Friday, March 19, 2010

Barbell Squats - Full Range Barbell Squats with a Rant

Barbell Squats Full-Range (Warm-Up) 185x5, 225x5, 275x3
Barbell Squats Full-Range (Work Sets) 340x5, 385x3, 430x8(PR)
No accessory work, will Flip Tire & Sledgehammer hit tomorrow

As you can tell by the post title above I now perform my squats to full depth (i.e I can't physically go any lower...) some people refer to these as Ass to Grass Squats but that sounds fruity so I call them Full Squats, but I digress...



How I Got Here from There...
Authors Rant/Recent History/Philosophy

In my previous powerlifting life I was a full on Westside Barbell follower and used those methods to get pretty strong. But I still felt like something was lacking. With all the variations, percentages, box heights, board heights, bands, chains, etc...not to mention I was not ever really into using gear. I felt I was complicating a very simple concept.

"Lift Heavy Shit, Get Stronger..."

I personally feel that RAW strength trumps geared strength all day.

Disclaimer: Now dont get me wrong, I could really give a rats ass what anybody else feels, and I'm not about to try and convince you otherwise...if you agree fine, if you dont fine...do what makes you happy.

With that said, I made some adjustments to my lifting style. Here they are in bullet form:

* Deadlift every week (varying percentages)
* Deadlift with no Belt
* No More Boxes, Bands, Chains, etc...Just me and the weights
* Full Squats only (No more Ego-Strokin' Parallel or Above)
* Overhead Pressing Weekly (Thank God I Did, it fixed my left shoulder)
* No More 'Weekly' templates (I now use a 'rolling' template, works great!)

Basically I got sick of saying "Dude I Squatted 625 for a triple to the High Box..." then having to throw in the disclaimer that there was no friggin way I could do it in the traditional 'Ass to Grass' fashion...

-or-

"Yeah, I can benched 550lbs...", but thats with a totally geeked up single ply Inzer Rage X...RAW, I wasn't even close...

These disclaimers just ate at my pride I guess. I knew I was strong, but there was always a disclaimer.

Some of you jive turkeys will say, well then just get on the platform and show what you got. Well, I dont really feel compelled to drop a chunk of change to compete in one of the hundreds of federations out there and bring home some crappy battle axe or mace anymore.

I lift for my piece of mind.


To boot, I don't feel a meets results are a great indicator of your strength anyway. With all the variables involved in a meet from nutrition, to timing, to gear adjustments, to yadda yadda yadda...I know from personal experience that my meet weights aren't really me, and I got the training logs and a "well checked ego" to prove it.

My personal philosophy is to be strong all the time, not just one or two times a year...

End Part I - Tune into Part II for how I got to where I am now...


Monday, March 15, 2010

Military Barbell Press - Jim Wendler 531 Military Barbell Press

Military Press (Warm-Up) 85x5, 105x5, 125x3
Military Press (Work Sets) 155x5, 175x3, 195x10
Push Press (Dynamic Singles) 225x5x1

This is the 3rd week (6th cycle) of Jim Wendlers 531 program leading into a deload week (and me going to Switzerland for a few days). Today was Military Barbell Press which up until a couple months ago I never really did...


Outright hated them cuz I absolutely sucked at them!


Overall felt pretty good, will throw a pretty cool accessory workout tomorrow that I came up with, be sure to check back in...





Thursday, March 11, 2010

Deadlift Training - Jim Wendler 531 Deadlift Training 3/11/2010

Deadlift Training (Still No Belt)

Deadlift (Warm-Ups) 205x5, 260x5, 315x3
Deadlift (Work Sets) 390x5, 440x3, 495x8
(No Assistance - Will Flip 500 lbs tire Coupled w/16 lbs Sledgehammer hits Tomorrow)

Good Workout! Nagging middle back muscle issue appears gone, performing Deadlifts without a belt has helped my core strength tremendously in both the Squat & Deadlift... so this is good news.

495lbs flew to rep #6 then 7 & 8 were a bit of a drag, but clean.

This is my sixth cyle of Jim Wendlers 531 Program since switching from straight Westide Training. I am quite happy with my progress thus far...

More updates to come, stay tuned....