Squatah!

Trained today raw. Raw meaning no belt. Brent filled me in and I guess there are some differences in opinion on what raw is. So, for this session by raw I mean no belt. This also goes for my last deadlift session, I didn't use a belt. Been training beltless bc Brent left and I usually just borrowed his. But I finally ordered my own along with a rage x bench shirt and a max dl suit.

Everything should be in within the next week I'm guessing.
Question: Is there much of a difference between a squat suit and a deadlift suit? and Am I allowed to squat in a deadlift suit and will this hinder my squat?

Anyway heres my training for today:

(Everything was beltless)
Back Squat: Normal (wide) stance
wu
275x5
295x5
315x3
325x1

After this set my hips were tight as balls.

Close stance Back squat: (less than shoulder width)
225x5
245x5
275x5

Reverse Hack Squat
3 plates x 5
4 plates x 5
5 plates x 5

I do these by getting on the hack squat machine backwards. Meaning I am facing the machine. Really hit my upper quads and hip flexors.

Stair jumps:
4sets x 9 jumps

At the gym there is a set of stairs consisting of 5 steps. For each set I jumped from the ground in a squat to a step. I jumped to the first, reset, then the second, reset, then to the third, and so on. Then back down again. On the forth set sat in the squat for 3 seconds then jumped.

Hip Abductors
3sets x 20 reps

Hips were good and tight. The end

Bench

Band-resisted Bench (green): 45x5, 95x3x3, 115x3, 95x3x4

Reverse Grip Floor Press: 135x5
155x5
155x5
155x4

Tate Press (regular DB): 40x10x4

Cable Stability Bench: 45x20
70x12
80x12x2
Strip Set

Face Pull: 120x15x2, 100x18

Well the Accutane is seriously starting to screw with me. My joints today were killing me. The face pulls were very helpful though. The new wraps were good, and I was actually able to do all of the speed benching with a normal grip. Progress. I think I will be stuffing myself into the Blast Shirt on Saturday.

Speed Bench

Band-resisted Bench (a.k.a. speed bench):
green bands choked on bottom of squat rack.
All sets 3 reps, alternating close, middle, wide grips
155 x 2 sets
175 x 2 sets
185 x 5 sets

We had 5 guys working out today, which was awesome. Somehow we got into the zone and were like a machine on these with loading and benching. I think it took us under 10 minutes for all 5 guys' 9 sets, which is unreal.

Floor Press:
corrected because I can't add
225 x 5
245 x 5
265 x 4 (grinder on the 4th)
265 x 4 (yup, another grinder)

Skull Crusherz:
130 x 10
150 x 10
170 x 5

Cable Stability Bench:
100 x 12
120 x 10
140 x 10
(Strip set:)
150 x 5, 120 x ?, 90 x ?, 60 x ?

Face Pulls:
whatever Kyle recorded for weights for 3 sets until failure.

Starting Strength articles

Found Here

I'd recommend reading all of the free ones when you get the time. Otherwise, pick & choose.

EDIT: here's a video on hip drive.

REHAB/CARDIO/FLEXIBILITY

First day of new off-day split.
- Rehab
- Snatch-squat-press w/ 5# plate under heels 20x5, 40x3x3
These are interesting because you press with your rear delts.
- Snatch-squat-press w/ feet flat 40x3x2
Didn't think I would be able to do these, but I did.
- Single-leg squats on bosu ball 8x2
- Toss ball on bosu ball (both feet and single-leg) ~30 sec x 2
- Hip abductors 50x50
- Hyperextension 50
- Cardio - bike sprints 130-150 bpm x 15 mins
- Flexibility
- Hamstrings w/ bar
Start in GM position, then RDL, then hack squat. These are intense.
- Adductor on machine 80#
- Gastroc on hack squat 135#
- Seated groin
- Seated iliotibial

So I made a new off-day split. I can't do oly 3x / week like I was a while ago. It destroys my lower back with Sheiko. So here's my plan:

Mon - Sheiko
Tue - Prehab
Wed - Sheiko
Thu - Cardio/Flexibility
Fri - Sheiko
Sat - Oly/Upper back
Sun - Cardio/Flexibility

I also have a few stretches I keep on all the off days. These are the ones I think are most important for my health and/or my weak points. If I have the time/energy, I'll include some cardio (like today).

Contest Prep: Extra Workout

Barbell Complex:
45 lbs bar

2 rounds of the following in sequence:
Back Squat x 10
Standing Overhead Press x 10
Overhead Squat (interesting, targets the hips) x 10
Front Squat x 10

Good Mornings x 30

Pull/Chin-ups:
Bodyweight + 15 lbs, 5/5/5/5/4 (24)

EDIT: I weighed 230 in clothes/shoes post-gym, so I'm pulling ~245 on these.

Standing Ab Pull:
172 x 3 (tie PR)
160 x 3 x 4

Squat Day

Squats: 135x5
185x5
205x5
225x5
235x5 PR
245x2
245x3 PR

Rev. Band Squat (blues): 315x6
405x5
495x Stapled (felt good but bumped the weight too much)
455x 3 assisted

Pause Squat: 155x5 (3 sec)
185x5 (4 sec)
225x2 (3 sec)

Box Jump: 24" x 5
30" x 5 PR

Ab Wheel: 6, 10, 8

*Add .5 to all squat rep counts as I had a long way to unrack the bar. LOL

All in all a good session. Set some PR's and working on getting form down. I tend to not get any power out of the hole and pitch forward (I should have an awesome Good Morning). The pause squats felt almost normal lol.

And as for suits, I will be emailing Steve to see if he has a Inzer Hardcore size 34 or 36 in stock. I think I might need a singlet too? Not sure.

Squat: The Squattening

I came down sick over the weekend after benching. I think that's why I sucked so much on Saturday. Now that I'm on the mend, all training is a part of the patented Jurgens-Training-Principles™. (i.e. get sick/tired/hungry for max gains)

Squat:
405 x 5
This set felt retarded, like I had forgotten how to squat and I didn't know where I was.
425 x 5
445 x 5 (PR)

Some dude came up and was like "are you going to squat that??" to which i replied, "yes. up to five times."

Band-assisted Squats:
Wanted to help Kyle get used to the groove in the hole, so we bumped it up to blue bands today

495 x 5 (warm up)
585 x 5
625 x 5

Pause Squats:
MOAR SWKATS!!ZZOMGZGRS!
315 x 5 @ 3 seconds
365 x 3 @ 3 seconds (felt like was about to explode)
385 x 3 @ 3 seconds

Moral: pause squats + sinus infection = unreal pressure. I thought I was about to blow something. I had to breath out completely at the bottom on the way up to relieve some of the pressure.

Box Jumps
4 sets of 5 on the high box

Side note: Brent can jump silently. Like a ninja. I mean dead silently. It's freaky.

Ab wheel
4 sets

Contest Prep : Squat

Full-Gear Back Squat:
Gear:
- Inzer Hardcore Squat Suit
- Inzer Power Surge Red Line knee wraps
- Belt

AH YES. THe joys of the squat suit.

473 x 1, straps down w/ belt
495 x 1, straps up w/ belt
518 x no depth, straps up w/ knee wraps and belt

Ricardo, a 242 USPF guy who just moved to San Bernardino called my depth on the last one. Said I was about an inch above parallel.

So for next time:
- Chalk the back of the suit. On the 495 and 518 the bar felt unstable against the suit. THis doesn't happen against a t-shirt.
- Bury all squats. Whatever I think depth is, go deeper.
- The compression is unreal. Good think I've started contest prep far out from the meet.
- My knee wraps apparently suck. Mike said they were "training wraps", he has a pair of Titan wraps that I'll use next time.

Removed all gear/belt

RIppetoe-Style Standing Overhead Press:
198, 4 x 4

NOTE: cleaned all the first reps to the standing position

Good Mornings:
187, 3 x 8

Beginning of last competition phase

Power snatch 75/3 x 6 (70%)
Sn. Pull 100/2 x 4 (90%)
Front Squat 105/4 x 5 (60%)
1/2 jerk 130/10 x 3 (100%)
Behind the neck press+Overhead squat 56.8 x 3+2 (125 pounds)

Flexiblity
20 minutes of stretching
hamstrings, seated, standing, leg up on pull-up station
Groin, seated, leg up on pull-up station
Glute, lying down

I'm pretty flexible now but I'd like to see how far I can go.

Everything felt good. Nice light day to get back into things from my test week.

The half-jerk is an exercise I brought in because I feel I need help with my jerks. All you do is take a weight off the rack and bounce up and down with it on your shoulders. Hopefully it'll increase reactivity with heavy weight. It is mentioned in the program but never used, so I'm guessing on the sets and reps. 3 x 10 felt good though. I've seen video of Chinese lifters doing them and I've done them before, a long time ago.

I'll be adding in jerks from behind the head on my jerk days to supplement my jerks and use heavier weight. I'll use the half jerks at the end of every workout since I don't think they'll take very much to recover from.

SHEIKO WEEK #2; #4

Easy workout. Time: 1:15.
- Squat 210x4 (50%), 250x4 (60%), 290x3x2 (70%), 335x2x4 (80%)
- Bench 135x3 (50%), 165x3 (60%), 195x3 (70%), 220x2x4 (80%)
- Flies 25x10x5
- Dips BWx8x5
- Squat 225x3 (55%), 270x3 (65%), 315x3x3 (75%)
- Good mornings 165x5x5

Danny brings the intensity like no-one else. He also trained with Vlad Alkazhov (or whatever -- squat record holder @ 1250 #) in Israel a few years back. Said he did 900 # squats for reps with good depth. That shit's crazy.

Belated Bench

Late post from Saturday

Shirted Bench:
315 x 3 board
365 x 3 board
365 x .9 (fail)

Shirt was cutting horribly and I was just not in the mood to bleed from my armpits. Thus endeth shirted benching for today.

