AmpedTraining Blog
2009 January 19 | Comments Off
By Matt
The usual upper body today:
band pull-aparts, vertical and horizontal
Floor press, warmups then 107.5 / 5×3
face pulls, 3×10
Chinups, 4×5 (+5 rest pause singles on the last set)
DB extensions, 40lbs x12
Machine curl, 1×10
Weights…well, hell with it. Still dieting, just not concerned w/ the poundages since there’s some crazy water stuff going on right now.
Been a little slack on my content lately, but I’ve not forgotten my readership. I should have an article or two up by mid-week.
2009 January 17 | Comments Off
By Matt
I seem to be gravitating towards a three-day MWF schedule at the moment. It honestly wouldn’t hurt me to throw in another 2-3 days of depletion workouts and/or interval training, but with this heat I just can’t motivate to get it done. Oh well.
The good news is that I can squat again – at least with body weight. I went through some as a part of my warmup, and there was no pain or stiffness. Obviously the smart thing to do is pile on 200kg and see if it can take it.
No, seriously I’m going to put back squats in the rotation on the next LB session, which will be Wednesday if the schedule holds up. For now I’m happy to just do a lot of mobility work and focus on bringing up the GHRs, which is all today’s workout was.
2009 January 14 | Comments Off
By Matt
The ketogenic diet continues. I was actually up in weight today, 92.2kg, but I’m convinced that’s water balance. There’s no way I’ve actually put on any fat; visibly I’m looking leaner and one outlier isn’t anything to worry about.
I have been slack on the workouts, admittedly. Darwin’s just too damn hot right now. A kilometer walk both ways plus a gym that has no AC isn’t exactly appealing when it’s 33C and 100% humidity with a tropical sun beating down on you.
Today:
Horizontal/vertical band pull-aparts, a couple sets of 10 each
2-board press, 3 warmups, 105 (231)x5, 110 (242)x5, 100 (220)x10
inverted rows, 4×8
pulldowns, 1×10
tricep extensions, 40lbs x10
bicep curlz, 1×10
I’m having a bit of tendinitis crop up in the right shoulder, yet again. It’s not the same injury as before, fortunately, but I’m not exactly thrilled about it all the same. Ghetto-ART and a greater proportion of upper back work seems to help, so that’s the prescription for now.
2009 January 9 | Comments Off
By Matt
As all my faithful readers know, I’m currently hobbled slightly. It’s not a major injury, but it does stop me from doing any kind of squatting or pulling from the floor.
That is a bit confounding since my leg/lower body training revolves around squatting and deadlifting. So what to do with an injury?
I’m fortunate in that the injury doesn’t really impact hip extension or leg flexion in themselves, so I can get away with exercises that aren’t load-bearing. So here’s what I did today:
Band mobility and Z-Health drills for warmup
Standing calves, 4×8
- alternated with ankle mobility work
GHRs, 2×8, +5kg / 2×6
- alternated with GHR abs, 2×10, +5kg / 2×6
Leg extensions, 2×10
Finishing up after the fact with some stretching and foam rolling to help with all the tight spots (which are probably what got me hurt to begin with).
To shift gears, the diet’s going remarkably well. The TKD is a huge difference in satiety as compared to a more restrictive PSMF diet. The latter is very effective in short bursts, but good lord do I ever hate it. Not only can you not really eat anything, you also can’t really do that much exercise. It’s nice in short spells, and I’m sure I’ll end up doing two-week blocks of it here and there, but is it ever awful.
Assuming the TKD keeps me happy (and happy means consistent, consistent means results), I’ll keep with it as long as I can.
2009 January 7 | Comments Off
By Matt
First workout of 2009! Woo.
My latest leg injury has given me a reason to re-evaluate my goals. I’d planned to do a powerlifting meet on February 15th, but since I can’t squat or deadlift, and likely won’t be able to for several weeks yet, that’s out of the question.
The other thing is that my wife started dieting for a show in May, as did two other girls that I’ll be prepping, so I figured what the hell. Believe it or not, I was actually sick of all the unstructured eating. My newfound sense of focus has made it somewhat easier as well.
Nothing fancy, just doing a basic TKD (targeted ketogenic diet), mostly protein and fat with some extra carbs around the workouts. Not really counting much besides protein and the workout carbs, but I am keeping a written diet log, and it’s been a reasonable intake. The TKD is preferred over the PSMF because it does at least keep me full (because of the fat and just getting more food), and I can get some carbs in to lift on. We’ll see how it ends up working out over the long run.
Today I did this:
band pull-aparts to get the shoulders/scapulae going
Floor Press, 3 warmup sets, 105 (231) / 5×3
face pulls, 3×10
pulldowns, 2×10
DB tri extensions, 40lbs x10
Machine biceps, 1×10
I’m trying to assess ~80% and then just stick to that until (or if) it gets easy. No reason to try and grind out weekly progression if I’m dieting.
I also tested out some GHRs, and they’re painless – which is great news, because it means I can still do some decent leg training. I’m thinking GHRs, back raises, leg curls, and leg extensions will be my leg work until I can put any weight back on this torn adductor. Yeah, it’s not ‘functional’. Oh well.
