Doollas Powerlifting Journey V 2.0

[Doollas]

Version 2 of a journal I kept for my first year of powerlifting. I was doing some ghey bodybuilding stuff in 2009 and got into powerlifting again (did the lifts but no comps in high school) that winter. Since then I have done a little WS, Sheiko, but mostly following a Reactive Training Systems (RTS) template.

General Progress:
11/2009: 350/300/450 @ 230ish
05/2010: 430/325/550 @ 245ish
11/2010: 480/350/575 @ 230ish
05/2011: 540/347/639 @ 239 (meet on 4-30-11)
11/2011: 620/???/??? (620 no belt/wraps on squat, would guess bench is 380ish and deadlift is 700) @ 245-250

Body Stats:
Currently 5'10" 245-250 lbs 15% (or more) bf. Don't care too much about aesthetics at the moment. Sometimes I get that way and I need you guys to tell me to quite being a weak ******* with abs and break records.

Current Training:
Ed Coan Bench Routine with 370-380 put in the calculator and RTS template for lower lifts. I will eventually go into much more detail and analysis on my RTS style of training but basically I like to do a lot of higher volume at medium to high stress for 3-5 weeks and then go to low stress intensity work for 2 weeks or so. This allows me to build up and get used to some moderate weights and over-reach my CNS to some extent and then realize some sweet gainz when I lower the stress and try to hit PR's. This is a very similar principle to Sheiko cycles leading up to meet-peak cycle but with the use of specific fatigue percents and stress levels to make it more tailored and do the lifts that can hit my weak points. Mike T who is the main pioneer of the RTS does a lot of different things and is extremely intelligent with that stuff, but as of right now I like what I've done and the gains that have come from it. When gains slow down I will get even more analytical.

Diet:
Lots of eggs, oats, olive oil, fruit, good bread, chicken, steak, yogurt, granola, potatoes, pasta, milk, anything to get some cals in really. Sometimes I count cals but right now I'm not and would estimate I'm getting about 4000-4500 per day with 250+ g protein on training days.

Meet Plans/Other Goals:
I did the NASA meet in Gallup, NM last spring and I think I will do that again this next year, 10-28-2012. I would like to lift a lot of weigh.

but seriously, I have my eye on the tested squat records (705 and 749 wrapped...both seem low to me?) and would like to get an 1800 total in 2012 with something like 700/400/700.

[Doollas]

I forgot to mention that the only real injury that affects my lifting is this radial tunnel syndrome (or something) in my forearms. It kills and I'm constantly working on rehab/prehab to keep it at bay. It affects my strength dramatically on bench.

All my workouts are listed as sets x reps x weights, and will usually list individual sets for RTS training. More on that later.

Bench:
2 x 5 x 315
Workout called for 310 but was lazy. Had it not been for the forearm issues I think I'd be good for 8 paused reps.

CGBP:
2 x 5 x 275

Incline BP:
2 x 5 x 255
Was happy about this cuz my incline is horrible and I usually fail the weights on these.

Normally I'd do some back work or something but my forearms hurt so bad I just did recovery work. Lacrosse ball, foam rolling, stick rolling the forearms, stretching, sauna, cold shower, sauna, etc etc.

[Liftamulti]

Weeeeeeee

[martin_mathers]

Strong log is strong.

[dan_g_28]

Sub'd.

[dtaps24]

I approve of this journal. Stop being a pussy and limiting yourself to tested records though. The unlimited mind is the most powerful. Ask your breh brah Hickson.

[Doollas]

I am no doubt aiming for higher than tested records but those are just my medium-term goals...just can't really go untested yet. I don't want to even compete in an untested fed as I'm not sure what the policy on that kind of thing is with my current job. Till then I'll eat and SFW.

[dtaps24]

I am no doubt aiming for higher than tested records but those are just my medium-term goals...just can't really go untested yet. I don't want to even compete in an untested fed as I'm not sure what the policy on that kind of thing is with my current job. Till then I'll eat and SFW.

Sounds like a good plan.

[mm55]

Epic lifts large man. Just finished coan bench/squat/and DL, but with significantly lower numbers. Great programs.

[-Lucifer]

Oh, hai. Just watched your 620 squat video couple of hours ago. Good sh*t.

[Doollas]

Epic lifts large man. Just finished coan bench/squat/and DL, but with significantly lower numbers. Great programs.

How did your bench do on that? What did you do for the squat? I assume you did CP for DL?

Oh, hai. Just watched your 620 squat video couple of hours ago. Good sh*t.

Thanks breh.

[lts1ow]

The guberment don't care if you do performance enhancing fun things, at least the FAA doesn't lol

In for big squatz

[LegosInMyEgos]

2 x 5 x 315
Workout called for 310 but was lazy. Had it not been for the forearm issues I think I'd be good for 8 paused reps.

I like your kind of laziness.

[Doollas]

Bench:
2 x 10 x 235
Had very little forearm pain so that was awesome.

Pushdowns:
3 x 10 x 60

One-Arm Cross Body Ext:
2 x 10 x 35

Fly's:
3 x 15 x 35's

Speed Deads:
6 x 2 x 315
I'm going to go up in weight pretty steadily week to week unless I feel strong as fawk.

