Trying to Be a Powerlifter

Training Logs
21

PAST 3 TRAINING SESSIONS:

07/19/16: Full Body

Squats:
-135 x 5
-225 x 5
-315 x 3 tweaked my back on the 3rd rep lol. On a fucking warmup, really? Never thought I’d see the day.

Figured I’d just train upper body till the back pain subsides.

Incline Bench Press
-265 x 7
-265 x 6
-obviously only posting working sets. Didn’t go nuts cause I didn’t have a spotter.

Weighted pullups
-few sets with 25 I think

Standing Military
-up to 165 with a wide grip. think the most reps I did was 8

pendlay rows
-up to 185

incline dumbbell curls, overhead tricep extensions, hammer curls, tricep rope extensions, rear delt flyes, neck work. DONE

07/21/16: Full Body (minus legs hehe)

Weighted Pullups
-+25 for a few sets

Incline Bench Press
-275 x 8
-245 x 10
-225 x 12
-felt strong as fuck on these.

Yates Rows
-225 for 4 sets, alternating over and under hand. Light & strict due to my lower back.

Standing One Arm Dumbbell Shoulder Press (strict, no legs)
-60 x 5
-70 x 5
-80 x 5
-80 x 9 (got used to the exercise)
-was training with a friend and he likes this movement so I figured I’d give it a shot. He got 80 x 10 tho, beat me by one rep lol.

Neck extensions
-25lbs for 3 sets of 30

Neck Flexion
-25lbs for 3 sets of 30

Don’t remember what I did for arms.

Ab Rollers
-usual 4 sets of 10 lol

Weighted Planks
-3 sets with 90lbs between 30-50 seconds. Very tough exercise.

07/24/16:

Pause High Bar Squats (NO FUCKING BELT!!!):
-135 x 5
-225 x 5
-315 x 5
-365 x 5
-365 x 5
-365 x 5. PR 3 times lol. These felt awesome.

Incline Bench Press
-45 x 10
-95 x 10
-135 x 10
-185 x 10
-225 x 5
-295 x 4
-275 x 6
-225 x ? didn’t really count
^did pullups in between each set

Weighted Dips
-BW x 10
-45 x 10
-90 x 10
-115 x 8 i think
-115 x 8 again

Pendlay Rows
-135 x 10
-185 x 4 sets of 10-12. Doing these with 185 feels a lot easier.

Messed around with a few sets of olympic high pulls. Nothing crazy.

Rear Delt Flyes

4 sets of incline db curls with 35lbs, short rests.

overhead one arm dumbbell extensions and hammer curls both with 50lbs, going back and forth.

Neck Extensions
-3 sets of 20 with 35lbs.

Neck Flexions:
-3 sets of 20 with 35lbs.

Ab Roller
-2 sets of 10, lol, slack ass

22

Ok, I have a meet scheduled in 7 weeks. First one ever, October 16th it is. Will log all my training leading up to it.

08/29/16: Bench

WIll preface this by saying that I did an hour of olympic lifting which ended an hour before this session begun. This will be the case for tomorrow’s squat session as well.

Paused Bench Press:
-45, 95, 135, 185, 225, 275, 315 for warmups who cares
-335 x 5
-335 x 5
-335 x 5

Paused Close Grip Bench Press
-warmups
-295 x 5
-295 x 4, started losing endurance

Incline Bench Press
-225 for 3 sets of 8-10, yeah no endurance here.

4 sets of pullups just to stretch out.

1 Like
23

08/30/16: Squats

High Bar Narrow Squat:
-45 x 5
-135 x 5
-225 x 5
-315 x 5
-365 x 5
-415 x 5
-415 x 5

Paused High Bar Squats:
-325 x 5
-325 x 5

Stiff Legged Deadlift (3.5 inch deficit)
-135 x 5
-225 x 5
-315 x 5
-365 x 5 very hard set
-335 for 3 sets of 5-6 reps.

