Training Log: July

 

My.body.is.wrecked. 

 

It’s the good kind of wrecked but wrecked nonetheless. I just finished up a 4 week cycle of a mix of heavy/volume training weeks on the main lifts and some high volume super sets of bodybuilding, with some light or band work circuits.  It got the job done, considering the job currently is to feel good and hopefully (slowly) build some muscle and change body composition. Considering how beat up I’m feeling, I am going to finish this cycle off with a deload/recovery/cardio week.  

 

I did a little something different with my back squats this cycle, which was kinda fun/terrible.  It’s a good mix up to a traditional volume rep scheme, so try it out if you’re ever feeling bored or stuck in your training:

 

	Week 1	Week2	Week 3	Week4
Sqwwaat	Find 12 rep max	5×2@ heavy	2 reps at 12 rep max, rest :10, do 3 reps rest :10, do 5 reps rest :10, do 10 reps, repeat 1x in reverse order	5×1@ heavy

 

First, find your 12 rep max back squat.  This ended up being roughly around 70% of my 1 rep max.  I did 3-4 sets before I called it but realistically I probably had around 5 maaaaybe 10lbs left in the tank.  Week 3 ends up being 40 reps at your 12 rep max weight, broken up into two sets.  Warm up to your 12 rep max weight and perform 2 reps/rest :10, 3 reps/rest :10, 5 reps/rest :10, and finish the set with 10 reps.  Rest as long as needed (I think I rested around 5 minutes to feel fully recovered) then repeat in the opposite order.  Perform 10 reps/rest :10, 5 reps/rest :10, 3 reps/rest :10 and finish the set with 2 reps.  Volume at moderate weight is my wheelhouse so this felt not-so-terrible, but my posterior chain the following days would not agree with that statement. 

 

It was also nice mixing in some heavy days as I haven’t spent much time lately squatting anything heavy.  My heavy days, as opposed to my volume days, felt terrible. I was, to put it simply, scared. The bar felt so SO heavy and I was worried I would just crumble under the weight of it or worse, get injured.  It was a humbling reminder that lifting is not just about strength but also confidence and experience. 

7/12

Building is the goal. Some weak points need to be built and others would be fun to push. My training approach for my upper and lower days are a little different. I will break down my log into Upper and Lower to better describe what I plan on doing. Most if not all the training that I program for myself is experimental. This helps be a better coach and is really fun. 

 

Upper goals:

 

Big traps, shoulders and biceps. Biceps that more resemble mountains than arms. This is purely for fun. No real bench or strength goals for my upper body as of right now. Luckily right now there are no upper body injuries or any pain to speak of. I will treasure this moment for as long as I can. So I am just going to do what I want. I want to not be able to fit in doorways because my shoulders are so large, so how do I plan to accomplish this? With these exercises…

 

1. Captain Kirk Upright Rows 
2. Farmer carries
3. Seated cleans 
   1. I have never used these in training but I stole them from a Jim Wendler article. (Look up an old picture of Jim and you’ll see that his traps barely stayed in his shirt.)

 

Now for the shoulders. I have never done a lot of direct shoulder work. My overhead press is rather unimpressive. Which is great since I have something to work on and only get better. But I want to throw more bodybuilding stuff in.

 

Shoulder exercises:

1. Lateral raises (Relatively heavy)
2. LOTS of rear delt’s 
   1. Banded rear delts  are my favorite right now 
3. Incline Barbell Front raises 

 

Lower Goals:

 

Hamstrings all day. I plan to throw some bodybuilding tactics in like supersets, drop sets, and some more machines than I usually do. My hamstrings are weak so it’s time to make sure they catch up to the rest of me.  I have always hit two lower body days with one being more squat focused and the other being more deadlift focused. My deadlift day would involve some direct hamstring work, but not so much on my squat day. 

