A Bench Log, Yes it's Come to This

7/29 accessory

30 minute workout, just back and bi’s

7/30 events

good warmup, maybe just a tad short of what it should have been

medley; 250 keg, 275 sandbad, 250 keg, 275 sandbag - each for 40ft in back and forth style. Did two runs, the second was very fast. cardio is improving, felt much better today

car deadlift setup; 2 sets, neither were that good. second was better than the first form wise. I saw some video of my first set and I’m lucky to have a spine still intact. Tried on my dl suit again and ya, it no longer fits. SO, I have one for sale if anyone is interested, lol.

stones; 5 loads at 330, a stupid miss at 385 after the eaisest pick ever, more loads of 330

All in all a better day

8/1 Upper body

one arm db press; lots of warmups, 135x3 each arm, 150x6 (4 right, 2 left) 150x5 - clean each rep (4 right, 1 left)

flat bench with slingshot; 225x8, 275x5, add slinger, 315x6, 365x7, rep set raw - 225x18

giant set; 3 sets of 12

lateral machine raise
pullover machine
bent over rear delt raise

prowler; 3 runs of 120ft…stupid prowler…

8/8 upper body

warmup stuff

keg clean/press; 5 singles, got better with each set (keg is 250lbs)

push press; 135x6, 220x6, 315x1 - felt heavy racked but everyone said it looked like 135 going up

strict press; missed 220, 180x3, 205x1

shallow decline db bench; 75x15x3

Really strong day, conditioning is improving and limit strength feels pretty good

8/10

I had a shitty day today and was PISSED off going into the session. Needed some redemption on the stones and time is running out for the show.

warmups, power cleans, complex to get loose

stone load; 330x3, 385x1 - man that was STRONG, 365x1 - thought we got the stones mixed up so I loaded the other one to make sure weights were right. Out of stupidity, I jumped to our 450 stone. Honestly I had forgotten it was that heavy. Using elite training tacky and it was just not strong enough to hold, slipped out right before I had it lapped. Went back and did 330x7 to finish. NOTE: I have avoided doing dumb stuff for almost 15 weeks, and trying to load the 450 on this day was dumb, just not there yet.

2 bicep exercises

Feeling pretty good, I’m a bit early but feel like things are peaking and events are getting better. Since I had to mail the entry today I guess the cat’s out of the bag. Going to compete 8/20 at the Brian Shaw Strongman Classic. The events are very good and there are alot of strong heavyweights coming. Will be a good test.

Monopoly

8/14 event work

warmup stuff

trap bar dead, up to 405x5

car deadlift setup; no idea on total weight. 500lb tire plus 470lbs of plate for 5 reps as top set. if i had to guess i would say 650 in hand

reverse hypers; 3 sets, heavy

hip sled; 3 sets, lighter

Everything felt fine at the gym. I was alone today and not feeling great. I didn’t want to pussy out and not do the workout because I was alone, this may have been a mistake. Later in the day my back started getting tighter and tighter, then the pain came along. Today (tuesday) is worse. Right now things do not look good for the weekend but we’ll see. Will continue to rest and eat anti inflams with muscle relaxers for the next two days.

Do you feel that you can make a fair judgment on how much/if training w Josh helped your events, or have you been too banged up/outside the gym issues to make a fair comparison?

[quote]KBCThird wrote:
Do you feel that you can make a fair judgment on how much/if training w Josh helped your events, or have you been too banged up/outside the gym issues to make a fair comparison?[/quote]

I think now after 4 weeks of training I can say that I am stronger at the events. I haven’t taken a max on anything but I’ve never pressed 315 over head that fast, or loaded the 385 stone so easy. Pressing the 250 keg is something I had missed before and I hit that pretty easy now.

The only regret I had with Josh is that I stopped doing conditioning work. If I would have kept that up I think the transistion back to events would have gone much better. I’ve talked to him a couple of times and he has a totally different program he uses just geared towards events and I am interested in trying 12 weeks of that with him.

For me, I’m pretty good at doing the actual events. I don’t have technical problems, I had strength issues. Plus, events beat the shit out of me. If I can do gym work for 12 weeks with little event work, I feel like that’s better for me in the long run.

Injury update; Not much improvement right now. Did some work last night, band traction, stretching, foam rolling, light deadlifts. Felt okay while pulling but gettind down to the bar is not easy. Today it’s very tender and stiff. Things are not looking great but the body is an amazing thing and I’m trying to stay positive. A hell of alot can change in 48 hours.

Monopoly

Not much too update. Was unable to do the show, went in Saturday morning to test some shit out and it was not happening. I feel like I could have competed but there was zero chance of taking home the win and that’s all I was after.

No clue what the plan is right now. On the fence to rehab again or get the fucker cut on. Going to try and get an MRI this week, it’s been almost 2 years since the last one so I think a new one would be a good idea to see how things look in there.

For the meantime, it’s back to benching.

