Deadlift 5

Deadlift
515 x 5, 5, 5 @ 7+

My form finally feels back to where it should. I didn't want to go heavy just yet, so I stuck around 515 which was decent and let me work on my speed off the floor.

Good Mornings:
275 x 8
315 x 8
356 x 8, 5

I wore the wrong shirt and the bar kept slipping down my back. :E

Low Box² Squats:
high-barred
225 x 5
275 x 5
315 x 5

Feeling good


Finished with band-resisted hypers and windshield wipers for transversus.

bench 5

Bench:
275 x 5
295 x 5
300 x 5
305 x 2 + f

My elbows starting hurting bad. Icy hot + vitamin-I did nothing. I could barely feel my hands and my grip was going to pot when i unracked that last set.

Also, I can't really set up on Wooden's benches. It's like trying to get leg drive with a teflon bench. Neither chalk nor water added any stickiness. I have to figure out something as it's killing my arch and i can't get any leg drive.

3-board:
335 x 3

Couldn't focus at all due to the pain, so I bagged it.

Did some ball twists and pnf then went home. Going to see the doctor tomorrow.

ME Squat

Still with the suit-as-briefs. Hip is feeling much better

SS-bar Box Squat:
apparently, the bar is 65, not 55. 14" box.

335 x 2
385 x 1
425 x 1
455 x 1 @ 10
475 x 1 @ 9+ (PR +90)

Hit the groove on the last one and it felt nice. Todd said i had around 20lbs left. Alan notices that I was rounding my upper back at the bottom, which I fixed in the last one. Not bad overall.

Band-lightened squat:
greens with no resistance at the top
315 x 5
365 x 5, 5, 5

Did these with my normal stance, which was a first in four weeks. Not too much pain thanks to the band-lightening at the bottom.

Cleans
135 x 5
185 x 5, 5

Kind of tired, stopped there.

finished with ball twists and stretching

DE Squat

Sort of recovering, trying to squeeze in as much speed work as possible before the meet

Band-resisted box squats:

greens + purples

225 x 2, 7 sets

245 x 2, 5 sets

Not too bad. I can tell I haven't done these in a while as I'm not quite firing the way I'd like to be. The explosion isn't very smooth either. More bar weight might fix that though. I might work these in over the summer.

Cleans:

135 x 5

185 x 3, 5

205 x 4 + 2f

Felt pretty good on these. A bit tired from the box squats

Finished with pylos and ball abs.

Uppr Back

Close-grip pull ups:

bw x 8

bw x 20+

bw x 30 PR?

bw x 8 @ 10 (haha)

Felt good to rep these out

Bent-over rows:

185 x 8, 10, 12, 15

No pain

Shrugs:

315 x 8, 10, 12

405 x 8

No pain here either, but I wasn't pushing it too much. No belt either.

Finished with curls and ball twists

Bench Assistance

Military Press:
185 x 5
195 x 5
205 x 2 + 1F
185 x 5

Planning on doing standing press, but I wanted to rest my lower back as much as possible. These felt pretty strong today.

Floor Press:
245 x 5
255 x 5
265 x 4 + 1F
255 x 5

Finished with cable flyes, high rows and reverse flyes. Did ball twists for dips. I sucked horribly at these due to being so stiff

RE Lower Back

Good Mornings:
275, 315, 365, 405 x 10

Felt pretty good. Warm-ups were a bit stiff in the lower back, but there wasn't any discomfort if I kept a solid arch.

Stiff-legged Deadlifts:
265 x 10, 3 sets

These were not as good. Lower back kept tightening up after the final rep as I tried to stand up. I did some stretching but couldn't seem to keep it from seizing up, so I stopped early.

Did a calf-raise + hamstring curl ciruit. Finished with hyper-extensions and ball twists.

@Kyle: we met last night and decided to meet at 9pm after the game. Greg is working on a mailing list so we can keep people more in sync and avoid these kinds of of issues.

Deadlifts

5/15/09

Deadlifts

worked up to

349 x 3 (slight hitch on last rep)

Zerchers off pins

225 x 5

225 x 5

245 x 5

245 x 5

Seated Good Mornings

135 x 7 x 4

Ball Twists

3 sets

SELECT workout_title FROM day WHERE lift = 'zercher';

Zercher:
Middle pin.

405 x 5
495 x 5
545 x 2 (ughh)
495 x 5, 3 sets

These nearly cramp my pecs up. It's a weird feeling.

Finished with standing hamstring curls, seated good mornings, stretching and ball twist abs.

Wait, lunges again?

The original plan was to work up to a heavy single...
Squat:
135 x 10
185 x 1

My lower back still feels horrible. Shooting pains and what not. It's more than exhaustion, but not nearly as bad as when I tore/sprained it, or when I had that sciatica. Squatting feels fine as long as it's all legs, which isn't really not for me.