 

NOW I plan for both days to be hamstring driven. For example on squats I plan to widen my stance to fully hit the hamstrings while super setting with Fatbell or Dumbbell stiff leg DL’s. This combination allows me to feel the hamstring throughout the squat movement. So exercise choices will include:

 

1. Slow eccentric stiff leg DL
2. Machine hamstring curls 
   1. Single leg
   2. Slow eccentric 
   3. 20 reps 
3. GHR (Glute Hamstring Raise)
   1. Slow eccentric
4. Wide stance leg press 

 

I’m looking forward to this change of pace and excited to have some fun with new challenges in terms of my own training. 

Lindsey’s Training Log

 

We recently had the “goal-setting conversation” as a staff – something we hadn’t done for a long time. Coming up with work-related goals was easy (there are a lot of things I’m excited to get under way in order to make UF a more efficient place) and I already knew I had the general goal of prioritizing getting my health back in order, but I didn’t have anything specific down for training. 

 

I haven’t done a meet since early 2018, but I’ve been starting to get the itch. I’ve also been really enjoying running again. So naturally, I found a goal that would let me do both! 

 

End of 2019 Training Goal:  compete in both a powerlifting meet AND run a half marathon… in 48 hours.

 

Is this a ridiculous goal? Hell yes. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone that isn’t a little crazy. But it’s what I have my heart set on. It’s also secretly something I’ve been thinking about for the past 5 or so years, and I think now is the time to make it happen.

 

I do have some specific numbers in mind for both events, but I’m not getting attached to them. Just getting through both events is the primary aim on my first go at this. 

 

I do have a race on my calendar for September, but I’m looking at that as a tune-up and something I’m doing mostly for fun. My hope is to do this in November – I have two options for meets, but will have fewer options for real races. I may need to do the run solo, just using the official Pittsburgh Half course.

 

Training adjustments

 

My training structure hasn’t changed all that much, just targeting my runs a little bit more. I do all of my strength training during the week, focusing on my heaviest work early in the week, so I can save energy for weekend runs. 

 

Monday – Heavy Bench variation, heavy on the upper body assistance work, maybe some elliptical work

Tuesday – Heavy Squat variation, focus on single leg squat variants for assistance, hard interval run in the evening

Wednesday – REST, mobility, but nothing hard

Thursday – Upper Body Hypertrophy day, with a focus on DB Bench variations and some vanity lifting, followed by a tempo run in the evening

Friday – Deadlift, low volume but high intensity pulls, followed by explosive lower body work

Saturday – Long Run!

Sunday – Recovery run or complete rest

It is June 21^st and I am ending my second week of a new training cycle.  Two weeks is enough time to give feedback into how I am liking this new training style. My main lifts are heavy and light and I am alternating heavy (1-5 reps) one week and light (6-12 reps) the following. The idea is to keep the exercises the same for 4 weeks however, the load changes. This might be more difficult to adapt to and overload on, but I might be able to maintain this cycle for a longer period of time.

 

I enjoy the light weeks because it teaches you to reinforce mechanics, flushes blood through, and provides not only a physical, but also a mental break from heavier loads. And honestly, it feels great training for hypertrophy. The modulation of stress from week to week makes recovery and training days feel more feasible and less taxing. Another spin on this cycle is the addition of cleans and overhead squatting. Both are not in my typical cycles throughout the year however, it’s something I need and want to get better at and not to mention they are both frustrating and a baaalasssta (how the kid’s say ‘blast’ nowadays). Below is probably one of my more favored days.

 

Here is what I did on Thursday:

Sumo DL 3×6 

Hang Power Clean + Front Squat 10x 1 + 2

A1. Cossack Squat 3×8

A2. Belt Squat RDL 3×10

B1. BB Good Mornings 3×15

B2. Landmine Bent Over Row w. Towel 3×8-10

C1. Leg Curl 3x (10 single, 10 together)

C2. AB Roller 3×10

Training log 6/14:

Ryan McUmber

 

After a lot of anticipation to finish my bench cycle with a huge Personal record, I ended it on sort of a dud. The goal was to max out the week after the meet but if anyone saw me at the meet I looked as though I got hit by a bus. A common thing I heard that day was “you look awful.” Thanks. But you were right. 

