crt1530's Training Journal

[crt1530]

2009.07.06

Hanging Leg Raise
BWx15,12,12,10,10,10,7 (76/7)

Back Extension
BWx20x5

Calf Raise
BWx20x5

Heel Walking
110'x5

Notes
My back has been feeling a bit fatigued/funky, so I decided to skip deadlifting and get some blood flowing.

 

[crt1530]

2009.07.08

Bench Press
135x5
185x5
225x3
260x3x5
175x10x5

Chin-up
BWx14,11,10,10,9,8x6 (102/11)

Dip
BW+45x15x3,12,11

Notes
I was a bit frustrated with bench tonight. I did touch and go reps and they weren't feeling particularly easy. I was doing 275 paused triples back in February. I am getting better at the higher rep bodybuilding type stuff. So it goes.

 

[crt1530]

2009.07.10

Squat
135x5
225x5
295x5
355x5x5
265x10x5

Hanging Leg Raise
BWx15,12,10x3

Notes
Squats were easy and my knee felt great. I tried wearing my Chucks instead of my adistars today. I think I'll keep wearing the Chucks for awhile.

 

[crt1530]

After seeing how good my knee felt while squatting on Friday, I have decided to compete in a strongman competition on August 1st. I will be comparing my functional strength to that of CrossFitters (and anyone else who weighs in at <200).

Events will be in order, Arm Over Arm Pull, Load and Lift Log Deadlift, Overhead Press Medley, Stones, Vehicle Pull Harness and Rope.

Arm Over Arm Pull will be Toyota Tacoma 50ft for LW Women and HW Women, Toyota Tacoma 75ft for LW Men, Toyota Tundra 50ft for MW Men, and Toyota Tundra 75ft for HW men.

Load and Lift Log Deadlift. LW Women, HW Women, and LW Men will use the little log. MW Men and HW Men will use the big log. You will have to lift the log once empty then load 5 ? 50lb sandbags onto the log, lifting it after each bag is loaded. There is a 75 second time limit.

Overhead Press Medley-
LW Women ? 55# Dumbbell, 70# Dumbbell, 110# Log, 123# Axle, 145# Barbell.
HW Women ? 70# Dumbbell, 85# Dumbbell, 143# Axle, 150# Log, 165# Barbell.
LW Men ? 100# Dumbbell, 125# Dumbbell, 185# Barbell, 190# Log , 213# Axle.
MW ? 100# Dumbbell, 125# Dumbbell, 223# Axle, 235# Barbell, 240# Log.
HW Men - 125# Dumbbell, 140# Dumbbell, 243# Axle, 255# Barbell, 260# Log.

Stones- Platforms are at 58", 50", 42", and 34".
LW Women ? 115lb, 135lb, 155lb, and 175lb
HW Women ? 135lb, 155lb, 175lb, and 200lb
LW Men ? 200lb, 230lb, 260lb, 300lb
MW/HW Men ? 230lb, 260lb, 300lb, and 330lb.

Vehicle Pull Harness and Rope- LW Women will pull a Toyota Tundra 80ft, HW Women will pull a Toyota Tundra 100ft, LW Men will pull the Double Decker Bus 80ft, MW and HW Men will pull the Double Decker Bus 100ft.

The dumbbell weights will be normal 10lb metal change plates. We will use either 1" or 1 1/2" manilla rope for the arm over arm pull. We tested this this weekend with similar size vehicles and it was challenging to say the least. We will find the sweet spot in the parking lot and get it dialed in before the day of the contest.

 

[crt1530]

2009.07.12

Dumbbell Clean and Push Press
100x1x3 (both sides)
125xFAIL

Power Clean and Push Press
185x1
225x1x7
185x3x5

Chin-up
BW+90x1,3x3,2

Dip
BW+90x10x3,8x2

Notes
Changed things up to get a feel for the type of weights I'll need to be pressing for the strongman competition. Dumbbell pressing is hard. Maybe the ones they'll have in the contest will be easier. The fixed dumbbells I was using didn't really sit on my shoulder at all, so I wasn't getting much of anything out of the hip drive. I did get the 125 up once with a cheat on the hip drive portion by supporting it with my opposite hand.

