DEstrength's Strongmanish Training

Training Training Logs
81

8/27/15

Max effort squat/deadlift

competition style squat
45X5
135X5
225X5
275X5
315X3 put on knee wraps and belt, this was utter shit
365X2 knee wraps starting to feel better
405X1 good
430X1 15 pound PR
440X0 missed, I think I could’ve gotten it if I committed to the lift

breathing squats
275X20

split squats
bwX30 per side

I am going to do some DB swings and abs later. I am kinda disappointed with the wrap carryover, I think I need to start wrapping tighter/move to the different wrapping style (I was doing spiral). Also… these wraps actually fucking have stopping power. I thought that was an exaggeration, but it actually stopped me in the hole with 315. The support is nice though, I like being able to sit back into them. It’s fine though, I can learn the gear.

I am not sure if I get no carryover yet, or if I just had a shit training day. I think I need more volume after the ME work though. I am going to include high rep squatting as a back off set for squatting variations, and include triples and stuff for deadlift/goodmorning variations. That, and do more triples and doubles.

Also I think I’ve lost some weight/bloat or something, my belt is looser now.

82

[quote]MarkKO wrote:

[quote]Destrength wrote:

[quote]MightyMouse17 wrote:
Still doing those clean lunges I see. Need to put those back in myself![/quote]
They are beastly, I feel soreness in my glutes and hamstrings literally the same day (within a half hour or so).[/quote]

I did these today and my butt didn’t unclench for about half an hour after I finished. [/quote]
Yeah, they are good stuff. :slight_smile:

83

[quote]
I am going to do some DB swings and abs later. I am kinda disappointed with the wrap carryover, I think I need to start wrapping tighter/move to the different wrapping style (I was doing spiral). Also… these wraps actually fucking have stopping power. I thought that was an exaggeration, but it actually stopped me in the hole with 315. The support is nice though, I like being able to sit back into them. It’s fine though, I can learn the gear.

I am not sure if I get no carryover yet, or if I just had a shit training day. I think I need more volume after the ME work though. I am going to include high rep squatting as a back off set for squatting variations, and include triples and stuff for deadlift/goodmorning variations. That, and do more triples and doubles.

Also I think I’ve lost some weight/bloat or something, my belt is looser now.[/quote]

Same thing happened to me with wraps when I started. Chances are you’re not getting them tight enough. Keep using the spiral for the moment but crank down as hard as you possibly can.

I just had a look at the EFS Heavy wraps you bought. If you got the 2 m ones, I’d shoot for AT LEAST 8-10 revolutions, ideally 12 with a spiral simply because of how stretchy they are. If yours are 2.5 m, shoot for minimum 10 revolutions. If they were stiff like the 2.5 m Slingshots I’ve got, you might not be able to get more than 8 revolutions or so by yourself, but being stretchy I’d say you’re good for more.

Of course, its all down to your leg size as well. From your videos your legs don’t seem small, but they’re don’t seem enormous, so you definitely should be able to get some good revolutions if you crank the wraps tight enough. It’ll hurt a fair bit, but be worth it.

With your belt, I think that’s just part of it breaking in. See how it goes and if necessary adjust it.

84

[quote]MarkKO wrote:

[quote]
I am going to do some DB swings and abs later. I am kinda disappointed with the wrap carryover, I think I need to start wrapping tighter/move to the different wrapping style (I was doing spiral). Also… these wraps actually fucking have stopping power. I thought that was an exaggeration, but it actually stopped me in the hole with 315. The support is nice though, I like being able to sit back into them. It’s fine though, I can learn the gear.

I am not sure if I get no carryover yet, or if I just had a shit training day. I think I need more volume after the ME work though. I am going to include high rep squatting as a back off set for squatting variations, and include triples and stuff for deadlift/goodmorning variations. That, and do more triples and doubles.

Also I think I’ve lost some weight/bloat or something, my belt is looser now.[/quote]

Same thing happened to me with wraps when I started. Chances are you’re not getting them tight enough. Keep using the spiral for the moment but crank down as hard as you possibly can.

I just had a look at the EFS Heavy wraps you bought. If you got the 2 m ones, I’d shoot for AT LEAST 8-10 revolutions, ideally 12 with a spiral simply because of how stretchy they are. If yours are 2.5 m, shoot for minimum 10 revolutions. If they were stiff like the 2.5 m Slingshots I’ve got, you might not be able to get more than 8 revolutions or so by yourself, but being stretchy I’d say you’re good for more.

