Maple Syrup Strength (littlesleeper)

Thanks Muskrat, a work in progress

Haha! Thanks for the well wishes!

Yep, I’ll eventually get there raw, but boy has the bench press been a stubborn lift for me!

I haven’t done a terrible amount of benching with it, but coach has identified my triceps as a weak point, so he is going to have me using it more. Overloads the top of the movement and forces you to to really explode at the bottom to get the speed required to overcome your weak point(s). It is easy to misgroove a rep with it though as it is adding that force to your elbows and I’m still getting used to it.

I wouldn’t say that it made the movement a whole lot different. Added a bit of stability difficulty, and the increasing bar diameter made them a tad more comfortable, but not sure it would be enough to make it go from a movement you dislike to one that you like. I do like the cambered bar for squats though!

Traphouse Barbell W3D2
ME Lower
Wide Stance Cambered Bar Box Squats - against greens bands (doubled), 12" plyo box + 2" mat
85 x 5
85 x 5
285 x 2
375 x 1
425 x 1
480 x 1
500 x 1 ← RPE 10

Getting better at these. The cambered bar makes it tough to come out of the hole. My arms are down by my side (on the bar) so when I push up on the bar (which I typically would for a normal squat) I end up sending the bar weight out in front of me, forcing a lot of lower back effort to move through the movement against the bands. Green bands we figured added around 140lbs at the top which would be 640lbs (!!), I need to bring my scale in to confirm this. But with my squat max at 670lbs, even if it just added 70lbs I’d be happy.

3" Fat Bar Snatch Grip RDL - double overhand, working some max grip work here
50 x 5
140 x 5
190 x 3
230 x 2
250 x 1
270 x 1 ← grip maxed out here.

GIANT SET
GHR Razor Curls
10, 10, 10

Back Extensions
20, 20, 20

Standing Calf Raises - holding 25lb plate
15 toes out, 15 toes straight, 15 toes in
15 toes out, 15 toes straight, 15 toes in

GIANT SET
Banded Leg Abductions - purple bands, 1 per leg (hips)
25, 25, 25

V-Situps
10, 10, 10

Reverse Hypers
25, 25, 25

Finisher:
100 Banded hamstring Curls
Orange Band: 50, 30, 10, 10

Good workout, whew those squats were heavy, but I’m starting to get better at the wide stance box squats. My coach insists that “out builds in” but that “in doesn’t build out”. Meaning wide stance will build my competition squat stance, but not vice versa.

All done in ~50mins.

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hell of a session…must of been sprinting through everything to be done in 50 minuted :stuck_out_tongue:

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Excited to try these out for myself! I’ll use them for the first time on a speed/dynamic day, to get the feel, but will be rotating them into some ME work!

While reading around and attempting to understand, I’ve found this sentiment a lot from articles/blogs of people that have/are training conjugate, I personally feel that it’s helped my regular squat tremendously.

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Monster squat numbers man!

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There is little to no rest time between movements with my coach in my ear. He is often rushing me to my next giant set before I’m even done my current one. He regularly yells “Well, what the hell are you waiting for?!?” if I say I’m not finished my current giant set and he sees me resting. I love it.

I think that is a good idea, and exactly what my coach did as well. Between the different bar, different stance, squatting to a box, and the addition of bands, I’m really hitting my squat in a COMPLETELY different way. I was very pleased to hit 500lbs + bands with this variation!

Awesome! I have no reason not to believe my coach, but I had honestly not heard/read this before, so that is reassuring that you have seen this mentioned elsewhere.
That’s great that it has built up your squat too, I’m just trusting the process and being patient. I won’t be testing my regular squat variation until sometime around May for a little mock meet before an eventual meet in June (hopefully - they have had a local meet in June the last 2 years). This would be perfect timing since the beginning of July is when our baby boy pops out, so I’d like to hit the platform before that, when training will likely take a bit of a back seat.

Thanks Hog, I wasn’t sure what I was going to end up at here. 2 weeks ago I hit 500lbs on a regular barbell, same height box, same stance but with NO BANDS. Here we are on a cambered bar against bands and I hit the same weight. I’ll take that as an indicator of improvement!

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Also, I should mention, that I brought a tape measure to the gym to double check the height of the block I stood on for these. It was 4.25"!!! After measuring, I felt quite proud of this pull, lol.