Board press:

365 x fail (wut??)
315 x 5
335 x 5
365 x 3 (much better)

Military Press:
135 x 10
185 x 5
185 x 6
185 x 6
135 x 12

Face Pulls:
1 set w/ purple band
1 set w/ green band
2 sets w/ purple + green

Bridges:
1 set where Dean kicked the ball a lot
3 sets of alternating leg bridges. These were pretty good.

Bench Day

I got to the gym super extra early, so I did close to infinite warm-up sets to try and get two things down: my arch, and the groove of the reverse grip.

Reverse Grip Bench: 135x5
155x3
165x3
175x2
185x1 (ugly; it got out of the groove)

Went to a 3 board: 135x6 (tried regular grip, but it didn't feel ready yet, so just stuck with reverse)
165x5
175x3 + 2 assisted
175x3 + 1 assisted
175x3 (almost lost last one)

Plate Push Press: 100x3, 4, 3, 3

Face Pulls: Purple Band x 12
Green x 12, 12, 12, 15

Plank Holds on Ball: 5 sets

A good session. My wrist is healing well. I also feel that all of this reverse grip work will help my normal grip too. My regular bench was all pecs and delts, but I really feel the reverse grip working my tri's and lats.

And apparently I will be competing in the November Meet. Odds are I will be competing in the Junior 220's (according to my plan I should be at about 215-218 by 11/15). I guess I might just be going with some entry level gear?

OLY/UPPER BACK/CARDIO/FLEXIBILITY

- Oly
Things felt pretty good. Snatches weren't as stable as I'd like, but I was pretty stif/tired from squatting yesterday.
- Drop snatch 20x5, 40x5x3
- Hang snatch 40x3x3
- Snatch off 5 blocks 40x3x3
- Clean off blocks
- 5 blocks 40x3x2
- 4 blocks 40x3x2
- 3 blocks 40x3x2
- Snatch off 3 blocks 40x2x2
- Jerks 40x5x4
I think my form is better. I actually missed a few of these because I jerked it way too far and it flew out of my hands.
- Upper back
- Pull-ups BWx12, 25x8x2, 35x5
- Dumbell rows 90x10, 100x10, 110x10, 120x10
Grip was pretty strong today. Only reset grip once on left-hand with 120. That's half the reason I do these, so I'm happy.
- Cardio 135-142 bpm x 10min
- Stretching
This stretching is taking too long. I'm splitting it into two days so I don't start skipping things I really should be doing.
- Oblique
- Upper back on cable row
- Gastroc on leg press
- Soleus on machine
- Hamstrings w/ bar
- Adductor on machine
- Standing adductor
- Seated groin
- Seated glute
- Seated iliotibial

This is my new accessory day template.

I'm going to the Nov meet. My parents will spot me the $$ and I'll pay them back. And Brent, I"ll gladly take your $20. JK. Sorta.

So ... i learned just how epic catching the bar from a snatch is. It sawed through my straps today and I ended up having to just hook grip it. Crazy shit. These straps did 520 deadlift no problem, but started to split horizontally from catching 90 lbs. No wonder it was hurting my thumb.

Weight is 212.

Test day

Snatch 100, 105, 107 miss, 107, 110 miss
Fuck ya

Clean and Jerk 122, 127, 130 miss, 130 miss
Kinda gay, but 127 is still a record. Need to push cleans AND jerks harder.

Total was 234 for those of you who don't want to add. Which means I need 8kg to get to class 1. Definitely do-able, especially if I hit 110 on sntach in Oct. Would like to actually push my clean and jerk up though, it doesn't like to improve.

ME Sleeping In

I slept for 11 hours. Recovery++!

Also, I tried on the gear that I got from EliteFts yesterday:
IPF Metal Viking Squatter (46)
IPF Metal Viking Deadlifter (48)
IPF Metal Viking Bencher (56)

The Squatter leg seams of the squatter stopped around a foot from my hip (where they are supposed to end up). Not even close. Brittany tried it on and thought it was tight on her; then she started chasing me around in the squatter, which was disturbing.

So then I tried the Deadlifter, got about 8 inches from my hip. Still no dice. With my Inzer gear the material stretches enough to shimmy the suit up once it gets stuck. The viking material doesn't really stretch, so no dice.

The Bencher actually fits really well, the arms are larger than any stock Inzer.

VERDICT:
- Keep the 56 Bencher
- Send back the Squatter and Deadlifter to exchange for size 50 gear.

Will use my Inzer Hardcore and Max DL next week. I'll try the 50 Metal gear when it gets here.

Nov Meet

SO...

I was awarded $100 of the $475 I asked for to go to this meet. Now I need to decide if it's worth $375 to do it. What a pain in the ass.

EDIT: It would actually cost me over $400 because I need to buy USAPL membership as well.

SHEIKO WEEK #1; #3

- Bench 135x5 (50%), 165x4 (60%), 195x4 (70%), 205x3 (75%), 225x2x2 (80%), 235x1x2 (85%), 225x2x2 (80%), 205x3 (75%), 185x5 (65%), 150x5 (55%)
Phil-style setup is feeling pretty good. I'm working on pushing with the legs through the press. Focusing on this is damaging my setup in other ways, and I don't think I paused very well on most of these.
- Flies 25x10x5 (10%)
- Squat 205x5 (50%), 250x3x2 (60%), 290x3x2 (70%), 310x3x4 (75%)
Easy.
- Dips BWx8x5
- Good mornings 165x5x5 (40%)

Last day before test

Power snatch 60/2 (60%) 72/2 x 4 (70%)
Power clean and jerk 80/2+1 (60%)
Back Squat 95/4 x 2 (60%)

Tomorrow is my test. Going for at least 105/130

My all time favorite lifter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISvwEH3N9Bw

I lift because I want to be this guy.

Min Volume Week #2

I did this at Wooden while Dave & Co. did their Deadlift Marathon. I got done in < 45 minutes.

Gear:
Nothing / no belt

Olympic-Style Front Squats:
185 x 3
225 x 3
245 x 3
265 x 3 (10 lbs PR)

Felt easy

Close-Grip Flat Bench:
225 x 3
275 x 1
315 x 1
325 x 1 (+INFINITY PR)

Ridiculously easy. I've never maxed out on close-grip.

Rippetoe-Style Bent-Over Row:
155 x 5
205 x 5 (added the Jurgens 50)
225 x 5 (10 lbs PR)

All in all great session. Saw Dave deadlift 600 x 3, saw Brent do "OK", met Kyle and Brent's roommate. Also, reminded how small everyone at Wooden is.

Deadlift + OMNOMNOM

Sumo Deadlift: 205x5
255x5
265x5
275x3
295x3
315x3 (rest paused) (PR)

Sumo Rack Pull: 295x5
315x5
345xfail
295x2

High Pulls: 115x6
135x5
135x5 (snatch grip)
145x4 (snatch grip)

GHR: 6, 6, 8, 8

Banded Decline Abs: purple x 8, 8, 7, 5 + no band to failure

All in all a good session. Despite hand tears, grip was not a problem up until the later sets of Rack pulls. All Deadlifts done double overhand with no chalk (only duct tape on left hand for protection of raw skin - fixes everything).

On my heavy deadlifts I really felt my upper back rounding/chest sinking (ala Konstantinovs). Is this a bad thing?

In the sumo theme, my post workout meal constisted of 3 cups of brown rice, protein smoothie (75g gemma protein + 1lb frozen strawberries), turkey sandwich, and an apple.

Actual Deadlift Day

Throat is feeling nasty. This contributed to my strength according to the Jürgens-plan™.

Deadlift:
(some warm up sets)
535 x 1
595 x 3

Rack Pulls:
495 x 4 (sumo)
495 x 4 (conventional)
405 x fail lower back was not happy

Cleans:
115 x 5 (warm up)
165 x 5
165 x 5
165 x 5

Glute-ham Raises:
3 sets til failure
1 set w/ 25 plate til failure

Banded decline abs:
4 sets w/ purple band til failure

CARDIO/FLEXIBILITY

Cutting back on the off-day work. Only going to do one assistance day on Saturday from now on to keep me recovered. Hips feel pretty beat up and lower back is still shot.
- Prehab
- Squats on bosu ball
- Hip work on universal cable machine
- Hip abduction on machine
- Cardio 125-150 bpm x 20m
- Stretching
Skipped seated glute...I will do it occasionally with quads but it no longer feels tight.
- Flies w/ 10#
- Oblique/lat on pull-up bar
I tweaked something in the right lat/serratus/oblique. These felt tight all over, so I should probably do them again anyway.
- Hamstrings w/ bar hack squat position
These are a great stretch now that doing the normal "touch the toes" does nothing for me.
- Hip flexors w/ ball
- Adductors on machine
- Adductors standing
- Seated groin
- Gastroc on hack squat
- Soleus on machine
- Foam roll IT band

Stretching is a bit different than before, but probably still boring to read about.

I was shooting for 130bpm on the cardio, but it just kept going up to 150bpm by the end. Whatever.

9-24

Forgot to post. Deload week though, nothing very interesting.

power clean+push jerk 90/2+1 x 4 (70%)
snatch 72/2 x 4 (70%)
Back squat 95/5 (50%) 115/3 x 2 (60%)


Woo hoo.

BACK (to the future)

Scap Pulls: (warm-up) 5, 5, 5

T-Bar Rows (base weight was a 100lb plate and a 15KG weight...so ~3 plates): 3 plates x 10, 4 plates x 8, 5 x 5, 6 x fail, 5 x 5, 5 x 8, 5 and a quarter x 8, 5 x 10

Fat DB Rows: 90 x 10/10, 100 x 7/7, 70 x 20/20

Pull-ups: 4, 2, 7 (purple band assist)

And to finish, a superset of Cross-body Hammer Curls and Standing Calf Raises


Wednesday Weigh-in: 208lbs. Will be weighing myself every Wednesday to evaluate weight gain. A pound a week is reasonable and will add up quickly.

