T3hPwnisher's Log

Training Training Logs
381

Sandbag (205lbs), Keg (182lbs), Keg (100lbs): 75’ each
2 rounds

Notes: Each implement starts at the same spot, so I run the sandbag first, run back, run the first keg, run back, run the final keg, then die. Focused on sprinting between each implement. This really sucked, my conditioning is awful, definitely something I need to focus on in the off season. The sandbag moved really quick, and then I could jog with the first keg, but by the time I got to the third keg it was like a brisk walk. 2 rounds totally did me in, heart was beating like a jackhammer. Part of this is I got woken up twice in the middle of the night, so I went back to some old habits and had a fully charged Rockstar (240mg caffeine) before training.

I liked this circuit though, and was fried out on the yoke, so it was a fun change of pace. Next week, I’ll hit the yoke light for speed, and then it’s the contest.

I was going to hit arms after this but then I remembered something: f**k that.

General notes: Wife told me I looked skinny last night. Such a psychological blow, haha. Have pretty decent abs in the morning and still some abs at night, which is a good sign. May be picking up a ton of awesome lifting tear today (all Ironmind and Rogue), if it pans out, I’ll update.

Bodyweight at 195.2 for the second day in a row.

382

Hey man…figured since I only get to my log once or twice a week I’d answer in here.

I actually was able to increase my bench from 420 to 450 during my long cut. That said, pretty much all of that was in the first few months and the deficit wasn’t very big. My guess would be that this occurred because it was already moving up after years of stagnation, and I attribute that to having healthy shoulders for the first time in a decade and being able to train it consistently and with frequency. During that time, I increased my frequency to 3x weekly and doubled my weekly volume. Keep in mind that my volume has always been low, so I think I was really sensitive to the volume jump.

Now, I did a mini cut after my last meet of 4 weeks and a huge deficit (700 cals or so), and I definitely didn’t increase my bench during that time much, but I did maintain it. So my long-winded response would be: increase your rep strength as long as you can when cutting. When that stalls, add volume however you can. For me it was adding heavier sets of 4 after I had finished 8s. And don’t do a high effort single during this time. Do a 9 RPE single if you want to stay accustomed to heavy weight, but if you try to handle near maxes it’s going to drain you to the point of detriment.

Following that philosophy, I came in and benched 440 with a narrow grip and no wrist wraps after my offseason block and while still in the cut, which was a PR of sorts.

You have to counteract the body’s desire to dump muscle with a training stimulus that forces it to retain and possibly build, and the only way that works for me is to increase tonnage lifted every week in the cut. Now, be careful. It’s really easy to burn out if the cut is too long or the deficit too big.

383

[quote]HeavyTriple wrote:
Hey man…figured since I only get to my log once or twice a week I’d answer in here.

I actually was able to increase my bench from 420 to 450 during my long cut. That said, pretty much all of that was in the first few months and the deficit wasn’t very big. My guess would be that this occurred because it was already moving up after years of stagnation, and I attribute that to having healthy shoulders for the first time in a decade and being able to train it consistently and with frequency. During that time, I increased my frequency to 3x weekly and doubled my weekly volume. Keep in mind that my volume has always been low, so I think I was really sensitive to the volume jump.

Now, I did a mini cut after my last meet of 4 weeks and a huge deficit (700 cals or so), and I definitely didn’t increase my bench during that time much, but I did maintain it. So my long-winded response would be: increase your rep strength as long as you can when cutting. When that stalls, add volume however you can. For me it was adding heavier sets of 4 after I had finished 8s. And don’t do a high effort single during this time. Do a 9 RPE single if you want to stay accustomed to heavy weight, but if you try to handle near maxes it’s going to drain you to the point of detriment.

Following that philosophy, I came in and benched 440 with a narrow grip and no wrist wraps after my offseason block and while still in the cut, which was a PR of sorts.

You have to counteract the body’s desire to dump muscle with a training stimulus that forces it to retain and possibly build, and the only way that works for me is to increase tonnage lifted every week in the cut. Now, be careful. It’s really easy to burn out if the cut is too long or the deficit too big.[/quote]

Thanks a ton dude! This is a ton of great stuff and I really appreciate your perspective. I’ve been incredibly impressed with your progress in strength paired with physique. Means a lot, and I’ll see what I can do to factor this in.

I just hit the holy grail score on craigslist. For $1000 I picked up

Ironmind Buffalo Bar
Ironmind Squat/dip/chin rack
Ironmind bench
Ironmind belt squat
Ironmind neck harness
Rogue Axle
Roge Farmer’s Walks
2 barbells (non-name brand)
An EZ curl bar
A bunch of Rogue locking collars/spring collars/screw collars
4 45lb plates
4 35lb plates
4 25lb plates
4 10lb plates
2 5lb plates
2 2.5lb plates

There may actually be more. Part of me wanted to know the story behind this sale (bad divorce, drug habit, needed quick funds for his guerrilla army) but I was not going to look this gift horse in the mouth.

384

Apparently no one else thinks my craiglist find was super cool, but that’s ok, I’m sure your silence is simply a bydproduct of envy.

