Return of the King

BossArky

Wednesday April 7th: @home

Shoulder Dislocate (band)
2x10

Pull Apart (band)
2x10
---
Pool stuff - 3 rounds of the following:

• swim 40m bs
• swim 40m fc
• press ups 10 (adding 1 each round)
• bodyweight squats 10 (adding 1 each round)

---

Quick & simple.

BossArky

Thursday April 8th: Deload night - light stuff

Close Grip Bench
20kg - 1x5
40kg - 1x3
50kg - 1x1
55kg - 3x5
---
Squat
20kg - 1x5
40kg - 1x3
50kg - 1x1
60kg - 3x5
---
Decline Sit-ups
2x10
---

Talked to my coach. Based upon my performance thus far his revised recommendations are to go for the following on Sunday:

Squat 112.5/120/125
Bench 85/90/95
Deadlift 152.5/162.5/170 :eek:

Weighted in at 80.1kg fully gym clothed +runners this evening so looking good for being under 80kg on the day. There is a sauna available from 7am. Weigh in is at 8am and lifting starts at 10am. The competition will take place in the weight training centre of one of Melbournes AFL teams and is apparently really well equipped for warming up with a gazillion racks/benches/platforms.

cardio,shoot me

Knock them dead boss, and remember on that 170 deadlift, dont ever ****ing stop, just keep pulling, dont drop it until they tell you to! oh, and push the ****ing hips through!

Hail 2 Da Chimp

That's some serious weight Boss, best of luck!

brutusthebarber

Good luck at the comp Boss.

Openers all look very easy for you.

Go forth and destroy a double bw deadlift!!!

BossArky

Sunday April 11th: Melbourne Open Powerlifting Competition (Hawthorne)

Weigh-in was from 8am with the competiton scheduled to kick off at 10am. I arrived at the venue at 8:30am, having rolled out of bed at 6:30am. This was after hitting the snooze button a few times. I was feeling pretty tired. On Friday morning my stuff arrived from London out of Melbourne port customs, having spent umpteen weeks being prodded and poked by the Oz law. I spent Friday and Saturday unpacking arranging my belongings in my home here, before heading up to the powerlifting club on Saturday afternoon for more lifting of heavy stuff and moving around weights and gear from place to place to get the venue setup for Sundays competition.

The scales in the male changing room told me I was at tiny bit over 80kg fully clothed. Stripped off in my jocks I came in at about 79.6kg. I hopped in the sauna for 15 minutes, showered and officially weighed in a 79.3kg. I was obviously well under the weigh limit for my category (82.5k). The reason for the sauna was two-fold:

1) ensure that I'm comfortably under 80kg and in line for a double bodyweight deadlift
2) a sauna was pleasant in my snoozey state

Rack heights for squat and bench followed before rushing to get gear checked. This left me with 15 mins for my squat warm ups. A lesson learned from my previous compeition back in February was not too warm up too early. So, I was happy enough with 15 mins for my warm ups. I came out of them feeling powered up and perfectly primed for action.

I smashed both squat and deadlift pbs and was pleased to get my paused bench up to just behind my touch n'go bench.

My warm ups went as follows:

SQ: 50kg x5, 70kg x2, 85kg x1, 100kg x1
BP: 55kg x5, 70kg x2, 80kg x1
DL: 60kg x5, 85kg x2, 115kg x1, 140kg x1

My competition lifts went as follows:

Squat
#1: 112.5kg
#2: 120kg ... 5kg pb
#3: 125kg ... 10kg pb

Bench
#1: 85kg ... equals last comp bench best
#2: 90kg ... 5kg up on last comp
#3: 92.5kg ... 7.5 kg up on last comp, and just 2.5kg under all time bench touch and go

Deadlift
#1: 152.5kg ... equals pb
#2: 160kg ... 7.5kg pb & double bodyweight
#3: 165kg ... FAIL - but who cares, I just got double bodyweight!

That gives me a raw total of 377.5kg at 79.3kg. I'm pretty happy with that -> an increase of 25kg on my competition total in less than 2 months.

I was destroyed all squat and bench lifts. Zero wobbles - light weight.

The turning point was my last deadlift warm up (140kg) which felt quite heavy. The 152.5kg went up with a bit of a struggle. 160kg was a screaming and roaring affair (check the video). God, it was satisfying though! I was grinning like an idiot and delighted with myself! Double bodyweight - at last! My coach then proceeded to chastise me for such a brutal lift technically. He reckons the 160kg had been nowhere near my shins and way too far out.

