foggymountainmuscle Posted September 15, 2004 Author Share Posted September 15, 2004 09-14-04 Looks like my training partner was hanging out with some potential girlfriend when it came time to go lift. I would do anything for love, but I won't do that. Lower Body Rock Bottom Front Squats 5 sets of 5 at 135, 205, 230, 235, and 240lbs. I've started to realize I feel I can do more weight on 5x5 for some exercises, like these front squats, other exercises, like bench, I will keep the 3 working sets the same weight. I did some 1/2 front squats with 275 for three and 295 for 4. Probably could have done more but a guy was waiting on the power rack and my legs felt fried and I felt like collasping. Now the drudging hell aspect of a good workout begins. Neck bridge presses with dumbells. 5 reps at 25, 30, 35, and 3 reps at 40 for two sets. Reverse neck bridge with shuffle. 3 sets of 5 with 10 pounds, nice and easy, nothing fast, all painful. I've desribed this exercise before that I came up with, it's a great neck and core exercise. Period. I should be making money of this thing. Calf raises on the plate loaded standing machine. I love this machine, it's not a machine because you use real weight, but I'd seriously consider add this to my future home gym. Did working sets with 270lbs. for 5 and 1 set of 4 and 1 set of 3 at 320lbs. The first of the heavy calf raises gave such a pull it felt like it was going to cramp. Plier Deadlifts. Wrap some wrist straps on a barbell and lift! Worked with some lesser weight but I managed to endure the insanity inducing pain of 1 set of 5, 5 second holds with 75Kg. These pliers had no padding, nor did my hands at the end of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danegarreau Posted September 15, 2004 Share Posted September 15, 2004 Foggy, nice job on those front squats man, those things are no joke man. I have a new found respect for people who can even do those, much less that much weight. How long did it take you to get the form down pat? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meat Loaf Posted September 15, 2004 Share Posted September 15, 2004 I would do anything for love, but I won't do that. That's it. Now we are best friends whether you like it or not! MEAT p.s. thats some REAL good effort in your workouts, man. Carry on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted September 16, 2004 Author Share Posted September 16, 2004 Foggy, nice job on those front squats man, those things are no joke man. I have a new found respect for people who can even do those, much less that much weight.How long did it take you to get the form down pat? I kinda had the form down before a while back, but when front squats started to get heavy, I had much the same problems as you. I liked the Olympic clean grip, but it hurt my wrist to do it, and for me, it was the most comfortable way to cradle the weight without fear of it falling, but I couldn't stand it. Fast forward to the Illinois Record Breakers competition where I got some wrist wraps in a free grab of ATP's Pro Wrist Straps equipment. I have been using them for Olympic lifting and really got away from the front squats, if only because I forgot about them. Your recent ventures at front squats made me remember the time when I did them. Well I put my wrist wraps on during the front squats and now my wrist do not hurt with the Olympic clean grip and I can squat away. I like doing these rock bottom (recovering from a heavy squat clean is an awesome feeling) and don't know how often I'll train them at normal range, but I plan on including front squat partials in my workouts frequently in the future. The static strength of the back plays an important roll in the front squat, more specific, the control of it. Do not let your torso come to far forward, as it will want to when the weight gets heavy. At the same time you do not have to be so straight that it looks like a highbar squat; big weights just can't be handled like that. I am also wearing Olympic lifting shoes with these, you may want to have your heals resting on something about half an inch thick. I didn't go to the gym today but I have some braced bending planned later on this evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danegarreau Posted September 16, 2004 Share Posted September 16, 2004 My friend has a pair of wrist wraps, mabey i will try them tomarrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted September 17, 2004 Author Share Posted September 17, 2004 09-16-04 Upper Body Started off with strict clean and presses, thickbar. Wanted to get 200lbs. normal but I was way off. Missed at a little over 185lbs., which I think I could have done 185 but I didn't care at that point. I found myself to exhausted to do more sets with my usual working weight. So I did prush press and slow negatives with 170lbs. or so. So dissapointing. Moved onto pullups + weight. My working weight was 35lbs. I got five reps first set, 4 the third, and cheated the