Thought I needed to start writing stuff down for my new cycle to keep track, and maybe some will find it helpful.
10-26-09 Bench(shirt work)
warmup- rep bar, rep 95lbs, rep 135lbs
roll on pvc pipe(foam roll)
185x2
225x2
275x1 2 board
315x1 3 board
added shirt(single ply metal viking x-type)
365x1 3 board
405x1 3 board
added reverse band(-40 at top, -90 at 2 board)
455x1 2 board
495x1 2 board
545x1 2 board
starting out light, everything was fast and very easy. took last week off due to illness and just getting back into things. bw down 5lbs due to illness
shoulder press on the leg press 1 plate(each side) 15x3
band pull-aparts 15,20
16 inch box
warmup bar, 135
225x5
315x2
405x1
foam roll and stretch
425x5
445x5x2(added belt)
added reverse bands (-80 at top, -130 at bottom)
545x5
585x5
leg press 7plates perside 15reps x2
back raise with 25lb 15reps x3
weights felt heavier than they should, still going easy and getting back into things, bw down 5-6 pounds now, have to get that back up.
ride bike 5min
good morning variation(how Ano Turtienen? does them) safety bar+1 plate perside x15x3
ghr with 45lb plate x13x2, bw x15
hip thrusters with 40lb dumbell
legs were already sore, realized today how much being sick and not eating much last week took out of me.
10-31-09 supposed to do raw bench
Was out of town for halloween with people that like to do nothing but drink, so didn’t get to lift.
11-1-09 supposed to do bench accessory work
Drank quite a bit last night and was going to lift today but don’t think it’s gonna happen. Might just do more work tomorrow when I go in.
warmup- bar, 95, 135
185x3
225x2
275x1 2 board
315x1 2 board
405x1 3 board (added shirt)
455x1 2 board
455x1 2 board (added reverse band, same set up as last time)
495x1 2 board
shoulder press to top of head- 185x15, 195x15
bent over bb row- 225x15, 275x15, 295x15
bb skull crushers- 75x15x3
curls with curl bar- bar+70lbs x15, bar+80lbs x15x2
was going to do weighted pullups with 50lb dumbell, did 3 and that was all I had in me for today
Everything felt really good and much better than last week until I put my shirt on, something felt off and my low back was more sore than usual, today pretty much sucked for my shirt work. Didn’t have much to eat today (2 quarts of milk and a cold meat sandwich, I hate cold meat sandwiches) so that probably was a big part of the shitty day. Bodyweight still down about 5 lbs. Still need to get that back up.
Side note for people reading, I’m sure you don’t care but I’ll say this to clear up my training because from here on out it’s going to change from what was already done. I used to do a 4 day split composed of equipped bench on monday, raw squat on tues, wed was foam rolling and day off, thurs was my raw bench day and friday was my equipped squat day and I would alternate my equipped squat day with deadlifting every other week. That worked well for awhile but as my weights increased I became pretty fatigued every day and felt I wasn’t getting as much out of my workouts as I should. I changed things up but just realized that was not going to work out as well as I had thought it was going to, so I’ve decided, with the help of my training partner, that I am just going to continue what I was doing but just take my 4 day split and workout on mon, wed, fri, mon, and just cycle that through, and hopefully that will give me enough rest between my workouts. So there will be no more accessory days and this way I don’t have to lift on the weekends because 1. I don’t like it. and 2. It always seems like I have other things going on.
warmup
135
225x5
315x3
405x1
stretch and foam roll
425x1 (added belt)
455x3
475x3
500x3
585x3 (added reverse band, setup same as last time)
615x3
Used a box setup where I just go down and touch an inch above parallel, a lot harder than it sounds and very tiring on the hamstrings.
good morning with ss yoke bar- 190x12x3
ghr- bw+50 lb dumbell x12x3
pullups 14x1
band pull aparts with average band- 15x2
Strength is coming back but need to work on squat form, I need to lead with my head and not my hips out of the hole. Bodyweight is only down about 2 lbs now. My training partner and I ended up squating together today which worked out pretty well but because of the height difference and difference in weight being used I had a slightly longer rest period during my squating than I normally would have, and by the time I added the reverse bands I ended up being pretty cooled down so the weights felt a little heavier. On paper it doesn’t look like much but by the end of the workout I was spent and had some cramping issues in my legs. I’m very excited about doing a powerlifting meet in December in Chicago, I’m going to try to make the powerliftingwatch top 50 raw lifters in America. That being said I’m very glad my strength is coming back so I can push it hard for the next 6 weeks, I need to in order to acomplish what I want to.