After that I kinda switched off. Obviously I wanted to get 165kg... but I'd just surpassed double bodyweight and had bust my squat pb, along with a decent bench. My mind wasn't fully on the 165kg. It came off the ground a couple of inches (I think) and then I wussed out and let it go without a fight.

You can see the lifts I attempted today were slightly different from what the coach had prescribed on Thursday night. This was down to on the day evaluation.

I was the sole raw competitor in the 82.5kg category. The rest were incredibly strong fellows lifting equipped. A number of them totalled in the late 500kgs / early 600kgs. These guys walk around at 87-89kg and then cut weight severly in the 10 days before a comp. If I was more careful myself I could probably sneak into the 75kg class through clever nutrition in the weeks before competiting. Anyway, I'm happy enough with increasing my lifts for the next while. Once I get to a decent level I'll switch to working on the finer points of making weight.

150% of bodyweight on the squat and 200% on the deadlift have been targets for a while, so I'm glad they worked out today.

Wifey had another great performance. She won the sub 56kg category with 62.5/35/82.5. That is 12.5kg up on both her squat and deadlift in less than 2 months, plus 2.5kg on her bench. She actually weighed in a 52.4kg which would normally have put her in the sub 52.5kg category. However, this category didn't exist today so she was rolled up into the higher sub 56kg category.

Other noteable lifts include an Australia national squat record from one of the guys I train with --> 321kg@100kg.

Videos of my lifts will follow soon.

BossArky

BossArky wrote: »

My competition lifts went as follows:

Squat
#1: 112.5kg
#2: 120kg ... 5kg pb
#3: 125kg ... 10kg pb

Bench
#1: 85kg ... equals last comp bench best
#2: 90kg ... 5kg up on last comp
#3: 92.5kg ... 7.5 kg up on last comp, and just 2.5kg under all time bench touch and go

Deadlift
#1: 152.5kg ... equals pb
#2: 160kg ... 7.5kg pb & double bodyweight
#3: 165kg ... FAIL - but who cares, I just got double bodyweight!

That gives me a raw total of 377.5kg at 79.3kg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjLJ4QNzd2o

Check out my arch on the bench. You can actually see chair legs and the spotters leg through it.

Looking at that video the squats look too easy. 125kg flew up.

Parsley

Great stuff Boss! Making some great progress these days!

BossArky

Thanks folks.

brutusthebarber wrote: »

Go forth and destroy a double bw deadlift!!!

If you listen closely you'll hear me whisper sorry Brutus as I grab the bar for the 160kg deadlift

Hail 2 Da Chimp

Nice stuff Boss, you look huge!

Transform

Hail 2 Da Chimp wrote: »

Nice stuff Boss, you look huge!

big respect man

brutusthebarber

BossArky wrote: »

Thanks folks.



If you listen closely you'll hear me whisper sorry Brutus as I grab the bar for the 160kg deadlift

Hahaha brilliant!!:D I think I'm going to use that quote as my signature:p

Great stuff Boss, very impressive performance.

You going to keep the weight gaining going??

BossArky

Hail 2 Da Chimp wrote: »

Nice stuff Boss, you look huge!

Wearing tight stuff in public gives that impression

Transform wrote: »

big respect man

Thanks.

brutusthebarber wrote: »

You going to keep the weight gaining going??

My weight has been pretty static for the last 6 months or so (around 80kg give or take a kg or two). I'm more concerned with getting stronger rather than bigger/heavier. For comparison one guy from my PL club didn't bother cutting weight and weighed in at 84kg. His lifts were 160/97.5/212.5. Another fellow weighed in at 82kg and deadlift 242.5kg. These are the kinds of lifts I'm one day hoping to achieve at my current bodyweight. Funnily enough, I would have more chance of winning something if I went up into the 90kg category. All the strongs fellows seem to be in the sub 82.5kg bracket.

BossArky

Wednesday April 14th: @home

Foam Rolling ~5 mins
---
Swim 400 metres as follows

• 100m bs
• 100m fc
• 100m bs
• 100m fc

---
Foam Rolling ~20 mins
---

Nearly fell asleep on the roller during the second session. All sorts of snaps and pops coming from my upper back muscles. Felt great! I missed that roller the past couple of months.

BossArky

Thursday April 15th: Light deadlift / recovery

Lying Twist
3x4-5

Decline Situp
1-2x10

Deadlift
40kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
70kg - 1x5
87.5kg - 3x10
---

First day back in the gym since Sunday.

me wrote:

ok, so what should I do now?

coach wrote:

get stronger

me wrote:

...

