Torture Training

Log - 2010/12/07

2010-12-08T11:50:00.000-06:00

Blending Size and Strength

Week 1/12 - Day 2/4
Tuesday: Light Lower Body and Abs

Unilateral leg press
   1x25 with 45lbs
   1x20 with 45lbs
   1x15 with 90lbs
Dumbbell stiff leg deadlift
   3x12 with 30lb dumbbells
Barbell walking lunge
   2x30 was called for in the program. I was using the bar and was only able to do:
   1x30
   1x16
Seated calf raise
   3x20 with 45lbs
Crunch
   3xfailure (failure ended up being ~18 crunches)

Goal next week is to complete all sets and reps as called for by the program. I did better in this one than in yesterday's, but was still unable to complete the day.

Upper body still sore from yesterday, lower body already feeling sore by the time I went to bed.

On another note, got PowerDrive in from Biotest. Used it before this workout, feel that it helped me to complete what I did, as I felt more energized and focused when I got there. Other supplementation is the same as it has been.

Log - 2010/12/06

2010-12-08T11:39:00.000-06:00

Exam Week

This week is the week of exams at school, so my schedule is really crazy, and on top of that, I have to fit in time for last minute studying.

Even so, I've felt motivated over the weekend to start actually doing something instead of going into the gym and prety much just going through the motions like I have been. So, even though this is finals week, I decided to go ahead and start a program.

If you read any of the old posts on this blog, this program will sound familiar, as it's the Blending Size and Strength program from Testosterone Nation, developed by Dr. Clay Hyght. When I've done this program in the past I've noticed gains very quickly, as well as feeling like I had my butt kicked in the gym.

So, without further ado, today's workout:

Week 1/12, Day 1/4
Monday: Heavy Upper Body

Barbell bench press
   Warmup with 2x5 with 155 lbs
   6x3 (6 sets of 3 reps) with 175lbs
T-bar row
   6x3 with 125lbs
Standing barbell shoulder press
   5x5 with 95lbs
Pull-up
   5x5, I was unable to complete all the reps in this, I ended up doing:
   3x5 with Bodyweight-25lbs (~205lbs)

The program also calls for these exercises:
Skullcrusher 3x5
Barbell curl 3x5

I was unable to continue after the pull-ups, and had to leave. I felt like I was going to throw up after all that, and could barely move.

My shoulder was aching pretty bad for the rest of the day, not a pain like a normally have, but a sore type of pain, and I was sore all over by the end of the day.

Next week's goal is to try the workout again with the same weights and try to complete it.

Log - 2010/11/30

2010-12-08T11:27:00.000-06:00

Weightlifting Class

Woke up really early today and couldn't sleep, ended up tired throughout the rest of the day. ALso ended up showing up to class 30 minutes early.

Leg Press:
   1x24 with 90lbs
   1x20 with 180lbs
   1x12 with 270lbs
   2x8 with 360lbs

Took a nap in the afternoon

Log - 2010/11/29

2010-12-08T11:25:00.000-06:00

Racquetball class today. Played for about 45 minutes. It wasn't actual game play, but just playing around hitting the ball, which still consisted of quite a bit of running. Ended up quite winded in the end.

Log - 2010/11/18

2010-11-18T17:38:00.000-06:00

Weightlifting:

Just did leg press today, spent a lot of time on it though, felt really good afterwards, besides the having trouble with stairs part. Anyways, breaking it down:

Leg Press:
   1x32 with 90lbs
   1x28 with 180lbs
   1x16 with 270lbs
   2x8 with 360lbs
   1x4 with 450lbs
   1x6 with 450lbs

I haven't put 450lbs on anything in a long time. Felt good. Real good.

On an unrelated note, my shoulder's been acting up all day. Dull pain. Hope it goes away soon.

Log - 2010/11/17

2010-11-17T17:43:00.001-06:00

Racquetball class:

Two games, ended the doubles tournament. Played for about 50 minutes straight. Lots of running, not much winning.

Log - 2010/11/16

2010-11-16T18:24:00.000-06:00

Weightlifting:

Incline bench press:
   1x10 with 95lbs
   1x5 with 115lbs
   5x5 with 125lbs

Leg Press:
   1x24 with 90lbs
   1x20 with 180lbs
   1x16 with 270lbs
   2x12 with 360lbs

Log 2010/11/11

2010-11-15T17:05:00.000-06:00

Weightlifting:

Leg Press:
     180lbs for 16
     270lbs for 12
     360lbs for 8 (2x)

Lat Pulldown (underhand grip)
     1x{5, 5, 5, 5}
     - Total: 20 reps
     - Weight: 170lbs

Dumbbell Bench Press
     1x{5, 5, 5, 5}
     - Total: 20 reps
     - Weight: 65lb dumbbells
     - Warmup: 50lb dumbbells for 10 reps

Log - 2010/11/15

2010-11-15T14:57:00.000-06:00

Racquetball Class:

Played two games, back to back. We're in a doubles tournament (in class) right now, and we won one game and lost the other. I ended up doing a lot of running around, because my partner is incompetent and won't hustle to get to the ball.

