View All Posts: Aquarian
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| » Aquarian's 531 odyssey (Go to post) | 16-10-2015 @ 02:35 | ||
| Still felt a small but significant amount of pain in the left hip. Left ankle was also sore - mainly in walking downhill or down stairs. CONV DL (beltless) Warmups 70x8,100x6,140x3,180x2,220x1 - all easy. Hip was fine. Working Sets 250x2 - ok. 260x2 - ok but hip got a bit niggly because I put the bar down a bit off centre after the first rep and didn't adjust my feet before pulling the 2nd rep. 270x2 - ok. 280x1 - didn't expect to get this but was pretty comfortable. Exceptional. Tech was almost perfect - stayed on mid foot and pulled up rather than back and locked out by pulling the bar and pushing the hips forward. Grip was strong. If I can keep this up I should get 290 next week. HBBS (beltless) Warmups 20x10,60x10,100x6,140x4 - ok, some groin pain but fairly minor. Knees were fine. Working Sets 180x5 - pretty easy. 190x5 - last 2 reps were pretty grindy. 200x3 - could've done 5 but was only expecting 2-3 and was surprised how easy they were. Came down a bit faster without losing my shape coming up. Encouraging and no ankle issues either. Leg Extensions 100x10,160x10,220x10,280x10,340x10,400x4 - last set was too much, only fully locked out 1 rep. Next time I'll start with 160 and end with 400. Definitely getting stronger and bigger quads. Great session. Hip was a bit sore afterwards but after stretching and a hot bath / cold shower it was fine. Next up BP 3x3 - probably 152.5,162.5 and 172.5 again - and then ohp (narrow) 3x2 - up to 130 which I may try beltless. | |||
| » Aquarian's 531 odyssey (Go to post) | 14-10-2015 @ 01:48 | ||
| 2 days of sheer agony with the left hip. Couldn't bend forwards more than a few inches and sitting down made the pain worse. Just when I had visions of surgery, retirement etc...got to the gym, did some stretches and the pain virtually disappears! Stranger than a woman and almost as painful to deal with  CGBP Warmups 20x20,40x10,60x6,80x4,100x3,120x2 - no problems. Working Sets (paused) 140x5 - easy. 150x5 - easy. 160x4.5 - bugger! 4th rep was ok should really have gotten the 5th but only got it half way up. Maybe should have paused the last rep longer. A minor improvement over last time but only by 0.5 reps! OHP (wide, beltless, wrist wrapless!) Warmups 20x10,40x6,60x3,80x2 - all ok. Working Sets 100x3 - easy. 110x3 - pretty easy. 120x2,1 - first one was very easy, 2nd a little slow and had to breath out, 3rd was done after 2-3 mins and was a grind! First time done these totally raw - wrists were fine and didn't struggle to unrack or start the press without the wrist wraps. Back was ok too. Bent Over Rows (pronated) Waited about 1 hour to do these no racks free and didn't want to deadlift the weight up from the floor. 20x10,40x10,60x6,80x6,100x6,120x6,130x4(straps) - had a lot of soreness in the left bicep from around 80 onwards. I assume this was from supinating the arm on Sun doing the sumos and may also explain why I had the hip pain - possibly due to the arm bending slightly when I lifted the bar which drifted in front of me and caused the hip to get jarred. Considering how dire I felt right up to training today this workout was something of a miracle. Still annoyed I missed the 5th rep with 160 on the cgbp but that's being a bit greedy. Next up conv dl - doubles with 250,260,270 and maybe one single with 280 all beltless - and some more high bar squats, although I have some soreness in the left ankle which may be due to doing them. Hopefully all the pain will have gone by the next workout. | |||
| » Aquarian's 531 odyssey (Go to post) | 11-10-2015 @ 21:21 | ||
