K.Diesel's powerlifting and other training - 2009 and beyond

[hbriem]

Congratulations Kaisheem! Fantastic lifting. Kudos to you on making that 130 after failing once. That's badass. And that last deadlift rocked.

The video was a little distorted sideways. Made you look the size of a house in the deadlifts. Hehe.

[swilczewski]

Awesome lifting and congrats on the PR and an excellent meet. It looked like you were good for another 20-30 lbs in the deadlift, I beleive 600 will be falling in the near future.

[Platus]

Great job Kaisheem! I agree with swilczewski - those deadlifts looked very fast, especially off the floor. I'm going to have to plan my spring schedule around attending next year.

[Platus]

Wait, did you beat Mike Bridges... again?

[kittenSmash]

Damn, great job K. You tore it up.

[K.Diesel]

UPDATE

I planned to get back to real lifting on Monday. However, I've been hit with a case of food poisoning. I'll spare you the grimy details, but suffice it to say I've noticed more about the tiling on my bathroom floor in the last 36 hours than I have in the 9 years I've lived here.

My appetite is shot too. I felt hungry a bit tonight and was tempted to eat a turkey sandwich, but went with the recommended clear liquid diet. So I had Jello for dinner. I was full on 3/4 - 1 cup. So that plus 2 slices of toast and 6 crackers is all I've had in since Wednesday night. At the doctor's today, I was down to 193.6 lbs fully dressed today - after 200.8 lbs in my underwear at least week's weigh-in.

I think I'll take a few extra days to get re-hydrated and make sure I have a decent appetite again. Hopefully, that will happen by Wednesday, but if not, I'll just wait until next Monday (3/21) to get started.

Congratulations Kaisheem! Fantastic lifting. Kudos to you on making that 130 after failing once. That's badass. And that last deadlift rocked.

The video was a little distorted sideways. Made you look the size of a house in the deadlifts. Hehe.

Hahahaha! Thanks buddy. Missing my 2nd bench has become a tradition of sorts at this meet. If I'm blessed to go back next year, I hope it won't continue.

Awesome lifting and congrats on the PR and an excellent meet. It looked like you were good for another 20-30 lbs in the deadlift, I beleive 600 will be falling in the near future.

Thanks a bunch. 600 lb raw deadlift is one of my new goals. I don't know if I'll get it at a meet this year, because Raw Nationals in August may be my last raw meet of 2011, and I want to prioritize my bench press. I'm tired of pressing less than 300.

Great job Kaisheem! I agree with swilczewski - those deadlifts looked very fast, especially off the floor. I'm going to have to plan my spring schedule around attending next year.

You should definitely go. Between PL, SM, OL, BB, and everything else going on, you'd love it.

Wait, did you beat Mike Bridges... again?

HA HA HA HA! NO SIR!! He didn't compete, but one of the most awesome moments of the weekend was running into him at the Con-cret booth, and he remembered me from last year. Had nice talks with him before and after the meet. Kinda funny: I literally bumped into Ed Coan in the expo, but didn't realize who he was until he was a few booths away and turned his head. I just know when I bumped him I thought "Damn this guy is solid!".

Damn, great job K. You tore it up.

Thanks a lot KS!

[Cmanuel]

Good stuff K! You did really well at the arnold. Maybe one of these days i'll cut the slack and start training for a big comp like that myself.

Take care

[K.Diesel]

I feel much better, and so I was able to return to the gym just a day after I'd originally planned. I have 21 weeks until my next planned meet, USAPL Raw Nationals on August 19-21 in Scranton, PA.

For a few reasons, I'm going to return to 5/3/1 programming, with a few modifications. Most of the tweaking involves adding heavy singles as has been discussed on many boards and forums. I'll also do more than one set with the heaviest weight for the day, but not necessarily more than one set with as many reps as possible. I can see time constraints becoming an issue in the next few months because of a few things going on in real life, and these workout tend to take less time. Lastly, I ran 5/3/1 with no modifications before Raw Nationals in 2009, and came out with a squat, deadlift, and total PR. Maybe I'm a bit nostalgic.

