Baking A New Cake

Training Over 35 Lifter
101

Sunday July 25

The usual pre-squat warmup. Foam roll, rear lunges, shoulder and upper back movements. Stair stepper 5 minutes.

Box Squats - 2 inches below parallel - more of a dynamic day
I’m working from an estimated 450 max (suit and wraps).
bar X 20
135 X 10
225 X 6
295 X 2 - 6 sets (about 64%) - belt
315 X 2 (70%) - belt
340 X 1 (75%) - belt

Pullthroughs using low cable, rope handle
5 sets of 5 - ramped up weight

Standing Cable Crunches
3 sets of 15 - ramp up weight

45 degree back raises
BW X 15
25 X 10 - 2 sets

Pullups - medium width
BW X 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2

Chinups
BW X 6, 5, 5

Home to eye of the round oven roast, coated with Dijon mustard and cracked peppercorns. I like to cook this to an internal temp of about 117 degrees. By the time it rests for 15 minutes the final temp is about 125. Rare and perfect. With steamed cauliflower and broccoli; boiled beets; and the first of the local sweet corn, boiled for 3 minutes.

I’m now going to cap that all off with a Cool Beer Stonewall Light. Just discovered this. For all you Ontario beer drinkers, it’s available at the LCBO. A decent summer beer. Did I mention that it’s cheap, and not bad?

102

Your dinner sounds lovely. I had mine pre-training. We did chicken curry with roasted vegetables covered in warm goat cheese and left over garlic curry potato salad. It wasn’t a big hit with the kids and I didn’t care. However, a lever belt is tough to close after a dinner like this.

103

eating, and lifting good, north of the border. I am in need of a good curry recipe. I have some down and out ones that work pretty good, but all came from English football followers…

104

[quote]PeteS wrote:
eating, and lifting good, north of the border. I am in need of a good curry recipe. I have some down and out ones that work pretty good, but all came from English football followers… [/quote]

Hey Pete. Love the curries and most Indian food. The wife and I lived in Kathmandu for 4 years, where we got used to heavily spiced dishes. I’ll ask the younger son’s girlfriend for a couple of her Mom’s recipes.

105

Monday July 26

Shoulder and upper back warmup - facepulls, pushups, DB shoulder rotations, band pull aparts (thanks to scottgomez for reminding me of these), wall slides. Foam rolling.

Bench Press - Dynamic
bar X 20
75 X 10
95 X 5
135 X 3 - 8 sets
165 X 3 - 2 sets

HS Incline Press - close grip
45 side X 10
70 side X 6 - 3 sets

Side lateral raises - machine for a change
5 sets of 10, ramping up weight

Seated Rows - wide grip
5 sets of 10, ramping up

Tricep Pushdowns - medium width
4 sets of 10, ramping up

HS Machine Curls Elevated- see pic above
50/side X 10
60/side X 10
70/side X 6 - 2 sets

Dips
BW X 10 - 3 sets

106

Wednesday July 28

3 weeks and 3 days out from PL meet

Today was max squat day. Here’s how it went:

Some warmup, but not very much. I was swimming a bit earlier in the day, so I felt pretty loose.

Squats
bar X 20
95 X 8
145 X 5
225 X 3
295 X 2
335 X 1 - belt
385 X 1 - belt
405 X 1 - belt, suit, knee wraps
435 X 1 - belt, suit, knee wraps - 5 lb PR
450 X 1 - belt, suit, knee wraps - 15 lb PR

I almost stalled coming up on the 435. The 450 felt a lot easier than the 435. I still had some in the tank. I’m going to re-think my meet attempts.

Hanging Leg Raises - legs to the bar
7, 7, 6, 6

Standing Cable Crunches
4 sets X 12 - ramping up the weight

45 Degree Back Raises
BW X 15
25 lb plate held with arms out above head - 3 sets of 12

Pullups - medium width
4, 3, 3, 3

Chinups
5, 4, 4

107

Hey - great set of PRs there! especially leading into a meet

108

Nice work. That is a big raw squat. What weight class are you lifting in?

109

[quote]soldog wrote:
Hey - great set of PRs there! especially leading into a meet[/quote]

Hey SD. Yeah, that got me pretty stoked. You just had an awesome meet. Congrats.

110

[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
Nice work. That is a big raw squat. What weight class are you lifting in? [/quote]

Hey jjack. The last 3 lifts were in gear. I haven’t (successfully) gone over 405 raw. I weigh about 179 right now, so I’ll be in the 181 lbs (82.5 kg) class, Masters 2.

