07/30/07 ME Squat

Low Box Squat w/Chains 225x5, 275x3, 315x2, 365x1, 405x1, 435x1, 455x1, 480x1PR
Single Arm KB Swing Throughs 55x3x10
AB Wheel 3x10
AVG Bands GM's 3x15

All is what I can say is it was nice to get back. A week and a half off really messed with my head. I was all depressed and just generally off. Who would have thought that? From now on, injury or no injury, I will not do a total deload.

The Squats went better than anticipated. As previously stated, I was off mentally and had Zero confidence. I felt like I had never lifted before and was thinking working up to 365 would be hard. Come on, its been 1.5 weeks you ass monkey!!! The only real complaints was the speed was non-existent and my mind kept wandering to the ab injury and if it would hold up. The Ab's were a bit flared up, but nothing like they were so all seems good in the land of lollipops. And as far as the speed, that will come back....

315 had me worried a bit, felt like a ton of bricks, but 365 and up felt pretty good on the back. The 455 was a nice strong effort, albeit slow as molasses, I had the air brakes on the whole way. Just being over cautious I guess, 480 was no different, slow... but just a bit harder. I believe this was a PR as I couldnt find anyway in my log where I did more. So I cant complain too much.

The Kettle Bell swing throughs had my lower back and hamstrings screaming. I think as far as the lay off was concerned these were the worse for wear, couple with my piss poor GPP...No more beer for me, that puts the conidtioning right in the dumper I tell you!!!

The AB Wheel was especially grueling, today my abs are tight as all hell despite taking the muscle relaxants I had presribed to me...it should go away soon though, figners crossed!!

All in all it was nice to just do something. Now its time to pick a meet and hit it. I believe there is a bench meet in October. I have met a powerlifter that moved down to NH from Maine and we may be training for it, so that will be nice. But otherwise I got to find a full power meet and get my 80's era powerlifting gear out on the scene!!! Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll drop some dough on some Metal or something.....

Keep it Dark, Keep it Heavy!!!

07/25/07 Update - Ab Inury

Hello All,

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last week or so, I suffered an injury two weekends ago and havent been lifting. I pulled something in my abs, at first I suspected Hernia, but the doctors suspect muscle damage of some sort. The muscle is constantly tense and refuses to loosen up until I pop the Muscle Relaxers the Dr prescribed. Not Fun!!

I think I did this when I lift a picnic table onto my back while moving it to a shaded area for my daughter to sit in. I flipped the sucker onto its end then got under it and flicpped it onto my back. Felt a bit of a twinge but nothing too bad. The Next day I had a bit of a spasm that kept coming and going all day. I was unsure if it was just gas or muscular....very weird...

Anyways, Monday rolled around and it was my deload week. the spasming seemed to subside so I went down and worked out, no pain, no spasming, nothing....Until Tuesday morning. Wednesday rolled around and it appeared to be gone again, so I did SE Benching, again no pain...but the next day...its back.....worse than before...

I went to the doctors on Monday and was told it appears to be an ab strain/pull/ or tear of some sort. The muscle is all tensed up and is whats causing the dull pain in there...Phew!!! All I could think of was Hernia, Appendix getting ready to burst or something equally as wonderful....so, no lifting for this week either.

I will resume lifting on Monday and hopefully be healed enough, if not I may have to go back to the doc and get scanned for other nefarious probalems....lets hope it doesnt come to this as I hate Doctors....

Anyway, thats where I am at.....Keep it Dark, Keep it Heavy!!!

07/18/07 ME Deload

Lower Body Complex
SSB Low Box Squat/Seated GM 155x5x5
Pull Through 100x5x5
24" Box Jumps BWx5x5
Elevated SLDL 135x5x5


All sets performed with around 45 seconds rest between complexes, i.f I would perform all movements back to back then rest for 45 seconds and proceed....fun stuff....NEXT up is ME Bench Deload

Keep It Dark, Keep it Heavy!!!

Last Two and a Vid For You....

DE Squat/Deadlift
SSB Speed 250x8x2
Deadlift 455x5x2
Monster Mini Leg Curls 4x12
SSB Calf Raises 245x4x10

Speed was great on the Safety Squat Bar Speed work. I warmed up in a different fashion which I think got the lower back nice and loose. I would squat to the box as in normal fashion, but once there I performed a nice full Seated Good Morning. Did this on all warm up reps and the lower back didnt feel too pumped until mid-way through deadlifts....maybe i'm onto something here.

