Still sticking with the easy weak, I went for a lot of light volume, I went
Bench
225x10
275x9 - missed 10th
50 face pulls
close grip with chains
135x10 x a bunch of sets
side laterals
Still feeling very run dow, and I'm just going to not push it, it's very frustrating as I get a lot of joy and release out of my training, but I've trained through so much now, it's really painful to train, I'm looking forward to getting back to being pain free all the time. It will be a lot more work, but I don't mind. Just need to start feeling a bit better, and have more energy, and it should be easy.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday squat/pull
Really wanted to train, then promptly had no desire to train at all. I commend the 9-5 crowd, it's tough... Before, I was never really shut off, which I find a ton easier than stop, medium, go, medium, go, stop, stop, medium, go,medium stop. I can't really do the all the time thing anymore, and it's a lot harder to adjust than I thought it would be. I've still got a ton of things hanging over my head I have to get done, just sort of been finding it tricky to get things done. The blog is easy, I try to give myself an hour of computer time a day. Some days I do more, but that's my time to update my blog, facebook, youtube, whatever. During the summer, I'd watch youtube videos until I fell asleep, but right now, 1 hour a day, just so I stay productive... not that it seems to be a big help or anything.
Did some singles with weights in the 300's, did a triple with 405 in the deadlift. Just took it easy, I have no desire to train, and I'm just stressing myself out because some days it feels like I'll never get to 600. I try to give myself a ton of positive self talk, visualization and really feeling it and keep my sights set on small goals that I think will help. Like if I front squatted 445-455 i'm pretty sure I can do it.
One of my problems is I'm literally scared of that weight, I'm scared of the weights I'm lifting now, I've been so beat up over and over, trained through pain so many times, I think I'm literally scared of how much it's going to hurt to get there. I thought I trained through pain before, then Willie told me to squat every day... yeeesh. I think I'm just going to keep recevoring until things stop hurting, and if I have to train through more than moderate pain, I think I'll just bail.
I've put 600 on my back for quater squats, it just seems ridiculous to be able to go below parallel olympic style with that much weight on your back. Besides the russians, there's like 10 guys I've really found on youtube that do it in a style. In my old style, I'd be smoking 600 right now I think. or well on my way, olympic style might take a bit. At least my bench is going good.
Working for a handyman for a bit, and it's been tricky to adjust to
Did some singles with weights in the 300's, did a triple with 405 in the deadlift. Just took it easy, I have no desire to train, and I'm just stressing myself out because some days it feels like I'll never get to 600. I try to give myself a ton of positive self talk, visualization and really feeling it and keep my sights set on small goals that I think will help. Like if I front squatted 445-455 i'm pretty sure I can do it.
One of my problems is I'm literally scared of that weight, I'm scared of the weights I'm lifting now, I've been so beat up over and over, trained through pain so many times, I think I'm literally scared of how much it's going to hurt to get there. I thought I trained through pain before, then Willie told me to squat every day... yeeesh. I think I'm just going to keep recevoring until things stop hurting, and if I have to train through more than moderate pain, I think I'll just bail.
I've put 600 on my back for quater squats, it just seems ridiculous to be able to go below parallel olympic style with that much weight on your back. Besides the russians, there's like 10 guys I've really found on youtube that do it in a style. In my old style, I'd be smoking 600 right now I think. or well on my way, olympic style might take a bit. At least my bench is going good.
Working for a handyman for a bit, and it's been tricky to adjust to
Sunday, January 29, 2012
tight
Lately I've been getting so tight, I just cannot sit comfortably in any position, it's been very frustrating, but I do think it's what I need to be able to pull big. My whole back is just tender and achey, and I can't slouch at all anymore, when I sit up, my back is very straight, my entire back will be against a chair now, whereas before I think my low back was so curved it didn't actually touch.
Normally I'd think this is cool, but once again, I'm extremely uncomfortable, and finding it very difficult to sleep, or just sit down and watch tv. It doesn't help that I hit the over training wall and need to back it off for 2 more sessions at least. I got a little scared to be without the pain, but I think lifting pain free again will be fun.
So far, I don't think I need to back off my bench too much, but once I hit that wall I'm not sure what to do. probably just drop the volume and work on some singles and doubles most likely.
Normally I'd think this is cool, but once again, I'm extremely uncomfortable, and finding it very difficult to sleep, or just sit down and watch tv. It doesn't help that I hit the over training wall and need to back it off for 2 more sessions at least. I got a little scared to be without the pain, but I think lifting pain free again will be fun.
So far, I don't think I need to back off my bench too much, but once I hit that wall I'm not sure what to do. probably just drop the volume and work on some singles and doubles most likely.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Friday squat pull deload
Headed in, did a good warm up, felt mixed energy, I wanted to go heavier just because of habit, and a fear the light weights will throw me off, but not a huge deal. I've been thinking a fair bit lately, and I think I still need time off the back squat, I'll do a couple weeks of work in May, just to see where I'm at and probably just squat 500 at the meet in May, I should... I say should, because I've gotta force myself to relax... but I should work on my bench and deadlift, I've heavily neglected those lifts because I've been too banged up to practice bench very well, I've never practiced it often enough, 3x a week is amazing for form, and I just had this weird thought in my head I was a bad bencher... I re worked my form a few times, and now I don't feel that way. I got the same thought with my deadlift, I got this thought in my head that I was a bad deadlifter because I could never keep a flat back, and I thought it must have been my long torso, basically used my proportions as an excuse as everyone is just so desperate to slam people with. I've never understood why they have to phrase it like that. The term just making excuses gets thrown around a ton, and I think it's out of date. I've got 15 kids on my team, and none of them make excuses, they'll tell me their issue, then continue to work their ass off. They'll miss a big lift, and tell me why they thought they missed it, I think the old guard calls that an excuse... What a lot of people don't understand, is young peope these days are going 100mph, and really just want some positive feedback, and want criticism in a positive way.
I've found a lot of my coaches have tended towards the negative side over the years, and I'd ask a trusted business friend, why is it so horrible to get the feedback I want? instead of just hearing about all the things I did wrong, that I'm well aware of. I was actually considered closed minded because of this, but I honestly feel I was just ahead of the game. Coaches felt I didn't want to be coached, I just didn't want to hear negative coaching, I've always been a strong leader, and I've always been able to pick people that could work for me in 5 minutes, this year I had a let down in business... but I just couldn't take the stress anymore... frustrating, but it's over.
I personally find it's the coaches responsibility to guide the student, and to make it fun, and to make their feedback easy to hear, as well as exciting to hear. I've personally hear a ton of... "you're not doing it right. That is all." ... it got to the point, where if all the person could say was what I was doing wrong, and if they didn't have guidance or a suggestion on how to fix it, I'd get pretty pissed. If it makes sense to you, just to walk around looking for mistakes... and that's all you've got...then stay the hell away from me.
Anyhew, I did train tonite, but light.
warm up
-lots of reps on the sitting hip machines, 1 leg deadlifts, full paul warm up, body weight squats
Front squat with chains
bar, 95,135,185 for 4 sets of 3
Sumo
225 4 sets of 3, 315 1x3
- wasn't in any pain, but still didn't have the desire, so I'll keep doing this until i want it again.
I'm going to focus on deadlifts over my front squat for a while, and just focus on doubles with 315. I'm going to add a day each week for a bit. I got the idea in my head that I was a bad deadlifter, but now I'm starting to feel like I probably couldn't deadlift 900 pounds, but I believe if I get as strong as I can be, I'll pull 800... and that's world class. since I started driving with my legs more, I know I'll get 600 soon, I might even get it in the gym, I'm going to spend a few weeks adding weight to my triples from the floor, see where I can get, then go back down to 5 plates, and do 5 sets of 4, then 5 sets of 5 the following week, then I'll probably be pretty close to the meet. I think I'll do some singles with chains, around 80% one day, and just focus on speed after grinding off the floor, and I think the 3rd day will be 70% standing on blocks, hmm... I may not have enough time for building volume. I'm just going to pull a lot before the push pull, and bench a lot, 3x a week each, and see what happens.
Come summer, I think I'm just going to stay away from competition, and just get jacked maybe hire someone to coach me to a bodybuilding show, and maybe do some strongman. Do curls and leg press, keep benching a lot, train my back harder, which I should start doing pretty soon, I have no lats, I think I'm going to push the volume up to 100 reps of pull downs after benching, maybe more. Not going back to pull ups any time soon, I'm just not there to be able to do them the right way, and I don't want to strain my arms, after a few years of constant pain, training without brachialis pain is really nice. I'm sitting around 240 right now, and I think I can hold onto it and get leaner, and just switch carbs to beans and patotos and some gluten free bread, and keep the bcaas high, and I think I can hold 240 in a healthy, lean fashion. I'd rather not get under 200 for a bodybuilding show, but afterwards, I'd get to 250+ I bet and could be what I need to get to that weight in a healthy way. The high volume training has helped a lot on bench, I'd like to be able to get more volume on my lower body and back as well.
The constant pain from training really lent to the anxiety I was getting, and I used to be able to just push it down, but I don't like that anymore, so I'll accept some knee/hip pain to squat big, but that's it. Willie told me he just wants to be pain free, and I'm going to start figuring that one out.
I've found a lot of my coaches have tended towards the negative side over the years, and I'd ask a trusted business friend, why is it so horrible to get the feedback I want? instead of just hearing about all the things I did wrong, that I'm well aware of. I was actually considered closed minded because of this, but I honestly feel I was just ahead of the game. Coaches felt I didn't want to be coached, I just didn't want to hear negative coaching, I've always been a strong leader, and I've always been able to pick people that could work for me in 5 minutes, this year I had a let down in business... but I just couldn't take the stress anymore... frustrating, but it's over.
I personally find it's the coaches responsibility to guide the student, and to make it fun, and to make their feedback easy to hear, as well as exciting to hear. I've personally hear a ton of... "you're not doing it right. That is all." ... it got to the point, where if all the person could say was what I was doing wrong, and if they didn't have guidance or a suggestion on how to fix it, I'd get pretty pissed. If it makes sense to you, just to walk around looking for mistakes... and that's all you've got...then stay the hell away from me.
Anyhew, I did train tonite, but light.
warm up
-lots of reps on the sitting hip machines, 1 leg deadlifts, full paul warm up, body weight squats
Front squat with chains
bar, 95,135,185 for 4 sets of 3
Sumo
225 4 sets of 3, 315 1x3
- wasn't in any pain, but still didn't have the desire, so I'll keep doing this until i want it again.
