You won’t need to be worrying about me deadlifting 500lbs any time too soon lol. If only this was for squats I wouldn’t feel so weak
School is getting really stressful this week. I’m going to work out when I can, which won’t be many opportunities. In gym class today we were doing the beep test, and I decided to push myself because I won’t have many opportunities to train in the next few weeks. I got 11.3. I’m very happy with this, because that’s the highest score I’ve gotten since I was about 150lbs. I’m closer to 170lbs these days. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how I got a score this high, but I’ll take it. I definitely pushed myself today
I need to make a decision about nationals soon. If I were to go to naitonals, I’m required to compete at the Central Canadian Championship and Provincials. I get back from about 6 weeks off less than a week before Centrals. I guess this means all of this is pointless.
Also, from what I understand from this chart, I don’t need to hit a national qualifying total at each of the regional level meets, just hitting it at a local meet (Which I already did) is fine
If you don’t need to set a qualifying total at each meet then theoretically you could just go to centrals and do some token lifts, but that seems fucked up and makes the whole thing pointless. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the idea of doing a meet just for the sake of competing, if I’m going to compete I want to do well regardless of what kind of meet it is.
If I was you, I would just go to regionals next year. And I’m guessing you also qualified for provincials, you could do whichever one comes up first. For some reason Ontario provincials have the same qualifying standards as nationals, basically provincials here is on the same level as nationals. If you aren’t trying to go to IPF worlds (and have a realistic chance of winning nationals) then none of this shit matters, just compete when and where is convenient for you and focus on getting better each time. And yes I’m and IPF hater, but look at some of the other feds that hold meets in your area, you are under no obligation to remain loyal to any one federation unless they start paying you.
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Great deadlift training session today. This is a 5/5/5+ week.
Deadlift:
280lbs x 5
320lbs x 5
340lbs x 9 RPE 8.5 (5+ AMRAP)
I’m happy with how this AMRAP went, I felt very strong today. I kept with the faster setup.
Deficit banded speed deadlift: 225lbs, 245lbs, 245lbs + gray band, standing on 10lbs bumper plate
This was my first time ever trying any form of accommodating resistance. I don’t think I’ll do it often, but it was fun. I set these up the way I’ve seen Calier Woolam do it.
Squat: 3x5@255lbs
Not much to say here. This was pretty easy, but I was decently tired at this point. I did these beltless and sleeveless
Barbell row: 3x8@155lbs
This is a weight I’ve done many times before, so I focused on making these explosive
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Jelly of those deadlifts!!
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Good overhead press workout today. I didn’t have much time to workout, so I really lowered rest times.
Overhead press:
75x5
90x5
100x12
I’m pretty happy with this, it ties my PR with 100lbs, but was slightly easier
Superset 5 rounds:
Bench press: 140lbs 5 reps
Chin-up: 12 reps, I only did 4 sets of this
Superset 3 rounds:
Close grip bench press: 145lbs 8 reps
Hammer curl: 30lbs 12 reps
Superset 3 rounds:
Face pull 30lbs 20 reps
Tricep rope pushdown 30lbs 15 reps
Good squat day today. I feel like my work capacity is finally coming back.
Squat:
255lbs x 5
290lbs x 5
330lbs x 8 @ RPE 9
Beltless Pause squat: 3x5@240lbs
These are getting a bit harder, but I’m still able to focus on good form
Beltless Deadlift: 3x5@260lbs
I did all sets double overhead
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Decent workout today. Really not the best but oh well.
Deadlift:
280lbs x 3
320lbs x 3
360lbs x 5 RPE 9
I’ve hit 375 for 4 before, so idk why this was so hard
Speed deadlift: 3x5@280
On the second set, on the first rep I felt something like my ab cramping up. Not painful, but now, a few hours later, when I arch my back I feel it a bit in that right upper ab/oblique area
Squat: 3x5@275lbs
Barbell row: 3x8@135lbs
These moved extremely explosively
Decent workout today. I didn’t have time to finish everything I had planned. Today was my last gym class of the year. I came into gym class to see that someone broke my second place spot on the record board for chin-ups. I decided to try to beat it. I felt pretty weak today for some reason.
Chin-ups: 31 reps. Not a PR, but better form than when I did 33
Bench press:
150lbs x 3
175lbs x 3
195lbs x 5 RPE 9.5
Superset 3 rounds
Close grip bench press: 145lbs x 8
Lat pulldown: 90lbs x 12 reps
Dumbbell curl: 2x12@25lbs
nice work in here man
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hows it going?
Back from vacation! I spent time in Iceland, at a cottage, and on canoe trips in the Canadian wilderness. I didn’t get any real opportunities to lift since my last log. I just got back from canoe tripping. That was very physically demanding, but very different for powerlifting. It included paddling for 5+ hours per day and portaging (carrying around 100lbs on my back on uneven ground) for 1-2 hours per day. Honestly all the paddling feels like it beat up my shoulders, and towards the end my shoulders ached a bit while paddling. The portaging also felt like it best up my knees a little bit. I unintentionally lost about 10lbs doing all this stuff, and now weigh about 156lbs
I wanted to ease back into it, but honestly probably pushed too hard. I kept test periods short, around a minute and a half to 2 minutes. I normally rest for a long time between sets. I figured my work capacity would have improved from all the canoe tripping.
