Dark_MadMax’s BodyBlog

Wow I haven’t posted a while and nobody noticed  lol . Anyways just to summarize  : 4 month cycle program was OK but not really good strength gains wise imho. The best thing I learned from it was lots of different and useful exercises I otherwise probably wouldn’t pick up for a while, plus some interesting periodization techniques and rep schemes.

Max 1 rm workout was  in the end of November and I did 

290 squat  - huge disappointment . Only 5  lbs progress in 3 months. 2 failures at  305. Speed and box squatting are ok but lack of heavy back squatting is no good.

220 bench - very good. Only 5 lbs shy of my target and 225 miss wasn’t bad. I think I will nail it soon

385 DL- nice surprise. Solid 40 lbs increase over previous 3 month 1 rm. "Speed work" (as I tried to make it more and more heavy till it gradully became  just heavy  work) and heavy singles definitely helped here

4 weeks left till 1 rm workout which will finalize this 4 month strength cycle. Last week had 2 heavy doubles (squats and bench) which were good and rekindled my enthusiasm  (there was a lot of shit last 3 month to keep me depressed) . So F%CK everything else- lifts is only thing that matters this month. RAWWWWRRRR!

In other news in IPF 2007 Russians won!! woot. Folks stole the show ,special props to Julia Zaugolova  for winning 4 golds and becoming strongest female lifter pound for pound. LUV!

here is her photo  btw :

Cute isn’t she? And strong as hell!

 Well first week after hospital. The good:

1 lower body workout

Strong speed deads up to 265 it was pretty speedy. 275 and 285 was not so, but ok

Front box squats -pretty good imho

The bad

Board/incline db press. Killed my self on  inlcine imho and was so damn tired that board presses were just pathetic.

Rack pulls - I should not have attempted a weight increase. I did 3×5 with 10 lb on top of my previous week( did last set 345×5). But I felt horrible and had to drop 2×7 sets. My upper back was screaming to quit and I think it was good that I listened because otherwise I would probably injured myself. Plus I had to do those belted -so not really proper way

Ok stuff

Push presses (failed totally at 65 , but that was my mistake - 60×2x5 went ok), single leg work, dragon flags.

 I have 5 more weeks left till the end of current program cycle. I am not sure about gains :bench was going 1 step forward/1 step back , squats were progressing but I was not doing anything really heavy ( it was all front/box squats) and my recent 255×2 on back squat was TOUGH- not doing heavy work imho deconditions you. Deads were crawling slow. -rack pulls went up but it is only rack pulls

Now I have 4 more weeks coming and that would be heavy work (heavy singles, doubles and such) I have some doubt whether that will be enough to condition myself for  PR attempt  but I will stick to it.

Ended up in ER and then on the floor in hopsital last week. So last week I only racked in one workout , plus in hospital I lost 5 pounds  (and that I attribute to the fact that food in hospital was great else I would probably would lose a lot more ) . Not sure how it will affect my training but I think it wil defintely straighten up the curve for at least  a month if not altogther flattening it .

It is not too bad but for example my first post-hopsital workout was lower body and main exercise was snatch grip deads.  For those I got straps this time (snatch grip really makes it hard to hold on heavy bar, and mixed grip is not an option since at wide grip it   causes very dangerous tendention for torsoe to twist at slightest imbalance) but despite that was really really dizzy on working pulls. Upper body yesterday was not too bad( lockout for becnh) - but again no progression there.

Anyway I will see how it goes, mentally I think I am recovered, but physically that is a big question mark, especially given that my stupid body with its broken adrenal system had awfull recovery capability as it is.

My blog getting dusty lol .All because of this super secret  program I am not allowed to disclose

Anyways I had  an attempt at snatch 3 weeks ago - failed miserably .Problem I couldn’t OH squat  even with empty bar.  I started doing shoulder dislocations, more lats upper back stretch and woohoo - magic - I could easily OH squat bar yesterday for multiple reps (probably could have done over 20 - I was really comfortable) . WOOT!

In other news I did a PR on box squat -squatting hard 265 (failure at 275) . This is immense improvement since I started doing them , but I am not sure how well it will translate into regular squat -will see in 2 months on my final PR workout (which will be the end of this 4 month cycle)

There was no swimming last month and wont be any for a while  - my current program is 4 days lifting and 2 days of other gpp ,so there is really no time . But last week was 1 rm week with only 2 lifting workouts so I managed to swim

Phase 1

20 FS+10 brass 15 minutes 

Phase 2

2+2 FS sprints

1+1 BF  , 2 leg bf

4 back

4 arm only FC

4 1 arm FC

Phase 3 12+6+8+4  (FS/Brass)

So my first 1 RM workout .I was planning to do it back in June, but it didn’t happen. So I just finished last week  first phase of my new program and for this week I didn’t receive  get new workout plan yet so it  was perfect for 1 rm. Aside the pain under my right rib everything was aligned this time . SO:

Squat  1×245  ,1×245,1×275,  1x 285 ! <– Uber PR!

