Last 4 Days

8/3/09 - Sheiko

• Squat: 45x5x2, 95x5, 115x3x2, 135x3x2, 155x2x4 (80)

• Bench: 45x5, 65x3, 75x3, 85x3x2, 100x3x5 (80)

• Dumbell bench: 20x10x5

• Squat: 105x3, 125x3x2, 145x3x4 (75)

8/4/09 - Rugby

Back to the hot and humid and bug-riddled GEAA field. Luckily we had the whole field this night, instead of being relegated to our little corner by the softball peoples. First practice wrecked me, but I usually adapt back to conditioning pretty fast.

• Warmup: 2 laps, dynamic stretching.

• 'Beep' test. Confirmed I should have done more cardio this summer.

• Quick pass in a circle drill

• Conditioning: 8 stations, 30secs/station, 10secs rest in between: squat jumps, hurdles, lunges, serpentine sprint, burpees (YAY BURPEES), situps, pushups, lateral hurdles.

Originally was supposed to be 60 secs i think, but that was impossible. I like this a lot, it totally destroys the fast twitch fibers and builds endurance for fast changing activity.

• Tackling the bags

Oy, my neck.

• Wrestling

Forgot about this. My partner and I seemed evenly matched most of the time. Turned out later that I separated her shoulder at some point. Oops.

• 6x6 full tackle: 15-20 minutes

I made a few tries.

• Conditioning: groups of 4 running suicides in pairs, 1 with 2, 1 with 3, 1 with 4, then 2 with 3, 2 with 4, etc. I was 2 and 4 in our group of 3.

We were short so I chose to be two people to punish myself. Hard push through the final sprint at the end.

• Static Stretching

8/5/09 - Sheiko

After feeling destroyed from the first practice the night before, I actually woke up feeling fine today and none of this was a problem.

• Deadlift to knees: 135x3x3, 160x2x2, 175x2x2, 185x1x3 (70)

• Bench: 45x5, 65x3, 75x3, 85x3x2, 100x3x2, 105x2x3 (85)

Was feeling off balance during some of these, so towards the end I tightened everything up (esp. my 'bad' shoulder) and really braced against the bench, which seemed to help. I think I'm learning.

• Dumbell bench: 20x10x5

• Deadlift: 135x3, 160x3, 185x3 185x3, 215x3x5 (80)

Tended to focus more on squeezing the bar off the ground as opposed to jerking it, which I sometimes tend to do. Thus I concentrated less on a tight, straight back, and rounded a little during my last set, but nothing very significant.

• Foam roll back, hips. Stretch.

8/6/09 - Rugby

My bus was 20 minutes late so I missed proper warmups.

• Passing drills: step over and place, pop pass, stomach punch, something else.

• Pop pass from the ground drill, for several minutes.

• Conditioning: 6 stations, 30secs/station, 10secs rest in between: hurdles, jump split lunges, serpentine sprint, burpees (YAY BURPEES), situps, lateral hurdles. X2

Felt easier than the first time. Done twice, with a few minutes between cycles. I did v-ups for crunches the second cycle, and we ended with burpees on that one, which were terrible-looking because I couldn't jump anymore.

• Tackling the bags (with squishy balls in our hands to force wrapping instead of grabbing)

• Spin passing

• 4x4 full tackle: 15-20 minutes

I made a few tries, good tackles at the beginning, began to get too high towards the end as I got tired. Getting better at just attacking, rather than waiting to catch the ball carrier.

• Conditioning: pairs running suicides alternating, placing and picking the ball: 15-20 mins?

I ran with some girls slower than me, so instead of suicides they were more like brisk jogs.

• Static Stretching

L-L-Lock it out

Last training before the meet next week. I'll keep benching though.

Block Pulls:
around 1" under my knee. Horribly awkward spot.

495 x 2
545 x 2
585 x 2
635 x 2
675 x 3

They all felt pretty good. On the last one, my finger tips kept getting unrolled when they hit my quad. I didn't lose the bar thanks to MAX BULL TRAINING™ for deadlifts, but it's something I'd like to avoid.

@Brent: If you see Spencer, tell him I hit the weight he missed last time I saw him for a triple. <3

Zerchers:
Pause on legs for 1 second.

