DEADLIFT - EXPLOSIVE

CUBE Week 8 Day 1

27/02/13

Deadlift Explosive Day

Deadlift  5 x 2  190kg
4 inch Snatch Grip Deadlift  3 x 12  170kg
SSB Squat  3 x 8 120kg
Shrugs 3 x 20  70kg, 80kg, 90kg
GHR Back Raises  2 x 12
Band Lat Pulldowns  3 x 20 Blue and Red

Deadlifts were done from floor with belt and 15sec rest.
Increased the weight for snatch grip block pulls from 155kg 3 weeks ago. Glutes were on fire after these. SSB Squats were tough after the lower back was prefatigued with previous 2 exercises.
Some upper back and lower back work. Did the pulldowns with 2 x blue and 2 x red bands choked round the chin bars on the rack and kneeling on the floor. Felt these well in the lats.

Thanks for reading. I have been only taking a whey/casein shake 50g  for breakfast in the morning for the last week and drinking coffee throughout the morning to burn fat and curb the hunger! Seem a bit leaner so happy enough. Planning on doing carb backloading properly when I move house in the next few months and have.

Bodybuilding Day

CUBE Week 7 Day 4

24/02/13

Bodybuilding Day

Military  5x5  75kg
Neutral Grip Chins  3x8  +5kg
Seated Arnold Press  4x10  22.5kg
Chest Supported Rows  5x12  22.5kg

Circuit x 5 waves
Shrugs x 10  90kg
Face Pulls x 25
Decline DB Tricep Extensions x 10  20kg

Circuit x 3 waves
Seated Incline Hammer Curls  x 20  12.5kg
Lateral Raises x  20 5kg Plates
Decline GHR Situps x 15

Did this workout in 75mins. Militaries got easier as the sets went on. More reps and less sets for the chins felt easier than last week . Need to get my shoulders stronger. I prefer the arnold presses than shoulder presses. Never done chest supported DB rows before I liked these good isolation of the upper back. Did 2 circuits. Extra wave for circuit 1 than last week and extra reps in circuit 2. Few longs shifts this week so no training until Wednesday. 

Thanks for reading.

SQUATS - EXPLOSIVE

CUBE Week 7 Day 3

23/02/13

Squat Explosive Day

Squat  5 x 2  145kg
Squat  1 x 2 190kg
Paused Squats 7secs  3 x 5 100kg
Split Squats  2 x 15  42.5kg
Superset x 2waves:
- Reverse Hyperextension  BW 1sec pause x 20
- KB Swing  x  20  40kg

Squats felt great. Good power out of the hole. Did a heavy double unbelted next. Heaviest double unbelted I have done and felt easy enough. Paused squats were tough. Weight is up 5% since I started these happy with progress. Split squats were tough but my stability is improving in these. Superset worked the cardio a bit and gave me a good lower back pump. Did this workout in 45 mins powered through it and feel good for it now. Afternoon of watching rugby and eating.

Thanks for reading.

BENCH - HEAVY

CUBE Week 7 Day 2

20/02/13

Bench Heavy Day (3)

Bench singles up to 135kg
Bench 95kg  x15, x8
Chins  x11, x5, x5
Military 57.5kg x 10, 50kg x 8, 40kg x 10
Circuit x 3 waves of
Band Pushdowns x 20 (blue)
DB Shrugs 32.5kg  x 15
GHR Situps x 15

Bench felt easy. Went downhill after that. Chins were awful have not done high reps in a while and it showed. Miltaties felt terrible after the benching though it is an improvement on previous workouts after bench so step in the right direction. circuit was done quickly.

