I Have to Poop

So this'll be quick

MP

45x8

45x8

95x5

115x3

135x3

150x2

145x1

125x7

Incline DB Press (Palms in)

60x12

60x8

60x10

Inverted Rows superset w/Face Pulls

BWx15, 50x15

BWx12, 50x12

BWx10, 50x10

BWx9, 50x12

Power Shrugs

225x10

315x8

315x10

315x10

ez bar curls

60x12

60x12

Hammer Curls

40x10

40x10

Power shrugs were fun, taxing, and hurt my dick. We also made a two board thingy and fucked around with some two board presses at the end. This will be our last workout on this program. I have my exam on Monday, so I will be studying all weekend. Then, we will test our maxes on Wed, cut down a fucking tree on Sat, and start 5/3/1 on Sunday May 8. Psyched.

This song rules.

Set It Off (C4-W3-D3)

BENCH DAY

And possibly my last workout at the Ballys in Chicago.

Warm Up:

10 Dips

20 Push ups

Plenty of static shoulder and pec stretching

Shoulder rotations with 10lb plates

Bench:

45 x 10

95 x 5

95 x 5

135 x 5

135 x 5

175 x 5

195 x 3

220 x 1+ (Hit 4. E1RM of 250. Sucks.)

Bench:

135 x 10

135 x 10

135 x 10

155 x 10

155 x 10

BB Row:

Overhand Grip followed immediately by Underhand Grip

45 x 10 each

95 x 10 each

95 x 10 each

135 x 10 each

The 4th rep on my last bench set went up at about a quarter mile and hour. The spotter told me afterwards that he didn't touch the bar, which I already knew. The weight just seemed so heavy. I'm totally clueless as to why my bench is such shit. I know my technique is far from "good", even, but I could do 225 x 3 last summer with basic "flat back elbows out" garbage form. I guess I'm glad I'll be going to Lexen soon and someone will call me on my bullshit technique.

Enter to the Realm of Satan (C4-W3-D2)

DEADLIFT DAY

A lot of little stories to hit today.

First off, watch this interview between Jim Wendler and Mark Rippetoe. Just do it.

Switching from Conventional to Sumo

Since my deadlift day two weeks ago I've been having back problems. Initially it was a common and general soreness in my lower back, which is to be expected. The following week I completely blew up on my deadlift day and felt like total garbage. In the week since I've actually felt some pain in my spine. Yeah, my spine. Not my lower back or spinal erectors or rectus abdominis. My spine.

It was a minor pain, but any pain in the spine, especially mine, warrants attention. It was a minor pulse of discomfort in the crux of the curvature of my lower spine, which is a 50 degree curvature. I'm not a doctor, but I'm also not a moron. I needed to make a change in the stress I apply to my back. Cue the sumo deadlift.

I spent some time this week reading on the technique of the sumo deadlift, including articles on making a switch from conventional to sumo. Additionally, I found comments here and there suggesting that people of a smaller body mass, short and small cats like myself, may benefit from a switch to sumo. Though it is going to take plenty of time in the gym to really "get" the technique of the sumo deadlift, I felt good about it today.

A Dude at the Gym

I was doing my warm up sets on the deadlift, trying to figure out the technique, and a guy came up to me and asked me, "Yeh pomihcigalifer?"

I took my headphones off. "What?"

"You a powerlifter?"

Turns out this cat, who seemed to be in his mid 40s, used to powerlift. He told me about a gym near the area run by the guy who heads the Illinois chapter of the USAPL. He complimented my technique and suggested that I go into a meet.

We got to talking about a lot of things, including his best lifts. He had hit 605 on the deadlift and something comparable on the squat. His bench was around 500, and this was single ply. After rattling off his best lifts he asked, "What do you bench? 350?" I laughed.

He again suggested I train at the aforementioned gym, but I told him I was moving this weekend. He asked where, and I told him, "Back home to Columbus, Ohio." "Well, fuck! You've got Louis Simmons!" He then went on to tell me about going to a meet in Columbus where Louie told him, "Geno, you're never going to be a powerlifter without steroids." I laughed, especially hard considering USAPL is a drug testing federation.

All in all it was nice to talk to someone who knew what was going on, to shit talk on the crap equipment at Ballys, and to get some positive feedback.

Warm Up:

Agile 8

Extra hip swings, hip flexor stretches.

Extra low back foam rolling.

Deadlift (Sumo):

135 x 5

135 x 5

185 x 5

225 x 5

275 x 5

335 x 5

380 x 3

425 x 1

425 x 1

Though I was obviously supposed to go for 1+ reps on 425, it just wasn't going to happen. The weight felt very light and the lift very smooth all the way up to 425, where it fell apart. I failed to get my hips under me properly and used a lot of hams and glutes to get the weight up. I'm not upset, though, as its my first day and I understandably have a lot to learn.

Good Mornings (Wide Stance):

135 x 12

135 x 12

155 x 12

155 x 12

185 x 12

Shrugs:

135 x 30

135 x 30

185 x 30

Soundtrack: SLAYER "ALTAR OF SACRIFICE" PRAISE HELL SATAN

Drop It Like It's Hot

Squat Day

Box Squat

45x5

95x5

135x5

185x5

225x3

245x3

255x3

275x3

Squat

315x1 w/some help from Sean. I thought I was good for it.

Zercher Squats

135x12

155x10

185x5, dropped it like it was hot on my 6th rep

155x10

185x4, dropped it again on #5, we were also listening to that song when I did, in a CBC squat day tradition

RDLs

185x12

185x12

225x8

225x8

various grip work

I've really been working a lot on getting my squat form right, and I think it has improved quite a bit. I really thought I was going to get that 315.

Knuckledragger (C4-W3-D1)

MILITARY PRESS DAY

MP (Standing Strict Overhead):

45 x 10

65 x 5

85 x 5

95 x 5

110 x 5

125 x 3

140 x 1+ (Hit 6. Estimated 1RM of 169.)

