Sqauts

Squat: 2 x 10 x Bar
       2 x 5 x 135
       225 x 3
       315 x 1
       5 x 5 x 350

Standing Band crunches: 5 x 15

That was all......

Bench session.

Warm up: Light Db & Band movements

Bench: Bar x 20
           2 x 10 x 95
           2 x  5 x 135
           150 x 5
           185 x 4
           225 x 3
           260 x 2
           310 x 1
           260 x 17

CG Bench: 2 x 8 x 225

Arm curls: 2 x 10 x DON'T CARE

OK session , bench is slightly down right now. Cant complain since is only my second actual session in the past 5 weeks or so. Since , the new low bar position was taking  a toll on my shoulders . Specifically my rotator cuff which is just now getting accustomed to the new position.

Pulling

Warm up : PVC

Front Squats: ( unto a parellel box) 315 x 3... Oh do these suck. *Note...Im using a box so I can concentrate fully on bar position and not have to divide my concentration on proper depth.

Rack Pulls: ( below Knees).. Heavy single  Not worth mentioning , I didn't take into account that my upper back was still slightly fatigued from the work  I did from the other day

Well ... For the record to Hell with sumo deads. They are too hard on my hips at this point. I've decided to play around with a Bastardized version of a Brad Gillingham Dead routine.

Over head press and back

Warm up: Light band/db movements

OHP: 2 x 20 x bar
         95 x 10
         120 x 5
         145 x 4
         175 x 3
          200 x 2
          225 x 1
          200 x 8.....Ehh didn't push it. My shoulders were still feeling beat up from the new bar position on squats

Dumbbell rows: 170 x 8 / 110 x 12....last set I just focused  on squeezing   the hell out of the muscles involved

Pull downs: 4 x 8 x some weight

Shrugs: 455 x 10 / 315 x 30 ....... Just didn't feel like using much weight.

So so session.... energy level was up and down tonight. 

Sunday squat session.

Warm up: PvC pipes
Crap load of shoulder mobility work.

Squat : 2 x 10 x bar
            2 x 5 x 135
            225 x 3
            275 x 1
            330 x 1
            385 x 1
             440 x 10..... NOT what I wanted my lungs gave out before my hips and legs did.

Champion Training Day

Me picture with a true legend

 

All right, as some may or may not know I was in training for my next Meet when I came aware of a seminar being hosted by Reactive Training System.  . Which, by chance, occurred exactly one week from the day of my Meet go figure, Which put me in a predicament of either going to the CTD were I would lift in front of some of the best and get feedback or just focus on my Meet. To make it more of a hard decision it was being held less than 40 miles from my home. Luckily for me I got nailed by a Flu bug which threw my training into the shitter. So making the decision became somewhat easier on my end along with having someone point out to me that in the long run it would probably be more beneficial in the long run to attend the CTD. Since any type of actual coaching for me doesn't exist. In retrospect considering the quality of the individuals there, I’m not sure why there was any question in my mind in the first place.

Here is a rundown of who was there and doing the hands on coaching

Jeremy Hartman:

 

Teen National Title, 4 Consecutive Collegiate/Jr. National Championships, and a Men’s Open in 2008.Gold Medal dead lift at the 2008 IPF Open World Championships at 218lbs. He is currently the strength and conditioning coach for the High School which the seminar took place.

 Brian Siders

 

  is a world champion power lifter and regular participant in the Arnold Strongman Classic. Brian started lifting in high school; mainly just training the bench press and upper body. Brian started focusing on squatting and dead lifting in the winter of 1997, and started doing full power lifting meets in 1998.]Brian trains 6 to 7 days per week and up to 4 hours at a time at his gym he built at his home.[  Brian has set several power lifting world records, including a world record total of 2,452 lbs. at the 2004 USAPL Senior National Championships,] and another world record total of 2,529 lbs. at the 2004 IPF World Championships. Brian currently holds the IPF world record in the bench press of 775.5 lbs and total of 2,596 lb in the super heavyweight weight class.

 Mike Tuchscherer:

 

Mike Tuchscherer competed on Saturday March 3rd at the 2012 Arnold Raw Challenge setting seven IPF raw world records. He weighed in at 264 pounds and squatted 716.5 lbs deadlifted 782.6 lbs and totaled 1934.5 lbs. All three are new IPF raw world records. Mike also benched 435.4 lbs raw.

Ed Coan

 

 

If I need to go into Eds achievements Ill fill two pages. Besides if you dont know who he is. Then you need to remove yourself right now. Because, I’m not sure if I’d want to be associated with you.

 

 

Well , I got up Saturday with only a few hours of sleep due to a late night of High School football and still feeling not a 100% due to the damn  bug which has been hanging around like luggage. So it made a less the optimal start. Luckily after getting some breakfast a gallon of coffee and about 800mg of Ibuprofen I felt somewhat less zombie like. Even though I had to slightly fight the urge for human flesh the remainder of the day.  I was the second to arrive at the high school were the seminar was being held, the first being the head strength and conditioning coach for the University of Indianapolis. I was surprised at the very low turnout. Out of 30 open slots only 12 people were attending it which made it even more hands on coaching.

