Cycle 2, Intensity Phase, Week 2, Bench
Bench
bar, 8@75
Chains Bench (~20lbs at the top)
8@65, 5@95, 2@115, 2@120, 1@125, 0@130, 0@125, 3x1@120
Bench
4x2@130 (paused), 2 AMRAP: 6,6@115
Cable Wide Grip Neutral Pulldown
4x10@105
Cable Neutral Grip Low Row
4x12@90
BB Curl
4x12
Cable Triceps Pushdown
4x15@70
Cycle 2, Intensity Phase, Week 2, Squat
Squat
bar, 6@95, 5@135, 3@185, 3@205, 1@225 (belt), 1@235, 1@245, 1@255, 1@265 (10 lb PR!!!), 3x2@225, 4x4@185 (no belt)
*Just got 255 about 3 weeks ago so to already hit another PR is great. The 255 was hard but it wasn’t slow, the 265 was one of the longest grinds I’ve hit so I’ll post the video too. Very happy with it, just 3 weeks out from my meet so it’d be awesome to hit 275 squat PR at the meet.
Deadlift
*As I’m getting closer to the meet, I’m moving towards competition movements for my accessory so no sumo tonight.
5@135, 3@185, 3@225, 3@245, 4x3@255
Straight Legged Banded Situps
3x12
265 Squat PR
Cycle 2, Intensity Phase, Week 2, Bench
Bench
bar, 8@75, 6@95, 3@115, 3@125, 2@130 (paused), 3x2@135(touch and go), 1@135, 3x1@140 (touch and go), 3x2@130 (paused)
Chest Supported DB Row
8@30s, 4x10@40s
Cable Low Row Wide Neutral Grip
4x12@90
Cable Face Pulls
4x12@70
Cable Triceps Pushdown
3x12@70
Cycle 2, Peak Phase, Week 1, Deadlift (3 week countdown to the meet)
Deadlift
bar, 5@135, 3@185, 3@225, 2@255 (belt), 2@275, 3@295, 4x3@305 (3 set PR!) 4x3@275
*Very pumped about this workout. I felt so strong today, the first reps of 305 were going up easy and I held my form together relatively well with no hitching and not that much over-thinking. Next week I was 2x3@315. We’ll see.
Paused Squats
bar, 5@95, 3@135, 3@155, 3x3@175, 3@155
*Put a mat over the mirror so I could start practicing my squat without a mirror. It sucks that I’ve gotten pretty use to it but it’s never been an issue at a meet before, so I’m hoping that trend continues. I’ll keep practicing though.
Banded Seated Leg Curls
2x20@1 heavy band
Cycle 2, Peak Week, Week 1, Bench
Bench (lighter bench day, heavy will be on Saturday)
bar, 8@75, 6@95, 3@115, 4x3@125 (paused)
Close Grip Bench
4x3@115
Wide Neutral Grip Low Row
3x10@105
Cable Triceps Pushdown
2x15@70
EZ Bar Curl
3x10@bar
Floor Press
bar, 3@95, 4xx3@115
Cycle 2, Peak Week, Week 1, Squat
Squat
bar, 6@95, 5@135, 2@185, 2@205 (belt), 2@225, 4x3@235 (3 set PR, RPE 10 on last 2 sets due to right shoulder issues), 4x3@215
Deadlift
2x5@135, 3@225, 4x3@245 (belt)
Banded Leg Extensions
3x20@1 light band
Spud Cable Ab Pushdowns
3x12@90
Med Ball Plank with mountain climber legs
3x20
Cycle 2, Peak Phase, Week 1, Bench
*So, I decided to go out on a limb and widen out my grip by about 1-1.5 inches. In the past, I think I’ve tried it but that must have been like 2 years ago because warming up with the wider grip felt great. The bar path was more consistent and I felt generally more in control and like I was able to feel my back working. So just FYI, if you stall on bench don’t be afraid to adjust your grip and see what happens. I hadn’t tried it in years and I got a PR because of it.
