Tim's Journeyman Log

[tim290280]

Natureboy: Thats my "sunroom" on the back veranda. Its 90% enclosed, but the brick work is semi hollow so I get a breeze. But being fully sheltered it should be great all year round!!

And the no bullshit thing; I stopped training at gyms (I go for a change of pace for a week or fortnight at a time) because of the bullshit associated with commercial gyms. Even the most hardcore gym I've trained in still had that poser crowd.

Eric: Glad you enjoyed the vid. I need to add a glute-ham raise and a cable tower of some sort to the set up next.

Glex: The camera was on the BBQ so it is at quite an angle to the actual rack, but being 2-D you don't notice straight away. And now my knee works I intend to use it, not pretend to.

Line: I was chatting with Evil on MSN on the weekend and he mentioned how I should just try out squatting to parra like you and Glex do. I have a photo of me doing that from about 7-8 months ago where I'm coming up crooked instead of well balanced. The depth I use now forces me to work more evenly.

And try out front squats as a change up or during a backoff. I actually now prefer them to back squats (mainly because there is less weight on my spine). I can see poor Glex now being dragged to the rack for front squats.......

FF: Cheers! As I said above, my knees work, I intend to use them. Plus I seem to use better form going deeper, gets the stabilising glutes/hammies/adductors/abductors involved.

Glad you all liked the vid, and my new digs are fun to train in.

This evening I did bench and rows. We have had a pretty sudden cold snap here. Australian cold snaps are a bit different to elsewhere in the world, in that instead of snow, ice and sub-freezing temps, we just stop having 30 degree (celcius) days and suddenly have 15! So this evening I had to not only crank up some workout vibes, I had to dig out my track pants and long sleeve t-shirt. More warmups were also required.

The bench is now thumping along with 110kg, and the DB rows 50kg. I thought everything was going swimmingly until about set 8. Then it became a battle to keep the 3 reps coming out without stalling. If I had a spot I wouldn't have noticed at all, but I gave up the "Its all you!" stuff years ago.

I got video of this bench session too. Not that there is much to see, as it really is "bar goes down, bar goes back up" not like a squat or deadlift.

 

[Glex]

I can see poor Glex now being dragged to the rack for front squats.......

Me too, you bastard

Oh well, we probably should do them from time to time.

Sounds like bench and DB rows are going really well

 

[Line]

Yes, I did drag Glex to the squat rack and made him do fronts today

Great numbers on the bench and rows; looking forward to the video. Oh, and 15 degrees (C) isn't that bad, wimp

 

[tim290280]

Oh, and 15 degrees (C) isn't that bad, wimp

When the day before was 30 degrees (C) it is!

 

[Project Evo]

Nice work benching and rowing Tim. If it goes too swimmingly mate, there's not enough weight or reps!!!

See where you're coming from, a 15 degree drop in temp is going to be noticeable almost anywhere!

Good stuff mate.

 

[tim290280]

Evo: It may seem too easy, but I notice when I'm a bit off (stupid travelling for meetings). So the weights are definitely challenging enough under this scheme.

Which is a lovely segue into what happened last night. I got 6 sets into 10 (so 18 reps out of 30) and had to call it a night on the squats and SLDL's. I had trouble hitting depth, I had trouble with the last rep of each set, and by the 6th I was done.

Motivation and will just weren't there. I put this down to fatigue, as I had to wake up from an after work nap to train. Something I've never had to do before. As a result I'll have to repeat this workout, so I'll just have to take 4% off each successive workout for back squats and single leg SLDL's.

 

[Glex]

It happens, mate. Irregular or demanding work schedules do that.

Just get back on it

 

[tim290280]

THanks Glex.

I've actually decided to take a few days off from lifting and have a redo on this week. I really have been burning the candle at both ends and I don't want to end up sick or injured.

 

[tim290280]

Ok first day of the redo is done.

This was still amazingly tough, and the 10 sets seemed to take forever. But the session lasted less than an hour and I was able to hit depth on every rep of every set. Odd considering last week, but I suppose a couple of the sets seemed to stall. Of course this is just all the squats, the single leg SLDL's didn't seem to be phased at all by the day, the workload, anything!! I'm either seriously over loading the squat, or underloading the SLDL. Considering the hammy stiffness today though, I'd say that the fuller body exercise is just harder to handle on the day.

Here's my attempt at a standard log writeup:
Warmups:
BW lunges, single leg SLDL's, squats, plus hang cleans, hang snatches with bar, and RDL and squats with bar.
Squats
60kg x2
80kg x2
100kg x2
110kg x2
120kg x2

single leg SLDL
20kg x3
30kg x2
40kg x2

Worksets:
Squats
127.5 x3
127.5 x3
127.5 x3
127.5 x3
127.5 x3
127.5 x3
127.5 x3
127.5 x3
127.5 x3
127.5 x3

single leg SLDL
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3

Standing Calf raises
127.5kg x15
127.5kg x14
127.5kg x15

Enjoy, becuase I probably won't do that again.

 

[Glex]

Enjoy, becuase I probably won't do that again.

lol, thanks

The squats do look rough...maybe Line and I will do a 10 x 3 day again, only on back squats this time

 

[CJU]

nice form on those front squats. went real deep and used a good amount of weight too.

