Lockouts/pin press with 5 second iso hold at full extension. pin 9;about 4":
225x4 iso hold on last rep
315x2 iso hold on last rep
405x1 no hold
495x1 iso hold on last rep
2 Board press:
135x3
185x3
225x3
255x3
275x1
305x1
315x1
335x1 failed about half way up. bar got out of groove and fell forward. i think i could have got it.
30second rests on following sets
2 Board press:
295x1
295x1
295x1
Speed deads off 3" block --conventional-
135x1,x1,x1,x1
245x1,x1,x1,x1
315x1
315x1
315x1
315x1
315x1
315x1 speed was good but i was tired/fatigued. not enough sleep the past few nights and still burnt out from my last max effort work. took the next day off work and just slept and ate all day.
the rack pulls are from very high. im only locking out about 5". i just feel like “feeling” that heavier weight helps me. its also a good mental warmup for the speed pulls(which seem rediculously light/easy/fast after locking out the heavier weight). those lockouts are no where near maximal weights, so i dont feel im fatiguing myself with them.
also, i like to do the speed pulls after de squats simply because they seem to help my deads more than anything else. im weak off the floor and strong in the lockout. if i think speed/speed/speed/ my deads really go well. again, im not doing that much volume so i dont feel that they are hurting anything.
on max effort days i usually like to do a 6-8 rep cluster of sumo deads. 30 second rests, 85-90% intensity. i feel these are really helping me out as well. last week i pulled a 500 PR after doing 6-8sets of 1 with 425. i just get used to blasting out those heavy singles. it feels good. the 495 didnt feel any heavier than the 425. im sure the 425 sets fatigued me some but i will experiment with that in the future (probably do fewer sets). the heavy, quick rest period, sets of 1 reallly seem to “potentiate” my max effort single.
on speed day i work conventional off a 3-5" box (im weak off the bottom remember) and on max effort days i work sumo for the afformentioned “potentiating” sets above.
i havent decided which lift is stronger but working them both seems to be helping them BOTH go up. until this stops working im going to stick with it. im planning on doing my sumos off 3-5" blocks next. any other ideas on how to develop strength off the bottom of my deads?
i really feel my quads driving a bit more in my sumo but in my coventional my hips are so high i get little drive from my quads. ive been doing front squats to help with quad strength (they are also great on my entire back as i have to hold it statically, straight the entire time).
i have my first meet coming up in a month. i just want to set some PRs and ill be happy.
Was looking at your numbers, and something doesn’t add up for me…
Your 205 DE bench is really good, suggesting that you could put up something in the 350-400 range, but then I saw you only got 335 off 2 boards. Did you train the DE bench in a shirt? Just wondering, because personally I do about 165 on DE days, raw, strait weight, and my 2 board PR is 305, also raw.
Anyway, good numbers, and good luck in your meet. BTW, what are your previous meet PR’s?
Ryan Mayo,
my raw pr (i dont have a shirt) is 315+. like i said, i let that 335, on the 2 board press, get away from me but i could have got it.
as far as percentages on DE day go:
ive been playing around ALOT with them. and as long as im not slowing down i will jump the weight up a bit. 205 is 60% of 340 and im guessing im just a little below that right now, (if i was nice and rested up and hit a true max effort on my raw bench).
id probably be good for 330ish which would be a DE/speed bench of 195 or so (figuring percentages at or around 60%).
i dont like using strict formulaes. yes im going a bit by feel. the idea is to create as much force as possible, right? so if im moving 205 just as fast as im moving 195, i feel i should be using the 205.
same thing on my speed deads. i can pull 315 with the same speed i can pull 225… so i use 315.
there is that little area in the lifts where i can really feel the force production/ drag/ momentum build up, whatever you want to call it and thats what im looking for. i dont feel it at 165 on my straight weight bench.
thanks for the comments.
hope that cleared things up a bit.
train hard,
ryan b.
ps. oh yeah, this is my first meet so i dont have any other PRs established save for what ive done in my workouts.
conventional dead:475 (about a month and a half ago. i know i have 500+ now)
sumo dead: 495 the other night but this was at the end of a pretty high volume/high intensity workout. i pulled it strong. i know i was good for more.
bench: 315 2 weeks ago. it went up nice and strong too. i was good for 10 more pounds for sure.
i will start working my deads with a belt AFTER the meet in a month. and may try a shirt as well, after the meet.
Cool, yeah, I didn’t really think about it for too long before I wrote that, but the percentages do work out closer than it originally seemed. Gotta think before I write:)
DE bench is terrible for me. I’ve always been real slow with it. My box squats blast right up, but it seems like I really struggle to move the bar quickly on bench.
