Thanks a lot man, I really appreciate your support & the support the good folks of the T-Nation community.
Haha, yeah the only person I told other than here is my fiancee. It’s good to know you have an ace in the hole. Plus after years of watching DBZ, the idea of not showing my full power until it’s needed makes me feel pretty cool.
Congrats on the huge pull!
Thanks man!! 500 anything has been a goal of mine for a very long time. Glad I finally chipped away enough to pull it off. Haha.
Saturday, May 13th 2017 - 3s week (Anchor, 1000% Mod)
Log Press - 110x3, 130x1, 150x1, 175x1, 185x1, 200x1 (PR, Comp weight!), 130x5x5
Front squats - 185x5x5
db curl to Arnold press 3x8-12
GHR 3 sets of 10
Notes: 200 went smooth. The cue to squeeze my elbows toward each other on the log has been huge.
Nice log PR, fuck yeah.
Thanks bro! After this block, I’d like to work in the suggestion you made a long time ago for the log, working up to a heavy 1-3, then doing amrap strip sets. Haven’t forgotten!
Last Week - 5’s week
The 5’s week is too boring to write about. Basically did exactly what I did the week before, with less weight & fixed reps. Although, I couldn’t hit the log since it was locked-up so I did the moutain dog shoulders thing, 4x4 axle incline w/185# ss with a bunch of rear delt flys. & did some chained front squats for kicks.
May 23rd, 2017 - 531 week, 1000% mod
Log press - 5x5 @ 145
Squats - 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 250x5, 280x5
chinz, ab wheel, lunges, push-ups
Notes: a storm was rolling in as I was hitting the log. the final set rain was pelting me from the side and lightning was cracking like giant bull-whips all around me illuminating the sky. Felt like Odin himself was in audience and I could not disappoint, less I may loose my place in Valhalla.
In less dramatic notes, I think it’s time for a squat reset. Also my core is too weak for standing ab wheel. I imagine, the two are not unrelated.
last week
Finished off 531 week of my 1000% mod.
Didnt push for prs though, just found TMs for the straight bar dead & strict press.
Began @Alpha cutting protocol on Sunday. Got surprised with a conference wed-fri. So im going to be meeting & greeting on no food or water. Sweet.
Been thinking about my training post-comp, way too hard really.
My goal to put on quality size, and look awesome for my wedding/honeymoon in 5 cycles. (Yes, im counting down by cycles).
Thought of doing
-1000%, with a 6 week challenge
-Builing the monolith, then 1000% awesome
-kryptia
-svr2
The first 3 sound awesome, but I know my schedule is gonna be unpredictable in the coming months. Lots of traveling, so I really need to be able to have a 2-4 session week if I need to. 1000% though probably could be done on back-to back days.
Svr2, while fitting within my size goal and scheduling restrictions, is more intensity than I’d really like right now. Dont think prs on conventional is wise either bringing it back in.
So I’m thinking it could look like:
3 cycles of
5s pro, BBB using fsl% for bench & squat,
5s pro, 5x5 fsl for dead & press
Less intense conditioning/assistance
2 cycles of
PRs, 5x5 fsl
More intense conditioning/assistance
Simple & straightforward. Had to get that out of my brain!
COMPETITION RESULTS
Back from the competition, best one so far. Weighed in at 170 post cut’ so I over shot a bit, but better under than over.
200# Log press (clean once, press away) - 1:00
I missed a 175lb warm-up so got a bit worried obviously. So I chuged preworkout and did a bunch of jumps to get in gear. When it was my time, the first clean & press went up smooth. Dropped the log recleaned & missed. recleaned and ground one up, then recleaned & missed again. That’s 4 cleans for two presses, pretty inexcusable. My buddy told me I wasn’t committing to the descent and lowered it too far out in front of me each time and I couldn’t recover. But still 2x200 is certainly a pr for me.
350# 50’ sled drag
they axed the prowler since the turf wasn;t having it. Took a minute to get into the groove and really fully extend, but I started moving once I found that sweet spot. Got 20 seconds.
550# (I think) wheelbarrow, 100’ one U-turn
this one just sucked. It was easy to get speed, but steering that thing was extremely difficult. It was easy to get greedy and lose control. Lot’s of people tipped it & ate the turf. I just went slowly, 17 seconds.
15" Frame Deadlift
So, I went in planning on hitting 500# for my 3rd attempt. Well, they announced they were starting the weight at 500# unless anyone wanted lower. Haha. So I walked in at 500#, and SMOKED it. So I was thinking “okay, okay, I’ve got this.” Came in next at 520#, and again, flew right up. 540# wasn’t going to place me where I needed, so I decided to bite the bullet and come in at 560#.
I walked up, belt tight, took a few meditative breaths before a massive belly breath, reached down and pulled. Had to fight for every inch at the bottom, and once it cleared my knees, I locked that son of a bitch out. The down command came, and fought passing out by letting out a roar of self satisfaction & tore-off my belt.
That’s a 60 pound PR! Not sure where it came from, but i guess it was there all along & I just needed the right combination of adrenaline, focus, and skill to bring it out.
170ish Atlas Stone-to-Shoulder, one hand must me removed for good lift - 1:00
Went waaay too fast out the gate & had two crappy shoulders, one flying right over my back. I regrouped & went with more purpose, making sure to press my ear tight onto the stone and flex my upper body & core hard. got into a groove but a little too late. 7 total reps
I placed 3rd out of 5 in the 175# class, and had some outstanding PRs. Just not strong enough yet to win, but I know with more training I can get there. Gonna take a nice long off season & come back after the wedding.
