Conventional Deadlift PR

Felt like I had at least 10kg more in me. Pulled 180kg on sumo a couple months ago. Conventional has always been a weaker pull so I'm definitely looking forward to a new sumo PR now that I've brought up my conventional numbers.

Plyometrics

Read "The Vertical Jump Bible" by Kelly Baggett and started implementing one of the programmes written in the book. I had a test day to determine which type of programme I should go for. My still vertical was 28" and running (3 steps) vertical was 31". Vertical from depth jump was similar to my still vertical which illustrated that my reactive strength needs to be improved.

So on top of my 5/3/1 programme which consists of 4 weight training days, I now have an addition of 2 days of plyometrics consisting of a lot of hops.

Here's one of the most important exercises for improving reactive strength:

5/3/1 Week 3 Deadlift

Deadlift's been going well. Forgot to bring my log today so I messed up with my calculations, ended up using about 10kg heavier for each set. Still it went pretty damn well but next time I'll remember to check my bag before I leave home lol.

Happy typhoon holiday

Deadlift PR and Thoughts

I think I had more in me since I wasn't sure how much I could go so I increased the weight really conservatively and did too much sets prior to this. It was encouraging and I'm certainly looking forward to a 200kg pull sometime this year.

I've also started implementing deficit pull since I noticed I'm rather slow off the floor:

Cheers.

Strength Journey - Genesis Gym London (Part I)

Off to England
After I retired from college swimming, I tried my hands on powerlifting. I've been training for a year now and I would say as a lifter, I'm far from being gifted and progress has been slow especially on my squat. Everything seemed to have fallen apart since my failed attempt at squatting 130kg which resulted in the bar rolling over my neck. I didn't pay much attention to it as I believe hard work trumps overanalysis. However the situation was in fact a result of incorrect technique which has nothing to do with work ethics.

So my numbers remained pretty much the same before I flew to England. Over there, I still get train 2, 3 times a week with my friend at the uni gym. My progress on the deadlift and benchpress have been steady, I deadlifted 105 x 15 @77kg which i felt was quite alright considering I have never really deadlifted before I started the 5/3/1 programme i.e. a month ago. However at one point my lower back had developed a sharp pain, either from the super soft mattress my friend lent me or from some unnoticed bad lifting form. The pain sustained for 2 weeks. Hell, I couldn't even bend down to tie my shoes (luckily I rarely tie my shoelaces, I just let them hang around loose. However I do tie them when I train). I couldn't pull conventional on the deadlift anymore with that pain so I tried to train around it and started pulling sumo. It felt great on my lower back and the weight seemed a lot lighter and I felt I was more explosive.

Genesis Gym - Wembley
4 days before I arrived London my back was still hurting like hell and I couldn't even squat 100kg for reps. I knew this was bad, not only because of the pain but the fact that I've decided to visit Genesis Gym in Wembley once I set foot in London. The reason for that is simple: I googled "Best gym in London" and I saw "Genesis Gym" everywhere. Genesis Gym is owned by world champion powerlifter Dave Beattie who holds the world record for squat in his weight class. It is located in the outer region of London so I was really lucky I got to stay with a family friend who lives just a couple stations away (Preston Road) or else I'd have to be stuck in the tube for quite a bit of time.

I took a bus to Wembley in the afternoon, walked into a Salisbury Superstore nearby to grab a meat pie and Redbull (later I was really glad as regards the Redbull, I seriously needed it). Genesis Gym is just around the corner of the Superstore. Like many british architecture, the bricks on the outer wall are in reddish brown and it seemed that the building used to be some sort of industrial warehouse. I tried the glass doors on the front only to find out later there's a notice "use the side door". So I went into the alley on the left and saw some rusty strongman equipment, tiers, famers walk stuff, etc - equipments I had never seen before. I knew I was getting myself into something hardcore.

"Bulldog"
I talked to the lady at the counter and got myself a student discounted price to enter (props to Genesis Gym for that). Then I made known my intention. "Is Dave Beattie here?" She looked at me with doubt, "What?" "I'm looking for Dave Beattie, I hope to be coached by him." She looked at me as if I was out of my mind and suddenly a huge figure appeared behind me. "How can I help you?" Asked Dave.

