Speed Squat Day - Saturday 9/3/11

12 trips with the sled (90lbs)

Box Squats
185 x 2
185 x 2
185 x 2
205 x 2
205 x 2
205 x 2
215 x 2
215 x 2
215 x 2
215 x 2
215 x 2
215 x 2
This was tiring, very little rest.

GHRs
4 sets of 10

Reverse Hypers & Abs
3 sets of 10

Stretching

Today was all about perfect form and speed. I’ve never used a monolift before but it’s not bad. I would have preferred to walk out the weight on a normal squat rack but we train in groups so I had to stay with them. I’m pretty much resetting my squat form and making sure that I develop the right symmetry to boost up my three lifts.

Cycle 1 Week 2 Suited Deads

Deadlift (w/ Centurion straps down)

405 x 4+10 second break+1 @10-

I'm trying to take a big breath at the top and hold it for the entire rep but this doesn't work so well with 5 reps.

365 x 1, 1, 1 (straps up)

Good mornings

225 x 8

275 x 8, 8

Reverse hypers

50lbs for 3x10

Finished with 3 sets of ball transversus and hamstring stretching. I'm tired.

Cycle 1 Week 2 Suited Squats

Squat (w/ Centurion) -used a Mastadon bar which is fatter and weighs 60lbs

straps down, knees wrapped

380 x 3 @8+

400 x 3 @9-

straps up, knees wrapped

430 x 3 @10-

440 x 2 @10

I'm seeing some carryover from gaining raw strength in the past few months as these were all PR's today. At OCSC everyone wraps their own knees except for very heavy singles so these were all with self wrapped knees. I'd give myself probably a C on most of these, maybe C+ on the last set. Like in bench and deadlift, everyone pointed out many technique flaws, the biggest one being my torso bending over too much. I straight up good morning'ed the 2nd rep on the 440 set.

SSB Squat

155 x 8

185 x 8

205 x 8

195 x 8

Reverse hypers

no weight x 8

50lbs x 8, 10, 8

Finished with 4 sets of ball rotations and hamstring stretching.

Cycle 0 Week 2 Deadlifts

Put on the suit for the first time in a while today. Didn't fit too tight since I'm around 192lbs now and that's about the weight I trained at in the suit for the last meet. Hopefully will put on a few lbs before the meet though.

Deadlift (suit on straps up-also used a flex bar)

375 x 2

405 x 2

425 x 2 @10 -ugly set

405 x 2

One of the guys there, Gary, kept saying that my shoulders and the bar were way too far forward. He suggested I do some lighter sets to get the form down.

335 x 2, 2, 2

On the second set of these, I tried looking straight forward (instead of looking downwards like I usually do) and this tremendously helped me keep my shoulders back. The pulls felt way smoother and I think the range of motion even decreased with this form tweak. Hopefully I can hammer this down by August.

Hamstrings were fried after this so I skipped Romanians.

Shrugs <--skipped them yesterday because of deadlifts today

405 x 12

455 x 12

495 x 12

545 x 12

Finished with:

4 sets of pullthru's with a 45

5 sets of reverse hypers (first time doing these on a real one)

3 sets of kneeling abs

Hamstring stretching

12-23-10 Deadlift

I worked out at team crossfit academy, the same place I went last year over break. They stepped their game up and now have those color coded kilo bumper plates and a reverse hyper.

Deadlift

375 x 3 @ 9

396 x 3 @ 9 PR

the 396 set was weird. on my second rep I lost balance at the top and dropped the weight and this happened again on the third rep. This also happened when I maxed at 414. It doesn't really seem like a grip issue. I need to fix this before the meet. Maybe some sumo rack pulls or sumo shrugs will help.

Stiff Legged Deadlift unbelted

265 x 5

265 x 8

after this set my hands started itching and burning. It looked like the hair follicles on my ring fingers were bleeding beneath the skin. I think it was grip related- the bar pushing my bones into the skin of the finger maybe... I don't know, but I didn't like it so I stopped.

