Strength Life Legacy
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Training - Skwats
Bodyweight - 248
Low Bar Squats -
135x10,10,10
225x5
315x3,3,3,3,3
365x,3,3,3
405x5,5,5,5,5
Pause Squats -
405x1
455x1
500x1
1 Legged Squats -
3x20
Notes - Really nice session. No leg pain to speak of and the 500x1 pause squat was done after all of that work, and fucking smoked. FINALLY! The leg is feeling better.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
4 week conditioning question
Hey Paul got a quick question for you. I have 4 weeks coming of an injury of minimal lifting and conditioning to prepare for a football (american of course) training camp to try walk on to represent my country.
My question is what would you do to bring conditioning up as much as possible in that short of time. I know in your book you do not recommend doing to much too soon but for this circumstance what would you do different? Thanks for the book and the blog.
Since you only have 4 weeks to get into shape, it's obvious that conditioning has to be placed on the forefront of your training (duh), with strength taking a back burner for a while.
Limited time always presents issues that require workarounds, and the biggest obstacle in conditioning is usually overuse injuries. Overuse injuries can come on fairly quickly with conditioning work because of the amount of repetition involved in it. When you run, your hams, hip flexors, anterior tibalis, etc all do a lot of work in a short period of time. If there is no break in period for this, then overuse usually occurs. Sometimes even without a break in period it still happens because running and sprinting can be very taxing on the musculature involved.
Since there is no time for a break in period to get acclimated to a high volume of sprints or hills, prowler, etc my suggestion is to mix in circuits with steady state, and then HIIT.
Week 1 -
A.M. Steady state for 30-45 minutes - 4 days a week
P.M. Interval Sprints - 3 days a week - 60 yards x 4 @ 10 seconds or less per run
Lifting - Circuit 3 days a week -
Squats - 135 pounds x 3,6,9,12,15,12,9,6,3
Push Ups - body x 5,10,15,20,25,20,15,10,5
Chins - body x 3,6,9,12,15,12,9,6,3
Sit Ups - body x 3,6,9,12,15,12,9,6,3
This is simple so I hope I don't get 100000 questions about it. You do the first round (squatx3, push upx5, chinx3, sit upx3) non-stop. Rest for 2 minutes and go again, on the next round.
Week 2 -
steady state 5 days a week
intervals 60 yards x 6 @ 10 seconds or less
same circuit
Week 3 -
steady state 6 days a week
intervals 60 yards x 8 @ 10 seconds or less
same circuit
Week 4 -
steady state 6 days a week
intervals 60 yards x 10 @ 8 seconds or less
same circuit
By week 4 you should be in very solid shape. It doesn't take long to get into this kind of conditioning, so long as you weren't a total slob to begin with. If so, you'll just have to be humbled I suppose. This is another reason why it's generally important to keep some baseline of conditioning year round. So that if something pops up that you want to do, you're not having to bust hump to reach a decent level of conditioning in a short time. You just keep on doing what you've been doing.
The same for the guys that write me and say they would rather keep some fat on and "feel" strong than do some conditioning work and push back from the table a bit. It's an excuse to be lazy. Fat doesn't flex or contract. It doesn't lift weights. Plenty of strong guys are strong LEAN. Carrying extra bodyfat around serves you no purpose. Get into fucking shape and stop making excuses about how you'd rather be able to lift X amount and carry some fat, than be leaner and "weaker". If that's the case you're just weak anyway. Stop making excuses and start making shit happen.
My question is what would you do to bring conditioning up as much as possible in that short of time. I know in your book you do not recommend doing to much too soon but for this circumstance what would you do different? Thanks for the book and the blog.
Since you only have 4 weeks to get into shape, it's obvious that conditioning has to be placed on the forefront of your training (duh), with strength taking a back burner for a while.
Limited time always presents issues that require workarounds, and the biggest obstacle in conditioning is usually overuse injuries. Overuse injuries can come on fairly quickly with conditioning work because of the amount of repetition involved in it. When you run, your hams, hip flexors, anterior tibalis, etc all do a lot of work in a short period of time. If there is no break in period for this, then overuse usually occurs. Sometimes even without a break in period it still happens because running and sprinting can be very taxing on the musculature involved.
Since there is no time for a break in period to get acclimated to a high volume of sprints or hills, prowler, etc my suggestion is to mix in circuits with steady state, and then HIIT.
