Tosas strength & conditioning log.

[Tosa]

December 28, 2011

~25 minutes cycling, low intensity. Followed by stretching.

 

[Tosa]

December 30, 2011

At "B" Gym

High Bar Squats
Bar x bunch
40kg x 3, 2 sets
60kg x 3, 2 sets
80kg x 2, 2 sets
100kg x 2, 2 sets (belt)
110kg x 2
115kg x 2
117.5kg x 2
120kg x 2

Push Press
Bar x bunch
40kg x 5
50kg x 5
60kg x 5
70kg x 5, 3 sets

Conventional Deadlift (DOH)
60kg x 3, 2 sets
80kg x 3
95kg x 3
105kg x 3
110kg x 3
115kg x 3
120kg x 3, 2 sets

Pull-ups
Bw x 5, 2 sets
25lbs x 5, 3 sets

Ab roullouts from knees
Bw x 10, 3 sets

-4. Bodyweight 87kg. 8 hours sleep.

 

[Tosa]

December 30, 2011

~25 minutes cycling, medium intensity.

 

[moyy]

Hey man, great log, will definitely be following. On the ab rollouts discussed on the last page, my gym doesn't have a wheel, so I just do it with 2 4kg dumbbells keeping them close together. Is that bad? Should I use a bar with some weight on it instead? Thanks in advance.

 

[Tosa]

Hey man, great log, will definitely be following. On the ab rollouts discussed on the last page, my gym doesn't have a wheel, so I just do it with 2 4kg dumbbells keeping them close together. Is that bad? Should I use a bar with some weight on it instead? Thanks in advance.

As long as it rolls, it doesn't matter. Using a bar with weight on it doesn't really make much of a difference - if you want to add resistance, put the weight on your back.

 

[Tosa]

December 31, 2011

~3 mile run. Went pretty well, considering how long it's been since I last did any real running, and my weight. Hip flexors were a bit tight, and I haven't done conditioning in cold air in quite a while.

 

[miaou]

::enters log, sees avatar without dog, checks again to see which log he entered::

 

[Tosa]

::enters log, sees avatar without dog, checks again to see which log he entered::

If the picture were bigger, you could see it's Fenrir, who is a dog. See, I was very clever in suggesting the team name, skillfully suggesting a name that would lead to AVs with a dog.

 

[belph]

If the picture were bigger, you could see it's Fenrir, who is a dog. See, I was very clever in suggesting the team name, skillfully suggesting a name that would lead to AVs with a dog.

Brilliant. Have you ever used an AV without a dog yet ?

 

[Tosa]

Brilliant. Have you ever used an AV without a dog yet ?

Nope. There'd be no point.

 

[miaou]

If the picture were bigger, you could see it's Fenrir, who is a dog. See, I was very clever in suggesting the team name, skillfully suggesting a name that would lead to AVs with a dog.

According to wikipedia, Fenrir is a "monstrous wolf".

Hardly a dog by any standards.

 

[Tosa]

According to wikipedia, Fenrir is a "monstrous wolf".

Hardly a dog by any standards.

Not by any standards?

Dogs and wolves are the same species - only different sub-species. Which for the purposes of my AV makes them both acceptably doggy. I could go even farther, and call any canine a "dog", but at that's not an issue right now.

 

[miaou]

Fair enough. A dog is in a sense a domesticated/"petified" wolf.

What are your goals for 2012?

 

[Tosa]

Fair enough. A dog is in a sense a domesticated/"petified" wolf.

What are your goals for 2012?

Squat more, Bench more, Deadlift more, Overhead more, Chin more. Improve body composition. Be less achey upon waking up. I'd like to overhead 100kg, and chin 5x20, but beyond that I'm not setting specific numbers.

You?

 

[miaou]

My main goal is to be able to train normally (in terms of volume/intensity). I know this was my goal for the past 2 years as well and came short both times, but I think this year will be it.

I'm aiming to squat 180 and bench 115 by the end of the year. I think it's doable.


Why no specific goals in the big 3?

 

[Tosa]

Why no specific goals in the big 3?

Because I don't believe it's possible to accurately predict what sort of gains I'll make over a year, and trying to progress at a rate that's either too fast or too slow could mean not making gains that I could have otherwise.

I only set goals for push press and chins because they're relatively modest (I think), and secondary to squat, bench, dead and weighted chins.

 

[miaou]

Because I don't believe it's possible to accurately predict what sort of gains I'll make over a year, and trying to progress at a rate that's either too fast or too slow could mean not making gains that I could have otherwise.

Same things go for everyone else. I'm not saying this to give you a hard time, but your logic is really like "I don't want to put pressure on myself", which is usually a loser's mentality. And this is coming from somebody who's failed miserably two years in a row!

You can never make accurate predictions on your future gains, as they are affected by tons of things that are not 100% in your control. Ideally, the goals should be challenging but realistic and the idea is to help you build a general plan on how you're going to achieve them and maybe include shorter-term goals.

It's not like if you're making faster gains your goals are going to hold you back; goals are meant to be adjustable. If you achieve them sooner than expected you simply replace them with new goals (hell, DrB just had to replace his June DL goal and it's not even a week in the year!), and if, for whatever reason, you fail to reach them, well that's fucking life, you man up, reassess, adjust (short-term and long-term goals/timeframes) and keep trying. You still had a goal to work towards and assess your progress by.

Goal setting is a major part of sports psychology, btw. It's considered an important part of an athlete's plan pretty much across all competitive sports.



TL;DR: put some fucking numbers you consider challenging but realistically possible for you, and make a fucking plan (with shorter term goals/timeframes) to fucking get there.

 

[Tosa]

January 2, 2011

At "B" gym

High Bar Squats
Bar x bunch, 2 sets
40kg x 3, 2 sets
60kg x 3, 2 sets
80kg x 3, 2 sets
95kg x 3
105kg x 3 (belt)
107.5kg x 3
110kg x 3, 3 sets

DB bench
40s x bunch
60s x 6
70s x 6, 3 sets

Chin-ups
Bw x 20, 15, 12, 10, 10

Face-pulls
Whatever x 20, 5 sets

-1. 87kg. 8 hours sleep. Last day at "B" gym.

 

[Tosa]

I'm not against setting specific goals, just giving them a specific time frame.

I've made more progress making use of autoregulation. But this also means I have to be flexible - I can't be thinking "I do this weight today, then I'm on pace to for this goal", rather I have to think "Based on how the previous set felt, the weight for this set will be . . ."

 

[PowerHungry]

Tosa's an absurdist. He doesn't believe in numbers, especially 0.