225 x 5
275 x 5, 2 sets

Man, these hurt my arms.

Finished with hamstring curls and this weird ball exercise that mimics a reverse hyper but works in the core and abs as well. I saw another lifter doing it and though I would try today. Feels good and is a nice cool down as well.

Nathan: 8/6 Cardio

▼ 1. 8/6/09 - Thu - CARDIO

Weight: 217 (morning), 218 (evening). Time: 1:00.

  I haven't been eating nearly enough food if this is indicative of my weight gain through the day now.

• Cardio - intervals on bike 2 min on, 2 min off @ ~150 bpm for ~35 mins

• Stretching - hamstrings, calves, adductor on leg press, seated groin, hip flexors

Deadlift

Deadlift
warmups
335 x 5 - Lower back rounded on the last rep. I probably should've stopped after 4.
265 x 3, 3, 3, 3

Back raises
BW+25 x 10
BW+35 x 10, 10, 10

Lying leg curls
90 x 4 x 10

Side bends
45 x 10, 10, 10 per side

Some sort of effort in benching things or at least pressing them away from me

Got the Vs. shoes today, so tried benching in those since a lot of people around here seem to. I liked it a lot, surprisingly. I get much more leg drive, so I will probably stick with this in the future.

2-board:
This seems to be my sticking point, so I decided to work it first and heavier. All reps paused.
315 x 3
335 x 3
355 x 3 (last one touch and go)

Felt good on these. Last one was a PR, but didn't have the strength to pause the final rep.

Bench:
1 second pause
225 x 10
245 x 8
255 x 7 + 1 fail

Did volume work for two reasons: to see how training the weak point would affect the entire press, and to focus on technique. One of the lifters made a comment that I need to tuck and flare the lats more, so I emphasized that today.

Standing Press:
135 x 5
165 x 5, 3 sets

Finished with cable triceps, heavier weight for 4 x 8

Nathan: 8/5

▼ 1. 8/5/09 - Wed - SHEIKO #23

Weight: 221 (after gym, dinner). Time: 2:15.

  I really wanted this to be a light day after Monday. Alas, it wasn't to be.

• Deadlift to knees 135x5x4, lungesx15x3, 225x3, 275x3 (50), 335x2x2 (60), 365x2x2 

(65), 385x1x3 (70)

These sets/reps are really random.

• Bench 45x10, 155x3 (50), 185x3 (60), 215x3x2 (70), 245x3x2 (80), 260x2x3 

(85)

Not bad. Carlos said one of the 85 sets looked good.

• Dumbell flies 30x10x5

• Deadlift 275x3 (50), 335x3 (60), 385x3x2 (70), 440x3x5 (80)

First two heavy sets unbelted, rest belted. The second and fifth sets were harder. I think this is entirely because I was less mentally engaged for these sets. Dee said that my back was rounding in the middle off and on between sets and reps.

• Stretching - hamstrings, seated groin

8/5 Press

Dip: BWx8
+25x5
+35x5
+45x5
+55x5
+70x5 PR
+25x10, 9, 7, 7, 6

DB Seated Press: 30x10
40x10, 10, 7, 10, 7

Never done dips that heavy before. I guess that means I'm making progress in my pressing strength. I think my previous PR was +55 for 6. Hopefully the heavy non-bench pressing will have a good carryover to the benching. I really want to have a respectable bench and squat at the meet in November.

8/3 and 8/4

▼ 1. 8/4/09 - Tue - CARDIO

Time: 0:30.

  Showed up at 9:00pm at the Z so this was really stupid. I've decided to try to be a little more serious about cardio, but I've been failing miserably at getting to the Z with enough time to do anything useful.

• Cardio on bike 140-165 bpm x 10 mins

• Biking around MIT campus 20 mins

• Stretch - hamstrings/lower back, adductors

▼ 2. 8/3/09 - Mon - SHEIKO #22

Time: 2:00.

  Today didn't go as well as I hoped. I think moving all weekend drained me, but I'm not really sure. I forgot to do my lunge cooldown thing, and combined with poor form and lack of stretching in the past week, that made my adductors sore for the next two days.

