Deadlifting my way to Happiness - Al420's log

[al420]

What do you think about doing incline instead of flat bench on the linear 5x5? I will do push presses or standing military presses on Wednesday workouts. Thoughts?

Also - I can not "catch" at all. It's a flexability thing - elbows are stuck and they won't budge - and it kills my ability to do front squats and the majority of the Oly lifts. I will take some pics, but I can not get my elbows in the air at all - I mean they aren't even half way to where I feel they should be. Any suggestions?

No training today. Did some cardio - boxed for 45 minutes and did about 20 mintues of stretching before and after - it was pretty sweet - I love boxing. I am a jump roping fool - which gets some looks as my build suggests otherwise. I was pretty tight after working for maxes on Monday for squats and deads. My traps are also killing me. Not sure I should have done power shrugs after deadlifting. Tomorrow I will toy w/ my bench and standing military maxes. I'm really excited to get going.

Diet was decent until dinner. Ate pizza for dinner (which WILL help my lifts tomorrow!). Had back to school night for my oldest tonight so time was sparce, missed a meal, etc,etc....ate pizza. Drank about a quart of milk - but it was skim. Getting a little nervous about bulking (ignore previously misleading pizza info). I am very acustom to 2400'ish cals, and eating more is going to be hard (especially clean) as my capacity is way down. I am adding in some more red meat and eggs for the majority of the cals - a few more carbs and fat - gotta try for 40/30/30 as best I can.

I am also wondering if I can toy w/ workout frequency while on gear. I was thinking about EOD instead of MWF. Would you make any changes to the spreadsheet? Doses are 500 test ew, 250 deca ew, 4iu gh eod.

Weight this AM: 213.5
Height: 5'11" - No Change - this GH better be good

 

[Protobuilder]

Just saw the journal. Looks great. Congrats on your impressive results so far. 40 pounds in 4 months is amazing.

If you're having trouble w/ the bench, and you care about it going up, I wouldn't switch over to incline. Several guys, including myself, haven't reported good carry-over. If you just want to build an upper chest or get into more athletic type stuff, etc., incline is a good option. And it can be a nice change if you're bored w/ flat. But if your main goal is increasing the flat bench, I'd think twice about dropping it completley. At the very least, do incline one day, OHP on Wed., and flat on Fri.

 

[silver_shadow]

yep, i'm yet to come across someone who's reported carry from incline to flat. maybe you could do some decline if you really crave a change. if you can adjust the decline angle on your bench, you could set it at a lower decline than normal.
cleans: the clean grip is just something you learn by practice. you will become more flexible. all of us have gone through that. the best thing you could do is to practise front squatting with a clean grip. you will get it right. what you have to remember is to keep your chest puffed and back arched so that the bar will sit snugly on the fleshy part of your delts, pressed slightly against your neck but not too much. you should not feel any strain on your wrists while in this position - your fingers will basically firmly hold the bar in position, but the weight is mostly on the delts. what i did initially was to warm up for back squats using front squats. each week i'd attempt to push the front squat numbers up a little. this carried on till i became comfortable with the grip. when i was comfortable enough i could then push the front squat as a lift itself (that is not as a warmup for back squats). the reason i did it this way was so that i didn't eliminate (even a single day) back squats and could thereby ensure poundages weren't compromised.

 

[al420]

yep, i'm yet to come across someone who's reported carry from incline to flat. maybe you could do some decline if you really crave a change. if you can adjust the decline angle on your bench, you could set it at a lower decline than normal.
cleans: the clean grip is just something you learn by practice. you will become more flexible. all of us have gone through that. the best thing you could do is to practise front squatting with a clean grip. you will get it right. what you have to remember is to keep your chest puffed and back arched so that the bar will sit snugly on the fleshy part of your delts, pressed slightly against your neck but not too much. you should not feel any strain on your wrists while in this position - your fingers will basically firmly hold the bar in position, but the weight is mostly on the delts. what i did initially was to warm up for back squats using front squats. each week i'd attempt to push the front squat numbers up a little. this carried on till i became comfortable with the grip. when i was comfortable enough i could then push the front squat as a lift itself (that is not as a warmup for back squats). the reason i did it this way was so that i didn't eliminate (even a single day) back squats and could thereby ensure poundages weren't compromised.

