Does my bum look big in this squat rack?

brianthebard

kevpants wrote: »

Palnning on updating it quite a lot. I have a lot to say!

Don't cry brian I'll be posting more often now that I'm over the initial shock of fatherhood!

How did you see the tears!?!?! :eek:

kevpants

brianthebard wrote: »

How did you see the tears!?!?! :eek:

It was in the prose. You are a bard after all...

kevpants

26/06/10 ME upper

Bench:
120 x 1
132.5 x 1
125 x 1
120 x1

Pin press (lower pins)
120kg
3/1/1 (rest pause)

Pec flys:
27.5kg 4/3/2

Close neutral grip weighted chins +10kg 6/4/3

DB curls 22.5kg 8/3/3

---

30/06/10 Assistance Day

Front squat:
100 x 5
100 x 5
100 x 5

GHR 6/4/3

Seated Military press:
80kg 5/2/2

Close grip bench:
80kg 8/5/2

Wide grip neutral chins:
10/4/4

Barbell curls
50kg 5/2/2

---

3/7/10 ME Lower

Squat:
200 x 1
220 x 1
207.5 x 1
200 x 1

Suspended Good Mornings:
100kg - 4 sets of 4

Suspended good mornings are the harder than honours maths.

Happy with training the last week to 10 days even though it was a little disjointed. Heavy singles rule.

kevpants

3/7/10 ME Upper

Bench:
110 x 1
122.5 x 1
135 x 1
125 x 1
120 x 1

Pin press:
120 x 3
110 x 3
100 x 6

Pec Fly's
15kg plates (protecting sore elbows)
14/7/8

Close grip neutral chins + 10kg
8/4/3

Back fly's
10kg plates
11/10/9

Benching is good. I'm unracking all of these weights myself so that is always going to subtract from my true max. Especially considering the position of the bench under the pins. It's a bit off, I actually had two missed attempts at unracking 135kg before I got it. The lift was easy by comparison :rolleyes:

Training in my own gym is going great. The intensity is much increased when it's just me and the weights. I feel bigger and stronger than ever. Hopefully I can sustain a good run at max effort work and get back to inching forward with Pr's.

I'm also a total hypocrite when it comes to supplements. Really can't afford to buy all the food I'll need to sustain progress & wifepants is convinced milk is making me snore! Maybe it is and maybe it's not but I'm willing to compromise, sleep is precious right now. The most affordable option is just to take shakes once or twice a day. I even invested in some sh1t called "pulse" from myprotein because I was shocked when I added up how much I've spent on Monster drinks to compensate for being completely wrecked.

Hanley

kevpants wrote: »

Training in my own gym is going great. The intensity is much increased when it's just me and the weights. I feel bigger and stronger than ever. Hopefully I can sustain a good run at max effort work and get back to inching forward with Pr's.

Squatting higher and getting fatter?? :D

Looks like training's going well. I'm so jealous. Wish I was strong.

The most affordable option is just to take shakes once or twice a day. I even invested in some sh1t called "pulse" from myprotein because I was shocked when I added up how much I've spent on Monster drinks to compensate for being completely wrecked.

I like Pulse a lot!!

I'm not far off the shape I need to be in to run the pope's cross topless :pac:

kevpants

Hanley wrote: »

Squatting higher and getting fatter?? :D

Looks like training's going well. I'm so jealous. Wish I was strong.

I need to squat higher, no more moral high ground for me.

Don't worry I wish I was lean..... pfffft. No I don't.

Hanley wrote: »

I'm not far off the shape I need to be in to run the pope's cross topless :pac:

I can put on a blond wig and run up and down as the "before"!

_JOE_

kevpants wrote: »

I even invested in some sh1t called "pulse" from myprotein because I was shocked when I added up how much I've spent on Monster drinks to compensate for being completely wrecked.

What's the Pulse like? How does it compare to monster? I've been looking for a very good pre workout shake for a while. At the moment, i've been sticking with relentless + skittles for preworkouts and football training (due to intensity and fatigue) but it's costing me a fortune!

kevpants

_JOE_ wrote: »

What's the Pulse like? How does it compare to monster? I've been looking for a very good pre workout shake for a while. At the moment, i've been sticking with relentless + skittles for preworkouts and football training (due to intensity and fatigue) but it's costing me a fortune!

Completely different level. Monster really just makes you all twitchy. Pulse gave me a serious amount of.... focus I suppose you'd call it. It's like "a good talking to" in a shaker. Also makes your face go numb. I've only used it twice but, as you'll see below, in the first session with it I found myself doing pullup after pullup to try and ware myself out, but I was raring to go. Can't be good for you!

