Peto's Log

[peto]

Before I hurt my Bicep boxing witha friend, here is what I did for the 30lb Increase on my 285 DL to bring it up to 315.

Mondays- 10 sets of 10 on the kettlebell, alternating from snatches to swings each set. 2 sets of clean and presses for five reps each arm. 2 sets of military presses for five reps each arm. 2 sets of dragon walks. I followed it with another set of snatches then repped it out with 40 hand to hand swings. All done with a 50 lb bell. end of work out.

Tuesdays- Sumo deadlifts. 75% of my 285, which is around 210. One set of five at 210 then a second set of five at 190. end of deadlifts. Other bench work bicep and chins included.

Wednesdays-Repeat tuesday.

Thursday- everything as tuesday except instead of deadlifts I did wide stanced good mornings. 2 sets of five first set at 135, 2nd set at 120.

Friday- Same as Tuesday but with suitcase deadlifts two sets of five for each side with the same weight as my good mornings.

Friday- Repeat tuesday

saturday- Repeat monday

[peto]

Comments and SUggestions welcome.

[dopar66]

Comments: That workout was dang good for a 30 pound PR! Don't make major changes until you reach a plateau!

Glad to see you got the log going! Now we can all share in the gains!

God Bless.
Doug

[peto]

I thought about changing the forms of deadlifts to accomodate my off the floor sticking point. What do you think about that?

[dopar66]

If you mean playing around with foot placement a little, go for it! If you mean switching between conventional and sumo, I wouldn't do that in prep for a competition, but if you are between competitions, expiremint with it and find which is stronger for you.

Hammer gave me some words of wisdom. He told me predominantly big guys use sumo to compensate for um.... large girth. Predominantly smaller guys use conventional for the opposite reason. Then you run into phenomenons like Omar Bermudez who, at a ripped up 165, deadlifts like 600 sumo.....

So...that being said, if you're not in competition mode, find the one that works best for you.

God Bless.
Doug

[peto]

Im by no means a large guy. Im 5'11 and 187. I feel that Sumo deadlifting just owns all. I was thinking of doing off block conventionals though to help me get some more lower back strength and help me get past the floor stick.

[dopar66]

Lots of guys here mention using pull-throughs. They don't do diddly for me, but you might try them out on a light day. Also, working the heck out of the Romanians and SLDLs seems to me they'd help any deadlifter. 3Speed is as knowledgable about the mechanics of the lift as anybody I know of, so maybe you could PM him or wait for him to post here.

I tell you what though, you just added 30 # to your 1RM. I don't know that I'd worry about it too much until you stop gaining.

Just thought of this. Cappicard is trying a super wide sumo setup. I would not know if that would help with the overall deadlift, but maybe with the floor pop....?.....

All the best! Keep up that killer kettle bell training!

God Bless.

[3speed]

Thanks for the props Doug.

Peto, I would be glad to try and help. I haven't chimed in yet because, honestly, I'm a little confused. I undestand your sticking point is off of the floor. We can fix that with no problem. Do you dead sumo or conventional? What is your training schedule - what lifts on which days? From what I've seen so far - just my 2 cents worth - is that although you made good progress, you are probably overtraining your deads. The lower back is a special case when it comes to recovery and progress.

Let me know if I can be of assistance.

[peto]

Right now, training is a little different than outlined. I wasn't overtraining the deads, but I did do a lot of work with them. Right now Im focused on my squats so I have a routine for that that I do on Mondays and Thursdays and each day is moderately heavy to heavy. So Im not doing any assistance work DL training.
Mondays- Squats(the routine can be found in Pavel's Beyond Bodybuilding, its a variant of the smolov routine)and Bicep Barbell Curls for two sets of five, the second set at lighter weight. End of Monday.
Tuesday is dynamic bench day and all sorts of other speed work including plate raises and Crazy 8s.
Wednesday I have off.
Thursday- Repeat monday but with heavier weights.
Friday- Max effort Bench day. Floor Presses, Board Presses and Heavy tricep work, either in Close Grip BPs, weighted dips or Skull Crushers along with Chin ups with alternating grips each set. and two more sets of five with bicep curls.

The style in which I did train my deadlifts as well as my Biceps goes by doing two sets of five and the second set the weight is dropped to 90% of the first sets weight. after every two or three work outs i would up the weight by five pounds. somewhere in between 6 and 12 work outs i lower the weight back down to a starting point that was higher than the original starting point and repeat the cycle. The gains I made that way on my Curl were phenominal. I increased my 5RM by 25 pounds on this system, I also made nice gains on my DL with it too. And to answer you, I pull Sumo.

