Rob's strength journal - got 600kg now I'm hungry for more...

Cheers John,
Good training with you tonight, thanks for the spot!

Short session tonight.

Flat barbell bench press
1 x 10 60kg
2 x 6 97.5kg
1 x 6 100kg - last two reps were assisted.
1 x 2 110kg - second rep was assisted.

Incline dumbell bench press
2 x 8 40kg - last rep on second set was assisted. I'd have got it but only had about 30 seconds rest before that set.

Shoulders today

Seated dumbell overhead press
1 x 10 22.5kg
2 x 8 32.5kg
1 x 7 32.5kg

Clean and press
2 x 6 62.5kg
1 x 3 70kg
1 x 2 75kg
1 x 80kg! would love to clean and press my bodyweight one day. another 11kg to go!

Side raises
1 x 10 15kg
1 x 8 15kg
2 x 10 12.5kg

Legs today

Squat
1 x 8 90kg
1 x 6 120kg
3 x 6 135kg - felt fairly easy, all down to paralell.

Leg press
1 x 8 190kg
1 x 8 200kg
1 x 8 210kg
1 x 8 220kg

Calf raises
2 x 15 220kg

Quad extensions
2 x 10 135kg

Hamstring curls
2 x 8 70kg

Flat barbell bench press
1 x 10 60kg
3 x 6 97.5kg - first set a bloke was spotting and decided to help me!! grr.
1 x 3 105kg
fail 115kg

Incline dumbell bench press
1 x 8 40kg
2 x 7 40kg
1 x 6 40kg

Flat close grip bench
1 x 8 70kg

- right elbow joint was hurting similarly to when I was recovering from when I broke it 20 months ago so stopped.

Pec dec
1 x 10 85kg
1 x 8 95kg
1 x 6 105kg
1 x 8 85kg

Tried the black bar for deads tonight and its defo easier to grip - was more apparent in my repping weight as grip as never an issue for singles.

Deadlift
1 x 6 100kg
1 x 6 140kg
1 x 6 160kg
1 x 6 187.5kg! new pb!!
1 x 215kg! new pb!

Wide grip chins
4 x 6 +15kg - final rep on last set wasnt quite a complete rep, putting on this extra bit of weight has made this all the more difficult.

1 arm dumbell row
2 x 8 45kg - strict form

Dubell pullover
1 x 8 37.5kg
2 x 8 40kg

Flat barbell bench press
1 x 10 60kg
2 x 6 97.5kg
1 x 5 97.5kg
1 x 3 105kg
1 x 2 110kg

Incline dumbell bench press
2 x 8 40kg
2 x 7 40kg

Cable flyes
1 x 10 25kg per arm
1 x 10 30kg per arm
1 x 8 35kg per arm
1 x 8 40kg per arm

EZ curls - went light on these because my right wrist is playing up a little
1 x 10 37.5kg
1 x 8 42.5kg
3 x 6 47.5kg

Dumbell preacher curls - started with my weaker hand (right) to bring it upto the level of my stronger left, instead of doing forced reps like previous.
1 x 8 17.5kg
1 x 11 15kg
1 x 10 15kg

Right this time last year I had the following lifts:

Deadlift - 6 x 167.5kg
Squats - 6 x 127.5kg
Bench - 6 x 85kg

Currenlty I have:
Deadlift 6 x 187.5kg (20kg increase)
Squats - 6 x 140kg (12.5kg increase)
Bench - 6 x 97.5kg (12.5kg increase)

Is this a fair increase over the course of a year for natural training? my diet has been good 90% of the time, with a few blips in training here and there.

Crap session today! I'm experienceing substantial pain in both shoulders on shoulder day.

Clean and press
1 x 6 50kg
1 x 3 60kg
2 x 3 70kg
- stopped here my shoulders were hurting.

Seated dumbell shoulder press
1 x 8 32.5kg
1 x 6 32.5kg - had next to no strength in my shoulders.

attempted to side raise 12.5kg could only manage 2 reps, shoulders were gone and in a fair amount of pain.

Did a few sets of cabel tricep pushdowns:
3 x 10 95kg.

Flat barbell bench press
1 x 10 60kg
3 x 6 97.5kg
2 x 105kg - easy. could have managed 4 but wanted the 115:
1 x 110kg
1 x 115kg

Incline dumbell bench press
2 x 8 40kg
1 x 12 35kg - dropped the weight a bit because shoulders were hurting.

Close grip smith bench
1 x 8 30kg per side
1 x 8 35kg a side
1 x 6 37.5kg a side
1 x 5 40kg a side

Agonisingly close!

Deadlift
Thought I'd try a new 1 rep max and do it fresh.

1 x 6 100kg
1 x 3 140kg
1 x 2 180kg
1 x 200kg - easy
220kg - fail - i was literally a few cm shy of lockout, held it there for a good 5 seconds trying to push through but to no avail.  so so close!
2 x 180kg

WG chins
4 x 6 BW+15kg

1 arm dumbell rows
2 x 10 45kg

Dumbell pullovers
1 x 8 40kg
1 x 7 42.5kg

Cable rows
1 x 10 70kg
1 x 10 75kg

Did some squats today at a friends gym - LA Fitness in manchester. bit of a fitness gym, no proper oly bars. pretty rubbish to be honest.

I'm presuming the bar was about 10 kilo as that's what it felt like.