Bench
bar, 8@75, 5@95, 2@115, 2@125, 3@130, 3@135 (paused, 1 rep PR finally, RPE 10), 2x3@130, 4x3@120
Banded Pullaparts
4x20@1 mini band
Cable Face Pulls
3x10@60
Bent Over T-Bar Row
12@45, 3x10@55
DB Shoulder External Rotations (due to right shoulder pain that has just come up after my squat workout)
3x12@5s
Cycle 2, Peak Week #2, Deadlift
Deadlift (2x3@92.5%)
bar, 5@135, 5@185, 2@225, 2@255 (belt), 2@275, 2@295, 2x3@315 (massive PR for me, 1 rep PR plus another set!), 2x3@285
Squat
bar, 5@95, 3@135 (paused), 3@155, 2x3@185 (terrible, no belt, my back was rounding over at the bottom and my right shoulder was bothering me no matter where I placed the bar), 5@135 (paused)
Med Ball Mountain Climber Abs
3x20
Med Ball Crunches
3x12
Here’s my video of 1st set of 3@315:
Video of 2nd set of 3@315
Cycle 2, Peak Week 2, Bench
Bench (used my new found wider grip)
bar, 6@95, 5@115, 4@125, 4@130 (rep PR!), 3@130 (was going for 4 reps again but due to form, I failed the 3rd rep but knew I had the strength so I eeked out a 4th rep), 2x4@130 (more rep PR!), 1@135, 1@145 (new bench PRRRRR, I’ve failed this twice since the new year so I was very happy with it. I touched a little low and that caused the bar path to fall forward a bit but I had the strength to maneuver it back and grind out a new PR just 1.5 weeks out from the meet), 2x1@135 (bench commands)
Banded Pullaparts
5x10
Cable Lat Pulldown
4x10@105
Cable Face Pulls
4x12@70
DB Curls
3x10@20s
Other random ab or rehab movements
Cycle 2, Peak Week 2, Squat
Squat
bar, 6@95, 5@135, 2@185, 2@205 (belt), 1@205 (my setup felt horrible on the previous set and it felt really difficult so I widened my grip just a bit and the bar sat much better on my shoulders), 2@225, 2x3@245 (10 lb PR + 1 more set, video at bottom), 2x3@225
*Very excited this was successful. My right shoulder was bothering me again, but not as bad as last week after doing some rehab stuff with it all week. By no means was this easy but my form help up really well.
Deadlift
5@135, 3@185, 3@225 (belt), 3x3@245 (set up between each rep, very easy and light)
Spud Cable Ab Pulldowns
3x12@90
Plank Mountain Climbers on bench
3x20
Cycle 2, Peak Week 2, Bench
Bench (goal was 2x3@135 today)
bar, 6@95, 3@115, 3@125, 1@130, 2x2@135, 0@135, 3@115
*So not what I wanted at all for today, had a lot of issues with my wide grip and getting it right. On some reps it felt a touch narrow and others felt too wide. I’m just hoping for the meet that I get it right and hit my perfect groove. I can definitely tell my body is fatigued from this week and in need of a taper for the meet in one week. Sat at 171.2 this morning so I got about 6 lbs to cut. Hope I can do it!
Cable Face Pulls
3x15@80
Cable Triceps Pushdowns
3x20@70
Cable Low Row with Fat Grip
3x10@105
DB Curl
3x12@15s
Meet Week, Monday
*I did all three openers tonight. I developed a sinus infection over the weekend (yay timing!) and went to the doctor today to get antibiotics and a steroid shot. I normally tough that stuff out and do OTC but not this time. I feel much worse and fatigued so urgent care was the way to go. I was very fatigued and frustrated with this whole openers workout. I was rushing it a bit and was just irritated that I was feeling so crappy. But that is life and I’ll get over it all in time for the meet on Saturday at least.
Squat planned opener: 237lb/107.5kg
Bench planned opener: 132.3lb/60.0kg
Deadlift planned opener: 308.6lb/140kg
Weight cut: at 170.6 this AM and drank 2 gallons of water today. Will repeat the 2 gallons tomorrow and drop sodium and drop to 1 gallon on Wednesday. Barring some strange event, I should make the 165 class at weigh ins on Friday morning.
MEET REPORT (held on 2/28/15)
Weigh-ins:
Morning of the meet I weighed 165.8 lbs according to my scale. I needed to make 165.3, so I still had about 3 hours to drop that much. I started chewing cinnamon gum and spitting in a bottle and drove the hour to weigh ins with the heat on blast so I would sweat. I knew from experience that shouldn’t be hard to drop, however, when we arrived, I weighed in at 165.8 again and 75.6 kg on the kg scale which was utter shit. It changed numbers on me a couple times so I knew that scale wouldn’t be reliable. Put more sweats on and walked on the treadmill at an incline for 20 min and kept spitting. Then weighed in again…no change. I was very irritated at this point, so I went to the bathroom and eeked out a little pee and a turd, sorry that’s gross but powerlifting is not cute so fuck it. That was enough to put me at 164.8 lbs…weight finally made. At this point, I was very fatigued and was feeling the last hour of dehydration so I took it slow with the eating and drinking. Ended up eating half a chicken bowl at Chipotle, quite a few Flips, and for dinner got a burger and fries at Mugshots. I was pretty full but not bloated feeling so that was overall a day of eating before the meet.
