A Warrior's Journey to Strength

[GoJu]

what's up people?!

a little about me, my weight training is centered around powerlifting and olympic lifting, with some strongman and grip work thrown in there, you'll also see some karate/kickboxing/grappling done in here as I also train for martial arts, I love both strength sports and combat arts and hope to do excel as far as I can in both.

my stats:

5'10" 200lbs bw (fat, ie 20% haha)

powerlifting

13" box squat 275 x 3
clean grip bench press 235
deadlift 375

olympic lifting

200lbs power clean
155lbs power snatch

as you can see I am WEAK but hoping to change that more and more as the weeks of training move on, for the summer I'm currently on an upper/lower split focusing on improving my squat, can't bench for a while due to a shoulder injury so it's more or less bodybuilder style back/bi work on my upper days, next post I'll put up my last workout (yesterdays), check it out and let me know what ya think!

[GoJu]

Upper 2

Elliptical

1 minute - slow
3 minutes - fast
1 minute - slow
3 minutes - fast
1 minute - slow
3 minutes - fast
1 minute - slow

Pulldowns

130 x 8
150 x 8
170 x 8
190 x 8 (momentum)

Pendlay Row

155 x 5
175 x 3
195 x 1
215 x 1
235 x 3 (PR!) - pretty ugly form, haha

Clean Shrug Pulls (from the knee) - hook grip

135 x 3
155 x 3
185 x 3
205 x 3
225 x 3
245 x 3
275 x 2
295 x 2
315 x 1
315 x 1
315 x 1
315 x 1
315 x 1

1-Arm DB Rows

60 x 25
80 x 25
100 x 24 (PR!) - kind of raggidy form

Face Pulls

25 x 10
35 x 10
50 x 10
65 x 10

Barbell Curls

140 x 1 (cheat, close-grip)
100 x 3 x 3 (3 reps every 30 seconds, wide grip)
100 x 3 x 2 (2 reps every 30 seconds, wide grip)

pretty good workout, the elliptical went well as did the pulldowns, good back work there.

the pendlays were really ugly, think I'll go back to what I was going to do and just focus on high reps with lighter weight for a little while, I have something in mind so we'll see what happens next week.

the clean extensions are basically shrugs but jumped up onto the toes like a clean, basically the beginning of the 2nd pull on the clean, I really like these and will keep doing them in place of power shrugs for a while.

the 1-arm rows were TOUGH, reps got really raggid by rep 18, lol, will switch to something else come next session.

the face pulls went ok, will probably keep doing them for some extra upper back and rear delt work.

kind of dissapointed with the barbell curls, the 140 was heavy, and the 100 felt heavier than it should've IMO, would've liked the 15 reps but what can ya do? will probably keep this weight for next session and get those 15 reps in 5 30 seconds rest pauses.

[GoJu]

figured I'd post my goals by years end while I'm at it!

350 back squat
275 bench press
455 deadlift
250 power clean
185 power snatch
Ironmind #2.5 gripper close

feel the squat and deadlift are doable, bench is iffy cause of the shoulder and don't know when I can train it again, currently racing a few dudes to 250 clean and I think all this leg work is already having me close to a 220 clean and 170 snatch, still have to buy the 2.5 but feel the grip strength is improving each back sessions so we'll see what happens in the coming weeks.

[Kyle]

Training looks really good.

Kyle

[GoJu]

Training looks really good.

Kyle

thanks man!

Lower 1

13" Box Squat

205 x 5
225 x 3
245 x 1
355 x 1 30 second walkout
265 x 3
265 x 3
265 x 3
265 x 3
265 x 3 (volume PR!)

Parallel Rack Good Mornings

175 x 5
195 x 3
215 x 1
235 x 3
235 x 3
235 x 3
235 x 3
235 x 3 (volume PR!)

Bulgarain Front Squats

85 x 10
105 x 8
125 x 5
145 x 6
145 x 6
145 x 6 (volume PR!)

Pullthroughs

50 x 10
57.5 x 10
65 x 10

Pulldown Abs

125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10

Weighted Dead Hangs (straps)

bw + 90 x 15 seconds
bw + 90 x 20 seconds
bw + 90 x 25 seconds
bw x 10 pullups (no straps)

Treadmill

20 minutes - fast walk

great workout today!

box squats felt ALOT easier than I thought they would, went way quicker than 255 x 5 x 3 last week! 285 is going down next leg session!

GM's went well as did bulgarians, no complaints at all, 255 and 165 respectively will go down!

incase anybody's wondering what the bulgarians are, they're front squats but with one leg on a bench behind me, and squatting with the one leg that's out in front, I intend to have vids maybe next week or the week after.

decided to go with pullthroughs instead of leg curls today, went well, will increase the load next time.

pulldown abs went well, and really felt the movment in the abs today.

hangs went ok, but by the third set my shoulder was acting up again, hence why I just went with bodyweight pullups, which were easier than they've ever been I might say .

treadmill went well, covered a mile and a half of 'distance', going faster each session, might have to turn this into a jog though as the speed gets greater each session.

back/bis tomorrow, till then dudes!

[Kyle]

Did you squat the 355 or did you just walk it out?

Kyle

[GoJu]

Did you squat the 355 or did you just walk it out?

Kyle

nonono, just walked it out and held it there, made 265 feel lighter.

[GoJu]

Upper 1

Elliptical

1 minute - slow
3 minutes - fast
1 minute - slow
3 minutes - fast
1 minute - slow
3 minutes - fast
1 minute - slow

Pulldowns

135 x 6
155 x 6
175 x 6
195 x 6 (some momentum)

Pendlay Rows

140 x 15
150 x 12
150 x 12
175 x 8

Shrug Pulls

185 x 3
225 x 2
275 x 1
315 x 3
315 x 2

1-Arm DB Rows

60 x 30
80 x 30
100 x 27 (PR!) - some cheat from rep 20 on

had to cut it short here since I had to go to class (taking summer).

the pulldowns went ok, they've been feeling good as of late, decided to go down to 6 reps for better form and heavier weight.

I've decided to switch to a more high rep routine for the pendlay rows, my plan is based of this routine (originally a bench routine) from the powerlifting heads up website (I'm starting it from week 3 on because I feel I only have about 5 more weeks in me on this routine before I want to max on the main lifts):

http://www.joeskopec.com/highbench.xls

all the reps felt good, and speaking of reps those DB rows were easier than I thought they were going to be today, they didn't gas me as much as they did last time, happy with the PR there.

will tomorrow's my birthday, turning the big 2 1 so I'll be off from the gym tomorrow, unfortunately won't be off from class , but I'll be back on wednesday for more squatting, till then dudes!

edit: gonna give the shrugs (and my low back haha) a break and focus on another pulldown, pullup or row move, but I will switch in another exercises as well double overhand static holds, need to bring my shitty grip strength up on that front.

[Kyle]

Nice job on the pendlays.

Happy early bday.. get drunk

Kyle

[GoJu]

Nice job on the pendlays.

Happy early bday.. get drunk

Kyle

haha! actually I don't really drink, somewhat of a social drinker but not really, but there's a first time for everything I guess