The SWOLE Life of a not-so-average Student-Athlete
This is my second journal here. Some of you may remember me from my last journal, "The Adventures of the Bodybuilding Powerlifter", which if you're interested and/or really bored, can be found here: [url]http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=122101231&highlight=adventures[/url]
I decided to start over with a fresh journal. I like the exchange of ideas on the forums, and I hope this new start will help get me going on them again. For a little background: I have been lifting for 8+ years, and competing in the sport of powerlifting (USAPL, raw and single-ply) since August 2008. I have also been a full-time college student since summer 2011. Since returning to school, I completed my associates' degree at Baltimore City Community College in May 2012, and am currently pursuing a bachelors' degree in accounting with a minor in business administration at University of Maryland University College. These 2 things occupy a huge portion of my life in terms of time, energy, finance and more. Since I'm not half-assing it with either, I consider myself a student-athlete.
I don't think I'm a special case or anything. I haven't met a lot of people in the same situation, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Here's what I mean by "not-so-average":
1. I'm 36 years old.
2. I work 45-55 hours per week delivering mail for the U.S. Postal Service (this is what I refer to as "urban hiking" or "mailman GPP")
3. I'm married (my wife of 11 years also started powerlifting about 2 years ago).
4. I have 3 children (ages 7, 2 1/2, and 5 weeks).
5. Powerlifting would have to be considered a non-traditional sport, but it is a legitimate sport nonetheless.
One day, I was goofing around with someone on this shirt I got from the Arnold this year that reads "GET SWOLE. LIVE SWOLE" That's where the SWOLE in the title came from. As an acronym, SWOLE = School, Working Overtime, Lifting, Eating. Outside of and including my family, that's pretty much my life these days. So that's the background for my journal.
Now for training, etc...
I'm 5'8". For the last 3 weeks, I've averaged a wake-up weight of 218 lbs. Waist is 36", so I'm still pretty lean, plus I tend to store more fat in my ass than my stomach, so that may be misleading. I have 2 major competitive goals for 2013:
1. Compete at Raw Nationals in July, and qualify for the Raw Challenge at the 2014 Arnold Sports Festival. I haven't done that meet since 2011.
2. Compete in single-ply gear at the American Open in December, and earn a total that would make me feel comfortable entering my first Open Nationals in 2014.
There are 1 or 2 other meets that I may do this year. If so, I won't be "peaking" for them. I'll just use them as training meets to get more platform experience and get a feel for where my lifts are.
Speaking of which, here's the most recent video footage I have. I tested my geared squat, bench, and deadlift in the gym about 4 weeks ago. I hadn't tested those in quite some time, so now I have some data to work off of. Not a bad day, but I still need lots of practice in it before December.
[youtube]fHNaotm7y6Q[/youtube]
If you've made it this far, thank you for your time and for checking me out. I hope you'll stop back and I'll try to keep the log up to date. As 2013 starts, I have bronchitis (YES!) and I'm on antibiotics for 4 more days. And I have next to no voice. Still, I hope to get my first 2 sessions of the year in tomorrow and Thursday, starting with deadlifts and squats tomorrow.
Thu. 1/3/13 - Overhead Press
[QUOTE=/JV/;1003918273]Well the SWOLE acronym seems appropriate.
Are you doing any local meets this spring?[/QUOTE]
2 chances in March: There may be a team invitational meet in PA in that I could do. Depending on the team setup, it could be raw or geared. The other possibility is the Equinox Raw Open in Columbia, MD which I understand will be held for the 2nd straight year at the end of March. I'd rather do the PA meet and judge here, but that will depend heavily on my work schedule.
[QUOTE=arian11;1003932193]KAISSSHEEEEMMMM!!!
Sup brotha, haven't talked to you in awhile. Good to see you are back on here and started up a new log. I'm definitely in on this and my plan is to be at Raw Nationals as well. And I'm sitting at about 220 lbs so we might be lifting side by side. Good luck to you, your Ravens, and watch out for those pesky dogs when you are delivering the mail![/QUOTE]
Hey Arian!!! Good to hear from you man! If you're 220 now you might as well eat on up to the 231 limit. That's my plan, but my recent weight gain has been helped in large part because I haven't been delivering mail lately. I might be rusty on my dog fighting skills.
[QUOTE=Torrtrefireto;1003962623]Glad to have you back bro[/QUOTE]
Glad to be back bro. Will have to check in on your log too.
Remembered my neck harness and dip/chin belt today. Forgot my camera and regular belts. So much for having priorities in order.