On a side note, I tore the skin on my left hand in two places so now I am applying Neosporin.

Very excited for deadlifts tomorrow.

Uppr backr

T-bar rows:
(the ones where you jam the barbell in the corner and use the parallel handle)
3 plates x 8
4 plates x 8
5 plates x 8
6 plates x 8
7 plates x 8
8 plates x 3 (brent got 6, so I did another)
8 plates x 3 (fail on 4)

Moral: Brent's upper back > David's upper back :'(

Fatbar Dumbbell Rows:
Kyle brought his fatbar plate-loaded handles

90 x 8 (per arm)
100 x 8
100 x 7
70 x 19

The grip on this thing is monstrous. For the 100x7, I had to readjust between every rep to keep holding on. Definitely a good workout.

Pull-ups:
We all 4 handles on the squat rack from outer to inner. (used Brent's awesome new chain belt)
plate x 5
plate x 6
plate x 9
plate x 8

Superset:
Incline Curls:
30 x 12
35 x 10
35 x 8
dropset: 35 x 7, 20 x 8

Standing Calf Raises:
(full stack; 300?)
50 reps
38 reps
35 reps
40 reps

SHEIKO WEEK #1; #2

Can't do oly lifts the day before deadlifts. Don't know whose stupid idea that was.
- Deadlift (sumo) 260x3 (50%), 315x5x2 (60%), 365x3x2
(70%), 390x3x3 (75%)
- Bench 150x5 (55%), 180x5 (65%), 195x4x4 (70%)
- Dips Bodyweight x8x5
- Deadlift from knees (rack pulls) 260x3 (50%), 315x4x2 (60%), 365x3x2
(70%), 415x3x3 (80%)
Arched entire back, didn't have upper back issues.
- Lunges 135x5x5
Didn't look down at feet, took a BIG step. These felt good.

I was supposed to meet Danny @ the gym today, but I went to dinner in Boston w/ friends and missed him. One bad thing about the Z-center is it closes at 11pm, so I blitzed through this workout in a little over an hour. My longest rest period were switching between chucks and wrestling shoes. These days I only wear the chucks for bench (oly shoes for squatting) and assistance.

Aslo, the same douche-fuck that was blocking the printer earlier made me go back upstairs and write down my program today. That guy is going to die.

Finally, my weight was 211 after the shower today. I am dehydrated, but that is unacceptable. Time for a huge meal. I think that this eating + possibly my training has led to a huge hormone boost. I judge this by a few factors: (1) acne spike, (2) increased intensity at the gym, (3) I pop a boner at anything that moves these days. It's awesome.

Books and Stuff

Here are some books I'd heavily recommend getting:

Starting Strength

The best book for teaching correct form on the lifts. It goes into extreme depth on all 5 basic compound lifts: Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift, Overhead Press and Power Clean. It is geared towards Novices, but since both Gary & I learned invaluable information from it, it can probably help you too.

The Strongest Shall Survive

Bill Starr is the Old Man of American strength, having Clean/Jerked well over 400 and pressed 300+ back in the late 60s. Don't let the title fool you, it's there to sell the book. What it really does is present an excellent intermediate-level lifting program that develops both absolute Strength and Power.

Practical Programming

The absolute best/most comprehensive book on modern periodization. More importantly, it lays out how a Novice/Intermediate/Advanced trainee should train, and how a Novice should not attempt to train like an Advanced lifter, since this results in sub-optimal gains per time.

The Purposeful Primitive

This book is mainly worth the price for its Iron Masters section, which profiles lifters such as Paul Anderson, Ed Coan and Kirk Karwoski. It lays out their training programs and mentalities. You will be extremely suprised at the differences in how world champions lift.

Also, here's some supplementary stuff information:
Starting Strength Wiki

Here is an article that is sort of the cliff notes to Practical Programming

DL solo session

So Mr. Tanaka is pretty much in Westwood now for school and I'm left partner less. Which sucks on push days, anyway. If you guys know anyone who trains and is in the area I'm down for whatever. I could get them into the gym no problem.

Training today was as follows:

Raw Sumo Deadlift
wu
275x5
315x5
365x5
405x5
455x1 + 2 Miss

When the weight starts to get tough my hands start to drag along my quads more and it gets me stuck. I'm not sure whether it is a form technicality or if baby powder is the answer. Other than that, the lifts felt good.

Banded Sumo DL for speed
135x5
185x5
225x5

Definately felt the burn in my lower back on these. Really tried to focus on ripping the weight off the floor while keeping form.

Adduction + Abduction Superset
10 x 4 each

Banded Hypers
10 x 4

Bench Day Bench

Bench:
275 x 5
285 x 5
285 x 5

Shoulders felt so-so. I think all that pressing on Sunday caught up with me with only 2 days rest

Close-grip pin presses:
275 x 5
315 x 5
335 x 5
365 x 5

Shoulder + pecs no bueno on these. Didn't feel like going heavy to risk it

Reverse banded quadded bench:
(just like what Phil and I did on Sunday)
Used the purples and greens. 225 stops 2" above the chest but is at full weight for the last 4". Pretty awesome.

225 x infinity
315 x 5
315 x 5
335 x fail, then 3 reps
345 x 3

Cable Triceps:
double pulley stack + purples over shoulder x 15
(then switched to lat pull down stack)
110 x 10
120 x 8
130 x 6
130 x 4

Transverse:
56? x some number
72 x 20?
82 x 8 + 16 second hold
72 x 12 + 10 second hold

Did some scap pulls in with the transverse.

I think I need to rework my bench split to take some of the pressure off my shoulders.

Crazy Benching

Well, tonight was basically trying to find out what doesn't beat the crap out of my left wrist and go with that.

Fat DB Bench: 60lbsx12, 70x12, 70x10, 90x Miss (3 times)

Rev. Grip Lockouts: 135x5, 185x5, 175x5, 185x3

Rev. Grip Rev. Band Press (purple): 135x5, 155x3, 165x3, 175x2

Tate Press (fat DB): 40x10, 40x10, 50x5, 50x7

Scap Pulls: 6, 6, 6, 6

Strange Transverse Ab Cable thing: repped out until I felt it and then held for 15 sec x 4

Thinking I just may convert to reverse grip and work on that for a while (learn the groove, get strong, etc.)

And as for Phil's suggestion, I am working on it. If all goes well I should be able to get to at least 230 by the end of spring quarter (although 245 would be nice).

OLY/REHAB/FLEXIBILITY

- Oly
My goals for today were to the train the points Jake gave me: drop on snatches; keep back same angle until legs extended; shoulders in front of bar for cleans; jerk up, not back; larger split on jerk. My main concern with today is my back got very tired from catching the weight out of a snatch. I need a solution for this other than just dropping & restarting every rep.
- Drop snatches 20x5x2, 40x5x3
These were to get me dropping and warm-up.
- Hang snatches 40x3x5
These felt good, except I'm not sure I'm getting the "pop" through the hips. But I was definitely catching the weight lower than usual.
- Snatches off 6 block 40x3x3
I can build blocks out of these enormous lego-things. These were kind of awkward to set up properly, but they felt pretty good once I had that somewhat figured out.
- Full snatch 40x3x2
I discovered that the reason I was shooting hips up is because the bar was too close. If I move it out, I don't seem to have a rounded back at the start, either.
- Cleans off 6 block 40x3x4
These were basically hang cleans, maybe higher even. I dropped very low to catch these and focused on shoulder position and extension. I don't know how well I accomplished these goals, though.
- Jerks 40x3x5
I did the first 2 sets focusing on a big lunge. Then I did 2 sets focusing on jerking back/up. I realized that if I move forward on the platform so I'm not worried about going off backward, I seem to jerk up without any extra cues. I judge this because I didn't feel the need to step forward.
Jerks are still awful, though.
- Full snatch 40x2
A couple more for fun.
- Rehab
- Hyperextensions 50, 15
To get blood in my lower back. Second set was cramping, so I stopped.
- Kickbacks on disk 20x2
- Single-leg squats 8x2 on disk, 5 on ground
* Flexibility
I'm so much more flexible than the beginning of the summer, its ridiculous.

Min-Volume Week #1

Gear:
Nothing / no belt

Back Squat:
Everything up to 315 x 2 Shoulder Stance

Wide Stance:
365 x 1
385 x 1
415 x 1 (10 lbs PR)

Rippetoe-Style Standing Overhead Press:
135 x 5
155 x 5
195 x 5

Ludicrously easy.

Power Cleans:
135 x 3
185 x 3
215 x 3 x 2 (3 sets of 2 reps)

Form was pretty wonky today, couldn't seem to snap my elbows up correctly.

Standing Ab Pull:
160 x 8 (1 rep PR)

Ludicrous Lifts

World Record Clean & Jerk

I believe that's the heaviest period, across all weight classes.

The Big Boys Squat

Borenko is insanely fast. I bet he has a huge vertical jump.

Big Pulls

SHEIKO WEEK #1; #1 + MY LIFE IN AGONIZING DETAIL

- Bench 150x4 (55%), 165x3 (60%), 195x3 (70%),
205x3x4 (75%)
- Squat 210x5 (50%), 250x5 (60%), 290x5x4 (70%)
- Bench 150x4 (55%), 165x4x2 (65%), 195x4x4
(70%)
- Flies 30x10x5 (10%)
- Good mornings 165x5x5 (40%)

Well, Sheiko Dave's e-mail crashed so I couldn't get my program before today. So Dean gave me his workout for today and I just used the % to compute the weights. Since we follow the same split and are training for the same meet starting at the same time, I think it should work.

Rene and Danny were there today. Danny finished right after I showed up and just followed me around commenting on my technique and various other powerlifting things. He said I looked better with a wide stance squat, which my history suggests doesn't work for me raw. Maybe I should give it another try at some point and be more strict about my hips, knees. He also said I should take 2-5 secs to lower the weight -- very controlled. He said if the weight is heavy, there will be no rebound. He is a multi-ply lifter so I hesitate to take his advice whole-hog. In fact, since my squat has been doing so well lately, I doubt I will change anything.

