Dastardly Advanced Novice Log.

[Dastardly]

Took some pics of this local warehouse gym, the never go there on a bench day, the bench is shit. The squat rack is also really awkward and impossible to avoid the massive wall mirror.

They seems to have spent a lot of effort/money filling the gym with crappy machines. If they had just ditched one of these things (floor space & money) and bought 2 good barbells, this would be a good gym.

[Dastardly]

[LondonTiger]

it's not a fully fledged gym by no stretch of the imagination, but at least it looks quiet and has enough free weights stuff for you to work with.

I find that I'm always critical of new gyms I go to, because I can always find stuff that I cold do n the previous gym that I can't do in the new one.. But gyms being gyms that's ususally the case everywhere..

Eventually you homeostasise and start to like it, and start to notice the good stuff you can do in the new gym that you couldn't do in the old gym.

Noticed you've got many auxilliary excercises on your log, are these from practical programming?? I haven't read it yet since getting it over a month ago..

[Dastardly]

Nope, I just added some during the past few sessions as I am having problems with my shoulders.

Doing things like plate halos & dips, always make my shoulders feel good.

[Dastardly]

Intermission
My student rate gym membership has run out, I need to wait for some paperwork to come through to sign up again. Have reluctantly decided to take a few days off the set programming. This is a little bit frustrating because I was about to hit some eagerly anticipated landmarks, like squatting 100kg (2 wheels) for 3x5 and benching 70kg for 3x5.

Im going to throw in a mixture of training this week which is likely to include lunges, DB bench pressing and DB RDL's utilising the dumb bells at the local tennis club which I do have free access to.

Also overhead pressing with a small/standard barbell which I actually purchased for my mother to use.

Chins & Pull ups in the local park.

Vertical Jumps as a squat substitute (recommended by Rip.)

And rope climb work for back & arms.

I have decided that I dont like the terrorist gym, so will probably not go there again. But I am tempted by the fact they have a trap bar, might be interesting to use it as a squat accessory exercise.

[Dastardly]

Training- Tennis Club-Tuesday 11th May.

Some broomstick OH squat & muscle snatch warm up.
Weight per each hand.

DB reverse lunge:
18kg 10 10 10 (tough)

DB Bench Press:
17.5kg 5
20kg 3
25kg 5 5 5

DB RDL: slight back rounding = satisfying pump.
30kg 12 12 12

[Dastardly]

Wednesday 12th May-Park

(Supersetted/alternated)

Vertical Jumps:
20 20 14 14

Chin Ups:
6 6 6 Good ROM/chest touch with layback.

First time trying vertical jumps as a exercise, actually rather hard to get enough power to leap into the air from a deep squat. Also found it difficult to get deep/touch floor without straining knees a little. Height was very poor, but the excercis felt very good/effective, especially for conditioning

[Dastardly]

Training- SH Gym – Friday 14th May
Squats: Struggle to get depth on every rep, forced out knees hard.
20kg 5 5
60kg 5
80kg 3
90kg 2
100kg 5 5 5 (2 wheels- fuck yeah!)

Bench Press:Shoulder behaving OK, technique good.

20kg 5 5
40kg 5
50kg 3
60kg 2
70kg 2 2 2
60kg 4 3 3 (back off sets for volume)

Good Mornings:High Bar.
20kg 12
40kg 12 12 12

Pull ups: 6 6 6 (fast & great ROM)

[Dastardly]

Got out the climbing rope today, hung the top end to a concrete post and practiced pulling myself up from a lying down position.

Left hand found it really hard to grip, and triceps feel fucked now (in a good way).

Long way off actually being able to climb up a rope. May hang it on a tree and have a go though.

[Dastardly]

Squats:
Increasingly conscious of twisting knee strain and poor depth limit with my efforts to use the narrower stance suggested by Rip. Decided to creep knees out again to increase (safe) depth and reduce knee twisting.
20kg 5 5
60kg 5
80kg 3
95kg 2
Very aware of limited depth available with extended back. Inevitably had lots of butt-wink to get reasonable depth and so struggle to create any hip drive,
Workset.
102.5kg 4 5 3
Belted, widish stance yet still sloppy form. Nearly tipped sideways on first set, most dangerous squatting event yet.

Press:
20kg 5
25kg 5
30kg 2
32.5kg 5 5 5
Really tough but utilised maximum (beginning) layback and got it done.

Power Clean: Hang from below-knee.
20kg & 30kg warm ups.
45kg 5x3 - Messy.

Knee raises: 10, 5, 5, 10, 10
Very tough to grip neutral rubber handles.