My name is Mateusz, I can translate it somehow to you guys as ‘Mathew’.
As you can suspect, or no, I come from Poland.
I follow T-Nation along with your training logs quite some time and decided to create my own.
I am 20 years old and started the journey with weights in june 2013. That means that my technique and strength are far from yours but anyways I have curled one thing or two.
My primary focus is strength and so called performance. I promote the idea of lifting those goddamn weights (which isn’t so popular here in my country) and train powerlifting at my university.
So after you’ll get bored by story of my life, I’ll go to my gainz.
I currently do 915 program and fight with the week 3.
So here it goes:
Bench day
Bench press (always with a pause)
5x6 x 95 kg (209 lbs)
Push press, not-so-powerful leg drive
5/5/5/5/7 x 70 kg (152 lbs)
Close-grip bench press
8/8/7/7 x 72,5 kg (160)
Low-bar squat
5x2 x 127,5 kg (281 lbs)
Aaand the deadlift party
Conventional
5x6 x 147,5 kg (325 lbs)
From a deficit (standing on a thick plate)
5 x 5 x 140 kg (308 lbs)
Hip thrust
8/8/8/7 x 132,5 kg (292 lbs)
I also plan to occasionaly throw some clips with my crappy form
I switched from high-bar to low-bar position about 3 weeks ago and I feel that I’m a lot more stable.
Leg day turned out to be pretty easy, however hitting parallel is hell more difficult for me in that position.
Squat
5x6 x 127,5 kg (281 lbs)
Paused squat with a few breathes on the last rep
4x5 x 95 kg (209 lbs), 5 x 97,5 kg (215 lbs)
Hip thrust (every rep starts from the ground)
8/8/7/7 x 132,5 kg (292 lbs)
Yeah bro. It seems like I am the only one person in that gym doing it. You should have seen the expressions on faces of people watching my hip thrusts
CLEAN DAY
I started practising cleans in november. My 1rm for a full clean was 100kg (220 lbs), although I decided to use 95% for my 915 cycle.
Power clean
5 x 4 x 75 kg (165 lbs)
Snatch-grip hang high pull
5 x 5 x 80 kg (176 lbs)
Front squat, oly grip
4 x 8 x 90 kg (198 lbs)
I enclose a video of my first set of pulls. I will be grateful for any critique and cues because it is literally third or fourth time I practise it and never have done snatches with more than an empty bar
I dig your training man! They will just have to be jealous of your thrusting. lol
I love snatch grip high-pulls-- one of the best upper back builders in my opinion. Judging by the vid, I would focus on learning to get more extension in the pull. Extend the ankles, knees, and hips to drive the bar up.
The king of all exercises
3 x 2 x 105 kg (231 lbs)
Windowsill moved a little bit and I didn’t realize that hilarious angle until I watched a full recording
Clean and push press (too much people occupying racks)
5 x 1 power clean and 3 pp x 75 kg (165 lbs)
Negative bench press
I’ve never used eccentric-only sets before so no change in weight
3 x 3 x 105 kg (231 lbs), something like 3 seconds down and minimal rest between sets (I thought it will be more draining)
Strong lifts man! I’ve been following your log for the past few days due to the fact that we both have similar poundages in the main lifts. Loving that setup on the Savickas press lol.
Thank you, I appreciate it. My poundages in OHP and rack pulls are still at least a plate behind you but I will do my best.
Squat day felt not so decent but the job was done.
Low-bar back squat
3 x 2 x 142,5 kg (314 lbs)
Paused high-bar back squat
5 x 3 x 105 kg (231 lbs)
Box squat… actually done to the bench not to the box. After all, necessity is the mother of invention.
3 x 3 x 145 kg (319 lbs) - too tired to fight against supramaximal loads but this was quite easy
[quote]Ass Banana wrote:
Pretty much stiff legging those deads lol[/quote]
I have overdeveloped hamstrings and really weak quads and my RDLs and stiff-leggs are incredibly close to deadlift 1RM
On the contrary, my clean deadlifts or snatch-grip dls just suck
Clean day was done day after squat day. Felt sore as hell but listened to John Broz: “how you feel is a lie”.
Power clean
5 x 5 x 75 kg (165 lbs)
Front squat
5 x 3 x 105 kg (231 lbs)
Snatch-grip hang high pull
5 x 3 x 85 kg (187 lbs)
20+ min of technique oly work after that.
Ramped up to astonishing 40 kg power snatch, a few sets of a few reps
Front squat slowly improves but upper back still flexes a bit. Virtually no rest between sets.
Well, today’s form was poor. Nonetheless, I hit what I wanted to.
Bench press, experimenting with a new technique (less elbow tucking)
3 x 3 x 105 kg (231 lbs)
Push press
1 and 1/2 x 80 kg (176 lbs) - wondered if my technique was off but again hit 1 and 1/2 at that weight.
