Westside/PLing Training Thread

Training Powerlifting
7531

[quote]Phill wrote:
Total body Lower ME/ Upper RE Sept 24th 07

Notes. Still going to work on triples I think if I feel the moons aligned may go for a single but think the triples at this point is doing me the most good.

Right quad has deep bruise from hitting the tire Saturday.

Super sets

1A) Back Squat (touch and go to 14 inch box to assure depth)
Bar x some
135 x 8
225 x 8
315 x 5
405 x 3
435 x 3
460 x 3 (5 lb PR) add loose belt, DOG FIGHT!!! Nailed it popped my ears again No blood
405 x 4 this and the rest no belt again
315 x 10 nice increase here
225 x 20 got bored stopped LOL should have added more load, not that these didn�??t suck

Pretty good day was very happy with the fight I gave to get the 460 x 3 that�??s last one was a fight. Popped ears twice today once on the 460 x 4 second on the 365 x 3 GM�??s. in general felt strong think the mass quantities at the buffet I had yesterday helped

Phill
[/quote]

Great workout! Nice job on the PR! I think I need to learn how to fight when the weight won’t move.

Claire

7532

[quote]Pemdas wrote:
ME Lower

Front Squats
135x3
155x3
175x3
195x3
215x3 - This was hard
225x1

I felt like I needed some triples today. I just did 225 to top things off.

All this sucky front squat sh&t made me feel like I needed to pick up something heavy.

DL
315x2
365x1
405x1
455x1
475x1 PR + 10lbs. Sweet. I was so close 2 weeks ago. It felt good to nail it this week. I even nailed after front squats. Maybe I am good for more fresh.

GHR Assisted Natural
3x10

Ab-PullDowns (Made sure my heals were on the floor today)
105x3
110x3
115x3
120x3x3

DONE!![/quote]

Great job on the DL PR:)

Claire

7533

9/25/07 ME Lower

14" Box Squat

barxtons
135x5
185x5
225x5
(semi-loose Belt)
275x5
315x3 PR+20lbs and/or +1 rep Still not a master of whoring

275 is a bit light to use a belt on but I have found it best to use my belt the lift before a ME attempt no matter what or else it throws me off.

315x3 was easy, still a good amount of strain but didn’t stick or anything, I need to learn a better technique for breathing on multi rep sets, I am fine for the first rep but end up holding my breath through the 2nd rep as well which made me real dizzy, need to pause, exhale, inhale, squat, right?

Snatch grip deadlift

135x5
185x5
225x5
245x5
275x5 Baseline PR

Thats all… I was DEAD after all this I would rather work real hard on two ME lifts than save some for Accessory stuff. I thought about doing some single leg stuff but my legs where shaking real bad, I didn’t have the patience for Ab work. Normally I would have done some pullups or pulldowns but my bicep is still a little tender from yesterday.

7534

[quote]Modi wrote:
Alright, I’m back in town. Just got my first lift in over a week.

Budapest, Prague, and Ceske Krumlov were awesome cities. We did a ton of sight seeing during the day and socializing at the local pubs as night.

We did a ton of walking and climbed just about every tower we could find (if it didn’t have at least 150 steps we didn’t bother). One had 286 narrow winding steps with people going up and down at the same time, pretty shady.

Anyways, ate something bad mid week and spent the next morning on the toilet for a couple of hours, then 15 minutes before checkout I started puking my brains out.

Once there was nothing left, we checked out and found a park bench to die on. We tried to catch an early bus back to Prague but could only get standing room, which I was in no shape for, so we waited it out for another 4 hours and then took the 3 hour bus trip back with NO toilet.

My stomach was a little touch and go for the next few days, but we didn’t let it slow us down and certainly weren’t going to avoid the pubs. I just don’t think my body was used to the food and that much beer. Definitely feeling better today, but I can tell I’m still dehydrated.

That was the only downer all week. We met a ton of cool people, saw 3 very cool towns/cities, had some great food and even better beer. Very friendly people over there. We had a blast.

