12/24 SE Bench, Errr...New RAW PR

RAW Bench 135x5, 185x3, 225x2, 275x1, 320x3, 345x1, 365x1PR, 320x2x3
Floor Press 275x4x5
Lat Pulldown 140x6x5
Olympic Grip Upright Row 135x6x5

Was only planning on working up to 320 for 3 sets of 3, after I got to the first set I decided to set a new PR for 1 Rep. This was a nice strong attempt considering I had already hit 320 for 3. Flirted with the idea of going higher but decided to do a couple drop sets. Pretty good outing tonight considering it was only supposed to be an SE night. But, acting on something I heard Louie Simmons say, if your feeling it, just go with it. You dont get the chance every outing. Plus with the impending Deload I figured what the hell.

Onto Floor Press, these were paused and Definitely felt them in the Triceps, good shit I tell you. The Lats and Uprights were pretty useful as well.

What can I say, its Christmas Eve, the Patriots won, and I hit a PR...Happy Holidays indeed.

Keep it Dark, Keep it Heavy!!!

12/21 DE Squat

SSB Box Squat 225x8x2
SLDL 315x3x5
Hanging Ab Raise 3x8
Avg Band Leg Curls 3x10

I really dig doing Speed work with the Safety Squat Bar!!! Makes my lower back pump 10 times worse than a normal bar, good shit I tell you!!!

Speed was great and I felt the snap off the Box was some of the best I have ever had, very happy with the results. The rest of the work out was a bit of a "Git er Done and get upstairs". As I beat myself up with the Big 3 this week I thought it was best to take it a easy on this night so there you have it.

Again, next week is a sort of De-Load week, my approach will be as follows. I will still go Heavy on the Squat/DL side of things but will do No assistance. However, on the Bench side of tings I will go with Assistance only and no full range benching. I will most likely do some sort of CG board pressing but that will be it and only to hit the Tri's. Well, thats it for now, next stop, DE Bench.....

12/20 ME Bench - An Old Shirt Comes to Life

RAW 135x5, 185x3, 225x3, 275x2, 325x2
Rage (Old Shirt) 365x1, 385x2x1PR, 400x3x1PR
2 Bd CGBP w/Chains 315x3x3
Seated Rows 200x4x6
Shrugs 365x4x6

Decided to throw on the old Rage and see what I could do in it. I will use next week as a Deload week for two reasons, I think I need one, and two, ME Bench Day happens to fall on the same day my Daughter will enter this world.

So I worked up to 325x2 RAW before putting on the shirt, this is the same shirt I got 375 with at a bench meet in october, so expectations werent too high. 365 was ugly, out of groove and my legs were all over the place. 385 on the first was no different, I wasnt concentrating and for some reason was benching on my tippy toes. I couldnt get my heels down for nothing...this is not normal. I still got 385 with a grind but decided to take it again and hammer the form. This time it flew up, onto 400. These were a bit harder as the unracking of the weight makes it hard to set up. I have to stay in the starting position a bit longer to get the form to settle in before I lift. I decided to go with 3 singles and call it a day before moving on to 2 BD CGBP w/Chains. The singles were strong and would have passed in any fed, good pause, held at lockout, etc...

It was weird going back to this shirt from the EHPHD. This Rage is a bit big for me sizing in at 54, though when I pulled the sucker down it was working pretty well. I think I may get this shirt altered and have the sleeves shortened and maybe the plate taken in a bit, still undecided. But, all in all this benching went pretty well, its always nice to hold heavier weights in your hands.

The rest of the workout was quite uneventful, I was sort of beat after the benching and almost called it a night. Glad I didnt as it all felt quite productive none the less.

Like I stated before, next week will be a deload, I will try to post but with the holiday and the birth of my daughter I may be tied up, so until next time....Keep It Dark, Keep It Heavy!!!

