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

Good training day. Second week of racks squats, and I also added back work to the agenda. Stuck with 319 on the squats, but I increased the sets with my top weight, moving it up to three sets. I’ll feel this tomorrow. Finished with biceps and forearm work. I’m feeling like I actually workout now, getting nice and tight during the training, and the next day feeling sore but not crippled. Monday I’ll be back down at the track to peel another layer of fat of this sexy body.

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.

Ok workout today, wasn’t as psyched about it like I was last week, but it still went alright. I stayed at the same weight as last week, 374 x 3 reps. I somehow skipped a set, said he’ll with it, I’ll make up for it next week. Used too much of my back when pulling, not enough legs, will work on that next week as well. Sayanora.

The increased activity to which I’m subjecting myself (said tongue in cheek) is affecting my immune system. I caught some kind of 24 hour bug Thursday evening, lasting through Friday night, causing me to miss my bench workout. That sucked, because I was really looking forward to it, especially since I was going to wake up my oldest son to come workout with me. On Saturday I was in the woods all day with my brother in law, father in law, my son Garrett, and ten of his friends. Sunday I still wasn’t feeling the greatest, so I used that as an excuse to skip squats and just work biceps. To make up for this indiscretion, I hit a light chest, shoulders, and triceps workout today. Tomorrow I’ll keep active with some cardio and stretching. Wednesday I’ll be back at it heavy again with deadlifts. Ciao. (throwing some culture atchya, huh!)

First, a quick update on Sunday’s squat workout. The week before I had a lot of pain in my IT band, but I had been taking an anti-inflammatory all week, and I walked into the gym feeling good and ready to squat. I kept the suit off this time, since I was feeling zero pain, and I worked up to an easy triple with 297. Then we strapped on 330 for a final set, and on the first rep I felt my upper hamstring twang a bit, so I racked the weight. With so much time before I compete, no need to push it until something snaps completely.

Now, the reason I went over this is because I normally deadlift sumo style, meaning my feet are wide, wider than my squat stance. However, with my hammy still sore I switched to a conventional stance to take some of the pressure off of it. Last week we worked up to 330 for a triple, this week I planned on hitting a top set of 352, but that was so easy I upped it to 374 for a final set, and that was easy as well. So, long story short, I’m sticking to conventional deads for awhile. I just felt stronger in this stance.

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Solid workout today! Easy 5 reps with 275 and finished off with 220 for 15 reps! I still need the right shoulder to be tight, not loose like it feels now. It kind of feels like it’s not completely attached, but the pain is almost 100% gone, so that makes it easier to concentrate on the weight. The rest of the workout was good as well…We kept up a good pace and I increased the weight on each accessory exercise, and increased the reps wen possible, just to fatigue the muscle as much as I could.

Okay, a little setback. Evidently I have developed iliotibial band friction syndrome, which has started causing me sharp pain about halfway down in the squat. It hurt to go up the stairs all week, although the pain started to go away y Friday. I arrived at the gym early to put myself through a longer stretching session and allow myself more time to warm-up. It didn’t help. Now I’m researching ways to heal the band.The iliotibial (IT) band is a tough group of fibers that run along the outside of the thigh. The gluteal muscles and the tensor fascia lata muscle attach to the top, and the lower part attaches to the tibia, just below the knee. Looks like ice, specialized stretching, and a foam roller to roll over the area is the only way for it to heal (besides quitting whatever is causing the pain, which at this point won’t happen).

Shoulder coming along fine, now, but I did feel it all the way from my shoulder down to my wrist starting on my 2nd set. Moved my top set up to 265 x 5 reps. Looking on the video, it looks a lot easier than it felt. I still have not been feeling completely tight in my benches. I finished off with an easy down set of 20 reps with 198.