Kerpal's Training Log

[Kerpal]

11/2/11

Woke up yesterday morning and felt like ass, my left trap hurt, my right knee hurt, etc. I ended up taking a long walk instead of going to the gym. It was kind of relaxing to walk at a nice easy pace for a change instead of pushing the prowler around the parking lot or grinding out heavy squats/deadlifts with Metallica blaring in the background :crackup:

Tonight's workout:

Bench:

2 x 8 x 170

Close grip bench:

2 x 8 x 150

Incline bench:

2 x 8 x 140

Front squat:

5 x 205
3 x 230
5 x 255

^ Amazing how much harder these are than low bar back squats.

 

[Kerpal]

11/5/11

Warmed up for squats, got to 395x3 and had to stop because my ankle tendinitis or whatever it is flared up again and it just hurt too much to continue. It happened after Wednesday's workout too and the pain kept me up most of the night. I got a doctor recommendation from the guy who owns the gym and will make an appointment ASAP, but until I figure out what's going on I might have to cut out squats. Deadlifts don't seem to affect it, thank god.

Bench:

2 x 10 x 175

Overhead press:

8 x 95 lbs
8 x 105 lbs

 

[Kerpal]

11/9/11

Bench Press:

2 x 8 x 180

Close grip bench:

2 x 8 x 160

Incline bench:

2 x 8 x 150

Chest supported row:

3 x 8 x 90

DB bench:

3 x 8 x 65 lbs

Bench is coming along nicely for once. Moving things around so that I bench before doing anything else really helped. I didn't realize how draining it was to bench right after squatting. Also, I've noticed that if my bench goes up my overhead press does too, so as much as it pains me to say this, I'm going to keep focusing on the bench and use the OHP as an accessory movement. Also, my shoulders are getting bigger. I've noticed that my shirts feel a lot tighter around the shoulders lately.

My ankle feels a lot better now that I've given it some rest, and I have an appointment tomorrow morning with a doctor to take a look at it.

 

[Kerpal]

11/11/11

Went to the doctor yesterday. He examined my ankles and calves and said they're not injured, and that it's probably just overuse. From now on I will stretch the **** out of them after squatting, and ice them if necessary.

Squat:

2 x 5 x 395

3 x 395

Failed 4th rep. Me: http://tinyurl.com/2gxd7g5 Good news is my ankles only hurt a bit during the squats, but felt fine after. Taking a week off squatting helped.

Pullup:

5 x 3 x 20 lbs

Deadlift:

3 x 315
3 x 365
8 x 405

I'm going to try to start getting to the gym early in the morning, before work. I usually hate to train that early in the morning because I'm still tired, but now that it gets dark so early I'm really tired if I go after work. It'll be nice to get it out of the way early in the day though. Plus it's way more crowded at night and I always have to wait to use stuff, should be in and out of there faster this way.

 

[Kerpal]

11/12/11

Bench:

2 x 5 x 195

Close grip bench:

2 x 5 170

Incline bench:

2 x 5 x 160

Chest supported row:

3 x 8 x 95

Overhead press:

8 x 120
2 x 8 x 110

 

[Kerpal]

Went to squat today, was going to try to finish up the 3x5x395. Got to 2 reps and felt like my ankles were going to explode, had to dump the bar on 3rd rep. Getting really frustrated about this

 

[Kerpal]

11/18/11

Squat:

5 x 395
2 x 5 x 365

Squat is feeling very tough lately. Dropped down to 365, amazing how much lighter it felt even though it's less than a 10% drop. Will work up from there.

Calves hurt a little bit during and after, I stretched them and rolled them between sets, and iced them when I got home. I'm thinking about replacing squats with box squats for a while, I figure that will take most of the weight off my calves and let them heal while preserving most of my squat strength.

Pull up:

5 x 20
4 x 20
3 x 20

Deadlift:

5 x 335
3 x 385
6* x 430

* I think I hitched a little on the very last rep. Not sure. It was a grinder.

 

[Kerpal]

11/19/11

Bench:

2 x 5 x 205

Close grip bench:

2 x 5 x 180

Incline bench:

2 x 5 x 170

Didn't have time to do anything else.

