Keosawa's Powerlifting Log

[tommmo]

I promise I'm not creepin'.

 

[Cratos]

Nice squatting.

 

[klonger]

I love seeing your programming all written out. Its really cool to see the progression in it over time.

Looking forward to seeing you compete again, I'm probably doing an APF meet December 9th.

 

[Keosawa]

I promise I'm not creepin'.

lol, you can creep if you want to.

Nice squatting.

Thank you sir. I'm working on it. It's getting there.

I love seeing your programming all written out. Its really cool to see the progression in it over time.

Looking forward to seeing you compete again, I'm probably doing an APF meet December 9th.

Thanks man. Do you have any goals set for that one? I remember you had bench issues at the last meet, right? What do you want to total this time?

 

[Keosawa]

Bench Press
Barx10
Barx10
95x3
135x3
185x3
225x6 (last rep paused)
250x6 (last rep paused)
250x6 (last rep paused)
250x6 (last rep paused)
250x8
275x3 (all paused, w/ slingshot)

Floor Press
Barx5
135x3
185x3
235x3
245x2
245x3

Tricep Rollbacks
30x15
30x15
30x15
30x15
30x15

Wide-Grip Pulldowns
120x10
150x10
150x10
130x10
130x10

Well, I finally got my shit together and had a good bench press session. These felt nice and strong, and 250x8 was about as good as I could have hoped for on this day. My bench is moving slowly, but it'll get there.

 

[belph]

Mirin'.

 

[klonger]

Thanks man. Do you have any goals set for that one? I remember you had bench issues at the last meet, right? What do you want to total this time?

Honestly, goal 1 is to have a full total. I'd be really happy with anything over 1150. 1200 is what I'd really love though.

 

[Keosawa]

Honestly, goal 1 is to have a full total. I'd be really happy with anything over 1150. 1200 is what I'd really love though.

1200 was what popped into my mind too, but I didn't want to just throw it out there. Well, let's just make sure you open conservatively on the bench and feel it out. For lifters like us, even ten pounds is a huge percentage difference on bench, but insignificant for one's total. It's worth dropping the weight a bit just to make for an easy opener.

Between now and then, get an idea of your paused, competition-style bench max, if you haven't already. I'd open as low as 88-90%, just to be safe; then go to 96%, then 100%+ for a third.

 

[Keosawa]

Blue Reverse-Band Low Box Squat (almost nothing at the top, 110ish lbs. at the bottom)
Barx5
Barx5
135x1
135x1
225x1
275x1
315x1
365x1
405x1
435x1
455x1
455x1
455x1
455x1
455x1
455x1
455x1
455x1
455x1

 

[Keosawa]

1.5" Deficit Deadlift w/ short monster-mini bands (~100 lbs. at top)
135x3
135x3
225x1
275x1
315x1
365x1
415x1
435x1
445x1
455x1
465x1
365x3
365x3

Low Rack Pulls (3" below knee) w/ short monster-mini, light, and average bands (~250 lbs. at top, estimated)
135x1
135x1
135x1
225x3
315x3
315x3
315x3
315x7

Back Extensions
BWx10
+115x6
+115x6
+115x6

Weighted Crunches
125x20
125x20
125x20

I took a slight step back on this day and, instead of going for a massive pull, tried to get a number of good attempts (+90% 1RM) and NOT MISS ANYTHING. I hit 435, 445, 455, and 465 off a 1.5" deficit and with short monster mini-bands (my guess is that these add ~100 lbs. at the top). I've pulled 540 in straight weight from this deficit, and I think my final pull was >540 lbs. at the top on this day.

So, I'm happy with this. I don't need a monster pull every week; I just need to get good, quality reps in and continue doing a lot of heavy banded rack pulls. These are just murder at lockout, and I think if I do enough of them, it's going to start building up my lockout. That's the hope, anyway. This month's a deficit cycle, and I think it's going to get my pulling back on track.

 

[Gfreak]

Hey keo. Any chance you'd be able to give me another round of form advice on my squat from that last PR I hit? Any improvements?


Don't mean to take up space on your log with it, but yea. If you have any free time I"d appreciate it.


Also, DAMN good squatting dude.

 

[Keosawa]

Sorry Gfreak--I'm going to get to it soon! I promise!

Saturday:

Paused Bench Press w/ reactive slingshot
Barx8
Barx8
95x3
135x3
185x3
225x3
275x1
295x1
300x1
300x1
305x1
310x1
310x1
310x1
275x3 (3-sec pause)
275x3 (3-sec pause)
275x3 (3-sec pause)

Dumbbell Bench Press
70x5
85x17
85x12

Dumbbell Flys
35x10
35x10
35x10

Kettlebell Tricep Extensions
35x20, 20
35x20, 20
35x15, 15
35x15, 15

 

[Keosawa]

DE Low Box Squat w/ short monster-mini bands
Barx5
Barx5
Barx5
135x3
170x3
170x3
170x3
170x3
170x3
170x3
170x3
170x3
170x3

DE Conventional Deadlift w/ short light and monster-mini bands
135x3
135x3
225x2
225x2
225x2
225x2
225x2
225x2
225x2
225x2
225x2

GHR Band Crunches
x27
x27
x27

Leg Curls
BWx200

 

[Gfreak]

Don't rush on my account haha. But thanks man!

 

[Freestyler]

Stupid strong.

