Becoming A Beast (Self Improvement, turned up a notch)

[Sean Herbison]

- OK session, I'm having a bad day otherwise.

[Gerhard]

The irony here is that a stray cat has been lurking around my flat (or "apartment" as you Americans would call it) and irritating me most of the weekend.

[Gerhard]

18/11/14

GPP

- 7 rounds Rowing Machine
- 18 chins (5,5,2,2,2,1,1) - weak as shit today.
- Planks w/50-60s rest (2m,1.30, 1.00, 40)
- Stretching/Mobility

[Gerhard]

19/11/14

Deadlift

165kg x 6 @ RPE 8
165kg x 6 @ RPE 8.5
165kg x 6 @ RPE 9

3ct Pause Bench

77.5kg x 4 @ RPE 9
-4 % 75kg x 4 @ RPE 9
-5-6% 73.5kg x 4 @ RPE 8.5
-5-6% 73.5kg x 4 @ RPE 9

Front Squats

85kg x 7 @ RPE 9

-4-5% 81kg x 7 @ RPE 9

(Wasn't going to get 80kg for RPE 9, called it a day here)


- No miracles with bench, except perhaps that I'm getting stronger at pausing. Front Squat is almost going into the gutter, but I can deal with that because the Deadlift is the fatiguing factor now and not the other way round.

[Gerhard]

19/11/14

2ct Pause Squats

120kg x 4 @ RPE 7.5
125kg x 4 @ RPE 8
130kg x 4 @ RPE 8.5
135kg x 4 @ RPE 9

-4% = 130kg x 4 @ RPE 9
- 5-6% (rounding up comes into play doing fatigue drops): 127.5kg x 4 @ RPE 9

- Squat is getting a lot better

Floor Press

75kg x 4 @ RPE 8
80kg x 4 @ RPE 8.5
80kg x 4 @ RPE 9

-4'ish% = 77.5kg x 4 @ RPE 9
=6'ish% = 75kg x 4 @ RPE 9


Press

55kg x 7 @ RPE 9

-4-5% 52.5kg x 7 @ RPE 9

- Only got a single top set (went straight to 55kg from warmups) and then somewhere in the region of 5% for a fatigue drop. Hopefully this is atypical!

SLDL

105kg x 7 @ RPE 8
110kg x 7 @ RPE 9

-4% = 106kg x 7 @ RPE 8.5
-6% = 103.5kg x 7 @ RPE 9


- Good session, fuckton of SLDL volume!

[Gerhard]

24/11/14

Squats

130kg x 5 @ RPE 7.5
135kg x 5 @ RPE 8
135kg x 5 @ RPE 8.5
135kg x 5 @ RPE 8.5'ish
135kg x 5 @ RPE 9

- I spent a few moments observing bar speed to determine whether I had that last set in me, turns out I did!

Comp Bench

77.5kg x 5 @ RPE 8
77.5kg x 5 @ RPE 8.5
77.5kg x 5 @ RPE 9

- Bench woes continue. I'm struggling to recruit leg drive efficiently, The amount of exagerrated arching (almost like Tom from PTW style...) I need to do to get tight enough and get a good leg drive is pretty uncomfortable. Furthermore, I struggle to keep weight on my traps getting into position in this manner. I'm glad I'm identifying these problems, I just hope it isn't too late...

CGBP

65kg x 3 @ RPE 7.5
70kg x 3 @ RPE 8
75 kg x 3 @ RPE 9

- 4-6% Fatigue Drops

72.5kg x 3 @ RPE 8.5
72.5kg x 3 @ RPE 9
71kg x 3 @ RPE 8.5
71kg x 3 @ RPE 9

- Now I'm actually doing the CGBP and not taking a silly wider grip - as previously encouraged back when I didn't know any better by your typical gym goer who thinks they know it all - "You are far too close" when I initially tried the exercise with my index fingers right where the knurling began (Jordan pointed out to me that this was indeed correct for the CGBP, and not simply taking a narrower bench grip.) EDIT: I totally fucked these up today, they were meant to be 6 reppers, but I misread a line in my programming this morning when writing out my training journal.... Uggh!

- OK session, I've identified a couple of flaws that I'm going about fixing. Now I'm going to eat some chicken and rice! (I was finally able to end the vegetarianism restriction crap... At least partially)

[Gerhard]

25/11/14

GPP

- HIIT Bike
- 25 Chinups in 8 minutes (5,5,5,5,3,2)
- Planks
- Face Pulls

[Gerhard]

26/11/14

First Fuckup aka High Gravity Day

Deadlift

165kg x 5 @ RPE <8 (until I watched the tape back and realised it was probably 8.5)
170kg x 0
170kg x 0
170kg x 0
170kg x 0 (fail..)

3ct Pause Bench

75kg x 3 @ RPE 8
77.5kg x 3 @ RPE 8.5
80kg x 3 @ RPE 9

- 4-6% Fatigue Drops

76kg x 3 @ RPE 8
76kg x 3 @ RPE 8
76kg x 3 @ RPE 8.5
76kg x 3 @ RPE 9

Front Squats

85kg x 6 @ RPE 8.5
90kg x 6 @ RPE 9

- 4-6% Fatigue Drops

86kg x 6 @ RPE 9


- Soul crushing on the Deadlift. Anomalies like this, seemingly happen all the time to people though. To illustrate, last week I nailed 3 sets of 165kg at 6 reps a piece before RPE 9 appeared...

[Gerhard]

28/11/14

2 ct Beltless Pause Squat

120kg x 3 @ 7.5
127.5kg x 3 @ 8
130kg x 3 @ 8.5
132.5kg x 3 @ 9

- 4-6% fatigue
127.5kg x 3 @ 9
125kg x 3 @ 9

Floor Press

75kg x 3 @ 8
77.5kg x 3 @ 8.5
80kg x 3 @ 9

- 4-6% fatigue
76kg x 3 @ 8
76kg x 3 @ 8.5
76kg x 3 @ 9

Press

55kg x 6 @ 8
57.5kg x 6 @ 9

- 4-6% fatigue
55kg x 6 @ 9

SLDL

105kg x 6 @ 8
112.5kg x 6 @ 8.5
115kg x 6 @ 9

- 4-6% fatigue
110kg x 6 @ 8.5
110kg x 6 @ 9

[Gerhard]

30/11/14

GPP

- 30 total chinups (5,5,5,3,2,3,3,2,2) - normally I'd do as many set of 5 as I can manage in 8 minutes, today I just felt weak as fuck, not really that recovered. By the time 8 minutes was up, I'd made 23 reps (of which only 3 of those 6 sets were actual 5's). Regardless, most important thing is to try and get more than last time, so I took a minute and did a few more sets to take it up to 30. I'll fucking get 6 sets of 5 in ~8 minutes soon!

I gave the rest (abs, HIIT, etc) a miss because I felt spent after the chins. I'm training tomorrow and I just didn't have a good feeling about further exertion. Disappointed, but that's the way of things some days.