He had some good bench advices w.r.t. leg drive and pulling the shoulders back. I will try to incorporate this into my routine. I've never really used my legs in the bench, so its good to have someone help me figure it out. He suggested a Phil-style set-up, keeping feet fixed on ground and pushing the body down while arching, then lowering the ass and holding the set up very tight throughout the lift.

IN OTHER NEWS: We had a student workshop today. The presentations were very detailed and poorly delivered, so me, my lab mate, and two girls from the lab ditched after lunch and went to the beach. Then we went to a bar. Then we came back for the lobster dinner. Then we left early, drove back (while doing sing-a-long in the car), and I went to the gym.

ALSO, FOOD: Today I had a light breakfast, then went to the buses. There I had an egg/bagel sandwich and a juice. Then I snacked on bars through the morning presentation. Then I ate two sandwiches, a banana, three oranges, two pickles, and a bag of chips for lunch. Then I had a big steak quesadilla at the bar. Then I had two steaks, two salads, potatoes and clam chowder at dinner. Then I ate a pre-workout meal. I'm about to hit the post work-out meal. Weight is at 215. I will start my diet on Oct 15th, 1 month out from the meet.

New Guy's First Session

well, first lifting session with David today.

Back Squats: 225x5, 225x5 (help on 2 &4), 225x5(help on 2, 4, &5) <- dont know what was up with these

Reverse Band Squats (green band): 275x6, 315x4, 365x2(the last one was a real grind, but I got it)

Banded Box Squat (greens, 15" box): barx6, 135x1, 95x4, 115x4, 115x3, 95x5

45* Back Raises: purple band x fail x 2

Scap Pulls: 10, 8, 8, 6

A very good lifting session, and I look forward to many more.

RDE Squat Day

Trained with one of the new guys today, Kyle Ransom. He did really well and I think he's going to easily put a few hundred pounds on his total this quarter, which is awesome.

Back squat:
405 x 5
425 x 5
435 x 5

Whoooo. That heavy-chains cycle must've fixed something because squatting has never felt easier. My sticking point out of the hole is much stronger now. Also one of the guys in boston commented that my wrists looked bent when I was doing box squats. I narrowed my grip today by 2" and it felt much better. The bar feels really locked in and I didn't even have to use wrist wraps!

Reverse banded squat:
We used the greens.
495 x 5
545 x 5
585 x 3

Measured after the workout, it's ~75 at the top and ~135 at the bottom

Box squats:
Did these band resisted using the greens

225 x 4
225 x 4
225 x 4
275 x 4
315 x 4

Hyper extensions
~50 reps w/ green
(drop set:)
30 reps w/ green + purple, 10 reps w/ green, 20 reps with nothing

Finished with some sub-scap pulls

9-22

Snatch 72/3 (70%) 82/2 x 4 (80%)
Clean and jerk 90/1 x 3 (70%)
Clean pull below knee 102/3 x 4 (80%)
Back Squat 115/5 (60%) 135/3 x 2 (70%)

Max Exhaustion Bench

(with Phil on Saturday)

I was in Austin, TX Sunday to Thursday, back in Boston on Friday and then back to LA with a 6am flight. Total sleep for the week: ~30 hours. I slept from 1:30-3am on Saturday morning, so this workout was awesome

Bench:
Warming up:
275 x 3
315 x 1

Reverse-bands quadded greens bench
315 x 5
335 x 2
335 x 2
315 x 5
315 x 4

(Phil did shirt work, and I did these when not spotting)
Dumbbell bench:
(done with feet up, for stability training)
95 x 8
95 x 11
95 x 11
95 x 10

Skull Crushers
120 x 10
140 x 10
150 x 8
150 x 6

(supersetted with:)
Chest-supported rows:
4 plate x 6
4 plates + 10 x 5
4 plates + 10 x 5
4 plates + 10 x 5

Cable Flyes:
(per arm)
50lbs x 15
60lbs x 12
60lbs x 10
50lbs x 15

Decline, band-resisted abs
2 sets w/ purples,
3 sets w/ greens

Dave & Phil Benching Marathon (ME Uppder Body)

I picked up Dave at the airport this morning. Dave had like 1 hour of sleep. Fortunately, we had Indian food from Hurry Curry.

Band-Lightened* Flat Bench:
*double-looped, non-choked green bands. This makes it like a ton directly off the chest, and it immediately stops supporting like an inch off the chest. Ludicrous.

315 x 1 x 5
335 x 2 x 2 (sooooo hard; both Dave and I attempted third reps and failed)
365 x 1 x 1 (slow, but got it)

Shirted* Flat Bench:
*Inzer Rage X

365 x 4 x 1. I missed the first rep because I got out of the groove, got all the others. THe point of doing this after the primary work and tired is to get lesser weight to touch. So that worked, since it got easier and easier to get the damn weight to touch on the chest.

Skullcrushers:
Ez-Curl Bar + 110, 1 x 8
Ez-Curl Bar + 120, 1 x 7

I don't know what the Ez-Curl Bar weighs; 25? 35? Something

Chest-Supported Row:
4 plates + 10, 3 x 5

Band-Resisted* Decline Bench Ab Crunch:
*Green bands
Dave suggested these. Normally the decline bench abs are a joke, but using bands made it worth doing.

OLY/UPPER BACK/FLEXIBILITY + *VIDEOS*

- Oly
- Hang snatch 40x3x4, 50x3, 50x2
- Full snatch 50x1x3, 50x0
- Cleans 60x3x3
- Jerks 60x3x2
- Pull-ups BWx5, 25x5, 45x5, 70x3, 25x8
- Pulldown abs 150x10
I showed Rene these, he'd never done them before. He was being a pretzy with 80 lbs, so I showed him how to do them.
- Stretching
All the same as last time, except soleus as usual and...
- Standing adductor
Added these because adductor/hamstring insertion into knee was aggravated.

I've eaten a shit ton today. I woke up and had a snack. Then went to Indian buffet with roomies and had 2.5 plates. Then I had a big meal before lifting. And now I'm about to eat two chicken breasts and half a pack of riceroni. Weight was 210 this morning, 213 after the gym (dehydrated for both, then).

Its COLD here.

VIDEOS:

I figured I could be cool like Jake and list all my oly weights in kilos. Obviously all these weights are light. I'm just trying to learn the form.

As always, I left the gym today having a bunch of fun and feeling really healthy. It's a bit of a problem that I look forward to my rehab days more than the my Sheiko ones ... that's OK though, the novelty will wear off soon, and it's good to have something to motivate me through the *boring* stretching.

I have to say I've come a long way on the snatch. A month ago, 50 kilos would be quite challenging for me to keep balanced in an overhead squat. I still have a ways to go, but I'm happy that I overcame the first learning curve.

By the way, if you any of you feel that you have too much skin on your thumbs, I've found a great remedy: hook grip hang snatches.

(1) Hang Snatch 40x3
(2) Hang Snatch 50x2+FAIL With all of these, I would hit the set perfectly right before we filmed and then I'd fuck it up on camera. Oh, well. All of the snatches failed just coz of balance, which I guess is expected.
(3) Full Snatch 50x1 Rene said my first few full snatches looked like I wasn't getting any pop through the hips. I did a few that he said were great before filming this one. This one he said was "better" but not as good as the previous ones.
(4) Full Snatch 50x0 ...so, we tried again. And I missed it. Maybe the pull through the hips was better on this one, but I fucked it up so w/e.
(5) Cleans 60x4
(6) "Jerk" 60x3 At least what pass for jerks from me. All there is to say is that there's a reason you film these things...

Comments + constructive criticism are appreciated. From everyone, but I mostly care what Jake says.

By the way, Google video >> youtube.

7 days before testing

Snatch 72/2 (70%) 82/2 (80%) 92/1 x 5 (90%)
I got 92, then for like 15 minutes I tried to snatch it again and couldn't - I just kept deadlifting it. Couldn't get my head in the game. Then I just switched on or something and got 4 in a row that were good.
Snatch pull 102/2 x 2 (100%) 105/2 x 2 (102%)
power clean 90/3 (70%) 102/2 x 2 (80%)
Percents based off of best clean and jerk
Back Squat 125/4 (65%) 142.5/3 x 3 (75%)

I don't know if it was that I worked out at 8am or what, but this day felt pretty heavy. The next 3 days are really light though, so I should be well rested for Saturday.

SHEIKO CONDITIONING WEEK/CARDIO

- Bench 135x5 (50%), 165x4x2 (60%), 195x3x3 (70%)
- Flies 30x10x3 (10%)
- Squat 205x5 (50%), 250x4x2 (60%), 290x3x3 (70%)
Same weights as Monday, but all of these felt great, very explosive. This week off was definitely a good thing.
- Dips Bodyweight x8x3
- Good mornings 165x5x3 (40%)
- Cardio 160 bpm x ~20 mins
The gym has this sweet bike machine where you basically play a video game racing against other virtual bikers. It's surprisingly motivating. They have terrain and shit so the resistance changes and you have to change gears, steer, etc.. You can also race against your best time on a track.

Starting the real thing next Monday ... and hopefully getting some oly vids tomorrow or Sunday.

Squat Day

More work with bands... fun fun. Not sure what resistance the bands are. They're an olive green color.

