Kerpal's Training Log

[Fuglydude]

Let us know how using the belt goes next time... My buddies who have 3x bodyweight deadlifts all wear belts for competitions. Most of them swear by it. I've tried to use a belt, but found it to be quite uncomfortable. Mind you this was years ago when my 1 RM for deads was in the high 300 range.

Nice deadlift numbers by the way! Looks like you're back 100%!

 

[Kerpal]

Yup. Above 100% actually, I was only doing 3 x 5 x 325 squat and 5 x 415 deadlift before the operation I believe... Thank God for laparoscopic surgery. If I had gotten open surgery I would probably just now be getting back into lifting.

 

[Quagmire911]

I actually think the month off probably did you some good. It gave your body a really long rest, and your cns, hormones etc, got the chance to rest up and get primed again.

I took a long time of squats and when I came back to them I blew past my old numbers.

I think there is something to this. The body simply can't lift heavy week in week out indefinitely. This is also contributes to injuries etc.

I'm going to have to have a couple of weeks off soon. I usually like two full weeks off occasionally.

Anyway, sweet deads. Looks like the PR's are going around deads the last few weeks. Time we saw 500.

Keep it up,

Quagmire

 

[Fuglydude]

I actually think the month off probably did you some good. It gave your body a really long rest, and your cns, hormones etc, got the chance to rest up and get primed again.

I took a long time of squats and when I came back to them I blew past my old numbers.

I think there is something to this. The body simply can't lift heavy week in week out indefinitely. This is also contributes to injuries etc.

I'm going to have to have a couple of weeks off soon. I usually like two full weeks off occasionally.

Anyway, sweet deads. Looks like the PR's are going around deads the last few weeks. Time we saw 500.

Keep it up,

Quagmire

Definitely agree long rest periods necessary for recovery... Unless of course you're on. AAS changes the picture a bit.

My chiropractor actually recommended I take 7-10 days off every 3-4 months.

I think Kerpals' done 5 bills before, hasn't he? Sorry I'm too lazy to go look back thru his journal. Kerpal, I the discreptancy between your lower body/core strength vs. upper body strength is weird. Generally guys that are as strong as you in lifts like the squats/deads also have great upper body strength. Do you just train lower body more frequently? I know you have something wrong w/ your left arm though, so I can imagine this hindering progress.

 

[Kerpal]

I haven't done 500 yet. 475 has been my max so far.

The problem is my left arm. It has some kind of congenital defect and is half as strong as my right.

 

[Kerpal]

03/26/10

Squat:

2 x 5 x 360 lbs
3 x 360 lbs (failed 4 th rep)
1 x 360 lbs (re-racked and did 1 more)

Wore belt for this. First time wearing a belt for squats, it felt good.

Bench press:

15 x 150 lbs
13 x 150 lbs



Looks like my bench has plateaued again. What else is new.

Wanted to do more but the gym was closing. My legs and lower back are completely wiped out though. It seems like my back is having a hard time recovering lately. I may be reaching the my limits for linear progression.

 

[Kerpal]

03/31/10

Squat:

5 x 360 lbs
3 x 360 lbs
4 x 360 lbs

Had trouble sleeping the night before this, only got a couple hours so was tired before I even went in. I Don’t know why I only got 3 reps on the 2nd set but 4 on the 3rd. Rep 4 was the hardest squat rep I’ve ever done though.

Overhead press:

8 x 55 lbs (per arm)
6 x 55 lbs (left arm only)

Failed here, got pissed off, went home. I’m thinking about just not training upper body at all anymore, or only training my right arm. I’m tired of banging my head against the wall.

 

[Quagmire911]

Why don't you do the Dave Tate workout again? You were making progress on it, no?

And those last few workouts are you doing the bench after the deads? Are you doing the oh press after the squats? If you are, progress will be even slower, possibly non-existant, simply because you've put so much into the other two lifts.

I would consider giving upper body it's own day, if not, at least doing it before the deads and squats.

