Started back at it Friday night after work and a nap. Squat day is going to remain a Saturday for me, but I was headed home early, because I had my boys this weekend.

Jumprope
100 Jumps

Foam Roller
Hips, IT Bands, Quads, Back

Static Stretching

Close stance below parallel box squat to
bar x10
150×5
240×5
330×5
420×5
510×5 Stance on these was shoulder width.

Leg Press
580x2x30
Done with a hip width stance

Lunges
3×12 each leg

Calf Raise
3 plates x50

Pulldown Abs
3×15

Started training with Brian again. This will work well for me for two reasons. The first being that I got strong as hell last time I did, the second being that I realized that with being a full time student and working full time, I cant give my own programming the focus that I need to. Brian is really good at the programming side, and we talk enough that he is aware of what I need to improve on. Before we get into the meet training, were really going to focus on improving my leg size and strength, as well as pushing my bodyweight up over 300. We’ve got some time, and a very good plan. Im looking forward to seeing how it comes out.

First time in the gym in a week, as I had a very busy week. I had both of my boys for 4 days over the holiday. Was a very busy four days. We went to the pool, went to the zoo, and did a ton of other stuff. Aside from those trips, highlights would include watching fireworks, hitting lightning bugs with baseball bats, and Corban setting my beard on fire. Got a huge dose of Karma in my favor so my court date was pushed back a month too. All in all, an awesome week, but very busy. Had some time to come up with a new training plan for myself as well. Took a while to get worked out, but I think it will set me up well for the Highland Games in August, as well as The Lexen Meet in August. I’m going to make another post about it, but here is how it started yesterday.

Standard Warmup Stuff

Squat
315×5
360×5
410×5

Deadlift
390×5
440×3
495×1

Barbell Row
210×3
240×3
270×3

Chins
40 reps total

GHR
3×10

Decline Situps
3×15 with a 25 on my face

The UGSS was this weekend, and all of the fatheads were out, bloated, purple, and totally out of shape. I was anyway, I don’t really know if I can speak for anyone else. Except Jo Jordan. The man looked pregnant. For those of you who don’t know what the UGSS is, it is an acronym for Underground Strength Session. Basically, Dave Tate brings in guys from the team to train, eat, learn from, and hang out with each other. It’s like a musclehead Mastermind group. Tons of ideas and the most fun training I have over the course of the year. The insults and good times are thick! The numbers are big too. Lots of strong dudes out squatting and pulling this Saturday. As for me, I managed to show up fashionably late, but earlier than I should have, at 930. I should have waited, as Team Wenning and his crew Mike, 2 dudes I didn’t know. and everyone’s favorite BeetleJuice impersonator, the one and only Krischain Mellow were squatting with approximately 7 million pounds of band tension. As for Mello, Dude must be part dragon, because he was breathing FIRE on people. He managed to squat something pretty respectable too, can’t remember the weight though. Approximately 7 hours after I got there, Wenning squatted 755 a blue, green and purple, and took his shit down so the 42 guys waiting to squat could do so. He is strong as hell. Also, part to show my ass, and part for effect, I did all of this stuff in my Vibram Five Fingers. Simply to prove the point that your shoes don’t fucking matter. See the pic…I’m the good looking dude that isn’t Al Caslow.

Here is what I did:

SQUAT
Barx5
260×5
350×5
420×3
480×3
540×3 (added belt after)
640×1 (added briefs after)
730×1
820×1 This is the most weight I had had on my back since late June/early July, when my hip exploded. It showed, as it felt like 1400. Still went down and up. I called it a day, as I had been on the mono for an hour or so at this point. While everyone else was squatting, I went next door, snuck some food, and watched guys hit some big squats. Carroll went 1050 or so, Driggers hit 910 pretty well. Jo squatted 850? Caslow hit low 8 something, I believe. There was a lot going on, and, well, to be honest, my memory sucks something awful sometimes. Lots of strong dudes getting after it. Jon Taylor squatted too.

I had planned to deadlift, but grew tired of waiting to eat after squatting. I went ahead and did some SSB Good mornings. 5×10 with 135. My hamstrings and lower back hate me.

Then I did the same thing for my upper back. I am going to call them upper back good mornings, because every person I asked had no idea what the hell they were called. Sample size was 2, by the way. 135 for 4 sets of 10.

At this point I was finished, and relegated myself to bitching about how tired I was, and heckling everyone else who was doing stuff way better than I was. Pretty standard Saturday for me I guess.

Had a really good time with it though, aside from being tired and kicking my own ass. Got to meet a lot of good people for the first time, and hang out with some of the guys Ive become friends with. Tons of strong people doing cool shit, and Andy Deck doing some dumb shit with a 50000 pound sandbag. NUTS.

