"ATHLETIC LIFTING" tagio's workout journal

[Tagio]

Hello Elite, I learned a lot about lifting from discussions and links posted here - i would never have learned how to train properly without this site. So now that I finally have the discipline to stick to a regular program, I want to make my journal public to keep me honest about my workouts and hopefully entertain a few of you.

no photos right now but i'll post them eventually, dont have a camera and im not too fond of self-photo shoots

I'm 24 years old, a hair over 5'10", and weigh 185 lbs. i estimate my bodyfat at 11-12%, can see my abs/serratus/veiny forearms but still carrying a little softness especially over the lower abs. haven't measured any bodyparts but wear 33-34 size jeans (smallest waist size and lowest bodyfat i've been at since middle school, thanks to my diet which i've improved drastically in the last 6 months). will do some measurements when i get around to it.

my thighs, calves, glutes, erectors are nicely muscular, but im lacking in chest, lat, upper arm and trapezius development from a physique perspective. delts and forearms are pretty nice. this is reflected in my lifts as you'll see my lower body/posterior chain lifts are much stronger than my upper body lifts.

My main goal in lifting is developing explosive power and an excellent strength to bodyweight ratio. I would love to compete in olympic weightlifting and I plan to within the next 6 months to a year. I have had a few weeks of coaching in the form of the lifts but i'm training myself right now. I train in my basement/backyard and my equipment is a squat rack, a nice needle bearing bar, some cheap olympic bumpers, and standard iron plates. i do heavy oly lifts in the yard so i can drop heavy lifts without breaking anything

other goals from lifting include an athletic physique with sub-11% bodyfat and a huge vertical jump, both of which fit in nicely with the other goals.

I need to gain weight into the 94 kilo class to compete effectively in weightlifting, i'm too tall and wide-shouldered to be muscular at 185. so i need to gain about 20 lbs, but i plan to do this very slowly so i don't gain useless fat.

I'm just starting to train again after a long layoff after i graduated college. Here are some of my OLD pr's (weights i could probably not hit today), all set at around 190 lbs bodyweight

Front squat: 245 lbs, 4 reps
Back squat: 315 lbs x1 (oly style full range of motion)
Behind neck power jerk: 225 lbs
Split jerk: 205 lbs (weak arms!)
Power Clean: 205 lbs
Squat Clean: 245 lbs
Bench Press: 155x5 reps (LOL)
Overhead press: 135x2 reps
Pullups: 7 reps

these numbers are decent and i'm proud of all of them but i plan to surpass all of them within a month or two at most. you can see my upper body lifts are quite weak relative to the lower body and this is something i'm addressing in my current program. I'll end this post here because it's super long, and post my workout plan in the next one

 

[Tagio]

My plan is to lift in 6-week cycles to provide a simple form of periodization. Personally, I have a tendency to go balls to the wall and try to hit PRs every week without a structure, so i impose this cycle to encourage moderation during the early weeks at least. this should help me make more long term progress with less burnout/frustration.

Week 1 will be very conservative weights on all exercises, just going thru the motions with enough weight to practice the form effectively. the weight will increase on week 2,3, and 4, so that week 4 is quite difficult. week 5 will keep the weights pretty high but drop a lot of volume. then week 6 i will attempt a PR or goal weight in each workout.

I'm lifting 3 days a week, and adding other workouts in between as my tolerance and fitness allow, with some running and light assistance work.

This is the plan i started out with. I've modified it a bit as i went along. The goal of this cycle was to work on overhead strength which is a major weak link in my olympic lifting. I also wanted to emphasize the front and overhead squat because they require more stability and will help me build a base of stabilizer strength before i go on to heavy back squats, cleans, and snatches. I prioritized overhead strength by putting overhead exercises as the first exercises in each workout and overhead pressing twice a week.


Monday -

Overhead squat - increase reps or weight weekly, stay light to practice form

strict Overhead press for 4 sets of 7-8 reps, going for near-failure on last rep

Clean deadlifts - 'form work' with medium intensity and low volume. 5 sets of 3, not too heavy

Pullups, low rep day, 5-6 sets



Wednesday -

Olympic lifts

Drop snatches - practicing receiving the snatch (drop snatches start with the bar on the back, you pop it up minimally and jump under it in overhead squat position, then recover)

Clean and jerks - to highest weight that can be done without form breakdown

Back squats - moderate weight, lower rep sets



Friday -

highest intensity day

strict overhead press - 4-6 work sets of 4-5 reps, using a few heavier singles to warm up the nervous system.
Front Squats - 4-5 worksets of 3-5 reps using singles as above.

Snatch Deadlift - light, just for form work

Pullups - go for a new PR in total reps performed each week.

PR goals were to match or beat my old front squat PR of 245x4 reps, To powerclean and jerk 205 lbs, matching my old PR, and to overhead press 155lbs for reps - hopefully 4 or 5. I am in week 4 of the cycle now and the first two goals look very solid but the last is pretty iffy. i'm making good progress on the overhead press nonetheless so i won't rule it out just yet

I'll post the workouts i've completed next, with some comments.

