Pete's Strongman log!

November 28, 2004
DE Lower

12*2 box squats @ maybe 1/2" above paralell (at Y at home today) w/ 225 (figured max was ~450 on this box). These were boom, boom, boom, basically a cluster set of 24 reps, no more than 15s between sets

5*3 stiff legged gms w/ straight bar @ 185 also with very short rest (30s or so)

1 handed grip pulls into pins: 3/each hand*6-8s w/ 115

3 sets standing pulldown abs supersetted w/ 3 sets wide pullthrus

8/10

November 29, 2004
Tempo

Started creatine supplementation for the first time today w/ creatine ester hcl from true protein. Hoping I’ll see some increase in work capacity at the end of the week as that would be great right now.

24 exercise bb circuit
7*(cable curls supersetted w/ ultra wide pullthrus)

Started to cramp up on the pullthrus in the lower back. I tend to get cramps there but I think this may be due to the creatine since it was just tempo.

November 30, 2004
Upper Body ME Skinny Bastards

Bench:
bar30
95
8
1155
135
5
1855
215
1 and miss on 2nd

Motherfuck. I was going for five on this! I’m not gonna get too depressed and just chalk it up to a bad day.

Neutral db Flat bench:
60210,1*6

Rows w/ diff bar than usual:
3*6

Just got out, the workout was going nowhere in the way of progress.
1/10. It doesn’t get any worse than this folks.

December 1, 2004
ME Lower

Paralell pin suspended medium stance “Anderson” GCB squat:
barsome
135
3
1853
225
1
2751
315
1 (40 lb. PR)
365MISS
335
1 (65 lb. PR :smiley: )

Bud Jeffries I am not but you can’t beat a 65 lb. pr.

1/2" above bottom position pin suspended “Anderson” GCB OL squat cluster set (this is almost turning into a DB log :smiley: ): 10 reps @ 225 w/ 10-12s between reps
Hard by the last rep

Sully pull into pins one handed grip thing:
105*3/each

I have to pull a far distance from the rack to the pins on this rack so I couldn’t get 115 up straightened out.

DB Russian twists sitting up on a decline bench: 35 * 7/each, 45 * 6/each

Close stance pullthrus: 210 Ultra wide stance pullthrus: 210. Last set with stack :o , what to do now?

December 2, 2004
Tempo

Bunch of bodybuilding lat, tricep, shoulder, and ab work. At 60% or for the most part lower but this is a step up from what I usually do.

December 3, 2004
Upper Body Repetition

Neutral DB flat bench presses:
50*27, 9, 7

Tate db press:
604, 452*6 (short rest)

Shoulders feeling weird for some reason on these so moved to tricep extensions for 16 and 18. These have progressed a lot in weight.

Lat pulldowns w/ horizontal row bar:
7*5

MC hammer curls:
45*6/each for two sets. Minimal cheating only a little on the last two reps or so.

December 4, 2004
DE Lower

Got a setup that I can use right at paralell now. Aerobic box plus other aerobic box plus wooden box = right @ paralell. :slight_smile:

Squats right @ paralell w/ medium stance (no briefs):

bar20
135
5
1853
225
2*12

Cambered bar GMs @ one pin lower than usual (prob. little below paralell):
bar10
135
3
22533

210 narrow stance pullthrus + 210 wide stance. Last three sets w/ stack. Need to look up that thread where it shows how to add weight w/ band.

18/each db side bends @ 80
1
6/each db side bends @ 90

Volume a little low today (no grip exercise and 2 sets less on GMs) because I’m feeling somewhat fatigued, need some good rest.

6/10

Off. Homer Simpson.

December 6, 2004
ME Upper SB

Bench press:
bar30
95
8
1153
135
3
1553
185
3
225*2, 2nd assisted.

Ahh, I have the worst pressing strength in the world!!! Time to rethink things a bit again, ok I have at best a 245 max. I’m going to try to get to a 285 max by the end of Christmas break (January 13th). I’m not going to try to lower lower body volume by an extreme amount anymore although I’ll probably be doing a little more volume on upper days but I think that I just need to spend more time doing pressing including a lot of close grip stuff. I’m not doing third finger on ring anymore, I’m checking me ego at the door and using pinky and closer and doing a lot of close grip pressing on the assistance now as well instead of extension shit.

