Andy Awad's Training Log

Chris Anderson wrote:

Andy Awad wrote:

405 x 3 x 30


wat

My deadlift has progressed leaps and bounds in your absence. Lol that must've been a Freudian slip of what I wished I could do. should definitely be 3 x 3.

6/30/2014

Squat

High bar w/ oly shoes

275 x 3
275 x 7

I tried, but I'm just not gonna mess with this until I'm done with my current training block with low bar and no shoes.

Ditched the shoes and went low bar.

315 x 3
335 x 2

Paused squat (3 - 5 sec)

225 x 3 x 5



Pullups

3 sets

Felt my butt wink and consequently my low back strain on the second rep at 335, which really frustrated me, nothing bad, but I can feel it right now....I had a long day and my low back just wasn't 100%, so I just should've taken it easy. But I was feeling strong after I ditched the shoes so I wanted to do some sets at 335. After that I decided to do some paused squats primarily so I could control my eccentric and make sure I wasn't rounding at the bottom. I feel like my form was really good on these, and they didn't aggravate my back. I can't seem to get away with any rounding of my low back in squatting or deadlifting. Everytime I do it I pay the price. I may need to introduce some specific training for my low back to prevent this from escalating any further than it already has and ultimately nip it in the butt. Good news is the pause squats felt fantastic, and I was able to get into a really comfortable position under the bar and keep a very straight (for me) bar path. I may just do these for another week or two and get more comfortable and train my neuromuscular pathways to learn a better motion and hopefully keep my back nice and strong.

7/1/14

Bench Press

260 x 10
260 x 10
260 x 9
260 x 11



I really lost my breath support on the 3rd set, which caused me to miss my last rep. I was trying to get fancy with breathing and grunting through the reps, but I guess you just can't force those things (watched Spoto's 600 x 6 vid, and he does some grunting as he's repping out 600 so I thought it'd be a good idea). The set was feeling really good to. Last set I was determined to make up for it and hit 11. I did, but then I missed 12. I've been missing more reps than I like to in training lately. Not sure why, but I seem to be missing end of set reps that feel doable. I used to almost never miss a rep. I'm not too dissapointed about it because I'm hitting good numbers, and I think it's probably due to the fact that I'm just doing a lot more reps than I'm used to right now and I'm probably more fatigued than I realize at the end of a set. Need to keep this in mind for next workouts. All in all I'm very pleased with my recent benching.

One set of flat dumbbell press with 80's but wasn't feeling it at all.

Seated dumbbell military press

30 x 12
40 x 12
50 x 12
60 x 11

Haven't done these in a while, but dang I'm way stronger on them than I remember. All the ohp has had (kind of obviously) really good carry over to these. I hope the converse is true. I think I will start working these in there.

ss those with t bar rows.

Some arms, rotator cuff stuff, and whatever it is when you pull the lat pulldown thing down with straight arms.

Notes: A little biceps irritation after benching today but it went away after 2 sets of hammer curls. Did these because I saw someone (Will i think) mention that they helped with biceps irritation.

Take some time to rest. Now.

Please elaborate, Chris.

Andy Awad wrote:

A little biceps irritation after benching today but it went away after 2 sets of hammer curls.  Did these because I saw someone (Will i think) mention that they helped with biceps irritation.

Kyle mentioned off hand that I might want to do some hammer curls.

I've had good success emphasizing the eccentric lowering portion of the lift. I've done bilateral concentric with unilateral eccentric supinated grip preacher curl machine with two arms up one arm down. Same thing with standing calf raises: two legs up, one leg down. I can say for sure that it's really helped my achilles tendons. It seems to have done a good job on the part of the biceps near the elbow. I've been making sure that my elbow gets full extension on the machine though because if you're not paying attention it's easy to miss that last bit of the ROM but I think that's the most important for me because the arms are straight (hopefully!) when you DL. I guess eccentrics are good for remodeling the tissue.

Anyway that's the full story on what I've done and what I think about it if it helps you at all.

With your high-volume training, it might be a good idea just to take a session off if you're getting even a hint of a sign of overuse (like bicep irritation). It'll be good for your development, and it'll also help keep you healthy. You should feel a little sore and beat up from an accumulation phase, but you don't want to acquire overuse injuries and then fail to address them until it's too late (which is, essentially, what I do every time). This might be unnecessarily conservative, but the likelihood that you'll stall out because you were unnecessarily conservative and skipped the session that you needed to ensure progress is, well, not good at all.

You're putting together multiple consecutive sessions in which things just aren't going as well for you as you'd like. You're missing reps you shouldn't and starting to feel not good. Take a few days off. Do some other physical activity. Back off to super light weight. Whatever. Just get the rest.

