TunaAssassin's journey to 1000

[TunaAssassin]

Hi everyone, welcome to my journey to a 1000 total. Quick background: I an old geezer who's been training for 20 odd years, but am just getting into powerlifting. I had a major shoulder repair last April - and my second in 11 months. I got turned loose by the surgeon a month ago to resume training and am currently running a 531. Previous gym bests are 305/265/385 a couple years ago prior to all my shoulder problems. I started the 531 extremely light to ease my shoulders back into benching and overhead presses - which I've never done before.

My goal is to compete a couple times in 2012, once earlier in the year and once later. If I can stay healthy, the way I set up the 531 will have me over a grand fall 2012.

This is gonna be all barbell all the time - with the exception of a couple assistance exercises. Training days are M W F Sunday

Any and all comments are welcome, and I plan to post vids along the way.

Sunday 9/25


Overhead press - strict, start each rep at the shoulder, no leg push.

Bar x 8 x 3 for warmup

65x5x3
75x5x3
85x5x3

Assistance:

EZ curls 60x10x3

Close grip pull downs 85x10x3

Next week all working sets will be 3x3

Enjoy the ride...

[TunaAssassin]

Starting the second week of my 5/3/1

Squats:

Warmup

Barx8x3

95x8x3

135x8x3

Work sets (I know, my last warmup is harder than my first work set )

145x3

165x3

190x3

After my work sets I tossed up 225 and did a set of 3 also - just felt like it.

Accessory work:

Squat

135x8x3

Good Mornings

65x8x3

Along with the overhead press from yesterday, I've never done good mornings before. When I read Wendler's book, it mentioned you should have a pretty good reason for doing an exercise. These will help both my squat and deadlift. I'm not quite sure I'm doing them correctly though, I'll post a vid next Monday.

Here's my last workset with 190 (lift at 25 sec)

[TunaAssassin]

9/28 Bench day

Flat bench

barx12x3

85x3x3
100x3x3
110x3x3

After this I tossed on 135 and got 3 reps. It's the first time I put up 135

IN OVER A YEAR!!!!

OK, now that I got that out:

Assistance

Incline bench

65x8
75x8
85x8

V-bar tricep pushdowns

80x10x3

With my shoulder history, benching is obviously my worst lift. Until a few weeks ago I hadn't done any benching since last Feb. So far, the repair on the left, the latest one, feels pretty good. Well, as well as it can with 3 bone anchors in the dam thing. The right one, which was repaired in May 2010 feels a little loose. I think I may have a torn labrum in it. The repair on the right was an open repair, and the surgeon wouldn't have been able to see it, and a lot of times torn labrums don't show up on MRI. When the left side was done in April, the surgeon didn't know I had a labral tear until he got in.

Anyway, so far so good

[TunaAssassin]

9/30 Deadlifts

Warmup

135x5x4

Work sets

170x3
195x3
220x3

After this I threw on 315x1 - I know, way ahead of schedule, but wtf...

Assisstance:

Pendlay rows

130x5x3

Barbell shrugs

135x10x2

185x8x2

225x5x2

I've been tossing around the idea of trying sumo, and gave it a shot today. I'm not sure if I like it. I've read the diesel crew's deadlift ebook, and it goes into sumo pretty good, set up, cues etc...

From what I read, its supposed to be less stressful on the lower back, and that some can handle more weight sumo because the length of the pull is shorter. I dunno, I'll probably have to play with it over the next few weeks to see if I like it.

All warmups and work sets were sumo today, or probably more accurately, semi sumo.

All in all, a good week...

[Torrtrefireto]

I know you gotta get used to it, but you should try to slowly take all that wiggling out of your squat.... It is gonna waist energy and make you lose tightness. I used to do it bad too. Your strength will expode once you do that

[TunaAssassin]

I know you gotta get used to it, but you should try to slowly take all that wiggling out of your squat.... It is gonna waist energy and make you lose tightness. I used to do it bad too. Your strength will expode once you do that

duly noted, thanks. I never really thought about it before, but you are correct.

Squat day

Warmup

Bar x 8 x 3

95x5x2

135x5x5

Work sets

155x5

185x3

200x1

here's the 185x3 - crap load of wiggling



After the worksets I tossed on 250x1, sorry about the sideways vid, apparently I'm retarded:



depth is questionable on the 185x3, but I think it was better on the 250x1. Don't ask me why...

Accessory work:

Good mornings

65x10x3, I'm going up 5 lbs/week on these

High rep squats

145x8x3, I'm going up 5 lbs/week on these too.