DB flat:
6510, 6014

DB incline:
605, 604

Horizontal cable Rows:
5*6, still progressing well on these.

Super close grip (pinky at end of knurling) decline presses:
13512, 1656, 4, 4, 145*7, 6 (6 sets total)

Face pulls:
Five sets

Decided to do some bench speed work to try to work on form w/ 135 but after the first set of 3 I realized I was so fried that it was pointless.

For the first time (although I’ve now loaded completely for the first time so it makes sense) I can notice the creatine making a difference but I think it only really matters on the higher rep sets and doesn’t really give much if anything below six reps. This is not the most productive rep range but it still should help some after a while, esp. with growth.

8/10

December 7, 2004
ME Lower

Narrow stance LOW (a good 2 or 3" below paralell) box squats:

barsome
135
5
1853
225
1
2751
315
1
3651
385
MISS

These were pretty sweet. I’m pretty positive I could have ground out the 385 with spotting I was confident with or in the power rack (just in case pins) but when I saw I was grinding it and considered my one likely incompetent spotter and that there were no pins to set it on I asked for help because I wasn’t sure that if I got in a bad position he would be able to help out. But I’m 99% sure I could have gotten it. Which is pretty cool, I bet with a spotter I was confident in and a monolift (walking outs a major problem with heavier weights) I could get 455 box squat right at paralell w/ a medium stance. I need to incorporate some free squatting to practice it but with some practice I’m sure 500 raw wouldn’t be too much problem these days with a monolift.

OL squat cluster set: 10 reps @ 285, done in clusters of two w/ ~10s, 12s, 15s, and 20s between the clusters as they went on. These are coming back, I had fallen off a lot from lack of practice but I’m sure I’ll be back to where I was soon.

Yielding iso dl hold right below knee:
305, couldn’t get this up at all double overhand so I just did it mixed grip and held for about 10s. However since this is mainly a grip exercise I stripped to 285 and did 2 sets double overhand for ~10s each.

Ultra wide pullthrus w/ stack: 2*12

supersetted w/

DB Side bends: 955/each
100
2*5/each

9/10. Coasting on 30 hours of sleep in the last three days this was a fucking awesome workout. :smiley:

December 8, 2004
Tempo

24 ex. bb circuit
Side bends @ 40: 8/each * 5 supersetted w/
bench press @ 135: 5 *5 working on form

December 9, 2004
Repetition Upper SB

Neutral db flat bench:
60*20 (woohoo!), 8, 5

Lat pulldowns w/ horizontal row handle:
28, 36

supersetted w/:
tricep extensions: 28 THEN
Limited ROM (about 2" above head) neutral db military: 45
10, 508, 555

Didn’t beat up shoulder at all, just felt good. James=smart.

2 sets curls

Flat bench SUPER close grip presses (same grip as last time):
12514, 1458, 5

FUCK, these are anterior delt KILLERS when done for the full ROM, I’m doing them to an imaginary 3 board next time.

8.5/10

OFF

December 11, 2004
DE Lower

DE Free squats @ paralell:
barmany
135
5
1853
225
2
29562

I felt from these that box squats really are teaching me the right thing and I felt like I could naturally sit back and then contract my posterior chain to move up. However before I could just add 50 lbs. to my paralell box squat by just free squatting instead I think that I would need a little more practice with these. They felt a little heavier than they should have as did the deads below. I had an exhausting night last night and had only woken up about 45 minutes before I did this workout so I think that was the main reason.

Speed deads:
2251
Worksets:
315
1
3651
405
1
4051
405
1

Not quite as fast as they should have been, again feeling a little heavy.

Hypers:
4*5 @ 155

DB Side bends:
105*5/each 2
95
8/each

Little lower on the volume since I’m going for 525 on Tuesday. 6/10

December 12, 2004
Tempo

Cardoza high rep supersetting shiz:

Lat pulldown w/ bench machine: 2 sets each
Cable curl w/ tricep extension: 2 sets each
Leg press w/ leg curl: 2 sets each
Pec deck w/ rear delt raises: 2 sets each

All in 20-25 rep range w/ at least 5 in the hole. I really like this workout and I think I’ll be using it frequently as I get to exorcise any bodybuilding pump demons and its just fun. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow.

