Sunday, July 29, 2012

Lances Summer meet write up

Well, it's the after the meet and everything has settled in, here is what went down yesterday at Lances Gym.

Took the extended trip to the gym, so it was a bus ride to Starbucks because I refuse to do any lifting without coffee in my system. I mean, I can, but I just dont want to. So I pick up my customary blonde roast with a ton of splenda and and chocolate powder and I was ready to roll.

I get to Lances and the Quads South group was already there along with Ed Coan. The group had several lifters and a couple have actually seen my videos on YouTube. (C'mon up north sometimes fellas! We got titties and beer by Wrigley)

Lifting started around 10:30 and the squat was first. My first attempt was around 540 something. Went and handled that. Then I called for my next attempt at 567, which is a couple pounds down from my March meet. It went bad as I brought my grip in a little to try and make my upper back tighter. As soon as I unracked the weight, I remembered why I ditched that grip and my right shoulder got immediately pissed. I concentrated too much on that and flattened out on the bottom. I ended up taking the same attempt and had to grind it out. No biggie.

Bench was up next and with the way I was feeling I just KNEW that 400+ was going to fall today. I KNEW it. My warmups went super easy, my first attempt at 350 was a smokeshow as well as my second attempt at 370. I knew this was the day...........or so I thought.

I get on the bench, blood is boiling, I get my set up tight, grab the bar, take my breaths and signal for the help for a liftoff. It comes down easy, stays on my chest and flies UP............until just above the halfway point. I had it........and lost it in a split second. I even was yelling in my mind "GOTCHA BITCH", but I guess I didn't. To say I was EXTREMELY disappointed was an understatement. The wait for a 400 plus competition bench awaits.

Deadlifts went. I honestly checked out after the bench and my knee was fucking with me. So what ever I could do I did. I ended the day with 611 on the dead and passed on my third attempt. Thats three 600 plus pound deadlifts for the year. I'll take it as a small victory.

Won best lifter and my class and my total is up about 11 pounds. I didnt qualify for Raw Unity in Tampa next year unfortunately, but theres a next time. I'm not sure what my next move is. I do think I'm done for the year however.

So to recap the year......

February: Rick Hussey SPF Memorial Meet: 1548
March(4 weeks later): XPC International Open: 1540
Yesterday(July 28th) USPF Lances Gym Summer Meet: 1551

Not bad I guess. So I guess a beer is in order sometime this week.

Thanks to all who have supported me and my lifting this year. I by no means wanted to do this many meets, but the Iron Bug hits you.....and you just want to compete and train. Special thanks to Matt Ladewski and Brian Carroll. Brian took over my squat training for the SPF meet and the XPC Meet while Matt took over my training for the USPF meet. Both are great coaches and I highly suggest using them at some point if you dont know where you need to go in your programming.

Thanks to O'Mallyes liquor kitchen for being flexible enough to go without a doorman during a busy series on the weekend (Cubs vs Cardinals) so I could smash weights. Hopefully I can get some free shots out of doing well at this meet. No? I tried..........

Thanks to my sister for just being there :-) Love you Tracey

Last but not least, thanks to God for allowing me to do something I love. I dont have to be alive right now, but he sees fit to keep me around. And I'm glad to be on the ride He has laid out for me.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Future training and life stuff.

Training:


I have an idea of what i want to do and accomplish. I have basically have two templates that I am thinking about which I am still tweaking and will share. It's based off existing principles and things that I have been wanting to try. I have a couple of goals and I still need to streamline them so they dont conflict. One of the things I've been wanting to do is use bands more. I have a mountain dog band pack here and I'll be using it much after I get back to school.


Life:


Not bad. Been working a lot and school is always an issue. Paying for next spring and fall is on my mind, and I'm working on a plan of attack for that (basically work). I have no doubt that I'l graduate from UNL. Just will take a bit longer than expected is all.


More training:

I feel good going into saturday. I want to give a big thanks to Matt Ladewski for helping me set up a template. Sometimes it wasn't easy to get all the work in, but I did it. There were some days that I could only get the max effort in, but I got use to that strain with heavy weights and in my weakest position for each lift. There's gonna be some strong lifting on Saturday so not only do I look forward to competing, I look forward to watching.

Onward.

Friday, July 20, 2012

DE Bench

Bench: 205/3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3

Assistance:

DB Press
Triceps
Arms

Working hard and hardly working. Meet is next week. Ready to smash.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Max effort bench

Floor Press: worked up to 385 for 1.

Bradford presses: 3 sets with 95 lbs

Tate presses
Chest supported rows
Face Pulls.

Not putting a ton of volume into assistance work. I just want to keep things healthy and it makes no sense to perform a ton of work. All my assistance work is three sets and I basically keep myself healthy with it. Not trying to pr on that shit anyway.

The meet is on the 28th at Lances Gym (www.Lancesgym.com) so come on out and support local lifters if you can. Should be a good time.

Busy week ahead too. Helping move stuff today, pulling heavy this afternoon/evening and I still have lots of work to do. I have fallen behind a little and I need to sit the fuck down and get caught up. I think I'll make today that day. If not today then definitely tomorrow. I can't be falling behind now, too critical.

Max effort lower is today and I'm filming that. A video of this workout will be posted shortly......now time to cook chicken.


Saturday, July 14, 2012

Speed squat day

Squat : 305 for eight sets of 2 with 60 seconds rest between each set

Speed dead: 8 singles with 30 seconds rest between each set

Leg Curls
Back Raise
Abs

Speed squats felt ok, but the speed deads felt great and moved pretty damn easy. Feeling good, but having a slight issue with elbow pain so that means working it out with a lacrosse(lax) ball.

