Home gym chronicles, part 1; the great bulk

[Soldier]

Thanks guys. I forgot to log the deadlift session my wife did yesterday. She's killing it.

Deadlift-
95x5
115x3
135x3
135x2
135x2
135x2
135x2

Her grip gave out on her. I have straps, but her grip is so woefully weak that I'm going to have her lift without straps until her grip strength catches up with her back and leg strength. She was moving 135 like it was nothing. Strong girl.

Ran this morning. Back pumps so bad I had to keep stopping to walk during the last mile, but my lungs were fine. My cycle will end a few days before my nest PT test, which is good because I'll be able to run without the pumps.

Bodyweight is up to 230 now. Up 10lb from the start of the cycle.

[Soldier]

My wife also got a tattoo on her back. It's cool ink, but it means she won't be squatting for a little while. No worries, we'll get her deadlift up.

[Soldier]

Hit the gym today with some of my buddies from work. Our platton Sgt. decided that we can go to the gym during the last hour of our workday, which is AWESOME, because we don't do much at work, and I can get my training out of the way, AND I can use the gym, which is much better equipped than my garage.

I hit the bench, worked up to a deuce with 275, then repped out for 225x10 and 185x20 before moving on to some ring pullups, cable lateral raises, and seated machine rows. The pump ecompased my entire upper body. Every time I looked in the mirror I felt amazing while at the same time lamenting the fact that I knew the pump would fade. But I could feel the eyes on me. Everyone in the room was watching me out of the corners of their eyes and in the mirrors. It felt damn good.

It was also awesome to train with the guys with whom I work. They know I train, and they know I'm in shape, but they haven't really seen me in my dominion yet. Now they know, when I'm with the iron, I'm home.

[BendtheBar]

Nice work work. Nothing like a 20 repper on bench to inflate them chesticles.

[Soldier]

Hell yeah. So we hit the gym for PT this morning. Unfortunately it was rainy outside, so everyone else did too. Luckily I was able to grab a leg press and get some work done.

Leg press-
90x12
180x12
270x12
360x12
450x12
540x12
360x20
270x30
180x50

Quick and nasty, with a good pump in my quads. I'm going to get another session in today, either at the gym at work or here at home. If I'm home I'll probably do squats, but if I'm at the gym I'll do deadlifts, because none of the freaking gyms around here have squat racks. Freaking retarded.

[BendtheBar]

Ooh yeah. Love them nasty high rep sets on leg presses.

[Soldier]

Leg day, part II-

I tried something a little different. I wanted to hit my quads, so I pre-exhausted them by starting with front squats, then moving to high bar, close stance squats, then moving on to wide stance, low bar squats, all on a 14" box. This progression, combined with the higher rep stuff at the end, combined for a very good leg session.

Front squats on a 14" box-
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x5

High bar, close stance squats on a 14" box-
225x5
255x5

Low bar, wide stance squats on a 14" box-
275x5
225x5
225x5
225x5
225x5
225x5

Low bar, super wide stance squat, no box-
135x20
135x20
135x20

I'm taking advantage of having more room for my feet by experimenting with an extremely wide stance, like the westside guys. This along with an extremely low hold, combine to create an extreme spine angle that feels very weird, but very strong. I feel like I can use my whole body to push into the bar with my upper back.

I'm not sure how it will feel with real weight on my back, or how strong my transition will be with such an extreme stance, but I'm excited to find out.

My back pumps are getting worse. I had to lie down between the sets of 20 tonight to let my lower back "unwind". That's how it feels; like my back muscles are a towel being twisted to wring out the water, and it SUCKS. I'm still happy with the results I've gotten thus far from the superdrol, and I'm also excited to see what will happen with my strength in the next 2-3 weeks, but I'm so ready to finish this cycle, do my PCT, and start my cut.

Always looking forward to the next phase!

[BendtheBar]

I'm not sure how it will feel with real weight on my back, or how strong my transition will be with such an extreme stance, but I'm excited to find out.

Good luck. Hope the experiment yields some good results.

[Soldier]

Thanks btb.

Hit the gym again today for the last hour of work. I did another bodybuilding style upper body workout, which means I did lots of different exercises and stuck to 8-20 reps. This time I started with cable overhead presses, and went pretty heavy, then went on to other movements that hit my entire upper body.

I did some cable upright rows, some machine overhead presses, some ring pullups and some cable flies.

After about an hour in the gym I headed home, but I felt like I hadn't had enough, so I did some 2 board presses at home.

2 board bench press-
135x15
185x10
225x7
245x5
225x6

Wow. Chest and tris are done now, for sure. Also a good pump in the forearms and biceps. It's good to get a little variety back into my training, but I'm looking forward to a few days of training at home now, to focus on my strength training.

[Soldier]

I love instincual training. It allows me to push myself right to the limit, or maybe a little past, then cut back for a little while. Right now I'm getting to that limit. I'm pushing myself hard in every way. I'm training every day with both low rep, heavy weight and high rep, lighter weight training. I'm pushing my legs especially hard, as I've always felt that my legs were lagging behind my upper body, and I also want to get my big lifts up, which of course requires lots of lower body strength.

Withing the next few days it'll be time to take a couple days off of the heavy weights, but I can't have a break until I earn it. Here's what I did today to earn it-

Low bar, wide stance squats-
45x10
135x8
225x5
275x5
315x3
275x5
275x5
275x5

Conventional deadlifts-
135x10
225x5
275x5
275x7
275x10

I've NEVER done a triple with 315, and it came with relative ease. I bet I could have done 10 with 275 if I had wanted to. Wide stance, low bar squats are my new bread and butter. By the end of my current cycle I'll squat 365. I'll also deadlift no less than 425, probably more like 435 or 445. I'm not sure if I'll bench 315, but I wouldn't be surprised if I do.

Bring it on.