Can’t squat and feeling weak, so instead of beating my head against a wall and being pissed off, I have switched things up to a high volume style with training sessions lasting around 95 mins.
I have promised myself no squatting for 2 months to try and get this lower back sorted. Sad but true, I have it set in my calender, July 19th first day back squatting – can’t wait.
Weight loss has stalled now and I am consistently weighing in at 99.5kg/219lbs (5.5kg/12lbs weight loss) consuming 3,000 calories. Now I need to get my head in order to drop calories down to 2,500 to go that next step, at the moment 3,000 calories is easy street, hardly ever hungry and can basically still eat all the foods I like. Probably going to stay at 3k for another 2 weeks before committing to dropping calories further.
So we qualified for the champs league again, intense last 10 mins after Bale scored but we done the business. Now we need to crack on and spend some money – gotta feeling that next season is gonna be big!
Ha, ha poor Spurs – 7 points clear of us with 10 games remaining and they naused it proper. Enjoyed watching the scenes from White Hart Lane nearly as much as qualifying, after they realized that it was another season of Europa league.
SUNDAY – 19th MAY
Face pulls
35kg x 20
55kg x 20
Close grip bench
20kg x 20
40kg x 10
60kg x 8
80kg x 8
100kg x 10, 10, 10, 10
Alternated between sets of bench with Pendlays
Pendlay Rows
20kg x 10
60kg x 8, 8
80kg x 8
100kg x 8, 8, 8, 8
Dang – I was shot after this! Everything else after this was a bonus.
Cat back rows
45kg x 12
80kg x 12, 12, 12, 12
Standing Military Press
40kg x 10
60kg x 10, 5
40kg x 18
Shrugs
60kg x 10
100kg x 10
140kg x 12, 10
FRIDAY- 17th MAY
ISO Squat machine – at least parallel
1 plate per side (pps) x 10
2 pps x 8
3 pps x 5
4 pps x 5
5 pps x 8, 8
3 pps x 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
Really went to town with the sets and reps here to get as much DOMS into my legs as possible to help my quantify how closely this mimics the squat.The verdict is this machine is great and the DOMS in my legs and glutes are virtually the same as squatting, not as intense but the pain is in the right places – this tells me this machine will make a great substitute.
Close grip bench
20kg x 20
60kg x 10
80kg x 10
100kg x 11, 8
80kg x 15, 14
DB laterals
12.5kg x 15, 15, 10
Hanging leg raises
x 12, 12
These are done old school by hanging on a chin bar which is harder as you have to grip, stabilize and control the movement otherwise you end up swinging. Don’t know why you would want to go the easy route and use the apparatus with the back pad and handles unless you are too weak to do it this way.
Curl machine
light x 12, 15
WEDNESDAY- 15th MAY
Whoa, really weak pressing today. Almost got stapled and very close to a nasty accident.
I wasn’t in a power rack and didn’t bother asking for a spotter as the weight wasn’t a big deal but got stalled on the 3rd rep and had to rack it on the safety hooks just above my head, if I had missed the hooks then it would have landed on my head.
Barbell reverse curls
20kg x 20
Barbell curls
20kg x 20
Close grip bench
20kg x 20
60kg x 8
80kg x 5
100kg x 5
120kg x 3
130kg x 2 (see above, missed 3rd rep and just managed to rack it on safety hooks)
100kg x 10, 10, 5
DB laterals
10kg x 10, 10, 15, 15, 15, 15
Behind the neck pulldowns
light x 10
medium x 10
heavy x 6
Curl grip pulldowns
light x 10
medium x 10
heavy x 10, 8
Wide grip pulldowns – drop set
heavy x 6
medium heavy x 6
medium x 10
light x 15
Pushdowns
medium x 12, 12, 12, 12
Hanging leg raises
x 11, 11, 11
EZ bar curls
28kg x 8
48kg x 6
DB hammer curls
17.5kg x 12
Machine curls
light x 15, 15
This is a great video on what can be achieved drug free with total dedication, hard work and consistency over many years.
Crazy weights lifted RAW (no wraps) and drug free – inspiring stuff!
