Rangers97 Does Powerlifting (for real this time)

**rangers97** · 02-Dec-05, 05:52 PM

I dont know what happened, but I bought a new weight set for my house, and ordered a squat rack, and suddenly, I've become interested in powerlifting again. Even if my elbow acts up again, I will stay with the plan, I will just rest it until good again.

I inspired myself even further by conventional deadlifting 300 yesterday, which for me is a lot, and unfortunately, some of you might laugh at me when you read what I have to write next. (see below) but it's only the beginning, and I hope to bring that up to 350 very soon. I am going to be doing a 4 day routine that Firehawk wrote for me a while ago, when he unceremoniously ragged on me daily for not doing it

, and I told him one day I would come back to it, well apparently, that time is now. I needed to make some changes to it, but nothing drastic. It centers around the 6x3 bench program he wrote about. This time, I am going to practice and learn the powerlifting bench, so I will have no problems with my shoulder when I get up in the weights, and hopefully, it will help my elbows as well, if I get the whole body in the lift, and not just the chest, shoulders and tris, like I had been doing. Day 1 will be Monday. Today I fooled around a bit, and this is what happened...

12/2

Powerlifting Bench PRess practice

practiced benching powerlifting style today. This morning I hit 275 for 3 reps, which I posted a video of in the homeade video thread. Then just before I did this:

135 x 10
205 x 10
255 x 1
300 x 1--->PR!

thats right, fooled around and hit 300 for the first time ever. Well it's the first time I tried, but still, just doing it was awesome. I was able to do it with no spotting help, so I knew I felt strong on the lift. Shoulder felt good, elbow good as well.

And for anyone who thinks low reps can't give you a pump, boy, my chest was pumped up big time by that one rep..shoulders too, so yeah, low reps can pump the hell out of you just as good as high reps

:

**.V.** · 02-Dec-05, 07:04 PM

Great. Another bodybuilder turns evil.

**rangers97** · 02-Dec-05, 07:26 PM

ahh yes, the dark side is very seductive.....

gcs118 · 03-Dec-05, 09:51 AM

Score one for the powerlifters

Looking forward to your routine and huge gains man

:

**Firehawk** · 03-Dec-05, 10:25 AM

And i'm reminded of a quote from Return of the Jedi as people ask me to turn bodybuilder: "It is too late for me, son" --- Darth Vador.

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

"By now you must know your buddy can never be turned from the dark side of the force, so will it be with you"---Emperor

**rangers97** · 03-Dec-05, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gcs118

Score one for the powerlifters

Looking forward to your routine and huge gains man

:

Yeah, hopefully the 300 yesterday wasn't a fluke and will be a sign of things to come. I just want to give you some credit in my new routine, as of course the basis was Firehawk's routine, but I looked at what you were doing and took some ideas from you, hope you don't mind

And I really plan to do this and stick with it this time. Just the satisfaction of lifting that 300 pounds yesterday just put me over the edge. It's like a switch went off. I'm not so concerned about how I look as opposed to how my lifts go up. I got that 300, now I want MORE. To continue the Star Wars theme, it's like when anakin says he's not the Jedi he should be. Well my quote is " I;m not the bodybuilder I should be. I want more!" I would love to get up to a 350 bench, 500 DL and 400 squat as preliminary goals for the next year. Firehawk, assuming I stay consistent, is that doable for me, given what you know about me?

**.V.** · 03-Dec-05, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Firehawk

And i'm reminded of a quote from Return of the Jedi as people ask me to turn bodybuilder: "It is too late for me, son" --- Darth Vador.

While we are using these quotes, "NOOOOOOOOO".

http://darthno.ytmnd.com/

gcs118 · 03-Dec-05, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rangers97

I looked at what you were doing and took some ideas from you, hope you don't mind

Honored

Firehawk wrote up my routine as well, but I've made some changes here and there to suit me better.

**Firehawk** · 03-Dec-05, 03:10 PM

You should be able to get the squat and bench goals. The dead might take a little longer. Who knows.

I'm sure you will reach 350 at bench if u are consistent. You should be at 315 right now.

**rangers97** · 03-Dec-05, 04:11 PM

i would venture to say at least 315. The 300 I did yesterday was cold, without a spotter, so who knows with a spotter so I knew I wouldn't smash my face in if I missed

Oh and after I typed that, I realized I doubt I will increase my deadlift by 200 pounds in a year...DUH

**rangers97** · 03-Dec-05, 04:27 PM

December 3
BACK

Crappy back workout today as I don't yet have all the equipment I need for my home gym and I didn't feel like going out to the gym. My membership expires in December, so I have time, but it's just so much nicer working out at home. I need to get a V handle and either get some WD-40 to fix my lat pulldown attachment on my bench or rig my own pullup bar in the basement somewhere.

anyone have any tips on making a homeade chinup bar in a basement?

