Wow! Long time no update, huh? Well, things haven’t been too bad. Feeling strong on everything and my cardio is getting better as well. On the bench press I hit an easy 319 for 5 reps friday before last, then backed it down last week to 297 to recycle. Still doing rack squats, hitting 407 for 5 2 weeks in a row, then dropping down last week to do some full range Hatfield squats.

We are still hitting the track for 2 miles on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. However yesterday I went to the gym instead and hit 30 minutes on the treadmill and then 30 minutes on the bike. My bodyweight has been fluctuating between 215 and 219, so that has been a sticking point for me, but this past 7 days or so I have been dropping again, and I’m refocused on hitting 200.

Deadlifts are up tomorrow. I’ll see about putting some videos back up this week, at least of my deads and bench.

Haven’t missed a beat this past week. Last Friday I recycled on the bench, took it back down to 286 for 5 reps. I’ll continue to do these mini-cycles to stay fresh and not max out too soon. This week I’ll go back up to 296, then next week 308, then the week after back down to 296.

Sunday’s square were still in the rack, and will be for quite a while. 363 for 3 sets of 3 reps, easy weight.

On deadlifts last week I went up to 386 for 3 reps. Today I did stiff-leg deads without a belt and hit 325 for an easy 3 reps. I will alternate deads this way to keep my back in shape.

I haven’t skipped out my cardio, either. Monday, Thursday, and Saturday we hit the track at Erickson Field.

The diet was going pretty well for the most part, but it took a hit this week. Nothing bad for me, just to much of a good thing

Ok, a little lax on the updates, right? Well, I have been very consistent in my training, but not my blogging, and very inconsistent on my eating habits. A little catch up:
Because of the pain in my IT bands, I have switched to heavy rack squats…I have started doing much light deep box squats on my deadlift day, just as a way to warm p for deads. Just doing heavy rack squats feels good, getting heavier weight on my back is a mental boost. I trained for the Nationals in Baton Rouge for an entire training cycle by doing no full squats, just racks, and didn’t even put gear on until 2-3 weeks out from the meet.
Deadlifts are going well. This is the first time in years that I have actually trained the deadlift, so any deadlifting is a plus for me. I should be back over 400 for reps in the next couple of weeks.
The Bench Press is my baby, and it’s coming along nicely. Slight shoulder pain, but not so much that I can’t ignore it. This week I hit an easy 297 for 5 reps (paused the last one), and then dropped down to 231 for 20 reps. One indication that my shoulder is close to normal is that I can do dips again, this week hitting 2 sets of 15. 5 weeks ago is was all I could do to even hold myself up on the bars, the shoulder didn’t want to support me. I modified how I was doing them so that I could some kind of range of motion, and now can do regular dips.

I finally got into the cardio part of my training. This past tuesday I hit 2 miles on the treadmill (quick walk at an incline), and this morning I went to the track and ran/walked …the running part had me hurting.

Ciao.

Believe it or not,  actually put in time on the bike today, thirty minutes worth, then I stretched for thirty minutes, just like to good old days, when I wasn’t injured, I was 25 pounds lighter, and much stronger. The stretching in particular felt good, I felt much better afterwards, not tight/stiff. Same regime on schedule everyday this week.

Ok…took a slight break attending to personal biz up in Cleveland. The last workout was a quickie bench workout in my basement last Wednesday, the 24th. It went ok, but by myself, and I still don’t trust the shoulder at all.

Today, we were back on the deadlifts. This has to be the last easy deadlift day, have to put up a little more. Still used overhand grip, still no deadlift shoes. Everything was the same as last week as far as assistance exercises and weight goes, so I won’t bore you with the details. However, for some reason, I got a wild hair up my caboose and decided to swing by a notorious set of steps downtown, pictured above. Didn’t look that bad at first, so I started jogging up them…this was not the stairway to heaven…midway up, I was walking…3/4’s of the way up, by legs started cramping up, so hard that they felt like they were being ripped away from my legs. I almost thought I wouldn’t make it up, but up I went. Somebody else had sauntered up right before me, and he was smugly walking around the park that is at the top of these demon steps. Rest assured, I continued to act cool once I made it to the top, acting like I was checking a text message while trying to get my right leg to unlock and not collapse at the same time. I’m not sure he was completely fooled.

I made the decision to put myself through this hell after I checked my weight at the gym…219, up a pound over what I had began. Waaaay too much good eating in Cleveland, I’ll admit. The full rack of ribs at The House of Blues is awesome…ask for Genille!

Todays meals were full of protein and low on calories, especially fat…lot’s of water…good good good…I’ll be hitting the treadmill tomorrow morning…

A long time ago, in a place far, far away…well, anyway, at one time I was heavy into powerlifting competition, and had picked up a few championships along the way, including 5 State, 1 National, 1 World, and 1 Pro Championship. I started off strong, not missing workouts, planning carefully, no injuries. Along the the way, life happened, and powerlifting was no longer a priority. Oh, I still dusted off the equipment and competed every now and then, but I would train maybe 12 weeks out of the year, compete, and retire again. Unfortunately, the last 3 times I have tried to do this, my body said “Screw You!” and I would tear something. The 1st time it was at the 2002 National Bench Press Championships (USPF). The last week of training (yes, only trained for 12 weeks), I hit a 529 double (shirted) weighing 204. The next week at the meet, on my opener of 478, my pec ripped, large enough for Ed Coan to stick his finger in and say “yep, there’s the hole!” (thanks, Ed, felt great!). I came back to win the Mountaineer Cup V, fortunately paired with Beau Moore, in 2003. However, after that, every time I started a new training cycle, something would grab me again, either my lower back, or my hamstring. I had finally hit a point where I couldn’t train like normal, take most of the year off and then just train for a meet.

Well, the training bug has hit me again, but this time, I’m doing it right. I’m overweight, out of shape, and both shoulders are shot right now, but this is a great opportunity to start low and aim high. My goal is to compete as a 181 pounder again. I’m starting off at a non-svelte 218lbs. I will post my workouts, eating habits, pics and vids along the way. Target date for a meet will not be until early 2011, so I have plenty of time to do this right. I will be doing my PL training for the most part with the Biomuscle Powerlifting Team. Along the way I also will be testing out and implementing various cardio/conditioning routines to melt away the pounds and get back into underwear modeling shape.