111

[quote]cakewalk wrote:

[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
Nice work. That is a big raw squat. What weight class are you lifting in? [/quote]

Hey jjack. The last 3 lifts were in gear. I haven’t (successfully) gone over 405 raw. I weigh about 179 right now, so I’ll be in the 181 lbs (82.5 kg) class, Masters 2. [/quote]

Shoot, my bad, I missed the “suit” designation when I first read it. That’s still a big squat, especially at 179.

112

Had some time today to update.

Friday, July 30

Weight - 179
Height - still 5’ 5"
Age - older than dirt
3 weeks to PL comp.

I was pretty stoked for today’s training. First time in a bench shirt, a Titan Fury. Well, I’ve tried to get it on a couple of times at home, but first time training in it. I roped in my son to go to the gym with me. This is how it went:

The usual upper body/shoulder warmup - facepulls, db external rotations, pushups, foam rolling, wall slides, back raises.

BB Bench
bar X 20
95 X 8
115 X 5
145 X 3
170 X 2 - wrist wraps
190 X 1 - wrist wraps

Time to put on the shirt. Holy crap, what a struggle that was. I have Metal sleeves to help put on my squat suit, so I used those as arm sleeves. That helped with the initial bit, but then it was down to brute pulling, seating, pulling again, lots of arm swimming movements. At the end, after 10 minutes or so, it just felt pretty wrong - too high at the collar, not fully seated in the armpits. My son and I were both dripping in sweat.

Out to the bench. Spent some time getting the shirt pulled down in front.

190 X 1 - couldn’t get down below about 4 board distance. Remembered that I’d have to pull the bar down.
225 X 0 - took forever to get this to touch and the collar was crushing my throat.
225 X 0 - pulled this one down but got pinned.

I was just completely out of gas after this. I don’t remember the last time I felt so beat up from lifting.

Did some light accessory work and headed home. I was pretty disappointed by the whole experience.

Lessons learned, now that I’ve had a couple of days to think about it - I need to get a LOT stronger in raw bench. I need a benching coach to help me figure this out - strength, programming, shirt selection and use. I need to actually train regularly in a shirt, way before a meet and not with just 3 weeks to go. Once I’ve dealt with those issues, I may be ready to use a shirt in a comp. In the meantime I’ll train and compete raw in bench.

113

John, learning a shirt can be much more difficult than a suit. My first shirt was a fury and I had to get a bigger size. I just needed more weight to touch than I was capable of controlling at the time. In my opinion, a shirt requires a fair degree of precision and practice. If you have access to one, I’d suggest trying a looser one to start just to get comfortable with the feel.

Where do you live anyway? Are you close to any clubs or people that compete that could give you a hand?

114

[quote]ouroboro_s wrote:
John, learning a shirt can be much more difficult than a suit. My first shirt was a fury and I had to get a bigger size. I just needed more weight to touch than I was capable of controlling at the time. In my opinion, a shirt requires a fair degree of precision and practice. If you have access to one, I’d suggest trying a looser one to start just to get comfortable with the feel.

Where do you live anyway? Are you close to any clubs or people that compete that could give you a hand?[/quote]

I agree, I think the shirt, a 44, is at least a size too small for training. It’s probably just right for a comp. I’ll look around for a used 46.

I’m in Scarborough. I see there’s a Lakeside Club listed on the OPA site. I’ll call the contact number and see what’s up.

115

Monday August 2

This was my last heavy deadlift day.

The usual warmup. Lots of foam rolling, really working the glutes and IT bands.

Deadlifts

135 X 8
205 X 5
250 X 3 - belt on
325 X 1
405 X 1
465 X 1 - this will be my opener. Went up pretty easy.
485 X 1 - was a bit slower, but it went.
500 X 0 - this didn’t budge, like it was bolted to the floor
500 X 0 - same again

Standing Cable Crunches
5 sets X 12 - ramping up weight

45 Degree Back Raises
4 sets X 15 w/25 lb plate held with straight arms

Pull Downs - medium grip - concentrating on activating the lats
4 sets X 8 ramping up weight, but not heavy

Narrow Grip Press Downs
5 sets X 12, ramping up weight to heavy

Wide Grip Press Downs
2 sets X 10, medium weight

116

How much more dead lifting are you doing before the meet? My last dl day is Sunday and then I’m done. What have you done since Monday?

117

[quote]ouroboro_s wrote:
How much more dead lifting are you doing before the meet? My last dl day is Sunday and then I’m done. What have you done since Monday?[/quote]

Thanks for the prod Ouro. I’ve scheduled one more heavy DL day, this time in my squat suit. That’s for Monday/Tuesday. I’ll also have one more go at heavy squats, on Wednesday or Thursday, then it’s just some very light dumbbell and band training from that point forward, to keep the joints from seizing.

Wednesday August 4

This was my last heavy bench day. Note to anyone just checking in, my “heavy” is very light.