Tonight was 3x10's - the start of a new cycle aiming for the next competition around June 26th.

My immediate focus whilst the weight is light is sorting out my deadlift technique. I need to get the bar closer to my thighs on the way up. I tried this tonight but end up hopping the bar off my leg in three places --> painful & brusied now. On the way up it hits under my knee. On the way down it hits over my knee, under my knee and on the shins when I put it down and land on top of the bar. I asked a few people why this is happening. Apparently I'm built to squat (wide hips??!) and bench (short arms) but not necessarily cut out for deadlifting (short arms). Suggestions to improve my deadlift included widen stance, point toes out a bit more or widen grip a bit. Not sure why widening grip would help though... as that would make my arms shorter. Anyway, I'll be working on my deadlift technique going forwards.

Squat looks like the 3x5s will peak at 110kg this cycle. Bench 3x5s will peak around 85/87.5kg and deadlift around 147.5 for 3x5s. That should see my 2x2s and ultimately the 1RM go up over the next 2 months.

edit - note to self - add weight on lying twists and decline situps this cycle.

Edwardius

BossArky wrote: »

Sunday April 11th: Melbourne Open Powerlifting Competition (Hawthorne)

Weigh-in was from 8am with the competiton scheduled to kick off at 10am. I arrived at the venue at 8:30am, having rolled out of bed at 6:30am. This was after hitting the snooze button a few times. I was feeling pretty tired. On Friday morning my stuff arrived from London out of Melbourne port customs, having spent umpteen weeks being prodded and poked by the Oz law. I spent Friday and Saturday unpacking arranging my belongings in my home here, before heading up to the powerlifting club on Saturday afternoon for more lifting of heavy stuff and moving around weights and gear from place to place to get the venue setup for Sundays competition.

The scales in the male changing room told me I was at tiny bit over 80kg fully clothed. Stripped off in my jocks I came in at about 79.6kg. I hopped in the sauna for 15 minutes, showered and officially weighed in a 79.3kg. I was obviously well under the weigh limit for my category (82.5k). The reason for the sauna was two-fold:

1) ensure that I'm comfortably under 80kg and in line for a double bodyweight deadlift
2) a sauna was pleasant in my snoozey state

Rack heights for squat and bench followed before rushing to get gear checked. This left me with 15 mins for my squat warm ups. A lesson learned from my previous compeition back in February was not too warm up too early. So, I was happy enough with 15 mins for my warm ups. I came out of them feeling powered up and perfectly primed for action.

I smashed both squat and deadlift pbs and was pleased to get my paused bench up to just behind my touch n'go bench.

My warm ups went as follows:

SQ: 50kg x5, 70kg x2, 85kg x1, 100kg x1
BP: 55kg x5, 70kg x2, 80kg x1
DL: 60kg x5, 85kg x2, 115kg x1, 140kg x1

My competition lifts went as follows:

Squat
#1: 112.5kg
#2: 120kg ... 5kg pb
#3: 125kg ... 10kg pb

Bench
#1: 85kg ... equals last comp bench best
#2: 90kg ... 5kg up on last comp
#3: 92.5kg ... 7.5 kg up on last comp, and just 2.5kg under all time bench touch and go

Deadlift
#1: 152.5kg ... equals pb
#2: 160kg ... 7.5kg pb & double bodyweight
#3: 165kg ... FAIL - but who cares, I just got double bodyweight!

That gives me a raw total of 377.5kg at 79.3kg. I'm pretty happy with that -> an increase of 25kg on my competition total in less than 2 months.

I was destroyed all squat and bench lifts. Zero wobbles - light weight.

The turning point was my last deadlift warm up (140kg) which felt quite heavy. The 152.5kg went up with a bit of a struggle. 160kg was a screaming and roaring affair (check the video). God, it was satisfying though! I was grinning like an idiot and delighted with myself! Double bodyweight - at last! My coach then proceeded to chastise me for such a brutal lift technically. He reckons the 160kg had been nowhere near my shins and way too far out.

After that I kinda switched off. Obviously I wanted to get 165kg... but I'd just surpassed double bodyweight and had bust my squat pb, along with a decent bench. My mind wasn't fully on the 165kg. It came off the ground a couple of inches (I think) and then I wussed out and let it go without a fight.

You can see the lifts I attempted today were slightly different from what the coach had prescribed on Thursday night. This was down to on the day evaluation.

