A very quick post for a very special friend...MANDO WILFURZUR
What to expect from liftsmart-liftstrong in the coming weeks.
1.updates on training - awesome event coming up
incl. video, pic, nutrition, cardio program, and lifting program
2.updates on current topics of training philosophy that i am currently interested in
incl. info on anatomy trains, Olympic lifting, and blog info that i read
3.update of social occurrences - visited Orlando, moving to a new apt
these are all things you have to look forward to! sorry its been so long
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
One last time...for now
Since my last post I've had 4 training days. My week started out with deadlifting which I previously discussed. After that Monday, I had a upper body rep-day, a lower body speed day, and finished with a max effort upper body. The latter is the day in which I will debrief you all on...
This was last Friday, my training called for some benching in my shirt. Typically I have been working up to a RAW max and then going into my shirt work. I warmed-up to 285# and it completely buried me. I was pretty disappointed that I had nothing to give. Way to soon, I think I was just getting Max effort happy. I shouldn't have even tried it and I think the next thing I'm changing for my next cycle is where I work my max effort days into my program. I've placed them in the beginning of my last two cycles to get a number for the following training. I know I will be pretty honed-in on my numbers for whatever I do next, so I am sure that will be one change up from this cycle to the next.
After my abmissmal raw lifting I hit a new PR in my shirt. I worked into the shirt with a couple of lighter singles and double and then made some slow jumps up...whamo ...5# PR(lesson learned from previous training!)
New Shirt Max - 350lbs
I worked in 48 total pull-ups afterwards and thing some Kroc Rows and Face Pulls.
The added volume on my heavier days has really been a blessing. I was periodically getting ridiculous pain in my AC Joints + the lateral line of my upper arm (between Bi/Tri). I would do tons of soft tissue work and stretching to alviate the pain but now I add in some extra assistance and 5 weeks in pain free!
I've been going pretty hard latley and have been doing pretty well. This week is the first week of percentage training and its going pretty good so far. My day 1 was a lower body day where I pulled sumo again. Everything felt good except my warm-up single at 375. My actual working sets were strong but I was getting some hip pain that went away after my first 4 sets. I think I need to get back UNDER the bar and not OVER it. It will be good to squat Thursday and Monday.
This was last Friday, my training called for some benching in my shirt. Typically I have been working up to a RAW max and then going into my shirt work. I warmed-up to 285# and it completely buried me. I was pretty disappointed that I had nothing to give. Way to soon, I think I was just getting Max effort happy. I shouldn't have even tried it and I think the next thing I'm changing for my next cycle is where I work my max effort days into my program. I've placed them in the beginning of my last two cycles to get a number for the following training. I know I will be pretty honed-in on my numbers for whatever I do next, so I am sure that will be one change up from this cycle to the next.
After my abmissmal raw lifting I hit a new PR in my shirt. I worked into the shirt with a couple of lighter singles and double and then made some slow jumps up...whamo ...5# PR(lesson learned from previous training!)
New Shirt Max - 350lbs
I worked in 48 total pull-ups afterwards and thing some Kroc Rows and Face Pulls.
The added volume on my heavier days has really been a blessing. I was periodically getting ridiculous pain in my AC Joints + the lateral line of my upper arm (between Bi/Tri). I would do tons of soft tissue work and stretching to alviate the pain but now I add in some extra assistance and 5 weeks in pain free!
I've been going pretty hard latley and have been doing pretty well. This week is the first week of percentage training and its going pretty good so far. My day 1 was a lower body day where I pulled sumo again. Everything felt good except my warm-up single at 375. My actual working sets were strong but I was getting some hip pain that went away after my first 4 sets. I think I need to get back UNDER the bar and not OVER it. It will be good to squat Thursday and Monday.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Deadlifting
Today I came to the club with a little surprise. I assumed I would be starting my first week of squatting heavy but I was pleasantly surprised that I still had one more week of testing - Conventional DL Max effort.
Which also means I have one more max out session on upper body - SHIRT MAX - vera naaice!
Today went something like this...
132x10 398x1
198x8 418x1 PR - felt smooth
264x5 428x1 Miss - picked it up....and put it right back down
309x3
352x1
I PR'd at 418 and it felt great. It didn't FEEL heavy - my speed felt good and my lockout felt strong - I think I just need to keep smashing weight in order to get stronger.
One additional surprise is that my max out sumo-pulls was pretty much the same. I don't know how to interpret these results. I don't see it as a bad thing, good thing, just an odd thing. I thought for sure my sumo would have been stronger.
My goal for the end of this phase is going to be a lockout with 428. Like I mentioned, I got if off the floor. "So, I got that going for me."