Week 1 -
A.M. Steady state for 30-45 minutes - 4 days a week
P.M. Interval Sprints - 3 days a week - 60 yards x 4 @ 10 seconds or less per run
Lifting - Circuit 3 days a week -
Squats - 135 pounds x 3,6,9,12,15,12,9,6,3
Push Ups - body x 5,10,15,20,25,20,15,10,5
Chins - body x 3,6,9,12,15,12,9,6,3
Sit Ups - body x 3,6,9,12,15,12,9,6,3
This is simple so I hope I don't get 100000 questions about it. You do the first round (squatx3, push upx5, chinx3, sit upx3) non-stop. Rest for 2 minutes and go again, on the next round.
Week 2 -
steady state 5 days a week
intervals 60 yards x 6 @ 10 seconds or less
same circuit
Week 3 -
steady state 6 days a week
intervals 60 yards x 8 @ 10 seconds or less
same circuit
Week 4 -
steady state 6 days a week
intervals 60 yards x 10 @ 8 seconds or less
same circuit
By week 4 you should be in very solid shape. It doesn't take long to get into this kind of conditioning, so long as you weren't a total slob to begin with. If so, you'll just have to be humbled I suppose. This is another reason why it's generally important to keep some baseline of conditioning year round. So that if something pops up that you want to do, you're not having to bust hump to reach a decent level of conditioning in a short time. You just keep on doing what you've been doing.
The same for the guys that write me and say they would rather keep some fat on and "feel" strong than do some conditioning work and push back from the table a bit. It's an excuse to be lazy. Fat doesn't flex or contract. It doesn't lift weights. Plenty of strong guys are strong LEAN. Carrying extra bodyfat around serves you no purpose. Get into fucking shape and stop making excuses about how you'd rather be able to lift X amount and carry some fat, than be leaner and "weaker". If that's the case you're just weak anyway. Stop making excuses and start making shit happen.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Training - Press and shit
Bodyweight - 248 ???? no idea
Incline Db Press -
20 x 40
60 x 12,8
100's x 8,6
140's x 11 -> attempted strip set 100 x 0 (weights fell off)
100's x 20
Front Raises - 25 x 100
Notes - Started off ok, but ran out of gas fast.
Incline Db Press -
20 x 40
60 x 12,8
100's x 8,6
140's x 11 -> attempted strip set 100 x 0 (weights fell off)
100's x 20
Front Raises - 25 x 100
Notes - Started off ok, but ran out of gas fast.
Thoughts about life, crap, training, and stuff - More on the Ohio Sessions
Meet prep starts in a few weeks. I have come to terms with the fact that I probably am not going to squat 660 at this meet, because my leg is still not 100%. I talked with Peggers about this for a long time yesterday and it's smarter right now, to hit something moderate on the squat and possibly push the bench and dead a little bit. Then settle on a meet maybe for spring time, and take a shot at 1870 beltess there, i.e. 66-485-725.
My meet planning for November will be to cruise on the squat for a bit, and program very low. Since the squat is going to be programmed so low I may decide to up the volume on deadlifting just to see if I can get in a nice pull. Benching has gone fine for a long time now, so I'm not overly concerned about the bench. 450 close grip should be in the bag. Kind of like a foster kid, I never know what my deadlift is going to act like.
So I hit 65x100 on the Poundstone curls the other day. I'm pretty sure that Eric Lilliebridge has unofficially bowed out of this competition (though he won't scream uncle about it) and he cries foul that I genetically altered biceps to keep doing the shit I'm doing with them. He did say I should go for 100x100 and that does sound pretty cool. It's possibly I may try it.
Speaking of 100 reps, Jim's article in t-nation about our training sessions and brainstorming is now up. I didn't want to give too much away about it because Jim told me he wanted to do an article about what we did, and talked about there. Since it's up now I can go over some of the things we talked about and the conclusions we came to.
Ohio Session -
It actually started during the workout. I had done my squats and was working on t-bar rows, and had been explaining to Jim about the Poundstone curls. Jim goes over and gets the empty bar, places it in the rack, and starts curling.
"Are you trying it out right now?" I asked him, incredulously.
"Yeah."
So I grabbed my camera, and started filming his set at about the 45 rep mark.
Jim got the 100, set the bar down and let out a "fuck me" in regards to the pain that accompanied the set.
We all poked fun about it and laughed. Jim sat down on the bench and literally held his right forearm for about 10 minutes, wincing from the pain. "That's awesome. Wow."
I thought that was the end of it, and continued doing my 1-legged squats.
"What about the plate raise?" he said to me.
"With the 100?"
"Yeah."
"With how much?" I said.
Jim pondered for a minute.
"The 25 pound bumper plate. All the way overhead. Not just stopping at eye level. Take it all the way from here (at the waist) to overhead."