Ab Roller
-3 sets of 10

few sets of chest supported rows

Did this session after an hour of being taught olympic lifting. Worked on the snatch today for the first time in my life. Went better than I thought it would to be honest. Started with power snatches? from the knee, squat snatches, etc. Overhead squat work. A lot of squatting, which I also did yesterday with my clean work actually. I expect my numbers to be better when I do this without having done oly training beforehand.

24

IN for progress, training and results!!!

25

Hey thanks a lot man, glad to have you along.

08/31/16: Shoulders/Arms

Standing Military Press
-45 x 10
-95 x 10
-135 x 10
-185 x 5
-185 x 5 felt unstable and shaky from the all the squatting and core work.
-155 x 10
-155 x 10

Seated Lateral Raises
-20 x 10
-40 x 10
-60 x 10
-60 x 10
-60 x 10
-60 x 10
-40 x 20

Rear Delt Flyes (machine)
-6 sets

some lighter supersets for arms, nothing worth mentioning.

Crap day, not gonna bother doing standing military anyway, at least for now. I seem to get better results and carryover to my bench from seated behind the neck presses. I’m able to make more progress on them from session to session as well. They will be in next week’s shoulder routine.

26

09/01/2016: Front Squats

Front Squats
-45 x 5
-95 x 5
-135 x 5
-185 x 5
-225 x 5
-275 x 3
-315 x 8 PR
-315 x 5
-315 x 4

Bent Over Rows (not touching the weights on the ground, but not too upright either, wide grip):
-135 x 10
-225 x 10
-315 x 8
-275 x 10, 10, 10

got out of dodge.

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09/02/16: Bench

Will just list the working sets here.

Paused Bench Press:
340 x 5
340 x 5
340 x 5

Paused Close Grip Bench Press
295 x 5
295 x 5
295 x 5

Incline Dumbbell Press
110 x 10
110 x 8
110 x 9

Some pullups to stretch out.

28

09/03/16: Deads

Conventional Deadlift
-135 x 5
-225 x 5
-315 x 5
-405 x 3
-495 x 4 pathetic
-495 x 3 even more pathetic

fuck that

Block Pulls 4"
-worked up to 545 for a set of 3

Lat Pull Downs, Dumbbell Rows, Hamstring Curls, Biceps Curls, Ab Rollers 4-6 sets of each for support work. Disappointing but it’s also the 6th day of training in a row lol, and I haven’t slept all week.

29

09/05/16: Bench

Paused Bench Press:
-45 x 10
-95 x 10
-135 x 10
-185 x 5
-225 x 5
-275 x 3
-315 x 1
-345 x 5
-345 x 5

Paused Close Grip:
-305 x 5
-305 x 5

Weighted Dips:
-90lbs for 4 sets of 10-12

Chest Flyes, JM Presses and Underhand triceps extensions 4-6 sets each

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09/06/16: Squats

Low Bar Squats (first time):
-135 x 5
-225 x 5
-315 x 3
-405 x 1
fucking awful movement, you won’t see me do these again. There’s a reason I’ve never done them before and I should have stuck to that.

High Bar Narrow Squats:
-45 x 10
-135 x 10 (as I was racking the weight, I thought to my self “now that’s a squat”)
-225 x 5
-315 x 5
-385 x 1
-440 x 3 (used a belt for the first time ever)
-440 x 2 (used a belt for the second time ever)
using a belt was stupid too, will never use one again.

Pause Squats
-335 x 1 wasn’t feeling it

Stiff Legged Deads (standing on 100lb plate):
-135 x 5
-225 x 5
-315 x 5
-405 x 5 well that’s a pr
-365 x 5
-365 x 5

couple sets of ab rolls

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That squat session left me very frustrated and questioning my goals for the meet. I will try both low bar and using a belt again next session and do my absolute best to get comfortable with them. It would be stupid of me not to because the addition on my total that will be made from switching from high bar/beltless to low bar/belted will be pretty significant.

ANYhow,

yesterday, 09/07/16: Back

Weighted Pullups
Chest Supported Row
Single Dumbbell Row
Seated Cable Row
Barbell Shrug
Neck Extension
Dumbbell Curl
Single Arm Preacher Curl
Hammer Curl

reps and sets? who cares.

