Deejay Spike's Training Journal

[Deejay_Spike]

kay, now i got like maybe a good 6 months that i don't have to do any meets, so i can work out to become stronger than ever!

starting today, after 4 days rest, SQ/BE/DL, intensities as follows : 70/85/80

SQ :

310*2/6

Warming up with 155/220/265
Odd, my actual work sets felt much lighter than my warm up sets... oh well, the machine is oiled now :D

BE :

245*2/6

Warming up with 155/200
there it was the other way around. first 4 worksets felt quite heavy, but the last 2 were very good. ow well, as long as i get them up...

DL :

330*2/6

No warming up
there only the two first sets felt a bit heavier. then it went just fine, been there, done that.


it looks like i hade to oil the machine to get in the good groove :D

first sets always felt heavy, but once i was rolling it went just perfect.

[Antaeus]

cool dude. hey do you do any assistence stuff? have I asked you that before? :D

[Deejay_Spike]

didn't have time today.

but i'm doing assistance... upperback, triceps, abs mostly

[Deejay_Spike]

arg, tough training!

DL :

285*3/3 Off matts (increased ROM)
320*3/3 Regular DL (full ROM)
375*3/3 On Blocks (partial ROM)

this was BRUTAL
especially since i didn't use a belt... not even for the 375...
also, you'd figure the partial would be easier, even with 90% of my max... yeah right ! this part was all back, man that felt good, but hard once the legs are taken out. so i know what i need to work on too ;)

BE :

220*5/6

lol, easy as ****. on my last set one guy challenged me to do 8 reps with it. i said nothing, went under the bar and smashed 11 reps. was cool :D wasn't even that hard, considered the fact that i already did 5 sets...

SQ :

265*5/4

no big deal, but they felt harder because of the heavy deadlifting

[Deejay_Spike]

did a lot of abs today, too...

mainly abs today.

[Deejay_Spike]

this was a total training...

i had good stuff, bad stuff, and funny stuff

Funny stuff : couldn't hold my laugh in my bottom squat so i had to drop it.

Bad stuff : lower back to ****ing fatigued to do more than 3 sets on the deadlift

Good stuff : a beer right after workout, and NO lower back pain whatsoever (which is paradoxal it seems)


now onto how it went :

SQ :

300*4/6 = 24 total reps @ 67,5%

well this was going strong, very good and deep.
but on my 4th set me and my buddies were talking, and just as i was about to unrack it, someone said : GO Florent!
Ok, as some of you know, my name is Michael, and Florent is a strong guy (12th on the IPF worlds) but basically, it's a stupid kid who likes to show off. plus he weighs 440lbs... so i already had a hard time to keep from laughing as I was holding my breath. first reps was ok, but at the bottom position position of my second rep i bursted out in laughter and had to drop that bitch! omfg we were like 3 dudes laughing, i almost pissed my pants! ow, for the record, we have safety pins, so i only had to raise my butt and let the bar go down 2 inches.
anyway, after we put it back up, i finished my set and we did the rest :)
was funny tho :D

BE :

247,5*2/3
245*2/3 = 12 total reps at +/- 85%

no problem. now i feel i really master the bench pause. i don't feel any difference between a no pause bench and a 2 second bench. and i'm happy with that :D

DL :

this was the bad part of today...
like you know, my two previous workouts were quite brutal. and that combined with the fact i didn't get much sleep made that i could do all the deadlifting i wanted.

it should've been 340*3/6 = 18 total reps at 86,5%

but i could only manage 3/3

and man dit they felt hard!! i really had to blast 'em up with all i had to get them past my knees. after those 3 sets i went for my fourth set but i didn't have enough in me... 330 wouldn't go past my shins either.

BUT the positive thing is that after i'd done my reverse hypers and stuff, i didn't have ANY lower back discomfort, which i had after my previous workout.

not even after i failed miserably today at 340... my lower back was just too fatigued but fine. so i'll do some recovery work tomorrow and i think it'll be fine.

[Antaeus]

lol I hate it when someone makes a joke right when you're lifting, cause you lose all tension!!!

