The week that was Cycle 7 Week 1

Start of a new cycle with long term goals

Monday was for squats using the Safety Squat Bar (SSB), starting to get use to squatting again without the box, don't get me wrong box squatting is good for you overall but I find it best for speed work. I have found that without it on max effort day I am able to hit depth better and the speed of my reps goes up and is better. I box Squat for all my speed work though. Working on getting my feet out wider and pointing my toes a lot more as well. I will need to sit back way more, I am sitting down way to much
You can watch a video of this by following this link SSB Squat

Tuesday is for benchpress and I am only just getting into a well worn out bench shirt from another guy. Working to a long term plan here starting with a 3" board (not shown) to a 2" board and then down to a 1" board the up the weight and rinse and repeat. We have worked out the bottom of the shirt needs to be held in place then the presses will go a lot better. Wasn't happy with this week so I will have to repeat it next week. I am also lacking in a lot of transfer speed from where the shirt comes off and my triceps and shoulders need to kick in and also a lot of overall speed. The last one was okay but the other were hard work.
Here is a video of my last bench set Benchpress

Wednesday was deadlifts, I was in the power rack as this is just the easier way of setting up the bands that I was using plus I can still use the mats under the bar. Still having a few problems getting my butt to sit down just as I go to pull so I am doing to much stiff/crane lifting. Getting quicker at them but still not where I want to be. Had a go at 240 + 22.5 of band but wasn't there on this occasion which would have been a returning PB. However I am happy that I am willing to have a go at it.
You can see my 220+22.5 by checking out this link Deadlift

Friday was and has been for a long time speed day it is just I haven't been doing it lately and it shows. Box squats I was just slow, slow, slow and needed a 3rd mat this week (that will change) add to that I am sitting down to much and not back like I should be and my feet are nowhere near wide enough and I was slow off the box. I suppose it give me lots to work on.
Speed bench was the same thing as in being way to slow, need to work on where I am hitting as I come down and press a lot harder and faster. This was only 80kg in total and I know that I should be a lot quicker. Again something to work on.
Deadlifts I set up real different to anybody else, I am and have always found the lockout my weak point so to get around this I have adapted a exercise from Louie Simmons and Westside that works for me and that is to use bands (Generally no# 3 or 4 bands) to get the speed off the floor but by my knees they have come off and then it is my job to keep pulling as hard and fast as possible to the lockout point. If I am not ready the weight goes straight back to the floor. Over the long term it works for me. Right now I am not that quick and I really need to work on these things but it is a start.
Here is some speed videos
Box Squats
Speed bench
Speed Deads

Sunday I was able to get some stretching done as well which is something I should be doing a lot more. 

GPP

Well 2 lots of GPP done in the last 2 days.

Last night was 60 mins of yoke walk or 20 mtrs there and 20 mtrs and the same thing with pulling a sled with 40kg of weight. 2 min break and repeat. Managed to get 12 cycles done.

Today it was some more GPP using the same track but it was 5 x presses of the 55kg Log onto farmers walk with a 20kg plate in each hand to one end then pick up a ex boxing bag and carry it back then pull a sled 20mtrs with 60kg on it. Rest 2 mins then repeat. Today was a lot harder as I was only able to get 7 cycles done.

Trying to bring my weight back to a point where I am able to start using my gear again. The drugs they had me on to help control the Myeloma had some side effects with one of them being weight gain. At the moment I am the lightest I have been since June 2017. Now I need to do a lot of stretching to complement what I am doing on the weight and GPP side of things

An update

I know long time no info so here goes.

Monday was squats day and things on this are slowly going well. A few weeks ago I went right back to the start, and have started working my way back up to some numbers again. A long way to go so that is why the weights are not huge at the moment. Also I am on some drugs for my condition (read a blog from a few posts ago) that one of the side effects could be weight gain. Guess who got the weight gain, pick me therefore I am a lot bigger than I should be so I am having to work around some things. I am working on picking a weight for the week and then doing working backwards to 90% for 4 individual reps. So on Monday it was 197.5, 207.5, 215 and 220kg. This is for the 220kg ( 220kg x 1 Buffalo Bar ). Felt pretty good doing these however my feet could have been out a bit wider and I could of sat back a touch more. The reason for the 3 mats is because the Dexamethasone has put on a lot of weight around my tummy and I am finding it hard to get to depth. As soon as I get off the stuff my weight should come back a bit and that will allow me to get down easier and I will take another mat out. Hopefully this will happen around September.

