I’ve always felt that you don’t really have to terribly heavy with those flys and laterals. With the right speed and form you’ll get a great workout. Great work Pencil Neck.
Good stuff. I realize at our age, really any age, the importance of maintenace lifts and working opposing muscles. Are you going to keep doing all the supplemental exercises right up to your power lifting meets?
[quote]hel320 wrote:
Good stuff. I realize at our age, really any age, the importance of maintenace lifts and working opposing muscles. Are you going to keep doing all the supplemental exercises right up to your power lifting meets? [/quote]
Normally, I start scaling back lifts as I start getting closer to max weights. You’ll see me go to a full body workout 3x per week with just squat/deadlift, flat bench, supinated chins, and maybe MAYBE a triceps and a biceps exercise. I’ll alternate squats and deadlifts like squat, deadlift, squat, repeat.
This allows me to stay with doubles and singles for several weeks and allows me to stay in the 90-100% 1RM range for awhile. If I’m doing a lot of other exercises, I tend to start feeling overtrained and then I get sick.
I have that same problem with Westside. I love the idea behind the Westside system but if I’m working at that high an intensity along with all those supplemental exercises, I always catch something and end up missing time. That’s happened at least 4 times trying Westside and another two times before PL meets.
I was supposed to do some aerobics this weekend but I had a bad headache and decided not to. (And I got an XBox 360… so I R DUUMD.)
weight: 199.2
Front Squat: 115x5; 205x8; 205x8
Back Squat: 135x5; 225x2; 295x8; 295x8
Keystone DL: 205x8; 205x8
Barbell Calves: 295x8; 295x8
Last Friday, I had a massage and the woman working on me said that she felt tendinitis developing in my right knee and that I should back off. SCREW THAT! I mean, there’s a time to back off and this ain’t it.
We’ll see if she was right. 
On the first work set of front squats, I noticed my elbows dipping on the last rep. So the first rep of the second workset, I really concentrated on keeping them up, and almost unbalanced myself. That little wobble bothered me and I felt a ghost of back pain before my back squats. So on my work sets of back squats, I used a belt.
I used 20# more on the front and back squats and the keystone DL’s. And I thought the workout gassed me LAST week?! This workout wiped me out. I was sore most of last week and hopefully I’ll acclimate and not be as sore this week.
weight: 197.8
Decline Bench: 45x5; 135x8; 135x8
Flat Bench: 155x8; 155x8
Incline Bench: 110x8; 110x8
Military Press: 80x8; 80x7+1
Decline Close Grip Bench: 115x8; 115x8
Close Grip Bench: 135x8; 135x6+2+F
DB Shrugs: 60x8; 60x8
The idea is to fail on most of this stuff next week. But I decided to get a jump on a couple of the exercises. 
On the last Military Press, I was able to get the last rep just a hairs breadth from lockout and had to use my legs to cheat it the last bit.
The right shoulder was feeling a bit wonky, a bit tight, during the first four exercises. So after the first set of decline CGB, I made an arm movement my old ARTs used to make me do when they were working on my RC and my shoulder popped. Sometimes that’s good and sometimes that’s bad. This time seemed OK. The shoulder feels better right now.
On the close grip benches, I just had no more left. I was shooting for 2 sets of 8. On the second set, I did 6 and didn’t think I had 7, so I racked it. Stood up, cursed myself for a couple of seconds. Laid back down, got 2, decided to do one more for penance and got it maybe 3 inches off my chest. Damnit. I figure the standing up and getting back down was kinda like a clustered set.
Weight: 200.0
Deadlift: 135x5; 205x1; 275x8; 275x8
Supinated Pullup: 10x4; 10x4; 10x4
Face Pull: 65x8; 65x8
Bent Over Laterals: 20x8; 20x8
Incline Curls: 25x8; 25x8
Barbell Curls: 75x8; 75x8
Seated Hammers: 25x8; 25x8
I decided to leave my good bar in the rack and use my slick, cheap, no-knurling having bar for the deadlifts. I also decided to up the weight by 30# on my DL from the last workout. I still didn’t have to do 8 singles and reset my grip, but I did have to reset my grip once during the first set and a couple of times during the second. Next time, I use the bar with the knurling… but I can handle more weight on this.
