Training to be America's Strongest Organist

[Nick Klemetson]

I decided that once I achieved my goal weight of 1000 lbs on the big three in a meet, I would move my log up here.

I did my first meet, the Twin Cities Open, this last weekend and I did reach my goal weight... by one pound. 455 kg = 1001 lbs. Whew. And I had to take a big risk on my deadlift to get there, increasing my planned second attempt by 15 kg in order to have a safety net. The full story of the meet is found here... http://startingstrength.com/resource...592#post945592 and the video is here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD3nzaZBaV8

I made some mistakes for sure, both during the meet and in the weeks leading up to it, but I'm still really proud of my progress. Everyone has to start somewhere. I've got a lot of work to do and I'm looking forward to the PR's over the next 10 weeks while I prepare for the USAPL Best of the Midwest Powerlifting Championships in Cedar Rapids, IA on Oct. 25th.

More later. Now, time to go press!

[JasPChuff]

That's awesome, I'm hoping to total in the 900s at my first meet next year after LP.

[Nick Klemetson]

That's awesome, I'm hoping to total in the 900s at my first meet next year after LP.

Awesome. Do you have a log?

[Nick Klemetson]

<Insert Clever Cycle Title Here>

Not really sure what to call this phase. It's 10 weeks until Best of the Midwest. I'm thinking 8 weeks of general "get stronger" and then 2 weeks of meet prep. I did 4 weeks leading up to the Twin Cities Open, and I think that was too long. Heavy singles were starting to burn me out a little. I'm hoping if I stick with 5's a little longer, 2 weeks should be long enough to prepare for the switch from 5's to 1's.

Anyway, 4 day split. Upper body days are an LP main lift, a "volume" day for the other lift, and an assistance exercise for the main lift of that day. Lower body days are squats on an advanced novice LP with a top set of 5 and 2 90% backoffs. Deadlifts for 1x5 are one day with a lighter pulling assistance, and the other day are power cleans with a squat assistance exercise (maybe). Slightly deloading everything.

Press
45x5x2
85x5
105x3
120x2
135x5x3

Slight headache today, so this was harder than it should have been. I normally only get headaches if I'm dehydrated or malnourished. I normally train fasted with BCAA's (it's what I've always done and I've adapted to it), but I'm going to start eating a decent meal before training.

Other than the headache, the presses were fine. Only a couple reps of the 15 got out in front. Thinking "back" or "nose" is usually the key for me to get them to go up vertically.

Bench Press
45x10
95x5
125x3
145x2
160x5x5

I alternate these volume sets between 5x5 and 3x8. I like both. Rested between 1-2 minutes, except between sets 2 and 3, when I sat down on the bench and proceeded to zone out for quite awhile. Not sure what happened.

Behind Neck Press
45x8
95x5x2, 85x8

Never done these before. I've been curious about BNP's for awhile now, so I thought I'd give them a shot. I settled on a grip about halfway between my normal press and my bench press grip. This resulted in my elbows being outside my wrists, but any wider of a grip and I couldn't get as deep.

I'm not really going to traditionally progress these assistance exercises linearly. It is assistance after all, it's expendable and should never overshadow the main work. The only parameter I'll stick to is to do 3 sets of 5-8 reps, always leaving 1-2 reps in the tank. My second set at 95 was a little grindy, so I stripped off 10 lbs and finished with a set of 8.

Feeling good. Headache is gone now. Comments, questions, advice, etc... are always appreciated. I can always justify why I do the programming I choose, but I'm always striving to learn and experiment, and if someone sees something that I'm doing grossly wrong, please call me out on it.

[Seth_H]

Nice work at the meet, Nick.

Are you sure you aren't already America's strongest organist? Will be following your quest for 1200.

[rjharris]

Nice work at the meet, Nick.

Are you sure you aren't already America's strongest organist? Will be following your quest for 1200.

I would totally watch a show were this the title. I assume it's already on the ocho.

Nice work on the meet.

[JasPChuff]

Awesome. Do you have a log?

Yeah I have a novice log. http:// http://startingstrength.com/...71&pagenumber= just reset squats from 280 to 250 a few months into LP.

[Nick Klemetson]

Nice work at the meet, Nick.

Are you sure you aren't already America's strongest organist? Will be following your quest for 1200.

This is something I've casually looked into. Through an acquaintance, I found an organ student down at the University of Oklahoma who lifts in the 198 class with decent numbers. He said he's probably not going to make a career out of the organ though, so who knows.

Of course, if Karl Schudt takes up the instrument for some reason, I'm screwed (for all I know, maybe he already has).

[Karl Schudt]

Nope, not an organist. I'm probably the strongest cantor in the entire Byzantine Catholic Church. But there's not too many of us.

[Seth_H]

strongest cantor in the entire Byzantine Catholic Church.

Somehow this needs to be incorporated into your forum name below Starting Strength Coach.