The Return of the jedi-This is not Sparta. This. Is. Madness.(now incl. Race to 100kg OHP)

The long long anticipated 100th page is here! and I cant believe I was the first to post on it! its such an honour!

the ez curl is a wierd one as you can db curl with 35kg? yet only curl with both hands 40kg?

How's tricks sweet cheeks?

Imsimon





The long long anticipated 100th page is here! and I cant believe I was the first to post on it! its such an honour!

Congratulations Sir.
You win this (picture of an) ironing board cover

We thank you for your loyalty and hope you continue to shop with jedi industries.

Incredible Bulk


the ez curl is a wierd one as you can db curl with 35kg? yet only curl with both hands 40kg?

How's tricks sweet cheeks?

Noooo the 35kg seated curl is with a thin barbell.
Not too worried about the bicep work to be honest as they are not lagging, any spare effort is still redirected downward into the calf area. Although am actually starting to see some very slow results there at last.

As for the more general inquiry, I was doing pretty good up until last week when I got this probably not swine-flu probably just a virus which has knocked me back a bit. Which is a bit of a bugger as I was sharpening up to take some progress shots this weekend but crummy diet and no cardio has put paid to that plan. As said, I am definitely planning a major update on what I think I've been doing for the last 6onths soon. Shouldn't need to put it off for too long as feeling much better now and will be aiming to press 130 bench tonight.
Scratch that.
I will be pressing 130 bench tonight.

130 bench
150 squat
and they even made me do some deadlifts

Went back to bodybuilding style bench as the elbows tucked thing just feels too weird.
130 went straight up -no stops to admire the view along the way
=very pleased.

Decided I'd join in with the squats due to new found confidence in that area and just did singles up to a v.cumfy 130 and then a not so good 150 where I pre-empted rounding the back at the bottom by virtually stepping backwards I kept my shoulders so far back
..still went up though

Deadlifts errr not so good

nice one on the bench! very good! and squats very good to!!

come on tell us all about the deads?  to be honest I wouldnt fancy doing deads after just doing heavy bench and squats! 

Imsimon

come on tell us all about the deads?  to be honest I wouldnt fancy doing deads after just doing heavy bench and squats! 

It's only working up in singles and doubles so not that bad although the preferred scheme is squat-bench-dead but someone was in the rack at the start. As for the deads well, you see, thing is, I just plain don't like 'em. Mostly in an I have no idea what the feck I'm supposed to be doing kind of a way. I have done clean and jerks/powercleans right back to the days of sprinting like a whippet jedi and I quite like that lift. Trouble is I mostly visualise the deadlift in the same way. Not so bad you might think, should give a decent set-up and hip position for the lift. Yes, in that much I would say correct. The problem comes with the lift itself as I have in my head a vision of 3-2-1 blast off at the bottom as the feeling of all systems go. So nrvous as anything, they worked me up to 160 which I wouldn't say I pulled so much as exploded, they laughed and said it went up like there was nothing on the bar, were amazed etc and advised that there was plenty more in the tank.
errr NO.
160 = flies up
170 = does not budge 1inch -total failure on the launchpad

Just totally do not have the feel for a long hard pull

Hoping things will improve as I get used to the lift a bit and have a bit more confidence that my back will not go twang. After I failed 170 Vic of the bionic legs (69yrs young and both knees replaced) stepped in and did a smooth 195.
The shame of it

deadlifts!

hooray!

gosh, I didn't know Mike still read your journal



(predictive form filling is not always a good thing)

daKekesta

deadlifts!
hooray!

I can't say I feel very high_five.gif about them just yet
My back is feeling it today, although not as bad as the last time I tried them. Having ben thinking about maybe sticking to reps at 140-ish to work on the technique but on the other hand don't think my back will like the idea of reps much at all. So, new plan, work up in singles and doubles to that 160 until it feels really comfortable then try to get a couple or three out at that. In other words keep the volume and the intensity low for a bit.

Was delighted () to see big lad in there benching 150 for reps just days after my frankly heroic 130. One thing that did strike me was that he was using the arched-back, elbows in  powerlifting technique and you could really see just how this would help as the range of movement was practically halved compared to my elbows out everything flat on the bench effort.
Seems a bit of a contradiction to me.
Powerlifting types bash on and on (and on) in endless fashion about depth on the squat, range of motion etc and then do what looks very much like a p1ss-poor cheat-bench Weird.
I probably won't post the above in powerlifting and strongman section
... but still.
Explanations/justifications on a postcard here please.

