Spytech’s Intense Workout Log

Felt good to be rowing some good weight again! My lat was a bit achy afterwards, but it feels pretty solid now. I could tell I was holding back on my ‘explosiveness’, but everything felt good. I really enjoy the seated cable face pulls with the rope attachment. I do these nice and slow and really focus on a good contraction. They really pound my upper/middle back and rear delts. I made my curls harder and more intense by keeping my hands supinated for each rep, start to finish.

Warmups:
BB Rows
Hypers
Lat Rows
Lat Pulldowns

BB Rows (shoulder width overhand grip):
135x10x1
225x5x1
275x3x1
320x3x1
360x3x1
405x3x1

Seated Rope Cable Face Pulls:
168x5x1
204x5x1
209x8x1 (PR)
219x8x1 (PR)
226x8x1 (PR)

Rear Delt Flye Machine:
80x15x1
90x15x1
100x15x1

Incline DB Curls (hands supinated):
40x6x1
50x6x5 (PR)

+ stretching

Duration: 35 minutes

Quick DE session with recovery work. Nothing special.

Warmups:
Hypers
Leg extensions
Leg curls
Lat rows

DE Conventional Deadlift (against doubled minis):
245x2x1
335x2x5

Sumo SLDL:
335x10x1

Conventional RDL:
335x10x3

Standing Ham Curls:
80x10x4

Cable Abduction (foot to waist level):
30x10x2

Lying Ham Curl:
50x75x1

Seated Calf Raise:
180x20x1
205x20x2

+ stretching + power yoga (30 min)

Duration: 70 minutes

Ran on the treadmill again after my workout tonight, and it was tough. I can’t believe how much it kicks my ass. I can run a mile in 10 minutes on the track and barely break a sweat, but the treadmill kills me at the same pace. I think the treadmill is so much harder for me because it makes me lengthen my stride out, rather than taking smaller, quicker steps.

Running:
1 mile jog (10 minutes @ 6mph)
1/4 mile brisk cooldown walk

Total Distance: 1.25 miles
 
Duration: 14 minutes

Solid bench session. My lat has been feeling good, but I still babied it a bit and didn’t push past the prescribed reps for today. Benching felt pretty good, though, and my speed work was very fast. Chins were almost effortless and didn’t bother the lat at all, which is a great sign.

Warmups:
Bench
CG Bench
OH Extensions
OH Press
Cuban Rotations

Paused Bench Press:
135x12x1
155x10x1
205x5x1
240x5x1
270x3x1
305x1x1 (PR)
275x4x1 (PR)

DE Bench Press:
220x3x6

CG Ballistic Smith Bench Press:
105x5x5 (PR)

Hammer Chins:
+25x5x1
+45x5x1
+65x5x1
bw x20x1

Seated Single-arm Cable Extensions:
60x10x1
80x10x2

+ stretching + power yoga (20min)

Duration: 60 minutes

Quick workout. This was the first time squatting since I tweaked my lat 3 weeks ago. No discomfort, but I kept things light and easy, and will gradually work back up to my normal poundages. Hacks were solid.

Warmups:
Hypers
ATG Squats

ATG Squats (most reps paused):
135×10x1
225×10x2
315×10x1

Cybex Hack Squats (full machine rom):
250×5x1
340×5x1 (PR)
270×5x3

Standing Cable Abs with ab-strap (’hard tower’):
120×10x1
132×10x1
144×10x1
156×12x1 (PR)
144×12x1

+ stretching

Duration: 35 minutes

Running was pretty tough today. Lots of fatigue in my legs from last night’s workout. I decided to try the treadmill today with the goal of running a mile in 9 minutes or faster. I started out great, then my legs just gassed on me and got really tight after a half mile at 7mph.

Running:
Brisk Warmup Walk
1 mile run on treadmill (9:30)
1/2 mile Brisk Cooldown Walk @ 4-4.5mph

Total Distance: 1.7 miles

+ stretching

Duration: 20 minutes

Good workout. My lat felt good today, but I still don’t feel like it is ready for some heavy bb rows. It did feel good to get some heavy’ish back work done, though.

