4

BB Shrugs

140 x 12

180 x 12

200 x 8

220 x 4

Swiss Ball Crunches

30

12

12

Roman Chair Leg Lifts

10

10

Solid workout. All exercises felt pretty good. Once again progressed from last back/bi workout.

[Marcus]

No worries man.

I guess what I have learnt over the last few years is there's no substitute for quality of the workout.

Whilst you are making good strength gains with your current training, you will eventually hit a peak & this is when you'll need to look outside the square.

[jono]

great workout man. damn honestly those curls are INSANE 32kg*6 ?? damn thats as much weight as ronnie uses.

[Growth]

Whilst you are making good strength gains with your current training, you will eventually hit a peak & this is when you'll need to look outside the square.

Absolutely agree :grin:

[Growth]

great workout man. damn honestly those curls are INSANE 32kg*6 ?? damn thats as much weight as ronnie uses.

You know what type of curl it is aye? Its where you stand up and have your tricep over the top of an incline bench set up at a fairly steap angle, maybe 60 degree. Is that the same one?

I get the impression people are beggining not to belive me about the weights :pfft:

[jono]

great workout man. damn honestly those curls are INSANE 32kg*6 ?? damn thats as much weight as ronnie uses.

You know what type of curl it is aye? Its where you stand up and have your tricep over the top of an incline bench set up at a fairly steap angle, maybe 60 degree. Is that the same one?

I get the impression people are beggining not to belive me about the weights :pfft:

yeah thats the one. you are a true freak man :grin:

[Growth]

yeah thats the one. you are a true freak man :grin:

Wow thats the shit! :grin: Now if only i was taking MuscleTech i would have the size and strength :pfft:

PS. I just mortgaged my house and bought 2 containers of CellTech. Ronnie Collman here i come!!!! :pfft:

[Growth]

Todays Workout

Deadlifts

bar x 12

60 x 10

100 x 8

140 x 6

160 x 6

180 x 2

140 x 6

100 x 8

60 x 10

Standing Calf Raises

116 x 8

116 x 8

116 x 8

Swiss Ball Crunches

20

10

10

Roman Chair Leg Lifts

10

10

10

Usually this would be my leg day but i flagged the leg press and leg extensions. Concentrated hard on deadlifts, did a little calf work and abs. So basically it was more of a core workout. Managed to get a deadlift PB adding a whopping 1 rep :pfft: but i guess every little bit counts, and it was a lot of volume so hopefully next time will be more of an improvement.

[jono]

some heavy deads man. listening to your body is important, dont wanna get burned out.. goodwork

[Marcus]

Nice lifting man.

What I would recommend is drop those last three sets after your're maxing out. You've already done the job with the ramp up. Also, look at dropping your 160 set to 3-4reps max. I'd bet you'll squeeze out another rep if you do so.

Other than that's pretty much the same routine I follow. One plate, two, three, then just really low rep sets until I feel I'm at a weight I'll max out on. My Pb is 180kg x 6, but with DC I've been repping out 8 x 167.5 to failure - next dead day I'll be going for 170 x 8.

Awesome stuff man.

[Growth]

some heavy deads man. listening to your body is important, dont wanna get burned out.. goodwork

mm hm, definately could feel overtraining comming on. Hopefully toning it down for a while will help.

[Growth]

Nice lifting man.

What I would recommend is drop those last three sets after your're maxing out. You've already done the job with the ramp up. Also, look at dropping your 160 set to 3-4reps max. I'd bet you'll squeeze out another rep if you do so.

Other than that's pretty much the same routine I follow. One plate, two, three, then just really low rep sets until I feel I'm at a weight I'll max out on. My Pb is 180kg x 6, but with DC I've been repping out 8 x 167.5 to failure - next dead day I'll be going for 170 x 8.

Awesome stuff man.

Hey Marcus, yeah normally i wouldnt do those last three sets but i just thought id mix it up, and seeing as how i didnt do and leg press, i might as well take advantage of the extra energy.

Nice PB mate :nod: Im really interested in your training, seriously you should start a journal.

[Cornfed]

You know what type of curl it is aye? Its where you stand up and have your tricep over the top of an incline bench set up at a fairly steap angle, maybe 60 degree. Is that the same one?

I would call that a db preacher curl, but perhaps I'm behind the times. I would have thought an incline curl was a curl done while lying on an incline bench.

I get the impression people are beggining not to belive me about the weights

Indeed. Are you sure you're not confusing lbs with kgs If your weights are legit, perhaps you should consider doing something which requires a high power-to-weight ratio. Gymnast? Ballet dancer? Male cheerleader?