MP:

95 x 10

95 x 10

95 x 10

95 x 10

95 x 10

Pullups (Neutral Grip):

25 (Probably a PR)

10

10

10

Dips:

3 sets of 20

Grappler Circuit:

MP (each arm)

Rows (each arm)

Squat - Press

Russian Twist

6 reps of each for 1 set. Did 3 sets, all at bar +25.

My last set on the MP totally sucked. I probably wasn't warmed up well enough, nor was I focusing properly, and I didn't get the number I wanted. I ended up stalling on the 5th rep after I smashed myself in the chin with the bar on the way up. Just amateur.

I did, as I usually push myself to do, make up for it in the assistance work. Which is really a phenomenon I need to put an end to. The 25 pullups are probably a PR. I've hit 20 before just dicking around at various points in my life, but I don't think I've ever hit 25. Regardless, I'm happy with it.

Soundtrack: STOUT STOUT STOUT

Also, I'm going to title all my posts with the Cycle, Week, and Day numbers of my 5/3/1 program so I can reference different days easier within the blog.

Cardio:

3 miles of roadwork.

Here's Another Ten Bitch, Do it Again

For a little while, Friday was our DE Lower Body Day, but we didn't really feel like we were getting too much out of it, so we upped the volume slightly on our other low body day, and made Friday a "conditioning day with a lower body focus." Which basically means we find something that seems like it might be fun or interesting, and try to make it so miserable that we wish we were doing anything else.

Squats

45x10

135x5

185x5

225x20

I wanted to do this because I wanted to work on my form some more, and because it is difficult. I chose 225 as a weight that I felt was close to my 10RM. I did the first 10 as a straight set, and though the 10th rep was tough, I think I could have gutted out one or two more without resting, so next time I will add 5 or 10 lbs. However, after the 10th rep, I started stopping between reps to take a breath or two, and quickly realized that resting with 225 on your back can hardly be called resting. By the end, it was just something that I had to tell myself I would finish no matter what and force myself to rise from the bottom. It was a good feeling to get through that.

This was followed by

Circuit (30 secs work, 30 secs rest)

Alternating Swings

One Arm Snatches (each side)

Windmill (each side)

Front Squat (twice, holding weight on a different side each time)

Push Press (each side)

Sumo Jump Squats

If you're counting that's 10 total movements, so it took us 10 minutes, and left us pretty wrecked. I did the whole thing with my new (16 kg) kb, and Sean used a 40 lb db. I shot for a minimum of 20 reps each set, and pretty much hit that, except that I kept losing count a lot. Also, I didn't count on the windmills, just tried to hit the form correctly. I got the idea for this circuit from this book
which I recently bought. Once you cut through the hyperbole and the piss poor editing, I like the book because it has a lot of different ideas for ways to structure complexes, circuits, and other high intensity type work. They are probably ideas I could come up with myself, but I at least find it nice to have them already thought out for me.

Party and Bullshit

SQUAT DAY

Warmup:

Agile 8

Extra hip swings and deep body squats to make sure my hips are loose and warm.

Squat:

45 x 10

135 x 5

135 x 5

185 x 5

225 x 3

240 x 3

255 x 3

270 x 3+ (Hit 10. Estimated 1RM of 360. Beat last weeks E1RM of 357. Thats progress, motherfucker.)

Leg Press:

2 plates per side x 15

3 x 15

4 x 15

5 x 15

6 x 10 + 5 Assisted (Hands pushing on my legs.)

Pull Throughs:

108 x 10

144 x 10

180 x 10

204 x 10

Oblique Raises:

50 x 15 each side

50 x 15

I felt good today, nice and warm before my first squat set. I thought that the 225 set may have been too close to my first real work set of 240, but it seemed to work out fairly well. My final set was appropriately tough, and I felt that I handled it well. I had 10 as a goal going into the set, kind of arbitrarily, and I was glad I met it.

The leg press came in as a sub for the Olympic Squats today, as I really wanted to hammer my quads, which I have blamed for a weak squat. The last set was pretty rough, especially the last 5 assisted reps. I hit a legit 10 but 15 was my rep requirement, so I had to get there. I just put my hands on my quads and pushed until the weight was up. Around 13 I thought I may not be able to get the weight back up, as my legs felt like they were on fire. But I got it up, and the same scenario followed with the last two reps. Suffice it to say I was doing the "jelly legs" walk for the remainder of the workout.

Bench Your Weight

BENCH DAY

Bench:

45 x 10

95 x 5

95 x 5

135 x 5

155 x 5

185 x 3

195 x 3

205 x 5 +3 Assisted. (Bally's spotters are the worst.)

Bench:

135 x 10

135 x 10

135 x 10

155 x 10

155 x 10

Barbell Row:

Double Overhand Grip:

45 x 20

95 x 10

135 x 10

185 x 10

Double Underhand Grip:

185 x 10

135 x 10

95 x 10

Tate Press:

30 x 10

45 x 10

45 x 10

Pullups:

2 sets of 10

Abs - Stability Ball Crunches:

100

Cardio:

3 miles of roadwork in a little under 30 min.

My bench press absolutely sucks. I'm not sure what exactly is the problem, but I'd be willing to bet that I'm just too damn weak. I've been looking into upper body plyo drills to aid with explosiveness, but we'll see. I often wonder if the lack of a speed bench day in 5/3/1 is negatively affecting me, as I felt that it did aid my bench when I was using the basic Westside template. All in all, I just need to focus more on my bench day and hit it harder if I want to progress. Shit isn't rocket science, just get under the bar and push it.

I did Barbell Rows today rather than the DB Kroc Rows I typically do. Because I can hit 25 with the biggest DB Bally has, which is just 100, I wanted to switch things up. I had only done BB Rows a few times before so I did a few sets with each grip just to see how it felt. I'm going to keep the BB Row in the rotation for a while to see how it feels.

