TRAINING LOG
I will be using this page as an informal record of my progress. You can see some of the skills I'm working on, as well as some of the training techniques that I am using. Sift through the archives to take a look at past training posts and feel free to comment in the guestbook.
July 15th, 2008
NEW WEIGHTED CHIN-UP BEST, +160 lbs!
I've been working the total body workouts 3x a week again, after several weeks of working a 4x a week upper/lower body split. The total body is working well now and allowing me to hit the lifts heavy, while still giving plenty of rest and recovery inbetween.
First, I've been working my trap bar deadlift and just recently hit my current personal best of 500 lbs again. After the frustration and set-backs that I was experiencing previously with this and the straight bar deadlift, it's good to get back up to the weight where I should be. My grip feels great on the exercise, it seems as though my limiting factor is my midsection. During the attempt at 510 lbs, my lower back in particular felt like the weak link. I'll be sure to add more direct midsection work (weighted crunches and weighted back extensions) in the following weeks.
The biggest news though is my new personal best in the weighted chin-up - +160 lbs!!! That puts me just 10 lbs away from my long time goal of a double bodyweight chin-up. And while it was very hard, everything still felt solid. There are a couple things to which I accredit this new PR.
One is listening to my body more during training and know when enough is enough. Too often I would work a set hard, feel exhausted, and then try to tack on another set past that. This time around, I made sure to give my body plenty of rest in between sets (2-3 minutes) and stopped the exercise when I felt like the quality of the sets and reps was dropping off. Sometimes less is more.
Another thing I focused on was bringing up the strength in my forearms (specifically the extensors), as well as other elbow flexors previously neglected. Pretty much I worked reverse bicep curls with a 2 inch diameter thick bar for sets of anywhere from 5 to 10. This allowed various parts of my upper and lower arms to be stressed and strengthened.
Lastly, I made sure not to sell myself short on other pulling exercises, like the one arm row. It's easy to get lazy and just use the highest dumbbell to row (100 lbs in my gym). But rather than continue with that, I'd take the adjustable dumbbell handle and put on 120 lbs for sets of 5 repetitions. Sure, it took a bit longer than just grabbing a preset dumbbell, but it's cheating yourself not to try for the heavier weight.
So as if it needs to be said, work hard and keep on pushing for greater and greater difficulty in your lifts and skills.
Looking for old posts? Check the archives.