Rangers97 Does Powerlifting (for real this time)

[rangers97]

feb 3

seated barbell overhead press
155 x 8
175 x 6
175 x 6
respectable for not doing these in about a month. good to see i kept most of my strength in these even when not doing them. give credit to the people who advocate not doing the same exercises week after week....

dips
BW+90 x 8
BW+100 x 6
BW+100 x 6
finally got a dip stand for my home gym, so i couldnt wait to do these again, as I really progressed on these at the gym late last year. my best was a set of bw+120 for 5 reps, so considering i had over a month and a half without any dipping at all, I'd say this is pretty good :

chest supported t-bar rows
160 x 6
160 x 6
160 x 6

db hammer curls
60 x 6
60 x 6
60 x 6

side laterals
40 x 6
40 x 6
not truly clean reps, but i needed to go up in weight, stuck at 30s for too long

[rangers97]

feb 6 --

new direction in my training starting today. i have been completely wiped lately, and i can only attribute it to the powerlifting workouts and my utter lack of sleep due to my sleeping problems. so what do i do? i go back to my good old max-ot. i cant bring myself to lift for more reps, i cant do it anymore, so i am gonna try a morphed max-ot routine that i created today. if anything, my sets and reps on the bench and deadlifts should be a lot higher than previously....we'll see how this goes.

i had wanted to try a full body routine, but i just don't think i can cut it right now. my recovery ability is awful right now, and i almost aborted today's workout due to fatigue. but something is better than nothing right? so i pressed on.

here is todays new workout:

bench press
275 x 6
275 x 5
on a better day might have gotten more, but even my 135 warmup felt impossibly heavy, so I'll take it and run...

incline bench press
235 x 5
235 x 6
235 x 5
same as last week, no improvement. gotta give it a couple weeks on the new routine before i scrap it due to no progress

dips
didnt do cause i did them on friday and this would have killed me doing them today...i'll hit them up next monday with bw+105

side laterals
40 x 5
40 x 5
gotta get these up there, i really need meat on my side delts

pulldowns to chin
115 x 8
125 x 8

[rangers97]

here is my new idea for a routine, at least for a few weeks

monday-
bench press 2 x 6
incline bench press 3 x 6
weighted dips 2 x 6
side laterals 2 x 8
pulldowns to chin 2 x 8
optional -- decline crunches 3 x 10

wednesday-
deadlifts 2 x 6
bb rows 2 x 6
t-bar rows 3 x 6
lat pulldowns 3 x 6
shrugs 2 x 6

friday-
seated barbell overhead press 3 x 6
close grip bench press 3 x 6
EZ-bar curls 2 x 6
hammer curls 2 x 6
side laterals 2 x 8
pulldowns to chin 2 x 8

saturday-
squats 3 x 6
db lunges 2 x 6
SLDL 3 x 6
GHR 3 x failure
calf raises 3 x 10

of course, that's the plan, we'll see how it works in reality, lol

[rangers97]

feb 10--quads/calves

Squats
255 x 6
255 x 6
255 x 6

DB Lunges
50 x 6
50 x 6

Dip belt calf raises (off of cross bar on dip stand)
BW+90 x 10
BW+100 x 10
BW+100 x 10
BW+100 x 10
gotta make due with what I've got, ya know?

ok, went in a totally different direction here, gonna go back to 1 body part per week, I am concluding that I am seriously overtraining right now, since I am totally exhausted 95% of the time, and I am eating well. It is due to my lack of sleep, I just can't get a good night's sleep and it's killing me with the workouts.

so i will go back to once a week low volume to see if it helps. gonna use a max-ot 5 day split so even though it's 5 workout days, its not a lot of volume each day.