Reverse Hyper

machine x 10 x 2

10 x 10

20 x 10

30 x 10

One Leg Step Up Box Jumps

10 x 4 sets

Abs

I'll call this maintenance week

Bench

165 x 5 x 4

Incline bench

135 x 5

145 x 5 x 2

135 x 5

Close grip bench

145 x 5 x 3

Close grip chest ups

BW x 10 x 4

curls

Deadlift

325 x 5 x 2 (unbelted)

Good morning

185 x 5

205 x 5

215 x 5

225 x 5

Reverse hyperextensions

Plyos, abs circuit

Heavy Squat/Deadlift

Had to go early today so no training partners/spotters :(

Squat

285 x 1 -not sure about depth here

295 x 1 -got depth but I was slow coming up

295 x 1 -extreme grinder, the bar actually stopped in the middle but I kept grinding because I didn't want to look like an ass and dump it on the pins

I've tripled 295 before but I guess I did a meet 2 weeks ago so my strength should be back up in a few weeks.

Block pulls (2 stacked rubber 45s -right below the knees)

I tried to focus on form on these since it's the first time doing them in a while and I've had notoriously bad back rounding problems before.

295 x 3

335 x 3

355 x 3

365 x 3 -first 2 reps weren't bad but I had some rounding on the third

Power cleans

145 x 2

165 x 2

185 x 1

Reverse hypers

The machine outside is not as awesome as a true reverse hyper (haven't actually used one) but you can still get the majority of the motion.

25 x 15

35 x 12

45 x 12, 12

Lower Back & Core. Tuesday 5/25/10.

Banded Hyper Extensions
5 reps with 1 blue (singled)
4 good, full reps with 1 blue (singled)
5 good, full reps with 1 blue (singled)

Reverse Hyper Extensions
25lbs x 8
35lbs x 8
45lbs x 8
50lbs x 8 (tough)

Banded Good Mornings (no weight)
-> all with 1 blue (singled) and pauses. felt good.
10 reps
10 reps
10 reps

Aerobics Ball Core Leg Raises
8 reps
8 reps
8 reps
-> all going slow and controlled with pauses

**** SOME STRETCHING AFTER ****

Lower Back, Traps, Calves, & Core. Saturday 5/22/10

Reverse Hyper Extensions (Courtyard) 7x5
25x5
35x5
45x5
55x5
60x5
60x5
60x5

V-Squat SHRUGS!! 5x5
-> all with "1 Mississippi" pauses on each rep
4 plates on each side x 5
4 plates + 25lbs on each side x 5
4 plates + 25lbs on each side x 5
4 plates + 25lbs on each side x 5
4 plates + 25lbs on each side x 5

Banded Good Mornings (no weight) 6x10
1 blue (singled) x10
1 blue (singled) + 1 purple (singled) x10
1 blue (singled) + 1 purple (singled) x10
1 blue (singled) + 1 purple (singled) x10
1 blue (singled) + 1 purple (singled) x10
1 blue (singled) + 1 purple (singled) x10

Seated Calf Raises 4x5
-> all reps with pauses
2 plates x 5
2 plates + 25lbs x 5
2 plates + 25lbs x 5
2 plates + 25lbs x 5 (tough)

Banded Tricep Pushdowns 3x20
20 reps with 1 red (singled)
20 reps with 1 red (singled)
20 reps with 1 red (singled)
-> all with palms facing down
-> just to get some blood flow through the elbows (not intense resistance but significant enough)

Banded Standing Transversus Holds
-> all with 1 purple (doubled) over lat pull down
6 reps with pauses
5 reps with "5 Mississippi" holds (super tough)
5 reps with "5 Mississippi" holds (could barely make it through!!)

Deadlift

Deadlift
349 x 2
359 x 2
369 x 2
379 x 3 -PR
My lockout (definitely the weak point in my deadlift) felt pretty strong today.

Stiff legged deads
263 x 5
273 x 5
283 x 5

GMOPs (pin 10)
185 x 8, 8, 9

Finished with Reverse hypers and GHR abs while listening to Dean's wise words about flexibility and improving form (Dean also pulled a pretty fast 459 today).

2.26.10--Deadlift Day

I know I said I'd head into the gym at 2:00, but that was before I stayed up until 4:00 playing Pokemon. When I woke up today, it was already 3:00. Whoops. I went to the gym at 6 instead for some lower back work. Thanks to Greg, whose belt I stole without him knowing.

Deadlift:
135x5
185x4
215x3
275x2x3
I'm still having problems rounding out my back :(. I'm lucky so far that I haven't gotten injured, but I could really use either Matt, Dave, or Kyle to give me some advice on my form.

Conventional Deadlift off Blocks:
245x5 (easy)
275x5 (grinder)
245x5

GMOP (pins at 10)
warmups
45x10
135x8
155x8x2
I was using good form most of the time, but started squatting them up when I got tired.

