Nice!

Thanks Pits

do you do zotts standing up? if so...i noticed something today...when i do standing exercises i have a tendency to slip into anterior tilt...so i made sure to squeeze my ass today...so that didn't happen....not sure if that happens to you or not.

I do do them standing up. I find that I tend to slip more into anterior tilt if I'm seated and struggling rather than standing, go figure lol. It does happen to me but, like you did, I make a conscious effort to avoid it. BUT when I'm doing a single or double you can imagine how much I'm able to consciously concentrate on tightening/bracing/activating and still hit the rep(s). :D

I'm really bad for doing it with standing MP, but I'm much better than I used to be. Didn't have a problem when I did the Uni Push Presses...which are awesome btw. :D

Finally got a chance to start checking out your journal. Haven't got through all of it yet. I think you read that I did Cressey's Maximum Strength but rest of life got in the way. Read Power Training by Robert dos Remedios. It reminds me of Cressey's stuff but you can select your own exercises as long as you select an explosive, a knee dominant, a hip dominant, horizintal push, horizontal pull, vertical push, vertical pull, rotational core and core bridge exercise each workout.

I think I will finish reading your journal and see what I come up with based upon ideas from several sources. I have three more weeks left in my current program.

Cressey is a very smart guy. Alot of my training is drawn from his sort of 'style'. I do remember seeing that you had dabbled with the max strength book he wrote.

I will check out that book you mentioned, although I don't have all that stuff in each workout, I've got it covered throughout the week :D

I hope you enjoy what you've read so far, if you've got any questions feel free to fire away.

I really like Cressey's stuff. I just think (and I am by no means an expert nor do I profess to know more than Cressey) that he has too many variants on the "big lifts" in the 16 week program (speed work, pin work, box squats) and doesn't throw in some of the big lifts themselves. At times I felt that I needed to do a regular full squat or deadlift because my body was starting to forget those movements. Like I needed to follow Pavel's "grease the groove" concept.

The simple answer is that variants work sections/aspects of the movement in order to strengthen the movement as a whole.

If you keep pounding away at deadlifts and are stuck in a rut, then its probably a good idea to sitdown and figure out what is stopping your progress. Then you can address specific concerns within the movement you want to improve. An even better approach (imo) is to be pro-active and use variants as a staple with the big lifts appearing less frequently. Of course I'm referring to people that have a couple/few years of serious training and can't linearly progress on a 5x5 every week :D (ie intermediate+)

There's nothing/noone saying that you can't do the big compounds in your routine. In fact I would encourage that you do them from time to time, especially if you're doing variations that are meant to enhance your ability in them :D

"When you complete the program you will be amazed by the amount of weight you are able to bench-press, squat, deadlift, and chinup after just 16 weeks of focused training" That's a quote I pulled from Maximum Strength, the whole point of it is to show the benefit of doing more than just hammering away at the big lifts.

You'd be surprised at how much you can increase your squat, deadlift, bench, etc. without actually doing them. :D Sounds pretty odd to say that you can increase your back squat by not doing them :biglaugh:

Out of curiousity what is your diet like? Do you have any bulk or cut related goals or are you just looking to put pounds on the bar?

I don't have a diet really, I just eat every couple/few hours. I don't do it blindly though, I've got a pretty good idea of what macros I am getting from the food I eat and I can keep track of my macros (roughly) throughout the day. Basically its a high calorie/high protein sort of diet. 4500+ cals and 300+ grams of protein is what I shoot for in a day. Every now and again I'll plug a few days worth into fitday and I'm usually within 250-500cals (4000-5000cals), protein is usually higher than 300.

I've always had the longterm goal of reaching 200lbs (a muscular 200 lol), but putting pounds on the bar is my primary goal. :D

IME its not very easy to gain weight but its very easy to lose it and, strength on the other hand is much easier to gain than mass is.

Thursday January 8th

181lbs

Anderson Front Squats
175x2
185x2
185x2

Man these are tough...and fun. Really focused on driving up against the bar and keeping a tight back.

GM's
135x10x2

Nice and light. Didn't want to go gungho just yet because I still want to see how this week goes with manageable weights.

OH Squat
Empty Barx8x2

Definitely not challenging weight wise. The challenge comes from stability about mid squat on the eccentric portion. I've got plenty of mobility ie no buttwink or very very little, so I'm happy. I won't jump right into this one either, I'll probably slap a couple 5 or 10lb plates on next time.

My training partner couldn't even do them using a towel (pulled taught with his hands) because he lacks mobility, flexibiltity, and stability. Its ok though because he is relatively new to the gym (8months experience) and his body has never had to do this type of movement. I think a bit of pratice doing the movement, along with a few others I've given him, will iron out some of the issues. I think he's got the mob/flex/stab to do them, its just hidden :D

Dragon Flags
BWx10x2

Overall I got a good feeling from this workout. Should workout nicely. (pun intended :biglaugh:)