I was the sole raw competitor in the 82.5kg category. The rest were incredibly strong fellows lifting equipped. A number of them totalled in the late 500kgs / early 600kgs. These guys walk around at 87-89kg and then cut weight severly in the 10 days before a comp. If I was more careful myself I could probably sneak into the 75kg class through clever nutrition in the weeks before competiting. Anyway, I'm happy enough with increasing my lifts for the next while. Once I get to a decent level I'll switch to working on the finer points of making weight.

150% of bodyweight on the squat and 200% on the deadlift have been targets for a while, so I'm glad they worked out today.

Wifey had another great performance. She won the sub 56kg category with 62.5/35/82.5. That is 12.5kg up on both her squat and deadlift in less than 2 months, plus 2.5kg on her bench. She actually weighed in a 52.4kg which would normally have put her in the sub 52.5kg category. However, this category didn't exist today so she was rolled up into the higher sub 56kg category.

Other noteable lifts include an Australia national squat record from one of the guys I train with --> 321kg@100kg.

Videos of my lifts will follow soon.

Fantastic work Bossman. Hope all is well!

BossArky

Cheers Ed

BossArky

Friday April 16th: @home

Run 800m
---
Pull Ups (neutral grip)
3x5

Dips
3x5

Kings Chair Leg Raise
3x5
---
DB Overhead Press (standing)
10kg - 3x8

DB Calf Raise
10kg - 3x16
---

First time using the treadmill downstairs here. Accidently switched it off by running into the emergency stop switch after 800m. Had planned to do 3km but moved on to weights when it stopped.

BossArky

Sunday April 18th:

Bike (outdoors) 20km
---

The cycling gods smiled today. Found a great cycle route along the banks of the Yarra. Smooth & build for speed.

BossArky

Monday April 19th: Heavy Bench (volume week 1 of 6) & Squat, Light Deadlift

Bike 16.2km (outdoors) as follows:

• ~5.5km home to work
• ~6.5km work to gym
• ~4.0km gym to home

---
Incline Bench Press (to failure @8reps)
20kg - 1x8
40kg - 1x8
60kg - 1x14f or 15f
70kg - 1x6f
67.5kg - 1x6f
---
Decline Bench Press (to failure @8reps)
20kg - 1x8
40kg - 1x8
60kg - 1x9f
60kg - 2x8f
---
Flat Bench Press ... did this before realising it was supposed to be DB Bench
20kg - 1x8
---
DB Bench Press (to failure @8reps)
25kg per arm - 1x4f
22.5kg per arm - 2x6f
---
DB Overhead Press (to failure @8 reps: seated, to rear, little finger higher than thumb)
10kg per arm - 1x8
15kg per arm - 1x8
15kg per arm - 1x6f
15kg per arm - 1x5f ... wrecked by now
---
Lying EZ Tricep Extension
Bar + 5kg - 3x10 ... @~65%
---
Deadlift
40kg - 1x10
50kg - 1x10
60kg - 3x10 ... rattled through these
---
Squat
20kg - 1x10
40kg - 1x10
62.5kg - 3x10 ... quads wrecked from yesterday and today on the bike
---

I was expecting a few easy weeks lay off with high reps and light weights, hence the cycling yesterday and today before the gym. I arrived to find out that I'm now on a bench volume program which means slaughtering yourself on every bench device know to man for 6 weeks.

Weeks 1-3 aim for failure at 8 reps. Weeks 4-6 aim for failure at 6 reps. The rest of the cycle from week 7 onwards is back to normal, joining in around 3x5s I think.

Today I was shooting in the dark trying to figure out what I would fail on at 8 reps for incline, decline, db flat, overhead, tricep ext, etc. Chest/triceps were on fire at the end. The recommendation is to fly through all the exercises with max 2 to 2.5 mins rest between sets. Spotter essential.

By the time week 7 comes around (and I lay off the slaughterfest) the body is supposed to overcompensate and get strong from the 3x5s onwards as the volume dissappears. Or something. Lets see what happens.

Squat and Deadlift stay the same as before: 3x10, 3x8, 3x6, 3x5s, 2x2s, etc as the weeks progress.

Ar$e was in bits on the bike to work this morning after yesterdays cycle. I may have over-inflated the tires yesterday. It's like they are made of concrete.

Need bed.