Of course, its all down to your leg size as well. From your videos your legs don’t seem small, but they’re don’t seem enormous, so you definitely should be able to get some good revolutions if you crank the wraps tight enough. It’ll hurt a fair bit, but be worth it.

With your belt, I think that’s just part of it breaking in. See how it goes and if necessary adjust it. [/quote]
I had gotten the 2.5m wraps, I’ll push to get a minimum of 10 revolutions next time. Thanks, bud.

85

8/31/15

Max effort bench

lots of dicking around with bands for fun

close grip bench press
45X5
95X5
135X5
185X5
225X3
245X3
265X3 PR (pretty fucking sure it is)
275X2 barely missed it, my dad took the weight since it literally just stopped moving for two seconds like 2/3rds of the way up

JM presses
95X6
115X6
135X6
150X6
135X6

DB flies and mini band pull aparts
30’sX20, 30
30’sX20, 30
30’sX20, 25

bent over rows
275X6
275X6
275X6

Then I had the most unholy back pump (whole back), and urge to vomit, and I couldn’t even strict curl 95 pounds because of the back pump/general fatigue.

Some general information: I’ve been incredibly busy with summer homework (changed classes in mid August so the HW I did for some of my classes no longer applies, and one of the classes I changed to was AP so even more homework), and I’ve had some god awful headaches, so I’ve been out of training for a bit. Today was a pretty good training day, I think I could’ve gotten 275X3 if the floor was less slippery (I need to vacuum the floor I think lol) and let me get tighter/more leg drive.

After this meet cycle I think I need to work on my work capacity. I don’t know if it is the summer heat, the effort I am putting into my training, or if I am just out of shape, but it is hard to complete my training sessions in one go. However I think that’s pretty normal for the summer, so it could just be nothing aside from overheating.

86

I tried the band suspended weights for fun for the curls. It was actually a lot better than I thought it would, I thought it would be some weird gimmick, but it actually wrecked the crap out of my biceps, and made cheating impossible. God help you if you try to get some momentum with these…

band suspended weight curls
95X8
95X6
95X5

87

[quote]Destrength wrote:
I tried the band suspended weights for fun for the curls. It was actually a lot better than I thought it would, I thought it would be some weird gimmick, but it actually wrecked the crap out of my biceps, and made cheating impossible. God help you if you try to get some momentum with these…

band suspended weight curls
95X8
95X6
95X5[/quote]

One day I might try those with bench. You know, just to make my life REALLY difficult.

Sounds like you’ve got a handle on everything so that’s good.

88

[quote]MarkKO wrote:

[quote]Destrength wrote:
I tried the band suspended weights for fun for the curls. It was actually a lot better than I thought it would, I thought it would be some weird gimmick, but it actually wrecked the crap out of my biceps, and made cheating impossible. God help you if you try to get some momentum with these…

band suspended weight curls
95X8
95X6
95X5[/quote]

One day I might try those with bench. You know, just to make my life REALLY difficult.

Sounds like you’ve got a handle on everything so that’s good. [/quote]
Thanks, man, I am feeling really good about the bench, and squat. I have no idea what my deadlift is doing, but I’d say it is equal to or greater than 465. lol

Also, be careful when you first try it for pressing (bench or overhead), overhead pressing took me by surprise with just quarters on each side. It doesn’t seem to be anything that has a particularly high risk, just make sure to have collars on the bar and follow normal benching safety rules such as benching with a spotter/safety bars, and to load conservatively if your shoulders aren’t very stable/healthy (which ironically is what benching with this type of loading is for lol).

89

9/2/15

DE squat/deadlift day

box squat against doubled light and mini bands
45X3 just mini
45X3 both
95X2
145X2 add belt
145X2
145X2 take away box
185X2
215X1
235X1 hard as fuck, it felt like I broke blood vessels in my face/had a nose bleed

Now this is where it gets stupid. I was considering just hitting my assistance/accessory work and calling it a day, but I hadn’t put on my knee wraps on yet, so…

255X1 My feet went numb, and all of that good shit, and this was easier than my 235 set. I could’ve kept going, but the goal was a very heavy rep and not a max rep, and the weight at the top was extremely excessive.
Sumo SLDL
275X5
275X5
275X5

My parents needed to sleep early tonight since they are going up to the cancer center tomorrow so I stopped here. I’ll do some single legged work, abs, and lats once they wake up.

