a_welch503 WORKOUT JOURNAL

[luke.w]

hi Andy, I noticed you stated in threenorns journal that your adding some things I do in your training.

Theres a book that first made me change the way I thought about working-out called "Dinasour training" by Brooks Kubick on www.ironmind.com theres many other ones also, but this is the first one that got me, also Brooks tends to do more of a bodybuilding style of training also (you might like that more), he does compete in drug-free powerlifting, the book involves alot of the pre-steriod era type of training and when the only protein shakes were handmade.

A reason I like this site is because the majority of the memebers who post daily are drug-free, I wouldn't go on a drug infested bodybuilding site and preech strongman style training, I do believe that doing the odd-lifts (strongman/powerlift/old-school) stlye training highly helps the drug-free lifter who maybe dosen't have an athletic background or great genitics acheive beyond potential.

[.V.]

Luke, I haven't added much. I like the strongman stuff, but I mostly have just BB's, DB's, a bench. Not even any old tires to toss around. I really like to watch the strongman comps though. I've tried to implement your advice about singles (adding them to my workout - seems to be helping with the strength some. I've also added the farmer's walk (not much weight though) for overall strength and fitness. Thanks for the link - I'll look into that book. I see myself gradually heading towards PL type training from the MAX OT style. I'm sticking with MAX OT for as long as I keep getting results, but as I stall out - or seem to hit my maximum potential, I seem to want to go heavier to get past it. On the other hand, some of the MAX OT style training seems to be of real benefit to me for example arm day - and the pullups on back day. I'm trying to find the best way to combine the two - do my normal workout and do my singles for the big 3. Seems to be working so far - except for today when some grip failure led to some back pain and I had to cut the deadlifting short by one set. I'm thinking instead of the 3x 4-6, changing to a 6x3 routine - got to do some searching about that first. But heck, something seems to be going right - I got 300 for 5 singles today - my best deadlifting ever.

[luke.w]

nice to hear about the deads there, actually I did train similar to Max-OT for a while, I still haven't put much time into researching it, but I did train a 1-set to failure HIT kinda style right before I got into the strongman stuff, and yeah that put some quality mass on me, but my functional strength and all-around strength still was weak, just to note though I don't press a 100% strongman style training on people, just variations, that can be added from time to time even in a bodybuilding program.

only I train 100% strongman style because thats all I care about for myself, and it does keep me looking in shape or alittle beyond in shape, I know this was the ONLY way for me to get where I did as fast as I did for my strongman contests.

[.V.]

08-03-2005

Back
CDL Singles........300x5
CDL..............270x2x5
BOR..............175x3x4
P/U............3x15+8=53

Diet
M1.....Breakfast Shake
M2.....Another Shake (preworkout - lifting was delayed by work)
M3.....PWO Shakes
M4.....Chicken on lettuce and tomato with mayo
M5.....Steak, Brussels Sprouts, Tomato slices

Totals: P-172g, C-71g, F-65g, Cal-1557
Water: >1 gallon

Comments
Best deadlifting day ever...at first, then not so good. Got 5 reps on 300lb singles today - didn't think I'd ever be able to do that. Then during my regular sets of 270lb deadlifts putting the bar down after that 5th rep my grip started to go. In my hurry to set the bar down, I used too much back and not enough legs - rounding the back a little. Immediate muscle spasms on both sides of the SI. Decided that the 3rd set might not be the best idea. Looks like I'll be having another week of 270. Rested it and fed it for healing today. Still pretty sore. Since this is cardioglide night, I'm skipping cardio. All I could do with it like this is walk, and I'm on call so walking is out of the question. If I don't have to go out tonight and pick up some big fat person from some awkward place, I should feel better by tomorrow. Tomorrow is just chest, but the next day is legs - it has to be better by then. On a happy note, pullups are coming along nicely - and so are the BOR's. I was surprised that I was able to pick up the bar for the BOR's, but since it's only 175 - it didn't make my back feel any worse.

I guess I'm missing my evening dextrose spike and creatine since I'm skipping cardio. Darn it, I always feel stronger the next day when I take it twice. But since the muscles don't get worked twice, there is no need to treat them twice.

[.V.]

08-04-2005

Chest
Flat Bench Singles.............180x10
Flat Bench Press..............160x6x3
Incline Bench Press...........150x6x3
Decline Bench Press...........150x6x3

Abs
Decline Crunch...............110x4x10
Kneeling Cable Crunch.....115x10, 3x8

Grip
Static Hold.....300 x 14.94sec, 12.94sec, 8.07sec


Cardio
Walk - 8 miles. With some running up the hills almost a mile total of running (just not all at once).

Diet
M1.....Breakfast shake, Coffee
M2.....PWO shakes - protein 40g, dextrose 32g, creatine 5g
M3.....Tuna, Lettuce, Tomato, Mayo
M4.....Steak, Brussels sprouts
M5.....PWO shakes - same as earlier

Totals: P-182g, C-97g, F-72.5g, Cal-1768.5
Water: > 1 gallon

Comments
Today was my first day of 6x3. Felt pretty good, I actually got to raise the Flat bench weight and got all of my planned reps on the same day. Actually, all the bench work felt good today. I got pinned under the 6th single at 180 last week, today I got 10 of 'em.

The low back was too tight, I couldn't pick up the DB's for the farmers walk. It feels a lot better, the walk helped loosen it up a bit. If it feels ok tomorrow, I'll work legs. If it's not well enough, I'll skip leg day.

[gcs118]

Why don't you do something like 1 or 2x 6-10 on incline and decline? And did you have someone with a stopwatch timing your static holds lol

[.V.]