Last wed I was about to go for a bench PR, and Hayward's spotting me. Garrett yells out "C'mon Hayward!! Stay tight!! Oh, crap I'm a tard" and we all just bust out laughing. I had to take like 2 min to recover!

[Deejay_Spike]

lol yeah but it was just so ****ing funny man!

especially when i had to dump it... lol i almost pissed my pants!

[Deejay_Spike]

BRUTAL workout... now that we're off season we can increase volume and the number of exercises....

just today :

Straight leg DL : 220*6r/3s
Wide Snatch DL : 265*3r/3s
Dl off matts : 310*3r/3s
DL : 330*3r/3s

-> this was brutal... i mean, a total volume of 45 reps endin with 9 reps with 80% of my max...
the wide snatch dl was very cool; because i had to finish it with a shrug and visible plantarflexion. i also started very low, which was kind of weird at first.

Narrow Grip BP : 175*6r/6s

was easy, but that's just something different to do, i like it :D

Front SQ : working up to 220 for a double

could have gone for 265 easily, but was to ****ing tired to try it...

hell, if i look at the Total Tonnage i had for the deadlift part of my workout, i lifted a total of 12080LBS in 45 reps
or an average of 268,5lbs per rep.

so i think i didn't have a bad workout did I ? :D :D

man man brutal workout...

[Antaeus]

nice workout. incorporating o-lifts eh? :D

[Deejay_Spike]

well i need a good start in the deadlift, so i think i'll start doing more snatch deadlifts :D

but it was brutal... especially with 1 minute of rest i between sets

[Antaeus]

Originally posted by Deejay_Spike
well i need a good start in the deadlift, so i think i'll start doing more snatch deadlifts :D

but it was brutal... especially with 1 minute of rest i between sets

how does the snatch-grip help your dead? The snatch-grip is like a wide-grip, right?

[Deejay_Spike]

Originally posted by Antaeus
how does the snatch-grip help your dead? The snatch-grip is like a wide-grip, right?

it is very wide, so i start out very low. a lot more hamstring and glute recruitment.

[Deejay_Spike]

so...

Tuesday : Killer workout
Friday : working hard all day with sore body
Saturday (today) : Killer workout with sore body....

i'm surpised i can still bend over without collapsing :D

SQ with Feet together : 220*6/4

basically squatting with your feet together. was a bit weird at first, bit harder to balance the whole thing, but went nicely. i thought it would be all quads, but actually i felt it was a lot of postersior chain, which is good

Front SQ : 220*2/4

easy. i think i have some potential in front squat... i easily performed these sets. hmmm... wonder if i could clean 200lbs... would be fun. i once power cleaned 175lbs...

Back SQ : 310*3/4

arg! i mean... normally it would've gone very smoothly. but now i already did 8 worksets with 2 different squatting variations...
oh well i did finish my sets, but it felt harder. bit less confident while going down.

Bench : 200*4/6

easy

DL :

here came the fun... in my 2 last workouts, they got me so tired i missed 330 the first times i wanted to lift them... and it took me a long time to finish my sets... had to wait like 10 minutes in between sets.

today was different, despite the soreness and the last rude days!

265*2
310*2
330*2
350*2 did all these with the normal resting time... and they went up well i believe. cool. so i wanted to try 375, but i didn't get it. oh well, i'm happy with the 350... i'll get 375 next time

[healthy n_fit]

Nice job Deejay! You are INTENSE!!!!:D Damn....how do you feel? :D I'm glad the deadlifts are going better now. Do front squats feel much different than back squats? Do you feel them more in your quads? Keep on going....you strong bitch! ;) :p

[Deejay_Spike]

no... not especially in my quads... i do feel my abs working more. for the rest it's still mostly my ass moving the weight


and i feel pretty good

i feel 2 sets of reverse hypers and 2 sets of leg raises and variations of it really help me. when i do this i literalle have NO discomfort at all in my lower back. and it helps me recover a lot faster... i like it.

[healthy n_fit]

Originally posted by Deejay_Spike
no... not especially in my quads... i do feel my abs working more. for the rest it's still mostly my ass moving the weight


and i feel pretty good

i feel 2 sets of reverse hypers and 2 sets of leg raises and variations of it really help me. when i do this i literalle have NO discomfort at all in my lower back. and it helps me recover a lot faster... i like it.

Cool! How sore were you today? Wow..I gotta try these exercises one day! :D

[Deejay_Spike]

Originally posted by healthy n'fit
Cool! How sore were you today? Wow..I gotta try these exercises one day! :D

well i was still a bit sore in my hams, erectors and lats

[healthy n_fit]

Originally posted by Deejay_Spike
well i was still a bit sore in my hams, erectors and lats


I see.....all of the places I don't like getting sore at. :D Ok.lat are an exception. :)

[Deejay_Spike]

don't really care if i'm sore of now... doesn't last long enough for me to care about

[healthy n_fit]

Originally posted by Deejay_Spike
don't really care if i'm sore of now... doesn't last long enough for me to care about

lol..I know...but I just hate it. lol..good thing I don't really get sore! :D

[Deejay_Spike]

yeah, that's true :D


btw, almost done updating my Training overview

[healthy n_fit]

Originally posted by Deejay_Spike
yeah, that's true :D


btw, almost done updating my Training overview

cool! Post it when you're done! :)

[Deejay_Spike]

done. check other thread for it. tell me what u think of both files

[healthy n_fit]

Holy crap! It was big...but overall.it looks good...lots of volume i see..

Damn.you got a big tonnage per week! :D

[Deejay_Spike]

I feel SO ****ING GOOD !!!!!!!!


killer workout!
these higher-russian-style-volume workouts really pay off. even after a coupl of days.

it was like : W/out Day - Rest - W/out Day - Rest - W/out Day

so each time i only have 2 days of rest. actually only one, because i work on fridays, and it is a phisically demanding day.

so from Tuesday till Monday it's 3 workouts in 5days.

anyway...

what was i saying? Oh yeah, the high volume workouts!
yeah they helped me build some resistance, and the variation of exercises is really fun. i like these workouts very much, even if i'm numb after'em

Today :

I worked out with my coach and Orhan. working with these guys is really motivating. and everything feels lighter, because i just don't want to miss a lift they use for warmups :D this kind of pride makes me progress a lot faster

SQ : 330*2/4

I had some pointers from my coach. he thought i had the bar a tad too high on my upper back.
lowered the bar only one inch and the weight just felt a lot more balanced and lighter! i mean, one INCH only... this guy amazes me. first time i did more than 1 set with 330... nice nice... going strong here

BE :

It should've been 230*3/2 and 245*2/2 and then 255*1/2
BUT instead of doing 255*1/2, i did 255*1, and 265*1

dude, i just felt like it... felt really light, did an easy pause. all weights felt good. and since i felt quite good from the squat, i thought what the **** let's make it an easy two-plates.

DL :

this was the highlight of my day...

i told you i missed 375 saturday... and that the days before i had to take extra long resting time to hit 330, and even then they felt heavy as ****.

well, today my worksets shoud've been 350*3/4

kay, i do 265 to get the feel of the weight. then i've been thinking, and i roll the barbell an inch further away from my chins.
then i lift 310, easy weight.

by then me and the other 2 two were warmed up and we could go on with the stuff...

the first 3 sets of 350 really felt a lot lighter then the 330 from the previous days... much of this due to the fact the barbell was a bit further away... amazing.

and for the last set, after doing my second rep, i thought again oh **** let's do it, and i busted 8 ****ing reps !!!!! YEAH

FEELS GOOOD !!

8 ****ing reps!

it was because Orhan dit 10 reps with 350 as a finisher, and i continued after my 3 reps...

WOOOOT !!

me happy... man, instead of 12 total reps i did 17!

8 reps as a last set...

ok ok, i did collapse after i put down the barbell, but i was back up within the minute, and drank an ice-cold deserved BEER !!

[healthy n_fit]

MaN....you did so good! Wow....to think just one inch can make a difference! Its amazing! Great job Deejay!! :) How far away from yuor shins was the bar when you were deadlifting? Good job on getting 8 reps...that's crazy! Keep going dude! Its all working out well for you..

[Deejay_Spike]

3 inches at start i think

[healthy n_fit]

Originally posted by Deejay_Spike
3 inches at start i think

oh..cool...I gotts check mine some time...

[Spexes]

lol Double post healthy. Good job Deejay. Congrats.

[Deejay_Spike]

thx

[healthy n_fit]

Originally posted by Spexes
lol Double post healthy. Good job Deejay. Congrats. lol..I fixed it..... :D

[Deejay_Spike]

and progress is still rising!!

DL :

265², 310², 350² and then 375²/3

woooohaaa

wasn't easy, but who ever said a training should be easy? :D


BE :

255²/6

did this with another guy, so we didn't have much resting time.... about 45s each i believe.... oh well, it's a drill :D


FSQ :

220³/6

easy weight on front squats, progressing quite fast in there too.

[Antaeus]

Hey have you ever done a front squat max?? I bet it would be tough to hold that much wt across the clavicles. You probably feel it in the thighs more, as well.

[Deejay_Spike]

Originally posted by Antaeus
Hey have you ever done a front squat max?? I bet it would be tough to hold that much wt across the clavicles. You probably feel it in the thighs more, as well.

i think my front squat max lies around 310/330

[Deejay_Spike]

i'll be reporting 2 training days.

Saturday :

SQ feet Together : 200lbs*6/4
SQ : 285lbs*4/4
BE : 245*3/3
Narrow BE : 220*3/3
DL off Matts : 330*2/6


the deadlifts were heavy... the bar was actually almost touching my feet... hard to start with a straight back. but it does help for the start.
first time also i did 220 on the bench for narrow grip. felt quite light even, which is fun!

Today (monday) :

SQ :

310lbs ²
315lbs ²
320lbs ²
325lbs ²
330lbs ²
335lbs ²

fiew... warming up with 155, then 220, then 265 for 2 reps each.
actually, felt good.

BE :

220*6/3

no big deal here, i've done 6 reps with this already. oh well :P

BE narrow :

200*6/3

felt good also. bit harder because the triceps are tired more quickly.

Stiff legged Deadlift :

220*6/3

dunno what i had today, but i was stiff as hell... could hardly keep my legs straight as i was going down... should start doing lunges to improve hip and ham flexibility.

DL off Matts (again) :

285*6/3

yeah! 6 ****ing reps with 285... omg... i know i know, i have to do a lot of those to improve my start, but **** this is hard man....

ow well, who said powerlifting was piece of cake?

[Deejay_Spike]

i am killed.... need some rest now... next workout will be monday.

DL :

350*3/6

OMFG!
never did more than 4 sets with 350... now 6! and this with my coach, who does this very quickly since this is a near warm-up weight for him... arg :)

man i was K.O. after that.

BE :

255*2/6

whooot... was heavy, but felt good, very good! good control over the bar, and not even that slow.

Front SQ :

200*2/6

i just couldn't lift more than that after my deadlifts.... my lower back is numb.... oh well suffering is part of the game

[Antaeus]

Taking 3 days off, eh? How about doing some recovery exercises?

[Deejay_Spike]

not right now... btw, i word tomorrow, so that'll count as gpp and recovery work ;)

but i' think i'll sit on my ass the whole weekend and get myself a good massage (friend coming over saturday...)

[Deejay_Spike]

yiiiiiiiiihaaaa let's hit it !!!

after a three days rest (didn't work out Saturday) i'm loaded again!!

SQ :

330*3/6

man, these felt really light!! my coach worked out with me and he saw that i have very good form and depth. I had a lot of power in me legs today he said to me. really felt good. even with only 1 minute rest in between sets. i'm happy with that.

BE :

245*3/6

this was a bit harder, but felt good also. good starting power. bit unstable at the lockouts. feels easier if i press towards my feet, but one should watch out not to end with the barbell on the balls :D
started my sets with a more narrow grip (middle finger on the rings) and progressively widened my grip. i ended my sets with the widest, barely legal grip.

Snatch DL :

265*3/6

This is becoming one of my favourite exercises! i just love it! we just finished the reps on the tip of our toes and the barbell past our belly buttons! it's really cool! like, you start and then you push your hips forward, get on the tip of your toes and shrug powerfully.



extra exercises :

Triceps extension (pulley) :

110*10
130*8
155*6

it's been a long time, and i kinda felt like doing this one. felt really good.

