Thor's Thunder: Electrake's Epic Training Tales
- Thread starter Electrake
- Start date
Hyde
Legend
@Hyde I jokingly checked out the tanks at EliteFTS after your comment and saw that they are awesome and cheap
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They really do have some cool or funny designs - I always kick myself for not getting the Gymshart one when all the local college kids were going through that phase.
If you get the premium tees, they are very soft and fitted nicely too - something comfy you’ll enjoy for casual wear. And sometimes I order traditional heavy cotton tshirts for squatting - something that will hold chalk and help pump me up, remind me to dig deep when it’s time to work.
I often grab 1-3 tops during a sale to hit the free shipping over $69 whenever I am re-upping on bands, chalk, ammonia, some wrist wraps or maybe a sleeve, etc (their wrist wraps and 2-ply knee sleeves are awesome btw). You can get some good tanks for $15 or whatever.
Segansational
Well-known member
Yeah, I do hate traveling because it takes a lot of thinking to plan enough for all of my capsules, pre-WO samples, protein, etc. And that's not to mention any TDs, which I usually just skip out of convenience.Here's a fun topic that's been beaten to death, Traveling with Supplements!
Heading out of town in 1.5 weeks for 1.5 weeks, usually I just bring everything, bottles and all. I'm kind of a nerd about "one-bagging" these days and just bring a backpack everywhere, so room is limited. I'm thinking just put the total allotment of what I'll need in individual baggies? Seems dummy proof, why am I asking
Dustin07
Legend
no I don't venture that far north too often anymore with the Seattle/Bellevue traffic being so much worse these days.... I tend to tap out around Renton and south of there now lol
Electrake
Active member
Totally get that. My venture from SeaTac north is enough.
Dustin07
Legend
even SeaTac is a PITA to be honest. The other day it took my boy and I 40 minutes to get from the terminal after the plane landed to our car, lol. and that was a good day!
akboom87
Well-known member
Man at first glance I thought you did 100 reps on Kroc rows
Electrake
Active member
Felt like it! I do need to increase weight, but the next step up at my gym is 120 lol... I'm going to just incorporate fat gripz insteadMan at first glance I thought you did 100 reps on Kroc rows
akboom87
Well-known member
Strange they don’t have 110’s or 115’s
Electrake
Active member
It's a grungy old place in a tourist trap, I'm either the oldest by 20 years or the youngest by 30 lol.
akboom87
Well-known member
Well the gym I go to just got bought by the city of all people. So I’m worried I have to be start looking for a new club next. I did find a powerlifting gym in town. One of the labors on a project I’m working was telling me about it sounds like a good place and cheap. But I’m spoiled because my current gym is 10 minutes from are place now.
Dustin07
Legend
The LA F by my office only goes up to like 105s, it's one of the reasons I upgraded to the "every gym" membership so I could hit the Tacoma one where they have 120+ (although been a while since I pushed heavy DBs)
Hyde
Legend
Those are the shoes I use for lower body day. But I don’t have speed laces lol
How far is the powerlifting gym?
How far is the powerlifting gym?
akboom87
Well-known member
20ish minutes probably faster in the morning when there is no traffic.
Electrake
Active member
I just wear them every gym day since it's usually a push/pull/legs. Also they're comfy lol.
Hyde
Legend
Bro that’s still spoiled for a ‘real’ gym, check it out
Electrake
Active member
4/25/24
Main - OHP (strict)
Weight 213.9
Elbows are tender from the last few days, rest day tomorrow!
Main - OHP (strict)
- 5 x 70lb
- 5 x 85
- 5 x 105
- 5 x 115
- 5 x 135
- 5 x 150
- 10 x 5 @ 115
- upright Row 5 x 10 @ 220
- Floor Press 5 x 5 @185lb
- Weighted crunch 5 x 30 @ 150lb
- Abwheel 5x5
Weight 213.9
Elbows are tender from the last few days, rest day tomorrow!
Electrake
Active member
My nearest "specialty" gym is in Charlotte or Kingsport, TN, Charlotte is 2 hours and Kingsport 1.5 hours lol. There's a crossfit gym in Boone 30min away, but they don't count.
Electrake
Active member
This one is actually for Saturday, I'm planning a deeply religious experience for myself and want to suffer. Critique welcome
Main - Deadlift
Main - Deadlift
- 5 x 205lb
- 5 x 255
- 5 x 315
- 5 x 410
- 5 x 425
- 5 x 460
- 10 x 5 @ 255
- PullUps 5x5+
- Incline DB press 5x10 @ 90
- Rack Pulls 5x5 505+ (No idea what I can do here)
akboom87
Well-known member
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Hyde
Legend
I think if you are going to do rackpulls they belong after the deadlifts or squats. But I think all 3 of those combined as written are going to be very fatiguing. I don’t think you need to do a full 5x5 on them, unless you are one of those people that counts 4 warmup sets like that and there is one actual work set.
