Reactive Training Systems

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

RE: Andrew's Training Log

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

3/23 BSB

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

Shirted BP (sz 42 RageX)
295x5 -3 board
335x4 -2 board
355x3 -1 board
365x1.5 -chest
375x1 -chest

Raw Squat
315x3 -beltless
475x3 -1/4 squat + 8 second hold
365x3 -full squat
515x3 -1/4 squat + 8 second hold +belt
395x3 -full squat +belt

Raw Medium Grip BP
225x5
235x5
245x5

Abs

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

45 Minutes Elliptical at avg HR of 145-160 (60-70% Max HR)

Assessment: 9/10
I was finally able to use my RageX and it worked pretty good once I got it down. It did however choke me pretty good so I didn't like that. The weights were flying up until the last few inches. The 2nd rep at 365 I missed at the last 3 inches or so. So this tells me I need to work my 2-3 boards which I am doing on Fridays so thats good. Squats felt pretty good. I should have warmed up my legs better because they felt a little tight but not bad. I was stoked to squat 395x3 at 158. My raw bench felt good too. All in all, my strength is still up and about the same as when I was at 165-170 so I'm stoked! I lost about 2 lbs this past week so that's perfect.

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

3/24

60 Minutes Elliptical at avg HR of 145-160 bpm (60-70% max HR)

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

3/25 DBD

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

Deficit Sumo DL
365x5
385x4
405x3
425x2
455x1

Bench
155x3 -wide grip, 5s pause
175x3
190x3
190x3 -close grip, 1-2s pause
175x3
155x3

Deficit Conventional DL
335x5
350x5
365x5
385x5

Abs

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

45 Minutes Elliptical at avg HR of 144 bpm

Assessment: 10/10
This workout felt absolutely great! The weights were flying. 455 felt really good for a beltless deficit pull. The benches felt good and the conventional deads felt awesome. The next 3 weeks will consist of heavy conventionals and reverse band sumos. My floor speed is going to be amazing once I get back to regular sumo pulls (which won't be until 4ish weeks out of raw nationals). I am going to focus on conventionals, deficit sumos, and reverse band sumos until then. My weight was 156.4 this morning so I carbed up a little bit today, having about 250g of carbs between 830 and 2. I did this because I weighed 158.4 monday so 2 lbs in 2 days is not good. Hopefully tomorrow I will still weigh about 156-157 and then I'll be a bit safer and happier. Then I won't weigh myself again until Monday or so. I feel great though physically and mentally, down 10 lbs from day 1 to the middle of week 3. Next wednesday will be the half way mark so I might just wait until then to weigh myself. Strength is definitely up though and is not going down, if anything going up which is wierd! I am happy with that though!

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

3/26

60 Minutes Elliptical at avg HR of 120-140

Notes: I tried doing the stair stepper and hated it so I got off that after about a minute. I weighed 156.0 today (- .4 lbs from yesterday) after eating 250g carbs yesterday (i have been eating just 60g postworkout and none on my off days). I am very confused about this and now am completely mind****ed on what to do for my diet the rest of the way out on lifting days. I would like to add more carbs on lifting days if it isn't going to hurt my weight/fat loss because it would obviously promote muscle gain/reduce muscle loss, but I also want to be as low as carb as possible to lose the most amount of fat possible in the 7 weeks. I might just play around with maybe 100g somedays, 150 others, 250 others, and just see what happens. Since I'm not in ketosis anyways (the 60g postworkout prevents that), maybe a little more carbs on lifting days isn't going to hurt. Right now I am just baffled and will have to think about it for a bit.

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

3/27 BSB

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

2 board (ring on rings)
225x3
275x3
295x3
315x3
335x1
315x2 (miss 3)

Rack Squat
225x1
320x3x8 sets

Incline BP (ring on rings)
165x5
180x5
190x5

Abs

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

45 Minutes Elliptical at avg HR of 130-145 bpm

Assessment: 9/10
At first, I was quite a bit disappointed that I didn't hit the 335 for 3 reps on the 2 board, but then went back through my journal to realize that my PR 2 board is 350. So hitting 335 w/ a little room to spare, weighing 12-13 lbs less than I did when I hit the PR, is quite an excellent mark for myself. I probably should have realized that before I went to do the workout and would have settled on 315-325 for 3 but it's all good, no worries. My squats felt awesome and so did the incline bench. Both felt even better than last week. I'm still playing around with carb intake a little bit, and taking 150 today (55 breakfast, 35 pre-workout, 60 post-workout). I definitely feel like the carbs pre-workout are helping. I have been taking protein with the carbs but that is not setting well during the workout and I end up feeling like I am going to puke during my workouts. I either have to change my protein source or not take it, or take the protein maybe an hour before and the carbs 15-30 minutes before that way the protein can digest a little better before I lift.