Want to take a second and say thanks to Dave for having me out. There was a shit load of food, drinks, and tons of other stuff available all day for us, and it definitely didn’t go unnoticed or unappreciated. Except for your jeans. Send those things back to 1986 after you’re done with them.

Getting ready to start a new training cycle for March, and had no idea where my maxes are at, as my training has been, to put it politely, not fucking happening. have been working on that. To be honest, I trained 3 times last week, but it wasn’t anything earth shattering, so, rather than waste your time reading it, I figured I would just not post it. Anyway, here is what I did Saturday.

Walk aimlessly on Treadmill
5 minutes

Foam Roll
Hips, quads, IT Bands, Hamstrings

Free Squat RAWDOG
145×5
235×5
325×3
415×1
505×1
600×1 This was easy. Felt like a lot on my back (wonder why???) but went down and up easy. Thought this was pretty funny too, one of the people at the gym said “You squat a lot deeper without gear on.” I didn’t know whether to be proud or ashamed.

Pullups
6×3

Decline situps
25lb weight behind head 5×10

After lifting, I headed back to the house, jumped in the shower, got dressed, did something else awesome, and hopped into the car for the 3.5 hour drive to Louisville to the Easyrider show. Went down to see Wendlers new bike in all of its almost-assembled-but-not-quite glory. OK, I’m busting balls here, it was assembled, but had no fluids so it couldn’t be started. Also got to hang out with Jim, Will, his brother Warren, and some other dudes. Was a good time. On display were some cool old bikes, a bunch of gay baggers, and some gay custom bikes that never get ridden, probably because they live on a trailer and/or look like shit.

Part of the fun was the drive down. Got to Louisville fine, and it started raining. Also, my GPS shit on me, and sent me to the wrong convention center down there. Ended up paying 8 dollars to drive 20 minutes around a parking lot and realize I was at a fucking livestock show, not a bike show. A quick phone call, some screaming, and new GPS destination got that fixed. Made it to the show fine, parked, walked down the street, only to see Warren and Jim walking down the road hammered. They had been outside approximately 30 minutes. Went into the show, and made an appearance at some sort of business conference. Not sure what it was, but it looked like 50,000 Asians line dancing to a song I hadn’t heard. Pretty creepy. Got yelled at by the door guy too, but all was well after I assured him that my watch was indeed the band required to get into the party. After the show, got Wendlers bike loaded up, went to Wills Parents house, ate a shitload of good food, and hung out for a bit. Then started the drive back. Made it back to the ‘Bus about 3am, and I promptly slept until 1pm today. You know, for recovery purposes.

I know its Thursday. I’ve been pretty busy. hahaha

We party hard at Wendlers

Squatted out at EFS Saturday. Went pretty well, and the hip is feeling pretty good to the point that I don’t think its an issue anymore. Going to stay out of the gear completely for a while, and see how it goes for me. About the workout….

SSB Free Squat
barx10
barx10
135×5
225×5
315×3
365×3
405×1
455×1
530×1
I used this simply for the fact that it was in the monolift when I got there, and didn’t feel like changing it. Remembered why I don’t use it any more. It SUCKS.

SSB GoodMorning
165x5x10

Low back and hamstrings were screaming after this. Will start including them more for sure.

Decline Situps

5×12

Single Leg Leg Curls
50x5x12 Each leg

Face Pulls
130x5x15

Titans Telegraph
10lbs for a bunch of reps on both hands

Then I did a shitload of stretching and went to Wendlers. We watched Tennessee play South Carolina and heckled people viciously. Then I went home and took a 6 hour nap. Pretty standard Saturday in the hood.

Finally got a decent workout in. It has been quite a while, but this was a big one for me. I didnt have any issues with the hip at all and actually pulled with a hookgrip for a bit. Went like this:

5 minutes or so on the bike

Static Stretching

Free Squat Raw with Texas Bar
barx2x10
145×5
145×5
235×3
325×3
415×1
505×1
545×1 This was fast and easy, as it should be. Decided this was a good place to stop for the day. No need to kill myself this far out. Going to work up to a max double next week.

Deadlift raw with hookgrip
140×3
230×3
320×1
410×1
460×1
500×1
550×1 had to turn the right hand over. Hook gripped the left. Chuck has been screaming at me for as long as Ive been there. Time to make it happen.

Pullups
8×3

GHR Abs
3×10

Decline Situps
3×10

Then I went home and slept. Literally most of the weekend. Its weird. I haven’t taken in any stimulants since Friday, and I literally have not slept so much in a very long time. I don’t think its a coincidence that it coincides with the stim stoppage either. Its been MONTHS, maybe more than a year, that I have gone a day without some hotrox/spike/ephedrine/monster, etc in some form or another. Doesn’t matter though. I feel like a million bucks, and still can’t concentrate on SHIT. Thinking about going to the doctor about it. Its killing my study time.