Never max out on something totally new. It’s more dangerous, and you will have neurological adaptations coming that will make you stronger the next time anyway. So better to have an intro week to practice and learn the movement before putting the pedal to the floor on it.
Also, what’s with the 315-410-425 hop? I would think 385 would make a lot more sense than 410…
Electrake
Active member
Copy/paste typo lol, I'd start at 255 and have a 365 betwixt the others.
I'll definitely ease into it and see what I can get to without stressing myself, I'm pretty ok at noticing when I need to slow down if I'm in a good mental state. I'm also not married to the idea, we will see how my lower back is doing after all that. Still have house cleaning/moving stuff to do after lol
Hyde
Legend
5x5 is probably fine at 315, but if you smash them is where it could get greedy.
Electrake
Active member
I agree. Deadlift days are holy to me, I don't mind being there for 2 hours if that's what it takes.
Hyde
Legend
All of that is my experience too, just with myself. I hate pulling off from blocks, but they work for me because my conventional is always strong from the floor and pulling from 3-4” blocks is a weakness (I can only lift similar weights as floor).
But rackpulls I struggle to obtain the actual positions I’d be at by that height when deadlifting from the floor. So they don’t really transfer well.
Dustin07
Legend
I'm one of those who needs rack pulls in his life because 90% of lifting for me is and always has been mental. I can feel like dogshit walking into the gym but with headphones on, the ritual of lacing up shoes and pulling on knee sleeves gets my competitive side amp'd up.
adding 5lbs a week or whatever on a given cycle from the ground is nice but for me reaches diminishing returns a lot faster if I don't do those rack pulls. I do believe there is of course physical/neurological benefits to simply holding very heavy weight (squat walk outs, bench holds, etc) and I used heavy rack pulls to rehab my back injury years ago.
But now days I just find that heavy rack pulls seem to give my body the ability to hold very heavy weight without being anywhere near as taxing as a full conventional. What I want to do in the next few weeks is cycle from deficit pulls > rack pulls and then see where my conventional is.
what's your PR here, or goal?
at 150 x 5 you have me paying attention lol. I think my best legal rep was like 205 but I'm not sure if my 5 rep ever crossed 175ish. I was using micro plates in the 160s to eek out gains.
they aren't what they used to be. in the good old days, I'd spend 90+ minutes training at the box before I even started doing wods. it was a hangout. pound a shake, aminos, water, 20 minutes later do another wod. We would look at all the benchmark wods and our leaderboards at our box and start takings stabs at them trying to earn the #1 on every board.
fuuuck.
adding 5lbs a week or whatever on a given cycle from the ground is nice but for me reaches diminishing returns a lot faster if I don't do those rack pulls. I do believe there is of course physical/neurological benefits to simply holding very heavy weight (squat walk outs, bench holds, etc) and I used heavy rack pulls to rehab my back injury years ago.
But now days I just find that heavy rack pulls seem to give my body the ability to hold very heavy weight without being anywhere near as taxing as a full conventional. What I want to do in the next few weeks is cycle from deficit pulls > rack pulls and then see where my conventional is.
what's your PR here, or goal?
at 150 x 5 you have me paying attention lol. I think my best legal rep was like 205 but I'm not sure if my 5 rep ever crossed 175ish. I was using micro plates in the 160s to eek out gains.
they aren't what they used to be. in the good old days, I'd spend 90+ minutes training at the box before I even started doing wods. it was a hangout. pound a shake, aminos, water, 20 minutes later do another wod. We would look at all the benchmark wods and our leaderboards at our box and start takings stabs at them trying to earn the #1 on every board.
fuuuck.
Electrake
Active member
PR for 100% strict with a decent warmup is 225, same with the log. I don't really have a goal for OHP atm except to increase my weights, but it's been something I was missing for years to increase upper body size and overall push strength. Bench rocketed up when I started incorporating it about a year ago. At the moment, I'm comfortable with 175x5, but last week I dialed my weights back significantly in order to get some more volume in, work on endurance, and basically just keep my **** together until life is stable lol.
Dustin07
Legend
I always sorta see 150+ for reps kinda like 225+ for reps on bench. it's like that foundational launching pad for most male lifters I think. Yes these can be 1rm goals for a lot of guys at first, but as you're chasing big numbers they sorta are like the launchpad IMO...
man I wish I was the same. I definitely had diminishing returns and found that specializing in one or the other, and treating the other as an accessory was the key for me. The only time I've been able to get two lifts to PR side by side was really 2023 when I focused exclusively on deads and bench and let OHP, Squats, cleans, jerk everything else wither a bit.
man I wish I was the same. I definitely had diminishing returns and found that specializing in one or the other, and treating the other as an accessory was the key for me. The only time I've been able to get two lifts to PR side by side was really 2023 when I focused exclusively on deads and bench and let OHP, Squats, cleans, jerk everything else wither a bit.
