Natural Al's DC training Journal

[natural al]

Hit it on Saturday-

Dips-35lbs of assistance, nice deep 2 second stretch on each rep, I got 26 reps rest paused and I did a static but it was only for about 12 seconds, my chest was fried.

Wide Grip Upright Rows-85*31RP, killer along with a 35 second static using the 35lbs DB's at about the first 1/4 of a lateral raise.

OverHead Extentions-65*26RP, I get a really good stretch with these, love doing em.

Paramount Pulldown Machine-145*24RP, got a ton more reps than last time, this is a really cool machine.

I stayed on track with my thickness stuff, I'm not doing any deadlifts so I'm thinking I need to use some sort of low back movment but havent' really decided yet.  I might work in some rack deads soon, probably next blast..we'll see.

[natural al]

I've been going to the gym when I can just not recording alot of stuff..

yesturday I did:

Incline DB Press-70*23RP with a 2 second stretch at the bottom of each rep.

seated DB press-70*26RP...I'll be dropping these, getting the dB's back up after going to failure is too much of a pain in the ass.

Paramount Tri-8 plates for 31 reps rest paused.

pull up-35lbs of assistance for 26 reps rest paused with a 20 second static....super slow negative

didn't do much for thickness cause my lower back was killing  me. 

[natural al]

went in saturday and my f'n lower back was just killing me

paramount bi curl-8 plates for about 26 reps rest paused with each arm and a static.

behind the back wrist curls-100*35RP

paramount toe press-5 plates for 22ish reps each leg done rest paused with a 3 second stretch at the bottom, this machine is such a pain in the ass, 5 plates feels like a ton of weight.

paramount leg press-I just put the pin where it felt right and went to failure, 1 straight set, my back was killing me so I just took it easy.

sat in the hot tub for 1/2 an hour, woke up yesturday and my back was even worse so I took it easy all day, today it feels alot better.  Might be time to hit the doctor

[davie]

Hey mate hope things r gud.

Im trying to work my ass off, tho a bug is making me feel uber crap today.

Hopefully have the strength for 2moro's upper body work.

After dips 2moro im trying standing BNP, shouldnt have too muh lower abck pressure as lowering bar behind head should limit leaning backa a bit.

Might drop my DB shoulder press weight to. Have been lowering Db's to judt breaking parallel, now im gonna lower them right down to shoulders?!

Happy with squats at mo, set records in the low rep squatting and the widow makers.

davie

[natural al]

Hey mate hope things r gud.

Im trying to work my ass off, tho a bug is making me feel uber crap today.

Hopefully have the strength for 2moro's upper body work.

After dips 2moro im trying standing BNP, shouldnt have too muh lower abck pressure as lowering bar behind head should limit leaning backa a bit.

Might drop my DB shoulder press weight to. Have been lowering Db's to judt breaking parallel, now im gonna lower them right down to shoulders?!

Happy with squats at mo, set records in the low rep squatting and the widow makers.

davie

I don't lower the DB's any lower than probably eye level, if I do my shoulders "hurt" like hell, not sore but hurt...it's an old wrestling injury.

yesturday I did:

DB Press-75*23RP with my 2 second stretch at the bottom, I probably needed to pay more attention to how slow I lowered the weight as I think it was a little quicker than ususal.

fly machine-65*29 with a static

dip machine-170*22, 20 pound increase in weight and stil got a decent amount of reps

Pull ups-40lbs of assistance and I got 28 reps rest paused, nice slow negatives...did a static.

kept up with my thickness stuff so that was good.

I've been doing some intense cardio to see how that goes, I bought a bike and was doing some nice slow cardio sessions in the morning and I decided to turn it up, I'm busting my ass...legs feel like noodles right now so I'm taking a day off but it's a killer. 

[davie]

Mate im forced into a aday off myself, still ill!

Felt not too bad at work, came home, and was gonna get ready to go but stomach started cramping again.

Hate missing session, but dont wanna puch myself if im ill.

On the shoulder press issue, i had always lowered them to just below parallel, but without a spotter i cant get heavy DB's up so lowerinig weight and gonna go for a fuller rep.

U managing to fit everything in at the mo??

davie

[natural al]

Mate im forced into a aday off myself, still ill!

Felt not too bad at work, came home, and was gonna get ready to go but stomach started cramping again.

Hate missing session, but dont wanna puch myself if im ill.

On the shoulder press issue, i had always lowered them to just below parallel, but without a spotter i cant get heavy DB's up so lowerinig weight and gonna go for a fuller rep.

