BombDonald's Powerlifting Log

[izzygrant]

congrats! nice work. go eat everything.

[BombDonald]

Not gonna do a write-up. Everything of relevance is in the video.

congrats! nice work. go eat everything.

I tried, but there is still food left.

[BombDonald]

Squat
45x a few

Ring Dips/Chins
BWT x10x5


Demolished. Need lots of food and lots of rest.

[BombDonald]

Squat (high bar)
365x10
425x8

A. Bench Press (TNG)
275x10
315x8
275x10

B. Bench Row
185x10
205x8
185x10

Ring Dips/Chins
25x10
50x8
25x10


Rough workout, but I'm back at it.

Already several beers deep, as my last day at Walmart was today. 4 ****ing years too long. This is actually the first time I've specified where I exactly I've worked in my log. Starting my new job at Lifetime Fitness as the assistant cafe manager next week. Finally working at a company that I'm not ashamed to say I work at. More money, closer to home, better environment, nicer people, clearer job expectations, and it's a place where I would love to make a career at. Couldn't ask for much more right now.

[-=Zeus=-!]

I finally got 455x3 on squat, thought you would be proud raw of course hehe

[BombDonald]

Coffee
3 big cups

Log Clean & Jerk
160x10
180x8

Long Cycle
70s x20

Sit-ups
70x20


Dry heaved for about 5 minutes after this workout.

I finally got 455x3 on squat, thought you would be proud raw of course hehe

Son, I am proud.

[Woody-5]

grats on the new job! always fun starting somewhere new. Hope it just what you want!

[BombDonald]

10:00am

Squat (high bar)
425x8
455x3.5 - wtf

A. Bench Press (TNG)
315x8
335x5

B. Bench Row
205x8
215x5

Deadlift (olympic)
425x8
455x5


Rough. Gotta get used to working out early in the day as I'll be doing it a lot.


7:00pm

A. Bench Press (TNG)
275x10
315x8

B. Bench Row
185x10
205x8

Ring Dips/Chins
25x10
50x8
25x10

grats on the new job! always fun starting somewhere new. Hope it just what you want!

Thanks Woody. I'm super pumped. Start tomorrow.

[BluntD]

You're a Person of Walmart! Haha that's awesome about the new job man; not having to drag your ass to a place that you despise working at anymore is really going to have a positive impact on your life overall. I expect big gains now.

[BombDonald]

Log Clean & Jerk
160x10
180x8
210x5


Kettlebells are going to become a less frequent thing, as I need to focus on brute strength for a while. The log work simply has more carryover to my squat/bench/dead. Might start doing one super high volume kettlebell workout per week instead of doing multiple sessions. Probably wouldn't be a good idea to take them out entirely as they are good cardio for me. If I had heavier kettlebells it might be a different story, and I'm considering getting a set of 88s at some point. That way I could keep the reps under 10 and get a big training effect out of them, as I'm not certain I could even do the 88s for 10 reps lol. Trying to chase strength goals with squat/bench/dead/log AND continuing to push up my kettlebell volume/intensity is going to f*cking kill me. My back has been worn out lately.

You're a Person of Walmart! Haha that's awesome about the new job man; not having to drag your ass to a place that you despise working at anymore is really going to have a positive impact on your life overall. I expect big gains now.

A wild BluntD appears.

Thanks man. I plan on getting much bigger and stronger now. Only thing I'm upset about right now is that my size large t-shirts I ordered for work might not fit me for long!

Plus it will be different being around people that will be more likely to ask me about my training/diet rather than simply spouting off nonsense about steroids/genetics/blahblah/blah/blahlbaba/etc to justify their own lazy existence.

[BrutalBergstrom]

I understand the desire to become strong at overhead press type exercises. That's an awesome feat to master. But if u want most possible carryover/strength gains on your Squat/Bench/Deadlift, why don't u do some work on them every time u workout instead of emphasising other things on some workouts?

I ask primarily cos I don't know too much about your goals and secondarily cos i and my coach (310kg Deadlift 100% RAW and he always only did the big 3, no assist work) believe nothing will strengthen a lift more than the lift itself, so I'm a bit curious now

[BombDonald]

I understand the desire to become strong at overhead press type exercises. That's an awesome feat to master. But if u want most possible carryover/strength gains on your Squat/Bench/Deadlift, why don't u do some work on them every time u workout instead of emphasising other things on some workouts?

I ask primarily cos I don't know too much about your goals and secondarily cos i and my coach (310kg Deadlift 100% RAW and he always only did the big 3, no assist work) believe nothing will strengthen a lift more than the lift itself, so I'm a bit curious now

Good post. Time for some rambling....