December 13, 2004
Upper Body ME SB

Pinky finger on ring flat bench:

bar30
95
8
1155
135
3
1553
175
3
1956
175
3*5

Hmmmmmmm…strange. I would think that my use of a wider grip would help me increase weight by decreasing ROM but that does not appear to be the case as this grip seems to be just as strong. Not sure what the training implications of this are.

Neutral db flat bench:
709,8
This was very cool b/c I had just done a really hard ten reps at 65 a week or so ago.
Neutral incline bench:
60
10 (I think)

Cable rows:
4,3 then lower weight two notches
2*6 lower weight mo’
8

Mixed in with the cable rows I did:

1*8 super duper ultra close grip decline bench presses (index fingers only about 1 1/2" away from each other). Unfortuneately these are two close and hurt my wrist.
It was actually funny during this set because I end up sometimes getting weird spotters and I didn’t exactly get eight reps b/c I had told the guy that I was going to try for 6th and by the time I started the eighth he started pushing down on the bar. I was just like, dude what the fuck, but I would have gotten the eight reps if he hadn’t done that.

Two fingers on knurling close grip decline presses:
155*6,8,7

Rear delt flys: 28, 16

2*10 tricep extensions mixed in

December 14, 2004
Tempo

24 exercise bb circuit

Motherfuck. Was going to go for the max dead today but I felt sick as shit all day and then threw up a tremendous amount (this was not from drinking). I’m now off to Michigan until the 20th, when I get back I might do a simulated meet with deadlift first.

December 21, 2004
Meet Simulation

Semi-wide (power rack restrictions) Squat:

barsome
135
5
1853
225
2
2751
315
1
3651
405
1

All super easy. Loaded up 455 but decided not to risk it. The lack of good spotters is a problem because I don’t want to have to find out if the pins can hold that weight but the biggest problem is when I come in from even a relatively wide stance after I make the weight and then bring my feet narrower to walk it in I’m very unstable and could easily fall off balance. This is VERY dangerous and I decided not to test my luck with 455. But I think with a monolift and spotting I could trust I could probably max around 485 with just a belt. I’m very happy with my squatting strength right now. I used a belt today at 135+ since I haven’t squatted with one in probably 2 years now and I had to get used to pushing against it but it’s easy to learn and I think it definitely helped stability.

Close grip (pinky finger on ring) bench:
bar30
95
6
1152
135
2
1551
185
1
2051
225
1
245*MISS

The 225 was very nice. On the 245 I did the bottom third and top third alone but just got a little help in that midsection. I’m sure I could have gotten this weight with a competition grip but I don’t know if it would have added any more than that, as my comp grip really doesn’t seem to add much. I’ll start a thread.

Deadlift:
1351
225
1
3151
385
1
4551 (20 lb. pr)
525
MISS

My top end strength is very weak. On the 455 I went SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO fast up to my knees but it was actually a bit of a grinder once I got past them. Rack pulls, dimel deads, rack pulls, isometric rack pulls, and ummmm…rack pulls will be the focus for the next 2 weeks. On the 525 I’m following the usual pattern when I jump on deads, two inches off the floor (which was what today was) and then usually two weeks later after tons of posterior chain work I do up to knees, and then hopefully two weeks later I hit the weight. The top end work will function as the PC work this time and two weeks from now I’ll get knees and maybe even be able to lock it out or at least get somewhere past knees from the top end work.

Extra upper body shit:

Super close grip benching (pinky finger at end of knurling):
17523
15563 (short rests on these)

Rowing w/ diff. bar than usual:
16, +2 notches: 46

December 22, 2004
Accessory shizniz

Paralell bar shoulder width chins:8

Stepups onto HIGH box (knee at 1-2" above paralell to hip):
6/each @ 135
5/each @ 185
5/each @ 205

Good shit.

Pin presses @ 2-3 board height probably:
13510
175
2*6

Lat pulldowns w/ tricep extension rope thing:
10, higher weight 8

Dimel deads:
13515
195
12

Both very fast.

Stomach unhappy from full pizza shortly before.

December 23, 2004
Cardoza shiz

2each Leg press/leg curls supersetted
2
each db decline press/machine rows supersetted
2each cable curls/tricep extensions supersetted
2
each pec deck/rear delt machine supersetted

20-25 rep range

Some extra bicept work for BIGgG GUNZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.