Headed out to Lexen Saturday Morning to find out that Chuck and the guys had squatted Friday. Whoops! Headed back to EFS and did some stuff with the guys there. Wanted to test the hamstring and hip too, as they are both beat to total shit.

Jumprope
100 Jumps

Foam Roller
Hips, IT Bands, Quads Back

Static Stretching

Squat
Bar x5
150×5
240×3
330×3 (added reverse light bands after)
420×1
510×1
600×1 (added belt after)
690×1
770×1 (added briefs after)
850×1 (added suit after)
940×1
Definitely had the gas to go much more on these. The hamstring took it very well, but the hip was a complete other story. It was killing me, even with the suit and briefs on. It hurt bad enough that this was all I did too. That, and some situps. Going to take the rest of the time up to the meet “off” from anything that puts any stress on the hip.; just going to continue with the rehab/stretching stuff, and see if it tears off or becomes awesome. That being said, the meet will be awesome, or it will suck. Who knows at this point. To be completely honest, I don’t even care, I just want it to be here and over.

Here is a video of said awesomeness.

As some of you may or may not know, I have been fortunate enough to train with Chuck Vogelpohl since I made the move to Columbus. We normally train at Lexen Xtreme, in Grove city, Ohio. On Friday, we squatted and pulled at EFS, as Chuck was going out of town Saturday. I sucked. I don’t know if I need some time off, or the fact that it was a day earlier than we normally train, which hammered our recovery a bit, but it didn’t go well. I have some video of me deadlifting that I’m seriously too embarrassed about to even put in a team awful video. Coll thing is that I now have a chuck story that is on par with Daves about missing a weight, adding 50lbs to the bar, and killing it.

We were pulling. Chuck was super gear whored because hes old. he had a squat suit on top of I had a belt on. We worked up to something heavy, I don’t remember what the weight was. He missed it bad. Pulled it maybe 2 inches off of the floor. I missed it HORRIBLY. Twice. Not sure if I broke the floor at all. He takes 5 minutes, takes the squat suit OFF, and pulls the fucking thing like an empty bar. Dude is a fucking maniac and an awesome guy to train with. Absolutely amazing.

Photo by phillipmak

Barefoot Jump Rope
75 jumps

Lax Ball work
Focusing on QL injury site

Flat DB Presses
30×8
40×8
50x3x8

Cable crossover
40x3x12

Pullups
30 total reps

DD Handle pullups
30 total reps

DB Shrugs
45×20
100x2x12
115x3x8

Fat Gripz bodyweight hangs from Chinup bar
4×10 second holds

Sand bucket
2×10 reps each hand

Done. back is still feeling good and jacked up, but not in a bad way at all. I think I’m going to keep doing a bunch of chins and pullups until I get to the point i can do 100 in a workout, or get bored of them. Whichever is first. Shrugs will stay unti I get some traps. May be a while. hahaha I really had fun with todays workout though, and hope that the oher workouts, this week and next, are as effective. I can feel my back starting to get sore now, so hopefully that is a good sign!

Had a few guys in the gym today. Ball State is on Spring Break this week, so numbers will be down some. Decided to pull some today, as my deadlift is still in the dumpster. Was me, Joe, Sam, Big Swole, and Brandon. Alva showed up later, as he was working 700 light years away.

Jump-rope
100 Reps

Lax Ball

Static Stretches

Hip Mobility Stuff

Deadlifts off of 3″ mats, NO BELT
135×10
135×5
225×5
315×3
365×3
405×3
455×3
495×3
545×3
605×3 PR
The first and 3rd rep were good technique wise, but rep number 2 was a stiff leg. Also, deadlifting is HARD without a belt when done like this. My saving grace is that I beat Big Swole by 50lbs and 2 reps. He also wore a belt.

Bodybuilder Barbell Rows
135×10
315×10
365×4

My low back was fried after the deadlifts. Was all over the place. Probably could have done more, but was starting to get a fairly significant heave after 4 reps.

Safety Squat Bar Good Mornings
Barx10
95×10
135x2x10

Upper back exercise
95×10
135×10
185×10
Not sure what these are truly called. I’m going to get a video of the technique though, as this is a lift that HAMMERS your upper back. Im going to get some video for the Exercise Index here today or tomorrow and include it. I think you guys will enjoy it.

DB Shrug
45x2x20
70x2x10
EVERY rep was done with a 3 second pause at the top. Ass kickers for sure.

Pulldown Abs
Heavy for 3 sets of 12.

Fat Gripz DB holds
70lb DBs for 3 sets of 15 seconds

Then I stretched out some and had some clients come in. Good times, but my back is SMOKED up. Took a contrast shower and had my wife do some work on my back before bed, and I feel much better now, but will be pretty sore tomorrow.