8/22 benchin

rehab shit

flat bench with feet flat out, supported, paused; 135x10, 135x8, 225x6, 225x6, 275x8x4, 275x10

flat bench w/ feet flat out, supported, ultra wide grip; 225x10x3

incline db; 60x10, 70x10, 70x10

giant set; 3 sets of 10 each station

dips
ez curl biceps
rear delt machine

Really a pretty good workout, I badly needed to lift and this felt great.

8/24 - worthless

20 minutes of rehab, stretching

leg ext; 4 sets 10

single leg hammy curl; 4 sets 10

single leg deadlift; 3 sets 8 with 15lbs

calf raise; 4 sets 12 - first time I’ve trained calves in probably 3 years

[quote]Monopoly19 wrote:

[quote]KBCThird wrote:
Do you feel that you can make a fair judgment on how much/if training w Josh helped your events, or have you been too banged up/outside the gym issues to make a fair comparison?[/quote]

I think now after 4 weeks of training I can say that I am stronger at the events. I haven’t taken a max on anything but I’ve never pressed 315 over head that fast, or loaded the 385 stone so easy. Pressing the 250 keg is something I had missed before and I hit that pretty easy now.

The only regret I had with Josh is that I stopped doing conditioning work. If I would have kept that up I think the transistion back to events would have gone much better. I’ve talked to him a couple of times and he has a totally different program he uses just geared towards events and I am interested in trying 12 weeks of that with him.

For me, I’m pretty good at doing the actual events. I don’t have technical problems, I had strength issues. Plus, events beat the shit out of me. If I can do gym work for 12 weeks with little event work, I feel like that’s better for me in the long run.
[/quote]

Thanks for the insight. Very interesting to hear that he has a program geared towards events

Not much going on right now. Still waiting on an MRI. I did turn 30 over the week and had several days of heavy drinking going on which pretty much killed me. I never really drank to get passed out drunk but can pound them down for some reason. Went to one of the casino’s here with wifey and my close friends/their sig others. Was a great time all in all.

Turning over has not really bothered me, not sure why. I think mainly it’s because at 30 most people are going downhill and I feel better for the most part than I did at 20.

8/29 upper body

lower back rehab, stretching

bench, feet flat out, supported, paused; warmups, 295x5x4

bench, feet flat out, supported, ultra wide grip; 225x10x2, 225x8

incline db bench; 60x10, 75x6x3

giant set; 3 sets of 12 all movements

preacher curl machine
dip machine
rear delt machine

Called it here. Was still dragging from the weekend and had ZERO motivation to train. However I can’t slip totally backwards right now and give away all my progress so I have to find a way to keep moving forward until I get a firm plan with back.

Happy Birthday, ya old fart!

Dude! When the fuck did you start push pressing 315? 365 by Christmas.

Training is shit. Have gotten 2 upper body days in and 1 lower body day over the past 3 weeks. Combine that when coming off and not eating and things are going great!

No luck on an MRI yet, although I am finally feeling a bit better. I’m on an HSA for insurance and have not hit my deductable for the year so if I want to pay for an MRI it’s about $1,500 bucks. One of my training partners has said he can hook me up with someone as he’s a medical rep but it’s been about a month and he hasn’t had any luck.

Either way, things suck right now. Move along, nothing to see here.

Monopoly

More of the same. Hardly maintaing right now. In full dust mode as Dave Tate would say.

Bunch of shit going down over the past month. Finally quit my 2 job lifestyle to working on my own biz out of home. This has been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and finally got the courage to make the jump. This was good timing for being hurt, as I am still unable to really do jack so work has been a focus.

Strength is holding ok. Bodyweight is somehow holding at 250. Working moderatly on my pressing, lower body days are pretty much all rehab/prehab/stretching/foam rolling and lax ball work. Very satisfying…

I will get back to posting next week. You can all relax and breath again now that I’m back posting.

Monopoly

11/4 accessory upper

military press (touch top of head) warmups, 205x8, 205x7

speed bench with football bar; 245x3x3

military db press; 60x6, 75x6, 90x5, 50x21

decline cg bench; 135x10, 225x8x8

tricep pushdown; 3 sets of 30

11/6 lower body

foam roll, lax ball, band traction/stretching, single leg work, hip mobility, glute activation

goblet squat; 40x10, 60x10, 80x10

ssb gm; barx10, add chain x 8 (too heavy) went to lighter chain x 5, damage was done, back was getting tight

hip sled; 3 sets of 10

11/7 bench

really short warmup

bench, paused: 275x2x2, 315x2x2

speed bench; 255x3x5

cg bench; 225x8x2

dips; 6, +45lbx6, +90lbsx6

front raise; 40x8x3

db fly; 35x15x3

fat grip db curl; 40x8x3

I HATE training in the morning.

11/9 “lower”

foam roll, band traction/stretch, lax ball, stretching, single leg work (40 min)

goblet squat; 40x10, 60x10, 80x10, 100x10x3

step up; man, got weak here. 3 sets