Keosawa's Powerlifting Log

[Aleks Sytsevich]

Thanks man. I don't know how inspiring a 26-year-old with no obligations beyond a daily training regimen can be, but I'll take it!

It's no different than any other athlete. They train and perform just as you do, your modesty is an admirable trait, sir.

 

[Keosawa]

It's no different than any other athlete. They train and perform just as you do, your modesty is an admirable trait, sir.

Very true.

(And like most 'modest' people, I'm not that modest--I just pretend to be.)

 

[Keosawa]

DE Deadlift (w/ monster-mini bands)
135x3
135x3
225x3
275x3
275x3
275x3
275x3
275x3
275x3
275x3
275x3
275x3

DE Box Squat, w/ monster-mini bands
Barx3
135x2
225x2
225x2
225x2
225x2
225x2
225x2
225x2
225x2
225x2

Squat Belt Hip Walks
+140x5 trips
+140x5 trips
+140x5 trips

Saxon Side Bends
30x16
30x16

 

[Keosawa]

Paused Bench Press
Barx5
95x5
135x5
185x3
220x8
230x8
230x8
230x10 (PR)

Neutral Grip Dumbbell Press w/ reactive slingshot (all paused)
75x17
75x15

Banded Tricep Extensions (w/ monster-mini band)
x25
x25
x25

Banded Face Pulls (w/ monster-mini band)
x25
x25
x25

 

[CRZA]

great benching man. looking strong

 

[Keosawa]

great benching man. looking strong

Thanks man! I finally think I've found something here with my bench training. I want to try 305 at the end of this cycle, and 310 by next April. My progress is going to be slow, but even putting 20 lbs. in a year on my bench press would be amazing progress for me, particularly after just about stalling out on it for the last two years.

 

[KnuckleSangwich]

Soooo you just got invited to RUM 6 in Feb.

On PLWatch:

Hello Kyle. Congratulations on your total. We would love to have you compete with the best of the best at Raw Unity 6 this upcoming Feb. 23-24 in Tampa.

Please send me an email to [email protected] if you are interested. Thanks.

Eric

www.rawunitymeet.com

Raw Unity Facebook Group

 

[LitteringAnd]

That is awesome. Congrats. Hope you get to go.

 

[Keosawa]

Thanks for bringing this up--I'll definitely respond to Eric soon.

Truth be told, I haven't been completely transparent on here about my spring schedule. I have been invited to two big raw meets--the FitExpo in L.A. in January, and RUM in February--and have already declined the FixExpo invitation. I have not declined RUM yet, but my intention is not to go.

There is one very big reason why I would want to do it: it's an amazing raw meet. But there are many reasons why I likely won't. The biggest one is money--traveling to Tampa and competing is going to cost me more money than I can likely afford. I currently make $19,500 per year as a graduate assistant, and any extra money I have goes into powerlifting.

Still, I could beg and borrow for it if necessary. There are other reasons why. I told myself I'd take six months from my last meet to just get stronger, and I want to stick to that plan and come back in April. I've also been training in knee wraps for a while, and I want to focus my attention on competing in a 'classic' style for the time being. This is my best shot at contending for a world record, so I want to dedicate myself to it until I either get there or stall out. Competing without wraps after competing in them for the last two years (I haven't done an unwrapped meet since 2009) is going to take some refocusing, and I don't think I'm willing to do that just yet.

With all that said, I will take more time to decide. I was invited to last year's RUM, and I know I will continue to qualify for these; I intend on doing bigger meets eventually, but I don't feel the time is right.

 

[KnuckleSangwich]

After reading into it a bit more I saw you just needed a qualifying total and you've been qualified for quite a while. I thought RUM was invite only for some reason. Still pretty cool to be invited personally by Eric.

If Joe M. was @ 148 I'd love to see you and him go head to head.

Definitely understand about taking some time. I'll be transitioning into 'off-season' training in a couple weeks and I'm actually looking forward to it. I've been going hard for 5-6 days/week for over a year and it's just not sustainable. Looking forward to dialing back to 3-4 days/week.

 

[NurseKnuckles]

Well whatever you decide its great to see you gettin your due recognition!

 

[Keosawa]

Well whatever you decide its great to see you gettin your due recognition!

Well, I have been more active promoting myself recently, and it's cool that people are starting to see my stuff. There are so few well-known lighter weight lifters out there now, and I'd like to be one of those guys. I like the attention, and I like being able to promote powerlifting.

On an unrelated note, here are a few cool photos from last weekend's meet:

 

[Keosawa]

After reading into it a bit more I saw you just needed a qualifying total and you've been qualified for quite a while. I thought RUM was invite only for some reason. Still pretty cool to be invited personally by Eric.

If Joe M. was @ 148 I'd love to see you and him go head to head.

Definitely understand about taking some time. I'll be transitioning into 'off-season' training in a couple weeks and I'm actually looking forward to it. I've been going hard for 5-6 days/week for over a year and it's just not sustainable. Looking forward to dialing back to 3-4 days/week.

I guess it's technically invite-only, but those invites are decided by qualifying totals. They send out formal invitations to all the lifters that they know have qualified.

And I just need the uninterrupted training time to make solid progress. I'm getting to a point where a three-month training cycle--particularly when I'm just getting back to where I had peaked in the first month--is not long enough for me to make any real progress. I can only add so much onto my total with this amount of time. But six months--or even nine months--without a meet to prepare for will make it easier for me to make some real gains on my bench press and deadlift and set a meet PR.

