Nice throw! I coach the shot and disc. Very respectable.
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Thanks dude. I weighed 187 the day before this, so I’m assuming I was roughly the same on meet day; I put absolutely ever fiber of my being into that throw. Lol. My disc PR was 149 junior year and 151 senior year, so not a ton of improvement there… and after this throw, I competed to get downstate for disc and I fouled out on all 3 attempts. Right sector every time hahahaha
What advice/tips would yall give for discus? I love discus.
I was always a slightly better glide shot putter and therefore enjoyed it more/know more about it. But honestly, work on your hip and knee flexibility to get out of the back better. My biggest downfall as a spinner (shot or disc) was that I wasn’t very good at coming out of the back in a good position. I wish I had worked on my flexibility AND done drills instead of only doing drills.
Starting in a South African ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvGLz-a_ho8 ) is a good way to isolate the second half of the throw. It allows you to focus on pulling in with the right knee, tapping your feet down, and running away from the disc, leaving it high and behind you, creating tension throughout your body. Basically, faster feet = more torque = more potential energy to put into a throw, but only if everything else is sound.
Last thing: be loose. Tall guys are better at the discus than short guys because of their levers. Being tight and clenching up contracts muscle which shortens your levers, which not only sabotages how fluid and smooth you can be through the ring, but also usually causes people to yank their heads at the end of the throw. That usually leads to sector fouls in my experience.
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Cheers man.
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26 February 2018 - Bench
Barbell Bench 225x12
DB Bench 1x10, 2x8 90s
Tricep Extensions 5xamrap @ 65lbs, 50lbs, 45lbs, 32.5lbs, 25lbs
Concentration Curls 3x10 40lb DBs
DB Rows 2x8 90lb, 2x12 70lb, 2x20 50lb
Notes
Time to deload bench. I’m slowly regressing, not feeling as energetic or strong with the pressing movements. I’ve been doing this bench hypertrophy stuff (higher freq & volume) for 4 weeks now, so it’s about time for a deload regardless of how I actually feel. Deload on Wednesday and back to it on Saturday. 5 days is plenty of time for a deload for me.
Went hard on the triceps because they will get a deload as well because why not. I flexed in the mirror and my biceps were flat as hell so they got some work today. I’ll be adding a little bit of my volume to arms because short sleeve szn is coming up and I’ve been slacking on arms for a couple months now. Something about “focusing on the compound movements.” Smh.
Did some serious (for me at least) back volume for the first time with these DB rows. I was legitimately nervous going to do them, because historically I’ve been awful at them and my grip strength has always been ass. I surprised myself for sure, and I’m going to continue doing them. I’ll slowly add more and more reps to each weight, and eventually work up to doing all my sets with the 90s. I think I have front squats and deadlifts tomorrow. I don’t have class til noon tomorrow so I’ll get plenty of sleep and I have all night to eat. 6x3 270 front squats and 365 amrap for deadlifts. I’m not sure which one I’ll do first, but I’ll figure it out.
27 February 2018 - Squats & Deads
Front Squat 6x3 270lbs
Sumo Deadlifts 365x14 (1+)
RDLs 2x6 315lbs
Rack Pulls 315x5, 365x5, 385x5
Leg Press 1x10 @ some random weight. 3 or 4 plates on each side idk
Notes
Front squats felt pretty easy, I think I could’ve done 6x5 today honestly, but we are sticking to the program. 6x2 on Friday, 6x4 on Monday or Tuesday.
Sumo is literally a cheat code. 365 felt so light, so easy. I took the hardest smack of ammonia that I’ve ever taken which helped. First 7 reps were touch n go, last 7 were dead stop. The first 7 were also incredibly easy which tells me I was probably taking too much advantage of the bounce, which is why I stopped. RDLs were slow as shit but I handled them okay. Gonna go for 3x6 next time, but I just had a burning desire to do rack pulls today so I did. All the rack pulls were dead stop + reset, so they were super tough which is what I need from assistance work. I like isolating a section of the movement and then struggling (but succeeding) with it. I jumped on the leg press as I was walking out of the gym; I had my bag and my keys and I walked by and remembered that today was leg day and I hadn’t really done that much volume yet, so I jumped on it. Felt good but I was STARVING so I had to go home.
Let me explain why I’m doing sumo. There’s a couple reasons. First of all, I can lift more weight. Secondly, I can feel my glutes working hard which is exactly what I need. I tried hook gripping today with 315 sumo and it wasn’t comfortable, but it worked. I don’t know if I could do it for a set of 14, but 1-5 reps probably.