(To be continued)

Summer Update

Some updates: 
- I've finished my exams - my last exams in law school to be exact!

- I ran a 2 day split based upon Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 during the 3 week exam period: basically i do 2 main lifts (bench + squat/ shoulder press + deadlift) and 2 to 3 assistance exercises in one session. I was surprised that my strength was maintained, if not increased, regardless of the low training frequency. It shows how quality trumps quantity.

- Before I started 5/3/1, I was doing Defranco's 3-day "Badass" (I know it sounds lame) split. Experienced the slightest progression. I reckon its because of the low volume especially for the main lifts.

- I reckon as a novice I need a higher volume for the main lifts. It has to do with consolidation of motor memory, i.e. the simple notion of practice makes perfect. 3 worksets of 6 reps, 3 reps and 1 rep aren't enough to consolidate bar path and to strengthen the muscles activated in the main lifts. Hence when I started 5/3/1 I incorporated the Boring But Big regime which is essentially, for example, after u've done ur bench in accordance with the required percentages you do another 5 sets of 10 bench. that is a simple way to ensure you get enough volume for the main lifts.

Summer plans:
- I'm flying to the UK this Sunday to visit my sister and travel with my family. Gonna be staying there for 3 weeks. I have been contacting Dave "Bulldog" Beattie, owner of Genesis Gym in Wembley who can squat 1000+ lbs, hoping to get a training session from him. Definitely hope thats gonna happen.

- I do have some numbers in my head that I want to achieve by the end of the summer, namely > x2 bodyweight deadlift (~150kg/352lb); >130kg squat and 100kg bench. I had pulled a 130kg sumo more than half a year ago, squatted 120kg couple months ago so I think the goals are attainable if I continue to do what I'm doing and pay more attention to recovery and nutrition.

- Lately I have gained some insights into the mechanics of deadlifting which have been reflected in my numbers. I've never focused on training the deadlift before, until I started 5/3/1 a month ago. So it had been merely an assistance exercise as I only chose to squat on the only lower body day when I was running a 3 day split (2 upperbody + 1 lowerbody). But that would be another post.

Stay strong.

Building a Bulletproof Back

Contrary to most gymrats, I enjoy pulling exercises such as lat pulldowns and chinups over the bench press. I believe a back as thick as a gorilla's is essential to occupying more space in public transportations and protecting one from backstabbing. Sadly mine is still as thin as a sheet of paper but I'd say its getting stronger!

Here's what I did today:

1. Pull-up: Max + 2 sets of 80%
2. Barbell row: 3 sets of 8
3a. Lat pulldown: 3 sets of 12, 10, 8
3b. Single arm shoulder press: 3 sets of 12
4. DB pullover: 3 sets of 12
5. Incline DB delt raise: 3 sets of 15
6. EZ bar curl: 3 sets of 5
7. Hammer curl: 2 sets of 20 ea arm
8. Finisher: Barbell pushup descending from 20 to 1


As you can see, this is a long workout. The picture above is taken during my last set of Barbell pushup. I added chains to my last ten sets. Love the clanking sound.

That's it for today. Stay strong and get stronger.

How to Lose 5 Pounds in 3 Days

Yes I tried, and it was successful. To lose 5lbs in 3 days, you should do the following: 1. have as little sleep as possible; 2. skip breakfast and eat as irregularly as possible; 3. stress till you sweat.

No, I'm not kidding. But if you know me, I'm always about gaining weight and never losing. It took me almost a month to go back to 175lbs from 167lbs, now I have to eat like a pig to try to put back some weight which I suck at. As regards the sh*tty lifestyle I had last week.. well I was working my arse off for my end of term thesis, literally didn't sleep at all, just took a couple naps here and there. Finally got that crazy 9000 worded bastard over and done with. Literally stressed myself dry. To be fair though, we had a whole year to consult our supervisors, do our research and actually write the paper... I don't even want to mention WHEN I started..

