10/18/10

Today was my first day of training for the First Annual Thanksgiving held by Nick Courtad. I'm competing at Teen HW, so that means I need to really smash the calories to get some good numbers right before contest. I have 4 weeks until I begin my deload for the contest, and I'm following a pretty unique training program, consisting of two low volume/max effort days, and two high volume/dynamic effort days. The two max effort days are Monday and Tuesday, with the other days on Thursday and Friday. On Monday and Thursday I'll be focusing on my OHP and upper body, while Tuesday and Friday are going to alternate between squat and deadlift. With this new program comes a new warm-up plan too. Jay got the Amped Warm-up by Joe Defranco and Jim Smith. This should help me with my goal of becoming my flexible as well as increase my ROM and mobility. I was pretty pumped going into this workout, so it was definitely a good one. Here it is:


Amped Warm-up- Just did the sample upper body warm-up, along with some jump roping, rotator-cuff stretches, and bird-dogs. I definitely think this will help me with my flexibility and mobility. Can't wait to see the results from all this stretching and what-not in a few weeks.


12" Log Strict Press- Worked up to a top set of 170x3, a rep PR for me. I'm sticking to strict pressing once a week because I really liked the results I got from it before my last contest. Followed this up with some cleans of the log for technique as well as feel for the heavier weights, and did 180x3, 210x3, and 230x3. I need to work on lapping the log then taking a deep breath and holding it til I finish my press. I find that I lose a lot of power if I breath at the top, much like breathing at the bottom of a deadlift. Otherwise my technique was feeling good, didn't have any major troubles. I played with a couple different hand positions, and found something that works great for my long-ass arms.

DB Lateral Raise Superset Face Pulls-
3 sets of 20x12 and 70x12, I need to work on my delt strength so I can dominate during the crucifix hold.

Sledgehammer- My conditioning for the day, did 4 rounds of 1 minute total, switching hands at 30 seconds. It was really hard for me to keep my pace through-out the entire minute, but that's why I'm working on my conditioning.

After all that my shoulders and tri's were smoked, as well as feeling a nice pump. As I type this, I'm currently eating a 1/2 lb. of macaroni and cheese with a 10 oz. T-bone steak. Now that's what I'm talking about. I'm hoping my weight will be above 230 for contest, and I should be golden. My only problem is that I don't know any of the weights, as well as the format of the events, so I'm going to vary how I train for them in the next couple weeks.