A Canucks quest for 1450 RAW in 2012

[CanPride]

Hey guys.

Bit of background info first. After spending 8 years training in track and field, I finally was through with the sport, and it was time to move on. I always knew the weightlifting bug would catch me. I grew up idolizing WWE superstars and spending my weekend nights playing World's Strongest Man in my living room with my friend while watching Magnus make a joke of the sport. I swore when I was through with track, I was through with being skinny. 2.5 years and 40lbs later, I've made good on that. (And lets be real, my first year was a joke, it's more like 1.5 years of real lifting).

Ending 2011 My Powerlifting stats were roughly as follows (Though I've never competed)

Bench - 275 (Strict as hell, to try to simulate waiting for a press command)
Squat - 455 (Only 95% sure I hit depth, I'll try to post some vids eventually. That being said, I had enough in the tank, and I've done enough squats WELL below depth at >400lbs that I am positive if I had to go a bit deeper to get the lights, I could have)
Deadlift (Sumo) - 523 (At my gym, the plates on the platforms are rubber kg bumper plates, but in order to fit anything above 440, you need to combine some with metal plates, hence the really weird number)

total - 1253

My goal is to total 1450 RAW in a meet in 2012. It is ambitious as hell, I know, but when you consider the anticipated changes to body weight, it is not that unrealistic. I currently weigh a hair over 185, and am trying to get to 200, to compete in the 198 category. I figured adding 15 pounds of bodyweight lessens the load of increasing the total. My bench is still total junk as well, and as technique continues to improve, I anticipate that one gaining quite easily. I suppose my training method is somewhat Westside ish. I definitely use Max Effort and Speed days. That being said, while I'm finishing my degree, I'm stuck at a University gym, so no bands or anything like that for me. For the most part, I use basic speed work and max effort work, and through in some accessory work, with some consideration for aesthetics (hey, I am 23, gotta look good). I pretty much make it up as I go. After a couple years, I've begun to understand how my body responds, and I've made more progress this way then I ever did on set programs.

I'll start backlogging with my first 2 workouts of 2012, then hit it up tonight after my speed bench session, which I anticipate going well. Though my two lifting partners are both track athletes, not powerlifters, they are great people to train with, and I love spending time in the gym with them, so my sessions have improved greatly from when I was stuck on my own.


First Workout of 2012 - Semi Max Effort Bench

Worked up to a heavy single at 265. This weight felt especially light on this day. I suspect I could have gotten 285 up, but in an effort to properly sync up my 2012 workout schedule with my partners class schedules, I did 2 "max effort" bench days in a row to get them in line, so I shut it down here to save some energy.

Then did some accessory work - 5-6 sets of Pullups, some T-Bar Rows, Tricep Extensions, and some Bicep Curls. (Yes, Bicep Curls. I hate them, but my deadlifts strain the hell out of my biceps when I neglect them).


Second Workout of 2012 - Semi Max Effort Squat
See Explanation of semi-max effort bench.
Worked up on squats to a set of 435x2. Felt a little tougher today. I lift in Vibrams, and the grip is starting to go. I have been working on a wider stance lately (hence my depth concerns lately, having to find it in a new stance is tough, and my hips are still opening up every day, so I can go deeper every time, but it's slow work). My feet were sliding a bit, which was causing me some trouble staying powerful in these. I shut it down after this set. My back was also tightening up a bit on me, which was uncharacteristic with this new stance, but not unexpected. My form was off because of grip issues, and I have had a weak back in the past.

I decided to take this day pretty easy, and just did some Hamstring Curls (I would KILL to get a glute ham raise in this gym), and some intense calf work, and called it a day.


I am hoping tonight's session goes well, should be a boatload of pressing movements tonight. I did manage to catch my best friends wife's cold/flu however, so I've been a bit run down lately. Slept through my classes today because I just couldn't get myself going with the terrible sleep I had from it. Not going to let it keep me from the gym however. Time to infect all the god forsaken new years resolutionists. In an effort to scare them off, operation douchebag in a wife beater is in full effect.

[CanPride]

Crazy workout tonight. Platforms were busy when I got there, so I got straight to box squats. Cranked out 8x2 @ 275, wide stance felt pretty good, although my back was very tight, I tried a couple reps at 315 and 345 and my back was begging me to stop. Not good.
Moved on to some leg press, just did about 5x8, increasing weight up to about 950. Nothing crazy, just trying to stimulate a bit.
Then platforms opened up. Hit up some power cleans. Despite already being worked pretty tough, managed to get up to 1x100kg fairly easily, though the last lift at 100 was tough, my explosiveness was gone at this point, so I shut these down here.
Did some calf stuff, a drop set of 5x20 dropping the weight 15 pounds each time, holding for 10 seconds at top after each set, rest about 30 seconds. These hurt, but not as much as I wanted them to.
Then just hit up my hamstrings for some quick curls and called it a day.
It was a pretty intense workout, since the rest periods were pretty much non existant.
Squats felt very good, except that my back was rejecting heavy weight. Hips are a little resistant right now, but we'll keep battling that. I may do some more narrow stance squats for a couple weeks as well, and just work on the wide out on box squats. We'll play it by year.

