Back to school....squatting school that is.

SQ: bar/5, 95/5, 115/5, 135/5, 155/5, 175/5, 195/5, 205X5X3
DL: 135/5, 185/5, 225/5, 245/5, 265/5

1st day back squatting with the main intent on not stopping squatting for the rest of the year. I'd really want to get back my old numbers but more important is consistency. The goal is to make it back to my old numbers but also to not get reinjured. My PR is 405X3X3 set on 4/13/2010. In due time, this will drop.

1st day back to deadlifting as well. For the longest I could not get my knee into position for deadlifting because it would be too painful. I guess something fixed itself during the time off because tonight I could get into deadlift position with very little pain. The knee just has to get used to bearing load from a dead stop position. Deadlifting will help immensely with this. My pseudo-PR with deadlift was set on 5/11/2010 as a casual 500 with pounds left on the bar.

With both these lifts, I'm currently doing work at about 50% of my old capacity. Pretty much tonight I just added about 20 lbs until I got tired and then stopped. I just happened to land on 50%. This will be my starting point.

Thanks Robin!

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Yay! Sore legs! Boo!

Presses: worked up to 222.5X5X3 - PR
Chins: max reps, got 18 full reps (neck to bar) and 1 half rep (forehead to bar) at the end - PR

Presses were weird today since MY LEGS WERE SORE...which I am very happy about but also not loving the feeling of it. Can't wait till the condition comes back and I don't get this sore anymore. Wow! At least I know I did something (that's what everyone says right!). Knees feel good. Still not too much pain in extending my knee; so this is a good thing.

2 reps away from my chinning goal for my current exorbitant bodyweight. Soon I'll have bicep peaks like John Burchette (i'm not kidding either, the guys got some sick bicep peaks. My biceps always sucked.)

Today I kind of smushed my Monday and Tuesday workout into one with the intention of taking the next two days off to prepare for a weekend away. I will smush the Thursday and Friday workouts into one as well. Departing on Friday!

Today's work:
Squat rehab: work: 215X5X3 - some left knee pain but not a lot. left adductor still a little sore but not enough to stop me from hitting depth.
Bench: work: 360X5X3 - PR - don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep this up...but I'll stay positive and not think about it
Deadlift rehab: work: 305X5 - no knee pain at all but at this point I'm remembering how much endurance I had when i was doing full body workouts three times a week and how I don't have that endurance now.
Chins: 5 sets - none to failure, 1 more rep in total that last workout - PR

The rehab portion of the workout always depresses me a liittle because it reminds me that I have a long way to go....but on the upside, with each rehab workout I'm a larger fraction of what I used to be.

It was good to see you too Robin. I hope Olivia behaved well in the audience. I was happy when I saw her and she waved at me. Last year she probably wouldn't have been able to see that far. So cool how she has grown.

Squat rehab: work: 235X5X3
Bench: work: 362.5X5X3 - PR
Deadlift: work: 345X5
Chins: 5 sets

Sent the meet forms in last week and I'm going in as a bench only again. In other great news, my wife decided she wanted a little piece of the action and she entered the meet too for the heck of it. This will be a lot of fun.

Felt a little groin pull on the squats on both sides. Not good. If its not one thing, its another. I will have to do some rehab work for that but I will try to train through it as best I can (sensibly of course) until the meet. Now is not the time to back off too much on training.

Yeah I remember hearing about that at the show. Wish I was in my best deadlifting condition, too bad it wasn't a bench for reps comp LOL!

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Things are getting better every time...

Squat rehab: work: 245X5X3 (knee feeling more and more stable, groin pull pain is gradually fading away)
Press: work: 223.75X5X3 - PR
Deadlift rehab: work: 365X5 - super-easy...can't wait to get this back into the 400's next week.
Chins: skipped this time out due to gym closing

I took an extra long time warming up for squats today first of all because of the knee but also because of the groin pull I felt in last session. The good news, both of those are improving and training through it is going to be the best approach to heal it. No other rehab will be necessary.

-- Edited by winflex on Friday 10th of September 2010 10:36:55 PM

"Elmont boys what time is it?
Its time to get loud
Its time to represent!"
(old hype up chant we'd shout on the way to games in high school)...

Went back to splitting up the workouts tonight, and the results were awesome

Press: work: 225x5x3 - PR back-off sets: 135x10 drop 95X8 drop barX5....awesome pump and left the building

Here's a video of my first set (click image to go to vid):

Went back to full body...

SQ rehab: 275X5X3
BP "deload": 367.25X5 (only one set) - PR
DL rehab (not sure if this is rehab anymore as I'm getting pretty close to old numbers): 425X5

Forearms killed today from the forearm splints. Wrapped them up to sooth pain. This was most likely due to the drop sets on presses last week...which is why I normally don't do that stuff. Most times it isn't really worth it. The pump that is. You don't make progress on pumps. You make progress while recovering from stress of loading. Drop sets are a good way to kill progression. Good thing I'm taking it easy this week to rest up for the meet. It should be healed up by Sunday.

Thanks Michelle. It was great having you out at the first one!
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SQ rehab: 285X5X3
Press "deload": 226.25 X 4.5 (failed to complete 5th rep...only one set today) - PR
NO Deads, no chins....

I think I'm going to transition to doing deadlifts once a week...as I could feel the effect of the deadlifts on my squats tonight. I felt slow...but I took video and it looked like a good speed. Feel and look are always two very different things. Anyway, I'm only 110 lbs away from my 3 sets of 5 PR on squats. Since I'm going at a rate of 20lb increases per week, I should be there in about 5 and a 1/2 weeks assuming my knee keeps holding up strong and my groin keeps getting better. I wore my sweats last workout versus my warm pants tonight. Last workout, I had no groin pain to speak of. This workout I had less and less groin pain as the workout went on. I think I'm going to stick with the sweats since they made me feel best....also, it could just be the deads lingering from Monday.

No idea what happened on presses today on that last rep. It should have kept moving up but I think I just got it out of the groove a little forward and it was just too hard to get back in. It will go up next time no doubt. Presses can be difficult like that sometimes.

I'll probably come up with a post meet plan on the fly on Monday.

WNPF LIFETIME DRUG FREE NATIONALS
MEET REPORT

Summary: I had an awesome time. It was even better being in my wife's corner as she competed in her first meet. Also, Olivia had a great time. Both sets of grandparents came and her uncle came. She was in heaven with all the attention. So it was also nice to have that aspect all squared away. She cried the whole time at my first meet. This was a welcome change.

Both my wife and I hit big time PR's. She PR'ed her squat on 175 lbs (a 20 lb PR) , bench on 75 lbs (a 10 lb PR), and 200 on deadlift (15 lb PR). None of her squats or deadlifts were true 1 rep maxes. They all looked pretty easy for her.  She is fairly new to barbell training, having only a couple months under her belt. I think sky is the limit for her. Prior to this she did mainly machines and cardio but she got curious about powerlifting this year after my meet earlier this year. Now, I think she is hooked!

I did bench only as I am in still in the process of re-working my squats and deads due to injuries. It was still a fun experience but man I can't wait to hit a heavy squat and dead in a meet. I hit two big time PR's. My second attempt on bench was a 10 lb PR with 395. My third attempt on bench was a 20 lb PR with 405!! Now all my PR's on the powerlifts are 400+ with deads in the lead with 500+. My ultimate goals are a 600 deadlift, 500 squat, and maybe mid-400 bench at this point.

It was also fun to lift alongside a fellow lifter from Greyskull Barbell and also some people I met in my previous meet.

Without further ado, here are the vids:

Here's Jen (she buries these squats really deep....makes me so proud):


-- Edited by winflex on Sunday 26th of September 2010 08:03:11 PM

-- Edited by winflex on Sunday 26th of September 2010 08:18:05 PM

No other benching this week because I'm still feeling it in the shoulders from the meet. That was definitely a shock to my body. All in the name of progress.

So, anyway, I decided that its time that I stepped back and addressed some niggling issues that have come up. Its good timing anyway as I need time to recover my pressing muscles from the meet exertion. One annoying issue is my strained left adductor. So I'm going to attack it with light weights and high reps until its all ready to go in a couple weeks. The knee is strong enough to handle this now, so I can get away with it. I'm also going to be squatting super light with super high reps daily for a while.

So today's work was this:

SQ: 75X25X3

Weird thing is I actually got a pump in the arch of my foot. 1st set was the most painful for the left addy. By the end of the last set, I was feeling no pain whatsoever. I was actually feeling some things I haven't felt in a while and some new things as well. But it should be all good soon.

Feeling like absolute garbage tonight. Taking the night off.

Dave I don't know what it is but whenever the weather is like how it is right now, initially, I just lose motivation to do pretty much everything. It takes a day for me to adjust. I noticed in my log that usually when I go train on days where there is a change in the environment, I have a tough workout. I guess I'm sensitivo.

More high rep squats:
SQ: 105X25X3

Pressed too:
Press: 226.25X3.5, 3.5, 3

Presses sucked tonight. Same thing happened the week after the last meet except I think I hit 4,3,2 on presses that time. Left shoulder is starting to feel better. I'm going to consider this my first attempt at 3 sets with this weight in the same workout. I have two more attempts to seal the deal.

I was thinking about deadlifting but then I remembered that I have to squat again tomorrow...then I quickly nixed the idea and went home.