Journey to 600DL and 500SQ: First stop 405SQ - Team Franco Bodybuilding Forum: Competition and Fitness Board

Yoster · The Truth!

RE: Journey to 600DL and 500SQ: First stop 405SQ

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Sounds a lot like "Run Forrest Run!" LOL!

Tonights session was cut short because they closed at 10 and I didn't get there in enough time to do the entire workout....but I got my squats in !

Squats: warms, 385/5 5 5 - all PR's

This definitely was a gut tester. I don't think I recovered from the heavy squats and deadlifts on Tuesday. I could tell because during the foam roll portion of my warm up, my upper back and lats and mid back were still tight. I tried my hardest to get them limbered up for the work at hand...and I guess I did just enough to make it through this one.

I was done with my squats at 9:53 p.m. and the gym was closing at 10. I had overhead pressing of 203.75 for 3 sets of 5 on the agenda and I hardly had time to get a couple warm ups in. So, I'm going to get in there on Sunday, do some light squats to get some blood into the legs and back, and do some heavy presses.

I think the lesson learned which I actually mentioned already from Joe's post here is that I need to give myself a little time if I'm going to Squat heavy and deadlift heavy in the same workout before I hit the heavy squat again. Probably if I had gone on Thursday for a light squat workout, I to get some blood in the back and legs, I would have been fresher , if I switched to squatting on Saturday. So, I learned my lesson and will heed it for the future.

It is really motivating to be this close to 405 for 3 sets of 5; so I need to make sure I give myself the proper recovery so that I can get to that point successfully without a reset of the weight.

So the plan is recovery day on Sunday with heavy presses, Heavy squat only on Tuesday next week, throw another recovery day in there on Thursday, Heavy squat only on Saturday, and then take two days off, and then the next Tuesday hit a Heavy squat and a heavy deadlift, followed by a recovery workout that next Thursday. That will land me on 405X5X3...if all goes well : )

I think that will help with the back stiffness I'm currently experiencing.

Oh yeah, I have vids that I'll post up in the video section of 385X5X3!!

Over and out....

-- Edited by winflex on Friday 19th of March 2010 11:34:14 PM

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

A quick and easy but far from painless light workout today....

Squat: warms, 275/5 295/5
Press: warms, 180/5

My shoulders and elbow were killing me. I was carrying Olivia around a lot this weekend being outside a lot. My shoulders and elbows were also sore from the PR squat-ness on Friday. I had to get some pressing in this week so it wasn't neglected for a whole week.

The Lioness · The Truth!

i would say EFFICIENT rather than "easy" Dwayne;) Olivia is a lucky kid.....she get's carried around by a strong and great guy all day!

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Okay efficient!

Olivia is a great kid...I can't believe she's going to be 2 on Friday!

She wrote her name all by herself over the weekend. No help at all. I think I have a brainiac on my hands : )

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Here's her little signature...LOL!

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Heavy lifting hurts sometimes...in a good way

Squats: warms, 390/5 5?(maybe 6) 5 - PR's

Press: warms, 203.75/5 5 5 - PR's

Barbell Row in rack, with pause on rack on each rep: 3 sets

Man this was really really heavy (I don't know how Joe gets under this; his strength is absolutely amazing. I think he should do a powerlifting meet with me wink

). I was super fired up on the first set of squats. I just flew threw the reps. But I think I burned out a little. My shoulders and biceps were tightening up. My breathing was uncontrollably heavy. it took me a good five minutes to stop breathing like that and then another couple minutes before I didn't have that "shaky" CNS overdrive feeling. I had to take a lacrosse ball to my shoulders and arms for the muscles to calm the hell down.

On the second set, I wasn't as amped up which actually was a good thing. Things didn't tighten up like on the first but I totally lost my count and I just did 1 extra at the end. So I may have done 6 on that set.

Third set was pretty good. The last rep was slow just like when I did 385 but it was good and I can live with that.

Rolled my shoulders and arms out and then started to warm up for presses. These were a bit heavy on the first set and just got better as the sets went on. I think it got better because the fatigue from the squatting started to fade away.

Finally, threw in some barbell rows. I did these with a pause on the rack to emphasize the starting strength from zero to movement. Felt really good in my upper back and I think I needed to do some work there but I didn't want to deadlift because of frying my arms with "Olivia-carries" this weekend.

Looking forward to the rest and recovery day on Wednesday. 395 comes next on Squats for Friday.

I think by taking these five pound jumps my confidence at this weight level increases so that helps with the strength development. Its when i have to move up to the next level plate whether a 25,35, or 45 that I get really nervous about. But when its the same old weight that I did a few days ago but just with a 2.5 lb, or 5 lb, or both on it, It just feels like the same weight to me even though its a few pounds more.

A lot can be said about incrementally increasing confidence for gaining some strength.

-- Edited by winflex on Tuesday 23rd of March 2010 11:43:43 PM

Joe · Beyond Nutrition - Co Owner

She will be two! Holy smokes time flies.

BTW, I may take you up on the powerlifting thingy. I would need to drop to 165, and like it to be a raw meet.

As far as your heavey breathing, I know the humdity has been up.

Bill · Member

Holy crap Dwayne. Your gains have been awesome brother! I'll have to make my way through this new log a bit, but 385x5 on the squat? Noice!

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Bill!!!
I haven't seen you around here in a quite a while! Thanks for the props man!

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Needed a recovery day badly...arms and shoulders thank me for not beating them up too much...

Squat: warms, 275/5
Bench: warms only up to 135X5X1, arms feeling really weak today and in a lot of pain after the squatting.

390 on Tuesday really took its toll. Hope to be ready for 395 on Saturday.

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

This is not going to be easy!

Squat: warms, 395/4 *PR but also an EPIC FAIL...called it quits there on squats
Press: warms, 205/4 *PR but also another FAIL...called it quits and went home

On the last rep of the only workset today of squats, I had to bail the bar. I didn't have my normal level of strength today. I don't know why. My allergies were pretty bad the last two days. I also had a lot more going on this morning than usual. I just didn't feel solid. I was recovered but the drive was missing. It was one of those days and I had to get out.

I did the first workset of presses and knew that the attitude was the wrong one. So I just left.

I wanted to deadlift today but it just wasn't going to happen. Just not a good one today. Really disappointed in myself.

Everyday can't be a good one in the gym.

Now, I have to decide if I want to reset down to 355 and work back up or retry 395 again. Same on presses. Do I want to reset down to 185 or just try 205 again.

I'm not good at making these decisions...it might be time to consult with John @ Greyskull Barbell who is familiar with my training style. John has made the journey from 175 cut but weak to 285 beast and strong to 245 cut and strong. I'll give him a call tomorrow.

-- Edited by winflex on Saturday 27th of March 2010 08:34:43 PM

Joe · Beyond Nutrition - Co Owner

Still great work Dwayne.

Yoster · The Truth!

Dwayne

Smart that you know you just didn't have it today. I'll tell you what you tell me on those days. Shake it off - get some sleep - hit it hard tomorrow. Every day isn't perfect. Know you will come up with the best recovery plan.

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Birthday party tomorrow...(well today...up late...gotta watch my late night comedy)!

Tuesday will be a lighter day...and probably will hit a heavy one on Friday...not sure if it will be 395 or 365. I have to play it by ear. Today could have been a fluke.

I just read in my fortune cookie this: "Try to channel excess energies into rejuvenation."

That's what I plan on doing : )

Joe · Beyond Nutrition - Co Owner

One of the best parts of training is not nowing what your going to do at times. wink

BRICKHOUSE · The Truth!

And sometimes you have to take a step or two back to be able to go foward.

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

My brother was at the birthday party last night and I told him about my 395X4. He told me that I'll get it next time and that its just ONE MORE REP. He told me about his latest 245X6X6 on squats and I think about his arthritis and how he pushes himself and makes that ONE MORE REP. I think I needed to hear that. I'll take it easy tomorrow and then Friday...ONE MORE REP (and two more sets too). Wish I could get my normal three days in the week but there's too much going on (2 year old check up Wednesday, late night testing at work, etc.) I'm going to focus on rejuvenating for Friday.

ONE MORE REP!

Yoster · The Truth!

You'll get it done Dwayne - you always do!

Happy Birthday to Olivia? or someone else. As long as there is cake - who cares!!

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Dave, it was to Olivia and I think the birthday cake helped fuel tonight's battle with 395.

Squats: going to list out warms this time: 135/5, 195/5, 235/3, 275/3, 315/1, 355/1
worksets: 395/5,5,5 *PR for 3 sets of 5.

Presses: warms, 205/5,5,5 *PR for 3 sets of 5

Barbell Rows (from the floor): 135/5 185/5 since I didn't deadlift. I haven't deadlifted in 15 days...not cool. I will deadlift Friday. 465 for 5 it will be.

The reason I listed out my warm ups because I normal go something like this:

135X5, 195X5, 255X5, 295X3, 335X1. I think I needed the warmup change since I'm getting closer to 400. The jump from 335 to 395 was probably too big and I wasn't ready on Sunday. The allergies, birthday partying, and early mornings didn't help either but I think taking the smaller jump before the work set definitely made 395 feel light on my back while standing up. Now in the hole, that was a totally different story. The sets just got harder and harder until set three where I was just pushing myself unmercifully for the last three reps. Once you get the first two sets under your belt, you can't help but push yourself beyond belief because who wants to repeat a weight three times...definitely not me. Big 400 is next!! biggrin

Presses were great except for the last set where I actually was trying to go for as many reps as possible. Usually when i do that I try to incorporate a fast "bounce" at the bottom of the rep. Well on the second rep, I got the bounce but the bar got out in front of me. I muscled it back but the third rep, I had to start from a total stop...which just killed my momentum. I finished out the last to reps with decent bounces but not like I had intended. I was happy to get all the reps though and break past 205. Now onto 207.5...excited to inch toward 225.

My core was torched to say the least by the end of presses and squats so I threw in barbell rows and ditched the deadlifts. So I'll deadlift on Friday. This will be the longest time for me away from deadlifting in a while. We'll see what magic I can do with 465. Its nice to know I've done it before so I'm pretty confident.

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

winflex wrote:
I want to hit 405X5X3 on Squats by April 1 2010. (SMART - Specific - yes, Measurable - yes, Attainable - to be seen, Relevant - yes, Time Framed - yes)

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago as a mini-goal...but it looks like I'm going to fall short. 405 probably will happen next week though.

The first time I squat 405 will be for a set of 5!!!! I'm glad I moved away from the singles, doubles, triples that I did last year. Fives seem to do the trick...probably because it is in that range where you can build strength and build size to support new strength.

When I hit 405X5x3, it will be time to open up a new log.

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

So the first time I squatted 405 was tonight and it wasn't for five as planned (oh well), it was after a ball buster set with 400. I wasn't recovered from 395 on Tuesday, I could still feel it in my hammies and quads. I would have gotten it if I did a normal tues-heavy, thurs-light, sat-heavy...but I'm going away this weekend and I won't be able to get training in (well except for tomorrow where I'll squeeze in some bench and dead work really quick before we leave) so I gave up the thurs-light, and did the heavy day one day early on Friday. Does it make a difference? Well yes, for the one more rep, it did. The light day also helps to stretch out the tightness..and alleviate some stiffness. Oh well, I'm moving on to more complex training anywayz.

I trained with John from Greyskull (pics will be up on his site soon here: http://www.greyskullelite.blogspot.com/). He suggested that I move on to intermediate level training so I won't be hitting the wall every other time I go to train heavy. And since I have a meet coming up, I think that is definitely a smart thing to do so I can coast in with some good PR's.

The main thing, he said that I need to work on in the up coming weeks is speed. This is a part of my powerlifting training that I've pretty much neglected for the past year and a half. He said that I'm strong but I'm slow. If I work on my speed, I will be able to demonstrate my strength better at higher weights. So you will see speed work coming back into my training, this is something that was left out when I dropped powercleans last year and when I dropped box squatting the year before that. Actually both of those were applied at bad times in my training anyway because my strength wasn't high enough at the time to demonstrate the power, and get the benefit. Now that I'm stronger, I will be able to benefit from the change. At the meet, the goal will be to have an opener of 425 and move up from there.

John threw a number out there to shoot for in six months. He said, I could be a 550 squatter in six months with the strength I currently have and the speed-strength I'm going to work on gaining.

So here I go into intermediate training...and here I go ending this log. It was titled "...:First stop 405 SQ", and I'm here. Time to set new goals.

Finally, here's what I did today: (only had time for squats. it was getting late and I had to make the 1.5 hr drive back up to Robbinsville.)
SQ: warms: bar/5, 135/5, 225/5, 275/5, 315/3, 365/1
worksets: 400/4, 405/2, 415/1,1 *PR's --the first time ever I squatted in the 400's. Now that the nerves are over, I'm ready to make waves!!

-- Edited by winflex on Saturday 3rd of April 2010 12:32:15 AM