Didn’t really see anything worthwhile for a gym. From what we could tell, they pretty much have pure olympic gyms where you can only lift if you are sponsored or in the OL developmental programs, or gyms that are full of cardio and Nautilus. Of course we were in the more touristy sections, so I’m sure I could have found something in the outskirts, but it was good to get a little R&R.

Anyways, good to be back.[/quote]

All I can say is God Bless America man.

plenty-o toilets, plenty-o PL gyms, and plenty of fast food to turn any stomach into iron.

welcome home:)

c.

7535

[quote]c. wrote:
All I can say is God Bless America man.

plenty-o toilets, plenty-o PL gyms, and plenty of fast food to turn any stomach into iron.

welcome home:)

c.[/quote]

Thanks everyone…good to be back.

I’m sure they had plenty of OL gyms, they just wouldn’t tell me where they were or let me play, that’s all. They just didn’t want a PL’er outshining the OL’ers!

Actually, they televised a lot of the World Championships for OL’ing. I got to see a few different weight classes. I watched the 140ish women, and there was a female from China that tied the C&J world record and broke the overall. I think her last clean was around 250 and she smoked it. My wife asked how much I could do, and all I could say was that with some training I could do 250 also. So what if I have 110 lbs on the girl! :wink:

7536

09/25/07

ME Squat

Close stance box squat (parallel, 100% RAAAAWWWWW)

Bar x 2 x 10
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
275 x 3
315 x 3
365 x 2
405 x 1 (tied a real old PR)
425 x 1 (+20 lb PR,a little strain)
-forgot to drop and do another single with 405

Good mornings (torso parallel to ground)
225x3x8

DB step ups
BWx15;30x15;40x15

Incline set-ups
BWx5x8 (increased angle each set, almost vertical on last set)

Notes: I’ve ignored close-stance box squats as a max effort exercise for a long time, as in February (I had to look that up). I figured I’d be pretty weak with them after focusing so much on wide stance for the better part of 6 months. To make things harder on myself I decided to leave the belt in the bag.

No problem with the double for 365, so I jumped to 405, which was my old PR from February but was done with a belt, and had no problems with it. Increased to 425 and had to focus on keeping tight on the box and pushing out on the abs. I figured I had a good 20# or so left in me, but figured the chance of missing and the fact that the meet was less than 2 weeks ago made it not worth it.

Plus, hitting the new PR without a belt and after working in gear for so long made it a little more respectable.

On the good mornings I had planned on doing sets of 5, but went with 8 after I forgot to stop at 5 on the first set. Decided to add a unilateral quad movement on ME day as well, since I’ve really neglected them. These things were hard and had my legs wobbling after the third set and this was with little 40# DBs.

Will do these for a few weeks then switch over to some type of lunge variation. Hopefully my legs won’t be too sore tomorrow.

My plan with respect to ME squat/DL day over this cycle is to alternate a squat with a deadlift variation every other week. I’ll probably go beltless as long as my back holds up and form isn’t compromised. Accessory and supplemental work will simply focus on getting all the important stuff stronger, i.e. posterior chain and abs. Quads will also get some work because they’ve gotten short shrift for a loooonnnnng time.

7537

Very nice squat PR, buddy.

And now you have a good baseline to destroy on snatch grips. Your layout looks quite similar to mine.

And I’m ALWAYS to lazy to do abs or single leg stuff after working hard in a squat and DL variation.

-Matt

[quote]Kalle wrote:
9/25/07 ME Lower

14" Box Squat

barxtons
135x5
185x5
225x5
(semi-loose Belt)
275x5
315x3 PR+20lbs and/or +1 rep Still not a master of whoring

275 is a bit light to use a belt on but I have found it best to use my belt the lift before a ME attempt no matter what or else it throws me off.

315x3 was easy, still a good amount of strain but didn’t stick or anything, I need to learn a better technique for breathing on multi rep sets, I am fine for the first rep but end up holding my breath through the 2nd rep as well which made me real dizzy, need to pause, exhale, inhale, squat, right?