U managing to fit everything in at the mo??

davie

welll....I get up and am on the bike at 4:30 every morning...sometimes I don't hit the gym until 8 at night so it's a long day.  So far so good. 

[natural al]

here's what I did on Thursday:

2 hand hammers-85*25RP with a static

reverse curl-85*29RP

toe press-615*11 DC style...killer.

sumo press-625813 straight set....an older dude came over and said he wanted to make sure I wasn't gonna explode while I was doing these...I just laughed and told him it wasn't that hard...afterwards I was thinking it was that fucking hard..lol.

leg press-450*51 reps, 1 pause at about 40 reps, shook out my legs and went back to work.  what i do is 5-8 reps, take a few deep breaths and go again.  The funny thing about these is the arch's of my feet hurt like hell at the end.

did stretches and a static on the leg extention...150lbs for 40 seconds.

decent workout.

[natural al]

yesturday:

dips-30lbs of assistance for 28 reps rest paused and a static.

Wide Grip Upright Rows-90*29RP plus a static

overhead extentions with a rope-65*23RP

Paramount Pulldowns-145*23RP and a static

same thickness stuff as always, I don't really want to go into details cause it's not really DC but I'm working around my lower back issues so I'm doing what i have to do.

[thewickedtruth]

good to see you're still in here tearing it up buddy! awesome work as usual! Keep it up and show us young guys that you old folks can still kick some ass wiht the iron! 

[natural al]

good to see you're still in here tearing it up buddy! awesome work as usual! Keep it up and show us young guys that you old folks can still kick some ass wiht the iron! 

how old do you think I am?

[natural al]

drag curls-130*31RP with a static

hammer curls-70*28RP with my left and 31 with my right

paramount toe press-160*26RP..done in a little different fashion than usual DC protocol...

seated leg curl-130*30

added 10 pounds to my squat, it's still not that impressive but I need to protect my lower back so I'm taking it slow, I also did a couple of finishing movements for my thighs.....

[davie]

Hey mate, impressive stuff.

I just set new pb's in low rep front squat, then the back squat widow maker.Im suffering for it no tho lol.

CAlf wise im trying the one posted in the calf sticky on the training board, by mtwain over on iron age.

Hurts so bad, kinda like it (dont say that while im doing it tho lol).

Hows everything outside the gym going??

davie

[natural al]

Hey mate, impressive stuff.

I just set new pb's in low rep front squat, then the back squat widow maker.Im suffering for it no tho lol.

CAlf wise im trying the one posted in the calf sticky on the training board, by mtwain over on iron age.

Hurts so bad, kinda like it (dont say that while im doing it tho lol).

Hows everything outside the gym going??

davie

everything is cool here, it's getting cold so I expect to be sick as a dog very soon...oh, well.  I gotta move to a warmer state soon. 

if I remember right that stuff is 1 legged calf raises where you get a really deep stretch....kinda the same thing as what I'm doing but I do both legs at once.

john parillo used to have his guys do a movement he called calf squats, I think that's what they were called.  I always loved doing those.

[davie]

What were the calf squats like?

Mtwains calf work went like this:
1. 1 legged calf raises,normal speed full reps as many as u can get.
2. Followed immediately by forced reps (helping complete positive), and forced negatives (pushing against celing/door frame etc to create resistance on negative).
3. After u cant control negative, u do stretch and wee bounces (burns), do about 10 of these wee bounces/burns, then you explode up and try get full rep, (can be assisted if needs be+negative). Do about 10 of these burn rest/pause exploding reps.
4. Then step away, shake off calf until pain subsides, jump back on and start going for another 10 rest/pause burn explosive reps.
5. Repeat part 4 about 5 times.

6. Change and do the other leg lol. It hurts.

I take it the cold weather doesnt agree with u  mate. Wer is it u live?

davie

[natural al]

What were the calf squats like?

Mtwains calf work went like this:
1. 1 legged calf raises,normal speed full reps as many as u can get.
2. Followed immediately by forced reps (helping complete positive), and forced negatives (pushing against celing/door frame etc to create resistance on negative).
3. After u cant control negative, u do stretch and wee bounces (burns), do about 10 of these wee bounces/burns, then you explode up and try get full rep, (can be assisted if needs be+negative). Do about 10 of these burn rest/pause exploding reps.
4. Then step away, shake off calf until pain subsides, jump back on and start going for another 10 rest/pause burn explosive reps.
5. Repeat part 4 about 5 times.

6. Change and do the other leg lol. It hurts.

I take it the cold weather doesnt agree with u  mate. Wer is it u live?

davie

I live in Michigan and I have asthma so once I get a cough in the winter it gets really bad.

not alot of time to get into the calf squat but I'll get to it this weekend.....sorry.

