2008-7-2
Assistance Day
Seated overhead press (from top of head)
Bar x lots
135x8
185x5
205x3 (an easy 3)
235x2
245x1 (PR Weight)
Seated Speed press (full ROM)
130x13+5(Rest Pause) (rep PR +3)
Back and Bi’s later. Job perf. eval to finish.
Later:
Pendlay Rows
185x5
250 4x5
Neutral Grip Pullups
BW+40x12+5 (rest/pause)
Hammer Curls
55’s 2x8
Shrugs
250 2x15
That’s it. Got some yoke on tonight. Big food today.
When I do speed bench I still bring the weights down controlled (slow),stop, and ram up as fast as possible. Do you find it beneficial to bring them down fast? Goes against most I’ve always thought about “loading” the pecs.
Edit: Thought about this some more after I wrote the above. Maybe it’s harder if the pecs aren’t tensed first?
It comes down controlled, but fast and I try to make it go up faster. I can’t of course - but I try. The pecs stay tensed through the whole movement. They have no choice, really. It would def. be harder if the pecs were slack, because you’d have to develop the tension in them first in order to move the weight. That’s what makes a floor press so hard.
edit 2008-7-3:
I just realized I didn’t answer the question:
I come down as fast as possible (without it being free-fall) to provide the greatest stress at the turnaround point. The higher the speed, the greater the rate of force development has to be to get it going back up again. That’s why it has to be an almost ridiculously light weight, because doing that with heavy weights is a good way to tear something off. There’s a neurological limit on how fast you can get, though. It should help the heavier weights come off the chest, since you are putting possibly higher stresses at the bottom, making up in momentum what you don’t have in mass. A lighter weight moving fast can have higher momentum than a heavy weight moving slowly and so require more force to get it back up.
As an example: It’s easier to stop a laden cart rolling slowly down a slight incline that it is to stop a bullet. The bullet’s momentum is what makes it so devastating.
Yet another (probably unnecessary) book, since I’m talking to a shotputter here.
Here’s a nice simple article on jump training. Jumps are very useful as DE work. I’m thinking of doing some light jumping on off days.
And another article about carnitine-L-tartrate (CLT) and it’s positive effects on neural recovery
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/perf_recovery_clt.htm
Read Dave Barr’s stuff. He’s got the news.
And one more on the power generation metabolism of P/L’ers and strength athletes by Lonnie Lowery.
http://www.staleytraining.com/articles/Lonnie-Lowery/crocodile-part-1.htm
big linkage goin’ on today.
The Triple Whopper avatar is KILLING me 
I could go for 2 of those puppies right now…
Nice seated OHP PR, btw… congrats!
[quote]SteelyD wrote:
The Triple Whopper avatar is KILLING me
I could go for 2 of those puppies right now…
Nice seated OHP PR, btw… congrats![/quote]
Thanks SteelyD,
I know - I’ve been craving them ever since the first one. Love at first taste, a love that must remain unfulfilled after that first touch of of sin…
[quote]skidmark wrote:
It comes down controlled, but fast and I try to make it go up faster. I can’t of course - but I try. The pecs stay tensed through the whole movement. They have no choice, really. It would def. be harder if the pecs were slack, because you’d have to develop the tension in them first in order to move the weight. That’s what makes a floor press so hard.
edit 2008-7-3:
I just realized I didn’t answer the question:
I come down as fast as possible (without it being free-fall) to provide the greatest stress at the turnaround point. The higher the speed, the greater the rate of force development has to be to get it going back up again. That’s why it has to be an almost ridiculously light weight, because doing that with heavy weights is a good way to tear something off. There’s a neurological limit on how fast you can get, though. It should help the heavier weights come off the chest, since you are putting possibly higher stresses at the bottom, making up in momentum what you don’t have in mass. A lighter weight moving fast can have higher momentum than a heavy weight moving slowly and so require more force to get it back up.
As an example: It’s easier to stop a laden cart rolling slowly down a slight incline that it is to stop a bullet. The bullet’s momentum is what makes it so devastating.
Yet another (probably unnecessary) book, since I’m talking to a shotputter here.[/quote]
Thanks for the reply. Trust me when I say I understand the bullet analogy. 9.6 grams traveling at 830 m/per sec can be very devastating.
I’m sorry Hel,
That was thoughtless of me. I forgot.
2008-7-4
Upper
Incline Pin Press (Pin 6, ring finger on power rings)
115x10
165x5
205x3
235x2 (easy double)
250x1 (Baseline PR)
260x0 (broke it an inch off the pins)
245x1
Speed Incline Bench (no Lockout)
135x20 (Baseline PR)
Close Grip Bench
205x3 (wrong groove and right pec/shoulder tie in pulling)
205 3x5
135x19
Pin 6 is about 6 inches off my chest. I may bring this down next time I do these (about three weeks).
