My Power Lifting Journal

[traineeh]

Hey all,

Long time lurker, occasional poster, dedicated lifter.

I've been lifting on an off for like 3 years however for the past year I've been making great gains on a 5x5 and 531 program.

Today my buddy and I joined a decent power lifting gym and the owner gave us the low down on the conjugate method, of which I will document here and hopefully get gains!

We're roughly following this outline by Chad Wesley Smith, however we've tweaked it to our weaknesses. That is the whole point of the conjugate method/westside style, is to use different variations of the main 3 in order to strengthen those main 3 lifts. http://www.jtsstrength.com/articles/...ould-westside/

Today was ME LOWER

High-Bar Squat; worked up to a 3RM of 275lbs pretty happy considering I haven't done a high-bar squat in over a year and a half, felt weird as hell, definitely going to work on it for better quad involvement
Deficit Conventional-stance Deadlifts; 3x5 at roughly 55-75% of my 1RM (440lbs): 225x5, 275x5, 275x3 (with bands, just to try em out), 315x5 these felt pretty easy to be honest, didn't want to go too ham as this is an assistance lift
Glute Ham Raises; 8-10-8-7-8 never done these before and they were freaking hard! I have a feeling I'm gonna feel these tomorrow
Abs; just did 3 sets of V-ups
Prowler; did a couple runs with the prowler with a 10kg plate, never used one before, talk about mad cardio, definitely gonna work on this


Tomorrow is ME Upper!

Current maxes are:
Low-bar squat: 355x2 (started at 165x5)
DL: 440x1 (started at 225x1)
Bench: 240x1 (started at 135x5)

6 foot, around 205lbs (currently on a calorie deficit to drop to 195-200) My TDEE is ~2800, I'm eating roughly 2400 a day.

They definitely need work, but I'm feeling good. This new gym is awesome, it has chains, bands, prowlers, everything a powerlifter wants! I've never used any of this stuff so I'm looking forward to the gains!

Will post here regularly on my progress.

[traineeh]

ME Upper

CGBP; worked up to a 3RM of 205lbs (5x135, 5x135 w/chains, 5x185, 5x195) - backoff set 155x8, 155x8, 155x6) this pretty much destroyed me
DB Incline Press; 50lbsx10, 50lbsx8, 45lbsx10
Cable Row; 120lbs: 15-15-15-10-10 felt such a stretch in the lats and mid back on this one
Front Raises; 15lbs: 2x15, 12.5lbs: 15 haven't done this in a while, was pretty tough
Band Pull Aparts did these sporadically between sets of CGBP and Incline
Band Face Pulls 5x15 at this point my arms and upper body entirely was just destroyed
Superset: Hammer Curls & Pushdowns 3x15

Did two runs with the prowler, almost threw up. Rest day tomorrow thank god. One of the hardest workouts for sure, not used to this much volume.

[traineeh]

DE Lower - 8/27/2015

2" deficit pulls
5x135
5x225
5x225 w/ bands
5x275 w/ bands
10 x 2 x 315 w/ bands
first time using bands on a deficit.. although the weight was light so it came off the floor easily, the lockout was pretty brutal. Ripped up my left hand pretty badly. Was fun though. I think I might not use this variation again, I'll either deficit deadlift or deadlift with bands.. not sure

SSB Squats
8x135
5x225
10 x 2 x 245 w/ chains
chains are about 25lbs each, so around 295 at the top with a Safety Squat Bar - first time I've ever used one. It was awkward as hell. Again not much weight, only about 70% of my regular squat max, however the bar made it feel awkward. Hurt my shoulders more than anything. I liked it though, will continue to use it

Leg Press
3x8x4 plates aside
just some added volume, was pretty tired after the first two exercises

RDLs
3x10x135
again nothing too crazy here, I was just beat

Ended with some band stretches and foam rolling. I decided not to do any prowler runs because I was just exhausted and was running a bit late!

Tonight is DE Upper and hopefully I'm up for some cardio afterwards

[traineeh]

DE Upper - 8/28/15

Wide Grip bench
warmed up to my working set of 145 (60%) 6x3 with chains, so came up to about 195lbs it felt weird, never really done a wide grip before. The weight went up easy though

DB Shoulder Press
12 x 45lbs
12 x 40lbs
these felt good, last few reps were killer though

Pull Ups
around 5x5? I lost count really, supposed to do them with weight but did them with bodyweight, I have a slight shoulder impingement, nothing too serious, physio said I can keep working out I just have to do some mobility work each day

Lat Pull Downs
3x10x120lbs nothing too heavy again, used a close grip. I really let my lats pull on this one, let them stretch out, felt amazing and sore at the same time, slow-ish tempo

Dips
3x8xBW Did these bodyweight, really felt the stretch in my chest, was great but tough. Being 205lbs, it was a bit hard

DB Flies
2x12x20 never did these, felt good

Ended the session with some curls, hammers, skulls and pushdowns just to further kill my arms. Definitely felt this workout the next 2 days. Was brutal. More volume than I am used to. And some prowler runs, a few sets only.


