Keosawa's Powerlifting Log

[WitchCraft]

Bench press is becoming less and less of a weakness with each month. If I somehow manage to continue progressing, I could end up in the 330-340 range by the end of this year, which is goddamn crazy to me, but hey, this seems to be going well. I'm waiting for something to go wrong, but so far, so good.

That would be CRAZY! At your BW, would you be setting any records with that kind of weight?

I just finished a cycle of Smolov Jr. for my bench. In the past it hasn't done much for me, and this time it didn't really add anything to my max but my reps felt faster and easier. I'll count it as progress.

 

[Babyeater]

That would be CRAZY! At your BW, would you be setting any records with that kind of weight?

I just finished a cycle of Smolov Jr. for my bench. In the past it hasn't done much for me, and this time it didn't really add anything to my max but my reps felt faster and easier. I'll count it as progress.

Trust me, that is progress. Remember..we have kind of tiny benches. Percentage-wise, a few pounds is a very big deal. And that sucks. I don't like it. But I have to try to remember it. So you're doing very well, I would count that as progress.

 

[WitchCraft]

Trust me, that is progress. Remember..we have kind of tiny benches. Percentage-wise, a few pounds is a very big deal. And that sucks. I don't like it. But I have to try to remember it. So you're doing very well, I would count that as progress.

Yeah, I need that reminder sometimes!

By the way, speaking of us having tiny benches, I was all excited about my paused benching the other and then I saw a 132 pound girl pause 180 at the meet yesterday. WTF.

 

[Babyeater]

Yeah, I need that reminder sometimes!

By the way, speaking of us having tiny benches, I was all excited about my paused benching the other and then I saw a 132 pound girl pause 180 at the meet yesterday. WTF.

I know. Trust me. It's...disheartening, a tiny bit, I admit it.

 

[Keosawa]

That would be CRAZY! At your BW, would you be setting any records with that kind of weight?

I just finished a cycle of Smolov Jr. for my bench. In the past it hasn't done much for me, and this time it didn't really add anything to my max but my reps felt faster and easier. I'll count it as progress.

The world record at my weight is just over 400 lbs., so I'm never going to be remotely close to it. My bench press isn't even near the top of the nation, and 330 would, realistically speaking, only put me at around the top five. Still good for someone who isn't a bench press specialist, but not exceptional.

And you have to remember that even a five-pound jump is like four percent of your max; that would be the equivalent of me adding twelve pounds onto my bench over one cycle. If you're not micro-loading, you might not see the difference, but you've still gotten stronger!

 

[Keosawa]

I know. Trust me. It's...disheartening, a tiny bit, I admit it.

Get over it, you two. Tony Conyers benched 363 lbs. at my weight at 55 years old. I've been benching for at least five years now, and I'm over fifty pounds away. There's always someone out there who blows away what you do.

 

[Keosawa]

Thanks a ton for that response Keo. That makes sense. I honestly never thought about that "pendulum" affect because I"ve never experienced it myself. Even after running Smolov for squats my squat jumped up and then stayed there pretty much. (I'm assuming this was just because of my experience level being so low, that i didn't have anywhere to go but up lol).

So basically to avoid that pendulum (assuming someone's not a competitive lifter trying to peak for a meat) Just be as consistent as possible with your training/volume/intensity from month to month?

Sure--consistent, but progressively adding on. But a pendulum isn't necessarily a bad thing; it's just an indication of how much the increased volume affected your numbers. It usually doesn't swing back the entire way, so the net gain is still worthwhile.

This really makes me re-evaluate the small but solid gains I've made from higher-volume training in the past.

At the time I remember being disappointed in the relatively small PR's but feeling much stronger. Hmmm

I'd rather make smaller gains and feel I can sustain the work-rate than make a big jump and feel completely spent by the end. Even a five-pound jump for a three-week cycle, when extrapolated out to an entire pre-meet cycle or even a year, turns into tremendous progress. It's just that most people aren't going to be able to sustain that level of volume.

There's a lot of really good info here. Thanks for all your responses keo.

You're welcome.

Great work, good luck with your new goals on bench.

Thank you much. My bench goal was always "suck less at it," and I guess that's now changed to "become good at it," which is cool.

 

[WitchCraft]

Get over it, you two. Tony Conyers benched 363 lbs. at my weight at 55 years old. I've been benching for at least five years now, and I'm over fifty pounds away. There's always someone out there who blows away what you do.

lol, I'm over it. I don't get upset when people can lift more than me. I was really, really inspired. She was incredibly jacked. I congratulated her at the end of the meet and she just nodded. Didn't even seem to care.