9/7/10 Assistance day

Front squat
110 x 5
110 x 5
110 x 4 (dropped the bar)

Purple band assisted GHR's
4/3/2 rp

Seated military press
80kg
6/2/2 rp

Purple band assisted bench
100kg
12/5/?

Wide Neutral grip chins
11/5/4

Purple band Assisted pullups - repeat until Pulse wears off.

---

12/7/10 ME Lower

Deadlift against blue bands:
130 x 1
150 x 1
170 x 1
190 x 1
210 x 1

*removed bands*

230 x 1
245 x 1

Purple band assisted GHR's
4/3/1 rp

Ab pulldowns against red bands
3 sets of different grips and depths - rp

Blue band pullaparts
3 sets to failure - rp



So my bands arrived, can you tell?

Bought the basic pack of liftinglarge.com's Kilo bands. Doing a lot of experimentation with them but have managed to come up with a few novel ways to use them. The assisted GHR's are great, the band remove the need for a box or stool to push up off. Really makes them more difficult but gives enough support to be able to do more than 1 rep.

Deadlifting against the bands was harder than I thought it be. Tension feels very different to weight, nearly tore my arms off. The idea here was to work up to a max against the bands and to follow with a (slightly reduced) max without them. I was pleasantly surprised by my performance here.

Also great to have my pulldown abs back! the bands are great for this as a quick change of grip changes the exercise completely. You can squeeze out long slow reps or bounce down quickly for a totally different feeling. God knows what the weight equivalent was but I destroyed my entire core with them. Fun.

_JOE_

kevpants wrote: »

Completely different level. Monster really just makes you all twitchy. Pulse gave me a serious amount of.... focus I suppose you'd call it. It's like "a good talking to" in a shaker. Also makes your face go numb. I've only used it twice but, as you'll see below, in the first session with it I found myself doing pullup after pullup to try and ware myself out, but I was raring to go. Can't be good for you!

Sounds terrible, in a good way! Haha...I'll have to order some...i'll report back on my experience...

kevpants

14/7/10 ME Upper

Pin Press
120 x 1
130x1
140 x 1
150 x miss
140 x 1
130 x 1

DB Bench 32.5kg bells
16/7/5 rp

Pushups aginst red band
6/4/3 rp

Weighted NG Chins
+15kg
5/3/3 rp

Blue band pullaparts - 3 sets

My pin press strength is terrible. Pins set about halfway up. Right at my weakpoint.

---

Assistance Day 18/7/10

Hi-bar pause squats
100kg
3 sets of 10 Close stance and beltless

GHR's purple band assisted
6/4/3 rp

Seated shoulder press.
90kg
3/2/2 rp

Power cleans
60,70,80,90,100 x1
110 x miss
110 x 3 singles

---

20/7/10 ME Lower

Deadlift against blue bands
100x1
140 x 1
160 x 1
180 x 1
200 x 1
215 x miss
*remove bands*
230 x 1
250 x 1 equal PR

Shrugs 180kg
12/7/6 rp

Red band abs
3 sets

Things are ticking along nicely. From next week on I should start to see a few little 2.5kg PR's in all lifts.

kevpants

2(something)/7/10 ME Upper

Pin press
110 x 1
120 x 1
132.5 x 1
145 x miss grrrrrr
140 x 1 easy grrrrrrr

Strip set (no rest between sets)
100kg x 7
60kg x 15
20kg x 33

Pushups against red band
7/4/3

Chest fly's
15kg plates
16/10/8

Weighted neutral chins
6/4/3

BB rows
100kg
7/5/4

Blue Band pullaparts x 3 sets

Completely lost it with myself after the pin presses. Hence the ridiculous amount of exercises. How can 140 be easy but 145 be at least 20kg heavier... by my estimation.

---

27/7/10 Assistance day

Oly pause squats
110kg x 3 sets of 10 BIG pause

GM's 60kg x 2 sets of 10

Seated military press
90kg
4/2/2

Blue band pullaparts x 3 sets

Blue band curls x 3 sets

Purple band seated tri extensions x 3 sets

Felt like crap during this session. Must make a vid of all the band stuff I've come up with. They are good for so much more than just lockout stuff for the powerlifts. A serious investment.

---

28/7/10 ME Lower
Deadlift
60,100,140
180 x 1
200 x 1
220 x 1
235 x 1
252.5 x 1 PR
240 x miss :rolleyes:

Shrugs
190kg
10/7/6

Purple band GHR
7/2/1

Pullups
11/4/4

Abs

Woohoo, progress!

