Journey to a State Title

Training Training Logs
581

Monday, May 30th, 2011

Week 3, Day 1

Bench Day

Bench:
45 X 8
135 X 6
240 X 2 @ 90%
240 X 2 @ 90%
240 X 2 @ 90%
240 X 2 @ 90% - No arch and zero leg drive. Still moved well.

Bench with Two Stops/Band Row Superset:
180 X 3
190 X 3
200 X 3 - Paused on chest and two second pause two inches before sticking point.

Pull-ups:
BW X 5
BW X 5
BW X 5
BW X 5
BW X 5

Lying Dumbbell Rows:
50’s X 6
60’s X 6
60’s X 6
60’s X 6 - Held it at the top.

Facepulls:
80 X 5 X 10

Dumbbell Skullcrushers:
25’s X 8 X 12

Lying External Rotations:
5 lbs X 3 X 15

Standing Goalposts:
7 lbs X 3 X 10

Standing 45’s:
7 lbs X 3 X 10

Mini Band Tricep Extensions:
5 X 10 - 10 second breaks.

Bodyweight was 192.4 lbs in the morning. I think I’m losing muscle and gaining fat. Well, it stops now. I’m cleaning everything up until weighins and after the meet. I have a lot of ideas for the future.

582

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

Week 3, Day 2

Deadlift Day

Sumo Deadlift:
135 X 5
200 X 5 @ 40%
255 X 5 @ 50%
305 X 5 @ 60% - Pretty painful. It’s quite a strain breaking it off the ground.

Lying Leg Curls:
80 X 10
100 X 10
100 X 10
110 X 10
110 X 10

Physioball Glute Bridge/Leg Curl Superset:
BW X 8
BW X 8
BW X 8
BW X 8

Hyperextensions:
BW X 12
BW X 12
BW X 12
BW X 12
BW X 12

Hanging Knee Raises:
BW X 10
BW X 10
BW X 10
BW X 10
BW X 10

Standing Lat Pulldown Crunches:
60 X 10
60 X 10
60 X 10
60 X 10

Front and Overhead Band Pullapart Superset: 4 X 25

I didn’t have a chance to weigh in this morning because things were super busy. I came to the realization that I can’t compete full power at this upcoming meet. I don’t think I can pull over 405 right now and keeping 185 on my back is painful. I’ll be bench only on June 18th. I also got my massage. It was great for my scrunched up left trap but did nothing for my glute/hip/lower back issue. The masseuse didn’t think it was a muscular issue. I guess we’ll just have to see what happens.

583

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

Week 3, Day 3

Bench Day

Bench:
45 X 8
135 X 6
200 X 3 @ 75%
200 X 3 @ 75%
200 X 3 @ 75%
200 X 3 @ 75% - No arch, no leg drive.

Reverse Grip Bench Press/Band Row Superset:
155 X 6
175 X 6
175 X 6
185 X 6

Lying Dumbbell Rows:
60’s X 6
60’s X 6
60’s X 6
60’s X 10 - 2 second holds on last set. I’d have gone heavier but the back didn’t want to move dumbbells.

Dumbbell Skullcrushers:
25’s X 8 X 12

Lying External Rotations:
5 lbs X 3 X 15

Standing Goalposts:
5 lbs X 3 X 10

Standing 45’s:
5 lbs X 3 X 10

Mini Band Tricep Extensions:
5 X 10 - 10 second breaks.

Weight was 190.7 lbs fully clothed in the doctor’s office this morning. Workout was great. The doctor took an X-ray of my back and said I had mild convex curvature to the left of my lumbar spine but that’s not uncommon so I’m not concerned. I guess it is a muscular issue just as I expected. That’s something I can deal with. feelsgoodman.jpg

584

[quote]165StateChamp wrote:
Weight was 190.7 lbs fully clothed in the doctor’s office this morning. Workout was great. The doctor took an X-ray of my back and said I had mild convex curvature to the left of my lumbar spine but that’s not uncommon so I’m not concerned. I guess it is a muscular issue just as I expected. That’s something I can deal with. feelsgoodman.jpg[/quote]

So… Are you still going to be a BOF or are you going to out squat and deadlift me by 100 lbs a piece?

585

Friday, June 3rd, 2011

Week 3, Day 4

Squat Day

Rear-foot Elevated Split Squat:
30’s X 2 X 6
40’s X 2 X 6
50’s X 2 X 6

Band Goodmornings:
Green band X 5 X 15

Glute Bridges:
BW X 4 X 10 - 5 second holds.

Standing Band Abduction:
Purple band X 4 X 10 - Doubled band.

Seated Band Abduction:
Purple band X 4 X 10 - Doubled band.