I'm simply interested in more than powerlifting now. There are other strength sports to compete in, and I don't want to limit myself. Plus, I think you need to have the right genetic makeup along with a balanced technique to only do the competition lifts with zero assistance (that goes for any strength sport). If I were to only squat/bench/dead, I would have multiple weak muscle groups and multiple overworked muscle groups. Without more direct work, my traps, abs, shoulders, biceps, triceps, and hamstrings would receive little stimulation. Doing some other basic exercises like log work, kettlebells, sit-ups and dips/chins take care of most of that, and they're fun exercises. Personally, it's hard for me to treat something merely as an assistance exercise. If I feel an exercise is valuable enough to put in my training, it becomes a main movement that I push myself on.

Even if I don't squat/bench/dead every time I lift, I'm still hitting each lift 2x week and am trying to up my bench frequency right now which is going well, so it's not like any of the lifts are getting neglected. It's just that log pressing is becoming as important to me as the big 3, so it's getting more time and effort dedicated to it. At some point log pressing might even be given priority on the first day of my exercise rotation instead of squatting (probably not in the near future).

Most of training for me is about having fun. Pushing myself and seeing results in a variety of forms is fun. One last thing I have to say, and it is somewhat taboo amongst the powerlifting/strongman community, but I like seeing the aesthetic results of training. Having a more balanced training routine gives better results in my physique, which is important to me. I want to be jacked and capable of f*cking up anything that crosses my path.

[BrutalBergstrom]

Great response. I just realized i forgot to say that i only mentioned the Press as an example. Jim Wendler said in one article that sometimes treating the OHP like a main movement will help beat a Bench plateau. I have no doubt the big lifts aren't neglected and i can relate to the desire of achieving some overall performance on top of the big 3.

RE: lack of assistance exercises will promote imbalances:

The big 3 is assist exercises. Olympic weightlifters use them to strengthen their Snatch and C&J. This is a part of the mentality. Biceps, well do your arms have issues supporting the weight? Do u know that triceps are used much earlier in the Bench movement than mostly discussed?

Don't get me wrong, i do assist work too. My shoulders hate me if i do only Bench and not some kind of OHP/pressing from a different angle on the side. And i believe my shoulders need to be bigger and stronger to get my Bench moving cos i suck at it (typical DL leverages i fear).

About aesthetics/muscle balance, try to guess how much my coach weighed at his last meet in 1996, where he was the first person to ever pull +300kg without a belt (still undefeated at that) and only person to be an honor member of 2 Powerlifting gym's (well, the only one with that record/stauts in Denmark at least):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxdeSshTl5E

Yeah, his bench sucked. Maybe he should have built his shoulders/tri's/bi's or something like what u mentioned. Who knows, his training history is nowhere to be found. However, he has coached 200kg Benchers and a lot of other people who decided to do only the big 3. I'm mentioning this to emphasize the importance of the specific lifts one want to master, and how little extra exercises may in fact help, despite popular belief. I think that is done best by using such lifter as an example.

Not trying to say you're training wrong, i'm just curious and discussing topics

[BombDonald]

Great response. I just realized i forgot to say that i only mentioned the Press as an example. Jim Wendler said in one article that sometimes treating the OHP like a main movement will help beat a Bench plateau. I have no doubt the big lifts aren't neglected and i can relate to the desire of achieving some overall performance on top of the big 3.

RE: lack of assistance exercises will promote imbalances:

The big 3 is assist exercises. Olympic weightlifters use them to strengthen their Snatch and C&J. This is a part of the mentality. Biceps, well do your arms have issues supporting the weight? Do u know that triceps are used much earlier in the Bench movement than mostly discussed?

Don't get me wrong, i do assist work too. My shoulders hate me if i do only Bench and not some kind of OHP/pressing from a different angle on the side. And i believe my shoulders need to be bigger and stronger to get my Bench moving cos i suck at it (typical DL leverages i fear).

About aesthetics/muscle balance, try to guess how much my coach weighed at his last meet in 1996, where he was the first person to ever pull +300kg without a belt (still undefeated at that) and only person to be an honor member of 2 Powerlifting gym's (well, the only one with that record/stauts in Denmark at least):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxdeSshTl5E

Yeah, his bench sucked. Maybe he should have built his shoulders/tri's/bi's or something like what u mentioned. Who knows, his training history is nowhere to be found. However, he has coached 200kg Benchers and a lot of other people who decided to do only the big 3. I'm mentioning this to emphasize the importance of the specific lifts one want to master, and how little extra exercises may in fact help, despite popular belief. I think that is done best by using such lifter as an example.

Not trying to say you're training wrong, i'm just curious and discussing topics

Interesting point on what is considered assistance work. ANYTHING could be considered an assistance lift depending on which performance(s) you choose to measure progress with.

My guess is that he weighed about 95kg right there.