Did a little DC stuff yesterday
Log Incline - 85x5, 135x5, 175 x 8,5, 3?
DB press - 20x5, 30x5, 50x10, 8, 6
Axle Floor press - 125x5, 175x5, 215x8,7,2
Wide-grip chins - 15, 7-8, 2-3
Low cable rows triple drop set
@danteism, if you wouldn’t mind talking about it, have you ever heard of anyone doing DC with strongman implements? I mean, I know you could just sub log press for BB press for that sort of thing. But what about things like farmers, yoke, & stones? I’m guessing it would just fall into forearms, widowmaker set, back thickness for straight sets or whatever? Just thinking it could be a cool/productive combo.
Thanks.
There is actually a thread called “modified DC for strongman” (or something like it) over at intensemuscle, the guy who did it was using the three way split. It was quite cool, I’d definitely like to try it myself some day.
Farmers walks, stones and yoke carries could be used as either back thickness exercise or a widowmaker exercise (remember that you can use widowmakers for any body part if you go 3-way)
Farmers walks could be used as a forearm exercise too, just make sure you are not trying to cram too much stuff into a single workout.
I’d definitely suggest you try the 3-way split with strongman implements, it makes sure you are not doing too much on a single day and as it rotates in an unique way it gives you the added benefit of being ready for anything they may throw at you in an actual multi-day competition (you get used to doing the events in many different orders, so you don’t burn out)
The three way split is basically a push/pull/legs (chest+shoulders+triceps/biceps+forearms+backwidth+backthickness/calves+hams+quads) rotating 3 exercises for each bodypart
This is done with 2 days on, 1 off, 2 on and 2 off
(You probably knew that already but it’s never a bad thing to be reminded of that)
But in conclusion, strongman implements and DC could go really well together and it’s definitely something that’s worth a try. Read the intensemuscle thread, it offers some good ideas on this subject
Always happy to help!
That’s a good idea man. My schedule is weird & so being able to train two days in a row if need be would be great for me. being a little more fresh for something like tire deadlifts would also certainly be nice. When you say different orders, do you mean playing with the order of exercises? If I went full into the DC route, I imagine I’d want to start-off with overhead sometimes since of course it’s contested.
Badass, thanks for the direction, I’ll search around for it. Though, you already covered a bunch, haha. Well if this is the route I go you can see the results here. I’ve always wanted to give DC a go. My late friend introduced it to me when he was visiting home back from his first tour, and we talked about it quite a bit. I’ve wanted to give it a run in his honor for some time now.
Thanks for the detailed reply!
Awesome job at the show dude! Looking forward to the next.
I meant that sometimes you’ll come to do a log press session after a rest day, and sometimes it may be after a pull day, for example. This way you’ll be ready if you happen to run into a competition where you must, say squat on the day after yoke walk or something like that.
Because the exercises don’t rotate in the same rhythm as the program does, you’ll get used to doing each exercise both fresh and after being beat up by previous day’s training. (Of course this can be avoided by twisting the program a bit so you’ll always do certain lifts when you are fresh, I can elaborate on this if you want, I also have a twisted version of the 3-way split laid out in my log)
You should definitely start some days with overhead pressing, personally I prioritize putting things above my head over any other kind of pressing and I’m not even a strongman competitor!
Nice to hear you liked it!
Just found this log and read through the bottom half. Certainly looks like a good one and I can’t believe I haven’t seen it before. Congrats on your competiton and PRs, I’m looking forward to how you do in future.
@strongmanvinny2 Thanks man! I’m glad to have you in my corner, and happy to steal ideas from you lol. Hopefully one of these days i’ll be seeing you at nationals.
@danteism [quote=“danteism, post:274, topic:213341”]
I meant that sometimes you’ll come to do a log press session after a rest day, and sometimes it may be after a pull day, for example. This way you’ll be ready if you happen to run into a competition where you must, say squat on the day after yoke walk or something like that.
[/quote]
Ahh okay I get it; makes a lot of sense. Yeah man I’ll totally be checking out that log of yours. Glad you start with OHP sometimes too, I won’t feel so bad about it now, haha.
@caesium32 Welcome and thank you! Glad to have you on board man. I have high hopes to keep moving forward. The guy who took first in my class was an Arnold competitior, it really gave me something to shoot for.
June 11th - DC
Axle curls - 45x10, 65x10, 95x8,6,3
Rope chins - 12, 6, 3
Machine calf raise - 10 slow reps
GHR - bwx10, +25lb plate x 12, 10, 8
Front squats - 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 135x20
Notes: i could have pushed out more on the front squats. Im just in the 531 mindset of bar speed, not necessarily technical failure like i think DC pushes toward. It’s really a different approach, and one i need to learn. I think 531 is about phoning-in a lot of the work, which is great and works, whereas dc seems to be a max-effort deal, just with reps instead of weight per se.
I think im just going to stick with dc and see where it takes me. I think its going to be fun, and should be beneficial. I wanted to bodybuild a bit this offseason, and have a little more freedom with my main lift choices that i can maje the day of
6-13-16 - DC pressing
Hotel workout-
45lb db incline, 8 second negativo: 12, 8, 6
45lb db press: 12, 10, 4
45lb db neutral grpfloor press, 8 sec neg: 15-20, 8-12, 3
50 pull-aparts
I know I’m late to the topic, but goddamn this was excitnig to read. Great stuff dude!
I just realized that I forgot to congratulate you on your great show! I enjoyed reading your write up a lot!