Finally feel like I’m big. Some younger guys, that weren’t members of where I work out, came in the gym doing stupid shit and then decided they were going to use the monolift while there was weight loaded on the bar. They started unloading it and it was brought to my attention what they were doing. So I run up on them and was like “no, no, no, we are still using that.” To my surprise there was no back talk, no talking whatsoever, nothing muttered under their breath(god help them if that would have happened) and they put the weights back on without being told. Not sure if they were just very polite young gentlemen but i’d like to think that there was some intimidation factor there hahaha.
Slight rant and what better place to do that than my thread. 1. I hate people and i’d like to first say that I do admit to not knowing everything about weight training and etc. Nobody knows everything about weight lifting. 2. I like helping people and have helped people significantly increase what they can lift, if they listen. I see so many people always doing shenanigans and it really irritates me. People get to fucking caught up in specialized training methods and this and that percentage and always doing curls and benching but nothing hard like squating or deadlifting. You know what? Most people can just get by by doing very basic reps and sets, just making small increases in weights used from week to week and benching/SQUATING/DEADLIFTING. One guy I’ve worked with has added over 80 lbs on his bench, over 150 lbs on his squat and deadlift. And do you know what he did? He benched, squated and deadlifted and took lifting form advice. He added weight(very small increases) to his lifts each week and worked on some upper back and hamstring accessory work. Most people are not near advanced enough to do specialized work, so stick to the basics. 3. DON’T FUCKING CRANK THE DAMN STEREO WHILE YOU ARE GETTING PSYCHED FOR YOUR SETS OF 80 LB CURLS! People are trying to talk and discuss things that are more important than your damn curls after your 135 lb benchpress. 4. No I will not spot you on curls. 5. Why the hell do people spend the money on pre-workout suppies and then end up pouring them out?
Thats it for now, I’m sure I’ll have more rants in the near future. Also would like to note that hopefully I’ll be taking some training footage and posting it.
Got to foam roll on a real foam roller, it was awesome and was able to dig into places that the pvc won’t reach.
11-6-09 Raw bench day
warmup- bar, 95, 135
185x2
225x1
255x1 (added 1 board, shoulders and elbows kinda sore from continuously straight bar squatting lately, 1 board makes those feel better plus I feel that I don’t get that much out of a 1 board)
275x3
285x3
295x3
335x3 (added reverse bands with same bench setup)
365x3 (this was probably my best set, was the only set of the day where I stayed nice and tight/arched through the entire bench)
405x1 (was feeling good so I decided to go heavier, went pretty well, should have been about 315 at bottom and 365 at top)
shoulder press on leg press- plate and 10 per side x12, plate 10 and 5 per side x12x2
db incline press- 80x12x2, 80x10
T-bar rows- 2 plates and 25 x12, 3 plates x12
demonstrated some face pulls, probably did like 20 of those
Was helping/coaching someone so didn’t get as much done as I would have liked but oh well.
Why the hell do people do wrist curls? Seriously, I can understand if you were doing some bodybuilding comp and you were doing it for some symmetry reason or perhaps if you thought the extra forearm work will help your already existing large benchpress or deadlift but the only people I see do them only bench like 135 or 155 and can only deadlift like 200 and they don’t even squat. I’m pretty sure their forearms aren’t the reason their bench and deadlift are lacking, they are just weak and don’t want to do anything hard. I’m not exagerating this at all, one guy in the gym tonight has like a 150lb bench max, have never seen him squat, he’s maybe done some deads with like 135 or 185 but he was doing the shit outta wrist curls. I don’t get it.