last three for 5 in the last set. I decided to do some partials with this movement, getting up to breaking away from the floor with an extra 105lbs. for four holding for 4 seconds. The dumbells didn't go higher and I didn't bring my chain belt. Chest press with weight. Used a 25Kg plate with an extra 40lbs. across my loading pin and lifted it with chest compression for 3 sets of 5 reps. Minimal regripping. Regripping makes each rep easier. Did dumbell curls with 45lbs. Couldn't really get more than three, couldn't even make it past 15 degrees. So I did a hard set of negatives for five instead. Softball pinching. I've been wanting to do this for a while and I finally got to try it. Did about 4 singles on each hand starting at 25lbs. working up to 30lbs. I wish I could get more sleep and stop feeling like crap. I think I've had a minor illness for a few days. I hope it goes away because I think it's limiting my recovery and strength and filling my nose with snot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted September 18, 2004 Author Share Posted September 18, 2004 09-17-04 I was hoping to go to the gym tonight but my training partner went home this weekend and the school will not let out out after 6:30 unless you go with somebody else. Whatever, this time it wasn't such a loss, I'll just do that workout tomarrow. I popped of a phone book in a half, which went much smoother than the first time I did it, less page fragments and more true halves. Those darn smooth, thick advertisements midway in these books are a hard barrier, but I refused to take them out. Bleeding from under my thumbnail started, big deal. After this tearing success I moved onto cards. In front of a couple of my friends I got a full deck, longways. I went back to my room and notched half a deck. I put a few layers of duck tape over this notched card and tore a corner, in true corner tearing style. The other side had a tear drop shape to it. I tore half of this piece with the ducktape, left handed mostly. In order to finish her off, the cards were moving and the tape was getting away, I had to dig in and I took a chunk out of my palm below my right thumb. Hereing about the injuries and aches people on this board deal with, I decided I better just press through this. Raw skin and cards: at least I won't get a blister... Moved onto some bending. Didn't do too much because my left wrist wasn't going to be up for it. Holy crap your hands have to be tough to work with cordura. I need to find a better way to wrap or something, but at least my hand toughness is going up. Got a kinked piece of 7" zinc plated steel. I then broke an old length of CRS 3/16". I literally bent it back on itself and it didn't break. After a bit more work I got the ends to cross each other and all I needed to do was pull it off. After that I did some upside down rotations with my big shot balls. Couldn't keep them like that for long but they were haning in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted September 18, 2004 Author Share Posted September 18, 2004 09-18-04 Lower Body Started with deep Romanian deadlifts. Warmed up and did 3 sets of 5 at 315, 325, and 335lbs. Was going to do some partials but after the first set of those I could tell I already overloaded it enough. Next I did standing calf supports on the one calf machine. Now this is the highlight of the workout here: last time I did these I went with 405lbs for 5 seconds for 5 reps for a few sets, and didn't have much more in me. Today I worked up to 680lbs. for 5 seconds! I did a double with this weight. Luckily I knew what I was doing and didn't let the thing to start pushing back on my knee joint and I bailed out when I felt myself start to give. If your core strength has the supporting properties of jello, this will kill you. I think my calves can be considered a load bearing structure at this point. The legiments of my knees and ankles have become much stronger. Went on to some heavy side bends, doing triples. Only got a double on my last set. Let's say the bar I used is 25lbs. so ended with 125lbs. for the last 3 sets. Went back onto the calf raise thing to do some shin supports. Lasted about 10-12 seconds for 3 sets at 320lbs. Cooled down with dumbell cleans, 60lbs. for 10 reps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted September 22, 2004 Author Share Posted September 22, 2004 09-21-04 Grip Warmed up on my filed trainer. Did a few attempted file closes with the #1. I got a deep set on my #2 and went for it and missed by 1/8th of an inch. Good progress, but still a ways to go. I then moved onto strapholds with the IM loading pin on the #1. Did about two of each per hand. I then did some shallow sets on the #2, singles per hand. Then I did a long negative on my PDA grippers, 295 for right, and 280 for left. Did some phone book tearing, couldn't get two phone books and I was just used up I guess, I'm going to take a break on the tearing and let my hands heal up. Did some