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Farming and Powerlifting
On my farm we don't have room for horses, or enough land to justify a tractor...that means I'm the draft-horse on the property. As such, anything heavy in the field results in whoever found it coming to find me.
My main goal is to be an indestructible farmer, but I have my eyes on a 1500 total @198 class before I hit "masters" age.
Back from like 8 months of "injury recovery" which turned my big 5 training into more of an isolation/volume type of program to avoid re-injury. I was avoiding important assistance and mobility work, which lead to an "injury." Now I'm serious about assistance work, mainly being shoulder mobility/stability training (bands and isometrics), lots of abdominal work to protect my low back as well as stretching and mobility warm-ups for the hips, hams and low back. I'm still figuring that shit out really.
Currently finishing up my injury-return work. Started with basic LP, moved into TM, now doing more of a customized Bill Starr 5x5 weekly progression thing, but progress will be slowing back down into an "advanced" schedule soon. I was about to make a transition to an advanced program just before my injury.
Pre-injury: 1175
Squat: 425, Bench: 310, DL: 440 (injured out on that lift)
Press: 175, Pendlay Row: 265, Clean 235 (stuck forever)
Current Stats:
32 yrs, 5'6" 188lbs, 11-13% BF depends on which meter/scale/caliper you ask.
Current PL Total: 1070
Squat: 390, Bench: 260, DL: 420
Press: 140, Pendlay Row: 270, Clean (untested recently)
My current program:
Rule #1: NO WORKOUTS LONGER THAN 1 HOUR!
Rule #2: NO CUTTING WORKOUTS SHORT!
Rule #3: EACH WORKOUT BEGINS WITH MOBILITY WARM-UPS AND ENDS WITH COPIOUS STRETCHING!
So, This is what it usually boils down to:
Week 1
Monday: LIFTS
Morning work
Squat: 5x5 @ 90% of recent 5RM
Bench: 1x5 for new 5RM (followed by a few heavy "unracking" singles)
Pendlay Row: 1x5 for new 5RM (followed by a few overly heavy attempts)
Afternoon work
Good Mornings 3x30 ramped to best weight of the day (usually between 75-115 lbs)
Hollow Body
Gymnasts Ab Pyramid (Situp->Tuck-up->V-up, 1 of each, then 2 of each...etc.)
Push-ups for 5 sets of max reps
Tuesday HARDIO and Cardio
Morning
"Farm Prowler" (sprint a 200lb wheel barrow up hill)
10 second bursts for max distance covered in time allotted. I don't last much more than 15-30 reps of this.
afternoon
Farming: Gentle Cardio, minor lifting (I avoid doing crazy stuff on these days: moving huge rocks, building new structures, etc.)
Wednesday
Morning
Squats 5x5 @ 80% of 5x5 weight
OHP 5x5 @ 80% of 5x5 weight (week 2)
DL 5x5 @ 80% of 5x5 weight (week 2)
Afternoon
Ab Pyramid 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Overhead Side Bends 2x100 @10lb bar
Chins 2x5 unweighted
Thursday
Morning
Farm Prowler
Afternoon
Farming
Friday
Morning
Squats: 1x5 for new 5rm followed by a heavy "Back Lift"
Bench: 5x5 @ 90% of mondays top 1x5
Pendlay Row: 5x5 @ 90% of mondays top 1x5
Afternoon 1
Hard Farming (I save all the hardest stuff for this time, because I feel like I have the best chance at recovery from this day.)
Afternoon
Bicep Curls: 4x8-12
Tricep Extensions: 4x8-12
Lateral Deltoid Isolation: 4x25+
Ab Pyramid for new max
Saturday
Morning
Farm Prowler
Ab Cycle: Kegel, Planks, Side Planks, Back Press-to-floor drill, Hollow Body
Afternoon
Farming, easy or not (some things just have to get done)
Sunday
Do NOTHING
Week 2 is the same thing except that bench/row switches places with press/DL. On 1x5 DL day(mon. week2) I follow the DL with heavy shrugs.
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Oh yeah, my "Monday" is just a name I give to the first day in the training week... Lately, monday has happened on wednesdays.
Wednesday 7/15/15
morning
Squat 285 5x5
Bench 215 1x5
Afternoon
Good Mornings 85 3x30
Push-ups 5x 30,26,25,22,23
Hollow-Body 27,21,15,9,8,8,8,8,8,7,7,4,2,0
Row 225 1x5
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I worked on a small CSA farm for a while outside of Eugene OR for a while. It's hard work, and I barely trained. How big is your place, and what do you farm?
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Lots of old-time strong guys had a farming background. You have your GPP covered!
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@ Matt Bickford: I'm about 40 miles east of Eugene! For our sales crops, we farm mostly Brassica (cabbage focused), peppers and tomatoes. For our own eating we grow everything from stone fruit, berries, sweet potatoes, tropicals (ginger and lemongrass, but turmeric failed). We have about 2 farmable acres, but it's mountainside so I've had to terrace out beds.
@ Will Diebolt: It's a blast! Farming is what made me pick up the barbell in the first place. Just knowing how much more useful I could be for my community was a serious motivator. I think finally admitting that farm work is hard, thus including it in my training schedule, will help me avoid overtraining...maybe.
