After six years off, a return to strength training. Watch me suffer and get strong!

**nyrippetoe** · 02-28-2013, 04:14 PM

Two workouts to report today, one so-so workout that I did on Sunday and another solid workout from today. Here's the first:

Workout A

No excuses, but it's important to note that this so-so workout took place during a visit to NYC where I got barely a wink of sleep... due to the latin dance party that seemed to happen nightly in the apartment above my parents'. A cool note from this workout: I was training at the gym of a good friend from college and I had the pleasure of introducing him to squatting. +1 to the list of people who train with the barbell!

Squat (+5 lb) - Hard but good. On a couple of sets the last rep has wickedly slow bar speed.

245x2
285x1
325x3
325x3
325x3

Bench Press (+5 lb) - Totally didn't work. Monster leg cramp and feeling pretty out-of-it led me to abort the rest of my workout.

230x2.8 (I was very close on #3), full pause
225x3, way too hard. leg went crazy.

To lightly close out my workout I did two sets of eight bodyweight dips and pulled five reps of 225.

ps - Thanks for the condolences, guys

**nyrippetoe** · 02-28-2013, 04:17 PM

Workout.. mishmash

Things felt good today. The new Inzer belt is kicking ass and my body felt strong.

Squat (+5 lb)

330x3
330x3
330x3

Deadlift (+10 lb)

340x3

Pendlay Rows (+10 lb)

140x3
140x3
140x3

Hammer Curls (same weight)

30x8
30x8

**pyaarawala** · 02-28-2013, 08:07 PM

Strong uh...everything! But how come you're only do sets of 3? Are you still following SS?

**randomalias** · 03-01-2013, 07:14 AM

Your progress is ridiculous! Are you extending your linear progress by doing sets of 3? Just curious because whatever you're doing is obviously working.

**xRequiem** · 03-01-2013, 08:27 AM

trying to keep ahead of you! hurry up and stall on LP jk....srs

**nyrippetoe** · 03-01-2013, 04:13 PM

Originally Posted by pyaarawala

Strong uh...everything! But how come you're only do sets of 3? Are you still following SS?

Originally Posted by randomalias

Your progress is ridiculous! Are you extending your linear progress by doing sets of 3? Just curious because whatever you're doing is obviously working.

Thanks, guys. I'm competing in the Texas State Powerlifting Championships on March 23rd. On that date I'll (obviously) be lifting singles. I don't plan on training the week of the competition (maybe a couple of sets at 50%, but nothing else) so I have planned my training such that I am lifting triples four weeks out, doubles three weeks out, and singles the week prior to competition.

I got the idea from this thread: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=152003883

Originally Posted by xRequiem

trying to keep ahead of you! hurry up and stall on LP jk....srs

Lumbar press? Lucky pizza?

**nyrippetoe** · 03-02-2013, 08:09 PM

Weight: 201.7 lbs

A great workout. Squats were hard but I cranked them out and my (successful) second attempt at 230x3x5 on bench press went much better than last time.

Squat (+5 lb)

335x3
335x3
335x3

Bench Press - These felt really good. On my first set the guy who was spotting me was surprised that I didn't go for a fourth rep.

230x3
230x3
230x3

Weighted Dips (+10 lb)

(Bodyweight + 45 lbs) x 8
(Bodyweight + 45 lbs) x 8

**HoneyBadger300** · 03-02-2013, 08:18 PM

Originally Posted by nyrippetoe

Lumbar press? Lucky pizza?

Linear Progression, beginners programs.

Nice squats, what the fuark man! I'm with xReq, slow down! Already benching more than me and your squat is quickly approaching.

**nyrippetoe** · 03-02-2013, 08:36 PM

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger300

Linear Progression, beginners programs.

Nice squats, what the fuark man! I'm with xReq, slow down! Already benching more than me and your squat is quickly approaching.

Ah, got it. I prefer lucky pizza.

Thanks for the props. My squats were hard but they felt good today - decent bar speed - and man did that benching surprise me. I had another rep in the tank on one or two of those sets. Sorry dudes, you'll just have to keep up with ol' man NY here.

**nyrippetoe** · 03-05-2013, 12:25 PM

Heading to the gym on a wink of sleep. PR time(?)!