THanks for the advice ont he cleans bro - I will try it today.

 

[BiggT]

al420.....what you can do if you want to take advantage of the gear is add in another day, Tuesday works well. You can Bench/Incline/Bench on MWF and OHP on Tuesday.....you can back squat MWF and front squat on Tues....you can also add in chins/calves/clean or snatch pulls on the Tues as you feel you can handle it.....I'd wait for a few weeks and then give it a shot......as far as incline subbed for bench, whatever you decide to 'train' will go up, if you expect direct carryover to the bench it may not be the best move, but the incline is a GREAT lift and you'll get results by training it.

 

[Tweakle]

I don't agree with that as a blanket reccomendation - it depends on your recovery ablity, even on 2g's I overtrain if I do more than 3 days a week.

the first thing most people do when 'on' is add extra work, more sets, more volume and extra days when imo they should be focusing on adding extra weight to the bar, rather than burning themselves out to the point the cycle isn't giving the best returns. But again that depends on your somatype, age and general stress levels.. I know the classic DC split is M-T-T-F which works for some meso easygainers but burns out most other people. Now I doubt 99% of juicers train as hard as dante's clients so the extra day might be ok if the intensity isn't really there in the gym.

how you recover 'off' is pretty much the same as you will recover when 'on'.. it jacks it up a little but your CNS can and will still be a limiting factor which is why I don't like back to back training days.

 

[BiggT]

Tweakle is right about the CNS. I would wait a few weeks and adjust to what you're doing and if you want to add a day, TRY one or 2 exercises and guage from there.....but the way you'll get your gains is to get better at what you're doing, not necessarily add more stuff.

 

[al420]

Proto and SS - thanks for the replys on incline. Have not decided yet, but I have to by Monday.

Thanks Tweakle and Biggt for the advice on frequency. I think I will play it by feel and see what happens.

I took some pics last night and they were depressing. I am one fat fuck - that is for sure. I don't look as big as I feel which sucks. But I am not going anywhere. I am doing this b/c I like it, and I want to be freakishly strong - which I know takes time.

Not sure how to post the pics - it says they are too large.

I maxed on bench and military yesterday. Flat bench was 185x3 and Military was 165x2. I think I had a tad more in the tank but I hit the power rack on the way up on rep 2 and it killed my momentum.

Today will be some stretching and some cardio. After seing the pics I feel like I will be doing more cardio then I have been. I mean I know I have lost some serious fat poundage and almost 10" from my waistline but my midsection is disgusting to me still. No mountain to tall!

Weight this AM: 214

 

[Cynical Simian]

Post the pics on a file-hosting site (tinypic, putfile, whatever). That's what we, the non-plat underclass of the training board, would have asked you to do anyway since we can't view attached images.

 

[*Bunny*]

After seing the pics I feel like I will be doing more cardio then I have been. I mean I know I have lost some serious fat poundage and almost 10" from my waistline but my midsection is disgusting to me still. No mountain to tall!

Weight this AM: 214

Here ya go ..

How much & what type of cardio are you doing again?
Are you doing any ab specific work OTHER than what is provided by the 5 x 5? (I am NOT saying that isn't sufficient.. just curious)

FYI too much cardio is NOT a good thing, esp when strength is your goal. AGAIN I am not familiar with AAS and excess cardio to help lose body fat while trying to increase strength, so I may be outta my league and why you don't see me commenting on diet & training to accomdate AAS.

Your waistline can be managed by the foods you are eating & watch those cheats. You know where to find me if you want more info on diet.

GREAT JOB on getting some pics up Thumpa!