My shoulder didn’t particularly like the BO Laterals. I could feel a lot of tension from my shoulder radiating down my collar bone. Luckily, I followed that up with the incline curls which stretched the shoulder out and seemed to help it out. An old therapist of mine had given me the incline curls as a rehab exercise for the shoulder which was one of the reasons I included it in this routine.
weight: 198.8
Dips: 0x1; 5x8; 5x8
Flyes: 25x8; 25x8
Incline DB Press: 45x8; 45x8
Arnold Press: 35x8; 35x8
Cross face extensions: 20x8; 20x8
Press downs: 35x8; 35x8
Lateral Raises: 25x8; 25x8
I wasn’t sure whether to go for adding reps or adding weight to the dips. I decided to start adding weight. The flyes feel like I could add a lot more weight… except for the crunching sounds from my shoulders.
The cross face extensions and lateral raises were heavy for me.
Nice Work, Warrior. You are gaining on it.
I’m enjoying your posts. Are you having fun yet? LOL
Have you decided to enter the meet in Feb? What kind of numbers are you shooting for?
BTY- I can’t find wonky in my medical dictionary. Could be an ailment exclusive to stout fireplugs.
[quote]hel320 wrote:
Have you decided to enter the meet in Feb? What kind of numbers are you shooting for?
BTY- I can’t find wonky in my medical dictionary. Could be an ailment exclusive to stout fireplugs. [/quote]
Medical Dictionary? Dude. Merriam Freakin Webster.
There used to be a couple of Brits posting on another forum where I was a regular for awhile and they always used “wonky” to talk about shaky bodyparts and bad lifts and I picked it up from them.
I’m skipping the February meet because of timing issues and life stuff and because I decided to experiment with this sort of workout. But on June 14th, NASA is having a meet in Tyler and Jimmy T is going to that one with a full contingent. I’m hoping to meet up with him there. I’m not sure exactly what my attempts will end up being but at this point I’d hope for 440/235/500.
That’s some nice pulling Pencil Neck, careful with that shoulder.
We will be in Tyler in June bro!I look forward to meeting you and maybe if our schedules permit,train together before the meet.The guys would like to meet you. Jimmy T
[quote]Jimmy T wrote:
We will be in Tyler in June bro!I look forward to meeting you and maybe if our schedules permit,train together before the meet.The guys would like to meet you. Jimmy T[/quote]
Cool! We’ll have to do it. I think you’re about an hour away from me.
weight: 199.6
Front Squats: 115x5; 215x8; 215x2; 215x10
Back Squats: 135x5; 225x2; 305x8; 305x6+F
Keystone DL: 215x8; 215x16
BB Calves - no time.
This was a weird day. I had to run a bunch of errands with my wife today and then as soon as I got home, I had to work out because I was already running late. I still thought I had time to squeeze the full workout in.
So… Front Squats were fine. We were talking about Front Squats in one of those other threads and I figured on my second work set, I’d try changing my grip from OL to Cossack (crossed hands). I hadn’t done that Cossack grip in about 6 years. I only did 2 reps because that crap was killing me. The bar was against my throat and it was choking the life out of me.
I can’t believe I used to do Fronts that way. I went ahead and did 10 reps on the last set just to see what I had in me but I was having tip-forward balance issues so I stopped at 10. I think I had a rep or two more in me.
When I started doing the back squats, I realized that my quads were toasty. I noticed that I had unconsciously changed my form to minimize the quads and maximize the hams/glutes. I was “lofting” where I was doing like a Good Morning with the weight: straightening my legs before raising my torso.
Those should be done simultaneously or there’s a tendency to fail forward. So I tried to concentrate on my form to keep everything smooth and together. On the second workset, my plan was to rep out and I figured I could get at least 10 or 12. At least. But then on my seventh rep… I straightened my legs and failed forward just like I was afraid of. Bastard.
Then my wife called and I had to track some stuff down for her and I got a little extra rest before my Keystone DL’s. My first set, I did the 8 reps I had planned and then on the second set, repped out. I stopped at 16 because my grip was starting to go and I was starting to get really ragged on those reps.
I had to stop there because I had to get to work. I was running too late.
weight: 197.2
Decline Bench: 45x5; 145x8; 145x19+F
Flat Bench: 160x8; 160x7
Incline Bench: 115x8; 115x6+F
Military Press: 85x8; 85x6
Decline Close Grip Bench: 125x8; 125x9
Close Grip Bench: 140x4
Shrugs: 65x10; 65x25
This is a “push it to failure day.”