Anyway, when I get the random things I need, I will be able to do barbell rows, pulldowns or pullups, and t-bar rows with the V handle on the barbell, so that's a decent back workout. Tried some power cleans today with the barbell and they went well, I gotta work on the form as I wasn't squatting with the weight in the catch position, I was just kind of using my arms it felt like to pull the weight up. I know the form, I just need to practice it. I did the "explosive shrug movement" to get the weight up, but something was off...Oh well, just need to practice, this was my first time doing them

Barbell Rows
205 x 6
205 x 6
205 x 6
This was with an overhand grip and bent at about an 80 degree angle at the waist, and pulled to my upper abs.

Power Cleans
135 x 5
155 x 3
155 x 3
155 x 3
wanted to keep the reps low on these for obvious reasons. I have a question, can the powerclean take the place of shrugs? Cause if given the choice, I'd rather do the cleans, they're more fun

DB Hammer Curls
50 x 10
Don't have any dbs higher than 50 at home, might have to invest in some more hex-dbs.

Like I said, short, kinda crappy workout, as my lat pulldown machine isn't lubed up properly, so it was impossible to pull any decent amount of weight without too much resistance, and I was only able to do the one rowing movement due to equipment restrictions, that hopefully will be taken care of soon

luke.w · 04-Dec-05, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rangers97

December 3
I have a question, can the powerclean take the place of shrugs? Cause if given the choice, I'd rather do the cleans, they're more fun

yes, they are better anyway, they really are!!!, if you need to go heavier you can do the "clean pull" lift the weight as yopu were to clean it and just do an explosive shrug with it, this may improve your "powercleans" also, you can also do them from the hang at the knees, this I know will improve your explosive power.

**rangers97** · 05-Dec-05, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luke.w

yes, they are better anyway, they really are!!!, if you need to go heavier you can do the "clean pull" lift the weight as yopu were to clean it and just do an explosive shrug with it, this may improve your "powercleans" also, you can also do them from the hang at the knees, this I know will improve your explosive power.

well, I found out the hard way, I think I might need to lay off the power cleans for a while...my joints were very achy the day after. Unfortunately other than taking a big extended break off from lifting, I need to play it safe sometimes and watch what I do, since I have a lot of nagging injuries plaguing me. My right wrist, and elbow were killing me from the cleans. MY wrists aren't very flexible to begin with, that last part of the powerclean is very bad for my wrists.

I do like the clean pull idea though...I gather it still trains explosiveness, but is a little more "joint friendly"?

**rangers97** · 05-Dec-05, 06:49 PM

December 5--Heavy Bench

Well, it was a bit of an interesting workout, since it was my first full-blown workout at home, so I needed to work out a few kinks in the workout, and make due with the equipment that I have at home. I still can't get the form down on the powerlifting bench, I am trying but I can't get the arch going. It seems I can't bend the way the guy in the video does. I set up exactly as he did, and then when I extended forward to make the arch, it just hurt like hell, was totally uncomfortable and I couldn't even make it with my feet under my butt. I assume I am just inflexible? Does this get better with time and practice?

The reps also weren't totally "clean" to me today. when I was fooling around doing it the other day, everything just felt better than it did today and this was even less weight! I can't tell if my shoulder or elbows hurt cause I am still hot and sweaty and worked up, so who knows how they will feel when I cool down.

The db presses were a nightmare. I had to use homemade dbs, you know, putting plates on the db handle and using the screw locks on the ends. NIGHTMARE. Try doing this with 4 25 pound plates on the dbs. It is just so awkward and it sucked, but I managed 2 sets out of it.

Enough complaining, here is day 1 of my powerlifting journal:

Bench Press
135 x 8
135 x 6
185 x 4
225 x 3
6 x 3 @ 265

DB Press
110 x 6
110 x 6

Close Grip Bench Press
225 x 6
225 x 6

Tricep Pushdowns
45 x 8
I have a plate loaded lat attachment on my bench that I used for this. I can't explain it other than it isn't very smooth, and is A LOT harder than the cable pushdowns at the gym (Before anyone makes fun of my massive 45 pounds on this

) Plus my elbow is so screwed up, I wanted to just take it light and hopefully work my way up very slowly.

Side Laterals
30 x 10
30 x 10

Rear Laterals
30 x 10
30 x 10
At this point I was so fed up with the fiasco of the workout and just tired as hell, so I didn't care so much about these, just banged them out quickly and called it a day. I assume since it's powerlifting these aren't THAT important anyway right?

Firehawk and the powerlifting guys---Was this a good workout? Is this enough?

gcs118 · 05-Dec-05, 07:17 PM

Did you do pinkies on rings for the 6x3? How close did you do CGBP? I don't think you really want to have too much closer of a grip than pinkies unless you're specifically working the lockout.