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

[K.Diesel]

Peace everyone! The only reason I started a new thread is because I couldn't find a way to change the title of my old one. I'd never done a thread on a site before, and didn't have the foresight to realize that the thread would still be going (long) after the 2nd meet. I thank everyone who kept up with my journey into strength sports on the 1st thread, and hope I'll get the same interest, support, and feedback on this one. This site and the members here are great!

Here's the game plan/goal list for this year...
* Compete in the 198 class all year
* Compete in 4 meets: April 11, July 25-26, August/September, and the MD State Championships in November/December. I scrapped my plan to do a meet on Feb. 21.
* The 1st 2 meets will be raw. I believe I can take the USAPL MD state raw records in my weight class for all 3 lifts, plus the total. So goal #1 is to break all of them between those meets. Currently, the raw records for Men's Open 198 are 429.9 squat, 308.6 bench, 545.1 dead, 1240.1 total.
* 3rd meet will be to get used to gear again, and compete in the bench shirt for the 1st time.
* 4th meet will be to defend the gold! Goals are to (1) total Class 1 (645 kg/1422 lb), and (2) repeat as 1st place in the 198s.

If you didn't read my other thread, I'm 5'8", 32 y.o. Today I'm 191 lb w/32" waist. I think that's about 10-11% BF. Wish me luck!!

[K.Diesel]

Will be lifting 3 days a week for the forseeable future. Squat, Bench, Dead/light bench combo days. Taking off the last 11 days was the right move. I felt mentally fresh, physically strong, and couldn't wait to get to the gym.

By the way, I bought a pedometer to track how much I'm walking on my route (if you didn't read my other thread, I'm a mailman). I'm sure there must be some margin of error, because you have to enter 1 stride length, but obviously due to steps, gates, porches, corners, etc, I'm not keeping a constant pace, but I think it's a decent ballpark. I count my workday as cardio and GPP, so I guess I'll include those stats on here, so...

Cardio/GPP - Total time 5:35 (including driving, breaks, etc)
7.47 miles, 19933 steps, 1054 calories burned

Lifting - Total time 1:38

1.Box squats
bar/5, bands/5, 95+bands/3, 135+/2, 185+/2 x 6 sets - slowed down on 6th set. 30-40 sec between ea, except between 3 and 4 when I spotted someone.

2.Squat
140/3, 230/3
255/5, 5, 5, 5 - all good, none felt really hard

3.Front squat
225/5, 5 - still using the cross-arm grip. Bar was a little unbalanced on the 1st set. Safety pin probably helped me stay a little too shallow.

4.RDL - done on step
225/5
315/5, 5 - used straps, 2nd set was easier than 1st

5a.Walking lunge - w/dumbbells
75s/11 ea, 10 ea

5b.Cable pull-thrus
120/12, 14 - again, 2nd set easier. Pretty fast

6.Calf press - on plate loaded leg press
270+sled/5 ea foot + 10, 5 ea + 10, 7 ea + 12 - the last reps on each of these sets were pump reps

7.Weighted plank
90 lbs/30 sec x 2

Feel great! I think I learned not to take so many sets to failure. It's one of those bodybuilding habits I haven't totally broken yet. Almost none of these sets were ME sets, but I can tell I did some work. Can't wait to get back in again.

[K.Diesel]

BW = 191.0 Today's GPP/cardio = 6.276 mi, 15908 steps, 885.5 cals. Took just under 4 hours, including breaks.

1.Band bench - still have no idea how much these bands add
bar/15, bar+bands/5, 95+/3
135+/3 x 7 sets (2 wide grip, 3 normal, 2 close) - all very fast, easy

2.Bench press
190/3, 225/2, 245/1
260/1 - harder than it should have been due to bad form. Brought the bar too low on my chest, and started leg drive too late. Bar speed did pick up, so that was a good sign.
230/4+1asst, 3+2asst, 4+2asst - goal was 3 sets of 5 at this weight, but tank was running low. Took the assisted reps.