Thursday 7/16/15
Morning
Farm Prowler 19 reps, best distance= 36 yards
Afternoon
Squash Bed Recondition: 1.5 hours gpp, avoided back strain pretty well.
Friday 7/17/15
Morning
Squats 225 5x5
OHP 95 5x5 (long pause at bottom)
DL 250 5x5
Afternoon
Ab Pyramid 5
Hollow Body 5 sets to fail 30 sec start
Overhead Side Bends @10 2x100
Chins 2x5
Last edited by BenZab; 07-17-2015 at 09:41 PM.
Reason: Addendum of Afternoon Session
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Saturday 7/18/15
Morning
Farm Prowler x5 Super tired today
Afternoon
@102 degrees, decided to skip farmwork and go swimming
Sunday
Morning
Squats 320 1x5 (fell out of groove on last rep, had 'call up' issues)
Floor Press 195 5x5
Barbell Row 200 5x5
Afternoon
Chins 5x6
Tricep Extension/Skullcrusher 67 4x10
Bicep Curls 75 3x10
Ab Pyramid to 6, but then wimped out on new max
Afternoon 2
Relocated the tomatoes in the 25g pots...bad farming practice, good workout.
Monday was the full rest day this week.
Was about to think that volume might be getting a little high, but looking back I missed about 4-5 hours of sleep this week. I have to be more protective of my sleep.
Tuesday 7/21/15
30 mins of jogging up and down the hills around here.
Last edited by BenZab; 07-21-2015 at 11:20 AM.
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Wednesday 7/22/15
Morning
Deadlift 365 1x5
OHP 135 1x6 (the 5th wasn't hard enough, so grabbed a 6th)
Squats 285 5x5
Noonish
Blackberry vs Machete (1.5 hours, they won)
Afternoon
Good Morning 125 2x12
Heavy Shrugs 475 2x8 (not heavy...wtf)
Hollow Body start@30s worked for 5 sets.
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nice interesting log. I am following. training and soil buiulding, crop rotation/selection..an possible talk on waterr and cover crops.
farming is hard, personally rewarding work.
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So here's the last week.
What was good?
1. Moved to Bench Press from floor press and made progress.
2. Squats were super easy.
3. Used Excellent Abdominal pressure for low back support.
What could change for the better?
1. Shoulder Mobility especially for lower part of dips and deepest position on bench.
2. Move to Weighted Planks with 2 min sets
3. Move to easy cardio daily, with hard cardio on 'off' days.
4. Could have pushed harder on abs.
Thursday 7/23/15
Morning
Farmer's Carry 1 handed: 95lbs 20yardsx10 reps (failed, only got 6)
Afternoon
Building Site Prep: Clearing 2 hours
Friday 7/24/15
Morning
Squat 230 5x5
Floor Press 155 5x5
Barbell Row 165 5x5
Afternoon
Swimming
Evening
Chins 10, 5, 4
Push-ups 2x30
Hollow Body (not impacting me enough) 5 sets @ 30 seconds to start
Saturday 7/25/15
Morning
Hill Sprints 6 sets
Afternoon
Building Site Prep: Clearing
Sunday 7/26/15
Morning
Squat 325 1x5 (felt easy)
OHP 120 5x5
DL 330 5x5
Afternoon
Plum Harvest/Tree Climbing: 2 hours
Evening
Chins 4x6 1x5
Plyo Push-ups 4 plates: 3x10
Bicep Curls 75 flat bar 3x8, EZ curl bar 2x8
Tricep Extensions 75 4x8
Monday and Tuesday 7/27/15 & 7/28/15
Building Site Prep: Clearing and Excavation: 4 hours
7/29/15 Wednesday
Morning
Squat 290 5x5
Bench Press 215 1x5
Barbell Row 185 (Re-appraised form, lowered weight)
Afternoon
Good Morning 95 1x18, 115 2x15
Plank 3 sets: 132s, 64s, 32s
Thursday 7/30/15
Morning
Hill Jog 35 mins
Afternoon
Swim 45 mins
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End of the month Weight and Body Composition Update:
Scale hated me this morning and took 5 pounds away!
182.5 (WTF!)
Estimated Body Composition: 11.73% body fat
Estimated LBM: 161.08
@Bryanccfshr: Soil building is my area of expertise in comparison with other skills. Or at least, I've been doing it longest. A great tip I got from a true master gardener was that he would go on hikes and find piles of molding/rotting leaves. He'd trek his tarp out and take all of the leaf piles he saw on his hikes. He'd take these home and use them in his compost piles. What an amazing source of diverse micro-biology for your soil! I took his tip and haven't looked back. Nutrient efficiency is awesome! Crop rotation has never been my greatest strength. I'm more of a guilder really, thankfully I'm not the only person on the property, so others often step up to the plate on crop selection. We've been trying many different crops this year in an attempt to decide what works best on this land.
Our Light hours suck, but water is awesome.
Cover cropping is primarily cilantro just because we use so much of it. Depends on the space though. We have a bed near a Japanese maple, that maple sends out so many ground level roots that it's hard to prepare, so we'll probably plant daikon in there. They'll get all big and break up the soil, then we'll let them rot in the ground and hopefully next springs tilth will greatly improve in that bed. We'll see.
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