 

Unfortunately from being sick I lost some weight almost instantly. Which always makes me worried about it effecting my lifts. Usually after losing weight everything feels exponentially heavier. So, being sick forced me into a deload week, where I only benched 135 for 5×3. This is far lighter than I usually do for my deload week. Most of the deloads that I like program usually decrease the volume but not the weight too much. This was sort of drastic since I still felt rough. 

 

The goal for that week was to try to gain some of the weight back and shoot for the stars the next week. But of course none of the weight came back on and I tried to bench heavy anyway but soon realizing that this was a mistake. While warming up I felt every pound of 225 coming down on me while warming up. Which made me come to the conclusion that it wasn’t there that day as bad as I wanted it. 

 

I am partly beating myself thinking about it. Maybe for not pushing it that day or thinking that I should have tried harder to put the weight on. Either way I am here right now and clearly  know that I won’t be able to hit more than 315.

 

So what now?

 

Time to start a brand new journey of 3 months of hypertrophy work, then 1-2 months of strength work, and a tiny little peaking block for my bench to see what I can pull off. 

 

Back to the football bar for reps on reps for the next 3 months. This week was:

 

Football Bar bench: 3×8 with 195 and a chain on each side 2 min rest 

Cluster set: 3x(3x3x3) 125 with a chain on each side. 

The way I do cluster sets is 3 total sets with 1 min in between the larger sets but 30 sec rest between the triples. So do a triple then rack it. Wait for 30 seconds and perform another 3 reps. Repeat a total of three times. 

Inverted Rows: 4×15 with 1 min rest 

Upright rows paused at the top: 4×12

Slow eccentric Tricep Ext.: 4×15 

 

Even though I didn’t hit my ultimate goal. I did 300 for 2 sets of 3 reps. A year ago 300 was my one rep max. I’ll take that. As for my squat and deadlift…absolute disaster’s… both of them, which maybe I’ll touch on in the next training log. 

Training Log: June 

I just finished up a 4-week cycle of circuit training.   Since I am not training for anything specifically, I have the ability to play around with my programming.  Toying around with programming is fun for me because A: it keeps my need for constant variety satisfied and B: it fuels ideas for UF classes. Here are my advantages (and one disadvantage) for this style of training. 

 

Pros:

• Timed rest

This worked so well for me.  I previously found myself falling off towards the end of my sessions so the timed intervals helped me stay focused for the duration of my training session.  It also helped me from getting distracted in between sets, as I tend to talk too much, break out in dance sessions and do silly/ridiculous/probably unsafe things with my training partner. 

• More bang for my buck 

I could jam pack tons of movements and exercises into a short amount of time. Most days I can only fit in an hour workout into my day so this style is great for getting that feel good pump and accomplished feeling.

• Two birds, one stone

Since the rest is short, there is a cardio aspect to this style of training.  Since my metabolic training these days basically consists of what I call “treadmill desk”, I’ll take the cardio anywhere I can get it. 

• Improved body composition

Part of this is due to my nutrition, as I’m currently in a (purposeful) caloric deficit but I am down almost 5lbs since starting this cycle. I feel leaner, with minimal strength loss. 

Con:

• Less ability to progressively overload

By sets 3 and 4, I am feeling pretty fatigued and instead of being able to increase weight, I find myself stalling out.  Less progressive overload means less strength gains, so I am planning my next cycle around fixing this issue. 

Here is the 4-week program I followed.  AM #powerful classes got a little taste of the circuits during their deload week last cycle.  If you try this out yourself, find a weight that is challenging but manageable for 8+ reps during the circuit.  Set up the clock to count the intervals & rest periods (don’t know how to set the clock? Ask me, I’ll show ya!) If it is a single sided exercise, make sure to perform the work intervals per side. Have fun! 