• Squat 45x5x2, 135x5x3, lungesx12x3, 225x3 (50), 275x3x2 (60), 315x3x2 

(70), 365x2x4 (80)

Belt 315 and up + sleeves. Didn't feel that great. Just felt tired for some reason. On my heavy sets, I'm told the first rep looked good and on the second my ass shot up. But some sets were OK.

• Bench 45x10, 155x3 (50), 185x3 (60), 215x3x2 (70), 245x3x5 (80)

First heavy set of bench was unstable and bad. Then I sucked it up and made the rest of the sets better. I started off on this terrible bench that I can't hold any kind of arch on, so I had a big pause in the middle when I decided to wait for Dee to finish to use the good bench.

• Dumbell flies 50x10x5

• Squat 245x3 (55), 295x3x2 (65), 335x3x4 (75)

Did first two sets at 75 without a belt. These weren't very good. I belted the last two and I think they were my best squats of the day, for reasons I don't entirely understand.

Upper back

Pull ups
BW x 8
BW+45 x 5
BW+55 x 5, 5
BW+60 x 4

Dumbbell rows
95 x 8
105 x 8
115 x 10, 8

Barbell shrugs
225 x 15
245 x 15
275 x 10
295 x 9.5

Hammer curls
40s x 10, 10 (per arm)
45s x 8

Upper Back

DB Rows:
140s x 13, 12, 11, 10, 10

T-bar rows:
135, 170, 205, 240, 275 x 8

Todd suggests using 35s for these for increased range of motion. Seems promising.

Finished with close-grip pull ups, incline curls (for Brent), band pull aparts and cable abs.

One of the guys has one of the new Super Centurions that he mis-ordered. Another guy tried it on but it was too loose, so I gave it a shot. The suit had a weird build where it was very (very) tight in the legs, loose in the hip and had big straps. I managed to get it almost into position, but the straps were loose enough I could put them on myself. If the legs had been slightly looser and the hips tighter, I might have considered buying it off him.

8/4 Back

Pull-ups: 10, 7, 6, 6, 5, 5, 4, 4, 3 (50 reps total)

HS Row: 2p/side x10x5 (focused on pulling with the upper back, not lats and arms)

BB Curls: 60x10, 10, 8, 8, 6

Squat

Squat
warmups
205 x 5, 5, 5

Box squats (about a 15" box)
135 x 5
155 x 5, 5
165 x 5

Power cleans
135 x 3
155 x 3, 3
165 x 2

Seated calves
90 x 15, 15, 20, 20

supersetted w/ Hanging leg raises
BW x 20, 20, 20, 20

DE Squat

Squat shoes showed up last week but the mail room got confused and returned them, which is irksome. No word on when they might come back.

Lower back hurt bad saturday night, so I played more ultimate on sunday to loosen it back up. Felt fine today. more poison = cure, right?

Chains were in use, so I went reverse bands.
Band-assisted Squat:
495 x 3
545 x 3
585 x 3, 4, 5

On the last weight, they kept yelling at me to open my hips up more. Apparently I needed to widen my stance 3" to really nail the hole. It felt pretty good and they say I was far more upright. I need to take videos to see how this looks. Weight felt easy.

Pause Squats:
Hadn't done these in 5 months, due to lower back pain, but they felt great today. With the new stance, I definitely felt my hamstrings and hips engage. I used a belt on these

305 x 2 @ 5 sec
325 x 2 @ 5 sec
365 x 2 @ 5 sec
385 x 2 @ 5, 6 sec

SS-bar Box Squats:
off 13" box
145 x 8
195 x 8
235 x 8
255 x 8

Finished with cable crunches.

8/3 Squat

Squat: 135x5, 5
165x5
185x5
225x3
245x1
255x5 PR
185x10, 10, 10

Seated Calf: 125x25, 20

Back Raise: 25x20, 15, 15

Sliding Ab Thingy: 25, 25 (hits the Transverse Abdominus pretty well and makes the back feel happy)

Its very nice to see that with the aid of my belt, my lower back is not holding back my squatting. the 255 is a new all time PR for 5, and I felt like I may have had another 2 reps in the tank. Good stuff.