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A couple of “ can make all the difference!!!

That’s what she said. :wink:

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It takes a confident man to be proud of 4.25"!

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Traphouse Barbell W3D4 (skipped day 3 - speed lower, due to long weekend out of town)
DE Lower
SSB Box Squat - 12" plyo box + 2" mat, against green bands (50%)
65 x 10
65 x 5
155 x 5
250 x 5
250 x 5
250 x 5
250 x 5
250 x 5

Sumo Deadlifts (From lowest pin) - against blue bands
45 x 5
135 x 5
225 x 5
345 x 5
345 x 5
345 x 5
345 x 5
345 x 5

GIANT SET
Single Leg Back Extensions
8per leg
8per leg
8per leg

Hamstring “glider” curls - done on a little “scooter” thing that you used to bomb around the school gym on as kids.
10
10
10

Standing Calf Raises 3-way - holding 25lb plate
15 toes out, 15 toes straight, 15 toes in
15 toes out, 15 toes straight, 15 toes in
15 toes out, 15 toes straight, 15 toes in

Skipped the second giant set. It is my Dad’s birthday today, so we were meeting him for dinner. I didn’t want to be later than we were already going to be at this point!
Good workout, all main work rest periods were kept to 30s, which had me sweating/breathing heavy.

“If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you”

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Those last few workouts look brutal. My coach is the same way. From one lift right to the next. How often do you train with him? I can’t afford to work with my guy more than once a week. Rest of the time I just try to emulate one of his workouts. Take list of mental notes lol. Anyways looks like your rocking and rolling man!

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He trains me 4 days per week, for free! He is just genuinely interested in making me a better lifter. He has always been like that. I remember in high school he would bring me leftovers from his dinner the night before to help me pack on weight for football (I was 5’2" and 120lbs in grade 9 when I started playing).
I’ll gift him something for all of this work, but he is not charging me anything. I am very appreciative for it.

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That’s amazing. Know how fortunate you are man. Was he the high school coach or something? That’s pretty generous of the dude. Sure bears $70 for 45 minutes lol

Yes, he was the head coach of my highschool football team.

He is very generous, I have a lot of respect for him.

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Traphouse Barbell Conjugate W4D1
ME Upper
Football Bar Incline Bench - 45 degrees, 2x heavy chains (per side)
45 x 10
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 1 - slowed down nearing the top of the rep
250 x 1 - RPE 10

Bench Press - Black SlingShot, 85% 1RM
345 x 3
345 x 3
345 x 3

All fairly easy sets to be honest. I feel like bench is going to see some improvements when I go to test it…eventually.

“Gun Show” Tri-set - 25lb dumbbells
10 zottoman curls, 10 palms up curls, 10 hammer curls
10 zottoman curls, 10 palms up curls, 10 hammer curls

Leg Raises
10
10
10

Seated Shrug C&P - 30lbs
10
10
10

Heavy Blue Band Facepulls
15
15
15

Lat Pulldowns - random assortment of plates +50lbs from guy before me
10
10
10

Rolling Triceps Extensions on decline bench
30 x 6
50 x 6
50 x 6
50 x 6

Lying Banded Tricep Extension Things - pic to follow
100 total (50 red band, 25 purple band, 25 red band, 25 red band)

Bamboo Bench with Hanging 35lbs Plates - wow, controlling these were a misssiooonnn
100 total (25, 20, 20, 20, 15)

Good workout. Took nearly 1.5hours for this one! Saturday morning sessions are a bit less rushed, and a bit more of a lifting party. Good time.

“There is a fine line between tough and crazy and we’re flirting with it”

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How are you tracking progression?

Well the DE days become heavier (40-45-50 etc). Otherwise, I have no idea! I just go in and work hard. Trusting the coach for the rest.

We are hitting so many weak points that I cant see it not helping my lifts, but time will tell!

If your max effort lifts go up you’re making progress!

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Well, this is true. I should have said so far I have no idea. The ME lifts only come back through the rotation again every 10 or more weeks, so it will take that amount of time to really see if improvement has been made.

Having said that, I hit an ME wide stance box squat of 500lbs on week 1. Then on week 3 I hit an ME wide stance box squat on a cambered bar against bands with 500lbs…so I’d call that some progress!

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