MetalFortress' lifting journal

[HalfAddict]

Kicking ass man!

 

[MetalFortress]

CHIN UPS:

bw x 3
bw x 3
bw x 3
bw x 3
bw x 3
bw x 3
bw x 2
bw x (3 slow negatives)
bw x (2 slow negatives)
bw x (2 slow negatives)

Heheh, painfully fun... I'm surprised I even made it through that many sets without losing reps.

 

[MetalFortress]

I hit a nice PR today

DB BENCH PRESS
(45+45)x5
(60+60)x5 (PR!!!!)
(60+60)x4
(60+60)x5 (PR tie)
(60+60)x3
(55+55)x5
(55+55)x5
(55+55)x5
(55+55)x5
(55+55)x5

Didn't feel strong when I did my first set. Didn't matter though, because I ended up with an awesome workout. 55 pound DBs felt hard as crap last week, yet felt easy this week even when my arms were blown apart. I felt like I could have done 5 more sets of 5 with the 55's.

I can't believe I was using 40s and 45s a month ago, and having difficulty with them.

 

[MetalFortress]

Thanks bro.

Too tired today... halfway towards passing out. So how the hell did I set two PR's today?

FRONT SQUAT:

135x5
185x5
195x5 (5-rep PR)
190x5
185x5
230x0
220x1 (1-rep PR)


Lowered the volume because of being tired and because my wrists are taking a beating from the heavier lifts. Nevertheless, a PR is always good. It gives an adrenaline rush to see the bar beginning to bend from the weight. I'll hit 230 when I'm not tired as hell.

 

[CHOCOLATE(COLA)]

Originally posted by MetalFortress
Thanks bro.

Too tired today... halfway towards passing out. So how the hell did I set two PR's today?

FRONT SQUAT:

135x5
185x5
195x5 (5-rep PR)
190x5
185x5
230x0
220x1 (1-rep PR)


Lowered the volume because of being tired and because my wrists are taking a beating from the heavier lifts. Nevertheless, a PR is always good. It gives an adrenaline rush to see the bar beginning to bend from the weight. I'll hit 230 when I'm not tired as hell.

Get more sleep so as not to be tired

 

[MetalFortress]

Well yeah, I forgot to add that I'm gonna get a LONG sleep. This isn't an everyday occurrance or anything, it just happened to come on the day of my front squats.

 

[Lifeforce]

Originally posted by MetalFortress
Thanks bro.

Too tired today... halfway towards passing out. So how the hell did I set two PR's today?

FRONT SQUAT:

135x5
185x5
195x5 (5-rep PR)
190x5
185x5
230x0
220x1 (1-rep PR)


Lowered the volume because of being tired and because my wrists are taking a beating from the heavier lifts. Nevertheless, a PR is always good. It gives an adrenaline rush to see the bar beginning to bend from the weight. I'll hit 230 when I'm not tired as hell.

Great workout man! You finally took my 5x187 Front squat down bigtime! Is it just me or do you max out very often on the front squats? Seems like you beat up your CNS a little too often.

 

[MetalFortress]

I always try to 5-rep max them because I like to do the heaviest weight I can for 5-reps and then work down once I'm at the point where I know I can't do another set of that weight. The one-rep max was a spur of the moment thought. The fourth week of my routine is a week off of lifting completely, and next week is actually supposed to be a low volume maxout week, but I couldn't resist doing it early for the squats.

 

[MetalFortress]

Tabatas!!!

Time for a lactic acid bomb for recovery:

DB bench press:
(20+20)x 20 seconds
10 second rest
(20+20)x 20 seconds
10 second rest
(20+20)x 20 seconds
10 second rest
(20+20)x 20 seconds

Front squat:
45x20 seconds
10 second rest
45x20 seconds
10 second rest
45x20 seconds
10 second rest
45x20 seconds

Barbell curls:
30x20 seconds
10 second rest
30x20 seconds
10 second rest
30x20 seconds
10 second rest
30x20 seconds

Did a moving job today for 4 hours, so this should hopefully help with that.

 

[Lifeforce]

Intense workout man.. I'd die if I did that. =D

I'm after you on the front squats... mohaha... tried them today and for once they are pretty nice and comfortable as suppossed to last time.

 

[MetalFortress]

Haha what happenedl ast time?

 

[Lifeforce]

I got out of balance so I stumbled across the entire gym with people looking and then I fell through a window and fell two stories and landed on the gym owners car!!! I quickly disappeared but my membership was evoked :/

NAh only kidding... it hurted in my delt.

 

[MetalFortress]

haha that would have been funny if you did the first one... one time an olympic lifter at my old high school was doing front squat and jerks, dropped the weight onto the stepup stool, and sent the collar shooting across the weight room, knocking over an olympic rack and missing a baseball player by about 1 inch.

 

[MetalFortress]

Chins today. Chin strength is down today, for whatever reason.