A lot below my 1RM and I expected to hit that for a triple so I was pissed off, I dropped a plate and hit:
2 easy sets of 5 x 70 kg (154 lbs)
and the last one rampage-set, 8 x 70 kg.
Eccentric bench press ~3s eccentric
3 x 3 x 112,5 kg (248 lbs)
Good work so far, looking good! Have you considered widening your squat stance? Hard to tell from the angle, but it looks like you could benefit if you moved it out slightly. Generally pretty solid form though - just focus on keeping the “core” tight and breathing properly so you don’t lose tension and I think your lifts will skyrocket given your strength base and training.
I’ll be following, good luck!
[quote]halcj wrote:
Good work so far, looking good! Have you considered widening your squat stance? Hard to tell from the angle, but it looks like you could benefit if you moved it out slightly. Generally pretty solid form though - just focus on keeping the “core” tight and breathing properly so you don’t lose tension and I think your lifts will skyrocket given your strength base and training.
I’ll be following, good luck![/quote]
Thanks for the tips and your words.
I will keep my front squat stance as it enables me to perform ATG.
As far as low-bars are concerned you are definitely right. On the “speed days” in my 915 routine I practise squats with a wider stance and they are easier.
However my knees cave in a lot in that wider position and it’s hard for me to fix it when I have more than 80% 1RM. I’ll be grateful for any tips on that problem.
Deadlift day felt pretty good.
Decided to exchange sumo from deficit to regular snatch-grip pulls to lower intensity a bit and work on tightness in my back.
Conventional, semi-stiff-legged-do-you-even-deadlift-stance
3 x 3 x 165 kg (364 lbs)
Snatch-grip deadlift
5 x 3 x 115 kg (253 lbs) with like one minute between sets
Block pulls, 5-sec hold after each third rep
2 x 3 x 172,5 kg (380 lbs)
3 x 175 kg (385 lbs) without shoes
Lifting with open mouth definitely gives +5 to energy
15 minutes of metabolic conditioning as a finisher: prowler, waiter walks and push up position planks between sets
Yeah, the knees caving can be an issue with wider stances - I think it’s mainly a technique issue, so you need to really focus on pushing them out as you sit back with the hips, but extra posterior chain work (like cable pull-throughs, sumo deadlifts, etc) and abductor exercises with bands could help. I’ve never used them for that purpose myself, but I know others have suggested them. Frequent squatting has always been enough for me to keep my hips mobile enough and avoid too much knee cave.
I’ll take care of it. Mental focus on pushing them out as much as possible turned out to be successful. Easy but works.
Cleans were amazingly easy today after last week’s 5x5 training as I’m not used to do more than 3 reps on cleans. Bumped up 2,5 kg.
3 x 2 x 87,5 kg (193 lbs)
Front squat
4 x 3 x 107,5 kg (237 lbs)
final set of 3 x 112,5 kg (248 lbs) with a belt
I was really happy with how it felt, huge PR for me as far as front squats are concerned:
Some fun with power snatches as a drill before high pulls
Snatch-grip high-pull - decided to go from the floor today because of an achy wrist
2 x 3 x 87,5 kg (193 lbs)
2 x 3 x 92,5 kg (204 lbs)
med-pulls 3 x 95 kg (209 lbs)
I dropped some weight and returned to a power snatch. Ramped up to 2 sets of following sequence:
1 power snatch + 1 power snatch from the hang + 2 slow full overhead squats at 50 kg (110 lbs)
Low-bar felt surprisingly easy. Even though I performed one more rep in each set, lifts were much more smooth.
3 x 3 x 142,5 kg (314 lbs)
Paused high-bar
5 x 3 x 107,5 kg (237 lbs)
Box squats - those were pretty heavy, last rep was really pushed to the limit. I tested here a wider stance.
3 x 3 x 152,5 kg (336 lbs)
After that I hit 5 sets of breathed paused squats as a cool-down.
3 sets of 10 breaths under 60 kilos in low-bar position and 2 same sets with front squats.
I saw stars on low-bar sets but it seems that I can spend all day sitting in the hole when front-squatting.
Deadlifts. Today’s weights were my PR for a triple, done prior to this cycle. It went a lot easier today, however back rounding was more than minimal…
3 x 3 x 175 kg (385 lbs)
Snatch-grip deadlift - strong emphasis on using quads
5 x 3 x 120 kg (264 lbs)
Block deadlift
3 x 180 kg (396 lbs)
3 x 177,5 kg (391 lbs) - destroyed me
3 x 172,5 kg (380 lbs) beltless with shoes
Finished it with prowler, sprints with 20 kg mixed with heavy weights (max effort) for 20 minutes