Band-resisted Box Squats
wu
225x5
275x5
295x5

Band-assisted Squats
315x5
405x5
495x2
495x1
500x1

Power Cleans
135x4
155x4
185x4
205x4

Hang Clean
185x4
185x4
155x4

OLY/REHAB/FLEXIBILITY

- Oly
I really like these and they leave me feeling very healthy.
- Hang snatch 44x5, 88x3x5
I did these with as little dip before the pull as possible. Would catch with a half-squat, then go the full squat and back up. I'm feeling pretty good about snatches... Just need more practice keeping the weights light.
Also working on my hook grip, my thumb feels awesome.
- Full snatch 88x2x2
These messed me up a bit and I felt less stable. I can see why some people say to initially pull slowly.
- Clean and jerk 132x2x4
These felt worse than my snatches, actually. I felt like I wasn't cleaning forward, and having to lean forward to clean it up. I also have NO dip on the jerk unless I really concentrate.
- Rehab
- Side kicks on disk
- Single-leg squats on disk
First time doing these on the disk. Didn't feel too bad, I'll keep them up.
- Stretching
- Back arch on ball
- Foam roll IT band
- Seated groin
- Seated glute
- Bent-knee hip flexors
I had switched to the standard hip flexor stretch a few weeks back. My hips felt bad lately, and I really felt them on this stretch. Definitely keeping this one.
- Gastroc on hack squat
Skipped soleus today, some pretzy was using machine.
- Hamstring w/ bar
- Back on cable row
- Adductors on machine

Jake -- do you have tips on the C&J? I really wanted to get a video today but Rene wasn't there. I'll do it next time he's in. I've realized that Jake might be right about me getting into oly. I just like the lifts so much, and theres no depth calls, no press command, etc. -- just fucking lift it. My current theory is I could switch to oly for a few months after raw nationals '09 and do a meet w/ Jake, then switch back. Would be a good break from PL without actually detraining. But it's all talk at this point, I'm still awful at the lifts.

I got my chalk today. I finally understand what Dave and Phil are talking about. One of the blocks will last me a year, and they send you like 10 blocks. For $10. So .... if anyone is near Boston and wants some chalk, let me know.

1000 lbs Squat

If you're curious what it looks like.

Note the blood everywhere.

THE STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD

DO NOT DOUBT HIM

HE IS STEVE JUSTA

HE WROTE THIS BOOK, HOW DARE YOU DOUBT HIM

9-18

P. Sn 72/2 x 4
C&J 90/2+1 102/1 x 2 105/1 107/1
Jerk 102/2 115/1 x 2, 117/1 x 2, 120/1 miss
Cl. pull 130/2 x 4
B. Sq 125/4 142.5/4 x 3

ME Lower Body

Band-Lightened Conventional Deadlift:
Measured about 55 lbs off the bottom

Gear:
Belt

429 x 1
451 x 1
473 x FAIL (right above knees)
473 x 1

Must be tired. I wanted to take a crack at 495 on this setup, but no go.

Took off belt.

Olympic-Style Front Squats:
Worked up to 253 x 3

Good Mornings:
187, 3 x 8

Sucks that I was tired for deadlifts, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Upper Back and Bis

V-Bar Rows:
2 plates X 10
3 plates X 8
4 plates X 8
5 plates X 8
6 plates X 7
7 plates X 6

Weighted Chins (underhand grip):
bodyweight X 8
45lb X 8
70lb X 6 (3 sets)
90lb X 3 (failed 4th rep)

Dumbell Rows:
80lb X 15 each arm
95lb X 15
105lb X 15
110 X 12 (started losing grip on left hand)

Wide Grip Lat Pulldown:
4 sets

Hammer Curls:
40lb X 8 each arm
50lb X 8 (2 sets)
60lb X 6 (2 sets)

Preacher Curls:
4 sets

Good Speed Deadlift/Squat Examples

Hey, 500+ lbs is speed work, right?

SHEIKO CONDITIONING WEEK/CARDIO

- Deadlift (sumo) 260x5 (50%), 315x4x2 (60%), 365x3x3 (70%)
Tried to get a lot of speed on these since it's so light. Right callus is still fucked so I had to go with straps. Chalk should get here this week, thankfully.
- Incline bench 195x4x3 (70%)
The only time I ever do incline during the Sheiko cycle, and we do reps at 70% of flat bench 1RM. This is supposed to be a rest week...wtf.
- Dips Bodyweight x8x3
- Lunges 135x5x3
I did these on the platform by cleaning then doing them with no supports. It was pretty bad ass.
- Cardio - sprints on bike 150-155 bpm x 15 mins
The way I do these is choose some difficulty that gets me up to ~160 bpm in a 45-sec sprint or so (starting from ~145). Then I sprint at that difficulty until I hit 155 bpm on the monitor. I quickly drop it to half the difficulty and stay there until it goes back down below 150 bpm. Because the machine lags, my reading will go up to ~157-158 before coming back down, and because I start sprinting it very quickly goes back up to 155. So I stay around 155 the whole time.

I haven't been sleeping well at all lately. I was very tired all day. But then I got 6 40# packages from home today, one of which had my guitar, and I played my guitar for a bit. This got me super pumped before I went to the gym and I was ripping them off the floor at like ∞ mph.

DE Upper Body

Speed Flat Bench:
190 + green bands resisting, 8 x 3
240 + green bands resisting, 1 x 2

The 240 x 2 was pretty easy. Considering that I hit 245 x 1 last time we did this as a ME exercise (with Gary & Dave failing at 225), that's some improvement.

For Steve/Brent/Dean, here's what the set-up looks like:




Rippetoe-Style Standing Overhead Press:
190, 3 x 5 (3 sets of 5 reps)
215, 2 x 1 (2 singles)

Pull/Chin-ups:
Bodyweight + 15 lbs, 5/5/4+1/3+2/3 (23)

Hanging Leg Raises + Arm Stretches:
Sets of 5 + whatever, 4 sets each

Kindergarten Notes

Is anyone else following Dave Tate's Kindergarten Notes that are in his training log? They are fucking hilarious and I highly recommend them.

Deadlifting for Speed

So I got a hold of some bands. My cousin who is on the UCLA baseball team was able to grab me a pair from their gym. They're green and huge, not quite sure how much resistance they give. How do you guys go about figuring that out? Anyway. Here it goes.

Banded Sumo Deadlift for Speed
wu
275x5
315x5
365x5
225x10

These were probably one of the most fun training sessions I have had in a while. It was tough as balls locking it out towards the end. My grip was starting to rub on my thighs, thus giving me more resistance and a sweet looking rash. Any pointers on how to aviod that or at least reduce the friction? I ended up just baby powdering my thighs. It helped a little.

Sumo DL for Time
465x3.2

Tried deadlifting once every 15 secondsx4. It was tough, but it felt good. Completely failed on the 4th rep. Probably 3 inches off the ground. Waited another 30seconds or so and tried again. Got it just above the knee and failed. Normally, I would not have done that, but Dave's deadlifting video of his multiple 600 pulls inspired me to kick my own ass.

Zercher Rack Pulls
315x5
405x5
495x5
545x5

We weren't quite sure on what else to do to work on speed for deadlifting. But bands were definitely fun. Pretty excited to see what squating or benching is going to be like.

9-16

Power snatch 72/2 x 4
Snatch 72/3 82/2 x 2 85/2 x 2 87/2
Sn. Pu. 92/3 102/2 x 3 105/2 x 2
P. Cl. 90/3 x 5
B. Sq. 115/3 x 4

Light day. I've been sleepy lately for no real reason but I suppose I'll keep sleeping as normal.

FLEXIBILITY/UPPER BACK

- Dumbbell row 70x12, 100x10, 120x12x3
Used straps for right hand on last few set.s
- Farmer's hold 120 x 20s x 2, 100 x 20s x 2, 25 bumper plates x 30s
I did these because I'm using straps on deadlift until the chalk I ordered arrives. They were difficult. Grip was dead for the rest of today.
- Pull-ups 12, 10, 12
- Power snatch/overhead squat 88x1/5x3
- Hang snatch 45x5
These seem to be a good way for me to practice getting under the bar. My problem seems to be rotating it behind me from a squat position.
- Stretching
- Soleus on machine
- Gastroc on hack squat
- Adductor on machine
- Upper back on pulldown, cable row
- Hamstrings w/ bar
- Seated groin
- Glutes
- Quads
- Hip flexors
- Foam roller

Rene was doing ME bench. He's having the elbow/bicep tendonitis. I gave him a few tips: rest, forearm wraps, volume biceps, ibuprofen. I know Dave and I had this problem before. Dave, do you remember anything else we did that helped? I don't have the problem any more but I can't isolate one thing I did that fixed it.

METAL IPF gear on massive sale

Get 'Er Done

I ordered:
- Metal Viking Deadlifter (48)
- Metal Viking Bencher (56)
- Metal Viking Squatter (46)

Of course, these sizes are just guesstimations. Elite has a great return policy, so whatever.

DE Lower Body

Gear:
None (that means no belt, Nathans <3)

Below Parallel Box Squats:
280 + green bands resisting, 7 x 2
325 + green bands resisting, 1 x 1
335 + green bands resisting, 1 x 1

These felt awkward and slow at first, since I was wide-stance. I shifted to a narrower stance to use the quads to launch off, worked good. I would conjecture that my hips are not 100% recovered from maxing out on wide-stance squats :)

Power Cleans:
210, 5 x 3 (5 sets of 3 reps, Dave)

These were ridiculously easy for some reason.

Standing Ab Pull + 45" Back Raise:
140 x 5 supersetted with Bodyweight x 10, respectively, 5 sets each

Ab strength was pretty gassed by this point, probably because of all the squatting, so just went for volume.

No jumps since the area where you do them was closed off :'(

BOSTON WEATHER

Yesterday: Raining, humid, foggy

Today: Sunny, 86 degrees.

Tomorrow: Sunny, 68 degrees.

What the fuck... At least the rest of the week should be consistent.

SHEIKO CONDITIONING WEEK/CARDIO

- Bench 135x5 (50%), 165x4x2 (60%), 195x3x3 (70%)
- Squat 210x5 (50%), 250x4x2 (60%), 290x3x3 (70%)
- Flies 30x10x3 (10%)
- Good mornings 165x5x3 (40%)
- Cardio on bike ~155 bpm for 20 mins

I ate an entire large pizza at this gourmet pizza place before going. Since it's a light week, I decided I'd better so some cardio before I went home. I got up to 165 bpm by the end of it.