I Put My Hands Up

I had a crappy deadlifting day yesterday. I don't feel like recapping it, but in short I didn't hit the numbers I wanted and I'm contemplating substituting Power Cleans for deads in my next cycle. My back could probably use the change, though I may be overreacting to a bad lifting day more likely caused by a hard run the previous day.

CARDIO DAY

Olympic Triplex:

(Power Clean -> Hang Clean -> Clean and Press) x 5 = 1 set

Minimal rest between sets.

Did sets at:

45

95

95

95

95

95

Pushup -> Body Squat -> Pullup Circuit:

((10 -> 10 -> 5) x 3) = 1 set

Did 3 sets with minimal rest.

Oblique Raises:

50 x 15 each side

50 x 15

80 x 10

FOOD REVIEW

Protein Pancakes

A while ago EFS posted this article by Josh Bryant about his recipe for Protein Pancakes, which I read last night and fell asleep excited to eat them this morning. These panackes are simple to make and are pretty cut and dry when it comes to nutrition, they provide high value, complex carbs and lots of easily digestible egg protein.

Ingredients

Now these ingredients are Josh's suggestion, and are easily modified to give you more protein or more carbs.

3 egg whites

1 whole egg

1 cup of Oatmeal

Cinnamon to taste.

Pretty damn simple. This would basically be a normal, but small, breakfast for me anyway, and now I don't have to suffer through a whole cup of bland oatmeal. Josh suggests, and I will definitely try, adding blueberries, walnuts, and sugar free syrup. I also wonder if I could work peanut butter into this.

Here's the nutritional info for the recipe above:

Calories: 418

Fat: 11g

Carbs: 55g

Protein: 28g

Preparation:

I don't have, nor do I enjoy, the standard Quaker Rolled Oats. I have McCann's Irish Oatmeal, the "Quick Cooking Rolled Oats" variety. Personal preference, but I just think it has a more substantial taste.

Throw the egg and egg whites into the blender first, followed by the oats, cinnamon, and whatever else you want to use. I tossed in a bit of Nutra-Sweet.

Blend the ingredients until it looks like your standard pancake batter. Its not rocket science.

Toss it on a well oiled non-stick pan or griddle. You'll have to watch it, as it does not take too long to cook, maybe a minute tops. Flip it once and you're done.

Review

I made these twice today, once before and once after my workout. My first attempt was a bit of a failure, as I figured a non stick griddle would work well enough. It didn't. So I had to scrape off what I could and eat that.

In the second attempt I made sure to spray the griddle, and it worked perfectly. I had one big ol' pancake, or as Matt Heim would refer to it, a "mancake".

The taste is very much as you'd expect, oaty. It's a very dense and substantial pancake, not at all like the fluffy bullshit pancakes that give you a stomach ache on Sunday morning. These protein pancakes go down well with a glass of milk and a side of turkey bacon, and do a very good job of filling you up. After all, you're eating a whole cup of oats whether it feels like it or not.

And it doesn't, which is good, because oatmeal pretty much sucks.

I really enjoyed these pancakes, as its a quick and easy way to get a high level of both carbs and protein into my system. They taste great, and I'm sure with some experimentation I can get them to taste even better. And better yet, I don't have an excuse to skip eating oatmeal.

Stay strong and rise above

ME Lower Body:

Box Squat

135x6

135x5

185x5

225x3

225x3

245x3

245x3

255x1

Step ups (to a box way way above parallel - about 4-5 inches above my knee)

36x15/side

80x8/side

Zercher Squats

155x8

155x8

155x8

RDL

155x12

205x8

155x12

175x12

Grip work

Finisher: Tabata one handed kettlebell swings - switching hands each set, obviously

This was our first time doing box squats since we've been working out together, and honestly, I've probably never done them correctly, nor gone that heavy on them. Thus, I taped a couple sets to get a look at my form, etc. It looks like I need to sit back some more, since my shins are traveling forward. I expected this, since it's a problem that exists in my regular back squat, and the motivation for doing box squats this time around.

Also, does it look like we are hitting parallel? I suck at judging this. We had to stand on 45s in order to get anywhere close to hitting parallel.

Oh, and we listen to Throwdown when we lift. Fuck you.

Raw Power

MILITARY PRESS DAY

The last two times I've forgotten to bring my notepad to the gym to record my numbers, but I made sure to toss it into my bag before I hit the street today. Unfortunately, I didn't write down the numbers I needed to hit on that notepad. So what resulted was a bit of an improv workout. I ended up going a little lighter on the MP today, as I somehow busted up my right shoulder this weekend. I'm not sure, but I think I may have slept on it, which always knocks it out of commission for a few days. Anyway, I still kicked the shit out of the day.

Military Press (Standing, strict overhead press):

45 x 10

65 x 5

65 x 5

85 x 5

95 x 6

115 x 3

125 x 3

135 x 3+ (Hit 8, same as last week.)

Military Press (same movement):

95 x 10

95 x 10

95 x 10

95 x 10

95 x 10

Pullups:

5 sets of 10

Dips:

5 sets of 15

Finisher:

Grappler Circuit:

Shoulder Press (each arm)

Row (each arm)

Squat and Press

Russian Twist

Do each movement for 6 reps, one cycle through is a set. Rest for 60 seconds.

Did 3 sets, all at Bar + 25.

This was one of my better workouts recently from an ego standpoint, despite a less than perfect shoulder. Because I'm not in the gym working out my biceps or going for a pump, I don't normally feel "jacked" on the two "arm" oriented days in my program. But I guess if you hit a buttload of overhead presses and follow it up with dips and pullups, you're bound to get some blood in them guns.

Cardio:

3 miles of roadwork. I'm not entirely sure but I think I hit it in 25 minutes or so. Which isn't too bad for me.

REHAB DAY (Yesterday):

I've complained recently about a sore lower back. It ruined my workout on Saturday and tried to throw a wrench into my squat workout on Friday. I went to the gym on Sunday determined to relax a thoroughly knotted up lower back.