Also, forgot to add there were 2 ironmind loading pins, a rolling thunder, and a Pillars of Power spotting system. I couldn’t sleep last night because I was so excited about this find.

(2) Mat Pulls 585+chains
11 reps total
(2) Mat Pulls 495+chains
1x5

Notes: 8 on the first, 3 on the second. Felt like I didn’t have another pull in me at 585, and didn’t want to risk it this close to a comp, so I dropped a plate to get some more reps in. I may make that a regular thing, might even work dead stops ala my squat training. Going to do everything in my power to hit 8 reps next week. Felt like I could’ve had a 9th on the first pull today if I was willing to be stupid.

DOH hold 405+chains
40 seconds

Squats 360
1x17+3

Notes: Used my new buffalo bar today. It weighs 52lbs, but I have 7.5 kilo bumper plates which come out to 33lbs, so score, I’m able to get a “5” at the end right? Well stupid me immediately forgot about that and added a 5lb plate when not required. Went up 15lbs from last week versus the 10 I was planning, but at least that explains the less than stellar performance. Next week, I’ll just move it up 5lbs.

The buffalo bar feels AMAZING, but I can’t hold it quite as low on my back as I could with a barbell, so technique is a little different. Slightly more high bar.

General notes: Weighed in at 194.6 this morning. Skipped dinner last night since I drove an hour+ each way to get the gear, and by the time I got home and unloaded all the stuff I just had no appetite. Still a stupid move. Tried to make up with it on my cheat meal today: 2 western bacon cheeseburgers from the local burger joint, bread and all. This was painful to put away. I’m getting really excited about putting on some quality weight, mainly so I can quit doing this and just eat a lot of meat everyday.

Also, got some more thinner diameter 45lb plates, so I may be able to just straight increase the weight on my car deadlift frame instead of coming up with that rig, but that’ll most likely still be in my future.

1 Like
385

That’s the type of craigslist find I dream about! Great find and great work in the log.

386

Nice, hope no police show up.

387

I need to find the British version of craigslist.

388

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
I just hit the holy grail score on craigslist. For $1000 I picked up

Ironmind Buffalo Bar
Ironmind Squat/dip/chin rack
Ironmind bench
Ironmind belt squat
Ironmind neck harness
Rogue Axle
Roge Farmer’s Walks
2 barbells (non-name brand)
An EZ curl bar
A bunch of Rogue locking collars/spring collars/screw collars
4 45lb plates
4 35lb plates
4 25lb plates
4 10lb plates
2 5lb plates
2 2.5lb plates

There may actually be more. Part of me wanted to know the story behind this sale (bad divorce, drug habit, needed quick funds for his guerrilla army) but I was not going to look this gift horse in the mouth.
[/quote]

FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE!!!

389

Thanks guys. A victory is more satisfying with the love/hatred of your buddies. I might actually train farmers more often now that I have a decent set, haha.

390

Weighted chins 55lbs
20 reps

Notes: Used one of my new loading pins for this and it was awesome. May actually encourage me to do more/different amounts of weighted movements.

Bench 295
5x5

superset w/

Band pull aparts
5x20

Notes: I’m so f**king stupid, I misloaded the bench. Was supposed to be 305 today. That said, it may have been a subconscious action anyway, as this 5x5 was fast and smooth with shorter rest periods but still decently taxing. I may need to just dial back the training max on this rotation until I start eating more again. I was at least happy to succeed with less weight than fail with more, and I’ll see how next week ends up.

Shoulder circuit
3 rounds

Dips
1x26

Notes: Ironmind dip racks wobble a lot less than my old power tower. See myself doing a lot more dips in the future. This was once again to make up for lost volume, this time due to the mislead.

DB rows 105
9x3
1x25

General Notes: Woke up at 196.0. Wife’s birthday is today, been celebrating the entire weekend, but I’ve actually managed to play it pretty smart. Went to Red Lobster last night and just got a triple order of shrimp scampi w/broccoli and a Cesar salad w/a bite of the cheddar biscuits (amazingly, I’m at that “sober living” part of the diet where I couldn’t really stomach more than that, so it was self regulating), and otherwise been sticking mainly with salads and meats. Still taking in a lot of sodium, which is most likely affecting weight slightly, but I’ll take it.

Love handles are pretty much gone. Trace amounts of lower back fat. These are the two hardest areas for me to lose fat in, so things are coming along nicely. Aside from bench, strength seems to be holding together pretty well. Biggest factor is just mental, and not in the “I want to eat more/bad things” side (I’m a pretty big creature of habit, so right now I’m settled in to a nice routine), but more in the sense that I want to do MORE rather than less. Gaining and growing is just always more satisfying than losing. Big thing is going to be being smart once I start adding. Last time, I went on a 3 year junk food binge, can’t do that again.

391

Dips
1x36

Notes: Just threw in a max rep set upon getting home from work to see what I could do. Wanna get this up to 50. Thinking I might try to shoot for a daily goal of 100 reps of dips on my pressing days to get some more upper body volume when I try to gain weight.

392

625×523 79.3 KB

Congrats on the new toys you lucky s.o.b! You scored!