Fun With Rankings

Hot Or Not?

ALso, Dean/Brent/Steve/Kevin, please get as strong as this guy.

Bench

Bench Press:
135 X 7
185 X 5
225 X 5
255 X 4 (failed 5th rep)
255 X 4

Close Grip Bench:
205 X 5
225 X 5
235 X 5
245 X 3

Flat Dumbell Press:
85lb X 7
95lb X 6
95lb X 7
105lb X 3

Incline Skull Crushers:
35lb on each side X 10
45lb on each side X 10
50lb on each side X 8
50lb on each side X 6

Cable Press Down:
170 X 10 (4 sets)

Standing Ab Pull:
6 sets

Saturday

I'll be in Westwood this weekend. It's shirt work time. Time to make some weight move.

Also, Dean-o, what day do you need me to be there for the UCLA Club Sports fair? Any other day than Friday-Sunday is going to be tough (work and all).

Opinions Please

What do you guys think of this supplement? Steve, Kevin, myself, and others we train with have all used it and all like it a lot. I just want to make sure I'm not killing myself with it.

I think it's similar to N.O. Xplode? I have tried N.O. Xplode before as well, but this stuff seems to work a lot better...

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/dym/enxpand.html

Last heavy day

Power snatch 72/2 x 2 (70%) 82/1 x 2 (80%)
C&J 95/1 x 2 (75%) 107/1 x 2 (85%) 117/1 x 2 (90%)
Cl. pu. 117/2 x 4 (90%)
Back Squat 125/4 (65%) 161/4 x 4 (85%)


The first 3 exercises were pretty easy and I naied all of them. I couldn't squat after though because doing them after heavy clean and jerks messes me up. When you clean you drop hard into the hole and explode out, whereas a squat is MUCH slower out of the hole and a much less pronounced bounce. I always find that I dive too fast when I squat after cleans and can't get out of the hole. Also, the change in weight is huge (117->125->161) which doesn't help.

I moved them to tonight and got them all in a second workout.

Also, I like Nathan's percentage labeling so I'll do that too.

Bench Training

So after about of being sick, not eating enough, and weak I'm finally back in the gym. I tried to DL Tuesday, only to be pissed off and sick. I pulled 525x1 and did some box squats 255x2x10. Anyway, feeling about 90% better and was able to get in a decent session in today.

Bench Press (wrists wrapped)
wu
275x5
295x5
315x3 + 2 forced

6in Board Press (wrists wrapped)
315x5
345x4
365x1 +2forced

Could have hit 2 on 365, but my set up was crap so I was off balance. Hit the 2nd rep easy, then was pretty much shot on my 3rd.

Incline Bench Press (Pause at bottom)
135x5
185x5
205x4 +1
225x4 +1

Standing Cable Flyes
3x10

side note: My dad was training with me and was out repping me. Hes 44 and around 185lbs. Going to try to get him in a shirt and see what he can do. Hah!

FLEXIBILITY/REHAB/OLY

- Power snatch/drop snatch 88x1/5x4
Drop snatches are getting better.
- Clean and jerk 88x3x4
Full clean, jerks felt better. Very light weight though, so doesn't mean anything.
- Balance
- Single-leg squats on bosu ball 10x2
- Kickbacks on disk 20x2
- Side twists on ground 8x2
Taking a step back because balance has been difficult on these lately.
- Stretching
- Hamstrings w/ bar
- Glutes
- Seated groin
- Hip abductors
- Upper back on cable row
- Gastroc on hack squat
- Soleus on machine
- Adductor on machine
- Foam roll
- Ice knees

Danny was there today doing curls with 95kg (209#) for reps. We talked about the random rehab shit I was doing and he had an interesting perspective. He said that he thought doing random shit like this was no more effective than going for a walk, and he thought that having light days in the gym was bad psychologically. He only goes to the gym for heavy lifting, so when he gets in the gym he's always max intensity ready to lift. This makes a lot of sense to me, but I really need the gym resources right now for the stretching and rehab-specific exercises.

It's extremely foggy and cloudy right now. It rained earlier today, which was awesome. The only downside is that it is ridiculously humid. It makes 70-degree weather feel like 85 degrees if you do any kind of physical activity.

Forget regular powerlifting

Just curl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG1mp6E04hM

Squatting

Squat:
warm up
315 X 5
325 X 5
325 X 5

Front Squat:
135 X 8
185 X 6
225 X 6
245 X 5
185 X 15

Lunges:
135 X 6 each leg
185 X 6
205 X 6
205 X 6

Hack Squat:
3 plates X 10
3 plates X 10
3 plates + 25lb X 8

MAX EFFORT CARDIO (part deux)

I decided to bike all the way around Martha's Vineyard today. This is roughly the route I took minus a 1-2 mile detour in the beginning from me getting lost right off the ferry. The longest I'd ever biked before this was around 30 miles, so I thought maybe it would be reasonable.

However, you'll notice in the route that there's this long stretch between Chilimark and Edgartown. I was traveling from Edgar town on my way, and I noticed that there happened to be a convenient bike back next to the road, so I took it. Half way there, the bike path forked north. Some people had stopped so I asked them if it went somewhere else or came back to this road. He showed me this map that showed the path going all the way to Chilimark. He showed me a map of lies. The bike path ended up going through the middle of this state park and dumped me back farther than I had been before. It started raining during this detour, so for around 90 minutes I found myself alone, wet and in the middle of nowhere. Total cost ~16 extra miles. wrecked. I was pretty miffed after I discovered this. Luckily dude who was passing by helped point me in the right direction again. By the time I got out to the western end of the island, my legs were fully cramping. I had to stop twice to try to uncramp them. A part of this was due to the hilliness of that area. I thought it would all be flat, but instead it was full of hills - and I am horrible at uphills. I nearly bit it a few times from running off the pavement on these.

I finally got to the sweet lighthouse at Aquinna and got a delicious lobster roll there just as the lady was closing up shop. Then it was a 20 mile trek back to the ferry. after 45 miles of biking prior, those 20 were easy. The only hard part was the seat :( Riding for that long is ... uncomfortable to say the least. Also my shoulders and lower traps started cramping from trying to keep my chest up. Then my hands and feet went numb and eventually my legs, aside from the cramping.

I'm guessing it was 60-65 miles total for the day. Around 6 hours of biking, which comes to ~10mph. On the flat stretches I was doing around 15. On the slow, it was much worse. I also spend some time wandering through the towns at first. The last 20 ended up being a reverse split of sorts, as once everything went numb, I averaged around 14.

It ended up being a pretty good day to bike. I'm feeling decent now, though this is probably due to a large coffee I got on the way home. For a while after I finsihed I was freezing and shivering? I have to catch an 8am plane flight, so it will be a small miracle if I manage to get there in time.

TEST DAY

I've decided to reset my training to peak on the date of the Nov. USAPL meet. If I get the grant, then my training will be right for it. If not, I will just max on the same day and try to hit my attempts anyway. This is also my first time maxing raw in a VERY long time. Rene was there to help with spots/lift-offs. Also note that I followed no type of peaking program for today except one more day of rest, so these numbers are not really maximal in the competition sense.

Squat: 385x1, 405x1, 415x1

As you probably know, I've had a lot of trouble with my squat in the past year or so. Last fall I hit 405 raw, and then I had form issues, then my adductor/knee problems, and my squat was all over the place. About two months ago I re-tooled my squat form, and suffered the inevitable decrease in performance. It looks like my squat is back in good shape.

Rene said that 415 looked easier than 405. I had no major form problems on any attempts, and I left 10-20# on the bar. I'm a big believer in not failing during training, especially with my squat which has had confidence issues in the past.

This is a 10# PR over my best raw squat, 8# better than my (equipped) squat in the March meet. I also hit 425 a few months back with straps down, so I feel very good about my squat relative to previous performance. My next target is 200kg.

Bench: 265x1, 275x1

The 275 was the heaviest lift of the day, as I kind of expected. It wasn't my slowest rep ever, though (297 in March was). Only reasons to believe I might be good for 285 are: (1) I didn't peak, and (2) my left shoulder is totally fucked from a tetanus shot that I had yesterday, but this didn't seem to affect my lifting much. I think 275 is a good working max. It is also a 20# PR over the last time I maxed raw, but that was 2 years ago (I think)... It also means I'm only getting 20# out of my bench shirt. That needs to be fixed.

Sumo deadlift: 455x1, 495x1, 520x1

I only include the 455 because it was the slowest rep of these. I pulled a Dean and didn't take it seriously, so it came off the floor pretty slow. I was good for 530, maybe more.

Also, for all of the deadlifts I had to use straps because I tore my callus off on Wed and its still raw. I also don't have any chalk. I actually think this hurt my lifts, because it totally killed my set up. I've never had any grip issues on maximal deadlifts, so I think these numbers are legit.

This means I get ~50-60# out of my suit. That's a pretty good number.

Conventional deadlift: 495x1

The heaviest deadlift. I tried conventional to see if I should switch over, but Rene said my back didn't look good on this rep. (It looked good for the others, though -- fuck yeah.) Since form is an issue and I'm stronger sumo, I'm not going to switch.

------

So what does this mean? I went 415/275/520 = 1210 which is class I raw status. So suck on that, Jake. Your turn to catch up. I'm sure I could hit these weights in competition barring some dumb technical disqualification. So my new goal is to match my March total RAW -- 1256. My plan is 430/280/546. It's a realistic but tough goal, and if I don't get it in November, I'll get it at the next one.

I think that pretty much sums it up.

On track

Snatch 72/2 82/2 92/1 x 2 97/1 102/1 (missed first, got second) 105/1 (missed twice)
Got 100% and went for a record (what I'm going for in 2 weeks) and missed, but it was close
Sn. Pull 105/2 x 3 107/2
Power clean + Push jerk 90/1+2 x 4
Back Squat 120/3 152/3 x 4
Seated good morning 60/3 70/3 80/3
Slight twinge in the lower left back on the last set. Feels fine now.