Also, is anyone going to do the SoCal Regional Championships on November 7th? Got the email today and I was curious.

Friday, Saturday 7/31-8/1

Friday:

• Cardio: sprint to catch up with lunch crowd - 10 minutes.

• Squat: 45x6, 95x3, 115x3, 135x3x2 (70), 155x2x4 (80?)

Supposed to be 145x2x4, but I was feeling great and wanted to show up the asian dude who asked if I needed help with that 'heavy weight' (my warmups).

• Bench: 45x5, 65x3, 80x3x2, 95x3x6 (75)

• Cable flies: 20eax10, 30eax10x4

I've missed these.

• P.snatch: 55x4,66x4,77x3

• P.clean+jerk: 88x4, 99x2x2

Legs were pretty tired at this point from squatting earlier.

Saturday

• Helping nathan move stuff: 5 hrs

SQUATTIN' & MOVIN'

▼ 1. 8/1/09 - Sat - MOVING

Moving all day long. Decent cardio I guess? Strong man training? I don't know... Either way, another day without enough sleep.

• Moving 5 hrs

▼ 2. 7/31/09 - Fri - SHEIKO #21

Weight: ??. Time: 0:40.

  Super fast workout at the Z-center because I had a paper deadline at midnight. Luckily its a short day for Sheiko.

• Squat 135x5x3, 225x3 (50), 275x3 (60), 315x3x2 (70), 335x2x4 (75)

• Bench 165x3 (55), 195x3x2 (65), 225x3x6 (65)

• A: Dumbell bench 50x10x5

• A: Good mornings 135x5x5

Light Bench

Bench
warmup
135 x 5 x 3

Chinups
BW x 20, 8, 8

Rope pushdowns
50 x 4 x 15

RE Bench

Played ultimate frisbee in the morning before the workout and that really sapped my energy. I'll need to start taking glutamine again if i keep up the high-intensity cardio + training on the same day.

Lower back felt tight on the incline, when I went to stretch it out, I think I irritated something, as it feels much worse now. Lots of vitamin-I and ice for now and hopefully it will die down by monday.

Went to Bull's gym, but he was gone and no one was around but the dude working there, so no spots and not very lively. Combined with back discomfort, I was not motivated at all.

Incline Bench
225 x 6/6/6/5

DB Bench:
100 x 8

Lower back did not feel comfortable on these so I stopped.

Tried of think of things that wouldn't irritate the back, or involve picking heavy things up. Did chest supported rows, arnold presses, cable flyes, tricep extensions and machine twists.

Katana Videos

These were taken from Wednesday (7/29)
415 off 2 board
405 off 1 board

7/31 Bench

Bench: 135x5
165x5
185x3
205x1
210x4 PR
165x8, 8, 6, 5, 5

Chest Supported Row: 2px10
3px10, 8, 8, 8, 8

7-31

Today was a great workout! I think I just needed to wake up the CNS a little from its nap due to infrequent training.

Back squat 162/4 x 2 165/4
Clean pull 125/3 132/2 x 3
Cl. Pull to kn. 135/3 x 2 145/2 x 2
Press 70/3 62/3 70/2 62/3
Front squat 134/5 This was going to be an all out set but I decided I didn't want to drop the bar at the gym here. I'm pretty sure I've never hit 5 before with this weight though (it's 295lb).

I was going to do 1 set of presses and rep out with 115, but after the front squats I forgot. Not a big deal.

Deadlift

Deadlift
warmup
(belt on)- new 13mm power belt arrived last week; core feels more stable with this as opposed to the bodybuilding belt that i've been using
325 x 5
265 x 3, 3, 3, 3

Gym was closing in 5 minutes so I rushed the rest:
Back raises
BW+25 x 12, 10, 10, 10

supersetted w/ Side bends
45 x 10, 10, 10, 10 each side

7/29 - SKILLS EVAL

▼ 1. 7/29/09 - Wed - SHEIKO#20 - SKILLS EVALUATION

Weight: 214. Time: 2:30.

I can't imagine a worse set of circumstances to do a heavy day. So that being said, I'm extremely happy with these results.

