Straps, milk and new hoody

This happened the other day but I totally forgot about it due to my intense rage. It's not that interesting really, I broke a wrist strap deadlifting and fell on my arse. You probably had to be there, it was quite comical.

 

Anyway, this is good news as I've wanted to stop using these for ages. I pretty much exclusively used them for high rep work, just proving that grip stamina does need working on. Here's my excuse to fully commit then, and I'm still dead set on finally closing captains of crush No.2.5 by the end of the year, so a bit of static work could do wonders too.

Gold label milk. Never heard of it before until today, but when my friend nearly climaxed just describing it to me, I thought I'd give it a go. Tastes pretty much the same as blue milk to be honest, similar calories... twice the price. It looks fancy but I'll stick to good ol' blue for now. (SO INTERESTING I KNOW RIGHT).

Also, my APSoc hoody arrived. Just to show how committed to the cause I am, it's got this blog's name on it. It's a bit big around my little arms but the rest fits perfect. I'll be that guy in comps competing with an Astronomy and Physics Society hoody; Y'know, one of the cool kids.

That's pretty much all I have to say today. 

Pricks and Progress

Either I'm becoming a real pretentious prick or my man-strual cycle is due, but seriously, my deadlifts got interrupted today to fucking spot a guy preacher curling. Not only that, but when i put a finger under the bar to assist what I was to assume his last lift, he went and cranked out 5 more reps, my single finger then changing to a full on mixed grip to compensate for him being a moron and completely missing the point of my initial stance. And later on I see some colossal faggot (in gloves) squatting with the bar padding on... on a smith machine, with not 1, not 2 but 3 fucking spotters. 

 

I do this. Regularly.

Needless to say both these things pissed me off royally. I'm not sure if they should have, but it did. Oh and another thing, when I'm strapping myself to the bar for a pull, now is NOT the time to fucking step over the bar to go chat with your 'bros', there are literally hundreds of ways around me. I don't crawl over you during your 30th bench press session of the week, use some fucking initiative you tool.

 

Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts...

In much lighter news, I found a screenshot during my squat vid in a very similar pose to how I am standing at my 21st birthday 14 months ago. It's quite a nice reference photo, no idea why the poses are similar, apparently I must do it often though. It's like half Mr. Burns, half raging homosexual, but ah well.

 

As you can see I was fairly scrawny at my last last birthday. Apparently red hair was cool before Rhianna too, but I digress. 

76kg (Jan 11) vs 112kg (March 12); A hefty 36kg increase in a little over a year. Based purely on jeans sizes alone, my waist has gone from 30" to 42", but remember the latter does take into account leg room. Like, I fit 40" (and possibly 38") but it looks like I'm wearing skinny jeans and as you'll know from previous posts, I am not a faggot fan of such fashion. As far as leg sizes go, my upper leg is now 29", which is fairly substantial compared to my initial waist lol. I didn't feel the need to measure it back then, obviously.

And yes, of course it's not lean gain, it's not a lean gain in the slightest, but it just goes to show how idiots who claim they're hardgainers are complete retards. If I can put on 36kg in a year, even one of those fools who claim such idiocy can at least put on half of that with a bit of time and effort. Wait... It's not even effort. It's literally eating everything in sight. How hard is that? Most people enjoy food. Food is good. Fucking eat it.

ehhh nothing interesting

Evening all. Nothing to really post about considering nothing's happened since last time, but I'll just mention how my training's going. So today marks the second day of the second week of the Wendler's powerlifting cycle I started. Well technically it's the forth week as I started where my homemade bodge job routine left off and went straight into heavy week; but anyway, I'm waffling.

Things are looking good! One of the first things I've noticed is that the program pushes you to the max, like, I was no where near this intensity a month ago. For example, this week I was 5x'ing 85-90% of my PBs, which as mad as it sounds, just makes me feel like my PBs could be even higher than what I originally thought. Compare this to a month ago, where I'd be on single reps anything above 75-80%, it's definitely pushing me further than I imagined.

Cardio's not bad I guess. At least 2 (out of 4) days I begin with 15 minutes elliptical trainer cardio which not only warms me up, but apparently burns ~300kcal. (Don't worry, I make up for it with extra ice cream post workout). It's on the CV setting, meaning it starts off at shitty intensity, rises steadily to ohgodimgonnadie intensity then drops back down to the original intensity at roughly the same pace it rose. I end up covered in sweat and barely able to breath, but it gets less and less each time so I guess that's progress. My aim is to be able to climb the three flights of stairs to the uni hand-in office without getting out of breath lol, anything extra is a bonus!

 
Post workout snack of the gods.

And finally, bench pressing has actually gone well for a change...Sort of. As much as I sigh at my piss poor benching efforts, I actually don't give a shit in the long run as it's never ever judged on a competition scale outside of powerlifting. With this mentality, I've basically given up with regular benching and just do incline at most, focusing mainly on shoulder and overhead lifts. Saying that, with a bit of bi/tricep isolation work (woa), I've actually been able to hit my old 100kg PB. I'm not sure if incline should be easier than regular or not, but anyway, it was pretty straight forward and simple. I didn't dare go over it though without a spotter, so we'll see next heavy week and find out.