Good session. I don’t feel the need to do any more than this, amazingly enough…
edit: Someone reminded me that I needed to do abs
Weighted Crunches
165x15,12
Hanging knee ups
2x15
That’s it.
Knee ups
[quote]skidmark wrote:
I’m sorry Hel,
That was thoughtless of me. I forgot.[/quote]
Skid, that ain’t no problem. I’m just sarcastic, not sensitive.
Back and lats are sore today from yesterday’s benching. That’s good - it means I’m getting the form: arching enough and providing a good platform for pressing with the lats. Shoulder’s coming along, been giving me less and less trouble each session.
No more singles for a while unless it after a max triple or 5. Gonna use 'em for testing purposes.
2008-7-5
Forearms (did abs ystrdy)
wrist Curls
40x10
60x8
75 2x6 (PR weight)
60 1x15 (PR reps)
DB Reverse Curls
55 2x6 (PR weight)
40x15 (PR reps)
Woohoo! Am I a beast? Ah…no.
And that’s today’s ridiculous PR’s.
skid, a late thank you. I purchased that 3 day a week workout book you suggested…but its on back order until july 17th. I’ll let you know how it goes.
[quote]skidmark wrote:
Back and lats are sore today from yesterday’s benching. That’s good - it means I’m getting the form: arching enough and providing a good platform for pressing with the lats. Shoulder’s coming along, been giving me less and less trouble each session.
[/quote]
This is something I need to learn how to do. I haven’t mastered the arch enough to push with my back and legs. This results in more shoulder pain than I would like. I am considering using a PVC pipe to keep my arch…any thoughts?
[quote]mday wrote:
skidmark wrote:
Back and lats are sore today from yesterday’s benching. That’s good - it means I’m getting the form: arching enough and providing a good platform for pressing with the lats. Shoulder’s coming along, been giving me less and less trouble each session.
This is something I need to learn how to do. I haven’t mastered the arch enough to push with my back and legs. This results in more shoulder pain than I would like. I am considering using a PVC pipe to keep my arch…any thoughts?
[/quote]
Worth a try. I’ve started hunching my right shoulder up because 1) it needs to be and 2) my proprioception is whack on that side, so I’m having to retrain. After I did that, the platform was there and everything fell naturally out of that.
The other change I made was to really crank my feet closer to my head. That makes the arch for me on my bench. I don’t think my bench is competition height, though.
2008-7-7
Lower
Deadlift (full ROM warmup)
135x10
225x5
315x3
405x3
DL from 8" Blocks
455x3 (Rep PR)
475x1 (intended 3 but 1 was all there was)
Anderson Squats
255x10+5 (10, 30 sec rest, then 5)
Grip
2 Hand hang
BW+35x1 min (weight PR)
1-Hand hang
BWx1min (time PR)
Abs
Weighted Planks
125x30sec,30 sec (weight PR)
Notes:
Didn’t have anything left after the 455 DL triple. The 405 full ROM felt heavier than it should have. It’s okay, though. got 4 at or above 90% so I should be stronger next time, all other things being at par…
Crunches do NOT prepare you for planks, BTW. The planks are much harder and activate EVERYTHING that has to do with stabilizing the trunk.
Happy on the grip exercises. Glad I buffed down the calluses last night. Propbably would have lost one today…
Since pulling that 500 off the blocks, I really want to pull it off the floor. Coach sez do triples off the blocks and it’ll come. I know he’s right, but it’s hard not to jump the gun.
All my targets are so close to happening, it hurts. Except for bench, and I think that’s going to be moving soon. I have some mental barrier at 275, which I am going to destroy by doing high bar work for reps. Either triples or multiple singles - I’m not going to get up to 275 - I’m going to leap frog it.
Chris tells me I screwed up going as heavy as I did from the floor. I should have gone to blocks after the 315. He’s right about that too. If I hadn’t tripled 405 from the floor, I might have tripled 475 off the blocks. Now I have to wait 2 weeks to try again.
Still no entry form available for my meet, supposedly in September. Got my fingers crossed that it’s going to happen. If not, APA has a RAW one going in Sacramento about the same time that I’ll try get into. I didn’t buy this damn singlet for nothing.
Nice pulls, skid!!
What’s an “Anderson Squat”?
Also, your hang time-- what are you gripping on to? Skinny bar, fat, bar, 2x4, etc?
I usually hang from the smith machine frame, which is essentially like hanging from an angled, metal 2x4 and ‘walk it’ left to right, or just hang to decompress-- I hadn’t thought to hang for time. Is that more for back strength leading to 1-arm chins, or for grip work (or both)?