So overall, huge PR. I don’t know exactly what my max deadlift should be relative to 365x14, but it’s gotta be higher than what I can actually do. I realllly wish I had recorded that set. It’s crazy to me that I did one more rep with 365 today than I did with 325 11 days ago (sumo vs conventional). Anyways, bench deload session tomorrow + some snatch or C&J work–whatever I feel like. Thursday off, squats on Friday, bench & deads on Saturday. I got my whole week planned out, and I love it. My girlfriend and I broke up a few days ago which sucks, but I like to find the silver lining in these kinds of things. For instance, I get more sleep now. I also don’t have to do anything except eat and study after my workouts. I can buy 2 meals for myself instead of one for me and one for her when I go out now. Although it will now be decades before I feel the touch of a woman again, at least I have the tools I need to be big and lonely instead of just being lonely. Yee yee
Pull sumo eat butt
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You should edit for newspapers or something. Somehow you said what I wanted to say even though I didn’t know that’s what I wanted to say. Damn
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28 February 2018 - Bench Deload
Bench 2x3 245, 255x3, 265x3, 275x1 (all paused)
Superset of 3 rounds of band walks + glute bridge/hip thrusts 4x8 225
DB Rows 1x30, 1x20 each side 70lbs
Notes
Bench felt super weird in a good way today. I felt strong, but not powerful. The weight was moving slowly, but I brushed right over my normal sticking points. I went 82%, 85%, 88%, and 91% with my bench. I’ve never paused 275 before so that felt pretty cool.
Glute work fried my lower back today which affected my DB rows. I was going to go for 100-120 total reps on each side with the 70lb DB in as few sets as possible, but my low back was insanely tight. I think I need to lower the weight on my hip thrusts and focus more on the isometric part of it at the peak than the concentric or eccentric. In 2 weeks my band walk strength and endurance has doubled. I used to only be able to walk the length of the gym once, but today I did it twice without stopping, #ThiccAssCrew.
Overall not too disappointed with today but also not thrilled. Signs that my bench is growing but my ass is still frustratingly weak. After I couldn’t finish my DB rows because of my lower back I was legitimately pissed off. I tried resting, stretching, changing how I was set up for the rows, and nothing worked. I was fuckin pissed. I love DB rows and I know my back is a big weak point, so not being able to work it on a day that I had a lot of energy saved for it is incredibly frustrating. Oh well. I’m attempting to live in a caloric deficit for the next month or two just so I can look more presentable this summer. I’d like to get down to 205-210 for some form of abs + a better wilks. That’d also put me in a better position to compete in a 93kg class when I eventually have a 1400lb+ total and want to compete. Aiming for 1200+ sometime this year. Essketit
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I would enjoy a bench session that matched your deload…maybe by xmas!
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Definitely man! But one of the things I learned pretty quickly after beginning my powerlifting is that low volume + high intensity deloads work much better for me than low volume + low intensity. My theory is that it helps keep my body used to the weight but I still get time off from the volume which causes all the fatigue in the first place. That being said…I have no science to back it up. It’s just what works for me 
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3 March 2018 - Squat & Bench
Bench 225x3, 255x1, 275x1, 295x1, 315x1, 325xFail
Front Squat 6x2 275
Back Squat 415x1
25 minutes of basketball
Notes
Went to the Arnold in Columbus this weekend and watched the strongmen do their deadlifts. Absolutely insane, and Hafthor broke Pritchett’s record by 10lbs (1031lb last year and 1041lb this year). Scary impressive for anyone to deadlift over 1000lbs, let alone a dude who’s 6’9".
About my lifts, though. My buddy at OSU finished a 6 week bench program (he herniated a disc in his lower back so he can’t squat or deadlift until he sees a doctor over spring break) and he was really excited to max bench. He wanted to hit 275 for the first time and didn’t get it. I deloaded my bench on Wednesday or Thursday and then rested on Thursday and Friday, so I was very ready to get after it on Saturday. I benched 315 for a 15lb PR (no video…I feel like an idiot) and squatted 415lb for a back squat PR after 6x2 front squats at 275. 315 was not a grindy rep, either. It felt very smooth. During my deload, I tried narrowing my grip by about two finger widths on each side, and it helps a lot. It’s a lot easier to tuck my elbows on the eccentric and get a controlled elbow flare on the concentric when my grip is a tad narrower.
After I benched 315, I looked behind me and there were two hogs repping 315. One of them hit 405 with a monkey grip for what looked like a rpe 9 single. It’s nice to be humbled for sure. Overall, a very solid weekend. It seemed like every hot girl in the world was at the Arnold (so that was fun) and I set a couple PRs. Proof that my deloads are working for me now. Any bench PR is good, but 15lbs is awesome. Might rest tomorrow, might do some olympic lifts, who knows. Front Squats and Deadlifts on Tuesday with bench on Wednesday. Very excited for this week.
Here’s my 10lb pr. Front Squats are doing me good. I haven’t touched back squats in about 2 weeks, but a pr is a pr. I felt off balance the entire time, but this is my first time ever going heavy with a belt on back squats and I’m pretty happy. I think a 455/335/495 is very realistic for this year. I need +40/+20/+40 which I believe I can accomplish by the end of the summer. I love it.
