Gael's Path to 400/300/500

Training Training Logs
1


Height: 5-8
Weight: 175
Squat/Bench/Dead: 345/200/430

I originally wasn’t planning on posting a log, because I didn’t want to clutter up the strength sports section or the bodybuilding section, but now that they have there separate section, I have decided to post with the intention of getting feedback from the people here and to help myself keep track of things.

Goals? Primarily, get to 198 or 220 and compete and qualify for USAPL collegiate nationals (I am 20). I can probably already do that right now in 181s if I purchased some lifting gear. Now, just because I am into powerlifting doesn’t mean I don’t care about my physique. Everyone cares about their physique.

I have gained 30 lbs since I started one year ago (march 2007 at 145), but I don’t look much bigger. This sucks, so it is going to change. I will be posting more photos in this thread – I know people will ask for leg shots. I am also interested in various strength feats, armwrestling, odd strength skills, so you will find training for these in my log.

I started training just over a year ago, and everyone thought I had serious potential and encouraged me to get involved with people who take this seriously, which I did, in january. I have started training with some really strong motherfuckers.

This is probably the single best thing I ever did for myself in terms of training. If you are starting out and think you have potential, I recommend this! Since then, my numbers have gone up like this:

January 2008 –
Bodyweight 160
Squat 285
Deadlift 405
Bench 185

Current (May 2008):
Bodyweight 175
Squat 315x5 (1RM untested, but I have done 345 without spotters)
Deadlift 430 (needs to be retested, I have done rack pulls with 600 lbs)
Bench 200

Note: these numbers are raw and legit, and absolutely competition passable. I have not bought any wraps or gear yet. Should I go ahead and buy some suits, or would this be a waste of money until after I’ve gained some more weight. I am thinking of going up to the top of 198’s and then deciding whether I want spend money on equipment or to continue on up to 220s first.

I think I have a very good chance of hitting 300/400/500 (raw) by the end of the year if I do not injure myself or do something stupid, which I frequently do. My bench sucks right now, especially when compared to my pullup strength (BW+100lbs) or lower body strength, but that means it has the most potential for improvement.

Here is last week’s log. I keep this basic structure intact each training week, but there is a bit of variation.

Saturday
Squat (315x5),
Stiff Leg Deadlifts
Machine rows 210x5, 210x5, 210x5,
Calf work

Tuesday
Bench 175x7 175x7
3 Board press, 235x5 235x5
DE pullups 10 sets of 3,

Wednesday
Rack Pulls 600x1, 600x1, 600x1, 600x1, 600x1, 600x1
calf work

Thursday
Incline press (30deg)
3 board press 235x5 235x5
Rows or weighted pullups (1RM is BW+100lbs)
dumbbell wrist curls (50x8)
preacher EZ bar curls – 60 lbs + bar x 10

I may occasionally post videos for form critique (also so I can see my form for myself as opposed to hearing about it second hand).

Diet? As much chicken, beef, ground turkey, peanut butter, lactaid (that’s milk to the 35% of you who can digest the stuff), olive oil, tuna, salmon, as I can manage. Plenty of sweet potatoes, greens, and brown rice. Oh, and eggs. Lots of eggs, raw and cooked.

I do not use protein powder or supplements.

2

Pretty sweet improvements for 4 months.

3

And just in case people want to call BS on my lifts, here’s an old video from January of a 405 lbs deadlift.

The form may look a little off, and my upper back is certainly rounded, but I do not think my lower back is rounding. Also, it was a little shaky, so it might have gotten white lighted in a competition.

4

Oh, and I want to keep track of grip feats. So here is a brief overview of where I stand with grip strength.

As above, I was doing rack pulls with 600 lbs and no grip failure.

I have done suitcase style one arm deadlifts with 225 lbs.

I use the the ivanko supergripper. I can currently close with either hand the 4,11 spring position on one of the newer grippers, which has a tension of 214 lbs. The COC#2 has a tension of 195 lbs – not that this is a 1:1 translation. I have not tried a COC 2.

I made a pair of 1.5 inch pinch plate bar attachments for training pinch grip strength. With these I can currently deadlift 65 lbs.

I also do deadlifts gripping the bar through a pair of squat pussy pads. My current PR here is 135 lbs.

I bought a pair of rubber bar snap-ons, which transform a 1 inch bar into a fat 2 inch bar. I will be recording my grip progress with these as well. I just got these, so I haven’t had a chance to test them out yet.

5

I know I said I was only going to update once a week, but I just hit a huge deadlift PR.

