ME PULL UP

Close-grip pull ups:

bw x 6, 10

bw + 45 x 6

bw + 70 x 6

bw + 90 x 5

Because I am fatter than Luke, I am better than him at weighted pull ups.

Bent-over rows:

135 x 20

155 x 20

185 x 12, 20

Kept these light to avoid messing with my back

Shrugs:

315 x 8, 8, 10, 12?

Around the 8 rep range, my back starts feeling like its cramping. It's not painful, but I don't think it's worth it to be risky.

Finished with ball leg raises

5-13-10 Deadlift

Deadlift

325 x 3 PR super easy

345 x 3 PR not too hard. My 1 rep PR is 353 and I think I could smash that right now. Also I looked like a badass with the new bumper plates maxing out the bar.

GMOPs pin 10

185 x 8 no belt

205 x 8 no belt

225 x 8 x 2

Pause Squat 3 seconds

245 x 3

265 x 3

275 x 3 PR

Ball Leg Raises

Plyos

ME Squat

Wasn't sure what would happen today given the abs.

Squat:
Straps down + knee sleeves
495 x 1 @ 8
525 x 1 @ 8+
550 x 1 @ 9

Squats felt really good today. I think I finally figured out how to hit the hole hard in the suit, which made a big difference. I'm looking forward to putting the straps up + knee wraps and seeing what happens.

Pause Squat:
315 x 3, 3, 3 @ 3sec

Went light to avoid further volume. First set felt almost hard, the last two felt trivial. Not sure why.

Finished with ball leg raises.

Left side feel 85% but not too much worse then when i went in. Lower back feels better than it has in a long time.

Squat/Deadlift

Wore my glasses today instead of contacts and hit a big squat PR. Maybe I need to wear them more often.

Squat

270 x 2

285 x 1

300 x 1 -PR, been wanting to get this for a while now

I think I'm stronger with this narrower stance that I'm trying out because I get more pop out of the hole. Because of this I can be faster through the middle of the lift where I'm slowest.

For the record, here are the final results of the recent "Race to 300" :

1. Luke - hit 300 like 4 or 5 weeks ago

2. Me - hit 300 around 8 PM tonight

3. Darvin - hit 300 around 8:10 PM tonight

4. Greg - hit 300 around 8:25 PM tonight

I'm pretty happy that all of our squats are getting stronger.

Deadlift

353 x 5

363 x 5 -still need to think about pushing the hips through earlier in the lifts instead of pulling back all the way through

I moved my hands in slightly so my arms are more vertical rather than grabbing the bar further out at a slight angle. It's a minor change, but the range of motion is reduced probably by a couple millimeters and I'll take any advantage I can get lol

GMOPs

225 x 5

235 x 5

245 x 5

Finished with 4 sets of banded leg curls (quadded purple) and 3 sets of ball leg raises

ME Squat

Squat:
suit w/ straps down
495 x 2
515 x 1 @ 8 +
535 x 1 @ 8 +

Once the suit got seated, these didn't feel too bad. I think I'm being a bit too conservative on the attempts due to not having used the suit enough lately.

Deadlift:
135 x 30
185 x 25, 25

These were harder that I expected, haha. Planned on going "up" to 225, but my back started catching(?) after the first set, so I only went up a little. There's no pain, but I can tell things aren't quite fixed down there.

GMoP:
225 x 5

These didn't feel so hot, so I bagged it.

Finished with banded hamstring curls, CYBEX EAGLE GLUTE MACHINE, and ball leg raises

4-29-10 Squats Deadlifts

Forgot to bring converse or high socks so conditions were less than optimal

Squat

305 x 2

305 x 2

315 x 2 PR 2nd rep was an inch high. Hit my max for set of 2 which is a good sign. All squatting today felt pretty easy, even though I felt tired due to soreness

My right forearm and bicep began to hurt while squatting, tingling returned in my hand, but then went away.

Deadlift

275 x 5 sweaty hands almost slipped by the end

285 x 5

I tried preloading the weight with my hips which helped my second set a lot

Banded hamstring Curls

Purple Band from leg press machine to leg curl machine x 4 sets

GMOPs

135 x 10

135 x 8

185 x 8

205 x 8

I finally made the jump up to heaver weight on GMOPs. I had been afraid to since I hurt myself doing them a while back. They felt fine, but were a lot harder. I actually felt my hamstrings working.

Ball Leg Raises

15 x 3 sets

ME Squat

Squat:
455 x 1
495 x 1 (PR)
505 x 1 (PR)

I have videos of all three that will be posted next week. Felt good to join the 500 club officially. 505 wasn't too bad of a grinder, but I need to do more.

