Holmes' Log '07

[JohnRobHolmes]

The ride was good, about 1.5 hours. Downtown was swarming with hippies and their "free" stuff. One man had build a dollhouse without hurting a single tree. Of course it was obvious that the wood was rotten. This all happened at Peace Park and the surrounding area. My town is the liberal town of the midwest. I held back on doing too many wheelies today. In fact I rode pretty midly.

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

Looks like the wonderful bike ride did a number around my middle trap and something in my chest. Old injury back again. Could have been my sleeping position just as well though.

Woke up this morning with a tightness in my chest and neck. It moved into an opposing muscle in my back and made breathing difficult. Anything short of perfect posture hurt, but hunching in one position felt ok too. Tried to have lots of water, salts and potassium today and let it work itself out over the day. I hit the gym super light, did around 30 BW pullups in sets of 3's and 5's. Did some needsize abs and curls too. Made my neck and chest loosen up a bit which was good. Hanging on the bar was awesome for it. No deads, no rows. BOOOO!


While leaving the grocery store I noticed myself in the glass. My chest, traps, and lats are becoming noticable. My neck looks really stinking long though. Just my body telling me to get back on the Deads ASAP. I should probably start rolling around on my head again. Thats fun stuff anyway, ties back into breakdancing too.

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

Sleep and Advil took care of my back thankfully. Woke up this morning feeling more or less normal again.


Had a pretty killer workout. Everything went up pretty easy thanks to my 3 day layoff.

Squat 45x10, 65x5, 95x5, 115x5, 145x5
bench45x10, 65x5, 95x5, 115x5, 135x5
OHP 45x5, 55x5, 65x5, 70x5, 75x5
needsize abs
tri pushdowns 60lb 20, 20

Squat was way too easy. I wanted to add 15 or 20 more pounds for another set but I decided against it. Next time rabbit. Bench was a bit stronger than last time, kept strict form too. OHP was also a bit easier, but the last rep was forced hard. 5 pound jumps will be slow on that one.

Lost 4 pounds. Been eating a ton too. Had 3 pizzas over the weekend and have been eating as much as I can. WTF? Maybe it was that huge crap I took before working out...

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

Another great day at the gym. I am way stronger with deads than I am squats. Im getting inconsistent with pullups, need to decide on a rep scheme.

5 min warmup
pullups BW 5,6,5,5 BW+5 x3 BW+10 x3 BW+25 x3 PR
DL 65x5, 95x5, 115x5, 135x5, 155x5 PR 205x1 PR
ROW 90x5, 110x5, 140x5, 160x5, 180x5
pulldown 60 15,15, 15
rotators 4lb 8,8 2lb 10x12
abs

Deads werent too hard. I see 225x 1 pretty soon. I cant decide on how to stabilize my pullups. On one hand I want to add all kinds of weight, on the other hand I feel that I need more reps to get any growth from them. I can come from a looong layoff and do 5x5 at bodyweight, but I struggle to do a 5x5 with even 5 more pounds around my waist. Time will sort things out.


Goal for May- Work lats and tri's with ancillary work. Those two areas could use some extra help.

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

Did a bit different of a workout today, since monday will be the same workout again. I also needed some active recovery from Thursday. I decided to switch the order of my split every week.

SQUATS45X10, 65X8, 95X8, 115X8, 135X8, 45X13 Cakewalk
BENCH45x10, 65x5, 95x5, 115x5, 140x5
OHP 45X5, 55X5, 60X5, 65X5, 70X5, 80X3
Needsize abs
DB press w/ slight incline 40's 3sets 8
Tri pushdown 70lb 15, 10 30lb burnout
abs

I feel that the weights that I am using are just too low to get a good enough workout with the upperbody, so I am increasing the volume by adding extra sets of db press and tri work for a while. Time will tell if this increases my strength gain or not, but I cant make mistakes and learn until I try.

Last set of bench was strong for first three reps, but last two had the bar wandering around too much for my liking. Only 10 more pounds to a PR. I totally choked on the last set of OHP- lost all power after the third rep. Gotta work my tri's harder, they are lagging behind my shoulder and chest power.

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

I felt dead today. Very slow and weak, like low blood pressure or something. It didnt affect my lifts though.

Squat 45x10, 65x5, 95x5, 115x5, 155x5
Bench45x8, 65x5, 95x5, 115x5, 140x5
OHP45x5, 55x5, 65x5, 70x5, 80x5
Decline abs
DB Press (slight incline) 45's 8,8,8
Nautilus Tri 70lb 8,10,10
Floor abs
Cooldown


My bench felt horrible. I got that weight up though. Last rep was near struggle. Squat was easy, but I came to the realization that it will start getting dangerous without proper equipment. I have an appointment with the top trainer to discuss the lack of a Power rack- thrusday 8am. If they cannot produce a proper power rack for me I will see about having my membership released.

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

Forgot to mention, I am at previous PR's for bench, squat, and OHP. One more week will have me stronger than ever. Squat seems awfully low for a previous PR, but I have put in three solid months of lifting to get where I am now. Only been doing OHP for a couple weeks now though. It would be cool to OHP my bodyweight strict.

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

Good job. Keep plugging away.

I'd bet that withing a year from now(15 months straight training) You could press 165-185lbs if you keep at it and eat enough.

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

Eating enough is still my biggest struggle. I barely made 2000cals yesterday, which is why I felt so slow I bet.

Thanks for the encouragement. I would love to be pressing those numbers in a year. I think I might be able to do even better too. I think I found a large weakness in my shoulder yesterday on the TRI machine. The long head of my tri doesnt want to contract, and when it does my shoulder feels like it is gonna pop outta socket. I have been doing rotator cuff, but maybe there is something I am missing still. Maybe I was just worn out from all the pressing though.

 

[s8nlilhlpr]

Becareful with all the OHP you are doing. Its really easy to stall out on that lift, I would start using smaller incrememnts to insure progress. Your squats should be up by another 100lbs pretty soon. Keep up the hard work!