Monday, September 22, 2008

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.

6 comments:

Nathan Beckmann said...

BTW, I officially submitted my grant application yesterday. I have a friend who "knows people", and since I talked about going to nationals + setting records I think I have a good chance of approval.

@ Dave: I decided to skip on the coaches letter since I said everything in my own and I figured it might be kind of redundant? Also, you haven't been on gtalk/reply to e-mails/reply to txt msgs, so... <3

Jake Ceccarelli said...

I wouldn't dismiss Danny's advice of lowering your squat slowly, although I wouldn't go super slow either. When the weight is really heavy there is a rebound, but the timing of the dive into the rebound is really important. The weight will crush you if you lower too fast then release for the rebound at the bottom, so the weight needs to be under strict control just before the point where you "bounce" yourself out of the hole. I noticed, even with my Olympic squats, that with very heavy weight I tend to/need to lower the bar much more slowly than with light weights for this reason. You'll get even less of a rebound than I will because you stop at parallel so you will probably need to lower the weight even more slowly than I would. You don't want the bar to have so much momentum at the bottom that it negates the rebound.

Nathan Beckmann said...

Yes, but I've found this happens naturally as the weight gets heavy, so I don't think I need to worry about it.

And he mentioned oly lifters specifically. He said that rebound makes a lot more sense when you get that kind of depth, but not so much for powerlifters.

Oh, I forgot that he said I squat too low. If I were two inches higher he thinks I could move a lot more weight.

Jake Ceccarelli said...

The depth comment makes sense. You should use a box or some other kind of depth marker and squat to that every time. You don't have to do a true box squat but just use it to measure depth. You can (and should) train deep squats too, but use them as a separate exercise. I don't know if that even applies to Sheiko though.

Stephen Hokama said...

How the deuce do you eat so much?

Nathan Beckmann said...

Srsly, practice and not letting "I'm not hungry" get in the way. If I can get food, I get it, then I eat it.