"Ok, that would work."
/Jim looks at me with a stare/
"Oh you want to do it today?"
"Why not, you're not going anywhere are you?" he said.
So, I grabbed the 25 pound bumper plate and started. I ended up doing 120 I believe, and my shoulders, traps, and upperback were fucking torched.
Our good buddy Alva Leisure, who had already done lots of benching and 5x10 on overhead press, jumped in as well, and knocked out 100. Many profanities followed his set.
The three of us were sweating like a car load of fat chics on the way to a Magic Mike showing.
"Shoulders and traps are fucking dying." I told Jim.
He paid no mind. I could tell he was thinking about "what else?"
I know this, because that's what he said as a response to that.
"What else?"
"Well, the 1 legged squats I was just doing."
"You mean with the back foot up on the bench?"
"Yeah. They are great because they stretch the back leg hip flexor, and help with balance and support."
"Ok, let's add those in." Jim said, as he scribbled on the white board.
"I'd say, go with those, and substitute lunges."
"So one week lunges, and then...."
"Yeah, the next week the 1 legged."
Jim wrote that down on the white board.
"What else?" he said.
I walked over to the white board and stood next to Jim, looking at it with him.
"I want to add in leg curls. With ankle weights."
"Like those Wal-Mart ankle weights?"
"Yeah" he said. "You can do em just lying on the floor. Simple."
"I like it." I said. "Add it in."
Jim scribbled.
"How about sit ups?" he said.
"The good ol fashioned kind? Or on a decline bench?"
"Yeah the old fashioned kind, just on the floor. Feet hooked. People still say the sit-up isn't a good exercise and it's bullshit. Juliet pointed out to me that, "what's the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?""
"Yeah, you just sit up."
Jim nodded, and scribbled it on the white board.
We debated back and forth on tricep work, or even doing overhead pressing for 100 reps, but we kept finding more negatives involved in adding that than positives.
"What about band good mornings?" he said.
"Yeah you could do that, however you'd have to be careful with placement because the low back would get severely fucked up sore from it."
"Agreed." he said. So he jotted it down after the main deadlift day only, as to put all of the most direct low back work on one day. However neither of us were really sold on that particular movement.
"Hey what about the Kirk shrugs?" he said.
"Yeah, a shrug in there would be awesome. What load though?"
Jim thought for a minute. "The trap bar."
"How much weight?" I said.
"None. Just the empty trap bar."
"You don't think it will need some load?"
"Nah, let's just do it concentrating on really squeezing back there. I've been doing the Kirk rows and man, it just destroys your traps. I've literally only been using 1 or 2 plates. Works great."
"Ok."
Jim gave me that look again.
"Oh we're doing that one too?" I said.
Standard response from Jim....."you're not going anywhere right now are you?"
Fuck it.
"Ok so right now?" I said.
"Hell no, I need about 18-20 minutes. You want a power-ade?"
"Yes, please."
So we sat around and continued brainstorming until I said "Fuck it let's get this over with."
So I went. 100 reps with the empty trap bar. Trying to pull my hands into my armpits basically.
As I did the set I thought "too light" because the first 55-60 went fast with no issues. About rep 70 however, my arms started raising less and less. I had to finish the last 15 or so in segments of 5's.
After I put the bar down, my traps and delts were fucking screaming at me.
"Wasn't that bad." I said with a laugh.
Alva went next, and got his 100. Then Jim went and got his.
The aftermath was the same each time. We all sat around pouring buckets and laughing about how terrible and awesome these sets felt.
Jim and I went back to the white board, and kept brainstorming. Eventually writing out a split, and how to rotate in the movements. He told me he was going to keep massaging it and do an article about it for T-Nation.
Three and a half hours after we started training, we finally finished up and then Jim let me go into the basement and bang on his drums for a while. After departing, he and I kept texting about ideas regarding it. Just like the "good ol days" when he and I would exchange hundreds of e-mails about shit like this. Jim always makes fun of the fact that we write out 1000000's of routines, and what losers we must be for doing so. But for whatever reason, these things always seem to resonate with the two of us. I have no doubt that if I were out there training with Jim on a weekly basis our training sessions would generally be this long from all of the shit we would talk about trying out or incorporating.
I hope I get a chance in the near future to get some more time at the "five point" gym.
Oh and if you do the program, do it like Jim wrote it. Don't ask "can I...." in regards to bastardizing it.
Do you know how much we hate that shit?
Thanks.
More misc. shit -
I saw the new Bourne flick this week. Well, it's underwhelming. I will just say that. No where near as smart or engaging, and nowhere near as action packed. In fact, I was rather bored with most of it, and was completely lost or confused at how they were trying to tie in Blackbriar and Treadstone with all of it. Totally disappointed.
