Dynamic Effort Squattius

Squats:

330/2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2

RDL's:

135/10
185/5
225/5
275/5

Pullthroughs:

2 sets of 25 reps

Reverse hypers:

3 sets of ten

I used the roller attachment on the reverse hypers and it was was heavier than expected, so it didn't turn out to be too much fun.

Training and other stuff

Training:

It started off very craptatsic after Junior Nationals weekend, but picked up on Wednesday for speed bench. max effort upper and lower body blew ass chunks so I'm thinking as long as I stay hydrated (this heat is a motherfucker and I have no AC at home) and eat, I'll be able to smash dynamic effort lower. I don't have tons of time before the summer bash, so I need to be anal about how I go about the rest of this prep. Ive added in more carbs for their ability to hold water and lightened up on the protein consumption just a little. I cant eat massive amounts in the summer, so I have to adjust accordingly and not make excuses.

Rest is a constant issue. My sleep patterns are all fucked up so I'm trying to fix it.

Education: 

I got a C and was very close to a B on my spanish exam. Conjugation of verbs continue to murder me and I have to have a better grasp of the vocabulary. I honestly wasn't too worried because I just came off of a bombed Spanish class in Lincoln. I just wanted to move in the right direction. I've decided to retake the Spanish 102 in Lincoln again and get an A or a B in that (fuck C's). I really need to raise my GPA so I can do the things I want to do and also for myself. Interviewed someone and something really hit home for me. Why don't I put my all into school? I just need to do it and quit talking about it.

Professional Stuff:

My internship is going well with Flex and it's only going to get better. I will be covering the Masters and hopefully Tampa also. Have to thank Mike Salazar for the opportunity and all his help in my career, powerlifting and life in general. Appreciate the help Mike.

I was worried about getting an internship all year and I got one, and it's in an industry I love. The pay is ok, but it's money and there are many working for free so I can't complain.

Going Forward: 

Watch the blog, Flex and my twitter (my twitter is somewhat NSFW)

The Dominator Gene

I got this from Steve Pulcinella from Elitefts.com and found it extremely interesting. Some have this gene, some dont. Read and find out what he's talking about.

Aleksandr Karelin. Steven Hawking. What do these men have in common? At first glance, absolutely nothing. Aleksandr Karelin is a giant, who's very appearance is enough to inspire fear in the average man. He is also possibly the most dominant wrestler to ever take the mat. Steven Hawking is a bag of smashed assholes strapped into an electric chair. He has also completely dominated the world of nerdy smart shit for decades. So, the common factor in these two men, who could not be more different in body and personality, is the dominator gene.

The dominator gene is not so much a physical attribute, but an element of will. And it exists, to some degree, in all of us. But, and it's a big but, the degree to which it exists is the key. The "X Factor", if you will. The dominator gene will lay dormant unless it is activated by the will. And, wether it is the will to annihilate and terrify every elite wrestler at your weight on the planet for nearly 20yrs, or the will to stare at a chalk board full of numbers until you figure out things that would make most people's brains explode, it is the same act of will that makes both possible.

Take a group of five high school kids who join a gym together. At first, all five will basically do the same things and spend the same amount of time lifting each week. Now, fast forward one year. There are now three kids left of the original five and one is about to fade into mediocrity because his girlfriend wants him to work at Applebee's with her so they can spend more time together. And then there were two. Lifter A is a hard worker and really enjoys lifting. He will continue to workout hard for the rest of his life and make good gains. He will never win anything. He will never even be the strongest guy in most gyms he walks into. His dominator gene will never be activated to its fullest potential. And, he's fine with that. Now take lifter B. From the beginning, it has been obvious that lifter B is different from the others. First, he is naturally much stronger than the other four. He also goes at his workouts with ten times the intensity. While the others look at the powerlifters and strongmen in the gym with awe and respect, lifter B feels only hate and shame. Every day that he is unable to do what those men do, he becomes more furious and focused. And, he has a belief that is not necessarily based on anything he can prove that he can and will out do all of them. He knows. And, the thought has not entered his mind, as it has with the other four, that what he wants might not be possible. And that is where he unknowingly unlocked his dominator gene.
Lifting, wrestling, space math shit, NASCAR driving, Real Estate, Televangelism. It doesn't matter. The profession usually finds the individual. But, the individual has to unlock the dominator gene. And, the dominator gene is not unlocked by talking or dreaming. It is unlocked by doing. John Rambo did not dominate most of Southeast Asia and part of Afghanastan by talking. Vin Diesel did not dominate the world of dramatic acting by dreaming. It is done by a head first rush that ends in death and failure or total dominance. It happens every day, all over the world. It happens in a thousand small endeavors that are not all as glorious and defeating the Russian army with nothing but a quiver full of exploding arrows and some blue glow sticks. It is purely a talker/doer scenario and without the attitude and force of will required to unlock the dominator potential, the dominator gene will lay dormant and wither like a priest's ball bag. Like Aleksandr Karelin said, "I have trained harder every day of my life than anyone else has ever trained on his best day". And like Steven Hawking said, "I am so fucking smart you would shit your pants and go insane if you could look into my brain for one second". Of course, I am paraphrasing that last one

Now I don't feel bad for wanting to set people who beat me on fire and saying "fuck you". I want to win...........PERIOD.

Dynamic Effort Bench.

Bench: 225/(3,3,3,3) (3,3,3,3) (3,3,3,3)

Lat pulldowns:
100/12
140/10,12,12
Triceps Extensions:
30/12
40/8
50/8,8

Lateral death.

Weight on the bench moved fast, but my elbow was catching it a bit. Par for the course. I really need to learn how to use leg drive to make benching a full body movement and not just a chest/back thing.