After that walked a little, not sure if the rest of the day will bring more exercise, but I doubt it.

Log - 2010/11/10

2010-11-10T16:00:00.000-06:00

Racquetball Class:

Played two games today, lost both. Did quite a bit of running around in them though.

Log - 2010/11/09

2010-11-09T16:09:00.007-06:00

Weightlifting:

Deadlift:
     1x{9, 8, 8, 8, 8}
     - Total: 41 reps
     - Weight: 155lbs

Decline Dumbbell Bench Press (neutral grip)
     1x{8, 8, 9, 8, 8}
     - Total: 41 reps
     - Weight: 50lb dumbbells

Lat Pulldown (neutral grip)
     1x{8, 8, 8, 8, 8}
     - Total: 40 reps
     - Weight: 140lbs

Log 2010/11/08

2010-11-08T17:46:00.002-06:00

Racquetball Class:

Spent about 35 minutes playing. We started a doubles tournament today, and we won our game.

Other than this, I've done a good bit of walking today, but haven't had time to make it to the gym other that for class.

Log - 2010/11/01

2010-11-01T18:42:00.000-05:00

Racquetball Class:

Spent about 30 minutes playing today, wasn't as hard of playing as I've been doing though.

Other:

Lots of walking, more so than normal. Have a dog (Ollie) with me this week, and he's keeping me fairly active.

Log 2010/10/26

2010-10-26T11:07:00.000-05:00

Weightlifting Class:

   Cable Row (Straight Bar, horizontal grip): 1x5 with 120lbs
   1x5 with 140lbs
   5x5 with 150lbs
   Lat Pulldown: 1x6 with 120lbs
   1x6 with 140lbs
   4x6 with 150lbs
   Cable Row (Close Grip; Vertical): 4x5 with 120lbs
   Hammer Curls: 1x10 with 25lb dumbbells for each arm

In other news, I've been feeling slightly sick lately.

Log 2010/10/25

2010-10-25T18:22:00.000-05:00

Racquetball class:

Do to being out of the tournament, there was not a chance for me to play racquetball today. So, I lifted weights during class instead.

   Rack Pulls: 1x8 with 135lbs
   Deadlift: 1x5 with 135lbs
   4x5 with 185lbs

Log - 2010/10/21

2010-10-24T20:08:00.000-05:00

Weightlifting Class:

   Leg Press: 1x8 with 90lbs
   1x8 with 180lbs
   4x8 with 270 lbs
   Reverse Hyper: 5x5 with 50lbs
   Lunges: 2x10 per leg with 30lb dumbbells in each hand.

Log - 2010/10/20

2010-10-20T13:20:00.000-05:00

Racquetball class:

Played about 20 minutes, to finish up the game started on Friday. I lost, but had a good time, and got a good 20 minutes of sprinting in.

After that, there wasn't anything for me to do in class, so I went upstairs to lift:

Bench Press: 3x8 with 135lbs for speed

Seated overhead press: 1x10 with 30lb dumbbells, 2x5 with 40lb dumbbells

Incline Press: 2x5 with 40lb dumbbells

Incline Press (with less steep incline): 2x5 with 40lb dumbbells

Bench Press: 2x5 with 40lb dumbbells

Everything after the initial bench press was done as one big superset, with minimal rest between sets.

Log - 2010/10/18 - 2010/10/19

2010-10-19T22:55:00.000-05:00

Monday:

Racquetball class, no play time.

No time to make it into the gym outside of class.

Tuesday:

Weightlifting:

The gym bought a Reverse Hyper machine, made by Westside Barbell. I've always wanted to try one of these, so I tried it today. It is very difficult, and will take a lot of getting used to, but I love it.

Reverse Hyper: 5x5 with 50lbs, held at top for as long as possible on each rep
Dips: 4x5 bodyweight

Log - 2010/10/13 - 2010/10/14

2010-10-19T18:30:00.000-05:00

Wednesday:

Racquetball class: Continued in-class tournament by playing one game. Lasted about 30 minutes, and we didn't finish.

Thursday:

Weightlifting:

   Pull-ups: 3x1 with bodyweight
   Pull-ups (eccentrics) : 4x3 with bodyweight (jumped to top, and lowered self slowly for each rep)
   Cable Row: 4x6 with 80 lbs
   Hammer curls: 8x3 with 30 lb dumbbells
   Face pulls: 10x3 with 30 lbs (on cable row machine)

Log - 2010/10/11 - 2010/10/12

2010-10-13T15:24:00.000-05:00

Monday (10/11/2010)

-Racquetball class, played for about 45 minutes, ended up running around much more than in most games. Very winded by the end of it.

