Strongman/GPP workout Number 1

Need to start doing this to help build some overall Strength, Power and Speed.

Got started with some Hammer hits for 5 sets of 10 reps. Good way of getting the Ab's working and I need to strengthen up though my mid section. The Sledge hammer weigh's 6 lbs.

  

                                                  

Next up was Log presses off the tyre's. Not sure whether it was the training over the last few months but they seemed real easy today. The press was actually pretty easy and quick. Happy with this since it was the first time I had done this for a while. 

                                            

Tyre Flips were up next with the baby tyre. I call it the baby tyre because it only weighs about 170kg not like the Mongrel which is 225kg+. 5 Sets of 5 Flips for today. Need to lift my head a bit more as I am looking at the other end of the tyre to much. And for people who want to say the tyre flipping can cause torn biceps my comment is if you are flipping right you should not be able to feel your biceps at all as this should be all though your butt. Here is a video of one of my sets Flipping the baby tyre

I then went on to do some framers walk using my 30kg gas bottles with sand in them. It was down the drive and back, about 40 mtrs there and 40 mtrs back. Felt pretty good doing these although with my shoulder I had to put the bottles down and release my shoulder part of the way back. If I use my head I can continue to lift. If I am stupid I sit down and watch everyone else.

                                               

Finished off the whole workout by doing tyre drags down the driveway and back like with doing the farmers walk. Felt good and strong all the way and could really feel my butt and hamstrings working which is good as I need to more in this area to help with the bigger squats and bigger deadlifts. 

                                               

Bench day again

Today was bench/triceps day and as I generally work nights today I had to work the morning shift ( I work in a hotel), so I wasn't in the same mind frame as I would have normally have been, therefore I was not sure what to expect.

I worked my way up to what I normally do while warming up and felt pretty good so after my last warm up rep of 180kg off the 4" board, I got into my benchshirt and did a sighter at 220kg off the 4" board which went real well. I was staying with the 4" board. My first work set was 240kg and it felt good and strong. Quick press out so on to 250kg with a slight adjustment to the shirt and brought the bar out a bit further over my chest which put me into a better position to press from and the weight came up real well. Happy with this as I missed it last week which annoyed me a bit. As in my previous post I am not afraid of failure so I took a gamble and went for 260kg. Good lift off but just as I was starting to pull the bar to my chest one off my wrist wraps came loose so I did not have the protection on the wrist I wanted but I still went for it and got it back up but to protect my wrist I stop about 2" from lockout. Then I thought what the hell lets go for it and put 265kg on the bar for a single rep. Good set up and it came to my chest nice and smooth with a strong press out but just could not hold the lockout however I was still real happy to have had a go. Have next week to have another go at that or a bit higher. Who knows however I still have to keep pushing myself. I will not back down to the weight.

After this it was onto some tricep training which was a bit measure because my tri's had already been hammered with the big benches.

Stop presses 3 sets of 6 reps @ 125kg. Starting from a stopped position makes this harder as in this case I am using it as a chest exercise and not a tricep exercise. It is harder because the momentum of the movement and your back are taken out of the exercise. Try it one day and you will see what I mean.
Close grip Bench press 3 sets of 6 rep,5 reps and 5 reps @ 150kg. Real tough work by now as my triceps are starting to run out of power that's why the 2 sets at 5 reps.
Floor press 3 sets of 8 reps @ 100kg I brought the weight back on this for safety reasons. Good long stop on the floor with a strong press to the top though my triceps as this is what I am using this for at the moment.
Flat back D/bell extensions 3 x 8 @ 35kg. Again brought the weight back a bit for safety and the reps as my triceps were pretty dead by this stage and this was just a finisher.
I feel that due to not doing enough tri's over the last few cycles and not lifting the heavy weight it has paid me back by not letting me do the big weights for a couple of weeks however since I picked that up and have now started to train my tricep more and with bigger weights the big weights will come a lot easier. Time will tell.