ME Lower - 8/30/2015

Sumo Deadlifts
Worked up to a triple at 375lbs I really felt I could do more here, I've tripled 405 before, but today I was just off my game. My legs were mad tight, it was an earlier workout than usual, felt ****ty. 375lbs felt heavy as hell when it shouldnt

High Bar Pause Squats
3x5x180lbs (50%) @ 7 seconds I tried these after reading about them on a Chad Wesley Smith article. I usually do a low-bar squat. These were the hardest things I have ever done. A 7 second pause was insane. My hips, my core, everything killed. Time under tension, these should pay off in the future

Glute Ham Raises
5x10 felt good, got a good stretch in my hammies and calves

Abs
3 sets of some core exercise, was good

Wrap up: decided not to do the prowler this time, I just wasn't feeling it at all

[traineeh]

ME Upper 9/1/15

Pin Press: 135x8, 155x5, 185x3, 205x4, 225x1
Drop Set: 3x5x185
First time I've ever done pin presses. I had the bar pretty much on my chest, supported by the rails. So I pushed off the rails, and brought the bar back down. So each press had no momentum. For some reason I thought these would be easier than benching but it was so much harder having no momentum at all. Even pause benching was easier than this. I was taken aback when I could only do 2 plates once.. but I've heard good things about this lift so hopefully it carries over

Flat DB Press: 60lbs: 12-12-12-11, 50lbs: 12
these were intense. I used a neutral grip and these made my sweat insanely after the pin pressing. It was brutal, loved it. Neutral grip felt great, easier on the shoulders

Bent Over Rows: 205lbs: 4x15
at this point I was tired. The two previous exercises took a lot out of me, but I had to get some back work in

Cable Rows: 120lbs: 2x15, 105lbs: 1x15
just more volume to hammer the back

Lateral raises superset with barbell curls15lbs for Lat raises, 45lbs for curls, 4 sets

Tricep Pushdowns superset with overheat triceps extensions80lbs and 50lbs, did 4 sets, just had to tired out the triceps

Throughout the workout I did band pull aparts and some face pulls with a band. A really really intense workout. It was insane.

Thursday I'm training with a buddy for some DE Lower, hopefully I can get some footage of the workout

[traineeh]

DE Lower - 9/3/2015

SSB Squats warmed up to 55% of my 1RM (so roughly 205lbs) + accommodating resistance, in this case chains of roughly ~50lbs total.
9x2, 1x7 (shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn__Qtl5PyA)
nothing too crazy, light weight, just focusing on speed and form - this bar is mad awkward

1" deficit sumo pulls warmed up to 55% of my 1RM (so roughly 245lbs) + accommodating resistance, in this case bands, not sure of the resistance though, felt almost like ~80lbs of resistance total.
9x2, 1x7
again nothing crazy, the lockout was still pretty tough, and the deficit just adds difficult to the lift, was fun though

RDLs 3x10 @ 135lbs, slow descent
piece of cake, just getting that ham stretch

Leg Press 3x15 @3 plates aside
really slow descent on these, so each set took a while, these killed my quads, a great finisher

GHRs 2x10 BW
too tired lol

Postworkout meal: two shwarma pitas and potatoesssssss

DE Upper tomorrow!

[traineeh]

So I forgot to post DE Upper.. anyways...


ME Lower - 9/6/15

low bar squat 2x5x135, 5x185, 5x225 (pause), 5x275, 3x315, 1x335, 1x340
drop set: 5x3x275
this felt like complete ****, again I was forced to do an early workout because of my schedule, so I just wasnt feeling it, although I guess in retrospect, 340 isnt bad considering the most I've squatted with sleeves is 355x1 and 355x2 with wraps

block pulls conventional (usually sumo) warmed up to 3x5x330lbs
never done these before, the bar was about 6 inches below the knee, beltless, really worked my core because with block pulls you're basically removing the quads from the equation, was good though

Was going to do some GHRs but had to rush out!