Yeeeeeeaaah Buddy- dave's log

Not sure if you'd recognise him. Wears glasses. Dark hair. Deadlifts with the 5' bar.

If you're deadlifting follows the same trend of your pressing and squatting then there will be daylight between our PBs by the time you return.

My new routine is quite taxing in terms of number of reps per set. There's still only around 20 sets per session which is on par with previous routines but doing >6 reps is taking some getting used to.

In terms of training alone vs training with someone, I find I make progress in both scanarios but different progress.
I'll make massive strength gains when you're back and moderate size increases on my own. It's a good blend I feel.

"They are quite possibly the most sorry bunch of socially challenged and boarderline mentally ill reprobates to have ever attracted such a like-minded following of keyboard warrior wannabes." Unknown

Yeah thats a good point. Im really looking to make some good numbers in the deadlift, 5 plates would be awesome at some stage. Im also hoping for my back squat to have moved beyond 150kg since 142.5kg on the front squat is like 95% of my back max!

On the quest to get 3 plate, 4 plate, 5 plate im 10kg off the bench, 30kg off the squat and 10kg off the deadlift.

20kg to go.

Played rugby league today against a local team, feeling ok now but I think ill move RE day to monday rather than sunday. Knee feeling good at the moment but im not holding high hopes for tomorrow morning!

20kg to go.

LM took some progress pics before I came back to uni and was kind enough to include some previous pics to see what the progress is like.













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20kg to go.

You got the pics then.

I'd post that back set up in General and see what the response is. Such a difference between pic 1 and pic 3.

"They are quite possibly the most sorry bunch of socially challenged and boarderline mentally ill reprobates to have ever attracted such a like-minded following of keyboard warrior wannabes." Unknown

The thing im most pleased with is my posture in the final ones from the front. In the 2nd pic when my shoulder was fcuked you can see how far forward they ve rolled comapred to where they are now. Back shot shows a good improvement but I had never done any heavy back stuff in the first shot so I guess its understandable. Check out those spinal erectors! lol.

20kg to go.

ME Lower

Deadlift-
60kg x 3
100kg x 3
140kg x 3
180kg x 1
200kg x 1 -EASY
212.5kg (pr attempt) x 0 (shins) x 0 (just below the knee).

Single leg deadlift

40kg 2 sets of 8

Felt like I had the deadlift, maybe the 21st bday celebrations have caught up with me. It ll come easily next week.

20kg to go.

Impressive back there.

Bad luck on the 212.5kg fail.
I bet it feels a whole lot better using a proper oly bar and metal plates.

Same weight again next week or maybe a 215kg?

I want to see a vid of 5 plates when you hit thats to show me what I'm missing.

Spinal erectors - you have got a bit of a Xmas tree effect going on there.
Now you just need to put in the same effort on Pushing exercises and you'll be immense

"They are quite possibly the most sorry bunch of socially challenged and boarderline mentally ill reprobates to have ever attracted such a like-minded following of keyboard warrior wannabes." Unknown

CJW- cheers mate.

LM- pushing is over rated! Im looking for 132.5kg on the bench this week for an all time PR then move onto some pin pressing **** so im looking forward to that.
Im confident of ripping 212.5kg up next week, I honestly think I had 3 with 200kg. Its really easy to hang on 2 the bars here, the knurling is done properly unlike the ones at home. Grip wise I think im good for 250kg plus.

20kg to go.

Went in to the gym with my gf and her housemate, just did some stretching to try and loosen up my knee. Seems to have helped a bit.

20kg to go.

Any PRs?















From them

"They are quite possibly the most sorry bunch of socially challenged and boarderline mentally ill reprobates to have ever attracted such a like-minded following of keyboard warrior wannabes." Unknown

ME Upper

bench-

bar x loads
60kg x 3
80kg x 3
100kg x 3
120kg x 1
132.5kg x 0 (PR attempt) got about an inch off my chest. Not best pleased.

Dumbell press-
15kg's x 15
50kg's x 6, 4

Hammer strength plate loaded row-

40kg x 15
50kg x 12
60kg x 11
70kg x 9

Curls and DB power cleans.

My left elbow was feeling weak all through the session. Its given me problems in the past, usually when I bench press. Im wondering whether this could possibly be due to the lack of curling I do (!) creating some kind of imbalance? If anyone has any ideas they would be much appreciated.
I think I may have to make dumbell pressing my main movement or failing that some kind of pulling movement.

20kg to go.

That sucks. Damn these stupid niggling injuries.

Was it bad throughout the session or just on the barbell?

I don't know too many people that rate BBBP as a good mass builder and most seem to opt for DBBP. Use the barbell as a measure of increased strength but don't rely on it for chest work.