But first I wanted to prove to the world that I'm retarded by doing some shrugs. Surprisingly, it didn't go so well! I did a few sets before it got too heavy too quickly and decided to get to rehabbing. I had foam rolled and stretched pretty seriously before going to the gym, so I wanted to do something I couldn't do at home.

I had read on EFS, I believe somewhere in Brian Carroll's log, about using cold showers and haut saunas to relieve general tightness and soreness after a meet or hard training session. I decided to spend 5 minutes in a sauna, sweating and stretching, followed by 5 minutes in a cold, cold shower. Then repeat. And repeat again.

Some other goobers had similar ideas, but more along the 1 minute in the sauna and one minute in a shower of indeterminate temperature. I guess that's what you need to rehab from killer 20lb cable flys and elliptical work.

Anyway, it was a really relaxing and invigorating experience. I found the abrupt change in body temperature pretty refreshing, and it really did a great job relaxing my lower back.

I may make it a Sunday ritual.

Veronica Hates Me

Sean couldn't work out til later today, and I had to leave for Teresa's parent's house at 6:30, so I worked out by myself. As a result, I listened to Screeching Weasel while I worked out, and it was awesome. Today was our repetition upper body day.

Bench

45x20

95x12

135x14

135x11

135x9, failed on the 10th - these are supposed to be 3 sets of max reps, but I try to leave one in the tank until the very last set

Chinups superset w/rear delt flies

BWx7, 22x12

BWx5, 22x12

BWx3, 22x12

BWx2.5, 22x12 - on these last two sets of chins, I threw in wide grip lat pulldowns 105x10 as well, since I wasn't getting enough reps on the chinups

I was out today, and I stopped by play it again sports and bought a 16 kg kettlebell for 40 bucks, after a 30% off coupon and a $20 credit I had. Naturally, I wanted to play with it, so I did my military presses using it. It was a little bit weird at first, because it's a lot more difficult to stabilize. I also think I was holding it too far out to the side and not in the proper rack position like the dude here, so I don't think I was getting the full ROM. Regardless I did

16 kg x 12

16 kg x 12

16 kg x 12

16 kg x 11

Next up, I was supposed to superset traps and triceps, but my neck was still a little sore still from Wed, and I didn't see any reason to irritate it further. So, I switched out the shrugs for these, since I thought that my neck pain may have been a result of my traps being too tight and of me not properly retracting my scapula on some of the pulling exercises we were doing Wednesday. I did 4 sets of 30 second holds with 135. I superset these with Tates using 40 lbs DBs for 4 sets of 10 reps.

I wanted to use my kettlebells some more, and I had weighted ab work to do, so I tried out windmills. I started with a 15 lbs kettlebell that Sean got for Christmas to try to learn the technique. I did 10 reps/side, and then moved up to the 16 kg one. Because my shoulders and tris were already a little worn out, it proved a little tough to keep it stable above me. I also think I cheated a bit and sort of squatted down to touch the ground. Either way, I did 2 sets of 5 per side.

At this point, I wanted to get some more ab work in, as well as do a finisher at the end, but I was running late and Teresa was ready to go, so I did a Tabata with BB Russian Twists using 35 lbs. This sucked balls, and I wanted to die. I finished it though, and I felt like I pushed hard the whole time.

Finally, I made my first post workout shake using that rilose stuff I got. I've never really added many carbs to a post workout shake before, just some fruit and whatever lactose is in the milk I make it with. I had read somewhere that a 2:1 carb to protein ratio is ideal post workout, and since my shake had about 40 g of protein, this meant that I needed 80 g of sugar. I got to 65 g and couldn't bring myself to add any more. I'm glad I didn't, because there was too much in there for it to dissolve all the way, so it was grainy and way way too sweet. Fuck the research, I'm not drinking that much sugar again.

Fucking Magnets

I read this article that Drew posted on my wall. I liked the article, but argued that one didn't need 5 shakes a day, and could get just as much protein and calories from whole foods. Drew and I argued about this, and he failed to convince me that I needed anything more than whey post workout. However, the ideas from that article stuck around in my head. Additionally, my diet has slowly been deteriorating, to the point that the only caloric surplus I get is from junk food, and if I do manage to keep my diet relatively clean throughout the day, I don't eat enough. This is definitely something that is holding me back, so I decided to suck it up, tighten up my diet, buy the fucking supplements and if it turns out to be a waste of my time, well, at least I will have proven Drew wrong.

This is what I got:

5 lbs of a whey/casein blend

5 lbs of whey

1 lb of leucine

1 lb of creatine monohydrate

1 lb of "rilose"

I plan on using the blend throughout the day with 5 g of leucine, and the whey & rilose post workout. I will be taking the creatine based on the advice here. I have only tried creatine once, 5 years ago, and thought it was a waste of my money, but also thought it was worth another shot.

If I get a chance tomorrow, I will sum up what I will be doing with my diet.

Who Run It?

I run this blog.

Clayton is a married man with cats. He's fat now any isn't interested in training.

I, on the other hand, am unemployed and eternally pissed off. All I want to do is rage.

BONUS WORKOUT DAY

This was probably a dumb idea, but I spent all of last night reading articles on EFS about being intense and destroying the world. I should also have put some serious time in warming up, as I said yesterday my back is wrecked. But guess what? I'm young and dumb.

Evil 8:

I saw this last night in some article that I can no longer find. This is an Alwyn Cosgrove complex, and it pretty much blows.

The set up is simple: Pick 8 big movements and do them each for 6 reps. Rest for a given period, then repeat for 5 reps, then 4 and so on until you finish with a set of 1 rep per.

My set up:

1. Deadlift

2. Romanian Deadlift

3. Barbell Row

4. Hang Clean

5. Front Squat

6. Military Press

7. Back Squat

8. Good Morning

So I did a set of 6, then 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 rep. All at 95 lbs. Rest for about a minute in between.

