Week 6 Day 1
Squat
45-10
135-2x3
170-4x3
Paused Bench
45-5
95-3
105-4x4
CG Bench
75-8
85-8
90-8
Push ups
bw-10
25-3x12
Unrelated to training I spent the day doing more canning. I still had quite a few green tomatoes so I made green tomato, mustard relish. It’s similar to a piccalli. The picture is from the recipe site. Mine is chunkier and more colourful. It’s also delicious as hell. I like to have this kind of pickle with tourtierre and similar meat dishes. This type of thing is my nemesis for keeping my weight down.
Week 6 Day 2
Squat
45-10
135-2x3
165-3
190-4x4
2 sets beltless 2 sets belted. The last set I got the belt as tight as I could. That sucked for 4 reps.
This is set 3; first with the belt on.
Bulgarian split squats
bw-10/side
20-3x10/side
Pause bench
45-5
95-4x3
Leg raises
3x10
Surprisingly squats felt nice and strong. The night before, Frank and I excavated part of our basement floor. One of our drains has been backing up. We’re getting the plumbers in on Friday but chose to dig ourselves to save a bit of money. I spent a fair amount of time squatting in a hole, digging it out. Below is the hold; 2’6" x 3’ x 20" deep. In the background of my squats you can sort of see the large pile of dirt.
This is a random picture of a copper finial ball for a project we’re doing at work. It’s going on an enormous custom house. 8 copper balls, 5, 3’ finials and about 3,700 square feet of copper cladding. I ordered the accents to scale; 10" diameter and it will look awesome. However, when we unwrapped them we were laughing because they’re like giant copper soccer balls that are huge. Once they’re on the house, it will look proportionate but in your hands they look ridiculous.
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Week 6 Day 3
Deadlift
135-2x5
225-2
255-1 belt added
270-3x3
Set three
Snatch grip deadlit
135-3x10
62-12/side
67-10/side
67-12/side
TRX Mountain climbers
3x25/side
TRX push ups
3x10
I’m not 100% but I believe this is the most successive triples I’ve done at 270 at this body weight. I’ve pulled 285 for one triple at around this bw a few years ago.
Week 7 Day 1
Squat
45-10
135-2x3
170-4x3
Paused Bench
45-5
95-3
105-2
110-3x3
Third set. My elbows and wrists are achey as crap today
3 Board Bench
110-3x8
DB Press
25-3x10/side
110 (50kg) is what I typically open bench on so that seems smooth enough.
Week 7 Day 2
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
165-3
185-2
200-3x3 add belt
Set three
Walk outs and power curtsies
250, 270, 290
Paused bench
45-5
95-3x3
tng bench
95-13
Leg raises
3x10
Week 7 Day 3
Deadlift
135-2x5
225-2
255-1 add belt
285-2x1 These felt a bit heavier than I would have liked.
Stiff leg deadlift
135-10
145-10
155-10
Dumb bell row
62-12/side
72-2x12/side
TRX mountain climbers
3x25/side
TRX push ups
3x12
I just clued into the fact that I started my peaking cycle a week early. I have two training weeks and a deload week left but 4 weeks to the meet. I spent a bit working back the dates so I don’t know how I screwed it up. I’m just going to do a repeat of this week, next week. It’s not exactly a huge deal.
Week 7.5 Day 1
This is my fill in week from my mental fart of starting the cycle a week early. They set the lifting schedule and both Frank and I lift on Friday. My weigh in is 6am. I’ve done that before and not only survived but had a kick ass meet. The draw back is that the venue is a couple of hours away so we’ll have to stay in a hotel the night before. I don’t like sleep aways. I like my own bed and have a fear of bringing bed bugs home with me. That may seem like a weird, random fear but they are rampant and several years ago I had to pay $1,200 to have my rental property treated (5 days after I took possession).
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
170-4x3
Paused Bench
45-5
95-3
105-2
112.5-2x3, 2 (couldn’t get the last rep)
Last week was 110 so I upped it a bit.
Bench to 3 board
115-3x8
Standing dumb bell press
25-3x10
Normally I do this one armed; each side separately
Last weekend I say my family and my brother gave me the table legs he made. He’s been learning blacksmithing and made curved legs for my counter height table out of 1/2" square steel rods. My job now is to take the grinder to them and remove the scale. I had no idea it was a thing. I’ve never used a grinder before and spent 3 hours with it on Sunday. I got better at it the longer I did it using less pressure and more finesse. It’s a bit of a zen activity. I’m about 1/2 done. When the scale is cleared off they look great and the hammer marks show through. I can’t wait until it’s done.
