Today I did a full warm-up starting with the ladder, dynamic movement, and some ground based hip mobility. After I got warm and all activated-up I proceeded with whats called Tabata. Its conditioning work where you are working for 20 seconds and then off for 10 seconds for a total of 4 minutes or 8 rounds.
Tabata Hg. Snatch
rest
Tabata Front Squat to press ... I cheated a couple of times with the pressing because my chest is so sore from yesterdays workout.
Candlesticks on the ab board...followed with some rolling out and Done.
I wanna puke.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
NX Level Challenge
Now that the PL Meet is over and I have my wedding coming up I have decided to go lean...not green! Lean. Real heavy training is over and its higher reps with some cardio-strength type training. I'm still going to lift heavy but no more gear! Hopefully this will help my joints, cause they were taking a beating.
So due to this ... it has led Troy and I into a fun challenge. Whoever can lose the most body fat without sacrificing muscle mass is going to win the NX Level biggest loser challenge. Its 8 weeks long and started to with taking our body fat percentages. I weighed in at 224.2 (ps I was just 218 on friday!) my skinfold pinches put me at 22% with 49.3 pounds of fat and 174.9 pounds of lean body mass. We are also taking before and after shots...great! The rules go as such... 1 point for every %of body fat dropped, -1 point for every pound of LBM lost...that way we need to keep up our muscle mass and do this right. The loser, aka Troy, will have to pay for wings and drinks at Hooters. Let the game begin. So far, today, I worked out pretty hard and ate really well. I am going home to dinner right now so that will be chicken, veggies, milk, and probably some grapes.
Troy is using a carb-cycling diet, where I am trying to just eat clean... you can read about all his g/lb and %of carbs, fats, and pro on his blog. Mine is a lot more simple - if you can kill it, grow it, pick it, pluck it, you probably shouldn't eat. I'm not concerned with servings/portions, percentages, g/pound or kg... just eat simple. No fried foods, limit sugar...if this sounds familiar is the Paleo Diet aka the Caveman diet. One thing I am not going to follow is Milk, I love it and I think its a big staple and should be a staple of a diet - esp chocolate. Protein, carbs, some fats taste great mixes with things well! Love it. Nuff said.
Thats the competition - Day 1 is a success! I'll try and give more updates and pictures and numbers for weigh ins and lifts and supplements I'm taking but I want to get outta here!
So due to this ... it has led Troy and I into a fun challenge. Whoever can lose the most body fat without sacrificing muscle mass is going to win the NX Level biggest loser challenge. Its 8 weeks long and started to with taking our body fat percentages. I weighed in at 224.2 (ps I was just 218 on friday!) my skinfold pinches put me at 22% with 49.3 pounds of fat and 174.9 pounds of lean body mass. We are also taking before and after shots...great! The rules go as such... 1 point for every %of body fat dropped, -1 point for every pound of LBM lost...that way we need to keep up our muscle mass and do this right. The loser, aka Troy, will have to pay for wings and drinks at Hooters. Let the game begin. So far, today, I worked out pretty hard and ate really well. I am going home to dinner right now so that will be chicken, veggies, milk, and probably some grapes.
Troy is using a carb-cycling diet, where I am trying to just eat clean... you can read about all his g/lb and %of carbs, fats, and pro on his blog. Mine is a lot more simple - if you can kill it, grow it, pick it, pluck it, you probably shouldn't eat. I'm not concerned with servings/portions, percentages, g/pound or kg... just eat simple. No fried foods, limit sugar...if this sounds familiar is the Paleo Diet aka the Caveman diet. One thing I am not going to follow is Milk, I love it and I think its a big staple and should be a staple of a diet - esp chocolate. Protein, carbs, some fats taste great mixes with things well! Love it. Nuff said.
Thats the competition - Day 1 is a success! I'll try and give more updates and pictures and numbers for weigh ins and lifts and supplements I'm taking but I want to get outta here!
Iowa Midwest Champions Powerlifting Meet
So, the last 15 weeks or so has been devoted to training for my 1st geared powerlifting meet. As you may know, Troy and I did a meet in December in Chicago but that was raw. This meet I was able to use my gear which typically adds about a 100 pounds to my squat and deadlift and about 60-80 pounds on my bench.
I based my training off Westside Barbell principles, utilizing the Max Effort Method and Dynamic Effort methods. I would train the DE bench on Mondays, ME squat on Tuesdays, Wednesdays rest, ME Bench on Thursdays, Fridays rest, and Saturdays DE Squat.
The 1st 8 weeks of training were going great and I was seeing PRs all the time. By week 9 I wasn't just plateauing I was just flat out losing strength. My shoulders where killing me from the overload due to the shirt work. Things just started falling apart. I took a week to deload/recover and when I came back my bench was starting to get better and my deadlift was killing it but my squat never recovered and I just wasn't going where I wanted to with that. My bench though was blowing up and my deadlift was consistant. Throughout my training I ended up PR'ing through everything. Before the downward spiral I ended up pulling 515lbs, squating 515, and benching 345. Towards the end of it all things where different.
A few weeks out and my squat was still not where I thought it'd be and my there were a few times where I missed key lockouts on my deadlift. To say the least I thought I was done. There were numerous days where I did not even see the point of training, where I just wanted to stop trying ... everyone was going to be stronger than me, it was a waste of time and money... excuses where flying. To be honest a few times I missed my workouts - i found other things that appeared to have more relavancy. That brings me to my ah-ha moment, my grass-is-always-greener...
