03/30 ME Squat

12" Manta Ray Box Squat 135x5, 225x3, 275x2, 315x1, 365x1, 405x1, 425x1PR
Down Sets 385x2, 385x1
Seated GM's 185x3x5
Pull Throughs 100x4x8
Hanging Leg Raisesx4x8 (Slow)

Well you may have noticed i switched to a 12" box. After Hearing Jim Wendler talk about it on the Index Vid's i analyzed my depth on the 11" box and found it be a good 2" below parallel, which when i though about it would not be as useful as raising it by 1" and upping the poundages. Everyone knows what happens when you handle heavier poundages. I personally think this will have more of a functional carryover as with the 11" box i was extremely slow coming off it and now i am much more explosive. I will start doing all my Box Squats at this new height as i believe the added weight will translate to bigger Squats/DL's. Well thats the theory at least....the 425 probably should have been 435, i erred on the side of caution as i am still in recovery from the stomach bug and didnt want any unscheduled back door deliveries. The downsets were quite brutal as i was mentally out of it by that time, gotta fix that crap!! The Seated GM's were decided at the last second as i wanted to hit the lower back. I opted for a light load and went all the way down and rested the bar on the rack pins for a second before coming up, this made the movement all the more brutal even with that weight. I suppersetted the final two exercises with 30 sec's rest between the s/s, can you say GPP? that got me huffin...time to scram, gotta go put the little rodent to sleep, he's got an interview at a new school tomorrow......'til next time....., keep it dark, keep it heavy!!!

03/28 DE Bench

Speed Bench w/Minis 165x4x3 175x4x3
BB Ext w/Chains 95x4x8
Lat Pull Downs 120x4x8
Shrugs 275x4x8

I gotta tell ya, it sucks training with a stomach bug!!! Every rep is a risked Shart!! But seriously considering i got 3 hrs sleep last night due to brown mud puddles streaming from my ass the workout was good, by the end of it my energy was gone so i was glad just to get the benches done with decent speed. The BB Ext with chains is another new one that i really like, this sucker definitely overloads the top range of the movement and makes the triceps burn. I will leave this in for a couple of weeks and see if i get any carryover, at first eval i would say it will. These workouts are the ones that add up and make it all worth it, when you just dont want to train but something inside tells you to get up off your lazy ass and push some weight. It also made easier that this was my psuedo "light" day, had it been ME Day i probably would have held off.
Well i fully mapped out my 12 week approach plan for the DL, now i gotta make one up for the Bench. When i get both finalized i will post them here and let you all comment on it and maybe point out any flaws that i may have overlooked...Thats it for tonight, i gotta go catch up on some sleep......Stay Strong!!!

03/26 DE Squat

Box Squat w/Avg Bands 205x4x2, 225x3x1, 185x2x1
Speed DL off 4" Mats 250x8x1
AB Pull Downs 90x3x12
DE Leg Raise BWx3x12

My lower back was all cramped up, this shit sucks!!! Whenever i do Band Squats this happens. Must have something to do with stabilizing muscles, a.k.a Abs which i find very easy to neglect, whence the doubled up ab work. I really gotta put a push on these as i suspect weak abs to be the problem. I cant imagine the low back being weak as i get quite a bit of work on that. Will find out in a few weeks i guess. The rest of the work out was alright, the back cramps went away after lying on the ground for 2 minutes before doing the DL's so at least i know it is muscular in nature...Well thats it for now, next up on the menu....DE Bench..........

03/23 ME Bench Shirt

Bench Press (Raw ) 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 275x3, 315x1
(put on Shirt)335x1, 375x1PR, 385x1PR
DB Bench Press 90x4x8
Chains w/Mini Tricep Ext's 3x12
PT II Will Be Tomorrow

Good night, i figured out i need a spotter to help with the lift offs though. I had the most god aweful time after i unracked the weight at 385 that nothing fired right as the unracking threw me out of my set-up. I was still able to get the lift, but i know i could have gotten more had i been able to stay tight through the whole movement. I am going to enlist my buddy for this in the future in prep for my meet. He also wants to see how much he can max out on so this will get him motivated to get in there. The 335 and 375 were easy as hell. I chopped down the volume as i wanted to squeeze in some DB work so i dont neglect my raw strength. I figure stay strong raw and the shirt will follow....Tomorrow, (actually today) i will complete part II of the workout with Snatch Grip High Pulls to really hit the traps and some KB Rows for the lats. Probably do them for time in a 10 minute PR zone and really fry myself. Thats it for now....keep it dark, keep it heavy!!!

