Kerpal's Training Log

[Kerpal]

04/13/09

Squat:

5 x 265 lbs
3 x 300 lbs
4 x 335 lbs

Failed on the 5th rep. I'm not happy about this. I got 5 reps easily with this weight and 3 reps with 365 lbs in March. I wanted to get at least 5 reps and was hoping for 6.

 

[Quagmire911]

04/13/09

Squat:

5 x 265 lbs
3 x 300 lbs
4 x 335 lbs

Failed on the 5th rep. I'm not happy about this. I got 5 reps easily with this weight and 3 reps with 365 lbs in March. I wanted to get at least 5 reps and was hoping for 6.

Your target was 1, you got 4, give the program time. If it was that hard on 4 you shouldn't have gone for the 5th- you know this. Remember, off days happen. Don't worry about it.

I'd be more worried about, where the weaknessin the lift was, and what I was doing to correct it.

 

[Kerpal]

04/14/09

Overhead press:

5 x 100 lbs
5 x 115 lbs (was supposed to do 3 reps here, did 5 by accident)
5 x 130 lbs

Power clean:

8 x 2 x 210 lbs

Chin up:

10 x bodyweight
7 x bodyweight
7 x bodyweight

Form feels better on power cleans, I am rotating my elbows up faster, which means no more strain on my wrists/elbows. I noticed that I am landing with a slightly too wide stance, which means I need to think more about "stomping into my own footprints" and timing it with the rack.

 

[Kerpal]

Your target was 1, you got 4, give the program time. If it was that hard on 4 you shouldn't have gone for the 5th- you know this. Remember, off days happen. Don't worry about it.

I'd be more worried about, where the weaknessin the lift was, and what I was doing to correct it.

Yeah, sometimes I have a hard time telling if I'm going to fail or not though. The only way I know I won't make the next rep is if the previous one was a grinder. In this case, I felt like I could have gotten the 5th rep, but got stuck at the bottom, that's where I always fail on squats.

 

[Kerpal]

I have decided to lean out a little. I have gotten a little too fat in the past few months, from eating and drinking too much.

I am going to start doing conditioning workouts twice a week, fasted cardio whenever I can fit it in, and will drink less, clean up my diet and restrict carbs to immediately post-workout. Also, my semester is almost over, and when it is and I have more free time I am going to resume my MMA training.

I think I will lean out very quickly with this plan. I will try to post pictures, to track my progress.

 

[Kerpal]

04/16/09

Deadlift:

5 x 325 lbs
3 x 365 lbs
4 x 410 lbs

Pistols:

5 x bodyweight (each leg)
12 x bodyweight (6 per leg)

Haven't done these in a while, felt good. I'm short on time lately, which is why I haven't been doing much accessory work. Finals are coming up. Luckily, next week is a deload week so the timing worked out perfectly there.

 

[Kerpal]

04/17/09

Bench press:

5 x 135 lbs
3 x 155 lbs
8 x 170 lbs

Dips:

11 x bodyweight
9 x bodyweight
8 x bodyweight

Decent workout. I was surprised I did that well on the bench, considering I've only gotten 4-5 reps on the heavy sets of my other lifts.

On the diet front, I have been eating a lot cleaner lately, have cut down drastically on the carbs (post workout only), and have been eating a lot more vegetables.

 

[Kerpal]

04/19/09

30 minutes fasted easy cardio on stationary bike.

I hate doing this, it's sooo boring.

 

[Kerpal]

I finally got around to taking pictures. Just took these about 20 minutes ago.

As you can see, I still look skinnyfat even though I've been training for a couple of years now and gotten a hell of a lot stronger... I think my genetics must just be ****.

Weighed 191 lbs this morning. I'm also confused as to how the hell I got this heavy considering I don't eat very much, and I certainly don't look like I weigh that much. My legs are pretty massive from so much squatting & deadlifting though, should have taken a leg shot.

 

[Kerpal]

04/21/09

Squat:

5 x 210 lbs
5 x 230 lbs
5 x 245 lbs

Standing pull down abs:

3 x 10 x 45 lbs

First time doing these. It felt kind of weird. I'm not sure if I liked it and not sure I'm doing it right. Will have to try this exercise a few more times to get the hang of it.

Reverse hyper:

2 x 10 x 145 lbs
1 x 10 x 135 lbs

I lowered the weight on the 3rd set because I'm not 100% sure that I'm hitting full range of motion. It's hard to tell with this exercise, especially because I have a very flexible back.

