Aye got it rumped, was fed up with long hair at the sides and back! Feels much better noo
And yeah I'm thinking pulls off blocks (8-10 reps) and high rep kroc rows might be the way to go, do you guys think i should do them after deadlifting (wednesday) or do them another day?
was there a time we weren't at war; when we knew what our hearts and hands were for?
Aye got it rumped, was fed up with long hair at the sides and back! Feels much better noo
Rumped? Is that what the cool kids are doing these days. I actually tried googling it and still couldn't work it out. Would it be safe for me to just go to the hairdressers and ask for it to be rumped?
"A wise man once said, "It's easier to buy smaller clothes, than to put on 5kg." ... Buzz
Starting to really enjoy front squats, they're getting a bit slower now. Bench was easy, I just wanted to at least do 80kg before starting a new program on monday...speaking of; since my 2nd comp in July last year my training has seriously went down the shitter (last couple of months have been alright, got some strength back again). My coach thinks I'm aiming too high all the time and has wrote me a schedule which will basically have me holding back till a comp.
Although my squat strength has been increasing I need to slow down my negative and make sure I'm hitting depth consistently.
was there a time we weren't at war; when we knew what our hearts and hands were for?
Barbell Row 5x5x60kg (took my grip in a good bit so I wasn't comprimising my back position - it's down to poor hamstring flexibility)
Weighted dips 3x5 +10kg, then 12 bodyweight
Weighted Plank 30s each at 25kg, 40kg, 50kg on back
Wed 18th January 2011
Deadlift (no belt) 1x5x157.5kg 1x5x162.5kg 1x5x165kg
Pulls off blocks (knee height) 3x8x160kg (+doubled purple mini bands x2)
Push press 5x5x60kg
Wide grip pullups 3x5
Then some grip work, captains of crush worked upto the #1 for singles with the left hand, got 4 reps with right hand. Some various plate pinch holds.
I always try to get a few no belt sessions in at the start of a cycle while it's still light. The problem is, it's light when using a belt, but without the belt these sets feel like they belong in the 2nd half of a peaking schedule. So they were quite hard and my back ain't feeling too good after the deadlifts. I think from now on, if I want to work on my no belt I should do a full cycle without it.
Quite happy with push press. The numbers aren't impressive but my overhead sucks so I'll take any sort of progress.
My plan was with dropping to 82.5/83kg bodyweight so I could do a comp in that weight class but the more I've thought about this I don't even know if I want to do comps again until (and if at all) I get into a position where I'm breaking records. I kinda forgot why I started training in the first place - to get stronger and bigger. Really everything recently has been about relative strength, and I don't know how the hell I got into that frame of mind.
My last couple of comps really put me off anyway. You put money into it and get nothing back, warming up is never ideal, travel, hassle trying to get time off work, and most of the comp is just standing about being bored. Always slow paced. I hate "peaking", going light 2 weeks around a comp. I miss having a solid level of strength throughout training, and spontaneous PB's on good days. Just want to train and be strong.
was there a time we weren't at war; when we knew what our hearts and hands were for?
I feel you on the overhead press brother! Mine is far from impressive but I'm delighted just to be making progress too.
On a positive note. I think one of the signs of a true lifter is working on things that we are crappy at. I'm sure we both no many guys who have a great bench/deadlift/OHP (pick one) whatever and never do the things that they fail at.
For example I remember overtaking a training partner (who was 20kg heavier than me) in the ORM deadlift and almost immediately he stopped deadlifting for a long time. He's back at it now but yeah he left it alone for a long long time just because it was humbling for him.
The most obvious one you see is some big guys who are allergic to serious chin up/pull up work because it is harder for them than the smaller guys.
JS - They think it will open the door to folk like LordMuppet campaigning for a threeway?
Yeah get bigger, your a tall guy so in PL style comps better to be with the big boys. At 80 odd kilos you get some short beasts. 5x5 at 60kg is strong, don't under estimate your own awesomeness.
"A wise man once said, "It's easier to buy smaller clothes, than to put on 5kg." ... Buzz
Cheers for the comments guys. When I started at the club I neglected my OHP for ages just because pretty much no-one else done it. I did still do other assistance exercises that I used to, OHP was the first to go cause I sucked at it. This is part of the problem I'm having with concentrating on powerlifts in general, everything else comes 2nd. The powerlifts are great mass builders but there are plenty of other exercises that I have interest in building (overhead work, pullups, front squats, dips, DB bench, grip work). I kinda just want to train for overall strength again.
