A log from the other side of the world

CMinOZ

The big benefit of the way that we train is that it is all planned out, diet, training, weight loss and muscle gains. I know that my main gains were resulting from improved form during this time but I still managed to put an extra 20kgs on my deadlift, 30kgs on my squat and 10kgs on bench.

If only gains like that would come every 3 months!!! You're right, main loss was body fat and I actually increased my lean mass by about 3-4kgs.

The diet as you know was a ketogenic diet, but very strict, more so than a typical atkins style that allows you to eat as much as you like providing it's not carbs. The result was a much lower blood sugar level that would ensure we missed out on the mood swings associated with most keto diets.

CMinOZ

Last night was my last session for a week as I am off on my motorbike for a bit of rest and ride long weekend. So of course the smart option for training was always going to be Shoulders/Arms

Just a quick note, this workout was completed in 1 hour with two of us training so you will see that there was very little rest time between sets...


Lateral Raises

15 x 12.5kgs
12 x 15kgs (Warm ups)
12 x 17.5kgs
12 x 20kgs
12 x 22.5kgs
7 x 25kgs

Military Press

12 x 40kgs (warm up)
10 x 60kgs
10 x 70kgs
10 x 80kgs
10 x 90kgs
6 x 100kgs

BB Curls

10 x 20kgs (warm up)
12 x 30kgs
12 x 35kgs
12 x 40kgs
12 x 50kgs
8 x 60kgs
6 x 65kgs

Supersetted with

Drop set Cable Pulldowns

Beginning at 60kgs and reducing 5 kgs at a time - to 30kgs - Yes that is 60 reps and we did this twice.

DB Curls

10 x 12.5kgs
10 x 15kgs
10 x 17.5kgs
10 x 20kgs
10 x 22.5kgs

Supersetted with;

Close, Reverse Grip Bench Press

8 x 60kgs
8 x 80kgs
8 x 100kgs
6 x 100kgs

Tall

CRGBP??? Thats just crazy!!!

CMinOZ

I've got dodgy elbows and the CGRBP doesn't hurt them as much - for safety I do them on the Smith Machine - Do you like the new avatar, thought it was about time I got one.

Tall

RGBP just hurts my wrists. Its banned in Powerlifting too so that was another reason why I never bothered carrying it on

Ha ha I like the avi

CMinOZ

Forgot to mention earlier, I have revised my choice of fat burners and gone for the incredibly expensive ALRI Venom - took the first one this morning and I am flying, temp is up, concentration is better and no anxiousness that I normally get when I double dose my normal FB's.

So, whilst they are expensive it seems that the recommended dose might actually be correct. I will keep my weight updated on the log - was 96.7 yesterday.

CMinOZ

Last night was shoulders/arms again - and it went like this...

Military Press

Warm ups - 10 x 40kgs, 10 x 60kgs

10 x 70kgs
10 x 80kgs
10 x 90kgs
10 x 100kgs (4 more than last week)

Lateral Raises

15 x 12.5kgs
12 x 15kgs
12 x 20kgs
12 x 22.5kgs
10 x 25kgs

Bicep Curls (EZ bar)

10 x 40kgs (warm up)
10 x 50kgs (warm up)

Then 10 rep drop sets beginning at 70kgs and reducing 10kgs with each 10 reps. We completed 2 sets of this so 100 reps in total. Vomitting became a real option...

However, I toughened up and moved on...

to Dumbell Curls

10 x 20kgs
10 x 22.5kgs
10 x 20kgs

Supersetted with

Dropset, over head tricep pulldowns. Not sure of the weight here as I was completely gone here, but it started nice and heavy and obviously reduced by each 10 reps. We did 2 sets and 100 reps in total.

Absolutely done in...

Saturday week is our next powerlifting grading, which I am lookign forward to but also dreading. I have not deadlifted in weeks or flat benched so I am concerned that my numbers will not go forward as much as I had hoped. On the plus, side the new fatburners are awesome, dropped down to 96.1kg last night so fingers crossed I will be lifting at the same weight as the last grading, though obviously much leaner.

Tall

Good going on the lateral raises. Pikey has me doing those until I can't lift my arms over my head.

Bicep drop sets starting at 70kg?? Madness!! Your trainer is evil. I like it.

CMinOZ

Saturday was the first day of our new 4 week micro-cycle with a completely revised session. This week, to determine our progress we went to our max for 3 reps.

Flat Bench

Warm ups (10 x 60kgs, 6 x 80kgs)

3 x 90kgs
3 x 100kgs
3 x 110kgs
3 x 120kgs

Cable Rows

3 sets of 15 reps

Deadlifts

Warm ups (15 x 60kgs)

3 x 100kgs
3 x 140kgs
3 x 180kgs
1 x 190kgs

With such a p!ss poor performance on the deadlifts I spat the dummy, threw all of my toys out of the pram and generally chucked a major hissy fit full of swearing and foot stamping - all in all, very embarrassing.

In hindsight, my head wasn't in it, my form was f*cked and I need to get it together for next weekend. For some reason I expected it to move quicker than it did and then like a newby I kept looking down to "check that it was still there" - of course it was still bl00dy there.

This is not quite how imagined my preparation for this saturday would go - I know my poor performance was down to not doing deadlifts for the past 4 weeks but I need a good performance on saturday, so I have started visualising a really slow, hard lift for my max on saturday. As I am sure you will understand that at this point in time I am not a happy chap.

Targets for Saturday are:

Squat - 180kg
Bench - 130kg (with pause at bottom)
Deadlift - 210/220kg

CMinOZ

Ok, much more positive mindset now. Training last night was awesome, felt strong and focused. With our little comp on the weekend we took it easy-ish...

We began with squats because my wife has not done free squats before and she will be competing on the weekend - we gradually built up to a 3 rep max - I nailed 160 with loose knee sleeves, which I was quite happy about.

Then we went on to a Shoulders/Arms set which went as follows:

Military presses - Try this one at home.

One set consisted of 10 full reps, 4 partial reps and then 4 x 5reps as a drop set with 10 second rest between drops.

This was then supersetted with Drop set BB curls, beginning at 80kgs for eight (big swinging) reps, and decreasing by 10kgs each time to just the bar. Form technique became much more focused once we got 60kgs and gradually more so until I was crying like a girl and only able to curl the bar, just.

Lateral Raises -

10 x 20kg
10 x 22.5kg

BB Curls as above.

Doesn't look like much, but the idea was not to fatigue the main muscles before the lifting on Saturday (with the exception of squats).

Bring on Saturday...