Monopoly,
I’m liking the bench log. I’m a beginner in powerlifting and need some advice. What tricep exercise do you think has helped you the most, for benching?
thanks,
PB
[quote]power_bulker wrote:
Monopoly,
I’m liking the bench log. I’m a beginner in powerlifting and need some advice. What tricep exercise do you think has helped you the most, for benching?
thanks,
PB[/quote]
Thanks PB, glad someone is enjoying it.
I think it’s really a combination of things? If I was starting PL, I’d do that beginner 9 week westside program. Keeps your training to 4 times per week and is very easy to follow. Will yield big results if you work hard however.
That was a big factor for me, following a good program and sticking to it. I had been overtraining badly.
I really like the JM press, I got alot out of that movement I think. I’d say the JM’s, foam presses and floor presses all really helped my triceps. Just benching twice per week and hitting triceps twice per week helped as well, that is something I had never done. I’m not big on the pin presses or rack lockouts as those seem to put alot of stress on me. Hope some of that helped man, let me know if you need the link for that 9 week layout.
Monopoly
2/4 M/E Lower
Fair amount of warm up stuff today. Hypers, roman chairs, foam roller and something else I think.
Foam box squats; 135x8, 225x8, 275x5, 315x3, 375x3, 405x3, 475x3, 405x5, 405x4.
Good lord, didn’t realize that was 9 sets. Got some pretty hard foam at a local furniture place. It’s like 6" thick and offers a good compression. This seemed to take a ton of stress off my back and knees, will be using this alot from now on. Box height with pad was high, but who gives a shit, I’m squatting! 475x3 was very fast, I’d say it was maybe 85% of a 1rm?
2" side handle axle pickup and holds out of rack; worked up to like 200 on each hand. Tried 220 but I could not even lift it up. Just worked on timed holds here.
Zercher pickups; From a low position here, trying to simulate stones; 135x5, 225x5, 275x3, 225x5. Back getting tired.
Some more grip stuff, hypers and ab work. Really tired after this one, guess that’s what 9 sets of squatting will do to ya.
Monopoly
2/6/09 D/E Bench
Flat barbell; 185x3x8. Holy hell, I was all over the place and very slow today. Need to get back on top of this.
Overhead log lockouts in rack; 150x5, add minis, 200x5, 250x3, 225x3, another set, no clue on weight
Giant set. Decline skulls with standing curls with barbell rows in smith machine. This sucked badly and my elbows/forearms were killing me.
That’s all she wrote. I need to get back on a actual program as I’m feeling beat down again. Not sure how I am going to lay this next cycle out. Maybe do 3 week waves of bench/overhead/bench/overhead?
Also got my MRI results back. Apparently, my back is just fine! Ya, right. L5-S1/L5-4 show mild degeneration but nothing major. I have no idea what is causing all of this pain. Happy that I don’t need surgery and that my disk is not all the way gone but I’m very frustrated.
Monopoly
2/9 M/E upper
Log floor press; 180x10, 230x8, 280x5, 320x3, 320x1 (got the log in front of me and dropped most of it on my face. Spotters caught it right as it hit me, but still hurt. Pissed me off enough that I went right into 320x5) 280x6
Seated db press; 60x10, 75x8, 70x8, 60x12
Chest supported row; 4 sets of lower weight
Tri machine; 4 sets of lower weight
I was sick all weekend long, stomach flu or something. I was happy just to get the gym. After we got done with the log, my energy was shot. I just had not eaten anything and was drained. Still happy to get through it, I’m pretty sure the 320 is a PR.
Monopoly
2/11 m/e lower
Reverse hypers; 4 sets of 10 with 3 plates. Worked on a squeeze and hold at the top
20" rack pull with 2" axle
135x8, 225x5, 315x3, 405x3, 475x3, 495x3, 405x5
Leg curl/Leg extension superset; 4 sets of 12 reps
Roman Chairs; 4 sets of 12
Speed squat off foam; 225x5x3
Front box squat on foam; 135x5, 225x3 - this was different
Done. Happy with the pulls. Pretty much pain free, my lower back just felt very weak. Going to try and start doing some kind of pulls weekly from now on.
Monopoly
2/14 M/E lower, again…
Warmups, romainian db deads, reverse hyper
Foam box squat; 225x8, 315x5, 375x5, 405x5, add VERY loose ace breifs, 475x5, 495x3! Ya buddy. Felt light, have lots left but I am just going to try and creep up every week.
Foam front squats; 225x8, 275x5
18" rack pulls; 135x5, 225x3, 315x3, 405x3, 455x1, 550x1, 600x1. The 600 was a dumb idea, I rounded hard to get it. So much for playing it safe.
Behind the neck jerks; 135x5, 225x5, 267x1, 308x1, 328xmiss. Dammit.
I got video of the 495 squat, the 550 pull and the 328 miss. Really mad at myself for missing that but my legs were just shot and I was kinda done after the make at 308. Oh well. Overall happy with today, everyone had fun as well which is always good.
Here is the squat vid.
