Andy Awad's Training Log

11/04/14

Squat

405 x 1
405 x 1
275 x 6
275 x 6
275 x 5

Squats felt good.

Some t-bar rows and lat pulldowns.

I've been getting to the gym more frequently recently because it keeps me sane. Because of this, I'm making sure not to hit anything too hard when I go because I know I'm going to want to be back in the gym the next day. It's been really good for my mental health just to be there lol.

11/5/14

Bench

275 x 2
300 x 2
275 x 5

Reps felt strong and fast, but set up felt off. Did these with competition wide grip.

Feet up pasued
185 x 10
135 x 20
135 x 20

Dips

20, 15, 15

Curls and lateral raises

Resting today and probably won't make it to the gym tomorrow.

11/09/14

Squat

405 x 1
445 x 1
475 x 1
475 x 0.15



My warmups felt really good all the way up to 405. For some reason, I took 445 down in a really weird bar path. I was a little distracted, but I really need to learn how to lift better while there are distractions around me. Still, on the way up 445 moved really well, so i decided to go for 475. It's a weight I've felt confident about hitting for a while now so i decided to go for it. The weight felt really heavy on my back, but it moved down really well. For some reason though I stopped it a little short of where I usually squat to. Still, it moved up pretty well. there wasn't as much grinding as there has been on my recent heavy squat attempts. I think I just wasn't able to shake off how goofy 445 felt on the way down and it caused me to not feel comfortable taking the weight very deep. I watched the video and decided to give it another go. The second time the weight felt really good on my back, and I took it down further, but I just wasn't commited to it (for a couple of different reasons) and ditched the weight. next time I attempt this weight I will sink it better and feel better about it. Also, after feeling how heavy 475 felt the first time I tried it I am considering doing some sort of overloading work to help my body acclimate to heavier weights.

Bench press tng

275 x 3
275 x 3
275 x 3
275 x 3
275 x 3
225 x 10

Weight moved really well for the most part. Still working on getting my setup figured out.

Haven't been able to get to the gym this week due to a number of reasons.  Would have gone yesterday, but I swam Monday and then was up until 4 am moving my friend into a new place and I was just way too exhausted to do anything. In other news, tomorrow is my 29th birthday, and I've decided to kick off the final year of my twenties with some heavy deadlifting at Magni at about 7:00 pm. Things have been feeling good recently, so I'm hoping to get up to the mid 500's. Who knows, maybe a deadlift PR is in store. We shall see. I won't be too bummed if I don't hit something very good. Unfortunately, the drinking celebration will have to wait until next weekend. I have two exams next week that are do or die as far as passing my pass/fail courses go, so I'll need to have my wits about me to study for them all weekend. However, next Thursday/Friday/Saturday/all weekend you all are invited to celebrate with me.

Extremely excited that you moved you elderly shenanigans to next weekend. I will get to participate. Happy birthday, but I don't recall seeing you deadlifting tonight....................

I too am excited that you will get to participate in the shenanigans. And the deadlifting will be tomorrow. I can see how that was confusing now.

11/13/14 - 29th birthday

Deadlift conventional

495 x 1
525 x 1

525 was way tougher than I wanted it to be. It was really fast off the floor, but slowed down considerably by the time I got to my knees. I decided to switch to sumo to see if things would feel easier.

sumo

495 x 1
555 x 0

Wasn't the deadlift day I wanted, but I can't be too upset with it as 525 conventional is still heavier than I've pulled conventional in a long time. I was thinking the sumo work might have a better carryover, but it didn't seem to help my beyond my knees. By the time I tried sumo I think I was just too tired to pull anything big. 495 moved pretty well though. It is clearly time to start some conventional deadlifting programming.

Squat no blet

275 x 3
315 x 3
315 x 3
315 x 3
315 x 3
315 x 3 with belt

Squatting feels fantastic. Form felt spot on and every squat was low and smooth and fast. I never thought I'd be in the position where my squat is my best feeling lift, but here I am. Put the belt on the last set just for comparison. It was easier, but it threw my groove off a little bit.

tng Bench press

185 x 8
185 x 10
205 x 10
205 x 10
205 x 10
205 x 10
135 x 20

Benched heels down and took my grip in to ring fingers on the rings as opposed to middle fingers on the rings. I was trying some competition wide grip, but my shoulders weren't liking it. Working at this width has worked well for me before. Despite the weights being light for me, this was a good session as far as my recent benching goes. Setup felt consistent and good. Bar path also felt good and the reps were clean and fast. Looking forward to benching like this and getting another volume progression going on.

Banded tris

lots

11/16/14

Squat no belt

365 x3
365 x 3
225 x 5

Didn't want to squat without a belt, but there wasn't one that fit me at Magni. I guess it's time to buy a belt. Just wanted to get in the gym and do something even though I was hungover and dehydrated and tired. The next few days are again looking pretty bad for me as far as free time to workout goes. I think Monday I'll get into the gym. No way on Tuesday but hopefully by Wed things will calm down a bit.