BossArky

Wednesday April 21st:

Bike (outdoors) 9km
---
Home to work and back

BossArky

Thursday April 22nd: Heavy Deadlift / Light Squat & Bench

Shoulder Dislocates (band)
2x10 ... in the morning
---
Pull Aparts (band)
2x10 ... in the morning
---
Bench (light @60% effort)
20kg - 1x8
40kg - 1x5
60kg - 3x8 ... heavier than a light 60% recovery effort. May decrease next week
---
Lying Twist
1x3
2x3 ... with 3.3kg ball between ankles
---
Deadlift
60kg - 1x8
75kg - 1x5
90kg - 1x5
102.5kg - 3x8
---
Glute Ham Raise
3x10 ... fingers to temples

Pull Ups
3x10 ... 30th was 9/10ths of a rep but I'll give it
---
Squats
20kg - 1x8
30kg - 1x5 ... leaning over too much
40kg - 1x5
45kg - 3x8 ... stayed more upright
---
Decline Sit Ups (5kg plate behind head)
2x10
1x6 ... skipped reps 7-10. Horrendous fart dropped by someone under the bench
---
Bench Pull ... Out in the main gym I noticed this & gave it a go. Face down on a high bench rowing a barbell up to nipples. Feels good for the back
20kg - 1x8
40kg - 1x8
---

This week I low-carbed & increased cardio. Felt ready to thrown in the towel during the GHR/Pull Up supersets --> zero energy. Weight is down a kg or two. Not much glycogen in me at present. Eating lots of fresh veg, fish, tuna, nuts, water, etc.

kevpants

Savage improvements in your lifts man. Being able to do so many comps is a big advantage!

cardio,shoot me

BossArky wrote: »

T
Squats

30kg - 1x5 ... leaning over too much
.

dont worry about that man, theres nothing on the bar like, my squats are all good mornings till i get to about 50

BossArky

kevpants wrote: »

Savage improvements in your lifts man. Being able to do so many comps is a big advantage!

Cheers Kev. Yeah, I could almost do one a month if I wanted! There are regular comps here throughout the year. Here is the full list from Powerlifting Australia. Perfect for peaking a training cycle & something to look forward to.

cardio,shoot me wrote: »

dont worry about that man, theres nothing on the bar like, my squats are all good mornings till i get to about 50

It happens to me a lot i.e. I bend far forward at the bottom. It is pointed out to me time and time again. Last Thursday I may have fixed it by a slightly difference stance. I need to video myself for further analysis.

BossArky

Friday April 23rd:

Bike (outdoors) 9.2km
---
Home to work and back

BossArky

Saturday April 24th:

Bike (outdoors) 7.24km

brianthebard

BossArky wrote: »

It happens to me a lot i.e. I bend far forward at the bottom. It is pointed out to me time and time again. Last Thursday I may have fixed it by a slightly difference stance. I need to video myself for further analysis.

http://functional-strength.blogspot.com/2010/04/developing-your-raw-squat-pt-2.html

I thought this was a pretty good blog post on squat form, its nothing new just a good way of explaining everything especially the 'sweet spot' idea.

BossArky

Monday April 26th: Heavy Bench (volume week 2 of 6) & Squat, Light Deadlift

Bike 7.2km (outdoors) home to gym round-trip
---
Incline Bench Press (to failure @8reps)
20kg - 1x8
40kg - 1x8
70kg - 1x8f
65kg - 2x8f
---
Decline Bench Press (to failure @8reps)
65kg - 2x8f
65kg - 1x7f
---
DB Bench Press (to failure @8reps)
22.5kg per arm - 2x8
20kg per arm - 1x8
---
DB Overhead Press (to failure @8 reps: seated, to rear, little finger higher than thumb)
15kg per arm - 2x8
15kg per arm - 1x6f
---
Lying EZ Tricep Extension
Bar + 2.5kg - 1x8
Bar + 12.5kg - 2x8
---
Curlz ... forgot to do them
---
Deadlift
30kg - 1x8
50kg - 1x8
60kg - 1x8
65kg - 3x8 ... vids of all these to follow
---
Squat ... vids of all these to follow
20kg - 1x8
40kg - 1x8
52.5kg - 1x8
75kg - 3x8
---

I made vids of the deadlift and squat today. I'll post them later with my thoughts.

Rushed through everything with little to no rest. Almost failed on the last set of squats as had 5 mins to do the 3 sets. Drove 600km+ yesterday and today so a bit tired before hitting the gym. Apart from that I'm happy enough. Just putting in the work...

BossArky

Tuesday April 27th:

Bike (outdoors) 9km ... home to work and back
---
Curlz 10kg per arm - 1x10, 1x9, 1x8
---