3.3-phone book bench
275/2+1asst - a little too optimistic on this one
255/3 - much better

4a. Dips
body/5, +90/4, +45/7

4b.1-arm OHP - standing, alternating
40s/5 ea, 60s/4 ea, 50s/5 ea

5.Pressdown - at crossover station, drop set
150/6 + 120/3 + 90/7

6.Standing cable crunch - drop set
150/5 + 120/12 + 90/15 - those 150 reps were hard!

Time - 1:14

[K.Diesel]

BW = 196. Nice to see it on the scale again - we'll see how long it lasts.

No GPP stats from Wed. 1/14 because my pedometer reset somehow.

Warmed up w/cleans, deads, rows, pulls, power shrugs, front squats all on empty bar.

1.Deadlift - done conventional, on a step, with bands looped around bar
bar+bands/7, 140+/5, 230+/3, 280+/2, 320+/1
364+/1 X 7 sets - These went pretty quick for the 1st 5. 6th was ok. 7th was just slow. The bar weight is 70% of my 1RM (518.1, which I rounded to 520).

2.Bench press
100/6, 140/5, 165/3
189/8, 8 - closer to touch & go than they were to paused reps. But NONE were bounced off my chest.

3.Chins
body/6 wide, body/6 underhand, +45/4 w, +45/4 u, +70/3 w, +70/3 u, +45/4 w, +45/4 u, 7 w, 6 u - each set was 1 short of failure (I hope)

4.Seated cable row
120/8, 150/8, 180/7 - not strict, not sloppy.

5.Side bends
60s/20 ea, 20 ea

6.Hammer curl
40s/8 + 3 ea.

Time - 1:38. Very pleased and grateful for this week's training, especially after the way I had been feeling and performing. I'm cautiously optimistic that I'm back on track.

[K.Diesel]

Fri. 1/16 Mailman GPP

7.954 miles, 20,368 steps, 1133.7 calories burned. Total time about 5hr, 50 min. And the high temperature was 15 degrees F.

[K.Diesel]

Sat. 1/17 Mailman GPP

7.217 miles, 18293 steps, 1018.2 calories. Warmed all the way up to 24 degrees today. I think my heart rate is even faster on this couch right now watching the Ravens try to come back against the Steelers.

[K.Diesel]

No GPP for 2 straight days!! Today's workout is powered by football fan depression - guess I won't need to get those purple light bulbs for my porch after all. I'll take it out on the bar!

Warmed up on treadmill for 5 min at 3.5, plus dynamic stretching to warm up.

1.Box squat w/bands
bar/3, bar+bands/5, 105+/3, 145+/2
195+/2 x 6 sets - nice and fast. 30 sec between all sets except 3rd to 4th. Was sharing part of the "box" w/another lifter

2.Squat
135/3, 200/3, 240/2
270/5, 5, 5, 5 - pretty easy. Plan is to ramp up by 15 lbs per week until the meet, and adjust the sets/reps based on % of 1RM I'm working with.

3.RDL
245/6, 295/5, 325/5, 6 - done on step. Did 6th rep b/c I thought I botched the 3rd rep.

4.Walking dumbbell lunge
77.5s/11 ea, 11 ea - used 2.5 lb wrist weights on each hand plus 75 lb dumbbells to get the 77.5. Figured I'd make smaller jumps on these - can't jump 10 lbs every week.

5a.GHR
6, 9, 8

5b.Standing cable crunch
130/12, 9, 120/16 - These were hard. The 10 lb difference really feels like 30.

Time - 1:33 2nd week is off to a great start. Still feeling good, thank God for health and strength. Trying to discipline myself to slowly ramp the weights up to avoid burnout, because the squats feel really easy. I'm hoping the volume is taking me where I want to be, along with the heavy(er) assistance work. Keep reminding myself that heavy triples and singles aren't far away. Bench tomorrow.