Meet Day:
Squat- started stretching and warming up and could tell my right shoulder was being iffy. When I started to warm up with the bar and got up to 135 and my shoulder was aching, I knew it might be a problem. I warmed up to 225 on my back and it was pretty slow. With my opener being 235, I was not happy or confident. Opener was okay, a lot slower that it should be and my shoulder was killing me. I jumped to 253 lb for my second attempt and it was a grinder, I think I went a little too deep honestly. But I had in my head that I wanted a PR so I went for 270 on my 3rd attempt. I walked the weight out and it didn’t feel too heavy but I couldn’t get it out of the hole and failed. I was so fucking pissed, not gonna lie. My training just did not translate to this squat and my shoulder was feeling irritating. But overall it was a 5 lb meet PR and 12 lbs off my gym PR. I’ll get it next time.
Bench- warm ups felt fucking terrible. Nothing about bench on this meet day felt correct, my shoulders were not as tight as they needed to be, my back was cramping up a little each time I set up, and frankly my attitude was shit after the squat. My first attempt was 132 which I’ve hit for triples and it was terrible. The official held the pause for a stupid long time. He was waiting well past the stopping of movement to give the press command. Literally held me for a full second at the bottom. I have never paused heavy weight for long amounts of pauses, only long enough for the bar to stop movement. So clearly, I will have to add 3 second pauses or something into my training due to cluster fuck of a bench. Anyways, went fot 2nd attempt at 137 and failed. I started to press before his command anyways so it didn’t matter. 3rd attempt was 137 again and didn’t even get it off my chest. I hit 145 in the gym one week ago, so this was a tough performance to swallow, but swallow it I did and tried to get up for deadlift. I have so much to work on it’s ridiculous, but I’m so happy I know this pause bullshit will not be an issue at my next meet.
Deadlift- I was not as fatigued as I thought I’d be by now but I think that’s more because I didn’t expend as much energy on squat and bench as I usually do because of failing. So first attempt was 308…it was not as fast I thought it should be but it was easy enough. I put my 2nd attempt at 336. I knew it would help me gauge if I could get 350 (which was my original goal for this meet). Pulled 336 and it was such a slow grinder from the floor until lock out (but still a 10 lb PR). So for 3rd attempt I stayed conservative and went for 340. I will post the video of it later, but that is the most ridiculous lift I have ever completed. It was only sheer will and rage that got that weight up. My form was immediately abandoned when I started to pull because it was not coming off the floor. My back rounded horribly and I just straightened it up my legs with a big fuck you chant going through my head. Not proud of this meet performance but the deadlift helped make up for it because even though it wasn’t my goal pull that I know I"m capable of right now, I showed myself I don’t quit.
What I’ve learned:
Must work on shoulder issue. I don’t have a clue what is going on but it’s fucking with my squat. I need more upper back strength and shoulder strength building plus more rehab and warming up to combat it. Bench needs a whole overhaul. I need to work on driving with my legs and getting my back tighter (again more upper back strength). I need to make sure my grip width is optimal as well and work on exploding off the chest. And for deadlifts, I need more explosion off the floor. I’m just so fucking slow that it takes a lot out of me to grind so much. This was a long write up but I need ot remind myself at a later time the struggle and frustration I’m feeling now is going to pass and I will dominate my next meet.
Great work on the deads Cam! And I know it sounds cheezy but chin up gal, you may not have got what you wanted out of your squat and bench but let that just motivate you more! And hey those fails taught you what to fix to really kill it at your next meet, so were they really fails?
Thanks, Farmer Owen! Those are really kind words and yes, I’ve learned a great deal! Can’t wait to improve!
Transition Week/Deload
Front Squat
2x5@bar, 2x5@95, 3@115 (back was giving out, still pretty sore from the meet)
*I really, really want to get these down this training cycle. I just ordered some olympic lifting shoes so maybe the height will help. I just see all the big lifters doing front squats and I want to be just like them. I know the same stuff doesn’t work for everybody but I really need to give these a good, consistent run to see if they do anything for me.
