Strongman saturday and Super grip Sunday!

Sorry for the late posting.  I'll write more about my training and why I'm doing things in a later post.  For now, here's what I did Saturday:

Axle Clean and Press (clean once): worked up to 225 x1, x1 (fairly easy)
18" Axle Deadlift (more like 16" I think): worked up to 500 x 5
Farmer's Walk: worked up to 275 x 1 (about 50') x 4 runs
Sled Pull: Fell on my ass when my sled broke!  Have to figure out how to build / procure a better one.

Sunday: Grip work to the max!  Lots of wrist curling, wrist rolling, pinching and grabbing (no biting, though).  I'll explain this in more detail soon.

Skwat! Tuesday, Bench Thursday

Tuesday night we did some squatting.  It took forever because some of my training partners and I were teaching a newbie how to deadlift and squat.  So it was about 2 hours, and I really didn't do all that much.  That's alright though, still a good session:
Squat: worked up to 370 x 4. This is without a belt.  I do all my squats without a belt now.  I like it and you can't tell me I'm wrong!

Speed deadlifts:  I normally don't do these, but the other guy was doing these and I decided to join in.  He has about the same deadlift max as I do, so we did 10 sets of 2 with 285 pounds and 60 seconds rest between sets.   This is about 50% of my max, which is a decent weight.

Thursday we did some benchin'!  I worked up to 255 x 6.  I am excited, since this puts me at about a 305 pound max.  Slowly getting to a 315 max.  That would be great.  I think I'll have a little competition with myself and see if I can hit 315 by my birthday in June.  That should be very doable.  All this pressing is paying off, and my shoulders don't feel terrible.

After benching I did some overhead pressing with 105 pounds for 5 sets of 10.  It's boring work, but I think the high volume will help my pressing.  Ended the night with high-rep dumbbell rows: 150x20, x20.

Overhead Pressing

Last night was heavy overhead pressing (heavy for me anyway, you'll see some really heavy stuff in the video below).  Worked up to 195x3 on overhead press.  The third one was an absolute grinder and probably took about 10 seconds to complete.  But I tried to not push press the bar like I have been.  This will help my triceps get stronger.  After that I moved on to barbell rows, 255x10 for 5 sets.  Close grip bench 215x7, x7, x7, x8.  Front/lateral raise: 20x8, x8, x9.  DB Shrugs 120 (each hand) x 25.  Also did lots of bodyweight pullups between sets because I feel like this will help my pressing.

Here's a training video from Derek Poundstone.  If you don't know Derek, he's a strongman competitor, and has competed at the World's Strongest Man, as well as many other events, such as the upcoming Arnold.  He's also 330 pounds and a true athlete.  Enjoy.

Strongman Saturday

Did events by myself on Saturday at my normal gym, since my parents came to visit.  I was hoping to get it done in an hour and a half, but it ended up being two hours.  Takes forever to do this stuff when you have to load all by yourself.  Here's what I did:


Log Clean and Press (cleaned once)
As I've mentioned before pressing is terrible for me, so I just have to do it more often.  I tried to keep more reps in rather than go for an all out max.  Don't have my log in front of my, but I believe I worked up to 205x2, then backed off with 190x3, x3.  Anyway, not bad, and better than I was at this time last year I guess.

Farmer's walks
I believe the bars we have are 55 pounds.  I have really no idea though.  They feel at least as heavy as a regular barbell, so I just count them as 45 pounds to make the math easy in my head.  Started with 135 pounds down and back, which is probably a total of about 80 to 100 feet.  I counted one trip as "down," about 50 feet.  Also, that's 135 each hand.  So 135x2 (that's down AND back), 225x2, x2, 275x1, x1.  The 275's made me feel like my fingers were going to pop off my hand, so that was awesome.

After that I was pretty spent, and I went downstairs and flipped the tire very briefly.  Six fast flips one way, about a minute or two break, then four terrible flips the other way.  Done and done.

Deadlift Training!!!

Three exclamation points because it was one of those great sessions that only comes around once every 2 months or so.  The goal was to work up to 490 pounds for a single.  That's about 95% of my training max, but I calculated low for that, because I want to allow room for progress.  Everything was feeling fast, so I put on my belt just for my last set and hit 490 for 5 reps!  Felt great and I think I could have gotten one more.  So this puts me at around a 570 pound deadlift.  I won't actually try that for quite a while.  My goal this year is to deadlift 600 pounds.  Who knows, maybe it will come well before the year is over.  Also, definitely broke the neck harness at the gym last night.  I was doing neck raises w/ 60 pounds, and all of a sudden the leather strap breaks and the plates fall everywhere.  Either I will have to buy a heavy duty one, or make one myself.  Something like this maybe.  Anyway, gotta get going, later!

Training the past few days

Sorry for the long break between posts.

Saturday was strongman training.  We went through car deadlifts (side handles) up to 800 pounds, sandbag carries (250 pounds??), atlas stones over 56" bar, and one other thing I can't remember.  I did much better with the stones this time.  The 250 pound stone was flying over the bar, but I'm still a little off on the 300 pound stone.  Just gotta work on that technique and I'll get it.  Monday I did some squatting (in my new shoes! I will tell that story soon), and tonight I did some benching, rowing and overhead pressing.  Shoulders are still immobile and I can feel my lower back extending every time I push a bar over my head.  It's frustrating, and it feels like my shoulders go numb right at the top of the press.  It's really weird, and I wish I had the money to go to someone who knows what they're doing and get some massage and corrective exercises.  If I want to compete in strongman, overhead pressing is a huge part of that.  No one benches in a strongman competition.  Back at it on Thursday night with deadlifts.

Quick Deadlift Update

Tuesday night I did deadlifts.  Here's the session:

Deadlift: worked up to 440 x 5
Front Squat: 250 x 5, x5, x5, x5
Rack pull below knee w/ shrug: 410 x 8, x8, x6
Reverse Hyper: 90 x8, x8

I've said before that I need to work on getting my hamstrings more involved in deadlifting again.  What I'm going to try and do is go to the local high school twice a week and work on glute-ham raises.  They have an actual glute-ham raise machine.  I've inserted a video of one below showing how the exercise is done.  The high school's machine isn't as nice, but it works alright.  The point of the exercise is to work your hamstrings in the knee flexed position.  So think of them kind of like leg curls on the machine, but way harder and better, because it involves moving your body through space instead of lying or sitting on a machine.  I think once I start hammering these and stretching my hamstrings more, my deadlift will start going up faster.

Overhead Pressing

Quick post. Last night did some BTN pressing, along with some shoulder work, close grip benching, and chin-ups.  Was not spectacular, but was not bad.  Really need to work on my shoulder mobility, or I will be blowing something up in the next few years.  I don't want to have surgery on my shoulder in my 20s.  Tonight I will be deadlifting.  Should be fun!