The whole point is, however, not about how I deal with my school work. Its about how everything comes with a price. There's no shortcut in life, I can't procrastinate and be rewarded for my procrastination. You always have to pay your dues. Similarly, you cant lose weight without going through some physical hardship, in most cases, following some strict diet and going to the gym. The thing is, most of us pick the easier path at the expense of our potential to becoming a better individual. And that sucks. That is why you see Mike Chang everywhere on Youtube. Whereas Dave Tate is only getting 10% of the views Mike Chang receives.

As I mentioned earlier, my current training is quite unstructured because of the approaching of exams. I'll just try to hit hard whenever I get the time to train. Going for 1RM or 3RM PR for bench and squat/deadlift, and maintaining my upper back strength. This week I only benched a bit and did some upper back stuff.

Tried a narrower grip for my bench press. a bit wobbly at first but i think i can handle more weight later with this grip than a wider one when im used to it.

By the way, we didn't win this year. We beat CUHK but lost to HKU by a couple points. I was proud of my team though, everyone poured their heart out and did their very best. My parents and girlfriend came and I'm glad that I scored some 20 points in a game.

Today, I spent 2 hours making a video..

I tried iMovie on my mac for the first time. Took me fifteen minutes to figure out which button is the one to upload video clips with. I know the video looks amateurish, technologically speaking I'm still a caveman. In fact, just couple months ago I was still using one of those Nokia black and white phone which you have to constantly delete texts cus there's only space for 100 messages..

Here it is. Enjoy.

We had different programmes cus I was deloading as mentioned in the earlier post but Plato was doing a lot more work cus I wanted to teach him as much as possible during those 2 hours.

He started with:
1. some easy machine flyes: 4 sets of 8
2. Bench Press: 3 rep max
3. Incline DB Press: 2 sets of 12
4. Stretch Pushup: 2 sets to failure
5. Side Raise: 4 sets of 8
6. Rear Delt torture: 30,25,20,15
7. Wide Grip shoulder press: 3x 12

This should be the last 'detailed' post before mid-May because I'll be having my final exam.

Peace.

Prepping for a Basketball Tournament

This week, I'm gonna make some adjustments to my training since I have a one day inter-law school basketball tournament this Sunday. It's gonna be quite physically demanding since we'll be playing 3 matches within 6 hours. We won the same tournament last year. This year, I'm lighter yet stronger and more explosive, so I'm looking forward to scoring more points and defending our title!

So this is what my training this week looks like:
Tuesday:
1. Dynamic Effort Squat (slightly above parallel)
--> my theory is that u wanna mimic the way you jump on the court, personally i bend my knees really slightly when I jump. This is how I adjust my squats before a game coupled with a light weight so as to focus on being explosive. did 6 sets of 3
2. Chin-ups
3. Lat pulldowns
4. some shoulder prehab with dumbbell

Wednesday:
1. Bench (maintenance work)
2. some arms work as well. will post a detailed log tmr.

Friday:
1. Dynamic effort Box Squat
2. shoulder mobility
3. some core work

As you can see, other than the typical push/pull/legs split im having these days, it becomes kinda like maintenance for the upper body and explosive legs. This is the first time for me to really plan ahead in order to maximize performance for a basketball game. Usually I just take a couple training sessions off and replace them with balling. Additionally, I've started to incorporate band stretching into my warmup routine. Still on the testing stage. Will update on whether I'm keeping it in the next couple weeks.

Some footages of the dynamic squats I did today:

Peace

Deload

It's been a while since last post. Had a super hectic week and fell sick. Only had couple hours of sleep last week working on an assignment. Glad that its over, it was a hell week. Slept like a dog last night. Woke up at 3pm. Finally hit the gym today after not training for almost a week.

Didn't post my log last Sunday, since I didn't really have the time and it was really arbitrary. Did some max squat and tried out some goodmornings. Also did some band pulldowns and easy deadlifts.

Today I went easy, did only two worksets for bench press: 50% x 5 and 60% x 5 and some easy supplementary work. I usually deload every 5th week of my training cycle so that I can allow my body to rest and come back stronger. Never quite like the feeling of leaving the gym knowing there's so much left in the tank though. but hey, thats what deloading is all about.

So, that's it. its intended to be short, next week there'll be more intensity.