03/21 ME DL

Conventional DL (Off Mats/Mid-Shin) 135x5, 185x4, 225x4, 275x3, 315x2, 365x1, 405x1, 455x1, 495x1, 545x1
Conventional DL (Off Mats Mid-Shin) (Down-Sets) 490x3x1
Band Leg Curls Minix3x15
TKEx3x15

Had a decent night, i decided to do Conventional DL (Which i suck at) with the weight placed on mats at around mid shin (roughly 3 inches higher than normal). I also took a double overhand grip with straps at the 405 mark (grip was weak from grip training at work). Since i've never done this before i was actually quite happy with the outcome and established a new record for yet another ME movement i can now do. Since i have a meet in july which is push/pull i am going to use more DL variations on ME day. I was only doing them once every 4 workouts but will change that to this: ME Squat, ME DL, ME GM, ME DL etc....at the twelve week mark i have a routine picked out to help me peak for the meet. Since i stink at Conventional DL's i figure to use these in the variations as well, this should help to jack up the old DL, guess time will tell...Tomorrow will be a feeder workout for todays pulling which lasted nearly an hour, i figure if i approach the weight right next time i should beable to break tonights record easily. I had more volume than normal on the approach as i had never done this sucker before...Well thats about it for now, until next time Eat Wheaties!!!

Back from Texas

Havent been around due to a business trip to Texas, while there i had the pleasure of working out at a Bally's for free and rediscovered why i hate commercial gyms. I performed Dynamic Effort Bench press there and got some funny looks and right in the middle of my sets some nimrod asks me for a spot with 275 doing dropsets with the most god aweful form i have ever seen on bench press. I ended up lifting most of the weight for this boob as he would get the weight about 1 inch off chest and totally stall. I had to bite my tongue about offering any advice as i knew he just would not get it, but the guy was nice enough to ask me if i needed a spot with my measely 185 speed weight, i perform around 10 sets as 2 sets into it was when the boob asked for a spot. I performed the DE Bench with full 3 sec stops on the chest and concentrated on really popping the weight to lockout, the next day i really felt them. I also did Power Cleans and Presses which were bitches as Texas was quite hot and there was no chalk, thus the bar was slippery as hell, but i managed. The looks i got when doing those was pretty funny, this placed was filled with 120 lbs guys hitting the Biceps hard with what should be considered the most useless bicep movement of all time, the Concentration Curl. A couple of these guys must have done around 15 sets of these as i had time to do my bench and power cleans and they were still hittin'em hard. Oh well, at least they're in there which is better than most of the population. So any ways thats where i've been and heres what i did down there:


DE Bench 185x10x3
Powerclean and Press 185x6x3 (weight pressed for 3 times each clean)
Chest Supported Rows 135x4x8
Tricep Extensions (Paused at Bottom) 50x4x6

Oh yeah, before i left i had a DE Squat but didnt get around to posting it, but now i'm back i will keep things current..........thats it for now.

03/15 ME Bench

Band Assisted Bench Press 185x3, 225x3, 275x3, 315x3, 365x2, 405x1, 415x1PR 435x1PR
Band Assisted Bench Press (Down Sets) 405x3x2
Rope Pushdowns 80x4x6
Seated Rows 160x3x12
Part II Tomorrow-Shoulders and Recuperative Movements

Not a bad night, got my EliteFTS Bench Press Index Video and Squat/DL Index today and they reminded of this movement. The bands are set from the top of the rack and provide around 95lbs of assistance at the bottom, none at the top. I did this back in January and got 405 but missed 415 miserably. Not Tonight!!! 405 flew to lockout, 415 was the same, 435 should have been 440 but not much more, it wasnt a total struggle but i got some good strain out of it. Decided to do some Downsets which i hope will build this sucker up in two weeks when i get to revisit the movement. I finished up with some Rope Pushdowns which i absolutely hate but since i just got the thing a couple weeks ago i felt i needed to use it, and besides, that which does not kill you only makes you stronger. The seated rows felt nice, i havent been in that rep range for awhile and got a little gassed on the last set, no big whoop. I stopped early as i was nearing the 60 minute mark and felt i would benefit more in the shoulders if i hit them tomorrow separately with some recuperative movements for todays damage. Thats about it for now, gotta scram to go watch my new videos, woo-hoo, here's to knowledge!!! Stay Strong!!