I'm pretty sure you're bench and oh press are up overall from when you began lifting, so if you have made progress in the past, you can continue to make progress.

Chin up! Nice squat and dead btw ,

Quagmire

 

[Jitterbug]

Doing OHP or bench before squat will not affect your squat, but vice versa, it does.

Also, Kerpal, I'd drop the reps a bit on the bench press. I made big progress switching to "21" aka 3 sets of 5 + 6 sets of 1 (21 rep total).

Let's say your 1RM is 85kg. You start with 60kg and do this:

60kg x5, 62.5kg x5, 65kg x5.
67.5kg x1, 70kg x1, 72.5kg x1, 75kg x1, 77.5kg x1, 80kg x1

Next session, increase every above set by 2.5kg.

You may do fewer 1s when it starts to get heavy, until you can't do anymore 1s.

Convert to pounds, and go up by 5lbs each session.

And read this by Dave Tate: http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_...ance/bench_press_600_pounds_a_12_step_program

 

[Drum&Bass]

I think its time for you to cut back on squats and deadlifts and start focusing heavily on your arms and chest.

Also that article by Dave Tate is very general and good for people who are JUST starting out with bench press...like high school / elementary school level.

You will NEVER have a strong bench press until you train your wrists/forearms/triceps and biceps with the same aggressiveness you use to train your squat and deadlift.

I think in order for you to move on to the next level you need to step back from squatting and deadlift consistently and focus all your effort on bringing up your lagging parts (arms).

 

[Jitterbug]

Also that article by Dave Tate is very general and good for people who are JUST starting out with bench press...like high school / elementary school level.

I don't know about that, he wrote it for people who want to bench 600 pounds.

 

[Drum&Bass]

I don't know about that, he wrote it for people who want to bench 600 pounds.

Its called clever copywriting which falls in the marketing category.

If you or anyone else can bench anywhere NEAR that amount of weight you already knew all of the tips Tate gives.


Its an article meant for beginners. If you were to try and teach someone proper benching who never benched before in their life the cues in the article would give you a good starting point.

 

[Jitterbug]

I know plenty of guys who bench way more than a beginner (~ 2x BW) who don't do all of those things.

No offense meant to Kerpal, but do you think, with his current BP weights, he really doesn't need to follow any of those tips?

 

[Kerpal]

04/03/10:

Squat:

3 x 5 x 360

Crushed it.

Bench press:

2 x 15 x 150 lbs

Felt good.

Deadlift:

3 x 430 lbs

Went for 5 here, but failed on 4th rep. The squats completely ****ed me. I was feeling a little shaky after them. Don’t think I ate enough before I went in today.

 

[Kerpal]

Why don't you do the Dave Tate workout again? You were making progress on it, no?

Yeah, I will probably end up going back to that but I didn't get much out of it. I also feel kind of stupid doing floor presses and board presses when I can barely bench my bodyweight... I mean I see guys at the gym all the time who are just doing the usual 3 x 10 on bench, and they're moving a hell of a lot more weight than I am with atrocious form... then again, that's ALL they do

And those last few workouts are you doing the bench after the deads? Are you doing the oh press after the squats? If you are, progress will be even slower, possibly non-existant, simply because you've put so much into the other two lifts.

I would consider giving upper body it's own day, if not, at least doing it before the deads and squats.

I'm still doing the basic Starting Strength program, so I squat, then upper body, then deadlift. I don't want to go more than 3 days a week for now because the gym is kind of far from my house and gas is expensive. I don't want to do upper body first because I still care about the squat the most and I don't want anything to interfere with that. If I do the upper lift first, then I have to squat and deadlift consecutively, don't really want to do that either.

I'm pretty sure you're bench and oh press are up overall from when you began lifting, so if you have made progress in the past, you can continue to make progress.

Not too sure... the bench has barely moved and the OHP hasn't moved in a year I really can't think of any explanation why my upper body is so weak other than some kind of congenital defect. It's not overtraining or anything like that, my other lifts are still progressing with simple linear programming, and I've tried a ton of different things for upper body and nothing seems to work very well.

