Good ME bench session

Benching with Russ, Kevin, CJ, Tommy, Brad, Scott at Ripped Fitness

Warm up

Bar x 10

Bar x 10

Flat bench with chains ( apparently the chains weighed about 130# and I pretty much lift them off the ground at the top )

95 + chains x 8

135 + chains x 7

135 + chains x 6

185 + chains x 4

225 + chains x 2

245 + chains 3 boards x 3

225 + chains 3 boards x 3

225 + chains 4 boards x 5

245 + chains 4 boards x 4

Rack lockouts

315 x 10

405 x 5

455 x 2

2 sets of flat bench with chains and 35's hanging from bands off the bar

5 sets of tricep cable presses

Body weight at 312 pounds after the workout.  Its two weeks out from the meet, I felt strong today, hopefully that continues.

80% max effort deadlift session

Deadlifts at Ripped.  I'm two weeks out from the meet, so I kind of went easy.

Deads:

135 x 10

225 x 8

315 x 5

405 x 3

455 x 1

495 x 1

In a meet environment I'm hoping to pull 530-ish.  We'll see in 2 weeks I guess.

Dumbell rows

120 x 8

140 x 3

120 x 8

120 x 8

4 sets of pull throughs, didn't keep track of the weight

4 sets of seated pulldown in front with straight bar.

Some grip work ( Man, my hands and forearms were pumped up huge when done )

My hips are feeling much better than a week ago.  I'm continuing to stretch all the time, now that I'm in alignment the stretching actually helps ( before my adjustment I think stretching just caused more problems ).

Tuesday morning Powder

I was able to take a few hours of vacation time and enjoy the blue skies and fresh powder up at Snowbird.  It was amazingly beautiful and the skiing was great.  To the left is a picture I took where I parked on the road above the cliffs lodge.

DE Squats in AF

DE box squats with the "box" 1.5" lower than I used to do..

bar x 7

bar x 7

135 x 3

135 x 3

135 + mini bands x 2

135 + mini bands x 2

225 + mini bands x 2

275 + mini bands x 2

315 + mini bands x 2

315 + mini bands x 2

225 + mini bands x 2

225 x 2

225 x 2

The hips felt SOOOO much better even with the lower "box".

Rack pulls

5 set of 6 with 315 ( tried to concentrate about the "wedge" that Pavel talks about in his dvd )

Dumbell rows

100 x 8

120 x 8

120 x 8

4 sets on leg curl machine.

I weighed 309 pounds at the end of my workout.  Its again going in the right direction.

Sunday powder

Sooo much better Sunday than Saturday.  It still wasn't dry powder like Utah is known for, but it wasn't wet and sloppy like yesterday either.  ( Yesterday, it was like Skiing at on mount hood when I lived in Oregon ).  I can tell when I'm skiing that my weight is up again ( pushing 310 as of sunday night ), it hurts my skiing endurance a little, but I don't care, I love weighing 310, I wish I could get up to 340+.

Saturday

ME benching at Ripped Fitness

My body basically told me I needed a deload week, so I didn't push it very hard.  The benching went like this

3 sets of bar x 10

135 x 10

225 x 8

225 x 7

275 x 5

315 x 1

Rack lockouts

315 x 10

365 x 8

365 x 8

365 x 7

Wow, I felt really weak on these today.

5 sets Tricep cable push downs

4 sets of face pulls

4 sets on shoulder press machine.

I can still feel the sternum bruise when pressing overhead, but much less than 2 weeks ago.  Weird that I don't feel it at all benching raw.  I think it's going to be a few months before pressure from a shirt isn't going to bother it though.

Saturday Skiing.

Yuck, crappy western Oregon like powder.  Thick, wet and sloppy.  Falling snow flakes would hit you and explode into water filled slush.  One trip up Gad II and I was completely wet.  The skiing on the top 2/3rd of Gad II was actually decent, but not being able to see and the bottom 1/3 made it completely not worth expending engery.  I went home and rested.

Deload deadlift session

My body didn't feel ready to deadlift heavy today, so I deloaded doing lighter weight, higher reps ( not a DE workout ) and focused on technique ( which I'm still not really getting right ).

The deadlifts went something like this.

135 x 10

225 x 7

315 x 5

355 x 3

355 x 3 ( Lance was lifting with me so he set this weight to here, I went along with it eventhough it's my light workout )

225 x 6

225 x 6

225 x 6

255 x 6

I think the Pavel DVD makes since when he talks about the wedge, but I'm not quite getting it yet in practice.  I think it's improving though.

4 Supersets of dumbbell rows with 120# x 7, wrist roller, and other grip thingy.

4 sets of seated one arm cable rows with 2" handle ( very hard after the grip work )

4 sets on the lat pulldown in front.

My hips are sore today, maybe I over did the stretching yesterday, I don't know.  Maybe my diet is missing something, I haven't skied since sunday.

