Squats, Squats, and More Squats

Today's training session involved squats. Lots of squats.

1) Squat - 165 x 2 singles, 155 x 4 singles, 110 x 20 (that 20 rep set was very tough). Next week I'll only perform 3 singles because the 6 singles I performed made the 20 rep set very, very tough.

2a) Weighted Parallel Bar Dips - 25x5, 10x9

2b) Bent Over BB Row - 120x6, 105x10

3a) Decline Situp - 2 sets

3b) Fat Bar Curls - 2 sets

4) 1 Arm DB Snatch - 30 x 5/4/3/2/1 I did this sort of as a "finisher". I performed 5 reps with each arm, then 4, then 3, etc with minimal rest.

Make sure you check out Progress: One Pound at a Time. In this post I explain how you can improve your strength, lose fat, and improve your body composition one pound at a time.

Hill Sprints & Books

I just got back from running hill sprints.

Today I ran the smaller hill at the park. "Smaller" in this case, however, do NOT mean easier. Since the hill is shorter, I had a shorter distance to walk down, and therefore less rest between sprints. I ran 10.

I can't speak highly enough about running hill sprints. In case you missed it a few weeks ago, I did a blog post about it at The Fat Solutions. Check it out here => Hill Sprints for Fast Fat Loss.

People ask me all the time what training books I read and recommend.

Well, the most recent two I read were Dinosaur Training and Strength, Muscle, and Power. Both are by Brooks Kubik. If you want a no non-sense approach to training, I highly recommend both of these books.

Have you read them? What do you think about them? Tell me in the comments section.

Back to Training

After a wonderful weekend it was time to hit the gym again today.

Well, everything but the deadlifts went really well. I'm going to have to change something up. And that something is probably going to be less volume on the deadlifts.

1) Deadlift - 255x1, 235 x 4 singles. Last week I pulled 255 for 4 reps, and pulling it for a single was a struggle today. That sucked.

2a) Standing Press - 85x5, 70x10
2b) Weighted Chinups - 20x6, bodyweight x 10

3) Negative Ab Wheel Rollout - 2 sets

4) Farmers Walk - 60 pound DBs, 4 trips

My strength was fine on all my lifts, except my deadlifts. I'll change things up next Monday.

More Hill Sprints

I knocked out today's hill sprint session early this morning, before the temperature reaches 100 degrees.

I did the sprints in the same manner as on Tuesday - moderate sprint up the hill, walk back down, and immediately sprint back up. Did that 8 times. Talk about working the lungs hard!

That's it for today, and now I'm looking forward to a nice, fun, relaxing weekend.

Eat smart. Train hard. Train heavy. Get results.

20 Rep Squats

I have been looking forward to today's training session for the past couple of days, and everything went very well.

1) Squat - 145x6, 105x20 Last week I did 95 for 20 reps, and should have only jumped up 5 pounds, but I felt good and decided to make a 10 pound jump this week. The weekly increases will be much smaller from here on out.

2a) Weight Parallel Bar Dips - 20x2x6 (20 pounds, 2 sets, 6 reps each), bodyweight x 12

2b) Bent Over BB Row - 115x2x6, 100x12

3a) Decline Situps - 3 sets
3b) Fat Bar Curl - 2 sets

Great training session. Time to eat, rest, and recover.

On the menu for tomorrow: hill sprints.

Make sure you check out today's post at The Fat Solutions => Lift Heavy. Get Strong(er) and Look Better. If everyone (men AND women) would apply this information, they would get incredible results. Guaranteed.

Hill Sprints

Yesterday I ran hill sprints, but I did them a little different than usual.

For the past few months I would run the hill sprints focusing on speed, and taking as much time as I felt I needed to be mostly recovered for the next sprint.

Well, since my main focus right now is increasing my deadlift and squat, I am backing down the intensity on my hill sprints.

Yesterday I sprinted up the hill at a moderate speed, walked back down, and then immediately sprinted back up. I did this 8 times. Not sure if it really matters, but the hill I run is quite steep, so I walk down in a zig-zag pattern to take some of the stress off my knees. Just thought you might like to know that. ; )

I'm running the hill sprints right now for a few reasons:

1) I like training outdoors, getting some fresh air and sunshine

2) They're challenging, which I like

3) I want to keep my heart and lungs strong.

As much as I love lifting weights, I want to also make sure my cardiovascular system is healthy and strong. Hill sprints are great for that.

Today I'll rest up and prepare for tomorrow's workout.

Deadlifts, Presses, and Chins

I had a great weekend. I played tennis (if you can really call what we did "tennis") and enjoyed the summertime sunshine.

Today's training session went incredibly well.

Here's what I did:

1) Deadlift - 255x4 (all time PR; before this it was 250x3), 230x5, 195 on 4" step x 8

2a) Military Press - 85x5/4, 70x9

2b) Weighted Chin-ups - 15x2x6 (bodyweight + 15 pounds, 2 sets, 6 reps), bodyweight x 9

3) Farmers Walk - 60 pounds dumbbells - I did a few trips with these and my forearms are still screaming

Great training session.

Make sure you check out today's post at The Fat Solutions => And Then There Was One.