Deadlift PR: 405 lbs

Hit a personal record of 405 deadliest this morning. I wasn’t planning on maxing out, I had done a pretty heavy squat set two days earlier and my hamstrings were pretty sore. I had also only had about five hours of sleep, so conditions were less than ideal. I ended up feeling pretty strong after a few warm up sets and decided to go for it.

I still want to add about 20 lbs by the end of the year and I’m starting to feel optimistic that I may reach my goal. My grip strength has been the biggest weak point, so I’ve been working a lot on my grip and lower back strength and it’s been paying off.

I get a nice adrenaline buzz when I really push myself with heavy lifts. I had the headphones going and I was able to concentrate even with a half-dozen or so ladies gabbing away right in front of me. I’ve been pretty happy with my progress this summer. I haven’t made a lot of big leaps, but it’s been pretty steady growth with a reduced amount of pain.

“Do very hard things, just for the sake of it.” – Brian Eno

July 28, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Leave a Comment

lifting update 6/18/2010

Surprised myself by having a really great workout this morning. My strength has been going up steadily and I’m just about to last years max effort. I hit a pretty easy 345 squat this morning and pulled a reasonable 365 deadlift two days before that.

I’m going to have a couple of days off next week with work travel, but I think it’s a good point to change things up and plan out the next cycle. I have a solid six weeks to push things forward a bit.

June 18, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Leave a Comment

Drive to 400

Every year I come up with a crazy workout goal to keep things interesting. A couple of years ago it was going through Eric Cresey’s plan and last year it was going through Dave Tate’s Strong(e)r workout series (which ironically didn’t leave me stronger, but I think it did improve overall physical fitness).

These are the totals from the last time I tested max lifts.
Bench: 335
Squat: 375
Deadlift: 385
————-
1095

This year I want to push those three lifts to either hit or get close to 400 lbs.

Bench: 365
Squat: 405
Deadlift: 425
————-
1195 (Just shy of the 1200 lb club)

Not great numbers for a powerlifter, but not awful for a mid-30s computer geek.

The workout plan will be close to Wendler’s 5-3-1 workout with an emphasis on assistance exercises that focus on grip strength (my biggest deadlift weakness) and lower-back health. I’m pretty confident in the squat and deadlift goals, but benching makes me nervous since I don’t have a spotter. Once you get 300+ lbs balanced over your throat you better be pretty confident that you’ll be able to push it back up.

April 29, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Leave a Comment

lifting

I think I’m done with documenting workouts here. I put in a solid year going through Dave Tate’s strong(e)r program and it was mostly good. I feel like I gained a lot of strength in Phase II but Phase III burned me out and I feel like I lost a lot of power.

I’m going to be doing a much similar workout for the near future. Focusing on primary lifts: press, bench, deadlift, squat. It’ll be pretty similar to Jim Wendler’s 5|3|1 program and I’ll be working to increase strength more than anything. Fewer, heavier lifts with a deload cycle for recovery.

Next week I’ll be on vacation and I’m looking forward to the time off to recover and refocus. The last couple months burned me out and I stopped enjoying going to the gym. That’s the one thing in life that has been there for the last five years that I’ve always looked forward to, so for me it’s a good sign that I need to change things up.

Saw a guy at the gym this morning walk in and load up with knee wraps and a belt and knock out a 315 squat with no warm up. It looked like the wraps were preventing a full, deep squat but I can’t imagine doing that w/out any warm up. My body is far too old for that and I would be in more pain than normal. I’m going to continue on unassisted lifting with full range of motion and try to just keep increasing the load.

March 24, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Leave a Comment

P4W1D3

Short and simple workout this morning, but it felt productive.

incline bench: 135×5, 185×5
bench: 225×5, 255×5 (three sets) 135×10 (five sets)
barbell row: 135×10 (five sets)

March 18, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Leave a Comment

P4W1D2

Second day on the new phase, it felt good to deadlift again .. at least until the lower-back pain sets in.

deadlift: 135×5, 185×5, 225×5, 275×5 (three sets)
sumo deadlift: 135×8 (five sets)
leg raise: x12 (five sets)

March 16, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Leave a Comment

P3.2W8D4

Arms:
incline dumbbell curl: 30×8 (eight sets) [30 sec b/w]
french press: 80×8 (eight sets) [45 sec b/w]
reverse curl: 80×6 (two sets) [45 sec b/w]
single arm triceps extension: 5×12 (two sets 45 sec b/w]
cable curl: 6×12 (two sets) [45 sec b/w]
seated calf raise: 70×8 (eight sets) [30 sec b/w]

March 12, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Leave a Comment

P3.2W8D3

A good day at the gym. I went in and completely changed my entire lifting plan. I had a really solid level of energy and felt my time would be best spent with squats:

squat: 135×6, 185×6, 225×6, 275×2, 315×1, 315×3
standing calf raise: 135×10, 155×10, 185×10
seated calf raise: 90×18 (two sets)
cable pulldown abs: 11×10, 13×10, 15×10 (three sets)
leg raise: x8 (two sets)

March 10, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Leave a Comment

P3.2W8D2

Back:
chins: x3 (six sets)
zercher squat: 95×5 (six sets)
// combo, 60 sec b/w
close grip row: 13×6, 15×6, 17×5, 18×4
close pulldown: 8×10, 9×10 (three sets)
medicine ball crunch: x12 (three sets)
medicine ball rotation: x12 (three sets)

March 9, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Leave a Comment

P3.2W8D1

chest / shoulders:
bench: 135×6, 185×6, 205×6 (eight sets) [45 sec b/w]
cable flys: 5×12 (four sets) [45 sec b/w]
cuff pull: 3×8 (three sets)
cuff ext: 4×8 (three sets)
hip-to-shoulder: 2×6 (three sets)
bent-over cable raise: 2×6 (three sets)
cable pull: 8×8 (three sets)

March 8, 2010 | Filed Under lifting | Leave a Comment