09/08/16: Lighter Bench/Shoulders

Paused Wide Grip Bench (Feet in the air):
-45 x 10
-95 x 10
-185 x 10
-225 x 10
-245 x 10
-265 for 4 sets of 10

Seated Behind Neck Press:
-45 x 10
-95 x 10
-135 x 10
-185 x 10
-155 for 3 sets of 12-15

Seated Lateral Raises
-15 x 15
-30 for 4 sets of about 20, think I did 30 on one set

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09/09/16: Deads

Conventional Deadlift:
-135 x 5
-225 x 5
-315 x 5
-405 x 5
-525 x 5
-545 x 3
-585 x 1
^the last 3 sets felt easy as fuck.

SLDL (standing on 100lb plate):
-135 x 5
-225 x 5
-315 for 4 sets of 10 touch & go strapped, slow negs

Hamstring Curls:
-4 sets of 15-20 with 100lbs

Some pullups, lighter rows, bit of ab rollers

33

Haven’t done anything worth mentioning since my last post.

09/14/16:

Paused Bench:
-365 x 4
-365 x 4

Paused Close Grip Bench:
-315 x 5
-315 x 5

Weighted Dips:
-90lbs for 4 sets of 10-12

Dumbbell Flyes, JM Press,

1 Like
34

09/16/16 (one month away): Deads

Conventional Deadlift:
-135 x 1
-225 x 1
-315 x 1
-405 x 1
-495 x 1
-545 x 4 PR
-545 x 5 PR

Stiff Leg

Row

Stomach Abdominal

Done.

35

I just hit that for a tap n go !RM PR…little jelly right now and awesome.

36

Haha I meant nothing I did up until that training session was worth mentioning. Although maybe it was. I’ll do my best to include my warmups and the isolation work I do in detail, Have definitely been half assing my entries today. As for that bench day all 4 of those working sets for bench and close grip were PRs. I’ll be benching again today and will do my best to put up something nice. I read through your journal a bit as well and you could say I’m jelly of some of your squat and dead numbers! Strong stuff man.

37

09/24/16: Deads

Conventional Deadlift
-135 x 1
-225 x 1
-315 x 1
-405 x 1
-495 x 1
-585 x 2
-585 x 2

Stiff Leg

Barbell Row

Ham String Curl

Ab Wheeeeeeel

Voodoo floss on my hip flexor

Had a 3rd on the first set with 585 but I ain’t leavin it in the gym. Interesting note is that this kid 170lbs tops asks me to spot him. I’d seen him around the gym a few times and every time i overheard him talking he acted like a know it all, but whatever. He has 265 on the bench and he says he’s gonna do 5 sets of 3 paused. Alright so he has these wrists wraps on, arches up all crazy and unracks the weight with my lift off. He does 1 rep with no pause, a 2nd grinder rep with a slight pause, then says “nope, not worth it” and slams the weight back into the rack. He was asking me if I compete and I was like yeah I got a meet in 3 weeks. He kept asking me what I wanted to hit and I was avoiding answering it. Finally I said I’m not sure about squat, but over 4 on bench and over 6 on deads, trying to stay humble here somewhat and not make any big claims lol. Keep in mind he’s never seen me do a working set of one of the big 3 and he goes oooohh I dont know if you can man they’re gonna make you pause for like 2 seconds and for deadlift it’s a stiffer bar and blablabla. So there’s something to add to the fire, 3 weeks guys…

3 Likes
38

09/26/16: Bench

Paused Bench Press
-365 x 3 x 3

Paused Close Grip Bench Press
-325 x 3 x 3

Incline Bench Press (45 degrees)
-4 sets of 8-10

Dumbbell Flye

JM Press

Underhand Cable Extension

Some rear delt flyes and chins to stretch out and spread out

39

I would recommend to slowly transition to low bar. You didn’t give it enough time. Each week slide the bar down a little bit until you find a place that is comfortable and your strong in.

And if it doesn’t work I guess your one of those rare squaters who are stronger high bar.

40

I just hate low bar, ditched it and will probably never go back.

1 Like