Deadbugs:
BW X 4 X 40

Front and Overhead Band Pullapart Superset: 4 X 25

Weight was 189.9 in the morning. I lifted in the basement today. The goal was to hit legs and glutes without any spinal loading and I accomplished it. All the direct glute work was surprisingly hard and left me sweating. It’s already given me some good ideas for training split after my surgery.

586

[quote]VikingsAD28 wrote:

[quote]165StateChamp wrote:
Weight was 190.7 lbs fully clothed in the doctor’s office this morning. Workout was great. The doctor took an X-ray of my back and said I had mild convex curvature to the left of my lumbar spine but that’s not uncommon so I’m not concerned. I guess it is a muscular issue just as I expected. That’s something I can deal with. feelsgoodman.jpg[/quote]

So… Are you still going to be a BOF or are you going to out squat and deadlift me by 100 lbs a piece?[/quote]

Haha we will have to compete full power over the winter or something. I’m still sticking with being a BOF. A 315 squat and 405 deadlift don’t make a very good total.

587

Monday, June 6th, 2011

Week 2, Day 1

Bench Day

Bench:
45 X 8
135 X 6
225 X 1
250 X 1 @ 95%
250 X 1 @ 95%
250 X 1 @ 95% - Fell out of groove on the second single but it wasn’t tough.

Bench with Two Stops/Band Row Superset:
185 X 3
195 X 3
205 X 3 - Paused on chest and two second pause two inches before sticking point.

Pull-ups:
BW X 5
BW X 5
BW X 5
BW X 5
BW X 5

Lying Dumbbell Rows:
60’s X 8
60’s X 8
60’s X 8
60’s X 8 - Held it at the top.

Facepulls:
90 X 10
100 X 2 X 10
110 X 10

Dumbbell Skullcrushers:
25’s X 7 X 15

Lying External Rotations:
5 lbs X 3 X 15

Standing Goalposts:
5 lbs X 3 X 10

Standing 45’s:
5 lbs X 3 X 10

Mini Band Tricep Extensions:
5 X 10 - 10 second breaks.

Bodyweight was 189 lbs in the morning. This is a fair bit lighter than I was anticipating weighing at the start of this training cycle but that just makes the cut easier. I feel like not going heavy on squat or deads has been the cause of this. I’m feeling about 75% right now with my back. Today went really well, I was able to carry dumbbells around without any issue and putting back weights wasn’t a problem. Is going full power on June 18th a possibility? Maybe, but I won’t do any squats or deads until next Monday when I’ll attempt to find an opener.

588

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

Week 2, Day 2

Deadlift Day

Rear-foot Elevated Split Squat:
40’s X 3 X 6
60’s X 2 X 6

Glute-ham Raises:
BW X 5 X 10

Physioball Leg Curls:
80 X 10
100 X 10
100 X 10
110 X 10

Glute Bridges:
BW X 5 X 10 - 3 second holds.

Hyperextensions:
BW X 5 X 10

Hanging Knee Raises:
BW X 4 X 10

Standing Lat Pulldown Crunches:
100 X 10
100 X 10
100 X 10
100 X 10

Front Band Pullapartt: 4 X 25

My weight was way down at 187.7 lbs. I’m pretty sure it’s my lower body getting smaller. Also, the lower back seized up again yesterday so I may have been a little quick with my declaration that I may still go full power haha. I helped out two incoming freshmen in the weightroom today, it was pretty fun. They were decent at listening and it seems like they actually want to learn.

589

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

Week 2, Day 3

Bench Day

Bench:
45 X 8
135 X 6
200 X 2 @ 75%
200 X 2 @ 75%
200 X 2 @ 75% - No arch, no leg drive.

Reverse Grip Bench Press/Band Row Superset:
175 X 6
185 X 6
195 X 6
200 X 4

Pull-ups:
BW X 5 X 5

Incline Lying Dumbbell Rows:
70’s X 6
70’s X 6
70’s X 6
70’s X 6 - I felt these a bit in the upper back.

Dumbbell Skullcrushers:
25’s X 8 X 15

Lying External Rotations:
5 lbs X 3 X 15

Standing Goalposts:
5 lbs X 3 X 10

Standing 45’s:
5 lbs X 3 X 10

Mini Band Tricep Extensions:
5 X 10 - 10 second breaks.

I’m unsure on weight. It feels like 60 percent of my calories lately have come in the form of sugar. I’ve felt really unmotivated but when I get to the gym today and ran into my lifting buddy Chris my switch flipped to on and I had a good workout.

590

Friday, June 10th, 2011

Week 2, Day 4

Squat Day - OFF

I usually take off the last designated squat day before a meet. I was up early this morning so I decided to do some fasted morning cardio and trunk work. Here’s what I did.

10 minutes @ 3.5, 12 incline
10 minutes @ 3.5, 0 incline
15 minutes @ 3.5, 0 incline, weight vest

I just tried out a lot of stuff because I never ever do cardio. I liked the weight vest walks and the incline wasn’t bad except for the terrible calf pump I got because of how tiny and weak my calves are.