Maybe switch to incline BBBP as the weight will need to be lighter. Also up the reps and adopt a wider grip to reduce the weight further but put more focus on the chest.

Still very impressive dumbbell pressing following the benching. Maybe next week do the 50's first and see what happens?

"They are quite possibly the most sorry bunch of socially challenged and boarderline mentally ill reprobates to have ever attracted such a like-minded following of keyboard warrior wannabes." Unknown

Hurt on everything. Row especially. It didnt hurt bad enought to stop, I could just feel it quite a bit. Interestingly my shoulder was also aching a bit today, I wonder how closely the two are related.
Im sacking off pressing with the bar completely for the minute, figure since ive got access to lots of dumbells I may as well use them. Also everytime I work up to around the 130kg mark on the bench, either my elbow or my shoulder dosent like it.
When I was curling afterwards I only got the 12.5kg dumbells for 12, which is stupidly weak, so that made me wonder whether there was some kind of imbalance going on there.

20kg to go.

Id shoot for the 50's for at least 8 fresh I think, the hardest part is balancing the things because the weights are so big on each end!

20kg to go.

Had rugby training tonight for an hour, knee and ankle feeling fairly good.

20kg to go.

ME Lower-

sessions moved around slightly due to me being away on sunday, this week will now look like- RE upper tomorrow, RE lower wed/thurs, ME Upper friday, RE sunday, ME lower next wednesday

Deadlift-
60kg x 6
100kg x 3
140kg x 3
180kg x 1
200kg x 1 - felt hard
205kg x 0
185kg x 3 rep PR

I think a need a full week between ME lower sessions when deadlifting, next wed im confident of hitting a new PR still

Lumberjack squats-

bar + 20kg x 12
bar + 40kg x 12
bar + 50kg x 12
bar + 60kg x 12

Standing calf raise (done with a barbell in the squat rack, partial ROM but lots of weight)

60kg x 3
100kg x 10
140kg x 10
160kg x 16

Hamstrign Curl

77kg x 4, 4

Hanging leg raise x 8, 6.

20kg to go.

Fairly happy with the above session, the 185kg x 3 was easy and felt strong, 190kg x 3 next week without a lot of trouble I think. Disappointed with the 1 rep stuff, 200kg was not the easiest. It may have been because of a busy weekend or whatever but hopefully re-arranging this weeks sessions will give me a nice rest before my next attempt on a week wednesday. I will be livid if I dont get at least 212.5kg by then!

20kg to go.

9 days before deadlifting again should be sufficient time to be fully recharged. Still waiting for you to take the lead in the deads.
Good work with the 3 though. Must have been an off day as last deadlift session you said you felt like you could have done 200kg for 3.

"They are quite possibly the most sorry bunch of socially challenged and boarderline mentally ill reprobates to have ever attracted such a like-minded following of keyboard warrior wannabes." Unknown

Yeah it was a tad wank. Hopefully I ll be on form next week. Felt stronger at the end of the session than at the beginning. Still i ll take the PR tho.

20kg to go.

There's a thread about Squatting going on in General and someone posted this table of muscles recruitment



Maybe a case there for high Box Squats to change from a hip/ham dominant exercise to a quad focused one.

So not only will CNS get accustomed to higher weights, stronger quads will be developed which providing you're still doing posterior chain work, will lead to a nice balanced lower body.

I had put this into my next bulk/strength macro-cycle on week 3 of a 3 week cycle of Box Squats. This just confirms what a good idea that was.

"They are quite possibly the most sorry bunch of socially challenged and boarderline mentally ill reprobates to have ever attracted such a like-minded following of keyboard warrior wannabes." Unknown

Wow look at all that science stuff!!! I think there is a case there for doing every kind of height to be honest. I would ALWAYS make posterior chain work the first exercise on an ME lower day. This is because from a lower box you get a bit of everything and also because hamstrings/glutes are probably my weakest area right now. Plus in terms of posture posterior chain needs some beefing up.

That said additional quad work can never be bad. If you were tripple hard you could do all three heights in a progressive sequence-

1) Lowest box
2)Middle box
3)quater squat

I guess you could do this in a session or over a 9 week period, 3 weeks of each.

20kg to go.

My planned 3 week cycle will be:
1) 14" Box - 10x3 (DE)
2) 16" Box - 10/9/8/7/6/5 (Heavy Volume)
3) 18" Box - Max Triples followed by singles when can no longer do 3 reps

I'd rather mix up the reps/sets than do the same each week but just on a different box.
Your thoughts?

Well what I was thinking was a progressive ROM kinda thing, start high, get lower-

1) 18 inch
2) 16 inch
3) 14 inch

Pick a weight, lets for arguements sake say 140kg, and shoot for max reps on each height

week1- 15 reps
week2- 12 reps
week3- 8 reps

Repeat with 145kg the next 3 weeks and aim to equal or beat the previous weeks reps. What do you think?