03/13 ME Squat

Manta Ray Box Squat 135x3, 185x3, 225x3, 275x3, 315x2, 365x1, 405x1PR
Manta Ray Box Squat(Down Sets)365x3x2
KB Swing Throughs 85x4x8
Weighted Sit-Ups (from Decline) 25x3x12

Pretty good night considering, i spent the day home with my sick son, he had some kind virus....Puking, crapping etc.....so i pretty much sat around all day and did nothing. Made it hard to get motivated come lifting time. Made a deal with myself that if i break my previous 400 on the manta Rays i would treat myself to some downsets at 90%. Well i got the 405 and proceed to the downsets which were pretty brutal. Im not sure what it is with this attachment but it seems to make the box squat way harder than regular, it doesnt seem right that a slightly higher bar placement would cause this much distress. Anyway, part of my thinking was that with the added volume on this movement that next time (in 2 weeks) i should be able to blow away this weeks PR, stay tuned for that one.....The rest was kind of ho-hum, had to stop short to get upstairs for "24". I plan on doing the old farmers walk upstairs and some Oblique work tonight as a sort of Feeder workout, a the walks were fun last time i did them. Gotta scram for now, got a dentist appointment to get the old chompers cleaned..........

03/11 DE Bench

DE Bench w/Bands 165x4x3, 175x4x3
Chain w/Mini Bands Extensionx3x12
KB Rows 85x3x8
Chain Side Raisex3x8
Chain Rev Curlx3x8

Pretty good workout considering i drank a ton last night (my dad is in town). Recovered from the hangover and had a great session. I made up a couple of excercises that i really liked, i adapted an idea from EliteFTS with the Chain Tricep Extensions. I didnt have enough chain weight to stimulate my tri's so i grabbed my mini bands and wrapped em around my back and did the extensions, Fucking Brutal is all i can say. I was so psyched that i did the last two excercises with the D-Handle Chain setup. These were killers as well since the weight was unstable it hit all kinds of stabilizing muscles, i was actually feeling these movements in my abs and low back as i tried to stabilize my body from the movement. Those KB Rows were pretty friggin hard as i was going the 30 second rest between them as well, this workout lasted around 35 minutes. Lately i've been going with the short rest periods which have turned these sessions into some serious Strength Speed sessions. Anyway gotta scram for now as it is time eat, With that i will leave you with this,......If a bear poops in the woods, and he had corn for lunch, will a small, furry, woodland animal come along and eat the kernels of Poo?

03/09 DE Squat

DE Box Squat w/Chains 205x4x2 225x5x2
Rack Pulls from Knee 315x3, 405x3, 455x3, 475x3, 505x3
Mini Band Leg Curlx3x15


Had a weird night, just couldnt seem to find a groove on the squats, didnt feel like i popped off the box at all, with either weight. One of these days i'll set up the video and find out for sure, just a pain in the ass and always forget. The Rack Pulls were kind of fun, hadnt done these before and was unsure of what i could do. was pretty happy with the end result, next time i will start higher in weight and go up a bit i think, guess that will be dependant on how i feel. I think part of my unsureness on the box squat was i kind of skimped on my dynamic stretching and got a bit of lower back tightness, (maybe its sympathy pains for Rick!!). Next time i will not do that, just wasnt in the mood tonight i guess. Those friggin mini band leg curls were bitches, my hammies felt like cramping on the last set, gotta love that. I am gonna save my abs and obliques for tomorrow with some recuperative KB. All in all it was an alright session considering i wasnt really into it, now i must regroup and hammer the shit out of my chest next time in, that oughta do it!!.....gotta scram for now, l8r....

03/07 ME Bench-More Shirt Please!!