Snatch grip deadlift

135x5
185x5
225x5
245x5
275x5 Baseline PR

Thats all… I was DEAD after all this I would rather work real hard on two ME lifts than save some for Accessory stuff. I thought about doing some single leg stuff but my legs where shaking real bad, I didn’t have the patience for Ab work. Normally I would have done some pullups or pulldowns but my bicep is still a little tender from yesterday.
[/quote]

7538

9/25/07- Active Recovery/GPP

30 minutes incline walking/jogging on treadmill- 350 calories

A1)Band GMs- light- 3x25
A2)TKE- light- 3x15

Foam rolling lower body

Notes: Went and got some ice cream on the way home from the gym. :slight_smile:

Having some medial knee pain on the left leg, but seemed to work out the pain a little bit with everything I did today.

Got some knee wrist wraps and a bottle of ammonia today. Good times.

-Matt

7539

Thanks man, I think I hit 315x1 or 335x1 on the snatch grips one of the other times I did them. I forgot to mention I did all the sets up to 225 without straps, that was HARD the hardest set was 225, worked my grip hard.

Any tips on keeping my back flat, I got real low but my back was rounding a bit on the 275 set. I felt like I could do more on both movements but I am going to listen to what Meat Preaches and be happy with that PR, don’t fail, there is always next week.

I do think we train lower body pretty similar, I am thinking this will get me to a 500lb pull, just over 2.5xBW at 198 which is around what I have been weighing lately.

Yeah I would rather leave it all out on two big movements.

Anyway enough rambling…

[quote]Matt McGorry wrote:
Very nice squat PR, buddy.

And now you have a good baseline to destroy on snatch grips. Your layout looks quite similar to mine.

And I’m ALWAYS to lazy to do abs or single leg stuff after working hard in a squat and DL variation.

-Matt

Kalle wrote:
9/25/07 ME Lower

14" Box Squat

barxtons
135x5
185x5
225x5
(semi-loose Belt)
275x5
315x3 PR+20lbs and/or +1 rep Still not a master of whoring

275 is a bit light to use a belt on but I have found it best to use my belt the lift before a ME attempt no matter what or else it throws me off.

315x3 was easy, still a good amount of strain but didn’t stick or anything, I need to learn a better technique for breathing on multi rep sets, I am fine for the first rep but end up holding my breath through the 2nd rep as well which made me real dizzy, need to pause, exhale, inhale, squat, right?

Snatch grip deadlift

135x5
185x5
225x5
245x5
275x5 Baseline PR

Thats all… I was DEAD after all this I would rather work real hard on two ME lifts than save some for Accessory stuff. I thought about doing some single leg stuff but my legs where shaking real bad, I didn’t have the patience for Ab work. Normally I would have done some pullups or pulldowns but my bicep is still a little tender from yesterday.

[/quote]

7540

Squat
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x5
225x5
275x5
315x5
380x5

Deadlift
225x1
275x1
315x1
365x1
405x1
485x3x1

Hanging Leg Raise
BWx4x13

I am a little sore/stiff from the soccer game on Sunday. We didn’t have very many subs and I stayed in just about the whole game since it was a tight match (we tied 0-0).

7541

[quote]Kalle wrote:
Good squatting man, Yeah stare at the freaking ceiling! You should spray paint that mirror in front of the power rack. I doubt anyone would notice for atleast a month. [/quote]

Tell me about it. No one ever uses that power rack other than me and a couple of SRCers.

Although I’m a sex symbol, I’ll try to refrain from looking at the mirror the next time I squat. :stuck_out_tongue: Like you said, stare at the freaking ceiling!

7542

[quote]Kalle wrote:
9/25/07 ME Lower

14" Box Squat
315x3 PR+20lbs and/or +1 rep Still not a master of whoring

Snatch grip deadlift
275x5 Baseline PR
[/quote]
Good job squatting. You’re still way ahead of me in that, I’ve gotta catch up!