 

[Tagio]

Monday Oct. 29

Overhead Squat - warmups, up to 85 lbs for 5 sets of 5, 1 set of 12

felt difficult, hard to balance, like the weight could fall forward or back in the bottom position. got in the groove toward the end and hit a set of 12 reps, nowhere near failure


OHP (overhead press) 85 lbs 4 sets of 7 -

i was near failure on the 7th rep of every set. quite weak but you work with what you've got


Clean deadlift 135x1, 155x1, 185x1, 135 for 3 sets of 5

185 actually felt pretty heavy. worksets were not hard.


pullups 6 sets of 2, not hard

workout was fun, nothing felt too fatiguing.

 

[Tagio]

Wednesday Oct. 31

Drop snatch - up to 115 for singles

felt scary at first but the form was solid after a long warmup. overhead support felt way stronger than monday's workout.

Power jerk - up to 105 for singles

form was pretty terrible, i can launch the weight easily but i wasn't coordinated properly dipping under. felt heavy on the chest for some reason.

Powerclean + powerjerk - 135 x 6 singles

cleans were ok, felt a bit heavy. jerks felt terrible, very heavy feeling on the chest before the jerk, wacky lockouts. the singles didn't really get harder as i did more of them, suggesting it's mostly poor form and efficiency making it feel hard.

Back squats - 5 set of 3 at 135

just easing back into squats, felt very solid. squats always feel very solid after oly lifts.

Pullups 5 sets of 3

not hard, did these in between squats

fun workout, drop snatches were pretty exciting and was able to increase the weight a bunch from monday

 

[Tagio]

Friday Nov. 2

this workout sucked, i really didn't want to work out at all on this night. but i stuck it out without pushing too hard and i was back on track by the next monday

OHP - 95 4 sets of 5 reps

5th rep pretty hard on all these sets.

Front Squat - 135 3 sets of 5 reps

every rep felt heavy and horrible

pullup 4 sets of 3 reps

these felt fine

snatch deadlifts with 65 lbs

did these just for practice in between pullups

crappy workout, nervous system was just dead for some reason this time

 

[Tagio]

Monday Nov. 5

Overhead squat - 105lbs, 5 sets of 5

20 lb increase in weight, and felt easier than the previous week. very cool

OHP 85 4 sets of 8

added 1 rep on each set, definite progress since i was so near failure the previous week. still near failure on rep 8 of every set though

pullups 6 sets of 3

added a rep to each set, not too hard

clean style deadlifts - singles up to 205x1, 155lbs for 3 sets of 5

worksets were a 20 lb increase from previous week, still felt easy. single at 205 felt heavy-ish.

good workout, progressed in every lift to some degree or other.

 

[Tagio]

Wednesday Nov. 7

Drop snatch - 135 for 5 singles

big 20 lb increase in this lift too! 135 felt heavy overhead but i didn't miss any reps. shoulders feeling not super great.

Powerclean + powerjerk - 155 x 5 singles

+20 lbs, 1 fewer single
cleans felt better than previous week, jerks felt a bit better but still very heavy on the chest. narrowed grip slightly on the clean which helped. not missing any reps but they feel forced and not too great in this workout.

Back squats - 5 set of 3 at 155

+20lbs, quite easy

Pullups 5 sets of 4

increased reps, did these in between squats. tiring but not too bad.

good workout, was proud of the drop snatches with 135 since my initial overhead squat workout only went up to 85 lbs!

 

[Tagio]

Friday Nov. 9

OHP - 115lbs 3 sets of 4 reps
115 2 sets of 3 reps

good increase in weight, but couldn't make sets of 5. failed on rep 4 of the 4th set, then did one more set of 3. very hard, but making progress.

Front Squat - up to 225x1
185lbs, 3 sets of 5
front squat strength went up drastically, single with 225 was hard but pretty solid. 5 rep sets of front squats take some willpower for me but the form didn't break down and speed was pretty good. very happy about this, bodyweight for reps

pullups 5/5/4/3

5 more total reps than previous week

snatch deadlifts with 65 lbs

great workout, wish progress was faster on presses but still happy. had sore tris the next day

 

[Tagio]

Monday Nov. 12

OHP
85lbs, 2 sets at 5 reps
1 set at 7 reps
1 set at 6 reps
105lbs, 2 sets of 5 reps

had trouble getting warmed up, felt very heavy, hit the 2 sets at 105 last. did presses first this time because i noticed shoulders were fatigued from overhead squats in previous workouts and i want to prioritize the press.

OHS
105 1 set of 5
115 3 sets of 5

10 lb increase but fewer sets. could have done more sets, but shoulders were bothering me a bit. squats themselves were quite solid.

pullups 6 sets of 3

clean deadlift, singles to 225 and then 175lbs for 3 sets of 5

worksets felt a little heavier than before (20 lbs added again) but very solid.

good workout, but getting some shoulder pain, hadn't figured out why at this point.

 

[Tagio]

Wednesday Nov. 14

Drop snatch - 135 4 singles, 155x1

shoulders were bothering me, but i made 155! felt 1 hair away from losing it but it was a solid rep. didn't try to repeat it but still a nice increase.

started raining so i couldn't do jerks. did some different clean variations with 135 - squat clean, hang squat clean, power clean, hang power clean.


Back squats - 3 sets of 2 at 225

did 245 for a single, then 3 doubles with 225. felt nice

pullups x6,x6

instead of going for total reps, i did 2 sets for max reps. i've done more before but this was ok for the end of a workout.

good workout, shoulders hurting but squats felt great.