My road to 1500

Off completely? you could probably get your bench in and some back

1 Like

My heads just not in it atm, I’ll decide what I’m doing after I’ve seen the physio.

I can’t even get setup on the bench, was laid on my bed last night with my legs hanging off for a gentle stretch and just that was quite painful if my leg wasnt kept straight.

If I put any sort of stretch through my quad it hurts like hell.

Little update!

Been to see physio, had my ROM tested and I’m getting pain on a couple of different movements than the last time I hurt my hip. He believes it to be a Pectineus strain, so its looking like I’m back to being a push / pull lifter for now!

I’m competing on the 8th of July, so I’ll be focusing on my bench and deadlift over the coming months, and doing Bulgarian Split Squats as an assisstance on both lower body days, hopefully this will help stretch everything that needs it.

I plan to attempt to squat again around mid May to see how it feels. If I’m pain free I’ll work it back in from there, and hopefully be at a reasonable level for the meet, if its still painful I’ll be competing as just Push / Pull.

1 Like

No tears or ruptures. Good. Push/pulls are fun anyways.

1 Like

I13-3-17
Upper

Band pullaparts between warmups

Bench 20kg 2x10, 50kg 2x10, 80kg x10, 90kg x10, 100kg x10, 110kg x10, 8

Floor Press 100kg 3x5
Inc Press Machine 35kg 3x15
Side Laterals 12.5kg x15, 15, 15, 12
BB Curls 35kg x12, 12, 12, 10
Straight bar pressdowns 8 plates 4x15
V bat pressdowns 4 plates 4x12

110kg was supposed to be 2x10, weight was moving really well then after my 8th rep on the last set, I lowered the bar to my chest and just couldn’t move it. I have an issue with bench for higher reps because I don’t breath much! I tend to take as few breaths as possible so I can stay tight, obviously I didn’t take enough :laughing:

1 Like

14-3-17
Lower

Lots of foam rolling / stretching / glute bridges

Deadlift 60kg x5, 100kg x7, 140kg x6, 170kg x5, 190kg x4, 200kg x3

Rack pulls from knee 200kg x1, 220kg x1, 240kg x1, 250kg x1

CG Cable rows 103.5kg 4x10
CG Pulldowns (single arm machine) 55kg 3x15
Leg Press deadlift stance 310kg 2x10, 340kg 2x10, 370kg x7
Stiff leg DL 100kg 2x15

Good session tonight, weights moved nicely! Rack pulls from the knee feel really easy compared to pulling from mid shin! SLDL at end was supposed to be 3 sets but my hamstrings were really blown up by this point, so called it after 2!

2 Likes

Only just now noticed how big your arms ate. Jeebus.

1 Like

Haha cheers bro! Remnants from before I found powerlifting, I barely trained my arms at all until this year!

Just wish my shoulders would gain a bit of size, my arms overpower them (and it would definately help my bench)

1 Like

16-3-17
Bench

Band pullaparts / stretch hip, chest

Bench 20kg 2x10, 60kg x10, 80kg x8, 100kgx6, 120kg 5x5

Seated military press 60kg 2x7, 70kg x7, 80kg x5

Side laterals 12.5kg x15, 15, 15, 12
Facepulls 63kg 4x12
V bar Pressdowns 8 plates x12, 12, 12, 10
Straight bar Pressdowns 6 plates 4x12
BB Curls AMRAPs 40kg 4x 17, 12, 10, 10

I’ve been messing around with bench setups a lot lately because I never feel tight, but this week I think I’ve nailed it! Monday i tried something new and it felt really good, I tweaked things slightly today (rotating my hips / feet outwards) and I felt solid! The weight felt like it moved a lot smoother than usual.

Heres my first and last sets:

1 Like

17-3-17
Lower

Stretch / roll / glute bridges

Squat 5x10 with bar (trying to keep a bit of mobility)

Deficit deadlifts 60kg x5, 80kg x5, 100kg x3, 140kg x3, 160kg x3, 180kg x3, 200kg x3

Good Mornings 60kg 4x10
WG Pulldowns 15 plates 4x15
Leg Press close stance 200kg 2x25
Leg Press wide stance 120kg 2x25
BB Shrugs 120kg 4x10

1 Like

20-3-17
Bench

Band pullaparts between warmups

Bench 60kg x8, 80kg x8, 100kg x10, 125kg x5, 135kg x3, 140kg x1, 145kg x1 PB!!!

Inc DB Press 40kg x10, 45kg x10, 50kg x10, 55kg x7
Inc DB Flys 4x15 @ 12.5 / 15 / 17.5 / 20kg
DB Shoulder Press 4x10 @ 30 / 32.5 / 35 / 40kg
Side Laterals 7.5kg x25, 25, 22
BB Curls 15kg 4x25
V Pushdowns 4 plates 4x25

My Bench is finally making progress!! Thank god, its about time! :slight_smile:

Had a good chat to the guy doing my programming, and we’ve both agreed I need more shoulder work, so thats something hes started adding, it felt good to be doing a bit more than just side laterals!

