BEYOND STRONG

Friday, deads..

Wasn't really up for it. Lately have been waking up with a very sore back, must have been stress of some sort.. Don't really know.. Lot of things going on right now..

Warm up/ stretch

Deadlift: 3x60kg, 1x00kg, 1x130kg, 1x160kg, 1x190kg, failx210kg, 1x200kg, then

Speed deadlift, 1 min inbetween sets: 5x2x170kg

Clean and push press: 5 sets of 5 with 65kg.. Got me breathing and sweating and decided to call it a day after some ab work with

Cable crunch for 3x15

Some side crunch, like a chopping motion with the cable, no idea what name.. I mean, does anybody know all the friggin stupid names that exercises have..? Did that chop suey stuff for 2 sets of 6

Windmill: 6x26kg, 6x32kg..

Olympic Sprinter Training

I always enjoy seeing new ideas and just what's interesting about this video is that nothing here is all that new. That's not disrespecting Dallas in anyway. In fact I applaud his methods and it just reinforces the old adage that there really is nothing new. Here's a young, determined, super hard working athlete just doing there thing. Training - HARD! Great stuff here for coaches and athletes alike.

Nick

Dallas Robinson is a sprinter aiming to be at the 2008 Olympic games.

Sore..

Ooh joy, came out of 4 night shifts.. I was really really sore from the last session with those snatches. They may have been light, but it felt like they added an inch to my traps.. Had a session yesterday, to get out the soreness and forget to blog it up:

Warm up

Dumbell clean and press: 5x20kg, 1x26kg, 1x34kg, 2x30kg, 5x3x26kg

Military press: 3x10x40kg

Squat: 5x90kg, 4x110kg, 3x120kg, 2x130kg, 140kg

Pulldown: 3x10x60kg

One leg dead: 2x5 with 20kg db's

Hammercurl and pushdowns 3x10/ 3x15

Cable crunch: 3x15

Used to do the one leg deads with 1 dumbell, figured I needed two to do it right and immediately my balance was hard to maintain and my bottocks were burning..

-Theo

ADAPT

Woke up at 5:30 with my back still a bit stiff and sore.  Decided to forgo the squats today and take another day of rest.  Tomorrow I will do the close stance 10s and then Friday some shoulder/triceps/lat work.

On a positive note, my triceps are sore today.  I am such a slacker during the week, mainly because I crush myself on Sundays.  4 hours of slinging heavy weight makes you sore and beats the hell out of you for the next 4-5 days.  It also makes me want to take it easy all week long because I know come Sunday I am going to get crazy again. 

I will say this, the increased eating and now sleeping has helped a ton.  My weight is up, it is holding steady at around 240 now instead of 235, and that is doing a couple things.  #1-it is making my gear tighter.  This is good and bad.  Good because I am handling much more weight in it, bad because once the suit goes on it will take MUCH more weight to get me to depth.  Possibly more then I am able to handle.  #2-my deadlift groove was off.  I had to find the new one that is more compatible to being 240 instead of 220.  My groove changes with every gain or loss of 5 or more pounds.

That is all for now.  I need to work on something tonight for Scott's "Straight To The Bar" site.  He needs it be tomorrow.  Hopefully I can churn up some ideas and get some shit over to him before I go to bed.  Nothing like waiting for the last minute-

-Rick

02/26/08- upper body

-Incline bench: 225 x7, x2, x2.  Rest pause.  Finally got 10+ reps!

-1-arm db presses: 60 x20 each arm

-Skull crushers: 115 x8, x8, x8

-1-arm overhead ext: 30 x10, x10, x10 each arm

-Pull-downs: to the front with big V-bar, hammer grip, 180 x8, x8, x8

-1-arm rows: 110 x10, x10, x10

Done.

Shitty PA weather again today.  Snow, sleet, freezing rain, and rain.  Calling for 4+ inches or more tonight into tomorrow.  Gotta get through one more month of this shit....spring is calling, I can hear it on the wind.

Back still stiff and tight.  When I get out of bed it takes me a while to get moving.  I will see how it is tomorrow.  I may have to do the 10 rep close stance squats Thursday depending on how I feel.

-Rick

02/24/08- bench, squat, dead

-Bench Press: reverse band, trying to work groove of Rage X, managed 405 x3, 455 x3, 495 x2.  Not bad at all.  I think this is going to really force my form and groove using the reverse band, and I can go heavier and get used to weights in my hands.  Next week I am going to give 550 a go for a couple reps.  I really and truly believe that I am going to smoke 450+ at the meet.  I am the most excited I have ever been to bench.

-Squats: Just me and Cullen again, so we did some light band work.  Blue bands on tightest setting, worked up to 430 x1 with straight bar.  Then did 530 and 570 with no bands, but it felt like trash having to walk the weight out narrow, then set-up wide.  Dangerous.  Next week I am going to drag the wife along to pull the pins just in case Lance doesn't show.  I have 7 weeks, I need to start getting into the squat suit asap if I am going to do well in April.

-Deadlifts: belt only, 590 x2 1/2.  I write 1/2 because I had the 3rd past my knees and my form went all to shit and I had to drop it.  Then came back and fixed my form and hit 590x1 easy.  Found out that #1-my feet were too far apart, and #2-I was too far from the bar at the start.  Then did 2 singles with 515 to make sure it was dialed in and smoked them both.

-Rack pulls from below knee caps: 2 quadrupled mini bands on each side, 315 bar weight x2, x2, x2.

-Cambered bar bottom up good mornings: 225x5, 275x5, 275x3 (felt my back cramp up and called it a day).

