Keosawa's Powerlifting Log

omg, my log is so popular today.

Supplement companies do sponsor powerlifters, and Animal is probably the biggest supplement sponsor of powerlifters. I like their outfit and I really appreciate what they do for their lifters, but to be perfectly honest, I don't really take much in the way of supplements anymore. Now, would that change if I were with Animal? Sure, but it's hard to promote a company when you're not going to use their products. At least I've purchased from EliteFTS a number of times in the past.
 
I dunno man, take the free supplements, shirts, hats and whatever else they give you even if you're just using a protein powder and throwing an Animal logo in your training videos, free shit is free shit and the opportunity to go to the Animal cage and do some sick shit while meeting other strong motherfuckers would only be a positive. Ya know?
 

Ah yes--I saw this. Wes Keith (181-lber. who just totaled something like 1537 in a meet), the owner of 22nd Street, invited me down there for a Sunday session, and I got to deadlift with their bar. They were all really cool, and it's nice to have an extended Iowa powerlifting "family" now. He's posted my video in a few different places, and it makes for good exposure both for me and for those guys.

I won't bother answering J Hack's bullshit "advice" though.

I dunno man, take the free supplements, shirts, hats and whatever else they give you even if you're just using a protein powder and throwing an Animal logo in your training videos, free shit is free shit and the opportunity to go to the Animal cage and do some sick shit while meeting other strong motherfuckers would only be a positive. Ya know?

lol, you're right. Animal's just a really cool group, so if they got in touch with me, I would absolutely sign on. With them, it's usually a they'll-contact-you deal, so I'll just have to bide my time.

I also had an informal invite to lift in the Cage next year, but I'm not sure what the status on that is; I've been out of touch with some of those Animal guys for a while.
 
Why do you wear straps? You obviously don't need to follow his advice since as far as I know you've never dropped a deadlift, but why not just grab the thing if you can?

Edit: do you have anything in mind for what your exhibition might be?
 
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I was an Animal fan as a bro. I think it'd be cool to be sponsored by them. I'd be all about that.
 
Why do you wear straps? You obviously don't need to follow his advice since as far as I know you've never dropped a deadlift, but why not just grab the thing if you can?

Edit: do you have anything in mind for what your exhibition might be?

In our home gym, we use bars with very little knurling, so they're both harder to hold and easier on the hands. When I train with these bars constantly, deadlifting at a meet is easy, since the deadlift bars are not only way more aggressive with the knurling, but are also thinner, so it's easier to get a grip on them. If I can pull a max in training and hold it with our bar, I know my grip is ready for a meet.

The only problem with training with these bars is that my hands get torn up when they're introduced to bars with real knurling. So, with two weeks before my next meet, I opted to do most of my pulling with straps, so as to avoid the knurling and keep my hands from tearing. I can obviously hold 405 quite easily--I was doing it for 30-second holds the week before with our gym bars--but I still chose to use my straps just to keep my hands in good shape.

That's the simple answer. Beyond that, I still use straps in training sometimes simply because it allows me to focus on the lift. I do enough pulling without them to keep my grip up, and when I do a real important set, I usually use my straps so that I can just focus on the pull itself. Sometimes, your grip isn't the limiting factor for the deadlift; sometimes, it's your deadlift that is the limiting factor.

And I'm not sure--maybe I'll squat with my feet together or something.
 
I was an Animal fan as a bro. I think it'd be cool to be sponsored by them. I'd be all about that.

I love the Cage, and they come across as being real cool with their athletes. The guys that run it are very enthusiastic, and they really promote their own, as does EliteFTS.
 
Logging the last couple of days:

Modified Agile 8

Squat
95x8
135x5
185x5
225x3
275x3
315x3
365x6
365x6
185x5x6 (3-min. rest intervals)

Hip Abductors, five sets

Leg Curls
BWx200

From yesterday:

Paused Bench Press
Barx20
95x10
135x5
185x1
225x1
250x1
276x1 (opener)
303x1 (second)

Tricep Band Pushdowns, five sets

Face Pulls, five sets

External Rotations, five sets

Notes: 365 moved pretty well, but my stamina wasn't there, so I called it at two sets and did some work at ~40% just to add in some volume. This is the highest exertion training I'll program leading up to the meet--from here, the exertion will be down, but not so far down that I detrain. On the bench, I felt pretty good, especially considering the fact that I've dropped a bunch of weight this past month (I was 156 this training session, and six weeks ago I was training at ~161) and it's affected my bench somewhat. 276 moved pretty well, and 303 felt very solid, even if it didn't shoot up. 303 looks very comparable to the 305 I did in prep for the last meet, so going 276-303-308 should not be an issue here.

 


Block Deadlifts (2.5" Blocks)
135x3
225x1
315x1
405x2
455x5
455x5
455x5
455x5
455x5

Squats
135x5
225x5
315x3
350x5
350x5
350x10 (PR)

Notes: Today was my last semi-heavy squat/deadlift session, and everything felt pretty strong. Deadlifts went fine--I don't think any of the reps were that hard, but it did take me a bit to work into the session. I pulled without straps for all of these, and my grip felt quite good, as I expected. I then did a couple sets of five with 350, and both of those were smooth, albeit a little slower than I would have liked. I decided to cut the day's volume a little and do a higher-exertion set, so I combined two sets into one and hit 350x10 for a new ten-rep PR. In all honesty, it was a pretty easy set, and I had more in me; I think my squat has held up MUCH better than last cycle, when I was struggling with 345x5x3 heading into my last meet. Coming off of Smolov, coupled with getting hurt, caused me to detrain, but I feel much better about where I stand coming into this meet.

As of this morning (Sunday), I start my water load for next Saturday's meet. Carbs will be down to ~50g for today, and I won't be taking in any sodium. Water intake obviously is up today, and the weight should start to come off pretty quickly. This morning I weighed in at 156.1, so I'm starting with a morning weight that is about 7.5 lbs. over. We have two scales at home--neither of which is accurate--but the good news is that they both read heavier than a more accurate scale at our gym, even though "how heavy" fluctuates.

Today's a rest day--I'll go help Babyeater with her bench--and tomorrow will be a light bench day, followed by a light squat day on Tuesday. After that, it's no activity until the meet.
 
A few quick things: First, I'm doing a meet on Saturday, and it's going to be streamed live. The stream link can be found here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/upallc

If you'd like to watch, you're welcome to do so.

Also, I was 154.0 this morning, so I'm waking up close to five pounds over my weight now. I have one more day of water loading, but I'm doing it with distilled water and coffee, so I might lose a bit more. On Thursday morning, I finish loading and eat a light breakfast, then I shut off all food and water until after weigh-ins. After fasting for the day, my hope is that my weight is below 151 on Friday morning. From there, I will cut whatever's left in the sauna before weigh-ins at 9-12am.
 
I've got ringworm so I'll lift early Saturday AM then hopefully watch your lifts in the early evening here in the UK. Pumped!
 
Good luck in the comp, Keo!

"Flutter in to your dreams,
Glitter in tomorrow!"
by Koichi Kawato
 
Best of luck in your meet Keo, we're all pulling for you (get it??).
 
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