The Program I'm Doing Is What I'm Doing

[darkhorse1_1]

I'm a novice lifter. If you're looking for advice this isn't the source you want. I post this stuff just to try on get some feed back on it.

I've been doing Maximum Strength. So far I've seen some good gains. I hope they keep coming. I move weights slow though. I want to be strong so I can run fast. I just didn't know that being strong is worthless unless you can convert it into power. I'm going to do sled pulls on the energy workout days for max strength. In high school 4 years ago my best time was a 4.78 40 yd dash. That doing football specific training 5 days a week and being about 35 lbs lighter. I timed a 40yd dash and a 10yd dash today. I ran a 5.1 40yd and a 1.7 10yd. The 10 yd dash is crap. They're only accurate timed by laser. That's pathetic by any collegiate or professional sport standard, but not too bad for an average guy that's been riding the couch for the past 4 years.

Ultimately I want to help my buddies get faster because they are hardcore into soccer. I'm going to do tire drags for 4 weeks and see where it gets me. That might be too soon to see a change in sprint speed, but results from thing you never do are usually faster and more noticable. I've never pulled a sled in my life.

[darkhorse1_1]

I read some Contreras' stuff, but ultimately I think it will be tough to improve sprint speed if a crap load of highpulls, hang cleans and powercleans aren't the main form of training... you know working rapid force development.

[darkhorse1_1]

I've been doing tire drags on the off days of max strength. This is what I've done so far

week 1
wed sat 10 yd dash 7x with 1 minute rest

week 2

mon wed fri 15 yd dash 14x with 1 min rest

this is what I plan to do

week 3

mon fri 10 yd dash 10x stressing long stride

week 4

mon wed fri 15yd dash 16x stressing long explosive strides

[darkhorse1_1]

snatch grip deadlift: 225, 275, 325, 295 I didn't feel like I was moving the bar fast enough at 325 so I dropped some weight. It's supposed to be an explosive lift

db walking lunge: 110, 110, 110, 70 legs were feeling dead after the second set and reps went up on the 4 set so I dropped weight and took it easy on the 4 set

speed deadlift: 295 this lift required 50% of my 1rm. I feel like I moved the bar well. The plates were making noise at the top of the lift

bench from floor: 135, 205, 215, 225, 235, 245 I couldn't figure out how to get under the bar so I put it on the lowest setting in a power rack.

supinated grip cable row: 150, 170, 190, 177.5

face pulls with external rotation: 90

I'm looking forward to tomorrow and the next 2 thursdays. It's speed squat followed by 1rm test tomorrow. Next week it's speed squat followed by 1rm followed by 1rm test.

I'm excited to see if my squat max went up more. On moving day I maxed out on box squat(15 in box and I'm 6'1") at 375 1rm. After the first 4 weeks I was able to box squat 375 3 times. In the second 4 weeks box squat is traded for front squat I was able to get 315 once on front squat, but my form was poor. My back may have rounded and my elbows were down. I want to know if training all of these other lifts will really help my box squat max. I'm excited to see what happens.

I had trouble getting my reps in for the prescribed lifts during the second phase. I decided to say screw it and have a crappy deadlift so I ordered some lifting straps. I've been able to get all my reps in this week.

[darkhorse1_1]

The sled pull/tire drags will be dropped. I had a bad day yesterday doing squats. I failed on 3 attempts to move pussy weight.

[darkhorse1_1]

I don't update this often. I am master of the obvious. I don't know what kind of numbers I'm going to put up on moving day. Deadlift has improved from 395 to 455 at 6'1" 210lbs. I guess that means my back is the strongest of my muscle groups. Bench has gone from 190 to 225. Box squat hasn't come around in the cycle since phase 1 of max strength. That was 375 3x last time I did that. I free squatted 375 2 fairly easily a a couple of weeks ago and then took 1 week off to snowboard and another week off because I sprained my ankle snowboarding. I made it back in the gym for the first time in 2 weeks today. I had 2 doubles and one set of 4 on front box squat. I started the doubles out with 135, 225, 275, 295, and 300. The final set of 4 reps I did with 275. Form on the front squat gets terrible when the weight gets high. My elbows drop and back rounds a little at the bottom of the rep when I start the concentric contraction. I guess I drop my elbows and probably raise my butt a little too. It must help get the weight moving upwards. I've been moving the weight really slow in all my lifts.About a month ago I hit front squat with 315 with some crappy form. It was ass to grass, but I'm sure my elbows dropped and upper back rounded. That came up slow too. When Max Strength is finished I'll still be focusing on strength, but more on power development.

[darkhorse1_1]

I've been having trouble getting through my workouts. I'm just whining here, but I've been dragging my ass. I have no energy during my workouts. I feel crappy. All the lifts are uncomfortable now that the weight has gotten heavy for me. Front squats suck and walking lunges suck. Deadlift, back squats, and bench press are all fine. I cheat on deadlift though.

I use wrist straps and the stiff leg technique otherwise I'd be lifting a hundred pounds less. I don't care if it's cheating. I use wrist straps on db lunges too. I can't hold over a hundred lbs in each hand for more than a couple reps. My hands burn out before my legs do. Max Strength has you do lunges to add volume.