Hope I didn’t sound like I was calling you a liar in my first post or anything. I deffinitely wasn’t. You’ve got some good numbers. What’s your weight? Is this a push/pull meet? Just assuming because that’s all you listed. Using any equipment? Good luck.
de bench: i had trouble with it at first too. just keep TIGHT on the way down and start thinking about reversing (pushing the weight back up) about 4-6" from your chest. you will still bring the weight all the way down but the tension will be very high. try some clapping/ballistic pushups to practice this. if your face smashes into the floor your doing them wrong.
right now im weighing between 203-206lbs. maybe 12%ish body fat. dont care. im not quite as lean as i usually am but ive been trying to gain weight. im up from 188 in september (this was after taking awhile off. my weight 1 year ago was 208 @ 10% or less bodyfat. i can still see my abs pretty well, just not super cut. ). right now im just concerned with getting stronger. getting cut is really easy for me if i want to. strength. strength! strength!
yeah, its just a push pull meet. which is good cause my squat sucks ass (300ish).
by gear you mean equipment , right? no im not using anything. i just found out about the meet and dont want to screw around with anything since its only a month away. like i said, im just going to try and set new PRs.
i will probably go for something like:
bench: 290, 310, 330
deads: 475,500,530
maybe more in both , just depends how things go the next few weeks.
i just figured out how to bench “wide” and it feels great. i wasnt keeping my elbows tight enough before and wasnt pushing “up” enough (i let the weight drift too far back too soon). until last week my close grip bench was my strongest bench! this wider grip is going to rock!
my goals for this year are:
deads:600+
bench:400+
squat:400+
my training and nutrition are in line and im learning new things everyday. ill have these goals met no problem.
4 years ago i was 165 with a bench of 225 squat of 185, and i didnt deadlift at all(didnt know what a dead lift was).
ive spent the last 4 years training alot and learning alot more. i had my shit down/together about a 2 years ago. so ive made good progress since then(save the greater part of last year).
ive trained hard but took the year or so off(between jan and sept) for the most part (ahhh… the woes of women and beer…).
ive been back at it serious for 4 months and dont ever plan on stopping again.
major dan,
after warmups/gpp, it usually takes a little over an hour. things go faster on speed day. but usually the entire workout including warmups is about an hour to an hour and a half(max).
funny you should comment on the volume because i think i just entered into that fine ol’ state of OVERTRAINING.
i did ALOT of manual labor last week and thought i could counter it with diet alone. didnt work. shit.
i just dont have that deep down drive im used to having . i dont want to but i think im going to take off training until monday.
ive worked up to the higher volume in my workouts but it was just too sudden a jump with all the extra “other” work i had to do. ill probably just do some really easy get-the-blood-flowing type workouts until then. i dont know… this sucks but im trying to play it smart.
Way too much volume. How do you expect to recover? Your going to over-train soon unless you cut the volume and/ or use restorative methods. Simmons once wrote an article about volume, find it and read it.
like i said above, i feel like i AM overtrained. but i feel my workouts are fine. it was the extra 40+ hours of manual labor last week(that i wasnt at all used to), COMBINED, with my workout that lead to this overtraining. ive been training with the volume posted for 4+ months(give or take a bit. i usually work up to a high volume and then back off and then back up etc.) . i always feel fully recovered by my next workout(s) and my strength has gone up every workout for the past 3 months, so im pretty cool with the volume/intensity of my program. its really not that extreme. you really think it is though, eh? of course im taking it all into consideration but i reallly feel with the conditioning level i am at that the volume/intensity from my workouts alone, was not enough to cause this overtraining. still, im taking the week off to rest and eat a ton. any more comments are welcome.
also,boss, so do you think that if i am recovered by my next workout that my volume is ok or are you just looking at the workout and arbitrarily saying “thats too much volume”. im not trying to sound defensive here im just looking for a bit more thought out critique. thanks for your words though. i hate admitting to myself when i AM overtrained so its still helpfull to hear i need to ease up a bit.
this was tough but speed was good and i really felt the tension nicely.
1 arm press:
75 x5/5, 75x5/x5, 65x5/x5
my elbow was sore from this workout as was my shoulder. nothing serious but i could feel it and i dont like that. so…
then i quit because i didnt fell like doing anything else and it bothered me that i didnt feel like doing anything else, so i went home , looked over my training and nutrition log, checked my sleep pattern and work over the last 10 days and decided i was overtrained.
like i said above im going to take the rest of the week off and see how i feel on monday. i hate to jump the gun when i should just train through it , but i figue its only a week and its better to rest up now then really hit rock bottom later.
cheers, bastards!!! oh, and thanks for helping out so much guys.
i always feel fully recovered by my next workout(s) and my strength has gone up every workout for the past 3 months, so im pretty cool with thevolume/intensity of my program
thats all i needed to read if your getting stronger and its working for you why change…preety soon it will quit working then you can worry about volume and changing stuff up…this is just part of the game…i think your log looks fine…big m