Two things Ollie:

- I need to pay you and your fruity friends a visit soon as my deadlift has gone to shit; keep ending up with a sore lower back which is definitely not a good sign. Good excuse for a weekend in the Big Smoke.

- Saturday March 6th, mark the date and book a car now- big night here in Bristol (Haiti fundraiser at Lakota), I think I sent you an invite on Facebook but please tell your local homies as well, it should be sick.

Dude you're getting strong! Impressive lifting

Spit wrote:Two things Ollie:

- I need to pay you and your fruity friends a visit soon as my deadlift has gone to shit; keep ending up with a sore lower back which is definitely not a good sign. Good excuse for a weekend in the Big Smoke.

Sounds good mate, welcome to stay here any time.

- Saturday March 6th, mark the date and book a car now- big night here in Bristol (Haiti fundraiser at Lakota), I think I sent you an invite on Facebook but please tell your local homies as well, it should be sick.

Ah just seen that, looks wicked, but I'm in Bulgaria having what will probably be a mediocre week of snowboarding. I'll let the Bristol guys know though! Will probably be down some time in March, maybe the weekend after...

26th January - Chest & Back:

A1: Incline DB press [3-0-X-0]: 50kg x 9 / 50kg x 9 / 50kg x 7
60s rest
A2: BB bent over row [2-0-X-0]: 110kg x 9 / 110kg x 8 / 110kg x 7
60s rest

B1: Flat DB press [3-0-X-0]: 50kg x 9 / 50kg x 8 / 50kg x 7
60s rest
B2: DB row [3-0-X-0]: 50kg x 12 / 50kg x 11 / 50kg x 10
60s rest

C1: Flyes [3-1-X-0]: 30kg x 10 / 32kg x 8 / 32kg x 8
60s rest
C2: Pull up [2-0-X-0]: +10kg x 10 / +10kg x 8 / +10kg x 7
60s rest

Notes:

Happy with this first thing. The little see you next tuesday that gave me grief last week was in but I resisted vengeance, despite his squats having a shorter ROM than my calf raises. Going to focus on improving my conditioning for a month or so now, I'm not a million miles from where I want to be but want to nip things in the bud before I gain any more fat.

Changed things around a little with flyes as I'm going to give them a consistent go now that I'm more confident that my form is good having trained with Alex and Si. Will stick to a flat bench as I think they might have aggravated my shoulder in the past on an incline.

Change of heart....1 day of dieting convinced me that it was a bad idea and doomed to fail So back to eating around maintenance. Keeping things ultra-clean should see me lean up a bit, and really that's all I want to do for the timebeing. Glad I got that crazy idea out of my system.

30th January - Shoulders & Arms:

A1: Power HC2PP [2-1-X-0]: 80kg x 5 / 80kg x 5 / 80kg x 5 / 80kg x 4
120s rest

B1: DB shoulder press [3-0-X-0]: 36kg x 9 / 36kg x 7 / 36kg x 6 => 26kg x 8
90s rest

C1: Crucifix raise [3-0-X-0]: 10kg x 10 / 10kg x 10 / 10kg x 9
60s rest
C2: Lateral raise (strict, from hips) [2-0-X-1]: 16kg x 10 / 16kg x 10 / 16kg x 9
60s rest

SS D1: Fat Gripz DB curl [2-0-X-0]: 24kg x 10 / 24kg x 9 / 24kg x 8
SS D2: CGBP [3-0-X-0]: 110kg x 8 / 110kg x 7 / 110kg x 6
120s rest

SS E1: BB curl [2-0-X-1]: 40kg x 8 / 40kg x 8 / 40kg x 8
SS E2: Dip [2-0-X-0]: BW x 20 / BW x 20 / BW x 20
90s rest


31st January - Legs:

A1: Front squat [2-0-X-0]: 120kg x 6 / 130kg x 6 / 130kg x 5 / 130kg x 5
120s rest

B1: Deadlift [1-1-X-1]: 210kg x 5 / 215kg x 5 / 220kg x 5 / 220kg x 5
120s rest

C1: Leg extension [3-0-X-0]: 92.5kg x 8 / 92.5kg x 8 / 92.5kg x 8
C2: Leg curl [2-0-X-0]: 75kg x 8 / 80kg x 8 / 80kg x 8
90s rest

D1: Unilateral leg press calf-raise [2-3-X-1]: +100kg x 15 / +100kg x 15 / + 100kg x 15
75s rest

Notes:

Really good session yesterday. Felt very focussed throughout - deads were definitely a highlight. Quads, hams and back are all feeling it today.