DEADS - REPS

CUBE Week 7 Day 1

19/02/13

Deadlift Rep Day (3)

Deadlift 1inch Deficit  1x2  230kg  no belt
4inch Block Pull  2x3  225kg  no belt
Narrow Stance SSB Squat  3x8  110kg  1sec pause
GHR  4x10
Back Raises 3x8
Ab Rollouts  3x10, 1x12 3sec pause

Pleased with this workout. Deficits felt great weight flew up quick so was happy. My block pulls felt week back on week 1 since I had avoided them in so long. Felt easier today with 10kg more weight. Squats were easy nice pause at bottom then powered up. I will up the weight next week to 120. GHR did 1st, 3rd and 4th set hand behind back. 2nd set was hands behind ears. Killer so had to revert back to hands behing back for last two sets. Hamstrings are weak point as are quads. Noticing improvment in these areas with narrowing squat stance with SSB and doing GHR. Back is always wrecked by times it comes to doing back raises. I find these difficult on the GHR machine as I cant get a proper extension with the pad. Ab rollouts self explanatory.

Thanks for reading.

Bodybuilding Day

CUBE Week 6 Day 4

17/02/13

Bodybuilding Day

Military Press  5x8  65kg
Neutral Grip Chins  BW+5kg  5x6
Incline CG Bench  1x10 70kg,  1x10  80kg,  1x6  90kg,  1x15  60kg  all paused except last dropset
BB Row  1x20, 1x16, 1x12  60kg

Circuit  x  4 waves
Face Pulls  x 20
Decline DB Tricep Extensions  x  10  20kg
GHR Situps  x  12


Circuit  x  3 waves
Seated Incline Hammer Curls  x  20,16,12  12.5kg
Lateral Raises  x  20  5kg Plate

Everything pretty self explanatory. Enjoying the circuits at the end improves the cardio, decreases time in gym and gets a good pump on. Added an extra wave in for circuit 1 from last week and increased reps for circuit 2. Swapped a few exercises about from last week and increased volume on first two exercises.
Take a break tomorrow and begin week 7 on Tuesday evening.
Thanks for reading!

SQUAT - REPS

CUBE Week 6 Day 3

16/02/13

Squat Rep Day

Squat  3x6 1 sec pause 170kg  no belt
Wide Stance SSB GM  3x8  90kg, 100kg, 110kg  no belt
DB Lunges  1x15 22.5kg, 2x15 12.5kg
Olympic Squat  1x50  60kg

4 exercises seems piece of piss but I was f*cked after the first two. Was only meant to do 1 set on squats but felt good so did 3 sets. Also threw in a 1sec pause to improve power out of the hole. Pause made these tough. Wide stance GM felt good up the weight for each set by 10kg from 3 weeks ago. Last set was hard. Was wrecked coming into the lunges and was at failure by 15 on the 22.5 DB so played it smart and dropped the weight dramatically to focus on form. The 50 reps on narrow stance squats were brutal and no easier than 3 weeks ago. If anything probably more difficult as legs were more fatigued with the squats and higher reps. These were rest pause. Aim was just to complete the 50! Out for a feed tonight can't wait.

Thanks for reading!

BENCH - EXPLOSIVE

CUBE Week 6 Day 2

13/02/13

Bench Explosive Day

Bench  6 x 2  95kg 1sec pause
Incline DB Press 2x15,1x11 35kg  1sec pause
Standing Arnold Press 3x10 20kg
Band Pushdowns 100 total reps Blue band
DB Flies 2x20  12.5kg  Tempo 3-1-1-1
Ab rollouts 2x15 3sec pause

Bench felt light and powerful. new setup increases my stability and great drive from legs. The extra delt and tricep work is helping here too. Incline DBs last set was tough here was aiming for 3x15 i will get it next time. Arnolds standing I find really works my core and glutes to stop me from leaning back and staying as upright as possible I like these. Band pushdowns I was doin sets of 25 rest pause with 1 min rest between sets.
DB Flies nice and slow and focused on form here. I prefer doing these light and slowly rather than heavy and poor technique. Ab rollouts were tough in second set with the pause. Almost 2/3 through this 9 week cycle. Probably be a total of 10-11weeks to complete it with work but I am feeling refreshed each workout despite pushing harder and greater volume. Prob the extra kcal are helping!

Thanks for reading.

