The Tale of Erskine777 and the Barbell: A Lightweight's Lifting Log

ghostwipe said:
I know what you mean I do my (fairly pathetic) ATG squats all the time, all the time seeing plenty of badasses quarter squatting 315, but only once every couple months or so see another person doing proper squats.
Click to expand...

haha, yeah. My gym is so bad that I'M actually one of the strongest guys there. It's crazy. And about 99.99% of the people here on Sherdog can use my 1rm for a warmup. In fact, there's only about 6 guys at my gym who even squat and only me and this other guy do ATG squats. That's why i was so surprised to see a fellow ATGer who was moving a decent amount of weight. It was refreshing to say the least because up to this point I thought my gym was comprised of curl monkeys, effeminate men, stupid frat boys, and creepy old guys who like to leer at the ladies.
 
Core Day- (I think the only way I'll ever do core is to have a completely separate day for it. Otherwise I just keep putting it off because it is by far my least favorite set of movements)

Full Contact Twists (landmines-is there a difference?) w/ 1 hand and empty barbell.
5x10 (each side)
This was my first time doing this exercise. I really focused on twisting my hips and then letting the shoulders follow. I tried to completely exclude any arm strength from moving the barbell.

Decline Situps
2x15 bw
3x10 with 10 lb plate
I tried to keep my back tight so it didn't arch when I went down. Sigh, I really need to improve with this one.

Saxon Side Bends
5x10 with 10 lb dbs
I thought of a good name for these: The Bending Willow. I swear, so many people look at me when I'm doing this exercise and I'm not sure if they're admiring my handsome features and perfect execution, or if they're just laughing at me struggling with these tiny, purple dbs. I think it might be the latter... But screw them.

Burpees
20x6
I'm addicted to 'em. Just still not very good at them.

So close to the end of school...3 more weeks of classes.
 
Today didn't feel good at all. Got a lot of school stuff due, plus I think I got food poisoning from eating some leftover chicken I had from two weeks ago. Tasted a little funny, but I thought that was just because I can't cook for shit. But then my stomach started cramping and I felt a little nauseous. Went ahead with my workout anyways because I didn't want to screw my schedule up anymore.

Deadlifts
1x10 at 135 lbs
1x5 at 185
1x5 at 225
3x5 at 275
2x5 at 225

I just wasn't feeling it at all. My form was pretty shitty, which was the reason why I kept the weight at 275. Sets with 225 and above had resets in between reps where I let go of the bar, stood up, then got back into position and lifted.

Hack Squats (couldn't do front squats because somebody stole the safety pins from the squat rack. what a douchebag...)

1x5 at 135
3x5 at 185
1x5 at 135
These were pretty easy. The only point worth mentioning is that sometimes I forgot to "hump" my ass out of the way and there were collisions. Think I bruised my ass, but then again I focused mostly on speed and explosiveness when doing these.

Because I had such a subpar lifting day I decided to punish myself with extra conditioning

Jumping Squats
5x20
supersetted with 20 pushups between each set.

Burpees
5x20

With my legs burning, I felt that I had redeemed myself. Then I did some light stretching and I was done.
 
Didn't feel good today. Tummy hurt. Head hurt. Want to hurt my biochemistry professor for making me memorize all the intermediates of glycolysis, gluconeogensis, the citric acid cycle, and the synthesis/breakdown of fatty acids and proteins.

DB bench press
1x10 50s
1x10 60s
1x5 70s
3x5 80s
1x10 60s
Felt angry over this one because I could barely finish the 80s. A slight not-improvement (can't think of the proper word right now) from last week.

Usually I would do db lunges but my grip was just destroyed from yesterday. After yesterday's workout I was playing around with my hand gripper, trying to close the damn thing. Now I wake up this morning and I can feel the DOMS as I try to hold my toothbrush. Not a good sign... Lunges were out so I just did conditioning.

Burpees
5x20

Jumping Squats
5x40

BW interval
pushups x 10
squats x 10
pullups x 5
dips x 5
for 10 rounds.

It's easier for me to do conditioning work when I'm feeling kind of crappy. I just don't have the mental fortitude to lift heavy weights and push through stalling points. Whereas with conditioning, I can force myself to do more burpees or whatever until muscle fatigue/breathlessness make it impossible to continue. I guess it takes less concentration to do a simple movement, repeated many times, to failure, than to lift a heavy weight a few reps. Now I sense I'm rambling and will shut up.
 
Did the 200 rep pullup and dips challenge. http://www.t-nation.com/article/most_recent/the_200_rep_challenge
basically I did 10 pullups, then 10 dips and I kept alternating. I was pleased that even though I stopped doing weighted dips and pullups, I still maintained good strength in those areas. I was able to do the first 50 pullups and dips with no problems whatsoever with no rest needed. In all, I completed this challenge in about 11 minutes, and I'm sure that if I do this on a day not immediately after bench day, I can get it under 10. Damn I hope this is next month's conditioning challenge.

