Hi!
I’m going to start keeping track of my training here so all comments are appreciated. To give you a little background I’ll just say that I’m 30 years old (from Finland) and been training for quite some time (more or less about 6 years). During this time my bodyweight has gone from 58kg to 75kg. At the moment my bw is pretty stable 72kg and hasn’t really changed at all for a long time (years).
I’ve pretty much tried all different training styles during these years and I’ve enjoyed everything. Strength training has become almost a daily practice to me (and an important one). My goals are to keep on building strength and breaking personal records for the rest of my life. I have no motivation in competing against others although I enjoy watching my powerlifting friends compete.
My training has pretty much always been centered around powerlifting with some additional olympic style weightlifting and bodybuilding to keep it fun. You could say that my approach is holistic.
Some personal records so far (all done in 2007):
deadlift 2x200kg (raw: not even a belt)
squat 5x110kg (sucks compared to my deadlift I know)
bench 5x90kg (build to deadlift = not so good bench)
chins 1x60kg (one of my favorite movements)
dips 6x50kg (also my favorite)
power clean 1x80kg
push press 1x80kg
power snatch 1x60kg
Yesterdays training went like this:
Friday 2.5.2008
A1. Ghr 2x12
A2. Pulldown abs 2x15
B. Front squat 3x90kg, 3x95kg, 3x95kg
C. Romanian deadlift 10x100kg, 10x120kg
D1. Incline situps 2x20x10kg
D2. Leg extensions 2x20
Only the working sets are included in the log.
This is great stuff you have here: you seem to have a very open mind about training and different exercises and methods. Awesome that your mainly into strength, thats my area too.
Great lifts there especially for your bodyweight, very impressive pound for pound strength, and i’m exactly the same as yoiu with the deadlift (we were just built to do it).
Keep up the good work mate, good luck with your future lifting, i’ll follow your training as you post it and will keep replying. If you want to discuss anything about training then i’d always love to do so
[quote]magnate08 wrote:
This is great stuff you have here: you seem to have a very open mind about training and different exercises and methods. Awesome that your mainly into strength, thats my area too.
Great lifts there especially for your bodyweight, very impressive pound for pound strength, and i’m exactly the same as yoiu with the deadlift (we were just built to do it).
Keep up the good work mate, good luck with your future lifting, i’ll follow your training as you post it and will keep replying. If you want to discuss anything about training then i’d always love to do so[/quote]
Thank you for the kind words! All training related discussions are welcome. In the mean while I did some training today.
Saturday 3.5.2008
A. Hang power clean 2x70kg, 2x72.5kg, 2x75kg, 2x72.5kg, 2x70kg
B. Bench press (pinky on the ring) 3x5x80kg
C. Narrow grip bench 2x10
D. Seated row (narrow grip) 10x85kg, 10x95kg
E. Face pulls 2x25-30
my numbers are pretty similar except im around 105 kgs right now.
you should probably increase the squat, thats my main thing too… though thats partially cause of the olympic lifting but its also so that your quads/hamstrings/gultes get stronger and you use less back on the deadlift. if you use too much back then if your back fails you it rounds and that can be dangerous. its happened to me quite a few times. im sure it has to you too
[quote]lordstorm88 wrote:
my numbers are pretty similar except im around 105 kgs right now.
you should probably increase the squat, thats my main thing too… though thats partially cause of the olympic lifting but its also so that your quads/hamstrings/gultes get stronger and you use less back on the deadlift. if you use too much back then if your back fails you it rounds and that can be dangerous. its happened to me quite a few times. im sure it has to you too[/quote]
Trying my best to bring up my squat…it´s my weakness for sure. And yes I deadlift almost stiff legged but my form is good and my lower back never rounds…although I’ve had couple stupid accidents such that my form broke (doing reps and not singles) and I was too stubborn to quit pulling…these could have been avoided.
At the time when i pulled 2x200kg on the deadlift I also pulled 5x235kg from just below the knee level (with straps though) so back is my strongest point. And I was doing a lot of leg presses (on top of the normal squatting) which I think helped to get a better leg drive of the floor in the deadlift.
Well today I did some more squat work.