 

[crt1530]

2009.07.13

Back Extension
BWx10x5

Treadmill
3.0mph @ 7.5% for 30 minutes w/ 141bpm final HR

Stretching

Notes
Recovery and working out some soreness. My traps never get sore from deadlifting, but are quite sore today after doing power cleans yesterday.

 

[crt1530]

2009.07.14

Deadlift
308x5
398x3
448x3
488x1
558x1
578x1x5
308x10x5

Hanging Leg Raise
BWx15x2,10x3

Notes
I went as a guest to the uppity gym that I've been on the waiting to join for the last four and a half years. I figured I should get a lifting session in before I commit to giving them a bunch of money (it's supposed to happen very soon). Since deadlift is the lift most likely to get me yelled at by gym staff, I decided that deadlift day was the best day to go.

Pros:
-Deadlift/oly platform with bumper plates.
-Two chalk bowls.
-Nobody hassled me about carrying my bag around or making noise while deadlifting.
-HUGE windows by the squat racks with a great view.
-Large deck outside the weight and cardio room where you can watch whatever is going on in the adjacent baseball/soccer stadium.
-Old school York Globe dumbbells (in addition to new ones).
-A large percentage of the cardio machines have personal televisions.
-Lots of females in the 20-30 demographic.
-Not one person called me "bro."

Cons:
-Expensive.
-Overprivileged teenagers who come to socialize.

 

[conorvansmack]

Originally posted by: crt1530
2009.07.14

LOL at:
-Not one person called me "bro."
-Overprivileged teenagers who come to socialize.

 

[crt1530]

2009.07.16

Bench Press
135x5
185x4
225x3
245x1
275x1
290x1
275x1x8
175x10x5

Chin-up
BWx15,12,10,10,9,8x6 (104/11)

Dip
BW+90x10,8,7

Treadmill
3.0mph @ 6.0% for 30 min w/ 137bpm final HR

Notes
The bench press rep with 290 was ugly, so I decided to drop the weight ~5% and get a decent number of singles in. Ten singles seemed like a decent punishment for not being able to bench 300 easily.

 

[dealmaster00]

nice pulls (back on 7/14), good luck in the strongman competition.

 

[crt1530]

2009.07.17

Squat
135x5
225x5
315x5
365x5x5
275x10x5

Hanging Leg Raise
BWx15,10x4

Notes
I am tired.

 

[crt1530]

Note to any incline treadmill walking and/or cheeseburger haters:

I have recently recorded the following biometric readings:
Resting Heart Rate - 48bpm
Blood Pressure - 100/63
Bodyfat - 9.9%*

*I don't believe that the bodyfat reading is accurate, but it is the first sub-10% reading from my Tanita BIA scale in a long time.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Jesus Christ, 48bpm... you may as well have no pulse I wonder how you would fair in a more intense cardio situation. If you've played any sports recently, care to elaborate how you feel and recover?

 

[crt1530]

Originally posted by: conorvansmack

Originally posted by: crt1530
2009.07.14

LOL at:
-Not one person called me "bro."
-Overprivileged teenagers who come to socialize.

I tend to have a different mentality than most other gym rats.

Originally posted by: dealmaster00
nice pulls (back on 7/14), good luck in the strongman competition.

Thanks.

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Jesus Christ, 48bpm... you may as well have no pulse I wonder how you would fair in a more intense cardio situation. If you've played any sports recently, care to elaborate how you feel and recover?

I've always had a fairly good cardiovascular system, but my muscles are pretty much untrained when it comes to endurance work. I focus on strength and work capacity (total weight lifted) in my training and do the low level cardio as a means to accelerate recovery and promote general health.

The strongman contest should be a good test of my power production.

 

[crt1530]

2009.07.27

Chin-up
BWx20,12,8x8,4 (100/11)

Dip
BWx30,25,20x3 (115/5)

Notes
I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever done twenty chin-ups without kipping. I didn't plan on attempting a PR, but the chins felt so fast and easy that I just kept going past the planned 15/16. This is also the first time I have done thirty dips in at least three years.

