Nice work cha.

I didn't read this thread til this morning. I would have suggested a lighter bench opener given your all time PR isn't much more than that.

If you stay healthy, 1300 in no time.

thanks man!

thanks Colin - the weight was not the issue for the missed opener - that was just a dumb mistake on my part by racking the weight before the rack command. The second one, if I would have focused on not moving my butt, I would have got that one too - oh well. I'm glad I didnt fail my 3rd attempt at least.

lock this **** up til you can bench 3 plates

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CRtX...7&feature=plcp

Awesome, just awesome.

Great job! That paused bench of 314 was pretty solid and it looked like you had more in you. Well Done Cha!

you made the DL look pretty easy.

Thanks!!



Thanks!!

Thanks - a friend of mine who used to powerlift said that too, but it definitely was not easy.

I think the DL work I do with chains and the posterior chain assistance stuff I do helps make locking it out easier once the bar gets moving off the floor. Getting it off the floor is hard.

Excellent! DL was studly.

Thanks Mojo!!

I've been trying to figure out how to improve my squat (most important) and my bench (secondary) and hopefully add a little to my DL before the next meet that I want to lift in, which is 8/18.

The Russian squat program looks cool, but I don't know if its going to be practical for me to do that, and bench twice a week, and DL once a week. I am going to try.

Monday will be squat, ME bench and assistance.

Wednesday will be squat, DL (Bolton based program with chains doing 6 sets of 1 rep, rather than 3 sets of 2 reps) and assistance.

Friday will be squat, DE bench and assistance.

I'm going to have to cut assistance and core work down. The Bolton DL stuff I'll be doing will only go to 70% of 1RM + 4 chains - I'll be doing two rounds of the first three weeks of his 4 week program, skipping the 4th week (a heavy single and a heavy block pull) until after the Russian squats are done.

Monday 7/23, if all goes according to plan, I will be through with the Russian squats and ready for week 4 of the Bolton modified DL, so I'll pull a 1RM from the floor, then work up to a 1RM from 9" blocks using overhand grip + straps.

The next two Mondays after that, I'll do week 1, then week 2, then taper down to week 1 with light assistance on 8/13.

Wednesdays after the Russian squats, I'll do ME bench + assistance for 3 weeks, then 8/15 will be my last workout before the meet on 8/18. I'll do what I did last time - warmups only for squat/bench/DL.

Fridays after Russian squats, I'll do an easy 5/3/1 DL cycle, then rest 8/17 - the day before the meet.

I'll be thrilled if this plan works as I hope it does. Injuries/life stuff could mess this whole thing up, but the weights I plan to do seem reasonable, and I know high volume/high frequency squatting will make my squat a lot better. Barring injury, I dont see why my 1RM cant be well over my old PR of 420.

One thing that is an issue right now - my neck is preventing me from doing anything with my upper arms where they move above shoulder height. That might limit my ability do improve the bench much without messing up the shoulders because of a lack of pulling. I'll have to be careful of that. The way I've adjusted my back squat elbow position, that doesnt seem to bother my neck or upper back anymore. DLs seem to be the thing that makes my neck & upper back feel best right now, so those dont concern me.

Russian squat calculator: http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/W...Generator.html

Was that meet you just competed in raw or equipped? I couldn't tell.

Congrats btw

Everyone except for one guy was raw. He had a pretty good squat, ~220KG or something, but was in last place at bench & DL out of everyone over 220 lbs.

nice work!

God job on your meet. Seems like way too much work

the reason why I asked about equipped/raw is cause I think Westside methods work very very well... for equipped federations. That's why you don't see many if any westside guys lighting up the record books in raw federations. Chains/bands/etc work really well for learning how to use your gear and hit that sweet spot, I don't think they work as well for raw lifters. I think if you want to be a beast raw lifter, you should lift like the best raw lifters, people like Konstantinovs, Jamie Lewis, etc.

my whole 2 cents

IF you're worried about deadlifting on top of the Squat cycle why not find a DL routine where you can just lift every second week? Should be more than enough & you'll limit your chance of injury?

Thanks!!

That's possible - I'll figure that out soon.


I'll look into the way some of those guys train - thanks for the suggestion.

As far as the reason I like chains for the DL right now - its easier to get off the floor, so its easier on my low back. I know there will come a time when I cant pull a weight I think I should be able to because I cant get it off the floor, but right now, once it gets moving, I lock it out. The chains have helped make my lockout really solid. I'm going to stick with them for now.

Benching with bands & chains - The Tate style bench program I've been doing has increased my bench a lot, and because there's less weight off the chest, its easier on my shoulders. I think I should stick with that stuff for a while.

I squatted a little with chains the past several months while doing no program in particular - again to save stress on the low back. This Russian program I plan to do will be straight weight, so maybe that's a good thing for raw squatting.

I plan to stay raw for the near future, but I don't plan to limit myself to that first federation I joined. The next meet is a different federation & I dont know what most lifters do in that one. I do know I have a legitimate chance to break raw state records for my weight/age all 3 lifts in this next meet - I think I'm on the right page now - its shows 242.5 lb class, 45-49 years old, raw, 413.4/308.6/540.1, 1262.1 total (same guy has all three) - beating that DL would be hard in ~2 months, but maybe not impossible. I plan to crush that bench #, and the squat # seems to be right in my wheelhouse. I dont know which federation will have more meets here in the future - we'll see how it goes. I'm not planning on using gear ever at this point, but I'm not completely ruling the possibility out.

That's something to think about too. Some other things I can change if it gets to be too much are skipping squat days, changing to ssb or FS with lighter weights on some days, doing a little less volume, or other stuff I might think of along the way. I can always blow the whole thing up if it gets to be too much. I did start with a 1RM of only 380 in the Russian calculator thing - that's the most I've done in the past year, but its 40 lbs less than my PR, so I dont think the weights in this program will kill me.

The reason I'm planning to do what I suggested above is because that volume & type of DLing is not that taxing for me. And it seems to be effective. Its going to be 60% or ~310 lbs (weeks 1 & 4), 65% or ~335 lbs (weeks 2 & 5) and 70% or ~365 lbs (weeks 3 & 6) + 4 chains for 1 rep, 6 sets and done. Those weights are like medium warmups for me and I'll be doing single rep sets. Should be easy.


Thanks for all the input guys!

Weeks 1 & 2 rough draft

weeks 3 & 4

weeks 5 & 6

I'll have a better idea tonight if this is even something that will work as far as time goes - that's a potential deal killer.

As far as difficulty, I can see a few pretty tough days, but none of it looks impossible. I hope to find out.