CHINS:

bwx1
bwx3
bwx6 (rest pause style)
bwx3 (rest pause style)
bwx3 (rest pause style)
bwx2 (rest pause style)

DB curls: (35+35)x10
DB curls: (30+30)x5
BB curls: 60x10
BB curls: 40x15
(all curl sets used rest breaks shorter than one minute)

Situps: TABATA style (20 second set, 10 second rest) for 4 sets with a 10 lb plate

Biceps are the weak link in my chins, so with more strength and endurance in them, my chinning should improve.

 

[Lifeforce]

Originally posted by MetalFortress
haha that would have been funny if you did the first one... one time an olympic lifter at my old high school was doing front squat and jerks, dropped the weight onto the stepup stool, and sent the collar shooting across the weight room, knocking over an olympic rack and missing a baseball player by about 1 inch.

LOL !!!! thank god no one got hurt, but it's funny as hell... a collar toppled over an olympic rack =D

 

[MetalFortress]

Hahah yeah... I wish I was there to see it!

Well I'm taking a week off heavy lifting this week. My CNS is fried after all that. I'm considering a mix of olympic lifting 5x5 style and bodybuilding, kind of max-OT style (oddest mix ever). Not doing so many front squats again... those turned my wrists into mince meat. I'll take them up again when my wrists recover.

 

[MetalFortress]

I did about 15 sets of 5+5 kettlebell snatches yesterday with the 54 lb kettlebell in about 12 minutes. Today I did:

Morning:
KETTLEBELL SNATCH: 5+5 x 5 x 54lbs (rest breaks under 30 seconds)

Afternoon:
POWER SNATCH:
95x3
95x3
95x5
105x5
95x5
POWER CLEAN: 135x5
JERK: 135x4

Went back to the gym a few hours later and did this:

Deadlift:
135x6
185x5 (stopped due to hammies already being smashed)

DB bench press:
25x12
40x5
40x5
50x10 (fast positive 6-8 second negative) rest = 15 deep breaths
50x3 (fast positive 6-8 second negative) rest = 15 deep breaths
50x2 (fast positive 6-8 second negative) rest = 15 deep breaths

Last 3 sets taken to failure - not literally but I stopped at the point when I KNEW my last rep wouldn't go up.

Chin-grip pulldowns

60x12
90x5
120x3
130x9 (fast positive 6-8 second negative) rest = 15 deep breaths
130x3 (fast positive 6-8 second negative) rest = 15 deep breaths
130x2 (fast positive 6-8 second negative) rest = 15 deep breaths

Ditto with the last 3 sets

My grip was the first to go BY FAR here. I'm confident that will change, though, as I keep doing the routine.

 

[Warboss Alex]

Lol, mate.. forget the 6-8 second negatives, a lot of DCers (me included) had our training partner stand with a stopwatch over the negative phase of our reps.

It was taken out of context because DC said he counted under his breath to get that time, but since he was under strain (of the exercise) at the time, he was counting quicker than usual.. so his counted 6-8 seconds is a true 2-4 seconds in real life - in any case, just CONTROL the negative (don't let gravity take the weight down) and don't worry about timing, if you control the negative phase it'll take you 2-3 seconds anyway. Same for squats, deadlifts etc, controlling the downward part properly will take 4-5 seconds without the need for timing the thing.

A tip: if you KNOW you're on your last rep, make that negative as slow as possible (don't time it though). Bring it down as slow as you can.

What me and my partner do is this, once one of us has failed on the positive (i.e. gone balls out but still the weight won't go up all the way - incidentally ALWAYS try for that extra rep, even if the last one was a herculean task to get up) then the other will bring the weight up so the one who's exercising can get that last super-slow rep. If you do this every set you get three eccentric reps.

(of course, this applies to only some exercises, if you've failed on a squat don't expect your buddy to get the weight up for you, lol)

 

[MetalFortress]

So he's not in favor of the extra-slow negatives? 2-4 seconds doesn't sound like that slow of a negative. One of the websites you link says:

B) Every exercise is done with a controlled but explosive positive and a true 6-8 second negative phase. The science is there just read it. Almost every study states an explosive positive motion is the priming phase and the negative portion of an exercise should be done controlled and slowly. I have the mindset that I hope you guys develop. I try so hard to get the weight up only for the sole reason I can lower it slowly to cause eccentric phase cellular damage.

And thanks for the tip btw. I train alone so I don't have any way of doing forced reps.

 

[Warboss Alex]

Slow negatives should take you about 2-4 seconds depending on the exercise but the key is CONTROL. Dante said it clearly in a recent post, control means that you should be able to stop lowering the weight at any point during the negative and be able to push it up for a positive; time is irrelevant. Like I said, proper control takes 2-3 seconds (or more) dependent on the exercise, but that'll take care of itself, so just sweat about controlling the weight and not how long it takes.

This is why a helluva lot of stuff that DC has posted has been taken grossly out of context, there's posts on IntenseMuscle about it, they reckon that in five years' time people will claim Dante used to recommend 15-second negatives..