I'm going to focus on deadlifts over my front squat for a while, and just focus on doubles with 315. I'm going to add a day each week for a bit. I got the idea in my head that I was a bad deadlifter, but now I'm starting to feel like I probably couldn't deadlift 900 pounds, but I believe if I get as strong as I can be, I'll pull 800... and that's world class. since I started driving with my legs more, I know I'll get 600 soon, I might even get it in the gym, I'm going to spend a few weeks adding weight to my triples from the floor, see where I can get, then go back down to 5 plates, and do 5 sets of 4, then 5 sets of 5 the following week, then I'll probably be pretty close to the meet. I think I'll do some singles with chains, around 80% one day, and just focus on speed after grinding off the floor, and I think the 3rd day will be 70% standing on blocks, hmm... I may not have enough time for building volume. I'm just going to pull a lot before the push pull, and bench a lot, 3x a week each, and see what happens.
Come summer, I think I'm just going to stay away from competition, and just get jacked maybe hire someone to coach me to a bodybuilding show, and maybe do some strongman. Do curls and leg press, keep benching a lot, train my back harder, which I should start doing pretty soon, I have no lats, I think I'm going to push the volume up to 100 reps of pull downs after benching, maybe more. Not going back to pull ups any time soon, I'm just not there to be able to do them the right way, and I don't want to strain my arms, after a few years of constant pain, training without brachialis pain is really nice. I'm sitting around 240 right now, and I think I can hold onto it and get leaner, and just switch carbs to beans and patotos and some gluten free bread, and keep the bcaas high, and I think I can hold 240 in a healthy, lean fashion. I'd rather not get under 200 for a bodybuilding show, but afterwards, I'd get to 250+ I bet and could be what I need to get to that weight in a healthy way. The high volume training has helped a lot on bench, I'd like to be able to get more volume on my lower body and back as well.
The constant pain from training really lent to the anxiety I was getting, and I used to be able to just push it down, but I don't like that anymore, so I'll accept some knee/hip pain to squat big, but that's it. Willie told me he just wants to be pain free, and I'm going to start figuring that one out.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Thursday bench
Got to train a couple awesome people before I trained. Kenny Dusseault is just a beast. He goes through his workout in 45 minutes, and it takes me twice as long to do the same thing. I have him right now doing roughly the program Mark made for me, but with higher volume on the main lifts, and Kenny is handling it like a champ. I may have given him a cold/flu... but he's a gamer, has an extremely high work capacity, and was already extremely well trained before I did anything. All I really do is make small corrections as I learn Kennys technique. I've found if you watch someone long enough, you can figure a lot out. This summer when I was killing myself to re learn my own squat, I'd watch tons of youtube videos of the highest level guys, then I'd spend some time watching some videos I have of Willie Albert, where I could take the camera angles I personally wanted. I find Kenny and Willie have very similar styles, and do a more true olympic squat. Tonite, Kenny was looking awesome.
Kathleen Murphy, is someone I just feel preivelaged to get to work with. She's lost over 100lbs in order to be able to give her brother a kidney, and she's still going. I agreed to train her if she took the 90 day health challenge, I haven't put her in yet, as we're deciding which products she wants to use, but we'll get around to it. My philosophy is to do as little as possible to make progress, and righ now we're starting with eliminating dairy and sugar, Kathleen keeps a food diary that i'll be going over sometime soon.
She lifts extremely heavy, and we've lightened her up a bit, and we've been working on her form, and then the numbers will come back. Today we did military press, and a lot of back work.
Tonite, I'm still feeling over trained, so I went in with good intentions, but called things off mid bench workout. It was just feeling too hard, and that's a good time to stop. Still put a bit of work in, happy about that.
Went: Bench
275x3,295x3, 315 x5, 255 +chains x2 sets of 5
did back work during Kathleens workout, light, but a lot of volume.
Going to have to back off for a bit, I may just do the sets without the chains for the rest of the week. would be a good idea, back off a bit before I start to fail reps.
Still pretty happy about the 315, I think I could have done 7 or 8, anymore and it would be hard to tell. But locking the weight out just feels easy to me, the chains have taken the hard part of the lift for me and made it pretty easy, now if it comes off my chest, which my benches all do, the lockout feels simple. I've adjusted my technique big time during this, and I've learned to drop my shoulders back and internally rotate my shoulders, getting my lats into the bench big time. Overall very happy. I'd like to test some big weights on Saturday, but I'm feeling a light volume day of triples with 285. I was supposed to do that with chains I think. I would have liked to do some triples with 320-330 or heavier, the 305 with chains last week felt amazing.
Kathleen Murphy, is someone I just feel preivelaged to get to work with. She's lost over 100lbs in order to be able to give her brother a kidney, and she's still going. I agreed to train her if she took the 90 day health challenge, I haven't put her in yet, as we're deciding which products she wants to use, but we'll get around to it. My philosophy is to do as little as possible to make progress, and righ now we're starting with eliminating dairy and sugar, Kathleen keeps a food diary that i'll be going over sometime soon.
She lifts extremely heavy, and we've lightened her up a bit, and we've been working on her form, and then the numbers will come back. Today we did military press, and a lot of back work.
Tonite, I'm still feeling over trained, so I went in with good intentions, but called things off mid bench workout. It was just feeling too hard, and that's a good time to stop. Still put a bit of work in, happy about that.
Went: Bench
275x3,295x3, 315 x5, 255 +chains x2 sets of 5
did back work during Kathleens workout, light, but a lot of volume.
Going to have to back off for a bit, I may just do the sets without the chains for the rest of the week. would be a good idea, back off a bit before I start to fail reps.
Still pretty happy about the 315, I think I could have done 7 or 8, anymore and it would be hard to tell. But locking the weight out just feels easy to me, the chains have taken the hard part of the lift for me and made it pretty easy, now if it comes off my chest, which my benches all do, the lockout feels simple. I've adjusted my technique big time during this, and I've learned to drop my shoulders back and internally rotate my shoulders, getting my lats into the bench big time. Overall very happy. I'd like to test some big weights on Saturday, but I'm feeling a light volume day of triples with 285. I was supposed to do that with chains I think. I would have liked to do some triples with 320-330 or heavier, the 305 with chains last week felt amazing.
wednesdy squat/pull
Went up to a 315 front squat - stopped.
I'd been waiting to see if and when I'd hit a wall, I've been working on my feet during the days,and that's not helping, but I basically just hit the wall, I was very tired, and my right calf spasmed right up compensating for my left leg, and my left glute not firing very well.
I'll be taking the next 2 days lighter, let myself recover, then do one more big push.
Tried a 315 back squat and did it ever feel weird, i'm going to have to re learn that one all over again.
I'd been waiting to see if and when I'd hit a wall, I've been working on my feet during the days,and that's not helping, but I basically just hit the wall, I was very tired, and my right calf spasmed right up compensating for my left leg, and my left glute not firing very well.
I'll be taking the next 2 days lighter, let myself recover, then do one more big push.
Tried a 315 back squat and did it ever feel weird, i'm going to have to re learn that one all over again.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Tuesday bench
Went in feeling really rough, didn't get all my meals again... and had a great training session. I've gotta get my crap together pretty soon, but overall, things seem to be going fine. I think I must have a ways to go volume wise on bench. I'm not sure whether to take a down week, or just keep on until I hit a wall... Did 295x7 today straight weight first set, felt like I could have done 10. I don't want to panc or rush things, I can take a down week whenever I need to if I hit a wall. I'm going to eventually switch to triples, doubles and singles before the meet, then light and heavy days. It's only 5-6 weeks away, that's when I'd like to try for the 400 bench, would be pretty cool. It's hard to believe it can actually happen, but I think it's going to... It's pretty relieving, and just goes to show, consistency wins out over brains any day, lol. I think I just massively under trained my bench all before this, and now the volume is just me adjusting to it. I've got no aches or pains, so I think I can keep it going. I think when I take a down week and recover a bit, I'm going to blow up, looking forward to it. When Kades bench was 400, he could do a set of 10 with 315, now he does a few sets of 10 when it was low 400's, now I dunno, but if I can get to 315 for 10, then I'm pretty sure I'll come close to 400.
bench
225x3,275x3,295x7, 245 4x7 with 45 lbs chains
Close grip pull down
2x20
external rotations
2x10
Good session, was very tired, Wasn't feeling that pop, but still got all my reps. Next week 255 with chains, and 305 for 7.
bench
225x3,275x3,295x7, 245 4x7 with 45 lbs chains
Close grip pull down
2x20
external rotations
2x10
Good session, was very tired, Wasn't feeling that pop, but still got all my reps. Next week 255 with chains, and 305 for 7.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Monday squat pull
Front squat
275,315,345,365,375
345x2
Deadlift
405x3, 475x3
Was feeling very drained after emptying the furniture out of an entire appartment, then ripping out the carpets... I was pretty exhausted and decided to have a low level workout, but stilll get the work in. Tomorrow should be better, have to work to get more meals in the morning in right now.
275,315,345,365,375
345x2
Deadlift
405x3, 475x3
Was feeling very drained after emptying the furniture out of an entire appartment, then ripping out the carpets... I was pretty exhausted and decided to have a low level workout, but stilll get the work in. Tomorrow should be better, have to work to get more meals in the morning in right now.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Sunday bench
felt rushed, didn't handle my food or fluid intake on the day. still had a very strong day, but I was very low on energy.
Bench with 45lbs chains
275x3, 295x3, 305x3, 275x3, 255 4x3
Lat pull downs
20,20,14
External rotations
Bench with 45lbs chains
275x3, 295x3, 305x3, 275x3, 255 4x3
Lat pull downs
20,20,14
External rotations
Friday, January 20, 2012
Friday squat/pull
Went in completely intending to take a slow night, but I had 2 coaching sessions before hand, everyone was working hard, and I was doing some soft tissue work on my left glute medius, and rolled my calfs a bit... by go time I was feeling fine enough to train, but during the day it's just a nightmare. I've been working for a handyman lately, my dad got me the job, it's been really cool, but a lot of just being an extra set of hands while I learn new stuff, and the standng has been a total nightmre. It's such a wussy thing to have to complain about simply standing... annoys the hell out of me.