Sunday 4.5.2008
A. Box squat (wide stance just below parallel) 8x2x90kg
B. Snatch grip deadlifts 2x10x90kg
C. Leg press 10x180kg, 10x200kg
D. Db side bends 3x10-15
E1. Hanging leg raise 2x20
E2. Hyperextensions 2x20
E3. Lying leg curls 2x20
sweet keep this up bro, working well, i was just interested as to what sort of technique your squats are (powerlifting style, olympic, wide, narrow, depth etc) and nice with the snatch grip deadlifts, i tried these too, they are fun aye?
[quote]magnate08 wrote:
sweet keep this up bro, working well, i was just interested as to what sort of technique your squats are (powerlifting style, olympic, wide, narrow, depth etc) and nice with the snatch grip deadlifts, i tried these too, they are fun aye?[/quote]
I tend to vary my squat technique depending on what I’m doing at the moment. In regular free back squat my stance is about shoulder width so not very wide but then in box squats I typically go as wide as I can which is not extremely wide because my groins can’t take it if I go too wide.
Depth is always well below parallel but it’s not butt to ankles like with pro weightlifters because I go as deep as I can while maintaining arched/flat back…with long legs and short torso it’s not that easy to go extremely deep.
In box squats I use powerlifting style hips/butt back, shins upright style technique that some pro powerlifters taught me years ago. In free squats my technique is more olympic style. Sometimes I actually use high bar positioning instead of the low bar that I use when I go heavier.
About the snatch grip deadlifts…I don’t try to go heavy with these but I use them to practise the pushing through the floor kind of thing and also to get some upper back work. I really hate the snatch grip deads…but sometimes you got to do exactly the exercises you hate to get better 
Sounds like a very good technique, good that your doing more than just 1 type of squating too, builds different strength. Yeah i dont often do box squats, but with my free squats i go just like you (olympic). I generally go high bar and shoulderwidth stance.
haha what u dont enjoy snatch grip deads? not many people do hahaha. I personally love every exercise there is and snatch grip’s are no exeption. and yeah exactly like you said, good for pushing through the floor. I personally go 1 week light deads (snatch grip off platform) and then 1 week heavy(regular). If you want a real killer then do what i do on the light weeks and do snatch grips… off a 2 or 3 inch platform, or standing on plates hahahaha. Just out of interest how tall are you?
Good work keep it coming, im enjoying reading your training; its good.
[quote]magnate08 wrote:
If you want a real killer then do what i do on the light weeks and do snatch grips… off a 2 or 3 inch platform, or standing on plates hahahaha. Just out of interest how tall are you?
[/quote]
My height is 176 cm. I can’t really get/maintain a proper form to do snatch grip deads from the podium…I can barely do snatch grip deads from the floor. Instead I do regular deadlifts standing on about 2-4 inch podium/plate and I go heavy with those.
Usually I only lift the weights up to my knees though and do pulls from the knees in the same workout after that. I think my best is 3x170kg standing on a 50 kg plate, with all lifts to just above the knee level.
Monday 5.5.2008
A. Push press (behind the neck with snatch grip)
8x40kg, 6x50kg, 6x55kg, 6x60kg, 8x45kg
B. Pull ups (wide grip) 3x10 (bodyweight only)
C. Dips 2x12x20kg
D. Hammer curls 3x10-15
Todays workout was light except for the behind neck presses… although the whole workout felt a bit heavy because of the fatique from previous workouts. My bw has gone up to 74kg at the moment…don’t mind if it continues to go up…must go eat the whole chicken and drink few pints of milk
My workouts have been fairly random (not too structured that is) lately, so I decided to set up a program which I’m going to follow for the next two months (May and June). At the end of June I’ll be leaving for Athens (Greece) and before that I’ll be working up to comfortably heavy singles in many major lifts.
There will be small break from training between 22-25 of May as I will be in Rome (Italy) then.
So the basic structure will be like this:
- Day: Power snatch, back squat, abs, calves
- Day: Bench press, bent over rows, side laterals
- Day: Box squat, deadlift, leg press, ghr
- Day: Push press, chins, dips
- Day: Power clean, front squat, abs
- Day: Dynamic/narrow grip bench, seated row, face pulls
I might do these workouts on consecutive days if I feel rested but I will schedule rest days according to how I feel. I have done something pretty similar in the past many times.