Pullups:

10

10

10

Cool Down:

Stretch and Foam Roll the ever-loving shit out of my upper and lower back.

Astro Zombies

SQUAT DAY

Squat:

45 x 10

135 x 5

135 x 5

155 x 5

185 x 5

225 x 5

245 x 5

255 x 5+ (Hit 12. Estimated 1RM of 357.)

Squat (Olympic Style):

135 x 10

135 x 10

155 x 10

155 x 10

Leg Press:

3 plates each side x 10

4 x 10

5 x 10

My squat felt like garbage today. I've felt pretty sore since a solid deadlift day, and I likely have not done enough stretching and foam rolling since then to recover properly. My hams going into today felt tight and my back was extremely sore. I did the Agile 8 with some additional hip rotations and hip flexor stretches, but it was probably too little too late.

All my sets on the first Squat group felt heavy and my hips rusty. Even the lighter weights felt tough, I didn't feel explosive in the least. I had it in my mind, despite this, to hit 10 on the last set, and that seemed ambitious. Around the 2nd or 3rd rep I thought, "Shit, I'm going to have to push to hit 5." Which is downright pathetic.

But I hit 5. And then 8. And then 10. To make up for having a mentally weak moment I told myself that I was hitting 12. And I did. Sometimes lifting is just a matter of grabbing your balls and making shit happen.

As far as the assistance work, it was similarly crappy. It's not as if pushing yourself when you're already having a bad day will suddenly shake the rust of your legs. The Olympic squats were deep, though, and I actually did feel explosive, but the weight was still low.

I opted to do some leg press work, as I feel that my hams get overworked often, and overworked at the expense of my quads. Something thats weird about leg press machines, though, is that they don't ever seem to be the same from gym to gym. I could slap 8 plates on each side of the machine I used at the YMCA and crank out a rough ten for sure. But at Bally's, I'd bet I could maybe hit 1 rep at 8 plates.

I'm not sure if its just a matter of carriage weight from model to model, or if its an issue of oil/grease on the poles the carriage rides up and down, or a matter of the slope the carriage travels. Whatever it is, though, its hard to directly translate numbers from one leg press machine to another.

She Walked Out in Silence

BENCH DAY

I've talked before about my annoyance with my bench. There was a time a few months ago when I was struggling similarly with the squat, until one day it just "clicked" for me, and the form fell into place. That hasn't happened yet with my bench, so I'm taking Jim Wendler's advice and resetting my max.

I had previously been working with a 265 actual max, and admittedly I struggled to hit a decent number of reps on my final set of the day. Rather than increasing the max by 5lbs, as is recommended for each upper body exercises in each cycle, I dropped my max 10lbs to 255. This places my working max (90%) at 230. The percentages for this week, using the second option are:

75% x 5

80% x 5

85% x 5+

Additionally I'm sticking to the "Boring But Big" assistance work with the Bench, in order to really drive home the technique. I figure if I'm looking to up my bench, then I should simply shut up and bench. So I'm going with 5 sets of 10 for assistance work, and I'll use incline from time to time as well, in order to get this light switch to flip.

Bench:

45 x 10

95 x 5

95 x 5

135 x 5

135 x 5

175 x 5

185 x 5

195 x 5+ (Hit 10. Estimated 1RM of 260. Meh.)

Bench:

135 x 10

135 x 10

135 x 10

135 x 10

135 x 10

Kroc Rows:

50 x 10

75 x 10

100 x 25 (Felt great after this. For whatever reason rows are a strong point for me, and they're one of my favorite exercises as a result.)

Dips:

20

20

20

I think one problem I have with the bench is the presence, or lack thereof, of a spotter. With the deadlift I really push myself to hit the last rep, because if I fail, so what? I'll just drop the weight. With the squat I have safety bars. With the MP I can just let it down. But for bench I need to have a spotter, so I don't kill myself or, which is more likely, staple myself to the bench like a jackass.

The problem is I work out at Bally's. Everyone in there, for the most part, is a pud. Even the bigger, and you would assume more experienced, lifters spot like shit. They're all too quick to grab the bar, and sometimes they get so close to me they're almost placing their testicles on my forehead.

All in all I just don't trust these morons to spot me, for whatever reason. This results in a general lack of confidence in my lift, which then spits out a pretty crappy bench. Though it still falls on me to hit it intensely, I think this is one spot that will benefit greatly from my upcoming move back home.

Bronson! Death Wish!

DEADLIFT DAY

Deadlift (Conventional):

135 x 10

225 x 5

275 x 5

335 x 5

355 x 5

380 x 5+ (Hit 8. Estimated 1RM of 481. Happy with that.)

Good Morning (Wide Stance):

135 x 12

135 x 12

155 x 12

155 x 12

185 x 12

Leg Curls:

96 x 10

96 x 10

108 x10

Hitting that last deadlift set was tough. The last rep was a real struggle to lockout, but I powered through and felt really positive about it. I had considered going into the day making a change from conventional to sumo, just to see how I liked it and if it changed my total. I decided against it, though. I don't feel like I know enough on how to properly hit sumo, and I didn't feel like testing it out during rush hour with Sara.

After that deadlift set, though, I was pretty much toast, which is kinda the point of 5/3/1. Assistance work is just that, assistance. I'm not meant to go so hard on it, though I usually do. What I need to do is focus on more warm up sets in the big lifts, all at short reps, 3-5. I think this would be beneficial in hitting a proper max, due both to a warmed up body, and a primed CNS.

As far as my deadlift numbers go, I'm happy. I upped my max from 465 to 470, meaning my %'s are based on 455. (90% of 470) Hitting an estimated 481 is significant for me, as it is 10lbs above my actual max. 5/3/1 is all about slow and steady progress, patience being key. I feel that I have been patient with my work, not rushing for numbers, but rather hitting the lifts with consistent intensity. It's paying off.

Nowadays mothafuckas lie

Switched our max effort upper body exercise from bench to military press for a few weeks. I was pretty excited all day about this, cause I feel like my bench has stalled a bit, and I really like overhead pressing.