---

29/7/10 ME Upper

Pin press
120 x 1
132.5 x 1
145 x miss oh for f-sake
130 x 1 (from static)
100kg x 6,4,3,3,3,4

1/2 bench 80kg
x20,9,8,8,8

Blue band pullaparts x 3

Weight neutral chins
+15kg

x5,3,3,3

More pin press bull. God how do you get your bench to go up. Apart form getting fat!

---

3/8/10 ME Lower (skipped assistance day)

Squat
60,100,140
160 x 1
190 x 1
210 x 1
225 x 1 equal pr
210 x 1
200 x 1

Abs with bands

Had to be quick tonight but that squat was a piece of piss. Well, kinda. Got to be careful not to reach too far, though I was tempted to attempt 230kg. But I only miss benches, I'd hate myself if I started missing squats.

podge57

Yeah, the bands are great for all sorts of assistance work, I'm definitely getting my money's worth out of them.

Nice lifting too, what weight are you now?

kevpants

podge57 wrote: »

Yeah, the bands are great for all sorts of assistance work, I'm definitely getting my money's worth out of them.

Nice lifting too, what weight are you now?

Cheers bud. 230-235lbs. Don't seem to be getting as fat as I have in the past strength phases. Which is good.

Pavel66

Congrats on the DL PR

The ME stuff seems to be working well for you. I noticed you are taking a couple of days between sessions - maybe this is the key?

VIS VIRES

Nice lifting Kev, lots of PR's:)

Where did you get the bands? I'm thinking about getting some for deadlifting...

kevpants

Pavel66 wrote: »

Congrats on the DL PR

The ME stuff seems to be working well for you. I noticed you are taking a couple of days between sessions - maybe this is the key?

Yeah I thrive on rest. Amazing how quick I feel myself getting burned out. It's not about how many session you can do after all, just the effect you get from them. Max Effort stuff is a nice way of getting the work in and knowing you've done enough so you can rest easy on the recovery days. Just do 3 lifts at 90%+ and I know I've done enough for another week.

VIS VIRES wrote: »

Nice lifting Kev, lots of PR's:)

Where did you get the bands? I'm thinking about getting some for deadlifting...

Liftinglarge.com. It's their own brand called Kilo.

Always had a good experience with liftinglarge and these seem to be good quality.

Just got the beginner package. You can always double up if you need more tension.

kevpants

Just back from 2 weeks staycation, the highlight of which was sitting next to Joe Duffy at a restaurant in the midlands. A far cry from 24 months ago when I had dinner next to Dr Dre at the Roosevelt in LA. The difference a 16lb bundle of noise & fun makes.


Never got a chance to log my last few sessions beforehand. Things were going according to plan, the plan is to continue wit the ME stuff after the break and over the course of the year, reduce some bodyfat. Long term this powerlifting has to take a back seat to not dying on my daughter. I can't afford to carry the gut now I'm in my thirties. Not with my genes. I won't attempt to massively cut fat just yet, I have some strength goals to hit first. I'll have a block of fitness in a few weeks but I'll maybe try to sneak down a lb a week in the meantime. Shouldn't be an issue with ME stuff.

Thurs 5/8/10 ME Upper

Bench
Warmups
120 x 1
127.5 x 1
137.5 x 1 (guy on radio played the cover of "Cars" by Fear Factory... smoked it)
132.5 x 1
127.5 x 1

Shrugs 140
18/15/10

Chest Flys
15kg plates + purple band
8/6/5

Wide NG chins
8/3/3

---

Sat 7/8/10 Assistance

Oly Pause squat
120kg
x8
x8
x8

GM's
70kg
x10
x10
x10

Seated MP
90kg x2 felt dizzy so had to stop

3 sets of blue band pullaparts

Felt like sh1te here

---

Tue 10/8/10 ME Lower

Squat
180 x1
200 x1
215 x1
227.5 x1 PR

Pull thrus with band
x17
x15
x14

Abs

Nice PR but I massively hurt my ribs on it. Fell forward a bit and the belt crushed against my floating rib, slid along it and then popped off at the end. The sensation was similar to when you used to hold a ruler on your desk and twang the other end. Still f'ing hurts.

---

Fri 13/8/10 ME Upper

Bench
110 x 1
120 x 1
130 x 1
140 x 1 (calling that a PR cos I lifted it off myself )
142.5 x miss

Pin Press 100kg x several sets

Pullups
9/4/3

Band pullaprts (blue)
x 3 sets

140kg was easy, hence the 142.5 attempt but I missed at my usual sticking point. Bench strength is st an all time high though which is amazeballs.

brianthebard

Great stuff. Blog more.

kevpants

brianthebard wrote: »

Great stuff. Blog more.