 

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Incline Bench	4×8-10	4×8-10	4×8-10	4×8-10
A1. Floor Press	:30/:30 x 3 sets	:35/:25 x 3 sets	:30/:30 x 4 sets	:35/:25 x 4 sets
A2. Tricep ext
A3. Seated FB shoulder press
A4. FB Lat Pullover
B1. Cable Facepulls
B2. Cable Biceps Curls
B3. Inverted Rows
B4. Bench Dips
AB Finisher
Squat	4×10	4×10	4×8	4×8
A1. Bulgarian SS	:30/:30 x 3 sets	:35/:25 x 3 sets	:30/:30 x 4 sets	:35/:25 x 4 sets
A2. Step up
A3. Standing windmills
B1. Heel elevated close stance goblet sq.	:30/:30 x 3 sets	:35/:25 x 3 sets	:30/:30 x 4 sets	:35/:25 x 4 sets
B2. Back ext. glute focus
B3. Cable Pull Throughs
Leg Finisher: Park loop lunge
Standing OHP	4×10	4×10	4×8	4×8
A1. Lean away cable lateral raise	:30/:30 x 3 sets	:35/:25 x 3 sets	:30/:30 x 4 sets	:35/:25 x 4 sets
A2. Seated KB Curls
A3. Cable Rope OH Tri Ext.
A4. Banded Pulls Ups
B1. EZ Bar Upright Row	:30/:30 x 3 sets	:35/:25 x 3 sets	:30/:30 x 4 sets	:35/:25 x 4 sets
B2. Reverse pec deck
B3. Chest Supported High Incline FB Rows
B4. Incline Lateral Raise Hold
AB Finisher
Deadlift	4×8	4×8	4×6	4×6
A1. Staggered Stance RDL’s	:30/:30 x 3 sets	:35/:25 x 3 sets	:30/:30 x 4 sets	:35/:25 x 4 sets
A2. Stallion Squats
A3. GHR’s
A4. Calves on Leg Press
B1. Leg Press	:30/:30 x 3 sets	:35/:25 x 3 sets	:30/:30 x 4 sets	:35/:25 x 4 sets
B2. Wide Grip Cable Row
B3. Cable Standing Leg Curl
B4. FB SA Rows
AB Finisher

This past weekend, June 1st and 2nd, was the third installment of the Iron City Open. It was a successful, rain free weekend that brought about 100 lifters together from all over the northeast (and further) along with the USPA Ohio/Michigan based crew, the Union Fitness family, and the Pitt Powerlifting Team.

 

I don’t have all of the results or details in front of me, so I’m shooting from the hip here. But some highlights from the Union Fitness lifters-

 

Mariah Sanchez– first meet and hit some flawless looking deadlifts!

 

Steph Stahovic– first meet and squatted and deadlifted over 300lbs!

 

Robyn Greer– finally hit her 264lb deadlift!

 

Catlyn Brooke– hit a huge PR deadlift at 248lbs!

 

Leah Jakaitis– came back to the platform with no training and still had a great day!

 

Luke Koval– injury free day!

 

Ian Hunter- first meet and took second in his weight class!

 

Doug Upton– did not have the day that he wanted but was all smiles and looking forward to the next one.

 

Justin Zak– hit a couple PR’s and keeps building his total meet after meet!

 

Bill Henderson– learned that squats and deads are as much fun as benching! Huge squat PR for Bill!

 

Eddy Jones– 500lb deadlift!!

 

Coach CJ– first meet, Ceej took a cross country road trip the week before the meet and I think he was still feeling it on Sunday. Great first meet dude!

 

Richard Lewis– hit some heavy paused squats and had a great meet 😉

 

Cody Nyegard– big bench and deadlift PR!

 

Larry O’Donnell– Larry and I had a heart to heart. We’re going to spend a lot more time together in the coming months. Great effort and great passion. Keep working big man.

 

Marco Rigazio– old man Marco had a tough training cycle leading up to the meet but he held it together like a veteran and finished strong!

 

Alex Johnson– he had a strong meet and left it all on the platform, literally.

 

We’ll have a full recap soon. Great work guys!