SP's training log

[spsfw]

I am coming into the final week of 9week equipped cycle so I'll start this log off when I begin the 13week equipped cycle that will take me through to the Australian Championships (IPF). I'm competing April 3rd, so I'll be hoping for some big PRs- my current comp PRs are squat 325kg, bench 262.5kg, deadlift 300kg. I'm a 125kg class lifter. I have been training Sheiko under Dave since Aug 08 and am just about to complete my 32nd week of Sheiko training.

[benburgess]

Steve your bench is shithot!

If you can put 135 kg on your squat, you will have pretty much the exact same lifts my training partner did when he won the worlds at 125, so thats something to aim for

[spsfw]

GPP/SPP

dbell rows- 3 sets of 10
seated rows- 3 sets of 10
military press- 3 sets of 10
dbell curls- 3 sets of 10

[spsfw]

Monday
raw bench 50%x5, 60%x4x2, 70%x3x3

raw sq
50%x5, 60%x4x2, 70%x3x3

dbell flys, 3x10
2board 80%, 3x2
goodmornings, 3x5

tuesday
gpp
lat pulldowns, cleans, lat raises, shoulder press, curls, leg extensions, legcurls. 30mins, 60reps per exercises.

[joeldibattista]

Feel the burn.

[spsfw]

at the moment I am feeling the lack of fitness

[spsfw]

wed
deadlifts (in kilos)
100x3
150x5
180x4x2
210x3x3

incline
100x4x3

pushdowns
3 sets of 10

lunges
3 sets of 5

Thursday
GPP
Hill walks (up and down a 500m hill)x3

[spsfw]

Friday
bench
115kgx5, 135kgx4x2, 160kgx3x3

flys- 3 sets of 10 (25kg dbells)

squat
100kgx5, 160kgx5. 190kgx4x2, 220kgx3x3

pushdowns- 3 sets of 10

goodmornings- 3 sets of 5

[spsfw]

extras
cleans, 3 sets of 10
kb snatches, 3 sets of 10
chest supported rows, 3 10
pulldowns, 3 sets of 10
curls, 3 sets of 10
band pull aparts, 3 sets of 10

[spsfw]

I'm so bad at keeping a log.
I see when I started this log I was just going into comp. I moved my comp squat PR from 325kg to 340kg. So my comp PRs are now:
sq 340kg, b 262.5kg, dl 300kg.
Basically- here is what I have done since I last posted:
I have run through Dave's 13 week equipped program, but since I had an extra week up my sleeve I have repeated week 6 and I am now at the end of week 7. I did the conditioning week and weeks 1-5 raw. From week 6 I added equipment and I have been doing a few things Dave came up with to help with my bench. We do 1 week where I do shirted doubles @ 85%, then the following week I do shirted singles @ 90%. Dave also added in raw board presses after the shirt work. I have alternated between doubles @ 80% of my shirted max off a 2 board and doubles @ 85% of my shirted max off a 3 board. I really feel like the raw board presses have helped a lot. When I started I was struggling with these %- my lockout has always been by weakness and I have never missed a weight lower than 3 board. Now, I not only feel that my board presses are much better- the % now are easy and I have bumped them up 2-3%- but I also feel that my raw bench has improved a stack. My raw sets with 85% raw now feel easy and strong.
I have been using a loose titan centurian suit and some old THP wraps. I add suit and wraps from 70% as Dave suggests on the Monday session- but I have kept the straps down for all sets so far. My plan is to only do 85% and more with straps up for the prep cycle and then do 80% and more straps up for the comp cycle. On fridays I use wraps for my first squat from 75%- I am finding this means I handle more weight and can get more work done in wraps. I find with wraps my stance is essentially the same as my fully equipped squat- whereas with raw I have tended to squat a lot narrower.
This time round I have also tried to be more disciplined when it comes to GPP. On tues, thurs and sat I pull the sled. Normally something like:
20kg for 50metres x4
40kg for 50metres x10
20kg for 50metres x 4 backwards
then some abs and bodyweight core work- all up around 30-45mins
The GPP has really helped. I am no where near as beat up as I have felt in past cycles.

[benburgess]

Good work Stevo.

I never got much from raw board presses...one time i increased my raw board press by 15kg with no corresponding increase ont shirt bench but obviously they work good for you, i know the Bagpipe loves em too.

You guys are working a fair bit harder than me on your GPP....how hard is that sled dragging? It sounds tough - are you walking or sprinting?

Looking good for some pb's at the nationals fella.

[spsfw]

I'm just walking with the sled. Its not hard- not straining at all, but the heart rate gets up and I get a little puffed, thats all.
When I was training westside I noticed with my bench that lockout was where I am weakest and lockout work seems to translate into good improvements overall as well. I am thinking that even if I lifted raw it would be worth doing.
Just finished week 7 and definitely got through easier than I have in the past. I think it has to be the GPP.
My weight class is probably the most competitive class this year- my best total is 885kg, and there is 1 guy who lifted 890kg and another who has done 895kg. The guy who did 895kg did it in his 2nd comp! In training he has hit a a 925kg total. I'm thinking I might as well go for broke and take some big attempts- nothing to lose.