I was doing 3x4-6 on them but got stuck at the same puny little weight for a very long time, just trying something a little different to see if I can get stronger. Static holds - yep a stopwatch. I just hold it and count to 10, but I wanted to make sure I was actually getting a real 10 seconds for each hold before I raise the weight. Apparently I count faster on the third hold. Just making sure I wasn't cheating myself.

[.V.]

08-05-2005

Back still tight, no workout. Woke up with vertigo this morning, nausea all day. This heat is starting to get to me. Didn't even feel like eating - I managed to squeeze in a few calories today and just took it easy.

M1.....Protein, creatine, dextrose shake
M2.....2 oz sausage
M3.....sausage, tomato slices
M4.....Steak, salad
M5.....bedtime shake

Totals: P-153g, C-67g, F-64g, Cal-1456
Water: Almost a gallon.

[.V.]

08-07-2005

Yesterday was a planned off day - diet was kept good, a bit light on calories though. Just too darn busy to eat enough, finally got to eat dinner about 10pm. Thanks to the mexicans who will stay open as long as someone wants to come in and eat. Heck even my own daughter told me at 8:55, "we close at 9". Darn lazy Americans.

My back still hurts, but not too bad, I'm going to give leg day a shot today - using the workout that Dave reccomended. We'll see how it goes. If I get hurt, I'm taking a week off to completely heal. It's not a real injury, just muscle tightness at the SI joint - but it can really put a stop to lifting.

Some good news though - I weighed yesterday, 4 lb weight loss after 6 days of cutting. Strength gains were noticed during my last workout. Abs are looking a bit better - they'll never look good, but are a good indicator of BF anyway. I won't be doing a body comp analysis until the end of the month.

[gcs118]

For static holds, I usually use the same weight for three weeks, doing 10, 15, then 20 second holds with it. If you think about it, most sets are longer than 10 seconds so that extra endurance is probably a good idea before moving upwards.

[.V.]

08-07-2005

Legs
Squat:
warmup - 120x10, 145x8
Doubles - 160, 180, 200, 220, 230
Singles - 240 - total failure at 250 - could not go back to 240 and do more singles because I no longer have a bar that will fit the pins on the rack.

SLDL - 250x6x3 - Glad I have the 5' standard bar to work with.

Calf raises - none.

Editing in Diet:

M1.....4 egg whites, 1 yolk, 2 oz sausage
M2.....Preworkout protein shake
M3.....Postworkout shakes
M4.....steak, broccoli, green beans, onions, & peppers
M5.....protein shake (hungry, no time to cook)
M6.....tuna, lettuce, tomato, mayo

Totals: P-205g, C-308g, F-598.5g, Cal-1726.5
Water: > 1 gallon

Comments:
I tried the doubles and then singles squat routine. At 250, I got stuck on the box and ended up dropping the weight behind me. The bar hit the back of the box and bent really bad. Now I've got to go out and get a new one. This time I'm going for the olympic bar. That means some olympic plates. This is going to probably mean I have to move my bed out to the gym for a few months and just live there - I'm sure I'll be kicked out of the house. Until the end of the week when I can buy the new equipment, I'm going to have to drive to the closest gym - about a 26 mile trip. This is going to suck.

[Firehawk]

if you got a dicks sporting goods they sell 300lb olympic sets for 99.99$. you get a 7' bar, 2 45s, 2 35s, 2 25s, 4 10s 2 5's and 2 21/2's or something like that. Good deal IMO.

Next week try to beat what you did today. Don't be afraid to fail man. That's when you stop making gains. It sucks you had to drop it but what you gonan do? Get yourself a workout partner, or have the wife back spot you .

[.V.]

Originally Posted by Firehawk

Don't be afraid to fail man. That's when you stop making gains. It sucks you had to drop it but what you gonan do? Get yourself a workout partner, or have the wife back spot you .

No one will workout with me. The few really strong guys I know don't want me in the way. The weak ones are in my way. Wife can't spot - weight is too much (she is still recovering from 22 spinal fractures a few years back). Youngest daughter is too small. Oldest just doesn't have the time.

[gcs118]

Are those strong guys your friends? I can't believe they would take lifting so seriously that they wouldn't take the time to spot a buddy and take time to swap plates between sets for each other. Lifting is a hobby with great benefits and results. Even if they are competing, I think they've got their heads in the wrong place.

[.V.]

It's the whole short rest period thing - one set right after another with light weight (for them) that everyone seems to want to do. I'd have to sit through their whole routine and wait my turn - or they'd have to sit through mine - pretty time consuming that way. Then there's the whole driving to one another's house thing.

And the guys who are weaker than me - I get too irritated when someone who is smaller or weaker than I am (yes there are a few out there...very few) trying to tell me, "you're doing it wrong - you should be doing 12-20 reps - don't increase the weight yet. Your rest times are too long." That kind of thing.

My best workout partner is a 9 year old girl... she does whatever exercises I'm doing, has her own weights (my original plastic/cement set that I outgrew) and gets really mad that I won't let her go heavy. She got tired of body weight and is now tired of the light stuff. Problem, she isn't much good for a spotter. And has the best arms and shoulders I've ever saw on a 9 year old - girl or boy. Just a bit of belly fat - you know - that age where they start to store abdominal fat - about 2-3 years before they get mentally ill. She wants to be a PL, but has a mean old dad that won't let her go heavy.

I think I'll check out the gym day after tomorrow and see what they've got. If they have some real weights and not just a bunch of nautilus stuff, I might join temporarily.
I still hate the thought of driving.