Snapshot

Hi fellow sufferers!

I am a university graduate like Sumo and naturally all I want to do is lift big weights, as I have no practical skills whatsoever… well, I teach some of the time, but that doesn’t count.

I have been lifting weights for 22 years, and have made snail like progress to the place I am at now. In recent years I have totalled 600k in the under-100k class and 582.5k in the under 90k class. Belt only, IPF comps. Not so great when you think of the 400k plus lifts of the “famous” but if you take a look at the IPF British unequipped powerlifting records you will see that such a standard is not all that bad, I have not peaked yet and am as fired up as ever to improve.

Looking back I think most of my mistakes centred around;

Lack of clear goals (blame bodybuilding if you like, I did not focus on lifting more on the main lifts, I wanted to look good, which is understandable when all you think about is sex and how to get it.)

Excessive cardio (blame bodybuilding, which is understandable…. )

Fear of big weights.

Lack of drive.

Other commitments (work, family and a long detour through the world of martial arts which probably did me a lot of good, but not as much good as following a powerlifting regime).

Lack of good information (years of HIT).

But, I still made progress, however slowly, and my ideas about training matured to the point I am at now. The trouble with writing about training is inevitably one looks back and thinks “How could I have said that!” and no doubt my thinking will move on too, but this is a snapshot of where I am today.

I am currently working out a Westside-inspired routine which I have lobotomised and tweaked to include lots of single powerlifts. The routine is fairly HITish, in that I am down to 4 sessions per week, 3 exercises per session, done in about 40mins despite 3 minute rest periods between most sets.

This is what it looks like;

http://www.elitefts.com/documents/Triumvirate.htm

My tweak is that I only do 4 Max effort moves.

3 of them are competition lifts.

Max effort leg day – squats for a 3 week wave then deadlifts for a 3 week wave.

Max effort bench day – bench press, incline bench press.

I also plan to do the same lifts with bands at some point in the future, but essentially, the programme is all about low rep powerlifts.

I am no great fan of dynamic effort bench press, so I have replaced that with a 5×5 sequence. For 3 weeks I will do 5×5 with the same weight, then for the next 3 weeks I will do a 5×5 pyramidding the weight to a top set of 5.

Dynamic effort squats I like because they kick my arse, there is a good cardio effect and they are hard. The programme only calls for 6 sets of 2 which I do on a 1 minute timer. A further tweak is the addition of dynamic effort deadlifts, I use about 60% of a 1RM for 6 singles. I use a 2” platform and both DE squats and deadlifts use bands. On DE squats and deads I plan to leave the weight on the bar the same for a long time, and just use increasing band tension for progress.

I think that timing is very important, I have a watch which beeps on the minute, or any other interval. Apart from the dynamic effort squats and deads, I use a 3 minute interval.

That’s about it really, of course I only describe my tweaks to the original, which you can look at for yourself.

Short, hard, specific, everything changes every 3 weeks so boredom/staleness do not set in. Looks good, I have high hopes!

In the gym is only part of the game. Out of the gym is important, but not all that difficult.

I am eating heartily now, I am not concerned about weight classes I just use the waist of my trousers as a guide. I draw a line at 38” because at that I can still look fairly fit and medical sources say waist size is a key indicator for health, much more accurate than BMI. If the 38″ feels a bit uncomfortable, then I back off the food a bit. You don’t need to be much more accurate than that. Pre -comp making a weight class is a different matter, but for most of the year, that is good enough.

Protein – I use a whey protein powder around training (4 days per week) 2 scoops before, 4 scoops after. Every day I have a big tub of cottage cheese for supper, it has 90g of protein, so the rest of the day I don’t think about that much at all, though I like turkey and chicken, healthy meats those, plus beef which I think has mystical powers… I try to eat every three hours, rather than descend into a day long feeding frenzy which my natural instinct would like…. I avoid simple carbs except for fruits, which I eat a few of every day. I dissolve a couple of scoops of glucose powder into a litre of water which I drink during training, and sometimes at breakfast time I eat some sweet or other as I have read breakfast and immediately after training such sugars do little harm, and I like life’s pleasures.