Moment of madness. I'm prone to them.

Very serious weights mate - good to see the flyes as well.

liking the deadlifts mate, how much you weighing at moment? They seem to be comign on well espeically considering how short your rests are

About 88kg dry at the moment I think. I try to stay strict on rest times and on deads they're never longer than 150s.

Glad you saw the light with respect to dieting.

Thanks. Crazy idea.

3rd January - Chest & Back:

A1: Incline DB press [3-0-X-0]: 50kg x 9 / 50kg x 9 / 50kg x 8
60s rest
A2: BB bent over row [2-0-X-0]: 110kg x 9 / 110kg x 8 / 110kg x 8
60s rest

B1: Flat DB press [3-0-X-0]: 50kg x 9 / 50kg x 8 / 50kg x 8
60s rest
B2: DB row [3-0-X-0]: 50kg x 12 / 50kg x 12 / 50kg x 11
60s rest

C1: Dip [2-1-X-0]: +40kg x 8 / +40kg x 8 / +40kg x 7
60s rest
C2: Pull up [2-0-X-0]: +10kg x 10 / +10kg x 8 / +10kg x 8
60s rest

Notes:

Good strong session tonight. New benches in the gym which are really nice, and they've put in a decline bench too which was missing before. Might start using that for CGBP. Might have to ask about some new DBs I think

strong session as always, espeically with the slow negs

Rab wrote:Very strong pressing mate. I dont think i could keep up with you on that incline!!!

Need to get them told to get another set of bells. even if just 55k just now!

I might have to lube up and bend over if I want a new set of bells, but as long as I don't push back it should be ok.

4th February - Legs

A1: Front squat [2-0-X-0]: 130kg x 5 / 132.5kg x 5 / 132.5kg x 5 / 132.5kg x 4
120s rest

B1: RDL [3-1-X-1]: 160kg x 6 / 170kg x 6 / 170kg x 6 / 170kg x 5
120s rest

C1: Leg extension [3-0-X-0]: 92.5kg x 9 / 92.5kg x 8 / 92.5kg x 8
C2: Leg curl [2-0-X-0]: 80kg x 8 / 80kg x 8 / 80kg x 7
90s rest

D1: Seated calf raise [2-3-X-1]: +60kg x 10 / +60kg x 10 / +60kg x 9
75s rest

Notes:

Boomage on fronts and RDLs. Legs were shaking nicely after that little lot.

Neither standing nor seated seem to make much difference. My calfs are seriously stubborn - and yes I've tried more volume/frequency etc. My calfs are a decent size and I reckon they get plenty of work from other standing exercises so I don't really worry about it too much.

Rab wrote:
My calfs are ghey as feck .

Rab wrote:Id say its the other way round mate. Its the soleus (sp) that gets the most of the work during your squats and deadlifts. the gastro is only getting hit when the knee is locked out

My calfs are ghey as feck but have coem on the best out of anything by doing 30 rep rest pause sets...picking a weight i can get 15 to failure then rest pausing to 30, increasignt he weight each week for several weeks on the trot. one of the only things thats worked half decent for me.

Seated does nothing for me.

Cool, thanks. I might try on the leg press again as I think they responded well to that when I gave it a good go a while back.

Nice weight and volume on fronts and RDLs, bet that was brutal.

I found single leg standing calf raise with a pause at the bottom worked the best for me. Huge calves look daft anyway imo.

Sinlge leg weighted hopping works well too! Plus you look really cool

if standard weight training calf exercises don't work, try skipping.

Also, some self-myofascial release on the calves may help

Hitting them 3 days a week worked in the past but so does running and jumping.