[quote]Kalle wrote:
315x3 was easy…
[/quote]
Great…there I am struggling with 270’s and 315 is “easy”. Like I said, I’ve got a lot of work to do…

7543

[quote]jthsiao wrote:
Tuesday, 9/25/2007: ME Squats

A. Box Squats
135 x 8
185 x 5
225 x 3
255 x 1
270 x 1 (PR +5 lbs)
265 x 1
265 x 1
225 x 5 (PR +2 reps)

B. Good Morning
155 x 4 sets x 10 reps

C. Glute-Ham Raise
BW x 4 sets x 8 reps

D. Pull-Up
BW x 6
BW x 4

After seeing where I was with my squats last week, it’s time to go back to good ol’ box squats and work on my bottom-up power. The last time I box squatted I bombed my PR attempt, so I really want to hit a PR in my session today. The weight felt kinda heavy when I was unracking it for some reason, but I went through with the squats anyway.

I found that by looking a bit higher than usual, I am able to keep my mid section tighter and not fall forward as much. Even though the weight felt heavy on my back, I felt like I had more power than usual and was able to drive it up out of the hole. The PR attempt was a bit of a grind but I got it up. The two sets of 265 felt pretty good so I’m looking forward to box squatting again next week. :-D[/quote]

Nice work jthsiao
Phill

7544

20lb PR DAMN fine work Kalle

Phill

[quote]Kalle wrote:
9/25/07 ME Lower

14" Box Squat

barxtons
135x5
185x5
225x5
(semi-loose Belt)
275x5
315x3 PR+20lbs and/or +1 rep Still not a master of whoring

275 is a bit light to use a belt on but I have found it best to use my belt the lift before a ME attempt no matter what or else it throws me off.

315x3 was easy, still a good amount of strain but didn’t stick or anything, I need to learn a better technique for breathing on multi rep sets, I am fine for the first rep but end up holding my breath through the 2nd rep as well which made me real dizzy, need to pause, exhale, inhale, squat, right?

Snatch grip deadlift

135x5
185x5
225x5
245x5
275x5 Baseline PR

Thats all… I was DEAD after all this I would rather work real hard on two ME lifts than save some for Accessory stuff. I thought about doing some single leg stuff but my legs where shaking real bad, I didn’t have the patience for Ab work. Normally I would have done some pullups or pulldowns but my bicep is still a little tender from yesterday.
[/quote]

7545

A buddy of mine was at those game it was Held in the city I lived at in thailand this year. Nice facility

Those athletes are amazing for sure

Phill

[quote]Modi wrote:
c. wrote:
All I can say is God Bless America man.

plenty-o toilets, plenty-o PL gyms, and plenty of fast food to turn any stomach into iron.

welcome home:)

c.

Thanks everyone…good to be back.

I’m sure they had plenty of OL gyms, they just wouldn’t tell me where they were or let me play, that’s all. They just didn’t want a PL’er outshining the OL’ers!

Actually, they televised a lot of the World Championships for OL’ing. I got to see a few different weight classes. I watched the 140ish women, and there was a female from China that tied the C&J world record and broke the overall. I think her last clean was around 250 and she smoked it. My wife asked how much I could do, and all I could say was that with some training I could do 250 also. So what if I have 110 lbs on the girl! ;)[/quote]

7546

Good lord another 20lb squat PR damn fine work

Phill

[quote]novaeer wrote:
09/25/07

ME Squat

Close stance box squat (parallel, 100% RAAAAWWWWW)

Bar x 2 x 10
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
275 x 3
315 x 3
365 x 2
405 x 1 (tied a real old PR)
425 x 1 (+20 lb PR,a little strain)
-forgot to drop and do another single with 405

Good mornings (torso parallel to ground)
225x3x8

DB step ups
BWx15;30x15;40x15

Incline set-ups
BWx5x8 (increased angle each set, almost vertical on last set)

Notes: I’ve ignored close-stance box squats as a max effort exercise for a long time, as in February (I had to look that up). I figured I’d be pretty weak with them after focusing so much on wide stance for the better part of 6 months. To make things harder on myself I decided to leave the belt in the bag.