Hammer Curls :

35*8
45*6/2

this was really an exercise i haven't done in ages... but felt good. starting bit easy here since i don't want to overdo it.





really good workout!

[Deejay_Spike]

k, some of you know i ****ed up a bit thursday, so i won't post that :p

yesterday was different.

SQ :

285 ²
300 ²
310 ²
320 ²
330 ²
340 ²

without belt! i'm happy with this! but i never have any problems with my back while squatting.

BE :

265 ²/4

first time i even did more than 1 rep with 265, and he gives me 4 sets of 2 right away! lol
yeah it was heavy but it felt good. very stable.

DL Stiff :

175*10/3

classical 3x10 to get the blood flowin' in.

DL :

285 ³/3

first sets weren't good... but with a little tip from Orhan and the last set felt way better. i need tu push out my chest a bit more before i start my lift










notes : i need to get serious about abs and do them more consequentally.

[Deciever]

looks pretty good. nice job ont he squats.. especially since they were belt less too..

It seems as though you dont do much assistance... how come?


and i need to get serious about abs too...

[Deejay_Spike]

indeed i don't do much assistance... why? not enough time, really.

BUT today i did some exercises, like sit-ups, pelvic tilte, trunk flexions and rotations and my back feels better. it took me what, 5 minutes? that was enough to allow my to sit in me chair and to relax my low bac without much pain.

and i do extra exercises, but i don't always post-em.

most of the time i do some tricep upper back work, and abs.
and when i do those mad workouts (snatch DL, stiff, off matts, front SQ) these other exercise count as assistance exercises do improve my powerlift.

[healthy n_fit]

Great job dude! Glad to hear your back is getting better! :)

[Deciever]

thanks for clearing that up

[Deejay_Spike]

np

[Deejay_Spike]

whassaaa back again! sorry i didn't post but i had a lot of work and not that much time!

Monday :

SQ : 340lbs ²/4
BE : 247.5lbs ³/2 and 245lbs ³/4
DL : 350lbs ², 360lbs ², 375lbs ², 385lbs (x)

SQ felt heavy but went quite good. gotta keep attention to my form tho', but hey, who doesn't
Bench felt very good! i feel i'm almost at 310-320 for my max now...
DL : felt good, didn't have problems with my back, not even when i missed the 385lbs screaming like a horror movie scream queen...

Today :

DL : 310lbs 5/5
BE : 230lbs 6/6
SQ : 220lbs ³/4

dl felt not heavy, felt good and fast... but i was criple after the 5 sets.... very little resting time. BUT back feels good, just ****ing tired.
bench went okay. i alrdeay did 6/6 with that weight but i could make all the reps. 6-6-6-6-5-5 this time i managed to make all the reps, WITH my traditional 5sec pause at the very last rep of the last set
sq was just fo fun :)

[Deciever]

nice work.

you think you'll stick to this routine for a while?

Doing the same stuff over and over just seems so repetitive...
but.. it looks like your progressing very quickly.. maybe i'll give this a try after the smolov experiment

[healthy n_fit]

Great jo0b dude! Damn, those weights keep on going up! Wow, youll be at 500 squat and dead soon!

[Antaeus]

Nice job dude. 6 sets of 6 reps for bench, yikes.

[Deejay_Spike]

Originally posted by Deciever
nice work.

you think you'll stick to this routine for a while?

Doing the same stuff over and over just seems so repetitive...
but.. it looks like your progressing very quickly.. maybe i'll give this a try after the smolov experiment


well, that was my fear also. i though doing the same thing will bore me.

the very opposite it true. the rep/set scheme is varying every workout, the intensity, the additional exercise before of after etc... man i want to go to every training! not repetitive at all!

it i a real pleasure to do the lifts you like to do! plus the fact you're doing them all at once builts tremendous resistance for meet day.

[Deejay_Spike]

Originally posted by Antaeus
Nice job dude. 6 sets of 6 reps for bench, yikes.


yeah, it seems scary, but once you're doing it it's ok. instead of counting up, you're countig down ;)