Keosawa's Powerlifting Log

[Ouranos]

Do you roll your forearms and triceps?

If the pain during pressing is in your elbows, I've found that helps. Also, just massaging the distal end of your biceps with your hand/thumb after a shower can make a difference

My pressing muscles/joints also got a lot healthier after I started doing light, high rep flys after every bench session. Provides a great stretch for not only your chest, but also your biceps.

I like this classic, but with my hand rotated so that your fingers are pointing towards the ground.

I'm sure you're fully capable of handling your shit, but the above is just some stuff that has helped me stay healthy while benching pretty hard 3x/week for the past 13 months.

 

[Keosawa]

Do you roll your forearms and triceps?

If the pain during pressing is in your elbows, I've found that helps. Also, just massaging the distal end of your biceps with your hand/thumb after a shower can make a difference

My pressing muscles/joints also got a lot healthier after I started doing light, high rep flys after every bench session. Provides a great stretch for not only your chest, but also your biceps.

I like this classic, but with my hand rotated so that your fingers are pointing towards the ground.

I'm sure you're fully capable of handling your shit, but the above is just some stuff that has helped me stay healthy while benching pretty hard 3x/week for the past 13 months.

Thanks. Everything around the elbow is pretty painful to the touch, so I've been doing some rolling for my forearms, triceps, shoulders, scaps, and pec tie-ins since I started. Honestly, I've neglected it for a long time and it's all in pretty miserable condition. I'll start doing this stretch--it would help me a lot, particularly because I bench so wide--and high-rep flys are a good idea. I am pretty sure I'm just asking for a torn rotator cuff/pec by not taking better care of myself.

 

[Keosawa]

On a similar note:

RUM Intense Cycle
W2D6

Paused Bench Press
265x3x10

Notes: These started smooth and faded as my tendonitis flared up. I'm working like hell to try and treat it and bring it down as much as I can. The programming is working, but not every day feels good. The good news, at least, is that I am still cruising through it much easier than when I ran it last year. 270x3x10 next week will be a challenge, but it's do-able if I am able to get this under control a little bit. I'm squatting just 430x3x5 in wraps today; I feel fine this morning, but I'm going to make wrapped squatting the focus for these last two sessions and not do the additional unwrapped stuff.

 

[Ouranos]

Thanks. Everything around the elbow is pretty painful to the touch, so I've been doing some rolling for my forearms, triceps, shoulders, scaps, and pec tie-ins since I started. Honestly, I've neglected it for a long time and it's all in pretty miserable condition. I'll start doing this stretch--it would help me a lot, particularly because I bench so wide--and high-rep flys are a good idea. I am pretty sure I'm just asking for a torn rotator cuff/pec by not taking better care of myself.

I skipped the flys for the longest time and started to get shoulder issues. They went away almost immediately after I started doing flys. Immediately as in first session.

They're actually programmed into the Sheiko training cycles. Five sets of 10 after each bench session.

I will say, though, I can feel the paused work I've been doing as of late in my shoulders. A ton harder on them.

 

[Keosawa]

I skipped the flys for the longest time and started to get shoulder issues. They went away almost immediately after I started doing flys. Immediately as in first session.

They're actually programmed into the Sheiko training cycles. Five sets of 10 after each bench session.

I will say, though, I can feel the paused work I've been doing as of late in my shoulders. A ton harder on them.

I'm at a point now where after this meet, I'm going to bring my grip in a bit and see if I can't develop it. It would probably be a good idea to transition away from a style that's so taxing on my shoulders and pecs. I usually protect them well, but even a small mistake will cause something to flare up. I'm thinking I'll do some (extremely) light flys tomorrow after benching.

 

[Keosawa]

RUM Intense Cycle
W2D7

Squats
365x3x8
365x6

Notes: This one was a slog. 365 doesn't move that slowly on video, but it felt heavy as hell. I ditched the wraps for this session just to focus on overall volume; after feeling 365 for the first few sets, it probably turned out to be a very good idea. About midway through the session, I realized the speed just wasn't going to be there--and I was only going to make mistakes by trying too hard to produce it--so I started just focusing more on maintaining position. That made the reps more manageable, even if bar-speed was poor. I psyched up for the last two sets and combined them together to get the work done and to make those reps easier. If only I could stimulate an adrenal response for everything I do in training...

 

[Keosawa]

RUM Intense Cycle
W3D1

Squats:
325x9x4

Paused Bench Press
225x6x2
225x12x2

Notes: Probably my best, most complete training session of this training cycle. Nevermind that it took a good three hours--at least one of which was spent waiting for a platform and a bench.

