NorthStrong's Training Log

[NorthStrong]

Meet Week!

Squat 3x5 @ 8

275x5
295x5
315x5

Bench 3x5 @ 8

185x5x3

Lats n abs 2x10

Commentary

Solid day overall. Had 3 hrs of frisbee prior to, so I was bruuuttally exhausted. Felt stupid tight on squats, some of the worst I've ever done lol. Had a good talk with Coach Doollas today and I'm feeling good and excited for my meet. Looking forward to it. This week is easy now, just a lil prehab type day on Wednesday. I'll find out on Wednesday if I can get a handler for the meet or not.

Meetin Brandon Lilly for the seminar on Friday, and then lifting on Saturday.

[SCWolf]

Are you going to train calves with Brandon Lilly

[NorthStrong]

Originally Posted by SCWolf

Are you going to train calves with Brandon Lilly

1000

[SCWolf]

[NorthStrong]

Swer 2 god m8.

[NorthStrong]

Fluff. 2x10 of everything with light ass weight.

[SCWolf]

calves?

[NorthStrong]

Weigh ins and seminar write are in my log if you wanna check it out, B Lilly did the seminar and it was a very good!

MEET DAY

Woke up at 6:45 am - drove to the meet and was there in time for the rules meeting. It was nice to have that just to go over how things would be in real time. I was in flight 3 out of 4, so I had quite a while to chill before lifting. Eating was hard, couldn't eat much without feeling sick but managed to get some beef jerky in, and a bit of a sandwich. Just nerves I think. Took some caffeine when I was warming up.

Warmups went good, a few guys commented saying my squats looked good / fast, ended up hitting 315 for a caouple singles before going on the platform. Opener was good, second was good and felt fast, so I took my 3rd attempt at 410 and missed it. Really should have had it. I almost missed the rack command on the first squat, but they just told me to wait for it longer the next time since it was my first meet, so I did.

Rested between squat and bench, and got a bit more food in. Most of the nervousness was gone but it was still hard to eat an appreciable amount of food.

Was sitting next to Lilly and Amit Sapir (an ifbb pro) who were both really nice guys. Got a pic with Amit - he's a short ball of muscle lol. Very friendly.

Bench warmups were strange, as the equipment was very different and I couldn't set my feet properly. Not a big deal though. Might have warmed up too heavy for bench honestly, hit 225 in the warmup room about 10 mins before my first bench on the platform, but I don't think it took anything out of me.

Again I don't know the exact weight in kilos but I opened with about 235. (Once the results are posted I will post the exact kilos / pounds). Opener moved well, and I had my JTS hat on when doing it. Brandon Lilly was MC-ing and he said "If you're gonna be lifting with a juggernaut hat on you better make it look easy - good lift!" which was really cool to hear. Second attempt at 255, to set me up fo 275 on my third. The 255 went up cleanly, but I knew that 275 wasn't there on that day so I took roughly 265 and grinded it out. Was 5/6 at this point and was feeling good.

Deadlifts were strange to warm up for, but they were feeling good. Took some more caffeine, and got in more food (feeling even less nervous now) before the warmups started. The bars in the warmup room were just regular power bars and the one on the platform was a deadlift bar (first time using one). Killed the first and second attempts at roughly 365, and 390, so I jumped up to about 415 (was like 418 or 413, i think 413 though, so like an 8lb PR) and crushed that too.

After the first deadlift when I went to go and choose my next attempt, Amit was there, looked at me and told me that I had a lot more and to put a lot more weight on the bar which I thought was very cool and encouraging.

Pulled my 3rd DL, went to go sit with my friends and see how the video looked, but they instead called me over for a drug test. Was weird, I just peed before DLs and farted and made sure nothing stupid would happen on the platform. So they were like can you be in a cup. I was like no. Had to slam 2 liters of water in like 10-15 minutes and got stupid bloated.

Was happy with getting 8/9 lifts, even though I had more weight left in me on the deadlift I'm happy with how they went.

I won second place in my class / age division so I am basically a champion. not srs. Got a lil trophy for it which was cool though. The main trophy for best raw male and female lifter was badass - a mjolnir (Thor's hammer)



And then after the awards were given there was a prize draw which I won. That was sick, I got a bunch of stuff (haven't really looked at it much yet) but like a METAL hat, a 100 dolla gift certificate to a fitness type store. And some other supplements / t-shirts.

Although my lifts were not as good as I had hoped, but this meet was more about the experience and learning how to compete.

Can't wait to get back to training.

VIDEO

[SCWolf]

Congrats man! Great work!

[Reach]

Great work :) Sounds like a pretty sweet time.

Was it in Amherst?

If I ever don't suck at lifting I might try a meet. Especially if my hips stay good and my squat can recover.

I know Cherie would like to try. How were the females there? Her PR deadlift is 270 and I'm curious as to how well that would do there.

[NorthStrong]

Originally Posted by Reach

Great work :) Sounds like a pretty sweet time.

Was it in Amherst?

If I ever don't suck at lifting I might try a meet. Especially if my hips stay good and my squat can recover.

I know Cherie would like to try. How were the females there? Her PR deadlift is 270 and I'm curious as to how well that would do there.

Thanks man, it was a ton of fun.

Yeah it was.

Just do it, lifts don't need to be good, look at mine lol. Just did it to get some experience and have fun. Having a competition in mind gives your training more purpose and you'll train harder and get better results too.

