Luke 9-6-11 Squat

My breast nuggets are still sore from incline bench on sunday. I felt super exhausted after work (biked 12 miles today) so I took a 30 minute nap before gym. I felt surprisingly good at the gym though.

I ordered my gear today. Although I believe that raw lifts are a much truer measure of strength than equipped, USAPL collegiate nationals is backward and ignorant of this fact, thus I must compete in gear to have any chance at placing.

My order:

Titan Super Centurion Squat Suit- Size 36 (148)- Wide Stance- Blue

Titan Katana Bench Shirt- Size 40 (165)- Angled Sleeves- Blue

Titan THP Knee Wraps (most supportive and tightest)- 2 meters

It cost $237 for all items including shipping. With student discount the super centurion was $115 (regular would have been $90) the Katana was $90 (super would have been $109) and the wraps were $16.50 I think. They said they would try to get it to me by Sept 30, but orders usually take 4-6 weeks.

Squat

45 x 10, 135 x 8, 225 x 4, 275 x 2, 325 x 1

365 x 3 @ 8+

385 x 3 @ 9

400 x 3 @ 9+ (5 pound PR) maybe 2 white light depth

Lowish Pin Squats (3 inches above parallel, full pause at bottom)

315 x 3 @ 10-

315 x 5 @ 9

315 x 5 @ 8

Zercher Squat

225 x 6

245 x 6

255 x 6

uhhg these suck

Abs and Foam Roller Transversus and Stretching

Luke 8-10-11 Bench Ed Coan wk 8

Bench

165 x 1

190 x 1

210 x 3 @ 10

210 x 3 @ 10 spotter touched the bar, but did not help. 210 x 3 is my PR. I definitely could not have hit another rep on either set. I don't know if I warmed up smartly for this. Today was hard and I was expecting it to be easy after 205 x 5. If I eat a ton, maybe I can hit next week's goal of 215 x 3 x 2.

Close Grip Bench

185 x 3 @ 10 PR

185 x 3 @ 10- moved grip out a little

Incline Bench

165 x 3 @ 10++ I hit the safety on the way up on my last rep and it took forever to grind it out.

170 x 3 @ 9+ PR

Shrugs

403 x 15 x 3 felt hard

superset with Dumbbell Rows

120 x 8 x 3 per arm, felt good

also biked 12 miles for work and played frisbee golf during lunch

Luke 8-8-11 Squat

Worked out at Arcadia. The power rack was in use by this guy doing presses who told me I was acting like a woman because I he knew I wanted the rack and then he squatted 405 x 4 to depth and told me he competed in weightlifting at the 1984 olympics for Portugal... but anyway as a result I had to use the shitty open rack with built in safeties which barely allowed me to hit depth.

Squat
315 x 10 @ 9 (60 pound PR)
decided to do one high rep set to save time, begin a new cycle and see what I could do. My hamstrings and quads were all like wtf? after this set due to biking and high rep squat.

Pause Squat
315 x 3 x 2

Plyos

Abductors and Adductors

also biked 12 miles to work and back

Luke 8-3-11 Bench Ed Coan wk 7

Sorry Greg, I can't miss a bench workout

Bench

200 x 5 @ 9

205 x 5 @ 10+ (5 pound PR) The last rep wasn't really a grinder, but it slowed down midway. I've learned to push my elbows through to extend arms while forcing my shoulders into the bench. This brings the lockout an inch or 2 lower and helps a lot. I was supposed to hit 201 x 5 x 2, but since I was feeling good I went for 205. It's nice to hit a bench PR finally.

Close Grip Bench

170 x 5 @ 10-

175 x 5 @ 9+ (ties a very old PR)

was supposed to be 175 x 5 x 2, but I struggled last week with 170

Incline Bench

160 x 5 @ 10

160 x 5 @ 9+

Close Grip Lat Pulldown

200 x 5

220 x 5

240 x 5

250 x 5

Biceps

Weigh In: 159 lbs (with clothes and shoes) 156-157?

Also I biked 12 miles today for work

Luke 7-27-11 Bench Ed Coan wk 6

Worked from 8am-5:45pm today and rode my bike. I felt less tired today after work, but by the time I got to the gym I was yawning.

Bench

195 x 5 @ 9-

195 x 5 @ 9- both these sets felt really easy. I think pause bench helped a lot with this. This is 5 pounds off my PR which I will hit next week for 2 sets.

Incline Bench

155 x 5 @ 9+

155 x 5 @ 9+ felt weird today

Close Grip Bench

170 x 2, reset grip, 2

I forgot that I was supposed to do close grip before incline. My mind is gone by this point in the day. Close Grip felt way harder than normal and my left elbow started hurting so I stopped. My elbow was also hurting earlier at work from stapling.

Chest Supported Rows

3 plates x 8 x 2

2 plates + 25 x 8

Luke 7-24-11 Bodybuilding

As a thank you to myself, I've decided to add a small bodybuilding day on sundays. This falls 2 days after press and 2 days before bench. I do some biceps, upper back and some shoulder isolation with fairly high reps and low weight. The goal is to get a little bit of a pump which improves confidence, to strengthen my shoulders to help prevent injury, and to improve my posture.

also I am starting a full time job tomorrow at JPL in the Earth Science department. I will be working 9 days out of every 2 weeks for the next 8 weeks, contingent upon me not getting fired. I may not have as much time and energy for training. I will probably be riding my bike to work a dew times a week (12 mile round trip) so I will have to up the food intake to compensate for this excess energy expenditure. I will aim to keep the intensity high and sacrifice volume if I need to.

earlier today

12 mile bike ride

made frozen margaritas with family using best recipe I have ever tasted

did this workout at home

Pull Ups

BW + 25 x 15, 12 wide grip

BW + 25 x 13 normal grip

BW x 15

Front, Side, 45 degree, Bent Over Shoulder Raises with 5 pound plates

10 reps per angle, 3 sets

superset with abs

and superset with concentration curls

35's x 8,10,9 per arm

7.28.10--Bench

This is Wednesday's workout:

Bench Press:
warmups
135x3
155
165
170
175xf
I basically wanted to see where my bench press is at. I'll be able to hit 175 next week. Still getting back into the routine.

Tricep Pulldowns:
80x10x3

Abs:
3 sets of transversus medicine ball stuff

Wednesday Weigh In:
160 lbs

Today I went bicycle riding with my girlfriend for a little while.

Recovery Day for Lower Body. Monday 6/14/10

Unfortunately, I dropped something on my right big toe while I was packing up to leave the dorms on Friday and it really hurt actually to the point where I had to ice it and walk easy on it the next day. It felt 98% better today though but I still didn't want to squat heavy so instead I did the following:

45 Minute Bike Ride
-> I took the road bike out on the streets and through the hills. My heart rate was sky high and I was breathing very heavy. Man am I out of shape!! Absolutely no endurance like I used to have in the cross-country days.
-> During the bike ride however I did TWO 150 METER SPRINTS ON MY BIKE UP A STEEP HILL just to get a little explosion going in my legs and that felt really good. The first 150 I was able to stay in the "standing" position and really drive my legs through the pedals but the second 150 I got pretty tired halfway through and had to sit down for some of it.

Body weight Squats
4 sets of 20
-> just to retain muscle memory in the muscles.

Ankle Strengthening Exercises
-> about 4-5 minutes balancing on each leg on my semi-circle foam pad