Friday Legs:
Squats -yes that's right squats 2 days in a row.
Had agreed to watch over a lad wanting to get into squatting (blind leading blind I know) but didn't look like he was coming so worked my way through
60 x plenty
100 x some
120 x 3
130 x 5 (bit of a strain after Thursday)
100 x 12/ 10/ 8

-then young Michael arrived looking keen and eager so also did
60 x some
80 x some
70 x 12/10/8

in the way of encouragement.
Was very impressed with his effort for someone who'd not really done any before.
Looks a natural to me and will be at 100 in a 3weeks easy.

Leg Ext
77 x 12/ 10/ 8 (down a weight I know but are you frikkin kiddin me)

Leg Press
Stack x 12/10/8 (heels on bottom of plate and not locking out)


plus some calves.

My back tightened up quite badly over Saturday/Sunday but not to the point that I couldn't do anything just that I looked like an evolutionary throwback whilst doing it.

Wouldn't be the first time I've looked like a Homo Erectus.

Flat bench
100kg x 12 +2spotted
100kg x 7 +2spotted
100kg x 4 +2spotted
90kg x 5 +  + 60kg x 5

Smith Incline
70kg x 10/8/8

Flat Dumbbells
34kg x 15

Incline Flies (paused)
20kg x 12/10/8

Chest Dips
15/12/10

No skulls due to EZbar being busy so even more pushdown/pulldowns than usual.

15min cardio.

Totally chuffed with the 12reps on my own for the 100, trouble is it ruined me a bit for the rest of the workout as had a very good spotter who kept off the bar while I was killing myself to get the 12th and then kept me to the promise of 2 forced reps. Trained with young Michael from leg day after that set and he pretty much thrashed me at everything else. I think he's joining in for a bit more intensity in his workout and it is already evident that with some consistent, strict training under his belt, he'll fly by me at a rate of knots.
No, don't really mind, it's good to see in fact.

Just ordered a MicroSD card for my sh!tphone so there is possibility of vids on Thurs.

Look forward to the vids!

jedi

Just ordered a MicroSD card for my sh!tphone so there is possibility of vids on Thurs.

ooh! exciting.

daKensta

jedi

Just ordered a MicroSD card for my sh!tphone so there is possibility of vids on Thurs.

ooh! exciting.

Incredible Bulk

Look forward to the vids!

The prospect of seeing a very thin, bald man lift your warm-up weights is exciting you, why?
*feels performance anxiety
"Fluffer to the set for Mr. jedi"

BacknBis

Chins
back to super-strict pulling high
12/10/8

High Pulldown
110kg x 12/10/8

Closegrip Pulldown
77kg x 12/10/8

Seated Row
49kg x 12/10/8

EZcurl
40kg x 10/5/4 oh for f.....

Incline curls
14kg x 12/10/8

Seated curl
30kg x 12/10/8

Trained with young Michael again and, if he was looking for the secret of my mighty gunz, he was probably not impressed. Major bomb-out from jedi after feeling very light-headed from the closegrippers onward. That is the worst effort yet on the curls and is quite frankly not very heroic ()
Will have to try harder next week or I am on a remedial course at 35kg which will be a bit of a blow to be honest.
It was frikkin HOT in there last night though.

Training with young Michael again and it was his turn with the light-headed fainty feeling so I kept pace a bit better.

Shoulders
Smith Press
70kg 12/10/8
80kg 5 70kg 5 40kg 8

front raise hammer grip
16kg x 12/10/8

lateral raise palm forward
14kg x 12/10/8

rear raise
12kg x 12/10/8

Arnold press and v-press (after heavy bench)
20kg + 12kg x 12/10/8
should've videoed these as the burnfullness was quite comical.

SO chuffin humid in there last night.

In other news weight is back over 12st and look a lot better for it.
Think it could be some muscle from the rebirth of squat
...or possibly water retention.

edit: worth noting that I upright pressed better than Monday's incliine making me think that the 12 x 100 is to blame there

Seemed a bit hit and miss in last night's session. Pleased with the squatting where I continue to feel more comfortable at depth. This really is some kind of minor miracle considering where I was about 3weeks ago
...things were bad at that stage.
Really bad.
Much the same as my deadlifting is at the minute

Squat; worked up to 130 feeling good and threw that up so ...straight to 150

Pleased with that. So onto 160 which also went up but probably wasn't quite as good on depth and didn't get video-ed due to spotting duties. Will probably be on the launchpad next week.

Bench was okay-ish.
Decided I would probably get 130 so passed and tried 135 which I didn't.
I did do 2 negatives and spotted positives on that and the same at 130 followed by a good paused on the chest rep at 120. None of which were video-ed due to errr lack of interest mainly.

Deadlift.

Still not great.
Kept it at 160 as there may have been a bit more available but I still have a major sense of "You're doing it wrong" and I don't really have any clue what,when,why or how etc.
Will post the vid here later.

Good depth, good squat... looked very easy
 
cant see 160 being much trouble, i'd say you'd be more pushed by 170.