30/04/11 - Saturday ME lower body day

This is the last heavy squat/deadlift workout, exactly two weeks out.

Got my bodyweight up to 116kg, should hit 118-120kg for the comp.
Think the suit is a bit too small for me.

1) Full gear Squat ME
Weight     Reps     Sets
Bar            10         2
60              5          1
100            3          1 - feeling very strong. 
140            3          1 - suit on, straps down, belt on.
180            3          1
220            3          1 - knee wraps from now on
240            F          1 - straps up, and got pitched forwards.
240            1          1 - easy, just needed to focus on pushing back.
250            1          1 - pb, slow but not all out.

Think I need to put the straps up sooner in the warmup. Otherwise I will bomb this meet coming up.

2) Wide comp grip bp (paused) 5 reps workup to a mod hard set
Weight     Reps     Sets
60              5           2
80              5           1
100            5           1
120            5           1 - added wrist wraps for this.

3) ME Rack deadlift, just below knees, at sticking point (3 weeks ago, was unable to break 250 off the pins)
Weight     Reps     Sets
60              5           1
100            3           1
140            3           1
180            3           1 - added belt
220            3           1
240            3           1
260            3           1
270            3           1 - new rep pb
280            1           1
290            1           1 - new pb  

Feeling very good for the comp. As long as I dont bomb on the squat, should be good for a 680-700kg total.

26/04/11 - Tuesday

1) Raw Squat (no belt)
Weight     Reps     Sets
60             5/3         2
100            3           1
130            3           1
170            3           1 - Never gone this heavy with no belt.            
130            3           1
170            3           1  

2) Reverse grip BP with pause 3-4 sets x 5 - very light, beat up from yesterday
Weight     Reps     Sets
70              6           1
80              5           1
70              5           1

3) 2" Deficit DL no belt
Weight     Reps     Sets
60              3           1
100            3           1
140            2           1
180            1           1
220            1           1 - hook grip
210            1           1 

Think I need to change the training max for the deadlift. Prob base it off a beltless max ~260

4) Grip - plate pinch hammer curls
2 5kilo plates smooth parts on the outside
left = 9, right =10

5) Reverse hyper - bw only 1x10

25/04/11 - Mandag - BP RM and light sq & dl

Foam roller warm up, I have gained 4-5kg in under two weeks so far.

How did I do it?.......6-10 pints of whole milk aday, and doubling my food intake (lots of carbs, eggs, meat etc). Oh and It is mostly muscle (well....water..)

Any way heres today:-

1) Raw Hi-bar squats (light, no belt)
Weight    Reps    Sets
Bar           ?          lots
60            5          1
100          3          1
120          3          1
140          3          1
120          3          1

2) Raw Pause Comp style bench
Weight    Reps    Sets
Bar           ?          1
40            5          1
60            3          1  
80            3          1
110          3          1
80            3          1
110          3          1

3) 4 board very close grip bench (proper 4 board height ie 6" )
Weight    Reps    Sets
60              7         1
80              7         1
100            7         1
120            7         1

4) Pullups
Bodyweight only (115kg)
1st set set = 6 reps
 2nd-7th set = 5 reps

For the last 5 sets did band face pulls for 15-20 reps, straight after pullups.

5) Deadlift (no belt, overhand grip but not hook grip)
Weight    Reps    Sets
160           3         1
180           3         1
160           3         1

6) Warm down-
loosing deadlift (ie fully rounded back), 1x15 bar only

foam roller for all, and band stretches for upperbody.

22/04/11 - Fredag : ME Squat, Straps down, Chocks away...

Yep, two lower body max effort workouts in a week.
Back still a little tired, but my physio helped my back a treat on Wednesday, coupled with the light squat and dead workout, I feel pretty strong today.

Tried an experiment to see if I have my belt one notch looser to see if that helps.
Warmup - foam roller, bar only squats

1) ME Squat, Straps down
Weight    Reps    Sets
60             5          1 - raw
100           3          1 - raw
140           3          1 - added suit bottoms and belt , no wraps
180           3          1
200           2          1 - old loose knee wraps
220           1          1
230           1          1 - changed knee wraps to comp ones, but still put on loose
240           1          1 - Felt good, also got it to depth, alot easier than last time with the straps up.

should be good for a squat of 260kg, maybe 270kg if I'm feeling greedy.

2) Reverse-grip Bench 3-4x5reps, wide grip, paused
Weight    Reps    Sets
70             5          1
80             5          1  - added wrist wraps
90             5          1
100           5          1 
cause of the stupid grip, I had to have lift offs for the last two, but very good exercise to teach correct form, and removes alot of stress away from the shoulders and on to the triceps.

3) DE Deadlifts (no belt) decided to try draping a super-mini band over the middle of the bar and standing on it, must of increased the lockout weight by at least 40-50kg

I changed the weight each set from 180 to 200 and back for 8 sets of 1 rep
Weight    Reps    Sets
180           1          4
200           1          4 - very hard to lockout.

4) Grip work - Captain of crush
warmup #1 - right = 10 ; left = 10
#2 - right = 4 ; left = 4  both assisted slightly
#3 negative hold for time - right 15secs ; left 22 secs
#1 - right = 20 ; left = 20

5) Foam roller and band stretches.

20/04/11 - Wednesday...duh

Decided to deviate slightly from the traditional westside barbell template, by adding a blend of eastern high frequency training.  To wit, what Jack Reape wrote about in the article "Somewhere beteen Moscow and Columbus".

This is so I can work my technique more while still utalising the WSB training protocols.

Fasted (ie morning weight) 112kg (ie a 2kg gain in a week). Shirt alot harder to get on.

20/04/11 - Wed - BP ME
1) Beltless light Squat - supersetting 110kg and 130kg for 3 reps each
3 sets done
(no belt, completly raw)

2) Shirted Bench - with pause
Weight    Reps    Sets
60             5          1
60             3          1
80             3          1
100           1          1
120           1          1 
140           1          1 - put on shirt
160           1          1 - easy
165           1          1 - even better, pulled the bar in tight, no drift
170           F          1 - ditched towards stomach at bottom, and lost it halfway up
160           1          1 - done less than 30 secs after last set, with a pause, very hard, let it driffed out of proper bar path. Had to muscle it up.

3) Pullups supersetted with band face-pulls (done for 12-15 reps)
Bw only, 6 sets of 5 reps (bw ~ 113)

4) Beltless light Deadlift (supersetting 160kg with 190kg for 3 reps each)
3 sets, trying different stances

Lots of foam rolling and band stretching for 20 mins.

18/04/11 - Mon

Got some green bands the other day and have been dying to try them out.
So will do reverse band deads tonight and reverse band bench on wed.

I set the bands so they would deweight fully to just below knees. Prob took 20-30kg off at the bottom.

1) Equipped squat - just to work technique
Weight    Reps   Sets
140           2         1   - straps down, no belt, no wraps
180           2         1  - all gear
200           1         1  - lost balance on second rep, decided to stop here as right arm's tendonitus was starting to flair up.

2) Reverse-band deadlift

Decided to experiment with different stances, (1) Very close (heels about 3" apart) (2) Previous Comp stance (feet just inside nurling) (3) Old comp stance ( feet disected by end of nurling). For each set done for a tripple I varied the stance for each rep.

Weight    Reps   Sets
60             3         1
100           3         1
140           3         1
180           3         1
220           3         1 - added belt
240           2         1  - only (1) & (3) Stance, decided to stick to (3)
250           1         1
260           1         1
270           1         1 - hard lockout but strong.
220           5         1 - down set, done within a 2 mins of last set
Not sure if the stance changed anything or if it was because I took a wider grip for each stance.  Thus allowing for easier lockout, as lats where getting in the way with the narrower grip.

3) GHR - 2nd notch up 3xMax reps - 5/5/5

4) Front squat 3x10 - light - 60/70/80

5) Weighted decline straight leg situps 4x10
Weight    Reps   Sets
Bw           10        1
10            10        1
20            10        1
10            10        1


Will be deloading next week, so will prob work up to 240kg squat again on friday, see if it feels faster.


n.b - all weights are in kilos

17/04/11 - Sunday DE BP

Started bulking my diet up alot since about thursday last, having at least a gallon of whole milk a day, and alot of more food. gained ~1kg so far.

1) DE Bench
Weight   Reps   Sets
85kg        3         6   - had mini bands looped around wrist - to force me to try to grip the bar and tear it apart
85kg        3         2  -  no bands, wrists were getting sore.

Notes = speed has increased dramatically, even with borderline tendonitus.

2) 5 board press 3x3 (side note, this is more like a 4 board for me due to length of arms)
Weight   Reps   Sets
100kg      3         1
140kg      3         1
180kg      1         1  - had help with lift off, failed 2nd rep (bad bar path)
160kg      5         1

3) DB MP 4x10 ramped up each set

4) Rear Delt raises 3x12 increased each set