I will still be training hard, and I will still be training every day. I won't hammer quite as much high-intensity squatting as I did in prep for this last meet, but everything else will be the same. I've already ramped up my accessory training, and I'm adding a third pressing day (a floor-press day) on Monday in place of my usual extra workout.

Speaking of which, let me explain, very quickly, how I'll be running my bench training. I'll be floor pressing on Monday and doing paused bench pressing on Wednesday and Saturday. Each session has four work sets, with the last always being an AMRAP. Here is my new, modified six-week training block:

Six-Week Bench Block:

Week One: (already completed)
Wednesday, Paused Bench Press: 215x8, 225x8x2, 225x8+
Friday, Paused Bench Press: 220x8, 230x8x2, 230x8+
Week Two:
Monday, Floor Press: 200x7, 210x7x2, 210x7+
Wednesday, Paused Bench Press: 225x7, 235x7x2, 235x7+
Saturday, Paused Bench Press: 230x7, 240x7x2, 240x7+
Week Three:
Monday, Floor Press: 210x6, 220x6x2, 220x6+
Wednesday, Paused Bench Press: 235x6, 245x6x2, 245x6+
Saturday, Paused Bench Press: 240x6, 250x6x2, 250x6+
Week Four:
Monday, Floor Press: 220x5, 230x5x2, 230x5+
Wednesday, Paused Bench Press: 245x5, 255x5x2, 255x5+
Saturday, Paused Bench Press: 250x5, 260x5x2, 260x5+
Week Five:
Monday, Floor Press: 230x4, 240x4x2, 240x4+
Wednesday, Paused Bench Press: 255x4, 265x4x2, 265x4+
Saturday, Paused Bench Press: 260x4, 270x4x2, 270x4+
Week Six:
Monday, Floor Press: 240x3, 250x3x2, 250x3+
Wednesday, Paused Bench Press: 265x3, 275x3x2, 275x3+
Saturday, Paused Bench Press: 270x3, 280x3x2, 280x3+

The floor pressing will be stupidly easy to start, but I'll ramp it up after this cycle. Two sessions has been really easy to recover from, and I think I'll benefit even more from a third.

 

[Keosawa]

5" Deficit Deadlifts (actually, it's 4") w/ monster-mini bands (80ish lbs. at top)
135x3
225x3
315x2
365x2
405x3
405x3
405x3

Dimel Deadlifts
w/ snatch grip: 225x12
w/ normal grip: 225x20

Kneeling Squats
Barx10
135x20
225x20
225x20

Standing Cable Ab Crunches
70x21
80x21
80x21

Kept the deadlifting weight really light through the combination of a high deficit, a three-rep set, and a monster-mini band. My max is 440-450 like this anyway, so I wasn't going to get too high here. This deficit + MM cycle should help me recover from the heavy off-the-floor pulling done at the meet.

 

[Keosawa]

Once again delivered with exciting prose.

 

[KnuckleSangwich]

Did not watch: less than 200lbs of band tension at the top.

Nice pulling 4 eyes.

 

[Gfreak]

Hey keo, your post in the "suppliments" thread earlier got me wondering. Do you take any supplements yourself? C4reatine, protein, etc..? And I noticed you said you didn't think he was at a point that he should worry about it. What do you think is "that point" that taking supplements would be worth it?

 

[Keosawa]

Hey keo, your post in the "suppliments" thread earlier got me wondering. Do you take any supplements yourself? C4reatine, protein, etc..? And I noticed you said you didn't think he was at a point that he should worry about it. What do you think is "that point" that taking supplements would be worth it?

I take the following:

40g of whey protein.
One cod liver oil pill.
One daily vitamin.
One caffeine pill or cup of coffee, pre-workout.

In the past, I've taken 9g of beta alanine per day, but am currently waiting until I'm not so broke to buy more.

For the last five days, I've been loading creatine monohydrate at about 10g per day. I will be taking creatine for the first time in almost a year during this uninterrupted training period. I'm not normally on it because I worry about water retention, particularly close to a meet, but now is my chance to try and benefit from it.

But yeah, that's it.

And at the very minimum, I think that one isn't ready for supplementation until you're taking your training seriously enough to be eating for performance. Most new lifters aren't at that stage yet.

Beyond that, I don't really have any strict guidelines to give. I think it's less a matter of experience than it is a matter of how seriously the person in question takes his or her training. Someone who eats like shit and doesn't sleep is throwing away money on buckets of Jack3d.

 

[Keosawa]

Floor Press (paused)
Barx5
95x5
135x5
185x3
200x8
210x8
210x8
210x13

Strict Bent-Over Rows
(underhanded)
135x10
185x10
185x10
(wide grip)
135x8
135x8

Face Pulls
130x15
145x15
145x15

Hise Shrugs
135x25
135x25
135x25
135x25

Cuban Press
25x15
25x15
25x15
25x15

Floor presses feel good; my numbers for this cycle are super conservative, but I'll work up to bigger things eventually.

 

[dawgpnd81]

I was going to ask if you were going to add in extra pulling because of your third day of benching, but I guess you answered that with your session today. I get a complex whenever I press that I HAVE to do the exact same amount of pulling. Do you find this absolutely necessary?