LIGHT BENCH PRESS

week 18 day 2

shoulders
hip flexors

BENCH PRESS
45x5, 135x3, 185/225/275x2

CABLE ROW
2 sets of 20

SS CARDIO
25 minutes on elliptical

I think the tabata was rough on my right leg. I've had a dull ache since Tuesday night. I'm going to do lots of foam rolling to get that IT band to loosen up and put away the tabata in favor of the fast walking for 25 mins working up to 30 mins to make sure I don't kill my leg.

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano

SQUAT

Week 18, day 1

HIP FLEXORS
SHOULDERS

SQUAT
triples to 365

PALLOF COMPLEX
5reps, 3 rounds, no rest

TABATA (elliptical)
2 min warmup
4 rounds: 20 sec on, 10 sec off
2 min cooldown

I honestly don't know if this cardio is optimal, but it's better than what I've been doing (nothing) for cardio. I think I'm going to be doing the tabata on my squat and dead lift days, and steady state cardio on my bench press days. I'll work my tabatas up to 8 rounds of 20 sec on and 10 sec off. I'm not sure how much I weigh, but I'm just going to hit the cardio hard for a set period of time (up to 8 weeks out) and then see how much progress I've made. I'll most likely switch to 4 sessions of steady state cardio and get rid of the tabata once I get to 8 weeks out.

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano

BENCH PRESS

Off week day 1

BENCH PRESS
45x5, 135/185x3, 225/275/315/345/375x1, 405x MMMIIISSSSSSS

ROWS
3 sets of 10

Missed 405 again. I got it off my chest and it drifted over my face too early. I'm going to let it go for now and just start my next meet cycle. The main goal starting out will be to lose some weight using complexes and the like. About 8 weeks out I'll drop the complexes in favor of more "normal" assistance. My goal is just to get into the 290 range. As much extra weight as I carry around, I should be able to drop that much. Since I'm using a Big Iron Gym-style template, I need to have my openers (or at least an idea) at the beginning. My openers are as follows: squat-495, bench press-365, dead lift-490.

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano

LIGHT BENCH and GYM TOOLS

day 3 week 1

BENCH PRESS
45/135x5, 185/225x1, 275/275/275/275/275/275/275/275x2

TRICEPS EXTENSIONS
4 sets of 10
*light weight

*Post Training Food
2 pkg. ramen noodle
3 eggs
24 oz. milk


Every single piece of equipment in the gym or conceivable exercise is a tool. There are some tools that are crappy no matter what your goals are (like barbell squats standing on a BOSU ball), but most of them are either useful or not so useful depending on your goals. If my main goal is cardiovascular endurance, then spending 2 training sessions a week on max one rep strength is probably not a good idea. If my main goal is max strength, then doing sets of 15 with sub-max weights all week is pretty daft. Now, this is not to say that one rep sets or sets of 15 are bad intrinsically. The truth is they're fantastic means for certain goals. This is not a criticism of 15 rep sets or singles. Now, if a person has a stated goal and their current tools are not getting them toward that goal, then perhaps they should move to something else that might get them the results they want. There are a lot of stigmas and bullshit out there... and a lot of people buy into them. It's really sad. I firmly believe that people are not stupid, but people can be misled. I've definitely been misled and I blame no one other than myself.
Bottom line: exercise are tools and their usefulness is goal-dependent. One should always be open to new ideas regarding exercise selection bearing in mind that these new ideas should pass a rigorous test of logic and exercise science principles.

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano

SQUAT (PR)

Day 2 week 1

SQUAT
45x5, 135/185x3, 225/275/315/365/405/455x1, (with wraps) 525/585x1
*PR

PALLOF PRESS MEDLEY
4 rounds with 5 reps each exercise using 2 mini bands

Here's a video of the squat VIDEO

Not a bad session. PR on the squat feels good and I'm glad I've got something to show for this training session even though I'm not doing the meet on the 2nd.

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano

BENCH PRESS (PR)

Day 1 week 1

BENCH PRESS
45x8, 135x5, 185x3, 225/275/315/355/385x1, 405x0
*385 is a 10 lbs PR. I honestly think I may have had the 405. video is linked below.

MACHINE ROW
4 sets of 12

Here's the video of the 405 miss VIDEO

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano

LIGHT BENCH

Day 2 week 2

BENCH PRESS
45x5, 135/185/225x2, 275/275/275/285/285/285/295/295/295x3

TRX FAT MAN PULL UPS
3 sets of 10

This was great! I think this will be my new light bench routine every week. I might have to go lighter when I've had a heavier bench session that week, but I like the technique work and I can always work on speed with lighter weight.

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano

SQUAT

Day 1 week 2

SQUAT
45x5, 135/225x2, 315/365/405/455x1, (added knee wraps) 515x1
*515 felt like hell.

It's been a LONG week. It has actually felt like 2 or 3 weeks. My wife was induced Sunday night and our son was born Monday morning at 7:15. He's happy and healthy and quite a handful. My wife sleeps 10pm-4am and I sleep 4am-10am or so. I'm working at home right now, which is a very helpful advantage for us. I managed to get in to the gym tonight but the lack of sleep and food this week really took it out of me. I'm hoping once we get in a rhythm I will be able to be better recovered and maybe get some quality work in at the gym.

I've canceled my plans for the July 2 meet. I will still test at least my squat and bench press because I have some numbers I've been wanting to hit. I'm not exactly "competitive" at this point in my career anyway, so putting off one meet is not such a bad thing while my numbers are less than stellar. The plan is still to take openers on the squat and bench press next week and do some extra work then take a deload the next week and test on the weekend. Our crew is having some scheduling issues, so we're hopefully gonna get that worked out soon.

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano