Luke 9-13-11 Bench and Vacation

I went to Mammoth and Yosemite with my family for the past 5 days. Yesterday I did the Nevada falls hike which is 1900 ft of elevation gain (and loss) over 3 miles (each way.) This was the most strenuous hike I've done in a while, but with my conditioning from bike riding and strength from powerlifting, the uphill was a breeze. Nevertheless, my ass is sore.

I got home today and wanted to hit up the gym so I did bench after skipping press and lower back days. I think I will combine squat and deadlift on thursday when I am less sore.

Bench

45 x 13, 45 x 10, 95 x 8, 135 x 5, 165 x 1

195 x 8 @ 10- PR (10 pound PR, previous best was 195 x 5)

Pause Bench with self imposed 2-3 second pause

185 x 5 @ 10- PR

185 x 5 @ 10+ last 3 reps felt @ 10

Skull Crushers

80 x 10 x 2 felt hard today

EZ Barbell Curls

80 x 10

Shrugs

455 x 3

505 x 3

535 x 3 barely could move it

T-bar Rows

worked up to 5 plates (225) x 6

also I fell on my ass on 4 plates when the handle slipped lol

Abs

Update

Well, I've been up in Tahoe for a few days now, and the gym here is quite poorly equipped. My solution has been lifting rocks instead. I have 4 different rocks: #1 I can clean & press for sets of 8, #2 I can clean and press for 3, #3 I can get to my chest, and #4 I can only get to deadlift lockout. Also supplementing with pushups, bodyweight squats, and lots of golf.

Squat

I'm in Honolulu for a week with my family and found a Powerhouse gym to lift at for a couple of days. It has a bunch of commercial equipment divided up into like 5 rooms and in the back there's a non airconditioned room with all the powerlifting equipment. The guys lifting there seem pretty nice and for those that know who he is, Darren Matsumoto was there for a little bit doing some flexibility work or something like that.

Squat
285 x 1
305 x 1, 1 @9.5

Pause squats
205 x 3, 3, 3

Power cleans
135 x 3
155 x 3
175 x 3

Lunges
135 x 4
185 x 5, 5

Standing abs
4 sets

Post #2,998: Post-Tahoe Bench

Got back from a two week stint in Tahoe. I mainly golfed and drank milkshakes. They had a gym at the place I was staying, but it was only equipped with a bench. Thought I would have lost more bench strength, but...

Reverse Grip Bench:
185x8
205x5
215x3
225x3 PR (Gregging on last rep)

Regular Bench:
185x5, 5, 5

Triceps, Biceps, Forearm and Delt work

Just kind of said "what the hell" when it came to the Reverse Grip, so I hit a hard triple at 225. Wouldn't have passed at a meet, but it went up.

Regular bench numbers were a little lower b/c I basically blew my load on the Reverse Grips (need to increase my work capacity lol), and b/c I am trying to keep my wrists straighter. The first two sets sucked pretty hard just because of the awkward hand position/elbow flare. The third set, I took a thumbless grip on the bar, and it felt like DE work b/c I was able to tuck more and keep my wrists straight.

Squat/Deadlift

Had to workout early today after having only a small meal but it turned out to be a good training session.

Squat
275 x 2
285 x 2
295 x 3 -PR, was aiming for 2 but I got slapped up pretty good before this set so I was fired up

Deadlift
355 x 5
365 x 5

GMOPs
185 x 10, 10, 8

I'm coming back to SoCal Friday night and will be back with the UCLA lifting crew on Monday.

Bench

Bench
185 x 2 -easiest this has felt so far
195 x 2
200 x 2.7 -PR, I was going for 2 but the spotter touched the bar on the first rep so I did 2 more
155 x 9, 9

Floor press
175 x 5, 5, 5

Flat dumbbell press
55s x 12
60s x 8, 7

Pushdowns
50 x 20
60 x 15, 15, 15

I talked a little bit with Rich, the guy that I said benched 655 before. He lifts single ply and said his PR is now 720. Anyway, he said that their guys have been benching once a week for a long time now. Usually they do a 6-8 week cycle raw and then follow it up with a cycle of shirted benching. However he said that they made really good gains in this past cycle when they did both raw and shirted benching every workout, working up to however heavy they could go raw, then shirting up. Rich is doing a meet in Chatsworth, CA put on by Scot Mendelson in a couple of months and hopes to put up 800.

Upper Back

Dumbbell rows (w/ straps)
130 x 10
175 x 6, 6

Pullups
BW+45 x 8, 7, 7

Barbell shrugs (w/ straps)
315 x 20
405 x 10, 10

Kneeling abs (alternating left and right side)
90 x 10
95 x 10, 10

Hammer curls
45s x 10, 10

Squat

I'm training at a gym called Anytime Fitness in Branson, Missouri which is where I'm staying to visit some family for the next week. It looks like a commercial gym and the title sounds like it'd be a commercial gym but there's actually a few powerlifters that train there but mostly bigass bench only guys. Apparently the huge (but friendly) guy who gave me a weekly pass benches 655. He even offered to let me have a key in case I wanted to train after gym hours.

Squat
265 x 5, 5
275 x 5

Pause squats (3 second self count)
205 x 3, 3

Lunges
135 x 8 (per leg)
155 x 6, 6

I kind of cut this workout short. The right side of my hip was not feeling good while squatting so I did 3x5 instead of 5x5 and only did 2 sets of pause squats. Also I finished the workout in about an hour which left me panting throughout the workout. Okay I'll stop complaining now.

Post-training BW: 180.5lbs

12/24/09 ME Stomach flu

Finally got back from Arizona/Palm Springs today. I had plans to lift but my body thought it would be awesome to throw up all day instead. Hopefully it's just a 24 hour bug and I'll be able to lift tomorrow.

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.

ME Vacation

Well, I successfully got 1 half-assed workout in on Thursday on my trip to Charlottesville to visit Ita and essentially blew off (or slept through considering I haven't got up before noon since I got here due to intense partying) the other 2 I was supposed to do.

On that note, Charlottesville is truly...American. The city's standard passtime is "go out and drink no matter what night of the week it is or how old you are" which is cool for awhile but kinda makes it hard to workout the next day. It also feels like the town is one giant sorority/fraternity in the dudebro ways, not the Pi Kappa Fabulous ways. But, it is definitely a fun place to visit because it's basically a party whenever you want it to be, but I need to get back to my routine so I can lift again and not be a giant pussy.