Raw Benching 3/27/2013

Tonight was some raw benching. If you know me at all you know I consider raw training the work of the devil, it is evil. But, that's what I'm supposed to be doing... I talked with Brian for awhile yesterday and he put together a plan that I'll start Saturday. All freaking raw! Damn, I hate him. I tried to talk him into letting me wear briefs for squats and pulls but he still says no. I'm not real sure what I did to him to get this kind of treatment.
But tonight was kind of fun. There was no real plan so I just worked up. I haven't maxed out raw in forever. In the raw phase of my training for the Arnold I did a single with 365 and that had been the most I'd ever tried. It went pretty good but I was just goofing off. I worked up and did 315 for 6. I was going to call it but it felt pretty easy. So I decided to go for two or three with 350. I didn't want to hit failure so after the second rep I knew another one would be positive failure. But, it was a pr because I've never tried to rep more than 335 raw... I did a few sets of incline db presses, band push downs, and band flys. It felt really good...
Mindy, my wife, trained also. She is considering a bench only meet the first of May. We'll see how training goes on what we decide to do.

March 24, 2013 - Squats & Deads

Finally felt like training again...  I have really been off the last couple weeks since the XPC.  My back has been getting better so I wanted to do small test.  I worked in briefs and did 5 reps with a top set of 505 and everything felt spot on.  After that I wanted to pull a little.  So I did triples up to 315 with a 100lbs of chains. They were fast and felt light with NO pain...  So, I was extremely happy about the training.  I'll stick around in these percentages and volumes for a few weeks and then maybe bump it up to see what happens.  I finished off with some reverse hypers, hypers, and then some up-down planks.
My wife has started breaking in a new Jack suit and looked really good and fast.  We are trying to decide what meet she is going to do.  Sometime this summer but haven't locked a date in.  She has some goals that she would like to take care of this year.  She is also a full time student and stays at home to take care of our two toddlers which is something you could never pay me to do, no matter what the cost...But, if she want to do it she will.

XPC Finals at The Arnold 2013

It's taken me a couple weeks to actually sit down and write this up. This was a very rough training cycle physically and mentally. From the beginning I had trouble squatting and pulling. Then about six weeks out I tweaked my lower back. I pushed thru and got some decent training in but was beat up. This was the fifth full power meet in fifteen months I had done... Mentally I felt terrible and was not into training and really had little motivation to train. If it wouldn't have been The Arnold I would have pulled out.
Anyway, I flew in to Columbus and met Mick Manley at the airport and we finally got to our room about midnight Thursday. We got up Friday and weighed in at Lexen. We both were good, in fact my BW was way lower than it should. After weigh ins we met Chad Walker and ate a big breakfast. We probably shouldn't have but Mick and I headed to the Arnold Expo and walked around half the day... We did get to see Arnold walk by though. We hung out at the MHP booth for awhile talking with Rob Luyando. Saw Matt Kroc and Branch Warren at the muscletech booth. Watched Brandon Lilley deadlift in the Animal Cage. And really just goofed off and talked to friends all day. We got out of there and headed to the hotel. We later around for awhile then decided to grab some chipotle. We got it to go and headed to Brian Carroll's room to chill for awhile.
Meet day... I was feeling okey. Started warming up rolling and everything and was feeling pretty good. A couple 600ish reps felt like crap and I was starting to really worry. I took my last warm up of 700 with full gear. Steve Gabrielsen can wrap some knees. Thanks big time. The 7 felt perfect and easy. I opened with 766 and it went good. A little slow but not bad. I went to 810 which would have been a PR. I just didn't have any power out of the whole. My back got jacked up again too. I took 810 again and same thing... So the day was pretty much shot out of the gate. I had to roll and stretch and walk around to stay loose. But, when I started warming up I felt pretty good. Warmups went well and my opener of 562 was easy. I went to 584 which is a 11lbs PR and missed.... Didn't flare and the weight went back into the rack. Paul Key was coaching me and he talked to me about the next lift. I got set up and it was a nice and easy lift. I had really wanted 600 at this meet but nope. After bench I was pretty much toast. I could barely walk around without pain. I decided that there was nothing to gain by trying to pull big. I wasn't going to PR my dead or my total so I tokened my dead with 150 and called it a day. Worst total I've ever had...
Lots of people to thank. If I miss anybody I am sorry. First Brian Carroll, best coach out there. He's doing the meet and still right there in it with you. The rest of Team Samson, Steve Gabrielsen, Chris Bartl, Joseph Davia, Steve Goggins, Tony Garland, Ria Carroll, Ken Richardson, Paul Key... I know I've missed some people. My team mates at Gulf Coast Barbell, Chad Walker and his crew from Northport Barbell, Rob Luyando, Mick Manley for putting up with my snoring... My family, my mom pitched in and bought the plane ticket. My wife and kids for supporting me and dealing with all the residuals from competing. It's funny how an individual sport like this has so many people involved...
My plans are to not do anything until the semis in October. I may do a bench only meet sometime this summer to keep the dust knocked off. I've trained twice since the meet... I'm going to get back to it this week. I want to try and put on some size and maybe move up to a light 308. Not sure.
I'm working on a website and trying to get some things together to maybe delve into the training arena. I help out a few people but want to get more organized and serious about it.