Bad Romance

THURSDAY - BENCH DAY

Bench
45x10
85x5
105x5
125x3
135x5
155x5
175x5+ (5)
205x1
225xmissx2

So, I've never benched 225, which is some weak ass shit. I started 5/3/1 with a max of 205, and I thought that at this point, I would be able to bench 225. I purposely only hit the required reps on my 5+ set, then moved up to 205, which I got relatively easily, and then promptly got stapled by 225. I took a bit of a rest and missed it again. This was probably all an ill conceived plan anyway, and I should've just stuck with the program, but I really wanted it. The weight felt very heavy in my hands, so maybe some of it was just a mental thing, being scared of the weight. I don't know, but it sucks. My own fault.

DB Rows
90x8x5

DB Bench
80x5x4
80x4

Went to XU to lift today, 'cause my membership is up soon, and I wanted to do some heavier DB pressing than I can do at home currently.

BB Shrugs
225x12x3

Hammer Curls
50x5

Nailed to the X

So I started volunteering as a wrestling coach at the school I'm student teaching at because:

• As a social studies teacher I'm basically required to coach a sport
• I miss wrestling
• I regret never committing to it when I was in high school
• I should not have quit my senior year
• Wrestling is the manliest high school sport

I started showing up to pre-season conditioning last Friday, and I'm pretty psyched for this. My biggest current problem, as I've already bitched about to Clayton, is that for pre-season work they do some light jogging, then P90X, three times a week.

I guess I should start by giving P90X a fair appraisal: to train a lot of guys in a relatively small gym, it's not bad. The tempo is alright to build up some stamina (as long as you work to keep up), and a lot of the guys are untrained enough that they'll benefit from just about any program. There's a good variety of exercises, so I guess you get different movements in.

But it's pretty dumb.

First of all, the host says dumb shit like "This isn't Ab Ripper 100, or 200, this is AB RIPPER THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY NINE" and it's this for an hour:

So dumb

Man I hate this guy

We did chest and back today, and it was about 5 different variations of push-ups, each supersetted with either a chin-up variation or a DB row variation. Then you do the whole circuit over again. Target is about 25-30 push-ups in a minute-ish. For kids who need to build mass or strength (which is pretty much every single kid there) there's not much, just some endurance training and gut check.

Leg day was even worse, just a bunch of different DB lunge variations (again shooting for 15-20 reps) and the occasional wall-sit supersetted with chin-up variations (Chin-ups on leg day? makes perfect sense). No posterior chain work, and lunges were going in every direction so it'd be difficult to add serious weight to them (most kids held 10-25 lb DBs).

We've done the 10ish minute ab workout after every day, it's just a bunch of dumb crunch variations, no core stabilization or anti-rotation.

The program is basically a laundry list of every dumb thing a crappy trainer would make their clients do in a crappy gym. TO THE POWER OF THE X.

I talked to the head coach and pitched him the idea of a strongman day, where we'll do farmer's walks, prowler/car pushes, sandbag loading, tire flips, etc. which will be pretty awesome. Starting that next friday.

I've got that 80 pound sandbag , so I'm thinking I'll take them out to the parking lot and have them do a 50 yard carry for time, lapping and shouldering the bag every parking space line they cross. Should be tough and get some explosive posterior chain work in.

I'm also thinking a medley, something like 20m prowler push, 30m farmers walk, 40m sandbag carry, 50m run. Have them compete against each other for best time.

I'm open to other ideas, I just want some more strength-oriented stuff to cycle in to give these guys something more interesting.

Truly Stupid Paid (C5 - Deload)

SATURDAY - SQUAT DAY

Squat

45 x 5

135 x 5 x 2

160 x 5 x 2

190 x 5 x 4

190 is about 55% of my 1RM, I spent some time working at that weight to try to improve on my form. I think it looks a lot better.

Bulgarian Split Squats

BW x 10/side

BW x 15/side x 3

That was it. I had other stuff to do.

Ride Big (C5-W3-D4)

Push Weight

THURSDAY - BENCH DAY

Bench

45 x 10

80 x 5

100 x 5

120 x 3

150 x 5

170 x 3

190 x 1+ (7)

This is one more than I got last cycle with the same weight. Progress.

DB Bench, WG Cable Rows

60 x 12, 135 x 10

60 x 12, 135 x 10

60 x 11, 135 x 10

60 x 11, 135 x 10

60 x 11, 135 x 11

Farmer's Walks

155/hand, about 40 yards, 7 trips

It's ~20 yds to one end of my yard, then turn, and go back. The turn is the worst part, because the weight keeps turning even when you stop and tries to rip itself out of your hands.

5/3/1 (C5-W3-D1)

SATURDAY - SQUAT DAY

Squat

45x10

135x5

160x5

190x3

240x5

270x3

305x1+ (4)

I thought that these were good, until I looked at the video, and saw that every one of them was high. I'm gonna spend some time squatting to a box to relearn depth. This really pisses me off though. I should know by now what a parallel squat feels like, and I should be able to hit it every goddamn time. Weak fucking sauce.

Oh, and I probably should have known better than to go for that 5th rep, but I really wanted it.

No assistance today. Instead we went outside to chainsaw a tree and chop some wood for a couple hours.

Unsilent Death

Get this. Listen to it. Rot your brain.

UPPER BODY DAY

Band Pull Aparts:

I, T, Y x 20 x 3

Overhead Press: Done with minimal rest.