1. [U]Overhead Press[/U] - no leg drive on these
95/5
135/5
160/4
[B]180/3, 3, 3, 4, 4[/B] - 83.7% of PR. Every set but the last 2 were taken straight off of safety pins set about chest high. Then I started
sharing the rack with some squatters and walked out the last 2. I felt stronger on those. That seems backwards.
[B]150/10[/B]
2. [U]Chins[/U]
Max Assisted/10
Half Assisted/6
BW/6, 6 - overhand, underhand
[B]+50/6, 6, 6, 6, 6[/B] - overhand, underhand, neutral, wider overhand, underhand. Used a step at the bottom of each rep to keep from swinging.
[B]BW/12[/B]
3. [U]DB Incline Press[/U] - I do these so my hands are neutral at the bottom, pronated at the top.
50s/10
70s/10
rest-pause: 90s/8 + 2
Today's bonus circuit:
4a. [U]Face pull[/U] - cable w/rope attachment: 75/20, 20, 25
4b. [U]Neck harness[/U]: 25/20 front + 20 back, 30 front + 20, 15 back (strap came loose in during the last set)
4c. [U]DB Hammer curl[/U]: 25s/10 each, drop set: 50s/8 each + 40s/4 each
Probably won't lift again until Sunday or Monday. I return to work tomorrow. I haven't been to work since my daughter was born 5 weeks ago. Add that to the 2 months I spent working in an acting supervisor's position, and I haven't delivered mail in 3 months. That was also 12-15 pounds ago. This could suck in an epic way tomorrow. I had to get these sessions in, because I was not going to plan to go to the gym after my return mailman GPP session.
Wed. 1/9/13 - Bench Press
[QUOTE=SophieM;1006884313]Good luck getting them to fix/replace anything. We complained about something, don't remember what, and they told us the part was in the mail. A few months later, it still wasn't fixed, more things were broken, and we left.
Are they still missing one of the 15 lbs dumbbells?[/QUOTE]
The dumbbells are all there. One of the 65's was missing for several months about a year or two ago as I remember. They actually have 2 sets now from 2.5 lbs to around 20 lbs, then they go in 5 lb increments like normal up to 100's.
My lower back was still feeling taxed from Tuesday's squats and SLDL's. Mailman GPP probably made it worse.
1. [U]Bench Press[/U] - raw, still weak
135/6
175/4 - felt really hard
215/4 - felt better. Better technique perhaps.
240/2
add wrist wraps
[B]260/4, 4, 4, 4, 3 & a spot[/B] - I think I rushed the rest between sets 4 and 5, and that may have cost me the sweep on 4's. This was 82.5% of my PR.
2. [U]Seated cable row[/U] - medium-width neutral handle
100/10
125/10
155/10
170/10
drop-set: 185/10 + 165/10 - switched to v-handle for the 165 part
3. [U]Incline barbell press[/U]
135/10
160/7
rest-pause: 185/8 + 3 + 2 - used a few negatives w/rounds 2 & 3
Short circuit to finish. Would have done 3 full rounds, but the gym was closing.
4a. [U]Standing lateral raises[/U]: 20's/10, 15
4b. [U]Bent-over lateral raises[/U]: 25's/10, 15
4c. [U]Side bends[/U]: 60's/20 per side
Fri. 1/11/13 - Pull Party
I had plans of doing deficit deadlifts, front squats, and assistance stuff today. But fatigue from work, etc caught up to me. Much of today's mailman GPP was in the rain. I didn't leave work until after 7pm, and this was my 6th 10 hour+ day in the last week. Since I was pissed off, tired, have had some weird pain on the left side of my abdomen and lower back for 3 days, and didn't have much time anyway, I decided to keep it simple and just do deadlifts.
1. [U]Sumo Deficit Deadlift[/U] - wearing flat shoes, standing on flat iron 45 lb plates.
135/6
225/4
275/3
325/2
Put Versa Gripps on. Just didn't feel like using chalk tonight.
365/2
405/1
[B]445/1[/B]
Put belt on.
[B]475/1[/B] - Back was hurting less by now and this felt much easier than expected.
[B]500/1[/B] - Weight flew up through lockout. Caught me by surprise.
[B]525/1, 1, 1[/B] - tough, tougher, toughest. 92.5% of competition PR. Rest periods about 2-3 minutes.
Got off plates and pulled from the floor.
[B]495/1, 1, 1, 1, 1[/B] - About a minute between each single 1-4, but reps 4-5 were more of a rest-pause double than 2 singles.
Tue. 1/15, Overhead Press
[QUOTE=SophieM;1010002453]You make everything look so easy. <sigh> One day.