| Usual not great sleep on Sunday. Waited maybe 20 mins to start as the platforms were all busy. Sumo (beltless) Warmups 70x8,100x6,140x3,180x2,220x1 - all ok. Working Sets 230x3 - ok. 240x3 - last rep grip was going a bit. 250x1 - ouch felt sharp pain in the left hip. After 10-15 mins of stretching and grimacing... 250x2 - didn't feel anything in the hip doing these so relieved. HBBS (beltless) Warmups 20x10,60x10,100x6,140x4 - all ok. Working Sets 180x5 - bit of knee pain going down but it went away. Not the easiest set I've done. 190x5 - I thought I'd get 3 after the previous set but managed 5 with only the last one a bit grindy. Decided not to go heavier today. Leg Extensions 100x10,160x10,220x10,280x10,340x10 - felt a bit stronger on these despite having done another set of 5 on the squats beforehand. Maybe the quads are getting a bit stronger. Quite sore now a few hours later in the left side / hip. I think I must have twisted slightly to one side when picking up that 250 first rep. Hopefully it's nothing too serious but I expect it will be pretty sore for a few days. I may start using straps on sumo just to avoid the back torquing to one side with the mixed grip. Next up CGBP 3x5 - hopefully I can finally get 160x5 paused - and ohp wide 3x3 up to 120 beltless. | |||
| » Aquarian's 531 odyssey (Go to post) | 10-10-2015 @ 00:13 | ||
| Back was fine yesterday despite going commando on the deads. Today however woke up and was really sore on the right back/hip area and this persisted throughout the bench part of the workout. BP Warmups 20x20,40x10,60x6,80x4,100x3,120x2 - all good. Working Sets (paused) 142.5x5 - horrible set everything felt heavy, loose and grindy - even managed to irritate the left pec. IDK what happened there maybe lost some tightness somewhere. 152.5x5 - and strangely enough this set was the complete opposite! Like a warmup! 162.5x5 - again a pretty easy set. Had to breath out on the 4th rep and then held the 5th on the chest for almost 5s but it came up pretty smoothly. Well that was weird but I finished so strongly that I will probably increase the weights by 2.5kg next time I do 5's. OHP (narrow) (all beltless) Warmups 20x10,40x6,60x3,80x2 - all good. Working Sets 100x3 - fine, took a long break before this chatting as usual! 110x3 - 3rd rep was a little tough locking out. 120x2,1 - probably could have done all 3 without resting but was starting to lean back too much and without a belt on I didn't want to do that. Pretty good going beltless on these for the first time - I still need to focus on pushing the body forwards and the bar backwards more when the weight gets heavier. Shrugs (narrow) 20x10,60x10,100x10,140x5,180x10(straps),220x10,240x10 - grip was a bit weak on the 140's. I was using a bit too much arm on the 220's and 240's as the biceps were getting pumped up. Good session. Next up - I've decided to stick with sumo but to ditch the belt again and maybe reduce the weight slightly. I think the belt makes me lean forward too much at the bottom which reinforces my build's (short back and medium length legs) issues with sumo. So hopefully without the belt on I should be able to keep the torso more vertical and work the hips better. After this beltless high bar squats 180x5,190x5 and whatever I can get with 200 and then more leg extensions! | |||
| » Anyone Know About Computers (Go to post) | 08-10-2015 @ 15:22 | ||
luki said:I had to replace the screen and HD on the mac and the aftermarket ones run hotter. This is causing the overheat. I have cleaned fans and vents. I am sharing with another person ATM. Moving a PC between my room and shared area wouldn't be ideal. Sorry looks like Dabs is BT in GBNI. These links should work for the ones I was looking at. The first two are i5 dual core last is i7 quad. I guess maybe I should just go with the last one if games are made for quad core now. They've all got really crappy gaming gpus though - gtx 850m - unless you want to run everything at low res with minimal settings. For gaming the gpu makes more of a difference than the cpu once you are running at a high enough resolution and using any decent quad core reasonably modern cpu. Really would rethink getting a laptop for gaming at that price. Buy or build a small factor pc - maybe get another cheap laptop - and you can use Steam to stream games from the pc to the laptop. Much better solution than limiting yourself to a cheap laptop which will probably not last very long or perform well enough to justify buying it. | |||