Since I couldn't use my lower back..
Lunges:
225 x 12
275 x 10
295 x 8
315 x 8

Hang cleans:
40 kg x 20
60 kg x 10
40 kg x 20, 2 sets

Tried to keep it light, work on explosiveness

Hamstring Curls:
120 x 12
130 x 12, 3 sets

Zerchers:
off the low pins for a change

135 x 10
225 x 8
315 x 8
405 x 5

These still kill my pecs from having to hold the weight...

Ball Twists:
3 sets of crap.

My lower back is permanently arched right now, so I could barely get the range of motion needed for these. I had terrence and ben help me stretch it out, but it is still so-so. The abs were still hard, which was good though.

Brent - are you going to be at 4-star on Saturday? Greg, Terrence and I were thinking of coming down.

DE Squat

Cut the volume today to prepare for my last heavy deadlift on Thursday.

Box Squat:
Used greens + blues. I did this combination out at Olympia Barbell, but it felt much easier there. I suspect it was because we did it out of a monolift and the bands weren't as new. I'm guessing this was 300-400 lbs of band tension at the top. The goal was lots of tension to train the CNS.

135 x 2, 2 sets
155 x 2, 2 sets
185 x 2, 2 sets
225 x 2, 2 sets

Getting my body used to the weight was the biggest thing. The first set, I actually got stuck at the bottom because I didn't sit back far enough. I may try this combo again in the future and keep going up.

Power Cleans:
145 x 5
165 x 5
175 x 5
185 x 5

Finished with ball-twists for abs.

Deadlift: Hurrah! Another Year, Surely This One Will Be Better Than the Last; The Inexorable March of Progress Will Lead Us All to Happiness

Decided the sciatica had settled down enough that I could try deadlifting today. It still hurts at times (like right now as I type this), but it's manageable. I'm hoping it goes away completely before the American Cup.

Deadlift:
(warm-up sets omitted; done raw)
557 x 5

Felt pretty good. Not my heaviest 5 reps ever, but I didn't want to push it. I forgot my long socks so my shins are awesome.

Seated Good-mornings:
(no belt)
135 x 10
185 x 1 (awrrrr)
Moving up in weight realllly aggravated something so I dropped it back down. Then I added a full pause at the bottom where I set the weight on the pins. This seemed to stretch things pretty well.
135 x 12
135 x 20
135 x 15

I felt rather limber with all that stretching.

(superset)
Hip Abductors:
180 x 30
220 x 30
250 x 30
280 x 20

Lying Hamstrings:
70 x 10
100 x 10
120 x 10
150 x 6 (owww)
the lying version seems to upset something. The pain actually got worse with ever set, which normally doesn't happen.

Finished with ball twists (3 sets) and seated calf raises, 3 tri-sets until failure.

Squatting SE (S = Sciatic)

Things are feeling better. Went back to the doctor today for the follow-up. She said no heavy lifting. I took that as nothing above 70% of my 1 RPM, so I went to squat today.

Squats:
405 x 5, 2 sets
Felt ok. Didn't want to push myself too hard, so I stopped after 2 sets

Box Squats:
w/ blues

(started light to test the waters)
135 x 4
225 x 4
275 x 4
315 x 4

Unracking the weight was pretty uncomfortable. The nerve gets inflamed when I am standing upright, so adding 450lbs of compression probably wasn't such a good idea.

Pause Squats
Decided to try Eric Talmants suggestion (by way of Nathan's suggestion (link plz)) of doing 1 rep @ 6 seconds.

315 x 1 (too easy)
385 x 1 (not bad)
405 x 1
415 x 1

I think my right glute went into a full cramp when I unracked the last two. Awesome.

Finished with the ball-twists using the weighted blue ball. These seem to help my lower back stretch out, while at the same time killing my abs.

Speed Bench

Speed Bench:
w/ quadded minis

alternated outside-ring, split-ring and inside-ring grips

135 x 3, 3 sets
155 x 3, 3 sets
175 x 3, 2 sets
185 x 3, 1 set

Close(r) Grip Bench off Foam Roller:
Trained with pinkies on the inside of the outer ring. This is about a whole hand's grip inside of where I normally train.

1 second pause on all reps. Tried to keep it from sinking into the foam roller. I want to get stronger with pausing at different grips and heights.

275 x 3
285 x 3
295 x 3
305 x 2 + 1 fail
295 x 3

Military Press:
Working on the weak point in the shoulders. I could definitely feel the exhaustion in my triceps for the lockout on these.

155 x 10
185 x 6 (back hurrrrt so I went down after this)
165 x 6 (still hurts)
135 x 8

Seated Cable Row:
180 x 10
230 x 10
250 x 10

Ball Twists:
(where your torso is stationary and you make a big arc with a ball between your legs)
6 twists each way, red ball

Then we tried the blue balls with sand in them. I think they weigh 10+ lbs.
3 twists each way, 2 sets
4 twists each way, 1 sets
3 twists each way, then 2 twists again, then 2 more twists again

These were brutal. They were much harder than I remember once you add weight. My abs are still feeling it a few hours later. As a bonus, these don't hurt my lower back <3