Here’s how the workout went:

Squat

135x5
225x5
295x2
325x4 PR

Squat Walkout
425x1

Fat grip (2") deadlifts – just tried these for the first time
135x1
225x1
255x1
275x1 Failed

Machine Rows
210x8 PR
210x6
240x1 PR

Deadlift
135x5
225x4
315x2
405x1 Felt pretty easy, so
455x1 PR Felt easy, so I went up 20 lbs
475x1 PR Felt pretty difficult, I should have stopped here
495x1 Fail
495x1 Fail

I got way overzealous with the 495’s. I shouldn’t even have attempted these, given how difficult the 475 felt. I was just excited at hitting a 45 lbs PR, and a 220 lbs guy at the other end of the gym just deadlifted 5 plates, so I felt competitive and stupidly tried it – and now my back hurts.

This brings my total up to 1020 raw – and to qualify for USAPL collegiate nationals I need 1145, which can easily be taken care of by purchasing suits and wraps.

6

My 30 lbs transformation. (145 lbs to 175 lbs) Same shirt, different lighting.

T-Nation shrunk it – here’s the original.

7

I notice a good change in your transformation, your a lot thicker but not really fat. Nice work. Have you ever competed before? Your looking to go up alot of weightclasses. to fathom going up to the 220’s is a lofty goal, and you would have to give up some of that physique look you want to keep.

Beings as seeing your back, if you ate right and lifted HEAVY and HARD youll lose some fat and gain muscle and strength while staying same BW. Its usually the squat people call BS on not deadlift lol. Ever think of just competing raw? If you hit those goals RAW thats pretty hardcore

8

I have never competed before. I don’t want to stay in a weight class. I want to look freakishly big and strong – in clothes – not just naked. I used to have a six pack, and now it’s gone and I don’t care too much. I have promised myself that I will not cut until after I hit 200.

I think I could get up to 220s within a year or so. I think I can get to 198 by the end of 2008 without gaining too much fat, and I can definitely get there by the end of 2008. I am still making newbie gains. I am probably around 179 lbs right now, so I don’t think that’s an unreasonable goal. And although I’ve been training for a year, I didn’t really start gaining weight until like November.

I have considered lifting raw, but it’s a smaller competition pool, and people don’t really take it as seriously, and there are fewer available meets.

I think I will be able to hit the 181 qualification number (1145) within the next few months raw, so suited I should be able to put together a fairly competetive total.

I will be putting videos up the next time I max out. I tried to tape the 475 deadlift, but my training partner fucked it up and it didn’t record. I felt like killing him.

9

haha yeah sounds like you got some pretty legit goals there. Im glad you know EXACTLY what you want and HOW your gonna get there. Your not like the other hundreds of posters who himm and haaww about what they want, good for you. Yeah 1145 raw is a pretty solid total and after learning to compete in gear youll be kicking some ass

10

First off, those are some impressive gains and you should feel good about it. Those pictures of you in the same shirt really tell it all!

Also, very impressive pull up - BW + 100 lbs!

11

[quote]slazeagle wrote:
First off, those are some impressive gains and you should feel good about it. Those pictures of you in the same shirt really tell it all!

Also, very impressive pull up - BW + 100 lbs![/quote]

Thanks! And I’m just getting started. Just wait…

12

[quote]My 30 lbs transformation. (145 lbs to 175 lbs) Same shirt, different lighting.

T-Nation shrunk it – here’s the original.

http://i279.photobucket.com/.../gaelt/both.jpg[/quote]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA awesome!

you are made for deadlifts too like me.

13

I combined my tuesday and my wednesday workout into one workout, since this is exams week. I normally don’t do this, but I felt like I had the energy.

Bench Press
135x5
175x8
175x8

3 Board Press
225x5
240x5 PR

Rack Pulls
135x5
225x5
315x4
405x3
495x2
585x1
635x1x6 PR

Good Mornings
95x5
145x5
195x5
205x5

Machine Calve raises
210x10 PR
217.5x8

Notes –

  1. Calf work is recent for me, I’m just starting to get used to the groove, which means no knee or hip flexion.

  2. I think I am using too much leg drive on the rack pulls. I am considering dropping the weight a bit and trying a more stiff leg version that involves more back strength.

  3. I did the good mornings in the squat rack, setting the rails to a few inches above parallel, which is the limits of my flexibility. These are new – replacing my romanian deadlifts.

