Pushing

Chris Spealler

Pressing day, last minute decided to do decline bench press as the power cage was in use, I kind of forgot about this exercise.

Decline Bench Press - 3, 3, 3, 3, 3........185, 205, 215, 225, 235

Incline DB Bench Press - 5, 5, 5, 5, 6.........70s, 75s, 80s, 80s, 70s

For time
30 Weighted Dips - 25
50 Pushups
Time: 11:38

Reverse Grip Pushdowns - 3x10......80 on all sets

Felt like a really good workout today, I completely forgot I was even sick.  Felt strong on the decline bench, 235 is my max I didn't want to try heavier as I haven't done it in a while, so I was glad I still could get 235 for 3 reps.  Part 3 wasn't too bad, I like adding weight to these pushup and dip routines I come up with.

Legs

Myself, full squat depth

The above picture shows true hamstring to calf depth, which I did on the front squat portion.  Today is leg day, which sucks, it's also Sunday, which I dislike working out on, on top of that I am sick, but meh no reason not to punish myself :).  My times however do feel much slower than what they should be, my energy was very very low coming into the workout, stupid head cold, but unless I am on my death bed I rarely skip a workout.

Elevated Reverse Lunges - 3, 3, 3, 3, 3.......95. 115, 135, 145, 155

For time
50 Front Squats - 135
time: 12:28 (wow that seems slow)

Next part was interesting, I decided to rotate through 2 exercises as many times as I could till my dad finished his bike workout, he said just a few minutes.....it wasn't just a few minutes, turned into this.
5 Jump Squats - 95
10 Squats
8 rounds in 10:58

After the slow front squats I was so tired, but I had to keep going, my dad found it very comical that I was basing the finishing parts of my workout on his, he didn't know till after he said he got engrossed in a good article in his magazine and lost track of time, lucky me.  The rest of the workout was not bad, my front squats did feel slow, I had an interruption to spot someone at 25 reps, oh well.  Elevated reverse lunges are a great exercise, haven't done them in a while, the elevation allows for a much deeper ROM.

Conditioning

Myself on over the box jumps

I'll start by saying the above picture surprised me, one day while doing these I was told I was clearing the steps by a long shot, I guess this picture proves it, the height of this is 10 risers plus the step, later in the workout I tested a bit higher.  Also I have no clue why I grabbed my knees in this shot, I don't usually perform this exercise that way.

I wanted to revisit another old routine, my previous time was 15:45, here is how it went.

21-15-9 reps for time of
Hang Squat Cleans (to parallel) - 95
Burpees
Box Jumps - 24 inches
Bench Supported Lateral Hops - 16 inch bench (only count left side)
Time: 14:05

Awesome, happy with improvement, my legs were hating me for this one and my lungs were on fire, which was the same feeling last time, cept being 1 minute and 40 seconds faster makes it feel all the better.  I followed this routine with an interesting test, nothing timed, here's how it went.

Perform 2 over the box jumps (one there, one back) and perform a single burpee, that is all one rep, peform 5 reps.

Set 1 - Height of box - 24 inches, or 10 risers plus step (easy, this is what I'm used to)
Set 2 - Height of box - 28 inches, or 12 risers plus step (once I got the confidence after the first 2 reps I was fine)
Set 3 - Height of box, 32 inches, or 14 risers plus step (I felt a bit nervous here and was convinved this was as high as I'd go, 32 inches is not only my highest over the box jumps, but higher than what I've used for regular box jumps, I had Eric watch one rep and he convinced me to add one more.

The last set I took out the burpees, just so I could focus on the step, it was 15 risers, or 34 inches, I just wanted to try 5 reps.   Rep 1 went good, rep 2 and 3 were technical fails, but not to worry when I said fail I mean I landed on top of the bench (I didn't crash), not on the other side so it wasn't complete.  Reps 4 and 5 were also fine, now I'm tempted to test my max box jump height, hopefully I don't eat the floor one of these days.

Pulling

Strength coach Tony Gentilcore

Sore in most places today except my back, so lets work that.

