High School Powerlifter

Training Logs
101

So it’s time to start thinking about which program to do next. I only have until late june to train, and in all honesty, during exams, I might need to schedule a deload or something to give me more time to study. With that in mind, I still think I can build valuable muscle in this time.
I’d be happy to continue with some variation of 5/3/1, but it normally starts pretty light in order to enable long term progress. The thing is, I don’t have much time for long term progress before going away for the summer. Maybe pushing with AMRAPS could be beneficial here. I already know 8+ reps on squats is going to kill me lol. Since I gained weight for the meet, 6+ reps gets me breathing really hard. Oh well, the best way to get better at that stuff is doing it. I’ll make a spreadsheet for calculating weights soon.

I think if I were to get back on 5/3/1, I’d do 3x5 FSL on opposite lifts, so squats after deadlifts and deadlifts after squats. I’m also toying with the idea of including overhead press as intended in 5/3/1 to build up my shoulders over the next 7ish weeks. I used close grip bench instead last time.
General assistance plan (at the moment)
Squat:

  • FSL deadlift
  • pause squat

Bench:

  • FSL OHP
  • barbell row
  • dumbbell bench
  • skullcrusher
  • facepull

Deadlift:

  • FSL squat
  • speed deadlift

OHP:

  • incline bench
  • barbell shrug
  • chinup
  • tricep rope pushdown
  • skullcrusher

maybe some ab work sprinkled in there

102

First 5/3/1 session. Also the first real workout after the meet. I felt like a gym bro this workout lol

Bench press: 140lbsx5, 160lbsx5, 180lbsx10 (amrap)
My PR with 180lbs is 11 reps I believe. I’m so fine with 10 reps considering I haven’t done over 4 reps in over a month.
I did 10 chin-ups between sets of bench press

Giant set 3 rounds
Strict press: 75lbsx5
Pull-up: 8 reps
Hanging leg raise: 12 reps
Strict press was super easy

Superset 3 rounds
Barbell shrug: 245lbsx8
Dumbbell bench: 60lbsx10
I was surprised with how easy dumbbell bench was, I haven’t done this movement in about 2 months, I seem not to have lost any strength

Giant set 3 rounds:
Skullcrusher 25lbs 15 reps
Dumbbell curl 25lbs 15 reps
Lateral raise 10lbs 15 reps

Superset 3 rounds:
Face pull 40lbs 20 reps
Tricep rope pushdown 40lbs 15 reps

1 Like
103

Hey Noah.

I can’t help but notice your apparent lack of being a 200 pound male. I would love to work my way towards this goal as well but due to extraneous circumstances I am wholly unable to do so. Seeing as how both our bodyweight and stats are similar (in bench and deadlift, although you can 110% outsquat me), I think your absolute best bet is to focus on getting to 175-180 pounds. Doing this would boost all your lifts even if you didn’t actually get any stronger. Leverages move weight. Also, you cannot go wrong with 5/3/1, I somehow got stronger with the shittiest diet and recovery one could possibly imagine. I lost 30 pounds and added 50 to my lifts in the span of a year, while sick with a parasite. I went from 195 to 165 pounds. You can get fucking huge in 2 months…

Good luck. I can outline the diet I used to gain 40 pounds in three months and how I’d modify it so I didn’t turn into a fat fucking bloated whale.

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104

Haha thank you very much. I’d love to gain some weight. In the 10 weeks before my comp, I went from about 155lbs on the gym scale before my workout (in the afternoon) to about 170lbs (morning weight didn’t increase by quite this much, that’s how I made 74kg). For now, I’m slowing down the weight gain because I only have a few weeks before going away. That being said, I’d still like to gain weight. After coming back from the summer, I’d love to put on a bunch of weight. What do you recommend? I’d like to move up to the 83kg class next time I compete. All that being said, I’d like to try to keep semi-abs. Also a side note, when I started training about 2 and a half years ago, my bodyweight was 123lbs.

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105

Yes! A powerlifter with potential open to gaining weight! How tall are you? At 5’9" and 195 pounds I looked like this:

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This was me, unflexed, exactly a year ago. If I flexed, I had abs. At the time I had been training seriously for 7-8 months, and I didn’t know what a belt and chalk were. My bests at this time were a 260 x 10 Squat and 300 x 9 conventional (dead stop, although it doesn’t matter much) deadlift. As you can see, I was a chubby dude. I had a lot of potential to grow and get much more defined/stronger in this version of my body simply because I had more BW to use to my advantage.