You say he coached 200kg benchers, but how many people has he coached? Coach enough people and a few of them are likely to respond positively to the training methods. There are powerlifting and olympic lifting methods throughout history that have destroyed mere mortals. Put 1,000,000 kids through a program, 10 survive, and those are your future world champions. Those are the lifters who're able to sustain the Sheiko MS cycles and C&J/snatch work 3x/day. They have the correct fiber distribution and leverages to train with that style without getting injured. Not everyone has the ability to train like the top level athletes do.

Don't get me wrong, I wholeheartedly agree that one should hit their main lifts as often as possible. I just think it's foolish for SOME people to avoid additional work that could help their lifts. Even looking at myself, I'm not balanced in terms of the big 3. I could just squat all day and rarely need assistance work to make gains as long as I'm putting forth the appropriate effort. For benching, my triceps would be underworked and I would run into pec problems without additional work. My deadlift just plain sucks in general most of the time, which I believe to be a result of relatively weak hamstrings and erectors. Simply deadlifting all the time seems to burn me out. Now that could also be a matter of poor programming, but my deadlift usually improves when my hamstrings and erectors are getting more attention.

I need to eat. That's enough for now.

[BrutalBergstrom]

He weighed 130kg at that meet. And after more than a year at the gym I've never seen him do anyone a disservice. Everyone he train moves forward consistently. He doesn't necessarily agree with high frequency, not if a given person can get the same results on low frequency. I also agree that assist work can help, I just showed an example and never tried to make u change your training style or say that you're wrong. I do assist too and have trouble with my pec which some flies seem to help improve and split squats to help improve my knee that I almost broke. He allow assist work in general but won't program it for his athletes and most of them choose to not do any.

130kg only doing the big 3 and nobody I asked has guessed above 110kg.

[BombDonald]

He weighed 130kg at that meet. And after more than a year at the gym I've never seen him do anyone a disservice. Everyone he train moves forward consistently. He doesn't necessarily agree with high frequency, not if a given person can get the same results on low frequency. I also agree that assist work can help, I just showed an example and never tried to make u change your training style or say that you're wrong. I do assist too and have trouble with my pec which some flies seem to help improve and split squats to help improve my knee that I almost broke. He allow assist work in general but won't program it for his athletes and most of them choose to not do any.

130kg only doing the big 3 and nobody I asked has guessed above 110kg.

Interesting stuff. I should look into a little more about his training philosophies. I really like reading stuff about training in general.

LOL at me saying 95. That's a little embarrassing for me, usually my guesses are pretty accurate. 130kg is a big boy.

Also, your post makes it seem like you took my post the wrong way (at least not the way I intended), as I wasn't trying to be defensive about anything.

[BrutalBergstrom]

People usually guess 100 or 105kg so no worries.

You wrote "that's enough for now" so I thought you wanted the discussion to end.

I would link some training goods but there's nothing with him on the internet except some lifters showing off (like Nicki Lentz at IPF World's 2013) that he trained. Most of the minimalistic training style topics I found was the "lift heavy every day but don't do a lot of exercises" guys.

Maybe search Kaare Lundgreen, my coach mention him very often (sharing the idea that a base only need to be built once), although he use some variation exercises also. Brad Gillinghams 12 week Bench cycle with a single +90% every week, Hirvis Bench, Extended Russian Power Routine (Dozer remade the last 2 cycles for those that can't handle the workload). Hell he said he even did sone Ed Coan cycles with only the big 3 and he could easily recommend that. I asked him for people to search for a few weeks ago and he said I probably wouldn't find anything.

[BombDonald]

12:00pm

Squat (high bar)
425x8 - easy
455x4.5 - wtf

A. Bench Press (TNG)
315x8
335x5

B. Bench Row
205x8
215x5

Deadlift (olympic)
425x8
455x5


11:00pm

A. Bench Press
275x10
315x8

B. Bench Row
185x10
205x8

You wrote "that's enough for now" so I thought you wanted the discussion to end.

Lol I just go into rambling mode sometimes....had to cut myself off as I needed to eat.

[BombDonald]

Log Clean & Jerk
160x10
180x8
210x4.5 - missed 2 jerk attempts on last rep, almost died

Trap Bar Stuff
a bunch, maxed out at 585 for some deadlifts, and did shrugs at 405 and 495


Was super pumped about having access to a trap bar.....and was very disappointed to find it only carries 6 plates per side as an absolute maximum.

[BombDonald]

Not gonna be logging much as my training is pretty monotonous right now, but I managed a big PR on log clean & jerk.



Pretty sure I'm good for 250 right now (2 plates!).

[BombDonald]

Eh might start logging again soon. I don't seem to record anything if I don't do it here.