3 Likes

21-3-17
Deadlift

Foam roll / stretch / glute bridges

Deadlift 60kg x5, 100kg x5, 140kg x5, 160kg x3, 180kg x3, 200kg x3, 220kg 2x3

Good Mornings wide stance 70kg 3x7
Good Mornings close stance 70kg 3x7
Leg Press wide stance 320kg 2x10, 340kg 2x10
Leg Press close stance 140kg 3x25
WG Pulldowns 14 plates 4x15
BB Shrugs 130kg 4x10
Straight arm pulldowns 4 plates 4x12

2 Likes

23-3-17
Bench

Band pullaparts / stretch pecs and shoulders

Bench 20kg x8, 50kg 2x6, 70kg x10, 80kg x10, 90kg x10, 100kg x10, 110kg x10

Blue Slingshot 130kg x3, 140kg x3

Inc Press Machine 70kg 4x12
Machine Flys 50kg 4x10
Machine OHP 35kg 4x10

2 Likes

I24-3-17
Deadlift

Foam roll / stretch / glute bridges

Squat + chains 5x5 just bar

Deficit deadlift with band 60kg x2, 100kg x2, 140kg x2, 180kg x2, 200kg x2

WG pulldown 15 plates 4x15
DB Shrugs 55kg 2x10, 60kg 2x10
Single Leg Press 80kg 4x15
Leg ext 4 plates 4x25

Really need to work on glute activation, and cue myself more during my lifting! My hips dont ‘fire through’ like a lot of lifters do and my lockout looks kind of lazy, possibly a weak point? Not sure but something I’ll be keeping an eye on!

1 Like

It looks to me like your lockout suffers at the knees from not driving your glutes through, just as you said. You end up leaning back rather than pushing your hips through. The fix that worked for me was just thinking about not leaning back and deliberately pushing my hips through. Sumo helps too. Dave Tate recommends twisting your feet out as you lock out.

1 Like

I never feel my glutes working, there just doesnt seem to be any connection there! Its something Im trying to work on, just not so sure how.

I’ve tried activation with glute bridges between warmup sets so I can feel where the squeeze should be, but as soon as the weight gets a bit heavy it all goes out the window!

I know tons of people do hip thrusts, but I can’t in good conscience recommend something that looks so fucking stupid when clam shells seem to do as good a job. Also, and this may sound ridiculous, just squeeze your glutes often throughout the day.

2 Likes

Cheers man! I’ve been randomly squeezing them through the day :laughing: theres no problem with that, I think its a mental cueing issue, I’ve read the Dave Tate article you mentioned and turning my feet out sounds like something that I could keep saying to myself through the lift, will give it a go next time i’m pulling!

Come to think of it, I dont really feel my glutes working on squats either

1 Like

27-3-17
Bench

Band pullaparts between warmups
Stretch chest / shoulders

Bench 60kg x10, 100kg x5, 120kg x2, 140kg x2
Blue Slingshot 150kg x2, 150kg x4

Inc DB Bench 30kg x10, 35kg 2x10, 40kg 2x10
DB Flys 20kg 3x15
BB Curls SS Straight Bar Pushdowns 20kg BB / 5 plates 5x25

Really impressed myself tonight, 4 reps with 150kg and the Slingshot puts my 1RM with the Slingshot around 170kg! I was only supposed to hit 2 reps for 1 set but I was training with the guy who does my programming, and he said it looked too easy, so asked me to do another set of 2 with commands, he turned it into a set of 4 :laughing:

Massive arm pump tonight with the 5x25 superset aswell, tris felt like they were going to bust through my skin!

4 Likes

28-3-17
Deadlift

Stretch quads, hams, glutes, chest, shoukders / foam roll / glute bridges

Deadlift 60kg x3, 100kg x3, 140kg x3, 180kg x3, 210kg x3, 230kg x3

WG Pulldowns 16 plates 4x10
Leg Press 300kg 4x10

Squat 60kg x2, 100kg x2, 140kg x2
Light wraps 160kg x2, 180kg x2

So I hit a new rep PR on deadlift, my best triple before this was 225kg, felt pretty easy too!

Did a bit of squatting, as I wanted to try out knee wraps (first time with them on) my coach wrapped me “lightly” they felt really tight but he didn’t crank them on at all! Squatting in wraps felt really weird, I’m going to give them a whirl for a few months and see if I can get used to them!

I’m off on holiday tomorrow for 11 days, staying with family in Paphos. I’ve got a gym sorted out there but I’m not sure how good it is, so I will be training but I don’t know if it will be mainly assisstance or if I’ll be able to get proper sessions in!

1 Like