My Road to Elite

Training Training Logs
561

Week 10, Day 3

Squat (beltless)
1x5x215 (50%)
2x4x260 (60%)
2x3x300 (70%)
5x2x345 (80%)

Bench with chains (grip 1 inch inside rings, 88lbs of chains, half on floor at bottom, all off floor at top)
4x4x110@8,8,8.5,8

Squat (beltless)
1x3x235 (55%)
1x3x280 (65%)
3x3x325 (75%)

2 Board Press (paused, comp. grip)
2x4x185@8
1x4x195@8
1x4x205@9.5

Pull-ups
1x7
1x6
1x4
2x5
(5 sets, 27 reps)

Sumo Good Mornings (beltless)
3x5x235

Pin Press (#10, comp grip)
1x8x115
1x5x140
1x10,2x165 (rest pause, 12 total reps)

Inverted Rows (feet on ground)
1x12
1x10

Hip Traction (purple band)
left hip

A very productive session. Last Friday I talked to the gym owner about how the bar feels unstable on my back when I squat. He suggested I use a wider grip. Damned if it didn’t feel better on my back than it ever has. Still feels hard on my left wrist but it looks like I’ll just have to suck it up until it fully heals.

Also, I got some good coaching on bench and I am starting to feel more comfortable/more uncomfortable on the bench. So basically it feels like I am actually starting to do it right, use leg drive, keep my back extremely tight, arch, etc., which feels extremely uncomfortable. But the fact I am starting to do it close to right is comforting! I think I shortened my stroke by a couple of inches with the work today. Happy times!

I am still an absolute disaster on pin presses. That exercise won’t be going away anytime soon.

The “Miz” from the Real World was in the gym today. I had no idea who the hell he was until I watched a couple of videos of him. Guess he was on WWE also. Interesting stuff! He was trying to lift the lightest stone (225 pounds) long enough so his other WWE buddies could get a picture of it. He eventually lifted it a couple of inches in the air and the picture was snapped. I certainly don’t know if I could do it, but I figured with his “Miz” powers it would be no problem.

562

dammit, you should have told me and i would have driven down so i could have seen them. that must have been kinda cool. i would have wanted to take a picture with them. next time i see tiger woods at the serf i’m not going to give you a call. what time did you leave the gym? was i close with my estimate?

563

[quote]dropshot001 wrote:
dammit, you should have told me and i would have driven down so i could have seen them. that must have been kinda cool. i would have wanted to take a picture with them. next time i see tiger woods at the serf i’m not going to give you a call. what time did you leave the gym? was i close with my estimate? [/quote]

I had no idea you were into psuedo-celebrities, now I feel bad. I was done with my stuff at 5:55, wasn’t in too much of a hurry, haha.

564

well…wwe is the shit…and you knew that we went to see wwe before, i think. so if i happened to see bj penn walking around i would let you know even though he is a pseudo celeb.

565

Whoa… those were WWE guys? Never would have guessed it.

Great job on bench today! You will master it in no time :slight_smile:

566

[quote]dropshot001 wrote:
well…wwe is the shit…and you knew that we went to see wwe before, i think. so if i happened to see bj penn walking around i would let you know even though he is a pseudo celeb. [/quote]

Well it wasn’t John Cena, HHH, or Randy Orton. It wasn’t even the tag team Too Much. They were nowhere near as talented as Penn. If you try to compare them to people I have heard of it won’t work.

567

[quote]SugarPie wrote:
Whoa… those were WWE guys? Never would have guessed it.

Great job on bench today! You will master it in no time :)[/quote]

Hahaha, thanks for checking in! The front desk guy Adam was telling me all about the “Miz” and said he, and the other guys were in the WWE. Pretty bizarre!

I am definitely feeling a lot better about bench thanks to your guidance! Now to get working on that horrendously tight thoracic spine.

568

I have some new goals that I wanted to post so that I might hold myself accountable for them. If I don’t write them down it is easier to justify not making them a priority at any given time. I have 21 weeks before the next meet, so I have some time to really address some issues. So here they are in order of importance:

  1. Get my left hip 100% healthy. How: more soft tissue work on the deep external rotators and especially hip flexors. Keep doing the hip traction at least 2 sessions per week so long as it seems to be doing something positive. Continue to do band hip abduction, but do it at least 3 times per week. Do more dynamic hip flexor stretching, particularly after soft tissue work. Include depth squats as part of my warm-up for training sessions. Also watch some videos and see if there is a discernible imbalance. If all this doesn’t seem to be making things better in the next 5 weeks (end of this training cycle), then see an A.R.T. practitioner.