I am really liking the wraps now, I am starting to figure out how to get carryover. I am going to keep cranking them down. I forgot how many revolutions I got, but I think 10-sh revolutions.

90

[quote]Destrength wrote:
I am really liking the wraps now, I am starting to figure out how to get carryover. I am going to keep cranking them down. I forgot how many revolutions I got, but I think 10-sh revolutions.

[/quote]

They’re fun aren’t they? I can’t imagine what wrapped squats against bands would be like. I can see how you’d get catapulted out of the hole only to feel like you’re slamming into a wall when the bands come into it.

91

[quote]MarkKO wrote:

[quote]Destrength wrote:
I am really liking the wraps now, I am starting to figure out how to get carryover. I am going to keep cranking them down. I forgot how many revolutions I got, but I think 10-sh revolutions.

[/quote]

They’re fun aren’t they? I can’t imagine what wrapped squats against bands would be like. I can see how you’d get catapulted out of the hole only to feel like you’re slamming into a wall when the bands come into it.[/quote]
Pretty much that. It is also unimaginably heavy at the top because of how heavy the bands are. It actually kicks the crap out of my hips/glutes, because that is what (in my style of squat at least) locks out the weight.

92

9/3/15

Extra workout/doing what was supposed to be done last night

clean grip reverse lunges supersetted with fat grip pull ups
155X8 per side, bwX8
155X8 per side, bwX8
155X6, bwX5

My conditioning could not take that shit.

strict dragon flags with hips off bench
bwX5
bwX5
bwX3

I am going to do my bench work out late tonight/early next morning once I finish my English assignments. I got screwed pretty bad by my school system so I had to do new summer assignments in different classes (some of my AP classes conflicted, so I have to do the honors version, and I had another AP class swapped in so I have to do that too). The long nights/permanent darkness or twilight is really fucking with my head.

93

[quote]Destrength wrote:

[quote]MarkKO wrote:

[quote]Destrength wrote:
I am really liking the wraps now, I am starting to figure out how to get carryover. I am going to keep cranking them down. I forgot how many revolutions I got, but I think 10-sh revolutions.

[/quote]

They’re fun aren’t they? I can’t imagine what wrapped squats against bands would be like. I can see how you’d get catapulted out of the hole only to feel like you’re slamming into a wall when the bands come into it.[/quote]
Pretty much that. It is also unimaginably heavy at the top because of how heavy the bands are. It actually kicks the crap out of my hips/glutes, because that is what (in my style of squat at least) locks out the weight.[/quote]

Chances are you’ll find straight weight so easy with wraps it isn’t funny.

Out of interest, do you do reverse hypers? I tried some today and found around 90 lbs pretty challenging for sets of nine.

94

[quote]MarkKO wrote:

[quote]Destrength wrote:

[quote]MarkKO wrote:

[quote]Destrength wrote:
I am really liking the wraps now, I am starting to figure out how to get carryover. I am going to keep cranking them down. I forgot how many revolutions I got, but I think 10-sh revolutions.

[/quote]

They’re fun aren’t they? I can’t imagine what wrapped squats against bands would be like. I can see how you’d get catapulted out of the hole only to feel like you’re slamming into a wall when the bands come into it.[/quote]
Pretty much that. It is also unimaginably heavy at the top because of how heavy the bands are. It actually kicks the crap out of my hips/glutes, because that is what (in my style of squat at least) locks out the weight.[/quote]

Chances are you’ll find straight weight so easy with wraps it isn’t funny.

Out of interest, do you do reverse hypers? I tried some today and found around 90 lbs pretty challenging for sets of nine.
[/quote]
I do not because of lack of access to the machine. It is supposed to be a godlike machine for building a strong and healthy lower back. You are supposed to be able to use for reps 50% of your max squat according to Louie Simmons using the form that he recommends. Since it is not something your lower back(lumbar flexion/extension happens with louie simmon’s style) you probably won’t be at that level for a little while, but you should be able to build up to there quickly. It’s probably like with GHR/hip thrusts/back raises where you suck at them really bad at the start, then they climb very quickly.

Also yeah, I get that feeling. I have done my last heavy competition style squats before the meet though, I don’t want to psyche myself out if I have a shitty training day, and I don’t want to hit a max that I can’t break in competition. I’ve hit what I want as a second attempt/something that I want to break by 5 pounds as a second attempt, and I’ll go from there for the third attempt, but I’d say somewhere around a 35-40 pound training cycle PR (so like 450, 455). It probably won’t be my wrapped max when peaked, but it will be something that definitely won’t get red lighted, and it’ll be heavy enough that it is a solid PR and close enough to 100% that I can check for weaknesses (probably still just weak hips/need to bring up legs).

