Firehawk's Powerlifting Journal - Page 16

**.V.** · 18-Jan-06, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Firehawk

Boy i felt good today. Really felt good...I'm gonna keep that cardio up. Also didn't get much sleep last night too. My diet is spot on lately, tracking everything, counting calories and keeping a spreadsheet of everything I'm eating.

Great job on everything man - especially the eating. That's the hardest part. It looks like you are now getting the nutrition to get strong AND fit. It's really nice to hear about you feeling good instead of, "heart racing again" or "no energy again".

Big props to you for your current and future success.

**Firehawk** · 18-Jan-06, 10:49 PM

Yeah we'll see saturday morning if i've lost any fat over the week. I've been keeping my calories between 2500-2800, depending on if it's a training day or cardio day. I SHOULD be losing 1.5-2lbs a week right now.

AND i'm doing a good job thus far of controlling my cheat days. I didnt even take one the first week, the second week i got sick to my stomach after eating 1/2 a pizza, and this weekend im planning on nothing too big. We'll see what happens. Definitely not taking 10,000 calorie cheat days anymore lol.

**.V.** · 18-Jan-06, 11:04 PM

You are working on getting your intake down to the right amount - I'm working on getting mine up to the right amount. Our right amounts seem to be about the same. Maybe we'll meet in the middle someday and be cut beasts.

**Firehawk** · 19-Jan-06, 06:39 AM

Yep ill know this saturday morning if i'm dropping on the scale or not. I'm comparing saturday to saturday readings. If i didnt lose anything then ill cut down. If i lost maybe 1lb then ill cut just another 100 out per day until im losing about 1.5-2lbs.

**Firehawk** · 21-Jan-06, 11:57 AM

ME leg day

Heavy Deads

135 x 3
135 x 3
225 x 2
315 x 1
405 x 1
455 x 1
505 x 0 got it almost to my knees
505 x 0 same
Clearly not getting the leg drive i need.
I got really light headed and was seeing stars on the second attempt at 505. Anytime something like this happens i immeidately relate it back to my heart and i really gotta get over that.

Reverse Hypers

280 x 10
280 x 10
280 x 10
Stopped after these. I was getting anxiety or panic attacks. It just scared me, the almost fainting and seeing stars and such.

The guys told me once i start getting into equipment that my head is going to feel like it wants to explode and it's 10x's worse of a feeling as right now. Is it safe to faint while pushing yourself that hard? Ugh.

My problem is as soon as i feel funny at all, no matter what it is, i relate it to my heart in my mind. I really have to quit doing that. It's going to be hard for me to get used to this without getting anxiety problems over it.

**maverick** · 21-Jan-06, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Firehawk

Stopped after these. I was getting anxiety or panic attacks. It just scared me, the almost fainting and seeing stars and such.

The guys told me once i start getting into equipment that my head is going to feel like it wants to explode and it's 10x's worse of a feeling as right now. Is it safe to faint while pushing yourself that hard? Ugh.

I sure hope so, I did. And go figure, it was on leg day for me too. Granted, I did it in a very different way. 10 rep sets of A2G squats to failure supersetted with double dropsets of leg extensions, collapsed after the fourth round of them. Like any relationship, it'll take time to trust your body and your heart before you'll be totally confortable with it. A year from now when you've been serious-incident-free, you'll have no more worries about firing on all cylinders.

:

**Firehawk** · 21-Jan-06, 12:36 PM

Yeah it's just a total mental issue for me right now. I'm probably going to go finish my workout in my basement in about an hour because i feel like i quit on myself.

Nobody is harder on myself than me. It bugs me that i didn't finish out my workout, even though it was a valid reason.

I feel like i can smoke that 505 weight too. As my squat goes up i think my dead will go up. I am capable of locking out in the mid 500s right now.

**maverick** · 21-Jan-06, 12:50 PM

Your dead will definitely go up with your squat. I didn't do deadlifts for over 2 months at one point this year cause of reoccurring lower back issues. I continued ot squat heavy in the meantime. When I finally came back to it, I got a 40 pound PR the first session and another 20 pound PR 2 weeks from that point. My legs used to be my weakness, now I'm suddenly finding ways to use them to increase overall strength, hence the recent addition of cleans.

**Firehawk** · 21-Jan-06, 12:55 PM

Yeah i usually don't pull more than 1 every 3 weeks. You don't need to pull heavy and squat heavy every week anyway, especially if you're a natural lifter. I'm learning this. I do remember feeling overtrained very quickly, tired and such, when i'd do both every single week. It doesn't require you to squat or dead heavy every single week to make gains on those lifts.