This is a deload week, so this and the next 3 workouts will be pretty easy and boring.

 

[Kerpal]

04/22/09

Overhead press:

5 x 80 lbs
5 x 90 lbs
5 x 95 lbs

Power clean:

5 x 2 x 215 lbs

Pull up:

8 x bodyweight
7 x bodyweight
6 x bodyweight

 

[I-tallionStallion]

Pictures look good Kerpal. I wouldn't call you skinny fat really. If you lowered your BF % a bit you'd look pretty damn ripped. Muscle weighs more than fat so you weighing 191 and not feeling like it is a good thing haha. Keep up the hard work.

Reverse hypers are a strange movement indeed. I often have trouble with doing it full range of motion. Only thing I can say is look at a lot of youtube videos.

 

[Kerpal]

Thanks. People who haven't seen me in a while are shocked at how much bigger I am, and I get comments all the time that I'm "jacked" and etc., but I'm in college and most college guys have very low muscle mass so I'm just a big fish in a small pond. I definitely do need to drop some fat. I have been eating nothing but chicken, beef & veggies for the past week or so, and I'm going to do some conditioning later today.

 

[Kerpal]

04/23/09

Conditioning:

Magic 50

5 Circuits of -

5 dumbbell snatches per arm
5 dumbbell swings per arm
10 burpees

Used a 50 lb dumbbell. Rest periods are supposed to be 1 minute but I took a little longer because I haven't done any conditioning work in a while, I'm way out of shape. I used to breeze thru this workout with strict 1 minute rest periods, a much heavier dumbbell and a mouthpiece in. Have to get back to it.

 

[Kerpal]

04/25/09

Deadlift:

5 x 260 lbs
5 x 280 lbs
5 x 300 lbs

Bench press:

5 x 110 lbs
5 x 115 lbs
5 x 125 lbs

SSB Good morning:

8 x 140 lbs

Concentric only SSB Good morning:

2 x 8 x 140 lbs

Dips:

2 x 11 x bodyweight
9 x bodyweight

After the first set of good mornings, I decided to try concentric-only good mornings. I read about them on the Westside Barbell web site. I did them by putting the bar on the pins, getting under it, and doing a good morning from there. It’s a hell of a lot harder than regular good mornings. I go deep on these, my back is parallel to the floor at the bottom.

 

[Flyer]

Heya Kerp,

Any thoughts on the 5/3/1 program so far?

 

[Kerpal]

I love it so far. It's a nice change up from the Rippetoe program and the Texas Method's repetitive 3x5 and 5x5. I'm also out of the gym much faster because I can split everything up into 4 days per week instead of 3, and because I'm doing less sets so I'm not sitting around resting so much.

 

[Kerpal]

04/28/09

Squat:

5 x 270 lbs
5 x 290 lbs
7 x 305 lbs

Ab crunch machine:

3 x 10 x 120 lbs

I wanted to try standing pull-down abs again but someone was using the machine so I did these instead.

Glute-ham raise:

3 x 15 x bodyweight + purple band

These were tough, and my back locked up again on the way home. This hasn't happened with GHRs before, only reverse hypers. It was unbearable, I had to stop halfway home and get out of the car and walk around. As soon as I stand up it feels fine, but when I sit in the car it tightens up again.

The weird thing is that when I got home and sat down in a chair I felt fine. I'm not sure if it's the angle of the seat in my car or something like that, or maybe my back muscles just relaxed by the time I got home.

 

[Kerpal]

05/01/09

Overhead press:

5 x 105 lbs
5 x 110 lbs
7 x 120 lbs

Deadlift:

5 x 325 lbs
5 x 350 lbs
9 x 370 lbs

I had final exams this week, and it threw off my schedule. I was tired today because I haven’t getting enough sleep because of the exams, but still had a great workout today. Things should be back to normal next week.

 

[Kerpal]

05/03/09

Bench press:

5 x 140 lbs
5 x 150 lbs
11 x 155 lbs

I still hate bench pressing. I got someone to spot me because the power racks were taken, and he stood leaning over me the whole time, and I kept feeling like I was going to smash the bar into his face on the way up. May have gotten a couple more reps if not for that. This is really the only exercise I actually dislike doing.

Dips:

12 x bodyweight
10 x bodyweight
10 x bodyweight