 

[Keosawa]

Hi Gfreak:

Here's the obvious stuff:

1.) You don't arch into your unrack; for a low-bar squat, you want to unrack with a tight, arched back. There are different ways of cuing this: you'll see many lifters almost drop into their unrack by pushing their hips forward. But in my opinion, your torso appears almost too vertical (such a thing, I suppose, is possible) for unracking at low-bar position.

2.) You arch hard during the start of the eccentric--and this is good--but part of the reason you're doing this is to compensate for the lateral distance your hips have to travel. With a low-bar position, you typically want your torso to be leaning slightly forward--five degrees, maybe--and you want your hips slightly further back.

3.) The other thing is that you're corkscrewing your concentric in a clockwise fashion. This one's really obvious, and I'm not sure if it's the result of a max attempt or if it's characteristic of all your squats. If it's the latter, then it's obviously a problem. I can't tell what's causing you to turn the bar like this when you squat up with it, so I'm not going to be helpful with a diagnosis, but do keep an eye out for it. Sometimes, the issue can be really small: it took me a few weeks, but I finally realized that a slight tilt in Babyeater's bar while squatting was being caused by how she held the bar in her right hand, allowing her right pinky knuckle to drift down and then ****ing her wrist back to compensate.

For you, I don't see any asymmetry issues in your shelving of the bar, so I imagine it has something to do with either a.) how you're distributing the load on your feet, and where you're pushing, b.) where your knees or drifting, or c.) how well your abductors and adductors are functioning. But that's all guessing on my part, and I could be completely wrong.

 

[Keosawa]

Stupid strong.

lol, thank you, sir.

Pendlay Rows
135x8
185x5
240x9
240x9
240x9
240x9

Strict Overhead Press
Barx5
95x5
135x3
155x3
165x3
165x3
170x3

Face Pulls
110x15
187x15
165x15
165x11

Wide-Grip Lat Pulldowns
120x10
150x8
150x8
140x8

 

[Gfreak]

Hi Gfreak:

Here's the obvious stuff:

1.) You don't arch into your unrack; for a low-bar squat, you want to unrack with a tight, arched back. There are different ways of cuing this: you'll see many lifters almost drop into their unrack by pushing their hips forward. But in my opinion, your torso appears almost too vertical (such a thing, I suppose, is possible) for unracking at low-bar position.

2.) You arch hard during the start of the eccentric--and this is good--but part of the reason you're doing this is to compensate for the lateral distance your hips have to travel. With a low-bar position, you typically want your torso to be leaning slightly forward--five degrees, maybe--and you want your hips slightly further back.

3.) The other thing is that you're corkscrewing your concentric in a clockwise fashion. This one's really obvious, and I'm not sure if it's the result of a max attempt or if it's characteristic of all your squats. If it's the latter, then it's obviously a problem. I can't tell what's causing you to turn the bar like this when you squat up with it, so I'm not going to be helpful with a diagnosis, but do keep an eye out for it. Sometimes, the issue can be really small: it took me a few weeks, but I finally realized that a slight tilt in Babyeater's bar while squatting was being caused by how she held the bar in her right hand, allowing her right pinky knuckle to drift down and then ****ing her wrist back to compensate.

For you, I don't see any asymmetry issues in your shelving of the bar, so I imagine it has something to do with either a.) how you're distributing the load on your feet, and where you're pushing, b.) where your knees or drifting, or c.) how well your abductors and adductors are functioning. But that's all guessing on my part, and I could be completely wrong.

Thanks a bunch man!

1.) Yea, I highbar squatted for a good 10 months before switching to low-bar, so seems I still need to get used to leaning forward more.

2.) Gotcha, definately will work on that. Thanks.

3.) Honestly, this was the first time I"ve ever done that, it surprised the hell out of me when I watched the video lol. So your guess is as good as mine, I do know my knees tended to drift when I was doing the higher rep sets on smolov quite a bit. And it has gotten better since then. But that would be my first guess.

 

[Scoops619]

Kettlebell Tricep Extensions

Out of curiosity, is there any specific reason these were done with a Kettlebell? Or just kicks and giggles?

Awesome lifting.

 

[Keosawa]

Out of curiosity, is there any specific reason these were done with a Kettlebell? Or just kicks and giggles?

Awesome lifting.

No real specific reason. I was surfing around for tricep assistance work one day and found a video of Chuck Vogelpohl doing them. I figured, what the hell, I'd try them, and I prefer how they feel to using a dumbbell, so I've kept them since then.

Squats
Barx8
Barx8
135x3
185x1
225x1
275x1
315x2
365x2
405x2
425x4
425x4
425x4
425x5 (PR)

Standing Cable Ab Crunches
60x21
83x21
83x21
83x21

Standing Goodmornings, normal stance
Barx5
135x5
225x6
225x6
225x6

425 is 90% of my 1RM, and my goal was to do five sets of four with it, but I settled on this day for four sets because I was simply running out of gas. The first set felt very good--I thought I had a few reps left in the tank--but the next two were more of a struggle. I put everything into my last set and squeaked out a 15-lb. five-rep PR. After already logging 12 reps over three sets at 90%, that's pretty good for me.

So, these didn't feel spectacular, but I'm happy with the work I got done on this day. These heavy squat days are quite taxing, and I'm definitely being beat down a bit by all the high-intensity work, but I think my squat's coming along.