Sage Advice From A Smart Lifter

12/18 Squat Opener and DL PR

Geared Squat
Straps Down 135x5, 185x2, 225x2, 275x1, 365x1, 405x1,455x1
Straps Up w/Wraps 500x1, 525x1, 550x1
Deadlift 225x1, 315x1, 405x1, 475x1, 530x1PR

Had a pretty good night, worked up to a potential Squat opener of a meet in May (I know, got a long time until then) but I hope to hit an APA meet in Keene if they have it again this year in Feb. Gotta check the schedule....

As stated I went straps down to 455 and decided I ought to put the straps up with a lighter weight so as not to be in for any surprises. I have only used gear like twice in my life so I dont really know how it affects my form. Rick was over and we gave verbal cues for depth to ensure we werent inflating our numbers at all. From 455 I went to 505 and must say, I HATE KNEE WRAPS!!! The energy expended in putting them on, coupled with the loss of breath had me light headed as I got under the bar, thought for sure I would pass out before I even started the lift. The weights up to 550 all felt light on the back and the hardest part was dealing with the friggin wraps that not only hurt when cinched in, but takes your breath away before you even attempt a lift.....ugh!!! and I thought the bench shirt was bad!! No worries though, the 550 was smoked and I am quite sure after more time in the gear and considering other factors I will be good for anywhere between 600-650 come meet time. I should note that all day my knees felt like shit from a workout I did over the weekend involving Plyo-Jumps, whence the confidence in my projected numbers.

Next up was Deadlifts, definitely was not feeling it on these. After the Squats I was pretty beat, but we had already planned on doing them. Plus we cut the squats short in anticipation of going heavy on deads. Every single one of these felt like a ton, all the way from the 225 up to the 530. I thought I was done for on the 475 and said fuck it, lets throw on 530, last time we got together I pulled 525 with a hitch and no prior squatting, so my confidence was in the crapper for this attempt. Surprisingly I pulled the fucker and got it with no hitching, Woo-Hoo a new PR for this godforsaken lift!!!

That about wrapped it up, I messed around with the 550 on DL and various stances to see how far I could crack it from the floor. I was so wiped that the furthest I got it was an inch or two off the floor. Total waste of time but good to know. 550 is my next mini goal on the DL, if I had performed this lift alone I am pretty sure I could get it....there's always next time.

And so, from salada tea and me, Keep it Dark, Keep it Heavy!!!

12/16 DE Bench

Speed Bench (Paused) 205x9x3
Floor Press (Paused) 275x4x4
Lat Pull Down 140x5x5
Oly Grip Upright Row 135x5x5

Short and Sweet, dont really rememebr what I was thinking as it was done a couple days ago.....

12/14 DE Squat

DE Box Squat 300x8x2
SLDL 295x3, 315x4x3

Short and sweet, will hit the accessories tomorrow....not much to say really....

12/13 ME Bench

Bench Press RAWWWW!!! 135x8, 185x5, 225x3, 275x3, 320x2, 345x2x2
CG 2 Board w/Chains 275,3, 295,2x3, 315x3
Seated Rows 170x4x8
Shrugs 315x4x8

Pretty good night, was undecided on what ME movement I wanted to do so I decided to see what all the fuss is about with the RAW lifting. Like I'm a real gear whore anyway. The old shoulder held up great through the regular bench, but the 2BD CGBP w/Chains kinda made it hurt a bit. I was quite happy with the 345x2x2 as my previous RAW gym max was 355 touch and go and more than likely ass off the bench. These were performed with strict form and felt really strong, am happy with the RAW strength on bench as its not really a primary focus. This is noentheless a PR, my RAW goal eventually is 405, should be able too get there within a year if all goes well. The good thing about doing all that shirt work with over 400lbs is the 345 felt light in the hands. But i'll tell you what, you sure as hell miss the pop in the bottom that you get from a shirt.

The rest was pretty ho-hum and nothing to write home to mom about, was pretty beat after the benching and could only muster the pathetic weights shown for 2BD. What can you do? They dont have a 2 Board Competition anyway now do they?