Warmups:
BB Curls
Lat Rows
Lat Pulldowns

Rope Lat Pulldowns:
132×10x1
180×5x1
192×5x1
204×5x1
216×8x1 (PR)

Seated Rope Face Pulls:
144×5x1
156×5x1
168×5x1
180×5x1
204×5x1 (PR)

Rear Delt Flye Machine:
80×10x1
90×10x1
100×10x2
100×20x1

EZ Curls:
115×8x1
115×10x1
135×10x1

Incline DB Hammer Curls:
50×8x3

Incline DB Curls:
35×20x1

+ stretching

Duration: 35 minutes

Nothing like a killer heavy deadlift session. I modified the routine I have been following the last few months and eliminated “5’s” from my 5’s and 3’s deadlift rotation - instead I will be doing singles and triples, starting today. I had been skipping the singles week of the program since I pull better taking a week off to rest in between heavy sessions. However, singles need to be in there to keep that maximal ‘off the floor’ strength honed, I believe, so back in they go. Anyways, since I had not pulled anything heavier than 630 in the last few months I was not sure how today’s lifts would go. I decided to just stick with the program and shoot for this cycle’s single target, which was 675. It went better than I thought it would, and hit a double with maybe some more left in the tank. I’m still having issues with my transition point on heavy pulls, but hopefully more heavy singles will work out the kinks - I felt a little rusty going at this intensity level tonight. After hitting the nice PR I went for a reps PR on sumo SLDLs. One very positive note of this workout was that my glute did not really bother me at all - only minimal cramping on the last couple SLDL sets. My lat is a little achy, but it seemed to hold up fine on all the pulls. I will post a video later of the two deadlift PRs.

Warmups:
Deadlifts
Leg Extensions
Leg Curls
Lat Rows

Deadlift:
245×5x1
335×3x1
425×2x1
535×1x1
605×1x1
675×2x1 (PR)

Sumo SLDL:
500×11x1 (PR)
430×5x2

Pull-throughs:
156×12x2
156×20x1

Standing Cable Abs with ab-strap (’hard tower’):
156×5x3
120×15x2

+ stretching + power yoga (30 min)

Duration: 120 minutes

Nice bench session. The first few workouts after a deload week are always great. That ache in my back (it’s either the lower lat insertion, or lower traps) is still there. It’s hard to tell if it’s more imagined or real at this point. Anyways, bench felt good - I could have hit a few more reps on my heaviest set. CG bench was very nice, and I stayed lighter on standing militaries, for my back’s sake.

Warmups:
Bench Press
CG Bench
Lying Extensions
OH Press
External Rotations
Standing Face Pulls

Paused Bench Press:
135x10x1
155x10x1
185x5x1
210x5x1
240x5x1
270x5x1 (PR)
240x5x1

Decline CG Bench Press:
245x5x1
265x5x1
285x4x1 (PR)
255x5x2

Standing Military Press:
165x5x2

Standing L-Laterals:
50x10x2

Hammer Chins:
bw x10x2

Rope Pushdowns (’hard tower’):
84x8x3

Dips:
bw x20x1

Incline DB Press:
100x10x1
80x10x2

+ stretching + power yoga (35min)

Duration: 95 minutes

Nice! Despite deviating from the 9-week program after 6 weeks I still managed to hit its goal today by running a 5k (Saturday would have been the ‘final workout’ for the 9-week program). I was not planning on this and decided to ‘just run’ and see what happened. I was damn slow, but I made it. My right leg started going numb at around 1.75 miles and was totally numb a half mile later. Not very pleasant, but as soon as I finished and started walking the numbness went away in about a minute. I know I could have went quite a bit faster; I wasn’t even breathing hard until the very end when I kicked up the pace a bit. However, today’s pace was the same as the pace I used when I first ran 2miles a few weeks back, and that just about killed me.

Running:
Brisk Warmup Walk
3.14 mile jog
Brisk Cooldown Walk

Total Distance: 3.44 miles

+ power yoga (30min)

Duration: 68 minutes