Getting back on a strength routine. Past injuries…blah, blah, blah.
I have not squated in over 2 years, but did some deadlifting and a lot of single leg stuff.
Last week was 225 5x5 only 1 set did I hit 5.
This week I did 245 and most sets I hit 5 or 4.
I plan to go up in weight fairly quickly. On my back off week I’ll do 10lbs less than the previous week, but judge my working sets off of my warm up until I feel like the strength jumps are slowing down.
Does this sound like a fairly good plan for coming back? I’m working way below previous 1rm and that is why I expect my body to react quickly to the low rep work.
Thank you for the help.[/quote]
sounds like a good plan to me. once you get back to your original strength, you can incorporate more variations.
i changed a few things around tonight because of some pain from the chest injury.
i had planned to do my full ROM set after my main ME movement but i’ve moved it to first. i did this for a couple of reasons. firstly, i want to hit the full ROM when i’m fresh and it prefatigued my chest so that my triceps had to work harder on the floor press.
full ROM bench- touch and go. i can’t get into a good arch right now so the sets are pretty much flat backed
0x10
135x10
225x10
315x6
405x5-left a couple in the tank. each week i’ll add a rep or two to this. this is approximately 80% of my max right now.
floor press-paused 80% 5x5- at least that is what it was supposed to be. bringing the weight down was fine but the pause hurt my chest some. after the first set i dropped back to 315 and shot for 10 reps on each set.
405x2-stopped because it hurt
315x10,10,8,7
superset-dips, close grip bench and rope pushdowns
i did three rotations of this. got the pump and felt the burn.
seated calf raises
a bunch for a bunch.
pretty happy with today. even though the chest is still giving me trouble, it coming along quickly.
[quote]ecogenx wrote:
Whens the next meet? What are you shooting for with each lift?[/quote]
the only definite one i have is the SPF Worlds in October. one of my training partners isn’t qualified for the Worlds so he has to do the SPF Nationals in six weeks. If i’m feel’n good by then i may do a single lift there or maybe a push/pull. it really all is dependent on this chest getting fully healed.
By the time World’s roll around i plan to open with 600/600/480, second attempts would be 650/650/500 and then who knows for thirds.
I was going to do a push/pull in May but I’d rather finish the 12 week program you and Bunny gave me. The next after that is an Oct 4th push/pull in town. Not many full meets around here. Americanpowerlifting.org is the local federation. I hope to bench 425 and dead 600 by then.
[quote]ecogenx wrote:
I was going to do a push/pull in May but I’d rather finish the 12 week program you and Bunny gave me. The next after that is an Oct 4th push/pull in town. Not many full meets around here. Americanpowerlifting.org is the local federation. I hope to bench 425 and dead 600 by then.[/quote]
i think those are very achieveable numbers. how are you feel’n about the program? need to tweak anything. i moved the full ROM set of bench to the beginning of the session. i liked it last night.
I like the program. No problems. Good idea about the bench. RE squats and shoulders tonight. I won’t be able to walk right tomorrow. Looking forward to it.
[quote]ecogenx wrote:
I like the program. No problems. Good idea about the bench. RE squats and shoulders tonight. I won’t be able to walk right tomorrow. Looking forward to it.[/quote]
[quote]ecogenx wrote:
RE powertech squat machine 3x15-20
DE box squat 8x3
shoulders/face pulls/biceps
I’m gonna cry like a sissy with the high rep leg stuff. Is 3 sets enough for RE?[/quote]
i would throw in one set of full squats at about 70% of your max and try to beat that every week. you may want to throw that in first as a good warmup and then go on to the other stuff.
3 sets of 15-20 reps is more than plenty:)
i would rotate each week between face pulls and seated dumbell cleans. if you need a description go to elitefts and check in the exercise description section. they are a real killer of the rear delts and traps.
great training session tonight. i’ve decided that the only way my chest is going to totally heal up is to start light and each week gradually add more weight. tonight was light and it allowed me to really feel the movements and get my form spot on.
paused squats on pins
0x10
135x10
225x3
315x3
405x3x5
zercher squats off of pins
225x8x3
walking lunges
50lb bar x 2 laps, 4 laps, 6 laps
standing calf raise
stack x8x5
feel’n really good. can’t wait to pull on saturday.
Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for you advise on the Westside modification. Doing 1 big lift per week on a seperate day has helped me recover and even go above 90% consistantly while breaking PR’s by at least 5Lb’s per week.
My first comp in Tulsa OK on Oct 10th Push Pull, and then a full meet two weeks later in OKC; can’t wait.
Shooting for 1500!!!
Have you, through your experiences, found it was best to take a week off before the meet or just take it real light the week of?
Hey man, I’ve got an injury/rehab question for you. A few weeks back (2 Apr to be exact) I was doing some DE speed bench. The speed sets went fine and at the end I felt a little frisky and decided to do one paused set of triples with 250. The first two reps were fine but on the third my left shoulder blade started to slide off the bench from all the sweat. I caught myself but unfortunately it put a lot of stress on my left pec. I felt a little pull sensation and after I racked the bar the area where the pec and front delt tie together was aching. The rest of the workout went alright and I spent about 10-15 minutes at the end just doing stretches and such.
The next day everything felt fine. The week after that was a de-load and I did some DB flat bench with no issues. This past Monday I did some ME bench and everything was just fine. Today however was DE bench once again. I went down about five pounds from the previous speed session just to be safe but around the sixth set of triples the same area started acting up again.