I havent done shrugs in ages an this morning I defnitely feel the old trap-a-roonies, 2 more weeks of this movement, I expect to crank the intesity up to work the old yoke. Oh yeah, seated rows, whoop-dee-doo-doo....Did em, done, good......

Well I stuck to the Squat aspect of the plan I laid out this cycle and feel I really pushed it in that aspect. The bench however still needs to be addressed, the shoulder is still flaky but usable, so it aint so bad. The good thing is I got plenty of time, the bad thing is, it will take alot of time. But in the end it's all worth it right?

Keep it Dark, Keep it Heavy!!!

12/11 ME Squat and a Story

SSB High BOx 115x10, 155x5, 245x5, 335x3, 385x2, 425x2, 445x1PR 425x2x1
Speed DL 275x3x3
KB Swing Thru Single Arm 53x6x6
Ab Wheel 4x10

Pretty good workout considering I think I just got rid of my twisted nut. Yep you heard that right folks, for the second time in my life I have fallen victim to this annoying malady. Not sure how it did this time but it aint no fun. With a Twisted nut you feel like someone is pinching your balls all day and all night, not hard, just slightly enough to cause discomfort. While riding in my bouncy Jeep to get my kid from school I "adjusted" myself and felt it go back, Phew!!! There is still some residual discomfort but nothing too bad, more of an annoyance.

To satisfy anyones curiosity out there, the first time I was stricken with this condition was when I was in the Air Force. Every Sunday night we had to clean the floors of our facility. This place had a long hallway then double doors at the end. A couple of buddies, I now use that term loosely, bet me that I couldnt ride a Chair w/Wheels down the hallway and get up enough speed to break through the double doors and clear the landing outside. Well, I did. And in the process the door knob hit me in the back and bruised my kidneys and some how or another I twisted a nut. This incident also led to my first experience of having a doctor shove a finger up my ass, but that is a whole other story. For my efforts I won a 12 pack of beer and ten bucks. Anyway, this is a powelifting blog right? On with the show....

SSB High Box were brutal as usual, the old right nut was kinda twingy and had my concentration in places other than the squat. But I pressed on and stood up with a PR of 445 for a single, lower than I wanted, but just what I got. To stay with the tradition of this methodology, I performed two more singles with 95% of the days max, that would be 425.

Next up on the plate was Speed DL's. These were performed with a complete reset whereby after each rep I would step back, re-approach the bar and pull another with as much force as possible. After three I would rest for 30 seconds and do it again. These felt good and fast and the form was spot on....good shit.

Well this week the KB's didnt hurt my shoulder as bad so I perform 6 sets of 6 and super setted it with the Ab Wheel. Last week I made fun of the Fred Flintstone like implement and will not do so this week. The Ab Wheel gods had a laugh at me last week by giving me a sore belly and an abnormal level of laughter...Ab Wheel equals good!!

Considering the tenderness of my nether region, I thought this workout went well. Twisted nut aside my body feels better, not sure if the skipping last two DE Squat days has caused this or not. But my lower back is not stiff at all and felt strong throughout. I will start back with the DE Squat and be more diligent in my workouts. This may be hard as on Dec 27th my daughter will arrive in this world and may have something to say about it....but I will try.....so unitl then.....you know the rest......

12/10 DE Bench

DE Bench 205x9x3
CG (Paused) Floor Press 275x2x3, 295x2x3,x275x3
Lat Pull Down 120x4x6
BB Olympic Grip Upright Row 115x4x6

Short, Sweet, and Unmotivated.....Gotta love lazy Sundays.......

12/06 ME Bench Shirted w/Rick

Raw Warm-Up 95x8. 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 275x2, 315x1
Shirted Bench (HPHD I think) 365x1, 405x1, 435xMiss 440x1PR, 455 Stapled!!!
CG 2BD w/Chains 225x3, 245x3, 275x3, 295x3x3

Tonight went better than expected. I wasnt in the best mood to lift, I was still sore from Mondays workout.

