March 31, 2013 Benching

Easter! We were up doing the Easter thing all morning. Our boys had a blast with the Easter egg hunt and all the candy. So, we didn't go straight in to the gym. We messed around and had a big nice breakfast a d then got there around noon. I did some raw benching with chains. I worked to about 225 bar weight and 100lbs of chains for fives. Then some barbell incline presses and flys. Nice easy fun day.
Mindy put her shirt on. It's an old rage x that about a size too big but she likes it. She touched 205 and pressed it strong and fast. The 225 to a 2 board really well, which is a pr for her. If she would put a shirt on that fit she could be knocking on 300's door very soon. I'm looking and working on it.

March 30, 2013 Squats

Mindy and I went up to Northport to squat at NPBB. Chad was doing some pre-Easter family things so he wasn't training. But, the rest of the crew were. I am just goofing off to be honest. I'm trying to build little bit of a foundation and have some fun before any organized training begins. I haven't had some kind of "plan" in about 15 months. So just going in and figuring things out as I go is pretty cool.
I have 26 weeks until the XPC Semis. So even though there's not a plan today here is the plan that I want, what Brian tells me may be a little different. I'll do ten weeks of "raw" work. Then what I would like to do is 15 weeks of geared training leading up to the meet. The reason I want to do 15 weeks of pre-meet is to have a little bit more time to build in gear and then maybe eight or so weeks of testing and handling meet weights. Of course all this will have to be cleared by Brian and I really have t even talked that much with him about it. He's got his medical issues to handle and I don't want to bug him. I've got the first five weeks of the evil, disgusting raw plan anyway that I'll start in two weeks. So, one more week of whatever training.
Back to this day... I worked up in briefs doing triples to somewhere around 571. Then a bunch of light high rep leg extensions. Mindy was working in her suit again and did good. But, I don't think this suit is right for her. I'm going to send my jack squatter to Ginny and have her custom build it for Mindy. That way we know its right. So that leaves me looking for a suit, I want an Ace Squatter to try out. We'll see.

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.

Week Out From Arnold

Saturday I went up to the APF Florida State to help out a team mate, Greg Staruk. Greg has had trouble at meets the last couple years. He's bombed maybe 4 of the last 5 or 6 he's tried. Training will look spot on and he'll get on the platform and fall apart. This last cycle we really focused on all the technical stuff; depth, touching, etc... We really didn't get heavy until the last few weeks. He had a couple perfect weeks, fell apart about three weeks out and then finished strong. I had to yell at him because he wanted to hit openers a week out and thankfully he listened. I just wanted him to chill, lift light, and stay loose.
His weight was right on so he didn't have to worry about that. Meet day he was worked up a little but not to bad. He opened conservative and nailed it below parallel perfect. Made his second with three whites then jumped to a nice 27lbs PR of 744 and three more whites. He's been messing with three different shirts for the past few months. He finally sent two of them to Ginny and she built a shirt for him. Touching was on and off and his presses were really slow. But at the meet he went 3 for 3 for a 10lbs PR 540 that went up faster than I've ever seen him press. He probably had at least ten more pounds. Deadlifts...different story. He opened light thankfully because it was a grind... I called a number for his second that would have been a total PR and get one of his goals of breaking 1900. But not that day. He missed it twice. He was pissed of course but I did have to point out it had been about 18 months since he had even finished a meet... Now hopefully his confidence will make him be a better meet lifter because he proved big time that he can do it.
I didn't do anything Saturday, except handle Greg, and absolutely nothing on Sunday. I needed an unwind. Layed around, napped, watched a little of the Daytona 500, but most of the day watching old country music on YouTube.
Tonight, Monday, I went in and did a little stretching, mobility, rolling, and band decompression. Did a bunch of safety bar squats to a high box focusing on sitting way back. Back felt actually better afterward. Tried a few sets of seated good mornings with the SSB. Back still felt good. All of this was just the bar with no weight. I did some leg presses with only two plates on each side for high reps to just move some blood. Then I went through the same stretching/mobility routine again. The last thing I did was band decompress again and it really pulled on the erectors. Now I feel like crap... Oh well. It's going to hurt so I just have to deal with it.
I'll go in as much as I can this week to do the same kind of stuff before I fly up Thursday evening. My weight is still off but steady at 275 so I shouldn't have to worry about cutting. Now it's just time to get my mind right and be ready to make good lifts. Getting anxious but I'm ready to do this.

Last Night of Deadlifts Before Arnold

Tonight was the last heavy night of pulls. I was supposed to work up to an opener and do two singles. Well, that didn't happen. It was a total disaster. I got to 500 and everything went to hell after that. So, I end this cycle with disastrous sessions... Now all I can do is pray.
I may end up having to open DL's with a token of something just to make sure I stay in after squats. That's pretty much all I'll be thinking about for the next two weeks. Now it's rest and recuperation time.
Laying here with ice strapped to my lower back and doubts all in my head...