Squat eccentric-concentric speeds measured very comparably to W1D1, and that's +30 lbs. (325 versus 295). On most reps for my first set, I beat the rep-speeds from W1D1 by a few hundredths of a second, and my fastest set was actually my fourth and last set. It looks like I came pretty close to a 1.5-sec. eccentric-concentric on some of those reps, which would be awesome. Hopefully bar-speed sees a slight uptick (not that I'll be measuring it much, if at all) during the supercompensation period. I imagine that this session would have measured highest had I been hooked up to a tendo unit for it.

Benches were fine--tendonitis wasn't much of an issue for this lighter weight and I handled the reps well. I doubled up on the last two sets, and that actually made it a little easier on my joints--it felt like the induced blood flow helped ease the pain a bit.

The week ahead should be a tough one, but day #1 was a success.

 

[Keosawa]

RUM Intense Cycle
W3D2

Paused Bench Press
240x5x3
240x10
240x10

LIGHT Flys, three sets

Rear Delt Flys, three sets

Lat Pulldowns, three sets

Notes: Janis, Will, and I went to train at the field house today, and it was nice training in a quieter environment. Training today was pretty relaxed and pretty enjoyable. I felt like I adjusted to the setup at the field house pretty well, and 240 felt pretty light. My tendonitis was a minor nuisance through some of the work, but it really didn't limit me much at all. Working with iron again felt great, and everything moved well.

I am starting to be an idiot again by doubling up sets, and I admit that I did 240x12 to hit a rep PR; I guess at this point the training cycle is almost over, so there isn't much of a reason to save something for later training sessions. I doubt I'll be doing this once the training intensity goes up on Thursday, but the first two bench sessions have at least gone really well.

 

[ravenman2000]

Only a handful of sessions of hard work left, then a coast into the meet. Almost there!

 

[Keosawa]

Only a handful of sessions of hard work left, then a coast into the meet. Almost there!

I feel good right now! The sessions are going very well and I'm making clear progress. It's an exciting time, and I don't know if I've felt this good in all three lifts leading up to a meet in a long time. I know I'm optimistic before every meet, but I definitely feel good about how this last cycle has gone after a HORRIBLE prior macrocycle.

 

[Keosawa]

RUM Intense Cycle
W3D3

Squats
(rep x set)
345x7x5

Notes: This wasn't quite as good as 325x9x4, but I still think that overall, my bar-speed was quite good here. I have definitely seen an increase in strength from the start of the program, and I'm still feeling pretty good on it. The next session (365x5x7) will be a nice test for me, but the BIG test will come when I try to do 450x3x5 on Sunday. If that happens, then I'm in great shape for this meet.

Otherwise, I feel good about all three lifts right now, which hasn't been the case in quite a while. There is more training to be done, and that training will be VERY important, but with three days left in this week (and maybe four days, tops, left in total), I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[Keosawa]

RUM Intense Cycle
W3D4

Paused Bench Press
(rep x set)
270x3x6
270x6x2 (PR)

Band Pull-Aparts, three sets

Notes: First off, I swapped the 10x3 and 8x4 days on my program because 10x3 is usually the hardest for me to recover from; I figured taking it ten days out from the meet would be the best course of action, especially if it caused my tendonitis to flare up. Surprisingly, that didn't happen at all (it's apparently doing a lot better now), and I must say that this is the best I've felt for one of the heavy bench sessions this entire training cycle.

This is also the fastest that my bench has moved on the 10x3 day, and I was able to manage the fatigue much better than when I did 260x3x10. Rather than fade towards the final sets, I instead combined the last four together into two six-rep sets. 270x6 is a rep PR for me, and I was able to do it twice. The pauses were lousy and the last rep of the second set was a grind at lockout, but being able to do this at the end of this session is a testament to how locked in my bench is right now.

Now, all I have left for bench is 255x4x8 on Saturday; I'll probably do 230x6x6 on Tuesday just to train a little closer to the meet, but otherwise, the hard work is almost over. This was the session I was dreading, especially after 265x3x10 was so tough last week, but I cruised through it. I have doubled up the last two sets of every session on bench this week (225x12x2, 240x10x2, and now 270x6x2); I feel like I'm acclimating well to all the work, and though it's a lot, I'm glad to be pushing myself through it.

At RUM, I'll open at 282, and I'll probably crush it. After that, I'll jump based on how I feel, but I'm guessing I end up ~303 for a second. If I feel good, I'm absolutely going to take a PR attempt for a third. I don't think I'd let myself take 325, but 319 sounds like a reasonable attempt (again, if all feels well). We'll see how I'm feeling after my opener and second attempt, but I'd like to reward myself with the chance at a nice bench PR.