At 160-165 pounds, here is what I look like right now:

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I mean, I look fine, but I obviously have less room to get stronger in this version of my body simply because I’m coming up on a triple bodyweight deadlift and 2.5x BW Squat. My personal bests as of right now are a 160 x 12 Floor Press (my bench is also abysmal compared to my DL and Squat), a 320 x 14 Deadlift, and a 255 x 15 Squat. A triple BW deadlift and 2.5x BW squat at 190-195 pounds are 570 and 475, respectively. I have no doubt in my mind that I’d have surpassed a 500 pound deadlift this year had I stayed healthy.

The lesson here: gain weight because you can and because it will make you a stronger lifter.

Now, for the diet that got me to 195 pounds from 155 pounds in 3-4 months:

Breakfast: (2) bacon egg and cheese on a roll, salt/pepper/ketchup

Lunch: (1) monstrous chicken/cheese quesadilla and a few cheeseburgers if I could afford them

Snack: half gallon of milk, entire jar of Peanut Butter, a generous serving or three of Doritos/Cheetos + a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese if I wanted it

Dinner: something light, chicken/veggies/pasta

What I’d change:

  1. add a LOT of veggies to each meal so you don’t have GI issues

  2. eat one sandwich for breakfast each day instead of two

  3. pick either the quesadilla or cheeseburgers for lunch - trust me when I say you don’t need both

  4. I’d honestly replace the entire jar of PB with two generously made PB and jelly sandwiches (keep the half gallon of milk, get Lactaid if you can’t stomach it)

  5. Don’t make it a point to eat the chips/bagel if you don’t feel hungry for them.

Good luck, bud. Just don’t be a boneheaded asshole (like I was) about putting on 40 pounds and you’ll be fine.

1 Like
106

Good workout today. Today was my first deadlift day on 5/3/1. I started the workout with a sore chest, traps and lats from my first real workout after the meet 2 days ago. Because of this, I decided to just do 5 reps instead of an AMRAP for my 5+ set. I did everything beltless and sleeveless

Deadlift: 255lbs ,290lbs ,330lbs
I think these went pretty well, but weren’t quite as easy as I hoped.

Speed deadlift: 4x3@275lbs
These got slower in the later sets, but still we’re fun. I never spent much time on speed deadlifts, and I haven’t done them since starting the Candito 6 week program about 2 months ago. I really like these, they’re fun.

Squat: 3x5@245lbs
I don’t think depth was very good on these to be honest. They didn’t move that well either. That being said, it makes sense that my work capacity is way down after doing very few sets for the past month leading up to the meet and through the deload. I also rarely do working sets without sleeves, so they felt a bit different.

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107

Now what in the hell is your training max based on a 440 pull?

108

I set up 87.5% for my training maxes, so my deadlift training max is 385.875lbs. First time in a while my deadlift is higher than my squat actually.

109

Good workout today. First ever overhead press day on 5/3/1. A few hours before my workout I did a max set of pushups in gym class and got 72 reps.

Overhead press:
75lbsx5
85lbsx5
95lbsx12
I’m pleasantly surprised with 12 reps for my AMRAP

Bench press: 3x5@140lbs
Paused each rep, and tried to move it explosively. Felt great

Giant set 3 rounds
Incline dumbbell bench: 40lbs, 15 reps
Moved very quickly, it was easy
Face pull: 40lbs, 20 reps
Tricep rope pushdown: 40lbs, 15 reps

Superset 3 rounds
Skullcrusher 25lbs, 12 reps
Hammer curl 25lbs, 15 reps
The curls would have been super easy with this weight so I did them with a slow tempo because I wanted to just use the same weight as my skull crushers

Lat pulldown: 3x10@120lbs
This was hard but not brutal

Tricep band pushdown 3 sets 60 reps
I did these as a kind of burnout. I saw James Strickland do this, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

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110

Pretty good workout today. This was my first squat workout on 5/3/1. I started this workout with a pretty sore low back from deadlifts 2 days ago. I’m not that surprised by this, because I did 7 deadlift working sets that workout, way more deadlift volume than I’ve done in months.

Squat: 245lbsx5, 285lbsx5, 320lbsx10
The 320 lbs set was brutal. It would have been a hard set if I stopped at 7 reps, but I told myself that I absolutely will not rack the bar till I get 10 reps. It got ugly past rep 7. I had a pretty nasty low back pump after this set.

Pause squat: 3x5@185lbs
The weight wasn’t hard on these, but I focused on getting a really hard brace and maintaining position

Deadlift: 3x5@255lbs
I did these double overhead to work on my grip a bit

I’m not going to work out until Monday or Tuesday

2 Likes
111

Great bench press workout today. I was feeling very tried before my workout, and now, as I’m writing this, I feel way more alert and awake. Today reminded me a bit why I love lifting so much

Bench press: 150lbs x 3, 170lbs x 3, 190lbs x 3+
I ended up with 7 reps for my AMRAP. This is technically a PR, but not particularly good, because I’ve benched 185lbs for 9 reps before. I’m still happy with this, especially given how I was feeling going into this training session. I am super excited to workout tomorrow.