Overall good workout. Would've been nice to hit 102 on the first try, but I got it. I feel good about 105 since I'm pretty sore right now from the last 2 workouts. Last really heavy workout is Sunday then just tapering down for the next test day (9-27).

I definitely feel ready to take on the workout if I have a full day of rest. Working out every other day really makes me anxious. I already want to go back to the gym and I just got home. I guess that's why I tend to overtrain: the feeling of CNS recovery makes me anxious to lift again and so I just go and burn myself out.

SE Bench

Flat Bench:
285, 5 x 3 (5 sets of 3)

Rippetoe-Style Bent-Over Row:
210, 3 x 5

Standing Overhead Dumbbell Press:
70s, 3 x 8

Edit: Err, guys that's not band-lightened, that's straight weight

Max Speed Day

My lower back is was at 95% which is great considering I couldn't squat with it on Monday. The hamstring still feels so-so, but held up. I think it was the chair I was sitting in at home. It had bad ergonomics and sometimes my hamstrings would get so sore sitting in it that I would end up kneeling. I've switched to sitting on the couch and everything is already feeling better

I took off from work early to go lift with the guys. They usually do banded box squats before I get there and I wanted to learn what I could while I was still around.

An old trick I learned from Bull is that if you have a sprained hamstring, you can put on your suit with the straps down (and no belt on the torso), and the tension of the suit legs will keep it fine. Keeping the straps down and unbelted doesn't add too much if anything since it's mostly just tension on the hips and hamstrings. I did this today and it held up well.

Box squats:
I did these off a 14" box with a 1" foam pad. It was probably right at parallel. I wanted to go lower, but I didn't want to stress the hamstrings too much just in case.

We used blue and green bands, which was a little intimidating. Steve (main guy) wouldn't say what it was. But after I talked to Dan and he thinks it was around 350 in tension at the top. I am glad I didn't know this when I stared.

(warm up)
45 (bar) + bands x 3
135 + bands x 3
225 + bands x 3 (I was informed after this that we were supposed to be doing doubles)
315 + bands x 3

315 was ok, but not fast enough for the work sets.
(work sets)
275 + bands x 3, four sets
315 + bands x 3

We only did 5 work sets total. I talked to Steve and he said that once the bands get really heavy, you have to drop the work sets low, otherwise it turns into too much of a max effort movement and the recovery takes too long. Tom did just the blue bands and he did 8 sets, so that gives me some reference.


Super banded deadlifts:
This is a tough exercise. First, we use the banded deadlift platform with quadded minis. Then we put that inside a squat rack and loop purples around the sides of the rack like a barrier for when the bar comes up. The bar hits them just as you just as you get to the knees, which makes it bruuutal.

135 x 2 (I underestimated the top part and nearly lost it on the first rep)
225 x 2

At this point Steve starts calling out Dan on the fact that I'm keeping up with him. Something like "are you going to let some young punk who's 50lbs lighter than you deadlift more than you?" So now we have a competition.

315 x 2
315 x 2
315 x 2

I up the ante:

365 x 0 after which I immediate get super pissed off, yell "FUCK THAT" and go
365 x 2

Dan then ups it one further and gets 405, so I go
405 x 1
405 x 1

This shit is heavy. We both try 425 but fail. I am somewhat amazed that I didn't destroy my back or blow out my hamstring during this.

I then took the suit bottoms off and immediately my hamstring starts pulsating with awesomeness or pain. I guess Bull was right about it protecting, haha.

Reverse Hypers:
hamstring is in too much pain to load up, so I stretch out with
2 plates x failure, 4 sets

Hanging leg raises:
2 sets x failure
2 sets where I go til failure, rest for 3 seconds then go again.

It was an exhausting workout.

done.

Okay, so if you know or met any guys (or girls) interested in UCLA Club Powerlifting or...Strength...or whatever, then be sure to post it on the blog as a new post, not as a comment (or it might be missed).

the most crucial information:

Name (spelled right)
e-mail address (again, spelled right please)

phone number (not as crucial)


and if you have this info:

affiliation (law student? 2nd year undergrad? etc.)
weight
squat
bench
deadift
total



...anything else i should be getting down? i'm putting an excel spreadsheet together. so far, we have 2.

TEAM GOAL: get the list up to 15 by next Friday

Recruitment

K,

So to go along with Dean-o finding more people, I suggest that somebody (hopefully not me) take the responsibility of keeping track of people interested/contacting them/making sure that they know what the hell is going on. For example, I know at least two people have contacted Dave over the summer and I haven't heard anything more about that. SO, I think we need to be a lot better about getting the word out.

I vote Dean-o, since he's on campus.

Possibilities...

MIT has a grant for non-academic activities. I'm applying to see if I can get funding to go to the November USAPL meet. (I would compete.) I'll probably just roll in at 220, compete RAW, and try to set some PRs...that is, if this happens at all.

ME Lower Body

Gear:
Inzer HD groove briefs
Belt
Knee sleeves

Non-Choked Reverse Green-Band Back Squat:
~90 off in the hole

Work sets:
525 x 1
540 x 1
573 x 1 (11 lbs/5 kg PR)
584 x almost

After reviewing the (shitty camera phone) video of the 584, it looks like Mike had to tap me a little on the lats to get me going after I slowed down out of the hole. But damn close. I'll count 578 as my max on this lift.

Took off all gear (so no belt)

8" Block Conventional Pulls:
Worked up to 385 x 5 double overhand (train that grip!)

Good Mornings:
166 x 3 x 8

Those squats take forever to build up to that weight, no wonder MIke Tuchscherer spends like 3 hours in the gym on just 3 exercises.

Bench

Bench Press:
135 X 7
185 X 4
225 X 2
245 X 1
275 X 1 (PR)
275 X 1
225 X 9 (failed on 10th rep)

Incline Dumbell Press:
80 X 8
90 X 7
100 X 5
100 X 5

Weighted Dips:
45lb X 8
90lb X 8
135lb X 8
150lb X 5

Incline Close Grip Bench:
135 X 8
155 X 6
185 X 3 (failed on 4th)
185 X 3 (failed on 4th)

Flat Skull Crushers:
3 sets

Transversus Crunches:
15 reps (1 set)
20 reps (2 sets)
25 reps (2 sets)

Standing Ab Pull:
15 reps (1 set)
10 reps (1 set)

Re-Calibration/Max

So in an attempt to re-calibrate my Sheiko cycle for competition, Dave (guy that is giving Beck the Sheiko workouts) said to test my max's.

Squat:

135x3
185x2
225x1
255x1 Belt
285x1 Belt
300x1 Belt

Bench:

135x3
165x2
205x1
225x1
245-FAIL. I wore wrist wraps. Actually made it feel weird...

Deadlift:

110x1
200x3
290x1
340x1 Belted
380x1 Belted
400x1 Belted

Banded abs on Glute-Ham machine:
1x12
2x10
1x8

Crunches on exercise ball (in between glute-ham ab sets):
1x30
2x25

Plank holds on exercise ball/box
3x :45-1:00

Then I decided I could do more than 400 on Deadlift:

340x1 Belted
410x1 Belted

Dave didn't say go to failure and I was kind of on my own, so I may have been able to do more than 300. I was pretty satisfied with this considering that I've never maxed out on squat and haven't really squatted much till the last few months. My estimate was 275 for my Sheiko training.

I sucked on bench. I will let my excuse be 1) we are in the middle of a Sheiko cycle and 2) I sanded the entire floor of my new room (which is Nathan's old one) by hand for 3 hours last night, then restained it this morning when I woke up..my arms were not feeling that great afterward.

And as for deadlift...when I hit 400, it looked like I wasn't going to get it off the ground. Then of course, once I did, I locked out really fast. ...Which is why after some ab work and thinking, I went back and tried to rip it off the ground better and thus hit 410. However, my back was slightly rounded and not as arched/straight as I'd like it to be. ...but it looked better than my 400 rep.

So today I totaled 935 lbs, which would put me between Class 1 and Master status according to this: Raw Classifcation Standards



BTW. Deadlift seems to be my most impressive looking lift, and while doing them I got a few guys' information who were interested in powerlifting/some sort of club strength team:

Ryan Ehrenreich:
UCLA Law Student, who powerlifted at Stanford. Asked if there was a club here. Not sure what his weight class would be...181? 198? Probably around there.
ryanse@gmail.com

Andrew Ow:
Had some nice looking oly. lift form...and did a clean to Rippetoe-style press exercise. He's pretty ripped, but not sure how strong he really is. Would be a 148 or 165er...He weighs right in between there.
andy0080@aol.com

If only I could claim a shit this epic

http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/training-logs.asp?qid=80432&tid=

Back on track

So after combining two workouts into one (basically just adding snatches instead of light clean and jerks) I am abck on track and will be going into the next test day as the Russians intended it: every other day workouts. I plan on being fucking huge.

power snatch 72/3 x 3
Snatch 82/2 x 3
Jerk 115/1 x 5
clean pull, bel. kn. 90/4 100/3 120/2 x 2
back squat 152/4 x 4

DE Upper Body

Speed-Bench:
190 + green bands resisting, 8 x 3
Mostly medium grip, with some close-grip

Rippetoe-Style Standing Overhead Press:
190, 4 x 4

Felt good.

Pull/Chin-ups:
Bodyweight + 15 lbs, 5/5/5/4/3 (22)

Hanging Leg Raises:
4 x whatever

I'm being much stricter about the leg raises.