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I don’t know if it’s science, but Wendler uses that approach for deload now.
Work up to 1 rep at TM. With half the assistance or something.
For me it works too.
You have to set yourself up a bit more than just doing 50% sets of 5 reps.
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I’m not sure which Wendler book I even have, but apparently it isn’t the most recent one. The one I have he says 40%x5, 50%x5, and 60%x5 with half assistance. Apparently he’s changed a lot of things recently (or not so recently) that aren’t in the book that I have. I should probably buy the newest version hahaha
Well I don’t think you need to do that.
It’s explained here on TN as well if you search Jims forum.
On the deload day work up to a single with the TM something like 50%x5 60x5 70x3 80x1 90x1 100x1
Something like that.
But the newest “forever” do have a lot of different programs as far as I know.
What is the most different from the OG version is that he uses 85% as TM for most programs. 85% or 5 strong reps. He then have his athletes doing 2 cycles of higher volume and NO pr sets. Then a deload week, then a cycle with pr sets. followed by a week where you try to get 5 strong reps with the TM you used on the last cycle.
BUT that is a very simple interpretation.
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That’s definitely more advanced than what I’m doing, I kinda wanna try it now haha. Any idea what the name is verbatim? I feel like whenever I search for one of his programs I can’t find anything nearly as useful as his original 5/3/1 TN article
5 March 2018 - Bench
Barbell Bench 235x10
DB Bench 2x10 90s, 2x11 75s
DB Rows 3x10 90lbs
Face Pulls 4xAmrap 30lbs (~30-40 each time)
DB Flyes 2x10 25s
Cable Tricep Extensions 3x15 35lbs
Neutral Grip Chin Ups 3x8 bodyweight
Edit: OHP 120x11 (5+)
Notes
A pretty bad day tbh. I wanted 12-13 with 235, didn’t get it. Wanted at least 5x10 with the 90s, didn’t get it. Everything felt a bit heavier than it should’ve, but to be fair, I did max out on Saturday. So I basically only got one day of rest and I shouldn’t have been benching today anyways. Next bench day won’t be until Friday because I need some time to rest. I went hard on the back (by my standards) because I felt like it. Deadlifts tomorrow and front squats on Wednesday. Thursday off, bench Friday, and a deadlift/squat combo on Saturday.
I really should’ve taken a rest day today. As a 20 year old community college student visiting at Ohio State, I did what any normal person in my situation would’ve done which doesn’t bode well for recovery. So I maxed out, got some of that B1G work, drove 7 hours home, and then got 7 hours of sleep. Went to class for 6 hours, barely ate today, and then tried to pick up where I left off last week. That was plain stupid. I’ll get a lot of sleep tonight, hydrate like a demon tomorrow, and then crush some deads and more back assistance work.
I know I already talked about this, but as of right now I am sitting at 415/315/455 for a 1,185lb total and a 330.51 wilks. I have no idea how good that is but I’m going to start keeping track of it. I need +40/+20/+40 to meet my goal for 2018 and anything else after that is bonus points. I don’t know how realistic it is for me to achieve a 500lb squat this year, but I’ll see how close I get. I’m going to have some training partners this summer who are lighter and stronger than me on the lower body lifts which will be absolutely the best motivation on the planet. Since I’m only about 1.5 months into deadlifting consistently, I think I can break 500lbs this year. As always, I’m super excited about how far I’ve come in the last 6-7 months and I’m even more excited to see where I’ll be in 4 months and 9 months when I test my maxes again. Since this is my log, I’ll brag about myself (my audience here is small but you all seem like nice guys so I know you’ll bear with me): I’ve gained 90lbs on my squat since early August, 40lbs on my bench since August, and 30lbs on my deadlift since October without deadlifting consistently until January. I watched one of my buddies pull 475 and squat 425 over Thanksgiving break in November and that lit a fire up under my ass. That, along with my self esteem being directly correlated to how much weight I can lift, is driving me to eat all the proteinz and take all the gainz. I have 335x5+ for deadlifts tomorrow and I’d like to get 15+. Sumo obviously. Sumo is the best. When I did strictly conventional deads, my back would be sore and tired for 2-3 days after each deadlift session which blew. Thank goodness that’s over with.
Welp, I’m ranting because I don’t want to do my homework. Enough of this. I hope everyone set a PR or got better in some way today. Bless y’all, I’m out
Edit: I forgot to add that I started my 5/3/1 OHP journey today. After everything that I did, I was exhausted, but said fuck it. I’ve been meaning to do some overhead stuff for a while now so I started it today. If I can bench 315, I should be able to OHP a decent amount of weight once I get the hang of it. Hopefully it helps my split jerk–although I don’t know if I’ll have enough time to gain any significant strength with OHP before my Oly competition. We’ll see.
Squats will move big time if you go high reps. Light weight 20-25 reps 3-4 times a week. Your thighs will grow…
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