20kg to go.

I'm just not a big fan of linear progression on big compounds and plateau/burn-out after a short period of time.

I prefer the idea of having easier days built-in.

Ok then, but why is your easy day always off the lowest box? Maybe cycle it between the 3?

RE Upper

military press ss chin up

50kg x 8, bw x 8
50kg x 8, bw x 8
50kg x 8, bw x 8

Chest supported elbows wide row ss reverse fly

10kg x 10,10
10kg x 10,10

Cuban Press

10kg x 8, 8

Face Pulls

30kg x 10
35kg x 12,12

Alternating dumbell curl

15kg x 7, 7

Close grip push up on a medicine ball

bw x10, 10

20kg to go.

Played in a rugby league 9's tournament today, kicked off at 6 and the final ended at 1120, luckily we won so the time passed quickly!!

20kg to go.

Awsome day yesterday, winning the tournament means we are now South West 9's champions so that is rly pleasing. Im going to abandon RE lower in favour of some recovery and hit ME upper on friday. Feeling a little sore in my lats today from RE upper, knee feels fine, few bumps and bruises but nothing the beach wont take care of.

20kg to go.

I'm sat here tapping away at my keyboard and you're talking about going to the beach. Fcker!!!
Is the weather nice down in Exeter then? Weather looks promising for the weekend so I'm either going to hit the beach or I'm car hunting.

Well done on the win. Did you score many goals? Did you win a prize?

Yeah 25 degrees and not a cloud in sight! We won a cup and medals. There were 6 20 min games, I didnt play all of them tho, wasnt intending to play originally due 2 the knee but I couldnt resist in the end and it was fine anyway.

20kg to go.

Just got back from the beach, gorgeous weather and hardly anybody around. Long may it last!

20kg to go.

ME Upper-

Dumbell bench press-

10kg's x 20
32.5kg's x 8
50kg's x 7, 4*,3- PR

*tried a 5th and got 3/4 of the way up, stayed there for about 15 seconds without goign anywhere so I lowered them before I passed out!


Steep incline press-

32.5kg's x 8, 6

Bent over row-

70kg x 12
80kg x 8, 8, 8

Lat pull down-

77kg x 10, 8, 8

Press up, one arm elevated on a medicine ball, 2 sets of 10 on each arm.

curls- 12.5 kg's x 7

Massive pump by this stage, biceps screaming at me from the rowing so I left it there. Good session, annoyed I didnt get a 5th rep on the pressing but its a pr anyway.

20kg to go.

curls- 12.5 kg's x 7

Massive pump by this stage

I don't usually see those words together like that but at least you're curling - that's a good start.

Still impressed with the pressing. How many more weeks of the flat dumbbell press until you switch ME exercises?

Going to hit another week or two I think. Next me exercise might be decline dumbell pressing?

20kg to go.

RE Upper-

Military press ss chin up

50kg x 9, bw x 9
50kg x 9, bw x 9
50kg x 9, bw x 9

Elbows wide chest supported row

12.5kg dumbells x12, 12, 12

Dumbell Power Clean

7.5kg's x 8, 8, 8.

Quick session today, dont want to be fatigued at all for ME Lower on wednesday, plus the weather is awesome and im going to the beach!

20kg to go.

Had rugby training tonight, played touch for about 2hrs, nothing 2 strenuous. Im getting a bit concerned with my total lack of thoratic/shoulder mobility. Its getting to the stage now where I cant put my hands above my head without my spine popping, usually on the right hand side. Also if I stand with my back flat against a wall and try to put my hands flat against the wall over my head (if you can picture that) I cant get them closer than about 3-4 inches away from it. I think in the long term im setting myself up for some kind of injury or chronic problem if I dont sort it out. Anyone have any ideas at all? Or experienced anything similar?

20kg to go.

ME Lower-

Deadlift- (warm ups done sumo up until 140kg)

40kg x 3
60kg x 5
100kg x 3
140kg x 1
180kg x 1
200kg x 1
212.5kg x 1 - PR
200kg x 0, was going for a tripple but nothing left in the tank

leg curl machine

77kg, 5 sets of 4.

Awesome session, really happy with the PR.

20kg to go.

Well done Dave.

You're deadlifting more than me.
I didn't squat last night because I really couldn't be arsed.

Normal service has resumed.

When do you reckon the holy grail of 5 plates will be lifted?

Couldnt be arsed? Thats the kind of attitude we all want to hear from MT's newest inspirational moderator!

Erm yesterday was not an easy rep by any stretch so id imagine 3 months maybe? If i can ramp the squat up to 160kg-170kg then id imagine it should come by then. What do you think?

20kg to go.