I have no idea what my 1rm is, I'm guessing somewhere around 270-275

[TunaAssassin]

10/4 - this was supposed to be my sunday workout, but I chose to spend the day drinking and watching the lions/tigers

overhead press

warmup

bar x 8 x 3

65x3x2

75x3x2

85x3x2

Accessory:

Standing EZ curls:

50x10x2

62.5x8x4

Close grip pull down:

50x10x2

70x8x4

This is my easy day, no commentary

[TunaAssassin]

10/5

bench day

warmup

bar x 8 x 3

65x8x2

work sets:

90x5

110x3

120x1

extra:

140x3x2...slowly but surely going up

Assistance:

Incline bench

85x6x3

V-bar pushdowns:

45x35 - warmup

75x10x4

The inclines were bothering my right shoulder - the one repaired in May 2010. So much so that I think I'm going to toss them. It's far more important to me to be able to flat bench. Having already had the left labrum repaired (along with infraspinatous and supraspinatous) on the left, I'm positive the labrum on the right is torn. I'll give the inclines one more week, if they are still bothering me, they're gone. Unfortunately, my shoulders can't handle a lot of volume...FML

I think I'll replace them with incline db presses if they don't bother me as much.

Rest day tomorrow...

[TunaAssassin]

10/7

deadift day

warmup

135x6x3

185x5x3

Worksets

200x5

215x3

230x1

extra

275x3x2

315x1, heres the vid:



assistance:

pendaly rows

135x5x3

barbell shrugs

135x10x2

185x5x2

225x3x2

this resembles nothing what the 531 had planned for me,i just winged it. not sure if thats good or bad.

rest day tomorrow

[Torrtrefireto]

Did you name that video squat by mistake?

That looks pretty good in my opinion. You start your pull with your shoulders in front of the ball, don't think thats ideal. You should continue to lean backwards until your shoulders are directly over the bar so your arms hang straight down. That will help it not end up a stiff leg at the bottom. Overall good effort man, prettier than my conventional or sumo dead

[TunaAssassin]

Did you name that video squat by mistake?

That looks pretty good in my opinion. You start your pull with your shoulders in front of the ball, don't think thats ideal. You should continue to lean backwards until your shoulders are directly over the bar so your arms hang straight down. That will help it not end up a stiff leg at the bottom. Overall good effort man, prettier than my conventional or sumo dead

lol looks like i did name it a squat, wife was bitching for me to hurry up for a party! i'll have to change it.

So you're saying to set up with shoulders back a little and arms straight? I'll try it next week and post a vid. I appreciate your input. It's guys that
ACTUALLY COMPETE who I think I have the most to learn from. not the peanut gallery that just spews nonsense,

I've been checking out your, isaku and bombdonald's journals the most, and am looking for any and all advice.

thanks again...

[Torrtrefireto]

Thanks man, there's a lot of quality liftes on the site, and I think you should listen to all of them before shifting the usefull from the useless. For the record I don't mean pull your shoudlers back like squeeze them, I just mean shift your bw back until they are over the bar. I'll make a example
Black= where shoulders should be. Red=Where they are. Thick about picking something up, the closer to your body, the easier it is yeah?

[TunaAssassin]

awesome, vids next dl day.

thanks bro...

[Torrtrefireto]

awesome, vids next dl day.

thanks bro...

Its sortof a hard concept, because when your shoulders are in line with the bar you will feel like you are going to fall backwards
What I have occasionally done to help someone understand that is have them start in the position you are in, then slowly lean back/push hips down/back until it looks like the black line I drew. Then I have to say 'right there' a few times before they get what it feels like. I have the same issue from when I tried the olympic lifts, my shoulders try to go infront

[TunaAssassin]

10/9 ohp's

warmup

bar x 10x 3

65x6x2

work sets:

75x5x2

85x5x2

90x3x2

assistance

standing ez curls

65x8x4

close grip pulldown

75x8x4

I was a little concerned today about the ohps, seeing how the incline bench kinda tweaked the right shoulder. i tried concentrating on keeping my traps contracted the whole movement and it worked out pretty good. a little pain, but no biggie. i try to keep my upper back tight when benching as well, but i must have slacked a little bit last bench day and loosened up.

something i have to really work on

all in all, a good week. next week is scheduled deload week, should be pretty boring...

[TunaAssassin]

10/10

squat day

meh, screw deload, i started with the intent of doing 3-4 sets of 225 for triples, but kept putting weight on the bar

warmup

bar x 8 x 3

95x8x2

135x6x3

185x4x2

225x3x2

265x1

275x1

285x1 here's the vid



to be honest, i was gassed and i'm not at all happy with the depth. i think i sawed it off a little high

goodmornings

95x6x4 here's the vid:



i'm still pretty new to these, still getting used to the movement

i don't plan on seeing what i can squat for another month. hopefully be then i'll be at 300, then 3 wheels shortly thereafter

[.aeterna]

that 285 looked furking easy

u had enough for another 30-40 lbs id say..

[TunaAssassin]

that 285 looked furking easy

u had enough for another 30-40 lbs id say..

thanks man, i'm not so sure!

if i can get to 3 wheels by december i'll be happy.

i'm a senior citizen, i have to take it slow

[TunaAssassin]

10/12

bench

bar x 12 x 3

95x8x4

135x4x3

145x3x2

v-bar pushdowns

80x8x4

wasn't really into it today, wicked hangover from watching the tigers last night

[Kent.White]

Us old guys need to stick together. On your comments about incline bench I can only doing them to parallel which is about 4" off the chest. Going further hurts my shoulders and I didn't have all the problems you have had. You could also try incline dumbbell presses as they seem to be easier on the shoulder than barbell incline presses.

