Training 3.19.13

Phew!  Need to do some catching up.

Friday:

Dead Lift:
up to 475 x 5 singles

Saturday:

Bench Press:
up to 225 x 12 singles


Now on to yesterday

AM

Hang Clean:
198 x 3 x 3

Biceps


PM

Squat:
135 x 5, 5
225 x 4, 4
315 x 3
365 x 2
405 x 1
425 x 1

315 x 2, 3, 5, 2, 3, 5, 2, 3, 5 (these were done low bar)

Bulgarian Split Squat
5 sets of 10 on each leg
w/
Band Standing Crunches
5 sets of 12

Last week was a good week.  The dead lifts felt ok.  The lighting in the Crushatorium sometimes makes it a little difficult to get your hands even on the bar so one side ends up feeling a little heavier than the other.

Bench felt great.  Felt like I could have done at least 8-10 more sinlges.

Amazing how much low bar squatting makes weights seem easier.  My ramp up sets to the heavy singles weren't heavy and the singles felt fine but when I switched to low bar I almost felt like I was cheating.  Amazing how big of a difference a few inches makes when it comes to the physics of lifting.  With your fulcrums and the moment arms and the glavins!

So underrated as both a character and a scientist.

Training 3.14.13

AM

Calf raises and sit ups and that's it.


PM

Overhead Press
88 x 5, 5
110 x 4, 4
132 x 3, 3
152 x 2, 2
176 x 1, 1

110 x 6 sets of 6

Blast Strap Push Ups
10 sets of 10
w/
Chest Supported Rows
10 sets of 10

Presses felt awesome today.  I felt I had a lot of pop off of my shoulders.  This is big for me since if I miss an overhead press it usually doesn't get higher than my head.  I'd say 4 out of 5 times if I can get my head between my arms I'm going to make the lift.  Feeling 176 fly off my shoulders was a great feeling.  Progress feels really f'ing nice.

I also bought a bike today.  Total cruiser style.  It was built for comfort, not speed.  There's a good chance I'm going to pick up some rear saddle bags for it in the near future.  Watch out ladies.  Might take it off some sweet jumps tomorrow.  We'll see.  In the mean time I need to think of a name for it.

2013 Weight Crushing Goals

I was sitting around recently pondering my own mortality, as I'm wont to do, and I realized that I'm going to be 29 years old in November.  That's one shy of 30.  I can remember being in high school and having absolutely no concept of being 30 and only a smidgen of confidence that I'd even make it there.  I always imagined myself jumping off a really tall building onto a police car with the siren and lights on full blast.  After the impact the last thing I would hear would be the siren slowly dying away.  A nice little poetic dichotomy.

Drawing that scenario was an actual exercise I did in a college English class but things have since changed.  Instead of going out in a blaze of glory and wasting any potential I want to take this year and let my health and vitality really flourish.  I want my body to be as badass and bulletproof as I can make it.  So with that I came up with a few lifting challenges that I'm going to attempt during the week leading up to my birthday, November 9th.  I'm not sure what order I'm going to do them in but these are going to take some game planning.  In no particular order I present to you...

THE HOMETOWN HE-MAN CRUSHATORIUM 

PRESENTS: 

THE TROY DEQUAINE BIRTHDAY WEEK LIFTING DEMONSTRATION SPECTACULAR!

Demonstration #1:

Overhead Press: 200 x 1

Bench Press: 300 x 1

Front Squat: 400 x 1

Back Squat: 500 x 1

Dead Lift: 600 x 1

I'm going to do all of those lifts within one session.  If I did them today the first three would be PRs.  And I'm not sure I'm at the point where I could do the last two.  Getting strong enough to be able to complete these lifts individually won't be the problem.  It's going to be doing them back to back within a short period of time.

Demonstration #2:

The Martin Rooney Mantathlon

You can follow the link and read up on the specifics but here is the gist of it:

• Body weight bench press for reps
• Body weight chin ups for reps
• Half body weight overhead press for reps
• 1.25 body weight dips for reps
• Half body weight barbell curls for reps

All of that must be completed in 20 minutes.  Your total number of reps determines your status from "low man on the totem pole" all the way up to "man of war".  I don't really care about Martin Rooney's classifications, I just want to be better than as many people as possible.

I'm not crazy about the fact that there are no lower body drills in this since we all know that guys that have big upper bodies and chicken legs are some of the most ridiculous looking people in the world.  Sometimes it's hard to recognize them since they all wear pants to cover it up but they are out there.

See what I'm talking about?