Wednesday DE bench

Wow another good DE bench session

bar x 10

bar + mini x 3

4 sets of 135 + mini bands x 3

3 sets of 155 + mini bands x 3

135 + mini bands x 3

2 sets of 135 x 3

5 Supersets of face pulls and tricep cable extensions with the rope handle.

Short but sweet workout.  I felt strong today, something which I haven't really felt in a while.  My weights back up too, 305#.  Very nice I'm happy.

Monday night box squats

"Box" squats at Ripped Fitness, ( hips were sore from skiing yesterday )

Bar x 8

135 x 3

135 x 3

135 + mini bands x 3

135 + mini bands x 3

225 + mini bands x 3

225 + mini bands x 3

225 + purple bands x 3

225 + purple bands x 3

225 x 3

4 sets on leg press machine

4 sets on calf machine

ME benching at Ripped Fitness

I did flat bench with mini bands with the group, Russ, Mike, Mike, Kevin, Brad, Brent,Tom,Scott, probably forgetting a couple.  This is from memory because I didn't take any notes, I know the weights are right though...

135 x 10

135 x 10

135x 10

135 + mini's x 10

185 + mini's x 8

225 + mini's x 3, 3 boards

245 + mini's x 3, 3 boards

265 + mini's x 3, 3 boards

245 + mini's x 3, 3 boards

265 + mini's x 5, 4 boards

275 + mini's x 3, 4 boards

225 + mini's x 3, 4 boards

I'm still finding that the first rep I either go down super slow, or I loose tightness.  The first one's also much harder than the second/third.   A couple times Russ had to help on the first rep, but then I was fine to do the rest ( and felt like I could do more than 3 ).   Not sure if this means anything other than I have mental problems.

Rack lockouts ( solo because the group puts the pins so low )

315 x 8

405 x 6

405 x 6

405 x 6

Then a couple tricep accessory exercises.

Benching felt good today, I feel that I'm continuing to get stronger.  I believe with the mini's the 275 felt about like 375 at the top.

SSB Concentric Goodmornings at Ripped

SSB concentric goodmornings ( off pins in the power rack set to about waist high ) 

The weights below once again assume the bar weighs 45 pounds, which is doesn't...

Bar x 6

135 x 5

185 x 4

225 x 3

255 x 2

275 x 1

295 x 0 ( crap!  should have gotten this! )

275 x 2

225 x 3

Man, those are hard!

Then 4 supersets of dumbbell rows, the grip roller, and the other grip thingy at ripped that I don't know what to call it, lol.

Then seated cable rows.

DE Bench in AF

It's been a while since I did a DE bench session, especially in American Fork.  

Flat bench warm up

bar x 10

bar x 10

Dynamic effort flat bench

2 x 135 x 3

6 x 135 + mini bands x 3

3 x 155 + mini bands x 3

I actually felt explosive even with the 155 + minis. 

5 sets of face pulls

5 sets of tricep cable pushes with the rope handle.

It kind of felt weird lifting at Golds again, especially in AF at 5PM.  I feel like everybody gives me weird looks when I take out my bands.  Maybe it wasn't the bands, LOL. 

ME squats with safety squat bar

I decided to mix it up a little and squat with the SSB ( man, it kicks my butt )

Raw squats, ie no suit, with SSB ( here I'm assuming the bar weighs 45 pounds which it does NOT )

Bar x 10

Bar x 10

135 x 6

225 x 3

275 x 2

275 x 1

295 x 1

315 x 1

275 x 1

225 x 1

I then did 3 sets with the SSB with chains.  I'm kind of too tall for the chains, and I need more weight at the bottom to get down, lol.  Not sure if these were useful or not.

4 sets on leg press machine

4 sets of pull throughs.

Overall not a bad workout.  Even though the SSB is HARD, I think I'm getting to parallel ( or at least a whole lot closer than last week ).  I think last week, I just skied too much the day before and it effected my flexibility.  The video below wasn't my best rep ( my computer died and couldn't video all my sets )

I'd rate it a 3

I went up skiing Sunday morning.  It kind of sucked.  From the bottom of little cloud, it didn't look THAT bad so I decided to go up little cloud.  At the top it was probably 50 MPH winds and I could barely see my skis, completely white everywhere else.  Peruvian wasn't a whole lot better.  I went home after an hour to try to save energy for something more fun.

43 must be the new 23

I wasn't sure if i'd ski on my new boards or not today, but I decided to when I got up to the hill and from the parking lot could still see untracked in the trees even off Gadzoom where everybody skis.

This morning, I benched more than I thought was possible a couple months ago, and I'm skiing better now than I was 20 years ago.  Life is good, for the most part.

ME Benching at Ripped

Flat Bench:

Bar x 10

Bar x 10

Bar x 10

135 x 10

225 x 6

275 x 2

315 x 1

Board presses, 6 boards

335 x 4

345 x 4

355 x 3

I'm finding that the first rep is hard, but after that they're easier.  I'm getting stronger though, 3 months ago I couldn't do 315 with 6 boards.