Sets, reps and weights will not be set in stone either but I have a pretty good idea of what I can do in each movement. The main idea, like I said before, is to work up to heavy singles (not all movements though) at the end of June. So I will start with a bit higher reps and reps will also depend on the movements (obviously).
These workout will start today evening after work. Yesterday was a rest day, after many consecutive days of training, so I feel pretty good…though my neck and back are pretty stiff right now…hopefully won’t affect snatches too much.
i would suggest training your quads most with your squats. meaning toes pointing forward if you can or very slightly outwards, and maybe do front squats instead.
personally im thinking of maybe doing some machine to help with hamstrings since the above would work mostly quads and i rarely ever feel my hamstrings lots eihter in squats or deadlift no matter how i try to make it… your imbalance is even higher than mine so i would worry. i already worry about me too and my squat is a bit higher but my dealift quite lower than yours (125(though it dropped to around 120 cause i got sick for a week) and 177.5)
Todays training went like this:
Wednesday 7.5.2008
A. Hang power snatch 5x40, 3x45, 3x3x50, 3x45, 5x40
B. Back squat (high bar) 3x100, 4x3x105, 3x100
C. Pulldown abs 3x12-15
D. Calves (standing) 3x10-15, 1x40
I’m going to switch the high bar (olympic style) squats to low bar (powerlifting style) squats after a while as I’ve been doing high bar squats for quite some time now.
Thursday 8.5.2008
A. Bench press (pinky on the ring) 5x80kg, 3x4x85kg, 5x80kg
B. Bent over row (barbell) 10x90kg, 8x100kg, 6x105kg
C. Side laterals (db) 3x10x13.5kg
good work,how did u find the hang power snatches? They are a great power exercise
[quote]magnate08 wrote:
good work,how did u find the hang power snatches? They are a great power exercise[/quote]
Yes I like snatch a lot
Todays training went like this:
Friday 9.5.2008
A. Deadlift standing on a podium (8cm podium) 3x140kg, 3x160kg, 3x170kg
B. Box squat (wide stance, box just below parallel) 3x85kg, 6x3x90kg, 3x85kg
C. Leg press (narrow stance) 10x180kg, 10x210kg
D. Incline situps 3x15x20kg
I was using overhand grip and straps for the two heaviest sets in the deadlift. Even the heaviest set felt really light today, but I decided to save something for the next time as well.
Saturday 10.5.2008
A. Dips (medium grip) 10x20kg, 8x40kg, 6x50kg
B. Chins (medium grip) 3x20kg, 3x30kg, 3x2x45kg
C. Shoulder press (db) 3x8-10
Dips felt relatively easy today but chins were pretty hard. I tried to do 3 reps with 45kg but failed on the third rep in the first set and decided to do 2’s.
I tried you attach a video of me doing dips today to the previous post but I guess it didn’t work. But you can watch it from my videos (just click my user name above my avatar).
Sunday 11.5.2008
A. Power clean (from the rack above the knee) 2x70kg, 1x75kg, 1x77.5kg, 1x80kg
B. Front squat 4x80kg, 3x90kg, 2x2x100kg
C. Ghr 4x12
D. Pulldown abs 4x10-15
I did a little test in the power clean and managed to do quite easily my previous best (which was done from the floor). So I’m looking forward to hitting PR’s at the end of june in power clean.
I have previously done 3’s with 100kg in the front squat and todays 2’s didn’t feel too heavy so I’m hoping to hit PR’s (I’ve done 110kg before) in the front squat as well.
I also video taped my power cleans and it seems that I’m bending my arms before the pull so that’s eating my power…I need to work on keeping them straight…which doesn’t come easy with long arms.
Monday 12.5.2008
A. Bench press (medium) 6x2x50kg + minibands doubled
B. Narrow bench 2x8x70kg
C. Seated row (narrow) 15x80kg, 12x90kg, 10x100kg
D. Face pulls 3x20
Finished the workout with few pump sets for arms.
Tomorrow will be well earned rest day after 6 training days in a row…so far so good.