1770lbs/804.5kg @206lbs/93.6kg, Ben Rice – no wrap RAW total. Looking forward to seeing what numbers he can put up in his next meet.
I really tried to find a way to squat without pain, probably not a good idea but I ended up squatting 3 times last week and my lower really didn’t like it at all!
Trying to be sensible about this and at 39 I’m no spring chicken, so using the very little common sense I have, I’m going to take a prolonged break from squatting of at least 2 months.
Good news being that I can use the squat machine with very little pain and this I think will have a better transfer than leg pressing. To try and stop me regressing too much, I will do walk outs with heavy weight on my back – luckily I can still do this – hopefully I won’t become known as that dick that just walks out heavy weight and then re-racks it. I’m sure some folk with be thinking WTF is this divvy doing. The logic here is that when I go back to squatting, then the unracking of the weight and feeling it on my back won’t be so “shocking”.
SUNDAY 12th MAY
Pressing felt very weak today so will switch to a higher rep scheme next week for a little break.
Other than the shitty pressing it was a decent session which was surprising as my foot has been gouty for the couple of days and kid also woke me up at 04:30 due to his little teethies.
After waking at 04:30, I had nothing to eat until 09:45 after training, felt pretty shaky at the end but love that feeling of making it through.
Face pulls
40kg x 20
55kg x 20
Close grip pin presses
20kg x 20
60kg x 8
80kg x 5
100kg x 5
120kg x 3
140kg x 1
Close grip bench
100kg x 13
T-Bar Rows
1 plate x 10
2 plates x 8
3 plates x 8
4 plates x 8
5 plates x 8
Meadows Rows
10kg x 8
20kg x 8
30kg x 8
40kg x 8
50kg x 10
DB shoulder press
25kg x 8
32.5kg x 8
42.5kg x 7
35kg x 15
Pull ups
x 9
Cat back rows – a la Cube Method/Brandon Lilly
40kg x 10
60kg x 10
80kg x 10, 12
Barbell Shrugs
60kg x 10
100kg x 8
140kg x 8
160kg x 8, 8
140kg x 8
Pulldowns behind neck
x 10
FRIDAY 10th MAY
Last day of squatting for a while, I think this is for the best any more trying to work round it will probably result in a serious injury – don’t think the missus will be very pleased if I was bed bound and having to spend money we don’t have on rehab.
Banded crab walks x 1
Squats – at least parallel
bodyweight x 12
20kg x 10
60kg x 8
80kg x 5
100kg x 5 (belt onwards)
120kg x 3
140kg x 5 – wow these really hurt
High bar Olympic squats
60kg x 5
100kg x 1 – yep and these hurt also
Squat machine – at least parallel
1 plate per side (pps) x 5, 5
2 pps x 5
2.5 pps x 5
3 pps x 5
3.5 pps x 5
4 pps x 5
4.5 pps x 10
Not used this in years and forgot how good they feel, pain is minimal on these.
RDLs
60kg x 5
80kg x 1 – too painful
Supersetted single leg extension with leg curls – 20 rep sets, crazy pump on these.
Single Leg extensions
x 20, 20, 20, 20 , 25
Single Leg Curls
x 20, 20, 20, 20, 20
- over 400 reps as I was doing it one legged at a time, burn was intense.
WEDNESDAY 8th MAY
DB Hammer curls
10kg x 15
22.5kg x 10, 10, 10
Close grip bench
20kg x 20
60kg x 8
80kg x 5
100kg x 5
120kg x 3
130kg x 3
120kg x 5 – paused for 2 count on chest
Squats – at least parallel
bodyweight x 12
20kg x 10
60kg x 8
80kg x 5
100kg x 5
120kg x 5 (belt onwards)
140kg x 5
- every rep hurt my lower back – sucks!
Preacher curls
20kg x 8
30kg x 8
35kg x 10, 10
Weight loss has been going well, a bit too well after I picked up some virus. I was off work for a couple of days fevering and shivering, still not 100%.
Going to give myself a couple of days to re-stabilize before weighing myself as the sickness is bit of a false indicator.
