Training Log

As I said in an email to you, Joe, you seem to be in a great place at the moment. Congratulations.

As I also mentioned, it will great to see how you fare against Travis Ortmayer !!!  Good luck!

PS. Tell Brian or Jordan to fix this "Smiley" problem!

I am looking forward to it.  It will be interesting to see how you prepare and may even provide some of us with some new stuff to incorporate into our routines.  Its always good to change things up to shock the body and get it to respond.  Good luck and keep having fun!

I like it Joe...I have just started talking with a buddy of mine who competes in strong man competitions and has his own functional training facility, he is gonna show me the ropes...

Alan...I have noted the smiley problem...that might be more of a Brian issue...I will see what I can do.

Thanks

Thanks, Alan and Annette.  I'll give you an example of what I'm doing just to be general, then I'll fill in with some ongoing workouts. 

Last Tuesday I hit chest and back....rapid supersets, getting somewhat heavy with Smith machine bent-over rows and flat bench DB press, then onto some finishing movements, some hyper extensions, and done.

Two days later I did a quick arm workout because I haven't done any dedicated arm work in a long time.

Two days later I did my real work.  I'd love for this to include some implement training but it's just a pain to drive downtown to our old gym....I need to get some tires out here.  I did giant sets from leg press into dead lifts and then right into shoulder push press.  Didn't go super heavy; I've been working on off-the-floor deads to mimic the tire flip.  An hour of that and I had enough. 

Onto an upper body workout today!

Still one of my favorite high-intensity chest workouts:

Warm up

Superset cable flies with incline barbell press.

I stand deep between the cables and bring the handles down in a line toward the floor - not out in front of me.  Coming out in front you lose all leverage and can't go as heavy as you actually could, so lost opportunity.  The pec major is also much more fully contracted if your upper arm is coming across your body in what would be a decline press position....it's just where you get the most fiber involvement. 

Because any barbell work can destroy your shoulders (supraspinatus tendon), I like the pre-exhaustion of the cable and then I only come down to my chin with the bar.  Literally to the chin with my elbows going straight to the floor so I'm hitting more of the clavicular portion of the pec. 

I superset like that for 8-10 sets including warm ups and that's a great workout - chest was already sore 8 hours later. 

This particular workout, due to time this week, I actually did giant sets where after the incline, I went to shoulder push press in a cage.  Chest and delts done in 30 minutes.

I love these kinds of workouts Joe.  Especially when short on time.  Which for me lately is often. 

I was doing my workouts like that last week because I was short on time (lots of super and giant sets and little rest) and they were some of the best workouts I had.

Do you have any older training logs where you posted workouts when you were training more specifically like a bodybuilder?

Also, do you usually do your running outside or on a treadmill?  What are some of the different running programs/techniques you use throughout the week?

Lastly, what kind of macro/nutrition strategy are you using right now to support your goals?

Oh, oh, Carlito - never say "when you were training more like a bodybuilder."  ; )  I'm not ready for the "former" tag just yet....though I did set myself up for that.  Old training - absolutely, but not all has changed. 

This weekend, with friends in town, we trained Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.  Thursday, Jordan wanted to see how I do the functional/strongman work in the gym without actual implements.  We did giant sets with Kori and Bronco:

Hack Squats (two of us here and two of us on leg press)

Dead Lifts on a 3" platform

Push Press

Curls

Pretty non-stop pace....by the time we hit push press on the later sets, it was a challenge just to stand up, let alone push 175 off your clavicles.  We ended up around 3 plates on a side with a vertical sled hack, 315 on deads, 175 push press, and 50-lb DB curls.  About an hour of work.  Hacks we kept pretty high rep, the deads ended up lower due to diving straight in from the hacks.

Friday, with Tyler Christopher in from LA, he wanted to do some traditional upper body stuff so we did back/chest supersets.  Wide grip pulldowns into flat bench DB presses.  Got heavy on both.  Then, bent over Smith machine rows super set into cable flys into push ups to failure.  Got heavy on the rows.  That back workout was a bit of a challenge being the day after the deads ; )

Sunday before Tyler hit the road he, Kori, and I hit arms.  Barbell curls superset with lying tri EZ bar extensions - what could be better?  Pretty heavy there and then onto V-grip cable for tris into hammer curls. 

Nice light run yesterday and I'm ready to hit it this week!

" Two days later I did a quick arm workout because I haven't done any dedicated arm work in a long time ".

 Interesting reading about your training, Joe. The workouts look great, by the way. Definitely old school stuff! The above statement interested me.

What has been your personal experiences in this regard by NOT dedicating time to training your arms? There is no doubt to me, that my arms reached the ( small ) size they are now after a relatively short training period. OK, possibly the time used on dedicated arm work might have amounted to another 5% of size, shape, condition, whatever ! They receive a good deal of work from all the pushing / pulling movements that we do. If you are a non competing athlete, I have often wondered if it's really necessary to devote time to them that could be better utilized elsewhere ( even if it was just reading this Forum ! )?

Smiley's should be fixed now

I'd have to put a tape on them to have some objectivity, but I've actually battled a small tricep tendon tear that I keep hoping will just heal.....after 7 or so years, maybe it won't?  ; )  So, even heavy tri work is pretty much out of the picture, but I still get some decent arm work.  I'd have to guess, as you hint at, that the arms haven't gone down in size a bit.  As a matter of fact, I got some pics training with Tyler Christopher on the weekend of the show and they look pretty darn bulky. 

As soon as I figure out how to add pics to posts on this new forum, I'll sprinkle some in.  Nothing beats visuals.
 

How's the lower back treating you? Still on a strength progression?