 

[Keosawa]

Training tomorrow should be interesting. I start at 10am with my last heavy deadlift session; that includes 500 lbs. for a cluster set (I NEED 8+ reps on this set, and I'll get it) and 405x11x3 for supplemental sets.

In the afternoon, I'll be watching a bit of the team training session, then heading up to the field house to squat 365x5x7 (seven sets of five). That's my last unwrapped smolov day. Saturday's benching, and Sunday's the big wrapped day: 450x3x5 (five sets of three). A bit more squatting and benching on Tuesday and I rest up for the meet.

I can't begin to describe how excited I am to participate in an event like this and to get to compete against some of the best in the world. It's been a dream of mine since I started to compete on a big stage, and I'm thrilled to finally get the chance. It has taken me a few years to get to this point, but the work has been worth it. I feel strong coming into RUM, but even if I don't have a great meet, I still feel like this is the culmination of--and the celebration of--a lot of work to be able to compete at an event like this.

 

[Ethan]

Can't wait to hear the results Keo. Going to be epic.

 

[Obscure Terror]

I like your selection attempts and think you're going to do good things. Rest up and pay yourself plenty of attention on meet day with knee wrapping time, food, rest and water.

It's going to be killer, you've certainly earned your spot.

 

[Kinglee]

At this stage, is your weight cut elementary? Still going to be water loading etc?

I really hope the stream works for RUM, the last UPA meet you did was all kinds of screwed up, most likely my shoddy bandwidth as well.

 

[Keosawa]

I like your selection attempts and think you're going to do good things. Rest up and pay yourself plenty of attention on meet day with knee wrapping time, food, rest and water.

It's going to be killer, you've certainly earned your spot.

Absolutely--I can't help but analyze this all to the nth degree. I may be a rookie to this meet, but I won't make any rookie mistakes.

Can't wait to hear the results Keo. Going to be epic.

For sure. I feel very ready. Hopefully the results are good for me, but I know it's going to be a great event, and I'm going to try and enjoy as much of it as possible.

At this stage, is your weight cut elementary? Still going to be water loading etc?

I really hope the stream works for RUM, the last UPA meet you did was all kinds of screwed up, most likely my shoddy bandwidth as well.

Yeah, the weight cut is elementary; not because I'm all that close (I went to bed at about 160 last night), but because I've done it a bunch of times. I'm pretty water-loaded right now and I'm still a couple pounds lighter than last meet; I learned something new in the last cut about how my body responds to a salt drop, so I'm excited to apply it this time. It will be an easy cut, and the only way I'd ever miss weight at this point would be if something unforeseen were to happen to me, like someone hooking up an IV to me while I sleep.

The stream should be good. I think more care is taken to making a good stream for RUM versus the UPA meet because the viewership will be bigger. I'm *hoping* it turns out well, because I think a lot of people will be watching.

 

[Keosawa]

AM: Deadlifts up to 500x3 (felt awful).

RUM Intense Cycle
W3D5

PM: Deadlifts up to 500x5 (ditto)

Squats
(rep x set)
365x10
365x5x3
365x10

Notes: Deadlifts felt much worse than last week; squats felt much better. That's about it. I'm not too worried about the pull because frankly, I just felt really worn out from the training; I felt like I had no push from my legs at all. It was a disappointing session, but I'm opening light at the meet and I'll choose my attempts wisely. With a rest week and some carbs in me, my deadlift will be better. I'm not expecting fantastic numbers out of it, but I'll be OK.

Squatting was awesome, and it was ridiculously easier than 365x3x10 last week. I have no idea what happened, but everything has clicked in week three with my squat. I'm excited for 450x3x5 on Sunday, and I think I will get through it. 365x10 is a 10RM PR for unwrapped, and I did it twice. The weight moved really fast, too, and I didn't really slow down much at all on the first set--I had more in the tank. What's interesting is that I'm able to keep position throughout these sets now, whereas in the past, I'd really start to round over. I just feel like my legs are a lot stronger than they were a few weeks ago.

All in all, a weird day, but I'm satisfied. I wish my last pull session went better, but I have done some good work this cycle, and I know my deadlift will be OK with some rest--I'm probably just worn out from Smolov. My squat's feeling great, and so is my bench, so I guess I have to be happy with the results. This Smolov mesocycle has gone much better than the one I ran last spring, and I feel like both my squat and bench have benefited more from it.

 

[Disco]

Total newbie question - what happened on the last rep of the video? Did you complete it as dump the bar because you were finished? Or was that a failed rep and you bailed at the top?

 

[Bloodhy]

Good luck on the meet!