11/17/14

Squat no belt

315 x 5
315 x 5
315 x 5

Bench

225 x 10
225 x 10
225 x 10

Lifted at the rec center between studying. Squatting was actually ok despite no knurling on the bars because I had chalk. Benching on the other hand was kinda rough. Definitely become spoiled from using the nice stuff at magni.

Eidt: Forgot I did lateral raises too at the end. It was nice to have the lighter dumbells for these. Did sets of 15 with thens, then 15's. then did 20 lbs x 10, 15 x 8, 10 x 5, 5 x 10 with no rest. I felt the burn.

11/20/14

Squat

345 x 4
345 x 4
345 x 4

Bench (no baby wraps)

255 x 7
255 x 7
255 x 7

Squats were a little off. I think it was when I added the belt. Bench felt really good though. Things are starting to come together with it.

Super set

dips and neutral grip pullups x 3 sets

varied grip on pullups

ss

lateral raises and banded triceps

finished with the speed bag.

How have you been lately, Andy?

Finally got back in the gym last night. Had a whirlwind of thins happen over break and I ended up being home quite a bit longer than I had planned and training didn't happen. Did one session of dips and pullups at home but that was it.

12/2/14

squat

275 x 3
275 x 3
275 x 7
275 x 7
275 x 7

bench

185 x 4 sets of 10 - 15

First day back in a while and decided to keep everything really low exertion. Despite feeling really out of shape and fat, it felt really, really good to workout again. Squat form felt really smooth and the footage looked quit good.

circuit of 4 sets

curls, lateral raises, banded tris

speed bag work for some conditioning.

Gonna try to get in today to do some deadlifting. Hopefully writing it down on here will keep me motivated to go and do it.

12/4/14

deadlift (conventional, oly shoes, no belt)

405 x 2
455 x 2
475 x 2
405 x 3
405 x 3
405 x 3

Front squats

a few sets at 185.

12/5/14

Bench

255 x 2
280 x 2
300 x 2
315 x 2
330 x 2
330 x 2
275 x 10

incline dumbbell

50 x 12
70 x 10
80 x 7

some bis, tris, and rear delts.

Bench felt pretty dang good. didn't use wrist wraps until 330. first double at 330 I lost tightness on the second rep, so I hit it again and it moved a lot better. Things are feeling good with benching after some minor tweaks to my setup. If all goes according to plan, I should be in a good place to see some improvements and get back to where I was in August.

12/8/14

Squat w/belt

325 x 2
375 x 2
375 x 2
375 x 2
375 x 2
375 x 2

Decided to use the squat bar and walk it out of the mono. It was quite a bit different than I've been used to. Got more comfortable with the sets as I went on. Weight felt heavy today though.

Bench

205 x 10
205 x 10
205 x 10
205 x 10

Pullups, neutral grip different widths
4 sets

Dips ss/w pullups
3 sets

Lateral raises
3 sets

dumbbell rows from pushup position
3 sets

Some speed bag

Notes: Solid day. Not the greatest, but things moved alright. Went in around 2 pm, which is earlier than I'm used to. I'm trying to switch around some things in my day in a effort to be more productive; one of which happens to be the time of day I workout. Gonna try to make this time work for this week and see how things go. Hopefully getting done earlier will leave enough time in the day to do some much needed school work.

12/10/14

Squat no belt

285 x 7
285 x 7
285 x 7
285 x 7

Deadlift no belt

405 x 3
455 x 2
455 x 3
455 x 3

Tried rolling the bar from a few inches in front of me. Didn't really like it. had a tough time staying tight at the start and I don't need to hurt my low back again. Last set of 455 I set up like usual and it felt better.

12/12/14

Squat no belt
255 x 10
285 x 10
285 x 10

Bench

warmups
315 x 1
315 x 3
315 x 5 (PR) @ rpe 9.5 - stupidly went for a 6th knowing I was going to fail it
315 x 4
275 x 4 x cut set because felt fatigued and sloppy.

Pullups (neutral grip) ss w/banded tris

4 sets

Good day all in all. Squats felt on, and bench is starting to feel pretty good again. I think if I wasn't under-rested and hadn't just squatted, 315 x 6-7 would be a sure thing. First set at 315 however felt really off and I almost failed the 2nd rep. I was trying to "just bench", but that strategy doesn't seem to work very well for me. Second set I ditched the wrist wraps and really focused on my setup and it went much better.

For my bench training, I am trying something a little different this cycle. On my light days, I am benching with slightly less arch and bringing the bar down a little higher on my chest. For whatever reason, I feel like this is helping me right now. It is putting a little more emphasis on my chest, which hasn't felt very engaged in my recent benching (as weird as that sounds). Yesterday, I felt like I was able to keep my chest engaged when I tightened my arch up and lowered the bar position slightly.