Tuesday is for Benching and ummmm yeah. I Should have been doing 150kg for a single and then on to 155, 162.5 and 165kg which should have been real easy as I work back up to where I want to be, However on my first set it did not go as planned so I had to start thinking why not and I have come to the conclusion that for some reason my back is not firing properly when I am right down on the chest. This is very frustrating as my back is big enough to be able to get me back to where I was before everything happened and probably more. Here is my first rep. At the moment this says that my triceps and shoulders can do a 150kg benchpress but I want my back to help out. If I can get it to work then I should be able to do 180 - 200 raw and who knows in a shirt. When we put a 3" board in the way I can get it done although by now I was a little off and had other things on my mind so that is why I am thinking it is something to do with a nerve shutting off something in the bottom part of the rep. I didn't notice it before as I was not getting close to the limit of what my triceps could do but I am now and it is showing up now. This is what the 3" board looked like

Thursday is for Deadlifts. Because of my size I am having to do these in the sumo style. I AM NOT a sumo deadlifter have never claimed to be will never claim to be but it is getting it done somehow. As above when the drugs come off and the weight comes back I will go back to my normal style. The way I have the bands set up here it gives me 60kg of tension at the top so this is 160 for 3 reps. This is what it looked like

Friday I went in and did some GPP to try and help bring back my weight but to also just get generally overall fitter. So tonight I did some Prowler pushes combined with Yoke walks. The distance to the end is 20 meters and 20 meters back. the weight on the Prowler is 40kg and the yoke weighs 85kg. Did this for 1 hour with a 2 min rest between turns. As I get fitter I want that time to come down to 30 seconds so still have a lot of work to do.
GPP Combo

This is only part of what I do each week however I will try to put up different things as we go though this process. I hope I can work out what is happening with my benchpress as I don't really want to be leaving 110kg -  150kg on the floor because my back won't fire.      

Okay here we go

Okay so after sorting a few things out mentally in my head and getting back into the groove of things I need to get back into things.

First thing: 2 yrs after being told I probably would never lift again competitively I was able to get back to the competition stage at the Canterbury Powerlifting Association (CPA) Champs on the 8th April. My main focus for this event was to have some fun and to come away with a total. Well we got the first part done but not the 2nd part. Because of a couple of the drugs they have me on for controlling the blood counts in relation to the Myeloma I have put on a bit more weight than I would like and was having trouble getting down to depth. Unfortunately this lead me to bomb on the squats. Interesting in that I wass trying to get 255kg down and it still wouldn't go. On reflection I should have started on 270/275. With the bench I did a raw 120kg then came off and got into my benchshirt. Went to 220kg and got right out of the groove and the bar came back towards the top of my chest instead of staying down towards my belly. Got a press but it stopped 1/2 way up. Wasn't to worried about it so for a play I went for 235 on the 3rd and it went down real well and I knew this ine was coming up, however waiting for the press call my left wrist started to roll forward and I was never catching that much weight. Damn cause that weight felt good and it was set to go back up. I was still having fun and deadlifts were up next. I have been having a real mental challenge with these for a few weeks and also been trying a new style of lifting with them so opened with a real light 200 which I got and then went for 220kg which I also got. Tried for a 250kg but it just wasn't going to happen so put it down. I learnt lots and had a lot of fun and enjoyed myself which was the big part.

Then the hard part: Self evaluation Hmmm, In reality yes I need to change the depth I squat to on a box, 1 mat should put me under and also a lot more work needs to happen on my benchpress either in a shirt or out of it, and I need to sort out what I am doing with my deadlifting. I was going to pass on the South Island's in June but have since decided I need to do them to motivate me to get better and to give me more time on the platform. I feel my training program is right but I just need to sort out some of the finer details. I do need to put in more GPP work to help get me fitter and to help bring my weight back to around that 138kg mark. I weigh in for the Canterbury's at a massive 149.9kg which is way to heavy. I also need to do a lot more mobility/stretching work and speed work. So plenty to work on over the next few months. So expect more updates over the coming months.

   

Lets get back into this

Haven't been able to train properly this week due to a real annoying cough which strikes at any time and leave me gasping for air. Felt a lot better today so thought I would give it a shot. I was able to get in some Safety bar squats for close to max effort. The last rep being one of the ugliest reps I have done in a long time. Used a digital set of scales that I was able to tell that the band tension was 33kg per side and a bar that weighs 25kg. Got up to 205kg + 65kg of bands for a rep. Will go in and do the rest of the workout tomorrow.