Ahhhh Silly season

Because of the silly season Monday's squat and back session did not quite go the way it should have. Got in a little later than I want to but hey. This is the second week of my 5th cycle so it means that Safety bar squats  are up. Today I change it a little bit by only having the No# 2 bands over the bar giving me 60kg of tension. Worked up to 180kg + 60kg of band tension on the bar for 2 reps before putting my squat suit on. Straps down at the moment but to protect my knees I am using my knee wraps. These went well. Good depth this week so happy to be able to get down. Then on to 200kg + 60kg of band tension on the bar for a couple of reps and again they felt good. Next up was 220kg + 60kg of band tension for another 2 reps. Good strong solid sets and reps so quite happy with these. Since I was feeling good I thought I would have a go at 250 on the bar + 60kg of band tension for a single. This would be a PB if I could get it. Unfortunately it did not happen. The weight felt light and the descent was nice and smooth but at the bottom there was nothing as I squeezed my glutes to try and come back up. Sat in the bottom position for about 3 - 5 seconds before I called my spotters in to help. I would far sooner go home knowing than not. This would have been a massive PB (about 25kg) so not to worried. I know I can do it now but I will just have to go and do some other strengthening work on other exercises for a few cycles before I have another go at that weight. I know it can be done. I know a few people will say "why are you happy with what happen you missed the weight". I do not fear failure as all it shows me is what I have to do to get stronger and to be able to lift more. Very few things in life come to you on your first go so I look at it that I have to get the misses out of the way in the gym and not on the competition stage. At the weights I lift most people have problems doing half of that weight so if they want to say something go for it. Never be afraid to miss or fail as all it is doing is showing you where your training is at, at this stage and what you have to do to get better.

I then only had time to get a few sets of bentover rows done before I ran out of time as I had a work chrissy function to go to. 3 sets of 120kg for 6 reps. Ahhhh begone silly season.

Speed day

Well I got in to do some speed work for a change yeah. This is something I have been a bit lazy on over the last few cycles and it is now paying me back especially when I am benching. Pick it up last week and have put some changes in place so I can get it done. No point in turning up to a big competition if I don't have a lot of speed in me. Because I live a normal life and have to go to work for a living and I have a wife I get to spend to little time with I have had to modify the Westside approach and get all my speed stuff done on the same day. Am I not quite as fast as I could be, Probably, But am I faster than if I did nothing, Yes. Sometimes you just have to make compromise's. So it all gets done at the same time and so far it seems to work for me.
Any way first up for me today was Box squats with the safety squat bar. Today I set it up with the no#2 bands over the bar giving me about 60kg of tension at the top and a all up weight of 50% of what i did on Monday so about 140kg. and the box was set so while sitting on it with my feet out wide I was just below parallel (IPF). 10 sets of 2 reps per set with an average time of 0.72 seconds for the first rep and a average total time of 2.27 seconds for the 2 reps and a total time to do all the sets is about 15 - 18 mins. Not to worried how the reps look more worried about out "n" out speed with good form. Also trying to get a good strong contraction from my glutes off the box. I know I have done it right when I can fell my butt at the end of this exercise. Thought I had some photo's of this but I don't.

On to Speed benches with the No#2 over the Fat bar and a total of about 125kg at the top of the rep. Again speed is more important than nice form. I stop on my chest(IPF Rules), then drive hard and fast for 3 reps. I try and set up like I would on the lifting platform. 10 sets of 3 reps gets this done. Again this takes me about 20 mins to get though. My average time for this was 0.39 seconds for the first rep and a total average time of   1.88 seconds for the 3 reps.

Fat bar benchpress set up with the No# 2 Bands over the bar

Using the Fat bar to do my Speed work. 

Then it was on to Speed deads and I do this real different to everybody else in which I start at 55% of what I did on Wednesday and add 5% to each lift for 10 single reps. I am trying to pull as hard and fast as possible. The first 5 reps are done Sumo style and the last 5 reps are done Normal which is how I deadlift at competition. The sumo is to help build strength in my abductors overall not specifically. While I do use the bands this is for 2 reasons, One it is speed work I am doing and 2 the bands are set to come off just below my knees ( a bit like rack pulls) and if I am not ready to pull then the weight will go back to the floor in a hurry. I believe true rack pulls do not set you up anatomically correct for the deadlift. My thoughts and I am sticking to it. Anyway 10 sets of single pulls as fast as I can. My average time was 0.68 seconds per pull.

Set up for the Speed deads

Part way though a rep

Overall a good day but something I need to do more of and something for me to work on over the next 12 months. by then hopefully I should be real quick with a lot more weight.

On time and Up to Date

Last power day of the week, Deadlifts. Went into Eastside to do Fat Bar Deadlifts but on warm up could really feel my elbow hurting (same injury from helping put up squat suit straps from April this year) so since watching sucks I changed to a normal bar and put the No# 2 bands over the bar.

Set up and ready to go with work weight on the bar, 200kg + 40kg of band tension at the top of the rep

This is the first week of a cycle so the weight was not real high but a good solid weight. I did 10 singles with this with about 90 - 120 seconds between reps. All reps had a good strong pull feel to them. Was able to lock out strong on each one. A lot happier with how this went today.

This is the 7th rep of 10 and basically at the top of the movement

Moved on to Log press for shoulder today as well. I seem to be the only person at the moment in Eastside who is willing to change things, so to that end I pulled out the blue steel log that you can see in the background of the above shot. This is used so rarely that I had to add in the weight of the dust on the log for my total weight. LOL

Lots of Dust, Hmmm, What ya reckon another 100grms of weight.