393

Great buy. Probably too great a buy unless seller was a divorcing jilted spouse. Remember Biggjames’ police comment.

394

[quote]biker wrote:
Great buy. Probably too great a buy unless seller was a divorcing jilted spouse. Remember Biggjames’ police comment.[/quote]

If the police show up at my residence unannounced, I will be thoroughly impressed, haha. I definitely would’ve been more concerned if the dude I was buying from looked like a tweaker, but he was a pretty big dude. Definitely looked like he had been using the equipment.

FarmerOwen: Much appreciated. I’m still in shock. I also now need to quit looking for more gym equipment for a while, haha. My Mrs. has been incredibly this whole journey and never said no to anything, but I don’t want to keep pushing and find what her limit is, haha.

Woke up at 195.0 today. Was definitely holding a lot of water from eating out so much. Wife hugged me this morning and called me skinny. She’s crushing my spirit. All that said, she’s going to start training for a full marathon in Jan, with training starting 25 Aug. This means waking up earlier, which means I can train longer, and it ALSO means she’ll be eating a ton, which I think will be a good time for me to transition back into gaining some weight. We’ll see how it unfolds.

395

Damn, solid find on craigslist.

396

Dips
1x40

Knocked these out after getting home from work. I like hitting these everyday, just gotta see if my elbows will tolerate it.

397

Happy belated birthday man! And holy craig’s list! Great find!

398

Thanks Alpha! This was actually more an early birthday present to myself than a late one at this point. I’ll be turning 30 in October. Trying not to be gushy here, but seeing you get stronger every year has been pretty inspiring to me. So many folks treat 30 like it’s a physical death sentence, but I’m getting excited about using it as the decade where I make the most progress in my training.

(10) Chain Suspended Safety Squat Bar Squats
3x445+chains
6x355+chains

Notes: Skipped the 11th link and went straight to the end of the cycle, like what I’m doing with deads. Extremely happy with how this squat cycle turned out, especially considering I had to dork up the first few weeks since my hamstring exploded. Matched my previous amount of reps with a greater amount of weight while being at a lower bodyweight. A complete victory. Going to ride this out for as long as I can.

Reverse hyper 5 plates
3x12

superset w/

Standing ab wheel
1x8
2x7

Car deadlift simulator
5x8 plates
10x6 plates

Notes: Got some thinner 45s so I can hit 8 plates per side now. Another awesome victory in this workout. Patting myself on the back for a second, that’s 740lbs of plate weight total (factoring in that I’m counting the 100lb plates as just “2 plates”). I’m curious when I’m going to hit my limit on this movement. Once again, the weak point seems to keep changing for me, and this week it was really my rear delts and upper lats that seemed to be taking the brunt of the force.

Neck harness w/45lbs
1x50

Notes: I gotta rig up my new ironmind neck harness and probably a loading pin for this in the future. Might actually start pushing the weight a touch.

General notes: 195.8 this morning. Seem to be hitting a decent fluctuation within the 195-196 range. Shoulders are a little sore from dips. Bodycomp continues to improve. This is my last heavy squat workout until after the competition, next week, if I do anything at all, it’ll just be some light pump work.

399

Dips
1x45

Band pull aparts
1x90

Notes: Dips keep going up, which is nice. Tomorrow’s numbers will likely be low since it’s my press day. Right shoulder is feeling a little tight, but rather than do LESS dips, I figure I’ll just do MORE pull aparts. I’m thinking twice as many pull aparts as dips may be a good recipe. If this actually works out well, I may keep this idea going and just alternate days each week where 1 day I hit a set of dips on my way home and the other day I hit a set of chins.

400

Axle Clean and Press (clean once) 223lbs
1x6
1x4

Notes: Using my new Rogue axle. Weighs 25lbs and is powder coated, so some slight differences from what I was training with before. Very easy to grip. Was going for 8 reps, but misgrooved the very first rep and had to fight to press it out. Just was out of rhythm for the day. Still, not a bad “mediocre” performance. Shoulders no longer feel beat up from dips, think my body is adapting to the workload.

DB Incline Press 105
(4) 1x9
(3) 1x9
(2) 1x8
(1) 1x7
(0) 1x7 w/reactive slingshot

superset w/

GB Lat Pulldown 110
5x10

superset w/

Band pull aparts
5x20

Notes: Still on the fence with the reactive slingshot. It really beats up my right elbow for some reason. Really liking what I’m doing with the incline bench though, and my numbers are improving quickly on it compared to my previous efforts.

Axle curl stripset
100 reps

Band pushdown dropset
30xAverage band
25xLight band
20xMini band

Notes: I’m such a child, but I need gimmicks to get me to do arm work. The band dropset was fun. Had all 3 bands set up on the power rack and just hopped straight from one to the other. The axle curls really blew up my biceps something fierce.

General notes: Another great training session. Been having a lot of these in a row recently. It’s funny how when I started strongman I loved the log and hated the axle, and now it’s the other way around. Woke up at 196.0, but yesterday’s nutrition wasn’t the greatest, so I’m ok with that. Already excited for this contest to be over so I can really push my overhead in some stupid heavy directions.