I was having weird irregular heart beat last night that distracted the hell out of me and made me only get 4 hours of sleep. Then I called to make a doctor's appointment and they told me to go to urgent care. So I spent the whole day basically getting tested with various apparatus, before being told I was 100% OK and it was probably just heartburn.

But I'm moving this week and I also have a paper deadline so stress was pretty much at the max. Not a good day to go heavy.

• Squat 45x5x2, 135x5x3, lungesx15x3, 225x3 (50), 275x3 (60), 315x2 (70),

365x2 (80), 405x1 (90), 425x1 (95)

Belt only. Felt pretty good. 405 was very easy. 425 was slower but still manageable. My right knee wasn't happy after 425, but it wasn't terrible.

Murph (TPS owner) told me he was 'seeing lots of things' I need to fix on my squat. He said 'fix a few things and you'll squat 100 more pounds.' I'm going to look into this after this meet. It sort of ties into my current plans anyway. Murph: 'You have access to every piece of training equipment in the world now. And you aren't using it. Sheiko doesn't make sense, it's too much volume.'

• Bench 155x3 (50), 185x3 (60), 215x2x2 (70), 245x2 (80), 275x1 (90), 290x1

(95)

Used belt and wrist wraps. Got press command from Carlos on the last set. Not as fast as Dee's, but didn't slow down on the way up either. Felt good.

• Deadlift 135x5x3, 275x3 (50), 335x2 (60), 385x2x2 (70), 445x2 (80), 495x1

(90), 525x1 (95)

495 was super easy and fast. 525 was also easy, but I lost my arch a little bit. I felt very good about both, though.

Guess Brent still sucks at squatting, at least.

ME Deadlift

Band-resisted Deadlift:
they have carabiners attached to the floor and quad-up the bands across. I'm guessing 3' apart? The bands would be slightly loose if you didn't stretch them back across in their setup.

We got the scale out and measured what each of the bands were at the top. I think the breakdown was something like:

mini-minis: 45lbs at the top
mins: 80lbs
monster minis: 90lbs

The monsters were pretty stretched out, sadly.

315 + mini^2 x 3
315 + minis x 3
315 + monster minis x 3
315 + mini^2 + minis x 3
315 + minis + monster minis x 3
315 + all three x 3

I'm guessing it was 715+ at the top. We tried to measure the weight per side but the scale topped out at 200 even before we hit where my lockout was. The first rep of the heaviest set wasn't quick but wasn't a grind. The remaining reps were trivial and it felt like I could have done 8 easy. It's just a matter of getting the body used to increased resistance.

Stiff-leggeded DLs:
225 x 8
315 x 8, 2 sets

These didn't bother my back at all, which was nice. However, my grip was shot as it hurt to hold the bar. I didn't tear any of my callouses of, but I needed to give my hands a break, so I didn't go up.

Zerchers:
pause on legs; no belt

135 x 8
225 x 5
275 x 5

The last set was heavy. Feeling pretty gassed from the long workout, so I called it after that.

7-30

Training has been sporadic due to the move. Today was an ok day. I'll be going tomorrow as well because I'm not going to be able to work out during the weekend (we'll see about Sunday).

Sn. pp. + OHS 90/1+3 x 2 100/1+2 x 3 105/1+1 110/1+1 x 2
Hang sn. pull ab kn. 100/2 x 3 110/2 x 3

Pu J + OHS 92/2+2 x 2 102/2+1 102 - awkward set, kinda missed the jerk, kinda missed the squat. The close grip overhead squat was way harder than I thought it'd be.

Push jerk 102/2

Front squat + Jerk 105/1+2 only did one of these because my back was gone after all the other overhead work.

Bench 70/8 85/6 90/6 95/4 x 2 102/3 x 2 95/4 90/6 - triceps failed on the last rep. This was an especially brutal bench pyramid because I want to get in a lot of volume before I leave. I'll probably do overhead press tomorrow for high reps to get in some more volume.

Back squat 125/5 162/3 142/5 x 2 The 162 was really hard so I dropped the weight. I think this is just because I haven't squatted in awhile. I'm going to squat again tomorrow; I think I'll do some singles around 162 then back off and do sets of 5 again at 142.