Feel decent now, back is just tight, hammies are tight.  Time for a hot Epsom salt bath and some ice cold Coronas.

Next week full gear straight bar squats, hopefully to 800, and I get in my deadlift suit for 605 x3.

Time to get fucking serious.

-Rick

Friday, upping the condition again..

Snatch from the hang: 5 sets of 10 with 40kg, 1 min rest inbetween.. Got me breathing hard..

Clean and push press: 3 sets of 5 with 65kg

Push press: 2 sets of 8 with 60kg

Chins and dips: 50+50 for a total amount of reps. Divided it in 10 sets of 5 for both exercises

Abs: Then played around with some ab exercises, like leg raises with knees to elbows, windshield wipers or whatchamacallit, straight legs, L pull ups etc.. Also showed a kid how to do windmills, and did a single with 40kg.

The snatches were very strenuous, and already in the first set of the clean and push presses, I got weary and decided to back off a bit. The chins and dips is nice for a change, gonna be a stable one in my program. It took me around 15 minutes with too much yakking inbetween. Gonna go for time or up the reps.. Don't know yet.

The kid I'm helping out is doing a great job. He started out at the age of 14 I think, and I had him starting with 20 rep squats, light ones. Started with 30k. Told him to do 3 steps forward, and 2 back, increasing with 2,5kg. He is taking this very seriously, and one year later his doing 2-3 sets of 20's with 85kg. Not bad at all for a youngster.

Haven't set my eyes on any goals yet, I am just enjoying training right now, with no stress of any competition or whatever. Normally I would be doing deadlifts, but I think doing that once a week, is too much of a good thing for me. Also the upcoming 4 nightshifts in a row, won't be a lot of fun walking around like a gimp. So next week it's on again, for the deadlifts and I will go for 180kg for 10.

Here's an old video of me, to keep this blog a little more visual.

Have a nice weekend,

Theo

High Reps

My legs are a bit sore today, but my hamstring/glute/back pain is gone?  Hmmm....I think I am onto something here.  18 years under the bar and I am still constantly learning and tweaking every day.  It never stops.  When you stop learning, you stop growing, you stop getting stronger.

Nick told me he wants to do 405x20 in the squat.  This is a tremendous feat, seen as EXTREME squatting and EXTREME strength.  It is a badge you earn, like 405x20 is the key to the kingdom of great squatters.  If you get 405x20 before you die, you get to hang with dudes like Jesse Marunde in the after life.  What could be better?  I always wanted to do 405x20, but right now powerlifting is in the way. 

My plan is to continue to do 10s until after the meet in April.  By April I should be somewhere around 405 for 2 sets of 10.  After the meet, I don't really have anything until November, so I might concentrate on a raw meet.  If I do, I will start doing 20s on my close stance squat day.  High reps have never really done much for my strength (back when I could do 525x10 in the deadlift, I had trouble pulling 600x1) so I don't want to do 20s now and screw up my training cycle, but after the meet, it might just be game on.  I think I can 405x20 by summers end, no belt, close stance.

I will say this, I had a ton of energy yesterday all day long.  I felt great, and I think a lot of that has to do with doing higher squat reps yesterday morning.  I will jump it 10-15 pounds a week.  This should also help my deadlift a ton as well.  It sucks doing them at 6 am, but it will get better with time.

Shoulders/triceps tomorrow.  I think I am going to do hang clean and push jerks, DC style.

-Rick

Conditioning

Aaahh, finally I got started with some sort of conditioning routine.. I was looking for something that could be easily done early in the morning on an empty stomach. Should aid to a little bit of active recovery as well, and keep me nice and flexible..

KB swings: 10-20 reps

Burpees: 2-4 sets of 30 seconds, 10-15 seconds rest inbetween

Bent press, windmill, side bends, regular weighted crunch.. pick two, go for 2 sets of 3-6 reps

Tabata fronts with kettlebell..

Stretch.

(weight of kettlebell can be whatever you like, just don't go too heavy because than it will be less enjoyable..)

Tabata principle is pretty heavy done accordingly. It consist of 8 sets, doing as much reps in 20 seconds as possible, and only resting 10 seconds inbetween. Best is to use total body movements, and front squats are one of the best using the Tabata method. Heavy weights are not necessary, you'll be plenty out of breath and hitting your muscles hard with lighter weights.

Stretch, for me that consists of a lot of lower back stretches. Magnificent Mobility is one way to go, a good dvd with lots of info and easy to learn exercises. Doing stretches helps any lowerback stiffness, and done right after weighttraining will prevent a lot of stiffness. In my opinion nothing looks more stupid than a good developed body that can't walk without ILS.. Imaginery Lat Syndrome. Let alone you are so inflexible you can't even bend over to pick up some trash.. So it's even good for the environment.

Lately I have been doing some stupid factory work, and after a while I get very stiff. What I do now, is stretch out my lower and middle back using the next exercise:

Bend over with your upperbody parallel to the floor. Stick your ass out as if you would be getting ready to take it up the butt. (I could also say arch ur back, but this sounds funnier) Then imagine your ass is being pulled down, and in a bow like movement, you stretch out the whole back. If you do that correct, your spine will open up and it will pop and crack nicely. Try it... (if this exercises is already in Stretch 101, I apologize. Guess the wheel has been invented already, ain't it..)

Nick McKinless is a good example of somebody with ILS.. Nah, just kidding Nick. Nick actually keeps impressing, and the one time I met  him, his strength and agility really stood out. That man is like a friggin' cat with strength to boot.. "Catman.."

I'm out. peace..

-Theo

2 Man clean and jerk

A double deadlift, I saw before.. What's next? Double lying tricep extensions? ;)