Me against Me

[Brett1993]

Yea, I know...Pretentious and slightly cliched title :p

Hi, I'm Brett, and this is to be my first log, first post and first membership to a forum.

This year, I decided to get serious about lifting, which led me towards looking for a place to post what I'll be doing and how exactly I'll be going about my training. Hopefully, I'll be able to look into my weaknesses, and improve with the help of the animal brothers. Personally, it feels great to be a part of a group such as this one, as to be honest I've been lurking around numerous forums (Cue stalker music). However, on numerous forums a lot of negativity was involved which was a bit of a downer, however that didn't seem to be present here. And the rules of this forum made things all the more clear. I just had to be a part of it.

Enough of that for now, on to the log...

P.S. I'll be a little slow at first, this being my first log and all, so please bear with me. Thanks :)

[Brett1993]

Time to start logging...

First, a bit of history however. I tweaked something in my shoulder while benching (the spotter pulled the bar back thinking I was done, hence the reason I have a phobia of spotters now), this led to me being unable to bench without a twinge in my shoulder. I rested it for a while, but the pain still came if I tried to cross 225. Funnily enough the pain isn't there when pressing overhead. After taking some advice from Paul Carter ( www.lift-run-bang.com ) I decided to switch to close grip, and start incorporating behind the neck seated presses. Because of my shoulder mobility at the time I couldn't squat with the bar lower, so I also switched to high bar squats. The movement decreased my weight dramatically, but felt more comfortable for me. Since, I'm currently on a break from school and I can eat big and train without time constraints. I've decided to work on high frequency training, in order to practice the movements.

My split is as follows:

Day 1: Squat and core
Day 2: Bench and Press
Day 3: Deadlift and Row
Day 4: Rest
Then repeat.

[Brett1993]

28/06/2014

Squat

- Worked up to 308 for 2 quick reps as warmup
- 5 sets of 5 with 242
- 3 sets of 5 with 220
- 5 sets of 5 with 187


One hand Suitcase Deadlifts

- 2 sets of 6 with 135
- 1 set of 7 with 135


Rollouts

- 1 set of 5 with 22 on my back
- 2 sets of 6 with 22 on my back

Finished off with 3 sets to failure of Leg raises, holding an L-sit until failure, followed by controlled reps to failure for all three sets

Overall, felt really good. Legs were fried at the end and I was dripping sweat from the squats. But its my first session, will have to wait for a while to see how it goes.

[Brett1993]

29/06/2014

Time to finally apply Paul Carters principles in regards to my shoulder

Close Grip Bench

- Warm up to 3 quick reps at 176 lbs
- 5 sets of 5 with 143
- 5 sets of 5 with 135
- 4 sets of 5 with 110
- 1 set of 15 with 110


Incline Bench

- 8 reps with 110
- 8 reps with 121
- 7 reps with 135


Behind the neck Press

- warm up to 3 quick reps with 110 pounds
- 5 sets of 5 with 88
- 5 sets of 5 with 77
- 4 sets of 5 with 66
- 1 set of 25 with 66


DB Press

- 8 reps with 25
- 8 reps with 30
- 11 reps with 35

Tricep Pushdowns
- warm up with random weights, squeezing the tricep
- 1 set of 17 with the stack (only 180 pounds or so)
- dropped the weight twice to go to and past failure

*Did a few more exercises in a giant set to work the tricep, honestly cant remember all :p

All reps were paused for a second or 2, including pressing. Dumbbell overhead presses were very slow and controlled, around a 3-4 second negative.
LOVED today, got home and did a bit of tabata jump rope...Felt great

[Brett1993]

Not been able to post in a few days, so here is whats been up so far

30/06/2014

I was up all night and felt weak as hell going in to the gym, but it was deadlift day and I love deadlifts.

I worked up to 450 for a quick single and was surprised at how quickly it went up and how explosive it felt. So I decided to go for a 5 plate deadlift. However, when I pulled, it wasn't in the groove and it didn't feel right, and I wasn't able to lockout. I tried again, because this was to be my first 5 plate lift but i couldn't get it past my knees this time. I'm sure that if I had rested enough, it would be in the bag DAMMIT. Was spent and pissed after this and rows just weren't working for me, so I just did some accessory bicep work (for the first time) with my brand new fat gripz. Then I got out of there.

2/07/2014

Squats

Worked up to 315 for 3 reps, ankles felt tight so I went on to do around 5 sets of singles with 315

Squat

- 1 set of 3 with 315
- 5 sets of 7 with 225 (pause squats)
- 5 sets of 1 with 225 (15-20 seconds rest)


One hand Suitcase Deadlifts

- 1 set of 6 with 135
- 2 sets of 7 with 135


Rollouts

- 3 sets of 6 with 22 on my back


Barbell Hypers

I saw these in a Pete Rubish video and decided to try them out to help with glute activation on ym deadlift. played around with numerous sets with 135

Finished off with around 10 sets of Leg curls and Extensions (10-20 rep sets), and finally 1 set of leg raises to failure