I’m not sure exactly what the issue here is. I think it may be a weakness in the front delts but I could be wrong. Do you have any suggestions on rehab and what may exactly be causing this problem? Thanks for any help you can give.
[quote]SergeantQ wrote:
Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for you advise on the Westside modification. Doing 1 big lift per week on a seperate day has helped me recover and even go above 90% consistantly while breaking PR’s by at least 5Lb’s per week.
My first comp in Tulsa OK on Oct 10th Push Pull, and then a full meet two weeks later in OKC; can’t wait.
Shooting for 1500!!!
Have you, through your experiences, found it was best to take a week off before the meet or just take it real light the week of?
[/quote]
I’m glad i could help out. Anytime you have a question or need a suggest, feel free to ask. I really like to see people succeed and I enjoy helping people do just that.
Will this be your first time competing?
I’ve experimented with many different things leading up to a competition. I think that if you have really prepared well and timed your training accordingly, you should just take it easy the last week. By three weeks out you should know exactly what your opener and second attempt should be. the remaining weeks should actually be a taper down almost like a deload going into the comp with the last week resting up totally.
If this is your first time competing I would definitely know all the rules and start practicing the lifts with all the commands. Most new competitors get red lights for not listening to the commands.
For my last full meet I went in on the last week and hit my opener on bench and squat. I open pretty light and then jump up for the second one. I like having the confidence of having that first lift under my belt so i know i won’t bomb out of the comp. I would suggest the same for you. open with something that you could rep with in the gym.
If you need any help preparing for the comp or other things to think about when competing, let me know.
Your injury is a common one especially among us powerlifters. Dynamic work is a tricky thing. If you think about it, we spend most of our time lifting heavy shit…slowly. We strive to move it fast but when the weight is heavy, it ain’t move’n fast. A muscle will become tight when you lift heavy and slow. This isn’t a bad thing. I’m not a big fan of stretching muscles because in my experience a stretched muscle is weaker and more prone to injury. I’m all for some LIGHT stretching after the session but to be honest, i don’t do it. I keep my muscles healthy by going through a full ROM under control and through doing high reps accessory work. That’s all i’ve ever needed.
Now to your injury. Obviously dynamic work is very important. We need to teach our muscles to move a weight as fast as it can. to do so we use light weight, but a lot of people don’t do dynamic work correctly. they bring the bar down really fast and then throw it up fast. they don’t keep the bar in the same bar path and their form goes to shit. You should bring that bar down slowly building up tension in the muscle just as you would do it for any other set but then you explode on the concentric.
I’m think’n that you pulled a muscle when you momentarily lost your balance. It obviously wasn’t too bad. I’m sure the muscle has tightened up and doing the dynamic work has put stress on it that you normally don’t get from normal training. Dynamic bench specifically is really hard on the shoulders, pecs, elbows… pretty much every area involved in it. I do dynamic work every other week and even then it takes it’s toll. I would lay off the dynamic work for a month. injuries take a lot longer than most people think to heal fully. any type of quick movements place an extreme amount of stress on a muscle. when you do go back to them, i wouldn’t do them in a fatigued state. do them when you are fresh and really control the ecentric and keep the form tight on the concentric.
[quote]maraudermeat wrote:
I’ve definitely had my fair share of rehabbing…[/quote]
Thanks for the quick and thorough response man. I will heed your advice and take some time off from the speedy stuff. What do you suggest I do in the mean time? Just some accessory stuff or another type of chest movement altogether? Or should I just take those days off? Sorry to keep asking all this stuff but free advice from a sponsored athlete is hard to find. Thanks again.
[quote]Sancho12 wrote:
maraudermeat wrote:
I’ve definitely had my fair share of rehabbing…
Thanks for the quick and thorough response man. I will heed your advice and take some time off from the speedy stuff. What do you suggest I do in the mean time? Just some accessory stuff or another type of chest movement altogether? Or should I just take those days off? Sorry to keep asking all this stuff but free advice from a sponsored athlete is hard to find. Thanks again.
[/quote]
Sometimes you get bad advice and pay for it! Meat is a huge help.
[quote]Sancho12 wrote:
maraudermeat wrote:
I’ve definitely had my fair share of rehabbing…
Thanks for the quick and thorough response man. I will heed your advice and take some time off from the speedy stuff. What do you suggest I do in the mean time? Just some accessory stuff or another type of chest movement altogether? Or should I just take those days off? Sorry to keep asking all this stuff but free advice from a sponsored athlete is hard to find. Thanks again.
[/quote]
No problem bro.
It doesn’t sound like a very bad pull at all. But i would still use some caution. I like to limit the range of motion and then slowly work back to full ROM over a few weeks. for example, maybe do pin presses at the top end of your bench and then over a few weeks lower them until you are back to full ROM. you could also use boards for this. also, reverse bands would allow you to use full ROM but take some of the weight off in the fully stretched position.
I’m a firm believer in getting into the gym. the worst thing you could do is to do nothing. that muscle needs to be worked. you need to get blood into it to help it repair itself and you need to use it so that scar tissue doesn’t build up and you lose range of motion.
basically do what doesn’t hurt. if you feel pain or aching, do something else but definitely do something.
I’m glad i could help out. Anytime you have a question or need a suggest, feel free to ask. I really like to see people succeed and I enjoy helping people do just that.
Will this be your first time competing?
If you need any help preparing for the comp or other things to think about when competing, let me know.
[/quote]
This will be first meet and I will be hitting you up later for help in preparing for the comp. I still have a 5 months to go so I’ve got a little time before I start bombarding you with questions!