 I out squatted my best expectations. I planned at best to do 265, but given how easy 245 went  I jumped to 275 . -It went good too .So I went all nuts and went up another 10lbs . And squatted it .It was hard but doable .I think I could have done 290 - but given that I already went past planned 3 attempts I decided not to over-strain myself more. I think using belt for 1 rm definitely helped .

Bench 1×195,1×200 - barely hit expectations

 Very hard 200. Definitely could not have hit 205 .It is generally what was expected from 1 rm calculator. But its overall disappointing since it practically stale ( 1 month ago it was 192 on calculator) . Ohh well. - its ok. And i hit magic 200 number after all

Deadlifts 1×315, 1×330 ,1×345, <- PR , 350 -fail

The pain was bothering me .Even to the point that I wasnt sure about doing 1 rm deads . Anyway did warm up. And pulled 315 - first time deadlifted weight that heavy (on calculator I was supposed to be able to hit 320 about  a month ago) But calculator is one thing and reality is another -so it was heavy . -This one completely tore my old callouses btw

330 - TUFFFFF.  345 - almost fail. Pause mid shin, was borderline on hitching but I managed to pull it up. Totally not sure about form. 350 - mid shin fail. -after this I was super dizzy.

So overall I am satisfied. I squatted real good (well for 5 month newbie who was struggling with 95 for 5 rm). Benched ok. And deadlifted on target. Now another 3 month of strength program and I hope to improve on those .Afterward I am thinking about doing 3 months of HST type program  and another strength cycle. Goals I set up for  a year of training  seem not so out of this world after all (goals are 225/305/405).

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So phase 1 of new program done .I am going to do 1 rm workout this wednesday if my upper abdomen pain doesnt bother me too much (no idea what is it).

Here is summary progress:

Box Squats

175×4 -> 225×3

I exploded on those a week ago. Hopefully gains will translate into normal squats

Bench

170×4 -> 185×3

Not helluva big progress (if at all) but methinks I could have done 185×4 . I will see on 1 rm whether I really got stronger on those

Neutral grip DB press low incline

40×10-> 55×9

Seated Cable row med pronated grip (stricter form)

145×10 ->170×10

Attemp at stricter form (less cheating) so weight drop. I actually got back to the same weight I was doing with cheating.

Front Squat

145×6-> 165×6

Not really huge gains , but I am proud of them. I managed to stop being pussy and stopped using towel for cushioning.

 Rack Pulls from Kneecaps

305 x6 -> 330 x6

This is th eonly exercise which is directly related to deads . This month there was no work at the start phase (aside from speed deads) so I have some doubt whether my deads really got better. Plus this is helluva tiring exercise- my max volume was 4×6 on those and I think I strained something (hence my pain)

 One-Arm DB Push Press

50×6 ->65 x6

Well this is more of technique thing. My left arm is really weaker so all progress is bascially determined  by how much my left arm can do.

Close-grip Chin-ups

15×6 -> 35×6

Doest not really any different from normal chins . Weighted ones now .

DB Floor Press

55×8 -> 65 x7

Very hard on elbows actually

One-Arm DB Rows

60×8 -> 80×8

Well rows are sorta my strong point .Hence I am getting bigger and bigger dbs for those

There Was also crap load of accessory work on this program :

 Walking DB Lunges  to 20×4x8
 Reverse Crunches  to 3×20
 Prone Bridges   to 3×75s

 Prone Trap Raises  to 10×3x12
 Side-Lying External Rotations  to 10×3x12
 Side Bridges to 3×60s
 Pull-Throughs  to 150 x 3 x12

Kneeling Cable External Rotations  to 7.5×3x12

 I am  on a "super secret " program atm so no writing it down  here for a while . I know nobody reads it anyways so no big loss.  It is nothing ultra special really - variative intensity and volume load with  ub/lb split .

Cardio 

15 minutes ellipticial (max elevation , 5 resistance, 5 minutes with 10 resistance)

+

15 minutes no elevation ellipitcal. 12 resistance

Floor 

bw Chins 11/11/9 + Dips 30 8/8/8

Power Cleans 135  5

first time I have done them . Really fun , but really tiring exercise.

Shrugs 205 10/10/10

Probably something else as well. Stretches And Foam roller.