pinch work with the blob. Couldn't get it to come up so I did 10 presses with the blob for each hand. I then did what I call blob curls, where I get my fingers under the face of the blob with my thumb on the other face and curl it up off the floor. I discovered this when I was trying to use my wrist strength to the utmost to get the blob up. You probably can't do these an equally challenging block weight for yourself if your wrist strength is not strong relative to your pinch. Me and my friend cooled down with some explosive grip catches with a tennis ball wrapped in duck tape that had a hole in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted September 23, 2004 Author Share Posted September 23, 2004 02-22-04 Clean and jerk Keep working on the technique, I got up to 200lbs. for a double. Felt good, felt like I could do more, but I didn't want to strain my elbows like heavy cleans can do to me. I'm taking this slow and do not want to risk injury. After that I moved onto overhead supports. I topped out with 405lbs!!! I couldn't hold this top weight for too long, but I was fully locked out and stopped before it went back down. Cooled down with snatch squats. Not much but I find it defeats the purpose of being explosive if you're too tired to be explosive. Plus it takes a long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mossman Posted September 24, 2004 Share Posted September 24, 2004 dude, foggy man those are some sick numbers in the C&J....to quote the great Rick Walker, i have shitty explosiveness.....i cant touch that. i havent done cleans in months, and i think the best i ever did was 160.....a big problem is my technique, but still....holy shit you are incredible.....hey those OH supports sound interesting, what do they work....obviously abs an back, im assuming tris too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted September 24, 2004 Author Share Posted September 24, 2004 I've pulled out 240lbs. in the C&J before. At the time reaching for these high singles was resulting in furstration, injury, and inconsistancy. I took a serious look at my technique, I'm trying to do it like the nodern Olympians do it, and I realized I wasn't doing the double knee bend. I've revamped my form and am building up to my big numbers yet again. I've revamped my technique multiple times in the past, each time getting closer, and closer to the real deal. Overhead supports work the triceps, shoulders, and the wrist, especially the wrist if you use thickbar. They are great for the fascia of the abdominals, the tendons of the tricep, and the ligaments of the elbow. Wider grips will work the shoulder area more, but arms parallel to the bar works them hard too. The strongest width is your usual pressing width, maybe slightly narrower. To get started with the clean and jerk you should do power cleans and power snatches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mossman Posted September 24, 2004 Share Posted September 24, 2004 power cleans are pretty much all i can do right now......a few light power snatches but i cant get the hang of them....i like hang cleans.....i watched my friend who is very tall hang clean 185 like nothing......started out like a stiff leg dead scary....im sure that doesnt mean much to you guys, but for me that was nuts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted September 25, 2004 Author Share Posted September 25, 2004 09-24-05 Wrist and Fingers It felt good to be able to workout today, I was afraid I would not be able to go to the gym tonight. Started off with behind the back plate wrist curls. Used a 10kg plate with both hands for 3 sets of 5. Perfect weight. I then did the rectangular fix (now one of my favorite exercises) where I worked up to 35Kg and was denied at 37.5Kg. I dropped back down for a few reps and did some negatives at 32.5Kg. I then did some static levering, front, rear, supination, and pronation using the IM loading pin. The pronation hurt bad because of the base of the index smashing the skin but it didn't stop me. I did as many reps as I could for holding at 5 seconds, never exceeding five reps in a set. Static levering can be just as tendon intensive as bending, you could feel how your tendons are not perfectly inelastic. I'm not going to bother to list poundages, all very arbitrary and the fat grip favored one movement over its antagonist. Tried to do some crush; my #1 felt like my #2. Tried to do some pinching: I broke 2 25s off the ground once. So I did some two and single finger pinch work with a 10Kg plate, which was pretty fun. I finished with reverse hub lifts, I dropped down from a 5 to do a 2.5 and I got the idea to lift out on the rim of the 2.5 plate. Now I couldn't get it off the ground, but I could support it with it parallel to the floor. Really worked the extensors. Cooled down with some rafter pullups on the assisted pullup machine and some one handed towel rollups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mossman