Calfs are still extremely tight while training, but more manageable, I think they just need to adjust to the smaller heel.
Front squat
225,315,335,355,375,395,415
Farmers deadlift
600 off 2" boxx3
600 from floorx6
stopped there, wish I would have used straps, I think I could have gotten 10, I'm going to try again soon.
Calfs are still extremely tight while training, but more manageable, I think they just need to adjust to the smaller heel.
Front squat
225,315,335,355,375,395,415
Farmers deadlift
600 off 2" boxx3
600 from floorx6
stopped there, wish I would have used straps, I think I could have gotten 10, I'm going to try again soon.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Thursday bench
Had a very good bench night, hit great numbers. Hit the first set raw just to make sure the numbers are matching up. The 300x5 felt very easy and light. 7 sets and it still felt fine the whole way... That's pretty good for me, I'm looking forward to trying for 365 in the gym, it'll be a few more weeks, Righ now I'm just going to keep the volume sky high, and raising the weight 10lbs a week... so far it's worked fine. Tonite was supposed to be 75%, I lowered it quite a bit a while ago, and I've slowly been working up ever since, but for a 400lb bencher, that was 75%... I don't think Im there, but I don't think I've ever been closer. My first rep of my last set was out of position, and pulled on my pec insertion really bad, so I just stopped the set... I would have gotten it. The first set straight weight thing has been going well and giving me a lot of confidence. The chain benching actually feels harder to me, but I can always push through it, I love the chains for teaching me how to strain through a lift, much better than having to go ater 90% to find out. The straight weight felt light as shit, Would have definitely gotten 7, 8 and 9 I don't know, not 10 though. Those are good numbers to hit with this weight.
Either way, I've been benching great with Dash lately, it's been good to be on his timing, everyone has been getting really good at benching lately.
warm up
rollover into v sit, warrior lunge, glute ham stretch, back foot elevated stretch, knee on bench stretch
Flat bench
275x5,300x5,255+45 lbs chains 6x5
Lat pull downs
20x3
external rotations
20x2
Hips are extremely strained, giving me some sciatica like pain.. it's really really annoying.
Either way, I've been benching great with Dash lately, it's been good to be on his timing, everyone has been getting really good at benching lately.
warm up
rollover into v sit, warrior lunge, glute ham stretch, back foot elevated stretch, knee on bench stretch
Flat bench
275x5,300x5,255+45 lbs chains 6x5
Lat pull downs
20x3
external rotations
20x2
Hips are extremely strained, giving me some sciatica like pain.. it's really really annoying.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Wednesday squat pull
Very tough time with the calves tonite, going to have to take some time off for things to re adjust, which basically means still squatting, doing zercher squats, and really use those to push me into the hole, they allow an extremely upright posture, on max attempts I get pulled forward, and it's more like a deadlift, for reps, I'm hoping this will help me get more on my heels. Or I'll do safety bar squats. Or something, but lay off front squats for a bit, keep the intensity and volume medium-ish... just use it more as a warm up before pulls, and add in something after pulls if I'm feeling more energy. I'm not feeling a big urge to go back to back squats. I'm looking forward to the push pull in Belleville, and I may not even back squat until a short peak before Canadians... this is just a good time to add some size as Paul suggested and work on that. I've finally gotten my glutes into my pull, Evan Dunn suggested a form change, and since i've done that, my pull has felt amazing. Lockouts feeling very strong, I'm looking forward to trying so heavier weights, I think chains will work really well with this.
I'm slowly and slowly finding out all the things I don't even know I don't know. It's fun. It's supposed to be fun. If it's not, change something until it is fun. I tell myself this quite often, but talking to Paul reminded me this is the first priority. I've watched that guy train with just a scarey intensity... To the point where I just wondered how he could ever enjoy it. But that was a while ago now, and when I think about it, he was a winner back then... but now he's a champion... so maybe that's a lesson he learned, or maybe I wasn't paying attention. Or maybe I was just stressing myself out so much. To be honest, back then his goal was to win OSM and prove everyone wrong... That people would even question it a little just pissed him off. People think they've seen what Pauls like when he's in competition, but Pauls rarely ttired in competition. It's not until that guys exhausted, and just did two events, and we didn't just do it once... we'd do a long first even warm up, then a walking, and that just murdered me, then stone time... then Paul was maybe getting tired, he'd usually gone way past failure on the walking... meaning I was way past failure... and if you started a walk, and couldn't return it, Paul was usually the one to return it... and that shit was scarey man, then he'd do his run, and you'd just sit there praying to god he makes it. That's when Paul gets deep, he'll keep control until he's exhausted, then it's just get out of the way, I wouldn't even talk to him, I'd try not to look at him unless I was going 100mph. It was also most definitely not the time for chit chat, or questions, or much more than either resting as hard as you could, or loading plates, or yelling something.
I'm telling you, when it was stone time, I've nevere cheered for anyone the way I cheered for Paul, if he had a bad stone day, He'd tire us into the ground, he'd just take everyone on for flips, and basically run the entire garage into the ground himself. Or we'd do farmers deadlifts like effing crazy. Or just something, but if it was a good day, then it'd be stones for like an hour staight, and he'd always be the last guy standing, and generally pissed everyone tapped out. I think i was 50/50 for lasting as long as Paul... It was rough, you'd either go until you fail, and if you fail, you get to stop, but if you get it, you wanna keep going.. I had the weirdest marks on my arms for like 2 years straight.
After the wash up, everyones ass was dragging, and from that point on, Paul carried the training session. He was first to go in everything, and loaded whatever people needed, that guy has loaded more plates for me than anyone in my whole lfe... no joke, I was never sure if it was because he wanted you to get better, or if he just demanded you do your best to push him further... Either way, best plate loader ever. But if you'r loading... oh man, it's like a pit stop at nascar.. When we loaded our log we had to use a socket something or other to do up the clips, because no clips fit, and oh man.. 1. you'd better help, cause if you don't Paul will, and you're supposed to give back to his training... and did I mention all those scarey moments? 2. You have to be going as fast as you can all the time. 3. don't talk, train. 4. if you go slow, and throw off the rhythm... you either get the glare at the ground, that he's too polite to kill you with, or and I only got this like twice, you get the "Come on man." and you threw him out of his rhythm... that one just pierces right to the chest, you feel shame, and you'd better re fucking focus immediately and get your shit together. 5. Seconds count, you're supposed to be going as fast as you can.
Despite whatever strongman results I achieved, I don't think I ever botched an event, I generally went to the end, I only ever couldn't perform due to strength, Paul always felt I got too fired up, but I was generally comfortable... I think the shake thing was from the freaky hip tightness from being a hockey player, and adopting the exact opposite posture you want if you want to be strong. I don't shake now unless there's a lot of hip strain, and I tend to flex my hips on my pulls, rather than my glutes, but I've gotten better.
As soon as training was done though, Paul was also the guy carrying the conversation as we jumped in the hot tub, and was a totally different guy... It was all those times that made Paul able to just be a complete lunatic, and we were totally ok with it... That was what he was training for, we all got it. Now he's pretty big time.
Anyways.
front squat
275.315.335.345, 345,
-ouch
pulls standing on grrens.
475 1x3
Needed the night off.
I'm slowly and slowly finding out all the things I don't even know I don't know. It's fun. It's supposed to be fun. If it's not, change something until it is fun. I tell myself this quite often, but talking to Paul reminded me this is the first priority. I've watched that guy train with just a scarey intensity... To the point where I just wondered how he could ever enjoy it. But that was a while ago now, and when I think about it, he was a winner back then... but now he's a champion... so maybe that's a lesson he learned, or maybe I wasn't paying attention. Or maybe I was just stressing myself out so much. To be honest, back then his goal was to win OSM and prove everyone wrong... That people would even question it a little just pissed him off. People think they've seen what Pauls like when he's in competition, but Pauls rarely ttired in competition. It's not until that guys exhausted, and just did two events, and we didn't just do it once... we'd do a long first even warm up, then a walking, and that just murdered me, then stone time... then Paul was maybe getting tired, he'd usually gone way past failure on the walking... meaning I was way past failure... and if you started a walk, and couldn't return it, Paul was usually the one to return it... and that shit was scarey man, then he'd do his run, and you'd just sit there praying to god he makes it. That's when Paul gets deep, he'll keep control until he's exhausted, then it's just get out of the way, I wouldn't even talk to him, I'd try not to look at him unless I was going 100mph. It was also most definitely not the time for chit chat, or questions, or much more than either resting as hard as you could, or loading plates, or yelling something.
I'm telling you, when it was stone time, I've nevere cheered for anyone the way I cheered for Paul, if he had a bad stone day, He'd tire us into the ground, he'd just take everyone on for flips, and basically run the entire garage into the ground himself. Or we'd do farmers deadlifts like effing crazy. Or just something, but if it was a good day, then it'd be stones for like an hour staight, and he'd always be the last guy standing, and generally pissed everyone tapped out. I think i was 50/50 for lasting as long as Paul... It was rough, you'd either go until you fail, and if you fail, you get to stop, but if you get it, you wanna keep going.. I had the weirdest marks on my arms for like 2 years straight.
After the wash up, everyones ass was dragging, and from that point on, Paul carried the training session. He was first to go in everything, and loaded whatever people needed, that guy has loaded more plates for me than anyone in my whole lfe... no joke, I was never sure if it was because he wanted you to get better, or if he just demanded you do your best to push him further... Either way, best plate loader ever. But if you'r loading... oh man, it's like a pit stop at nascar.. When we loaded our log we had to use a socket something or other to do up the clips, because no clips fit, and oh man.. 1. you'd better help, cause if you don't Paul will, and you're supposed to give back to his training... and did I mention all those scarey moments? 2. You have to be going as fast as you can all the time. 3. don't talk, train. 4. if you go slow, and throw off the rhythm... you either get the glare at the ground, that he's too polite to kill you with, or and I only got this like twice, you get the "Come on man." and you threw him out of his rhythm... that one just pierces right to the chest, you feel shame, and you'd better re fucking focus immediately and get your shit together. 5. Seconds count, you're supposed to be going as fast as you can.
Despite whatever strongman results I achieved, I don't think I ever botched an event, I generally went to the end, I only ever couldn't perform due to strength, Paul always felt I got too fired up, but I was generally comfortable... I think the shake thing was from the freaky hip tightness from being a hockey player, and adopting the exact opposite posture you want if you want to be strong. I don't shake now unless there's a lot of hip strain, and I tend to flex my hips on my pulls, rather than my glutes, but I've gotten better.