Not a lot of info in these posts lately, so if there is something you want to see or hear, let me know

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Dynamic Effort Bench

Suffering from a bit of insomnia so I decided to post.

Speed bench: 205 bar weight w/ one set of chain: 9 sets of 3. 1 minute rest between sets.

DB Press on low incline:
90/8
115/6,6

Lat Pulldown: 3 sets of 12

Meadows rear delt destroyer: Who cares, it fucking sucked.
Arms

Bench moved good and fast. Pleased with it going into basically my final week of prep for the meet. I have been uber busy, but I have tried to keep training as consistent as possible and I've done that for the most part. Nutrition has been pretty decent too. Don't get me wrong, I've consumed my share of fine and high quality anabolics (Pizza, Italian beefs, Epic Burger) but it hasn't been like in years past, or even last year. I actually cut down my eating a little because it's been hotter than the Debils anus here the past few days. I'll eat up some more, but maybe drop the carbs back a little bit.

Spanish is going well. I need to expose myself the the material more than once a week. I think I didn't do too well on this prior exam, but it's ok as the lowest grade gets dropped and I'm sitting at a B for a midterm grade. I will take Spanish 102 in the fall again back in Lincoln. I just din't want a huge gap of time where I didn't use any Spanish at all. That would not have been good. The usual suspects though are tripping me up (vocabulary and verb conjugation)

Masters Nationals is coming up in Pittsburgh. This is a show that will show rising stars in the sport and Pittsburgh is a great city, so it will be cool to go and holler at some people. Maybe I'll be able to catch a workout as I have to train my deadlift next Friday. We'll see.

Good luck to Tommy Harrison as he and Team Gladiators powerlifting will be smashing it up in Minnesota. I'm sure the team will hit plenty of PR's. Here is the video I did on Tommy for Flexonline.com not too long ago.







Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Max Effort Bench and Max Effort Lower

Not done on the same day obviously, so here goes.

Max Effort Bench:


Worked up to 365 close grip bench for 2 singles. Yes, that is a PR for close grip bench. My triceps strength is not the best in the world, so this was great to hit and relatively easy.

Max Effort Lower:


Done on 2 inch pads:

135/10
185/5
225/5
275/3
315/3
365/3
405/3
455/1
495/1
545/1

Front Squats: 3 sets

GHR: 4 sets of ten

Reverse Hypers: 3 sets of 10

Abs

I was pleased with how the deads turned out. I did something funky though on the way down with 405 and might have strained something a bit but it was no biggie. Throw some Icy Hot on it and keep on rolling.


I feel pretty good overall. The heat went back down to a manageable level and I'm able to eat like I want to without sweating like a hog. Not looking to get over 242 right now. I need to dial in the nutrition a bit more, but the crap foods hasn't been consumed as much as in years past. I remember pulling a Palumbo a couple years ago and just smashing double cheeseburgers like they were going out of style. Those days are long gone thank God.






Saturday, July 7, 2012

Dynamic Effort squats

Squats: 315 /2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2

Deadlifts: 405/ 8 singles with 30 secs rest in between

Assistance work.

Got shit done before heading out to Rosemont, IL to help cover the Wings of Strength Chicago Pro thats promoted by Tim Gardner. 76 IFBB pros make this the biggest IFBB pro show to date this year. Lots of heavy hitters in this show and hopefully the amateurs do the same here. On my muscle hustle here in Chi-Town.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Max Effort Lower and Dynamic Effort Bench

Max Effort Lower:

SSB Squats: worked up to 405 for a single

Front squats: 3 sets of 5

Tate presses: 5 sets of 12

GHR: 3 set of 8.

Abs

Dynamic Effort Bench:

Bench: Bar weight was 205 with 2 sets of chain for 9 sets of 3.

DB press: 110 for 3 sets of 6

Lat Pulldowns: 6 sets

Meadows rear delt destroyers: lots of reps and they hurt

Arms

Bar moved nice and fast this week. Looking for a repeat performance next week.

Chicago pro show this weekend too. Should be a good show with lots of thick guys and gals! Cant wait.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Max Effort Bench

Incline press

Bar/20
95/10
135/6
185/5
225/3
295/3
315/3
335/1,1

Bradford Press:
65/10,10
95/6,6,6

Tate Presses:

25/12
30/12
40/12
45/12,12

Chest supported rows:

90/12
135/10,10,10

Face Pulls: I did these for the length of a song with 65 lbs. It sucked.

Arms

Was glad to be done with the deload and have some weight back in my hands. The rest paid off I set out to do a good bit of volume today. Recorded a monster in the form of Kevin Jordan today for Flexonline.com so I was inspired a bit, so thanks Kevin.

Everything is rolling along for July 28th. For those that don't know I'm doing a USPF meet instead of the APF Summerbash. There were a couple of factors but the biggest one is distance. With the APF Summerbash, its in the 'burbs which would require me to get up super early, catch a bus, catch a metra and then catch a cab to the venue. With the USPF meet at Lance's Gym, I catch a train, bus and walk a block (if that) and I'm there. No extra crap or money spent trying to get to the venue. Plus there will be some quality competition there, so thats extra incentive to come in and smash even though my primary goal is to qualify for Raw Unity 6.

I have to set aside time for me and family. I have to be honest, I have not been the best relative since I have been back. I really dont have any excuses to not visit or spend time with people. I have been busy, but I can make time for those that I love. I love my fam just as much as training. I've been busy with work, and my internship so I need to be busy with family.

Max effort lower tomorrow. Time to eat!!