2008 December 30 | Comments Off
By Matt
Today, it started out so well. I got up, had my food and usual pre-workout stuff.
Went to the gym, started warming up. It was squat/leg/lower body day, so I was doing ankle and hip mobility stuff, a few easy sets of GHRs to get going, and my usual warmup with the bar.
Everything went well, hit an easy triple at 120kg (264lbs). Did a double at 140 (308), which was a decent working weight so I figured I’d stay there for today.
Second set, I’m dropping into the hole and that’s when I hear/feel a pop in my left leg, up near the groin in the hamstring or adductor.
I never have to bail on a squat, but this is why I always make sure to keep the rails up. I had to drop a few inches to dump the bar, but fortunately that was the only hangup.
The area is throbbing now, with a little discoloration. Fortunately I’ve got some recovery methods that will help this out, but man…nothing like adding a new injury to the repertoire. Especially with a weight that’s not even challenging.
I’m getting too old for this crap without any equipment.
2008 December 29 | Comments Off
By Matt
As you can see, I didn’t really get to the gym much last week. I’ll blame it on the holidays. Tee hee.
Went in today with the wife, who had a much better workout than I did – she benched 91kg for a single. That’s 200.2 lbs for you ‘merkans.
My workout was, well, not bad, but the inner perfectionist in me is screaming for more. Good thing he’s rarely listened to.
2-board Press, 4 warmup sets, 120 (264) x1, 125 (275) x1, 130 (286) x Woops, 120 / 2×1, 100 (220) x8
DB triceps, 30lb x8, 40lb / 4×8 (60 sec rests)
machine bicep curlz, 3×10 (60 sec rests)
Face pulls, 3×10
blah blah.
2008 December 22 | Comments Off
By Matt
Upper Body/Bench session today.
Bench Lockouts (pin 7), some warmups, 120 (264) x4, 130 (286) x2, 142.5 (314) x2 (negatives)
2-board press, 110 (242) / 2×5, 100 (220) x10
DB row, 110lbs / 2×6
Bicep machine, 2×8
Face pulls, 3×10
I’m wanting to try a new strategy with my heavy/max-effort lifts. Working with heavy singles even on the 2-boards and floor press just isn’t cutting it; I’m pushing the lifts up the hard way. I want to start getting some heavier weights in my hand to start pulling my regular lifts upwards, if that makes any sense.
I haven’t fleshed out a lot of details yet. I’m thinking of leaning this towards something like Alexeyev’s progressive-ROM training, lowering the pins every workout or so until I’m hitting a full range (or near it) with the target weight. Today ended up being negatives due to biting off more than I can chew; I get impatient with the bench because it’s lagging too far behind where it should ideally be. Even though it’s really not my fault, it’s still annoying.
I’m going to have to be very careful with the pressing, due to the shoulder problems. I’ve finally got the damn thing working right again; screwing it up is the last thing I want. I doubt I’ll take this below 2-board height, a couple inches off the chest. Unless I’m in a bench shirt, I don’t plan on ever doing a full-ROM bench press max ever again.
What’s going to be really fun is trying it with squats tomorrow.
2008 December 21 | Comments Off
By Matt
Catching up on the sessions again. Didn’t lift earlier this week; I’ve really been lacking on the motivation the last couple of weeks.
Thursday 18 December
Floor Press, 4 warmup sets, 107.5 (237) x2, 115 (253) x2, 122.5 (270) x1
plate raise, 20kg / 4×8
DB triceps, 35lbs / 4×8 (30s rests)
side raises, 20lbs / 3×8
face pull, 4×8
Solid session here. The plan was to hit doubles up to ~90%, but I got scared after the first rep and just racked it. I probably should have gone for the second rep, but no big loss.
Friday 19 December
Box Squat, 4 warmup sets, 135 (297) x2, 145 (319) x2, 152.5 (336) x1
v-grip pulldowns, 2×8
underhand cable row, 2×8
lying leg curl, 2×8
leg extension, 2×12
Another decent session, still had nerves that made me second-guess the planned double.
Weight’s down a bit, but on the good news side of things, Darwin’s finally getting hit by the monsoon – which means that it’s not hot enough to set you on fire outside.
2008 December 12 | Comments Off
By Matt
Went in to hit a full-body session today. Darwin’s starting to hit the monsoon now, which is nice because the torrential rain cools things off enough that I don’t have to lift in a hothouse.
I picked back up where I left off in my Westside percentage cycle, along with a little assistance work.
Box Squats, 4 warmup sets, 145 (319) / 5×2
Floor Press, 4 warmup sets, 115 (253) / 5×2
45* back raise, 45lbs / 2×10
DB triceps, 30lbs / 4×10 (30s rests)
Face pulls, something / 4×10
I’ve been doing a bit of dieting this week, weight was down to 91.5 (which means I lost water). Not sure if I’m gonna strictly prep for the Feb. 15th full PL meet or not, even though I’m 90% sure I’m going to do it. I may just go see what happens.