 

[Natureboypkr]

could you explain the type of training you do becuase is seems very interesting

 

[tim290280]

Glex: It is a bit different to do 10 sets as opposed to 10 work sets. And I've been finding the back squat pretty hard to do as compared to the front on this program. Probably just the extra weight.

CJU: Thanks for the compliments!! I'll post my back squat/SLDL vid from last night at some stage too. Like I've said before, the knee works now so trying to keep the strength to as deep as my mobility allows.

Natureboy: Essentially its a periodised program. Explain it....... well basically its a 12wk weightlifting squat progam that I have adapted. Essentially the first 4-5 weeks are ramping up, before a slight backoff, then it undulates which day of the program is heavy and low load, and which is heavy and high load. The original squat program has two days back and front, seperated by 2 days, with the back squat used as the feeder for improving the front squat.

The problem I have always found in writing and performing periodised programs is that I'm not an athlete. I have a job, girlfriend (fiance soon, but don't spoil that suprise for her), pet dog, a thesis still to finish writing, and all of these have to take some priorities in my day. For example this Easter break is going to kill me to get the weeks four workouts done.

Now a professional, or semi-pro, or enthusiast or even a student may be able to make more free time to follow a rigid guideline in such a program. But most of us just can't follow such a strict regimen. Once I've done this program it will give me a better insight into how to adapt this style of program to having more lee-way for people with lives.

 

[philosopher]

The problem I have always found in writing and performing periodised programs is that I'm not an athlete. I have a job, girlfriend (fiance soon, but don't spoil that suprise for her), pet dog, a thesis still to finish writing, and all of these have to take some priorities in my day

Second that. Always late from work, have to eat, my girlfriend wants her attention too, need to walk with the dog etc etc somewere between all that i need to train. Next week i'm going to Barcalona for work. Cant train which sucks. But ive decided to go back to school. Hopefully i get some more free time to train.

 

[tim290280]

Due to Glex's sheer joy:

Warmup
arm swings, pushups, band pulls, bar rows, chins
Bench
60kg x2
80kg x2
100kg x2

DB Rows
20kg x2
70kg x3 (BB)
40kg x2

Worksets
Bench
110 x3
110 x3
110 x3
110 x3
110 x3
110 x3
110 x3
110 x3
110 x3
110 x3

Row
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3
49.5 x3

Sternum chins
BWx6

Tricep Ext (bar in rack at benching height, body at angle, can't remember proper exercise name....)
BWx6
BWx6

Bicep Curls
22x6
22x6

Forearm roller (2" bar)
16.5x1
16.5x1

 

[Glex]

Due to Glex's sheer joy:

That's a rough program. I know what you mean about the ten working sets; that was just an oversight/mistake on Line and I's parts when we tried it. Next time we do a day like that we'll make sure we do a warmup and then ten sets...which is infinitely worse

Keep it up, mate!

 

[Pickle]

awesome i havent been to logs for a while and your finally posting numbers! im excited. Keep it up

... starts lurking...

edit: love the front squat video very controlled up and down. I can front squat 140 but my technique is a lot sloppier

 

[tim290280]

Keep it up, mate!

For hours at a time...... oh the effort in lifting weights. My bad!

awesome i havent been to logs for a while and your finally posting numbers! im excited. Keep it up

Yeh its all gone downhill. I've lost the inspiration to write due to the amount of work and PhD I have. Hard to get any sparks of creativity after that.

THIS MARKS THE END OF TIM'S ESOTERIC LOG.
Please stay tuned for regular updates on the boring banalities of numbers that he lifts week in week out, until such time as he feels inspired again. This is only likely to occur after submitting his PhD (whenever the hell that will happen) and when work stops being plauged with overtime.

Tonights log of events. Well lets just say I had a phone conference that started when I was meant to head home, and resultant work after that. So I had a short window before sunset to workout (any later and I find it hard to relax enough to get to sleep early enough to get 8hrs).

Workout:
60kg
70kg
80kg

Complex 1
Clean>Front Squat>Hang Clean>Front Squat

Complex 2
Snatch>Back squat>BTN Jerk (snatch grip)

Complex 3
Clean>Jerk>Hang Clean>Push Press

Each complex performed back to back at each weight. Rest was between weight changes.
The squat video from the other night won't be going up this week. Its too big at the moment so I'll have to trim it down. I'll break it in half at any rate as it also got my follow on single leg SLDL which I can post seperately if anyone is interested.

 

[Glex]

^^ It's ok; nobody knew what esoteric meant anyway

Those complexes look like fun

 

[tim290280]

It's ok; nobody knew what esoteric meant anyway

Ironically:
es·o·ter·ic /ˌɛsəˈtɛrɪk/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[es-uh-ter-ik] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective 1. understood by or meant for only the select few who have special knowledge or interest; recondite: poetry full of esoteric allusions.
2. belonging to the select few.
3. private; secret; confidential.
4. (of a philosophical doctrine or the like) intended to be revealed only to the initiates of a group: the esoteric doctrines of Pythagoras.

[Origin: 1645–55; < Gk esōterikós inner, equiv. to ester(os) inner + -ikos -ic]

—Related forms
es·o·ter·i·cal·ly, adverb
—Synonyms 1. abstruse, arcane, cryptic, enigmatic.

Those complexes look like fun

Yes they weren't!

I didn't mention that for the first two the back squat was followed by a dynamic lunge. Didn't want to do that with 80kg though. My hand felt fine lifting again, but my snatch form sucked ballz, and my traps are sore this morning.