Kyle and Chris, thank you both for your concern and input. Sometimes I need people to point out the things that should be much more obvious to me. I will elaborate a little more, but for now I need to get lunch after a long and boring statistics class.

I have recently really upped the volume with my squatting and benching. While I think this is the right thing to do with my training right now, I kind of dove into it head first, and I didn't really consider what I'd do when the intensity got higher. I've seen some really good progress from it on both lifts in a relatively short amount of time, especially on my bench - yesterday I hit 260 x 11 on a 4th set, my previous best was 265 x 7. Despite the irritation, things feel really strong right now, like I could hit a 360 - 370 bench sometime soon. Seeing progress like this in my training makes it really difficult to take a step back and look at things objectively. I'm getting some mild bicep irritation that I need to pay more attention to, but it's not nearly as bad as some of the stuff I've trained through in the past (not that this justifies training through it). I guess everyone wants a solution to cure their pain other than simply resting - especially when progress is being made. The hammer curls were very helpful, but in this case, rest may be the better option. I don't want to try justifying missing the reps, but recently I think it has been more of an issue of having a difficult time gauging my RPEs. I'm doing a lot of things differently with my training. I never used to plan out reps or sets, but rather just picked a weight to work with and did reps by feel. This is my first training block (I think ever) where I have gone into workouts with concrete sets and reps to hit. It's been a great tool for me, and it's taught me a lot about how my body responds to different training stimuli. Nonetheless, I need to not overshoot on sets and miss reps. It's exhausting and counterproductive.

Also, there is the looming issue of my low back. I am convinced that unless I address this seriously it could become a long term issue for me - it has already affected months of my training. As far as I can tell there are three things that need to happen:

1. Rest.

2. Increase mobility. I'm 95% sure this is the root cause of the problem. I am very, very stiff in my hamstrings and hips. Foam/lacross ball rolling does wonders for my back pain. One session usually relieves almost all of it. I was having great success when I was rolling every morning and night - within in 3 days I was waking up back-pain free - but my roller was a cheap foam one and has completely broken down and is no good anymore. A quality roller will be purchased today. For now, I need to get back to rolling first thing in the morning, before workouts, and at night time.

3. Low intensity strengthening. I'm going to do light weight paused squats with really good form for a little while. I did some of those my last squat session and they felt really good (for a number of reasons) and did not strain my back at all.

Today I will rest, and tomorrow I will do some lightweight paused squats and a lot of mobility and stretching and stuff. Friday I will rest instead of the planned benching and then Saturday I will bench. I was planning to do an amrap set with between 290 and 300 depending on how the weights were feeling....I badly still want to go for that....I'll take the benching by feel.

Also, I've been really looking forward to doing the push pull at the state fair this August. Now, I'm considering just doing the bench press. The pressure of hitting a good pull in a little over a month will surely be detrimental to getting my low back in good shape.

Get a PVC pipe instead. I don't think there is anybody on the team that doesn't have enough muscle mass to warrant PVC.

7/05/14

Bench press tng

warups
300 x 9

close grip
200 x 15, 16

I guess Christmas comes in July in the form of massive bench press rep PRs. It was 4th of July weekend, and I thought it would be fun to get my brother-in-law Ed and his brother Tom and have an old school benching session in Tom's basement - the place of my bench pressing origins. Joining us were two of Tom's sons and one more of Ed's nephews. I always used to like benching in Tom's basement, and some years ago it was the place of my old tng bench PR of 320 lbs (didn't really know what squatting was back then), which stood for quite some time as shortly after that I pretty much stopped lifting. Anyhow, I was returning to my roots, and I was excited and had plans to go for a six rep PR at between 290 and 300...that is until I laid down on the bench for my bar warmups and realized what I was in for. My setup has changed a bit since I last benched down there, and because I arch so much more now, the bench felt like the slipperiest surface I had ever laid down on. I did my next warmup set at 95 and pretty much conceded to doing a feet up session and going for a feet up PR at between 290 and 300. Then an idea occorred to me...I brought my homemade foam roller with me, and inside it I put my one and only shitty, yellow, very low tension, exercise band. When it came time for 135, I folded it in half and laid it on the bench. Set up to arch and it worked like a charm. I was able to get really tight under the bar and complete the warmups. My last set was 275 x 3. It felt good, so I decided to go for the 6 rep PR at 300. My round in the circuit came up. I got hyped and got under the weight. The first rep literally blew up off of my chest, and from there I just kept each rep going as fast as I could get it off my chest. 6 came and went. I hit 8, then 9, and I just had to go for ten. Alas, it got stuck about 3/4 of the way to lockout. Next time. Ed's nephew was working the camera on my phone.....he dropped the ball, only filming about 8 seconds of me getting hyped and yelling. It appears the next rep PR I get at 300 will have to be at least 10 now. Who knows when that will be lol. I don't think this is something I could just do any day of the week and just work into my programming. It was a perfect storm of benching awesomeness that cannot be planned.