As soon as training was done though, Paul was also the guy carrying the conversation as we jumped in the hot tub, and was a totally different guy... It was all those times that made Paul able to just be a complete lunatic, and we were totally ok with it... That was what he was training for, we all got it. Now he's pretty big time.
Anyways.
front squat
275.315.335.345, 345,
-ouch
pulls standing on grrens.
475 1x3
Needed the night off.
Tuesday bench
trained a young lifter earlier in the day, did a few sets of pulldowns. felt fine, but lately I've noticed a big difference as my low back has lost flexibility, which it should as I've learned, so now I rely mainly on my hips to be able to arch. This is cool, and I feel one of the reasons why I've been able to handle squatting and pulling 3 times a week, I'm stretching my body as I bench, whether people who want to codemn stretching wanna talk about it or not. Standing over head pressing is a stretch, one that I'm about to start to do more of I think before I front squat. Just a couple light sets. Once I get the front squat flexibility, I'll consider moving back into the back squat.
warm up
rollover into v sit, fire hydrants, back foot elevated hip stretch,knee on bench hip stretch, foam roller under low back bench.
Bench
275x7 - felt easy, felt like I would have been in the low teens if I wanted to keep going. last time I hit 363, I did this for 10, I was also this weight, so good signs.
235 + 45lbs chains 7,7,6,5,3
- had to do an extra set to get all my reps... not a huge deal, and the reps matter more to me was supposed to be 5 sets of 7.
Pulldowns
120x20x3
-going to try to add 2 more sets, after set 3 I was just cooked and wanted to go home, those benches weren't easy, the chains added up to 280 in my mind, they felt harder than straight weight I thought...
external rotations
3x8
warm up
rollover into v sit, fire hydrants, back foot elevated hip stretch,knee on bench hip stretch, foam roller under low back bench.
Bench
275x7 - felt easy, felt like I would have been in the low teens if I wanted to keep going. last time I hit 363, I did this for 10, I was also this weight, so good signs.
235 + 45lbs chains 7,7,6,5,3
- had to do an extra set to get all my reps... not a huge deal, and the reps matter more to me was supposed to be 5 sets of 7.
Pulldowns
120x20x3
-going to try to add 2 more sets, after set 3 I was just cooked and wanted to go home, those benches weren't easy, the chains added up to 280 in my mind, they felt harder than straight weight I thought...
external rotations
3x8
Monday, January 16, 2012
Monday squat/pull
Went in feeling good, still not feeilig cofident in the hole, right calf is starting to feel funny, I let it spasm, but I'm going to go light wednesday and Friday.. It's unfortunate, I was having a great week leading into this, and 5 singles with 365 felt good tonite, it's 90% for singles, so I guess it's ok for it to be this hard, it actually got easier to do the reps as I went along, but I'm still not feeling like I've got it, my descent into the hole is more like me searching for the right position instead of me hitting bottom and coming up hard. When I find that spot, I'll hit 455. Right now, it's just figuring out how to get there. This is kind of fun, I just gauge how I feel when before I head in, usually on the drive there... Decide what I can definitely do for a single, then try for 5, and maybe build to 10... but right now 5 is pretty much fine, especially with deadlifting 3x a week at 80% from different heights. Sucks, really wanted to practice 365 as many times as I could this week... I felt I could definitely get all those reps all week, and that would have been awesome. Right now the down day is a good decision, something isn't right, and I'm not training through it.
Anyhew,
front squats
225,275,315,365xf, way lost it on my toes. 365x5x1 - searched for the hole, i'm sitting knees forward, and I think I need to sit between my legs more, I've just been mindfucking myself by trying to drop straight down, as I'm worried about holding th bar on my shoulders. It's the reason I tend to do singles, I find it hard as hell to hang onto the bar, but I'm also finding the elbows are going to drop on very heavy front squats, and the bar still stays on the front delts, I find when I really contract, my lats are just too tight, and pull my arms down... I'm working on this all the time.
Pull from floor
475 5x3 - really working on locking my legs then starting to pull back. I'm getting better, and I think this is the way to use my hamstrings and glutes, whereas before I'd try to pull with my low back and screw it up. I want to move this weight up, but it's not a race, the total workload is the goal.
Front squat
-wanted to do a few downsets, only got 1x3 with 245... Right calf not feeling good at all.
Feeling like now that my flexibility has evened out, my right leg is actually weaker than my left. The left leg is a planter leg and is actually stronger than the right... so I'm told. Now my right hammy is getting so much work it's just getting tight... this is going down to the outside of my calf causing some internal rotation of my foot while I walk. I think this is a good thing, and is my hamstring strength evening out... that's why the rest will hopefully just let both recover, then I'll just be that much more in balance. Right now, it hurts like hell while I train, and I get worried something is up with my knee... but they're just a bit swollen all the time anyways.
Anyhew,
front squats
225,275,315,365xf, way lost it on my toes. 365x5x1 - searched for the hole, i'm sitting knees forward, and I think I need to sit between my legs more, I've just been mindfucking myself by trying to drop straight down, as I'm worried about holding th bar on my shoulders. It's the reason I tend to do singles, I find it hard as hell to hang onto the bar, but I'm also finding the elbows are going to drop on very heavy front squats, and the bar still stays on the front delts, I find when I really contract, my lats are just too tight, and pull my arms down... I'm working on this all the time.
Pull from floor
475 5x3 - really working on locking my legs then starting to pull back. I'm getting better, and I think this is the way to use my hamstrings and glutes, whereas before I'd try to pull with my low back and screw it up. I want to move this weight up, but it's not a race, the total workload is the goal.
Front squat
-wanted to do a few downsets, only got 1x3 with 245... Right calf not feeling good at all.
Feeling like now that my flexibility has evened out, my right leg is actually weaker than my left. The left leg is a planter leg and is actually stronger than the right... so I'm told. Now my right hammy is getting so much work it's just getting tight... this is going down to the outside of my calf causing some internal rotation of my foot while I walk. I think this is a good thing, and is my hamstring strength evening out... that's why the rest will hopefully just let both recover, then I'll just be that much more in balance. Right now, it hurts like hell while I train, and I get worried something is up with my knee... but they're just a bit swollen all the time anyways.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Sunday bench
Megan and I went to bed at 10pm and slept straight until 1pm the next day. We've both been fighting a cold/flu, and spending the day at a powerlifting meet and freezing quite a bit didn't help. I thought I might be in trouble when I woke up, but 2 aleve and 3 ephedrine tabs made me feel pretty good, and I really wanted to train.
Warm up
3 mins on bike, back foot elevated hip stretch, gh stretch, foam roller under low back
Bench with 45 lbs chain
barx10, 95x10, 135,185,225, 265 for 10 sets of 3
-I was very happy with this, I did this a couple weeks ago for 1 set and found it fairly heavy, doing it for 10 sets is pretty awesome, going to move up to 235 for 5 sets of 7, just need to take slightly longer rests, 255 for 7 sets of 5, and 275 for 10 sets of 3... if i can do that in a week, i'll be one happy guy. if not, it might take me 2weeks, thrn i'll takea down week and re test my max... 340-350 with chainswould pretty much make my day. I'll likely only attempt 340, but I'll want to feel ready for 350 if that makes sense.. this is just a stop along the way. I'd rather keep up positive momentum on my way to a 365 bench with chains. 325 felt really good, i'm using my lats even better now, i'm not touching as low, better drive off my chest. I'm doing a level of work much higher than ever before on my bench, I think it's a good approach. Just going to focus on building up to the level of work someone with a 405 bench could do... I think that's around 325 straight weight for 4 sets of 4... so I'm building to that, and just going slow, and I really like chains. The new goal is to be able to handle that level of work, and that's how I think I'll accomplish my goals. today I think I could have easily handled 300 for all 10 sets, and I may do the week straight weight to get a gauge of where I'm at. For example, the chains are around 20 lbs on my chest, and 45 at lockout, so 285, and 310 ... I think I could do some triples with 315, but maybe not. Chains are cool, on bench I feel they're like a dampening effect on the stretch reflex, they make you have to have the strength of 310 to have to do it... an I feel they match up well.
Neutral grip pull downs
120x20,16,13,12,8
-These were pretty hard, and I was short on time, I'm looking forward to getting further down the machine, I've dropped chin ups as they're just too hard on my joints, and I want my bench to go well. I feel building my lat strength is more important than building my chin up strength and right now I'm just not up for training threw the level of pain that comes from back squatting lately. I'm hoping doubling my back work reps with the heaviest weight I can handle will be pretty good. I get a great pump, stretch the shit out of them between sets, and I don't know if they're getting stronger, but I'm looking forward to re learning chin ups after my back gets such a high level of work from 3 days of trying to build to 100 heavy reps in 5 sets, and a ton of deadlifting. Should be good times.
didn't have time for external rotations
Warm up
3 mins on bike, back foot elevated hip stretch, gh stretch, foam roller under low back
Bench with 45 lbs chain
barx10, 95x10, 135,185,225, 265 for 10 sets of 3
-I was very happy with this, I did this a couple weeks ago for 1 set and found it fairly heavy, doing it for 10 sets is pretty awesome, going to move up to 235 for 5 sets of 7, just need to take slightly longer rests, 255 for 7 sets of 5, and 275 for 10 sets of 3... if i can do that in a week, i'll be one happy guy. if not, it might take me 2weeks, thrn i'll takea down week and re test my max... 340-350 with chainswould pretty much make my day. I'll likely only attempt 340, but I'll want to feel ready for 350 if that makes sense.. this is just a stop along the way. I'd rather keep up positive momentum on my way to a 365 bench with chains. 325 felt really good, i'm using my lats even better now, i'm not touching as low, better drive off my chest. I'm doing a level of work much higher than ever before on my bench, I think it's a good approach. Just going to focus on building up to the level of work someone with a 405 bench could do... I think that's around 325 straight weight for 4 sets of 4... so I'm building to that, and just going slow, and I really like chains. The new goal is to be able to handle that level of work, and that's how I think I'll accomplish my goals. today I think I could have easily handled 300 for all 10 sets, and I may do the week straight weight to get a gauge of where I'm at. For example, the chains are around 20 lbs on my chest, and 45 at lockout, so 285, and 310 ... I think I could do some triples with 315, but maybe not. Chains are cool, on bench I feel they're like a dampening effect on the stretch reflex, they make you have to have the strength of 310 to have to do it... an I feel they match up well.