Also, for awhile my squat has been quite a bit ahead of clean and jerk and so I didn't think it warranted much emphasis beyond what the program calls for. Being home has given me the chance to look at a few weightlifting books and check out the numbers. At around my weight my squat should be around 134% of my clean and jerk, which is much higher than I expected. Since I squatted only 180kg at the meet that makes my squat 136% of my clean and jerk. While I'm not concerned just yet with my squat it does point to my need to get stronger in general. I'd say upper body is still the bigger weak point (hence the bench and the overhead presses). Once I finish out this competition cycle I'm going to change my squat training to a more Sheiko-like program (as with bench) and continue overhead presses to bring my strength levels up to where I can more easily improve my Olympic lifts.

The last thing is, I'm not really sure what to do about front squats. The weightlifting program doesn't emphasise them much, and obviously Sheiko doesn't either. There's no reason I couldn't just switch the back squats to front squats, but they have little carryover to back squats, while back squats have good carryover to front squats. I don't want to lose strength for powerlifting either. I'm thinking that I could do the Sheiko-style program 3x a week, as prescribed, and do front squats once a week. The other option I'm considering is to split the program and whenever I would squat twice do front squats after (or front squats in a morning workout and back squats in the evening). Anyone have any thoughts?

7/29 - Skills Eval.

• Squats: 45x5x2, 95x3, 115x3, 135x2x2, 155x2, 170x1, 180x1 (95)

Fell forward a bit on the last one, so it could have been better, but didn't feel heavy.

• Bench: 45x5, 65x3, 75x3, 85x2x2, 100x2, 115x1, 120x1 (95)

Carlos noted my 90% looked easy enough to be a warmup. Definitely felt good for 130.

• Deadlift: 135x3, 150x3, 185x2x2, 212x2, 240x1, 255x1 (95).

Not bad. My back was a lot less rounded for the 95 than I was prone to in the past.

7/30 Deadlift (no pull)

Leg Press: 90x10
180x10
270x10
360x10
450x10x5

Calves: 450x25, 25

Banded Back Raise: Purple x 20, 20, 15

Ab Wheel: 10, 10, 10

I started off with some light DL's but my back didnt feel up to pulling. I keep rushing into things, and prolonging injuries. Just too damn impatient I guess. I'm going to be nixing the pulling for a while, and focusing on bringing my low back up to par again while getting everything else stronger. Hopefully once everything is 100%, my deadlift should skyrocket back up.

katana trening

Back in the Katana for the first time since my meet (about a month).

Bench Press:
315 X 2 (shirt seater)
355 X 1 (3 board)
385 X 1 (2 board)
415 X 0 (2 board). fell out of the groove on the way up
415 X 1 (2 board)
405 X 1 (1 board)

Floor Press:
225 X 4
245 X 4
265 X 4
275 X 4

Parallel Bar Skullcrushers
Kettlebell Tricep Extensions
Abs

Bench

Bench (paused)
warmup
170 x 3, 3, 3

Close grip bench press
135 x 8, 8, 7, 7

Dumbbell shoulder press
40s x 8, 8, 7

One arm dumbbell extensions
20 x 8, 8, 8, 8 (per arm)

Bench

Bench:
Had someone else give me a pause today,
285 x 5
295 x 3
295 x 2 + 1 fail

Almost got the third.

2 board:
315 x 3
335 x 2 + 1 fail, 2 sets

Both times, I just got stuck and could not convert. This seems like a real sticking point for me, so I may switch to doing more volume work off the 2 board.

Skullcruzhers:
I got tired of not being able to do these, so i figured i might as well burn through all the scar tissue and give them a shot. Strangely enough, it worked. I hadn't done these in ... 6 months?

not sure what the bar weighed, but worked up to 140lbs + bar weight for sets. Felt good.


Finished with arnold presses

7/29 Press

Press: 95x5
115x3
135xF, F (couldnt get it past eye level for some reason today)
125x3
95x10, 9, 7, 7, 7

Dips: BW (212) +10x 10, 10, 10, 10, 8

I was planning to do my 3 singles with 135 today, but that didnt work out. I think it was b/c I did that back workout yesterday. Oh well, once I adjust to it everything will be kosher again.