Trunk work went like this:

Hyperextensions:
BW X 8 X 10

Hanging Knee Raises:
BW X 4 X 10

Decline Bench Sit-ups:
BW X 4 X 10 - I am so happy I can do these pain free!

Standing Band Abs:
Green X 4 X 10 - Using a purple band would give me a better range of motion.

Standing Pulldown Abs:
70 X 2 X 10
80 X 3 X 10

After all that, I went to football training camp and chatted then downed some food.

591

Sunday, June 12th, 2011

…and it begins. I’ve started my cut to 181 today. It will be pretty easy because of all the weight I’ve dropped recently. I’ve posted the protocol I use earlier in the log as well as in another thread but here it is again.

Sunday:
2 gallons of water
Higher sodium
Normal food

Monday:
2 gallons of water
Higher sodium
Normal food

Tuesday:
2 gallons of water
Higher sodium
Normal food

Wednesday:
2 gallons of water
Higher sodium
Normal food

Thursday:
1 gallon of distilled water
No sodium
Normal food

Friday (Day of Weigh-ins):
No water
No sodium
Decreased food, zero carb
Spit in bottle

I tweaked it a little bit, mainly removing the dandelion root diuretic as well as keeping carbs in for a longer period of time. I weighed 186.6 lbs this morning and 191.4 just now after overhydrating, a cheat meal and upping my sodium. I seem to drop about 3 to 3.5 lbs overnight so I am in great shape right now. This looks to be a breeze.

592

Monday, June 13th, 2011

Week 1, Day 1

Squat Opener Day

Squat:
135 X 6
225 X 4
315 X 1 - My right glute and lower back was very tight on this rep and I had no explosiveness.

Glute-Ham Raises:
BW X 4 X 8

Glute Bridges:
BW X 4 X 10 - 5 second holds

Hyperextensions:
BW X 4 X 10

Hanging Knee Raises:
BW X 4 X 10

Standing Pulldown Abs:
80 X 5 X 10

Seated Band Abduction:
Purple band X 4 X 10 - Doubled band.

Front and Overhead Band Pullapart Superset: 4 X 25

Bodyweight was 187.3 lbs in the morning. This is right on track. I gave it a good shot today but my body just didn’t want to cooperate. I was really slow coming out of the hole just like I am in the bottom of deadlifts and I knew it would only get worse the heavier I went. The injury is getting better but it’s not getting better fast enough. It’s going to be bench only on Saturday.

593

That’s probably the right choice. There will be other meets. Good luck and keep healing up!

594

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

Week 1, Day 2

Bench Opener Day

Bench:
45 X 8
135 X 6
185 X 3
225 X 1
245 X 1 - All commands on the last set. Everything went well.

Pull-ups:
BW X 5
BW X 12

Mini Band Tricep Extensions:
2 X 25

Front Band Pullapart: 2 X 50

My weight this morning was 186 lbs. It was 188.7 postworkout which is very low but I’m not complaining. My right wrist has decided to get tendinitis but the rest of this week off should fix that. I’m off until Saturday.

595

[quote]grettiron wrote:
That’s probably the right choice. There will be other meets. Good luck and keep healing up![/quote]

Thanks man. Though it’s pointless, I want to have a really good full power meet as a teen. lol

596

June 18th, 2011
100% Raw Powerlifting Nebraska American Challenge Meet Report

The weight cut went very smoothly. I was about 3 lbs over on Friday but managed to spit my way down to 181 before driving over to the meet location. There, I waited an hour and a half before getting on a very light scale and coming in at 177.5 lbs. I just want to stress how disorganized and unprofessional the meet was. People who had showed up late were cutting the line to weigh in and it just took way longer than weigh-ins in any sport should take. I wasn’t a fan of the federation at all after this. Once I weighed, I ate a tray of sushi with soy sauce and got to work on a half gallon of Gatorade, gallon of water and sausage and pepperoni pizza. I actually wound up puking around 10:30 PM which has never happened before. I stressed the foods over the liquids and I think that really messed me up. Anyway, I ate and drank whenever I woke up that night and wound up at 189.0 lbs the morning of the meet.

At the meet, I ran into VikingsAD28 in the bathroom while I was taking a piss. He is the awkward guy that talks to you while you’re at the urinal. We made our introductions and then I watched the squats. The highest was in the 520s by a 220-242 lber. It was pretty disappointing seeing that but sometimes that’s how things go. My friends arrived about an hour and a half before the bench only guys got a chance to lift. We dicked around and then they took me through warm-ups. I was feeling pretty tight and nervous but they did a great job of calming me down. I opened at 110 kg (242.5 lbs) and smoked it. I then went to 122.5 kg (270 lbs) and got that with minor difficulty for a 5 lb PR. My wrists flipped back on me mid-lift but I just pressed through it. Third attempt was 127.5 kg (281 lbs). I got it to about 2 inches away from lockout and just stalled there. It was pretty disappointing. A sticking point that high is pretty uncommon in raw lifting. I got off the bench with a smile on my face and that was the end of my meet.

