Miguel Holly- Trying to get somewhere

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miguelholly

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So I'm Miguel. I've been lifting since 11th grade when I was 17. I'm 21 now, and in four years I've hardly made any progress. In 11th and 12th grade, I did like alot of people starting out and only did the exercises I liked, pretty much neglecting squats and deadlifts during this time. After graduating, I stopped doing volume and started reading some Mike Mentzer books. I really like the concepts he wrote about and decided to follow them. For all of my freshman year of college I did Mentzer Heavy Duty. I made some progress, but not much to speak of. I started reading Ellington Darden HIT books and like what he said even better. Around November of 2004 I started doing a Darden HIT routine and made the best progress I've ever made. I was doing a full body routine 3 days a week. I went from doing squats for 75lbs. at 6 reps to failure when I started the routine, to doing squats with 125lb.s at 4 reps in only 20 workouts. I kept doing this until around last summer. Then, I started trying to do much higher volume stuff and my progress once again stagnated. I did German Volume Training for a time, and various other routines.
Over the past year while working out at a gym at the university I attend, I've probably changed my routine 20 freakin' times because I'd always listen to the so called gym "experts". Of course, I made little progress. Now, I know where I've messed up all these years. I never would give a routine enough time to see if it could work, and I never put too much into adding weight on each exercise regularly.
I weight around 170 at 6'2'' right now. I plan to start doing DC training in September when I go back to school and have access to a good gym. For now, I'm working out in my garage using barbells and free weights. I'm doing an Ell Darden style routine again this summer. I have really liked the results I've gotten with his routines, I've never been able to get such results doing other things. Here is the routine I'm doing for the rest of the summer:

military press
squats
leg curls
bent rows
deadlifts
incline bench
narrow grip bench
barbell curls
reverse curls

the first day I did this routine was Monday, June 19th. Here are my results:
military press 65x4
squats 100x5
leg curls 50x7
bent rows 75x9
deadlifts 135x4
incline press 95x4
narrow grip bench 60x6
barbell curls 55x8
reverse curls 25x5
 
Day 2, june 21

Day 2, june 21

Today my workout was good, I went up on all 9 exercises:
lt- last time
tt= this time

military press. lt- 65x4. tt- 65x6
squats. lt- 100x5. tt- 100x7
leg curls. lt-50x7. tt- 55x6
bent rows. lt- 75x9. tt- 80x6
deadlifts. lt- 135x4. tt- 135x7
incline press. lt- 95x4. tt- 95x6
narrow grip press. lt- 60x6. tt- 65x6
barbell curls. lt- 55x8. tt- 60x7
reverse curls. lt- 25x5. tt- 25x6
 
Day 3- June 26

Day 3- June 26

I missed Friday's workout because I was out of town. Today I did my third workout.

military press. lt-65x6. tt-70x4
squats. lt-100x7. tt-105x6
leg curls. lt-55x6. tt-60x5
bent rows. lt-80x6. tt-85x7
deadlifts. lt-135x7. tt-140x7
incline bench. lt-95x6. tt-100x4
narrow grip press. lt-65x6. tt-70x4
barbell curls. lt-60x7. tt-65x5
reverse curls. lt-25x6. tt-30x3

I was kinda dissapointed with the reps I was able to manage today. Especially only being able to get 3 reps before failure on reverse curls. Next workout is Wednesday.
 
hey bro good to have you here. I've never been a fan of full body splits. There are a lot better training programs out there. Hell just look at the westside for skinny bastard thread in the football training section. That is a great looking routine
 
Day 4- July 3

Day 4- July 3

Wow, it's been a week. Ok so Wednesday I missed my workout because I just couldn't get myself to go to the gym and do 9 sets to failure/ full body. I decided then to split my routine a bit for my own benefit. Friday I missed my workout because I had a badly pulled muscle in my neck/ chest area that kept me from using my right shoulder to do anything. In the mean time, I re-did my workout to more DC standards. I was reading something by DC on a website where he was discussing a new split he designed. It's a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday split with the following parts per day:
day 1
biceps
forearms
back width
back thick

day 2
chest
shoulders
triceps

day 3
calves
hams
quads

You rotate the 3 day split over four weekly workouts, so the parts you do on Monday will be worked again on Friday. Anyhow, I figured since I'll be doing DC in the fall, I should start doing a similar program now. However, since I train in my garage with limited supplies, I don't have the luxury of rotating 3 exercises per muscle. So I'm having to use just one exercise per muscle.
Anyhow, I really can focus better on each exercise when I know I only have 3 or 4 to do for that day instead of 9 grueling sets to failure. I did my first workout today:

barbell curls 65lbs.x 5,2,1 rest paused
reverse curls 20lbs.x10 straight set
bent rows 70lbs.x15 ss
deadlifts 140lbs.x8, 190x1

It only took me about 13 minutes to do the whole thing, warm ups included. I was whipped when I got done. Tomorrow I do chest, shoulders, and triceps.
 
HIT is SHIT bro esp if you're an athlete. good thing you are going back to the basics w squatting and deadinggg
 
Day 5 - July 4

Day 5 - July 4

Today was chest, shoulders, and tris

incline bench press 100lbs. x 6,1,0 rest paused + 3 ten second negative only reps
military press 70lbs. x 2,1,0
narrow grip bench press 70lbs. x 5,2,0


I was dissappointed with my reps on military press. The rest pausing on incline press right before really took away my energy. I could really feel how much my upper chest is involved on military press when I got stuck after the second rep. Hopefully, next time I will have adjusted some to this. Next workout is legs on Thursday.
 