| » Anyone Know About Computers (Go to post) | 08-10-2015 @ 13:51 | ||
luki said:I need a laptop for night college and work (wordprocessing.) My 2005 mac has started overheating and turning off and the new ones are crazy money so have decided to go Linux or Windows. I wanted to get something that could play games and do photoshop (hopefully for a few years) and am looking here: http://www.dabs4work.ie/category/computing,laptops-and-tablets... but happy to shop elsewhere. I don't really want to spend more than €8-900/£6-650 inc tax. Are the MSI dual core i5 laptops going to be very slow for new games compared to the i7 quad cores? Both are over 3ghz. I wouldn't buy anything with less than 4 cores these days - you can always overclock a slower cpu (though you'll be more limited clocking a laptop due to much greater heat build up in them which is harder to cool than in a larger desktop). Most new games are optimised for more than 2 cores. Most I5's should be 4 cores - though there might be a few mobile ones with only 2. For games the gpu can be more important than the cpu especially if the laptop screen has a high resolution (1080p or greater) - although you can run games at a lower res than the native screen res - or if you want to use good anti-aliasing to remove visible edges or turn on other effects that require strong gpus. If you are going to buy a laptop without a discreet gpu in it (ie a separate gpu from the one in the cpu) then amd generally have better systems (the A10 apus are best). The one exception is the intel iris pro ones but they may be out of your price range. If you can stretch your budget by another couple of hundred quid then you may be able to get an I7 with a discrete gpu like an nvidia gtx 860m which will give decent performance at 1080. I used to use Crysis to benchmark what was a good PC i.e. if it would play in high graphics mode it was going to last years. Is their a new game that is good to look at to guess if a chip/graphics combo is any good? I'm not a high end gamer but games like Far Cry, GTAV, Battlefield 4, Assassins Creed, Witcher 3 - have a look at some of the benches on Anandtech and Tom's Hardware guide. Of course on laptop you won't be running at a super high res at high framerates unless it costs like 3k, sounds like a jet engine and weighs a ton! Also will their be any problem running Linux and playing games? I don't want to pay €7 a month for windows 10 if I can just run Linux and use corel word etc. Linux has literally thousands of games that run natively - about half of the games on Steam now support Linux. Also a lot of games that don't run natively will run fine using Wine - there are lots of guides which show you how to do this and most of them are fairly trivial to use. Linux has Open Office or Libre Office which is almost fully compatible with MS Office files and has a fairly similar interface. In terms of image editing I think Photoshop works with Wine but not natively. But there are other tools such as Gimp, Inkscape which can edit photoshop psds. Worse case scenario either dual boot Windows or run it in a VM (Virtual Machine) - although the latter option isn't suitable for most games, due to the overhead in running the VM and the lack of DX11/12 support in most VM's. Have a look at hukd (hot uk deals) in the computing section they often have discounted laptops. Do you really need a laptop though? For the equivalent amount of money you could build a very decent pc and even throw in a reasonably sized monitor. Gaming on laptops requires all sorts of compromises I'd personally avoid. You can build really small factor cases which are quite easy to carry around and are much more upgradeable and better value than a fixed laptop spec which gets outdated pretty quickly, especially for playing games. | |||
| » Aquarian's 531 odyssey (Go to post) | 07-10-2015 @ 23:43 | ||