Deadlift (beltless): 4x8 225lbs
These felt great, a little foreign, but definitely find. Not super easy, but that’s to be expected
Bench press: 4x8 135lbs
I paused all reps. I think I’ll be pausing all bench reps until I get back to a decent strength level. Felt pretty good, bar path felt off, but nothing too terrible
Squat (beltless sleeveless) 4x8 225lbs, 225lbs, 225lbs, 135lbs
These weren’t great. I widened my grip on the bar to make sure I was going easy on my shoulders. That made finding bar placement a bit hard. I was super motivated, but my bar path felt off for sure, and keeping short rest was challenging. After my third set, I felt lightheaded and faint for a few minutes. I rested for about 5 minutes after that set, and did the last set with 135
Very easy superset 3 rounds
Unilateral leg curl: 30lbs x 8 reps
Face pull: 30lbs x 15 reps
Right now, my goal is to get back to almost my strongest and get my morning weight up to at least 163lbs as soon as possible, while maintaining some work capacity. When I gained weight for my meet, I did no conditioning, and my work capacity became a real limiting factor in lower body workouts. Now that I’m light, have some sort of improved cardiovascular abilities from canoe tripping, and need time to rebuild my strength in the big 3, I figure it’s time to make an effort to maintain my conditioning. I was thinking I’d rest shorter between sets and superset/giant set all upper body lifts (maybe excluding bench press). I should probably do a bit of grip work too. My grip isn’t good and I don’t want to fail a PR deadlift attempt on grip. I don’t really have any program planned at the moment. Once I’m lifting more serious weight, I’ll add some hypertrophy work
If you lost weight then you lost muscle so hypertrophy work would probably be a good idea.
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I’m super sore from yesterday’s workout, so I’m going to take it easy for now, but I’m thinking that once things get moving a bit, I’ll start doing something along the lines of this to get back to where I was:
Competition movement:
Sub RPE 8 single
4x8 with 5-10lbs more than last week
Followed by assistance work and then general hypertrophy work.
I still need to figure out what “split” to do. I figure I should be doing a squatting and benching variation at least 2X per week.
I don’t think I’m going to compete until March at the earliest, so I have some time to focus on hypertrophy and gain a bunch of weight before a more strength focused block.
Right now I’m excited to gain back all my lost weight (and more) and eat everything in sight but I know I should take it slow so it can be muscle I gain.
Easing back into training is a bit frustrating, but I’ll get through it. I went into this workout with my chest and low back a bit sore and my legs pretty sore from my first workout back a few days ago.
Bench press: 155lbs x 1, 4x8@140lbs
I paused all reps on bench. I also tried to keep rest times short, around a minute. My technique felt much more natural this workout than last time I benched a few days ago. During the 155lbs set and the first few 140lbs sets, everything felt super easy. The third set was kind of challenging, and the last set was actually really hard and I decided not to try the 8th rep because the 7th was so hard. I guess this rapid increase of difficulty is due to the short rest times, which I’ve never done before.
Squat: 3x5@135lbs
I did this because squatting felt really weird last time. The weight wasn’t challenging, but I wanted to practice the movement. It was starting to feel more natural again.
I didn’t want to push accessories too hard because I went into this workout sore
Giant set 3 rounds:
Pec dec: 50lbs 12 reps
Face pull: 30lbs 15 reps
Tricep rope pushdown: 30lbs 10 reps
Superset 3 rounds
Underhand lat pulldown: 60lbs, 75lbs, 90lbs 12 reps
Hammer curl: 20lbs 12 reps
I’m pretty happy with today’s training session
Deadlift (beltless): 275lbs 4x8@235lbs
The single with 275lbs was super easy. These were all done double overhand. I focused on keeping good form.
Barbell row: 3x5@135lbs
These weren’t that hard, but not as easy as I would have liked. That being said, this was my first time doing a horizontal pull in months.
Trap bar deadlifts: 3x5@235lbs
These were really easy. I did them because I figured they wouldn’t load my back too much and would let me handle a decent (for now) weight.
I often feel like my work capacity is pretty bad and after sets of 8 on deadlift or squat and feel a bit lightheaded and need to take a break. I noticed that if I get less excited before the set, I don’t get as lightheaded. Maybe I forget to breathe if I’m too hyped or something. If anyone has tips to prevent this, let me know, I’ll give them a try.
I’m happy with today’s work out.
Bench press: 165lbs, 4x8@145lbs
I am very happy with this. I made sure to get a good length pause, and these moved better than my bench press did a few days ago with a lighter weight.
Superset 2 rounds:
Close grip bench press: 135lbs x 10
Cable row: 90lbs, 105lbs
The close grip benching was hard, but I’m confident that it’ll be significantly easier next time.
Superset 3 rounds:
Barbell shrug: 135lbs x 20
Dumbbell overhead press: 20lbs x 10
Giant set 2 rounds:
Face pull: 32.5lbs x 20
Tricep rope pushdown: 32.5lbs x 15
Lat pulldown: 90lbs x 12
Superset 2 rounds:
Medicine ball over shoulder: 50lbs 10 reps (alternating shoulder)
Hammer curl: 20lbs 12 reps
I decided to do the medicine ball over shoulder because it addresses 2 things I want to work on at the same time. It works as conditioning, and It’s filled with sand, which makes it taxing on my grip.
I started this work out with a short rotator cuff warm-up which I think I’ll start doing before bench and squat days.
Decent workout yesterday.
Squat: 275lbs, 4x8@235lbs
These were harder than I would’ve liked, but I’ll take it. I felt super tired and out of breath after each set, but not lightheaded or faint.
Giant set 2 rounds:
Front squat: 10x135lbs
Hanging leg raise: 8 reps
I did the front squats with a really fast pace
Deadlift: 3x5@225lbs
This wasn’t particularly hard, but I wanted to get a bit more deadlift volume done