If I do heavy lunges after Max Strength is over I'll be doing them with low reps like 15 triples. I don't care if the great personal trainers know that unilateral movements have inadequate load to be used to build strength. Forward, backward, and walking lunges with 110's feels like a strength building exercise to me.

I take an antipsyhcotic medication because I have a mental illness. One of the side effects is it induces weakness. I get lightheaded after I do heavy sets of lunges. I used to throw up back when I would do one leg split squats in the smith machine once I got to the point I was repping 225 5x each leg. I've since moved to free weights and won't ever go back to machines.

I haven't thrown up yet using free weights, but I got light headed today and saw black for a little bit after doing a set of 7 lunges on each side with 100lb DBs.

[darkhorse1_1]

I got the measurements and I have a waist to hip ratio of .827. I'm a little round. I'm sitting at a waist to height ratio of exactly 0.5.

[darkhorse1_1]

I'm trying to decide what to do after max strength. I'm not yet an intermediate lifter according to Mike Robertson's article http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/the_modified_5x5_squat_program. I'm still a newb. That means I'm not ready for 5x5 yet or 8x3. I've been doing max strength though so why not try 5x5 and milk what I can out of it for 8 weeks? I don't see why not.

The form on my squat is decent enough. I'm not repping 2x body weight yet, but who cares. My 1rm is close to 2x bodyweight. I want to develop power. I don't see why I shouldn't use 5x5 or 8x3 for a few weeks. Nobody is going to tell me any different cause no body reads this shit. I may get told I don't need to use a rep scheme like that. I could probably still see strength gains with 3x10, but I'm going to think I'm more advanced than I am and do 5x5 until it stops working. SMD.

[darkhorse1_1]

I need to get videos of my front squat and deadlift and have you guys critique them for me. Classes start again so I'm taking adderal again. If I don't have it there is nothing to counteract the grogginess of the antipsychotic I take. I feel a lot better taking the adderal and two cups of coffee. I want to get some HOT-ROX extreme, but I'd have a hard time making 55 bucks disappear from my bank account without my mom noticing. I need a job and another address to send the shipments to if I want to get awesome supps. I've always liked the speed feeling because I'm naturally a really low energy person.

It'd be cool if I could lose about 10 lbs of fat. That would mean weight I have to lift for 2x bodyweight squat would drop from 430 to 410lbs. that's 45lbs vs 25lbs to gain on squat.

[darkhorse1_1]

I had box squat again today. 2@385, 2@395, 2@400. I don't know what I did that brought about the increase in max. I tried to get 405 in mid december and was stapled to the floor. I haven't been training especially hard. Sometimes I just do the core lift of the day in the max strength program and skip the assistance work on lower body days. Upper body days are easy. I've just gotten to the point that I can rep 225 a couple of times on bench so it's light weight and doesn't take as much out of me with my low energy levels and all. I rested for two weeks over christmas break down from training hard four days a week for about 7 weeks.

After my layoff over the holidays I swapped gnc amped creatine 189 for optimum nutrition's micronized creapure creatine monohydrate along with adding optimum nutrtion's hydrobuilder. I started using a pre-workout shake 15 min before workout comprised of 4oz natural grape juice, 10 oz water, 1500mg leucine/500g isoleucine/500mg valene, and 5g ON gold standard whey along with taking 1500mg glutamine caps. I started using a during workout shake comprised of 4 oz natural grape juice, 10oz water, 5g ON gold standard whey,1500mg leucine/500g isoleucine/500mg valene. Post workout I take ON hydrobuilder with 8oz natural grape juice. I usually eat a meal about 45min-hour after my post workout shake. I started following Contreras' glute activation workout from this article: http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/dispelling_the_glute_myth. I had quit doing my foam rolling and stretching pre workout, but started again also with more dedication to hip flexor work.

So in short. I started doing a bunch of shit differently all at once. I'll never know what helped. I'm new enough though that it probably wouldn't make a difference what I do I'll see gains, but the funny thing is I got stapled with 405 on the bar for the squat in mid december, then didn't train very vigorously for about a month, changed my supps up a little, and then started setting PRs in the back squat.

[darkhorse1_1]

blasted my quads today. It wasn't so much the speed box squat, more the 3x5 of front squat grip barbell lunges @225lbs. I was supposed to do 1 more set, but the quads were feeling sore. Creapure creatine monohydrate is where it's at. I haven't gotten sore from a workout since I started back after hurting my shoulder last august. This isn't DOMS.

[darkhorse1_1]

I finished maximum strength program by Eric Cressey today. Results were excellent. Here are the 1rms.
Supps used: ON micronized creatine monohydrate, ON gold standard whey, ON Hydrobuilder, GNC BCAA, GNC Glutamine, Grape Juice, assorted vitamins and minerals

Before
Body weight:210lb
Standing broad jump 9'5"ft
Box squat 375lb
Bench press 190
Deadlift 390
Weighted pull up ????

After
Bodyweight: 217lb
Broad jump 10'1.5"
Box squat 435lb
Bench 255
deadlift 490
Weighted pull up 45lb

Most successful sixteen weeks I've had training. I bested my prs in high school. I was broad jumping 9'3" as a senior. Eric Cressey would not approve of my max attempt deadlift form, but I'm still in one piece. I'm giving full credit of my strength gains to creatine monohydrate not my cns. Don't be mad cns. I'm sorry.