Abs
Reverse Hypers-3 sets (2 of the sets I also held a 10lb weight)

Squat

First day of training over at Seattle Strength and Power. Amazing gym, with a set up much like Olympia Barbell (i.e. basement). Bands, chains, boxes, all the bars you could want - they have it all. The walls are lined with trophies and pictures of their record lifts. It's a great place and I'll post pictures here later.

Squat
405 x 5
425 x 5
455 x 3, 2 sets

Three USAPL judges train there and commented that my squats were deep enough. Apparently, I was just at parallel on the first rep, but buried all the others. I think I may be a bit too hesitant. I ordered some Versus lifting shoes so hopefully they come in time for next week's squat workout.

SS-Bar box squat:
13" box (measured); no belt
145 x 8
195 x 8
225 x 8
245 x 8

Lower back felt a bit exhausted from the squatting so I didn't push it on these. Focused mostly on working the adductors and hips. Also SS-bar seems to be great for the core, so I will probably stick with it for my beltless box squats.

Finished with a few sets of seated good mornings and reversed hyperextensions (w00t). Also, standing cable abs.

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.

squat day

During warm-ups the lower back felt tight, so I had to belt it after the first work set. The tightness was probably from hitting that no-belt conventional max where my back gave out. oh well. So after one week of no belt training, I am back to belted training until things feel rested.

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

The first set was the hardest and the sets just kept getting easier. Having the massive tendon stretch from deloading 160lbs at the bottom probably helped a little...

Cleans:
wrists were feeling sore from last week, so I dropped the reps and upped the weight. Not sure if that makes any sense though.

185 x 5
185 x 3
205 x 1 (new max #1)
225 x 1 (new max #2)
235 x fail
235 x fail

Box Jumps?:

Around this time, one of the guys was doing some low-box jumps and I was commenting that we needed some higher boxes. I pointed to the reverse-hyper and was like "We should jump on that!" Then he bet that I couldn't so I (of course) tried and succeeded. We got out the tape measure and it was 43".

Then we noticed that the counter next to it was only a few inches higher, so he dared me to try for that. So I did and made that. It was a little over 46". Not too bad, I think after doing a bunch of heavy squats before hand, but I don't remember how high the box at Wooden is, so this could just be average. I wish we had a 48" something so I could test whether I have a 4 foot vertical. (Actually, do box jumps even measure your vertical? Comments welcome)

Pause Squats w/ Safety-Squat Bar:
These were fun. also, not fun.

225 x 5 @ 5 sec.
275 x 5 @ 5 sec.
315 x 5 @ 5 sec.
365 x 2 @ 5 sec. (these were heavy...)

Zerchers:
no Pretzy-pads in this gym, so I tried using the SS-bar.

225 x 10.

Wrists feeling bad, also the legs, also the hips. then i stopped. fin.

Reverse-hypers:
4 sets of 330 til failure

Hanging abs:
1 set of 30
3 triple back-to-back sets of failure.

The last set of those triple sets was like 1 or 2 reps because i was so spent.

Deadlift Day

Conventional stance deadlift:
all these sets used the quaded mini bands which are 150? 200? lbs at the top. No one knows for sure.

135 x 10
185 x 10
225 x 10
315 x 6
315 x 5
415 x 1
455 x 0 (fail)

With no belt and not having deadlifted with conventional stance in 5 months, I crumpled half way up the 455. So what it was 600+ at the top, i should have gotten it. I will attempt this at some point once my core is more used to handling heavy weight.

suspended-bar good-mornings with the cambered bar:
135 x 10
225 x 10
(cut short)

I was supposed to do a giant lower back workout, but the plan changed based on the workout preferences of my friend Scott, who showed up right as I was starting the good-mornings


cambered bar box squats:
I wasn't planning on squatting, but oh well. These were done off a 14" box, which is a few inches below parallel for me.

135 x 10
225 x 10
275 x 5
275 x 3

Still beat up on squatting from monday. I didn't really want to push myself on these too hard so I could still recover.

dumbbell lunges:
we did these off an elevated box where you had to step down backwards. There's probably a name for this, but who knows.

100 x 8
110 x 8
120 x 8
130 x 8


Hamstring curls w/ bands:
Secure the green band to a stationary object, loop through the heels and sit on a bench facing forward. It's like a seated hamstring machine with variable resistance.

4 sets til failure (10-16 reps).


reverse hyperextensions:
270 x failure for two sets.