Day 6- July 7

Day 6- July 7

I missed yesterday's workout because of my job. Today I went to do it and could only get in 5 reps on leg curls before I had to attend to some family issues. I've not been able to get my workout done properly this summer. I'm just going to do deadlifts, squats, and incline bench press for the rest of the summer. Do one exercise each day, M-T-Th-F. I think I could have time to do that, if I can't do that next week without taking a day off, I think that I might just take the rest of the summer off and focus on the things that have kept me busy and unable to regularly hit the iron. Then, when late August rolls around and I go back to school, I'll be really pumped and driven to get back to the gym and do some great things. So I'm gonna try to the big lifts next week and if I can keep doing that, then I'll stay with it through the summer.
 
The New Sh*t

The New Sh*t

Ok guys, so I'm taking the rest of the summer off from training to prepare and rest my body for the onslaught of DC training I'll be doing when school starts back, plus, I have been so busy this summer to do any meaningful workouts. Anyhow, a little back story on me for those of you who care, or don't. I am a marketing major at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. During the summers I live in my hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. I move back down to Hattiesburg on Saturday, August 19th, school starts Wednesday the 23rd, and my training will begin on Sunday, August 27th. I will be working out Sunday- Tuesday- Thursday, doing cardio on Monday- Wednesday- Friday. My diet on lifting days is going to consist of 3,905 calories and 295.5 grams of protein. On cardio days it will be 3,665 calories and 247.5 grams of protein. I'd eat closer along the lines of what DC recommends, but hey, I'm a college student on a limited income. Here is how my routine will look:

day 1:
chest press (chest)
military press (shoulders)
dips (tris)
pullovers (back w)
deadlifts (back t)

day 2:
barbell curls (bis)
hammer curls (forearm)
leg press toe press (calves)
sumo leg press (hams)
squats (quads)

day 3:
incline smythe press
dumbbell shoulder press
tri extensions
behind neck pulldowns
bent rows

day 4:
incline dumbbell curls
reverse curls
seated calf raise
stiff leg deadlifts
leg press

day 5:
dumbbell flat bench press
machine shoulder press
close grip smythe bench press
narrow grip pulldowns
rack pulls

day 6:
preacher curls
cable reverse curls
one leg toe press
lying leg curls
smythe squats

I can't wait to begin. My goal for this semester (Aug-Dec 15th, 2006) is to get up to a body weight of 190-200lbs. Currently, I weight about 175, so that would equal out to gaining a pound or more of weight per week during the semester. This may be too lofty of a goal to reach without putting on a bunch of fat. I'll find out soon I guess.

-Miguel Holly
 
Today was my first workout of the semester. I don't plan to rest pause my routine because I don't have the financial means to eat enough food to avoid overtraining from such intense workouts. However, I am going to eat around 2,800 calories per day and maintain a routine using every aspect of DC except rest pause. On every exercise, I'm going to do a few warm ups then try to get 8 reps with the selected weight. After 8 reps, I put down the weight and add 5 to 20 pounds depending on how heavy the lift is. Once I cannot get 8 reps on a set, the exercise is done for the day. Here is today's workout:

chest press - plate3 x8, plate4 x8, plate5 x4
military press - 55lbs. x8, 60lbs. x4
machine dips - plate8 x8, plate9 x8, plate10 x6
pullover machine - plate8 x8, plate9 x2
deadlifts - 120lbs. x8, 140lbs. x1

overall, this was what I expected after a month and a half lay off. I'm dissappointed on deadlifts though, I figured I could at least get to 160 or 180 on those. Next workout is Tuesday.
 
Well today's workout wasn't quite that good. Right now my gym is polluted with an influx of clueless morons. My workout today was to be barbell curls, hammer curls, toe press, sumo leg press, and squats. I get to the gym and both barbells/ racks where I do barbell curls and squats were in use. So I couldn't start my workout with barbell curls as I had planned. Instead, I went to the leg press machine and did toe press. Then I did sumo leg press on that same machine. Right when I finished, a worker came by and told me that the area I was in had to be vacuumed and we had to leave our machines. That was fine with me cause I was done with the machine, the thing is, why did they have to vacuum in the middle of the day? Also, the floors are vinly so wouldn't sweeping be more appropriate? Anyhow, in this time that this area was being vacuumed I went over to the dumbbell area and did hammer curls. Then I did barbell curls when the area was available again. I didn't do well on them because the hammer curls zapped most of my biceps' energy. At that point I had squats left to do. The rack I needed was next to the one I did curls on. The other rack had adjustable bars that were at your sides to catch the bar if you get stuck under a weight while squating. Well the whole time I was there, and I was there almost an hour, there were 3 morons on that rack. All three were taking turns doing bent rows for the entire time! Well, they were intending on doing bent rows. They all were standing almost completely straight up, not bent over. They were slightly bent so that their shoulders were in front of their legs. It looked more like they were doing underhand grip shrugs than bent rows. So I had to sub squats out for smythe squats. I've never done those before so I didn't get that good of a weight on them. Hopefully, these morons are only here for a few weeks then give up. Here is my workout from today:

toe press 100lbs. x12, 120lbs x6
sumo press 100lbs x8, 120lbs x7
hammer curls 10lbs x12, 15lbs x10
barbell curls 50lbs x5 <-----not good
smythe squats 85lbs x4 <-----not good either

next workout is Thursday
 
Workout from Thursday, August 31, 2006

incline dumbbell bench press 25lbs. x8, 30 x8, 35 x3
dumbbell shoulder press 20lbs. x8, 22.5 x4
close grip bench press 60lbs. x8, 65 x6
behind neck pulldowns plate5 x8, p6 x8, p7 x8, p8 x8<----didn't go to failure cause I had a line of people start forming behind me and I felt like I could have probably gotten 4 more sets. Used too light of a weight.
bent rows 65lbs. x8, 75 x6

Was supposed to workout today but because of Labor Day holidays my gym is closed. Next workout will be Tuesday.
 
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