2/5/08 - Tuesday

Squat - warm up bar, 135×10, x6, x3, 225×5, x3, 315×2, broke back down and added the green bands to 225×2x8 sets. alternated sets with my training partner.

Speed Dead sumo - 135×1x5 sets, 225×1x5 sets, 315×5

Back Extension machine - 145×8, 160×8x2

Kettlebell Swings - 55lbx10, 70×10x2

Pullups - bodyweightx8×4 sets

DB Curls - 35×6, 40×6x2

Cable Curls - 120×6, 140×6, 160×6

The road to the AAPF Nationals starts. Just under 9 weeks of training until then. We started our training today. Feeling pretty good so far. Before starting yesterday, we wanted to gauge where we were in the squat, bench, and dead. We suited up the 2 weeks prior, and here’s where I currently stand. Squatted 575lbs, benched 410lbs, and deadlifted 525lbs. I can only go up. My goal is to squat 630lbs+, bench 440lbs+, and dead 575lbs+.

2/4/08 - Monday

Bench - warm up with bar, 95×10, 135×10, 135×6, 225×5… broke it down to 135 with the green bands, and did 8 sets x 3 reps w/about 20-30 sec rest.

DB Incline #1- 70×6x3sets

Shoulder Press - 135×4x4sets

Rear Delt on cable cross - 160×10, 170×10, 180×10x2 sets

Tri Pushdowns wide - 60×15x8 sets, I supersetted with 40×6 on Nautilus XPLoad Tri Ext.

Dragon Flags (for the core strength)- 2 sets of 5 reps

So far so good. Speed Squatting and Deads on Tuesday

12/20/07 - Thursday

Bench - warm up bar, 95x10, 135x10, 135x6, 225x4, 255x1, 285x1. Threw on my shirt 385x2, 410x1

Close Grip - 235x3, 245x3x2sets

Incline #2 - 75x4x3sets

kettlebell snatches (55lb) 5x4 sets, each arm

preacher curl on nautilus nitro plus - 110x8, 125x6x2 sets

v-bar tri pushdowns - 90x10, 100x10x3 sets

12/18/07 - Tuesday

Squat - warm up, then went to box squats with 225x2x8 sets, about 30-45 sec rest between sets

Deadlift Conv - 225x1x10 sets

Pull-ups - i love doing pull ups now, legs straight, no swinging! bodyweightx8, put on the dip/chin belt and added my 45lb kettlebell to it. 2 sets x5

Bent over barbell rows - 135x8x3 sets

seated calves - 50x20, 20x40, 20x40

NitroPlus Calf machine (straight leg) - 65x30x3 sets... i'm definately going to be feeling this tomorrow. everytime i blast my calves i have problems walking 2 days later.

12/17/07 - Monday

Bench - warm up, 185x10, 195x10, 205x10

Dumbbell Incline #1 - 70x6x3 sets

Barbell Military Press - 135x6, 145x6, 155x6

I only did a set or 2 of Kettlebell cleans, i was showing my training partner the proper clean technique. we used the 55lb and 70lb bells

Preacher Curls on Nautilus Nitro Plus - 110x8x4 sets

Tri Pushdowns wide flat bar - 90x10x3, 100x10x4

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.

Friday, October 26, 2007

i was more rested this week and ready to squat, however, i have a slight strained groin, so i broke the weight back down on the squat and did a 3x3 workout. i also narrowed my stance some and made my feet more straight forward to take out some of the pain in the groin muscle.

Squat - bar, 135x8, 135x6, 225x5, 315x2, 355x3x3

Conventional Deadlift - 225x3, 275x1, 335x1, and now the work sets.. there were 4 of us and we had 3 bars set up since we all have different strength levels. we went in turn deadlifting, so our rest was limited to 60-90 seconds between sets. this is a brutal deadlift routine, but we love it. i think it's a huge factor to my slight weight increase the past few weeks, since i have done nothing special to my diet.

Here are the work sets... 350x5, 315x5, 280x5 for 9 sets! (10% [35lbs] drop for the first 3 sets) again very little rest here. heart racing, dripping with sweat, feeling like puking, light headed and seeing stars. i was fried after 9. thomas did 10 and rob, the freak that he is banged out 15 sets of 5 with 335. his drops were 50lb drops, so he started at 435, 385, 335... i wonder how he feels today... haha! i actually don't feel too bad.. a little tight, but i've been doing this for a few weeks now, so i'm getting used to workload involved. the premise of this routine is that it is supposed to help your body release it's natural growth hormone. i'm believing it.

October 25, 2007 - Thursday Heavy Bench

It's been a while since my last blog posting... oops! from where i left off with my bench on september 27, i've been increasing the weight 10lbs every week. so this is what has culminated up to now... this was today's workout

Bench - warm up bar, 95x10, 135x8, x6, 225x5, 255x2, 285x3, 295x2, 305x1

Board press - 305x3 (3 boards), 325x2 (2 boards), 345x1
I decided to lower down to 2 boards... i had a lot of explosive drive off of the 3 board and that part of my bench was not the weak area, so i dropped to a 2 board. what a difference! that extra distance of just under 2 inches feels like a full range rep!

Incline press - 195x3, 205x2, 215x1

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

preacher curls Nautilus nitro plus - 110x10x4

Triceps pushdown v-bar - 90x10, 100x10, 110x10x2 sets

Dragon flags - 1 sets 5 reps


My squatting last week ended up with 385x3, 405x2, and 425 for an attempted 1. i say attempted because i picked it up strong, controlled it down strong, but couldn't get back up! i had a rough week of late nights and some partying which definitely was the main reason for my failed rep. i was exhausted. it showed in my deadlifting too. 2 fridays ago i deadlifted 340x5, 305x5, 280x5x10 sets. last friday i did 345x5, 285x5, and was fried by my fifth set of 285x5. sheer exhaustion. i took off going out friday night, and since sunday haven't gone out at all and i'm feeling more rested. i'm hoping tomorrow is a better training session than last week...