JediBB’s BodyBlog

Good workout, wiped me out pretty hard anyway.

Warmups

Barbell Curl

115×10

135×10

165×5

Close Grip Bench

225×12

245×7

275×3

Dumbbell Curl Double Drop

65×8/55×7/40xfailure

55×8/45×8/35xfailure

Pressdowns Double Drop

180xnear failure/160x near failure/140xfailure

200xnear failure/180x near failure/160xfailure

Hammer Curl

90×6

80×7

Overhead DB Extension

100×10

100×7

High Cable Curl

60xfailure

Bench Dip

Bdywgtxfailure
 

Warmups

Squats

405×10

475×5

315×15

315×15

Hack Squat

310×12

400×6

Hamstring Curls

2 @ #12×12

Leg Extensions

2 @ #12×15

Do you ever sit back after a workout and think about the evolution of your training? Think about all the screwball things you’ve tried and the extremes or lows you reached? I do sometimes and I always get a kick out of it.

Back in high school I used to hang out with this group of senior guys and Troy (we’ve been best friends since the fourth grade) and when we weren’t playing sports we lifted. There wasn’t sh*t else to do in this town. It was sports or working out for us. We were such victims of over training. We used to lift in P.E. then after school until four. Then we figured out that we could get back in the gym after the coach had closed it and went home. So we would break back in and lift. lol.

I remember one time I took some Ultimate Orange and trained for three hours straight. Man I screwed my self up back then. The thing is we were all young and beginners so no matter what we did we made gains. I can’t imagine where we would have gotten if we knew what we were doing… I benched 315 at 200 when I graduated from high school. But now… might as well rip muscle off and throw it down the toilet if I did that much. We ate a lot too by the way. That was the third thing we did.

In college I figured out what the hell was going on, but still for the most part trained very high volume, 25-40 sets per part 1ish times a week (I thought I was Arnold- nope). It wasn’t until I started training in the summer time after my sophmore year that I learned less was much more in terms of volume. During the summers in college (and after) I worked for the USDA Forest Circus…uh I mean uh…. Service…. haha just a little joke…if you work for them you may know. I was on a trail crew and we hiked and worked 2-7 miles of trail a day at 7500-9000 feet above sea level. My station where I lived during the week is at 8156 and that’s where I lifted 4 days a week. I needed to maintain mass (205ish) and gain strength so that I wouldn’t be too far behind when fall track training started, and I found that short, high intensity workouts followed by mass food worked very well for that situtation. Man, my workouts at 2500 feet were awesome in those days, oxygen for days. I continued the short intense workouts into the fall and that is when I first benched 375 and weighed 218. I managed to get to a kinda fat 238 while at Claremont, but after I graduated I stopped lifting for 8 months and dropped to 195. If I don’t train I just get "thin". At the time I just didn’t want to do it any more. I missed it though; so 3 decent years  training later, here I am. Can’t wait for the next lift.

Anyway I hope I didn’t bore anybody too bad, and maybe somebody can get something from this. Laters.

Warmups

Dumbbell Row

100×10

162×8

172×4

100×15

Weighted Chins

+90×8

+135×3

Wide Grip Pullups

12

10

Stiff Arm Pressdown

70×15

2 @ 60×15

I finally have a training partner again. This is great because now I can finally push my pressing workouts and build some big strength again.  Its been about 4 years since I’ve had a good training partner and my bench has lagged along because of it. As long as this works out I feel like I finally will be able to get past 400.

 Warmups

Bench

245×10

275×6

315×3

205×11

Incline D.B. Flye

60×10

50×17

40×15

Cable Crossover Superset w/ Front Raise

100×15/30xfailure

80×15/30xfailure

Dips

Double Drop Set

90×7/45×7/Bodyweightx7
 

Well got my last lift in for the week. My legs are getting their first week off in at least eight weeks and I think they will thank me for it next week. Have a great holiday weekend everybody.

Warmups

Dumbbell Military

85×12

100×7

Lateral Raise

40×10

50×10

Bent Over Laterals

35×12

45×10

Upright Row

135×8

155×6

Cable Lateral Raise

40xfailure

Today was a good workout, so good that I managed to kick my ass in 9 sets instead of the usual 14 or so.

Warmups

Pulldowns

2 @ 316×6

200×15

Dumbbell Row

162×6

182×5

100×18

Wide Grips Pullups

Bdywgtx15

Bdywgtx12

Machine Row

Double Drop Set

Stackx6;#16×6;#12×6

 I had this question posed to me recently so here ya go:

"What is your opinion on deadlifts? I have done deadlifts in the past but I always did them on leg day for my legs. Everything I see and read now talks about deadlifts for your back. Do they mean lats or lower back? I see how it works the lower back, that is obvious. I do stiff leg for the hams but would not mind adding (regular)deadlifts in for overall strength. What is the scoop with this exercise? I know how to perform the lift but just not sure how best to apply it. Both back and legs each have their own day once a week in my workout schedule."
When talking about using the deadlift to develop the back, the erector spinae (lumbar) are what are being hit primarily. The lats and traps do get used quite a bit though, especially in the top half of the movement. If you really focus on a rep or two, I think you’ll find that you notice your lats and traps are actually under considerable strain from right around the knees to the lockout out at the top, this strain of course shifting more from the lats to the traps as you near vertical.

My best way to answer how to implement deads into your training is rotation. I too had to add deads to my regimen after a few years of training with out them and then realizing how important they are. When I did this I didn’t want to drop stuff from my program that was working but I didn’t want to overtrain either so this is what I came up with:

If it is leg day and I want to focus on heavy squats, I may do stiff legged deads for my hamstrings but I probably (99% definitely) won’t go heavy. If my leg workout is going to be more hack or leg press oriented I will do either heavy full deads or stiff deads. My reasoning behind this is to protect my lower back from injury and overtraining. If you squat heavy and deadlift heavy in the same workout, I believe that your lower back gets way overworked and this could cause an injury from just being tired and letting your back round too much. The majority of adults suffer from low back pain, myself included on occasion, and I see no reason to add to it.

I may however deadlift heavy and squat heavy in the same week. That is dependent on my back day. If my point is not to just hammer on my upper back I like using either partial or full deadlifts on these days. Fits really well and if you have a day or two in between legs and back workouts your lower back will be in great shape to deadlift.

To sum it up I try to do the bulk of my dead lifting training around legs, and do the more supplemental dead training on my back days. Those are pretty much the days that I really feel I need to get in a good deadlifting session or the days that I just need to emphasize my lower back over my upper. I hope this helps.

I couldn’t pick a part to train today. Nothing in my upper body was really ready for a specific workout, and today was definitely not a day for legs. I needed a little improvisation I guess, so here is what the day was.

Warmups

Racks Deads

405×5

495×5

585×5

675×1

705×1

Shrugs

495×8

405×10

225×35

Machine Military

Stackx6 as explosively as possible

Farmers Walk

2 @ 100×200feet

Barbell Wrist Curl

115×8

135×8

Wrist Extension (Dumbbell)

25×12

30×12 superset w/ reverse curls to failure

Dumbbell Shrugs

2 @ 100xfailure

All in all it was a good work out and a really nice change.

Today was somewhat disappointing because I thought I was gonna have a spotter and I didn’t. Damn it.

Watmups

Bench

225×12

275×3

315×3

275×3

250×8

225×8

Dumbbell Incline

2 @ 100×6

Cable Crossovers Superset w/ Front Raise

70×20/30xfailure

100×20/30xfailure

120×12/30xfailure

Dips superset w/ Chest Press Machine

Bodyweightx25/#10xfailure