Week 7.5 Day 2
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
165-3
185-2
205-3x3
Walk outs/power curtsies
295
305
315
Paused bench
45-5
95-3x3
tng bench
95-15
Leg raises
3x10
I’m happy enough with how squats went because my back is toasted from using the grinder. It isn’t heavy but it’s unaccustomed. If I stand on the floor, I have to raise it and it gets my upper back. If I stand on a low box, I lean a bit and it hits my lower back.
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Week 7.5 Day 5
Deadlift
135-2x5
225-2
255-1 add belt
285-2x1
SLDL
135-10
145-10
155-10
DB rows
62-12/side
77-2x12/side
TRX jackknifes
3x10
285 wasn’t super speedy but it’s not terrible either. My back was still pretty lit up from hours using the grinder. I’m finished with it though. I cleaned up the final piece in a vinegar bath. I soaked it over night in a tub of white vinegar. My basement smells like a salad bar but it worked really well. It dissolved it all. I was still a fair amount of clean up. After it was cleaned, dried and neutralized I coated them all with a thin coat of mineral oil that I keep for my texas power bar. The table is almost done. Today I made the small shelf that fits in the centre piece and tomorrow I’ll sand and stain it. We bolted the leg assembly together and put them on with the oak top I made in the summer. It looks awesome.
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Week 8 Day 1
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
170-4x3
Paused bench
45-5
95-3
105-2
115-2x2
Bench to 3 board
120-3x8
Standing DB press
25-3x10
Bench felt pretty solid. My typical second on bench is 52.5 (116). They were pretty easy so maybe I can hit 55kg. I’ve only ever hit this once at 55bw
We were talking about Christmas this year. I find it very difficult to shop for Frank. There’s nothing special I need or want either. We decided to get a couple gift this year; a reverse hyper. Last night training I did a lot of measuring to figure out the best place to put it. We have to get moving on patching the hole in the floor so we can have the space back for our reverse hyper.
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Week 8 Day 2
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
165-3
185-2
205-1 add belt
215-2x2
Video of first set:
Walk outs/power curtsies
305, 315, 325
Paused bench
45-5
95-3x3
Bench tng
105-7
Leg raises
3-12
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Week 8 Day 3
Deadlift
135-2x5
225-2
255-1 add belt
275-1
297.5-1
Video of top set. I wasn’t sure I was going to go over 275 but that was good. 297.5(135kg) was my opener at my last meet. I typically pull better in contest due to adrenaline and a more flexible bar. We don’t use a deadlift bar in our fed but the eleiko one is still has a lot more flex than my texas power bar. However, I’ve cut weight since my last meet so will likely open 130 or 132.5.
Stiff leg deadlift
135-10
145-10
155-10
DB rows
62-12/side
72-2x12/side
Weighted fall outs
10-1x10
35-2x10
I did this with plates on a knapsack. The difficulty with this was keeping the bag from sliding off my back. I tied the straps together at the front but there was still a lot of movement.
This was the last heavy day and was two weeks out. Next Friday will be a couple triples at 225 and nothing the week of the meet for deadlift. It will all be super light squat and bench.
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Week 9 Day 1
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
170-4x3
Paused bench
45-5
95-3
105-2
110-1
115-1
120-0
Booo. Although I’ve benched heavier than this in the past, it’s been a couple of years with a couple of injuries. 115 is fairly easy and 120 moved but not far enough. Happily I don’t rely much on it to contribute to my total.
3 board bench
125-3x6
Standing dumb bell overhead press
25-3x10
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Week 9 Day 2
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
165-3
195-2
215-1 add belt
225-2x1
First rep was sloppy and harder than it needed to be. This is the second.
Paused Bench
45-5
95-3x3
Bench tng
105-8
Leg raises
3x12
That’s the last heavy squat day. I think I’ll set my squat opener at 100kg. That’s typical for me at this body weight. I’m still up in the air on planned second. We’ll see how the opener feels. It’ll be an early day; 6 am weigh in. It was the same last year and I had an awesome meet and set a national squat record so, early morning pissiness aside, there shouldn’t be any impact by the early day.