Well, it has been determined that the shirt I got is not in fact a RAGE X but is more than Likely an HPHD from Inzer, either way I dont really care as the results are well worth the $44 dollars spent. I actually like this material better than the rage material as it is easier to get on and adjusted, only takes around a minute, then minor tweaking before attempts. I may still get a RAGE X in the proper size to see what that bitch can do for me. Anyway, on with the hoot-nanny.

The 365 was grooveless and nothing to write home to ma about, the 405 was about the same, at that point I am sure Rick thought I was fibbing about the 425 last week. Then the 435 got out of groove and I couldnt lock it out, I got the right side done but couldnt get the left, which is unusual, normally it is just the opposite and my right side flakes out on me. Either way, I was quite confident as I called for 440, I knew I didnt utilize leg drive on the 435 and the set-up wasnt very good. I lowered the weight nice and slowly, stopped and slammed it home, easy peasy lemon squeezy!!! I swear if I could remember to do all the things right at once, every time, I could press a hell of alot more. After this victory i took a page out of Icarus' playbook and called for 455, this sucker stapled me, due to many things.

1. Concentration not 100%

2. Groove, What Groove?

3. Poor Set-up, dont think I was really ready

4. Who knows what else, fatigue? (I am up to 220 and conditioning aint what is used to be)

I fought the weight down and for some stupid reason didnt utilize leg drive, cuz I'm so friggin strong I can just Horse up 455, yeah right!! I really should have just stopped at the 440, live and learn I guess.

That was about it for the shirted bench, then we took the chains for a ride on the 2BD CGBP. The motivation was definitely down, after the shirt I felt pretty beat and would have rather taken a nap. But we pressed on and ripped out some pretty useful presses.

All in all I was quite happy with the workout and will finish up the assistance work tonight. This shirt has made benching fun again, and with the shoulder on the mend I am really enjoying this game again. Well folks, here's to getting strong!!!

Keep it Dark, Keep it Heavy!!!

12/04 ME Squat

SSB High Box (Parallel) 155x5, 205x5, 245x3, 335x2, 385x2, 405x2, 425x2
Deficit Pulls Against Mini's 255x3x3
KB Single Arm Swing Thru 53x5x5
Ab Wheel 4x10

Nothing too flashy tonight, gonna do some ME Gear work with Rick next Monday so i kinda pussed out tonight and took it fairly easy, had a headache anyway and am fighting off the flu or something. But still, this bar always gives me a tough time, it amazes me the difficulty of this thing, truly humbling. I figure to hit these for a full 3 week cycle after me and Rick get together, these should throw a couple more pounds on the old Squat and DL. I know so far they have definitely thickened out my back. Good Shit man!!

Ahhh....The Deficit Pulls against Mini's, these suck no matter how you slice it. Your at an awkward position, your beat from the other movement, bands beat the shit out of you anyway.....yadda yadda...I performed these with a complete reset and set-up between each rep, really focused on the set-up, then pulled as fast and as hard as i could. This was more of a DE/RE approach but i like it that way. I find i get worked harder when i do total resets on all my pulls rather than get in a groove and just buzz along. Different strokes right?

The KB single swings really had my right shoulder hurting, this was weird, because for the last 3 weeks i have been doing the Double Handed variety with no pain, will keep an eye on this and adjust accordingly.

And Last but not least, the most intense exercise ever developed, the fast track to overtraining, the gut buster extraordinaire......The Ab wheel for 4 crushing sets of 10!!!! Actually today my abs are quite sore from this seemingly pussified movement, so i really shouldnt bag on it all that much.

Thats it, nothing more, nothing less.......Keep it Dark, Keep it Heavy!!!