Lots of girls, about 1/4 competitors were girls. Some where pretty strong. Depends on her weight class for how well that would do. Lots of light girls were pulling about 300.

[NorthStrong]

Gonna start my off season training tomorrow with a fuckload of squats.

[Reach]

Plans for offseason training?

I want to gain as much strength as possible this fall/winter. Hoping to ramp up the frequency that I'm squatting/benching/deadlifting.

[NorthStrong]

Originally Posted by Reach

Plans for offseason training?

I want to gain as much strength as possible this fall/winter. Hoping to ramp up the frequency that I'm squatting/benching/deadlifting.

low frequency, half bodybuilding half powerlifting style stuff. losing a bit of weight over the next couple months to be at the 198s for next meet.

off season is cycling from 10s to 3s and in season is from 6s to 2s. Just 2 linear cycles - all autoregulated still. More focus on the sport form as compeition approaches.

[NorthStrong]

Off Season Week 1 Squat

Squat x 10 @ 9, 5%

bar x lots
135x5
185x5
225x10
275x10
315x10 @ 8ish? too painful to be super accurate
300x10 @ 9

High Bar Close Stance Pause Squat x 10 @ 9, 5%

225x10 @ 9
215x10 @ 9

Front Squat x 10 @ 9, 5%

155x10 @ 8
155x10 @ 9
145x10 @ 9

Commentary

This was awful.

[NorthStrong]

Off Season Week 1 Bench

Bench x 10 @ 9, 7.5%

135x10
155x10
175x10 @ 8
175x10 @ 9
165x10 @ 9

Close Grips x 10 @ 9, 7.5%

135x10 @ 9
125x10 @ 9

Inclines x 10 @ 9, 7.5%

95x10 @ 8
95x10 @ 8
105x10 @ 9
95x10 @ 9

curls, pushdowns, flyes

Commentary

Today went astonishingly quick. My legs are absolutely fukked from yesterday...walking is very painful. I feel like the douchebags from the "don't skip leg day" memes right now srs.

As you can probably tell my training is really heavily influenced by Ed Coan right now, as well as being combined with that template that Brandon Lilly talked about. It's painful right now, but this kind of training will lead to having a nice base for me leading into the next meet.

So yeah today went very well. Kinda strange to not be training heavy for a while - but like I said I believe it will pay off.

[NorthStrong]

Off Season Week 1 Deadlift

Deadlift x 10 @ 9

135x5x2
185x10
225x10
275x10 @ 9

Sumo off 4" Block x 10 @ 9

225x10
275x10
315x10

Stiff Leg DL x 10 @ 9

135x10
185x10
225x10

Commentary

Today went really well! Was happy overall with the day. Did not do any backoff work, listened to my body and cut some of the work out. Legs are still absolutely fuked up from squatting so much on Monday. Also today was the first time I wore a tank top. Far too pasty and fluffy for dat **** lol.

Conv pulls for reps are SO much harder than squatting for reps. Hooly nuts they suck. 275x10 was insanely hard.

Doing the sumo pulls off blocks as per Dan Green and Chris Duffins' recommendations and they were good. 315x10 was more than I thought I'd hit - these smashed my upper back. The transition to sumo will be smooth I think.

Did some sumo pulls from the floor with 225 after too. Felt good. More flexibile than I thought I was.

SLDLS were good. So much better since I learned how to do them from that Ed Coan video. Also did some ab work, stir the pots. That stuff that Brian Carroll's been writing about.

Leg day tomorrow!

[SCWolf]

Your sumo deadlifts looked great btw

[NorthStrong]

Leg stuff

Leg Press / Hack Squat

4x10, these both suck.

Reverse Lunges

3x8leg, 80lbs

Calf Raise

3x10

Leg Curl

3x10

Stir the pots

3x6 each way.

Commentary

Today could be described as "lame as fuk". Because of this, and since I'm still very sore from Monday, I am making a minor change in my programming. Moving front squats from Mondays to the "leg days". One is so I can walk after Mondays, and two is so I have an exercise on leg days that I can actually work hard at and go somewhat heavy on. Leg press and hack squats both just hurt and sucked.

Lunges are great, I like doin em reverse style, doesn't hurt my knees at all and works the hamstrings more. Leg curls were good and calf stuff is fun also since you get to sit down.

Stir the pots are hard, gonna really be working on these.

Traps and adductors are very sore from the pulling yesterday. I am going full sumo cheater.

Originally Posted by SCWolf

Your sumo deadlifts looked great btw

Thanks hunny

[NorthStrong]

Squat

Squat x 10 @ 10

bar x lots
135x5
225x5
275x5
325x10 @ 8 PR
335x10 @ 10 PR

ow

High Bar Close Stance Pause Squat x 10 @ 10

first of all fukn lol at the name of this exercise

225x10 @ 9
225x10 @ 10

Commentary

Today was a good day! Pretty stoked on 335x10, woulda been good for more if I didn't do the 325x10 beforehand for sure.

The HBCSPS (LOL) were super hard. Just so much tension on the quad and quad only it's super hard, making an effort to stay perfectly upright and I'm hoping that this will carryover to my competition squat to keep me from folding over which is my usual weakness.

Decided not to do any backoff work today since I was so sore I could hardly move after last week, which was just too taxing on my recovery and kept me from getting in really good benching or deadlifting.

I have a game of frisbee tonight, and I'm gonna do some stir the pots and kettlebell swings after that is over.