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

3/28 Oly Day

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

Clean
165x2
185x1
205x1
195x1
205x1
215x1
215x1
205x1

Standing Military Press
135x3x5 sets

Snatch
135x1
145xmiss
145xmiss
95x3x3 sets -Hang Snatch

Abs

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

45 Minutes Elliptical at avg HR of 135

Assessment: 5/10
Overall, this workout gets a bad rating but I'm still in a positive mood regardless. I'm just disappointed that I suck at olympic lifting and basically any hope I had of olympic success (which wasn't much anyways) just got shot down with this workout. Powerlifting is my sport and that's just the facts of it. If I could get lean enough, I'd like to do a bodybuilding show eventually but that is also in serious question because I have very thick skin which is going to make it difficult. I'm noticing this as I'm cutting, my body is getting much better and I'm getting a lot leaner but I still have very little signs of a 6 pack because of my thick skin, especially on the stomach. I just need to get some kind of surgery to suck the fat out of my skin haha

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

3/29

60 Minutes Elliptical at avg HR of 128 bpm

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

3/30 SBS

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

Raw Close Stance Squat
275x5 -beltless
305x4
335x3
355x2
375x1
405x1 tie PR
425x1 -belt on

Raw Medium Grip Bench
220x5
235x4
250x3
270x2
285x1

Leg Press
400x5
420x5
440x5

Abs

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

45 Minutes Elliptical
-35 Minutes at 6.5-7.5 METs (avg HR 115-125bpm)
-6 Minutes at 12-13 METs (avg HR 145-160 bpm)
-2 Minutes at 5.5-6.5 METs (cooled down from 155bpm - 122bpm)

Assessment: 10/10
Wow! That is really all I can say about this. I tied my beltless close stance squat PR...at a bodyweight of 14 lbs less than when I hit it before! It was also much easier than the last time. I weighed 154.5 this morning. My bench also felt great as 285 was at about a 9 RPE and based on this, I'm estimating between a 300-315 max at that right now, which is right at or atleast within 15 lbs of my PR (315 medium grip). I opted to do leg press today instead of front squats, don't really know why just felt like it. I did weigh myself after my workout and post-workout shake/carbs/1 liter water, and weighed 161.4. That I found to be very interesting. I will weigh myself tomorrow just to see, but I am pretty positive I'll be 154 tomorrow morning so if I am fluctuating 6 lbs that would be crazy. It would make sense though since right after my workout I am holding a lot of water (from pre-workout/post workout carbs/creatine and the 3.5-4 liters of water I've drank since morning). Regardless, I'm in a very euphoric mood because I have lose 13 lbs in 3 weeks (6 lbs in the last 2 weeks) and have maintained all my strength so far! Hopefully this keeps up!

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

3/31

at 9AM
45 Minutes Treadmill walking at 10.0 incline and avg HR of 129 bpm

at 430PM
30 Minutes Elliptical at avg HR of 120-130

Notes: double session cardio rocks

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

4/1 DBD

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

Reverse Band sumo deadlift (average bands from about 5'6)
435x5
455x4
475x3
505x2
535x1

Bench
160x3 -wide grip, 5s pause
175x3
190x3
175x3 -close grip, 1-2s pause
190x3
160x3

Conventional Deadlift -beltless
345x5
365x5
385x5
405x5

Abs

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

45 Minutes Elliptical at avg of 7 METs (avg HR of 115-130 bpm)

Assessment: 10/10
I weighed 154.8 today, with a 31.5" waist. I'm down 12-13 lbs and 1.5" on my waist in 3.5 weeks. About 5 lbs is just water weight, but a good 7-8 lbs is fat I think and that is good news. I got 3.5 weeks left so we'll see what happens. Now for strength, I feel great. I feel better than great. The deadlifts, both reverse band and conventional, felt amazing. After doing 3 weeks of deficit pulls, now working reverse bands and normal conventionals, speed is awesome off the floor. Reverse bands also help my floor speed sumo so basically, 6 weeks of speed off the floor work for sumo and pure strength work with the conventionals. My sumo should be looking good when I go back to regular sumos. The pause benches felt really good too, I feel like they are really going to help the explosiveness off my chest.

