Traing logs from1987 to 2009 (minus a few here and there)

A quick note. I can’t stress the importance of keeping a journal of your training. Overall they are invaluable in regards to detailing your life, but for training purposes, you shouldn’t try to function without one. Mine, as you can see from the picture above, go back to 1987. A couple have been lost over the years due to the many moves I made, and there might have been a year or two in which I wasn’t training and did not buy one.
Technically, any notebook will do, but regular notebooks have a tendency to be easily misplaced or torn up. I like to invest in mine and spend the $30 or so on a good one, one that I can display in the bookcase in my home office and easily refer to any time I feel like it. For example, on February 20th, 1987, I can look back and see that in my squat workout I finished with a set of 446lbs for 5 reps. A year later, on February 28th, 1988, I hit 584 for 3 in the squat, bodyweight 185. That can give me a little more motivation for what I’m going through now, right?

Another kinda sorta easy workout. With everything going on this week, we will start pushing more next week. Conditioning feels good, a lot of the aches and pains are disappearing, and I’m starting to feel like I actually work out now.

Top set was he same as last week, 286 for 5 with just the belt, high tops, overhand grip. Next week we will ad another set at the top weight for a few weeks, then 3 sets at the top weight. Going to see how far I can go before I switch shoes and grip, then add suit much further on down the line. Along the way, we’ll add bands and some of the other goodies that are so popular with powerlifters today, but let me point out one thing. It doesn’t really matter what you do for assistance exercises, if you don’t eventually start busting your ass, you’ll go nowhere. So, don’t think that you’ll find some magical secret out there being sold by this gym or that gym, this system or that system. It’s all junk without the effort. No champions out there in any sport got where they are because they had “secret training methods”. They worked their asses off to get where they are today. Hard work and consistency. To some, it comes easier, they start with more on their plate, but if they don’t work at it, they only go so far.

After heavy shrugs we finished off with pulldowns, chins, and some ez curls.

My bodyweight was back at 218, but I’m in no hurry, I know it can drop quickly if I want it to do so. My eating habits have changed for the better, and I have greatly increased by protein intake, already feel like I’m leaning out. My energy levels have taken a jump as well, and today’s workout was much faster paced than usual, not a lot of the usual talking/bullshitting we normally do to gain rest before the next set.

Since I’ll be out of town, in Cleveland, Wednesday afternoon through Saturday, I’m going to hit a quick bench workout tomorrow morning. I won’t have a chance to work out again until Sunday or Monday, and then we will kick it up a notch. Until next time…

Today would have been an easy day to be greedy…as the video shows, my last set of Hatfield squats at 291 was easy. I felt good today, eager to work out, and I had little to no aches and pains. A good day overall! A few leg extensions, leg curls, and some bicep work, and I was back home chugging down a protein drink. Sunday is my “diet-free” day as well. I don’t go hog wild, but will eat anything I want to without guilt.

1987 Benching @ APF Nats

My greedy little brain was working at full speed today, and I had it my head that was going to jump higher this week than the 5lb jumps I had been making. My shoulder hadn’t been hurting as mush as usual, and I have been taking a glucosamine/msm supplement that I am giving full credit for making my right elbow pain disappear. Well, I could tell just from warming up with the 45lb bar that I might have to stick with the original 5lb jump. Once again, everything was very easy when benching, but my shoulder fell like someone was stabbing me. I worked up to a set of 8 with 186. I think I am going to cut out the reps and just load the weight up more each week, because these 5lb jumps are eating at me. Read the rest of this entry »

Deadlift day…not sure why we are deadlift 2 days after squatting, but that’s the way we doing it now, and since I haven’t been deadlifting at all…well…I’ll just do it and shut up. Worked up to 286 for an easy 5, no gear. It will be awhile before I put any gear on, other than a belt. Gotta get in shape and really work the muscle before adding anything supportive. I worked up to 364 on shrugs for 10 reps, 3 sets of 12 Hyperextensions, 3 sets of chins, 3 sets of lever rows, and finished with 2 sets of sit-ups.
My diet was on track today:
Breakfast:
Oatmeal with blueberries and bananas.
3 cups of coffee.

Lunch:
Protein drink (52 grams of whey protein with a tablespoon of creatine thrown in for fun). I had an apple for a snack before I took Max to drum lessons.

Dinner:
Jambalaya, with sausage and chicken.

I drank a lot of water throughout the day, and ate a bowl of yogurt with fresh fruit in it as an evening snack (I threw in a scoop of whey protein in the yogurt).
So, an ok day. I have to get back in the routine of stretching. Yoga first thing in the morning.

APF National Championships circa 1987

Let’s get you caught up. I actually started back on this road on Feb 5th, 2010. I’ll summarize the main lifts on each day since then, and then, going forward, I’ll list out each exercise, weight, sets and reps, cool? Cool.

So, on the 5th, I hit Bench. I wanted to keep it light, 99lbs, and do a lot of reps with it, but my training partner, USPF President Dave Jeffrey, said “What the hell, it’s going to hurt anyway, might as well do more than that.”, so I went all the way up to 176lbs for a set of 8 reps. He was right, my shoulders were screaming, but the weight was ridiculously light. If I could just pull the ice pick out of my right shoulder, I would be fine.

On the 7th, we squatted. Again, because of my shoulders, I used the Hatfield, or Safety, squat bar so that I didn’t have to keep my arms pinned back. Stayed light, went up to 247 for 5, but worked on getting deep and stretching it down past parallel. We hit deadlifts on Tuesday the 9th. Let me tell you a little something about me and deads. It’s a mind thing with me. I’m not built for them, so I have always used that as a reason to not train them. A little backwards, right? You’d think I would hit them harder. Well, this was my first deadlift workout since 2003. We still are on easy mode, kept it to 275 for 5, sumo style with an overhand, hook grip. As light as that was, I paid for it on the next day, nice and sore.

Friday we were back on the bench press. Here is where i have to be careful. Benching is easy for me. I have always been able to load up the weight, going back to the 9th grade, when I could out bench almost everybody in high school…almost. SO, as easy as 176 was the workout before, normally I would want to go ahead and pile on the poundage. Easy there, skipper, this is where I have been scewing up lately. Let’s heal the shoulders first. 181 for easy 8, shoulders feeling better by the time I got up to that weight. I’m in no hurry…yet.

Monday the 15th we were back on squats (Hatfields) and went up 22lbs from the previous week, 269, for 5.

So there you have it, you’re now caught up. Deadlifts are tomorrow. Anything else I do  will post as well. Adios.

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.