Calgacus' crazy lifter log
Howdy partners!
Before I post my my logs a quick blurb about me since I know you are all DYING to know!!
Gender - super hyper alpha male
Age - 43 years awesome
height - 5'6" in one of the great injustices of our time
weight - 270# hunk o' burning luv
Body Fat - about 50% - hey in Canada we need our winter stores. But really about 50%. Personally I blame Tim Horton's.
Did a lot of body building style lifting back in my early twenties but got away from it after my first bout of back strain - you know when yer lower back turns to stone and you walk around like Frankenstein's monster for a month. Got down to about 166lbs by then, gained weight about every day since.
About 2 years ago I got back into kinda sorta regular lifting, though again mainly upper body stuff but gradually getting more serious about it. For the first 5-6 months starting in August 2010 I only made it to the gym about 1 time per week, then for the next 6 about 2-3 times per week. Then last July (2011) I tried doing a more power-lifter style with 5x5 benches, squats and deads. For the benches I tried using 275#, for the others 225#. After a month of only getting 1 or 2 reps per set of benches and all my squats and deads my back snapped on my last deadlift and I was out of action for a bout 3 weeks. Was very shy of the squats and deads after that - tried going back to the 225s again but early in my routine my back barked again. Since then I just did those leg exercises with 185lbs and not regularly - usually skipping them altogether and on lower body day doing leg presses, extensions, curls, calf raises and ductions - that is when I didn't just skip the leg workout. Also I dropped to 245 for my BP and started building it up by 5 lbs every few weeks as long as I got all 25 reps for 2 or 3 workouts (done once per week) in a row. As of about the end of august this year my BP is up to 5x5 at 300lbs and a one 1RM of 345 on a good day.
Just trying out a SS style routine these last few weeks. Since I'm not a total novice I modified the program a bit. I restarted my squats and deadlifts at 185 and so far am keeping my BP routine the same. Also since I am wary of back strain I only do deadlifts on Friday and squats Monday and Friday. That 2 day break is important.
So here is my program:
Monday:
Bench press :
135#X20x1 (one set of 20 reps at 135 pounds)
185#x8x1
225#x5x1
275#x1-2x1
300#x5x5
Squats:
45#x10x1 then sets of 5 incremented by 20 pounds until working weight of now
235#x5x3
then accessory work* as time permits (see below)
Wednesday:
1-Overhead Presses:
45#x10x1 then increases by 20# for sets of 5 until worked weight as of this week
165#x5x3 (165 is to much I think I pulled something in my left ARMPIT the last couple of weeks)
2-Power Cleans - lots of small sets, last week moving up to maybe 155#. Still getting used to this exercise.
3- lying triceps extensions (aka skull crushers ala Rippetoes video Lying Triceps Extensions ):
65#x10x1
115x5x3 sometimes more but its hard to do more without a spotter
4-Seated dumbbell curls:
warmups with 30-40 lbs then
45#x5x3 occasionally trying a few reps at 50 - gotta get there somehow.
then accessory work* as time permits (see below)
Friday
1-Squats as on Monday but increase the weight by 10# soon to be just 5#
2-Deadlifts like squats but only one working set and as of now at 245#
then accessory work* as time permits (see below)
*Accessory work includes as time permits and hopefully once per week each:
heavy machine rows, abductions/adductions, lat pulldowns, wrist curls, dumbbell shrugs, more delt work with dumbbells, calf raises and ab-work and hyper-extensions. Don't usually get all that accessory stuff done each week though. would like to fit in some sort of upper pec work too, maybe inclined flys.
Goals - not sure but I've been thinking of getting into powerlifting and dropping mega weight then maybe going for a record in unequipped bench press at about 148# or maybe even lower - what do you think about a 4xbodyweight raw BP, at what weight class would that be plausible? 125 for 500 press, or 150 for a 600? such are the idle musing in my head.
Comments or queries are welcome.