  2. Improve my upper/mid back strength. How: Continue what I am doing. Various shrugs, pull-ups (maybe switch to rack chins), Pendlay rows, inverted rows. Be careful to not overtrain or undertrain the back. Error on the side of overtraining and then adjust!

  3. Improve my bench press arch. How: Lots of foam roller work on the thoracic spine. Also work on chest, hip flexor, and low back mobility. Be particularly careful with the low back. Purchase and use various size PVC pipes and half foam roller to stretch the arch during warm-ups. Also do drills from the article: Heal that Hunchback by Mike Robertson such as scapular wall slides. Progress to where I can do yoga stretches comfortably such as “Camel,” page 131 of Baron Baptiste’s book. Commit to my new set-up on bench where I keep my butt in contact with the bench while I set whatever arch I am capable of.

  4. Avoid imbalances, do the exercises I hate doing. How: Do them on off days instead of at the end of my workouts. The main priority is going to be training abs as I think it might help my low back recover quicker from all the squatting, deadlifting, and good mornings. Also I’ll throw in some biceps and other little stuff like shoulder external rotations or whatever I think is more important.

It is time to start paying attention to the details. This is what will give me a chance at qualifying for nationals in about 17 months (1575 total at 198). I figure the breakdown will probably be about like this: squat-650, bench-325, deadlift-600. Time to take everything to the next level.

Monday

Ab roll-outs (from knees)
3x7

Hammer Curls
1x15x25
1x12x25

Shoulder External Rotations (start with right arm next time, it’s weaker)
1x11x15
1x8x15

Nothing particularly strenuous, just trying to do some stuff that would fit into the prehab category that I don’t have room for in my regular sessions.

569

Bro,
Your progress is amazing! freakin’ keep tearing it up!

… and i’m jealous.

570

[quote]bearshark wrote:
Bro,
Your progress is amazing! freakin’ keep tearing it up!

… and i’m jealous.[/quote]

Thanks, keep in mind I use the cheater gear.

I think this is all about figuring out a system that works. I spent about 4 months trying different programs before I knew what I was good at, and that is high volume. I am not particularly great at recovering with a program like 5/3/1 or even 5x5, both train too near to 1 rep max. But lower the intensity and up the number of lifts per session and I can keep progressing, at least in squat and deadlift. Eric Talmant’s DVD seminar on Sheiko Training really changed the way I think about training and simplified it to a very large degree. The single thing I like most about Sheiko, and Jack Reape talks about this is a periodization article on dragondoor.com is that each week is different. The volume and intensity vary. So on Week 1 the volume is medium and the intensity is low, everything feels kind of crappy. Then in Week 2 the volume is usually slightly less and the intensity slightly higher, usually things feel okay. Week 3 the volume cranks up and the intensity raises slightly, this week is usually quite hard. Then Week 4 something magical happens, I’m stronger and ready for the higher intensity work. Cool thing about this is not a lot of deload weeks are necessary. The bad thing is the workouts usually take people a long time. I don’t like doing much of anything fast so I tend to take quite awhile.

Still figuring out the bench but that WILL come.

From what I have seen you seem to do well with higher intensity and moderate volume but that is just a guess. I like how you are experimenting with stuff and trying to find your niche, big things are in store for you man.

571

Yeah man- I think I’m still at the stage where I think higher intensity every week is still working- sort of high loading, but keeping those reps well short of failure and throwing in about 10-15 reps (per workout) of what i consider to be heavy. It’s just a personal preference but I don’t really want to spend too much time in the gym- i did one sheiko and it was a lot of work. I like what i’m doing now, but who knows- one day i might have to do something else.

Bench really is my bugaboo also. I have a +6" ape index, middle fingertip to tip is 6" more than my height. Although, that’s really no excuse. I’ve been very motivated by Eric Cressey’s lifting and what he writes about benching heavy.

Maybe this might give you some more visual cues- although I’m still trying to get my own bench up!

Happy training! I’ll be lurking still.

572

[quote]bearshark wrote:
Yeah man- I think I’m still at the stage where I think higher intensity every week is still working- sort of high loading, but keeping those reps well short of failure and throwing in about 10-15 reps (per workout) of what i consider to be heavy. It’s just a personal preference but I don’t really want to spend too much time in the gym- i did one sheiko and it was a lot of work. I like what i’m doing now, but who knows- one day i might have to do something else.