Neutral grip pull downs
120x20,16,13,12,8
-These were pretty hard, and I was short on time, I'm looking forward to getting further down the machine, I've dropped chin ups as they're just too hard on my joints, and I want my bench to go well. I feel building my lat strength is more important than building my chin up strength and right now I'm just not up for training threw the level of pain that comes from back squatting lately. I'm hoping doubling my back work reps with the heaviest weight I can handle will be pretty good. I get a great pump, stretch the shit out of them between sets, and I don't know if they're getting stronger, but I'm looking forward to re learning chin ups after my back gets such a high level of work from 3 days of trying to build to 100 heavy reps in 5 sets, and a ton of deadlifting. Should be good times.
didn't have time for external rotations
Friday, January 13, 2012
Friday squat pull
Trained a new member, getting 3-4 new members, some of the guys have to train at other times, and I'm backing off my own training a bit, and just doing work, rather than gauging my strength,... if that makes sense. So I've been working with them one on one a bit, and it's worh it for me as they're all doing to the 90 day health challenge, some are using more products than others, but I honestly don't care, I love working with people who are working towards goals that excite them and make them happy, it's what I really enjoy doing, and if I can make money from helping people awesome, if I make a profit, by also setting the expectation that their health needs to be taken seriously, aw man.. that's wicked. I made myself extremely miserable this year, trying to beat a dead horse, and do something I hated to get what I wanted, and my only option left is to do something I love to get what I want... It's working out really well, and I make around an extra thousand bucks a month doing literally nothing. and I have the feeling when I get calling people again, things are going to get really moving, I'd like to head into the canadian champtionships with a 20 member team... I think that would likely be the biggest team in Canada... and we're seriously just getting rolling.
I don't know for sure if this will work, but I literally can't force myself to work at running a business, that even when you're sucesful, you still kind of hate your life. It broke me this year, I tried as hard as I could, but trying hard isn't ever enough. Because I hated work for so long, I just can't stand the thought of working at something, or really doing anything that I don't enjoy anymore. This year was just brutal, one of the most positive people I know just can't handle it anymore. A good friend, Andreanne, had a terrible stressful year, I've always marvelled at how she could make any situation fun, but this year she had a tough time, as we all had a tough time. Doin't get me wrong, Andreanne having a tough time still got more done by noon, then most people can in a couple of days... she's a super freak.
Anyhew, the thought of just coaching people on strength goals, nutrition goals, and business goals is just about as much fun as I could think of.
Anyhew, I did train myself today.
warm up
leg extensions 40 reps - helps get blood in my knees, they ache, I go light
hip stretch, back foot elevated -
ghr stretch - wasnt horrible tonite
Front squat
225,275,315, 275 for 6 singles
Sumo pull of boxes - about knee height
475 for 5 sets of 3 reps
-Not an easy workout.
I don't know for sure if this will work, but I literally can't force myself to work at running a business, that even when you're sucesful, you still kind of hate your life. It broke me this year, I tried as hard as I could, but trying hard isn't ever enough. Because I hated work for so long, I just can't stand the thought of working at something, or really doing anything that I don't enjoy anymore. This year was just brutal, one of the most positive people I know just can't handle it anymore. A good friend, Andreanne, had a terrible stressful year, I've always marvelled at how she could make any situation fun, but this year she had a tough time, as we all had a tough time. Doin't get me wrong, Andreanne having a tough time still got more done by noon, then most people can in a couple of days... she's a super freak.
Anyhew, the thought of just coaching people on strength goals, nutrition goals, and business goals is just about as much fun as I could think of.
Anyhew, I did train myself today.
warm up
leg extensions 40 reps - helps get blood in my knees, they ache, I go light
hip stretch, back foot elevated -
ghr stretch - wasnt horrible tonite
Front squat
225,275,315, 275 for 6 singles
Sumo pull of boxes - about knee height
475 for 5 sets of 3 reps
-Not an easy workout.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Wednesday squat/pull thursday bench
Felt pretty good leading into this.
Front squat
225,275,315,365,405
-went into the hole harder, I think it threw me off a bit, but the 405 went up good. I think I just need to do as many singles with 365 as I can, and when I get comfy, I'll be good for 435-445 I think.
Deadlift standing on box
405 3x3
475 3x1
-no belt, really like this, but I do find them very hard, I look forward to getting good at them, Evan Dunn recomended 3x a week pulling, and I'm looking forward to it. The 475 no belt was pretty hard, kept a a static arch well, but I was rounded over. I'll be working to get 5 sets of 3 with this weight with perfect form, right now it's not the best. Next is block pulls... something Else I kind of suck at.
Paul gave me good advice to change things up, and I really like training like this, I don't have to get fired up to hit weights, the pulls are just work, and timing, the pulls on a box were crazy hard, more just holding my form.
Thursday
Bench with 45lbs chains
245 for 7 sets of 5 reps
Pretty happy, felt easier than tuesday bench, I was dying on those.
Neutral grip pull downs
100 20x3
-got all my reps, so moving the weight up.
External rotations on cable machine.
-Now 3 pins down for difficult sets of 8
- really want to even these out, but also switch to dumbells soon. I always mean to get around to these, but they're just something I've gotta stick with.
Feeling good, looking forward to tomorrow, and really looking forward to next week.. I but I may vary the intensities for a bit, I'm not feeling the greatest, but feeling a lot better than a few weeks ago.
Front squat
225,275,315,365,405
-went into the hole harder, I think it threw me off a bit, but the 405 went up good. I think I just need to do as many singles with 365 as I can, and when I get comfy, I'll be good for 435-445 I think.
Deadlift standing on box
405 3x3
475 3x1
-no belt, really like this, but I do find them very hard, I look forward to getting good at them, Evan Dunn recomended 3x a week pulling, and I'm looking forward to it. The 475 no belt was pretty hard, kept a a static arch well, but I was rounded over. I'll be working to get 5 sets of 3 with this weight with perfect form, right now it's not the best. Next is block pulls... something Else I kind of suck at.
Paul gave me good advice to change things up, and I really like training like this, I don't have to get fired up to hit weights, the pulls are just work, and timing, the pulls on a box were crazy hard, more just holding my form.
Thursday
Bench with 45lbs chains
245 for 7 sets of 5 reps
Pretty happy, felt easier than tuesday bench, I was dying on those.
Neutral grip pull downs
100 20x3
-got all my reps, so moving the weight up.
External rotations on cable machine.
-Now 3 pins down for difficult sets of 8
- really want to even these out, but also switch to dumbells soon. I always mean to get around to these, but they're just something I've gotta stick with.
Feeling good, looking forward to tomorrow, and really looking forward to next week.. I but I may vary the intensities for a bit, I'm not feeling the greatest, but feeling a lot better than a few weeks ago.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Monday squats/deadlift tuesday bench
monday
paul warm up
front squat
225,275
Sumo
405 3x3
-everything felt heavy, good timing
Tuesday
Warm up
hip stretch, back foot on bench,
gh sit up stretch, - I just don't sit up... I really like this stretch, I think it's going to help me get more upright, and adjust my tightness issues.
face pulls
foam roller on bench
flat bench with chains
225 7,7,5,3,4,4,3,3 (was trying for 5 sets of 7. going to keep at this weight until i can)
nuetral grip pull downs
105x20,20,13
-stretched lats in between, this is another thing I'm going to be working on for a while, I find my lats are way too tight, so I'm going to really try to loosen them up, and feel my left side match up with my right side. Right lat is a lot tighter than the left, but I don't feel the left as well yet.
I lift with a full body tightness now, wheras before I used to just focus on cues when I lifted, now everything is very tight, and I more think of ways to get my body into it...
This is a bit of a deload week, I'm very happy I took the week off, I am however, extremely happy with the way I timed that, Bench is still feeling strong, every thing else feels like shit. I've found my bench PR's are found in competition, but only usually around 10lbs on my gym bench. Squat form feels great, hit some PR numbers extremely over trained, did a few deadlift singles with 545 very fast, feeling better than last time I lifted that weight and feeling horrible all over so that a 225 front squat, and 405 deadlift feel heavy... which is pretty much perfect. If I was going to compete, I would have taken some heavier singles this week, but just overall, going to take a down week, light front squats, and semi light pulls 3x a wek, turning into as many singles with 365 front squat, as I can do, I find anything more than a single difficult, so I'm going to try to work in doubles and triples, see how that helps my form, once i can handle 365 like I can handle 315, I'll probably re test and trying for 445, I think I just need to stay a bit more upright to keep the bar from falling forward, just having a difficult time feeling comfortable in the hole... I plan to fix this by front squatting 3x a week, and I'm pretty sure I'm just going to figure it out. It's not a strength thing right now, if I miss it's technical, and that's just re learning this movement, not a huge deal. The heels I was using before were great, but they were just so big it really forced me to stay upright but getting depth was actually pretty hard, in shorter heels you can fall back into your glutes in the hole much easier. I'm gonig to keep working on loosening up my psoas area, which I think is what's limting a more upright position, the gh sit up stretch should take care of this. I'm really close to getting it, and as my lats loosen up, I'll be that much closer.
paul warm up
front squat
225,275
Sumo
405 3x3
-everything felt heavy, good timing
Tuesday
Warm up
hip stretch, back foot on bench,
gh sit up stretch, - I just don't sit up... I really like this stretch, I think it's going to help me get more upright, and adjust my tightness issues.
face pulls
foam roller on bench
flat bench with chains
225 7,7,5,3,4,4,3,3 (was trying for 5 sets of 7. going to keep at this weight until i can)
nuetral grip pull downs
105x20,20,13
-stretched lats in between, this is another thing I'm going to be working on for a while, I find my lats are way too tight, so I'm going to really try to loosen them up, and feel my left side match up with my right side. Right lat is a lot tighter than the left, but I don't feel the left as well yet.
I lift with a full body tightness now, wheras before I used to just focus on cues when I lifted, now everything is very tight, and I more think of ways to get my body into it...