45 x 10

45 x 10

65 x 10

65 x 10

95 x 10

95 x 10

115 x 8

115 x 8

Pullups:

10

+25 x 10

+25 x 10

At this point I grabbed one of the V grip handles you'd use for cable rows and tossed it over the bar. The idea here is to pull yourself up to the bar so that your chest touches the bar, your body being somewhere between parallel to the bar and 45 degrees. Basically a close grip pullup, helpful for pulling a leg in on a wrestling shot. Unfortunately the only pullup bar at Lexen is a bar duct taped to a rack, just next to the top bar on the rack. Not much room, but I tried to make it work.

Gorilla Pull Ups

V Handle Pullups:

4 sets of 10

Standing KB Press: One arm at a time.

(12kg x 10 ea) x 2

(16kg x 10 ea) x 2

25kg x 8 ea -> 12 kg x 20 ea

Shrugs:

135 x 20

135 x 20

185 x 20

225 x 10

JM Press:

95 x 8 x 3

Gripper:

2 plates & 2 quarters x 20 +20s hold

2 plates & 2 quarters x 20 +20s hold

2 plates & 2 quarters x 20 +20s hold

Neck Harness:

25 x 50

45 x 10

45 x 10

New Fall Headwear!

OCSA Training

Is going swimmingly. Had to miss Wednesday night's Sumbission Wrestling class for Sara's birthday, but I was able to make it in on Thursday. Although everything is brand new to me considering its the opening week of the new gym, Thursday was uncharted territory for me. We started at 6 with BJJ, moved onto MMA at 7, and then Boxing at 8.

The MMA class was mostly situational drilling, like starting on the bottom of Referee's Position and fighting off attacks from the back, and conditioning. One of our guys, Chris Farrington, has a fight in two weeks, so half the guys sparred with him for 4 rounds while the other half focused on conditioning. We kit kettlebell swings, ring pullups, body squats with medicine balls, jumped rope, and sparred No Gi.

By the time we hit the Boxing class I was pretty tired and hungry, I'm not used to going more than a couple hours without eating something. For future reference I'm going to need to bring a shaker cup with whey powder if I want to really blast a 3 hour block. Colin Bumgarner, our Boxing coach, is an 11-0 pro who holds the Ohio and Indiana Heavyweight title belts. He guided us through some light shadowboxing, simple combinations, and super light sparring. Although I went into the class knowing next to nothing about boxing, I left with what I feel are solid building blocks going forward. Colin is an amazingly positive and clear cut coach, and if I felt myself improving over the course of our initial hour, I can hardly imagine how helpful he'll be going forward.

Positive Mental Attitude.

And I Said

HEYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

Song rules.

BENCH DAY

Band Pull Aparts:

I, T, Y for 3 sets of 20

Static Stretching

Bench Press: Done with a pause on the chest, explosive movement up.

Bar x 15

Bar x 15

95 x 10

95 x 10

135 x 10

135 x 10

155 x 10

185 x 5

Overhead Press:

Bar x 10

65 x 10

95 x 10

95 x 10

95 x 10

DB Row:

65 x 10

105 x 10

120 x 10

DB Bench:

55 x 10

65 x 10

75 x 10

Pullups:

10

+25 x 10

+25 x 8

10

ASSISTANCE DAY

Cook Brothers Crew wanted to lift. So we did.

Shrugs:

135 x 10

225 x 10

225 x 10

225 x 10

225 x 10

Safety-Squat Bar Lunges:

95 x 8 each

95 x 8

95 x 8

Gripper:

2 plates & 2 Quarters x 20 + 20s hold

2 plates & 2 Quarters x 20 + 20s hold

2 plates & 2 Quarters x 20 + 20s hold

DB Cleans:

20 x 10

20 x 10

25 x 10

Lateral Raises:

25 x 10

25 x 10

Neck Harness:

45 x 10

45 x 10

45 x 10

Roman Chair Abs: On the GHR

10

10

10

Standing DB Press: Palms in

35 x 10

45 x 10

55 x 6

SQUAT DAY

Foam Roll / Dynamic Stretching with Bands

Cambered Bar Low Box Squat: Pause on the box.

45 x 10

45 x 10

95 x 10

135 x 10

225 x 3

225 x 3

Deadlift: Conventional

135 x 10

225 x 10

275 x 10

At this point we shot the shit with Chuck V. for 10 minutes or so. Because whenever I can talk to a World Record holder, I can. We discussed how he is either going to remain at the top or give up the sport, because middling about isn't worth it to him anymore. We also discussed him doing BJJ/MMA at our gym when he's done powerlifting, as he said he'd like to pick up a few things. Super nice guy. Blows my mind that he gives us nerds the time of day.

Downside, my legs got cold and tight.

365 x 1

405 x1

Belt Squat:

2 Plates x 10

2 Plates & 2 Quarters x 10

4 Plates x 10

4 Plates & 2 Quarters x 3

GHR:

10, 10, 10

Neck Harness:

35 x 30 + 15s Hold

35 x 30 + 15s Hold

35 x 30 + 15s Hold

Gripper:

2 Plates & 2 Quarters x 20

2 Plates & 2 Quarters x 20

2 Plates & 2 Quarters x 20

Ohio Combat Sports Academy

Day 1

Today was the first day at the new school.

Had a solid BJJ class followed by Lou Demas and his two beast sons teaching us solid wrestling technique.

Followed that with Prowler pushes (40 yards, 5 trips with 2 plates), Prowler Plyo Pushes (Push with your hands, like a bench, 10 pushes with 2 plates, 4 trips).