One last tid-bit. I have recently been exposed to the documentary Food Inc., Food Matters, and The Beautiful Truth. I highly recommend these documentaries in hopes they inspire you as they did me. Besides all the little factoids and anecdotal proof/testimonials which absolutely blew me away. Watching these documentaries have shed a little light onto my perspective of the pursuit of knowledge. After viewing these peoples opinions on the topics they discuss I wouldn't say I am would just drop everything and "drink the juice." But there are it helped me see that there is so much more the world can offer us, how much we take things for granted, and that there is so much more hope for everyone if people just took the time to educate themselves. All three documentaries just had a huge underlying theme, laziness. Whether it is diet/nutrition or other forms of medicine (topics covered by these films)we just accept one's professional opinion as the end all be all truth. I say, watch the films, read up on the materials covered, investigate, seek answers on all ends. Then form your opinions.
The word of the day: Self-educate
Wake - up World, Stop be lazy, investigate, learn, analyze & assess, ... take action
If I can quote a movie(pretty much the opposite of these above mentioned documentaries) National Lampoons Van Wilder.
"Apathy is the glove in which evil slips its hand into. -- Write that down."
Which also means I have one more max out session on upper body - SHIRT MAX - vera naaice!
Today went something like this...
132x10 398x1
198x8 418x1 PR - felt smooth
264x5 428x1 Miss - picked it up....and put it right back down
309x3
352x1
I PR'd at 418 and it felt great. It didn't FEEL heavy - my speed felt good and my lockout felt strong - I think I just need to keep smashing weight in order to get stronger.
One additional surprise is that my max out sumo-pulls was pretty much the same. I don't know how to interpret these results. I don't see it as a bad thing, good thing, just an odd thing. I thought for sure my sumo would have been stronger.
My goal for the end of this phase is going to be a lockout with 428. Like I mentioned, I got if off the floor. "So, I got that going for me."
One last tid-bit. I have recently been exposed to the documentary Food Inc., Food Matters, and The Beautiful Truth. I highly recommend these documentaries in hopes they inspire you as they did me. Besides all the little factoids and anecdotal proof/testimonials which absolutely blew me away. Watching these documentaries have shed a little light onto my perspective of the pursuit of knowledge. After viewing these peoples opinions on the topics they discuss I wouldn't say I am would just drop everything and "drink the juice." But there are it helped me see that there is so much more the world can offer us, how much we take things for granted, and that there is so much more hope for everyone if people just took the time to educate themselves. All three documentaries just had a huge underlying theme, laziness. Whether it is diet/nutrition or other forms of medicine (topics covered by these films)we just accept one's professional opinion as the end all be all truth. I say, watch the films, read up on the materials covered, investigate, seek answers on all ends. Then form your opinions.
The word of the day: Self-educate
Wake - up World, Stop be lazy, investigate, learn, analyze & assess, ... take action
If I can quote a movie(pretty much the opposite of these above mentioned documentaries) National Lampoons Van Wilder.
"Apathy is the glove in which evil slips its hand into. -- Write that down."
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Continuing to smash weight
The new training phase has been going pretty well. I'm liking the splits, what I am getting done, the overall length of each training day isn't ridiculous. Things are going well. I'm still early in the progression but so far I have started out with a DL PR, a bench PR, and most recently I tied my front squat PR. I might have been able to break it but I was to anxious to hit 300#. I attempted it twice and hit the bottom both times... FAIL
BUT
Lesson learned. Even though both attempts felt good going down with the weight and I came out of the hole fast the first time I should have been more patient. I singled 275# pretty easily, tying my max, and jumped to 300. I should have tried to hit something around 285#. I would most likely be writing a different story had I done that...lesson learned. Be patient. Be smart with choosing your next attempt. Good things come in time. So next time I work up my front squat, or any lift, I'll be sure to heed that advice and hopefully I'll crush an old max weight and push a PR.
Lifting smart really does equal lifting strong
WEEK 2 DAY 1
Front Squat 10x45, 8x95, 5x135, 3x200, 235x1, 275x1, 300xFail, 300xFail
45 degree back ext 3x10 60# + straight bar sit-ups 3x15 50#
Prowler 90# x 40yds X6
BUT
Lesson learned. Even though both attempts felt good going down with the weight and I came out of the hole fast the first time I should have been more patient. I singled 275# pretty easily, tying my max, and jumped to 300. I should have tried to hit something around 285#. I would most likely be writing a different story had I done that...lesson learned. Be patient. Be smart with choosing your next attempt. Good things come in time. So next time I work up my front squat, or any lift, I'll be sure to heed that advice and hopefully I'll crush an old max weight and push a PR.
Lifting smart really does equal lifting strong
WEEK 2 DAY 1
Front Squat 10x45, 8x95, 5x135, 3x200, 235x1, 275x1, 300xFail, 300xFail
45 degree back ext 3x10 60# + straight bar sit-ups 3x15 50#
Prowler 90# x 40yds X6
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Day 1 Day 2 of new cycle
Day 1 will almost always be my max effort lower body days -- that way I get the job done right off the bat. I started out with a max effort sumo pull. After some warm-ups and activation I started my pulls.