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

4/2

45 Minutes Treadmill at avg HR of 125-130
30 Minutes Elliptical at avg HR of 127

Notes: I didn't think I was going to get time to do my 30 minutes of cardio at night so I just combined the sessions into the morning session and had some Xtend (bcaas/glutamine) and HMB in between the 2 exercises. I am testing out HMB at dose of 3g on cardio/off days and 6g on lifting days so we'll see how that works. I've read mixed things about it so I figured I would give it a shot to see if I want to make that a staple in my supplement stash or not. A quick note on diet: I decided that I'm going to do a strict no carb/keto diet the last 3 weeks of this cut so after this Saturday's post-workout carbs I'm not going to have any carbs (well under 20g/day). Hopefully it kicks my fat burning into overdrive and I really lose some good fat these last 3 weeks and hopefully preserve most, if not all, of my muscle.

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

4/3 BSB

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

3 board wit ring on rings
185x8
275x5
315x2
335x2
355x2

Rack Squat
225x3
345x3x6 sets

Incline Bench wit ring on rings
165x5
175x4
195x3
205x2
215x1

Abs

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

Assessment: 10/10
This was great workout. I felt awesome the whole way through it and never got a puke feeling. I think diet has a lot to do with that and I'm probably going to keep my diet setup this way for the duration of the cut, with and without the pre/post workout carbs. I'm going to play around with that. First, the boards felt awesome. I did 355x3 on the 3 board 2 weeks ago, so doing 355x2 this week really makes me feel good. My strength is definitely still up and that makes me very happy. Squats felt AWESOME. My squat really feels good right now, all around. I don't know how or why but it seems like my squat gets better when I cut (it did last summer as well). Incline bench felt great today too, 215 wasn't too hard. I'm guessing my max is around 235-250 range which is near what it was before cutting. I definitely am feeling good about things, but just have to play around with diet a little bit to push the fat burning a little bit harder since this past week it has stagnated a little bit.

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

4/4 Oly

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

Cleans
185x1 -miss 2
185xmiss
135x2
155x2
165x2
175x2
185x2
195x2
205x2

Standing Military Press
115x5
115x5
125x5
125x5
115x5

Hang Snatch
115x2
115x2
125x2
125x2
135x2

Abs

12 Pullups/12 Pushups/12 Squats

45 Minutes Elliptical at avg METs of 6-7

Assessment: 10/10
First, I learned that I should probably warmup before jumping into 80% lifts. After I backed down to 135 and worked my way back up with cleans, they felt as good as they have felt yet! Scared me a little at first though I'll say that. Military Press's felt pretty good, not as great as I would like but I can deal with it. Hang snatches felt the best they have felt. 135 for the double was not at all hard. Next week I won't be working with a mirror for cleans or snatch's because the gym is closed so I will be home lifting. We'll see how I manage with that. I use the mirror to a good extent on the olympic lifts because I am trying to learn my form the best I can. Diet-wise, tonight is going to be a cheat meal because it is one of my best friend's birthdays and her parents are taking all my friends out to dinner. It will be fine because I actually haven't had a single cheat meal this entire diet so far. I've played around with carb manipulation but all the carbs I have ate have been whole grains, fruits, and veggies. I am pretty sure I weigh about 153 right now too since I weighed myself last night after a couple brews and was 154.8 before I went to bed.

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

4/5

Cardio Session #1
45 Minutes Treadmill incline walking at avg HR of 120

Cardio Session #2
45 Minutes Elliptical at avg HR of 120

estimated kcal burned (based on what the machines said, so prob not that accurate): 750 kcal

Notes: Time to get strict. I had my only cheat meal of my entire 7 week diet last night. The remaining 3 weeks of this diet, I will be extremely strict on my diet. I'm knocking the calories down to a minimum of 1500 and max of 1700. The only carbs I am going to have are a pre-workout gatorade or fruit snacks. This will give me the simple sugars required for the anaerobic output of my workout. Since I will be getting the simple sugars pre-workout, I won't be breaking down my muscle glycogen during the workout so post-workout carbs won't be necessary (though they do play a role in insulin spiking/protein synthesis), the protein/bcaa's provide a insulin spike as well so I will be fine there.

-- Edited by Andrew Hollenbeck on Sunday 5th of April 2009 10:50:15 PM