My routine....

[Deleted]

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to get some feedback on my routine to see if I'm doing to much of one thing or not enough of another etc (shoulders is one area I was not sure if I am hitting all spots)

Monday: Legs

Squat: Warm up bar
65lbs - 8 reps * 1
85lbs - 8 reps *1
95lbs - 8 reps * 1

Leg press calves
300lbs 8 reps * 3

Leg press
300lbs 8 reps * 3

Standing calf raise machine
90lbs 8 reps * 3

Leg Curl machine
120lbs 8 reps *3

Ab work

Wednesday: Chest/Triceps/Shoulders

Bench- warm up bar
135lbs 8 reps * 1
155lbs 8 reps * 1
165lbs 8 reps * 1
175lbs 8 reps * 1

Seated Triceps press machine
240lbs 8 reps * 3

overhead press machine
90lbs 8 reps * 3

Hammer bench
75lbs 8 reps * 3

Front raise
15lbs db 8 reps * 3

Over head triceps machine
115lbs 8 reps * 3

lateral shoulder machine
8 reps * 3

Abs

Friday: Back/Biceps

Dead lift
135lbs 8 reps * 1
175lbs 8 reps * 1
205lbs 8 reps * 1
225lbs 8 reps * 1

Lat machine bicep pull down
8 reps * 3

Bent over rows barbell
135lbs 8 reps * 3

Barbell curl
70lbs 8 reps * 3

Lat machine wide grip
8 reps * 3

Lifted on and off a little my life, never serious just getting back into it and want to do competitions and make it my new sport. Thanks for any help

[Ryan]

Welcome!

Powerlifting is a great sport. Very much a community, and even more so on the raw lifting front.

I always temper any advice I give with disclaimer that I'm fairly new to this sport myself (didn't even know what PLing was until 2010, and have only been training/competing raw since summer 2011).

However, with that said, I can offer advice based on some of what you're saying in your post here, and some of what you're not saying.

First, let me say that it's clear you have interest in learning and also clear from your workout routine that you have dedication, assuming you've been upholding that schedule for a while now.

What I will also say though is that from the looks of the routine, your knowledge base and/or those who have trained with you (possibly) shows a slant toward bodybuilding, where you focus on a lot of higher rep schemes and break training session down into body-part-by-the day scenarios.

Powerlifting is different in the sense that it's all about getting stronger, appearance be damned. Not to say it wont also get you in shape and bigger muscularly, but that's more an afterthought in the grand scheme of things. So, to build explosive power, it's best to focus mostly on the big three lifts (SQ, BN, DL) and fill in any gaps with assistance works as you see fit, or depending on the PLing school of thought you choose to follow (some believe in assistance work, others believe in using additional apparatus like chains and bands, etc, while other folks take the Eastern Euro/Russian mindset of do nothing but SQ/BN/DL and compete often).

I would suggest looking around at other people's logs here to get a feel for the general concept of how a PLing is best structured because although we're all different (some full PLers, some bench-only people), the common thread you'll see is that the main core lifts make up the meat of everyone's training regimen, simply because those are the lifts you're judged on and need to get better at so, it makes most sense to target them.

Also, what do you typically weigh?
Have you noticed that you're stronger at a particular one of the big 3 lifts?
Happen to know if you have long-ish arms or legs for your height?

Thanks and again, welcome!

-Ryan

[dbunch]

I had basically the same assessment as Ryan; it looks like there is a lot of bodybuilder influence in your training. You’re training by body part instead of movements. For Example when I’m training Squats, a good 50 to 75% of my workout will be squatting. I generally only do one or two accessory lifts.

JMO – calf work is a waste of time for Powerlift. I wouldn’t bother with it at all.

Looking at you numbers I would say you very week in the squat so that might be an area you would want to focus on. I’ll also put it out there because it easier to get it right from the get-go than it is to try to correct it later. Depth, Depth, Depth! From the 100% Raw rules
“The lifter must bend the knees and lower the body until the top surface of the legs at the hip joint is lower than the top of the knees”

I see to many people bomb out of there first meets because they don’t get the proper depth

There are a lot of different training philosophy and routines and I’m not one to say one is better than another but being new to the sport I would strongly recommend 5/3/1. It’s a very simple, straight forward program to follow and it’s very flexible.

With all that said welcome aboard. I look forward to future post.

Oh! Just curious, where do you hail from?

[Deleted]

Ryan,
Thanks for the response; I am just re-starting you could say so the coach at the gym said do this for a couple months until we see where I’m at. I did add some extra lifts on there because I didn’t feel like I was doing enough, which is probably the bodybuilding type exercise you see. I have noticed everyone at the club is doing squats the whole time on leg day with maybe one or two other exercises, same as other two main lifts.

I am 225lbs now I should be 185lbs though (working on that)

I’d say my strongest is my DL and weakest is squat for sure

I have long arms shorter legs

[Deleted]

Dbunch,
Thanks for response also. Yeah my squat is definitely my weakest but I do go donkey to grass to be sure I hit the depth. Going to check out the 5/3/1 routine you mentioned, I guess that is where I was confused to go after doing all this stuff, my schedule changed and I can’t get to the club when the owner is there to know what to do. Next I thought just drop everything to 7 reps and add 10 pounds and go down from there until I hit one rep max on everything. Kind of a duh moment though after reading all this I should just be doing the three main lifts the most. But thanks again for the input and I’m from Colorado.

[Ryan]

Apr 26, 2013 15:54:21 GMT -5 @slipknotic said:

Ryan,
Thanks for the response; I am just re-starting you could say so the coach at the gym said do this for a couple months until we see where I’m at. I did add some extra lifts on there because I didn’t feel like I was doing enough, which is probably the bodybuilding type exercise you see. I have noticed everyone at the club is doing squats the whole time on leg day with maybe one or two other exercises, same as other two main lifts.

I am 225lbs now I should be 185lbs though (working on that)

I’d say my strongest is my DL and weakest is squat for sure

I have long arms shorter legs

Good stuff man. Keep up going to the gym and just soak up as much knowledge as possible from the others on this forum.

Also, I have the same problem, if you wanna call it that (long arms, and fairly short legs). More than anything else this is like a death sentence on the bench. Lol