Decided to do some heavy-ended speed work on the Deadlifts. This represented about 80% of my last 1 rep max. I took this time to really work the form and try to find what works best for me. I found that my second reps tended to be (or at least feel) stronger. So I took note of what was taking place on the 2nd rep. Bear in mind my reps are broken up via complete resets between reps, no bouncing or stretch reflex involved.

I noticed I was tighter, or maybe just better mentally prepared. So the next couple sets I really concentrated on how my body felt on the second rep and applied it to the first. Sounds pretty simple but you would be surprised where your mind wanders when your doing this shit...Voila, My first reps started getting faster and stronger. My body did take an extra second to tighten up before pulling so my energy was optimized. Cool shit I tell you, now I just got to remember this little tidbit in the future....

Maybe Some Day....

ME Bench
2 Board Press 205x5,285x3, 330x2, 375x1, 385x1, 405x1, 415x1
Shirt Work Rage 375x3x1, 385x3x1, 405x1
Shirt Work EHPHD 375x3x1, 385x3x1, 405x1, 415x2x1
KB One Arm Row 110x3x12
D-Handle Reverse Curl/Overhead Press 3x10

Shoulder was acting up so I cut the volume on the 2 board and threw in some form work with the shirts. It is quite evident the Rage is too big, I think i need to look into getting the next size down or possibly a 50 like the EHPHD. Now I like that shirt, seems to give me pretty good pop off the bottom, is easy to put on, and doesnt cut into me nearly as bad as the Rage...

Old Technology rules.....

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APT Pro Wrist Straps - Dont Let Your Grip Rob You of A Lift
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07/09/07 ME Squat

High Box Squat w/suit Bottoms 250x5, 300x3, 350x2, 405x1

(Bottoms On) 455x1, 500x3, 525x3, 555x2x2

RDL's 225x4x10

GHR 3x10

Oblique Pulls Downs 3x10

I did not feel like doing this one, thats for damn sure. The day was rainy here and I just felt down in the dumps for some reason. Oh well, cant let that whiny shit come between me and powerlifting right?

The good thing, is all weights felt really light on the back. the probem on the first set of 555's was the whipping. It probably looked like a bird preparing for flight, or least it felt that way. I went down on the box and damn, the weights were bouncing everywhere, weird part is I didnt just plunk down. The bar started whipping from the unrack and really never stopped, oh well...still got it. The 2nd went much better, though I was pretty beat by this point. My original plan was to hit to triples on 555 but just wasnt happening today....next cycle.

The rest was ho hum and there no amount of writing in the world gonna make it exciting, so lets pretend it never happened...

Thats it for today, Keep it Dark, Keep it Heavy!!!

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APT Pro Wrist Straps - Dont Let Your Grip Rob You of A Lift
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07/05/07 ME Bench

2 Board Press 205x5, 245x3, 285x2, 335x1, 375x3x3
Board Press 410x4x5
One Arm Kettle Bell Row 113x12,12,10
D-Handle Rev Grip Curl/OHP 3x10

Whoa, thank god the 4th is done and gone, I had a few beers on wed's and paid for it on thursday. I didnt sleep well and felt like doody until around noon. The only good part is most everybody at work was in the same boat, many were worse off than I was.

I was pleasantly surprised with the 2 Board Pressing considering the lack of energy and most likely the lack of proper nutrients in my muscles. Drinking has a way of doing that to you. The first set of 3x3 on the 2 board press was rough, I dont think I was properly warmed up, but I'll take it...The rest were gravy but i wanted to stick to prilipens chart. Hopefully next week under more optimal conditions I can blast up another PR....

4 Board Press felt better this week...I think I just need to get accustomed to heavier weight in my hands after trying to train around this hokey shoulder of mine. I should have called it a "trick-shoulder" like they did back in the olden days but I dont want to date myself. Did I mention while lifting I sometimes get a "trick O-Ring" that randomly expels noxious fumes? Ugh...back to powerlifting

The Kettle Bell Handle rows were done on elevated blocks to get a good stretch in, by the time I made to rep 12 I was sweating like a pig. Was very happy after these were done.

The D-Handle Reverse Grip Curl to Over head Press was brutal like last week, only I got more reps in and didnt feel like puking, surprisingly.