Squats
1 x 12 90kg (40kg a side)
1 x 8 120kg (55kg a side)
1 x 3 140kg (65kg a side)
1 x 150kg (70kg a side)
1 x 160kg (75kg a side)
1 x 170kg (80kg a side) - Didn't get fully parallel but I was probably half an inch off.  Should get this soon.

Did some leg press on what was more like a 60 degree leg press rather than the usual 45.

Good session today, managed 6 reps on 100kg flat bench finally!!

Flat barbell bench press
1 x 10 60kg
1 x 6 100kg - final two reps were hard, only just managed the last but I've finally got it!!
1 x 5 100kg
1 x 6 97.5kg
1 x 2 110kg
1 x 0 115kg

Incline dumbell bench press
1 x 8 40kg
3 x 7 40kg - first set of seven somebody ran in and decided to help me lol. told him not to in future!

Cable flyes
1 x 10 30kg
2 x 8 40kg

few sets on the pec dec.

Injured my wrist, don't have a clue how so havent trained until now.

Flat barbell bench press
1 x 10 60kg
3 x 6 100kg!!!
3 x 107.5kg - final rep was slightly assisted

Incline dumbell bench press
1 x 8 40kg
2 x 7 40kg
1 x 6 40kg - lost strength in my triceps.

CG Smith bench
1 x 10 30kg a side
1 x 6 35kg a side, triceps fried

Pec dec
1 x 6 105kg
1 x 8 98kg
1 x 8 91kg
1 x 10 85kg

Dumbell hammer curls - strict
1 x 8 17.5kg per arm
1 x 10 17.5kg
1 x 8 17.5kg biceps were feeling sore, not done hammer curls in a long time so something new.

Yesterdays session

Squats
1 x 10 90kg
1 x 6 120kg
1 x 6 130kg
1 x 6 140kg
1 x 6 142.5kg

Did 2 sets of calf raises and quad extensions.
1 set of hamstring curls 1 x 8 80kg

Started to feel really light headed and sick so went home,
got home and felt like I was gonna die, wobbling and vision was blurry!
problem was I woke up. had some whey & oats & straight to the gym so prob ran out of energy??

Todays workout

Seated dumbell overhead press
1 x 10 22kg
4 x 6 32.5kg

Standing strict military press
Thought I'd start with a light weight to work on form
1 x 8 40kg
1 x 8 45kg
1 x 8 50kg

Side raises
1 x 10 15kg
2 x 10 12.5kg
1 x 12 10kg

DB shrugs
3 x 10 50kg

DB hammer curls - weight per arm
2 x 8 17.5kg
1 x 10 17.5kg

1 x 10 37.5kg ez curls

Rob.S


Right this time last year I had the following lifts:

Deadlift - 6 x 167.5kg
Squats - 6 x 127.5kg
Bench - 6 x 85kg

Currenlty I have:
Deadlift 6 x 187.5kg (20kg increase)
Squats - 6 x 140kg (12.5kg increase)
Bench - 6 x 97.5kg (12.5kg increase)

Is this a fair increase over the course of a year for natural training? my diet has been good 90% of the time, with a few blips in training here and there.

Yes that's a fairly good increase.  Given the weights you started with you're beyond most of the newbie gains.
How much do you weigh now?  You should try to give an idea of the weight you gained as well as the amount you lifted.
I'd suggest increasing the effort on rows.  I know deadlift takes a lot out of you, so perhaps drop 5-10 kg on deadlift for reps and up the weight later on rows and such.

Hi mouser thanks for the comment,  I belive your the bloke who posted on my thread on Talk Audio a while back when I did my first 200kg deadlift.  is this correct?

At the moment I'm training for maximum strength on the big 3 as theres a bit of a amature pl competition at my gym mid april and I'd like a 500kg total for that.

However after that I think I'll go for a more bb style workout as I dont seem to be growing much if at all.  Current weight is around the 90kg mark. - not much of an increase from when I've started however BF is a little lower, but not much.

I'll take on board what you say about the rows.  However I'll prob end up reverting back to heavy DL as its my favourite exercise and I just cant help but deadlift heavy!

Sundays workut - 01/03

Flat barbell bench
1 x 10 60kg
1 x 5 102.5kg
1 x 5 100kg
1 x 9 90kg - wanted 10 grrr!

Incline dumbell bench
1 x 9 37.5kg
1 x 10 35kg
1 x 9 35kg - rubbish

Rubbish session today apart from the 200kg tripple.

Deadlift
1 x 6 100kg
1 x 3 140kg
1 x 3 180kg
1 x 3 190kg
1 x 3 200kg!!
0 x 210kg.

WG chins
3 x 8 BW+10kg
1 x 8 BW - rubbish!

Did some cable rows, strength way down. too tired so left the gym.

With summer coming up soon and me booking my holiday I thought apart from the big 3 I will use more of a BB style rep range than I have of recent.  Hopefully this shake up will give me some decent growth over the coming months.

Todays session:

Flat barbell bench press
1 x 10 60kg
1 x 6 100kg
2 x 5 100kg
4 x 1 105kg - each set was 40 seconds apart.
1 x 2 105kg
1 x 10 85 kg

Incline dumbell bench press
3 x 10 35kg
1 x 9 35kg

Smith close grip bench
1 x 6 35kg a side
1 x 6 36.25kg a side
1 x 9 30kg a side
1 x 10 27.5kg a side - triceps fried by this time.

Did 4 sets of 10 on pc dec

Dumbell hammer curls
4 x 10 15kg

did a set of 10 on 12.5kg bells - preacher curl.

Hammer curls are hitting the bis hard. feels completly different to regular curling.