Well here is that ugly rep. 270kg including 65kg of Band tension. Going up the bands at the moment. Feet a little close, Knee's come to far forward and I do the Honky Tonk at the bottom. 65kg of Band tension Bar weighs 25kg. Thank you to Rene de joux for keeping and eye on me. Also to Maddy Walker for bringing in a hand held digital weight scale that you can quickly measure band tension with. Also having Rene Riksem-Old there helping and filming. 
link for the scales
http://www.macpac.co.nz/macpac-electronic-scales-58238.html

Week one out of the way

After nine months of training and a couple of weeks of testing myself I feel confident enough to start some serious training and to aim for a return to the competition platform at the Canterbury Powerlifting Championships in April 2017. This will be nearly 3 yrs after my last competitive outing. I feel that I am able to turn up to win and not just make up numbers. A lot has changed for me in the time since my last competition and some of my training has as well. I will be training in my gear for safety and when some people would be saying you should be doing doubles or triples again for safety I might be only doing singles. I still have the drive to want to win and to be the best. I have also set myself some big goals as well and if I didn't feel I could achieve them I would not be wanting to compete. WATCHING SUCKS. Also there is the goals I had last year that need to be chased and conquered

1. 900kg Total
2. 907.5kg (2000 lbs) Total
3. 300kg Benchpress
4. 365kg Squat

These were the goals for last year. There are a couple of other goals for next year however at this stage I will keep them to myself. 

To the week of training

Monday went pretty well with me getting the numbers on the big stuff that I wanted. 3 sets of 3 reps @ 265kg. Speed of the reps was good even though I have not a lot of speed work over the last year. I had more trouble with foot placement than anything else. Accessory work was also good but will need to up the intensity next week.

Tuesday was a hit and miss day as I was only able to get my benches in as getting use to the benchshirt again. By the time I had finished that I had run out of time so went in on Wednesday to finish it off. Again the accessory stuff was good but I will have to challenge myself a bit more on that next week. 

Friday was for deadlifting which went well, not looking for big numbers yet however I had 180kg + 40kg of chain off  3 mats. Good feel and happy with them but need to work on locking my knees out more. The accessory work was good as well however some of the numbers will have to be changed for next week as I am leaving a bit on the floor. 

Overall a good starting week with being able to hit the numbers I wanted which now gives me confidence I can carry on. 

A few days in one go and a couple of videos

Lazy Lazy me however here goes.

Tuesday 9th August 2016

Tyre Flips

A rarity today was able to do tyre flips as a warmup as it wasn't being used. Tyre weighs about 100kg and is pretty easy to flip. I just have to get down a bit lower than I am use to but I have the power to flip it. 3 sets of 5 flips. Hopefully I will be strong enough soon to start using my baby tyre which weighs in at 170kg. GOALS

Buffalo bar box squats with 40kg of chain,

Time to get a bit more serious with these now and to that end I have brought reps back to 6 to start building some power. Box has 2 mats on it and for the IPF I am now below parallel. Feet could have been wider which would have stopped me from bunching up towards the bottom and I was sitting down to much and not sitting back. That is why a vidoe camera is so good as a training toll. 4 sets of 6 reps @ 180/140

Buffalo Bar Front Squats

Using the Get Strength Front squat harness and the same buffalo bar, I wimped out here and only went to 70kg when it should have been 100kg. I must stop doing this if I want to achieve my goals. Again my feet were to narrow and I was not quite getting to parallel. Had speed on the way up but that was about it. 2 sets of 10 reps.

Stiff leg Deadlifts

Have not done this in a while so I though I would put these back in for this cycle. Need to go up in weight big time as I am a lot stronger than I think. Reps were easy to easy Need to be up around the 100kg+ mark. They will be heavier next week.

Hanging Leg Curls

A brand new exercise. Using the Reverse Hyper Machine (which doesn't get use by to many people) I placed a 40kg Dumbbell on the ground behind it and put 2 small mini green bands around the handle, I then put them over my heels and jumped up onto the Reverse Hyper machine, let my leg hang and then curled the bands up. Needs a bit more fine tuning to be real effective but it does hit your hams from a different angle and shows up the weak ham real quick. Add in the 15 reps and this is not as easy as you think. 3 sets of 15 reps with a tension weight of about 32.5kg in this case

Reverse Hypers

One of the most underutilized pieces of equipment in the gym. I find this a good way to finish off after doing squats and co. Using it right to help traction out your back makes it a lot better. After watching a video from Louie Simmons (Westside Fame) on how to use it I tried it out and yes it make a massive difference. Tip your head down as you bring your feet down and you get a massive stretch in your spine. Raise your head up as you bring your feet up and it works wonders. Wi;; keep doing it this way. 4 sets of 15 reps @ 120kg. 

   

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