I used to sort of powerlift in high school through our strength training program for football. I’m now hoping to get as strong pound for pound as I was back then. Started lifting with the weight club at school and I think I want to actually try powerlifting and see how that goes for me.
High School Max’s @ 160lbs
Squat- 365x5 (never 1 rep maxed)
Bench- 265
Deadlift- Never maxed out
Power clean- 250
Goals for August 1st 2011
Bench-305
Squat- 425-450
Dead Lift- at this point I’m happy with anything over 400
Body Goals- Either a leaner 195lbs or drop some weight and hit 180 again
Week 1:
4/25 Squat Day
Safety Bar Squat: Don’t remember how I got to 330, but I hit it once and didn’t try for more, still getting used to the safety bar
Did some random curls when I was done with the squatting, and not much else that day
4/27 Bench Day
185x5
205x5
225x4-> was aiming for 5
Drop sets:
155x10
175x10
175x9
Then did some random tricep work and chest work. Trying to get my form better on the bench, when I went in and benched the first time at the ISU weight club, I was told my form was awful, then was shown how to help fix it, which I really appreciated. I’m taking all the help I can get.
4/29
Deadlift Day/Shoulders
Deadlift-Worked up to 315, when my back started acting up. My form is still really, really bad. I’m working on it though.
Rack Pulls- worked up to 330, trying to get my lower back stronger, I think that my bad form might stem from this because I never really deadlifted so my lower back never got too strong.
GHR’s
3x10
Military Press
3x10 @ 135
also did some shoulder raises
That’s about it for the week. From here on out I’ll be posting the days I lift. Just want to say thanks to the guys at the ISU weight club for helping me out with my form and everything, I’m going to keep working on it before I try anything too crazy.
Also did some leg work to improve my form for squatting.
Banded Step Outs to Squat (best way I can describe them)
about 3x10 bodyweight
2x10 with 40 lb dumbbell
2x10 of GHR’s
Started cramping up after I got done with the GHR’s, so I decided to call it good for the day. My squat form has gone to hell since I basically quit squatting, so I’ll be spending a lot of time working on that in the next couple of weeks. Overall, thought I had a decent workout since I got 350x5 on the yoke bar, and I couldn’t get one rep out of 350 last week.
After this I just did some random tricep and chest work until I was tired. Hit some chest dips, overhead tricep extension, skull crushers and stuff like that. Overall it wasn’t my best day in the Beyer Hall weight room. There was a bunch of old guys in there listening to Tesla and Bob Seger. I like Bob Seger and Tesla, just not when I’m trying to get a good workout in. Watched one guy do literally about 6 or 7 sets on the lat pulldown machine which he alternated with a set of alternating dumbbell press, which I thought was kinda dumb. Oh well, not really my problem and I can’t exactly say I’m an expert on these things anyway.
After this I just did some cable flys and some other chest and tricep work. Went into our high school’s weight room and was the only one there, which was nice as far as getting my lifts in and getting out in decent time, but not good since I couldn’t lift too heavy of weight because of the lack of a spotter. Overall, it was a decent day for lifting, just ready for one of my friends to get home from school so I actually have someone to lift with.
Farmers Walks
160lbs @ 100 yds twice
-A friend and I decided to do some farmers walks on our track, and got a little to confident and thought that we would do the whole track one time around carrying 80lb dumbbells. We made it about 100yds before the forearm pump got so bad that we couldn’t hold the dumbbells. We ended up making it 200yds total a piece
I’m definitely starting to feel the impact of straight bar squatting every week for the last 2 months on my wrists and elbows. Ready to get back to Ames and start using the safety squat bar again to get the pressure off those joints on squat day.
Speed squats against average band light band
145x2
235x2
Add 46 Jack Briefs
325x2x5
375x2
405x2
Reverse band speed deadlifts with average band
With Briefs (Sumo)
495x2x4
Without Briefs (conventional)
405x1
405x3
GHR
2x10
Abs
2x15
Did some mobility work after this.
Overall, I think it was a good first week for being back in Ames. It was also the first time I’ve used gear for an entire night in training so that was interesting as well. Before it was just to try it on and see kind of how it felt. Definitely not used to the feeling that my head is going to explode.
Forgot to write down what I did for the last 2 training sessions.
Monday ME Lower
SSB Box Squats
260x3
350x3
440x1
490x2
Deadlifts
315x3x3
GHR
3x10
Everyone was feeling pretty beat up so we called it a night. The most I’ve done previously with the SSB was in the 450 range. 490x2 was a huge PR for me. Hopefully I can keep that trend going until November.
That is all I wanted to do today. Probably should have stayed and done some assistance work but I had a crazy day and just wanted food and my bed by the time 6pm rolled around. Planning on getting a good amount of upper body volume work in on my DE upper day.
Straight Bar Squats 120lbs chains
235x3
325x3
375x3
415x3
1.5" Block Pulls-Sumo
225x3
315x3
405x3
455x3
Set some PR’s and got out of the gym. Assistance work has been lacking on ME days, so I try to get more volume in on DE days since they are on the weekends when I have more time to be in the gym.