That's neat about the staggered classes. That will diminish the workload some at least. The classes don't seem horrible. I almost took microecon in college, but could never get it to fit in my schedule.[/QUOTE]
Thank you! But hardly any of it feels easy. That applies to lifting and the rest of life in general, at least for me. ;)
Speaking of which, thanks mostly to Working Overtime, I got in the weight room at the gym with 55 minutes before closing. Fortunately, overheads take less time than the other core lifts. But I still had to keep up the pace just to get this little bit in. Alternated sets from the beginning.
1a. [U]Overhead Press[/U]
95/8
125/6
145/4
165/2
[B]185/3[/B] - Almost missed rep 3, and sacrificed pretty to get it. WAY harder than I expected @ 86% of PR.
added belt
[B]185/3, 4, 3, 3[/B] - Belt made a huge difference. Intra-abdominal pressure works. Got greedy on the 4-rep set and almost missed. Last set was easiest somehow.
135/11
1b. [U]Chins[/U] - overhand, medium width
Whole stack assisted/10
Half stack assisted/8
BW/6
+25/3
added Versa Gripps
[B]+50/5, 5, 5, 5[/B]
BW/11, 6
2. [U]Dips[/U] - snuck in a set before the security guard came through
BW/20
Fri. 1/18/13 - Bench Press
Another rushed session. Did this in less than an hour, with much shorter rest periods than I would normally take.
1. [U]Bench Press[/U]
135/6
165/3
195/3
225/3
255/3
Added RAM
270/3
285/3
[B]300/3
315/3[/B] - Felt heavier than it should have.
Gym-about-to-close rest-pause-drop set:
[B]330/1 + 315/1 + 295/2+ 275/2[/B]
2. [U]Seated row[/U] - cable, v-handle. Started these after the 300 bench set.
100/15
130/10
160/10
190/12 - probably good for 15+ with Versa Gripps.
Disappointing session. At one time I would have been thrilled with this, but this is a sign that my perennially weak bench has regressed. Maybe it was the short rests, I could be tired from work, I may have lost some weight this week, or anything else. I'm feeling a bit beat up - maybe it's time for a deload week. I'll do my normal weekly weigh-in on Sunday morning. If I'm going to deload, I'll probably deadlift on Sunday to finish this wave, then shut it down for a week.
This could be a great weekend. Orioles FanFest is tomorrow. Ravens in the AFC Championship game on Sunday. 3 days without mailman GPP. Beautiful.
Sun. 1/27/13 - Overhead Press & Tue. 1/29/13 - Squat
To catch up, here's the video I posted with the clips of the first few pressing (overhead & bench) sessions of 2013. In this video, there are raw benches at 260 x 4, weighted chins at 50 lbs x 5, overhead presses at 185 x 3, and benching with the RAM up to 330. Thanks for watching and for your feedback!
[youtube]UTD83JLq9_s[/youtube]
On Sunday, I woke up at 212.4 lbs. That's down 6.2 lbs since I went back to work (mailman GPP) on 1/4/13. Not good. I'll be fighting that with a vengeance. As for lifting, here's how Sunday's session went:
1. [U]Overhead press[/U]
95/6
120/6
135/5
150/4
added belt & wrist wraps
[B]170/9[/B] - This was absolutely a max effort. Deep breath between reps 8-9.
[B]170/6, 6[/B]
2. [U]Pullups[/U]
medium-overhand
max assisted/12
half-assisted/8
BW/6
25/6
[B]50/6[/B]
Switched to underhand
[B]50/8, 7[/B]
Drop set: 50/6 + BW/6
3. [U]Incline DB Press[/U]
65's/9
rest-pause: [B]90's/9 + 4 + 3[/B]
Circuit, 2 rounds:
4a. [U]Neck Harness[/U]: 25/25 front + 25 back, 25 front + 25 back
4b. [U]Leg Raises[/U]: (at dip station): 20, 15
4c. [U]Dips[/U]: BW/20, 15
Sunday, I was off work. Today, I had several hours of urban hiking through mud, with overtime. I had to run some errands after work, and got in the gym with just under an hour until closing. Not the kind of prelude I prefer before squats, but that's life:
1. [U]Squats[/U] - started "totally raw"
135/9
185/3
225/3
put on Rehband sleeves
265/3
305/3
added wrist wraps
345/3
added belt
[B]385/10, 5, 5[/B] - Started alternating with sets of kneeling single-leg curls after the 10-rep set. I think my lungs and will gave out on that 10-rep set before my legs, core and back did. Went in looking for 9, and knew I had to think "10" as a goofy way of tricking myself into sticking with it.
2. [U]Kneeling single-leg curls[/U] -plate loaded machine
50/10 left, 10 right
90/10 left, 10 right
120/10 left, 10 right