Peace

Training Log: 29/03/2013

Second Upper Body Split

1. Pull-up: 3 sets to failure
2. Lat Pull-down: 2 sets of drop-set
3. Meadows Row: 5 sets of 8
4(a). Seated DB Press: 3 sets of 8
4(b). Incline DB chins: 3 sets of 10
5. Barbell curl: 5 sets of 6
6. Core circuit
7. Barbell push-up finisher

Training Log: 27/03/2013

Upper Body Day 1

1. Machine Press: 3x8
2. Bench: x5, x3, x1
3. Alternate DB Bench: 2x12
4. Machine Fly: 2 sets to failure
5. Shoulder Complex
6(a). DB shrugs: 3x30s
6(b). Alt. hammer curl: 3x8
7. Ab roll finisher

Training Log: 22/03/2013

Upper Body Day 2

1. Pull-up: Max + 2 x 70%
2. Pulldown Drop Set: 2 sets
3. DB Pullover: 4 x 12
4(a). Seated Arnold Press: 3 x 8
4(b). Incline DB clean: 3 x 10
5. BB Curl: 4 x 8
6. Core Circuit
7. Finisher: Barbell Push-ups Descending: 18,17,16,15...3,2,1.

Love the finisher, gave me a huge pump on the chest. Pretty satisfied with today's training, was able to crank out 15 pull-ups. Looking forward to getting more reps. Hopefully will be able to perform muscle-ups in the summer.

Peace.

Training Log: 24/03/2013

Today I had the privilege to train with Lawrence who is a personal trainer at PURE and also an expert in athletic performance. It was a sick session with a lot of adrenaline and testosterone pumping. Learned a great deal from him, corrected some of my bad habits on the deadlift and also squatted some heavy weights. Since currently I only have one legs day, I wanted to pack everything into that session so I can get the most of it. We ended up doing deadlifts and squats in the same session.

So I decided we begin with some speed deadlifts with 40 to 50% max, did like 20 sets with around 10 worksets. Then moved on to (what was supposed to be my mainlift of the day) max squat. Then I realized it was a terrible idea. My lower back was quite fatigue from the deadlifts, probably since I hadnt deadlifted for a couple months. And the speed work had taxed my CNS quite significantly, I was only able to hit 70-80% of what I was supposed to lift. But "f*ck it" I thought. Lawrence was killing it for reps, I should be able to at least hit a rep with that weight. It was only 130kg. I switched from free squat to box squat cus I knew I can handle more on the box. So I loaded the bar, squatted down and sat on the box. As I tried to explode upwards,  I realized there was nothing left in me. Next thing I know the bar rolled over my neck and bam it hit the ground.

First time to really miss a weight like this. Here's what I've learned:

1. Never pair dynamic with max effort. If time only allows you to train legs once a week. Pick one, you cant put too much on your plate.

2. Assess your physical condition realistically. As old Henry Rollins said: "Most injuries involving the Iron come from the ego... Try to lift what you aren't prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson about restraint and self-control."

3. If you're gonna alter your stance/ the way you execute a lift in the middle of your sets, you gotta start from scratch. For example, you were pyramiding up your free squats for a max lift. You realize you may not be able to hit the weight you wanted to on that particular day with a free squat but you know you have a bigger chance using a box.  Now you don't just put a box there and start doing box squats using the same weights you were using. Even though its arguably still a squat, the target muscles are entirely different so does the way it is executed. You gotta start all over again from a light weight and pyramid up. Well that seldom happens to me actually. Usually I'd settle for a 3 rep max instead. Guess my competitiveness got the best of me.

Well at least I wasn't injured. I'll take what I've learned from my mistakes and kick some asses next week.

Here's a sneak peak into our training:

So I thought it would be easy:

This guy was obviously killing it, he moved on to 140kg after this.

This is before things got ugly:

All in all, it was a sick session. Thanks to Lawrence, here's my new motto: "To become the best you must learn from the be(a)st".