High Bar Squat (set up with bar resting on my traps and with a false grip)
5@115, 5@135, 5x5@155
*These felt amazing for my right shoulder, elbow and wrist pain. I had none while squatting so I know these are a really good go-to when I have shoulder issues. I definitely was struggling towards the end because the bar path makes my quads work a lot harder.
Leg Press
15@1.5 plates, 3x15@2.5 plates
DB Bent Over Row
3x20@45 R/L
GHR
3x10@BW
Transition Week/Deload
*My boyfriend and I have officially changed gyms. We are going from a very small, privately owned garage gym to a Gold’s Gym. Huge change for us, but the garage gym was just too packed with annoying personal training and group training people so we decided we’d have more access to a lot more equipment at a Gold’s Gym right down the road. We used it before but the only problem might be the deadlift bars…there is very little knurling on them so we’ll have to work with that and see how it goes. Also, so many bros. It’s over run with them but I’m pretty good at ignoring people.
Bench
bar, 5@95, 5x5@115
*another problem with Gold’s is that the weights feel a little lighter than usual. We will probably sneak one of the plates into the locker room to weight them just to make sure.
Iso Hammer Row
12@1p, 12@2p, 8@2p
Cable One Arm Lat Pulldown
3x10@60
Cable Face Pulls with pause
3x18@35
Cable Triceps Pushdown
3x10@45
Incline Bench
10@bar, 3x8@65 (paused just above my chest)
DB Lat Raise/Front Raise
3x15/12@10s
Deload/Transition Week
*Got new olympic squat shoes. The Adidas Powerlift 2.0 are great, tested them out for the first time and my form already seemed improved with staying more upright and keeping my chest up.
Squat
2x6@bar, 5@95, 5@135, 5@185, 3x3@205
High Bar Squat (moved to this due to shoulder pain starting)
3x3@185 (of note, first rep on these was perfect, very good positioning and fast, may explore high bar more for competition squat)
High Bar Paused
4x5@135
Sumo DL
5@135, 5@185, 4x5@225
*Still working on positioning for these, need to get my ass down a bit more, I’m almost straight legging these.
Leg Curls
15,12,10@50
Leg Extension
15, 12, 12@60
DB Lat Raise
3x15@10s
DB Frontal Raise
3x10@10s
DB Seated Reverse Flies
3x10@10s
Deload/Transition Week
Close Grip Bench
bar, 5@95, 4x8@105
Incline Bench
8@bar, 8@65, 3x6@75
*sooooo weak for me, must get stronger at this movement.
Cable Lat Pulldown
12@100, 2x10@120, 10@100
Cable Unilateral Low Row
3x20@37.5
Neutral Grip Pullups
2x3@BW…just for fun but they felt good, may work on these more
Reverse Fly Machine
3x15@40
Pec Deck Machine
2x10@40
Stair Stepper
12 minutes at level 7
*Our new gym has a cardio cinema and We Were Soldiers was playing. This will certainly help me get in more conditioning that I’ve been needing.
Deload Transition Week (Day 5)
This 5th day of training that I am adding to my programming will mostly just be body builder type stuff with all the machines that my new gym offers. I am finding that I have a lot of weakness due to lack of training of those muscles. I need more than just the big 3 to get stronger and especially to keep everything healthy, so I will really be focusing on that with this new gym.
RDL
bar, 5x10@135…just keeping it easy and light as I am starting back on Tuesday with a full program.
Iso Low Row Machine
3x12@1 plate
High Row Machine
3x10@70
Hack Squat
3x10@1 plate
Iso Shoulder Press Machine
3x12@35
Iso Curl Machine
3x10@30
DB Seated Lat Raise
3x15@5s
DB Seated Reverse Flies
3x10@5s
DB Seated Frontal Raise
3x10@5s
ArcTrainer
20 minutes, hill intervals. level 7
Transition Week 1
*Not really on a program right now, just building volume back and a lot more accessory work.
Deadlift
bar, 6@135, 5@185, 5@225, 8@245 (beltless PR), 3x8@225
Rack Pulls (pulling from just below the knees so pretty high)
1@225 (couldn’t find a good position so went down), 5@185, 4x5@205
High Bar Squat (with no knee sleeves due to forgetfulness)
6@bar, 6@95, 4x5@135, 10@135 (regular set up, just testing out my shoulder, it felt really light)
Kettle Bell Step Ups
3x20@18lb kettle bells each hand
Leg Curls
3x15@50