Why are bench records seem so much harder to beat than other lifts??!?

 

[Keosawa]

Why are bench records seem so much harder to beat than other lifts??!?

Specialists.

 

[WitchCraft]

Specialists.

Ooohhh, Steve's trying to convince me to become a bench specialist. I think that could get boring after a while.

 

[Keosawa]

Smolov Squat W2D1

Modified Agile 8

Squat
95x8
135x5
185x3
225x3
275x3
325x9
325x9
325x9
325x9

Glute-Ham Raise
x20
x20
x20
x20

Banded Hip Abductors
x15
x15

Just getting back into the swing of things with my squatting. I was breathing heavy after these...

 

[LegioTitan]

"squats felt like death"

"ribs felt fine"

Lol. Glad to hear the ribs are better. Good to see you back to squatting.

Do you know if they'll be any YT channel replaying RUM lifts??

 

[Keosawa]

"squats felt like death"

"ribs felt fine"

Lol. Glad to hear the ribs are better. Good to see you back to squatting.

Do you know if they'll be any YT channel replaying RUM lifts??

lol--yeah, those two lines of dialogue don't go together at all. The reps moved pretty fast, but my legs felt like jello towards the end of it. It's just a matter of getting re-acclimated to the volume. It'll probably happen in a matter of days. Here's hoping the ribs hold up; otherwise, it's going to be a painful couple of weeks.

I think lift.net might post some RUM footage. I'm HOPING people there got some good video. If I find stuff, I'll post it.

This isn't RUM-related, but it happened recently. This was this guy's second powerlifting competition; the lift would have been successful had he not prematurely taken a step forward to rack it. It's a bad habit that I'm sure he'll clean up. He finished the day with a 860-lb. official squat.

 

[Gfreak]

lol--yeah, those two lines of dialogue don't go together at all. The reps moved pretty fast, but my legs felt like jello towards the end of it. It's just a matter of getting re-acclimated to the volume. It'll probably happen in a matter of days. Here's hoping the ribs hold up; otherwise, it's going to be a painful couple of weeks.

I think lift.net might post some RUM footage. I'm HOPING people there got some good video. If I find stuff, I'll post it.

This isn't RUM-related, but it happened recently. This was this guy's second powerlifting competition; the lift would have been successful had he not prematurely taken a step forward to rack it. It's a bad habit that I'm sure he'll clean up. He finished the day with a 860-lb. official squat.

Damnnn...the walkout looked much harder for him than the actual squat lol. And was that high bar?

 

[Keosawa]

Jenn Rostinger totaling 882 lbs. at 114. She was ten pounds off the world record.

 

[Keosawa]

Damnnn...the walkout looked much harder for him than the actual squat lol. And was that high bar?

I'm not sure. I send him a message with some feedback on his unrack/rerack process. He has such monstrous potential; he just needs to slow things down a bit. The staggered-step unrack seems to be a holdover from football S&C.

 

[CRZA]

Do you know if they'll be any YT channel replaying RUM lifts??

Here's Perrymans 715

 

[Keosawa]

Sorry I've let this go for days without updating. This week, I ran sort of a reduced version of Smolov to re-acclimate, because the training weights kicked my ass:

Sunday: 325x9x4
Monday: 345x7x3
Wednesday: 365x5x5
Friday: 385x3x7

This week, I'm running it with the same weights, except that I'm going to try to do the full volume.

Yesterday, I floor pressed with reverse-bands on my off-week from benching. I'm only taking an off-week because I stupidly tweaked my pec (but it's healing nicely):


Reverse-Band Floor Press
Barx10
95x5
135x5
225x3
275x1
315x1
365x1
385x1
405x1
415x1
425x1
435x1
445x1
455x1
465x1 (+40 lb. PR)

Dumbbell Row
110x10, 10
110x10, 10
110x10, 10

Band Pull-Aparts, three sets

Band Pushdowns, five sets

Cuban Press, 25-lb. bar, three sets

Dumbbell Curls
30x10, 10
30x10, 10
30x10, 10

VWs
x20
x20
x20

Floor pressing was mostly just for fun, and it told me what I already knew, which was that my press is way stronger than it was about a year ago. I think 465 was about a 40-lb. PR from the last time I did this (maybe nine months to a year ago).

 

[mdewey]

Glad to hear your pec is coming along nicely.

 

[LegioTitan]

Glad you can bench again, brosiff.

Hey can you repost the link to your blog/site/whateverwe'recallingit?? It didn't save in my favorites.

Also are you updating the progress of your team members there? You guys have some really solid developmental lifters.