Military Press

45x8

85x5

105x5

125x3

145x3

150x1

125x8 --for this set, I put 125 on the bar, turned to Sean, and said "give me a number." He said 6, so I nailed 8.

(assisted) Chins - 2 sets of max reps

orange band x 12

orange band x 12

These two sets are for hypertrophy purposes, so I did them all assisted in order to hit higher reps.

Superset: Inverted Rows & Face Pulls

BW x 13, 35 x 15

BW x 10, 45 x 10

BW x 10, 45 x 10

BW x 12, 45 x 12

About halfway through that superset, my neck started to hurt and feel really tight. Not being a bitch, I pushed through it. This only caused it to hurt worse and worse. We were supposed to hit shrugs next, but doing these, even with light weight, sent a shooting pain up my mid back, trap, and into my neck. I ended up skipping these, as well as the curls that came after that. I figured that I got my "bang for the buck" exercises in, and it wasn't worth it to hurt myself more. I did a little googling, and Ascendant seems to have explained my problem exactly. I hope he wasn't banned for giving bad advice, because I took it, and iced my neck and popped some prescription Aleve. It still hurts, and I can barely turn my neck, but hopefully it'll go away in a couple days. I cut my warmups short today, because I was running late, so it could have been due to that. I don't know exactly.

Anyway, I sat around while Sean did some shrugs, and then, since I got my Gymboss today, I had to try it out. We did a tabata finisher. I stole the bodyweight one from this article, except that I'm too awkward to figure out how to do the "speed skips" correctly, so I just did more squats. Sean didn't want to do this, so he hit a log with a sledgehammer instead. I really liked the gymboss. It was super easy to set it up for 8 rounds of 20 secs work: 10 secs rest, and it really kept us on task. The beep was loud enough to hear clearly. I would definitely recommend getting one if you are doing any sort of timed intervals, because it makes the ordeal infinitely easier and more precise.

Music: Bun B - Keep it 100. We listen to a lot of UGK when we lift.

It Ain't Hard to Tell

5/3/1 CYCLE 4

MILITARY PRESS DAY

Quick story. As of last week I've been holding off on going to the gym and waiting until Sara gets home so I can teach her to lift. I usually make her stay fairly close to whatever I'm doing, as it's easier to teach her through example, and I think learning the basic movements I do would be beneficial for a new lifter. I do, though, have her do different exercises when I, for instance, do more MP work than she needs to. She doesn't need to be doing 5 sets of 10 on overhead press following 4-5 sets of overhead press. Pointless.

Anyway, because she doesn't get home until 6, we don't get to the gym until 6:30 or so, which is rush hour at Bally's. Morons everywhere, just fucking up my shit. I won't go into too much detail, but its a goddamn train wreck. So there's some joker on the sole squat rack, talking on his cell phone in between sets of quarter squatting 315. So we did our first few sets of overhead presses out in the open, cleaning them up to our shoulders first.

Well this butt dart decided he had enough and left, leaving the 315 behind as a monument to his greatness. I told Sara to go stand in the rack while I unloaded the bar we were using. I was throwing the weight on the tree when I heard a large crash behind me, and I immediately knew what it was. Sara had pulled off all three 45s from one side, leaving 135 sitting on the opposite end. The bar had flown off the rack and was standing straight up, still within the hole of the three 45s that were now on the floor. Everyone stood around like jackasses, in no way attempting to help her. She was super embarrassed and had a crap workout because of it.

She also suggested that I not blog it. Welp.

Military Press (Standing Strict Overhead Press):

I upped my max in this cycle from 170 to 175.

45 x 10

95 x 10

120 x 5

130 x 5

135 x 5+ (Hit 8, estimated 1RM of 171. Not good. I thought bumping it may have been a foolish move, but we'll see)

Military Press (Same movement, using the "Boring But Big" assistance plan)

95 x 10

95 x 10

95 x 10

95 x 10

95 x 10

Dips:

5 sets of 20

Pullups:

5 sets of 10

At this point we got out of there. Sara was still mad and embarrassed, and I was tired of being surrounded by total jerkoffs.

PRODUCT REVIEWS!

So I teased this review a couple weeks ago and never delivered. Suck it.

Long story short I had a $75 gift card to EFS and snatched up the Simple Guide to Very Low Carb Diets e-book by Shelby Starnes and the Tips and Tricks for Dieting Success e-book, also by Shelby. Both are incredibly informative and well worth the already cheap price. Though I'm already a pretty lean person, without any serious cardio work, I just wanted to educate myself on the proper way to manipulate my diet to cut out carbs if needed.

I bought the short Axis Foam Roller (12"x6") as well. Its incredibly dense and is likely the most durable foam roller I've ever used. Bally's and the YMCA have the longer, white foam rollers that are almost universally worn down in the middle to the point that they're now as hard as a sponge. Worthless. This roller is hard as hell, and I doubt I'll be able to wear it down in the next few years, even. I bought this particular model for its density first, and its price second. It's cheap as hell and well worth it. I wouldn't be scared away from its short length, I don't find it to be any hassle, I can't recall ever once having to reset myself due to rolling off of it.

I basically had what I wanted at this point, but I had $35 or so left over. I didn't know what to do with that so I just snagged a pre-workout supplement, as unemployment has rendered me supplement poor as well, and I just wanted to test one out for the fun of it. Now, I don't think much of pre-workout NO powders as a huge muscle builder or some bullshit, I just like the stimulant effect. They get my psyched to lift on those days where I'm wanting to be a pussy. So they're worth it to me when I can afford to buy some.

I ended up with Dirty Pre-Workout Original. It advertises itself as having a "bad" taste and for giving you "painful" pumps. That pretty much sold me.

Truth be told, it doesn't taste bad. It's not good, certainly, but its nowhere near as bad as some other supplements I've tried before. It's really just incredibly bitter, but considering I'm going to guzzle it down in a few quick seconds, it's really no big deal.