Monday 7/27

• Squats: 45x6x2, 95x3, 115x3, 135x3x2, 145x2x3

Experimented with form a bit (I haven't been keeping my knees out).

• Bench: 45x5, 65x3, 75x3, 85x3x2, 95x2x3 (75)

Instead of bracing against the floor with my legs, I find that gripping the bench works better for me.

Upper back

T-bar rows
warmup
145 x 5
155 x 5
165 x 5
175 x 5

Wide grip pullups
BW x 10, 10, 8, 8

Barbell shrugs
235 x 15, 15, 15
275 x 8 - grip gave out

Reverse EZ bar curls
70 x 10, 10, 8

supersetted w/ cable face pulls
85 x 12, 12, 12

7/27 & 7/28

▼ 1. 7/28/09 - Tue - FLEXIBILITY

Weight: ??. Time: 0:30.

  Not doing anything today because of the skills eval tomorrow.

• Flexibility - adductors on leg press, gastroc, soleus, hamstrings, seated groin, hip flexors

▼ 2. 7/27/09 - Mon - SHEIKO #19

Weight: 219. Time: 0:45.

  Really short day before the skills evaluation on Wednesday.

• Squats 135x5x3 (50), lungesx15x3, 225x3 (50), 275x3 (60), 315x3x2 (70), 

340x2x3 (75)

• Bench 155x3 (50), 185x3 (60), 215x3x2 (70), 225x2x3 (75)

Upper back

DB Rows:
140s x failure, 5 sets

Pull ups:
used a 75lb chain around my neck. Looks ludicrous, but is rather awkward as the chain is 10' long, so it flails around and constantly hits me in the knees and feet.

4 sets

Did a giant set of lat pull downs, band pull-aparts, hammer curls and cable abs.

7/28 Back

Pull-ups: BWx8, 8, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 3, 3

T-Bar Row: 4px10x5

BB Curl: 70x6, 3, 4, 5, 3

I had to belt up for the T-Bar rows, b/c my back was flaring up after yesterday. Once the belt was on, they went perfectly fine. The curls were crappy though. I didnt realize how much I was using my arms on the rows until I tried to do any direct bicep work.

Squat

Only had about 45 minutes to workout.
Squat
warmup
195 x 5, 5, 5

Lunges
135 x 5, 5, 5 (per leg)

Kneeling abs
4 sets of 12

Squat Trening

Wasn't planning on doing it today, but decided to finally squat 405 RAW.

Squat (belt only):
375 X 1
405 X 1
Slower that I wanted but I had good depth so I'll take it.

Light Good Mornings
Home Made Reverse Hypers
lots of BICEPS

Here is video of some of those heavy dumbbell rows I was talking about.. You can also see my signature chalk storm that I make.

Volumizing Squats

Squat shoes didn't show up today, so continued in the chucks.

Squats:
365 x 5
365 + 40lbs of chains x 5
365 + 80 of chains x 5
365 + 120 of chains x 5
365 + 160 of chains x 5

Didn't feel too bad today. Moved the chains up a bit, so they deloaded at the bottom all but 1-2 links. Maybe one link was one the floor when upright.

Box Squats:
no belt; 13" box w/ foam

145 x 8
195 x 8
215 x 8
235 x 8
255 x 8

Much easier this week as my core wasn't shot. The foam definitely makes it harder as your body has to adjust to the unsettling. I originally thought it was gimicky, but it does seem to actually do something.

Spent such a long time squatting, I did heavy calf raises and hanging leg raises for finish. The calf machine here goes to 600, which is awesome. I can actually exhaust myself on these in under 30 reps.

Bench

Bench (equipped)
265x1x3
275x1x2
295x2x2
295x1x1

Tricep Pull downs
Abs


Short but sweet due to finals this week. Getting closer to touching, and getting much better at staying in the groove.

I don't have a gym update

I think I have a gym! When I get to Ann Arbor I'm meeting with the director of Olympic sports. Hopefully afterward I will have a place to train. Yay!