| Woke up yesterday with a really sore left wrist under the thumb - bad pain when I moved the wrist in certain directions. Initially dismissed this as the short lived sharp pain syndrome but when it persisted today I was worried it would mess up my DL at least. Luckily it had no effect on anything other than a bit of pain using the grippers afterwards. I think either the supinated rows, ohp without the wrist wraps or the reverse grip work - or maybe all 3 - were to blame. Conv DL (beltless) Warmups 70x8,100x6,140x3,180x2,220x1 - all good. Working Sets 240x3 - felt a bit stiff and slow. 250x3 - easy and smooth. 260x3 - 3rd rep stalled around the knees but I unleashed my inner Rob Rees  and did a lockout he would be proud of!270x1 - The Rob Rees effect was sadly short-lived! A 2nd rep would have invited disaster. Pretty awesome - after 240 I was worried the belt would have to make an appearance and was pleasantly surprised I didn't need or want it at all. Who needs a belt when you have a spare tire  HBBS (beltless) After an hour or so of waiting for a free rack (literally!) - the gym was invaded by a mixture of the hardcore and the softcore (mostly the latter) who all decided to come at the same time! My back had stiffened nicely in the meantime... 20x10,60x10,100x6,140x4 - all good, narrow stance, letting the knees go forward rather than pushing the legs out. No groin issues. 180x5 - no problems at all either with pain or the weight - felt really easy and smooth. Interesting I've never really done a knees forward type squat with much weight - knees felt fine afterwards and the quads took most of the strain coming up. I think as long as I come down smoothly and stay mid foot it should be fine. I'll slowly ramp up the weight and stay in the 5 rep range for now. Leg Extensions Saving the best for last! 100x10,160x10,220x10,280x10,340x10 - last set was bit of a grind to get started and finished! Quads seriously pumped!!! Very enjoyable session - hopefully won't suffer too much tomorrow in the back going totally beltless. Next up BP 3x5 - 142.5 to 162.5 - and ohp 3x3 - 100 to 120. I'll keep the ohp beltless to ensure I use the shoulders more rather than leaning back which the belt encourages. | |||
| » Aquarian's 531 odyssey (Go to post) | 05-10-2015 @ 23:02 | ||
| CGBP Warmups 20x20,40x10,60x6,80x4,100x3,120x2 - all good. Working Sets (paused) 150x3 - very easy didn't even really stay tight doing these. 170x2 - 2nd rep was a bit slow probably paused too long. 187.5x1 - very comfortable, could've done 190! After a week of near misses it was inevitable I'd be a bit conservative but there was enough in the tank to suggest I'll get it next time. Still a paused cgbp pb and much better than the 185 I did last time. OHP (wide) Warmups 20x10,40x6,60x3,80x2 - all good. Working Sets 100x1 - easy. 110x1 - pretty easy. No belt or wrist wraps. 120x1 - wrist wraps on, comfortable. 130x1 - belt on, ok. 140x0 - just got it to the top of the head and didn't want to bend back so stopped there. Didn't feel heavy unracking it but just lacked the shoulder strength to lift it a few inches higher and would've probably had the momentum to lock it out. Bent Over Rows (supinated) 20x10,40x10,60x6,80x6,100x6,120x4,130x5(straps) - grip was a bit weak on all of these. Pretty good end to a slightly disappointing max week but if I can avoid geting injured or falling ill and continue to sleep well I'm confident next time I max in 3 weeks or so I'll get all the lifts I missed narrowly this time with something to spare. Back to building strength starting with DLs - 3x3 240 to 260 and will try and do them all beltless regular grip width - and then probably front squats. | |||
| » Aquarian's 531 odyssey (Go to post) | 03-10-2015 @ 22:15 | ||