154x10
198x8
264x5
308x3
331x1
352x1
384x1
419x1 Raw PR
462xmiss- completely stapled to the floor
My assistance for that day was 3x10 GHR w/25# + some core work
To keep my work capacity up I am going to finish all my lower body days with Prowler pushes.
90# X 6
Tuesday
Upper body conditioning day/rep day
Same warm-up
3 cycles with 3 exercises per cycle 3 sets per exercise different reps
This was a great workout-I'll go into it a little more next time but it was hard, challenging, changing, and I felt great...still feel great afterwards. The push-ups were alittle humbling though.
2 days into the new cycle (12weeks) and I'm pretty much loving it. I am excited about my next two training days and even more excited about the next 2 weeks and the next 10 weeks after that. We'll see how it all goes, I've made some changes to this program from my lessons learned in the previous one --- and this new one has some difference than the last one.
Word of the day: excited
154x10
198x8
264x5
308x3
331x1
352x1
384x1
419x1 Raw PR
462xmiss- completely stapled to the floor
My assistance for that day was 3x10 GHR w/25# + some core work
To keep my work capacity up I am going to finish all my lower body days with Prowler pushes.
90# X 6
Tuesday
Upper body conditioning day/rep day
Same warm-up
3 cycles with 3 exercises per cycle 3 sets per exercise different reps
This was a great workout-I'll go into it a little more next time but it was hard, challenging, changing, and I felt great...still feel great afterwards. The push-ups were alittle humbling though.
2 days into the new cycle (12weeks) and I'm pretty much loving it. I am excited about my next two training days and even more excited about the next 2 weeks and the next 10 weeks after that. We'll see how it all goes, I've made some changes to this program from my lessons learned in the previous one --- and this new one has some difference than the last one.
Word of the day: excited
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Previous Training Cycle
Okay -- So, I spent the last the last 10 weeks training 4 times a week. Mondays was a max effort upper body lift + variations of pull-ups. I always kept the total tonnage higher on the pulls than on the pressing, which led to doing quite a bit of pull/chin-ups. I mixed the grip on the pull/chin-ups in order to break the monotony and utilize different grips/different muscles etc. One thing I really liked about this is that I definitely got my absolute back-side strength higher than ever. I think my max was about 7 sets of 2 reps at 35-45#. It also helped keep my shoulders healthy, for the most part.
I was experiencing some AC pain but I tracked it down to my 5's weeks. I kept changing my press each week in order to keep lifting heavy, but every week I would do heavy sets of 5 reps I would experience pain for 3-4 days later. Most of my working sets were in the 70-77% range of my max. If I worked sets of 3's in the 80+% I would not get the pain, so I'm leaning to that fact that volume was just to high for that training weight. In my next training cycle I am going to do a lot more triples.
My second body day was more upper body work, but instead of horizontal pressing it was a variation of vertical presses - MP, DB MP, Jerk. This was also the time I did my assistance work on this day. I did some variation of db pulls, some shoulder work, and then tri's. I definitely liked this set-up. It helped keep my time down per workout and still allowed me to get the necessary training in. I am going to keep this set-up in the next training cycle. Except this time I am going to add a little more pulling on my max effort day and my second upper body day is going to be more upper body circuits in order to keep my work capacity up, still target the backside, and help somewhat with body comp.
.... As far as the upper body training goes I think I was able to learn a few things about myself, so I am gunna stick with what works, and change what needs changing...I'll report back in a few weeks.
I was experiencing some AC pain but I tracked it down to my 5's weeks. I kept changing my press each week in order to keep lifting heavy, but every week I would do heavy sets of 5 reps I would experience pain for 3-4 days later. Most of my working sets were in the 70-77% range of my max. If I worked sets of 3's in the 80+% I would not get the pain, so I'm leaning to that fact that volume was just to high for that training weight. In my next training cycle I am going to do a lot more triples.
My second body day was more upper body work, but instead of horizontal pressing it was a variation of vertical presses - MP, DB MP, Jerk. This was also the time I did my assistance work on this day. I did some variation of db pulls, some shoulder work, and then tri's. I definitely liked this set-up. It helped keep my time down per workout and still allowed me to get the necessary training in. I am going to keep this set-up in the next training cycle. Except this time I am going to add a little more pulling on my max effort day and my second upper body day is going to be more upper body circuits in order to keep my work capacity up, still target the backside, and help somewhat with body comp.
.... As far as the upper body training goes I think I was able to learn a few things about myself, so I am gunna stick with what works, and change what needs changing...I'll report back in a few weeks.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Did I run today....response to Fbook
Nope. Was actually planning on it, but I did not have time due to some important work. I have had some good success with the first 2 weeks of my new program but I have missed my fourth workout every week, lower body conditioning day 2.
That is all I really would like to say for now.
That is all I really would like to say for now.
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