Band-lightened Squat:
495 x 2
535 x 2
585 x 2
605 x 2

The last one was pretty beastly on my core. I need to go heavier on these in preparation for geared training.

Squat:
365 x 8, 8, 8

Cool down set; got a nice pump, haha.

Finished with ball leg raises.

LoBack

I didn't want to risk irritating my elbows with heavy pulling, so opted in favor of on-the-back legs stuff

Pause Squats:
365 x 3, 3 sec @ 8.5
385 x 3, 3 sec @ 9
405 x 3, 3 sec @ 10
415 x 3, 3 sec @ 10+

I tend to start helicoptering on these, but I think it's due to the bar changing position on my back.

Half way through, my elbows started getting irritated again from picking up the weights. By the last set, I was getting that numbing pain in my forearms and hands and couldn't do much. That just shuts me down mentally from focusing, which is extremely frustrating.

GMoP:
off the lower pin today
135 x f (turned into squats on all reps)
225 x 10
315 x 10, 10

Looks like I need at least 225 to stretch out my hamstrings on this

Lunges:
135 x 12
225 x 12
225 x 12

Finished with ball leg raises

Deadlift

Band-lightened deadlifts (greens on pin 5)
375 x 5
385 x 5
395 x 5
405 x 5
405 x 4+1slight hitch at the very top+10 second hold at the top by Dave's count

GMOPs
205 x 5
225 x 5 -PR
235 x 5 -PR
255 x 5 -PR
Dave forced me to go up in weight which helped today.

Lunges
135 x 8, 8, 8 per leg

Finished with 3 sets of Ball leg raises and Ball reverse hypers

Gaze at the Danish Alps and Weep!

T-bar Rows:
4 sets... 5/6/6.5/6.5 plates

Wide-grip Pull ups:
bw x 10
bw + 45 x 5
bw + 45 x 5
bw + 45 x 8
bw + 70 x 4 + 2 (close-grip)

Shrugs:
4 sets, last set strip set

Danish Aps Preacher Curls
80 x 8
100 x 8
120 x 5, 3

Finished with ball leg raises.

Sick bench

Spent most of the day in bed sick. Everything was sore to start. Trained at Wash U's med school gym, which had all these weird hexagonal grip bars - sort of like the dumbbell handles at Wooden, except for an entire bar. Very uncomfortable.

Bench:
275 x 5, 5, 5

Incline Dumbbell Bench:
80s x 8
90s x 8
100 x 8, 8

Finished with CYBEX EAGLE ROW, CYBEX EAGLE SHOULDER PRESS, pull ups and ball leg lifts.

This gym was stocked with all CYBEX EAGLE , which made up for the hex barbells. Sadly no CYBEX EAGLE GLUTE MACHINE, or I would have done that out of principle.

4 Star Squat

Trained at 4 star in El Segundo today. 3 hours well spent.
I feel a personal problem coming on (AKA a cold) but I don't think this affected my performance today since I completely forgot about it while training.

Squat
265 x 2+1 with a slight spot
275 x 1 -This was a grinder.
I'm having problems with my knees coming forward when I break parallel and come out of the hole. Need to focus on taking the tension in my hamstrings and keeping my chest up on the way out of the hole.

Squat w/ chains
135+2 chains(total) x 5
135+4 chains x 5
135+6 chains x 5
135+8 chains x 5
I think it was like 240 at the top on the last set. This was my first time doing these and they felt really good. I think doing these consistently would teach how to be fast on the way up. Unfortunately these would probably be incredibly inconvenient to store at school.

SS bar box squats
135 x 5
185 x 1+1 fail
155 x 5
Also my first time doing these. These work the core like crazy.

Plyometrics
3 sets of box rebounds
3 sets of side box jumps

Abs
GHR abs
ball leg raises

ME Squat

Squat:
405 x 1
425 x 1
445 x 1
465 x 1
475 x 1
485 x 1

Felt good. Quad discomfort was still there, but not nearly as painful as last week. I was too tentative in the hole because of it though. It was nice to go this heavy as I haven't hit 485 raw in a long while.

SS-bar box squats:
245 x 5
295 x 5
335 x 5
385 x 5 (PR)

Not sure what happened with these, but they felt great. I was going for a single on the last one but it felt so explosive, I kept going. This was pretty surprising since three months ago, I maxed at 368. No quad pain either.

Finished with some box rebounds and side box jumps.

Then did some ghr abs and ball leg raises. The latter were new and I thought were a pretty good code exercises, so we'll be doing them more in the future.