I did see, however, upon leaving the theater that they are making a new Red Dawn (which I believe I already knew) and it has the dude that played Thor in it. So the wife will most definitely want to go masturbate...I mean see that, in the theater.
I hope everyone had a bananas good Labor Day.
My meet planning for November will be to cruise on the squat for a bit, and program very low. Since the squat is going to be programmed so low I may decide to up the volume on deadlifting just to see if I can get in a nice pull. Benching has gone fine for a long time now, so I'm not overly concerned about the bench. 450 close grip should be in the bag. Kind of like a foster kid, I never know what my deadlift is going to act like.
So I hit 65x100 on the Poundstone curls the other day. I'm pretty sure that Eric Lilliebridge has unofficially bowed out of this competition (though he won't scream uncle about it) and he cries foul that I genetically altered biceps to keep doing the shit I'm doing with them. He did say I should go for 100x100 and that does sound pretty cool. It's possibly I may try it.
 |
| Post 65x100 and not happy |
Speaking of 100 reps, Jim's article in t-nation about our training sessions and brainstorming is now up. I didn't want to give too much away about it because Jim told me he wanted to do an article about what we did, and talked about there. Since it's up now I can go over some of the things we talked about and the conclusions we came to.
Ohio Session -
It actually started during the workout. I had done my squats and was working on t-bar rows, and had been explaining to Jim about the Poundstone curls. Jim goes over and gets the empty bar, places it in the rack, and starts curling.
"Are you trying it out right now?" I asked him, incredulously.
"Yeah."
So I grabbed my camera, and started filming his set at about the 45 rep mark.
Jim got the 100, set the bar down and let out a "fuck me" in regards to the pain that accompanied the set.
We all poked fun about it and laughed. Jim sat down on the bench and literally held his right forearm for about 10 minutes, wincing from the pain. "That's awesome. Wow."
I thought that was the end of it, and continued doing my 1-legged squats.
"What about the plate raise?" he said to me.
"With the 100?"
"Yeah."
"With how much?" I said.
Jim pondered for a minute.
"The 25 pound bumper plate. All the way overhead. Not just stopping at eye level. Take it all the way from here (at the waist) to overhead."
"Ok, that would work."
/Jim looks at me with a stare/
"Oh you want to do it today?"
"Why not, you're not going anywhere are you?" he said.
So, I grabbed the 25 pound bumper plate and started. I ended up doing 120 I believe, and my shoulders, traps, and upperback were fucking torched.
Our good buddy Alva Leisure, who had already done lots of benching and 5x10 on overhead press, jumped in as well, and knocked out 100. Many profanities followed his set.
The three of us were sweating like a car load of fat chics on the way to a Magic Mike showing.
"Shoulders and traps are fucking dying." I told Jim.
He paid no mind. I could tell he was thinking about "what else?"
I know this, because that's what he said as a response to that.
"What else?"
"Well, the 1 legged squats I was just doing."
"You mean with the back foot up on the bench?"
"Yeah. They are great because they stretch the back leg hip flexor, and help with balance and support."
"Ok, let's add those in." Jim said, as he scribbled on the white board.
"I'd say, go with those, and substitute lunges."
"So one week lunges, and then...."
"Yeah, the next week the 1 legged."
Jim wrote that down on the white board.
"What else?" he said.
I walked over to the white board and stood next to Jim, looking at it with him.
"I want to add in leg curls. With ankle weights."
"Like those Wal-Mart ankle weights?"
"Yeah" he said. "You can do em just lying on the floor. Simple."
"I like it." I said. "Add it in."
Jim scribbled.
"How about sit ups?" he said.
"The good ol fashioned kind? Or on a decline bench?"
"Yeah the old fashioned kind, just on the floor. Feet hooked. People still say the sit-up isn't a good exercise and it's bullshit. Juliet pointed out to me that, "what's the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?""
"Yeah, you just sit up."
Jim nodded, and scribbled it on the white board.
We debated back and forth on tricep work, or even doing overhead pressing for 100 reps, but we kept finding more negatives involved in adding that than positives.
"What about band good mornings?" he said.
"Yeah you could do that, however you'd have to be careful with placement because the low back would get severely fucked up sore from it."
"Agreed." he said. So he jotted it down after the main deadlift day only, as to put all of the most direct low back work on one day. However neither of us were really sold on that particular movement.
"Hey what about the Kirk shrugs?" he said.
"Yeah, a shrug in there would be awesome. What load though?"