 

[crt1530]

2009.08.01

Strongman Contest

Arm over arm truck pull
I think the truck was a bit too light. I seemed to have a problem with having too much slack in the rope the whole time. I guess if I were to do this again, I'd want to watch some videos and think about a strategy. I came in fourth and was 1.4 seconds behind first place (21.72 vs 20.32). The top three guys also happened to be the tallest guys in my weight class. The results were similar for the other weight classes.
Video

Load and Lift
I knew this was going to be my event and I decided to go all out. I finished in 49 seconds and beat the next closest guy by 10 seconds. Only three people of seven in my weight class got all six reps in. First place and this moved me into second place overall.
Video

Press Medley
I decided to start with the axle and work down because I knew the dumbbells would give me a hard time. I got the axle (213lb), barbell (185lb), and log (190lb), but did not get either dumbbell (100 and 125lb). I need to work on that. At the moment, I am just not able to transfer any hip drive into the dumbbell press. Third in this event and I move into first overall.
Video

Stones
Fail. I need to make some stones and practice on them if I want to be competitive in competitions like this. Last place in this event moved me to fourth place overall by one point. No tacky, tape, or sleeves were allowed.
Video

Notes
I had a lot of fun and learned some good lessons. My conditioning was not an issue at all. I need to work on technique in pressing and stones in particular if I am going to do more strongman competitions. There was a bus pull for the top three competitors after the stones. I was disappointed that I didn't get to do this event, but those are the breaks. I will most likely do it again next year and will be much more competitive.

 

[brikis98]

Very cool, that looks like a lot of fun. Congrats on a very solid performance - it looks like with some practice at a couple of those events, you'd be able to kick some ass next time. BTW, how heavy were the log and sandbags in the load and lift?

 

[crt1530]

I'm not sure about the log weight. Maybe 315. Each sandbag was 50lb.

If I owned those logs, I would definitely get my hands on an industrial scale and figure out the weights at all the various pivot points.

 

[crt1530]

2009.08.03

Squat
135x10
225x5
315x5
370x5x5
280x10x5

Hanging Leg Raise
BWx15,15,10,10

Notes
The BBB squat sets were pretty tough tonight. Probably a combination of not having squatted for two weeks and still being a bit fatigued from Saturday.

 

[crt1530]

2009.08.05

Bench Press
135x5
185x5
225x3
265x3x3,2x3
185x10x3,9x2

Chin-up
BWx14,10,9,8x5,7x4

Dip
BW+45x10x3,9,8

Treadmill
3.0mph @ 7% for 30 min

Notes
Chin endurance was down tonight.

 

[crt1530]

2008.08.06

Treadmill
3.0mph @ 7.5% for 30 min

Notes
Walking on the treadmill is so much more pleasant when you have a personal television in front of you and it's Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.

 

[wtfbbq]

Originally posted by: crt1530
2009.08.01


Load and Lift
I knew this was going to be my event and I decided to go all out. I finished in 49 seconds and beat the next closest guy by 10 seconds. Only three people of seven in my weight class got all six reps in. First place and this moved me into second place overall.
Video

haha, I love how you put it under the Comedy category.

p.s. damn, you're strong as hell. and your heart rate is ridiculous.

 

[crt1530]

Thanks for stopping by. There aren't many 0 ppd people who post in this section (or in any section for that matter).

I really like lifting weights and stuff, but I don't take it too seriously.

 

[crt1530]

2009.08.08

Deadlift
305x3
395x3
485x1
575x1
465x5x5
315x10x5

Hanging Leg Raise
BWx15,10x4

Notes
Thought about doing a triple bodyweight pull today, but 575 didn't feel fast enough. Since the spacing of the knurling on the bar at the deadlift platform is great and doesn't eat my shins, I decided to beat the hell out of them by running into a couple of benches.

 

[crt1530]

2009.08.09

Press
100x5
120x5
155x5x5
115x10,7x4

Chin-up
BWx5
BW+45x5 Too light!
BW+70x5 Too heavy!
BW+55x5x3 Ahh, just right!
BWx10,8x4

Back extension
BWx10x5

Stretching

Notes
Since I hit my goal of 20 chins, I am going to start adding some more weighted chins back into my routine. Or at least that is what I did today.