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Week 9 Day 3
Deadlift
135-2x5
225-3x3
Snatch Grip Deadlift
135-3x10
Bent over db rows
25-3x10
Next Friday is the meet so I kept it light. Today we’ll be mixing concrete and filling the $1,200 hole in my basement floor. Yesterday I had to hump 5 30kg bags of concrete from the alley to the basement. It’s always weird how some things are heavier than others because of their shape and composition. Normally 30kg is nothing but in a wobbly bag it is.
Here is a couple of pictures of the table I made. I finished a couple of weeks ago but was waiting for the stools to arrive from Wayfair. I did the wood working in oak. It’s stained a light oak colour to be similar to my counter tops.Over the summer I practiced working on trim and mitring corners on cheap pine. My brother did the legs. He’s been learning black smilthing and made these based on my description of what I wanted. I’m really pleased with how the entire project turned out. One is the table by itself and the other is with the stools we bought.
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Pre-meet deload week - day 1
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
165-3x3
Paused bench
45-10
95-3x3
That is all.
On Saturday we filled the hole in the basement. The first picture is the pipe we excavated for the plumber. The second hole is my inexpert concrete fill job. It does the job though and will have wood over it. This is where we plan to put the head of the reverse hyper when we get it. I was busily measuring where it would fit. It should tuck right behind our dip stand. It has a fair sized foot print.
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Meet Results
Weigh in 6 am - before we got there though, we dealt with my jeep and its dead battery. The night prior, after taking our stuff from the back we didn’t latch the window properly and it was open and the interior light on. Fortunately I have a battery booster pack because this type of thing seems to happen. I’m pretty fast with it even in the dark and had my jeep going in under 5 minutes
I weighed in at 55.3kg the lightest I’ve been in a while. Attempts were
Squat:
100 good,
105 good,
107.5 no good. lost all tightness and it went nowhere. I can’t seem to get past 105 in this weight class
Bench
50- good
52.5 fast but my foot must have come up a bit - no good
52.5 good but I touched low and this took forever to lock out
Deadlift (I did this without Frank as he had to weigh in after spending most of the morning spitting in a cup. He went down to the wire to make weight)
132.5 good
140-good
142.5 good This was a good call as there was nothing left and took forever to get my hips through at the top
Total 300kg. This is 2.5 off my best at this weight class but because I was so light, I ended up with my best wilks at 356.4. My best prior was 352. It may not seem significant but today I turned 53 and like most older lifters, just holding on to current numbers can be a challenge.
The day was a blast and I caught up with a lot of people I haven’t seen in a long time.
I didn’t get any video because the set up wasn’t really conducive
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Post meet recovery week - day 1
SSB Squat
50-2x5
100-5
110-5
120-5
130-5
140-5
Step ups
130-3x10
OHP
45-10
50-10
55-10
57.5-10
Weighted crunches
25-2x15
Here’s a great picture from last weeks meet. There will be more to come. There is a local company called Loaded Bar Collective that goes to meets and takes a crap ton of pictures and then sells packages. They’ve done a great job with some really intense set up shots of people.
Last night we ordered our Christmas reverse hyper. Pictured below. We ordered it from Strongarm sport, a company in calgary
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Post meet recovery week - day 2
Today was a circuit and a fast one. I wanted to watch the new Marvel show “Runaways”?? I think that’s the name of it. It was mediocre. I couldn’t pvr it because we have an old unit and we can’t pvr more than 2 or 3 shows at a time and one of them in that time slot on Wednesday is Vikings and that’s a favourite.
Circuit was:
Bulgarian split squat- 20-4x10/side
Goblet squat- 30-4x12
DB Bench - 25 - 4x12
Leg raises - 4x12
Maybe 60 seconds between each circuit. We were done in about 20 minutes.
Despite the light weight and speed, my legs were trashed.
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Post meet recovery week - day 3
Today was another fastish circuit
RDL: 115-6x10
DB row:25-6x10
SSB good morning: 50 - 6x10
DB OH: 25-6x10
Each round took about 90 seconds. We did it right after dinner of burgers. They were delicious and made the circuits exciting.
Next Monday starts a new cycle and we’re back to normal stuff
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