 The meet and greet:

Well before we hit the weights there was about 30 minutes of people introducing themselves.  I'll be honest even at a ripe old age of 41 I felt like a kid and was nervous being around Ed Coan . Luckily, the notion set in with me that he just a regular guy whom has moved allots of weight in his time and I started to feel more comfortable. It also helped that Coan is a pretty humble guy and has a very down to earth attitude. It was funny a younger guy was talking to Ed and was talking a million miles a minute and was into full geek mode. During the exchange I was amused to find out that the whole " Philip Coan dead lift" program you seen on line wasn't written by Coan he just gave a rough outline and Philip ran with it. "I would never do that much work" These were his own words, I had to bite my tongue to keep from busting a gut.

Squats:

 Three of us older bastard ended up flocking together and squatted in the same squat rack. As I started to squat Ed came behind me and got on me for pushing my ass to far back on the start of it. He point blank told me pushing ones ass back like I was works for multi ply guys , not raw. During my progression to my top set for the day Brian Siders gave me advice on shorting my walk out, showing me how he does it with heavy weight. I worked up to 550 for the day. At that point Brian called Ed over to watch. As I was getting under the bar Brian said "Ok,no pressure you just have one of the greatest watching you". I'm, thinking to myself , "Oh Shit". Well I hit it pretty easy in my mind with room to spare.After my last set Ed informed me that I should get the bar lower. I honestly, never thought about it but this entire time I've been doing a High bar squat.  Well Ed got me back under the bar and positioned me.. for the record it sucked due to my lack of shoulder mobility. It's going to take me awhile to get my shoulders were they need to be to the point that my shoulders don't feel like they aren't being dislocated. Jeremy Hartman gave me several band stretches to help me in that department. I was told by Mike Tuchscherer that structurally I was designed to squat based on my body structure.

Bench:

Was a Shit show on my part..  Basically for some reason I could stay tight at all! Mike Hartman pointed out I need to bring my feet back more. Along with the fact that I'm not utilizing my upper back or lats in the movement. I always thought I was, until Mike set me up on the Bench, Damn again! My Lats started cramping up with no weight just from being in the proper set up and being tight.

Deadlift:

I figured this would be the one lift were I needed the most coaching since this is the one lift I  pretty much suck at relative to my other two lifts. But I'll be damned I was told my Brian Siders that my conventional form was better than his. Crap!! Brian and I talked; he and I have similar leverages he suggested that might want to consider trying a modified sumo deadlift. Strangely enough Mike Tuchscherer during the dead portion suggests that I might want to involve my legs more into. So it seems that the general consistence thought seems to be it might be productive for me to experiment with sumo to a point.

 I’m not going to bore the hell at everyone so I'll just get down to it and list a few interesting bits from the seminar.

 

Consistency.. Every time you perform a lift from how you set up the lift to how you perform it.

"I believe in the Russian philosophy, you only have so many true Maxes in your life time don't waste them in the gym" Ed Coan

 I asked Coan how he develop his Bench considering his relatively long arm length, (people tend to overlook he had a fairly damn good one). His response was that he got his assistance exercise as strong as possible so that he had no weak point.

Listen to what your body is telling you.

 When you make changes to your program introduce those changes one at a time. Donâ??t go hog wild and revamp everything in your program all at once.

Always try to be smart on meet attempts and try for 9 for 9 , most guys whom win Meets at the higher level normally go 7 for 9 or better.

 I asked if there was any benefit for a Raw lifter to implement gear into ones training. by Mike Tuchscherer and Brian Siders felt there was benefit in the aspect of providing  extra overload.

 Ed Coan feels that the the current % used by most for speed work isnâ??t high enough to develop explosiveness.

 Jeremy Hartman is not a fan of touch and go Dead lifting.

 Mike Tuchschere is a big advocate of pause squats and pause Dead lifts.

Coan and Siders are big backers of using overhead pressing to help develop the bench.

 "People read too much" Ed Coan

Reps to build the Deadlift

 Jeremy Hartman resets on every rep on deads up to 20 seconds

Instead of speed work Coan suggested just focusing on lifting as explosively on your work sets.

 Keep things as simple as possible.

Jeremy Hartman is a advocate of rotating between conventional and sumo deads in the offseason.

 Coan based his Meets attempts on how he actually felt on the day of the Meet.

Ernie Frantz, Vince Anello and Larry Pacifico were all of the same mindset that one’s sumo should be the same or close to ones conventional if not it was a sign of a overall body weakness ( this was not from the CTD but it was from a e mail to me from Hartman)

 Well this was just a few things covered.  I should go more into detail but I think most get a general idea.