Goodbye July


A few days late but it is time for the run down of what happened in July. The goals for July were to build strength while controlling body weight. The month had it's ups and downs both weight wise and health wise so here is a summary.

Body Weight

Start
Finish
205lb
205lb


This was actually a struggle. Mid month my body weight started to climb going up to 209lb and I had to get more serious about my diet. Cracked down on carbohydrate intake after lunch and increased my vegetable intake. No craft beer for me..

Exercises:
Due to a lot of changes that happened during the month I am going to address each exercise separately.

Lower Body
 
Front Squat:
Beginning of the month we had one week of 6x6 sets where I peaked at 245lbs. After that we went to 3x6 sets with monday being no tempo then on thursday we used the resting rack to deload at the bottom of the squat losing the elastic potential of the muscle then having to push from zero. My monday weights averaged 225lb and thursday was 185lb.

Back Squat:
Started at 335lb for 6x6 sets for one week. Then 3x6 no tempo averaging 315 and 3x6 pause squats at 245lb. I found back squats were the most irritating to my hip flexor.

Dead Lift:
This was my favorite lift this month as it did not irritate my hip. Week of 6x6 I peaked at 330lb. Mondays 3x6 no tempo I was able to get up to 380lb atleast with some of the sets same as with paused sets.

Bulgarian Split Squat:
This was a new exercise for July and I liked it. We did 4x4 sets on both monday and thursday using 50lb dumbbell in each hand. Definitely brings unilateral issues to the surface.

Glute Medius Walk:
Same as before. Burn. burn. burn. Only done on monday.

Posterior Chain Pulls:
Took a few times to get used to these we did 4x10. If the resistance band slips it pulls your hair leg. Be warned.

Straight Legged Good Morning:
Replaced Glute medius walk on Thursdays. Sets are 3x10. Nice and slow focusing on glute firing.

Upper Body
At the start of the month uppers were done on Tuesday and Friday when my body weight started to rise we replaced the Friday upper day with rowing.

Dumbbell bench:
These were 6x6 on tuesday bouncing between 100lb and 95lb dumbbells. Fridays these were 10x10 (least favorite) 70lb dumbbells.

Reverse bench:
Same sets as regualar bench. 80lb on 6x6 day and 60lb on 10x10 day.

Banded Rollout, Cubans, Scoops, and Reverse Fly:
 These are the accessory exercises we rotated through upper day. Their weights did not change which is to be expected as they are meant to push your primary lifts up. 

Hill Interval Wednesday:
Every week the repetitions have increased surpassing the 30 mark. Always finishing the legs with a back pedal rep or two. 

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