Spytech’s Intense Workout Log

This session was tough. I am very fatigued from all the physical labor on the car build the last few nights, and my hands/forearms are pretty sore as well. Benching was tough overall. Strong first rep or two, then I would hit the wall. Fell short of my triple goal, but the first 2 reps were strong at least. Tried a set of militaries but my shoulder didn’t like them yet. The explosive pushups are brutal, and I really liked them. I setup two benches parallel to each other and would do a pushup and jump my hands onto the tops of the bench, then drop my hands back down to the floor, do a pushup and jump my hands to the benches again. Very explosive/fast movement.

Warmups:
Bench Press
CG Bench Press
OH Press

Paused Bench Press:
135×12x1
155×12x1
185×5x1
245×3x1
280×3x1
315×2x1

RE Bench Press:
315×2x6 (PR)

JM Press:
135×6x1
165×6x1
190×4x1 (PR)
165×5x2

Seated Military Press:
175×3x1

Cable Crossovers:
60×15x1
70×15x1
80×30x1

“Explosive” Pushups (jumping hands up to 16″ benches at the top of each rep):
bw x8×3 (PR)

+ stretching + power yoga (30min)

Duration: 90 minutes

Nice quick 20 minute workout with some good swimming afterwards. Swimming started out feeling really crappy, and I had to pause a few minutes to let a cramp in  my right thigh subside, but I ended up feeling great. I swam freestyle for nearly every length, which is also a big positive for me.

Cable Face Pulls:
150×12x4

Seated Cable Rows:
180×12x3

Chins:
bw x10×5

Rear Delt Flye Machine:
50×15x5

DB Curls:
35×12x4

DB Hammer Curls:
50×12x2

Reverse BB Curls:
45×15x4

Swimming:
1150m in 32 minutes

+ stretching

Duration: 52 minutes

Nice workout tonight. I have not done any sumo pulling in a few months so I thought I would shake off some rust and do a few pulls. Despite last week’s intense leg session pulls felt really good tonight. I did more warmups than I usually do and maybe that helped things, so I will continue doing more warmups before pulling and see how it works out. Minimal glute/ham nerve pain, and lots of power. Everything was pretty easy, but I did not want to push things too much. I took around 5 seconds between each rep on pulls tonight to get a complete deload and let my body relax before pulling again. After pulls I did some light hamstring work and then tried the “Perfect Squat” machine that no one uses. Surpisingly it hit the glutes and hams really well. Hard on the knees, though. I tried to do some dragon flags again but my abs were still sore from doing them last week! Unreal.

Warmups:
Deadlifts
Leg Curls
Leg Extensions
Pulldowns
Lat Rows
Hypers

Deadlift (briefs, reps deloaded):
135×12x2
155×12x1
225×5x1
315×3x1
405×1x2
495×1x2
585×3x1
605×2x1

SLDL (slow reps):
225×12x4

Zercher Deadlift (reps deloaded):
225×5x1

Seated Band Ham Curls:
2 reds x12×3

Perfect Squat:
90×10x1
180×5x1
270×5x1
360×5x1
450×5x1 (PR)

Dragon Flags:
bw x4×1

Standing Ab Crunches (’hard tower’):
156×6x1
120×6x3
120×12x1

+ stretching

Duration: 100 minutes

Nice quick 20 minute deload workout.

Bench Press:
135x12x2
155x12x1
185x12x1
225x12x2

Decline Bench Press:
225x12x1

OH DB Press:
30x20x1

DB Laterals:
20x20x2

Flat DB Flyes:
40x12x1
50x12x2

Seated Single-arm Tricep Extensions:
60x20x4

Cable Pushdowns:
150x15x1

+ stretching + power yoga (35min)

Duration: 55 minutes

Man are my legs sore from Wednesday. Very odd for me to be this sore. I cut the volume a bit short on today’s workout since my back really got hammered by the zerchers the other night. Rows were good - decent form on the heaviest set, and I know I have more in the tank still. I am really enjoying these extreme wide-grip face pulls. I do them with slow negatives, getting a nice stretch at the top, and they feel real nice. Swimming was very good. I swam freestyle (crawl) for almost every lap and my cardio held up great.