[K.Diesel]

BW in morning = 198! But this is before work, and overtime is surely on the way.

Mailman GPP - 9.101 miles, 23092 steps, 1285.4 calories. Terrible day, a little under 7 hours on the street with no real break other than driving to the next starting point.

On to the gym...

1.Speed bench - w/bands
bar/20, bands/5, 100+/4, 140+/3 x 6 sets. Switched grip from wide-normal-close

2.Bench
195/3, 235/1, 255/1
268/1
239/3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2 - my goal was 5x3 at this weight. Fell oh so short, so I rested 2 minutes to get the 15th rep, and had another in the tank.

3.3 Phone Book Press
250/5, 5, 3+1 spot - goal was 3 x 5, and failing on that 4th rep of set 3 came as a surprise. Sets 1 and 2 were challenging, but i really thought I had another 5.

4a.Face pulls
40/12, 60/15+4 (changed grip), 80/16, 80/16 - 1st time doing these. Immediately fell in love w/them.

4b.Pressdown - rope attachment
90/13, 110/11, 110/8.5 (no more left)

5. Extreme leg raises
10, 7. Don't remember what my buddy at the gym was calling these, but they look like what Stallone was doing in the barn on Rocky IV. Really, really hard, and my form wasn't as good as Rocky's either. But it was a fun change of pace.

Time - 1:37. I really left the weight room feeling like this was the best bench session I'd ever had (it just happened to fall on Inauguration Day). The volume I was able to handle at a pretty high percentage of my raw 1RM was great (for me). Pumped that this came after a hard day at work. Most important, it was the 1st bench confidence booster in a long time. Felt so good, I even stretched! (and that was in the 1:37)

[K.Diesel]

Wed. 1/21 - Mailman GPP

8.973 miles, 22743 miles, 1265.9 calories. Relatively fast pace, finished in less than 6 hours. MUCH more overtime (meaning extra walking) than I hoped though. Guess my coworkers were stuck in inauguration traffic returning from DC to Baltimore.

[K.Diesel]

BW = 194.5. Not bad considering the GPP this week. Speaking of which...

Mailman GPP
6.538 miles, 16572 steps, 922.4 calories. 4 1/2 hours which is pretty fast (I'm allocated 6 hours).

On to the gym...

1.Bench press
bar/15, 100/5, 140/3
174/2 x 8 sets, all reps paused. Focus was form and explosion/speed. Funny thing here - I planned to deadlift first. But there was a guy pulling from the 1 step in the gym (there are others on another floor), and there was an open flat bench. Only time in my lifting life that equipment use meant I had to wait to deadlift, while bench was an open option.

2.Deadlift - on step, with bands. Conventional stance, near-snatch grip.
bar/6, bar+bands/5, 165+/5, 255+/3, 310+/2, 345+/1
390+/1 x 6 sets. Took about 60-90 seconds between reps. After the 3rd rep, started having visions of a 7th rep, but the 6th was too slow to warrant that.

3a.One arm row
60/7 ea, 80/6 ea
100/5, 5, 5, 6, 5 - meant to do 5 x 5, but felt like I bothced a rep on set 4, so I did it right, then matched the volume on other side.

3b.Wide chins
body/7, +25/5
45/5 x 5 - last 2 sets tough, just short of all out

4.Plank
90 lbs/35 sec x 2 - 5 sec/set improvement!

5.Calf press - on plate loaded leg press
270+sled/20, 20, 21, 18+4 partial reps. These sets hurt.

6.Underhand chins - drop set
50/5 + 25/5 + body/4. Done primarily for biceps, but I had 0 desire to do any form of curl today.

Time - 1:57. Took longer than I planned, but I was really taking my time because it was HELLHOT in the gym today. Don't know what was up with that. Plus I figured it'll be 4 days before I'm lifting again, so what the heck. 2 more GPP(work) days this week.