“Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability” - John Wooden
[u]19th March, 2012[/u]
It’s time for me to get serious (also melodramatic - I’m an actor so I can’t help it!). I have the best opportunity of my life right now to see just how far I can take this. My goal is nothing less than God Mode. What is God Mode? It is a mixture of powerlifting strength, psychological strength, speed, athleticism and endurance and various other factors. It’s also a personal definition - some might think I am aiming too high, and others might think my goals fall short of their definition of God Mode. That’s fine. On their own, each of the attributes is not special - but it is the high level combination that I’m after.
A sort of awesome at all trades, not quite master of any if you will.
I have a power cage, FID bench and 185kg of weights. I have a 20kg kettlebell and I work mostly from my family home so can train when I want. Oh and I live near a pretty brutal hill. I will be getting more weight - obvi - but I have everything I need otherwise.
Current stats and PRs:
Height: 5’7"/170cm
Bodyweight: 84kg/185lbs
Press: 75kg/165lbs
Push Press: 90kg/198lbs
Bench: 130kg/287lbs
Front Squat: 130kg/287lbs
Squat: 160kg/353lbs
Deadlift: ? (I need more weight for deads)
Power clean: 90kg/198lbs
Overhead squat: 60kg/132lbs
Snatch: ? (haven’t tested)
1 mile: 6 minutes ish
Box Jump: 43"
So that’s where I’m at right now - pretty far short of God Mode. I have some long term “as and when” style goals but I should probably make some short and medium term goals too. I’ll do that later - this is quite enough for an introductory post right now!
inb4 no one readz
EDIT: adding my year-end goals for 2012:
Year End Goals
Bench: 150kg / 330lbs
Squat: 190kg / 418lbs
Dead: 230kg / 506lbs
Press: 85kg / 187lbs
Push Press: 110kg / 244lbs
OHS: 100kg / 220lbs
Front Squat: 150kg / 330lbs
Dead Hang Pullups: 50kg x 3, 60kg x 1, bw x 30
Clean: 120kg / 264lbs
Snatch: 90kg / 198lbs
1 mile run: 5:45
2 minutes of burpees: 50 reps
AM Technique Work:
Overhead squats:
20kg x 10 - much better than last week
30kg x 10 - better than previous set
40kg x 5 - felt very comfortable
50kg x 3 - PR bar was wobbly first two but solid third rep
60kg x 1 - 10kg PR bar wobbled forwards on the way up
60kg x 2 - PR much more solid on first rep, second was better than previous set
Pullups:
10
10
Video:
PM Pushing:
Bench:
Bar x 15
60kg x 5
70kg x 4
80kg x 3
90kg x 2
100kg x 1
110kg x 1
117.5kg x 1
125kg x 1 - 5kg PR! Messed up setup but it went up smooth
130kg x 1 - 10kg PR! Completely fucked up my setup on 125 by readjusting but it went up smoothly so I went for 130kg anyway. Nailed it!
Incline:
60kg x 5
70kg x 5
80kg x 6 - PR These felt very explosive today.
Dips:
Bw+20kg x 12
Bw x 16
Ring pushups:
16
Plyo pushups:
A bunch
Notes:
So happy with this session. Haven’t flat benched in over a week and killed it on 130kg. 3 plates is in my sites!
Definitely in for the ride. 130kg is very solid at that bodyweight. I weigh a couple kgs more but am 3" taller but definitely interesting to see a guy very close to my bodyweight. Also: are you wearing strength shop leodis shoes and is that your brother giving you a hand off? Because I have literally that exact situation when I train at home if so… strange.
Feel free to throw bench tips my way… I’ve still not surpassed 105kg x 1 with bodybuilding form/rom.
Where in the UK are you ? Could end up doing the same meet at some point in the future.
@Austin the bicep himself! Thanks man, appreciate it coming from you.
@Jake, yeah man my shoes are from Strength Shop (love that place) but they’re called Lokis. They were very cheap but my first ever pair of Oly shoes so I played it a little safe in case I didn’t like them. But I LOVE them. And it’s actually my best mate’s little brother - I’ve been coaching him for a few months. My brother doesn’t lift.
As for bench tips, get a vid up of your bench and I’ll take a look but I’m no expert - I’ve just been doing what the experts say. And also I ditched bodybuilding form - that shit got me injured and I never made it past 90kg.
Workout:
Various warmups, air squats and broomstick stretches.
Deadlifts:
60kg x 5
100kg x 5
120kg x 4
140kg x 3 - Double overhand PR
160kg x 1 - switch to mixed grip
175kg x 2 - deadstop reps Form felt solid and strength was there but I could tell my body isn’t used to heavier weights still. I felt “pressure”.
Front squat:
60kg x 3
100kg x 3
110kg x 1
120kg x 4 - 3Rep PR! Was aiming for 3, so I’m pleased with that. These felt terrible as I was ramping up. Nearly cut them short but glad I didn’t.
Conditioning: 21/15/9 as quickly as possible of:
60kg Deadlifts
Burpees
Time: 6:47 This was a goddamn bastard. Deadlifts I went straight through the reps without breaks because the weight was so light, but I had to do the burpees 5 at a time and was dying by the end. Still, the burpees are feeling better, I just really suck at them.
Notes:
Massively overheated after the metcon so jumped in to a cold shower for 5 minutes. But I’m still overheating as I write this 10 minutes later lol. Good session though. Now I need to eat. Everything.