Tuesday (10/12/2010)

- Weightlifting class
   - Dips: 6x4 with bodyweight
   - Bench press: 3x8 with 135lbs
   - Dumbbell flyes: 3x8 with 30lb dumbbells

Log - 2010/10/04 - 2010/10/08

2010-10-08T18:27:00.000-05:00

Due to the amount of work I had to do for school, I didn't have much time to get workouts in this week, and the only time I spent at the gym was for my classes. Even this didn't really work out as planned though.

Monday:

Racquetball class. Showed up early and ended up playing for about 1hr15min

Tuesday:

Weightlifting class. We had a lecture, which took up the entire time, then had to get to my other classes.

Wednesday:

Racquetball again. Played for about 45 minutes.

Thursday:

Weightlifting. Once more we didn't have time to do any actual lifting. We had a lecture, followed by a test.

Friday:

No phys. ed. classes, no time to get a workout in.

Since this isn't a game weekend, maybe I can get something done this weekend.

Log - 2010/10/04

2010-10-04T19:52:00.000-05:00

Today I wasn't able to get a second workout in at the gym, so I just did it here at the house.

This morning:

Racquetball class, consisted of about 30 minutes of playing, since the lectures at the beginning were longer than normal.

This afternoon/evening

Planks: 4 for 2 minutes each
Push-Ups: 50 (total)

Log - 2010/10/01

2010-10-01T17:01:00.000-05:00

First off, I've felt really pumped and energetic all day. This feeling needs to continue.

This morning, after my first (and only) [real] class of the day, I went to the gym to get my daily dose of racquetball practice in. I brought my headphones and phone with me today, and listened to Pandora the whole time, and it made the 45 minutes go by extremely fast, I thought I had only been played for about 15, even though I was so exhausted.

I found that I was a lot more consistent with my playing today, which is good. Consistency has always been my problem in tennis, and it's been a problem in racquetball as well. This daily practice seems to be helping a lot.

After my lab, I went back to the gym to get some lifting in. Since I didn't feel that yesterday's lifting really did much for me (really, I was just pumped and wanted to train lower body again), I did basically the same workout.

Squats: 5x5 with 135lbs (focusing on really pushing out of the hole, going for speed on each lift, really got my heart pumping)

Rack Pulls: 3x5 with 225lbs

Rack Pulls: 1x8 with225lbs (used straps for this one, my hands were tired. The straps allowed me to really pull with all I had and get a few more reps out)

Excited to see what next week holds for my training.

Log - 2010/09/30

2010-09-30T22:27:00.000-05:00

Today's weight lifting class didn't really consist of much. Here's how I spent my time:

Squats: 5x5 with 135lbs
Rack Pulls: 4x5 with 225lbs

I never have liked squats. Really need to do them more often.

This evening, after dinner, I went back to the gym, and got some racquetball practice in. I played for about an hour, and was thoroughly exhausted by the end of it. I plan to continue this daily practice as long as I can, hopefully I can keep it up until the tournament in a few weeks.

The "1000lb Club" and Racquetball

2010-09-29T21:41:00.000-05:00

At the gym a few weeks ago, I noticed some new things on the bulletin boards. The first one that caught my eye was a new "contest" that the campus recreation department is doing. The goal is to list 1000lbs combined in three lifts. The lifts are the classic bench press, squat, and deadlift that are staples in all powerlifting competitions.

There is also a "500lb club" that the rules state is for women, but since I first saw the board, they've added quite a few more pictures, most of them for the "500lb club" and all of them are men. I'm not sure what's going on there, but they got their 500 lbs in two lifts, bench press and their choice of squat or deadlift.

Before I stopped lifting for a while, I had a total of around 800 lbs for the three lifts, which I feel is very respectable, especially considering I did it at 17. Since then I've lost a lot of strength, but I hope this program stays around for a while, because I'd like to try it out. It'll take time, but I know I can do it.

As a side note, one of the people listed as having done at least 500lbs over two lifts had 185lbs for their deadlift, and I believe 335 as their bench. This is terrible. The only reason your bench press should be stronger than your deadlift is being paralyzed from the waist down. I mean, if you can bench over 1000 lbs, it's understandable that your deadlift might not be as high, as you've devoted your life to having the highest bench press weight in the world. At these weights though, I find that completely unacceptable. People just don't train their legs enough. They don't train them because most people don't enjoy leg workouts, they're hard, and they'd rather have a huge upper body. News flash: Try and show off around any real muscle-heads and you'll get laughed at for not training your legs nearly as much as your upper body.

In other news, there will be a racquetball tournament on campus in a few weeks. Apparently the winners in the past have always been in the racquetball class for the semester. I hold no illusions as to my skills in racquetball, but if I can, I plan on participating in the tournament, for fun and the extra play time it will give me. Winning, or even doing really well, would be awesome, but I'm not going to set myself up for disappointment there.