Working this weekend for the Juniors Nationals but will find a way to make it happen as I have one more workout for the week. It's speed squat day i.e. death by squats.

Past couple of workouts:ME Upper and ME lower

Highlights are:

375 floor press for one
510 deadlift with 2 inches of mat under the plates

Assistance was done after each respective day.

Busy week this week, so gonna eat and get some rest.

Dynamic Effort squats

Squats: 315/2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2, (60 seconds or so rest between each set)

Stiff leg deadlifts:

135/5
185/5
225/5

Pullthroughs: 2 sets of 25

Didn't have time for reverse hypers as I had to be grown up babysitter by Wrigley Field. I felt alright going into work, but will all the standing around, my back stiffened up a little bit. Hips a bit tight too. I'm not a close stance squatter, but I'm not "multi-ply wide" either. Somewhere in between.

315 started a bit slow, but as the sets progressed and I stayed more conscious of my form, it ended up moving pretty decent. I just have to warm up more, but I was under the gun to get this workout done.

Black Music Month videos of the day goes back to a little bit of New jack Swing

 "Whatever You Want" by Tony! Toni! Tone!





"I'm Dreamin" by Christopher Williams

Dynamic Effort Upper

DE Bench:
bar/20
95/12
135/5
185/2
225/(3,3,3,3) (3,3,3,3) (3,3,3,3) (3,3,3,3)

Lat pulldowns
110/12
140/12,12,12,12,12

Triceps ext:
40/8
50/5,5

Shoulder Complex:

25/20 rear flyes, laterals, front raises without putting the weight down.

The parenthesis represents clusters with a rest period of 15 second between each "set" of 3 reps. And a minute rest between each cluster. It was a killer and just when I thought the pain was over, I had a shoulder complex that absolutely sucked. Not bad for being up since 2:30 am and still going.

I just found out today that I hold the record for the 242 raw American mens deadlift record at 606 and there has been a pretty cool development in something else that I will keep under wraps fro right now, so I'm feeling good about that.

Now who wants to help buy a brotha groceries?

Black Music Month continues............Sheila E, Glamourous Life

Max Effort Lower or Beatdown at Quads Gym

Deficit deads (off two inches of padding)

135/11
185/5
245/5
295/3
335/3
385/3
445/3
495/1
535/1
585/ too big of a jump and just mentally crashed)

SSB Good Mornings: 115/10,10,10,10

45 degree back raise: +35lbs/8, 45lbs/8,8,8

Short strap reverse hypers: 90/10,10,10

I wanted to do at least 4-5 sets for everything but due to time constraints, I had to cut it a bit short. This is a session I'm really feeling as of right now in the low back and hamstrings but it's work that I need.

Cardio session today of about 30-40 minutes will help recovery some.

Since it's Black Music Month, I'm going to be posting a music video every blog for the month of June (if I remember, if I don't, let me know).

One of my favorite songs from Rick James!

A return to the Westside system: Max Effort Bench

A lot of people don't know that my original style of training in powerlifting was the Westside Barbell system other wise known as the Conjugate System. For those that don't know Westside Barbell is home to some of the worlds strongest lifters. They compete in gear, but can handle my maxes like candy raw.

The system uses a couple different schemes to make a complete all around lifter.

Max Effort: Training at or above 90 percent your one rep max

Dynamic Effort: Lifting a submax weight at the fastest speed possible

Repetition Effort: Lifting a submax weight close or to failure.


Max effort exercises are variations of the classic lifts (squat, bench, deadlift) and are rotated on a weekly basis to prevent stagnation. Now that we have all that out the way, lets get to what I did for Max Effort Bench.

Incline press:

Bar/20
135/12
185/5
225/3
275/3
295/3

Overhead press: 140/5,5,5

Triceps Dips:
90/15
180/15
200/12
250/12,10

DB Rows:
80/10
110/10,10,10

DB Shrugs: done with a 3 second hold at the top

85/15,15,15

Some arm stuff

The shrugs absolutely sucked. There was no other way to describe it.

In retrospect, I should have put in 2-3 more sets on the incline press and stayed at 295-300. I did not want to miss any lifts, but the max effort work also teaches you how to "strain" or produce time under tension under a max or near max load. Will push it farther next week and have a bit more food in my system.

The person I'm working with has given me free reign (for the most part) on controlling the supplemental work. Since putting on muscle is almost always apart of any training plan I throw myself into, expect some repetition work.

Other than that, not much to it. The way this is constructed is that this first cycle is 3 weeks long, deload, 2 weeks, deload, 2 weeks, deload, and meet day since I'm only on about an eight week prep time.

Monday is max effort lower and I'll be working the triples hard. Time to get rolling

Stuff

I couldn't think of any witty, smart or funny title to go along with this blog so I went with stuff. Because it truly is stuff.

1: The cycle is set (with the help of Matt Ladewski) and it's time to roll to the Summerbash. I feel good, I feel strong and ready to set some PR's

2: Class starts Monday. I will be quite honest and say that I really dont want to do it, but I have to. For this I will remember that I need to be consistent. Small things done perfect (or as close to perfect as possible) daily. Now i realize that not everyday will be perfect and thats fine, but I need to stay the course.

3: For those that don't know, last semester sucked. In fact it was absolutely abysmal. However, I am plotting my return to Lincoln. Am I looking forward to it now? Not really. Will I look forward to it in August? Quite possibly?

4: I am enjoying my internship. It 's in a industry I enjoy very much (for all of it's faults) and will allow me to be able to play around with things I've learned (or at least remember vaguely) at school

5: I really have not been craving much junk food. I'm serious.

Not much else. If you were looking for something training related, then here it is.

I was in a deload week and only trained twice last week.


Holla.