My squat has gone south – seriously sucks. This is a combination of losing weight, taking a few weeks off due to jacked up lower back and the virus. My belly has some what shrunk and I have less pop off the bottom. Before I could squat onto my belly and bounce a little out the hole, now I don’t have that luxury and everything is even more grindy than usual.
To remedy this, I am increasing my squat frequency but lowering volume to see if I can catch up quickly.
Everything else feels OK though, so not all bad.
MONDAY 6th MAY
Squats – at least parallel
bodyweight x 12
20kg x 10
60kg x 8
80kg x 5
100kg x 5
120kg x 5 (belt onwards)
140kg x 5
160kg x 3
140kg x 6
T-Bar rows
1 plate x 10
2 plates x 8
3 plates x 8
4 plates x 8
5 plates x 8
4 plates x 12
3 plates x 16
Face pulls
40kg x 15
55kg x 15
Cable pullovers
40kg x 15
45kg x 15, 15
Pulldowns behind neck
light x 10
moderately heavy x 6
heavy x 6
medium x 12, 10, 10
Cable rows
light x 12
medium x 15, 15
Ab wheel
x 15, 15, 12, 12
SATURDAY 4th MAY
DB hammers
10kg x 12
DB curls
10kg x 12
DB hammers
17.5kg x 15, 12, 12
Close grip pin press
20kg x 10
60kg x 8
80kg x 5
100kg x 5
120kg x 3
140kg x 3
130kg x 5
DB shoulder press
27.5kg x 8
35kg x 8
42.5kg x 8
35kg x 12
DB incline curls
12.5kg x 12, 10, 8
10kg x 12
DB seated laterals
12.5kg x 12, 12
DB Standing laterals
12.5kg x 12
10kg x 12
FRIDAY 3rd MAY
Squats – at least parallel
bodyweight x 12
20kg x 10
60kg x 8
80kg x 5
100kg x 5
120kg x 5 (belt onwards)
140kg x 5
160kg x 1
Front squats
20kg x 5
40kg x 5
60kg x 5
80kg x 1
100kg – dropped bar
Still shit at these – can’t keep bar on shoulders.
Really didn’t fancy this tonight after a hard days graft, also ny traps are killing from shrugging for the first time in forever yesterday.
After some pondering, no reason not to – it only takes 10 mins and it all adds up to making you better
Ab wheel
X 15, 15, 15
Back Extension
X 25, 25, 20
- insane lower back pump after these
So I spent a lot of Saturday evening on ye old shitter.
Culprit?? XanthanGum
This stuff is evil, my fault for not looking at the food labels.
I know I have an intolerance to this stuff after I bought some protein powder with it in, basically every time I took it, I got mild stomach cramps followed by diarrhea.
Well as you probably know, I have been on this diet thing of late and had a cheat meal treat for Saturday night which was some ribs and brisket. To make sure my calories didn’t totally rocket out of orbit, I bought some low fat/reduced calorie coleslaw and potato salad. These bastards contained the deadly Xanthan Gum and about 15mins after eating, I felt those stomach cramps and the rest is history.
One positive is I probably only absorbed 10% of the calories ingested as the rest came flying our pretty quickly.
A lot of these low fat/diet food products have this in it to thickening it up. With full fat proper food, the fat in the food provides the thickening agent, however this fake stuff doesn’t have the luxury, so to give it this illusion they use Xanthan Gum.
So take this is a warning – if you have been getting the symptoms described above and have put it down to gluten, IBS or some other shit, it might be Xanthan Gum, check your food labels.
Funnily a lot of gluten free products are loaded with Xanthan Gum too as it is also used as a binding agent instead of gluten and people that go gluten free sometimes wonder why it isn’t working, maybe the Xanthan Gum in your “gluten free products” dude?
Sources
http://www.glutenfreesolutions.co.uk/#/xanthan-gum-intolerance/4562316194
http://www.wikihealth.com/Xanthan_gum
http://whatallergy.com/2013-03/can-you-be-allergic-to-xanthan-gum