Judging was very fair. I actually expected the pauses on bench to go longer but they felt fast enough. I wasn’t happy with how the meet was run as it had probably 70 lifters in total but still went from 10 AM to 8PM. I bailed before the end but it’s ridiculous that a raw meet should take that long. Meeting Cody (VikingsAD28) in real life and getting to call him my internet hook-up was a good time. He is bigger than he looks in his pictures and is a good guy. He had a great meet and had very few ‘newb’ mistakes.

597

Alright, I’ve been off the computer for a while and out of the gym as well. I had surgery (septoplasty) on June 20th and since then I’ve dropped to 179.2 lbs. That is about a 10 lb drop at a minimum and a fair bit has been muscle loss, especially from the legs. I have not been lifting or eating as much as I normally do and that has been entirely due to the surgery. Appetite has been very low and doctor’s orders have kept me out of the gym and even away from physical activity like cardio because I’m not Matt Kroc and I don’t feel like getting any smaller. My splints came out yesterday and I will resume lifting on Monday, July 4th.

The main issues I’m working around are being a bit detrained from three weeks away from regular training as well as being pretty underweight. The back is a bit better but is still far from fully recovered. So here’s the plan…

-Intermittent fasting/Leangains-
I am pretty skinny but also fairly lean. I have been itching to give this a shot and this is great for the summer months as well as my college years. Eating hours will be from 2:30 PM to 10:30 PM once I start training again and I’ll lift at 5:30 PM. I’ll be experimenting on Fridays with morning training and afternoon eating. I’m very excited.

-Supplementation-
I’ll be keeping it pretty basic, just a whey protein powder from Cytosport, multivitamin, fish oil, glucosamine, and a new addition, BCAA powder from Scivation. I’ll be using it exclusively when I train fasted and in the morning while eating later in the day. The experience should be interesting.

-Training-
I’ll be upper body ‘bodybuilding’ to put back the weight I lost. I’m still steering away from squats and deadlifts so lower body training will be minimal. Here’s the layout…

Monday & Thursday - Chest,Triceps (Bench)
Bench
Incline Bench
Flies
Tricep Exercise
Tricep Exercise

Tuesday & Thursday - Back, Biceps
Pull-ups
Dumbbell Rows
Pulldown for feel
Shrugs
Bicep Exercise
Abs

Wednesday - Legs, Calves
Split Squat
GHR
Leg Curl
Glute Exercise
Glute Exercise
Calves

Saturday - Shouklders, Calves
Lateral Raises
Rear Delt Raises
Hang and Swings
Modified Six Ways
Calves

The idea behind all this is to focus on the muscles that I have been neglecting for a long time (shoulders for about eight weeks, calves for a lifetime) and to regain muscularity that I’ve lost. I’ll be using the same basic progressive overload cycle that I used in January to regain strength and get back in shape. The focus will still be on strength for bench. Once I’m back to my old strength levels, I’ll try to work on getting a 3 or a 4 board so I can do presses. I need to fix this sticking point issue because my bench should be far better than it is.

I realize my past year of training has been pretty lackluster. I’m hoping to do much better. I like these changes I’ve come up with and think they will be pretty useful.

598

Glad to see you are back, I was starting to worry you died or something.

The plan looks good, time to get swole bra. I think you need to work on just getting fat as shit so you can get that bench up, but that’s just me.

I don’t think it is awkward to talk at the urinal.

599

Monday, July 4th, 2011

Chest/Triceps

Bench:
Bar X 8
135 X 6
155 X 3 X 8

Barbell Incline:
135 X 8
135 X 7
135 X 3

Dumbbell Flies:
20’s X 4 X 10

Barbell Skullcrushers:
Bar X 4 X 10

Band Pushdowns:
Purple X 5 X 10

Band Pull-aparts:
Purple X 5 X 20

Lying External Rotations:
2.5 X 3 X 10

First day back! I trained fasted today because of weightroom issues. Elbows were a bit funky and my incline bench absolutely blows but I got a good pump and things will only get better from here. Happy 4th of July!

600

[quote]VikingsAD28 wrote:
Glad to see you are back, I was starting to worry you died or something.

The plan looks good, time to get swole bra. I think you need to work on just getting fat as shit so you can get that bench up, but that’s just me.

I don’t think it is awkward to talk at the urinal.[/quote]

Haha I don’t know how fat I can get but I’m definitely going to try to push my weight up. Dude, talking at the urinal makes it take twice as long for me to piss. I am a nervous pisser.