| My quads were still a bit sore 4 days after I did leg extensions although much better than even yesterday. My right groin also had really bad pain standing up or walking after sitting or lying down for a while - similar to a locked groin where the leg doesn't track properly until it clicks back into place. I've had this before but not for years so I think it was caused by either the leg extensions or the lack of squatting. Sumo DL Warmups 70x8,100x6,140x3,180x2,220x1 - 220 was a bit slow but the rest were fine. No pain in the quads or groin. Working Sets 240x1x2 - first rep tried it with the belt high and it didn't work. 2nd rep went back to my normal belt position and it felt better. 250x1 - ok. 260x1 - slow. 270x1 - after 3 total failures managed it with straps on. Well the leg issues probably didn't help but even without them I don't think I would have gotten more than 270. Very, very, very tempted to drop sumo again and do romanian dl's or some other conventional variation. HBBS First time squatting in 16 days! 20x10 - ok 60x10 - fine 100x6 - ok 140x3 - on the last rep felt the right groin but I'm sure it was the new groin pain not the old one that had caused me to stop squatting. Groin was fine afterwards so I think I can squat again and build it up slowly. Leg Extensions 100x10,160x10,220x10,280x10,340x10 - harder to do as I squatted first. Last set was really tough all the way through. Hopefully no major quad soreness tomorrow. So sumo was s**t as usual but it is very close to getting the chop especially if I can squat regularly again. Hopefully I can get back to squatting twice a week. I think I will try and do front squats one workout (after conv dl) and hbbs on the other. Not bothered about lifting too much on either just want to build up some quad strength and take the strain off the hips and groin. Next up last of the max workouts - cgbp probably 187.5 paused with a small chance of 190 - and ohp wide I may attempt 140 if the warmups go well. | |||
| » Aquarian's 531 odyssey (Go to post) | 01-10-2015 @ 23:19 | ||
| 4 consecutive days of sleeping well - new record! Last 2 days though major doms in the quads after those leg extensions - at least I know now the way I've been squatting hasn't hit the quads much and I'll keep doing the leg extensions after I get back to doing squats. BP Warmups 20x20,40x10,60x6,80x4,100x3,120x2 - all easy, fast and thankfully no pain in the left pec despite it being more sore than usual the last 3 days. Had some difficulty lying back die to the sore quads but once I was in position they were fine. Working Sets (paused) 150x3 - easy. 175x2 - 2nd rep was a teeny bit slower than I wanted. 195x0.99 - maybe 1in from full lockout - got it comfortably over the catches but just couldn't fully lock out the arms. Think I lost a bit of tightness both at the top unracking it myself and at the bottom when I paused. Maybe I should've warmed up differently too - singles with 165,175,185 then 195. But ultimately just wasn't quite strong enough to do it. Next time should be a formality. OHP (narrow) Warmups 20x10,40x6,60x3,80x2 Working Sets 100x1 - easy 110x1 - felt quite heavy when I unracked it and later realised I hadn't put on the wrist wraps. Fairly easy lockout. 120x1 - no belt, fairly easy. 130x1(belt) - ok. 137.5x1 - pb! Horrible grind with major lean back but no damage done I think and a bloody good effort after a 195 paused bench! Way-hey a pb - there's still some life in this old dog...pants,pants! Shrugs(wide) 20x10,60x10,100x10,140x5,180x10(straps),220x10,240x8 - think that's a rep record with 240! Well not too disappointed I missed the big one - very happy the pec wasn't an issue and got the pb on the bent / standing incline press! Next up Sumo Max (groan!) - no idea what state my quads will be in - today they were only marginally better than yesterday but hopefully after 2 decent nights' sleep I'll be fighting fit. Anything around 270 will be decent. I may try some very light squats too as the groin feels better. | |||
| » Physical Culture - Putney (Go to post) | 30-09-2015 @ 13:29 | ||
Rico said: Aquarian said:Me, Rob Rees, Yano, Jack Revans and possibly some more Sugdenites train there. Great gym I'm sure you'll enjoy training there. That's a decent crew! What times do you typically train? I'm usually there from 5 onwards every other day. It can get quite busy between 6-8 weekdays especially the platforms and racks but people are pretty civilised and happy to share equipment and space. | |||