Stay strong and get stronger

Training Log: 20-3-2013

Upper Body Day 1

1(a). Machine Chest Flyes: 3 x 8

1(b). Band dislocation: 3 x 8

2. Bench Press: x6, x4, x2

3. Alternating Lying DB Press: 2 x 10 

4. Dip: 2 x till failure

5. Standing Rope Pulldown: 4 x 12

6. Shoulder Complex: 2 x 10

7(a). DB Shrug: 2 x 30s

7(b). Alternating Hammer Curls: 2 x 10 

Stay Strong.

Keep Your Chin Up

Today's my second upper body day, did some chin-ups, arms and shoulders and some abs.

Love the chin-up, I think it's the King of upper body exercises because it utilizes a heck load of muscles, builds your lats tremendously, as well as your upper chest, arms and your core. Best thing is that all you need is a bar. Personally, I love doing chin-ups because I suck at it.

Here's what my training today looks like:

1. Chin-up: Max reps + 3x 60%

2. Lat Pulldown: 1 set 12-15, 8-10, 3-5 (20s rest in-between)

3. Shoulder Press: 3x 12

4. Blackburn: 2 sets of 4 variations (hold for 20s)

5. Cable curl: 3x 12

6. Hammer curl: till failure (~25 reps)

7. Some core circuit: 2 sets (V-up x20, Hip raise x20, Toetouch x 15)

On a good day, I could crank out 15 reps. Unfortunately, not today. 

This is one of the places where one should do their curls in, i.e. not in the squat rack.

Stay Strong.

Shut up and Squat

Training Log: Legs (Day 2)

Finally, the long awaited legs day!

I'm using a 3-day split these days (twice upper body, once lower) cus things have been hectic with school and other school. Here's my routine:

1. Kneeling Jump (with 20kg barbell): 5 sets of 5

2. Stiff-legged Deadlift: 3 sets of 10 warmup, 3 sets of heavy 10 workset. Enjoyed the pump after pre-exhausting the hamstrings

3. Squat: pyramid up to x7, x5, x3 or more

4(a). Supine hip thrust: 3 sets of 15

4(b). Elevated stability ball plank: 3 sets of 45s

5. Front leg elevated reverse lunge: 2 sets of 12

Not too intense. But I did enjoy going heavy on squat. In fact its my first free squat in months! I've been doing box squats only, stacking up the "steps" as the box if you know what I mean. Like those the ladies like to do aerobics on. Anyway, today some dude took it for depth jumps so I wondered why not some free squats? I was surprised I could handle the same weights as I did for box squats. That was encouraging. However my form began to fall into pieces as I moved up the weight, I wasn't sitting back enough, the shins were too forward, and became too quad dominant. It was a hell of a session nonetheless! Probably gotta start doing some good mornings and other posterior chain movements to remedy the issue. 

Here is my last set of squat (253lb x 6)

My warm-up set has a better form, notice how I sit back and my shins are closer to perpendicular to the floor:

Some hops:

Left the gym with surging testosterone. Ate a huge slice of pizza and drank a gainer on the way home. Cooked myself a big slice of grass fed ribeye afterwards. Now I'm ready to deal with all the crap life throws at me.

And the answer is "No". Squat is not bad for ur knees (when performed correctly)

Nutrition 101

Not everyone wants to look like the incredible hulk. A lot of people out there training/ contemplating about starting to train want to get strong and obtain an athletic body. Looking like the incredible hulk is easy: you lift heavy, eat TONS of crap and sleep. The only difficult thing is the "eating TONs of crap" part, cus tons literally mean tons. But for most of the ordinary lads out there they want to lose fat and gain lean muscle at the same time and look like Michael Phelps, that require some tinkering in terms of their diet.

Here are some tips:

1. Good news: you don't have to do hours cardio to lose fat. Sprint for 10-15min couple times a week on the treadmill/ bike/ out there on the busy streets on an empty stomach (preferably first thing in the morning) will do the trick.

2. You have to eat fat to burn fat. Yes, that's what I am telling you. But why? Most of our energy are generated from the carbs we eat during the day. So when we train we are burning the carbs we ate but not the fat that is in our body. The thing is, from what I learn from John Meadows, you have to teach your body to use fat as the energy source. How? You limit your carbs intake and take in some good fats, such as grass fed butter/ beef and coconut oil. Those saturated fat are good for your body and with diet consisting of more fat and less carbs, your body will start replacing carbs with fat for energy generation. Then you'll be burning fat.