All said and done, this wasnt a bad workout, I think I sweat out the toxins I inundated my body with the day before, so it wasnt a total wash. If all goes to plan, next weeks should be a good one. You just gotta love this sport of powerlifting....

Later....

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APT Pro Wrist Straps - Dont Let Your Grip Rob You of A Lift
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07/02/07 ME Squat

High Box Squat w/Suit Bottoms 275x5, 330x3, 385x2, 445x1, 500x2, 525x2, 545x2, 570x1 500x2x2
RDL's 225x4x8

GHR 3x10

Oblique Pull Downs

I am extremely happy with myself for this workout. There were many factors involved that almost had me pussing out and not training. I had beers last night, not much sleep, it was beautiful outside etc....but I figured what the hell. I am sure to have more beers at some point this week with it being the Fourth of July and all, so skipping today was out of the question.

All things considered the high box squats with suit bottoms went better than expected. The 445 felt like a ton on my back and had that little bastard named Doubt creeping into my head. Another thing, apparently speed took the day off today because all lifts were slow as molasses...

I got up to 545 for a double and was ready to quit, but being the Jive Turkey I am, I decided to put all the weights on the bar and get at least one rep. With 570 on, it went down easy peasy lemon squeezy, I contemplated doubling it as I am sure I had it in me, but the mere fact that I wasnt thinking about squatting saw me re-rack the weight and drop to a more mindless weight for a couple doubles to ensure my volume beat last weeks.....Holy Run-On sentences batman....

The rest was quite uneventful, my eyes felt like they were bulging out of my head (I later found I had popped some Blood Vessels in them) and I had a head ache coming on, time to eat!!! You cant get to the level of Fat Ass Powerlifter without eating, thats for sure....

Anyway, Happy Fourth of July to everyone, take care and dont drink too much beer.....

(BTW, thats me in the front)

Keep it Dark, Keep it Heavy!!!

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APT Pro Wrist Straps - Dont Let Your Grip Rob You of A Lift
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Spartan 300 Workout

Spartan 300 Workout

25 Pull-Ups

50 Deadlifts

50 Push-Ups

50 Box Jumps

50 Floor Wipers
50 Single Arm Clean and Press with Sandbag

35 Pull-Ups

Completed in 28 Minutes

Synopsis:

Alright, after an email exchange with the now non-powerlifting Harold T. Estes, I decided to try this Spartan 300 Workout. This was apparently inspired by the movie "300" and the actors that were in the movie used this as a sort of measuring stick.

Well at first galnce the spartan 300 workout seems like a walk in the park. Quite the opposite as I found out. You start out and think, pffttt...this aint nothing, but by the end of the Pulls you are thinking otherwise as a pool of sweat lies on the ground beneath you. My fat ass had to modify the sequences and basically performed super sets to get all completed reps.

The Deadlifts were a bit of a joke on the intensity side, and if I were to do the spartan 300 workout over, I would bump the weight to like 225. This workout is not to gain strength, but more to test your cardiovascular and muscular endurance. And being a big dumb powerlifter, I had none of the above.

Box jumps were another that muscle wise were nothing, but my friggin lungs were singing a different tune. i was gasping, huffing, puffing, and every other description under the sun. My Cardio Sucks!!! But luckily that is not what I am after.

Floor Wipers were an interesting exercise that I had never heard of. You basically hold a 135lbs Barbell at the full extension of a bench press and perform leg lifts to the left, center, and right. Again, Muscle wise these were nothing, but those friggin Lungs kept screaming.

Single Arm Sandbag Cleans and Pull-Ups rounded out the Spartan 300 Workout, and thank god!!! This was about the most grueling 28 minutes I have had in a long time.

As much as I wanted to say this workout was gay and useless I really cant. For Strength Gaining purposes it has no use, but if you want to strip some fat off your body and look like one of those kids Sally Struthers feeds paste to, then the Spartan 300 Workout may be for you.

Maybe all us fat powerlifters can use this for GPP or apply it to trim down to a certain weight class, I myself was thinking of using it on my De-Load weeks in lieu of Speed days, just combine the Bench and Squat sessions for a full body workout and simultaneously burn some extra calories....who knows.

Anyway, thats about it from here. Until next time, Keep it Dark, Keep it Heavy!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
APT Pro Wrist Straps - Dont Let Your Grip Rob You of A Lift
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