Keegan - Training Log

This is a photo from a few years ago when I had more hair and less muscles. It was on a roof of a place where I was couchsurfing.org in Panama!

I’m going to start a training log to keep myself accountable and hopefully get some help from all you muscle heads out there. I’ve been a T-Nation lurker since 2004 and trained on and off in the gym since 2000. In 2010 I really started to take it seriously again but I quickly overtrained because of digestive issues and other life factors. I’ve spent most of the last 5 years travelling the world. I lived in Germany, Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, London and Australia. I travelled through lots of other countries.

I’m working now as a Strength and Conditioning coach for a professional rugby team in France. At 81kg I know it’s a bit strange but I’m slowly getting my life back on track. I managed to hit some solid Pb’s last week which was awesome since my Deadlift best was still the 165kg (360lb) I did in 2005!

More about my life story later!

My personal records are
In (kg)
Reps 1 3 5 BW
Bench 110 95 90 14
Chin 120 105 100 15
Ohead pr .73 70 65 0
Deadlift 185 150 130
Squat 140 110 100

Clean Jerk 90x1
Snatch 65x1
Clean 100
SLJ 265
Vert 68cm

IN lbs
Reps 1 3 5
Bench 243 209 198
Chins 265 231 220
Ohead pr 160 154 143
Deadlift 408 331 287
Squat 309 243 220

Clean Jerk 198
Snatch 143
Clean 220
SLJ 265
Vert 26"


This photo was last year. I’d like to think I’ve put on 2-3 kg since then but changing countries and scales makes it hard to be 100% I’m sure I’m stronger than I was then because my max bench was 100kg and dead was 155kg. I haven’t got any recent pose shots but I’m in a bit better shape.

The main reason I’m starting the log is to try to get some tips on technique for my big lifts (which are not really that big, yet!). Kind of looking for online training partners! One of the Talent Code keys is good coaching and since I’m the coach here I need to look elsewhere!

On my youtube channel I have some vids of recent efforts - just look up primalperformance (I’ll explain the name later)
That was pretty much a max effort on back squat 100kg x 9 (i gave myself a free one on youtube)

3RM shoulder press 70kg- I’m using a bit of legs…

1 RM dead from the other day! 20kg PB! I hadn’t done a MAX effort for 3 months… bang!! 200 here I come! I haven’t been doing many deads over the last few months.

This was a pretty weak clean press effort a few months ago 90kg. I would like to think I’ve improved a bit since then but we’ll see when I get some video this week.

Did old school Clean “overhead press” use some legs. All the old school stuff says that within 1 years you should be able to overhead press your bodyweight on a barbell. Is that 100% strict? Not that many guys can do it! I’m confident I’ll finally get there in 2011!

I’ve got a few other lifts on pprimalperformance if you look on youtube … nothing special yet I know but hopefully there will be some solid improvements over the next few months!

I’ve had some nasty food allergies and other issues over the last couple of years which have made it hard to train consistently. I did some testing last year which showed Adrenal Fatigue, liver toxicity, oxidative stress, mod low testosterone and DHEA and poor protein digestion the only good things where low female hormones pretty much.

I was getting mad headaches after all hard training sessions despite taking adaptogens, greens and amino acids. I had to back off training despite wanting to be strong for my new job!

I’ve been eating mostly paleo with the occasional spell of more dairy and a few traditional loaves of bread. I’ve decided to go 100% paleo for a while… I’m back on the amino acids as well as liver support, anti-oxidants, greens. .I drink organic grape juice with my workouts…

I’m much healthier now… less pimples, less digestive distress, better work capacity. But I’m only just beginning to get into serious training again. I want to make sure I don’t wear myself out again. I’m going to retest through BioHealth labs soon. I’m an FDN provider now so I can do the labs without admin fees and I know how to interpret and act on the results… still not as pro as some of the steroid dudes on here but I’m getting there!

Goals for 2011
Increase all my lifts, BIGGER+ FASTER + STRONGER !

I’m planning 1.50 x BW bench -122.5kg, 2 x BW squat 165, 200 kg deadlift 2.5xBW, 50kg chin, 105kg Clean and Jerk, 70 kg Snatch for the end of April I should have them all done if I can stay healthy!

I weigh around 81 kg’s - 178lb, that should move to 83kg or so by then… with my digestion not being strong I’m focussing on health and strength for now. Really want to get some decent olympic lifts going and I’m going to do a bit of speed training on the side. I think all these goals are complementary.

What do you think? Am I dreaming or setting my sights too low?

If you have any tips for me technique, diet, supplements or otherwise I’d be happy to hear them. Most of my supplements have been for health lately. I’m really interested in getting into the area of tailored nutrition and supplement programs based on testing. Functional Medicine etc. I’ve done a Functional Diagnostics Nutrition course which means I can access one of the cheapest and best labs, Biohealth. I have a few clients and I plan to get the players in the Rugby team I’m working with to do them as well. I think they can be a great tool to motivate as well as target a specific approach to performance.

Thoughts?

2 days ago my session was like this - I started really light because I had only trained once over the christmas break and I felt rusty.

I did the 3 main lifts circuit style since I have the gym to myself and I think it works well that way. I took about (no scale) 20g of amino acids plus 1L of juice.

Squat - 5x 30,40,50,60,70,85,90,110 +100x9 - 110 x5<-- Is a PR or at least the best I’ve done for a long time… 100x9 too
Bench - 3x 20,40,50,60,70,80,85,90 80x8 - Didn’t go too hard here… I did the 8 reps coming straight off the 50x10 on shoulder press
Shoulder press - x3 30,40,50,55,57.5,60,62.5,70,50x10 - 70 x3 is a PR too I think… I tried 80 x1 with a slight knee bend but I didn’t get close.

Curls 10x 35kg

grinder 40 sec max effort to get a pump on.

Today I did
Speed squat 5x3 @ 80kg
Shoulder press 5x3 @60kg
Bench 8x3 80-90 kg
Curls
Feeling a bit flat after a full day of coaching with the team. I did 3 lots of 15 minute dynamic warm-ups which are pretty intense for the rugby guys… I’m a light weight so they don’t smash me as much…