DB swings
2x10 with 30 lb db
3x10 with 35 lb db
The hardest part for me right now is to stop it when it's overhead and not lose my balance. But I'm relatively sure I'm popping my hips forward enough.

Burpees
1x37
1x30
Both are to failure. Was just curious to see how much my max number of burpees increased since I've started doing them religiously. Went up by about 10 so I'm pleased.

Looking forward to squat day tomorrow. But I'm a little worried because they still haven't found the safety pins for the squat rack.
 
Squats
1x10 135 lbs
1x5 185 lbs
5x5 240 lbs
1x8 135 lbs

These felt really nice and smooth and I was well below parallel, so I'm happy about the depth. The only problem I have, sometimes, is that near the end of my set when I'm tired and struggling to get the weight up, my left knee will fold slightly inwards. Maybe my stance is too wide? I guess I'll focus more on "spreading the floor" and squatting in between my knees in the future, and hopefully that'll correct it.

Front Squats (since I didn't get to do them tuesday)
1x5 135lbs
3x5 185
1x5 135
These were all ATG. The 185 sets were particularily brutal because I find it hard to rest in the front squat position, so I can't even get a breather in between reps.
Need to work more on my wrist/finger flexibility because they were starting to cramp up.

Burpees
5x25
For these I really tried to make them as quick and explosive as possible. Average time was a little over a minute for each set. My legs were already pretty much shot from a solid hour of squats, so my jumps got pretty crappy at the end.

Then i was waiting for some friends to finish their own workouts, so I basically followed them around the gym as they finished up "arm day". Haven't done bicep curls in about 2 years, so I decided to do them for fun.

DB bicep curls
1x10 25s
1x10 35s
1x10 45s
1x6 50s (cheated a bit, but who cares? It's a standard for curls...)
Apparently weighted pullups >>> bicep curls for arm strength...
 
Saturday night's workout (what else would I be doing?)

Push Press
1x10 45
1x5 95
1x5 135
5x3 155
I think my wrists are finally strong/flexible enough now that this weight didn't hurt them. I'm sure I have enough leg drive now for it to be a proper push press. The only problem I have is that my core is still weak and that sometimes at lockout I wobble around a bit and might have to take a step or two to regain my balance.

Pullups
1x10
1x15
2x20
1x15

And then I did an abbreviated version of Ross Enamait's Interval challenge.
200 m sprint
20 pushups
20 squats
10 burpees
x 4
Even though it was short, it still sucked. A lot.

And then I went over to someone's house and watched a recorded UFC 83. All the matches went like the way I predicted except Mr. Morris' loss. But I know he's a true fighter and he impresses me every day with his insane training methods, work ethic, discipline, and pure sportsmanship. I have no doubt he'll be back in the octagon in no time and I can honestly say I was proud to be a supporter of him and still will be in the future.
 
haven't been able to go to the gym all week because i've been busy with school. Classes end in about a week, and finals are right after, but I'm finding it just so damn hard to study. I was tired today because I was up until 3 am last night cramming for a biochemistry lab practical, which I think I nailed at least.

Didn't want to do anything too hard today since squats are tomorrow.

1/2 mile run (warm up)
50 pushups
50 squats
20 pullups
1/2 mile run (9 mph)
50 pushups
50 squats
20 pullups
1/2 mile run (10 mph)
50 pushups
24 squats

All with no rest breaks in between. At the end I was pretty damn tired and my legs were burning and I realized that although I originally had intended this to be a easy workout, it eventually became a major conditoning session. I stopped my circuit and stretched out for a good twenty-twenty five minutes. End
 
Squats
1x10 135 lbs
1x5 185
5x5 245
1x8 155

Good day for squats. I'm pretty happy about my progress since I've improved by about 20 lbs in the last month or so on my 5x5. No idea if my 1rm has improved yet, but I think that as long as I keep on improving with the 5x5 I might as well stay with it. But it was a little more crowded than usual and I couldn't do good mornings. Instead did some more conditioning.

10 pushups
15 squats
10 leg raises when you're on your back- do they have a name?
x 20 rounds with minimal rest between rounds. Completed it in around 17 minutes. The leg raises were by far the hardest part for me.

burpees
2x30
Tried to do these as fast as possible.

Then stretched for about 15 minutes. Finish.

side note: weighed myself about an hour after my workout and I am now 145!:icon_chee
 
Today was a crappy day in the weight room. Just couldn't concentrate very well for some reason.

