Week 10: realization
29.09.14:
Deadlift: up to 215 kg x 2 @RPE 9.5
And some pause squats
01.10.14:
Competition-style bench press: up to 122.5 kg x 2 @RPE 9-9.5 (PR)
And some barbell rows
Week 10: realization
3.10.14:
Squat: Up to 150 kg x 2 (PR); 157.5 kg x 1 (PR) @RPE 9.5
5.10.14:
2-count paused bench press: Up to 117.5 kg x 2 @RPE 9.5
Feeling good.
So, some highlights from the last week…
Week 11: realization
6.10.14:
Deadlift: Up to 230 kg @RPE 9.75
8.10.14:
Competition-style bench press: Up to 130 kg @RPE 9.75 (tied PR)
10.10.14:
Squat: Up to 160 kg @RPE 9.5 (PR, lololol)
12.10.14:
2-count paused bench press: Up to 122.5 kg @RPE 9.5
Week 12: competition prep
13.10.14:
Deadlift: Up to 210 kg @RPE 8.5 (this will probably be my opener for the competition on Saturday).
18.10.14
NRW State Deadlift Championships (BVDK/IPF)
Weighed in at 85.7 kg, about two kg less than I’d expected. I’m beginning to think that my home scale is a bit off. And that I need to do some hypertrophy work this winter (i.e., in the kitchen).
1st attempt: 210 kg (good)
2nd attempt: 225 kg (good)
3rd attempt: 232.5 kg (locked out, but no good)
Was pretty happy with my results altogether. Although the third attempt was red-lighted due to not maintaining an upward motion (I began shaking at the knees – very unusual for me), I now know that I can achieve that weight. The next step is 240 kg, and I’d love to have that for the next competition in late winter/early spring.
Here’s a video of the attempts:
21.10.14
Deload week
Competition-style bench press:
6 x 50 kg
4 x 70 kg
3 x 90 kg
2 x 100 kg
1 x 110 kg
1 x 115 kg @RPE 8
15 x 90 kg @RPE 8 (TnG LOL)
Incline DB press:
2 x 5 x 31.5 kg
Seated rows:
8, 7 x 90 kg
2 x 8 x 80 kg
Going to train twice this week and just do whatever the hell I want. Decided to go high-rep on touch-and-go bench with a near-bodyweight load. Got up to 15 and called it a day, although I could’ve grinded out another 2-4 reps. Would be interested to see how many reps I could do with my still measly BW (87 kg on a good day). I’d love to get 20.
23.10.14
Deload week
Squat (beltless):
5 x 70 kg
4 x 90 kg
3 x 110 kg
2 x 120 kg
1 x 130 kg
1 x 140 kg @RPE 8
8 x 120 kg @RPE 8.5 (PR? LOL)
Leg press:
8 x 80 kg
8 x 120 kg
7 x 160 kg
5 x 200 kg @RPE 8
Hanging leg raises:
2 x 10 x BW
Cruising along. Apparently my squat has improved without me really focusing on it. I think 8 x 120 kg is a rep PR, with a belt or not. Might have something to do with not having trained to 8 reps for… Uh… Like a year. Also, I haven’t done leg press in about two years.
So I’m onto a new mesocycle for the weeks until christmas break. I tried posting it here once but it didn’t work. I’m working to get some good volume in and hopefully put on a couple of kilos.
A couple of PRs in the first weeks: 125 kg x 8 on beltless squats, 110 kg x 5 on bench press with a longish pause.
Hey everyone, been cray busy with work in the last little while and have thus had little desire to update my T-Nation log. But training has continued – even though I’ve been focusing more on volume and “maintenance” during the off-season.
I’ve lost maximal strength in the bench and deadlift, but my squat is looking OK. I hit an easy 150 kg x 2 a couple of weeks ago and am feeling confident that 170 kg is a realistic estimated 1RM at the moment. Hoping to hit 180 kg sometime in the spring/summer of next year.
I’ll be running the Russian squat program again at the beginning of next year (unless I find out that there is a competition in February/early March, in which case I’ll run another peaking mesocycle). I feel as though my quads need improvement, as I’m still in a crappy starting position in the deadlift.
In other news: happy Festivus! I weighed in at a svelte 87 kg coming into the festivities, but will likely be going out with 90 kg, which was my annual bodyweight goal. Whatever it takes, eh?