95

Cool, thanks. I’m more looking at the reverse hyper for high light reps for prehab and just getting a pump. Could be a dumb use for it, but you’re right about the whole style of squat having an influence.

Good call with the squats. When’s your meet? Are you going to be walking out or using a mono? Monolifts make wrapped squats a ton easier. I always feel like my walkout suffers a little wrapped because my knees are so locked in.

96

9/4/15

Dynamic effort bench

DE bench supersetted with pull ups
190X3 for 8 sets, bwX5 for the first three then bwX6 for the latter five, 1 minute rest

close grip floor press
225X6
225X6
225X2 decide fuck this, this exercise is awful

kroc rows with straps
150X20 left
150X20 right

one arm shrugs
60X40 per side

barbell curlX25 biceps were pretty fucked at this point

Notes: I wanted to get some extra lat volume in during this training session. The benching felt incredibly light and fast, even for 60%, it felt more like 50% or less, the heavy ass band phase definitely helped it seems. Also, apparently I either have some type of mobility issue I didn’t know about, or I anatomically cannot close grip floor press; close grip floor presses make my shoulders feel very unstable, and caused a lot of elbow/bicep tendonitis to flare up that I haven’t had happen in over half a year.

97

[quote]MarkKO wrote:
Cool, thanks. I’m more looking at the reverse hyper for high light reps for prehab and just getting a pump. Could be a dumb use for it, but you’re right about the whole style of squat having an influence.

Good call with the squats. When’s your meet? Are you going to be walking out or using a mono? Monolifts make wrapped squats a ton easier. I always feel like my walkout suffers a little wrapped because my knees are so locked in. [/quote]
Ehh, you could probably use it for that, but that is normally reserved for rehab (coming off of erector pulls) it seems. When I was talking about form, I meant the style of reverse hyper. You are doing really strict and slow reverse hypers it seems, while the westside guys normally do them faster and a lot heavier, so with your style you just might not be able to hit the same percents recommended. Although you are probably right in that the squat style probably plays a role on what the numbers will end up as, that isn’t what I had meant.

The meet is on October 31st, I need to go sign up for the fed and mail the application off before it’s too late. It is a USPA (which means wraps and mono are allowed) meet, but the meet seems to be small-ish so there isn’t going to be a monolift according to the meet info. I seem to be fine walking the weights out at the moment wrapped, so I should be okay. I don’t like the lack of safety associated with using squat racks instead of monolifts though.

98

I don’t like to admit this but my reverse hypers weren’t super controlled. I think next time I use it I’ll just keep loading it up and see how I go. As far as I understand it it’s one movement it would be pretty hard to mess myself up on.

Your meet is about three weeks before mine. Definitely get your registration off soon. One less thing to think about. If it makes you feel any better, I’ve never worried about the safety side of mono vs walkout. You’ll have plenty of spotters and you’re obviously very aware of how to set out your attempts so there’s no chance that you wouldn’t be able to control any of your attempts.

Bear in mind that even if you can’t quite grind out an attempt, you’re only going to need an extra 45 lbs of force or so to finish it and only one spotter will be ample to do that. The danger element comes in when people attempt something like 100 lbs over their max. You seem to have a very accurate idea of where your max sits and it isn’t like you’d decide to have a third attempt of something like 550 lbs.

Make sense?

99

Early morning of 9/6/15

Max effort squat/deadlift day

sumo deadlifts
135X5
135X5
135X3
225X3
275X3
315X3
365X3 harder than expected
385X3
405X3 big ass PR, I think this was my 1 rep max for sumo pulls, or I beat it a little

hip thrusts
235X10
235X10
235X10

split squat
bwX36 per side

My back and abs were absolutely fucked at this point. I came in to the training session feeling like my obliques and erectors were sodomized by the kroc rows I did. I’d do abs, but at the momentum it feels like I would tear something if I don’t give my abs and back a break.

100

I’ve probably already posted this in one of my logs before, but I just recently rewatched it, so I feel like posting it.

Music video of Chuck Vogelpohl being a monster in meets and in training. He probably could’ve been the next Ed Coan if his triceps didn’t explode or whatever happened to him to cause him not to be able to bench monsterous weights. Maybe the bench started running away when it saw him? haha