[quote]Jab1 wrote: @Jake, yeah man my shoes are from Strength Shop (love that place) but they’re called Lokis. They were very cheap but my first ever pair of Oly shoes so I played it a little safe in case I didn’t like them. But I LOVE them. And it’s actually my best mate’s little brother - I’ve been coaching him for a few months. My brother doesn’t lift.
As for bench tips, get a vid up of your bench and I’ll take a look but I’m no expert - I’ve just been doing what the experts say. And also I ditched bodybuilding form - that shit got me injured and I never made it past 90kg.
I’m down south in Hampshire, you?
[/quote]
Same shoes as me… they are awesome, especially if you got them for the reduced price (I didn’t, yet still the cheapest oly shoes available!). My brother doesn’t really lift as such, though he is now interested in fitness/keeping fit, which is a cool improvement from only playing video games.
Theres a vid way back in my log but I’ve made no attempt to do my proper bench work with good powerlifting form until now… I am realising though that for whatever reason, my shoulders massively prefer the ROM of PL style bench and bodybuilding style flat bench is probably not a good choice for my structure even if I go back to full bodybuilding training. I’m based in Leeds at the moment, so not so close I guess.
Front squats looking strong! I’ve not performed them in awhile but I might throw them back into the mix once I’ve got this smolov finished… see if I can compete with you.
@Jakebrah yeah man mine were the reduced price. 40 squids. Not bad considering the Nikes are like 160. You should def get a recent vid up of your bench man! But yeah PL style saved my shoulders, there are other moves I prefer for pure pec sessiness (although my pecs suck so, y’know). And our back squat is pretty close so I have no doubt you could compete… But I won’t make it easy for you!
@Adam omg Adam is God Mode already <3 thanks brah!
Workout:
A. Hang power clean and “jerk”:
20kg x 4
40kg x 2
60kg x 1 - felt great
70kg x 1 - felt even better
80kg x 1 - a total abomination
90kg x 1 - default PR but UGLY also pushed the lockout First time ever really trying jerks. Needless to say I SUCK.
B. Push press:
70kg x 8 - 4rep PR! Muscles handled this easily, wrists and forearm bones not so much. =/
C. Skin-the-cat:
2 attempts
D. Back lever:
2 attempts Definitely getting better but still can’t keep my body straight. First attempt included two “reps”.
E. Front tuck lever:
2 attempts These are so much harder than back lever. Absolutely smoked my lats. Held each tuck for all of 3 seconds but felt like an eternity.
F. Iron Cross Partials
5
5 Not as hard as I thought they’d be?
G. L-sit ring pullups:
8 - 3rep PR
H. L-sit on rings:
2 attempts Wow I suck at these. Lacking flexibility, strength, everything.
Eye1. Strict barbell curls: 20kg x 15 / 30kg x 12 / 30kg x 8
Eye2. strict dead-hang pullups: 5 / 5 / 5 So much harder than it looks. Also for the first time EVER my left shoulder did not pop or click. Fuark. Felt amazin’.
Notes:
So it doesn’t look like much on paper but I feel crushed after this workout. I was feeling crushed anyway after yesterday’s but this didn’t help. Lol. Anyway, I like ring work because it always makes me feel like I suck which, if done right, is pretty motivating. And I think I did it right today.
The hang cleans felt pretty solid but the jerks mega-sucked. I don’t have the cajones to really go for it in my small little room and cage area because I can’t really drop the weights and don’t have that much space to fall around. But I still got in some work so that’s okay.
I realise that I use the word “suck” far too much.
Cool looking experimental session. I also have the wrists/hands problem when trying to jerk/push press any appreciable weight overhead- wrist wraps are a must for me!
[quote]Jab1 wrote:
Ya I like to do at least one day of gymnastics/rings stuff a week and just play with it a bit.
I haz no wristwraps. I feel like such a noob![/quote]
Yeah, wish I had access to rings, may have to buy some for myself in the future.
My wrists are so small and not designed for pushing weight it’s hilarious. No wonder most of the early strongmen were those with wrists the size of arms… they didn’t have all this equipment that makes it possible to go past our genetic weaknesses somewhat.
Workout:
Pullups:
10kg x 5 x 3 Trying something new where basically I will only do pullups with at least 10kg added any time I do them. No bodyweight. Kept these far from failure today. I might also do this with dips.
Hang snatches:
20kg x 5 - holy shit at my shoulders*
20kg x 5
30kg x 3
40kg x 1
50kg x 1 - this felt horrible - technique was all over the place - so I decided to back off the weight.
30kg x 5 x 5 - around about the third set I finally started hitting the second pull in a more timely fashion
40kg x 1 x 2 Once the timing “clicked” a bit everything felt much better. I was also going to a full OHS on virtually every rep and these felt EASY today.
*my shoulders have got so much more mobile so quickly that without realising it I was actually holding the bar too far back on this set. Amazing! Took another set at the bar to recalibrate.
Bar Muscleups:
3
3 - some kind of PR definitely Felt good.
Notes:
Didn’t kill myself today, just tried working on form, feeling the stretch in the pullups, hitting the timing for the second pull in the snatches and finally beginning to enjoy overhead squatting. The muscleups were for fun, but I want to be able to bang out a 10 rep set pretty soon.
Yes mate! Although to be honest, it’s taking me a while to feel the love - I’m so bad at them that they aren’t a pleasure for me just yet. Definitely enjoy how they make me feel though. Explosive and shiz.