This is a bit of a deload week, I'm very happy I took the week off, I am however, extremely happy with the way I timed that, Bench is still feeling strong, every thing else feels like shit. I've found my bench PR's are found in competition, but only usually around 10lbs on my gym bench. Squat form feels great, hit some PR numbers extremely over trained, did a few deadlift singles with 545 very fast, feeling better than last time I lifted that weight and feeling horrible all over so that a 225 front squat, and 405 deadlift feel heavy... which is pretty much perfect. If I was going to compete, I would have taken some heavier singles this week, but just overall, going to take a down week, light front squats, and semi light pulls 3x a wek, turning into as many singles with 365 front squat, as I can do, I find anything more than a single difficult, so I'm going to try to work in doubles and triples, see how that helps my form, once i can handle 365 like I can handle 315, I'll probably re test and trying for 445, I think I just need to stay a bit more upright to keep the bar from falling forward, just having a difficult time feeling comfortable in the hole... I plan to fix this by front squatting 3x a week, and I'm pretty sure I'm just going to figure it out. It's not a strength thing right now, if I miss it's technical, and that's just re learning this movement, not a huge deal. The heels I was using before were great, but they were just so big it really forced me to stay upright but getting depth was actually pretty hard, in shorter heels you can fall back into your glutes in the hole much easier. I'm gonig to keep working on loosening up my psoas area, which I think is what's limting a more upright position, the gh sit up stretch should take care of this. I'm really close to getting it, and as my lats loosen up, I'll be that much closer.
Friday, January 6, 2012
heavy single
went in, and I was supposed to just feel the night out, got too worked up, but it helped me to figure a couple things out, so no biggie.
Squat with chains
went:
405, 445, 475
All felt fine, hit a grind at 475, Megan told me it went up fast, but I didn't want to push past the grind.
Afterwards, I just got really annoyed with everything, gave Paul a call, and his advice was to just change things up. I had an awesome week, but I really didn't enjoy any of it... and what's the point of that? It's nice to know Paul will take a call like that for me, haha, I just asked him a buncha questions. He was nice enough to remind me it's supposed to be fun.
Really, all I want to do, is just bring up my front squat, bring up my military, but get shoulders through on every rep, use it as a flexibility tool for a bit. really like front squatting because my arms just don't get beat to hell, I can bench, and I want to work on my deadlift more, something like 3x a week, and I'm looking forward to just doing a ton of volume on bench, I learned a lot from front squatting so much, but right now with the lower heel my squat feels amazing.
Should be a good time. It'll be fun to figure it out. Most likely, I'll ask Willie if he wants to train around lunchtime, buy him lunch, and ask him what to do.
Squat with chains
went:
405, 445, 475
All felt fine, hit a grind at 475, Megan told me it went up fast, but I didn't want to push past the grind.
Afterwards, I just got really annoyed with everything, gave Paul a call, and his advice was to just change things up. I had an awesome week, but I really didn't enjoy any of it... and what's the point of that? It's nice to know Paul will take a call like that for me, haha, I just asked him a buncha questions. He was nice enough to remind me it's supposed to be fun.
Really, all I want to do, is just bring up my front squat, bring up my military, but get shoulders through on every rep, use it as a flexibility tool for a bit. really like front squatting because my arms just don't get beat to hell, I can bench, and I want to work on my deadlift more, something like 3x a week, and I'm looking forward to just doing a ton of volume on bench, I learned a lot from front squatting so much, but right now with the lower heel my squat feels amazing.
Should be a good time. It'll be fun to figure it out. Most likely, I'll ask Willie if he wants to train around lunchtime, buy him lunch, and ask him what to do.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Thursday bench
Was planning on going up to an opener, but shut it down. Had a tough time getting comfortable, and right arm has been spasming lately to compensate for my lack of external rotation on my left side, I'm fixing this up every day, and just doing a lot of face pulls, and a few days of external rotations, and I'm sure I'm soon going to be holding a bar pain free whenever I want to squat.
went to 275x1
face pulls
100
Sat around and kind of coached after that, helped Ohri out quite a bit on ironing out his bench, hes been releasing a bit above his chest then bouncing it a bit, we just changed that to almost release, pause on chest, internally rotate the the elbows, while keeping forearms below the wrist, using lats off the chest and pushing the elbows out to lockout. Things are feeling good, so going to stick with it a bit. Gotta make sure my leg drive is better, wasn't feeling very good with that today. I think I should have done a full warm up, thinking about it, I didn't even have a sweat going... so probably not the best idea every. I've found the gym extermely cold lately, which is very annoying for me, as I prefer to stay very hot while I train, I find it a much lower chance of injury.
I really enjoy the times I just hang out and coach the guys when I don't have to lift. Only problem is, most of the guys don't really need me doing much with them to be honest, Dash takes care of himself, and has great technigue, but is always willing to spot at any time, as we are always willing to spot for him. Ohri has incredible technique, but we're just sort of working on total body tightness with Ohri, he's so explosive and fast with his squats, but a little hesitant with his pulls, and we're just going to raise his total volume on pulls, Ohri is so calm when he's lifting, he generally needs a meet to really get fired up for a deadlift, or me yelling at him. Cameron is an awesome powerlifter, he reminds me so much of of Paul it's retarded, I find their deadlifts very similar, and just general overall build. I think Cameron is trying out strongman this weekend, I think he could be very good at it. Megan we just make sure we always watch her on max attempts, just to get her used to people always staring... I find little things like that can make a big difference.
I've personally turned the entire gym into a jungle I have to be on top of. If someone is stronger than me, I just find a way for it to not count... so I'm generally pretty comfortable at meets, and find the people watching are enough for me to get psyched. Megan just sort of goes in, does her thing, an that's that. She doesn't need chit chat, but is always chatting with the other guys, but she'll max out, and if you were 3 feet away she wouldn't say a thing. It's that kind of work ethic I find freaky deaky... I applaud that shit, but if I'm maxing out, everybody better fucking watch. Lol. I've just told myself to enjoy it, as I sincerely hate it. That's the thing with Megan, she never gets nervous, she just gets annoyed and irritated, and that'll throw off her technique. I can guarantee, she'll be maxing out and laughing in between attempts at the meet coming up, I find that's when people compete at their best. I'm not worried for provincials, i'm mostly there just to turn in her attempts. Nationals, oh boy... I've handled at a ton of meets now, I don't really care that it's Nationals, but if I screw up a knee wrap there... yeesh.
went to 275x1
face pulls
100
Sat around and kind of coached after that, helped Ohri out quite a bit on ironing out his bench, hes been releasing a bit above his chest then bouncing it a bit, we just changed that to almost release, pause on chest, internally rotate the the elbows, while keeping forearms below the wrist, using lats off the chest and pushing the elbows out to lockout. Things are feeling good, so going to stick with it a bit. Gotta make sure my leg drive is better, wasn't feeling very good with that today. I think I should have done a full warm up, thinking about it, I didn't even have a sweat going... so probably not the best idea every. I've found the gym extermely cold lately, which is very annoying for me, as I prefer to stay very hot while I train, I find it a much lower chance of injury.
I really enjoy the times I just hang out and coach the guys when I don't have to lift. Only problem is, most of the guys don't really need me doing much with them to be honest, Dash takes care of himself, and has great technigue, but is always willing to spot at any time, as we are always willing to spot for him. Ohri has incredible technique, but we're just sort of working on total body tightness with Ohri, he's so explosive and fast with his squats, but a little hesitant with his pulls, and we're just going to raise his total volume on pulls, Ohri is so calm when he's lifting, he generally needs a meet to really get fired up for a deadlift, or me yelling at him. Cameron is an awesome powerlifter, he reminds me so much of of Paul it's retarded, I find their deadlifts very similar, and just general overall build. I think Cameron is trying out strongman this weekend, I think he could be very good at it. Megan we just make sure we always watch her on max attempts, just to get her used to people always staring... I find little things like that can make a big difference.
I've personally turned the entire gym into a jungle I have to be on top of. If someone is stronger than me, I just find a way for it to not count... so I'm generally pretty comfortable at meets, and find the people watching are enough for me to get psyched. Megan just sort of goes in, does her thing, an that's that. She doesn't need chit chat, but is always chatting with the other guys, but she'll max out, and if you were 3 feet away she wouldn't say a thing. It's that kind of work ethic I find freaky deaky... I applaud that shit, but if I'm maxing out, everybody better fucking watch. Lol. I've just told myself to enjoy it, as I sincerely hate it. That's the thing with Megan, she never gets nervous, she just gets annoyed and irritated, and that'll throw off her technique. I can guarantee, she'll be maxing out and laughing in between attempts at the meet coming up, I find that's when people compete at their best. I'm not worried for provincials, i'm mostly there just to turn in her attempts. Nationals, oh boy... I've handled at a ton of meets now, I don't really care that it's Nationals, but if I screw up a knee wrap there... yeesh.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
week 4 day 3
warm up
foam roll - biceps, brachials, hips, vastus lateralis
pain cave hip stretch - wussy version
Front squat with chains
135,225
Back squat with chains
225,225,275,315, 365, 405, 455, 475,495
-just singles
felt as good as my squat has every felt, very on my heels.
sumo
135,225,315,405,455,495,545
-worked on locking my legs out before I began to pull back, felt very good.
Hip stretch, face pulls
foam roll - biceps, brachials, hips, vastus lateralis
pain cave hip stretch - wussy version
Front squat with chains
135,225
Back squat with chains
225,225,275,315, 365, 405, 455, 475,495
-just singles
felt as good as my squat has every felt, very on my heels.
sumo
135,225,315,405,455,495,545
-worked on locking my legs out before I began to pull back, felt very good.
Hip stretch, face pulls
random thoughts
Went in today feeling good, feeling like I could do 495 with chains, it was my last chance to do it before the meet, and would give me a lot of confidence hitting my last meet's squat plus 45lbs worth of chain, and front squatting 405 for the first time the day before, and hitting 500 with reverse bands the day before that. I'm going to open 480ish, but I'm going to do some singles with around my opener on Friday... opener or last attempts, basically just going to work with weights just about to be heavy, until my body loosens, then stop, do some upper back high rep work, stretch my hips and leave with pretty much whatever movement I'm doing. I'm just going to make the last few squat days front squats so it doesn't mess with my back squat style, and keep my shoulders and brachials feeling good.