[davie]

Hey mate hows u, feeling ok.

Im just starting another blast this week.

Feeling ok, put on 2 lbs over last blast (not enough tho), and losta  pound of it over cruise lol.

Im 16lbs up on wen i started DC in mid January.

Over my cruise i usually do 2 session a week. week one only do couple sets of 15 reps per excerise (1 exercise for each bod part), week 2 i only do 1 set of about 20 reps(just getting a burn).

Ths tiime tho i idnt do anything week 2, and i kinda wish i should have.
L1st session onmonday was great, bating last times targets. @day i should havce dropped weight a couple kilogrmas on squat, as my widow maker wasnt that good and i only got 13 reps, wen lst time i forced out 20.

Aslong as i do better next time im happy.

davie

[natural al]

I'm ending my current blast this week, going back to school after work and I'm gonna try to start updating this again if anyone is interested.  I'm reworking alot of my program so it might be interesting.....

[thewickedtruth]

Man I havne't seen you in here posting in awhile..how things going for ya big al?! Needed a lil change of pace huh!?

[natural al]

Man I havne't seen you in here posting in awhile..how things going for ya big al?! Needed a lil change of pace huh!?

just stopped doing the journal, still doing what I've been doing.  still doing DC but I bumped my reps up to 20-30 rest paused which meant I had to use alot less weight on some movements.  I'm thinking of bumping them down to 15-18 rest paused and just loading up the weight on some movements plus I'm gonna change up some of the movements I use.

I'm in a nice rythm with the cardio I'm doing, I haven't caught a cough yet this winter and training has been going well so why not start up the journal again.

I AM going to be taking some classes at night so that might screw up the training but who knows?  I have not decided what I'm taking or when, once I do I'll figure out how my workouts will go.

even if I can only go twice a week I'll still try to kick some ass while I'm there.

[natural al]

I'm pretty sure the next blast is gonna be alot heavier than this one was.  Ilked it but I really want to start moving some heavy stuff.  Not everything is gonna change...I'll keep right on track with my chest movements but I've got a new widowmaker I'm gonna throw in.  Shouders will pretty much stay the same, right now I'm using:

side lateral machine, wide grip upright rows and machine press.  I picked the first 2 cause my tri's were fried after the 30 rep sets on chest...so I gott think if I want to add another press day for chest.

for tri's I'll be adding something called a PJR pullover...look over on intense muscle for a description.

more tomorrow.

[natural al]

STARTED a new blast....I'm going heavier than in the past, reps will change from in the 30's to 15ish rest paused.  chest I'm doing inclines, declines and an paramount incline.  Shoulders military press, paramount press and the lateral machine-I'm going a little higher with the reps on this one.  Tri's I'm doing close grips, a dip machine and a tri pullover that a bunch of guys use over at IM.  Back width I'm doing front pulldowns, pulldowns behind the neck-only to about ear level and I'm doing one thing that isn't really dc but I want to give it a go-I'm doing a set of heavy pullovers followed by close grip pulldowns.  thickness I'm doing bb rows, seated row and t-bar rows.  bi's-drag curls, spider curls-described over on DC and a machine preacher curl.  Forearms..hammer curls, behind the back wrist curls and a 1 arm reverse curl.  Calfs-I'm just rotating 3 different types of toe press.  hamstrings-sumo leg press, seated leg curl and a parillo deadlift.  Quads-leg press, squat and a different leg press.

low back is still an issue for me so we'll see how things go. 

[natural al]

went in yesterday:

Drag Curls-160*19RP with a static till failure

Hammer Curls-35*31RP-I'm going higher rep on these, doing them on an incline bench so no body english.

Toe Press-645*8 done DC style...really the weight I'm using makes this movement a killer, 15 second stretch with an exxplosive positive and a nice slow negative, I've really been concentrating on the negative aspect of the movement, it's not at 5 seconds like some guys do it but it's pretty damn slow.

I skipped hamstrings cause for some reason my left one felt like I pulled it or something, just really tight in an odd way, heavy sumo leg press' are murder and I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Leg Press-665*20 with a static to complete failure.  I really hate the leg press I use now but it's the only one I have access to so I have to go with it.

[davie]

Hey mate, hows things? aint spoken with u in ages!!

Training going well?

davie

[natural al]

Hey mate, hows things? aint spoken with u in ages!!

Training going well?

davie

it's all good.  training is "rushed" so I get in and out really fast, heavy as I can go and out the door.

are you posting over at IM?