Used ss yoke bar(bar weighs just under 86lbs, but I just add it as an 85lb bar)
warmup- bar, 170
260x3
350x2
440x1
530x1 (added single ply viking v-type and belt)
620x1
670x1
710x1 (added reverse band, same setup)
760x3 (one felt good so did some reps)
800x1 (added knee wraps)
reverse band rack pulls
used pin #3 on crepensak rack, bout same height as #2 on racks with large hole spacings
Not sure what resistance was at top and bottom, can give rough estimate, guessing somewhere around -70 at top. I’ll have to set it up sometime to get a more exact value. Anyway…
405x1
495x1
585x1
675x1
725x1 (hard and held this at top about 10s)
The ss yoke bar kicked my ass today, and I can definately tell that my back strength has gone down from using the straight bar the past few weeks. Suit work could have gone better, takes a little bit of form adjustment getting back into the gear. Thought the 800 reverse band was going to be easier than it was but I think I got out of position during my setup, unracked it and almost fell forward, wanted two but only got one.
Forgot to add this in, but the past couple workouts I have had someone interested in powerlifting either lift with me, or my training partner and I have been helping him. I like to help people, but it’s making the workouts longer than they already are. I told him he could just work in with me squatting today but it was already after I got my suit on and he hadn’t warmed up yet. I thought he could benefit from the safety bar but kinda wish I would have had him just do straight bar because of all the time loading and unloading of plates plus his rest period in between his sets. Workout time lately has been 3+ hours from when we get there to when we leave.
Hi
Just got to say that those are some really heavy weight you are moving man, especially in the bench press 500+ lbs is what I am deadlifting and squatting damn it.I have never even held anything over 4 plates a side in the bench before let alone press it! May I ask what your raw numbers are in the big 3. Thank you
warmup- bar, 95, 135
185x2
225x1
275x1 (2 board)
315x1 (2 board)
365x1 (3 board) (added shirt, used my viking pro shirt tonight, this shirt is way to big, i bought it used thinking it would fit better than it does, good way to really work the triceps though)
405x1 (3 board)
455x1 (3 board)
500x1 (3 board) even though it’s a 3 board this felt pretty light and went real well
shoulder press to top of head-185x15x2
bent over bb row- 225x15, 275x15
bb curls- 95x15x2
tricep press downs- 150x15x2, 170x15
ytwl- 8lbs for i think 4 or 5 cycles through
Wanted to do more ytwl’s but was pretty well spent. Raw bench work for warming up is feeling really good, shirt work isn’t to bad either. However I really need some new equipment, all my equipment (especially my single ply suit and shirt) has been used quite heavily and has really lost its “pop.” I still get the support which is nice but no umph. If any gear people read this, you know what i’m talking about. I’ve used my suit and shirt about every week since last january, and my viking pro shirt I can physically just slide it on by myself (and i bought it used, not sure how used), so I think it’s time for some new gear.
[quote]Bear943 wrote:
Hi
Just got to say that those are some really heavy weight you are moving man, especially in the bench press 500+ lbs is what I am deadlifting and squatting damn it.I have never even held anything over 4 plates a side in the bench before let alone press it! May I ask what your raw numbers are in the big 3. Thank you [/quote]
First off, thanks for the nice words. Second, honestly i’m not all sure where i’m at, i do a lot of different stuff with my lifting like the reverse band and gear stuff. However a few weeks ago i went a pretty easy 545 on the squat, belt only, but other than that not entirely sure about overall.
I’m competing in a raw meet in december and i’m shooting for a 1500-1600 raw total as a 181’er, i’d like to go 330+/600/600+ but we’ll see, i wish the fed allowed knee wraps but i guess i’ll have to do without for this meet. Thanks for the question and readin my log.
warmup- bar, 135
225x4
315x2
405x1
455x1
495x1 (added belt)
525x1 (begin working sets)
545x1
565x1 pretty well smoked this one, felt real easy
635x1 (added reverse band setup)
675x1 very quick
back raise on ghr- w/40lb dumbell 15x3
dumbell swings- 115lb db 15x1
ghr- 15x1
Squating went very well, kept my back tight and upright and led with me head. I didn’t want to go to hard because I want room for some progression the next time I do singles, but everything was real easy. My low back was pretty well pumped from squating and my back was so pumped after doing back raises that I cut down my accessory work cuz I had to much pump, SOOOO MUCH PUMP, it was horrible lol.