Back in tomorrow at 9:30 to meet one of my lifting partners on dynamic bench day, then I get the entire weekend off, to go check out the track meet, and spend some time ice skating on sunday. Workout tomorrow should be pretty good.

[CanPride]

Blasted through a workout yesterday morning. Was pretty gassed from the night before still, unusual to do two workouts this close, but you do what you have to do.

Speed Bench-
8x3 @135, a little under 50% today, worked out pretty good. My back was flying off the bench by about 6 inches at times. Weight might have been a little light, but oh well. I was getting set up better than I ever have before, hopefully this translates to some increase on Max Effort day.

I decided to go to my old favourite, decline bench. Did 3x8 @ 235, fairly straightforward, had a few issues unracking from the power rack, even with a lift-off, the height of the hooks is a little awkward sometimes.

Supersetted with some Pullups, ended up getting about 5 sets of 8-10 in.

Back was ridiculously tight however, so rows were terrible, ended up having to do some machine assisted rows, my lower back was not letting me do dumbell rows. Once I get back on schedule I won't have to try to suffer through rows without letting my lower back recover from squatting/deadlifting.

Finished off with some close grip bench press and good ol hammer curls to get some work done for my arms, which are still my lagging part in both strength and size. Looking forward to getting back on schedule on Monday. Now to enjoy my weekend off, and hopefully my job interview goes well.

[CanPride]

ME Lower body today, felt pretty good. Weight is up to 187-188 now, on the road back to 190, after cutting a few months ago to shed some fat. Feels good to be putting on weight again, hoping to get up to 200 by the end of the school year. Obv. a bit of a 'dirty' bulk, but I don't really care. It's super easy for me to get lean, so I could give a flying hoot about a 6 pack.

Anyways, onto the workout.
Back Squats. Still a bit iffy on my depth, but I am at an awkward stage. If I go wide out on a stance, I need to set the safety bar higher, so I can fail without blowing out my knees. It seems to be deep enough, but it's really, really close. If I go more narrow, I can set them lower and go well below required depth. Currently I've been going more wide out, trying to make my squat more like a traditional powerlifting squat. Everything feels better, it's just hard to tell until I get some videos.

Warmed up for a while, then ended up doing the following
365x5
385x5
405x5. The 405's felt really powerful. Tough, but not too tough. I probably could've pushed this a bit harder today, but I was happy with my progress. I've been trying to keep it to an effort level that I think I could still push out on the narrow stance deeper.

Speed Pulls. (I've been trying putting these in on non deadlifting weeks on max effort day, instead of doing both box squats and speed pulls on the same day)
8x2 @150kg.
I did 4 sets Conventional, 4 Sets sumo, alternating each set. I normally pull sumo when I go for max effort.
They all felt really good. I got a little out of breath, I was pushing the rest periods here. Sumo felt a bit better, which was in contrast to my speed pulls last week, where the conventional stuff felt really good, and the sumo's felt flat.

Calves
Oh I fried these *******s today.
Did a couple 3 minute type sets (go until your calves cramp, rest, go again until your calves cramp, etc, for 1 song).
First at 170, second at 135, seated raises. The weight is pretty light of course, but after 3 minutes of almost continuous calf raises, you get fried.

Hamstrings
3x6 Hamstring curls
Also did some leg raises for core stuff.

This all took quite a bit of time, and I was pretty wiped. I was very happy with the way everything felt today. These pulls were the heaviest I've gone beltless in a long time. My back is finally starting to get stronger.

Pumped for ME Bench on Wednesday, should get a PR out of it I think.

[CanPride]

ME Bench today.
Started off great, was getting set up fantastic, 255 went up very, very well. Tried 275, equal to my p.r. I actually thought I was going to break it today. Got set up terribly. In hindsight, I should have stood up, taken a minute, and tried again. The descent was awful, hit the wrong spot on my chest, never had a hope in hell of getting this lift up. I was pretty pissed off about missing it, so I went back down to 255, and did a double (tried for a triple, but kind of got stapled on the 3rd). Then cranked out some form reps at 225, and moved on. All in all the bench session took about 1/2 hour.

Cranked out about 5x10 pullups
Moved on to military press, where I did 8,8,8,6 @ a paltry 115. These were not terribly difficult at all, but I hurt my shoulder again about a month ago, so I have been very, very cautious about adding weight back to military press.

Did some DB Rows, and Bicep Curls, and called it a day.

Most of the session actually felt very good, and from a bodybuilding type perspective, by back and arms had a wicked pump going on. I am carrying very sour feelings about that bench session though. I think I might do a touch and go ME day soon, just to feel good about my numbers for a week. My bench technique obviously needs a lot of work, it is just not comparing to my other lifts.