From what I have been told the log weighs 70 - 75kg so I reckon if I work on 72.5kg I am going to be somewhere close to it's real weight, but who cares about the weight it is how many times you can press it. 3 sets of 6 reps gave my shoulders a good workout. 

Here's me in action

Pressing the Blue Steel Log

Big heavy cycle for my shoulders at the moment so on to Behind the neck Shoulder presses for 3 sets of 8 reps @60kg, Bentover Lat Raises for 3 sets of 10 reps @ 12.5kg and that was shoulders done. I like to control the negative portion of the bentover rep so the weight is not real heavy. I know I can do a lot more weight but since I have not been doing some of these things as well as I should have I have to work back into those weights. Luckily I picked it up now and I have time to fix these things. This time next year and I would have had problems.

Also I have been really badly ignoring my Hamstrings so have made a plan to bring them up over the next year so it was on to the GHR machine. Having never been in a position to use one I had to get some tuition on how to use it. The goal was to do 3 sets of 10 reps but after being shown how to use it and what to do I was only able to 3 sets of 5 reps out. Hey it is a start. The hard part I found was keeping my mind on pulling my weight back up with my Hams and not throwing myself up. My hams are no where strong enough and I will be feeling them for a couple of days. If I want to squat 350kg - 370kg in competition at the Nationals or Commonwealths then I have to start doing these things. Whatever it takes to do that. 

Benchpresses Hmmmm

Benchpress power day today and all I can say is Hmmmmm. Not the way I wanted it to go. I have been thinking that I need to have a good look at what I am doing on these days and that I will have to change things and so today proved it. Work up to my normal weight before putting a shirt on (220kg) and things felt good so I was surprised when I didn't quite lockout the way I should have but thought nothing of it, just one of those things. Put my work weight on (250kg) and wanted doubles today. Down to a 2" board. I had plenty of power off my chest but no lockout. NOT IMPRESSED. So had another go and the same thing. So stopped there as I was not getting what I wanted. 

This did not go anywhere near as well as it should have

Now my thought had been that I was not doing enough or using enough weight when doing my tricep and shoulder training and this proves it, Also throw in not a lot of consistent speed work and you have missed benchpresses. So while I will take the hit on benches I will continue with the plan to teach myself a lesson. So on I went with bench stop presses which is completely different to tricep stop presses for 3 sets of 6 reps with a light weight this week but will reevaluate this during the week and go for a lot heavier. 3 sets 6 of Close grip bench again with a lighter weight and 3 sets 8 of floor presses and to finish off with 3 sets of 10 reps for flat back d/bell tricep extensions gave my tricep a better workout. As I have said I can handle a lot more weight on all of these exercises so will have a look at the weights and move them up quite a bit next week.

I also started to think I need to do more hamstring work so put in 3 set of 10 reps @ 80kg of Stiff legged deadlifts as a starting point. Will need to work these hard over the coming months as If I am real with myself I have not done anywhere near what I should be doing for them. 

Last but not least was 3 sets of Hyper Extensions for 10 reps. 

Have I been real Lazy or what

I seemed to have been real lazy on this for a while. Life, Work and a few other things have been going on, but maybe that has just been an excuse.

Anyways.......

It is now approx 52 weeks until the Commonwealth Powerlifting Champs in Auckland, New Zealand in December 2013, So i have a lot of work to do.

Monday,
Safety bar squats for my main power exercise today with the No# 1 and 2 bands over the bar. Thought the tension would be about 60kg but it turned out to be 100kg. Went up to 185kg on the bar (bar weighs 25kg) and with the added tension of the bands a total of 280kg at the top. Probably 220 -230kg at the bottom of the rep so weight all the way round. Had my Squat Suit on but straps down and knee wraps as well. It felt like I was fighting the suit all day today as I was having real problems getting down to parallel, Speed on the way up was not a problem. Feet could have been a little wider. Tough day but if I want big numbers next year then I am just going to have to live with it. I know some days are going to be good and some days are not going to be good so I just have to accept it. 3 Sets of 2 Reps @ 280/220 (top of rep over bottom of the rep)
On to the rest of my workout for today of Bentover rows, Cable rows and Dumbbell rows to help build up my back. Again have to change my attitude to everything as I know I can be a lot stronger in my back which is not only going to help my Squatting and Deadlifting but will also help with driving power though my benchpress. Finished off with some green band axe swings to help strengthen up my Obliques. Notice the other week that I was shaking to much though my mid section so will have to strengthen them up.