God I Love Greasy Food

So, my plan to increase my number of workouts is falling apart. I only have done two this week, and I need to up my volume bad. I also didn't do ab work today, but I think spending too much times in the sun before hitting the weights is what slowed me down today.

High bar/narrow stance back squat - 315 6 x 2 this was shaky, I need to hit my squat harder
Behind the neck press - 95 x 5, 105 2 x 3, 95 3 x 3 was aiming for 5 x 3, had to drop the weight
Heavy rows - 255 x 3, 3 x 2 I haven't been pulling heavy in full range of motion, but this didn't feel bad. I used a higher torso position, which was interesting.
After this I kind of played around for a little while. I tried out several iso-lateral chest press machines, deciding that they might help my pressing, and also did 2 x 3 with 155 for floor presses, simply to see how my triceps have been developing. I also practiced some cable face pulls. Will definitely incorporate them into future workouts.

I realized after doing my behind the neck press that my workouts have been very posterior chain centered. I need to add in more pressing and pulling movements utilizing the anterior chain, and maybe more front squats too. The anterior chain has often been my weak point, and maybe it's time that this changed.

I went to Louie's, a local diner after this workout with two of my teammates, who are dating. Lovely couple. I had a nice little breakfast for dinner, and now I feel positively stuffed.

On the school note, I meet with my adviser tomorrow afternoon. It looks like I may be able to leave for Peru earlier than I expected, which would be nice. I sincerely look forward to being able to throw myself deeper into my thesis and research. Exciting times. 

Overhead Squats are Evil

Just what the title says. I basically worked up to what could be a max triple or 5 and did some doubles with it. Afterwords my shoulder felt like they were gonna explode. This ended up being mostly an upper body/back day, which I kinda despise because I don't like body part splits. Oh well, more to squat tomorrow/Thursday.

Over head squats - Bar x 5, 75 x 3, 89 (kilo plate added) x2, 99 3 x 2. went to do a fourth but shoulders tired
Behind the neck push press - 6 x 1 148 (kilo bumpers again)
Reverse band bench press - 225 x 4, 315 x 1, 275 x 6, 245 x 10 I did this with some teammates, don't know exactly how much weight the bands remove, but it's a lot.
Rack pulls - 545 3 x 1, 515 x 1, 525 2 x 1 Missed 545 a few times in there, so dropped weight and moved back up slowly. I also did this standing on a plate under each foot, shortening my range of motion to right around the knee, which was less than last week.
One arm cable curls - 37.5 x 3, 32.5 3 x 5, 27.5 x 7 just some arm work for fun
Ab wheel from knees - 3 x 25 this left me with a headache and lat pump for some reason. Awesome.

On another note, waiting on my loans to come in. Once they do I'll be able to actually prep for a trip to Peru in June. I hope to leave by the 15th at the latest. While there, I will have the opportunity to do more lab work, which I really need experience in. It will also afford me time to work on my thesis proposal and thesis itself.

As far as food goes, I'm coming to really enjoy putting hot sauce into more of my dishes. The thermogenic effects of peppers are well documented, and I think the addition to the diet is helping me stay lean. Also, steak, steak, steak, and more steak. I love how easy cheap meat can be to find in Baton Rouge. Surprisingly, red curry has added a good flavor to my beefscapades. More research is required.

Changing it up

So after looking at this piece of shit that I used to write, I'm changing things up a bit. I'm gonna be blogging a bit about the three subjects that matter most to me right now: archaeology, food, and lifting. I might be posting some of my workouts, just as a way to record them and also to put myself out there for critique. I'll also be posting a bit about my grad school research, but just a bit. Oh, and the food. Because I need to get focused on my cooking.

To start, I've been running a sort of anti-cycle based on the awesome inspiration I've gotten from Jamie Lewis over at Chaos&Pain. (chaosandpain.blogspot.com, definitely NSFW) I've been reading his stuff for something like 3 years now, and it's taught me a lot.

A quick outline:
I've been looking to up my training volume, especially because I'm about to go to Peru (hopefully) and thus need to prep myself both to work more and also to handle the rigors of digging. Thus, I've been working out more frequently. Last week I added a day, bringing me to 4 a week, this week will be 5 a week, and hopefully before I leave I'll be up to 6 a week, maybe with morning workouts thrown in. The idea is to ease my way into it week by week, so my extra days are fairly light for now. In Peru I'll probably have to focus on bodyweight nonsense. Here though, I've got plenty of weights and that's what I'm focusing on.

I'm not really following a set cycle, but I am using what I call my training guidelines.
1: squat at least 3x week.
2: push press over bench
3: heavy, low ROM exercises mixed with light, full ROM exercises to try something new
4: not pulling often, and when I do, it's usually not deadlifts
5: when I do pull heavy, focusing on rack pulls
6: variation over everything
7: this cycle is raw, using no more than knee sleeves and wrist wraps, maybe a belt sometimes
8: I am doing more abs, no matter what, so at least 3x week

So, my last workout looked something like this:

squat lockouts: 6 (sets) x 1 (rep) 725 - not much shorter than my rack height for full squats, completely raw
narrow stance, high bar squats: 3x5 225 - focused on speed
bench press: 6x2 185 completely raw. My bench sucks dick
plyo pushups: 3x5
fast conventional deads, double overhand: 3x3 275 completely raw
I warmed up for each, though not much, and skipped abs because the squat work wrecked me.

So there you have it. Tomorrow I'm going to get in another workout, I'm feeling behind the neck push press, and maybe overhead squats, with a deadlift rack pull. We shall see.