Wide-Grip Pullups - 5xmax reps.......14, 12, 9, 9, 8

Wide Netral Grip Cable Row - 4x7.........120 on all sets

5 Rounds for time
5 Chest to Bar Chinups
10 Inverted Rows
Time: 11:06

Preacher Curl - 5, 5, 5.........60, 70, 80(4)

My pulling must have improved last time I went for max rep wide pullups I got a total of 46 reps, today I got 52, and it was a 7am workout as well.  Part 3 was interesting, this has happened before at this time but I completely spaced out, I don't mind as much when it's during the strength portion but during something timed it sucks a little more.  Right after my fourth round, I'm not sure how long I rested but it was longer than expected, it did make my last round the fastest minus the first one.  Did feel like a good workout though.

The picture posted is of a high respected strength coach, I've learned a lot of techniques from him that show up sometimes when designing my own training.

Pushing

Everyone knows who this is

Press day, felt good today

DB Shoulder Press - 5, 5, 4, 4, 4..........55s, 60s, 65s, 70s, 70s(3)

For time
50 Bench Press - 135
Everytime you set the bar down, perform 10 pushups
Time: 14:32

Shoulder to Overhead - 25x50s (broke into 4 sets)

Kneeling Rope Pushdowns - 3x10.........80 on all sets

I am pleased I was able to get the 70s on my own, this morning it was mainly females working out so I couldn't go up.  If I did I would have tried the 75s and gotten a hand off, meaning a start from the top which is easier, still happy with how the weights went.  Part 2 was hard, I've done it before and it took me 15:25 back then, so I'm happy with the improvement.  Last time I needed 6 breaks, same with this time so I must have moved a bit a quicker between sets.  Part 3 was interesting, the 50s is a weight I can handle pretty comfortably normally, trying it after part 2 was almost comical my arms barely worked and those 50s felt much heavier.  Good workout!

Legs

My last few leg days have gone really well, and today was no exception.  This time I decided to not do a timed portion and more of a performance thing, which I have been doing with my upper body sessions more.  This just means going for max reps, which for legs can be very mentally challenging.

DB Bulgarian Split Squats - 3, 3, 3, 3, 3........70s, 75s, 80s, 85s, 90s

Front Squats - 5xmax reps at 135.......10, 8, 8, 7, 7

Back Squats - 4xmax reps at 135........20, 15, 12, 12

Leg Extension - 200x50 (broken into 4 sets)

On paper it looks decent, in workout it was very tough.  I am very pleased with how the split squats have progressed, I checked my old workout logs and it wasn't terribly long ago that my set ended at the 70s, now it's starting with the 70s so I am very pleased, having said that the 90s were flipping heavy.  On rep 5 of set one of the front squats I switched to the crossed armed grip, I got no real reason to do the clean grip I'm not an olympic lifter.  The first set of back squats was hell, I so wanted to set it down at 15, then even more at 18, at 20 that weight couldn't get off my back quick enough.  The next 3 sets were more of the same.  Didn't go heavy on the squatting exercises so all were hamstring to calf, nothing else.

Conditioning

Today I decided to re-visit an old conditioning routine performed a little while back, here what was the comments I wrote about it then;

"legs hurt, shoulders hurt, lungs were on fire, one of the harder ones"

So I knew it'd be tough, also I only used a 20 kg KB because this was before our gym had 24 kg, which for a workout like this I'd normally use.

AMRAP in 20 minutes
2 Curtis P's - 95
5 Burpees
8 KB Swings - 20 kg
Score: 11 + 1 Burpee

Hyperextenstions - 3x10.....BW
Legs Elevated Ab move - 3x10 (per side)

6-10 minutes of stretching

Old score was 10 rounds even, so just over 11 rounds may not seem like a huge increase but when I finished the 10th rounds I checked and saw my time was 17:30, so if I look at it that way it's 2:30 faster, which I am happy with.  Oddly the burpees felt like the hardest one, I certainly pushed it to the max on this one, I still hate Curtis P's, I really really do.

For the record, a Curtis P is a hang squat clean (to parallel), front lunge for each leg, then push press, that all consitutes one rep.  2 reps is such a small number but each rep is 4 movements on it's own.