Other supps – fish oil – 6 g per day.  Multivit/mineral.  Kelp 10 a day – its cheap so why not.  Tribulus – probably useless for weightlifting, but adds to the bedroom department… Glutamine, I feel better on that stuff, pretty sure it works for me, just a teaspoon a day.  Creatine – maybe it does something, but at a teaspoon a day its cheap enough not to worry about.

Ephedrine – I use one tab per week with caffeine powder.  I only use it on Max effort leg day, 30 mins before training.  I buy it from Boots, a product called Chest-EZE.  Over the counter.  Note it is not IPF illegal outside of comps.  It gives a lot of energy.

Water – I don’t like it, but you have to do it. Fill a 2-3 liter bottle in the morning and make sure its gone before bed. Make sure you have a pisspot… Tea and coffee count, they are not as good as water but still help.

Salad – Put a load of salad in a bowl every morning and make sure its gone at night. Salad is holy, increases your relationship with God… tastes a lot better with cider vinegar and olive oil mixed about 3 parts vinegar, one part olive oil liberally poured over it.

Alcohol – not much.

Cardio et al – I do the following on Wednesday

10 mins dumbbell swings combined with stretching

10 mins incline treadmill

10 mins punch bag and starjumps.

I use a heart rate monitor, 130-160 is my target.

Saturday I do a 30 minute jog outdoors weather permitting.

++++++++

My goals – 182.5k 227.5k 272.5k (400 500 600) in the powerlifts.

That’s all folks!

Straightbacking

As ever there is more discussion on roundbacking here – I started straightbacking because I was getting to the point where my strength was getting stronger than my spine, so to continue strength gains I started employing the following three techniques.

I should point out that by straightbacking I don’t mean arched like a weightlifter, more like straight like a powerlifter.

As a master of roundbacking;

Here is what I’ve found that enforces straightbacking;

• I start the lift from the top – this works for reps or singles. I do the top starts exclusively then as I get closer to max I do a few deadstops (start from the top, stop at the bottom – see video) then regular style (start from the bottom). Note this works for sumos and regular deads. Note that top starts are less wearing on the back so the deadlifts can be done more frequently/heavier.
• Occasionally doing higher reps enforces a straight back as higher reps rely more on elastic recoil of the hip extensor which is best employed by keeping a rigid back.
• Wear a belt – I can lift more without a belt because as I round over my belly can get bigger. With a belt the belly can only get so big before it starts getting pinched and the belt digs into the ribcage, so I have to lift with a straighter back – the belt in this position increases IAP.

AP and the Inch Dumbbell

Over at a forum, that shall remain nameless, BLOBERT posted a picture of fellow P&Ber AP overhead lifting the Inch Dumbbell with one hand.

The Inch Dumbbell masses 78.3 kg and has a 100 mm long handle which is 60.5 mm wide. Inspired by this I started preparing for my own version of the lift;

A Simple Thing, Often Overlooked

This bit was written by Sean aka Frozenkilt. An olympic lifter and Highland games thrower. Oftentimes we forget the basic psychology behind the pursuit of a goal, whether it’s a lifting goal, or a life goal. Very valid and relevant.

Original post, and discussion is here:

Was out on business for a while and sitting around in airports is good for thinking if nothing else.

I’ve got some vacation plans coming up that involve a beach and I idly wondered why I wasn’t leaning up a bit more when that little voice that doesn’t speak up much (you know the one. The honest one.) just said “You don’t want to.”

I kind of stopped for a bit and thought “Hey, man! That’s…uh. Hmm. Yeah, you’re right.” I mean, it’d be nice and all but I don’t WANT to. I’m sure most of you can see where this is going but let’s expand on some stuff.