The usual warmup and foam rolling.

BB Bench
bar X 20
95 X 5
135 X 3
165 X 2
185 X 1 - wrist wraps
195 X 1, 1 - wraps
205 X 0 - wraps
205 X 0 - wraps

Lots of front delt and right elbow pain. Decided that was it for flat bench.

HS Incline
I usually do these with a very narrow grip. My lifting partner suggested I go pretty wide. He thought that might help with the pain, and it did.
2 plates/side X 10
2 plates + 15/side X 6 + 1 forced rep
2 plates +25/side X 3 + 1 forced rep

HS Decline
Same deal - widened out the grip, and also lowered the seat a couple notches. This felt much better.
2 plates/side X 10 - 2 sets
2 plates + 15/side X 8
2 plates +25/side X 5 - 2 sets

DB Side Lateral Raises
25 X 10
30 X 10 - 2 sets
35 X 6

Cable Pressdowns - wide grip
ramped up to quite heavy - 6 sets X 12

HS Machine Curls
50/side X 10
60/side X 10
70/side X 6 - 2 sets

45 degree back raises
I concentrate on tightening the glutes to propel the weight up. ie. not using the back.
with 25 lb plate held with straight arms overhead - 4 sets X 12

A few minutes of cool down stretching and done.

118

Friday would have been my next usual training day, but I was committed to attending my nephew’s stag. I volunteered to be a designated driver, so couldn’t drink. The Italian food was awesome, but I made a point of restraining myself.

Saturday afternoon I went to my high school graduating year’s 40th anniversary. Yes, you read that right, 40 years. I graduated from Grade 13 in 1970. This was my first time seeing most of those reprobates, except for a few that I’ve stalked on FaceBook.

I jammed in a fast training session first.

Saturday August 7

Precor Adaptive Motion Trainer warmup - 5 minutes. The gym just got these in. It looks a little like a cross trainer, but it was deceptive. It kicked my ass, and felt much more natural, and difficult, than a cross trainer.

Squats - speed squats, very short pause between sets. All were very deep.
bar X 20
135 X 10 - 2 sets
225 X 10 - 2 sets

Lat Pulldowns/DB Squat and Press superset - 5 minutes with (almost) no pauses
6 X 108 lb lat pulldowns, wide grip followed immediately by
6 X 35 lb db squat and press
Sweating buckets and hacking up a lung by the 5 minute mark

Seated Rows - narrow grip
4 sets X 12 - ramping up weight

Pullups = medium width
BW X 5, 5, 4, 4, 3, 2

Tricep Cable Pushdowns - narrow grip
4 sets X 8 - ramping up to heavy

119

Monday August 9

Weight - 180
11 days to PL meet

Warmup - foam rolling, wall slides, assorted tomfoolery.

Today was “deadlift in my squat suit” day. I wanted to see if it felt any better than last time I tried.

Deadlift
135 X 6
225 X 4
315 X 3 - belt
405 X 2 - belt
465 X 1 - belt - this was a grinder
500 X 1 - PR. Belt, squat suit.

Put on the suit and had to practice getting down to the bar and getting into a good position. I remembered seeing a very strong suited lifter get his left hand fixed on the bar, then dive down with his right, pull himself down into position and pull. So that’s what I practiced and then did. I thought I’d pass out from lack of air, but I pulled and 500 flew off the ground. I know my legs were trembling a bit, but it went up much easier than the 465.

Hanging Leg Raises - bringing mid-shins to the bar
6, 6, 5, 4, 4

Curls - HS Machine
60/arm X 10
70/arm X 8 - 2 sets
80/arm X 4

Pullups - medium width
BW X 6, 6, 5, 4, 2

Pullover Machine
4 sets of 10 - ramped up weight

Pushups with light band
3 sets of 25

Home to an awesome birthday cake, for the younger son, so I had a good excuse.

120

Wednesday August 11
(Edit - corrected date)

Last heavy day before the meet.

Not too much warmup today - 45 degree back raises, pushups, foam rolling.

Squats
bar X 20
135 X 10
225 X 10
315 X 3 - 3 sets - belt
365 X 3 - belt
385 X 1, 1, 1 - belt

Pullthroughs on low cable
84 X 8
108 X 8
120 X 8 - 2 sets

Standing Cable Crunches
5 sets X 12 - ramped up weight

Machine Preacher Curls
4 sets X 10 - ramp up weight
2 sets X 4 - heavy

Seated Tricep Pushdowns
4 sets X 10 - ramp up to heavy

Lat Pulldowns - medium width
4 sets X 8 - ramp up weight

Home to grilled pork tenderloin, roast potatoes and onions, broccoli, some blueberries and cherries. No more beer or wine until after the meet. I want to stay at 179 or below.