SHEIKO WEEK #5; #2

Really long workout today, spent a lot of time talking with Frank and Danny.
- Deadlift 258x5 (50%), 308x5x2 (60%), 363x4x2 (70%), 388x3x4 (75%)
Ripped callus of right hand during first heavy set. Used straps for rest of pulls.
- Bench 150x5 (55%), 180x5 (65%), 195x4x5 (70%)
- Dips Bodyweight x8x5
- Rack pulls below knee 265x5 (50%), 315x5x2 (60%), 365x4x2 (70%), 415x3x4 (70%)
- Lunges 135x5x5
Left glute definitely doesn't fire properly. I blame this on years of not doing lunges or heavily favoring my right big toe. I am finally correcting it by putting the appropriate amount of weight on the front foot and leaning to the outside.
- Drop snatches 45x5x3
Done in between sets of lunges. Thanks, Jake!


OK....lot's of news. As I said, I tore my entire middle-finger-ish callus off my right hand on the first set of deadlifts. This really was annoying, but I got to do double overhand grip for the rest, which was interesting. On a side note, my deadlift is feeling really good lately -- my arch is tight and I'm pulling along the shins. For the rack pulls, I need to tighten my upper back before I start or it hurts like a bitch.

I met this guy, Frank, today. He's a 165er doing sets of 5 with 275 on squat and sets of 3-4 with 405 on deadlift. I asked him about competing and he seemed interested.

That's when I talked to this other guy that I've seen around and never had a serious conversation with. His name is Danny and he's from Israel. He told me that he used to compete, but he's taken the last two years off. He hadn't trained for the last 4 months and kept telling me "wait a couple months, and you'll see!" So we started talking numbers. He competes at 242, by the way. He said he used to do raw squat (only belt) with 300kg (660#) for reps. His best competition squat was almost 400kg (880#) multiply. He said his bench wasn't great, and lately its been very weak -- he "only hit 405x1 today". So...............wtf. I'm going to try to show up in the gym when these guys are there (Rene is always there), and get some pointers from Danny on my lifts.

Speed bench

Lower back feels better. Hamstrings still feel like death. I was able to play ultimate frisbee again today with no issues (felt much better than on Monday), but I'm not sure how I'll feel on friday.

Dan (training partner here) and I agreed that we were both pretty fried from Sunday's workout. I think he spent 20 minutes warming up because he was so stiff. I showed up late, so I just warmed up for a few. We think it was those close-grip pin presses. Also, it might have been all that crazy shirt work.

Speed bench with quadded-purples:
Alternated regular, medium and close grip ever set.
155 x 3, 6 sets
155 x 2 (medium grip, fail on third)
155 x 2 (close grip, fail on third)

I'm not sure how much the bands were adding but they were heavy. Maybe 100-150 at the top?

Military Press:
185 x 6
185 x 4
135 x 14

Decline bench:
275 x 3 (so tired)
225 x 8
245 x 8
275 x 3 (fail on 4th)

Cable triceps with fat-bar grip:
(measured in unlabeled plates on the stack)
9 x 12 reps
10 x 12 reps
10 x 12 reps
10 x 10 reps

Transversus Crunches:
(they actually have a machine for this here!) Not sure how the weight on the machine compares to the weights we do with the exercise balls.
35lbs x 20?
60lbs x 20?
60lbs x 20?
60lbx x 10?

Also, I think I need to keep doing these more. From the wikipedia article:

The most well known and effective method of strengthening the TVA is the vacuum exercise. The TVA also (involuntarily) contracts during lifts; it is the body's natural weight-lifting belt, stabilizing the spine and pelvis during lifting movements. It has been estimated that the contraction of the TVA and other muscles reduces the vertical pressure on the intervertebral discs by as much as 40%.[2] Failure to engage the TVA during higher intensity lifts is dangerous and encourages injury to the spine. The TVA acts as a girdle or corset by creating hoop tension around the midsection.

Injury Update

Kevin got an MRI. The result is an annular tear in one of his disks (L5 - S1). He's probably going to miss most of his high school preseason fall/winter baseball

Go to Venice Beach This Weekend

Big Squattin'

Also, James "Priest" Burdette will be there (the 600+ single-ply 198 bencher who contacted us). I'll be in San Diego, so Dean-o/Steve/Brent, I'd recommend at least stopping by to see what's up.

Lower Back

Went for a heavy triple today on conventional deadlift.

Deadlift:
475 X 2
The first 2 reps were clean. The third one I got up, but I doubt it was clean. I think I hitched it and did some other illegal shit with it.

Box Squats (below parallel):
10 sets of 255lb X 2 reps with 60 second rest between sets. This was pretty tiring.

Seated Good Mornings (with wide stance):
185 X 6
225 X 6
225 X 6
255 X 6
275 X 7
Haven't done these in a while so I don't think my form was too good. Felt like I was working my hamstrings a lot. Also felt it in lower back so I think it served its purpose.

Adductors/Abductors Machines superset with calves:
20-25 reps for each

upperback part deux: return of the pump

Lower back feels muuuch better today. I thought about just doing my leg workout, but decided to rest it until friday.

Also, I supersetted all of these with seated calf raises again. I was sore for 4 days last time, so I cut it back from failure to when the muscles first start cramping.

Close-grip pull downs:
full stack x 10, 4 sets

Standing cable row:
I didn't want to bend over due to the rib and back, so tried a standing variant. I had to do these on the universal machine because the actual cable row machine kept moving around(!) when I tried them.

full stack x 20
full stack + 30lb dumbbell x 20
full stack + 60lb dumbbell x 20
full stack + 60lb dumbbell x 20

Super set of:
Standing cable row and chest supported reverse flyes:
full stack + 60lb dumbbell x 20 for all the cable rows
20lb dumbbells x 12 for 2 sets, 20lb dumbbells x 15 for 2 sets

Incline curls
35 x 10, 3 sets
35 x 7, 1 set

Not sucking

After my 4 day vacation I finally got back to the gym and lifted like a champ. On a side note, the vacation won't effect my ability to get all of the workouts done thanks to my distaste for and blatant disregard of rest days.

Clean and jerk 100/1 x 2 115/1 x 2 126/1 130/1 missed twice
Nailed 100% of my max (126) and cleaned 130 on the first try, then failed the clean on the second. Hopefully I'll get 130 by 9-27 so that I can shoot for 135 at the meet Oct. 25 and move up to class I (and past Nathan).

Clean pull 130/2 x 3
Back Squat 115/4 135/5 x 4
stretching, 15 min., hamstrings and groin

The rest of the workout was a good, light introduction back into lifting.

The 4 days off may actually be the best thing that could've happened because 1, I'm recovered and equalled by all time best C&J, and 2, because I'm recovered and so all of the weak muscles (the left side of my body) presented themselves. Basically, my left lat down to my left glute are noticably weaker than my right (my left lat is also visibly smaller than my right). Any recommendations for correcting this?

I made the effort to tag my workout so you better be searching for it like crazy.

FLEXIBILITY/REHAB/OLY

Today I went way heavier than necessary for the oly lifts. I should cut back and just work on technique--I think it's better with less weight for this, anyway.
Today Rene tried on the shirt so I had tons of time to do random crap.
- Power snatch/overhead squat Up to 110x2/4x5
The crazy thing about this is that 110 is very easy, but I can tell that 135 would be failure. I have no technique at all on these -- I tried to drop to catch once and nearly died.
- Clean and jerk 155x2x4
Cleaning this was easy, but I can't jerk shit. All of these were horrible press out and I kept losing my balance. This was also way too heavy for a pure deload/rehab day.
- Full cleans 45x2x3
I'm actually able to do these fairly well so long as I have a raised heel. I can drop to parallel at least to catch it.
- Balance
- Single-leg squats on bosu ball 10x2
- Kickbacks on disk 20x2
- Side twists on half foam-roller 10x2
- Stretching
- Soleus on machine
- Gastroc on hack squat
- Hamstring holding bar
- Adductors on machine
- Seated groin
Best stretch ever for my adductor issues.
- Seated glute
- Hip flexor
- Upper back on cable row

OK so today Rene tried on the shirt. He's pretty jacked but about my size, so the shirts fit almost perfectly. I love seeing people the first time in the shirt because they never have a clue what they are getting themselves into. We first tried the METAL, and he was nowhere close to touching going up to 275. (He doesn't know how to use a shirt.) At this point, he was like "This hurts like crazy!" and it was pretty hilarious. Then we put on the PHENOM! Lol. I didn't tell him it would hurt like 20x more. He also couldn't touch with 275 on this one, we tried twice. But his expressions were pretty hilarious. We got it to touch with 295, but he was in so much pain he couldn't press it up. Then he resumed his normal workout and hit 285 raw. So he has some work to do before he can really use a shirt, LOL.

Briefs

Basil (strong guy from the UK) will be trying out his briefs on Wednesday...any advice to pass on to him?

Public service announcement

People are getting lazy -- tag your posts so I can find your workouts when I want to!

Sheiko Week 5, #1

Bench
120x1x5
145x1x4
170x2x3
185x4x3

Squat
140x1x5
165x2x5
195x5x5

Bench
135x1x5
155x2x4
170x5x4

Flies
25x5x10

Goodmorns.
115x5x5


Today felt great, but I need to continue perfecting squat form. Sometimes as I go down more weight is on my right leg, and this definitely causes me to push unevenly back up. I'm doing a better job keeping my lower back straight at the very bottom, and I can tell because my lower back felt slightly fatigued after.

Patrick (oly lifter from USC that trains at Wooden b/c USC's gym sucks) was there...he was front squatting 265 olympic style well below parallel.

DE Lower Body: 9000++!!!!

No gear.

Below Parallel Box Squats:
280 + green bands resisting, 8 x 2

These are always fun. They went much better than the last time I tried this much (got 6 hard sets of 2 last time).

Power Cleans:
210, 7 x 2 (that's 7 sets of 2, Dave)

Box Jumps:
5 x 5

Standing Ab Pull-down:
Worked up to 172 x 3.5 (close on the last one)

45" Back Raise:
Bodyweight x whatever (supersetted with ab pull-down)

Felt good, jumps don't wind me at all anymore.