[TunaAssassin]

Us old guys need to stick together. On your comments about incline bench I can only doing them to parallel which is about 4" off the chest. Going further hurts my shoulders and I didn't have all the problems you have had. You could also try incline dumbbell presses as they seem to be easier on the shoulder than barbell incline presses.

thanks for the comment, i may be trying db presses next week to see how they feel

[TunaAssassin]

10/14

deadlift

warmup

135x8x2

work sets

185x6x2

225x4

275x2x2

335x1

275x2x2

here's the 335x1



assistance

pendlay rows

135x5x4

barbell shrugs

135x10

185x8

225x8x2 - this is pretty good for me



i tried working on what torrtre suggested last week - shoulders not so far over the bar. i think it's better than last week, but not quite yet what he is suggesting. more work is needed...

[.aeterna]

thanks for the sub!

335 looked easy...

im sure u've already watched this, but if u havent, this helped me alot when trying to understand what it meant to "pull backwards" on the deadlift

[TunaAssassin]

thanks for the sub! 335 looked easy...

anytime bro, 1100 would be awesome at 148, i'm confident you can do it

i've seen that vid and it is great.

the 335 wasn't too bad, i had 355 on at first, but told myself to dial it back a little.

i'm waaaay far ahead of the 531 i had set up. i don't want to recalc though, i think i need the work because of the long layoff after surgery. i think i'll just keep working the 531 how i set it up. it's on the easy side now, but in 3-4 more cycles it'll start to get taxing for me.

i'm looking forward to following your log...

[TunaAssassin]

10/17

squats - with some fail

warmup

same as it always is

work sets

185x5x3

225x3x3

275x1 - ok, here's where things start to go wrong. for some stupid reason i had trouble getting it out of the rack. if i had any brains, i would have re-racked it and started over in a few minutes. but no, i continue, got depth and finished ok.

so what do i do? 275x1 again, here it is



it felt ok, and looked ok after looking at the vid on my phone.

like an ass, i proceed to put on 295 - even though i wasn't happy w my depth w 285 last week.

this one didn't feel right from the start, i was wiggling too much (still working on it torrtre), pretty sure i dive bombed it and couldn't get out of the hole. thank god for spotters. i don't think i tweaked anything, but the bar bent me over a little and came up my back towards my neck.

this should not have happened only going up 10 pounds from a weight - 285, that i handled ok, but just didn't hit depth. i made some major mechanical errors on this and i'm really f'ing pissed. this is the first time in my life i wasn't able to get out of the hole.

in my pissed off state, i made another error - deleted the vid. this would have been a valuable teaching tool for me - and would have given me some insight as to what i did wrong.

after i f'd that all up, i backed off to 225 and did another triple to see if everything was still working.

finished off w good mornings

115x5x3

so much fail today...

[.aeterna]

dont worry about the 295 attempt! judging from how quickly and easy the 275x1 set looked, ur going to get it with great depth within weeks

i also would add...its never a fail workout if you walk out with no injuries incurred and in good health.

[TunaAssassin]

dont worry about the 295 attempt! judging from how quickly and easy the 275x1 set looked, ur going to get it with great depth within weeks

i also would add...its never a fail workout if you walk out with no injuries incurred and in good health.

thanks .aeterna, i think this was a sign for me to back down and do more volume at 70-80% for the next couple weeks. or maybe even get back to the 531 squat set up i have. i looked at the spread sheet and today was supposed to be 145x5, 165x5 and 185x5. i think my ego said f'k that, that's easy.

past experience has told my that my ego can get me into a world of f'ing trouble

[TunaAssassin]

10/19

bench

warmup

bar x 12 x 3

95x8x3

115x8x2

135x5x2

150x3x2

160x2x2

v-bar pushdowns

65x12x3

85x8x3

tricep extensions (hammer strength)

80x8

95x8

110x6



well, as bad as monday was, i was really pleased w today. the shoulder held up pretty good - no pain on the concentric. i did a decent job of keeping my upper back tight and i think that's why.

all in all a good day

[TunaAssassin]

10/21

deadlift

warmup

135x8x3

185x6

work sets

225x5x2

245x3x2

285x3

305x2

assistance

pendlay rows

140x5x3

bb shrugs - w straps

185x10x2

225x8x2

245x6x2

i want to stay in the 70-85% range w deads for the next few weeks, get some volume in and then go for around 360

good week w the exception of monday...

[TunaAssassin]

10/25

squat day

warm up

bar x 10 x 3

115x8x2

135x8x2

work sets

160x5

185x5

210x5

assistance

good mornings

120x5x5

back to focusing on the 531 the way it was set up. got away from it for a couple weeks...