So some things to take note of.

1st, warming up with the bar proved to be a very valuable way for me to assess my situation on the different bench. I'm really glad I didn't sit down there with 135 (everyone else started there). Had I, I don't think I would have had the foresight to try and fix the problem with my fortuitous yellow band and would have ended up doing feet up benching.

2nd, as silly as it seems, I was a little embarrassed to alter the course of everyone else's warmups by beginning with the bar and moving up in 20 - 25 lb increments, even though they honestly didn't care. I'm glad I stayed my course and did what was necessary for me to adjust to the weight and the environment.

3rd, I've never really done the yell and get hyped before a big lift thing (like really did it), but it worked for me. I wouldn't want to be one of those people who does this every work out because it would either ware me out by exhausting my nervous system or it would lose it's effect. I will try to reserve this for meets and special occasions.

4th, always appreciate where I came from. Although I know a lot more about benching and lifting in general now than I did when I started benching with Ed and Tom years ago, and I have the opportunity to work with nicer equipment, I wouldn't trade those days for anything. They got me started, and their brother Bill alwyas will be my powerlifting idol. Still, I tried to do my best to pass on some of the things I've learned to them so that they can become the best bench pressers they can (they have no interest in squatting or deadlifting).

And that about wraps it up. Tuesday I'll likely take a light bench day and then Friday I'll work with some volume again and get back on track.

das it mane

das nice

Thanks guyz

7/8/14

Bench tng

265 x 4 x 10

Thinking about doing my volume work feet up for a little while to take some stress off the back.  I'll probably start at 245 for sets of ten and see if that feels alright.  Here is my plan for my next benching cycle, based off of what has been working for me.

Tuesday volume day.  4 - 5 sets of 12 to 8.  When I can't progress sets of 8 any more I'll deload for a week or two and drop back down to 12 reps and hopefully be a little ahead of the previous cycle

Friday heavy day.  Work up to some heavyish stuff.  Either some sets of low reps keeping things fast, or go for a rep PR of some sort.  Then do 2 -3 close grip sets.

Seated dumbbell overhead press

40 x 10
50 x 10
60 x 10
70 x 8

watched a video of myself on these, and my left arm is coming a little lower than my right.  Gonna try to balance that out.

Some tricep band pull downs ss w/banded pulls

7/09/14

Deadlift

Hook grip:

225 x 3
275 x 3
315 x 2

w/straps

315 x 3
365 x 3
405 x 3

T-bar rows

about 4 sets

Trying out hook grip.  My left shoulder feels good right now, like better than it has in a while.  I think some of the reason for that could be my lack of deadlifting recently since I supinate my left hand.  The double at 315 was fine, but I just didn't feel like pushing it for a third.  Back felt pretty good for these.  Going to try light squatting today, not going too deep.

Notes:  Tried to really think about using my legs off the floor.  First rep of every set felt really good and fast.  Then they slowed down a lot.

7/10/14

Tried some squatting, but that didn't go so well with the back. It was feeling iffy, so I decided not to do it.

lunges

135 x 2 x 10

pullups
3 or 4 sets

7/11/14

Bench press tng

340 x 4 (PR)



Feet up Close grip

225 x 2 x 9 (grip was verging on feeling too close for me)

tried to figure out how to use the chains, but failed at that. Want to start incorporating those after heavy stuff

Previous PR's were 315 x 3 and 330 x 2, so this is a huge difference. My goal was to set a new 2 rep PR, and I was actually feeling doubtful about it. I had it on my mind literally all day. I had almost resolved to just go for a rep PR with 315 and try the double another time. But then I told myself fuck no. I knew that I was capable of it, and I just had to commit to it. I knew I was going to go for the double at 340 when I left for the gym. Warmups felt very good, and when I got the first rep at 340 I felt like I had an easy second one in me. I went for 3. On the third rep I felt my butt come up (you can see it in the video) so I made sure to keep it glued to the bench on the 4th rep.

I'm Not quite sure what to make about my recent bench press progress, but I am pleased. It is likely due to a combination of many things (among them being the recent drop in intensity of squat and deadlift training due to my touchy back), but I attribute it largely to the improvement in my technique over the months. Benching with Kyle and Dalton has been instrumental in the development of my technique. Setting up under the bench for me feels so much better than it used to. I feel a lot more confident under the weight, and I get a lot more force and drive going straight into the bar. If you're reading this, thanks guyz.