14

Thursday

Incline Bench
135x5
155x5
155x5

Overhead Press
95x5
115x5
125x3 PR

Machine Rows
217.5x5
217.5x5

EZ bar thick grip preacher curls – worked up to 50 lbsx5 and then 60 lbs x3 plus bar weight. Wrist is the limiting factor for now. Using a fat grip really turns this into an amazing exercise.

15

Saturday

Squats
45x5
135x5
225x5
275x2
325x5 PR

Overhead Squats
65x5
85x5
105x5
115x5
125x5
135x5
145x5 PR

I felt really off today, despite the PRs. I think I might have been a bit high today on some of the squats. I couldn’t tell because my partner wasn’t there to sight for depth, nor did I have any good spotters that I felt safe with. Also, my workout was cut off by a phone call. Oh well.

16

I did roughly 12-20 snatches today, working my way up to 145 lbs, a 5 lbs PR.

My clean PR is 185.

As a percentage of my deadlift, my snatch and clean are 30% and 39% respectively. These are low percentages. I need to work on speed strength. I think my deadlift could benefit from speed deadlifts, as well as deficit pulls.

17

Very good day today. I hit PRs all over the place.

Bench
135x5
155x5
195x4 PR
195x4 PR – these are good PRs, considering my tested max is only 200 lbs.

3 Board Press
225x5
250x5 PR – very shaky form I need to stay with this weight for a while. Actually I was supposed to do 245, but forgot what weight I was supposed to do.

Machine Rows
225x5 PR
225x5

Overhead Press
95x5
115x5
125x5 PR – knee drive on the last rep, but even 4 reps is a PR.

Fat Handle Preacher EZ curls
60x6 PR – will be including bar weight from now on, so 80x6.

Fat handle deadlifts–
205x1
225x1
245x1
255x1
265x1 PR
275x0 fail – but these were following the fat curls, so my forearm strength was heavily fatigued. I am not using a mixed grip here, obviously.

I hit a PR in every single exercise today!!

Tomorrow I will do rack pulls, speed pulls, deficit pulls, calf raises, and good mornings.

18

Another good day today.

Speed Pulls
225 for a bunch of singles and doubles. New exercise, so I’m just getting used to it. I tried 265 – but this was a bit too heavy to go at a satisfactory speed.

Deficit Pulls from 2 25 lbs plates
225x1
225x1
225x1
265x1

Using impeccable form. Also a new exercise. Will increase weight when I get used to the grove.

Rack pulls
225x5
315x2
405x1
495x1
495x10 !! with several 3-5 second pauses in the set. I was pretty impressed with myself, so I increased the ROM by an inch
and did:
495x10 with no pauses at all. A continuous set. This was actually 495x9.5 because my grip failed an inch from the top of the last rep. No straps of course.

I am using less leg drive than previously.

That last set was probably the single most intense set I have had to date. I was so completely depleted that I collapsed to the ground and almost passed out. I couldn’t see straight for several minutes. I stepped into the calf machine later for a warmup set, and realized I had absolutely nothing left in me and I should do my calf work tomorrow, rather than doing a lousy job today.

19

Saturday

Saturday is usually squat day for me, but since I didn’t get my second bench workout in this week due to exams, I did a full body workout. I never do this – but I felt fully refreshed and awake and I felt like if there was any day I could do a full body workout, it was today.

Overhead Squats
95x5
155x1 PR

Squat
135x5
225x5
225x5
275x3
325x7 PR

Good mornings
135x5
185x5
225x5 PR

Incline Bench
155x6
155x8 PR

2 Board Press
205x5
215x5 PR

Bench Press
205x1 PR
215x1 PR
225x0

Fat Grip EZ Preacher Curls
80x9 PR
85x5 PR

Machine Rows
180x8
225x8 PR

One arm power snatch (sort of a joke)
80 lbs PR

Notes will follow later tonight. This was a really good day – and it’s the second day this week I hit PRs in EVERYTHING.

20

After much consideration, I have decided that my first powerlifting meet will be August 2.

My plan is to eat my way up to 198 lbs, buy full suits, gear, wraps – and go for the 1250 total.

Specifically I will achieve the following as a bare minimum:

500 Squat
500 Deadlift
250 Bench

I currently weigh 182 lbs. I figure with an additional 16 lbs of bodyweight, a good 2.5 months of training, and some lifting equipment, I can do this.

Does this seem doable?

My current raw numbers are:

325x7 Squat
475 Deadlift
215 Bench

Any feedback and advice would be greatly appreciated. I will purchase gear as soon as I can.