The most noticeable effect of Dirty, aside from the general feeling of energy, is the "Niacin Rush". If you've ever drank a strong energy drink, and if you're in the CBC you definitely have, you know what I'm talking about. Niacin causes this tingling sensation on the skin, and it comes in waves or rushes. I most often feel the Niacin rush on my face and head, but its nothing too weird or distracting, just not something I'm used to with NO supplements.

As for the pumps, they're not lying. Though I don't workout for a "pump", I can feel it during any set where I go for 10+ reps. Today at the end of my workout I had a hard time finishing my chins because my biceps felt so swoll. I'd imagine this would be a huge selling point for people who do work out for that pump.

The downside, though, is the price. $29 doesn't seem like much for a pre-workout supplement, but Dirty comes in a remarkably small container with only 15 servings worth. Though I think the product is good, it doesn't compare economically to my Gold Standard of pre-workout supplements, White Flood. White Flood comes with a months supply or more for $40 and works just as good, if not better.

Life's So Cold

Deadlifted yesterday:

135x5

135x5

225x3

315x3

320x1

315x3

This sucked. 2 weeks ago, I lifted 335x3. Haven't been able to touch that since. I don't know what's different. This week I tried to make bigger jumps in weight while warming up and stick to sets of 3 reps after 135, thinking that maybe I had just fatigued myself too much last week by doing too much when warming up. But, no dice. Here's a video of two failures at 340, one at 335, an ugly as hell lift at 320, and my last set of 315x3. It ends with Sean getting 5 at 365.

Some thoughts based on this video:

My hips are coming up way too fast. I need to be using my legs more.

Should my stance be closer? Mine is about shoulder width, because that's what is comfortable for me. I see dudes who can lift a lot more than me, however, taking a much closer stance.

Basically, I don't know how to fix what's wrong with this.

Anyway, I did split squats next:

135x12

205x6 - these were probably too heavy, because I kept having balance issues

175x10

175x10

Good Mornings - I used the tips in that video I posted on Sat. to help me arch my back a lot better, hit my hamstrings harder, and get some more depth

95x15

145x10

145x10

145x10

One legged DB SLDLS - Did them because I wanted to try them...found out how much my balance sucks

4os x 10 each leg

We ended with some grip work, and then ate some post workout Double Downs. These were actually pretty good, but I was still hungry when I was done.

Also, if you are still using a tennis ball for any of your soft tissue work, do yourself a favor and get a lacrosse ball. It is a million times better, if only because it doesn't squash flat, and thus rolls better. It's also, obviously, denser, so it seems to get in the muscles a lot better.

Squat Depth

I just spent an hour watching this video, and thought it had a lot of really good things in it. Except the ending sucked.

Crime Ridden Society

This week has been my deload week, and like I tend to do with deload week, I've mixed things up.

Rather than just doing my normal workout with lower percentages, which is what 5/3/1 recommends, I'm modifying things to help shore up weak spots and take it easy on overworked areas.

For instance, I'm hitting DB Bench in order to get more pectoral work in, in a vain attempt to shore up my bench, and going light on deads, in order to rest my posterior chain.

Additionally, I'm waiting to workout until Sara gets home and helping her learn to lift. This also pushes me to modify what lifts I'm doing, as I'm doing my best to tailor my workout to her needs.

MILITARY PRESS DAY

In a rare brain fart I left my log at home. Suffice it to say I did some light overhead press, some chins, pullups, oblique raises, and one handed standing DB MP. Reps and sets around 4 x 10 at light weight.

DEADLIFT DAY

Straight Leg Deadlifts:

45 x 10

135 x 10

185 x 10

225 x 10

Wide Stance Good Mornings:

135 x 10

135 x 10

155 x 10

155 x 10

(Not much of a deload. Probably showing off for the lady.)

Leg Extention:

160 x 10

170 x 10

170 x 10

90 x 25

(Like I said, modifying the workout for Sara.)

Abs: Standing Rope Pulldowns:

60 x 15

72 x 15

72 x 15

Pullups:

3 sets of 10

BENCH DAY

DB Bench:

40 x 10

50 x 10

60 x 10

70 x 10

80 x 10

90 x 8

(I suck at deloading. But whatever.)

DB Incline Bench:

50 x 10

60 x 10

70 x 8 - > 40 x 10 (Drop set)

V-Bar Lat Pulldowns:

96 x 10

120 x 10

144 x 10

204 x 1

240 x 1 (Just wanted to see if I could. I was listening to OLC and feeling swoll. Whatever.)

Dips:

3 sets of 20

Abs: Standing Rope Pulldowns:

60 x 15

72 x 15

72 x 15

DB Curls:

30 x 10 ea

40 x 10 ea

(Idk. First time I've done curls in forever. Just felt like it. I may do them more often. My tri's have outpaced my bi's in a weird way.)

Clayton Morris Training History

I considered actually writing out an entire history of my lifting, which wouldn't actually be that long, since I didn't touch a weight until 2005, but I don't think too much would be gained by that. Suffice it to say that it is a sordid tale of

1) bad advice

2) inconsistency

3) injuries, both real (broken thumb from punching Drew Cook) and imagined (I probably actually did fuck my shoulder up moshing to Trial, but it probably didn't require a virtual 6 month layoff)

4) 3+ years of 3 sets of 8, body part splits, and arm days

5) excuses / lack of motivation

6) NOT FUCKING EATING ENOUGH

Sean and I started training together last November. And oddly, it's the first time I ever trained explicitly for strength. I guess it never occurred to me that it is much easier to look strong when you are strong. Muscle and Fitness had me convinced that if I just did Jay Cutler's workout, I would look like him, which in retrospect, is stupid, and I'm an idiot for ever thinking those guys weren't on steroids.