I started out with PP and was warming up with 115 lbs. But on the third rep I forgot to move my head out of the way of the bar, and I ended up smashing my chin and I bit a chunk of my lip off and I think I might've chipped an incisor. After that I was feeling a little woozy so I decided to just switch to SOHP. But for some reason I could not get up to 135 lbs. So here's what my set/rep scheme looked like.

PP
1x10 45 lb
1x8 95
1x3 115 (accident happened here)
SOHP
1x5 115 lbs
4x0 135 lbs (pretty angry at this point)
1x0 185 (did a walk out)
2x0 135 lbs (...that didn't do anything...now I know why walkouts for OHP aren't that popular)
8x5 115 lbs

By this point my wrist was starting to hurt from all the ohpressing, which in turn screwed up my pullups
2x15
1x20
1x10

I decided to cut my losses and not fuck my wrist up any further and did some interval training on a stationary bike.

20 second sprints
40 second rest
x 8
At least I didn't screw these up.

Then:
10 medicine ball slams
10 burpees
15 squats
x 8
First time I've done medicine ball slams and all the while the weight room supervisor is just glaring at me. I'm sure that tomorrow there's going to be a sign that says no medicine ball slams allowed.
 
Classes have been insane the past couple days. The only good part about this week is that I landed a well-paying research position for the summer, meaning that it is very likely that I'll be able to train at Eddie Bravo's Legends gym this summer! Can't freaking wait. Now I guess I have to work on my flexibility. Meanwhile, slipped in the gym for a quick workout.

DB Incline BP
1x10 50s
1x8 60s
1x6 65s
5x5 70s
Happy about this exercise. I haven't done incline bp for a while, but I guess all that OHP really strengthened my triceps, since these felt tough, but definitely doable. The problem with using these dbs is that I can only increase by 5 lb increments, 10 lb total, which is often too big a jump for me.

Conditioning
400m sprints x 5
I tried to keep rest to a minimum between sets (2-3 minutes). The bad part is that now it's spring and a few weeks before summer vacation, so the track is packed with people, more often than not, flocks of girls walking serenely around the track, in the opposite direction. I always run in a anti-clockwise circle, but for some strangeass reason everyone was going clockwise today. And I had to keep on dodging around all these people who insist on walking in freaking rows.

On a side note, I did medicine ball slams at my gym on saturday, and like I predicted, now there's a sign that says "no throwing of exercise equipment". Stupid gym...
 
CLASSES ARE DONE!!!!!!! I was just so happy sitting in ochem and biochem lectures for the last time- less than a week before I can finally forget all this stupid crap. Now it's just finals standing between me and summer break.

Back squats
1x10 at 45 lbs
1x8 135
1x6 205
5x5 250
1x6 185
These are no longer full ATG squats, but they are still well below parallel. Felt tough but definitely doable. Moving up next week!

Romanian Deadlifts
1x10 45lbs
1x8 95
1x8 115
3x8 135
This was my first time doing this, and I immediately noticed that my hamstrings aren't flexible enough for me to even come close to parallel. I think i'll probably do these instead of good mornings because 1) i don't have to wait for the squat rack to reopen. 2) they look, to me at least, to work the same muscles and 3) they'll definitely help improve my grip strength.

Burpees
3x30
After all those squats, burpees sucked more than usual.
 
For the record, SQUATS + RDLs = (DOMS)^2.

My gym closed early today so I did a crapload of bw exercises.

Handstand pushups
10x15
Reduced ROM makes them a lot easier than bw SOHP.
I can't balance yet, so I had to lean against a wall.

Ab roll-outs from knees
10x20
I want to do these from the feet by July.

Pullups
10x15

Then i stretched out for 20 minutes.
 
I am DONE with Ochem and Biochem forever. I can't tell you how fucking good this feels. These were the two hardest classes I've taken in college, because not only did they involve massive amounts of memorization, but because I found them to be about some of the most boring subjects imaginable. I think I did decent on both exams hopefully enough to save my grade. To celebrate I went to the weight room, which I haven't been able to do since last friday.

One of my friends had a dip belt so I borrowed it.

Dips
1x10 bw
1x10 45 lbs
1x8 55 lbs
1x5 70
5x5 80
Sigh, i moved down in weight for these, which is to be expected I guess as I haven't done them for a few months, but it's still disappointing. My best for these was a 1rm with 110 lbs, and we'll see if I can start incorporating these regularly into my schedule.

