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

Have not had a good week.
Felt very fatigued to the point of falling asleep on the sofa like an old man yesterday.
In my defence I am an old man so that's not the worst that could happen. Alongside that though have felt ill and injured. At first thought it was just injured but today felt ill and in some ways that was a relief as it might explain the random pains. Hope so anyway. So, no gym yesterday and was touch and go whether to make it tonight but made the effort and was glad I did.
Just needed a slight touch on 170 squat due to wearing jogging shoes. The heels compressed too much and I lost my balance a bit. Then had a go at some wider grip, shoulders rotated power bench type benching. I got 130 but made a slight meal of it and still don't really like it. It went up I guess. Mentions must go to Jackman who didn't fancy bench due to shoulder issues but did some close grip as a compromise and absolutely killed 130. You'd have to think that if you can close grip 130 pretty comfortably then >140 bench is a nailed on certainty. So to deadlift, which i wasn't looking forward to due to achy brakey knees.
205PB

So bit of a shame about the squat debacle as it would've been
170-130-205 =505 total
I know I've done more than that as individual PB's but I want to start edging that same day total up on a Thursday.

jedi

205PB

I think it's a bug going round mate as I'm feeling exactly the same

Cheers kensta. I am whisper it softly just starting to feel as though I've found a setup to the bar that sort of works and is also repeatable. That wasn't the major key to last night's success though. That came from Jackman's observation and inquiry as to why I was doing everything so slowly? His exact words were along the lines of;
"At the start, nothing seems to happen very much..."
Harsh.
But fair.
Think this stemmed back to the initial problems when I was shooting my legs up too fast and tipping forward. Slowed everything down but to the point of a slow moving glacier was taking it perhaps a bit too far. Went a bit more explosive last night and 205 wasn't too much of a trial at all. It will be interesting to see if I can get 210 off the ground though.

Rack, a couple of others were saying they felt the same last night so think you might be right re the bug. It would be a big relief in a way as have been feeling crummy all week without knowing why. Hopefully it will start to pass now and can get back to busting myself up again next week as have been really enjoying training and slipped into a massive sulk this week at first sign of things not going so well

Went in yesterday and managed some squats and a bit of biceps.
Nothing much to speak of and not feeling particularly strong but definitely finishing the week a bit better than it started. I will definitely want to feel better about things on Monday though. Am going to go back to volume on Monday, starting with seeing whether 12/10/8 on 100 is at all likely.
I fear a disappointment.

jedi

Am going to go back to volume on Monday, starting with seeing whether 12/10/8 on 100 is at all likely.
I fear a disappointment.

Correct.


Had a rough weekend in that last week's feeling grim crystallised into more of a run of the mill I've got a cold feeling; including brain burster headaches. Still, on the brightside, feel better than I did Monday last week.

Bench
100 x 10/8/6 (not the full story as there were some extra assisted reps)

Incline 'Bells
32 x 12/10/8 (not that great -it ws the 32's not 34's)

Decline Flying ()
20kg x 15/12/10 + pressing (aborted)

Skulls/Closegrip
30kg x 10 each
35kg x 8 each
35kg x 8 each

1 Arm Seated Dumbbell From Shoulder Tricep Push-thing
18?kg x 12/10/8

Some cables

Calves
Heavy raises on smith
Massive pump set on seated press

Had that slightly sweaty/feverish/weak feeling throughout so will try not to get too disappointed about the pressing. Whatever it is, is lingering well past its welcome now though
Slightly shocked at one point in the evening when, triceps nicely pumped but in the mirror there kind of seemed to be 2 sets of triceps in my left arm No. Really. I have a kind of upper triceps and lower triceps
The pressing was poor for someone with a normal amount of triceps but for a hexricep-er
..it was abysmal

jedi

The pressing was poor for someone with a normal amount of triceps but for a hexricep-er
..it was abysmal

tut tut, mixing your greek and latin...
the correct term is sexaceps, or in your case sexyceps.

Is it wise to keep pumping up your sexaceps or would a week off help you defeat this lurgy?

Decent session though however, especially if you've been under the weather.

No.13

Is it wise to keep pumping up your sexaceps or would a week off help you defeat this lurgy?
Decent session though however, especially if you've been under the weather.

I usually think its okay to train as long as I don't feel like I have a high temperature.
Miserable session in the gym is not good
Sitting at home 'resting' but still feeling miserable
...worse.

daKensta

tut tut, mixing your greek and latin...

I may try and take a pic of my sexaceps as they really are a medical curiosity
...not least because they did not look like that last week

There I was, minding my own business snoozling contentedly at about 5am when,
hmmmm what is that sensation in my calf?
"AYYYYYABASSSSSTTTTAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDD!!!!"
'kin cramp.

Cold has now progressed to the snuffly stage. It is fair to say I am heartily sick of the b@stard. I seem to have had it most of this month for fkksake.

Deads
60-100-140
Wanted to stay light and work on form with some reps.
In actual fact confused self with form (again)and didn't do many reps

Chins
22-12-8
Saw something saying hyper-extending at the bottom of chins can pinch 'stuff' in your shoulder so did them all to just above straight arms. Makes them a bit -bouncy- but didn't bother my shoulder. Not sure how much they bothered my lats either though

Lawnmower Pull
36.25 x 10
31.75 x 10 - 10
Not bad, like one-arm row but with added core work.