[rangers97]

haven't posted in a while, probably won't be posting too much anymore, I just don't have the desire to do it anymore daily. i still keep track of everything, just wont do it here all the time

that being said, I am currently doing a strictly bodybuilding routine that has a bit of a strength component in it right now. I got the routine from another board, it is low(er) volume, in that its only 3 days per week and one exercise per bodypart, but still challenging and demanding. the routine changes after 3 weeks, then there is a one week layoff after 6 weeks, and then repeat. it is supposed to be a bulking routine, so i am eating decently lately.

i'll just post samples here and there for fun from now on. if anyone is more interested in the routine, please let me know and I'll fill you in on the details...

here was Friday's workout from 2/17:

Decline bench press
245 x 10
275 x 5
225 x 11

DB Shoulder Press
65 x 9
80 x 4
50 x 15

Close Grip Bench Press
245 x 6
265 x 4
205 x 10

Shrugs
275 x 10
315 x 4
245 x 15

Basically the three sets have different rep ranges. Set one is the "medium" set of 6-10 reps, set 2 is the "heavy" set of 3-5 reps, and the last set is the "light" set of 11-15 reps. on paper it seems easy, but in the end is really quite tough.

So I'll be doing this for the next 6 weeks at least, and we'll see how it goes....:

[rangers97]

February 27 -- SHOCK TRAINING!!!

yep, after careful thought and consultation with the master of Shock, Mr. Maverick, I have decided to give it a run. And let me tell you...I dont know what the hell I was thinking! This very well may have been the most difficult workout of my entire life! I mean, the weight used was a lot less than I am used to on most movements, but man, I really FELT like I worked out today, as opposed to just lifting weight. This is hopefully the beginning of a 24 workout torture test to see if I can increase muscle size and or definition in the process. I just felt it was time for something different, lifting the heavy weight was kind of getting old, I mean, I haven't lifted any more than 6 rep sets for almost 2 years now, so I think it's time.

so without further ado, here is todays torture fest, I mean workout

Chest/Shoulders/Triceps

bench press
265 x 6
245 x 7 (ok, so far, so good....here comes the hell....)
225 x 8, (RP) 4, (DS) 205 x 4, (RP) 3, (SS) DB flies 30 x 10
notes: may have underestimated the drops, maybe I need to drop more next time, but I tried to keep everything in 20 lb increments. This was hell, it only got worse....

incline bench press
205 x 6
185 x 8
165 x 8, (RP) 4, (DS) 145 x 4, (RP) 3, (SS) Incline DB flies 30 x 8
notes: ok, starting my incline pressing with 205 was a step back for me, but I was shot already, nothing was moving at this point...the 145, which is what I call a "joke" weight to me nowadays, felt like 2 tons at that point....amazing how that light weight felt so tough....

DB Shoulder Press
20 x 8
30 x 8
40 x 8
50 x 6
40 x 7
30 x 6
20 x 8
notes: acending/decending sets---All done consecutively with NO REST... misjudged these a bit as I was shooting for failure on the 5th set, but it hit on the 4th. better off that way, as I don't think I would have survived if I went for failure on the 5th. This was perhaps the most excruciating weight training thing I have ever done...unreal burn and I don;t know how I even made it through what I did.....MAverick is truly a FREAK!!!!

DB side laterals
30 x 7, (DS) 20 x 8, (DS) 15 x 8

Dips
BW+45 x 10
BW+45 x 10
BW+45 x 8
BW+45 x 6
BW+45 x 6, (DS) BW x 5

Crawled into a hole and died at this point...i think I just laid on the floor for a good 15 minutes after this workout....when I tell you I never drank a post workout carb drink as fast as I did today, I never did, lol....I am AFRAID for leg day

Enjoy your new plan. I hope it works really well for you. Did you also think about getting some rest - it sounds like you are worn out. How long since you actually just took a break?

[rangers97]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

Enjoy your new plan. I hope it works really well for you. Did you also think about getting some rest - it sounds like you are worn out. How long since you actually just took a break?

