well done buddy lml

April 9th: Back I

Front Squat: 97.5x5x3
Pendlay Row: 77.5x5x5
Lat Pulldown: 125x10x3
Cable Row w/ pause: 60x10x3
Glute Bridge Single Leg Isos: 9 reps each leg
Saxon Side Bends: 7sx6x3
DB Curls: 17.5x10x3

Squats were tough. Don't know about form, should take videos but have been lazy. Everything else went ok, pendlays were probably too cheaty to progress but should move up cable rows and lat pulldowns.

Off to coach women's soccer for the evening. They won their first game 1-0.

April 11th: Press Volume

Front Squat: 100x5x3
Bench Press: 90x5x3
Snickers: 1x1
DB Incline Bench: 25sx8x3
DB Incline Flies: 10sx8x3
External Rotations: 7x10x3
Rear Delt Flies: 7sx10x3
Pulldown Abs: 66x12x3

This was a marathon 2.5 hour gym experience. Squats I think were good, and bench was tough afterwards, but got through it all.

April 14th: Press Intensity

Deadlift: 147.5x7
Unilateral ham curls: 30x10x3
Pullthroughs: stack+12.5x6x3
Incline Bench Press: 70x3, 80x3, 60x6x3
Dips: BWx8x3
Chins: BWx8x3
BB Curls: 30x8x3

I missed saturdays deadlift workout, as I had some furniture to move. So I combined some work from that into todays bench press workout, but then the benches were busy so I inclined instead. Deadlifts went well, definitely had a rep or two in the tank - much better than last time around at this weight. Took a wider grip on inclines, and they went ok. Everything else went ok but I was dragging by the end of it as I'd had a one hour rehab appointment before hand.

Official Weigh In: 81.5kg

Bodyweight is kind of frustrating again, two steps forward two steps backward. Think I had a reasonable week of eating, and some junk in there.

Rehab update:

So today is exactly 6 months from my surgery, and I am up to working on dynamic agility and jumping, and cleared to start doing some basic football drills. I meet the 80% strength threshold in the repaired leg. Still some discomfort/tightness in the morning, especially after an exercise heavy day previously, but this is not much of a concern for my PT and goes away pretty quickly once stretched and warm. I'll probably join in some trainings with the ladies team I am coaching, and see how that goes for a month or so while continuing some solo agility work, and maybe look to practice with my brother-in-law's team if that goes well. Still have work to do as far as rehab, but overall feel like its going the right direction.

April 16: Back Volume

LBBS: 140x5
Front Squat: 100x3x2
Pendlay Row: 77.5x5x5
Cable Row: 72x10x3
Saxon Side Bends: 7sx6x3
Decline Situps: +24x10x3
DB Curls: 17.5sx10x3

Just to see if I could. Definitely felt some mis-balance towards the right/weak leg particularly on reps 4 and 5, so won't continue this weight. Front squats afterwards felt good. Pendlays were good too, will progress the weight next time.

Bought some football boots today, off to coach the ladies this evening and maybe join in some drills.

April 17th: LISS

Cycled 13.3km in 59:32

Because Jesus Christ apparently died at some point, I couldn't go to the gym today. Instead I went for a bike ride with me Mum and my wife. My mother has been on a little health kick lately which has been great. She's been going to pilates twice a week since feb and bought a bike this week, and it was fun to get out and tootle around with them.

April 18th: Errything

Front Squat: 102.5x5x3
Bench Press: 92.5x5x3
Clean and Jerk: 60x3x2, 80x1
Deadift: 150x5 (in oly shoes)

140mg of caffeine PWO and everything felt "on". Cleans were snappy, 80 was easy and I caught it nice and low (for me). Bench was a comfortable 3x5rep PR. Front squats were tough, maybe a bit high, but vids to come. DL was good, but I ******edly didnt push the record button for those.

Warmups:

40kg


60kg


70kg


80kg


90kg


Worksets:

#1


#2


#3

All looked good to me.

Thanks!

April 21st: Press Intensity

Bench Press: 105x2
DB Incline: 32.5x5x3
Dips: +25x5x3
Dip Shrugs: BWx12x3
Pushups: +15x10x3
Rear Delt Flies: 7sx10x3
Ab Roller: BWx10x2

Bench press was tough, barely made the second and I had no spotter (or life insurance). Dragged a bit though everything else, probably a result of the tough saturday workout.

I went for a bike ride this morning with an old buddy, 18km in 50', including a 100m climb.