12/15/14

Squat w/belt
355 x 5
355 x 5
355 x 5
355 x 5

Some of these were high, some were quite low, some were at parallel. Next aspect of my squat to work on is hitting a consistent depth that is convincingly below parallel without being way below parallel.

Bench

225 x 10
255 x 7
225 x 10

Bench was tired from Friday.

some lateral rasies, dips, and pulldowns.

I'm getting better at lateral raises, an exercise that previously never moved up for me.  I can do sets of 12 - 15 with the 20's now no problem.  I used to never go over the 15's and sets of 10 seemed really tough.

Speed bag

I really like ending with this.

12/18/14

deadlift

365 x 4
405 x 4
405 x 4
405 x 4

ohp

95 x 7
115 x 7
115 x 7
115 x 7
115 x 7

Work out was a little tough. I've been staying up all night studying for classes I never went to all semester the past few nights in an attempt to do well on the final exams. Despite that however, my deadlift form felt really, really good. But maybe I just thought is was good because I'm sleep deprived. Today I got a 4 hr nap, bringing my total sleep for the week up to about 8 hrs. I needed to come in though and do something just to feel normal and change up my routine this week. Tomorrow is my last final. I'm going home straight after and catching up on netflix and sleeping all afternoon and it is going to be the best thing ever. No workout tomorrow, but Saturday I'm planning to do my light squat day and start what will end up being my friday bench progression. I'm starting to work out a training cycle for all of my lifts. It's going to be based on squatting and benching twice a week and deadlifting and ohp once a week. And on 2 off days I plan to do.....wait for it.....cardio - likely low intensity swimming. This cycle i'm going to try some new stuff. It will involve some dynamic bench work, which I've been thinking about incorporating for quite some time now. I think I'm gonna do something around 205 - 225 plus some chains for sets of 3 for a total of 21 - 30 reps one of the days. Last time (and pretty much the only time) I wrote out some programming, it was really good for my bench. Hopefully I can do something good for my all around total this time. I'm really looking to do the spf meet in March. Wont' cut weight and I'm just gonna go 220. My goal is 1400+ unwrapped. My hope is to squat 500, pull 575, and hit a new bench PR, even if just a pound. The one I feel the least confident is the deadlift. I think when I get further into my training I'll have a better idea of whether or not 575 is feasible. A new deadlift PR would be nice at least.

squat

375 x 3
375 x 3
375 x 3
375 x 3

Bench

Did some chain stuff. I liked it alright.

some bent over rows, pullups, and dips.

12/23/14

squat

405 x 1
405 x 2

deadlift (no belt)

495 x 1
495 x 1

was a little tough

12/24

bench

325 x 2
325 x 2
325 x 1.7 (just a bad second rep - no other reason I missed it

some incline barbell bench, lateral raises, t-bar rows, and hammer curlz

Heading back to Iowa City tomorrow evening. Training will resume on Monday.

12/29/14

squat w/belt

395 x 2
395 x 2
395 x 2
395 x 2

Spent a lot of time sitting and back wasn't feeling the greatest - nothing bad just tight, but I'm a little overly cautious since hurting my back last time - so I used my oly shoes to take a little stress off. Warmups in them felt a little bit goofy, but after that I didn't really notice much difference. Watching footage, I seemed a little more likely to come a forward at the bottom with oly shoes. Surprisingly though, strength felt pretty much the same. Might actually try these again....All in all though, squatting is continuing to feel mostly good.

Bench

185 + ~80lbs chains
x 8 sets of 3

I liked these a lot. I'm going to continue to do these on one of my bench days.

pullups

4 sets

lateral raises

4 sets

dips

2 sets

Gonna try to get in today to do some deadlifting and ohp.

1/02/15

Squats

285 x 6
285 x 6
285 x 6

Bench (no wraps or belt)

330 x 3
330 x 3
330 x 3

Bench is feeling good again.

Incline dbb bench ss w/t-bar rows, 4 sets

Circuit of lateral raises, hammer curls, banded tris, 4 sets

Squat in oly shoes

415 x 1
415 x 1
415 x 1
415 x 1

Did last two singles not walking out from the mono. Apparently I'm too fidgety under weights. Need to work on getting tight much earlier. All in all the singles were pretty good.

Bench

185 w/ chanis x 4 sets x 3
225 w/ chains x 3 sets x 3

225 was heavier than I want these to be.

dips, pullups, lateral raises. 2 sets.

1/07/15

Deadlift

365 x 5 x 5

Working on some things with my deadlift technique.

Ohp

115 x 3 x 5
135 x 2 x 5

Shouldn't have neglected overhead work for so long...

Some rest delt stuff