Before I started this routine, I wasn’t sure about the weights on a lot of these exercises. I guess I miscalculated the weights I should be using on the decline benches. By a lot. I was hoping to choose the weights so that I’d fail at around 8-10 reps today. After 10 reps with the decline, I thought I was going to get to 20 reps but just couldn’t quite get that last rep. I was toast after that.
By the time I got to the Close Grip Bench, I had nothing left. That last rep was very shaky. So I called it quits on that.
And apparently, I don’t have dumbells really heavy enough for shrugs. My DB’s only go up to 70#.
My right shoulder was really crunchy today. Luckily, I’m going to a massage therapist today and hopefully she’ll be able to do something about the adhesions in there.
weight: 197.8
Deadlift: 135x5; 205x1; 295x8; 295x6
Supinated Pullups: 15x4; 15x4; 15x4+2p
Face Pulls: 75x8; 75x20
Bentover Laterals: 22.5x8; 22.5x15
Incline Curls: 27.5x8; 27.5x15
Barbell Curls: 80x2p - quit
Seated Hammer Curls: 27.5x8; 27.5x14+P
I just don’t know what to think about deadlifts. I really don’t. I expected to get a lot of reps in my second workset but my grip was really starting to fail and stopped at 6. My strength ratio on deadlifts at home vs. at meets is just insane. I have never deadlifted over 400# at home or in the gym; I’ve never deadlifted less than 400# in any competition since my first meet. I should be able to deadlift more than this and for more reps.
My last 2 pullups were just partials. That’s what the “p” signifies.
I hit my nose twice today doing face pulls, I had never done that before. I knew the weights were light for this but getting 20 on the second set was a surprise.
I’ve had a lot of massage done on my shoulders the past couple of weeks and my shoulder actually felt good for the bent over laterals. I didn’t have the pulling sensation in my collar bone that I had last week. So, getting 15 reps on the second set was a slight surprise.
The second set of incline curls killed me. I was gassed after that. I didn’t think I was going to do any barbell curls at all… and I was right. I could only cheat the weight up. So I stopped doing the exercise. I was surprised I was able to get so many hammer curls done, however. So, with the barbell curls, did I fail on them because I was gassed or because I gave myself permission to fail because of low expectations? I hate that mental crap.
Anyway, it felt good today.
This was Friday’s workout:
weight: 198.0
Dips: 0x1; 10x8; 10x15
Flyes: 30x8; 30x20
Incline DB Press: 50x8; 50x10
Arnold Press: 40x2
Cross Face Extensions: 22.5x8; 22.5x8
Press Down: 40x8; 40x15
Lateral Raises: 27.5x8; 27.5x12
The idea of this workout was to do the first work set at the scheduled weight and then push the second work set for reps.
I’ve never done a lot of dips so to get 15 was a surprise to me. The 20 reps on the flyes really wiped me out. They were a surprise, too. I couldn’t push the inclines very far because I was wiped out and then couldn’t do the Arnold presses. I was just out of gas.
But then I was surprised by the amount of triceps work I was able to squeeze out at the end.
weight: 199.0
Front Squat: 135x3; 225x3; 275x1
Back Squat: 135x3; 225x3; 315x1; 365x2
Keystones: 225x3; 295x5
BB Calves: 185x15
Well, this week is going to be odd. Last week I found out that I’m going to have to go on a business trip next week. So, I’m going to take next week as a strategic deconditioning week. But that leaves this week which was supposed to be a start of something new week. Instead, I’m going to basically keep the exercises from the last three weeks and just mess around with the weights.
On the Front Squats, I kinda wanted a triple with 275, but I really didn’t think I was going to be able to keep the weight up for the second rep. I was losing control of the weight and my elbows were dropping.
On the Back Squats, I was really expecting to hit 365x3, then 385x3, and see what I could do with 405. But just like last week, my form changed with my quads tired from Front Squats. That second rep was tough so I racked it and stopped there.
I was let down with the Keystones. I misloaded with 295, I had planned on 275. And then after 5 reps, my grip started to go so I set it down. I was pretty ticked off.
I decided to just go light with the calves and get 15.
I love the term “strategic deconditioning”. I’ll be using that one.
The one thing I’ve noticed on my infrequent visits to the other parts of this web site is how easy it is for the young to think in absolutes. I run into the same with a lot of the college Throwers.
“Thou shalt train and have no other life before training”. I think what makes the “over 35 lifter” so interesting is that most of us are doing this stuff while maintaining full time jobs, families, committments,etc. Overcome and adapt.