On another note, this week i dropped about 0.8 lbs fat and the numbers show a gain of 0.4lbs Lean body mass. my guess is i lost about 1.2-1.5 lbs of fat and am holding some water. I slammed a few pitchers of water last night at bowling so i could have been holding extra water this morning. Either way, my diet is shaping up nicely. I won't change much this week, maybe 100 calories lower every day and see what numbers i get next saturday. My strength is going up again a little bit so i'm probably getting close to the numbers i need.

I ate between 2500-2900 calories every day except for a cheat day where i had 6000 caloreis (the stuff adds up fast! I thought i only had about 4000 till i added it lol). And still losing about a lb, that's pretty good. Today im going to keep my cheat day under 5000 calories and work harder next week while staying around the same calorie intake. See how that plays out.

I'm writing everything down in Excel and doing all the calculations, weighing out everything i eat, etc.

**Firehawk** · 21-Jan-06, 01:44 PM

Just went to the basement and finished out my workout. I'm feeling a little better, but still kinda jittery. Someone slipped some ephedra in my water at the gym maybe

DB Swingthrus

72lb DB x 10
72lb DB x 10
72lb DB x 10

BB Shrugs

315 x 10
335 x 10
355 x 10
375 x 10

DB Curls

42lb DB x 8
42lb DB x 8 left arm only 7

**Firehawk** · 22-Jan-06, 01:32 PM

ME Bench

BB Bench Press

45 x 10
95 x 6
135 x 6
185 x 2
Add blue mini bands
45 x 3
95 x 3
135 x 3
155 x 3
175 x 3
195 x 2
215 x 0
add 2 board
215 x 1
225 x 1
235 x 0
This was interesting hehe. First time ever using bands on bench. I figure about 80 lbs at the top from the bands. Not sure though but it feels like it. With just the bar, it doesn't quite feel like 95 but it's close. So i say about 80. Next week is my last bench day before the meet. I'm getting excited.

DB Bench Press

90 x 8
90 x 7
90 x 8

Cable Pushdowns

80 x 15
80 x 14

Rope Overhead Extensions

60 x 10
60 x 10

DB Lateral Raises

20s x 20
20s x 20

Front Raises

40s x 10
40s x 10

Rear Delt Pulldowns

120 x 20
150 x 8 failure

T-Bar Rows with wide grip

135 x 6
135 x 6
135 x 6
135 x 6

Lot of volume today but i felt good. Had the energy from a huge cheat day yesterday (oops!). Next week the volume will be very low, working up to opener and thats it, then light accessory work and bingo bango, done.

gcs118 · 22-Jan-06, 07:01 PM

What'd you think of the bands? Whole new game or just a new twist to it?

**Firehawk** · 22-Jan-06, 07:57 PM

Totally different feel. Just with the bar, i was all over the place for stability. I got good control after a couple of sets though.

**Firehawk** · 24-Jan-06, 10:14 PM

Speed Leg Day

Paused rep squats below parallel

55 x 5
105 x 3

145 x 3
155 x 3
165 x 3
175 x 3
175 x 3
175 x 3
175 x 3
175 x 3
Stayed at 175, felt that's where i started getting slower. Buried all the squats in the hole, ass to grass and with a pause, and tried to get out with as much speed as possible.

Speed Deads, no bands

315 8 pulls 45 seconds apart

Reverse Hypers

280 x 10
280 x 10
280 x 10

Good Mornings tight arch to parallel

145 x 6
175 x 6
195 x 6
Just took it to a moderate weight today on these.

45° Hypers

BW 3 x 6
Light on these today

Situps off roman chair

BW x 10
25 x 10
25 x 10

Felt good. Ill figure out what my squat opener will be saturday.

**Firehawk** · 25-Jan-06, 10:24 PM

Speed Bench

Floor Presses, paused reps

Started with 95 and worked up to 175 by adding 10 each time. 45sec-1min rest between reps, singles.

BB Military Press

95 x 6
135 x 6
165 x 6
190 x 6 PR

Cable Pushdowns

100 x 6
100 x 6

Seated Hammer Strength Pushdowns

140 x 15
160 x 15

V grip Pulldowns (back work)

100 x 6
150 x 6
170 x 6

Ab Work on incline with medicine ball

3 x 10

Cut way back on the shoulder volume today and the heavienss of the workout in prep for my meet feb 4th. All the work was not as heavy as possible today.