Inspirational Athletes

I'm a sucker for conforming and trying to be like everyone else; I can't help it, I'm just an easily influenced individual who likes having role models. Over my life I've wanted to be Tony Hawk, Hulk Hogan, hell even a Ninja Turtle at one point (that one's quite a while back though). Point is, these guys all shaped me into what I am today. I like having someone to look up to, and in my opinion there's no bigger strongmen to follow than these guys:

Mark Henry

Before he was getting buried in WWE squash matches to The Big Slow... In fact before all his wrestling days, Henry was a super heavyweight lifter grabbing silver in the 1995 Olympics. Not long after that, in 2002, he was an entrant in the first ever Arnold Strongman Classic. 

And he wrecked it. Becoming the second man in history to ever overhead the Apollon's Wheel, he did so with absolute perfect Olympic precision and form. Twice.  Have a look on YouTube for the video, he made it look easy compared to the professional strongman athletes alongside him.

It's a shame he never got into the full swing of things with WSM and further Arnolds, but I guess his WWE schedule is pretty busy. Here's hoping he stops getting stomped by a single punch and wins his second World title soon.

Laurence Shahlaei

Home grown British power, Big Loz is well and truely on his way to becoming WSM some day.

He is hailed as having the strongest legs in the world, and who can dispute this? Undefeated at squat events in WSM 5 years running, world records in the farmers walk and raw deadlift and podium times in his yoke events, he is blindingly good. Keep your eyes peeled, 4th place won't satisfy Loz this year.

Zydrunas Savickas

A man who needs no introduction, 6 time Arnold and 2 time World's Strongest Man, Big Z can easily be thought of as the strongest man to have ever lived. 

Above you can see him breaking the old world record which he also set last year, with an extra 7lbs added on to make it a HUGE1117lb tire deadlift. Losing out only to his relaxed form on this years incredibly strictly (but correctly) judged Arnolds, Big Z is still fighting and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he walks away with WSM this year too.

Squat form

Hello world, here's a video of a 180kg squat in wraps. Not a PB, but very close. Not the greatest form either, advice is happily welcomed.

And here's where I tried being cheeky adding another 10kg straight up.

Moral of the story? Patience haha. 


In other news, I tried the wendler's 5/3/1 for the first time yesterday jumping straight into week 3. Fuck me that's tough, there's not a lot of reps but of the reps you do do (hehe do-do), it doesn't half kill ya. I usually 3 or 5x in the 120kg region, and then 2x for anything between that and 10% off my 1RM. Wendler says FUCK YOU you lazy git, get some more reps down you! I know for a fact this'll get me stronger, I feel like death today. More vids to come later this week.

NEWER routine, calluses and Arnolds

After a lot of positive feedback from my last post, someone also threw the Wendler's 5/3/1 routine at me. Now I know it seems like I'm throwing routines in the air all the time, but trust me, at first glance, it looks fucking sweet, and a helluva lot better than a routine I just plucked out of my ass. My homemade routine has served me well for the past half a year (minus the cycle, that bit's kinda new) but one of the reasons I posted it was to get criticism and advice; And that's exactly what you guys did, so I think it's time for a tried and tested method to give me the results I'm after. I'm gonna be switching over to Wendler's for the next 6 months and see where that gets us. For those unaware of what the Wendler's 5/3/1 actually is, you can look here, it's super easy to follow through. I'll be doing the Boring But Big assistance lifts as well, because I love the big 4 too much and despise all other accessory lifts. 

Lift	PB		Week 1	75% x 5	80% x 5	85% x 5	50% x 10
OHP	100		OHP	75	80	85	50
Dead	220		Dead	165	176	187	110
Bench	100		Bench	75	80	85	50
Squat	182.5		Squat	136.875	146	155.125	91.25
			Week 2	80% x 3	85% x 3	90% x 3	50% x 10
			OHP	80	85	90	50
			Dead	176	187	198	110
			Bench	80	85	90	50
			Squat	146	155.125	164.25	91.25
			Week 3	75% x 5	85% x 3	95% x 1	50% x 10
			OHP	75	85	95	50
			Dead	165	187	209	110
			Bench	75	85	95	50
			Squat	136.875	155.125	173.375	91.25
			Week 4	60% x 5	65% x 5	70% x 5	50% x 10
			OHP	60	65	70	50
			Dead	132	143	154	110
			Bench	60	65	70	50
			Squat	109.5	118.625	127.75	91.25

Putting my Excel skills to the test!