No problem with the double for 365, so I jumped to 405, which was my old PR from February but was done with a belt, and had no problems with it. Increased to 425 and had to focus on keeping tight on the box and pushing out on the abs. I figured I had a good 20# or so left in me, but figured the chance of missing and the fact that the meet was less than 2 weeks ago made it not worth it.

Plus, hitting the new PR without a belt and after working in gear for so long made it a little more respectable.

On the good mornings I had planned on doing sets of 5, but went with 8 after I forgot to stop at 5 on the first set. Decided to add a unilateral quad movement on ME day as well, since I’ve really neglected them. These things were hard and had my legs wobbling after the third set and this was with little 40# DBs.

Will do these for a few weeks then switch over to some type of lunge variation. Hopefully my legs won’t be too sore tomorrow.

My plan with respect to ME squat/DL day over this cycle is to alternate a squat with a deadlift variation every other week. I’ll probably go beltless as long as my back holds up and form isn’t compromised. Accessory and supplemental work will simply focus on getting all the important stuff stronger, i.e. posterior chain and abs. Quads will also get some work because they’ve gotten short shrift for a loooonnnnng time.[/quote]

7547

I’d be a hypocrite to give advice on how to keep the back flat while doin’ em, haha. When I get the video posted, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

But seriously, it’s probably not the best idea pulling for a max single after squatting for a max single in the same day. Not like you didn’t know that already. With the easier down sets, I make sure to really bend the knees and rock back on the heels so that the chest stays upright. When I do this on my lighter sets, I feel my quads working more. But on a max attempt, I suppose I still don’t have much faith in my quads and usually rely on my lower back instead.

-Matt

[quote]Kalle wrote:
Thanks man, I think I hit 315x1 or 335x1 on the snatch grips one of the other times I did them. I forgot to mention I did all the sets up to 225 without straps, that was HARD the hardest set was 225, worked my grip hard.

Any tips on keeping my back flat, I got real low but my back was rounding a bit on the 275 set. I felt like I could do more on both movements but I am going to listen to what Meat Preaches and be happy with that PR, don’t fail, there is always next week.

I do think we train lower body pretty similar, I am thinking this will get me to a 500lb pull, just over 2.5xBW at 198 which is around what I have been weighing lately.

Yeah I would rather leave it all out on two big movements.

Anyway enough rambling…

Matt McGorry wrote:
Very nice squat PR, buddy.

And now you have a good baseline to destroy on snatch grips. Your layout looks quite similar to mine.

And I’m ALWAYS to lazy to do abs or single leg stuff after working hard in a squat and DL variation.

-Matt

Kalle wrote:
9/25/07 ME Lower

14" Box Squat

barxtons
135x5
185x5
225x5
(semi-loose Belt)
275x5
315x3 PR+20lbs and/or +1 rep Still not a master of whoring

275 is a bit light to use a belt on but I have found it best to use my belt the lift before a ME attempt no matter what or else it throws me off.

315x3 was easy, still a good amount of strain but didn’t stick or anything, I need to learn a better technique for breathing on multi rep sets, I am fine for the first rep but end up holding my breath through the 2nd rep as well which made me real dizzy, need to pause, exhale, inhale, squat, right?

Snatch grip deadlift

135x5
185x5
225x5
245x5
275x5 Baseline PR

Thats all… I was DEAD after all this I would rather work real hard on two ME lifts than save some for Accessory stuff. I thought about doing some single leg stuff but my legs where shaking real bad, I didn’t have the patience for Ab work. Normally I would have done some pullups or pulldowns but my bicep is still a little tender from yesterday.

[/quote]

7548

[quote]jthsiao wrote:
Kalle wrote:
9/25/07 ME Lower

14" Box Squat
315x3 PR+20lbs and/or +1 rep Still not a master of whoring

Snatch grip deadlift
275x5 Baseline PR

Good job squatting. You’re still way ahead of me in that, I’ve gotta catch up!