DEADS - HEAVY

CUBE Week 6 Day 1

12/02/13

Deadlift Heavy Day

Deadlift off 1 inch block  3x2  230kg  no belt
Snatch Grip Deadlift  2x8  190kg  no belt
DB Row  3x10  40kg
DB Shrugs 3sec pause  2x20  22.5kg
Up and Down Planks 3x15

First workout since last Thursday with work. I found the deads off the 1 inch block hard. I use a lot of leg drive off the floor and the 1 inch elevation of the bar made it less legs and more glutes/low back. I am avoiding pulling heavy from the floor directly to strengthen all areas.
Snatch grip dlifts were hard too. Up from 175kg 3 weeks ago. I love the leg drive off these.
Rows are the heaviest I have done and traps were fried with the 3 sec pause. Up and down planks are new to me but I like them.

Thanks for reading

Bodybuilding Day

CUBE Week 5 Day 4

07/02/13

Bodybuilding Day

Military Press 3x10 62.5kg
Dumbbell Row 3x10 37.5kg
Close Grip Bench 1x8,2x10 100kg
Neutral Grip Chins BW+5kg 3x7
Decline Dumbbell Tricep Ext. 4x8 20kg (30sec rest)
Dumbbell Shrugs 2x20 12.5kg (3sec pause)
Circuit of:
Face Pulls x 20 purple band
Incline Hammer Curls x 15 12.5kg   completed  x 3 times
Lateral Raises x 15 5kg plate

Ab rollouts 3x10 (3 sec pause)

Militarys felt tough on last few reps on set 3 but felt a lot stronger than last week. The high volume has helped my press off the chest a great deal. Close grips most i have repped on 100kg so happy with this. Rows and chins felt good. 30 sec rest on the ext was good felt a good pump. Shrugs were light but wanted to focus on form. Circuit worked the cardio and good bita volume in there for the smaller muscle groups.
Happy with my progress. Working this weekend so I will have a break now until Monday.

Thanks for reading

SQUAT - HEAVY

CUBE Week 5 Day 3

06/02/13

Squat Heavy Day

Squat - 3x2 180kg
GM - 3x8 - 100, 107.5, 115kg
Split Squat - 3x15 each leg 40kg
Reverse Hyper - 3x12 (3 second pause)
Back Raises - 25 total reps
Band leg curls - 2x50

Squats were unbelted and felt good. Feeling more secure with not using my belt over the last few week. Easy to become overly reliant on it.
GM are feeling strong only my second time doing straight bar in months after using the SSB for them. It has improved my lower back strength a lot using it.
Split squats made me feel like death. 1 leg elevated on bench behind me. Belt on for bit of stability. Quads are weak hence why I am working them more. With no leg press I feel these hit my quads well.  head was all over the place after these.
Reverse hypers of back of GHR. self explanatory. Back raises. Meant to do 60 total reps but lower back was tired so left it at 25.
Choked 2 purple bands round base of 2x2 rack then put them round my leg curl attachment on the bench. incredible hamstring pump #penguin walk.
That is it for today. Off work today and tomorrow so day 4 tomorrow. Thanks for reading

Bench - Reps

CUBE Week 5 Day 2 

04/02/13

Rep Bench Day

Incline Bench - worked up to 115x3 then 100kg x 6
Incline DB paused - 2x20 27.5kg
CG Bench paused - 80kg x 12, 80kg x8, 70kg x 11 i
DB Fly - 3x12 17.5kg
Band Pushdowns 100 total reps with blue and red band
Band Pull Aparts - 50 total reps purple band
Hammer curls 3x10 17.5kg
Military 3x8 (47.5kg, 40kg, 30kg)
 
Overestimated my incline weight hence the drop back down to 100 to complete my 6 reps.
increased the db by 5kg per db on last wave felt tight
felt weak on the cg bench after the db volume
really pushed the tricep pushdowns as this is a weak area
through in some pull-aparts and curls for the craic
militaries was beasted by this stage hence the pathetic weight! im hoping to get my fatigued reps on this back up to my working weight in the near future. 1rm is 100kg so these weights should be light in theory but felt weak as after all the volume prior.

Pre workout - 2 slices toast, 1 crumble yoghurt, 25g whey with 5g BCAA, 5g glutamine, 5g creatine
Intraworkout - 2 bananas 1 litre water
Postworkout - 25g whey, 25g casein, 40g maltodextrin, 10g BCAA, 10g glutamine