 

[Kerpal]

I think its time for you to cut back on squats and deadlifts and start focusing heavily on your arms and chest.

Also that article by Dave Tate is very general and good for people who are JUST starting out with bench press...like high school / elementary school level.

You will NEVER have a strong bench press until you train your wrists/forearms/triceps and biceps with the same aggressiveness you use to train your squat and deadlift.

I think in order for you to move on to the next level you need to step back from squatting and deadlift consistently and focus all your effort on bringing up your lagging parts (arms).

Yeah, I read the article and it's actually not that different from what Rippetoe says in Starting Strength. I pretty much do exactly what Tate says, except I don't tuck my feet under the bench as much. I keep my heels on the floor. I kind of see using such a big arch as cheating, since its only purpose is to shorten the ROM (kind of like sumo deadlifting). I do arch, but only to protect my shoulders.

Squatting/deadlifting are still the important lifts to me so I don't really want to cut back on them.

 

[Jitterbug]

Kerpal, overhead press is a hard one to progress. The best routine I've heard of for this is the Hepburn press routine (look the guy up, fellow strongman from Paul Anderson's time).

The Hepburn press course.

Work out 3 times a week.

Take a weight, lets use 50kg and perform 3 reps, 5 sets.

Keep the same weight but add one more set each workout until you have done 10 sets with the 50kg.

This will take you 2 weeks or 6 workouts.
Now drop back to 5 sets, 3 reps, but add 2.5kg.

Continue the addage of 2.5kg every seventh workout.

Give it a try. I know people who have stalled on their presses have progressed nicely from doing it.

 

[cuzza]

For me, if something isn't progressing for a while I would just ditch it and come back to it after a couple of months and you tend to blitz past your previous weights. Bench press isn't the be all and end all of chest training, infact for many it's apparently fairly poor. Try moving to a dumbell press or some sorta HS machine?

 

[Quagmire911]

As far as the linear progression goes: I think that previously it had done all it could for you. Then the month of gave your cns time to recuperate, and when you came back you started eating more and your weight went up. This is cheating linear progression off sorts. I'm around 175 right now, if I did gomad and started Rippetoe tommorow, sure I could up my dead and squat for a good while, but I'd end up 200+ like you have done.

All you're really doing with the weight gain is setting your potential higher. Once your weight gain stops the program is going to level off like it did before.

I suppose it is about priorites. You've said in the past that your dead/squat is more important.

You say "Yeah, I will probably end up going back to that but I didn't get much out of it. I also feel kind of stupid doing floor presses and board presses when I can barely bench my bodyweight..."

You did get something out of it, and upper body does progress more slowly, especially if you aren't gifted for it. Look for that 5-10lb increase on your max every few months- it'll add up over time.

You need to go at it with a fighting mentality, otherwise you will fail. And to be honest, a few sets of bench and oh press isn't going to cut it.

Still though, nice dead

 

[CarlitosWay]

I think its time for you to cut back on squats and deadlifts and start focusing heavily on your arms and chest.

Also that article by Dave Tate is very general and good for people who are JUST starting out with bench press...like high school / elementary school level.

You will NEVER have a strong bench press until you train your wrists/forearms/triceps and biceps with the same aggressiveness you use to train your squat and deadlift.

Agreed. Plus I see lot's of straight sets in his log, I mean I never use the same weight for more than one set and I just keep ramping up ...to a big top set or two. Than that's what I try to beat ....next time. If he added a CGBP and a good tri extension movement done two times a week and some bi work + forearm work for (brachialis) (which helps strengthen you a lot at the elbows for pressing) I could see his bench going up big time, even with a gimp arm, I've seen powerlifters with a prosthetic arm still pressing some pretty good weights.

I think in order for you to move on to the next level you need to step back from squatting and deadlift consistently and focus all your effort on bringing up your lagging parts (arms).

Yeah guy has a real good deadlift and pretty good squat. Cutting back freq on those some and hammering tris/bis/shoulders/back a lot more would help his bench big time no?