Fri 20th January 2012 Bodyweight = 83.2kg
Front squat (no belt) 5x5x90kg
Bench 5x5x55kg + purple mini bands
OHP 5x5x42.5kg
Band assisted wide pullups 10,10,7,7,5 with blue small band, 2 without bands at end
Pushups 8,7 with purple mini band 4 with blue small band 10 without band
Had a great workout today, went into it with the right frame of mind. Had to work hard with front squats but got it. I got some bands a few weeks back so was wanting to test them out for different exercises today. Bands would be great for someone starting out with pullups, there's 2 problems I have with just using them to do more reps though - they help a lot more at the bottom (obviously) and they help tremendously with balance. These are what make pullups really hard and it seems bands would neglect working these areas. OHP was easy.
was there a time we weren't at war; when we knew what our hearts and hands were for?
Squat 1x5x95kg 1x5x110kg 1x10x125kg (belt for this set only)
DB Bench 21.3kg DBs, 2x10 23.8kg DBs, 1x10
Kroc Rows (on bench) 31.3kg DB, 3x10 each arm
Dips 3x10
Plank 2m 5s
Grip work with captains of crush, managed a set of 4 each hand with the #1. Then some plate pinches.
Wed 25th January 2012 Bodyweight = 83.4kg
Front Squat 3x5x92.5kg
Bench 1x5x50kg 1x5x57.5kg 1x11x65kg
Pullups (wide grip) 1x10 normal, then 2x10 assisted with red band
OHP 3x10x25kg
Ab roller (knees) 3x15
Then plate pinches and a 1m 10s hang from a pullup bar for grip.
So on the workouts first; Decent numbers on squat/bench/front squat (nice to see on video they're ass to grass!)/pullups (stoked to hit a set of 10 wide grip again!). I was recommended by a friend to try kroc rows to help fix my deadlift lockouts and I have to say the area around my rhomboids was sore for the first time I can remember (usually after upper back work it's just rear delts/traps I feel it in). It's always good to find a weak spot. OHP was very easy (silly weight), but my shoulders were burning a bit just from doing sets of 10.
And the program; So yeah decided to do 5/3/1. Loosely based on the 5/3/1 Full Body training template in the new ebook (squat/push/pull 3x/week) with some extra assistance. I've decided to do push press for the 5/3/1 sets and OHP as assistance, simply because I really want to work on my push press, and don't want to be doing something like 3x10 for assistance (if you do less reps the weight gets heavier....it'll get harder than OHP and would make it a bad choice for assistance, hence the switch). My ultimate aim is to do a few cycles without changing anything. I've lacked the ability to stick to a program recently.
Here's the plan Mon - 5/3/1 Squats, 3x10 DB Bench, 3x10 Kroc Rows, 3x10 Dips Wed - 3x5 Front Squat, 5/3/1 Bench, 3x10 Pullups, 3x10 OHP Fri - 3x5 Lighter Squats, 5/3/1 Push Press, 5/3/1 Deadlift, 3x10 Deads with bands
Ab/grip work optional at end of sessions. The plan with 3x10 deads is to keep the bar weight quite low and utilize band tension to work on the lockout.
was there a time we weren't at war; when we knew what our hearts and hands were for?
Squats 1x5x60kg 1x5x72.5kg 1x5x87.5kg (just a light day, paused some of the reps at the bottom)
Push Press 1x5x40kg 1x5x47.5kg 1x10x52.5kg
Deadlift 1x5x127.5kg (no belt, hook grip) 1x5x147.5kg (no belt, hook grip) 1x10x165kg (belt, over under) hook grip+belt for these sets; 1x10x70kg +red super mini bands 1x10x90kg +red super mini bands 1x10x100kg +red super mini bands
We basically had the bands setup like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN3h2LQphsk just that we only have round DB's so put a 25kg plate inside each one to stop it rolling. Seemed pretty solid so done 2 sets with it, and decided it just wasn't enough tension (wanting to work on the top end more - wanted it light at the bottom, hard at top). So we put a blue small band in addition to the reds round the DBs. Already we could see the bands start to move the plates in a bit - as soon as i done the first rep the tension just pulled the DBs/plates in. So just had to put on more bar weight, didn't have time to play about with it.
When I was at Strength Shop a bit back, I much preferred the setup there; http://youtu.be/5i4BrHT2oxs?t=6m59s 1 block, extreme band tension. Will try this next week.
Anyway, no problems with anything really. Hook grip is sore but didn't fail. Didn't want it fucking up my main set though. 10 reps ain't too shabby at 165kg.
was there a time we weren't at war; when we knew what our hearts and hands were for?
by Lordmuppet » Thu Jan 12, 2012 10:56 am 