7/27 Squat

Squat: 135x5
185x5
225x3
245x5 (matched a PR)
205x5, 5

GM: 135x10x5 (focused on technique)

Seated Calf: 100x25x2

Back Raises: 20x5

Back was fried after the 245 squat, so everything else was a bit lighter. But its good that even with my back not 100% I can match PR's. I probably had another rep or two in me as well.

7-27

Snatch 100,102,105,107-miss,miss,miss,miss,got it
Clean and jerk 120,122,125,miss,miss
Jerk 110 - 2+miss, 1
Press 5x3 - 60,62,65,67,70

I'm going back tonight to get in the volume that I obviously don't have in this workout. I'm going to do lots of volume this week because my lifting status will be compromised when I move to Michigan, at least for awhile. Stupid Crossfit.

*Update*

PM
Jerk 110 - 3,3,1.5
Front squat 142/1 - Apparently my front squat sucks, my back was tired, or both.
Cl. Pull 125/4 132/3 142/3 132/3
Press 62 - 5, 2+2, 3+2 These were rest-paused because I went to failure. Long way to go before I get to Phil.

Last 3 Workouts

7/24/09 -Friday

• Squats: 45x5, 95x5, 115x4, 135x3x2, 155x3x6 (80)

My hip flexors were really hurting me as I reached full extension at the top. Stretched them out for a bit, the rest of the sets felt much better.

• Bench: 45x5, 65x5, 75x5, 85x5x5 (70)

• Dumbell bench 20x10x5

&&

• Glute-ham raise: bwx10x5

• Dips: 8x2

7/22/09 - Wednesday

• Sled Drag: 90x2 trips, 180x1 trip.

• Bench: 65x5, 75x4, 85x3x2, 100x3x2, 105x2x3 (85)

• Deadlift: 135x5, 160x4, 185x3x2, 215x3x2, 225x2x3 (85)

• Bench: 45x5, 65x5, 80x5, 95x4x4 (75)

• DB bench: 20x10x5

&&

• Lunges: BWx5eax5

7/21/09 - Tuesday

• Cardio: Elliptical, 35mins, moderate pace.

• Stretch.

Poll: Team rugby practices start next week.

Our first game is the first weekend of Sept.

Would practicing T/Th (except for the week of the Aug 22nd meet)

be a good or bad idea?

7/24

▼ 1. 7/24/09 - Fri - SHEIKO #18

Weight: 220 (morning). Time: 2:00.

  Today my intensity was down a little bit, and I was maybe a little tired.

• Squats 135x5x3, 225x5 (50), 275x4 (60), 315x3x2 (70), 365x3x6 (80)

I was a little distracted by heartburn and my heart beating really hard -- I thought I was going to die.

• Bench 155x5 (50), 185x5 (60), 215x5x5 (70)

• Dumbell bench 50x10x5

• A: Dips bwx8x5

• A: Good morning 135 + 40# chain x5x5

For the Curious

Ok, so for all of you that feel like knowing exactly what I am doing here it is:


Monday: Squat
Back Squat: Ramp up to a max set of 5, 3 or 1
Drop the weight and do 2 sets
Good Mornings: 5x10
Seated Calves: 2x25
Sit-ups: 5 sets

Tuesday: Press
Military Press: Ramp up to a max set of 5, 3, or 1
Drop the weight and do 2 sets
Chin-ups: 50 reps
Dips: 5x10

Thursday: Deadlift
Deadlift: Ramp up to a max set of 5, 3, or 1
Drop the weight and do 2 sets of SLDL
Leg Press: 5x10
Calves: 2x25
Dragon Flags: 5 sets

Saturday: Bench
Bench Press: Ramp up to a max set of 5, 3, or 1
Drop the weight and do 2 sets (paused)
Seated Press: 5x10
Barbell Rows: 5x10


Basically I am doing the Dave template with a focus on big, basic exercises. I will be rotating between the 5, 3, and 1 rep daily maxes with the bench/squat on one timetable, and the press/dl on the other. If anyone sees anything I may have missed, chime in.

Only gear used is a belt, knee sleeves, and wrist wraps. I'm pretty sure I will be doing my next competition raw.

Light Bench

Bench (paused)
135 x 5 x 3

Chinups (close grip)
BW x 4 x 8

Lateral raises
15s x 3 x 12