I got into a free powerlifting seminar next saturday with a guy who totalled 610kg (1344#) as a 145lb junior at a sweet private black iron gym. An hour on each of the lifts plus an hour on meet prep. Would love to lift there full time, maybe I can wrangle it.

Great job on the lifts and rehab.

It's almost unfair that you can LBBS 140kg x 5, 6 months after such a bad injury.

Thanks, melkerson. I guess squatting is just something im good at, and didn't lose too much with the time off.

Official Weigh In: 81.0kg

Maybe increased activity levels, but Im just not eating enough.

You have 32.5kg DBs at your gym (from the DB Incline)? WTF? Do they have DBs for every 2.5kg?

Also, pls to be spreading the good word from the powerlifting seminar.

Yeah, for all the crapness of a lot of things, this gym is well stocked for DBs. 1-10kg in 1kg increments, 10-50kg in 2.5kg increments, and some even heavier ones in 5kg increments.

Will do!

23rd April: Back I

LBBS: 140x2x2, 100x4x2
RFESS: 10'sx10x3
Pendlay Row: 80x5x3
Cable Row w/ pause: 60x10x3
Shrugs: 100x10x3
DB Curls: 17.5sx8x3
Decline Situps: +24x10x3

Thought I'd better get some more relatively heavy back squat work in if someone is going to critique my form this weekend, and then ran a little out of time so had to cut pendlays short by two sets. Still favoring the right side, so did some single leg work. Will have a programming reassessment after this weekend I think looking towards the novice meet on 26th July.

Seminar Day today. Was absolute heaven. Six of us plus John Strachan, who is a 2-time IPF commonwealth champ at 66kg. We spent an hour on each lift, rotating through three guys to a rack/bench/bar while he stopped various people to talk about weakness/technique points. I worked up to 140kg squat, 100kgx2 paused bench and 180kgx2 deadlift. He said my squat and deadlift form was really good (but that I need to attack out of the hole for squat and the lockout on deadlift), and he had a good few pointers for my bench, particularly spotting an odd flaring of my right elbow (that I think I had noticed and mentioned previously) and some cues to sort that out. He also recommended slowly increasing the hand spacing if competition is the goal. Things I didnt know about the IPF: require thumbs around bar on squat and flat feet for bench, so I had to incorporate those on the fly. He said one can never do enough rowing, and we chatted about general programing and meet preparation towards the end. Generally, he is a big fan of Mike T and RTS, so I may give that a go next. I have one free training session with him and may go along for a bench only workout or programming at some stage, will think on it.

Cool story, bro.

Nice TR Aidan.

If you are interested in RTS programming this is Mike T's generalized intermediate program. http://forum.reactivetrainingsystems...ediate-Program


Im pretty sure the guy is wrong about thumbs around the bar squatting in IPF. Here is video of Mike T. squatting at IPF worlds. Thumb is clearly not around the bar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZFwhv-Snd4

And this is from the USA PL rule book. "The bar shall be held horizontally across the shoulders, hands and fingers gripping the bar. The hands may be positioned anywhere on the bar inside and or in contact with the inner collars."

Would you be interested in a write up of how I implement RTS stuff. I don't know that much but at least it would be a start for you to get an idea of how it works and how I use it?

That sounds awesome, but don't feel any pressure to. I need to do plenty of reading, so ill come and ask once i have them.

Thanks for the TR Aidan. What tips were you given about locking out in the deadlift?

Progress is awesome. Keep it up

I think it is quite generalised that most dont tend to engage our glutes early enough, so we talked about starting lockout "early", or really looking to drive our hips through fast.

I think I have thought too much about "finish" with the glutes, squeezing them at the top of the lift. But the reality is I need to be using glutes to pull the weight up through lockout. I am not explaining this very well. I need to practice some more and maybe I will be able to conceptualize it better.

Complementary to the above was a discussion about moving the bar at maximal speeds, even at sub maximal weights, to not be so laissez-faire when warming up and really attack lifts more. I tend to be quite a "slow" lifter and also not utilise stretch reflex in squats optimally. Part mental, part physical.

Thanks, man. This place was also an oly lifters wet dream: six eleiko competition bars, full sets of comp plates, just gorgeously outfitted.

You seem to be correct about that, but both this guy and a couple of other lifters were pretty confident that it was at least refereed like that here. ill have to be aware of it as i have only ever squatted with a no thumbs grip. that, or print out the rule book and take it along, but that seems a bit forward at a novice meet!