12/03 RE Bench

Paused Bench 135x8, 185x5, 225x3, 275x4x4
CGBP (The Gamut) 225x5
Lat Pull Down 100x3x10
Upright Row 105x3x8

Took it fairly easy tonight and am trying to ease back into the whole bench pressing routine. I will start back up with the traditional Westside approach next week. Not that I have really strayed too far from the path. Decided to do some RE work on the bench with paused reps at 80% of my last RAW max.. A good thing is the shoulder didnt hurt afterward. The reps were all paused for around 2-3 seconds and pressed as fast as i could possibly do them. Nothing too strenuous, but defnitely felt as though I accomplished something.

Next up was a new idea I copped from Jim Wendler at Elitefts. I just took a bar weight of 225 and performed Close Grip Bench Press first to the chest, then to a 1 Board, 2 Board, 3 Board, and finally to a 4 Board. I took 30 seconds rest between the sets which turned out to be about enough time to set up the boards. Again, all sets were paused and I really concentrated on a full body contraction to lockout. I was quite winded by the time I got to the 4th board.

Finished out with some Lat Pulldowns and Upright rows. This was an extremely short workout as I got to it late in the night with all the football going on. Total workout time was 27 minutes including a quick warmup, I was flying needless to say.

Thats it from here, next up is ME Squat/DL, which i believe will involve High Box SSB, possibly with chains or bands....havent decided, gotta check the schedule.......

Skipped DE Squat For No Good Reason

Pussy!!!

11/30 ME Bench-New Shirt

Raw Warm-up 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 275x2, 315x1
Shirted Bench Rage X Size 50 365x1, 385x1, 405x1, 425x1
CG 4 BD BP (Paused) 365x4x3
EDT 12 Min Pr Zone
Pendalay Rows 215x3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3
Rear Delts 45x3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3

Needless to say I am happy with my latest purchase. The Rage X is a different material than the Rage and seems to have more in the bottom. Also, this is way easier to get on by myself, I attribute this to the material. Where the Rage is more of an abrasive material the Rage X is more pliable and smooth. ALso doesnt cut into me like the Rage, which is actually a size or two too big. For $45.00 you cant beat it, and its in great shape.

The shoulder held up pretty well, it was still a bit painful from squatting the other day, but as always, when I bench it doesnt really hurt, weird but i'll deal with it. It definitely wasnt as bad as in the past. The warm-ups felt nice and when I got to 315 it felt as if I could have gotten 3-4, but that was not what this night was about.

So i put on the RAGE X...

365 was rough as I had no idea where the groove was, I almost broke my wrists by the feel of it and this was more of a grind than it should have been. So in typical fashion I said fuck it, there aint no way I am gonna only get 365 with this sucker!!

Up to 385, again a grind, couldnt get the feel right, and just felt like a mess. Stop? Nah, lets see if we cant break something.....

Put on 405, now this shit flew up, everything fired right and the groove must have been hit, now if only I can rememebr it. This weight felt like 315 RAW, very powerful and controlled. I may have sharted a bit due to the surprise. So with new found confidence I threw on another 20 lbs...

Not so well, but I got it. With the 425 I had a hard time getting the weight down and the path probably looked like a "S-Curve" riddled road. I hit the bar low and had to fight the bastard to get back in line, then the shirt ended and I had to muscle this puppy up from an awkwad position. I ended up getting it after what seemed an eternity. Satisfied with this outing after not doing much in the way of Bench the last month or so, I called it a night with the shirt. Very happy indeed!!!

CG 4BD I took it fairly easy as the last set of shirted bench took alot out of me, and the wrap up EDT stuff was grueling as per usual. So thats about it from my neck of the woods. I actually cant wait to get in this sucker later on when I have a spotter (You Reading Rick?) to give lift offs and help get the shirt on better. I guess the RAGE X lives up to all the accolades, good shit indeed...

Now I must venture on to the net for this picture I've hearing of featuring Brittany Spears with no underwear....a mans dream come true....


Keep It Dark, Keep It Heavy!!!!