**nyrippetoe** · 03-05-2013, 04:01 PM

I went into the gym intending to do heavy doubles but when a 315 pound final warmup squat felt ridiculously heavy I was pretty sure that doubles weren't going to happen. I wanted to do three sets of doubles with 345 but my first rep at that weight was way too hard to warrant a shot at one more. Oddly, I progressed with singles and a PR magically emerged. I'm not asking questions.

I cut deadlifts out of this workout because the squats gave my legs a wonderful beating. I'll be away camping and climbing this weekend and plan to work heavy deadlifts on Friday before heading out of town. Need to get more of that sleep thing....

Also, I managed to yank my belt in yet another notch but I'm not sure that the extra smidge really did anything. People out there with serious belts: Have you found there to be a point where the marginal return of another notch drops to zero or below?

Squat (+5 lb, 1RM PR)

315x1 - Way too hard...
345x1 - I was going to try for a double but there was no way another rep would happen
355x1 - SLOOOOWWW bar speed.
360x1 PR! - I didn't know that a bar could move slower than it had during my last set, but somehow it did. And excruciatingly slowly I arose from the depths of my squat... Sweet Jesus that was hard.

Pendlay Rows (+15 lb, switch to doubles) - Strict form, belt really helps here.

155x2
155x2

Weighted Chins (+5 lb)

(bw + 5lbs) x 8
(bw + 5lbs) x 6

Hammer Curls (+5 lb for first set)

35x8
30x8

**stephentooliv** · 03-06-2013, 01:47 PM

What's your diet look like?

**pyaarawala** · 03-06-2013, 06:56 PM

Nice job on the PR! And good luck in the competition later as well.

What kind of Inzer belt you got? I'm thinking of getting an Inzer as well either in April or July. I'm using a generic 11mm belt right now. It's pretty good, but I think I'll get an Inzer one later and give this one to my bro.

**nyrippetoe** · 03-08-2013, 03:24 PM

Originally Posted by stephentooliv

What's your diet look like?

Mostly eat whatever I want, trying to get 200g protein per day and keep the rest relatively clean. Nothing crazy or particularly strict. At the beginning of this whole thing I was shooting for 3,300 calories a day but I don't think I need that much and have kind of given up on strict calorie counting.

Originally Posted by pyaarawala

Nice job on the PR! And good luck in the competition later as well.

What kind of Inzer belt you got? I'm thinking of getting an Inzer as well either in April or July. I'm using a generic 11mm belt right now. It's pretty good, but I think I'll get an Inzer one later and give this one to my bro.

Thanks, man! I have the single-prong 10mm Forever belt. It KICKS ASS. I let a jacked guy borrow it for a set of 495 pound deadlifts today and he ordered one on his phone on the spot!

**nyrippetoe** · 03-08-2013, 03:31 PM

More PRs! After some seriously heavy squats on Tuesday I decided to deadlift and bench press this afternoon, posting solid numbers in both. My deadlift felt particularly strong and I pushed my PR up 35 pounds.

Deadlift (+35 lb!) - I think that I hit my true max today. HARD!

335x1
350x1
380x1 - HELL YEAH!

Bench Press (+5 lb) - I may have had another five pounds in me but I seriously doubt it.

225x1
245x1
260x1

Weighted Dips (+5 lb) - My last few reps were tough but I cranked them out nonetheless

bw + 50 lb, x 8
bw + 50 lb, x 8

Hammer Curls

35x8
30x8

Time to eat some good food and rest up!

**Spartanbaziotis** · 03-08-2013, 03:41 PM

You're back up in the 1000 lb club after just a couple months dude. That is some damn good progress.

**nyrippetoe** · 03-08-2013, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by Spartanbaziotis

You're back up in the 1000 lb club after just a couple months dude. That is some damn good progress.

Holy sh*t you're right. Thanks for pointing that out! Yeah!

My goal in the meet is to hit 1,000. Hopefully I can make it all happen on a day where I'm lifting maximally on all three big ones with weird amounts of rest between lifts. But I'm still thrilled with a gym 1k.

**nyrippetoe** · 03-12-2013, 08:09 PM

Another mishmash of a workout. PRs are hard to track because I have been messing around with the number of reps in each set but I am definitely making progress. After the meet on the 23rd I am going to step back and evaluate how I want to proceed with my training.

Here goes:

Squat (+5 lb) - Went for doubles. Didn't try for the second rep on my last set as the first rep was excruciatingly slow.