So, I’m beginning the Russian squat program for the fourth time. This time I’m using a training max of 162.5 kg, which means that it’ll be the first time running the program that I won’t have calculated using a substantial amount less than my actual 1RM. I’ve always felt as though I’ve acclimatized myself quickly to the volume and that even week 4 isn’t as hard as it could be.
That said, my (optimistic?) goal for this cycle is to hit 175 kg for a single on the final day. That’ll put me on track to achieve 180 kg at my next meet at the end of April.
Here was today’s training:
W1D1:
Squat:
5 x 60 kg
4 x 90 kg
3 x 110 kg
2 x 125 kg
6 x 2 x 130 kg
Rack pulls from knee:
5 x 100 kg
4 x 140 kg
3 x 180 kg
1 x 200 kg
5 x 220 kg
3 x 230 kg
Reverse hypers:
8 x 40 kg
8 x 60 kg
3 x 8 x 80 kg
Training felt OK, especially considering that I’m just coming off of two and a half weeks in which I had only trained twice. Thank goodness for overeating over the holidays.
BTW, I’ve given some thought to my goals for 2015:
Squat: 190 kg/418 lbs
Bench: 142.5 kg/314 lbs
Deadlift: 250 kg/550 lbs
TOTAL: 582.5 kg/1282 lbs
[quote]kgildner wrote:
BTW, I’ve given some thought to my goals for 2015:
Squat: 190 kg/418 lbs
Bench: 142.5 kg/314 lbs
Deadlift: 250 kg/550 lbs
TOTAL: 582.5 kg/1282 lbs
[/quote]
Nice goals 
Sure you’ll get them by end of year.
Did some benching today. Won’t be pushing things on the bench during the next six weeks; will likely do some absolutely autoregulated work to get some volume in and maintain strength.
Competition-style bench press:
5 x 40 kg
5 x 60 kg
4 x 80 kg
4 x 100 kg
3 x 110 kg
2 x 2 x 115 kg @RPE 8.5
2 x 3 x 105 kg @RPE 8.5 (4-5 second pause)
Barbell rows:
Up to 3 x 100 kg
6 x 3 x 90 kg
DB curls:
3 x 8 x 15 kg
Band pull-aparts:
6 x 15 x double red band
Felt decent, but tomorrow I’m bound to be sore…
Monday’s training:
W1D2:
Squat:
5 x 60 kg
4 x 100 kg
3 x 120 kg
6 x 3 x 130 kg
GHR:
3 x 6 x BW
And a bunch of “bad girls”
Today’s training:
W1D3
Squat:
5 x 60 kg
4 x 100 kg
3 x 120 kg
6 x 2 x 130 kg
Double-paused deadlifts (off the floor and at the knees)
Up to 6 x 2 x 160 kg @RPE 8
So, I’m tardy again with my logging…
Last friday’s training:
W2D1
Squat:
Up to 6 x 4 x 130 kg
GHR:
3 x 6 x BW
And some bad girls…
Monday’s training:
W2D2
Squat:
Up to 6 x 2 x 130 kg
Competition style bench:
Up to 3 x 2 x 115 kg
Yesterday’s training:
W2D3
Squat:
Up to 6 x 5 x 130 kg (things are getting sucky…)
And some bad girls
The last two sessions:
Friday:
W3D1
Squat:
Up to 6 x 2 x 130 kg
Deadlift:
Up to 210 kg
And a bunch of double-paused work
Today:
Competiton-style bench press:
Up to 2 x 120 kg, 1 x 125 kg
Then 8 x 100 kg
High incline DB press:
6 x 18.5 kg, 6 x 20.5 kg, 2 x 6 x 22.5 kg
Barbell rows:
3 x 5 x 80 kg
And a bunch of band pull-aparts.
Tomorrow’s training is gonna be haaarrrd.
So, haven’t really updated much lately, despite having stated that I’d stick with logging here. Oops.
I finished up the Russian squat program last week and managed to hit a PR of 170 kg on a very crappy morning. I’m sure I’ve got another 5 kg in the tank, but I’ll leave them in there until my next meet at the end of April.
Here’s the video of said rep:
And I’ve now been thinking about what to do to break through my deadlift plateau. I’m thinking that bringing in my sumo stance somewhat might be advantageous, as I simply don’t have the requisite mobility to hit a good wide-stance sumo and stay flat-backed at the beginning of the lift. So I’m going to work on the semi-sumo deadlift and incorporate sumo RDLs/paused DLs off of the floor into my training to strengthen the starting position.