That said, it feels great to be stronger than I used to be, and it is much easier to stay motivated when I have someone to train with. In particular, about 6 weeks out of an exam, when I'm studying 3-6 hours a day, besides work, I tend to push lifting to the side, so it is really good for me to have a training partner to hold me accountable, because inconsistency might be the biggest way I've shot myself in the foot in the past. Oh, you don't like my run on sentences? Fuck you.

I was thinking today that I would really like to compare what I looked like before Sean and I started lifting, and what I look like now. The closest I could come up with was our inexplicable United Blood back double bi pics. So:

This was last March, I was just coming off a fairly ineffective fat loss phase, where I spent 2.5 months losing, I think, 10 lbs and maybe 3-4% bf if that. I was 175 and maybe 15/16% here, I would say.

And today:

First one is cold, second one is after the workout. I'm a vain motherfucker, so I couldn't leave out the one where I look bigger, but I'm also a pretty honest dude, so I had to post the one that probably compares more closely to a year ago. In these pics I'm 190 and about 19-20% bf I would guess. Obviously, I've added some pretty awesome back fat, but I think most of that was in the April 09 - Oct 09 period when I only haphazardly worked out. I've added 10 lbs since we started in November, and, I believe, maintained the same basic bf I was when we started. Overall, I think I look thicker, especially my delts.

And since you were wondering, here're my quads:

Sick diaper.

Party in the USA

I lifted today.

Hit 405 for 3.

Then I did it again.

Nothing else matters.

Wedding

We hit up a wedding tonight. Here's what I did:

Max Effort Cake Work

Light Hors'doeuvres assistance work

Open Bar (high reps)

I have been looking forward all night to making this joke.

Music: Warbringer - Severed Reality. Every Saturday night, when Teresa and I are in the car, I make her listen to the Metal Connection, because it's like a joke that the people who actually like that music aren't quite in on. We heard this song on the way home, and minus the solos, I actually dig this song. Reminds me of old Slayer.

Cook Brothers Crew at New Breed

The alternate iteration of the CBC went to New Breed Academy in Skokie for an open mat today.

Ben is a purple belt now, two stripes, and he wanted to check out a local gym. Kevin is a brand new white belt, and for all intents and purposes, so am I.

We rolled for a couple hours. I felt surprisingly good, I went in thinking my long layoff from BJJ would get me pretty much wrecked in the gym. However, wrestling seems to never die. Though I constantly found myself in spots where I'd say, "I used to know what to do here", I only rarely got into trouble.

I got tapped a few times, no shame in that, mostly due to white belt mistakes I forgot I'm prone to. I tapped a few guys too, one by arm triangle, which I've never hit.

After each time I rolled with a kid, though, he'd ask me how much I weighed. Once I told them, "170", they'd usually seem surprised. One kid told me I felt like I weighed 300. I got a lot of compliments on my strength, which I put to use often to make up for my lack of BJJ skill. It's strange to suddenly be a "strong" kid in the gym. I've spent most of my wrestling/bjj time as a weak kid going on technique and heart.

But motherfucker this ain't back in the day. Shit done changed.

I ran like a cheetah with thoughts of an assassin

Sean and I went to Ault Park today to do some hill sprints, in the hope that one day we will be able to walk up a flight of stairs without vomiting like Roger Sterling. I conned Sean into taking a light jog and doing some dynamic warm up stuff before we started so that my hamstrings could remain un-pulled. The hill was probably about 15-20 yards long. We did two warm up sets and six work sets. Our work was sprinting up the hill, and our rest was walking back down. I'd guess it was 15-20 secs work:25-30 secs rest. It was plenty. We walked around for a minute, and then Sean took off. I went to find Teresa, and did one more set so that I could have a picture to put on here.

I went home and did some static stretching, which I am going to try to make a habit. I googled "stretching programs" and this was the first thing that came up with, so that's what I'm going to do.

Music: Nas - NY State of Mind

You doin P90X?

Vertical Jumps - 7 sets of 3, my best was about 22 or 23 inches. We're not exactly scientific about this. The internet tells me this is above average. I'll take it, but it pisses me off that Tim Tebow's vert is better.

Bulgarian Split Squats 3 sets of 60 lbs DBs x 10 each leg- Sean did walking lunges in my driveway instead with two chains draped over his shoulders and the 40 lbs DBs. He almost ran into the mailman, who asked if we were doing P90X. Sean just told him to get the fuck out of the way so he could finish his set.

CBC Swings 3 sets of 50x12 - these are like DB swings or kettlebell swings, except that we use a homemade handle because our adjustable DBs would come apart if we swung them.

5 sets of weighted ab work. Called it a day. Felt like shit because I had the day off work and spent the 6 hours prior to our work out studying for this, and not eating too much of substance, besides approximately 8 servings of mixed nuts. Needless to say, spent the whole workout feeling like I was going to puke peanut butter.

---

Cardio Thursday

I walked nine holes of golf on Thursday, which is about 2 miles or so, and I carried my ~20 lbs bag. Currently, this is what passes for cardio in my life.

Cook Brothers Crew

COOK BROTHERS CREW CHICAGO SQUAT DAY

Squat:

45 x 10

95 x 5

95 x 5

135 x 5

135 x 5

185 x 5

225 x 5

250 x 3

280 x 1+ (Hit 10, which is an Estimated 1RM of 375)

Olympic Squats (Ass to Grass):

135 x 10

155 x 10

155 x 10

175 x 10

185 x 10

Pin Pulls:

(Ben was doing this while I was Oly Squatting, so I just jumped in at the end)

385 x 10

Pullups:

3 Sets of 10

Dips:

3 Sets of 20

Stability Ball Crunches:

75

75

BENCH DAY

Bench:

45 x 20

95 x 3

95 x 3

135 x 3

135 x 3

185 x 3

210 x 3

230x1+ (Hit 3. Est 1RM is 255)

Bench:

135 x 10

135 x 10

155 x 10

155 x 10

175 x 10

Kroc DB Rows:

50 x 10

75 x 10

100 x 25

Had to bust out after that to meet my nerd brothers at Midway.