Jim thought for a minute. "The trap bar."
"How much weight?" I said.
"None. Just the empty trap bar."
"You don't think it will need some load?"
"Nah, let's just do it concentrating on really squeezing back there. I've been doing the Kirk rows and man, it just destroys your traps. I've literally only been using 1 or 2 plates. Works great."
"Ok."
Jim gave me that look again.
"Oh we're doing that one too?" I said.
Standard response from Jim....."you're not going anywhere right now are you?"
Fuck it.
"Ok so right now?" I said.
"Hell no, I need about 18-20 minutes. You want a power-ade?"
"Yes, please."
So we sat around and continued brainstorming until I said "Fuck it let's get this over with."
So I went. 100 reps with the empty trap bar. Trying to pull my hands into my armpits basically.
As I did the set I thought "too light" because the first 55-60 went fast with no issues. About rep 70 however, my arms started raising less and less. I had to finish the last 15 or so in segments of 5's.
After I put the bar down, my traps and delts were fucking screaming at me.
"Wasn't that bad." I said with a laugh.
Alva went next, and got his 100. Then Jim went and got his.
The aftermath was the same each time. We all sat around pouring buckets and laughing about how terrible and awesome these sets felt.
Jim and I went back to the white board, and kept brainstorming. Eventually writing out a split, and how to rotate in the movements. He told me he was going to keep massaging it and do an article about it for T-Nation.
Three and a half hours after we started training, we finally finished up and then Jim let me go into the basement and bang on his drums for a while. After departing, he and I kept texting about ideas regarding it. Just like the "good ol days" when he and I would exchange hundreds of e-mails about shit like this. Jim always makes fun of the fact that we write out 1000000's of routines, and what losers we must be for doing so. But for whatever reason, these things always seem to resonate with the two of us. I have no doubt that if I were out there training with Jim on a weekly basis our training sessions would generally be this long from all of the shit we would talk about trying out or incorporating.
I hope I get a chance in the near future to get some more time at the "five point" gym.
Oh and if you do the program, do it like Jim wrote it. Don't ask "can I...." in regards to bastardizing it.
Do you know how much we hate that shit?
Thanks.
More misc. shit -
I saw the new Bourne flick this week. Well, it's underwhelming. I will just say that. No where near as smart or engaging, and nowhere near as action packed. In fact, I was rather bored with most of it, and was completely lost or confused at how they were trying to tie in Blackbriar and Treadstone with all of it. Totally disappointed.
I did see, however, upon leaving the theater that they are making a new Red Dawn (which I believe I already knew) and it has the dude that played Thor in it. So the wife will most definitely want to go masturbate...I mean see that, in the theater.
I hope everyone had a bananas good Labor Day.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Labor Day (week?) Shirt Sale
Dropping shirt prices to $15 for both. I LITERALLY have 6 Lion shirts left, so it won't last long.
I have black and gray for the "Death is winning...." shirts. But in limited quantity in black. So, here is the deal with the price drop.
IF YOU ORDER BLACK YOU MAY GET GRAY! Just be aware of that.
Hope everyone appreciates my labor day drop. I am going to restock the "Death is winning..." shirts however in a new fabric (a softer poly cotton) with a new logo on the front. So if you don't get one, just hang out for a few and I will have some new ones that will be even more bad ass.
Now, eat ribs and drink alcohol and buy shirts!!! Link is here
Chaos and Bang Your Earballs Labor Day Style!
Happy Labor Day.
Things we went over -
Age range for sexual acceptability
Some movie reviews
Don't discuss training and diet on a date
Doping and Lance Armstrong
Meet training (ours)
Best athletes of all time
And a plethora of other essential items.........
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Training - Squats and Tugs
Bodyweight - 239
Pause Squats -
135x10
225x3,3
315x3,3,3
405x1,1,1
455x1,1,1,4
Deadlifts -
225x1
315x1
405x1
500x1
585x1
605x1
500x3,3,3
Kirk Shrugs (with db's) - 30's x 100
Notes - Quad is feeling better, but the area that was injured still does not feel "strong". It will still be a few weeks, I think, before it's back to 100%. But I am pleased with progress at this point.
Pause Squats -
135x10
225x3,3
315x3,3,3
405x1,1,1
455x1,1,1,4
Deadlifts -
225x1
315x1
405x1
500x1
585x1
605x1
500x3,3,3
Kirk Shrugs (with db's) - 30's x 100
Notes - Quad is feeling better, but the area that was injured still does not feel "strong". It will still be a few weeks, I think, before it's back to 100%. But I am pleased with progress at this point.
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