| » Aquarian's 531 odyssey (Go to post) | 30-09-2015 @ 00:14 | ||
| Slept pretty well last 2 days. DL (all beltless) Warmups 70x8,100x6,140x3,180x2,220x1 - all fast and easy, even 220! Working Sets (well more like heavier warmups!) 250x1 - easy. 270x1 - little bit slower than I hoped for. 290x0.95 - couldn't have gotten much closer without locking out. Maybe 1-2 inches short. Grip went a bit but just didn't come fast enough off the ground I think. I'll blame that on the cold last week! Bit disappointed but hopefully in 24 days this will be a formality. Tech was pretty solid I just wasn't quite strong enough. Next 2 weeks I will just do beltless regular grip pulls rather than sticking with the wide grip and hopefully that will help me get over the line. I didn't want to leg press today as the right knee was pretty irritable and I had felt the groin a bit too last time I leg pressed. Still not up to squatting although the groin definitely feels better. Time to do... Leg Extensions - another blast from the past! I put the seat all the way back so I was almost flat on my back. 100x10,160x10,220x10,280x10,340x10 - quads definitely felt the burn! And no knee pain during or after doing these and no groin pain either. Might just drop the leg press and do leg extensions if there's no knee pain in the future. Ok next up BP Max. My left pec was a bit more sore after the last workout probably due to missing the 3rd rep with 172.5 and doing an uneven lockout. Feels ok today so hopefully will be fine in 2 days. Going for 195 paused - I may just cheat and do 150x1,175x1,195x1 rather than 150x5,170x3,195x1 - and then ohp max hopefully get more than 135. | |||
| » Physical Culture - Putney (Go to post) | 29-09-2015 @ 23:58 | ||
| Me, Rob Rees, Yano, Jack Revans and possibly some more Sugdenites train there. Great gym I'm sure you'll enjoy training there. | |||
| » Aquarian's 531 odyssey (Go to post) | 27-09-2015 @ 21:21 | ||
| As usual slept s**t for a Sunday workout - physically and psychologically training on Sundays just seem to be all kinds of wrong! CGBP Warmups 20x20,40x10,60x6,80x4,100x3,120x2 - all good. Working Sets (paused) 152.5x3 - good. 162.5x3 - good. 172.5x2.9 - Should have stopped at 2 as bar was slowing down quite a bit. Locked out the left side but missed the right on the 3rd. Slight lack of strength and tech going the cause - should have paused longer and tighten up more and probably could have locked out evenly. OHP (Wide) Warmups 20x10,40x6,60x3,80x2,100x1 - all good. Working Sets 110x2(beltless) - keeping the back straight made it harder locking out both reps. 120x2(belt) - ok. 130x1 - bent back a lot at the bottom but straightened out at the top fairly easily. Not for the first time the left wrist wrap unravelled as soon as I unracked the bar which didn't help! Bent Over Rows (pronated) 20x10,40x10,60x6,80x6,100x6,120x4,120x2,130x5(straps) - up to 100 very easy. On 120 the bar rolled in the hands as I picked it up and should have put it down again and reset. Not too bad considering lack of sleep. Next up DL max - will attempt 290 beltless if the warmups go well. May drop the leg press for this workout as my right knee and left ankle were quite sore the last 2 days and I'm pretty sure this is down to leg pressing. | |||
| » Aquarian's 531 odyssey (Go to post) | 25-09-2015 @ 23:59 | ||
| Wasn't looking forward to this! Sumo DL Warmups 70x8,100x6,140x3,180x2,220x1,240x1 - all ok. Working Sets 250x2 - predictably slow. 260x2 - predictably even slower with a few misses thrown in for fun. Had enough - bar was getting stuck in my leggings making me have to drag it forward. I passed on 270 had no enthusiasm for more masochism today. Leg Press 10 reps each with 180,240,300,360,420,480,498 - again felt like cardio, weight not remotely challenging. Messed around with some grip work - block grip 20kg, rolling thunder 20kg,45kg and missed 55kg completely. Hate this sodding workout! But another 2-3 weeks of no squatting to look forward to. Next up thankfully CGBP 3x3 - I may try 152.5,162.5 and 172.5 - and ohp wide 3x2 up to 120 or 125. | |||