I will. I always goes AWOL from the internet this time of year anyhoo.

Hanley

Floating rib... what a stupid part of your body. The amount of pain that's caused me over the years. Hell it still hurts when I wear a belt.

Still gotta come visit for some training... Still in the shed?

Pavel66

That rib thing sounds nasty :eek:

As I said before that ME stuff seems to really work for you. Well done on the PRs

I am a fan of pull throughs myself, never tried them with bands - how do they compare?

kevpants

Hanley wrote: »

Floating rib... what a stupid part of your body. The amount of pain that's caused me over the years. Hell it still hurts when I wear a belt.

Still gotta come visit for some training... Still in the shed?

Still in the shed. You should see my training partner. Biggest spider in Ireland. At first I thought it was some kind of badger.

Get down to the shed. Just give me a shout. That offers open to anyone. The shed does not discriminate so long as you rspect the shed.

Pavel66 wrote: »

That rib thing sounds nasty :eek:

As I said before that ME stuff seems to really work for you. Well done on the PRs

I am a fan of pull throughs myself, never tried them with bands - how do they compare?

Bands make pull-thrus harder at the top end so it kinda simulates a difficult lockout. Also they're the only way I can do pull thru's!

podge57

I would freak out if I saw a giant spider in my shed - coping with the cobwebs is bad enough for me....

Parsley

podge57 wrote: »

I would freak out if I saw a giant spider in my shed - coping with the cobwebs is bad enough for me....

you really wouldn't want to come to the rowing club i train in so....

itsallaboutheL

Parsley wrote: »

you really wouldn't want to come to the rowing club i train in so....

he said he's afraid of spiders, not skinny runts..

Parsley

itsallaboutheL wrote: »

he said he's afraid of spiders, not skinny runts..

well you'll find both in the rowing club! :pac:

kevpants

Sun 29/08/10 ME Lower

Sumo DL
180 x 1
200 x 1
220 x 1

Conventional
230 x 1
240 x 1
220 x 1

Red band pull thrus 14/12/10

Situps againts purple bands
3 sets

---

Tue 31/08/10 ME Upper

Pin Press
110 x 1
125 x 1
135 x 1
142.5 x 1
137.5 x 1

Bench + blue bands
60kg
20/10/7

Wide grip pullups
6/4/3

Chest supported db rows
22.5kg db's
12/8/6

---

Thursday 2/9/10 Assistance day

Pause high bar close stance squats
130kg
x8
x8
x6 POP!

Seated military press
90kg
2/1/miss
60kg
11/2/2

Purple band tri ext's
12/6/4

Neutral grip chins
9/3/3

Blue band pullaparts
3 sets

Well that my lower back screwed again.

Been a bit lax with my glute activation stuff lately and my back has let me know. Obviously dormant glutes are an issue for me but in reality I need to address the whole issue with my hips.

Gonna stick an entry in my blog about it below instead of fill this up.

What it boils down to is probably 3 weeks of rehab and correctional exercises for my hips so I'll be doing upper body only. ME stuff won't be ideal so I might do a block of Smolov for bench while rehabing my lower half.

Can anyone fill me in on the recommended % max to base it off and what the recommended jumps in weeks 2 and 3 are for Smolov bench. Maybe they're different to squat?

Hanley

I'd go for 92-95% of your max and add around 5% in week 2 and 8% in week 3 (an additional 8% total from week 1 like). That's what I'mma do!

kevpants

06/09/10 Smolov Bench wk1d1

90kg 4 sets of 9

Pullups
8/4/3

Hip work

---

9/9/10 Smolov bench wk1 d2

97.5kg 5 sets of 7

Neutral grip chins
8/4/3

Hip work

---

10/9/10 Smolov bench wk1d3

105kg 7 sets of 5

Neutral grip chins +straight leg hold (back and abs twofer)
x5
x4
x3
x3
x3

Hip work

---

12/09/10 smolov bench wk1d4

110kg 10 sets of 3

Hip work

---

14/9/10 smolov bench wk2d1

95kg 4 sets of 9

Neutral chins +leg hold
x7
x5
x4
x4
x4

Blue band assistaed GHR
10/7/5 (ooooh extra help with blues over purples and it allowed me do more)

Going well so far, todays session felt lighter than last weeks equivalent. Popping off my chest. Hips are hopefully loosening too. Working on them almost daily at this stage.

itsallaboutheL

You're running full smolov!!