Jake and Troy have always preached consistancy and they are both great examples of the word. Sick as dogs or busy as H ... Jake and Troy will still put their wrench in the weight room. Its not just being in the room that will do the job, you still have to bust hump but getting in there and getting it done is by far the most important thing I learned. You only let yourself down more quitting and then everything turns into a negative feedback cycle. Your not training so you numbers go down, your numbers go down so you don't want to train. Getting into the gym, lifting hard, being consistant...disciplined that is what gets you PRs at meets - not 40-50 pounds under your best lifts.
Now, am I statisfied with myself and my efforts, heck ya. I complained and moaned and cut-out on some workouts and didn't watch my nutrition as well as I should have. But there were times where I did just say to myself, "self, suck it up! You wanted this... your in it... now commit!" When it came to game time - I was there - learning as I went. I squatted 69 pounds under my best, benched 30 pounds under my best, and deadlifted 30 pounds under my best. Would I like to have PRed, yup, woulda loved it, did it happen no...will it happen for sure! I just have to go back with the type of training exemplified before me everyday...consistancy/discipline. Having it will pave your path lacking it will cast shadows and you'll be lost. I learned that lesson but I'm still proud of what I did. I choose the hard way, but I feel I learned from it and all in all I still did pretty good. Towards the end of training 445 burried me and I came up with 446 and i couldn't lock ou 484 in my deadlift but I smoked 485 at the meet. So I am happy.
Total meet results
Weighed in at 218 ... after a 6-8 pound weight cut
Squatted 409, 429, 446
Benched 315, miss 349, miss 349
Deadlift 409, 440, 485
Finished 1st place in UPA division wt class 220, 1 of 1.
I based my training off Westside Barbell principles, utilizing the Max Effort Method and Dynamic Effort methods. I would train the DE bench on Mondays, ME squat on Tuesdays, Wednesdays rest, ME Bench on Thursdays, Fridays rest, and Saturdays DE Squat.
The 1st 8 weeks of training were going great and I was seeing PRs all the time. By week 9 I wasn't just plateauing I was just flat out losing strength. My shoulders where killing me from the overload due to the shirt work. Things just started falling apart. I took a week to deload/recover and when I came back my bench was starting to get better and my deadlift was killing it but my squat never recovered and I just wasn't going where I wanted to with that. My bench though was blowing up and my deadlift was consistant. Throughout my training I ended up PR'ing through everything. Before the downward spiral I ended up pulling 515lbs, squating 515, and benching 345. Towards the end of it all things where different.
A few weeks out and my squat was still not where I thought it'd be and my there were a few times where I missed key lockouts on my deadlift. To say the least I thought I was done. There were numerous days where I did not even see the point of training, where I just wanted to stop trying ... everyone was going to be stronger than me, it was a waste of time and money... excuses where flying. To be honest a few times I missed my workouts - i found other things that appeared to have more relavancy. That brings me to my ah-ha moment, my grass-is-always-greener...
Jake and Troy have always preached consistancy and they are both great examples of the word. Sick as dogs or busy as H ... Jake and Troy will still put their wrench in the weight room. Its not just being in the room that will do the job, you still have to bust hump but getting in there and getting it done is by far the most important thing I learned. You only let yourself down more quitting and then everything turns into a negative feedback cycle. Your not training so you numbers go down, your numbers go down so you don't want to train. Getting into the gym, lifting hard, being consistant...disciplined that is what gets you PRs at meets - not 40-50 pounds under your best lifts.
Now, am I statisfied with myself and my efforts, heck ya. I complained and moaned and cut-out on some workouts and didn't watch my nutrition as well as I should have. But there were times where I did just say to myself, "self, suck it up! You wanted this... your in it... now commit!" When it came to game time - I was there - learning as I went. I squatted 69 pounds under my best, benched 30 pounds under my best, and deadlifted 30 pounds under my best. Would I like to have PRed, yup, woulda loved it, did it happen no...will it happen for sure! I just have to go back with the type of training exemplified before me everyday...consistancy/discipline. Having it will pave your path lacking it will cast shadows and you'll be lost. I learned that lesson but I'm still proud of what I did. I choose the hard way, but I feel I learned from it and all in all I still did pretty good. Towards the end of training 445 burried me and I came up with 446 and i couldn't lock ou 484 in my deadlift but I smoked 485 at the meet. So I am happy.
Total meet results
Weighed in at 218 ... after a 6-8 pound weight cut
Squatted 409, 429, 446
Benched 315, miss 349, miss 349
Deadlift 409, 440, 485
Finished 1st place in UPA division wt class 220, 1 of 1.
Holy crap - i have failed everyone and anyone who has read my blog... my apologize for falling off the wagon but here i am back on. I'll give you all the skinny on the PL Comp. but right now i need to be concise.
Today - busted it up
Warm-up
Hg.Cleans 5x4 worked up to 198#
Close Grip Bench 531555+ finished at 205x8
Bench 5x10 at 135 + V-Grip pull ups 5x10 finished with Black/Purple band assistanct
Chest rows 3x15 w/35# + Red Band Pull Aparts 3x25
Face pulls 3x15 + Purple band pushdowns 3x25
Upper body is shot and still shaking...
I'll update tonight after work with the PL comp and the newest NX Level Challenege!
Today - busted it up
Warm-up
Hg.Cleans 5x4 worked up to 198#
Close Grip Bench 531555+ finished at 205x8
Bench 5x10 at 135 + V-Grip pull ups 5x10 finished with Black/Purple band assistanct
Chest rows 3x15 w/35# + Red Band Pull Aparts 3x25
Face pulls 3x15 + Purple band pushdowns 3x25
Upper body is shot and still shaking...
I'll update tonight after work with the PL comp and the newest NX Level Challenege!
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