Kalle wrote:
315x3 was easy…

Great…there I am struggling with 270’s and 315 is “easy”. Like I said, I’ve got a lot of work to do…[/quote]

Thanks man, you’ll get it. Its not exactly that 315x3 was easy there was some strain for sure but I was fast with the lift and didn’t come close to stalling anywhere. I have a hard time with doing the right breathing on heavier sets going for multiple reps. Plus my short legs better be good for something, my range of motion on wide stance squats isn’t very much.

Thanks to everyone else to.

7549

haha yeah I got yea,

Yeah definitely, Thats why I kept the snatch grip deads lighter. I am not sure I ever want to do 5 reps ever again on them though!

Right now I am alternating between ME Box squat followed by snatch grip deads and ME deficit deads followed by front squats. I will add Zercher deads in there soon but I think it might be to much strain on my bicep right now.

Thanks for the advice that sounds how I am pulling them.

[quote]Matt McGorry wrote:
I’d be a hypocrite to give advice on how to keep the back flat while doin’ em, haha. When I get the video posted, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

But seriously, it’s probably not the best idea pulling for a max single after squatting for a max single in the same day. Not like you didn’t know that already. With the easier down sets, I make sure to really bend the knees and rock back on the heels so that the chest stays upright. When I do this on my lighter sets, I feel my quads working more. But on a max attempt, I suppose I still don’t have much faith in my quads and usually rely on my lower back instead.

-Matt

Kalle wrote:
Thanks man, I think I hit 315x1 or 335x1 on the snatch grips one of the other times I did them. I forgot to mention I did all the sets up to 225 without straps, that was HARD the hardest set was 225, worked my grip hard.

Any tips on keeping my back flat, I got real low but my back was rounding a bit on the 275 set. I felt like I could do more on both movements but I am going to listen to what Meat Preaches and be happy with that PR, don’t fail, there is always next week.

I do think we train lower body pretty similar, I am thinking this will get me to a 500lb pull, just over 2.5xBW at 198 which is around what I have been weighing lately.

Yeah I would rather leave it all out on two big movements.

Anyway enough rambling…

Matt McGorry wrote:
Very nice squat PR, buddy.

And now you have a good baseline to destroy on snatch grips. Your layout looks quite similar to mine.

And I’m ALWAYS to lazy to do abs or single leg stuff after working hard in a squat and DL variation.

-Matt

Kalle wrote:
9/25/07 ME Lower

14" Box Squat

barxtons
135x5
185x5
225x5
(semi-loose Belt)
275x5
315x3 PR+20lbs and/or +1 rep Still not a master of whoring

275 is a bit light to use a belt on but I have found it best to use my belt the lift before a ME attempt no matter what or else it throws me off.

315x3 was easy, still a good amount of strain but didn’t stick or anything, I need to learn a better technique for breathing on multi rep sets, I am fine for the first rep but end up holding my breath through the 2nd rep as well which made me real dizzy, need to pause, exhale, inhale, squat, right?

Snatch grip deadlift

135x5
185x5
225x5
245x5
275x5 Baseline PR

Thats all… I was DEAD after all this I would rather work real hard on two ME lifts than save some for Accessory stuff. I thought about doing some single leg stuff but my legs where shaking real bad, I didn’t have the patience for Ab work. Normally I would have done some pullups or pulldowns but my bicep is still a little tender from yesterday.

[/quote]

7550

I have percentages question. First keep in mind that I that I lift raw.

I have read that you should use 50% of 1RM for speed bench. This just seem like too much. I really slow when I use this much weight. I read in the bands manual that you should use 50% - 20lbs. This worked great for the bands. Does this also apply to chains. I have been doing this with the chains and it feels good so far, but again 50% feels too slow.

I feel the same way with squats. I have read that you should go from 50% to 60% over 4 weeks, but I feel slow as shit with anything over 50% with bands or chains.

Does this mean that I really need to work my speed or am I doing ok.