[deathevocation]

There will be some big lifting at nationals. Looking forward to it albeit I can't make it to NSW.

[benburgess]

Jun 13, 2009 2:09:44 GMT -5 spsfw said:

I'm just walking with the sled. Its not hard- not straining at all, but the heart rate gets up and I get a little puffed, thats all.
When I was training westside I noticed with my bench that lockout was where I am weakest and lockout work seems to translate into good improvements overall as well. I am thinking that even if I lifted raw it would be worth doing.
Just finished week 7 and definitely got through easier than I have in the past. I think it has to be the GPP.
My weight class is probably the most competitive class this year- my best total is 885kg, and there is 1 guy who lifted 890kg and another who has done 895kg. The guy who did 895kg did it in his 2nd comp! In training he has hit a a 925kg total. I'm thinking I might as well go for broke and take some big attempts- nothing to lose.

I have also noticed a big difference with the GPP too mate.

I'm a big fan of lockout work an all, I just find a lot more carryover from pin lockouts and occasional shirted boards.

The competition will probably bring out the best in you mate, it sounds like most your lifts been easy so far.

[spsfw]

I have tried shirted boards in the past and I can see the theory behind them and how useful they would be. However, back when I was training more westside I talked to people like Sebastian Burns, Scott Yard and Vince Dizenzo and they were dead against shirted partials. I think it was put to me in the following way- some lifts are predominately strength building and some technique building- raw boards and raw pin presses were recommended as a better way of building strength- I think the Militia line on this was that, as well as partials for squat and deadlift, the whole point was to work the part where equipment provides the least support. I was told shirted work was a time for technique as the hardest part of the lift techanically is the last few inches. So, the argument put to me was, if you are putting your shirt on or squat suit on- make sure you go full ROM or you are asking for trouble- since, while you may be overloading the part of the lift where you get least support, you are also training the part of the lift that is technically easiest. The technical work HAS to be the touch in the shirt and hitting depth in the suit. Scott Yard said shirted boards makes you good at shirted boards- its very common for people to find a groove that makes them better from a board height, but doesn't translate to a bigger full ROM movement because they can't find the same groove in a full movement. Its similar to the way that some people use a starting position in a rack deadlift that doesn't resemble the position position they find themself in at lockout. It becomes a different lift.
HOWEVER ....
now I see Vince has started adding in shirted boards and he is hitting PRs. I guess the way I look at it now is as long as you are training the full movement then partials aren't going to cause problems- problems happen wen people don't train the full movement, only the partials. I think the advice was more directed at westsiders who may not train the competition lifts very often. My persistence with raw partials is just a carryover from back when I was rotating lifts ala westside. I might throw in some shirted boards- that way I guess I could take some weights in the 3rd attempt ballpark.

[benburgess]

Yeah I agree 100% Steve.

Pin presses I think it were you that said to m e that Seb Burns had told you full ROM and pin press were number 1 for strength building and boards were more for technique. When I added the pin presses back into my routine my shirt bench took off.

If you are doing shirted boards only i can see how your technique could suffer at the bottom end of the lift but as we get a minimum of 3 bench movements a week i think there is room for them.

I were sceptical until I tried them...they work the triceps more than raw boards do for me. I guess this is becasue the shirt is doing some of the shoulders work but you still have to lock out the bar weight wth your triceps....becasue you can use much more weight, it equals more tricep strain. I based mine off shirt max + 25kg and used a 4" board. I still only use them one in 3 or 4 shirt workouts though and only in prep cycles.

It seems the conventional wisdom has changed with shirt boards cos all them big bench crews used to shit on them but now you see Big Iron, WSB and lots of others nailing them.

[spsfw]

yeah- I think there does seem to be a lot of sense in shirted boards- particularly since we also do full ROM shirted work.
My new problem is knee wraps. I have APT strangulators, titan THPs and Max RPMs. You'd think the strongest and thickest should be 1st choice. However, with my chubby legs the issue is also getting enough wrap on my legs. My normal way of wrapping is to wrap spiral up 4 times around, the a cross over the knee, then tied off at the top with another round. With strangulators I run out of wrap with the 4th round of the spiral- half of the cross, no additional tie off wrap. With THPs I can almost get there. With MaxRPMs I get there- hell with the RPMs I almost could do the nichols tread like Olech. Part of me wants to find a way of making the strangulators work- but at this stage I still wrap myself- so not sure. btw- Monday night I got a RPM wrap stuck on my leg. A guy from the gym tried to pull the wrap off my yanking it down. It got all twisted and tangled. After 5 minutes of making it worse I decided I had to cut the wrap off. My lower leg was still numb 3hours later.

[joeldibattista]

That tells me that my legs are way too small SP - I get 4 spirals and a cross with my Strangulators without cranking them.

[spsfw]

Jun 16, 2009 20:33:16 GMT -5 joeldibattista said:

That tells me that my legs are way too small SP - I get 4 spirals and a cross with my Strangulators without cranking them.

with only moderate tightness I can get the 3 up and a cross, but I can't tie them off. I find that if I don't get 4 up the wrap is rubbish.

[joeldibattista]

I agree - you definitely need 4 spirals to get proper coverage of the joint.