Warmups:
BB Rows
GMs
BB Curls

BB Rows (shoulder width overhand grip):
135×12x1
155×12x1
225×5x1
340×5x1
385×3x1
430×3x1 (PR)
225×25x1

Extreme Wide-grip Seated Face Pulls:
204×15x1
239×15x1
249×15x1
261×12x3 (PR)

DB Curls:
40×10x2
50×10x2
40×12x2

Reverse BB Curls:
70×30x2

Swimming:
900m in 25minutes

+ stretching

Duration: 65 minutes

Damn, I felt strong tonight. The first workout after my lower body deload is always stellar - maybe I need to shorten my cycle to 3 weeks on/1 off, instead of 4 on/1 off. Anyways, I just destroyed squats. I had more reps left in the tank on my heaviest set, but called it good with 6 reps. ATG squats were easy, and then I just destroyed zerchers. I was feeling pretty fatigued going into them, but I killed 555 for a triple. Closed the session with some wicked dragon flags - I love these things.

Warmups:
Squats
Hypers
Leg Extensions
Leg Curls
GMs

Wide-stance Squats (briefs):
135x12x1
225x5x1
315x5x1
405x5x1
455x5x1
515x3x1
570x6x1 (PR)

ATG Squats:
405x3x3

Zercher Squats (off pins 28″ high, reps deloaded):
225x3x1
315x2x1
405x1x1
455x1x1
555x3x1 (PR)

ATG Zercher Squats:
315x10x1 (PR)

Dragon Flags:
bw x5x2 (PR)

Hanging Knee Raises:
bw x30+x1

+ stretching

Duration: 85 minutes

Very nice workout. As much as last week’s benching sucked this week’s was that much better. I went into this workout feeling tired and achy (from working on the car, raking the yard, etc) and my warmups and first couple work sets reflected that. However, the 330 single felt great and I got 310 for all 6 triples pretty handily. I could not do that last week with 305, so I am very pleased. My triceps were still the weak point on my benching tonight and I think I am going to start running some RE work with bands soon to get my top end up, while continuing with paused bench as my ME movement. My right shoulder still wasn’t feeling ready for militaries so I did some light crossovers, which felt great. JM presses continue to get stronger each week.

Warmups:
Bench Press
CG Bench Press
OH Extension
Cuban Rotations

Paused Bench Press:
135×12x1
155×12x1
185×5x1
225×5x1
260×5x1
295×3x1
330×1x1 (PR)

RE Bench Press:
310×3x6 (PR)

JM Press:
135×6x1
160×6x1
185×5x1 (PR)
160×5x2
135×6x1

Cable Crossovers:
60×12x2
60×15x1
60×30x1

+ stretching + power yoga (25min)

Duration: 85 minutes

Nice rowing workout today. I haven’t done them in a few weeks (deload, and then last week’s back tweak) so I wasn’t sure how heavy today’s 5’s would feel, but they were pretty easy. Chins were hard. The extreme wide-grip face pulls felt great. Swimming was great, but hard. My back and rear delts were fried from lifting and made swimming very fatiguing. I need to get some swimming in when I’m totally fresh - it makes a world of a difference.

Warmups:
BB Rows
GMs

BB Row (shoulder width overhand grip):
135×12x1
155×12x1
225×10x1
290×5x1
340×5x1
380×5x1

Hammer Chins:
+95×5x1
+50×5x1

Shoulder-width Chins:
+95×5x1 (PR)
+50×5x1

Close-grip Chins:
+50×5x1

Extreme Wide-grip Seated Face Pulls:
132×12x1
168×12x2
192×12x1
204×15x1
216×15x1
228×15x1
238×16x1 (PR)

EZ Curls:
75×12x1
95×12x1
115×12x3

Reverse BB Curls:
65×20x3

Swimming:
850m in 25 minutes

+ stretching

Duration: 60 minutes

Nothing much to report here. Back is feeling pretty good. Just did random light stuff today. Hypers, deadlifts, leg curls, leg extensions, hip and low back work. Nothing real strenuous, just got the blood flowing.

Duration: 30 minutes

Tough session. My tris and forearms are pretty fried from some stuff I have been working on the car, so I had no endurance, or top end strength, on bench tonight. I hit the target I wanted on paused bench, but RE bench was pretty exhausting. First rep of each set would be simple, then…nothing. Back is feeling quite a bit better, as is the shoulder.

Warmups:
Bench Press
OH Press
CG Bench
OH Extensions
Cuban Rotations

Paused Bench Press:
135×12x1
155×10x1
185×5x1
225×5x1
260×5x1
295×5x1 (PR)

RE Bench Press:
305×3x4 (PR)
305×2x2

JM Press:
135×5x1
160×5x1
180×5x1 (PR)
160×6x2

Bench Rack Lockouts (half reps off pins):
225×3x1
315×3x1
365×3x1
315×3x1

DB L-Laterals:
45×15x3

Front Plate Raises:
45×25x2

+ stretching + power yoga (30min)

Duration: 100 minutes