Right front my first rep I felt really on my heels from the start to finish, and it was easy money from there on out. I think just my really high do wins are great for generating knee torgue, but you've gotta work to get serious depth, but I think work really well for someone like willie albert who has longer legs, whereas mine are just a bit on the short side. I really don't know though, sometimes I think Willie is built to deadlift, other times I think Willie is just strong, generally I think both. But something I've noticed about Willie and Alexey Nkiliu... or whatever his name is, are great knee wraps squats, great sumos, and good benches, and Willie had problems getting his raw above 565, but feels he's going to hit some crazy knee wrap numbers, I think he's going to outsquat the russian, he outdoes him in everything else. The kid has a freaky squat though.
I just notice Willie walks with his toes pointed out, and so does Paul V and Jordan Foley. The thing with Paul is he has a great yoke walk, Jordan trained with Paul quite a bit, then they both developed this walk, and they both have tremendous yoke walks. Jordan can do 900 for sure, and has competed on the Quebec Cup, as good as strongman gets. Paul has a tremendous yoke walk, it's one of his biggest strengths. I feel they've just developed the right hip flexibility to be able to walk like that but with their glutes. I notice a lot of people with bad posture walk with their toes out, but have inactive glutes, I say this because that was me. What I've also noitced is I've recovered my glutes, and feel them powering my walks and lifting now, whereas before it was my hips. the one stupid thing I did was to do a 290 farmers walk for around 30 feet, and I went toes out, and it tore my hips apart, my low back was spasming by the time I got out the door, I had to stretch my hips for a couple hours just to be able to recover.
I think if I built up slowly again, I'd be able to turn this into a much better event for me, whereas I could pick generally anything up, and hold onto it for however long it needed... generally, but I couldn't walk for shit. The actual walking part just destroyed me. I look forward to trying that again, most likely this summer.
Keep in mind, Both are very good at truck pulls, and Jordan is a rugby guy, they both know how to sprint, and can roll their feet, Paul does a lot of prowler work.
I find sprinters that don't have some way of developing their external flexibility are going to be prone to some low back injuries, I do see a lot of people with terrible posture walking around with their feet pointing forward... but they probably never played hockey. Hockey probably kept me good for kicking, and healthy-ish for lifting, but just destroyed me as an athlete through high school. Ohri has been fighting a nagging low back, but we're going to bring up his sumo deadlift, and I think this will help him out, he's so naturally athletic he gets there easily. I'm going to raises his volume with 75 and 80% for a while on sumo and conventional, and keep him squatting light-ish for a while.
I think this will help his low back more than anything, as well as a lot more upper back work.. his schedule is on, so I'm just going to make him do roughly what I'm going to be doing myself anyways.
Right front my first rep I felt really on my heels from the start to finish, and it was easy money from there on out. I think just my really high do wins are great for generating knee torgue, but you've gotta work to get serious depth, but I think work really well for someone like willie albert who has longer legs, whereas mine are just a bit on the short side. I really don't know though, sometimes I think Willie is built to deadlift, other times I think Willie is just strong, generally I think both. But something I've noticed about Willie and Alexey Nkiliu... or whatever his name is, are great knee wraps squats, great sumos, and good benches, and Willie had problems getting his raw above 565, but feels he's going to hit some crazy knee wrap numbers, I think he's going to outsquat the russian, he outdoes him in everything else. The kid has a freaky squat though.
I just notice Willie walks with his toes pointed out, and so does Paul V and Jordan Foley. The thing with Paul is he has a great yoke walk, Jordan trained with Paul quite a bit, then they both developed this walk, and they both have tremendous yoke walks. Jordan can do 900 for sure, and has competed on the Quebec Cup, as good as strongman gets. Paul has a tremendous yoke walk, it's one of his biggest strengths. I feel they've just developed the right hip flexibility to be able to walk like that but with their glutes. I notice a lot of people with bad posture walk with their toes out, but have inactive glutes, I say this because that was me. What I've also noitced is I've recovered my glutes, and feel them powering my walks and lifting now, whereas before it was my hips. the one stupid thing I did was to do a 290 farmers walk for around 30 feet, and I went toes out, and it tore my hips apart, my low back was spasming by the time I got out the door, I had to stretch my hips for a couple hours just to be able to recover.
I think if I built up slowly again, I'd be able to turn this into a much better event for me, whereas I could pick generally anything up, and hold onto it for however long it needed... generally, but I couldn't walk for shit. The actual walking part just destroyed me. I look forward to trying that again, most likely this summer.
Keep in mind, Both are very good at truck pulls, and Jordan is a rugby guy, they both know how to sprint, and can roll their feet, Paul does a lot of prowler work.
I find sprinters that don't have some way of developing their external flexibility are going to be prone to some low back injuries, I do see a lot of people with terrible posture walking around with their feet pointing forward... but they probably never played hockey. Hockey probably kept me good for kicking, and healthy-ish for lifting, but just destroyed me as an athlete through high school. Ohri has been fighting a nagging low back, but we're going to bring up his sumo deadlift, and I think this will help him out, he's so naturally athletic he gets there easily. I'm going to raises his volume with 75 and 80% for a while on sumo and conventional, and keep him squatting light-ish for a while.
I think this will help his low back more than anything, as well as a lot more upper back work.. his schedule is on, so I'm just going to make him do roughly what I'm going to be doing myself anyways.
Stupid size me
I'm a promoter of a 90 day health challenge, it's simply amazing, filled with the most positive people I've ever met. They're human beings, and nobodies perfect, but they just make business fun again.
I also really loved the 4 hour workweek by Timothy Ferris, he really lives the rule of 10% of your efforts giving you 90% os your results, I ran my lifting with that motto for a few years, and for a long time, I'd just go in an either squat, bench or deadlift then leave... I made great progress and had fun. One of my limitations, is I tend to overthink things quite a bit, and I'm always trying to please people... there are worse limitations, so I'm not too concerned about them... But overthinking my lifting and training really killed me for almost 2 years straight, and I'm only now figuring things out again.
I don't regret those 2 years, without them... then what? Who would we be without our mistakes. I've watched high level guys make progress on roughly linear periodization and progressive overload, and call it a miracle... All I see is just someone getting carried away with delusions of grandeur to be honest.
When I was younger, I had it figured out, I'd do just enough to get by in school, and save myself for what I actually liked doing, like video games, books, hockey, kickboxing, the gym... and just sort of zone out when I had to sit in a classroom run by a piss poor leader, who never left high school. I've never trusted someone who goes home at the end of the day and complains how a 15 year old ruined their day and was so hard on them.
Don't get me wrong, I've seen guys 15-17 conduct themselves more like men, than around the 1000 customers or over 200 employees I've had in my career in business. I played with Jessie Winchester in his first year of junior, who's now playing on the Ottawa Senators, and that guy knew exactly how to handle himself, and was the rookie of the year. He's also a really cool guy.
I've always tried to be like my mentor Paul Vaillancourt, and failed. I've forgiven myself for this once I put myself into Pauls shoes and saw what it was like a bit. The thing with Paul, is he makes a plan, then executes the hell out of it. He's learned to go more off page I think, whereas before he just had to crush everything in his path, and if he didn't it was totally unacceptable.
Like Paul, I used Shelby Starnes as my nutritionist, and had great results, but not Paul results, which used to be unacceptable. Shelby and Paul are both perfectionists, and honestly, Paul puts more effort into his diet than I do my training cycles. Shelby works with bodybuilders and anyone who wants to get into fantastic shape.
I just couldn't do it.
I worked crazy hours, and most days, I had to force myself to eat or I couldn't even remember, and when you've got anxiety and stress coming out of your ears, it's challenging to have an appetite. I've since learned how to do it, and it's more of a skill to eat clean than you'd think. It starts in the grocery store, then the kitchen then the refrigerator, then your cooler, and if you did it right, your mouth.
I guarantee you most fat people have empty fridges, and easy to eat snacks in the cupboard.
Oh those horrible horrible people.
Listen fatties, I had abs once... I think... I worked my ass off to get them, and I still really wanted a slice of pizza. I'm going to forgive you, it's too damn hard, and if you've got kids... holy fuck, I can't even imagine.
Keep in mind, I'm an extremely organized guy... it used to piss me off when people would see my car and make a comment. For fucks sakes, in busy years I had 25 employees, on 9-12 projects, with around 20k coming in a week, where I was in contact with every employee daily, every customer daily, and the pissed off customers every 5 minutes. If you've ever worked in the trades, getting a cheque at the end of a job can be a nightmare. I came up with systems so basically customers had to hand over a cheque at the end of a job, or they just looked like assholes, and I'd still have to personally collect 3-5 cheques a week, which was a nightmare on top of moving all that equipment from job to job, doing payrolls, getting all the paint organized, and probably 10 other things I'm forgetting to mention for fear of an anxiety attack.
But yeah, I can barely get all my meals cooked in a week. I have to get into a rocl solid routine to do it, and can't fall out of it. My girlfriend Megan is amazing, we keep each other on track like you can't believe, since starting to date me she's lost 15 pounds, and she was hot when I first met her. She went from 128 to 113 in a couple months, and she never really tried, just didn't eat junk food.
Junk food... I know I know... I'm supposed to spit on every mcdonalds I see... but honestly, they're a well run business, and run a lot better than most. During this summer, I ate most of my meals out, had mcdonalds daily, and I was at my leanest in my entire life.
It was pretty simple, 2 shakes a day, no ketchup or cheese on my burgers, eat clean when i could, the rest of the time, keep the sugar down, keep dairy a million miles away, and bam... I was in great shape. I lifted the way I always did, supplemented the way I always did, the only things I changed was no sugar or dairy. I'm sure there's a bit of sugar in the wheat patties, but not much.
If someone would pay me, I'd honestly do a documentary on it... Mcdonalds isn't my enemy, I'm trying to get people to have breakfast and lunch, then a shake snack, and dinner after a good workout. That's more than enough for 90 of people to drastically change things.
I've tried to debate with paleo natzi's.. and all they kept saying was how natural and pure it was... the one guy works 3 hours a day, and wonders why a regular person can't do it... but you get used to it with him, not too bright for how smart he is.
It's cool, Paleo is awesome, it gives great results, but there's the other 90% out there to be honest with you... If someone is doing paleo, great, I just don't worry about them... I worry about the college kids eating kraft dinner, and the poor house wife having a salad with a dressing that has 50 grams of sugar in it and not understanding.