Superset 3 rounds
Overhead press: 80lbs 5 reps
Chin-up: bodyweight 20 reps
Overhead press was super easy

Superset 3 rounds
Close grip bench press: 135lbs 8 reps
Face pull: 40lbs 20 reps
Close grip bench felt easy, which is nice

Giant set 3 rounds
Barbell row: 135lbs 8 reps
First time doing these in a while, so I kept it light

Skullcrusher 30lbs 12 reps
Hammer curl 30lbs 15 reps

Superset set 3 rounds
Barbell shrug: 225lbs 8 reps
Tricep rope pushdown: 32.5lbs 15 reps

112

Decent 5/3/1 deadlift workout today

Deadlift: 275lbs x 3, 310lbs x 3, 350lbs x 3+
I got 7 reps on the 350lbs set. This is a PR, but doesn’t translate super well on a 1rm calculator. I’m pretty happy with this set.

Speed deadlift: 2x3@275lbs
I only wore my belt on the second set. I decided to only do 2 sets because I’m working out 4 days in a row this week and I don’t want this workout to take away from my next 2 workouts

Squat: 3x5@275lbs
This was surprisingly hard. Oh well, I still got it done.

As a side note: when I do speed pulls, sometimes if the bar is moving very quickly, the bar keeps moving upwards past lockout, causing my arms to bend. I haven’t experienced any bicep pain or anything, but would it make more sense to push the bar outwards, keeping my arms locked? I’ve seen Andrew Hause do this
https://www.instagram.com/andrewhause/p/BnQLM8zhHsw/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=tsm4ly0m881w
Maybe if I can move the weight that quickly, it’s just too light.

1 Like
113

great overhead press workout today.
Overhead press:
80lbs x 3
90lbs x 3
100lbs x 12
I’m happy with 12 reps on this AMRAP. This is the same number of reps I got last week, but I increased the weight by 5lbs. This also wasn’t an all out grinder

Bench press: 5 x 5 @ 150lbs (all reps paused)
This was really easy, which is nice

chinup: 3 x 12
pretty easy
Incline dumbbell bench: 3 x 8 @ 60lbs
not too hard

giant set 3 rounds
Hammer curl with fat grips: 25lbs x 12 reps
Skullcrusher: 15lbs x 15 reps
Face pull: 40lbs x 20 reps
I tried something new on the skullcrushers today. I put my arms way back, and moved the weight very slow and controlled.

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114

Not the best workout today. It was a squat day, and I started with a moderately sore low back. This was the last workout of the 3/3/3+ week. I think I pushed my deadlift AMRAP too hard

Squat: 275lbsx3, 300lbsx3, 340lbsx5
Depth looked great today, so that’s good. I didn’t push the AMRAP too hard, but I couldn’t have done much more than this

Pause squat: 3x5@225lbs
Up from 185lbs last week, same difficulty. I focused hard on bracing and keeping position. I also did these pretty slowly, a bit like a tempo rep.

Deadlift: 3x5@275lbs
I wore my belt for the last 2 sets, and focused hard on my brace again.

I’m not going to work out until next Monday, which is the week of fitness testing for gym class. That’s going to mess me up a bit I’m sure. I’ll need to do the following:
115lbs max rep bench press
Max reps push-up
Max reps chin-up
Beep test
12 minute maximum distance run
Vertical leap
Sit and reach

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115

Why not just sandbag the whole thing? None of those things are taxing unless taken to extremes. Fuck it, save your energy for getting stronger.

116

Maybe. I did that for the most part when I was required to do the same testing during meet prep. I am kind of curious to see how I do on the beep test, chin-up, push-up, and bench press. I probably have a shot at a chin-up record and definitely a push-up record. I’d also very likely get the most reps on bench press in the school. I’m curious. Will it really negatively affect me? I’m going away in around a month, so my training doesn’t need to be super specific (I would think).

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117

I have seen both Andy Bolton and Tom Martin do the same thing on lighter sets. Must be a British thing. I don’t think it’s anything to worry too much about but you could try squeezing your triceps a bit to avoid that.

Oh fuck, they want to herniate all the kids’ discs or what? That is just terrible.

118

That’s what I would do, just do the minimum. Then proceed to break school records in heavy barbell lifts.

2 Likes
119

My flexibility has gone down considerably since I stopped working on it and simply allowed my muscles to be tight after heavy lifting sessions. But, it’s a hell of a hamstring stretch if you can keep your back straight and reach past your toes.

120

That’s more like showing off how long your arms are than anything.

Increased hamstring flexibility has a strong correlation with back injury.