Demonstration #3:

Dead lift 500 pounds 29 times.

Not in a row.  Just get it done 29 times within a limited amount of time, probably an hour or so.

I'm turning 29 and dead lifting 500 pounds is a huge milestone to lifters of any age.  I want to blast the shit out of said milestone.  I want to show people who are of average build and genetics like me what is possible.  People have a tendency to say, "that'll never be me" or "yeah, but he's got great genetics".  Bully.  When I hear that I hear, "I don't want to put in the work to be able to do it."  If people see what's possible they have no reason other than a lack of "want to".

Now that I think about it I'll probably being doing all of these demos in a singlet.

So there you have it.  My training and recovery is going to have to be on point from now up until that week.  Scheduling of the weeks leading up to and the week itself is also going to play a big role in how I go about it.  I'm thinking at some point over the summer I'll do a dry run of each demonstration to see how each demonstration affects me.  I'll also be able to see where I need some work and see where I could perhaps coast some.  

I'm pretty pumped about these demonstrations.  I now have a tangible goal with my training instead of just some fluid ideas floating around.  Time to get away from the keyboard and get my ass to work.

Training 3.12.13

AM

Bulgarian Slit Squats w/ a Twist (always towards front knee)

3 x 10 ea. leg

w/

Abs

3 sets

Prowler

3 sprints to the end of the driveway and back

PM

Bench Press

bar x 20, 20

135 x 10, 10

185 x 5

225 x 4

235 x 3

250 x 2

265 x 1

225 x 8, 4

185 x 10, 10

Blast Strap Inverted Rows

5 sets of 10

w/

Tricep Pushdowns

5 sets of 20

Bench felt solid today.  I upped my warm up weights slightly and everything still felt good.  Slowly getting better.

Training 3.11.13

AM

2 sets of 20 on

High Pulls
Goblet Squats
Barbell Curls
Push Ups
Shrugs

PM

Back Squat

135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 4
365 x 3
385 x 2
425 x 1

315 x 2, 3, 5, 2, 3, 5

Had to shorten the PM workout up a bit.  My right IT band and left psoas were extra tight during squats.  Despite that 425 felt like a breeze.  I got to the bottom with it and I remember thinking, "that went a lot smoother than I was expecting."  From there it was no struggle to bring it up.  Good times.

Training 3.8/9.13

3.8

Dead Lift
245 x 2 x 2
295 x 2
335 x 2
385 x 2
425 x 2
475 x 2
525 x 1

Trap Bar
255 x 5 sets of 10

Barbell Curls
3 x 25
w/
Band Pull Aparts
3 x 15

3.9

Bench Press
bar x 20, 20
135 x 3,3,3
185 x 2,2
225 x 12 sets of 1

Rows

Arms

Prowler

Saturday my good friend Mike Farley got his first encounter in the Crushatorium.  Mike lives in Florida so it was nice to bullshit and talk shop with him.  My lift was nothing special.  Solid 80%er.  I probably could have grinded out a double on the 525 but I played it safe.  Kind of like my squats earlier in the week.

I think I need to get out and move more because this week I've been tired as hell.  More walks with the dog, more impromptu jump rope or prowler sessions, more random acts of lifting like leaving 315 on a dead lift bar and taking it for a ride every so often through the day, and dare I say now that spring is almost bursting at the seams, go for more runs?  Why not?  I don't think I'd ever run more than 1.5 miles in a stretch because that's boring as hell to me.  But I also like not being out of breath because I stapled three sheets of paper together instead of the normal two (joke courtesy of Patton Oswalt).

Also, once it gets warm the shirt comes off.  My chest hair has been cooped up all winter.  Time to set them free.

Oh yeah.  Tonight is my wedding reception.

Training 3.7.13

AM

Jump Rope x 100

Goblet Squat x 10

Blast Strap Push Ups x 10

Band Pull Aparts x 20

5 Rounds

PM

Snatch Grip Hi Pull
132 x 3 x 3

Clean and Press (one clean per set)
88 x 5
110 x 4
132 x 3
152 x 2
176 x 1 x 2

Clean and Push Press
196 x 1 (easily top ten hardest reps of my life)
132 x 10

Reverse Grip Bench Press
135 x 5 sets of 10

Face Pulls
3 sets of 25
w/
Blast Strap Push Ups
3 x 10

80%er session tonight.  I was tired and sore when I started but felt better when I was done.  Happy with the presses and push presses.  Reverse grip bench is weird in that it was the first time I'd ever done it.  Nice change of pace though.