Keep sugar and dairy low, the body by vi premium kit takes care of everything else, the omega 3 fats and green tea extract are going to kill cortisol, although immediately lowering your caffeine intake will help with this a ton. The multi vitamins are simply amazing, they're loaded with everything you need to get lean, if I had to choose between the multi and the shakes, I'd chose the multi... but the shakes are awesome too. The protein content is a bit lower than other shakes, but that's just because they've made it so you absorb all of that protein whereas other ones you'll pound 50 grams of protein and only absorb 30... there are ways around this, but honestly don't freak about it... it's not that big a deal, overdoing protein is just as much a problem as overdoing anything else. There has to be a balance.
So here's what you do... next time you're at a fast food spot, or restaurant in general... just skip the ketchup and dairy, eat the food, have rice as a side, or a baked potato, skip the fries... if you go fast food, triple patty, no ketchup no cheese extra mustard, or tim hortons has snack wraps that are amazing, 4 bucks for an eat out meal is good, just skip the sauce.
Save the caffeine for your workouts, the rest of the time that caffeine is going to your belly, it has to do with cortisol and a bunch of stuff I can understand to read, but to teach it is a different story, just trust me, don't do it, stay away from energy drinks unless you're about to train, then go for it.
Speaking of training.. if you really need to have that big cheat meal, save it for after training... that way the majority of bad stuff will be burnt off and you'll use the bad stuff.
No, it's not perfect... it's how you start. keep it simple, but just start. Milk this for all it's worth before you get serious, you'll be amazed how far it will take you. Take pictures once a week, and stay the hell away from the scale except for saturday mornings, get your weight, take a picture, have a cheat meal saturday night, another one sinday night, keep the week as clean as you can.. you'll go far.
I also really loved the 4 hour workweek by Timothy Ferris, he really lives the rule of 10% of your efforts giving you 90% os your results, I ran my lifting with that motto for a few years, and for a long time, I'd just go in an either squat, bench or deadlift then leave... I made great progress and had fun. One of my limitations, is I tend to overthink things quite a bit, and I'm always trying to please people... there are worse limitations, so I'm not too concerned about them... But overthinking my lifting and training really killed me for almost 2 years straight, and I'm only now figuring things out again.
I don't regret those 2 years, without them... then what? Who would we be without our mistakes. I've watched high level guys make progress on roughly linear periodization and progressive overload, and call it a miracle... All I see is just someone getting carried away with delusions of grandeur to be honest.
When I was younger, I had it figured out, I'd do just enough to get by in school, and save myself for what I actually liked doing, like video games, books, hockey, kickboxing, the gym... and just sort of zone out when I had to sit in a classroom run by a piss poor leader, who never left high school. I've never trusted someone who goes home at the end of the day and complains how a 15 year old ruined their day and was so hard on them.
Don't get me wrong, I've seen guys 15-17 conduct themselves more like men, than around the 1000 customers or over 200 employees I've had in my career in business. I played with Jessie Winchester in his first year of junior, who's now playing on the Ottawa Senators, and that guy knew exactly how to handle himself, and was the rookie of the year. He's also a really cool guy.
I've always tried to be like my mentor Paul Vaillancourt, and failed. I've forgiven myself for this once I put myself into Pauls shoes and saw what it was like a bit. The thing with Paul, is he makes a plan, then executes the hell out of it. He's learned to go more off page I think, whereas before he just had to crush everything in his path, and if he didn't it was totally unacceptable.
Like Paul, I used Shelby Starnes as my nutritionist, and had great results, but not Paul results, which used to be unacceptable. Shelby and Paul are both perfectionists, and honestly, Paul puts more effort into his diet than I do my training cycles. Shelby works with bodybuilders and anyone who wants to get into fantastic shape.
I just couldn't do it.
I worked crazy hours, and most days, I had to force myself to eat or I couldn't even remember, and when you've got anxiety and stress coming out of your ears, it's challenging to have an appetite. I've since learned how to do it, and it's more of a skill to eat clean than you'd think. It starts in the grocery store, then the kitchen then the refrigerator, then your cooler, and if you did it right, your mouth.
I guarantee you most fat people have empty fridges, and easy to eat snacks in the cupboard.
Oh those horrible horrible people.
Listen fatties, I had abs once... I think... I worked my ass off to get them, and I still really wanted a slice of pizza. I'm going to forgive you, it's too damn hard, and if you've got kids... holy fuck, I can't even imagine.
Keep in mind, I'm an extremely organized guy... it used to piss me off when people would see my car and make a comment. For fucks sakes, in busy years I had 25 employees, on 9-12 projects, with around 20k coming in a week, where I was in contact with every employee daily, every customer daily, and the pissed off customers every 5 minutes. If you've ever worked in the trades, getting a cheque at the end of a job can be a nightmare. I came up with systems so basically customers had to hand over a cheque at the end of a job, or they just looked like assholes, and I'd still have to personally collect 3-5 cheques a week, which was a nightmare on top of moving all that equipment from job to job, doing payrolls, getting all the paint organized, and probably 10 other things I'm forgetting to mention for fear of an anxiety attack.
But yeah, I can barely get all my meals cooked in a week. I have to get into a rocl solid routine to do it, and can't fall out of it. My girlfriend Megan is amazing, we keep each other on track like you can't believe, since starting to date me she's lost 15 pounds, and she was hot when I first met her. She went from 128 to 113 in a couple months, and she never really tried, just didn't eat junk food.
Junk food... I know I know... I'm supposed to spit on every mcdonalds I see... but honestly, they're a well run business, and run a lot better than most. During this summer, I ate most of my meals out, had mcdonalds daily, and I was at my leanest in my entire life.
It was pretty simple, 2 shakes a day, no ketchup or cheese on my burgers, eat clean when i could, the rest of the time, keep the sugar down, keep dairy a million miles away, and bam... I was in great shape. I lifted the way I always did, supplemented the way I always did, the only things I changed was no sugar or dairy. I'm sure there's a bit of sugar in the wheat patties, but not much.
If someone would pay me, I'd honestly do a documentary on it... Mcdonalds isn't my enemy, I'm trying to get people to have breakfast and lunch, then a shake snack, and dinner after a good workout. That's more than enough for 90 of people to drastically change things.
I've tried to debate with paleo natzi's.. and all they kept saying was how natural and pure it was... the one guy works 3 hours a day, and wonders why a regular person can't do it... but you get used to it with him, not too bright for how smart he is.
It's cool, Paleo is awesome, it gives great results, but there's the other 90% out there to be honest with you... If someone is doing paleo, great, I just don't worry about them... I worry about the college kids eating kraft dinner, and the poor house wife having a salad with a dressing that has 50 grams of sugar in it and not understanding.
Keep sugar and dairy low, the body by vi premium kit takes care of everything else, the omega 3 fats and green tea extract are going to kill cortisol, although immediately lowering your caffeine intake will help with this a ton. The multi vitamins are simply amazing, they're loaded with everything you need to get lean, if I had to choose between the multi and the shakes, I'd chose the multi... but the shakes are awesome too. The protein content is a bit lower than other shakes, but that's just because they've made it so you absorb all of that protein whereas other ones you'll pound 50 grams of protein and only absorb 30... there are ways around this, but honestly don't freak about it... it's not that big a deal, overdoing protein is just as much a problem as overdoing anything else. There has to be a balance.
So here's what you do... next time you're at a fast food spot, or restaurant in general... just skip the ketchup and dairy, eat the food, have rice as a side, or a baked potato, skip the fries... if you go fast food, triple patty, no ketchup no cheese extra mustard, or tim hortons has snack wraps that are amazing, 4 bucks for an eat out meal is good, just skip the sauce.
Save the caffeine for your workouts, the rest of the time that caffeine is going to your belly, it has to do with cortisol and a bunch of stuff I can understand to read, but to teach it is a different story, just trust me, don't do it, stay away from energy drinks unless you're about to train, then go for it.
Speaking of training.. if you really need to have that big cheat meal, save it for after training... that way the majority of bad stuff will be burnt off and you'll use the bad stuff.
No, it's not perfect... it's how you start. keep it simple, but just start. Milk this for all it's worth before you get serious, you'll be amazed how far it will take you. Take pictures once a week, and stay the hell away from the scale except for saturday mornings, get your weight, take a picture, have a cheat meal saturday night, another one sinday night, keep the week as clean as you can.. you'll go far.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Week 4 days 1 and 2
Took' Friday, Saturday and Sunday off, Friday I went in, and just felt like poop, so I scraped the work out.. I'm all for training through tough nights, but if I'm going to compete, then resting is good too.
Monday
reverse purple band squat
went up to 495x1
- was pretty cool, felt like 495, I've never liked reverse bands as I've never felt a lot at the bottom, tested it after and the bands unloaded around 60-70 lbs, for some reason it doesn't feel as heavy when I've got chains on, but I was also feeling pretty shitty. It's hard for me to remember that's sort of part of the plan.
Tuesday
-borrowed a pair of addistars today, they have a .6th of an inch heel, whereas my do wins have a full inch... almost immediately after putting them on I felt great, the big heel is good for training, but these just help me to stay on my heels, felt really good.
Front squat
225,275,315,345,365,385,405 PR
Bench with 45 lb chain
-looped the feeder chain an extra time to get less chain on the ground
135,185,205,225,245,265,285,305,325 PR
-should have paused the 325 an extra split second, but no biggie, felt very good.
face pulls, straight arm pull downs, side laterals.
Think I'm going to compete on the 14th, should be fun.
Monday
reverse purple band squat
went up to 495x1
- was pretty cool, felt like 495, I've never liked reverse bands as I've never felt a lot at the bottom, tested it after and the bands unloaded around 60-70 lbs, for some reason it doesn't feel as heavy when I've got chains on, but I was also feeling pretty shitty. It's hard for me to remember that's sort of part of the plan.
Tuesday
-borrowed a pair of addistars today, they have a .6th of an inch heel, whereas my do wins have a full inch... almost immediately after putting them on I felt great, the big heel is good for training, but these just help me to stay on my heels, felt really good.
Front squat
225,275,315,345,365,385,405 PR
Bench with 45 lb chain
-looped the feeder chain an extra time to get less chain on the ground
135,185,205,225,245,265,285,305,325 PR
-should have paused the 325 an extra split second, but no biggie, felt very good.
face pulls, straight arm pull downs, side laterals.
Think I'm going to compete on the 14th, should be fun.
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