12/13/07 - Thursday

I haven't used any gear since the AWPC World's on August 4th. We decided to break it out to see where we were. my first bench with the shirt was 385, and my second was 405. i decided to leave it at that. considering this time last year i went into a meet and only did 385. this entire year i've used that as my opener (4 meets 12/2/06 - 8/4/07) i may start opening up around 395-400.

12/15/07 - Saturday

Again, no gear from 8/4/07 thru now. No belt, no hips. the only thing we used as "gear" were wrist wraps. i've had a slight strained groin for the past few weeks. wasn't sure as to how heavy i was going to go. hips and belt from 415 up. 415 felt nice. 465 felt good. i went to 505 with the hips, belt and a light... light knee wrap. i haven't done 505 without at least having the lower half of my suit on. 505 felt like nothing and i squatted it smooth and with a good turn-around on the bottom. i want to see how i do with the suit now. we just got a frantz deadlift bar, so we decided to check that out today as well. hips and belt. i haven't sumo deadlifted much at all since august... mainly i've only done grueling sets of 5 conventional. i pulled 405 easy. did 455 easy, but kept it there. because of my groin there was more stress on it picking up the dead weight than there was squatting. too much of a twinge for me to want to go higher. we'll see how it goes from here.. i don't know how much gear we will be using or how often. hasn't been determined yet.

AWPC WORLD's
8/4/07 - 8/5/07

This weekend was successful for me and Rob. Rob competed on Saturday in the 198lb Submaster division, setting a squat world record at 727.52lbs (330kg). He benched 463, and deadlifted 628. He also set the total world record for his class at 1818lbs.

I competed on Sunday. I ended up squatting 600.75, benching 407.85, and deadlifting 540. Those were all of my 2nd attempts. I missed 644 on the squat... felt the same as 600, I just got stuck in the hole. I missed 440 on the bench... the weight flew off my chest, but i couldn't lock out my elbows. I missed 573 on the deadlift... i picked up nice, and just as the judge went to say down, i lost my grip with the right hand. so close! I totaled 1548. a little off of my total from Nationals in April, but good enough for 1st place! I'm taking this week off to recoup, and i'll be back in the gym soon to working bench and squatting. in the meantime, i'll also be working grip strength!

Powerlifting - Heavy Bench
Thursday - 7/20/07

I had a pretty long day... having to get up 2 hours earlier than normal for a pretty big job we had for a local HS. I felt pretty drained going into the gym from the day's work, and it wasn't a max day, since we did that last week... it was a heavy work day.

Bench - bar warm-up, 95x12, 135x10, 135x6, 185x5, 235x4, 285x2... put on my bench shirt, 385x2, 420x1... the 420 felt good, a little slow for me, but i'm content. i thought about a 2nd rep, but didn't want to push it. we're doing our openers for the meet next thursday.

Bench w/chains - 225+1 set of chains x2, 225+2 sets x2, 225+3 sets x2

close grip bench - 225x3, 245x3, 265x3

bent over dumbell rear delt - 20x8x3 sets

Tri pushdowns v-bar - 90x10x4, 100x10

i still feel pretty drained, but considering today's work schedule, the training was still good. one more week of training left, a week off and then i'm in chicago competing....

Powerlifting - Heavy Bench
Thursday - 7/12/07

Yesterday was, as it says above, heavy bench day... Seeing that we're at a peak week in the cycle, we kind of did a max effort yesterday. Tomorrow is a max effort in the squat. The bench yesterday felt great, and I made a new PR for myself. Still with 3 weeks to go until the AWPC Chicago.

Bench - warm up with bar, 95x12, 135x10, 135x6, 195x5, 235x4, 295x1... i had a long wait until i put my bench shirt on since i was spotting my partner while he did his shirt benches. Once he was done and i was ready to go with the shirt:
385x2, 440x1 ! New PR for me!!

3 Board Press - 385x2, 440x2, 455x2

Close Grip - 230x3, 245x1, 260x3

Side Raises - 15x25
Front Raises - 15x15, 15x10

Now for my rear delt, what i did was hang from the cross bar in the power cage, looked up, arched my back and pulled my shoulder blades together... keeping the arms straight. i did this for 3 sets of 6, nice and controlled and concentrating on the squeezing of the shoulder blades.

V-Bar Tricep Pushdowns - 80x10, 90x10x4 sets

Dragon Flags - 2 sets of 5

Heavy Squat/Dead Tomorrow... looking for new PR's!

Powerlifting - Heavy Bench
Thursday 7/5/07

Ok, the day after the 4th... I wasn't feeling too great today. I was tired all day, tried a little cat nap at work, but still was extremely tired from my activities of drinking for most of the day July 4th! Hope everyone had a safe holiday.

Bench - warm up with bar, 95x12, 135x12, 135x6, 185x5, 235x5, 285x2, put on my shirt, 385x2, 430x1 matching my all time PR!

3 Board Press - 385x3, 430x2, 455x1

Flat Dumbell Press - 80x4, 85x4, 90x4

Close Grip Bench - 225x3, 240x3, 255x3

Rear Delt on one half of cable cross machine - 160x10, 180x10, 200x10, 220x10

Tricep Pushdowns with V-bar - 80x10x2, 90x10x3

That's it... I'm feeling really good about my training thus far. I have 3 more weeks of training, and the week following is the meet. I'm counting down to Chicago!

Powerlifting
6/14/07 Heavy Bench

Bench - warm up bar, 95x10, 135x10, 155x6, 185x5, 235x3, 265x5, put on bench shirt 355x2, 355x2.

added chains to 225. 225+1chain x3, 225+2chains x1, 225+3chains x1 225+4chains x1.

last week i couldn't get 225+2chains off of my chest because of my shoulder. shoulder was ok, again controlled and paying attention to form to keep the pain away. going to my chiro tomorrow to have it checked out.

Incline bench - 135x5, 185x5, done with that

DB Shrugs - 70x10, 80x10, 90x10

Wide rear delt... just moving the shoulder blades back. very small movement. 3 sets

V-bar Tricep push downs - 70x10, 80x10x5 sets

I'm watching the shoulder closing on bench days. i really don't have issues with it on my other training days.