Electrake
Active member
I agree with everything about the 150 range, seems like a hard place to get to, but when you're there you're kind of stuck unless you specialize lol.
Everything else you mentioned definitely seems par for the course. I think I still have a lot of "beginner" gains to be achieved from years of poor training, bodybuilding specialization, and improper diet. The last year+ of strength training has seen my biggest PRs and I may be the most muscular I've been, besides coming back from Iraq at an absolutely shredded 170 lol. But those were my "Jim Stoppani is god" days. Thanks Bodybuilding.com
akboom87
Well-known member
I need to locate some Protein powder this weekend, this tub of ghost I got I am not fond of.
Electrake
Active member
I'm not sure if it's one of the supps I've been eating, but I've been fighting nausea lately and have been slamming shakes of various types. Would recommend this one
Electrake
Active member
This is the end of the first week of adding in AE to my "stack," so as far as anabolism is concerned, I'm rocking AE, Axt, pepti-plex, and recomp20. I do notice some differences already, could be because I'm week 4 with Axt too, the sensation of weights feeling heavy but moving regardless. That specific feeling I equate to supplements kicking in, I've only ever felt it before when taking double doses of oral prohormones.
Electrake
Active member
Didn't get through a whole hell of a lot today, wasn't feeling super well, but well enough to try to train.
4/30/24
bw 210.8
Squat
6 sets of 5 up to 335
OHP 10x5 at 135
superset with kroc rows(100lb DB with fat grip) and incline press machine
Had a strange tightness develop that I couldn't decide if it was serratus or chest, so I cut out a bit early. Haven't been eating well, house lists in 3 weeks and I'll be out of town for 12 days, finals, work kicking me ass, lots going on. Working on hydration and nutrition today, and we will hit it again tomorrow!
4/30/24
bw 210.8
Squat
6 sets of 5 up to 335
OHP 10x5 at 135
superset with kroc rows(100lb DB with fat grip) and incline press machine
Had a strange tightness develop that I couldn't decide if it was serratus or chest, so I cut out a bit early. Haven't been eating well, house lists in 3 weeks and I'll be out of town for 12 days, finals, work kicking me ass, lots going on. Working on hydration and nutrition today, and we will hit it again tomorrow!
Electrake
Active member
First and foremost, I broke 200lb weight 
weight at wake up post poop was 199.
5/1/24
Main - Bench
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weight at wake up post poop was 199.5/1/24
Main - Bench
- 5 x 110lb
- 5 x 140
- 5 x 170
- 5 x 180
- 5 x 215
- 5 x 245
- 1x255,265,275,285,295 (PR)
- 10 x 5 @ 125
- axe pendlay row 5 x 5 @ 185
- DB tricep extensions overhead 5 x 10 @ 90
- Super set cable crunch/oblique cable pushdown
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Electrake
Active member
Thanks! Hemorrhaging weight like I am, not sure how sustainable the weights are, but I'll take it!
Dustin07
Legend
First and foremost, I broke 200lb weight
wait (weight!) 10lbs in a day?
congrats homie! Fuk. now you're going to make me push harder to get back over 300.
I have no sympathy. we have discussed how to overpack gym bags at length already
Electrake
Active member
I've been very inconsistent with how I've been weighing myself out of apathy, it's generally been in shorts and a tank top, today was right out of bed, toilet, scale lolwait (weight!) 10lbs in a day?
congrats homie! Fuk. now you're going to make me push harder to get back over 300.
I have no sympathy. we have discussed how to overpack gym bags at length already
Yesterday my shaker opened and dumped 24oz of karbolyn and mio into my bag, so I dumped everything and didn't put it all bag. Epic fail lol
Dustin07
Legend
I have been stricter lately with the renpho app every morning post piss but only because I have looked back 6-12months+ and saw periods of time where I didn't have good weight info and wish I did. so I'm doing it more for future reference than for current needs if that makes sense....
Electrake
Active member
Absolutely, I'm just counting the days until there's stability in my life and I can recommit to the gain train
in the mean time, all I'm looking forward to is 4 Dicks deluxe 3 fries, a strawberry shake, and like 10 sides of tartar
Hyde
Legend
Absolutely, I'm just counting the days until there's stability in my life and I can recommit to the gain train
Nice work on the bench!
You put the tartar sauce on the burger or dunk the fries in it?
Electrake
Active member
I was dunking fries, but now you have my gears turning...
Edit: the tartar they give you is like thimble sized, but like $.05 so buy a handful
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