Home gym chronicles, part 1; the great bulk

[EliteDreams]

Fine progress Soldier.

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by Soldier

He said "You've gotta be HUNGRY, gotta be HUNGRY!"

I said "What does that mean?"

He said "People who are HUNGRY are willing to do the things today that others won't do to have the things tomorrow that others won't have."

Truth.

[Soldier]

Did some heavy overhead pressing yesterday, so normally I'd do some lower body stuff today, but I'm planning to try for 475 on deads tomorrow, so screw it. Heavy benching ftw. I also pisked up some wrist wraps and chalk today, so I wanted to try them out.

Bench press-
45x5
135x5
225x3
275x2
295x2
295x2
295x2 (Total reps for session with 295=6, PR)
225x16 PR

The most times I've ever benched 225 in a row is 12, over a year ago, so the 16 today was a huge PR. I actually did it 17 times, but the 17th one was one of those bad presses where you only get it halfway up and have to finish by pushing your shoulders forward.

I'm going to push myself hard to keep all of my strength. Part of me feels like I'm not as strong now that I'm off the Sdrol, but I'm not going to buy into it. I'm going to FORCE my body to stay strong, by lifting heavy as f*** when I do lift. Tomorrow I'm going to try to get 475 on deadlift, or maybe even more, then maybe go for a run.

I weighed in this morning at 230, which means in the last 2 days I've lost 4lb, even though I was NOT cutting my calories. I'm as lean today at 230lb as I was at 210 a little over a year ago, which makes me very happy. I'm going to try to get my cardio up while trying to keep my strength, all while NOT trying to lose much weight. Then in 10 weeks or so I'm going to start my Hdrol and pro-tren stack, which will go along with 6-8 weeks of some of the most intense cutting I've ever done.

Once I'm done with Air assault (which, I'm not going to lie, may take a couple tries) I'm going to keep cutting until I get my abs, then I'll slowly build from there with the help of lots of heavy lifting and more PH cycles.

Strong and shredded. It'll be mine eventually.

[BendtheBar]

2 monster PRs. 225x16 is no joke.

[Soldier]

It's a joke compared to what I did today. I was right, I totally had more in the tank after 455. Today I hit up the crossfit gym and made good use of not having to set down the weight after my lifts, as well as the chalk they had available.

455 flew up like it had rockets attached. 475 was a little slower, but came up with absoltuely no rounding of my back, telling me I had more in me. 500, well it moved a little slower, and I had to let out a good yell to winch it up my legs, but I got it. I even felt the weight bouncing in my hands at the top. I've never lifted enough to bend a bar before.

So just like that I've added 45lb to my total. Here's where I stand, because I LOVE typing this all out when I get to add to the numbers!

Bench- 315
Squat-365
Deadlift- 500 (2.2xbodyweight)
Total- 1180

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by Soldier

So just like that I've added 45lb to my total. Here's where I stand, because I LOVE typing this all out when I get to add to the numbers!

Bench- 315
Squat-365
Deadlift- 500 (2.2xbodyweight)
Total- 1180

Huge deadlift, and great numbers overall.

[Soldier]

Thanks btb.

I ended up taking yesterday off. Really pushing yourself to the limit on deadlifts makes everything pretty damn sore. Upper back, arms, everything was tight. Today I feel good again, so I got some upper body in. Unfortunately, it looks like my goal of getting the 270 pt test score won't happen this time around. It's been almost 2 weeks since I've actually done PT at work, and I just can't train on my own enough to maintain my strength while also getting back into running condition.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll start doing PT again and I can start moving towards my goals again. It's been a frustrating situation, but that's not the point of this thread.

Mid grip bench, ring fingers on the rings-
45x10
135x7
185x5
225x5
275x3
275x3
275x3
225x3 (speed set)
225x3 (speed set)

Landmine press (supersetted with pullups)-
BARx12
+15x12
+30x12
+30x15
+35x15

Pullups-
BW*x10
BW*x10
BW*x15
BWx10

*For these sets I placed my feet behind me on a bench, so these sets were spotted at the bottom of the movement

Normally landmine presses are done with one end of the bar secured on the ground, usually in a corner. I did them differently. I placed one end of the bar (the wider part, outside the collar) in one side of my squat rack set to just above my height. Then I grabbed the other end of the bar and did single arm overhead presses. The rack caught the collar on the other side and kept the bar secure as I lifted my end. The numbers are the weight I added to my side of the bar.

I'll be using these more. They don't aggrevate my shoulders nearly as much as other overhead presses, which is the whole point of landmine presses. The spotted pullups are still awesome. I've used them almost exclusively to develop my upper back and biceps in the last few months, and will continue to do so. I've NEVER had a pump in specific muscles of my back like I get from spotted pullups.

I've always done my bench press really wide. When I was younger I'd do them with pointers on the rings, and now I do them even wider. I'd go a thumb from the ring if my rack gave me enough space, which it doesn't. Because of this, I've developed a large, wide, strong chest. Ths is, of course, perfectly fine with me, but I believe that if I can get my bench up with a closer grip it will help me develop some more triceps size and strength, which will help me get even bigger numbers on my wide grip bench.

I guess we'll see.

[BendtheBar]

I like the landmines. I never expected to feel them as much as I did.

keep smashing.

[Soldier]

More PR's today. I'm still trying to figure out how I want to squat. My bench and deadlift both feel good, and I feel like I'm able to access my full strength with the technique I've developed in each. I don't feel that way about the squat. If I'm able to deadlift 500lb, it doesn't make sense that I can only squat 365. I feel like I made a step in the right direction tonight.

I've been doing either powerlifting squats to parallel with wide feet, or ATG style squats with a closer stance. I've never combined the two, but I decided to try tonight. I put my feet only slightly wider than shoulder width, then held the bar not too high or not too low, right in the middle. I sequenced the lift in a powerlifting style, breaking with my hips, then pushing my knees out to the side. I also stopped at parallel, which is completely new to me with such a close stance. It felt like a partial rep.

Here's how the numbers look. I'm ecstatic with them-

squats, as described above-
45x8
135x8
225x5
275x5
315x5 PR
335x2 PR
335x1*
225x12

Sumo speed pulls-
135x5
225x5
225x5
225x5

*on this set I decided to try to bring my hands in closer. MISTAKE. My normal, extremely wide grip gives me a huge base to hold the bar. The majority of the bar is on my back and shoulders. When I brought in my hands it felt horrible, like I was barely holding onto the bar.

So, it looks like I have a new lead as far as squatting technique. 315 still wasn't easy, but it felt much better with this setup. I could've done a couple more sets with 335, but when I tried to mess with my hands it threw me off big time, so I decided to get in a quick set with 225 and call it a day on squat.

I'm happy, I got some PR's, and I'm sure more will come once I figure out how I want to squat and commit to it.

[BendtheBar]

You have become a PR machine lately.