Also, I probably bitched about it last week, but during Wednesday's deadlift sesh I ripped the calluses off my hands and it stung like fuck. Not only that, but gripping anything was next to impossible which obviously affected training. I've never actually completely torn off a callus before and now I know why it's a big no-no. Anyway, browsing around I found a video from Donny Shankle, an Olympic lifter who gives tips on how to care for your hands. Leaving all girly jokes aside, this is kinda important in my opinion (... he says now, lol). Check it out.

For the record, everything in this video is available in Boots for about a tenner in total.

And last but not least, the Arnold Strongman Classic has come to an end last night where things have really been given a good shake-up. Shaw ripped his bicep, Big Z didn't win a log event, and we have a brand new winner! Mike Jenkins absolutely stormed the events, winning all of the pressing events and claiming the first place prize from Derek Poundstone by a tenth of a second in the timber carry. A well earned victory, Mike Jenkins is no doubt a serious threat to the WSM title later this year. A big congratulations to the two Brits who represented us so well, it was such a tough field and they placed a very respectable 7th and 8th place. Well done Loz and Terry!

255lb dumbbell lift... for reps. Mental.

Routine and diet

Inspired by Igor's post on DGz, I'm gonna list my weekly routine (as promised like 2 months ago) and then an example day's diet. If you can remember, my training is split in to 4 weeks:

Regular (3x5s etc)

Regular (3x5s etc again)
Heavy (3x3s etc, pyramid'ing up to 1x1)

Light (3x10s etc)

And to be honest they're not even weeks, cos I tend to train every other day, so it's a little over but you get what I mean, after each cycle, we move onto the next weight week. Anyway, I do things a little different as I can't be arsed doing certain body parts each week. I just like to train the big 4 as often as possible, so why not just set a day for each.

Bench day

Dumbbell Press

Seated Flys

Bench Press

Dumbbell Flys

Squat day

Squats

Leg Curl

Leg Raise

Leg Press

OHP day

Cage Jerk (basically just from shoulders)

Shoulder Press

Front Raises

Cleans

Deadlift day

Deadlifts

Good Mornings

Bent Over Rows

Single Arm Rows

Each exercise is usually done 3x5 for about 3-4 different weights, depending on which week of weight it is. (Heavy weight is like 8 lol, small increments to get that new PB!).

Each day is coupled with 13-16 mins of elliptical machine cardio, adding an extra minute on each day (and resetting after each week). It's not a lot but I'm so fucking fat lol.

On rest days where I don't have DOMS like a bitch, I tend to just go in for arm isolation days. It doesn't happen often, mainly on light weeks to be fair, but the guns do get lonely sometimes.

An example of my daily food intake is something like:

Breakfast: 6 weetabix, pint of orange juice

Snack: 2 scoops oats, 1 scoop chocolate protein, 1 pint skimmed milk

Lunch: 2-3 chicken/tuna/ham sandwiches, banana, little gay bio yoghurt

Snack: 2 scoops oats, 1 scoop chocolate protein, 1 pint skimmed milk

Dinner: marinated chicken breasts, low fat chips and mountains of veg

Snack: 2 scoops oats, 1 scoop chocolate protein, 1 pint skimmed milk

This is my 'clean' diet at the moment. On regular bulking months, everything that's low fat on that list gets put to full fatty goodness and olive oil goes in the shakes. Sometimes for dinner I just have a pile of pasta with that Lloyd Grossman tasty sauce. I'm not too fussed that it's not meaty, I'm already in excess protein intake, but I only add it to the oats for the chocolatey flavour lol. Otherwise it tastes like ass.

At the moment this is what I've been doing. It's open to suggestions and changes, and I'm consulting a PT in a few weeks so it'll probably get buried by someone with an actual knowledge of lifting. Ah well, it's worked brilliantly so far (minus bench day), so meh, this is what works for me!

Deadlift reps, potential new gym and Giants Live

Today was a good day. Did a lot of 3x5 work on deads right up to 150kg, and 3x3 on 170kg. I could probably do more but I accidently cracked a 25kg plate when dropping it and I wanted to vacate the scene of the crime as soon as possible. Also did a bit of bent over row work, which ended up finishes my hands off with a gory fatality, good bye calluses (and hello pink chalk!).

In other news, I think I've found a local strongman gym. It has strongman training advertised, it mentions stones and it also shows a lot of videos with tires, sleds and ropes. To be quite honest, it looks quite a casual gym (and from the looks of things, primarily populated by women, but that may be just clever advertising photos) but it has some strongman gear that I'm very interested in toying with. I don't think they have logs, but who knows, hopefully they'll surprise me. I've tried ringing twice today and I've sent an email but to no avail. I'm desperately after a taster sesh at the minimum, when will you answer your bloody phone!

Finally, I've booked a room at this little B&B opposite the Headingley Stadium in Leeds ready for Giants Live. I have no idea what time it's gonna end and I don't wanna risk trains cutting my day short. It's pretty cheap at only £40 for a double room for the night, so if you're staying with that special someone, it's a bargain!

I actually don't have any pics to post today :(