I have, in my lifting career, done the following: a 605# deadlift. A 140kg hang power clean. A 140kg bench.

I mean, I’ve done more than those lifts but I wanted to highlight those ones. Not because I think they’re that impressive or anything, especially on a public strength board but because there was something that set those lifts apart from most of mine: At some point, I WANTED those numbers.

Looking out over my training across the past decade and a half I’ve done a lot of things wrong and a few things right but I have noticed this: If I set a goal, a true goal, it happened. Now why is that? I gave that some thought too and it didn’t just boil down to desire but to the result OF that desire: you prioritize. I MADE those lifts happen. By backing others to maintenance to maximize recovery and minimize things that would detract from achieving that goal, I adjusted my whole weekly schedule that if I wasn’t working the focused lift, I was either working auxilaries that would carry over to it or I was just maintaining other things without a lot of focus.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Lots of guys will say you can focus on just getting stronger and the lifts will take care of themselves but I disagree a little. If you’ve got a big goal in mind, one of those watershed numbers that you think define your sport or define “strong” in your head, it has to be pretty much ALL you focus on for a while. You want that big squat? Maybe the deadlifts just drift into the medium work/medium reps stage. Big press? Maybe the bench gets relegated to volume work to support the heavy shoulder work.

Looking over any of the goals section of the board, really look at your focus. Chances are there’s a laundry list of lifts you want to make. The question is, have you thought about how? Or by when? Or maybe even what order? I don’t think you can get them all at once, despite your best intentions. Some of them will certainly crossover to others but think about what would happen if you said “Ok, THAT one. THAT one dies before March.” Then you could check it off and get all the benefits that accomplishment has. Confidence. Enthusiasm. Renewed focus for other things.

It doesn’t matter what the goal is, it will go faster if it is prioritized and focused on. Don’t go for vague. “10 pound of fat by May.” is better than “Look better by spring.” Once you’ve set the priority and the goal, it’s time to tune the workouts. Always ask yourself “Is this working for me or against me? Will this help or is it just nice to have?” If you’ve spent any reasonable time with the weights, the strength you’ve built in certain areas won’t vanish just because your focus is elsewhere for a time.

You can also end up with what I kind of called “Accidental progress” on other things. When I focused on my bench and primarily my tricep power because it was holding me back, my press and my push press went up. Not that I focused on them, but they shot up. When I finished my deadlift goal, I tried keeping up with a couple of 500# squatters for a month or so and wouldn’t you know it, my squat went up appreciably from all the work I laid down with the deads. A little technique work and bam! I started working my overhead squats because they didn’t stress my back after an injury and now I’m overhead squatting almost as much as I’ve back squatted since the injury.

I also made a bodyweight overhead squat in 2008 a goal. Since thinking about this, I’m making it my FIRST goal of 2008. So I’m tooling up my workouts to focus on it a bit more. It’ll fall soon.

For my competitive season, I’ve been chasing 15′ in the weight for height for years but I’ve been asking myself “Has training it ever been a FOCUS?” We’ll see what the back thinks too but my early prediction is “It will be this year.”

If you want something or even some THINGS, list’em. Then decide what happens first. Want that 500# deadlift? (Or 6, 7, 800? Who knows!) Then GET it. Want to put up a big log press in competition but keep falling short of your training numbers? Then train that thing when you’re tired to get used to doing it when you’re wrecked. Want the monster squat in a powerlifting meet? Then drift on pulling for a bit and get it.

Decide and prioritize. Then knock’em off one by one.

Retard Lifting & Mantrition

The systems of getting stronger employed by the lifters at P&B are broadly classed as Retard lifting, this combined with Mantrition pretty much guarantees results with the minimum of brain effort.

Retard lifting works so well because it bypasses the clever thought processes that deduce that one should not lift heavy objects. Similarly Mantrition works because it bypasses those same thought processes which stress out the lifter with concern over his nutrition.