Enough of this stuff, on to tonight's session.

Core lift: OHP, 5's, Working max = 170

warm-up: OHP/bar/15 reps + pulldowns/50/15 reps

1. OHP
70/5; 90/5; (65%) 111/5; (75%) 128/5
(85%) 145/9, 5, 5
120/9 - failed a 10th rep

Never felt like I hit the right groove for any of these.

2. Pullups - wide, overhand
pulldowns/100/8
BW/8; 25/6; 45/6; 25/8
BW/4 + 3 + 2 - this turned into a rest pause set. I didn't realize how tired I was. I had no gas left.

3. Dips
BW/10; 45/10; 50/9, 8
BW/12

4. Curls
DB Hammers: 45s/6 each
DB pronating: 40s/7 each
barbell: 85/6 + 65/6 - sort of a rest-pause-drop set by accident.

Total time: 1 hr 23 min

Overall a decent first session. I can tell I'm weaker on these lifts. It could be because I haven't trained them in over a month, and it could be due to my recent weight loss. Probably a bit of both, but all that will change with time and effort. I'm just glad to be back in the gym.

Good stuff K! You did really well at the arnold. Maybe one of these days i'll cut the slack and start training for a big comp like that myself.

Take care

Thanks C. You should be able to qualify for it, if you haven't already. I remember you said something about attending this year. Did you make it, and if so was it fun? I had a blast!

[K.Diesel]

Workout weigh-in = 195 1/2

I'm going to try an experiment. I'll weigh myself at the gym, in my underwear, just before I start a training session. My rationale is that USAPL uses a 2 hour weigh-in system, so that whatever you weigh at the weigh-in will be fairly close to what you weigh on the platform. I'll be watching to see how lifts compare to my actual training bodyweight, rather than what I weigh in the morning.

Working max = 425

Warm-up = walking my route plus overtime

1. Squat
bar/5; 135/5; 225/5; (65%) 276/5; (75%) 319/5

add Rob's belt: (85%) 361/10 - I'm pretty sure this is an all-time 10 rep PR, and I worked for it. Reps 7-10 were preceded by 3-5 deep breaths for each. I felt like my muscles could take 1-2 more, but my lungs were cursing at me. As for Rob, my buddy saw my belt laying on my bag and said it looked "flimsy". He offered to let my try his Inzer Forever 1-prong that's 2 weeks old.

add my belt: (85%) 361/5, 5 - Rob was right about my belt. Huge difference. I'll be replacing mine soon.

2. Barbell Glute-Hip Thrusts - I'll probably abbreviate these as GHT's from now on.
135/8; 225/6; 315/8, 8, 8

3. 1-arm flat DB bench press - I'll do something at every session, not always heavy
35/12 each; 50/16 each

4a. Calf press - on Cybex machine
150/15; 210/10

4b. Leg press - on the same Cybex machine
250/10; 310/13

Total time: 1 hr 43 min. I know this flies in the face of my desire to save time, but I had nothing pressing to do and ended up using the gym as a place of refuge. I was very liberal with rest periods for the whole session after that 10-rep squat set.

[K.Diesel]

Didn't have a lot of time, and I forgot to weigh myself.

Working max = 265

Warm-up: mailman GPP + empty bar OHP, BB rows and BP

1. Bench press
95/5; 135/5; (65%) 172/5; (75%) 200/5; (85%) 225/6, 5, 4

This is pathetic. I expected to be somewhere in the 8-10 range on the "5 or more" set. There may be a few contributing factors: 1) I didn't sleep enough last night. 2) I haven't recovered from yesterday's squat workout. 3) I need to eat more. 4) My bench is doomed to suck. Who knows, but I intend to figure it out.

2. Seated cable row - Separate handles. Turned hands from pronated to neutral during each rep.
70/16; 110/13; 150/10; 190/10; 170/17

3. Seated calf press
135/15

4. Standing calf press
200/11

5. Incline DB press
70s/13; 80s/10; 90s/6

Time: 53 min