Bench Press (raw) 95x5, 135x5, 185x3, 225x2, 275x2, 315x1
Shirted BP 315x1, 335x1, 365x1PR, 375xMissed lockout, hit pins
Bench Press (raw downsets) 315x3x2
Next 2 Exercises Supersetted
JM Press 225x3x8
Double Mini-Band Pull Apartsx3x8
KB Upright Rows 35x3x12

Pretty good night in the shirt, i was kind of expecting it as i felt pretty good all day. The 365 PR went like nothing, everything fired correctly, now i just got to replicate that everytime!!! The 375 was a bit of a pisser as i got out of the groove and hit the pins at lockout, then the bar came back down and all mental will was gone, to the bars it went.......i stopped there as i was pretty gassed and happy with my performance, wanted to leave on a high note. From there i performed raw 315 doubles for downsets to get some volume in. Never thought i would see the day where 315 on the bar wasnt considered un-do-able. Progress Rules!! The rest of the workout was quite brutal as i finished it up relatively quick, every exercise had 30 seconds rest between, i basically supersetted the final 3 movements and am quite sore today as i type this, taking today off totally, i think i need it........till next time...Keep it Dark, Keep it Heavy!!!

03/06 Extra Workout-Lower

Dynamic Stretching 5 minutes
KB Farmers Walk Up-Stairs 73lbs each hand for 10 sets of 2 trips with 30 sec rest between sets
Side Bends 73x3x12
Standing Ab Pull-Down 70x 3x12

This little gem got me breathing pretty good, turned out to be a nice little feeder/recovery workout from the Seated Good Mornings which had more of an impact than i anticipated. The core work felt quite brutal as well following the Farmers Stair walk. The total training time on this sucker was around 20 minutes so i was moving along to get it all in.....that's it for now til ME Bench.......l8r

03/05 ME Squat

Seated Good Mornings 95x8, 135x5, 185x3x2, 225x3, 275x3x3
KB Swing Throughs 93x4x8

Abbreviated workout. Had to go to wife's friends house for dinner so i figured i would at least squeeze in the ME movement. I took it easy on the GM's as i was pressed for time and could not utilize full rest periods between sets. I figure in two weeks (when this movement is scheduled) i will have a real go at it. The 275 was a pisser on the first set but the last two it felt much better. Should go pretty well next time around. The Swing Throughs were a bitch as time was running low and i had to get ready to go, i was suckin wind by the end of those. The total training time was around 30 minutes so as i look back on it now, i squeezed a good amount of effort into a small period of time. I am going to do a Part II for this workout tonight, i plan on doing Farmers walks with KB's loaded to 100 up and down my stairs in the basement and some Ab, and Oblique work for good measure......Thats it now, stay strong!!

03/02 DE Bench

DE Bench 175x4x3 185x4x3
#8 Pin Press 315x3, 365x3, 385x2, 365x3
6 Minute EDT PR Zone
BB Bent Rows 205lbs 5,5,5,5,5,3
Rope Pushdown 70lbs 5,5,5,5,5,3
KB Front Rows 33x3x12

Felt good tonight, speed was good for both weights taken. I decided to split the bench into two different intensities and see if i could keep the speed consistent which i did so that was good, next week i will be moving on to bands and approach it the same way with the split weights. The EDT PR Zone was a bitch, i was a bit light headed after that and had to take a few extra minutes to recuperate for the KB Front raises. All in all i felt good, oh yeah i forgot to post my extra workout from yesterday so here it is.

Hip Mobility (10 Minutes)
Sting Ray Box Squats (Dynamic) 185x5x5
Back Extensions 3x12

This was a last minutes workout i decided to throw in for recovery, and because i just got my new Sting Ray attachment so i had to try it out. This thing is pretty cool though i have to work on the placement as today i have pretty good bruising on by biceps, no big whoop, though i took it easy on the weight my Quads are quite sore today so this is a good thing. I figure after a month or two of incorporating front squats into my routine my deadlift should reap the rewards, time will tell....Time to go grab a movie and wrestle with the little crumbsnatcher, until next time, Remember this....Corn is just Mother Natures tracer bullets!!!

03/01 DE Squat

DE Box Squat 205x4x2, 225x4x2
Pull Throughs 110x3x12
AB and Oblique work....

Squats felt pretty good tonight, took a bit to warm up and get stretched out but they were pretty fast so i was happy. Still working with the wide grip and am enjoying it now, actually felt natural towards the end of the workout. No Biceps pain now that i got them sleeves and new grip. The lower back felt good, didnt tighten up so i guess all the stretching and hip movements ive been doing are paying off, and to boot my stance is wider so good deal all around. Pull Throughs were a bit and i felt them in the lower back big time, and abs and obliques no one really wants to hear about, so for now, l8r...........