Deadlifts and milkshakes

[WitchCraft]

hahaha, I love that you got a refund. That's awesome! I would have done the same thing ;-)

I'm not the type of person to ask for a refund unless I really think its necessary. I thought of how I could make it work, but there was nothing we could do there. I couldn't even teach her how to bench. No benches with a barbell. Holy shit, I can't believe people pay to go there.

Interesting choice in programming.
At the end of each cycle do you see a great improvement on your lifts, like the squat? And are you to simply go singles until you max out on the last two weeks?

Yes, yes, yes! I've tried a few different programs over the years and this one has been the most successful for me. My squat and deadlift went up 20+ pounds from using this program.

It's a bit modified from the original Surovetsky program. There's a volume day and a heavy day. On the heavy day, you alternate each week between singles and doubles. And the last time I used this program, I made the last set AMRAP sets. It was fucking brutal but really prepped me well for competition.

The only downside is that its very, very hard on the body. I was training hard 5-7 days a week for 8 weeks straight during my last meet prep. I felt good the whole time but after I competed, I crashed and crashed hard. It's been hard to bounce back since then.

Besides that, I highly recommend it!

I seriously hate Planet Fitness. Out of all the large chain gyms that I hate, that one is the worst.

I've always hated it. Their marketing strategies, training philosophies, and attitudes is repulsive. So many people go there too. Such a shame.

Thisssss. I mean, shit, yeah, even Gold's Gyms don't seem to have cages these days. I really hope she found a better option!

She did! There's an actual powerlifting gym (found on Powerlifting Watch) that I train at while I'm here. It is decked out with the best equipment I've ever seen. It's a small gym and a bit intimidating for beginners in my opinion, but she likes it there! I even was a little intimidated today. The guys were blasting metal and screaming. It's cool, but some people really don't like that.

 

[NurseKnuckles]

I like the look of it. Do you simply add your own assistance?
5-7 days a weeks? Brutal... If you do it as written its three days a week. I can deal with that...

 

[ssdd]

Just read up a little in here, nice work lifting and motivating everyone.
Also, I just looked up gyms on powerlifting watch since you mentioned it, and there is one pretty close to me. The head guy has trained NFL players, a 149lb wrestler that went undefeated at the big 10 conference a couple years ago, and the 3-time olympic gold medalist captain of the US national female soccer team. The owner/trainer is a CSCS and squatted 583, benched 435, and DLd 606 in the 198lb senior raw division in a USAPL meet in 2009. I would have never found that if you didn't post that little part in parenthesis; awesome. Def checking it out

 

[Babyeater]

yeah, the gym section on PLW is seriously great. It does a pretty good job of cataloguing PL-friendly gyms. I really want to visit one it has listed in my hometown, and plan on doing so someday.

 

[Neuro1**]

Oh, and one more thing I wanted to mention, (apparently I'm enjoying rambling today)...I went to pay for a guest pass to show my friend how to do these lifts at her own gym so she could get used to the equipment and be able to use it independently. Except it was at a planet fitness. So I went there to buy a guest pass. $20 fucking dollars! And then we walk around, no squat racks, no bench, etc. I demanded a refund and got it back thankfully and convinced my friend to join a better gym. I'm so glad I didn't have to actually support those shitheads.

This is awesome

 

[WitchCraft]

I like the look of it. Do you simply add your own assistance?
5-7 days a weeks? Brutal... If you do it as written its three days a week. I can deal with that...

Yeah, I used the program for all three lifts. But if you use it for what its designed for (the deadlift), then its only 2x a week, I think? I do have a modified version so I'm not sure what the original one looks like.

I add my own assistance. Hip thrusts, lunges, good mornings, deficit deadlifts, etc.

Just read up a little in here, nice work lifting and motivating everyone.
Also, I just looked up gyms on powerlifting watch since you mentioned it, and there is one pretty close to me. The head guy has trained NFL players, a 149lb wrestler that went undefeated at the big 10 conference a couple years ago, and the 3-time olympic gold medalist captain of the US national female soccer team. The owner/trainer is a CSCS and squatted 583, benched 435, and DLd 606 in the 198lb senior raw division in a USAPL meet in 2009. I would have never found that if you didn't post that little part in parenthesis; awesome. Def checking it out

Thanks! And that's awesome, glad you found it.

yeah, the gym section on PLW is seriously great. It does a pretty good job of cataloguing PL-friendly gyms. I really want to visit one it has listed in my hometown, and plan on doing so someday.

It is a great resource! I haven't always been successful with it, but most of the time, I've found really cool gyms to train it.

This is awesome

 

[WitchCraft]

So, just a little update here. I've been away for a week on vacation. I originally had planned on training while I was there but the gyms were limited in the mountains. I did a lot of hiking and was very active the whole trip. As I mentioned earlier in my log, my friend is a hog killer in the Smoky Mountains. We trapped a hog and she shot it, and then she had to cut it open and run some tests on its blood, heart, and feces. Here's some pictures if you dare. Warning: its nasty. Dead hog. Blood.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Some pretty mountain view to make up for the nastiness:

Spoiler

However, my diet was shit. I didn't eat nearly as much food as I normally do. I was hungry and tired the entire time. It sometimes gets awkward when I'm with other people (non-lifters) who are shocked when I need to eat again. I always hear, "But we just ate!" So I would eat anaconda style in the morning trying to get as much food and water in as possible and then would repeat that at night.