Rack lockouts

315 x 8

365 x 4

405 x 2

435 x 1

445 x 1

455 x 0

Super sets of tricep cable extensions, face pulls

The other group was doing reverse bands so I jumped in and did one set with 405 I got it pretty easily but I realized that I was finished for the day.

Overall a good workout.  The 315 went up pretty strong, but i'm still wasting too much energy on the way down.

Thursday night ME deadlifts

Deads:

135x8

135x8

225x5

315x3

405x1

495x1

495x1

Russ suggested doing reverse bands, so that's what I did with blue bands set to be zero at my lockout

315x5

405x3

495x2

585x1 ( didn't lock it out )

585x1 ( slightly worse )

585x1 ( crap, I should have gotten the first one.  I'm dead )

Dumbbell rows:

100 x 8

120 x 8

120 x 8

120 x 8

3 supersets of pull throughs and one handed seated cable rows with the 2" handle.

Not a bad workout considering how hard I skied on wednesday.

I'm one very happy man

30" at snowbird in the last two days, big fat powder skis, mostly clear skies, and a vacation day.  What did I do to deserve this?

Oh my God this morning was incredible up at snowbird.  The wind was blowing hard at the top ( but nowhere else ), so they closed little cloud and mineral basin never opened, but there was tons of deep untracked powder all over Gad II.  People on the lift were whining about the thin windblown layer on top in some spots.  No thin layer of anything is going to stop me on my new fat boards, they're like skis on steroids.  I'm skiing in the powder better than ever before, and making perfect tracks on the hardest terrain up at Snowbird.  I skied longer than I probably should have today, and I'm sure it's going to hurt deadlifting this week, but that's OK it was well worth it.  It looks like the storms are going to stop for a while starting this weekend, so I'll get back to deadlifting heavy when the powder's gone.

ME squats at Ripped fitness on Monday

I actually felt pretty recovered from skiing on Sunday so I decided to do max effort squats at Ripped fitness on Monday night.  The squats went as follows:

Bar x 8

Bar x 8

135 x 5

135 x 5

225 x 3

315 x 3

365 x 1

405 x 1

405 x 1

315 x 1

I video-ed my squats, and I'm noticing that without a mirror to see myself I'm *always* missing parallel ( some of this is probably because I skied yesterday ).  I'm not sure what to do.  Stump says that when you feel your hips turn, that means parallel.  I clearly get to parallel when I'm squatting in front of a mirror, but I think I have better form without the mirror, but I don't feel any difference between that and my squats yesterday.  I could have sworn that I was getting to parallel, but when I played the video I wasn't.  I guess I just need to start going to what I think is WAY below parallel.

The good thing is that I was squatting with my toes to the rack ( ie wider ) and this makes my shins more perpendicular to the floor at the bottom of the squat ( and which is probably what I was higher than I thought I was ).

I then did 4 sets on the leg press machine with my feet as wide as possible.  This leg press machine is strange, if I try to let it go down until my knees are 90 degrees, it hurts my knees.  But if I go down to what would be probably a quarter squat, I really can feel my hips and glutes working, so that's what I did.  I think hip strength is my limiting weakness on squats.

Still lots of untracked 3 days after the storm

I was suprisingly still able to find quite a bit of untracked powder  today.  I hardly ever ski over there, because it's mostly beginner terrain, but to the skier's left of the green runs on the baldy chair, there's a gate and beyond that it was moderately steep, completely untracked and above my knees.   The first real untracked powder I've skied on the fat boards.  I had to hike back up to get to the bottom of the lift, but it was VERY worth it.  WOW, I can't express how good the fat boards are in the powder.  I absolutely love them.  I'm even getting used to them on the groomed.

Powderpig heaven with the new fat boards.

HOLLY CRAP!  I love my new fat powder skis.  Snowbird got 12" of new friday night and there was plenty left to track up by the time I could get up there after ME benching.  I feel like my new skis are made for me, they're big strong and incredible in the powder.  They're worth their weight in gold.

Good ME bench session

I benched with CJ and Aaron.  I didn't take good notes but I worked up to 330 x 1, which is a PR.

Next we did board presses with chains.  I think 4-5 sets.  I finished up with cable tricep presses, face pulls, and tricep extensions with bands with Russ, Tom, Brad and others.

Overall a really good workout.  

Fat boards on Thursday

I finally got my fat powder skis ( Fat-ypus A-lotta 140 mm under foot ) mounted, so eventhough there wasn't any powder I had to take them up to the bird and try them out on the groomed.  Wow, they're very strange, but not horrible on the groomed.  I found a little wind blown crud snow up on little cloud and they seemed to do pretty good in that.  I can't wait until a real powder day, I'm sure they'll be lots of fun.