Good stuff man, welcome back from vacation as well :weights:

Thanks Verb..

Good day today for DE Bench. Started off with a very fast 9 x 3 bench using 225 lbs, then went on to a new PR for standing push presses. Last time I got 245, this time I nailed 255 x 1. I actually only half repped the first one, then just brought it down to rest on my upper chest for a few seconds. The second rep was the one that counted..Full lockout. It was sweet. Glad I stuck with it, and added a little more explosion with my legs. After that I did the usual bullshit, tons of back work, skullcrushers, and incline curls. Finished off with some good prehab for my shoulders.

I tried another 3 scoops of EAA's and got the same amount of energy as last time. No more dragging ass for me, which is a good thing. Markedly less rest between sets without any loss of strength, so I'm very impressed.

I also want to add that some of the people at my gym said I look A LOT bigger than when they last saw me before vacation. Funny thing is that I ate like shit and missed two workouts! :D

So after 9 weeks of going balls to the wall, week 10 (on vacation) served as a super effective DELOAD. It's pretty fucking nice to work your ass off for so long, then take it easy for a week in order to GAIN some muscle! :D

The proof is in the pudding.

I'm behind on my journal. On Thursday I had DE Squat/Deadlift. Instead of speed box squats I did a bunch of explosive warmups until 315 x 2, then did singles working up to a new 1 RM. I wore a belt on my final set of 395 x 1. Slow getting it up, especially since box squats elliminate all momentum. Afterwards I did some SLDL's off a box for hypertrophy, then some DB swings, hypers, and heavy abs work. Calves I still use DC style, but added my own criteria. For calves, I only do a 5 second negative, 5 second stretch, explosive positive for 10 reps, then I finish with 10 quick reps (totaling 20). Tough as hell, but my calves are responding nicely.

Updating my status with Midwestbarbell.com. I ordered some Light resistance bands on Tuesday, and GOT them on Friday. Pretty quick IMO!! Very impressed with the pricing and speed of delivery.

I haven't been on lately cause I've had a serious headache, ect for the past few days. Been on Vicodin since, which is a plus.

Still did my ME Bench on Sunday which was incline barbell, followed by JM Presses as my main triceps exercise. Inclines I nailed 315, which is pretty close to my 1 RM. Afterwards I did sets of 5 ramping up to a very conservative 5 RM for JM Presses. Those smoked the shit out of the 'ol triceps. It's a combo of a close grip bench and an skullcrusher. There's two different ways of doing them from what I see on the internet. One explanation talks about keeping the barbell above your upper chest the whole time. Matt told me that wasn't what he wanted. HE said to bring the bar down over my lower chest (using a close grip), then 3/4 of the way down, guide it over my upper chest, then press up..It looks like a "J". Kicked my ass. Got up to 185 lbs for 5 fairly easy. Afterwards came the usual back, biceps, and forearms.

Yesterday was ME Squat/Deadlift. Getting heavy. Had Low box squats slated off a low box. I was basically 3-4" BELOW parallel. Worked up to 365 x 1 no problem. I still had a pretty bad headache, so I didn't push further. Afterwards I backed off to 285 x 6 raw. Could've done a lot more reps if it wasn't for my splitting headache. Arched GM's I did sets of 5 up to 235 x 5 easy enough. Pullthroughs, hypers, ect. done.

Got to try my light bands today for some abs pulldowns. Kicked ass. Just looped one over the top of the power rack and held them on each side of my forehead. Did these standing. Great exercise.

Matt emailed me next week's routine and it has A LOT of banded work..Which makes 0311 happy. :D I just need some practice to see what I need to do to make these work.

Real quick I also want to mention that I bought a pair of Blue Power knee wraps from Pro-Wrist-Wraps...Mainly cause they are on our site and I heard nothing but great things from customers I know.

Three days it took to arrive at my house. These things are awesome too. Hard material and yields a little stretch to them. Tried these out for low box squats for a set and blew the weight up without trying. :D These will come in handy in the future for parallel and box squatting. The only problem I have is that it's very difficult to tuck in after I'm wrapped up. I'll have to look for an alternative to tucking them because I don't want that shit to undo and roll down my fucking leg in the middle of a squat!

So I must say that both midwestbarbell.com AND pro-wrist-wraps are VERY timely in delivery and have competitive costs between them. In the future, I'll most likely keep buying from midwestbarbell cause I like to save the extra few bucks..But, I still would love a pair of pro-wrist-wraps's customized wrist straps with a sweet fireball running down the sides.

DE Bench day took a little longer since I was new to using resistance bands. Used the powerrack and choked the bands around the bottom. I actually had to put a 30 pound DB on each side of the bottom so when I choked the bands, it had more tension up top. Pretty tough. Went down from 225 to 185 for 9 x 3 speed bench with the bands. I should've used more weight, probably another 15 pounds at least. Next week I'd like to try doubling them up and see how hard that'll be. Very fast bench today regardless. I can see these bands really elevating my lifts.

Afterwards I nailed 190 for 3 x 5 strict standing militaries, then went onto 100 lb incline DB presses for a few sets of 10. Lots of back work as always. Enough to where I didn't feel the need to bother with biceps today.

Usually the two biggest volume-wise days for me are DE Bench and ME Squat/Deadlift. I'm really impressed at how the Primal EAA's are getting me through the workouts STRONG from beginning to end. It says to take 1-3 servings total, but I've found 4 scoops preworkout HIGHLY beneficial.

LOL, funny story..

My mother the other day gets a letter from the Marines for me and she of course opens it. She gets scared with the content and calls my wife. She leaves my wife the message, "Have Dan call me right away because the Marines sent a letter and it doesn't look good!" Anyways, I'm driving to work when my wife tells me to hurry up and call me mom cause it's important and it has to do something with the Marines..

At this point I was thinking, "Oh shit, sounds like I'm being recalled!" So I frantically call her up and ask :wtf: is going on? She starts SLOWLY reading it and I'm getting impatient. Finally get it out of her. All it said was that I was required next month to go active duty for a day to redo all my medical and personal records somewhere in MA. God, I was fucking pissed at her!!

Anyways, for some reason the Marines still think I live in MA even though I told them a million fucking times I moved to CA. Long story short, I called them up and got the shit fixed. So I should have a smooth final six months of Inactive reserve status before I wash my hands clean from the service.

Now I'm going to get her back somehow without giving her a heart attack. :biglaugh:

Damn, some reason I thought you were done with inactive reserves already...

WHOA!..

I gotta go buy a lotto ticket! :D