3. Protein shake before and after training for optimal protein synthesis. That's simple. Preferably, add some BCAAs and glutamine to your workout drink.

4. Get some sleep. Studies have shown that lack of sleep contributes to lost of lean muscle and slowing metabolism. It means that if you dont get enough sleep, you become a skinny fat person. Yeah. skinny and fat.

5. Spread your meals throughout the day (~6 meals) to ensure a faster metabolism. Unless you want to gain weight, then you'd want to have 2 or 3 hooge meals per day so that ur metabolism is slowed down.

6. Stay away from simple sugar.

7. Lift HEAVY. No further explanation is needed here, unless you're less than a man.

Stay strong.

New Blog

Recently couple of my friends have been asking me questions about what they should do in the gym if they've never trained with weights before. Stuff like which exercises they should do, how often, how many sets/reps, all those shit I've dealt with couple years ago when I first began my journey under the bar. Took me a long time to figure things out. In fact, my training has not been too structured before since as a competitive swimmer, I thought I didn't need to be too big or too strong to swim fast. (And I wrongly adopted the western linear periodization which was actually detrimental to my sports performance and also my gain in the gym) However I was wrong. You need to be strong in order to be good at your sport. Being strong and powerful doesnt mean getting huge and buff, look at Bruce Lee. A lot of work lies in neural adaptation and ability to accelerate, but that'd be another article for next time.

Having read extensively on Elitefts articles, especially those from the man Dave Tate himself, I've gained a different perspective on training and also, on training hard. Other stuff like nutrition and supplements, I've learned a great deal from John Meadows (Mountaindogdiet).

This blog serves as my training log where I'll put down my workouts for my readers' reference. I've gained 30lbs of muscle mass in the past 3 years which I consider pretty steady (given my huge aerobic output, swimming 5 days a week) while maintaining a 5-7% body fat. Now I'm half-retired from swimming because of the need to do well in my last semester at law school. The break from swimming enables me to re-think and re-plan my weight training regime thoroughly. I've experimented with the Westside maximum/ dynamic effort and some Defranco (for maintaining my athletic ability and John Meadows stuff (maintaing on accessory exercises to strengthen my weak links, i.e. delts, pecs, yes my pecs are weak). From time to time, I can't stop wondering whether I would swim faster if I had proper weight training before. A lot of trainers don't know what they're doing, let alone helping clients achieve their goals. Programming is an art with the single goal of meeting your client's needs. The linear periodization method I was trained with (hypertrophy->strength->power) is a thing that should've been left in history. It surprises me how so many trainers still live by this method and refuse to change. No wonder a lot of them I see in my gym cant even lift their own bodyweight in bench press/ squat/ deadlift. With that in mind, I hope I can help aspiring athletes and people who want to be strong to reach their goals.

Sometimes I find it difficult to understand how some people go to the gym simply for aesthetic reasons. I mean, I do like to have bigger guns and shredded abs. After all, I would be lying big time if I say I dont care how my body looks. But the reason I go to the gym is to get strong, in the hope of getting really strong. On the path to get stronger, the aesthetic aspects come naturally. But avoiding big weights and 'toning' this and that are signs that you are weak, most importantly, mentally weak. And going to the gym simply for aesthetic reason is like putting the cart before the horse. Perhaps because I'm an athlete, I pay a lot more attention on improving the body's performance, rather than how the body appears.

In the era we are living in, everyone seems to have forgotten the value of being strong, both mentally and physically, and have become complacent about their materialistic lives. It sickens me to see dudes who cant even load their suitcases onto the back of their car. And where's ur dignity when u see some guy pat ur girl's butt in a club, but ur only too scared to confront because you're not strong enough. (definitely not advocating a bar brawl here, but you get my point) And being truly strong transcends lifting suitcases and shit, confronting others who has stepped on ur tail; its about what you learn about yourself, your potential to surpass your perceived limitations, your ability to endeavor and your drive to become a stronger and better individual.

In the following weeks/ months, I'll put up articles and videos introducing some basic programming and training techniques. Stay tuned.