Monopoly
550 rack pull
328 BTN miss. Damn triceps.
Try again
Oh fuck it. Here are the youtube links.
jerk
squat
rack pull
2/16 R/E upper
Bosu ball db press; 30x10, 60x10, 75x10x4
superset with
Chest supported incline db row; 70x10x5
Decline barbell; 185x10x2, 225x10, 225x8, 225x4
superset with
Double pully lat pulldowns; 180x10x5
Machine fly superset with rear delt fly. 3 sets of 10
Wow am I sore today. I need to get back to doing more bodybuilding stuff. The pace and amount of reps just kicked my ass. Chest is also really sore today which it hasn’t been for a long time. Tried to keep the reps slow and paused yesterday, just very different from how we have been training.
Monopoly
2/18 A bit of everything
Truck push; 3 runs of 100ft
Standing strict press; 135x5 w/axle, 180x3 w/log, 180x5/w log, 135x8 w/axle
SquatMorning; All the cool kids are doing it. With regular bar off pins. God, we need a ssb. 135x5, 175x3, 225x3, 275x3. Even with the shitty setup, I can tell this movement worked a really weak part of my back. Excited to train it some more.
Finally got a bunch of video’s from partners camera. Will try to get some of the better ones up.
Monopoly
2/22? What is today anyways. Oh ya, strongman Saturday.
Went and got some tires this morning after out last one was stolen. Guys were nice enough to load them onto our trailer. Of course, it would have been nice had they told us the big tire was 1500lbs new! Holy hell this thing is huge, we are guessing it’s 1200-1300 right now. Will be a while before someone flips it. Also got a 500 and 250. They didn’t have anything in between.
Did some warm up stuff, muscle snatches, snatches and something else.
Max axle clean and press; 135x3, 220x1, 265x1, 286x1, 306xmiss. Could not even finish the clean, wtf? Cleaned over 350 a while back. 286x1, miss the second, twice, 286x1, miss the second, 286x1, miss the second. You see a pattern here? Went back down and hit 220x7, ouch.
LOW box squat, like 10" with foam on top. 135x5, 225x5, 225x12, 225x18-19? This sucked very bad. Working the low box with light weight was really good for me. That set was just so hard. You cannot cheat at all with the foam. Really wanted 20 reps but the guys pushed me into the racks as back was starting to round.
This was plenty today. Never really got into it to be honest. May have something to do with the fact I slept like shit and had a bananna for breakfast?
Monopoly
2/23 r/e upper
flat db bench; 30x10, 60x10, 80x5, 100x5, 110x5, 115x5, 125x6
superset with
chest supported incline db row; 75x5x5
incline hammer strenght machine; 5 sets of 5, medium weight
superset with
close grip lat pulldown machine; 5x5 medium weight
machine fly 5x5 superset with face pulls 5x5
Done. Sore again today. I need to get back to the 150’s on db press. Might have had that for one set if I had done less volume. All those reps kicked my ass again.
Monopoly
lookin strong man!
[quote]bignate wrote:
lookin strong man![/quote]
x2
Thanks fellas!
Right now I am thinking of doing another strongman show. Monsters of the Mall in Kansas. It’s in June so this gives me ample amount of time. They also have a MW class up to 265 which is a good fit. I am still at 240ish right now so the goal is going to be to try and gain 20lbs. I will post some more on this in strenght sports once we have our training cycle laid out.
2/25 d/e lower
Reverse hyper; 3 sets of 10 with 3 plates
Pin pulls off lowest pin in rack; 135x5, 225x5, 315x3, add 50lbs chains per side, 405/chainsx3, 475/chainsx1, 475/chainsx1, 315/chainsx5
Front squat; 135x10, 225x8, should have stopped here, back was hurting. Add belt and low box with foam, 225x5, 275x3, switch to back squat, 225x20
So stupid
Some ab work and that was it. I’m in pain today and it’s my own fault. Slept like shit last night so I’m in the air about tonight’s workout.
Monopoly
2/26 Arms
Decided to go in and get it done, other than feeling like shit I had wanted to do an arm workout for a while.
Giant set:
Standing bb curls with
Standing reverse grip curls with
Standing db hammer curls with
Bent over strict curl
We ran through this 4 times and I was toast.
Seated preacher machine curl; 3 sets
DB skullcrushers off floor with
seated dip machine. 3 set of 12 here
Standing pushdowns, oh fuck this, I was over it.
2/28 Strongman stuff
One arm snatch; Worked up to 135 with left and right hand, 150? with right hand. I think this ties a PR.
Cambered bar box squat; Used a box that was just at parallel. Went up to 465 for 3 and 500 for 1. Just used belt and wraps. The 500 was a good lift and very sound technique wise.
Farmer walks; 100/hand for 150ft with turn. 200/hand for 150ft with turn. 250/hand for 150ft with turn.
Done. This is the first time I have done farmers since March of 2008. I could have walked or held on forever with the 250 per hand, only hard part was the pick. Also somewhat happy with pulling 500 pain free off the ground.
I can tell I am doing more strongman again, my body is breaking down.
Monopoly
3/2 R/E upper
Incline barbell; 135x8, 135x8, 185x8, 225x8, 225x6
superset with
Standing one arm db row; 90x10x5
Flat cybex press; lower weight for 4 sets of 10
superset with
close grip pull ups; 10, 10, 8, 9
CT chest press; 50x15x3
with
Seated row machine; medium weight, 3 sets of 15
Cool day in the gym today, lots of energy. Phil Heath was shooting for his new video. He is in offseason prep for the Olympia right now and HUGE. He knocked out 20 reps with the 150lb db’s on incline! Just sick. I think I’ve hit those for like 7 or 8 on flat before and it was an all out effort.
Monopoly