Functional Weight Training: January 2013

Sunday 20 January 2013

Workout 5 - Upper

Sunday 20/01/2013

WIDE GRIP OVERHEAD PRESS

Barx10

30kgx10

40kgx5

50kgx5

NOTES: Felt strong, very controlled and tight. Need to work on stance to make a more stable base, but even still probably had another 2 reps on the last set.

PULL UPS

BWx8

NOTES: Little rest and did 1 second eccentrics, which turned out to make the movement a lot tougher. Will be back to weighted ones next workout.

PAUSE BENCH

40kgx10

60kgx8

NOTES: Pausing makes this lift almost impossible for me, my chest is weak obviously and I use my triceps too much in it usually. This will be a staple exercise now.

PENDLAY ROWS

60kgx8

NOTES: I'm terrible at this lift, these reps were so hard.

DB INCLINE BENCH

26kgx9

26kgx6

NOTES: Slow & controlled, no lockout at the top either! Massive chest burn, the last two sets killed me.

WORKOUT NOTES: It felt great to be back at 50kg for OHP, also because my grip is almost 5cm wider each side. Pull ups felt great, favourite exercise of the day. Pause bench is weak so I will become strong at it and I should grow, same goes for pendlay rows. If you don't know what a pendlay row is, it's taken from the floor as opposed to hang position and hits the mid-back more than a conventional barbell row:

Thursday 17 January 2013

Workout 4 - Lower

Thursday 17/01/13

DEADLIFT

60kgx5

80kgx5

100kgx5

110kgx5

120kgx3

NOTES: These felt awesome, I was only resting around 1 minute between work sets too. Strong off the floor and good tightness, haven't felt so focused in a while. Last 2 sets were getting tough but still tight.

SQUAT

60kgx8

80kgx6

NOTES: Just some volume work, form was feeling strong in the last two sets despite being fried from deads. Eccentric was really slow and controlled and was successful in sitting back more with less knee travel.

WORKOUT NOTES: I regret squatting after deadlifting, I might switch that up next time depending on how I'm feeling.

Monday 7 January 2013

Workout 3 - Upper

Monday January 7

OVERHEAD PRESS

Legs were far too sore, seriously.

CHIN UPS

BWx5

BW+12.5kgx5

NOTES: Slow down the eccentric even more, felt fine overall and arms were getting slaughtered.

DB BENCH

16kgx10

26kgx10

32kgx8

32kgx8 PR

NOTES: Crazily difficult, really slow and controlled and made sure to not fully lockout at the top. Work harder and concentrate more next time.

BB ROWS

65kgx10

NOTES: Squeeze traps and lats more at the top, might go up to 70kg then go back to 60kg and do more sets and slower reps. Include a pause at the top and a controlled eccentric.

INCLINE FLYES

16kgx15

16kgx13

NOTES: These gave me the most insane chest and arm pump. This is definitely the exercise that will give me more mass, but remember to not cock my wrists to activate chest more and take the effort off my biceps.

WORKOUT NOTES

I honestly couldn't OHP, it was bad. My legs are still sore this morning 3 days later, but then again I did move 4960kg of weight in my squat workout the other day, which is double what I usually do!

However my focus was good on the chins, bench and flyes. However I really didn't focus on the rows and so didn't get the burn I should have, poor effort. Will rectify it next time.

Workout 2 - Lower

Saturday January 5

SQUAT

Barx10

40kgx10

60kgx5

70kgx5

80kgx5

90kgx5

100kgx5

80kgx6

80kgx8

This was brutal. Overall I can honestly say I already feel better about squatting, partly because the form was feeling super tight by last few sets of 80kg, but also because I think mentally I now know if I can keep good form when completely exhausted then I can keep it when the weight is heavy too.

Everything felt light until 100kg, which was fine in itself but not 'light' per se. One thing I need to remember is to sit back more when it gets heavy and not go back to quad dominance, I'll just have to really focus on it during the warm up sets.

Will be adding 2.5kg to both the top heavy set and the volume sets too.

Tuesday 1 January 2013

New Year, New Me

Ok I take it back. I hate the outlook of 'starting anew' because the majority of people who do it never change. However, I am not adhering to the usual paradigm of:

"I'm going to make sweeping changes, and revolutionise my outlook on life so I will stop feeling sorry for myself."

OR

"This last year has been fucking terrible, but I'm filled with motivation from the turning of the year. Surely this burning motivation will last the entire year and I will achieve all of my outlandish goals.."

OR

"I read The Secret and am convinced that if I stop being an asshole then I'll become rich and successful."

INSTEAD, I want to make some simple changes and tweak what I'm currently doing to improve upon myself. No ground breaking tips or out there principles, just manageable changes that are sustainable. After all, the brightest flame burns out fastest. This point is one borne from motivation, which I have found has not been at its strongest in the weight room over the past couple of months. Getting married, Heidi's first birthday and Christmas have been sources of amazing life-affirming joy as well as a lot of tired days and nights. So I'm taking this opportunity to make a few handy changes to what I'm doing to properly align with my new year's goals:

1) Get stronger while actually gaining mass: I keep running into people who are bigger than me, yet I am much stronger. If we're not in the weight room, 10/10 people would pick me as the weak piece of shit. I want that to change while still putting focus on strength.

2) Accept that I want more mass: I've battled with the 'glory of strength' for so long, but it's only recently that I've realised that I don't care about benching 120kg if my chest looks like a chicken's. This needs to change and so I'll be changing my training style to suit.

3) Get my lower body strong as shit: I don't care about big legs or developed hamstrings, I just want to jump high and have a strong posterior chain. Don't ask me why, but I believe it has something to do with my lingering manliness complex (thanks Jack Trifaro).

To get to these goals I need to change my training, so I'm going to be doing an Upper/Lower split which will look like this:

UPPER

OHP 3x5 (Strength)

Chin ups 3x5 (Strength)

DB Bench 3x8-10 (Size)

BB Rows 3x8-10 (Size)

Incline Bench 3x8-10 (Size)

Curlz (Size)

LOWER

Squat 3x5 (Strength)

Deadlift 3x3 (Strength)

Front Squat 3x5 (Strength)

The movements I have labelled as strength will be done the same as I usually train, with a focus on being tight, explosive and powerful. However, the movements labelled size will be the opposite, with slow tempos, smooth reps and slow eccentrics to give those muscle groups some extra size and mix up my training. The order of exercises will change to find out which order works best for me, but from yesterday's workout it seems that doing OHP and chin ups first works best. I'll be aiming to work out 3-4 times per week, and hopefully soon will be reaping the rewards.

LET'S DO THIS

Workout 1 - Upper

Tuesday January 1

Overhead Press

Barx20

30kgx10

40kgx8

45kgx5

NOTES: Took a wide grip to activate shoulders more, need to get a stronger base and keep the bar closer. Felt locked in for the most part.

Chin Ups

BWx5

BW+10kgx5

NOTES: These were tougher than I'd like, I'm just plain bad at chins. Need to slow down on the eccentric.

DB Bench

26kgx10

28.5kgx8

28.5kgx5

28.5kgx10

NOTES: These were easy, really felt focused on the slow eccentric and my chest burnt hard.

BB Rows

60kgx12

60kgx15

NOTES: Easy money, slow eccentric and big trap, arm and rhomboid burn. Need to activate my traps more.

Incline Bench

50kgx12

NOTES: Almost all reps were paused on my chest, so tough to put the bar back on the rack.

Hammer Curls

2x16kgxfailure

NOTES: I still hate curls but I will keep doing them.