Bench really is my bugaboo also. I have a +6" ape index, middle fingertip to tip is 6" more than my height. Although, that’s really no excuse. I’ve been very motivated by Eric Cressey’s lifting and what he writes about benching heavy.

Maybe this might give you some more visual cues- although I’m still trying to get my own bench up!

Happy training! I’ll be lurking still.[/quote]

Certainly an approach that can render great results. Yeah Sheiko does take awhile. For now I can deal with that but once I have a kid that will likely change.

My arms aren’t that long so I don’t have that excuse. That video of Cressey benching certainly demonstrates excellent technique. And always good to see someone that is built for the deadlift bench respectably.

Happy training to you too, and I will be lurking as well!

573

Week 11, Day 1 (A dummy with a PR)

Paused Bench (comp. grip)
1x1x205@8
1x1x225@8.5
1x1x235@8.5 [tie PR]
1x1x245@9.5 [10 pound PR]
1x0x255@10+
1x1x225@9

Squat (beltless)
1x5x215 (50%)
1x5x260 (60%)
2x5x300 (70%)
4x4x325 (75%)

Bench Shrugs
1x8x95
1x8x135
2x8x155

Pendlay Row
1x8x110
1x8x135
1x8x145
1x8x155

Lat Pulldowns (wide grip)
1x20x80
2x15x110

DC Lat Stretch

Sumo Good Mornings (beltless)
4x5x185

Squats felt particularly easy today. Felt like I could have done 6 sets of 6.

Bench, oh what can I say. I felt crazy good after the coaching I received on Sunday. Today was supposed to be about hitting some solid singles and leaving a rep in the tank. When 235 felt as easy as it did I figured 245 would be pretty clean also. It was harder than I thought it would be and I figured it was because my technique wasn’t quite dialed in. So I put 255 on the bar with complete confidence it would fly up and that would be the end of my benching. But, alas, I was wrong. I hit a nasty sticking point that I almost made it through, but not today. I felt good leg drive and a tight upper back, with a decent arch. My bench is going to take off, and that is a promise. Novaeer and SugarPie, it took me 9 months to go from 225 to 235, and now 3.5 weeks to go from 235 to 245. Thanks so much for the help!

Time to approach this bench program more conservatively as it is supposed to be done.

My upper trap felt pretty funky after that 255 missed single on bench. I iced it and have my fingers crossed it will be ready to roll on deadlift day.

574

damn, congrats on the bench PR man.

man i really hate you, you make squats to look so easy, definitely good work man.

575

Awesome!!! I wish you had a vid :slight_smile: Keep practicing your technique and the form will come.

576

[quote]tuchavito wrote:
damn, congrats on the bench PR man.

man i really hate you, you make squats to look so easy, definitely good work man.[/quote]

Thanks Tuchavito. I was built for squatting, that’s all I can say.

577

[quote]SugarPie wrote:
Awesome!!! I wish you had a vid :slight_smile: Keep practicing your technique and the form will come.[/quote]

Thank you very much and will definitely do. Actually I had thought about bringing the video camera.

578

Good work on the bench. Be patient, 255 will be there for the taking very soon.

579

[quote]novaeer wrote:
Good work on the bench. Be patient, 255 will be there for the taking very soon.[/quote]

I definitely believe that. I just felt a little bad because I see how damn committed you are to your RPEs and the great results you are getting. I need to be more mature. I’m thinking of doing 3 doubles on incline, doing singles just seems too crazy.

I ordered some bands so I will have 2 minis, monster minis and lights.

580

[quote]mrodock wrote:
novaeer wrote:
Good work on the bench. Be patient, 255 will be there for the taking very soon.

I definitely believe that. I just felt a little bad because I see how damn committed you are to your RPEs and the great results you are getting. I need to be more mature. I’m thinking of doing 3 doubles on incline, doing singles just seems too crazy.

I ordered some bands so I will have 2 minis, monster minis and lights. [/quote]

Well now that I’m doing some different exercises, I’m sort of stumbling onto the RPEs during the session rather than having some preconceived notion as to what weight I should be using over a given rep range.

You could get away with doing singles on the incline, but I would keep it at a weight you’re pretty sure you could double, just do it for 4 sets; then drop down say 7-10% when you hit your RPE ‘target’ and use that weight until you feel the same RPE as you had for your heaviest set.