[peto]

I was wondering about benching and squatting with chains. where can I get chains, and since my lifts are low, would it be worth it?

[dopar66]

I am brand spanking new to chains, but my gut reaction is to highly endorse trains, if for nothing but explosiveness and lockout. When I did my nasty wide grips, and my close grips yesterday, I was working harder with the chains than I do with straight plates.
My understanding is that chains and bands do approximately the same thing, so if you have access to bands already, try them first.

I made my chains from stuff bought from a tractor supply place. I bought two 10' pieces of 3/8" chain (the biggest, heaviest stuff they had in stock) and two 2' pieces to attach them to the bar. Some kind of clip to hook them together, any kind, will do. Total cost was $33 for a set of 30# chains. I plan on making a second set this weekend.

There have been about three posts recently on where you can get professionally made chains for a decent price. If you use that google search at the bottom of this page, you can probably go right to them.

Hope this helps.

God Bless.

[3speed]

Bands are much rougher on your system than chains and should be reserved for experienced lifters.

[peto]

Im worried that I cant lift enough weight with the chains since my last 1RM bench was 250. Here also, is my Max Effort bench work out for today.

Floor Press-
135x3Repsx1set
185x2x1
205x2x1
225x1x1
235x1x1
245x1x1 (PR hit. go me)
Close grip BP
200x5x1
180x5x1
160x5x2
Chinups
BW(189)+20 lbs 5x1
BWx5x1
Military Press
50 lb Kettlebell 5x1
35 lb kettlebell 5x2


Called it a day and ate some oatmeal and eggs.

[dopar66]

Nice work! Those 1 rep sets are no fun, but one HECK of a way to build up some strength and CNS! Keep up the awesome work!

God Bless.

[peto]

Dynamic effort today.

10 sets of triples with wide close and medium on the bench at 150.

Crazy 8s for the tris

four sets of twelve dumbell cleans with 25 lbs in each hand

plate raises for three sets of 12 with a 45 lb plate

3 sets of pull downs 120 lbs 12 reps per set.

suggestions on other exercises or any minor tweaking anyone?

[dopar66]

Today's would have been a great workout with the chains. Your concern was about weight, well you dropped back to 150 for various grips, 3 reps/set. The PERFECT time to throw on some chain! I'm using chains at around 60% 1RM, because I'm lazy and it's an easy bar load. I think a rule of thumb is around 50%, but not chiseled in stone anywhere.

No minor tweaking as of yet. As long as the gains keep coming, the form stays good, keep at it!

God Bless.

[peto]

Chains on 150? wouldnt that add 11 lbs of pressure at lockout? that being the case, thats my max right there. is that kosher?

[dopar66]

My bad. I thought you had dropped back more than that off your max.

For the chain work you'd drop back to around 50-65% of your 1 rep max. Also on the close grip benches, wide benches, whatever you use the chains on.

Whoo doggy that would have put you in a bind! Glad you didn't jump right up and throw chains on. (sheepish grin)

God Bless.

[peto]

150 is 60% of my max. but the undred pounds of pressure from the chains would put me at my max. is that the idea? or can you get chains that put less pressure on the weight?

[peto]

Pure brutality on my ME day today.

Floor Presses
135 3reps 1 set
185x3x1
205x3x1
225x1x1
235x1x1
250x1x1 PR hit. My max bench is probably greater than 250 now.
Close Grip BP
200lbsx5x1
180x5x1
160x5x3
Curls
95x5x1
85x5x1
Military Presses
40lb dumbells 5x1
35s5x1
30s5x1
Pullups
BW+25 2x1
BW 5x1

[peto]

My brutality must cease temporarily. I hate sickness.

[dopar66]

Hey, Peto. Sorry it took so long to reply.

I think chains run around 40# of added resistance if they are completely off the floor. In other words, at the bottom you'd have the 185 and at the top about 225.

Nice PR! Congratulations! Another milestone has passed.

Hope you get better soon.

God Bless.

[peto]

Sickness clearing. training will commence monday.

[peto]

The brutality commences. The usual DE upper body day with slightly hevier weights on the assistance work. Went well,I feel great.

[dopar66]

Good deal! Glad you are feeling better!

God Bless.