Here’s some semi-sumo action; got up to 230 kg yesterday and it felt pretty solid.
So, I’ve lost track of my logging here, but I’m beginning a new cycle, so I feel motivated to pop by here more often. Would be happy to have you all on board.
Had a meet last weekend and finished with a 537.5 total (175 kg squat, 130 kg bench, 232.5 kg deadlift). Short of my ideal goal of 550 kg, but I’m still satisfied with the result. It gives me a good starting point to set some goals for nationals in September, and I’ve got a a decent amount of time until then to set up a proper periodized plan including conditioning, intensification and meet prep.
Ideally, I’d like to achieve a 577.5 kg total (195 kg squat, 137.5 kg bench, 245 kg deadlift) by the meet in September.
That said, I’ll dive right into today’s training. The goal of the next three weeks is to work on general conditioning, after which I’ll dive into an accumulation phase.
Week 1: conditioning
Deadlift:
60 kg x 6
100 kg x 5
140 kg x 45 reps in 12 minutes (a “Sadiv set”)
High-bar squats:
60 kg x 5
100 kg x 3 x 8
Reverse hypers:
20 kg x 15
40 kg x 12 x 3
By the way, for those interested, here’s a video of the meet last weekend.
So, some more training from this week. Keeping things light and taking short pauses, trying to get the hell back in shape:
Tuesday, 5.5.2015
Bench press:
60 kg x 5
80 kg x 3
100 kg x 8 x 3
Incline DB press:
24.5 kg x 12, 10, 8
Lat pulldowns:
60 kg x 12
70 kg x 10 x 3
Hammer curls:
13 kg x 10 x 3
And some band pull-aparts
Friday, 8.5.2015
Squat:
60 kg x 5
100 kg x 3
120 kg x 40 in 12 minutes (Sadiv set)
Deficit deadlifts:
100 x 8 x 4
Hanging leg raises:
BW x 10 x 3
Sunday, 10.5.2015
Bench press against 30 kg bands:
60 kg x 3
70 kg x 3
80 kg x 3
90 kg x 3 x 8
Hang clean and push press:
40 kg x 3
50 kg x 3
55 kg x 3
60 kg x 2 x 4
Snatch-grip high pulls:
60 kg x 2 x 4
Barbell rows:
80 kg x 5 x 5 (wide grip)
Haven’t posted here in a looooong time. Thought I’d at least make a post about my performance at nationals in September.
Came into the event with little-to-no sleep, in part because my roommate had just busted through a junior deadlift record on the previous day, pulling 290.5 kg at 83 kg, and was pretty pumped about it, calling friends and family and the like.
Weighed in at 88.8 kg, so still more than 4 kg under the 93 kg class limit. And that was after having stuffing myself with saltwater and carbs. At any rate, warm-ups were a bit shitty, and I had no motivation for squatting.
I came out with 165 kg, jumped to 180 kg and hit it well, then only opted to jump to 185 kg, which was the slowest rep of my life. Terrible. But at least 3/3.
Bench press felt OK in the warm-up. Opened with 125 kg, which went up really fast. Moved to 132.5 kg, which also felt really fast. Then decided to jump another five kilos, which I’d hit twice in training, but I lost tightness and motivation and gave up on the rep. 2/3.
So for deadlift I threw everything in, was pissed off because it looked as though I wouldn’t reach my goal total, and pumped myself full of caffeine. Went out and opened with 225 kg, which flew up. I continued with 240 kg, which I’d hit in training, and it felt equally good. Knowing I’d have to hit 250 kg to match my goal total, I came out pretty pumped, and made the lift. It was very slow, but I’ll take what I can get.
Here’s the video:
At any rate, I ended up going 8/9 for a total of 567.5 kg/1249 lbs, which was good for fifth overall in the active 93 kg class. Ended up with the third-best deadlift, although I was light years away from Sascha Stendebach’s 325.5 kg pull. He’s such a monster.
Now I’m in full-blown off-season mode, training 2-3 times a week if I’m lucky, and feeling old and injured. After work slows down and Christmas comes, I’ll begin with some serious programming again. Hope to get up and over the 600 kg plateau next year.