Getting My Squat back on track (FOR GOOD): Part two - Team Franco Bodybuilding Forum: Competition and Fitness Board

BRICKHOUSE · The Truth!

RE: Getting My Squat back on track (FOR GOOD): Part two

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Its a plan...lets see if I can see it through.

More Squats:
135X20X3

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

More...are you getting bored yet... I'm not:

155X20X3

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

More squatting but some pressing and chinning too....
Squat: 170X15X3
Presses: 226.25X4, 3, 3 - a little better but still bad
Chins: 8,8,8

Presses were off. I had to do pick up today for my daughter from daycare. Usually I'm the drop off in the morning person. My little rugrat is the definition of pre-exhaust. I think it showed up in my presses. That's my excuse. I'll count it as GPP.

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

squats:
185X15X3

Yoster · The Truth!

HA - wait until you have two - you'll be double pre-exhausted!!

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

I'll have to up the caffeine intake. LOL!

Night off tonight...letting the joints cool off before I hit another set of days in a row of squatting.

Yoster · The Truth!

Bring it Dwayne – if you DARE compete against me – HA (ok – double HA HA)

I very much look forward to competing with you in 2012. Just so you know – I will be the HUGE/RIPPED (and somewhat shorter) guy standing next to you!!

But seriously – it will be cool – you will be my 2012 Mike Deagle. So once I found out that Mike was thinking of competing – it just really motivated me to push forward and stay on track. Every time I felt like falling off the wagon – I kept thinking – “You’re competing with Mike – gotta keep it going”. Knowing that I will be competing with you will keep me totally focused. Since you won’t be a NOVICE and you won’t be a MASTERS – and if the OPEN is broken by height – I guess the only place we would compete would be for the PRO CARD. So I guess I better get my ‘rss in gear so I can compete with you for the PRO card!!!

Very best to you over the next two years in your prep – really looking forward to it. I am sure – without a doubt that you are going to be a force to be reckoned with!! I look forward to the challenge – it’s only going to push me more!! Gosh I dig this sport!

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Nothing like a little friendly competition : )
Like I said, things need to work out for 2012 to happen but right now, its the tentative plan. Like you, 2011 is about achieving some goals along the path to the 2012 goal. In fact, 2008-now has all been in preparation for the next time out. Whether the pro card happens or not, meeting the challenge and achieving some goals along the way are the fun part. After that, its in the judges hands.

_____

Tonight's training:
I'll be going back to nonconsecutive days and tapering back down to 5's. The high rep ride was fun and the groin is sufficiently healed up to start back with the progressive loading with 5's.

SQ: tapering down to tens here 220X10X3 (on second set, I was a tiny bit too explosive on the way up and felt a little tinge on the lockout in my left hip flexor..I probably hyperextended it. Nothing major. It just feels a little tight now. It doesn't hurt if I don't hyper extend...which I shouldn't be doing anyway.)

Bench: 367.5X5X3 - PR. First night heavy benching since the meet. Left shoulder was up to the task. Surprisingly there was absolutely no pain in the shoulder. The only position that hurts my shoulder now is abducted with external rotation..right in the front of the shoulder which means to me its just some proximal bicep tendonitis. The key will be just to avoid aggravating this position by avoiding it. I'll have to bring my overhead press grip in a tad to do this. The tendonitis should not hamper my training.

Deadlift: 405X5. Dropped the deadlift down 20 lbs this week since I haven't deadlifted in a little over two weeks. The good news is that I can still assume the proper deadlift starting position without any knee pain still. From here on I'll just be deadlifting once a week with conservative jumps (about 10lbs).

Chins: 5 X 5. Happy to do these again. It will help with the bicep tendonitis. Also doing this closer grip to avoid that abducted position until it heals.

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Last day of tens...
Squat: 250X10X3

Feeling really good and healthy. Knees feel healthy, hips feel healthy, back feels healthy, ready to make a splash.

BRICKHOUSE · The Truth!

Dwayne, I really like your approach on squatting. Hope to be at the judges table when the 3 of you guys compete again.

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Squat: 275X5X3
Press: work: 226.25X3--last chance and fail, reset...200X5, 200X7 (tied PR)

Trained at GSBB today..

So today was the first time back with the 5's on squat and it was relatively painless and easy. I strapped my belt on for the first time on squats today in quite some time. On the second set though, I forgot about my belt and went beltless and it was still all good. The next several weeks I'm going to be pushing my squat very hard to get back to some old numbers I did earlier this year and beat them.

This was my last chance to get 5's with 226.25 on standing presses. Got only three on the first set which is about my average from the last two weeks so, no gains there. Its time to reset the weight and start building upon on the reps. I tied my reps PR on presses tonight. I wish I destroyed it but John reminded me that I when I set that PR I didn't just press 226.25 for 3 in the first set. He made a good point and I look forward to crushing 202.5 for reps next week.

Looking back in my training log, my first reset happened when I failed at 201.25. I reset to 180 and worked on repping out on the last set until I got back up to 201.25. That was when I hit 200X7...and I went back to all 5's and progressed all the way up to 225X5X3 failing with 226.25. So the net gain on the first reset was about 25 lbs. This was back in January.

Here's to another 25 lbs on my press and some hujazz shoulders to go along with it in the next 8 or so months.

fitmom726 · Guru

Cheers to hujazz shoulders!!! (Love that word btw biggrin

)

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

hujazz LOL!!!

Back on it tonight:
Squat: work: 285X5X3
Bench: work: 370X5x3 - PR but getting close to the end of the ride here.
Deadlift: work: 415X5

So I totally didn't get enough sleep last night as I went into this workout heavy eyed. Took some WADA-not-approved Core Zap with geranium to help me through this one. Felt my groin on a couple reps out of all the work sets of squats so not bad. At least it didn't bug me on every single rep. The last set had no groin bobbles. That is moving in the right direction. Also, my knee feels fine! So I'm loving that. It really helps when I ride the bike a few minutes prior to getting started.

Bench is really getting close to the end of the ride. My first and second sets were pretty good but heavy. The last set was really heavy. I felt like I rested enough but the juice was running out bad on the last two reps and I could feel my tailbone getting close to losing contact with the bench to compensate. Thankfully, it didn't and I could count those last two reps.

Deadlifts felt good as per usual. Not yet in PR zone for fives but I'm not in any rush either. I did stupidly "stiff leg off the floor" my last warm up with 365 which kind of tightened my back up a little. I'm considering buying different shoes to deadlift in. I felt more solid in my wrestling shoes back in the day on these than my Oly shoes I have now. I gave the wrestlers to my brother a while ago to train in...so I'd have to get new ones.

Yoster · The Truth!

Dwayne - the bench numbers are just CRAZY!!!

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Dave - Its insanely difficult. I have a hard time each week just even thinking about getting under the bar with that much weight. It takes a lot of psyching up because I know that the bench press is one of the most dangerous exercises in the gym and I cannot afford any slip ups. I rely on a competent spotter for lift offs and I refuse nothing less than as close to perfect form I can do. It really is a mindfreak right before the worksets. Its actually that way with all the movements I do because I constantly pressure myself to add more weight to the bar (even if its as small as 1.25 lbs). Its just that bench is the only one that hasn't needed a reset or (knock-on-wood) ran into any injuries. If my butt comes off the bench next time, I'm definitely resetting the weight and doing some high reps to build up some momentum again. The bench is one of those exercises that I don't think its worth straining under because there are so many things that could go wrong. If the bar doesn't smoothly leave my chest, then its not worth the trouble.

_________

Nice and easy...just the basics..

Squat: work: 295x5x3
Chins: 3 sets

Starting feel strong like my old self again especially since this is my farewell to the 200s workout for squats. No adductor pain tonight. This thing is really weird. Sometimes its there. Other times its not. I just try to replicate the days when its not there as best as possible. Knee is still feeling good. I am posed to destroy 202.5 on presses Tuesday.

Joe · Beyond Nutrition - Co Owner

winflex wrote:

. This thing is really weird. Sometimes its there. Other times its not. I just try to replicate the days when its not there as best as possible. Knee is still feeling good. I am posed to destroy 202.5 on presses Tuesday.

Its called aging? LOL

Seriously though, glad to see the numbers coming back.

Yoster · The Truth!

All very impressive.

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Joe, aging sucks! LOL! I'm very happy to be squatting in the 300's again and without feeling like a cripple at that!
Dave, thank you!
___________________________

SQ: work: 305X5X3
Press: work: 202.5X5X2, 202.5X8+1+1 - PR (for reps at this weight)
Chins: 3 sets

Squats were a cinch. I could tell that this was the third day out of my training week though with some creakiness of the knees a little but not too bad. The left adductor was painless.

Presses weren't as easy as I hoped. I definitely think I aggravated something either at that meet a couple weeks ago or leading up to the meet. The first set of presses was not painless. Things got better as the sets went on. I had hoped to get ten on that last all out set..but only got 8 before my breathing got wacky and my technique went to garbage. So I racked it, waited for a small bit, then went for one, then repeated, so that I got my ten in total. I need to bounce some ideas off of John on Friday about bench and presses to see if I can improve my programming a little at this point to allow whatever's inflamed in my shoulder some time to heal without totally dropping any movement.

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

SQ: work: 315X5X3 (about 80% of my best...getting there...but wasn't happy with my skills tonight)
BP: work: 372.5X4*PR (actually 5 reps went up but my butt clearly left the bench on the last rep, forearms were killing, and left shoulder was close to getting inflamed again)
BP: back off: 225X21-PR

On squats, for some reason I kept ending up forward. It was truly annoying. Took a lot out of my back so I decided to forego the deads tonight. I'm going to transition to squatting Fridays and Tuesdays leaving deadlifts for Sundays only.

Bench, it is the end of the road. I am definitely grinding hard on these reps and my forearms and shoulders clearly cannot handle the grind week after week after week. Normally, I wait until I fail three times in a row with most movements but with the bench, I don't see the point. There's too much at risk in my opinion and I know that it would be better to back off and make gains at a lower percentage of my max. So a reset it will be.

Yoster · The Truth!

Dwayne - Always like reading your entries - keeps things in perspective for me as well. Sounds like you are getting SMARTER not OLDER - so that is good - the difference is - OLDER means you don't challenge yourself - SMARTER - you keep challenging yourself - but are concious of your limitations and how to keep yourself out of trouble!!

Continued best!

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

WEAKSAUCE

Light Squat warm up: up to 225
Deadlift: work: 425X2 - weaksauce
Chins: 3 sets

Only one word for today's training and its is WEAK. I had to work yesterday and didn't eat enough. I also had a party to go to last night (which involved lots of kids including mine), and I had to go to another party today (which also involved a lot of kids including mine). The little ones have a way of eating into your energy reserves like no other. I squeezed into the gym a little before it closed tonight for this one. I'm kicking my self for not hardening up and getting my deads done on Friday. No more transition...I need to do them on Friday. I actually felt like I could've squatted (heavier) today had I not been so energy deprived.

That's life....

BRICKHOUSE · The Truth!

Yoster wrote:

Dwayne - Always like reading your entries - keeps things in perspective for me as well. Sounds like you are getting SMARTER not OLDER - so that is good - the difference is - OLDER means you don't challenge yourself - SMARTER - you keep challenging yourself - but are concious of your limitations and how to keep yourself out of trouble!!

Continued best!

I second this statement, I have seen people not train smart and end up getting hurt. Smart moves, Dwayne.

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

BRICKHOUSE wrote:

Yoster wrote:

Dwayne - Always like reading your entries - keeps things in perspective for me as well. Sounds like you are getting SMARTER not OLDER - so that is good - the difference is - OLDER means you don't challenge yourself - SMARTER - you keep challenging yourself - but are concious of your limitations and how to keep yourself out of trouble!!

Continued best!

I second this statement, I have seen people not train smart and end up getting hurt. Smart moves, Dwayne.

Thanks you guys. I do believe in "resets" (or deloads or whatever you want to call them) like Joe does. They allow you to work on fixing up some issues in the lift, get a little more volume in there for future progress, and also, get some momentum built up so that a "plateau" can be broken.

Its never worth it to constantly grind through. Training for progress should be hard but never grindy. I believe in saving the grinds for the meet!

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Feeling better...

SQ: work: 325X5X3
Press: work: 205 X 5,5,5,6 - PR for reps at this weight...PR for number of sets at this weight.
Chins: 2 sets

A couple days of rest (desk junky-ing at work) can do wonders. Squats were solid. Not nearly as horrid as Friday. I self-coached via video to correct any form flaws and habits that I tend to have.
With presses I took a slightly different approach to this reset. Instead of 2 sets of 5 and then an AMRAP set. I did 3 sets of 5 and then an AMRAP set. I tend to fail on rep 7 or 8 with presses regardless of the weight due to failing technique when I do 2 sets of 5 and then an AMRAP set. I figure this way, even though I'll probably do less reps on that last set, I will accumulate sufficiently more work with this weight than previously..instead of just 2 or 3 more reps than before. Since, I'm pressing once a week I will definitely benefit from the volume the additional set adds too.
I wasn't planning on chinning tonight but I did anyway.

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Back on track...almost

SQ: work: 335x5x3
BP: work: 335X5,5,5,8*PR for reps at this weight and number of sets too
DL: work: 425x5

Video is working out well as a self-coach technique for my squatting. As I get closer to my previous PR's tight technique is going to be everything if I plan to break them. Bench was awesome. I did not expect to get so many reps on my last AMRAP set. I stopped when lockout was getting slow and the lactic acid in my quads was loosening my arch. On deads, it felt really good to just rip these of the floor like a piece of paper instead of starting at zero. I was already warm and loose and amped ready to go. Although this is not beating any PR's of mine, it felt good to just destroy it especially since Sunday it felt terrible.

fitmom726 · Guru

Good job Dwayne! I have been playing around with videos for checking form and technique too and you are right it is good stuff.

I know you are going to crush your goals, no doubt! How is Jen doing?

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Thanks Robin. Jen's doing great. I'll let her know you asked.

Happy Halloween
Light day
Sq: worked up to 225X5X2
Curls: multiple sets multiple reps with the 25's (Did these because it made my shoulders feel good).

Went to Halloween party tonight and went trick or treating with the little one. Good times.

Yoster · The Truth!

NICE Presses - gosh that is an impressive weight - nice Deads as well!!

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Thanks Dave. Hopefully, the heavy training has made an "impression" in my physique that will show in 2012.

Happy Election Day...two holiday's in a row...

SQ: work: 345X5X3..solid
Press: work: 210X5,5,5,7 - PR
Chins: 3 sets

Weird work schedule today and a weird one tomorrow too. Whenever that happens sleep suffers, so tonight will be a bad sleep night. Went into this workout with a slightly tight back and annoyed attitude because of it. Everything felt better once starting and the attitude helped in creating the press PR.