Exercise Log 5.12.14 (Deadlift & Front Squat Day, No Cardio)

Today was the first day of my phase 2 workout plan, which I detailed extensively in my long video blog that I linked in the previous post. It was a real great workout and let me tell you, you take a week off from extensive training like I had last year and you notice right away how twisted up your body gets when you do too much resting. My back and all parts of me were tense and sore and this workout really helped limber me back up. Felt like the tin man getting an oil change afterwards.

So the first week of a new cycle of my workout plan is a conditioning week, just basic volume, nothing fancy just do the work and get ready. So as an update the new plan is split lifting, a primary lift and secondary lift, with 3 accessory exercises.

I’m going to be more detailed in the writeup this time so let’s get to it! As a reminder all sets used necessary warmup sets, particularly the lifts had several warmup sets to get to the working weight.

Deadlifts: Sets 1 & 2) 5 reps @ 255lbs. Set 3) 5 reps @ 275lbs (split set, 4 reps then 1). The first facet of this new program is that I’m not planning to go many more sets than 3-4 on the main lifts because I will revisit each lift a second time in the week. So the volume is still there but not on just this one day. That means these feel like shorter sets and what that immediately meant was I felt like I could really focus much more on proper form and technique, which made each rep count more.

Front Squats: Was doing deadlifts off the power rack, so reset it for front squatting, did warmups and went to it. I was real tired from the deadlifts, which was good. Set 1) 3 reps @ 145lbs. Set 2) 3 reps @ 155lbs (split set had to do these in single reps). Set 3) Failure, tried to do 165lbs (which is like 94.2% of my one rep max). My plan has a 1 rep of 90%, which honestly is closer to 155lbs than 165lbs but my muscle brain always rounds up to 10lb increments. The first failed rep I tried to come up too high and didn’t count it, the second rep I sank too low into the hole and couldn’t come back up. Made a minor adjustment to the percentages to this for future use.

Barbell Bent Over Rows / Pendlay Rows: 4 sets of 8 reps BOR’s / 5 reps pendlay @ 135lbs. This being a superset exercise really helped me add in extra work to the workout, will be using supersets a lot for the first accessory exercise.

Seated Cable Rows: 4 sets of 12 reps @ 135lbs, focus on form and contraction in the upper back. Felt great!

1-Legged Angled Leg Press / Calf Raises: Got on the angled leg press but decided to try something new by doing one legged leg pressing. This was fun, and definitely worked the legs better. 4 sets of 6 reps each leg / 12 reps calf raises @ 180lbs.

This was a fantastic workout, if I had the time after I would’ve done come cardio but had to get home to take care of things. Very promising for my first week of the new plan.