Posted September 25, 2004 Share Posted September 25, 2004 ONE HANDED TOWEL PULLUPS? HOLY SH*T foggy man, you are one of my idols now....between you and dane for people my age. damnit seems to me, this look like every single workout you do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted September 25, 2004 Author Share Posted September 25, 2004 (edited) Sorry Mossman, these are towel rollups, you roll up a towel in a wrap with just one hand. It's a warm-up/cool down thing, and it can burn like hell. Particularly with an entire beach towel like I was using. But doing one handed towel pullups..... oh man, that's an excellent idea. And I'm going to do them next upper body workout. Oh man guys, the very day after the leverage work I have a giant knot of new muscle in my fore arms. If you know your anatomy: the extensor digitorum, extensor digiti minimi, extensor pollicis brevis and abductor pollicis longus are noticably bigger. Those muscles are all pretty small so it's probably easier for me to notice than an increase in size in some of the bigger muscles. I think I'm on a roll here, not too many days ago there was a significant increase in hand muscles below my pinkie on the side of the hand from the blob training. Visual progress is always exciting. Edited September 25, 2004 by foggymountainmuscle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted September 29, 2004 Author Share Posted September 29, 2004 09-28-04 Upper Body I decided to give one arm pullups a go. I used the assisted pullup machine to help me with these and I was able to pull myself up with 40 pounds of help. Looks like I have a year or so of hard work ahead of me to be able to do these. I did 2 sets with 50 pounds assistance as best I could and did a set of negitives with 30 pounds or assistance. The sets and rep were haphazard, trial and error. I did some heavy alternate grip pulls off the chining bar, working up to an extra 225lbs. Moved on to bench, doing 2 sets with 215lbs. but did not get the last two or so. I mastered 205 so I did not want to drop back down and start a cycle of no improvement, I did the last set with negitives for 4 reps with 235. I got the idea to do parallel bar supports, being able to support yourself perfectly horizontally with your arms holding you up. Well we didn't have parallel bars but we had benches and my partner gave me some support at my feet to hold myself upright. Really worked the arms. I then did 3 sets of 5 hammer curls with 35lbs. definate move up next time. Finished with 3 sets of 5 shrugs with 205. Didn't quite make all the reps in good form, but less weight would have been too easy. Cooled down with some clean and push presses with 50lbs. dumbells for 10 reps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted September 30, 2004 Author Share Posted September 30, 2004 09-29-04 I swear I saw a tumble weed blowing through this board tonight, it's deserted. Lower Body Not too many exercises this workout. Zercher squats, warmed up and then did 5 reps at 275lbs., 5 at 290lbs. and 5 reps at 315lbs. Move up next time. Did some quarter front squats, working up to a triple at 565lbs. Deep, hard calf raises with 270lbs for 3 sets of 5. The deep stretch at the bottom really made these tough, didn't make the last rep and I felt like I had an anerism in my right foot, but it doesn't appear or feel like anything is wrong. Finished with some heel walking with 50, 60, and 70lbs. dumbells in my hands, walking the length of the dumbell rack, then backwards, and then forward until my shins were done. Cooled down with some snatch squats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darco Posted September 30, 2004 Share Posted September 30, 2004 Did some quarter front squats Ouch... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted October 1, 2004 Author Share Posted October 1, 2004 Did some quarter front squats Ouch... They didn't end up hurting as bad as the zercher squats on my arms later. 09-30-04 Lower Arm Today's bending however hurt like a nail driving into the palm of my hand.... oh yeah. Warmed up by breaking a timber tie. Did a more serious warm up with a ?8" 1/4" HRS. I went for the kinked, sub yellow length CRS. It was a fight, but it was exciting to know my personal goal of over 3 months was about to be achieved. After that I tried a length of zinc plated steel about 1/2" shorter than the CRS I just bent which I can say was of equal difficulty. That one took a bit longer, but still got it. For balanced, I bent an 7 3/4" legnth of 1/4 HRS in a left handed manner that mirrors my normal technique. This was hell to get done but I was not about to let it go. Tried to do some double overhand on my timber ties but couldn't cut the mustard, I finished the bending by breaking that nail. Bending usually kills my crush but I felt confident that my pinch would be well intacted so I got to try out my new 37.5 hex heads along with my 35 blob. After some proper chalking and some technique