I actually wound up taking about 6 days off last week due to illness, I finally came down with a bad cold after being surrounded by sick people all winter long and not getting sick. If anything, I need to make sure I get enough rest to support the new plan, since it is more of a "physically fit" routine as opposed to anything else I have done. Hopefully my conditioning will improve a lot on this...I need that :

And oh yeah...I don;t think "enjoy" is a good word for this new plan

I'll change the word to "endure" and wish you success.

[rangers97]

yeah, endure is a better word, or maybe "survive"! lol

It is a completely different world than max-ot or powerlifting workouts. This taxes you so much more cardiovascular wise than the other workouts, I mean, yeah it's tough to perform a 335 pound bench press, but it definitely is a different feeling than the bench press torture that I did yesterday.

I can only hope that all those carbs and protein that I ingest post workout are shuttled right into all those pumped up muscles in my body. Maverick made a good point to me, as while I was still kind of getting "Stronger", and my weight was slowly going up, I wasn't getting any "bigger". He mentioned how we need to really change things up to produce more actual muscles growth once we reach a certain size. It makes a lot of sense actually now that I think about it. These workouts are just to confuse the hell out of my body and muscles, make them say, "what the hell is going on here?" and "wow, this is a new stress!", and hopefully this new stress will provide me with a new level of growth, then when I go back to a heavier weight, low rep routine, I might be a lot stronger in the long run.

[maverick]

Im glad you survived man, you did a great job! Awesome job keeping the weight on for the dips at the end too. I know the first time I did that workout I had to puss out and do tricep pushdowns since bodyweight dips were bringing me to failure at like 6 reps!

Make sure you get a lot of rest, you are eating well, and sleep as much as you can. This workout is not designed to be a long term thing. After the 24 workouts, be sure to take a break, or at least do a week of light workouts. And yes, leg day is gonna suck. You're quads will have you convinced after the first superset that there's no way you can bear any more weight, much less 2 more sets. You can do it though, you just have to push through it. I'd be more worried about the 6 sets of pullups with long negatives you have coming up though, they are brutal.

[rangers97]

Originally Posted by maverick

Im glad you survived man, you did a great job! Awesome job keeping the weight on for the dips at the end too. I know the first time I did that workout I had to puss out and do tricep pushdowns since bodyweight dips were bringing me to failure at like 6 reps!

Make sure you get a lot of rest, you are eating well, and sleep as much as you can. This workout is not designed to be a long term thing. After the 24 workouts, be sure to take a break, or at least do a week of light workouts. And yes, leg day is gonna suck. You're quads will have you convinced after the first superset that there's no way you can bear any more weight, much less 2 more sets. You can do it though, you just have to push through it. I'd be more worried about the 6 sets of pullups with long negatives you have coming up though, they are brutal.

Lucky for me I don't have a pullup station at home yet . Somehow I figure it isn't going to be the same pain with pulldowns, but I guess I will have to make due with what I have. MY basement ceiling is really too low to put a pullup bar down there (7ft ceiling, plus drop ceiling takes away a good 4-5 inches), so my only other option is somewhere in my garage and it's a complete mess right now, lol, not to mention it's like 20 degrees out there!

I definitely don't think I will do this anymore after the 24 workouts, that is, if I even make it through all 24, you know me, I have a problem with changing things, lol. I already have my next routine planned out, I just have to be patient and not start that one yet .

I do have a question about legs....how exactly do you do a sissy squat? I mean, I checked out a site that had a picture of it, it just looks like you hold on to a bar and kind of fall down backwards...is that it? Cause I tried it a couple of times trying to mimic the video I saw of it, and it felt like my knees were going to explode, right at the point on top of my knee cap. It really wasn't a pleasant feeling and if that's how you do it, I would rather not injure my knees doing something as silly as that. What do you think about substituting them with barbell hack squats or something like that?

[maverick]

Well, its a stretching motion for the exercise. I would substitute leg extensions if oyu are going to replace them. They are very wicked, nothing like them. They're hard to get used to, especially if you've never done them before.