Seated db ohp

50 x 10
60 x 9

Really felt the fatigue starting to set in, so I cut these off at 2 sets

Banded tricep extensions ss w/banded face/high chest pulls.

4 sets

Still not entirely sure how to correctly perform a face pull.

Note: Saw the good doctor Cody Sharf for my back yesterday morning. One visit with him and I was feeling significantly better all day. Definitely going to keep this up until things are back to feeling A-OK. He is good. It's also a comforting feeling being treated by a powerlifter. I know a couple of other guys from Magni have been treated by him and speak very highly of him. If you have pain, I recommend going to see him.

Just fucking PR your bench again already. I need somebody to chase. Ever since I hit 352 I have had nobody (cept the >400 crew) to chase after.

If everything feels good, I'm going to go for 365 on Friday.

10/10 grunting, btw



If your singles work is anywhere near as good as your recent rep PRs have indicated, 365 will be an absolute walk in the park. Make that one fast and set yourself up for something really big at the state fair.

Chris Anderson wrote:

10/10 grunting, btw



If your singles work is anywhere near as good as your recent rep PRs have indicated, 365 will be an absolute walk in the park. Make that one fast and set yourself up for something really big at the state fair.

Thanks man. It used to be that my reps underestimated my singles, but I sincerely doubt this is the case anymore. My recent progress has come from doing a lot of volume, so while my strength has gone up considerably, so has my work capacity, and I'm sure the gap between rep maxes and singles is closing. I think depending on how 365 goes I should have a good feeling about what I can get at the state fair. 375 would make me ecstatic.

Andy Awad wrote:

If everything feels good, I'm going to go for 365 on Friday.

[Waiting Intensifies]

7/14/14

paused squats (short pauses)

225 x 4 x 10

Saw Cody Scharf, and he worked some serious magic for my back. It is feeling much better than it has in a good while. Going to keep things light and easy, slowly increasing the weight with each squat day. Going to do paused squats in the oly shoes this cycle. I think it's the safest bet for now.

Some back stuff.

Bent over rows, T-bat rows

Didn't push anything too heavy.

7/15/14

tng Bench

270 x 4 x 10



Bench felt kinda meh for the first time this training cycle. I was pretty tired going into the gym yesterday, and I just couldn't get very focused on the sets. Nonetheless, the reps looked good on camera, and I completed the sets. Last rep on last set I puased. Bad idea as I was starting to fatigue and I struggled a bit to get it up.

Walking dumbbell ohp

27 x 12
40 x 12
50 x 9
50 x 9

ss w/leg raises

Chris Duffin does these while holding kettle bells upside down. The objective of walking while performing the press is it doesn't allow you to put the weight out in front of you. I've been thinking about trying them for a while with dumbbells. I liked them. I felt a lot of muscles in the back of my shoulders and my upper back working. I'll try these again for sure.

Some banded triceps, banded rows, and hammer curls.

Also, Friday I will finish up this benching cycle with an attempt at 365 and then I will begin a mini cycle to prepare for the state fair.  I planned it out while I was feeling completely lost in class today.  I'm going to pause everything this cycle.

Week one

Tues July 22; Friday July 25

5 sest at 185; Pause triples at 300, 3 - 4 sets

Week 2

Tues July 29; Friday Aug 1

5 sest at 225; Paused doubles at 320, 3 - 4 sets

Week 3

tues Aug 5; Friday Aug 8

4 - 5 sets at 255; Pasued singles at 335, 3 - 4 sets

Week 4

Tues Aug 12; Sat Aug 16

Warm up to something around 275; State fair


The weights on the light days I'm pretty set on.  I'm not sure about the reps, but I'll do what I did this cycle, which is just go until the reps stop feeling good and fast on the first set and work at that number for the next sets.  The first day at 185 I'll keep things pretty easy.  It will be primarily a deload from this cycle and give me a chance to work out some kinks in my form and get used to pausing again.

For the heavy days, I chose weights that should be really easy for me to get some good clean reps with while still giving me the stimulus I think I need.  If the sets feel really good, I'll work up in 5 or 10 lb increments to increase the intensity.  Conversely, if the sets are not feeling good for whatever reason I'll let myself take the weight down a bit.  The last day, I'll allow myself to work up to a decently intense single if I am feeling good about things.  Ideally, I'll do these with a press command.

If you miss 365 and I hit 363 in the meet, you will have to hit 405 in order to make up for it. Jus saiyin.