changes, I was able to get some semi-high pulls on it with each hand. After a few blob lifts I decided to attack my 37.5 hex and to my suprise I got it to a full deadlift, each hand. I thought I had some work to do before I could get it off the ground but it's just not as intimidating as it looks. After pulling up the hex and blob back and forth I started doing two hand lifts with less fingers, doing series of low rep sets which was some really go finger work. Pulled the blob and hex up a few times again after that, and then ended with some heavy shot rotation. Fun workout, I hope to be able to clean the 35 blob soon, but my emmediate goal is to get some high pulls on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted October 6, 2004 Author Share Posted October 6, 2004 10-05-04 High Rep Squats From Hell Warmed up with 10 reps at 135, 10 reps at 225, and made it to 20 reps at 275lbs. All reps had good depth. I made 14 reps then had to rack the weight, got 3 and dug in deep enough to get 3 again. The sensations that I felt during that set are some of strangest and most wrong feelings that go on in weight training. Moved on to barbell wrist curls in preparation for the Grip Bash in November. I hit a PR at 135lbs. I previous warmed up on 95 for 5, and 115 for 5, and dropped back down to 115 but I only got 3 or so that time. Using a lighter barbell I did reverse wrist curls, I think the bar only weighed 25 because it felt light. I did 5 at 30 way too easy, 5 at 40, 5 at 45, and didn't move it at 50. That was it. Wanted to get back to my dorm early but I didn't have much more planned anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danegarreau Posted October 6, 2004 Share Posted October 6, 2004 Your a brave man for trying 20 rep squats, those things suck!! Good job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted October 7, 2004 Author Share Posted October 7, 2004 There is a great deal of physcologic fear that goes through me when a high rep squat or deadlift workout is about to take place. My body remembers what it feels like, and it trembles. I think my conditioning was better than last time I did them because it did not make me nearly as ill. I've been making sure I eat enough to make up for this debt of protien and glycogen. I did some grip training today. Worked with my blobs but nothing spetactular happen, I lacked my usual wrist strength to get a fair enough tilt on the blob lifts. Did some extensor work and heavy shot rotation, which was cut short due to a fire alarm in the building. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted October 12, 2004 Author Share Posted October 12, 2004 10-11-04 Leverage Work One of the things I like about comming home is getting to work with our seldge hammer. This time we had some lumber left over from our chicken nest boxes we built yesterday so I did some front leveraging with two 5' long 2x4s . Rear leveraging did not work for beans, but all in all it was some good pinch training and worked the wrist in a pretty functional way. I did rear leveraging with the sledge, it's pretty humbling to do these compared to my static, bending, and the strength it takes to let the sledge hammer barely touch the nose and bring it back up. I then did hammer twist to find out that my suppination is stronger than my pronation. This is mostly due in part to the fact that it's harder to apply presser against the handle on the other but I never had such a problem before. I moved onto one of my favorite parts about sledge work, heavy partial leveraging: Weaver stick negatives, breaking off the ground front leveraging, and that last few degrees of pronation and suppination way down the end of the hammer. I finished with some finger walking and reverse finger walking on a 2x4 and drawing fingure 8s with my small sledge hammer. The reps were all like 6, 4, 3-4 for the leveraging and the partials were as much as I could bare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foggymountainmuscle Posted October 14, 2004 Author Share Posted October 14, 2004 10-23-04 Lower body and grip Did one handed barbell deadlifts. Warmed up with a few sets and did 5 reps each side at 250, 4 reps at 275, 3 reps at 295, 2 reps at 320, and didn't make it too high, about 5 inches, with 355lbs. These poundages are a rough estimate as plates were in kilograms and I the idea was to get near the poundages listed. I used straps, the bar revolved pretty smoothley and it was pretty tough at about 200lbs. I didn't have much time so all I did after the one arm deadlifts was v-bar. Maxed out at 215lbs. and dropped back down for some reps at 190. The reps hurt, bad . I got 4 reps in a row on my right with only 2 on my left but I did some assisted lifts to get all 4 reps. After my partner had a go I did a few more attemps and got the weight up a few more times. I felt like a total badass after getting 4 reps because it was so painful, but I stuck it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.