340x2
345x2
345x1

Military Press - Last time I went for 140 I hit 4 reps before my neck started buggin me. This time was a bit more successful.

140x5
140x5
95x5 (The last two sets killed me so I dropped the weight tremendously for the third.)

Pendlay Row (+10 lb) - Fives. Tough!

145x5
145x5
145x5

Pullups (+5 lb) - Tried bw + 10 lb just for kicks. Blah. I'm not there yet.

Bodyweight + 10 pounds for six reps

Hammer Curls - Last time I lowered to 30 pounds for my second set. Progress.

35x8
35x8

Standing One-Arm Triceps Extensions - A new accessory exercise.

20x8
20x8

**pyaarawala** · 03-13-2013, 04:17 AM

I see you're preparing quite well for the meet. Your squat routine is very strength oriented. I would love to go down to triples or even singles to maintain linear progression but I really need the volume for aesthetic purposes.

Oh, and sick press!

**nyrippetoe** · 03-13-2013, 10:25 AM

Originally Posted by pyaarawala

I see you're preparing quite well for the meet. Your squat routine is very strength oriented. I would love to go down to triples or even singles to maintain linear progression but I really need the volume for aesthetic purposes.

Oh, and sick press!

Thanks! The truth is that right now I just want the meet to be tomorrow. Prepping has been fun but I'm ready for it, particularly because I know that I'm not going to win anything. (Realistically I'm not going to get much extra from my next few pre-meet workouts.)

We may go through a role reversal at some point. I might want to switch to higher volume hypertrophy training soon(ish) after the competition.

**moshvr** · 03-13-2013, 10:53 AM

Great stuff in here man. Subbed.

Good luck with the meet!

**nyrippetoe** · 03-13-2013, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by moshvr

Great stuff in here man. Subbed.

Good luck with the meet!

Thanks, bro!

**randomalias** · 03-14-2013, 07:17 AM

Nice presses, 140x5 after just a few months is amazing. Also good luck on the meet, you should definitely be able to total 1k.

**HoneyBadger300** · 03-14-2013, 09:01 AM

Nice! Way to change things up to keep them moving. Great job pushing yourself, but also knowing your limits.

**nyrippetoe** · 03-14-2013, 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by randomalias

Nice presses, 140x5 after just a few months is amazing. Also good luck on the meet, you should definitely be able to total 1k.

Thanks! I'm hoping so. Gotta keep stretching my hips to make sure that I go well past parallel on my squats.

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger300

Nice! Way to change things up to keep them moving. Great job pushing yourself, but also knowing your limits.

Just truckin' along. Thanks for the encouragement!

**pyaarawala** · 03-14-2013, 08:00 PM

Originally Posted by nyrippetoe

Thanks! The truth is that right now I just want the meet to be tomorrow. Prepping has been fun but I'm ready for it, particularly because I know that I'm not going to win anything. (Realistically I'm not going to get much extra from my next few pre-meet workouts.)

We may go through a role reversal at some point. I might want to switch to higher volume hypertrophy training soon(ish) after the competition.

Yeah man, I was thinking the same thing. I wanna move to a higher volume program doing all the major lifts in the 8-12 rep range. But I won't do this until I finish my cut first. My current goal while cutting is to reveal all the gains I made on my bulk on SS and maintain strength.

**nyrippetoe** · 03-19-2013, 06:44 AM

Reporting in after a long weekend of camping and climbing...

My body is pleasantly destroyed and will be spending this pre-comp week putting itself back together. My girlfriend and I spent the last four days at Enchanted Rock (a Texas State Park) bouldering, hiking and climbing every day. Abs, traps, legs, arms, back, fingers... shot to death and complaining in a good way.

I may do a workout tomorrow at ~50% intensity but I also may just lie back and relax as the Saturday meet day draws near. Over and out.

**nyrippetoe** · 03-22-2013, 09:42 AM

With the competition 24 hours away I am still recovering from a wonderfully hellish long weekend of climbing. But no excuses!

I just weighed in at 197.4. Perfect.

**nyrippetoe** · 03-24-2013, 02:00 PM

Sneak Preview: A 25 pound PR on my gym deadlift!

The meet was ridiculous. More to come.

**randomalias** · 03-24-2013, 03:41 PM

that 405 came up so fast, you had another 30lbs in you! Looking forward to seeing the rest of the videos

Thread: After six years off, a return to strength training. Watch me suffer and get strong!

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