Standing Row
Stack x 12-12-12
Meh.

Oly Curls
50kg x 9 -6-5
First set was good at least.

Incline Db Curls
14kg x 12-10-8

Seated Curl
35kg x 12-10-7
Pleased with that as it felt fkkin heavy but controlled the reps better than I thought I would.

Bit p!ssed off about the deadlifts as I seem to have made a speedy return to wtf am I doing again. I mean it's probably not awful just not very good. Am basically stiff-legging it when using my close to the bar setup but if I move feet further from bar I tend to pitch forward. I am going to try feet fairly close but do my best to keep my ass down. You'd think this would be fairly easy given that it is fairly close to the floor at the best of times.

Have been trying Jackman's whey this week with kind of mixed results. It hasn't had the dread windy-toots effect that I'd feared,. On the other hand, the post workout shake definitely makes me feel a bit grim. Seems to give me rotten reflux May as well keep it up til the end of the week to see if it improves but its not looking good. Which is a shame as definitely feel a bit of improved recovery. If it doesn't work out I may have to try the old raw egg in milk.

22 reps on chins. Awesome feat!

I think your in for a shot of the "Spetsnaz standard" - 18 chins + 10Kg Weight.

Deadlift technique can be a pain in the butt; just when you feel like it's all coming together, a workout will occur where you realize you're still horrible at it lol

cricket_fire

Deadlift technique can be a pain in the butt; just when you feel like it's all coming together, a workout will occur where you realize you're still horrible at it lol

That's exactly what seems to be happening.
In one way very frustrating but in another I cling to the hope that I will find 'something' which gets 210 off the floor. I really like boar's technique but can't seem to make it look that simple. He seems close to the bar in his vids but shoulders further above hips than I can manage.

Valhalla

22 reps on chins. Awesome feat!
I think your in for a shot of the "Spetsnaz standard" - 18 chins + 10Kg Weight.

As I said, they weren't full extension at the bottom but not bad. I think BW+10 would be decent training weight for me and I hope to make 10-12 without suffering too much in the way of joint issues.

I've started to feel pretty good about my deadlift technique... then I watched the vids from my last deadlift workout... looks freaking terrible haha. I thought I had a tight arch, but not even close lol

I had one quick form check last week, without a belt and with trainers on. I deleted it off my phone as fast as I could but I can't forget what I saw.



jedi ponders poor deadlifting technique.

Abs
Dragon Flag
8-4-3

Bench Tucks -done lifted so kind of a half-lever to tuck
5-4-3 Holy cr@p they are harder than flags.

Shoulders
Seated Dumbbell Press
2 pitiful sets
 
Upright Row -wide grip
40kg x 15
50kg x 12
50kg x 12

Standing Lateral Raise Superset
16kg x 12 -14kg x 10 -12kg x 10 -9kg x 10

Arnold Press/V-Press Superset
24kg/14kg
14/14
12/12(some spotting on the V-press)
8/8

Some cable rear delt work
Face Pulls
Standing Rear Fly
Rear Delt Shrugs

Interesting sort of session.
I can't quite get the hang of pressing the dumbbells seated, they are wafting about all over the shop which is not ideal. Started badly in that I couldn't master the clean 'em up to shoulders as you sit down technique. I was doing clean 'em up to shoulders oh I'm standing up. The benches are loooow so it was a long way down with dumbbells errr 'cocked'. My ineptitude seemed to infect the others as they went from a confident first set of more than 10 reps a piece, to not being able to load the 'bells at all. Derren Brown would've been proud of me.
That disaster tended to deflate the enthusiasm for the workout a tad with the big lads and we did some upright rows before losing a man as Ding had to bail out. Which left just self and Jackman for the superset. He is getting a lot better at this and also has bright idea that I should try for 15's on the first set. Pain!!!! Why would you stop at 14? Burrrrrrnnnnnnn that's why. Certainly made me work anyways as I needed a bit of spotting to get the V-pressing on the second set. Third set of 8's was okay. Massive pump in shoulders. We are allegedly done but I have pathological I need shoulder work syndrome so did lots of rear cables.
I think the shoulder workout is becoming un-necessarily complicated, lots of 'what shall we do?' pondering. It should just be;
1 exercise heavy pressing -smith or military press
Isolation flies front/side/rear
Arnold/V-Press superset
some cable finishers or upright rows
I think this is a good balance
...the others think it is overkill madness

this post will self destruct in 13 minutes

make that 2 minutes.

Cold feels a bit better today so am all set for tonight's powerlifting fun.
Plan for the evening is to post a legitimate 500 total with;
170-130-200
The trouble is, I can see this plan gang aglae.
I didn't get my 170 squat last week so that is not promising then I have a terrible feeling I'm either going to try for 140 on the bench or else try 130 paused; neither of which is liable to much success. Then we come to the deadlifting where I will be going in with 0 confidence about my technique again. Not withstanding that I may also get tempted to try 210 on the grounds that I know I can lift 205.

I can see my eventual total of actual lifts being somewhat less than 500.
Possibly by as much as 500.

Get your game face on and smash it.

No.13

Get your game face on and smash it.

Raaaaaargh!!!!!
*smashes self in face