Did a meet on December 6th, went 6/9 on my lifts totaling 1553 @198. 562 easy-ish and buried by 584 (wtf) 396 bench and BARELY missed 407, and after my inconsistent deadlift training managed a smooth 595 but didn't have anything left with 617. At least that squat got me 2nd in the misc squat contest.



Not putting as much emphasis on squatting/benching right now. Doing them 2x/week for 10/8 reps with 405/455 and 315/335 just to maintain. Did a lot of volume with progressively heavier weights leading up to my meet and still didn't really improve on my competition numbers, and hit numbers that I still could have achieved with less focused effort.

Next competition is a strongman meet on January 31st. Doing a lot of reps with the log trying to build more total body strength. Did 160 for a total of 50 reps last saturday in about 15-20 minutes. Managed to hit a 250 log press (2 plates!) recently. Also did a 3:11 "Grace" today which probably could have been faster had I not done the first 14 reps in 45 seconds and killed myself. Might start incorporating more barbell cleans as I really suck at them and they make my wrists hurt a lot (that probably means my wrists aren't as strong as they could be).

Made myself some 4" deadlift blocks which I think will help to build more back strength, and also to simulate the events in strongman a little more. Probably gonna be doing more trap bar deadlifts as well.

Training is basically squat/bench/row on Monday/Thursday, and a bunch of short workouts in between. Been doing 2x/day recently with really short workouts, which is no problem at all since I have equipment at home and I work at a f*cking gym.

[-=Zeus=-!]

Das it, you're catching up to me in strength my manlet friend.

[BombDonald]

12:00pm

Power Clean & Jerk
135x3
155x3
175x3
195x3
135x10 - hang

Power Snatch
135x some

Log Clean & Jerk
160x 35 total reps

Was dealing with some wrist pain, but 175 made it pop and it felt great! Didn't go heavier because I felt like crap. Also was using my Jesup bar, so that sucked. MIGHT be looking into this nice olympic bar with light center knurling that Lifetime Fitness has, but I don't know what they're called yet.



11:00pm

KB Long Cycle
10 sets of 5

DB Laterals
25s x a bunch

In really bad shape with kettlebells. Haven't been doing them so I started off really easy. Did this workout during one episode of Trailer Park Boys, so it was really quick.

[BombDonald]

11:30am

Squat (piston style)
405x10 @7
455x8 @9

A. Bench Press
315x10 @10
335x8 @10

B. Bench Row
225x10
235x8

Ring Dips/Chins
+25x15
+25x10


Awesome day for squats. Been doing a ton of stretching/yoga/mobility/bullsh*t lately and it's paying off. My left wrist is still bothering me so that made benching more difficult than usual today.

[BombDonald]

Log Clean & Jerk
180x 20 total reps

KB Long Cycle
10 sets of 5

Block Pulls (~7 inches)
585X5

Trap Bar Deadlift
500x 20 total reps

DB Laterals
a lot from varying angles


So, 4 inch block pulls are still a nightmare with the Jesup bar. Tossed my bumper plates under the the blocks to make 585 possible to move lol.

[BombDonald]

Front Squat (olympic bar)
135x1
185x1
225x1
265x1
295x1
315x1
335x1
355x1 - PR?


Had a few minutes to kill so I played around. Didn't have anything with except for shorts, so I did this in my running shoes.

Shot an e-mail to a company called Iron Grip inquiring about the price of the olympic bar with the light center knurling, but will probably end up with a bar from Rogue that's only $295 that has what I want. Only problem with the Rogue Chan bar is that it would be difficult to grip for sumo deadlifts if I ever go back to them. All I want is a bar that has some whip, 28-29mm diameter, and light center knurling.

Iron Grip: http://www.irongrip.com/products/olympicbars_ig.asp
Rogue Chan Bar: http://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-chan-bar

[BombDonald]

Squat
405x10
455x8

A. Bench Press
315x10
335x8

B. Bench Row
225x10
235x8

Ring Dips/Chins
+25x15
+25x10


Felt like I was going to die after every set. Still messed up from Saturday.

[BombDonald]

Deadlift (olympic bar)
545x1
585x1 @9

Trap Bar Deadlift
585x 10 total reps (7+3)


Not a PR by any means, but better than anything I've done since this summer. Was just planning on doing some trap bar work but I got the itch to do some regular deads. Rigged up the trap bar with bands to fit 6 plates per side, only way to go heavier now would be to stack weights on top.

Was planning on doing some log/KB work last night but I felt terrible, plus my lower back would not have liked me.

[BombDonald]

Log Clean & Jerk
160x12
160x10
160x10
160x10
160x8

KB Long Cycle
70s x15
70s x10
70s x10

DB Laterals
25s x a bunch


RIP my forearms.

[BombDonald]

Yesterday's deadlift workout:



Not sure why I switched which direction I was facing. My brain was functioning at about 25% yesterday.