 

[Kerpal]

11/24/11

Bench:

2 x 3 x 215

Close grip bench

2 x 3 x 190

Incline bench:

2 x 3 x 175

Front squat:

5 x 185
5 x 225
10 x 240

Overhead press:

3 x 8 x 115

 

[ProDJ26]

I'm right there with you on lifting early mornings should turn out well

 

[Kerpal]

11/26/11

Squat:

3 x 5 x 375

Pull up:

9 x bodyweight
7 x bodyweight
6 x bodyweight

Deadlift:

5 x 300
5 x 345
9 x 395

Hamstrings were fried after this. It's odd, when I do higher rep deadlifts my hamstrings are wiped out but my lower back feels fine, but when I stay <5 reps I feel most of the fatigue in my lower back and not much in my hamstrings.

 

[Kerpal]

11/28/11

Box squat:

12" box

3 x 5 x 295

Holy **** these are humbling. This is almost 100 lbs less than my regular squat weight, and they are tough. My ears were ringing after the last set. I sit back on the box and come to a complete stop at the bottom, then explode up. Really feel them in my glutes and hamstrings, feel almost nothing in my quads.

Good news is no calf pain today. That either means my idea of using the box to take stress off the calves is working, or that my calves are healing from whatever is causing this pain.

Pullup:

2 x 5 x 20
4 x 20

Got stuck halfway up on the last rep, I'll nail it next time and move up to 25.

Rack pull:

From below knees.

5 x 495

 

[Kerpal]

11/30/11

Bench:

3 x 220
2 x 220

Failed 3rd rep. First time failing a bench rep in a while

Close grip bench:

2 x 3 x 200

Incline bench:

2 x 3 x 185

Front squat:

3 x 200
3 x 225
8 x 255

 

[Kerpal]

12/2/11

Squat:

3 x 5 x 385

Pull up:

3 x 5 x 20

Deadlift:

3 x 335
3 x 375
7 x 415

 

[Colossus]

Your squat and DL are coming along nicely. I find front squats to be a miserable exercise but much less painful in my lower back.

I noticed you are very lower-body dominant. Did you put off upper body training for a while or is it just a slow area of growth for you?

 

[Kerpal]

I just suck at anything involving only the upper body. I'm convinced there is something wrong with my arms and the way I push against things. It's like my body doesn't understand how to do it properly. You know how if you don't lift for a while, when you come back, you've forgotten how to do the lifts, and everything feels weird and shaky? I feel like that EVERY time I bench. It just has never "clicked" for me, no matter how much I read about it and practice it. My gym is a powerlifting gym, and I've asked guys there to check my form on the big 3 lifts and they said it's perfect, but benching still feels horrible to me.

Also, my right arm is like twice the size of my left, is much stronger, and I have tons of veins running through my right arm, shoulder and upper chest and almost none on my left side. My left arm always craps out first during overhead presses.

I have been making a little more progress lately by doing pressing movements first instead of after squatting, and devoting 1 day a week solely to upper body, but it's still very slow progress. Also I've noticed that benching makes my overhead press go up, but not the other way around, so I've been focusing more on the bench lately and OHPing as an accessory movement after benching.

 

[Colossus]

Gotcha. That's basically how I feel every time I do standard squats. It just never feels natural for me.

Just a suggestion, but I would have 2 dedicated upper body days a week. Do a press, an upper back exercise, and an arm exercise. You can have a heavy and moderate day if you like. I think your upper lifts just need some more attention.

 

[Kerpal]

Yeah that's kind of what I'm doing now. I used to just squat, bench/ohp, deadlift, now I bench first on the days that I bench. I feel like it's made a big difference, but progress is still coming very slowly.

 

[Kerpal]

12/5/11/

SSB box squat:

12" box

3 x 5 x 300

Pullup:

2 x 5 x 25
4 x 25

Rack pull:

From below the knees.

5 x 500

Conditioning:

Prowler + 90 lbs, 40 yards, 60 sec. rest x 6 trips

Had to stop in the middle of trips 5 & 6 to catch my breath - these are brutal. My calves, quads, hamstrings and glutes feel like they're on fire when I push the prowler.

 

[Kerpal]

Finally benched 2 plates a side yesterday. 230 for a double. Only took a few years :crackup: