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

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

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

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Press 5X5
Press: work: 207.5X5X5
Lat pulldowns: 3 sets

Started to get heavy near the end of the last set. Had to pause the last two reps of that set to get back into good position.

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Squat 5x5, DL 1x5
Squat: work: 350X5X5
DL: -did not do

Apparently my gym thinks its cool to change hours on a whim. I don't think its so cool. It caused me to skip out on deads today. I'll do rack pulls on Wednesday to rectify the situation. I got there at 4:15 pm thinking that they would be open until 7 and then at 4:55 they make the announcement that they will be closing @ 5. The good news is that I got my squats in and they were not hard. I actually think the closing time announcement made me increase my speed on the reps. Something good came of it.

Also today I went to a powerlifting meet where a Greyskull member was competing. I video'd her lifts. She was awesome! I think she had a 45 lb total meet PR...and she is currently the number 1 raw lifter in her weight class for 2010 in this organization. I actually think her raw total is either very close or higher than the number 1 equipped total in her weight class. She went 290-155-320 all raw. STRONG!

Greyskull owner, John, was there too and I talked with him about some cues for getting my squat back more and not forward. I tried them out today in my rushed squat workout and I definitely felt an automatic improvement in my squatting today. Excited about how this will make Wednesday feel with 410.

Also, I switched my training schedule a little (just in case is following along)....
Friday: Bench or Press 5x5
Saturday: Squat 5X5, Deadlift 1X5
Sunday: Off
Monday: Light Recuperative work (bike, foam roll, stretching, light lifting, etc.)
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday:Bench or Press 1X5, Squat 1X5

This week I missed doing DL's today so I'll tack on some Rack pulls to Wednesday just so that I get a little more back work but not overtax my system for the oncoming week's work.

-- Edited by winflex on Saturday 11th of December 2010 08:54:13 PM

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Boring Saturday night...nothing better to do than to analyze my squat...

John's cues made a huge difference in the way my squats were balanced tonight...and thus, they felt a lot easier.

-- Edited by winflex on Saturday 11th of December 2010 10:06:24 PM

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Yesterday:
bike, foam roll, lax ball, etc.
light squats: enough to get the soreness out
light presses: enough to get the blood in the shoulders

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Presses (1XN), Squat (1XN) {going to just let this day be 1XN because I don't want to pre-determine what I'm going to do for this day. The goal of today is to set a PR, even if its just 1 more rep}

Press: work: 227.5X4+1* (5th rep attempt went forward...so I racked it, rested 10 secs and then went for the last single)...I want to stay here to drive the reps up some
Squat: work: 410X3* (1 rep improvement over last week. 1st rep was really good-over midfoot. 2nd rep slightly forward but not bad...same rep speed as first. 3rd rep god awful slow, way forward)
Rack pulls from below knee: work: 495X5

* denotes PR.

I didn't get a chance to go down to GSBB tonight because I went to my daughter's Christmas show at her daycare. It was nice. I went to another gym in my area since I really don't like squatting heavy without a rack when I don't have spotters. This gym had a powerlifting room although it was surrounded by mirrors. I hate squatting in front of mirrors after 2.5 years of avoiding them. So it definitely threw off my propioception on the lift. I stuck a piece of paper on the mirror and tried to focus on that as best I could and not look at myself going up and down. It helped a little but not a lot especially since I was trying to keep my weight back more tonight. Anyway it was good enough to pull out one more rep this time..which counts as progress. I tried to get the squats on vid so I could analyze it after the set but my camera went stupid mid set and froze and didn't record anything.

-- Edited by winflex on Wednesday 15th of December 2010 10:35:32 PM

-- Edited by winflex on Wednesday 15th of December 2010 10:40:52 PM

Yoster · The Truth!

Lift Dwayne lift!! Always have to see the Christmas pageant - it's a right of passage - good dad!!

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Yes, its always a balance between being dad and being a powerlifter. Those two things are the only things that consume my "free" time...but I love the daddy times. Even when she is being a bear to deal with, I just have to look at her little face and them I'm wrapped around her little finger again.
___________________
Bench 5X5
Bench: work: 327.5X5 - left shoulder and elbow pain, slow reps...shut it down and did something else
Dips: 3x10xbodyweight...280 lbs tonight fully clothed in layers of sweats and fully fed...probably about 270 if I was in a singlet...will add weight next time.
Lat Pulldowns: 3 sets
Presses (to get some blood into the affected shoulder): 95/20, 20, 15 (got my pump on here)
Rotator exercises: 1 set each.

Listened to my body tonight and shut the bench down. Lately Bench and I have been having a rocky relationship. I think we peaked out for the year with the 405 at the meet in September. Last year we peaked out at 385. I think Bench and I are at the point where our relationship is going to see smaller and smaller gains each year. Last year Bench and I took a break from working together for a few months around this time of the year.

I think its time for our annual break up but this time around instead of not doing anything but pressing, I'm going to add in dips as a substitute. This way I can keep the overload on the benching muscles going but without the bicep impingement/tendinitis I get from time to time with benching over long periods of time. I can't press week after week and expect good gains because my press goes stale when I do that...so I need to alternate it with something that is heavier....DIPS should do the trick. At least I'll try it for a while and see how it goes.

As long as my presses keep moving, I'll stick with it. If they don't, then I'll try something other than dips. "The best way to a 400 bench is to press 300", Jim Wendler. This why I want my presses to keep moving; strong shoulders are the ticket.

Yoster · The Truth!

HA - you so are. I'm the same with Elizabeth - she can be such a pain - but she also just gets me. As a dad of a boy and a girl - you love your son - there is no denighing that - but there is a special place you have for your daughter.

I think it helps that you're power lifter so when the boys come around - you can intimidate the hell out of them!!

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

LOL Dave on the intimidation point. Yep my little girl...

Squat 5X5, Deadlift 1X5
Squat: work: 355/2,1 shut it down
Deadlift: work: 435/5

So squats went kind of horrible today. I was traveling pretty much all day up to my in laws and then ate a little bit and went to the gym. It didn't feel heavy, it just was very slow and its not supposed to feel that way. So I just stopped it and chalked it up to getting stiff from sitting in a car all day. Fortunately, the crappy squats served as a good warm up for my deadlifts which went fairly smoothly. Should have been faster though. I'll get regrouped next week.

Joe · Beyond Nutrition - Co Owner

Two things.

First, did I see the word "bike" somewhere?

And my brother saw your picture in the calendar and doesnt beleive your the same person he met a few years back!!

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Yes you did. I do the bike to warm up usually and also on my light days to help with recovery from the heavier days.
Tell your brother that I don't recognize myself sometimes, LOL.

Joe · Beyond Nutrition - Co Owner

NIIICE

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Yesternight....
Light squat, light press
light squat: couple sets to work out the stiffness in my joints
light press: couple sets and a lot of shoulder stretches

also bike, foam and lacrosse ball

I wasn't sore yesternight but my joints still weren't happy. This sucks more than when I'm sore. I can deal with soreness but I hate slow moving joints.

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

Squats: work: 410X2 -negative progress this week by 1 rep
Weighted Dips (chains on neck): BW fully dressed = 284
BW/5
BW+8 lb chain/5
BW+13 lb chain/5
BW+31 lb chain/5
BW+53 lb chain/5
BW+71 lb chain/5 (started to get heavy for my neck so I went to dip belt...I need to start doing neck work)
Weighted Dips (dip belt):
BW+dipbelt+90 lb dumbell/5 (this will be the starting weight for this movement ~374 lbs)

Closegrip pulldowns: 4 sets, 10-12 reps each

All in all a bad week for squats. Bench is out for a while but its cool to start a new movement and make myself really strong in that. I spoke with my coach tonight about attaining my goal of 410X10 on squats and he put it into perspective for me. I'm not going to be my strongest week after week. So my peak level strength will vary from week to week but my baseline is going to continue to grow by being consistent in my training. He suggested varying the load on these max days keeping it within that heavy range and hit some rep pr's with those various loads from week to week. I am going to do that.

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

I guess after 3 weeks of attempts in the 400z, I can safely say that my squat strength is back where it was before without a fluke. So, now my goal is no longer to get back on track but to journey to 500. I've got a due date of July 2011. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to scale back on training then because...well I'll save up that surprise.
Time for a new log.