Getting Ready for Kansas

While the Nebraska State Championship powerlifting meet is only 3 weeks away, the “Monsters of the Mall” Kansas Strongest Man contest is in the back of my head.  It is a strongman contest, and it’s only 6 weeks away.  I’m doing my best to fully prepared for both competitions.  I’ll still be lifting 5 days a week, but I’ll also be doing event training 1 day a week.  Tonight I worked on log press and monster medley.

Log Press: 230×5, 250×5, 270×3, 300×1, 320-cleaned but not pressed

Monster Medley: 450 yoke, 200 farmers and 300#  sled all for 40 feet – I did 3 runs with this weight.

                                630 yoke, 250 farmers and 300# – for 1 run

                                 250 farmers for 100 feet back to the garage

It was good to reaquainted with some of the implements and  I don’t think I’ve lost that much in my time away.

Lackluster

After having such a tremendous workout on Monday, back day on Tuesday was a disappointment. Josh and I hit the same exercises that we normally hit, I’m not sure what the problem was.

Wednesday – Deadlift

Legs and back have both had a full week to recover so I was hoping to have a good day.

I didn’t have a great day, but after thinking about it all night, it might not have been that bad.

I hit 405×5, 495×3,

Then – 585 I pulled this and it felt really slow so I quit at about 85%. I tried again and got it. I felt it should have been a lot easier though.

Went to 605 and got this after a tough lockout.

I’m not sure why bench and squat are going through the roof and deadlift is at a standstill. 605 is close to my max so it wasn’t that bad of a workout. I think next week I’ll hit 500 for 10 reps, then 550 for 5, then back to 500 and see what that does for me.

Monday – Chest

26 Days until the Powerlifting Meet!  Training is going great, and we have three more weeks to hit our peak.  I have never been more prepared for a contest then now.  These last three weeks will be critical, we want to make sure we peak on game day.  So today we decided to use moderately heavy weight and rep out with.  I think this is a good change.  This gives the body a break from the extremely heavy weight we had been using and targets some of the muscles that haven’t been used lately.  The next week we will go back to sets of 5, then sets of 3 and then hopefully go and set some records on the 22nd!

Bodyweight 270

Bench Press: 135×10, 225×10, 315×14, 315×7, 315×5, 315×4, 225×14

Decline Dumbell: 75×12,10,12,12

Pec Deck: 3 sets of 10

Standing Cable Fly: 3 sets of 10

Seated Cross Over: 3 sets 12

Tricep Extension and Pulldown: 3 sets of 10

Great Workout!  Chest and Tris were completely gone by the end of the workout!

Wednesday – SQUAT

Today was squat day and will be the last workout before a 4 day break so I wanted it to be a good one…and it was.  I’ve been going for a max almost every week, so this week I wanted to work on some heavy reps.

Bodyweight 270

Squats: 135×5, 225×5, 315×5, 405×5, 495×5, 545×3 – The last two sets were tough, but I need reps with weight that heavy.

Hack Squats for Explosiveness: 2plates x 7, 3plates x 7, 3plates&quarter x 7, 4plates x 7

Leg Extensions: 3 sets of 10 and 1 set of 20

Tuesday – Chest

Since we throttled the chest last week, this week we went for higher weight and lower reps on the bench.

Bodyweight 270

Bench Press: 135×10, 225×5, 315×5, 405×1, 435×1, 455×1, 465×0

Dumbell Bench w/Pauses: 90×7, 110×7, 110×10

Hammer Strength Incline: Platex10, 2 Platesx10, 2 Platesx7, Plate&Quarterx10

Incline Flies: 2 sets of 10

Short workout but I think it was still productive.  After working back yesterday and chest today – both those areas are sore. 

Thursday – Chest

Really tired out the chest today and hit a PR along the way.  Great workout!

Bodyweight 267

Bench Press: 135×10, 225×10, 315×5, 365×5, 405×4, 425×1

Great benching, then did a burnout of sorts hit – 325×5x5×3, 275×5x4, 225×5x5

Smith Machine Incline: 95×7, 135×7, 175×7, 205×7

Slight Decline Dumbell Press: 90×12, 100×12, 100×13, 100×13

Pec-Dec: 3 sets of 10

6 WHEELS!!!

I’ve had a sore knee since the Topeka contest, I think I slightly hyper-extended it, nothing major though.  I had hoped that it would be healed by squat day, but it wasn’t…so I wore my Rehbands for warmth and support.  Things went better than expected I hit SIX PLATES – 585#!  A huge milestone for me on my way to 600#, and a 20# PR from last week!  I’m putting up numbers that I never thought I could achieve, or anyone who lifts drug and equipment free!  Josh is setting PRs weekly, and today doubled 405# – TWICE!  Sometimes I think he gets overshadowed by me at the gym, but his numbers are very solid.  Then when you factor in his age and size, even more impressive.

Bodyweight 267

Squats: 135×5, 225×5, 315×5, 405×5, 455×3, 495×2, 545×1, 585×1

Finished up with some leg curls and extensions.

Tuesday – Back

 Had a little trouble getting focused at first, but today ended up being a good workout.

Bodyweight 268

Bent Over Rows- 95×10, 135×10, 185×10, 185×10

Seated Cable Rows- 3 sets of 12

Pull Downs to Back- 4 sets of 10

Hammer Strength Back- Plate, Plate & Quarter, 2 Plates, 2 Plates & Quarter

Finished with a lot of cross body pull-downs and rows, really pumped the back up!

Bench, Bis and Tris

I competed yesterday, but the events weren’t too exhausting and I knew Josh was itching to go to the gym so I went and worked out today. 

Bodyweight 272 

Bench Press: 135×10, 225×10, 315×5, 365×5, 405×3(PR), 435×1

Dumbell Curls: 40×5, 45×5, 50×5, 55×5, 60×5, 65×5, 70×4

Cable Concentration Curls: 3 sets of 10

Skull Crushers, Cable Extensions and Dumbell Extensions and then we went to a burnout set.  We loaded the bar with 25#s and did reps of 5-7-10-10 dropping 50#s off each set.  We did two rounds of that and we were both tired and pumped up.

Good Workout!

Topeka

                                                                             

Made the drive to Topeka on Saturday to compete in a strongman competition.  It’s early in the season, but these events didn’t require special training like some contests do.  I entered the heavyweight division, in search of better competition and I found it.  Here is how the day went-

250# Axle- Clean and Press each rep:  I got 6 reps in about 45 seconds, I needed 7 to tie for first.  I cleaned my seventh rep three times, but I was out of gas.  2nd place

Max Deadlift: I opened at 560 then jumped to 590, they both went up easy.  Another 30#s would have been 620, but I already had second place wrapped up and I wanted to try for a PR so I went for 630.  I got it above the knees, but couldn’t finish.  2nd place

Wheel Barrow Load: Had to load 5 – 200# sand bags in a wheel barrow and then push 60 feet across the arena.  On of my training partners blew out his knee on this event right before I was up, that made for a big mental obstacle.  I loaded the bags up quick and I think I was the only competitor to run with wheelbarrow.  1st place

Truck Pull:  With this truck pull everything that could go wrong did, for everyone.  It had a back tire going flat, there was a rut at the starting line and a hill 10 feet after that.  Nobody completed the truck pull or even got half way, I may have mustered 7 feet.  3rd place?

I ended up with a 2nd place finish, and I was okay with that.  It was a good day competing.  The competition and contest were good, and it gives me a little more experience for the bigger shows coming up.