On top of that, I drank like a god damn sailor. Every night. I'm not a drinker at all but my friend is a bad influence! The best/worst night was last night when I sampled 8 different kinds of moonshine. Holy sheet. I was still drunk getting on my plane this morning.

Anyways, my crazy partying is over. I'm ready to get back to training and eating my chicken salad everyday.

 

[WitchCraft]

3/31/2013

Conditioning
About 1/2 mile walk on the beach, climbed long stair case (about 4 flights of 30 steps each), took me about 20 minutes in total

 

[livingdeadmoose]

The Tenessee trip sounds like it was fun! I've been there a few times myself. It's a nice state. Did you guys only run tests on the hog or did you get any meat off it?

Also, moonshine is awesome.

 

[WitchCraft]

The Tenessee trip sounds like it was fun! I've been there a few times myself. It's a nice state. Did you guys only run tests on the hog or did you get any meat off it?

Also, moonshine is awesome.

It WAS fun! I didn't get to see much of the state though. Just spent most of my time on the streets of Gatlinburg haha

My friend works for the National Park so she legally cannot take home any meat unfortunately. We had to drag it away from the trap a little bit and then left it there. She said by the next day the coyotes and bears will have eaten it. So its not wasted, but no people can take it and eat it.

Also, the moonshine was pretty awesome. It was a fun experience. I really wanted to take a bottle home but I don't think they would have let me take it on the airplane!

 

[livingdeadmoose]

Sucks about not being able to take any meat but it's understandable. Those things are an invasive species and cause a lot of problems. I don't know if you've ever had wild hog meat but it's pretty good.

 

[WitchCraft]

Sucks about not being able to take any meat but it's understandable. Those things are an invasive species and cause a lot of problems. I don't know if you've ever had wild hog meat but it's pretty good.

Yeah, they're beasts. While searching for the traps everyday, I was able to see the damage they do to the land. And they also eat a lot of the food that the native species eat (bears competing with the hogs). It makes you feel less bad about killing them haha

And no, I've never had wild hog. I guess we should have sneaked some ribs lol No one would have ever known!

 

[WitchCraft]

4/1/2013

Warm up:
Stationary bike (3 minutes, yep, lol)
BW squats

Squat
bar x 10
65 x 5
85 x 5
95 x 5
115 x 5
115 x 5
115 x 5
115 x 5
115 x 6

Leg extensions (each leg)
30 x 10
30 x 10
30 x 10

Hammer Chins
BW x 5

Iso rows
50 x 10

Notes: I was really shaky today for some reason. I ate pretty well today but didn't have a lot of meals in me before training. I actually had to go home because my legs were spazzing so bad.

 

[WitchCraft]

4/3/2013

Warm up:
C2 Rower 500m in 3:00
Med ball complex: GM, goblet squats
Split squats

Deadlift (all beltless, pretty sure this is a volume PR)
110 x 5
132 x 5
146 x 5
165 x 5
165 x 5
165 x 5
165 x 5
165 x 5

Bench
bar x 10
65 x 5
88 x 5
88 x 5
88 x 5
88 x 5
88 x 5 (supposed to be AMRAP but genius Goon grabbed the bar too soon)

Pendlay rows
65 x 10
65 x 10
65 x 10
65 x 10

Ring rows
BW x 10
BW x 10

Planks
BW x 1:00
+chains x 0:28
+chains x 0:33

Notes: Was in a foul mood when training today. I just hate deadlifting now.

I had a small form epiphany today when deadlifting. I recently was told to think about making a person in front of me able to see what was on my shirt. It was a good cue for me to keep my chest up. I felt very awkward and weak in that position though and need to do more work here.

Also, here is how I set up the chains:

^^Those are NO JOKE.

 

[Pearse Shields]

Wow. You have a shitload of volume going on. More deadlifts in one session than I probably do in 2 months worth of lifting.

 

[WitchCraft]

Wow. You have a shitload of volume going on. More deadlifts in one session than I probably do in 2 months worth of lifting.

lol, 2 months? I doubt it.

I have a volume day and a heavy day. Those extra days make all the difference on my max effort days. Don't skip the volume mang!!

 

[livingdeadmoose]

Those planks look awesome. I'll have to try it out sometime.

 

[Pearse Shields]

lol, 2 months? I doubt it.

I have a volume day and a heavy day. Those extra days make all the difference on my max effort days. Don't skip the volume mang!!

Let's see... I deadlift maybe once a week, usually it's 5-5-3-2-1-1-1, which is 18 reps. In your workout you did... 40 reps. So, okay, maybe I overestimated. I keep volume low because I have to keep my weight low. Too much swollertrophy work is bad with fights on a regular basis.

 

[miaou]

I keep volume low because I have to keep my weight low. Too much swollertrophy work is bad with fights on a regular basis.

Training volume has little to no effect on your weight.

If anything, all else remaining identical, extra training volume means more calories burned, which means lower bodyweight.

 

[WitchCraft]

Those planks look awesome. I'll have to try it out sometime.

Yeah, they are so much harder than they look. I was yelling the whole time.

Let's see... I deadlift maybe once a week, usually it's 5-5-3-2-1-1-1, which is 18 reps. In your workout you did... 40 reps. So, okay, maybe I overestimated. I keep volume low because I have to keep my weight low. Too much swollertrophy work is bad with fights on a regular basis.

Ah, ok. That makes sense. I wish I could actually get too swole for something haha