Sumo Deads:
3 x 5 x 225

[LILFATBOI]

sub for hulks log

[Doollas]

Squats:
3 x 10, 10, 5 x 420, 380, 380

Speed Deads:
6 x 2 x 315

GHR's:
3 x 8 x BW

Decline Abs:
3 x 10 x 25

[Doollas]

Bench:
2 x 5 x 325 (PR I think)

CGBP:
2 x 5, 4 x 285 (was rushing so I got fatigued as fawk)

Incline BP:
1 x 4.5 x 265 (fatigue, called it quits)

This hotel gym is sick, will post pics when i get back tonight.

[LegosInMyEgos]

i told you the plates run light

[Doollas]

You might be right, but yeah you're wrong. srs they were legit 20.4 kilo metal plates.

1st view of first gym room, with the bench I used (wider and more legit than any at my home gym), and yes, they have up to 100 lb dumbells:


2nd view of first room of gym:


Squat rack in the 3rd room:


Squat rack in 1st room (one of the pins looks broke):


Other stuff in 3rd room:


2nd room had near brand new life-fitness machines chalk full. There was a pool, elevated cardio area, basketball court (no hoops), bleachers (lol), 2 racketball courts, and a ping pong room. I have no idea what this place used to be and the hotel is confusing enough. Part of it is brand new and super nice, part is old and not remodeled, and there were a total of 6 cars outside last night.

Edit: wtf it says domain bs cant see pics. f it.

[Doollas]

Bench:
2 x 10 x 235 easy, long pauses, going for speed.

Some pushdowns, little back work, and light fly's.

Going for 2 x 5 x 335-340 wednesday.

[Doollas]

Squats x 8 @ 10 w/10.64%:
470 @ 10
420 @ 9
420 @ 10

Speedy Deads:
8 x 2 x 315

Some hanging abs.

Pretty happy with 470 x 8. Based on Wendler's calculator that is a max of 595, and considering I SUCK at repping, that's pretty good. Also, after being at sea level for almost a week, I was dying after each set. Had to take 10 minutes minimum. Deads felt good but have this weird pain throughout my body that I sometimes get from traveling and/or drinking. Hopefully it's gone tomorrow.

[-Lucifer]

Good job with the 470x10. I suck at repping stuff out too, so I can empathize.

Edit: wtf it says domain bs cant see pics. f it.

Imageshack sucks big time, bro. Go here: www.imgur.com

[Doollas]

Lucifer, I hit 470 x 8. Refer to next post.

Imageshack does suck!

Here they are:
First rack, one of the pin bars looked broke:


One room with all the leg stuff, and good rack in back:


Good rack:


Dumbells and bench I used:


Other parts of "upper" room:

[LegosInMyEgos]

Just as I thought, everything runs 5% light.

[Doollas]

I think Lucifer saw "470 @ 10" and thought that was 10 reps, but actually that was the rate of perceived effort, or RPE. I did 470 x 8 @ 10. The RPE is just a measure of difficulty. A max is a 10, if one more rep could be completed it's a 9, if two reps were left an 8, and so on. I never really note anything below a 6 or 7 (I will just call it "easy") unless I am doing speed work and taking time to think about how hard a light weight really is.

Next thing is the percentage drops. Based on how much volume, and therefore how much "stress" I want to put my body through, I will drop a certain percentage of weight after I reach my top sets. The RTS manual says some stuff about how easily you can recover and that 30% in a week is something you can recover from. I do 3-6 lifts a week, so a high stress workout for me would aim for about 20% (but I rarely reach that). Therefore I would do about 10% drop per movement. In reality I do 4 lifts a week (speed deads, squats, pause squats, other dead movement) and so on a high volume week I will drop 10-15% per lift.

I write my workouts as follows:

Bench x 5 @ 8-9 w/10%
275 @ easy
285 @ 8
295 @ 8.5
300 @ 9
270 @ 8
270 @ 8.5
270 @ 9

So here I work up to a 300 x 5 with about a rep left in the tank, then drop 10% of the weight and work back up to a difficulty of 9 RPE.

When I'm focusing on volume work I will do a straight drop (drop 10% right away), and when I'm focusing on heavy weight I will drop in increments. That is all for now.

[-Lucifer]

Nice gym. And my bad about my previous post. I think Flustre told me about RTS long back, but I forgot.

[LegosInMyEgos]

Hm, RTS sounds interesting. I read the first few pages and then stopped when he began talking about geared "powerlifting"

[Doollas]

Hm, RTS sounds interesting. I read the first few pages and then stopped when he began talking about geared "powerlifting"

You just have to go into it realizing that some of it is written for geared lifting, but most of it can apply to raw. Like the template he uses in the book is specifically for a geared lifter, and there is a fair amount of discussion of using RTS to get ready for geared meets. What I like about the manual is that is goes over RTS in a "simple" way. If you look at Mike T and some of the other RTS lifters training, it gets extremely confusing and complicated. Right now I am trying to ignore all that at least until my progress slows a lot. I think my upper training needs some modifications and that will mostly consist of more rep work and hitting of weak points, once Coan is over of course.

Other things I plan to focus on the next few mesocycles:
Keeping upper back (and lower) tighter on squats/deads
Deadlift starting position and initial pull form
Deadlift lockout
More accessory work
Following RTS template I had planned before more closely (past 3 weeks I have either been doing maxes or really high rep stuff)
Conditioning
Flexibility
Get back to using oly shoes for heavy weights and work on my form with oly shoes

[lts1ow]

470x8? ??

Gah, must work harder now

[Doollas]

470x8? ??

Gah, must work harder now

500 x 10 in the works fool!