12/15/10

I felt beat to shit from monday for some reason, my legs were completely destroyed and I was walking funny at school all day. My groin and hip abductors were super tight. We had another snow day yesterday, and fortunately I got a text telling me, so I could fall back asleep with no problem. I went sledding and got a decent amount of hill running haha. My bodyweight was at 232.8 this morning, after weighing 238 monday night, after a half gallon of chocolate milk and the fattest chipotle burrito I've ever had.


Squats- I was planning to go lighter than usual today, but as I started warming-up, Ty and a fellow PL-er, Pat (who apparently trained with Jason Pegg), began critiquing my form. Just when I thought my form was getting better, it turns out not much more could be wrong. But atleast I wasn't collapsing at the bottom any more. But they had me do a set of 50 reps just with the bar, of perfect form box squats. Only good ones counted. It turns out my knees weren't going out far enough, they were too far forward, I wasn't sitting back enough, and my posterior chain is about as shitty as can be. And to add to that, I couldn't even take the bar out of the monolift correctly. After many sets of double at 135 and 185, I guess my form was decent enough for them to carry on with their own training. It honestly took about an hour and half just for that. Chances are I'll walk even weirder tomorrow than I did today.

Bench- 3x165x5. Felt much better than monday.

Chin-ups- 3xAMAP, I got x5,x4,x3. I guess thats an improvement seeing as how I haven't done them in quite a while.


Dips- 3xAMAP, x4,x3,x4. Not my best, but I'll take it seeing how sore I was from monday.

Decided to pass on the GHR today since my hamstrings already felt like they were ripping apart from squatting. I'm planning on replacing them with Glute Bridges for the next couple weeks.

Finished up with a 220# prowler for 10 sets of 75'. Nothing too hard, just enough to get the lungs burning a little. Super setted them with CoC #2 negative reps, probably did about 5 sets of 3 reps per hand.

Nothing bothers me more than someone telling me I'm not doing something right repeatedly. I don't know what happened in my childhood to make me like this, but it bothered the shit out of me. I guess I'm just gonna have to keep hammering my squat form. Wouldn't it be cool if one day I squatted 1,000 pounds despite it currently being my worst lift? I think so. I really don't know the chances of that happening though. Maybe I'll be the next Andy Bolton.

12/13/10

We had a snow day today, but unfortunately I did not get to sleep in because it took me a half hour to figure out the whole snow day thing and by that time I was fully awake. I spent most of my morning eating as well as writing my entire training program for january. My bodyweight was at 233 this morning, another pound decrease since last week. It feels good to make progress, no matter how small it really is.

Squat- 5x250x5, finished all sets, with pretty decent form. I was definitely fatigued on the last set, but these have been my easiest 5x5's yet.


Bench- 5x185x5. I missed the last rep on the last set, these felt crappy compared to my usual.


Deadlift- 385x5. Also my easiest set of deadlifts since starting the texas method. I used some nose tork on this set too, it honestly feels like someone is shoving a scalpel up my nose.

A decent day, I'm glad to see my deadlift is still getting better even though I've pretty much reduced it to zero volume.

Catching up- Week of 12/6

It's been a while so I'm just gonna sum everything up. Body weight was at 234 on Monday, so a pound decrease since I've started my new diet. Not bad. Went off my training schedule and attempted a max squat, ended up getting 325. It was a tad high, but that is arguable. I'll stick with 315 as my max squat currently. I also figured out that split jerking for anything over three reps at a decent weight is pretty ridiculous, no matter how good my conditioning is.

As for Friday, I got a 275x5 squat for a PR with decent form, along with my first weightlifting related bloody nose. 205x5 for a PR on the Bench. Not a bad week. I've also started adding in some jogging on my off days, and I tested it out on Thursday. I ended up walking for ten minutes, jogging for five, and walking another 5 for a nice even 20 minutes of cardio. I was awfully winded after the jogging, it felt like each second was a minute, and each minute was an hour. My body weight was at a low of 232.6 on Friday. I'm hoping it will be at 233 on Monday.

As for contests, I'm sending in my entry form sometime this weekend so I can guarantee myself a spot. Right now there is one other Teen HW, so I'll have some competition.

I'll have atleast another two solid weeks of the texas method before I change my training schedule and add in an events day. I'm hoping to get a 215x5 bench, 300x5 Squat, 405x5 deadlift, and 185x5 strict OHP.

12/3/10

Today I set my new five rep maxes on the squat and bench. My body weight was at 233 in the morning, however after three days of up coming work and all the eating I do there, chances are I'm gonna be back at 235 on Monday.

Squat- Singles working up to 255x5 (shitty form), and 265x5 (better, but still not great form), both were PR's. I decided that I would use the SSB on Mondays and Wednesdays to work on form, then a straight bar on Fridays.

Bench- 200x5. big PR. felt good. nuff said.


Power cleans- 5x185x5. Did all these in a matter of 6 or 7 minutes, so it might as well be considered conditioning.

I found another contest that I want to do. It's the Ohio Hercules strongman competition held by Steve Slater. It will be my first platinum level contest where I am hoping to take first and qualify for teen nationals finally. However, I'm not sure how I am going to work my training around it until then. I know I am going to do the Texas method at least til new years, but I would like to work on some sort of a periodization method so I can peak for this contest. I wish this contest would be pushed back another month or two so I can do the texas method a little bit longer. No need to worry about that now though.

12/1/10

I had a quick session today, I needed to be in and out in an hour. I warmed up with some medicine ball squat throws just to get the blood pumping since it's the first day of snow we've had. My bodyweight was at 234 this morning, a pound decrease since monday. Due to the time constraint, I staggered each set with a 110# prowler sprint for 75'. Nothing too hard, but enough to get me a little winded. All beltless:

Squats w/ Safety Squat Bar- 3x165x5. A very light, humbling day for recovery, but I was pretty sore from monday still so these were a little tougher than expected.

Military Press- 3x120x5. Similar story with squats, still a little sore from monday. Not too bad though.


Inverted Rows/Dips- 3xFail for each exercise, my average for rows was 12, and my average for dips was 5. Increased bodyweight movements here I come!

Just realized I was supposed to do some GHR, but I forgot...damn.

Grip- 45# bumper plate (around 3") for time. 5 sets each hand. Got around 30 seconds for each set.

Decent day, staggering my conditioning made it seem a lot easier. Maybe a plan from now on? That's all, setting some new 5RM's on friday.