Weighted pullups
1x10 bw
1x8 25 lbs
1x5 35 lbs
5x5 40 lbs

Seated OHP with DBs
1x10 35lbs
1x8 45s
1x6 50s
5x5 55s
 
Okay, today was a bad day in the weight room, mainly because it closed incredibly early today. Like at 6 pm. Meanwhile, I usually lift around 8, 8:30ish. I didn't realize that summer hours had started at my uni gym yet (I thought they'd still be on final exam schedule since we have a week of exams left) so it was all locked up when I showed up at my usual time. And then i thought that since I've been squatting heavy (relatively for me) for the last 8 weeks or so that a break wouldn't hurt. So I decided to do some sprints on the track.

200m sprint
25 pushups
25 squats
x8
With minimal rest in between sets. Since I'm out of shape, "minimal rest" meant a good 2-3 minutes in between the last couple rounds.

Then:
handstand pushups (balanced against a wall) x10
pullups x 10
for 10 rounds. No rest in between these.

Finally
Burpees 2x20

Now that school is officially done and I only have a parttime research job to attend to, I will definitely be following my workout routine much more attentively than in the previous weeks.
 
It's freaking weird. Now that I don't have school I feel really energetic in the morning. Today I woke up at 6, which I haven't done all year, and I decided to throw in a quick morning workout. Since I was planning on doing OHP in the afternoon I decided to focus mostly on legs.

AM:
Burpees
4x25

Jumping Squats
4x30

Jumping Lunges
3x30


In Afternoon:
OHP
1x10 45 lbs
1x8 95
1x5 115
5x1 135
1x5 115

My triceps were a bit tired, but for some reason that didn't impair my lifting at all, as I was able to reach my 1rm (135).

pullups
5x15

chinups
5x10
These felt really weird after having done pullups exclusively for the last 3 years or so. It especially feels weird at the bottom of the chinup, and the inside of my wrists started to hurt a bit. I'm not really sure why I had stopped doing them, but I'll probably be throwing them in with my pullups from now on.

Tabata intervals on a bike for 3 rounds.

And today was pretty funny because I had just seen the following clip on youtube today, and I would remember it at random times and just start chuckling and snorting during my workouts. A lot of people gave me strange looks, but this shit is hilarious. I'll definitely rent this movie sometime soon.

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hMPA3_qqr5o&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hMPA3_qqr5o&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
 
Urgh...

Squats
1x10 45
1x8 135
1x6 185
1x5 225
1x5 245
1x6 245
1x4 245
1x5 225
1x10 135

Wasn't feeling it today at all. And then this was basically all I could do today, because they closed the weight room even earlier then usual in anticipation of commencement tomorrow for the graduating seniors. But damn, this felt really heavy. I'll blame it on my head cold and next week will move back to 250 and hopefully move on from there.

And then since I have a cold, I decided not to do any conditioning work. Pretty disappointing day.
 
AM: bw intervals

squats x25
pushups x25
leg raises x10

x 10 rounds with minimal rest in between.

then I watched tv for about an hour on a recumbent bike.

PM: HIIT

200 m sprint
200 m jog
x 8 rounds

with a 800m warmup and a 800 m cooldown.

I'm going to have to revise my weightroom schedule since the hours are weird now. And the bad news is that I might not train at legends this summer. I didn't realize you needed to take private lessons before you enter, which cost $175 alone, so including a month of group instruction it'd be around 300 bucks. And since I'm only staying in LA for another 6 weeks or so, I'm not sure if it's worth it. Sigh... anyone have any advice? I'm thinking that I should just save the money and then start bjj back at hawaii. There's a club at the uni that is led by a dude who got his bb from rickson so I'm guessing he's reputable AND it's only 70 bucks a month, which is crazy cheap.
 
AM:

SOHP
1x10 45 lbs
1x6 95 lbs
1x3 115
1x1 135
1x1 140 (PR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
1x1 140
1x1 140
1x1 125
1x1 125
1x5 95

It felt good to hit a new PR. Been far too long since I've done that.

Pullups
5x20

No core work today because they were still sore from friday. Didn't realize sprints worked the core so much.

PM:
LSD
3 miles in roughly 26 minutes. Didn't want to push myself too much because its deadlifts tomorrow!!
 
Deadlifts
1x8 135 lbs
1x5 185
1x5 225
1x3 275
1x3 275
1x3 275
1x5 225
1x5 135
All with resets in between.

Front Squats
1x10 45 lbs
1x5 135
1x3 185
1x3 185
1x3 185
1x5 135
I have trouble breathing in between reps for front squats, and as a result I get pretty light headed, so I'm afraid to do more than 5 reps for any heavy sets.

BW circuit
Dipsx10
pullupsx5
squatsx15
situpsx10
for a total of 15 rounds with minimal rest in between. Situps are still the hardest part for me.

LSD- 3 miles in 30 minutes. Just hopped on a treadmill, raised the incline a bit, and then watched some TV. Then stretched out for a good twenty minutes. Finish
 
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