Starting Ken's Strength

[Ken Edwards]

2015-02-03 Tuesday
C2 conditioning
9 rounds, 20 sec on: 2 min off. 5 min warmup on rower, 10 min cooldown on treadmill.

[Ken Edwards]

2015-02-05 Thursday
Missed the Wednesday workout as I didn't make it into the office and the home rack is out of order.
All this to say I snuck into the work gym with a 30 min break between meetings today and got the bench press I was supposed to do yesterday.

Bench 210x3x3

[Ken Edwards]

2015-02-06 Friday
Squat 360,340,340x5
Press 160x3x3
Power Clean 185x5x3

When I was reviewing my 365 deadlift video from the other day a sidebar suggested youtube video was one of SCS Gillian Ward's, which was pulling 365 in a competition. Her approach and setup to the bar was a no-nonsense set up, no wiggling. Just get there, very minimal setup, and pull the weight. She is literally a pro, so it's not surprising when I considered it for more than 5 seconds. It was truly inspirational and mimicking that approach when pulling today (albeit power cleans, not deadlifts) made quite a difference to me.

Gillian Ward Deadlift 365 - 1st attempt - 8-16-14:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_LkXzMzATk

[Ken Edwards]

2015-02-09 Monday
Squat 5 reps each at 365/345/345
Bench 215x3x3
Dead 370x5.

Dead was ugly again. Fugly even. Need to do something with deadlift programming I think. I'm thinking that just pulling deadlifts on Mondays and power cleans on Fridays isn't cutting it.

[Ken Edwards]

2015-02-10 Tuesday
Conditioning on rower.

[Ken Edwards]

2015-02-11 Wed
Squat 335x5x3 light day
Press 165x3x3
Power Clean 195x2x5

[Ken Edwards]

2015-02-13 Friday
Squat 370x5, 350x5x2
Bench 220x3x3
Dead 135x2 , 225x2, 275x2 , 315x2, 375x1

For the deadlift I wanted to try to do my best form ramping up with recording the video. Once the video is together and up I'll post it and see what I can see. My lifting buddy was helping me and my back isn't as flat as it should be, as I was thinking.

Tired by the time I get to deadlift on Friday which is a heavy day all around. Maybe some more tinkering is required and move the heavy pulling day to Wednesday, the light squat day.

[Ken Edwards]

2015-02-18 Wednesday
Missed Monday, so normal Wednesday light squat day became heavy squat day. Kept DL on its new day, Wednesday.
Squat 375x5 (PR), 355x5x2
Press 170x3x3 (PR)
Deadlift 375x5

Although today was not a light squat day, I was very well rested having not worked out since last Friday. So, I think deadlifting on the light squat day will be beneficial. Also, the guy I was lifting with in the gym worked his ass off on a 5x3 RM squat of 225 today, so there was no room to slack for me!

[Ken Edwards]

2015-02-23 Monday
Missed Friday, too.
Today:
Squat 380x5 (PR), 360x5x2. Last set of 360 was really 1-1-3, got off-balance on the first rep, did something silly with my back on the 2nd.
Bench 225x3,3,1 Missed the last set. After the first rep, got out of breath trying to do it all on one breath. Manage that better next time. Even one set of 3 is PR on the bench though. Retry on Friday.

Here's the Squat 380x5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrXoIghtOq4

[Ken Edwards]

A summary of 2015's excuses:

Jan 20 - Ankle Sprain - Indoor Soccer (1st game of season)
April 21 - Concussion - Indoor Soccer (2nd game back)
May 29 - Birth Of First Child

Back at it in the last 2 weeks, also signed up for the Fall Classic meet in Toronto, something to train for. Aiming to compete in the 100 kg class, so that's dropping some weight before then too.

Starting back low, need to get some early larger jumps in. Here's what's happened in the last 2 weeks:

2015-07-14 Tuesday
Squat 135x5x3
Bench 95x5x3
Deadlift 225x5

2015-07-16 Thursday
Squat 185x5x3
Press 95x5x3
Power Clean 135x3x5

2015-07-21 Tuesday
Squat 205x5x3
Bench 135x5x3
Deadlift 235x5
Tabata row

2015-07-23 Thursday
Squat 235x5x3
Press 105x5x3
Power Clean 145x3x5
Tabata row

2015-07-25 Saturday
Jordan's Conditioning, 9 rounds on rower.
There has been some other rowing and biking on easy trails / roads to add in some more work.
Back at soccer too, outdoor now, take it easy, and NO HEADERS.

2015-07-27 Monday
Squat 245x5x3
Bench 155x5x3
Deadlift 275x5
Tabata row