7/12

Building is the goal. Some weak points need to be built and others would be fun to push. My training approach for my upper and lower days are a little different. I will break down my log into Upper and Lower to better describe what I plan on doing. Most if not all the training that I program for myself is experimental. This helps be a better coach and is really fun. 

 

Upper goals:

 

Big traps, shoulders and biceps. Biceps that more resemble mountains than arms. This is purely for fun. No real bench or strength goals for my upper body as of right now. Luckily right now there are no upper body injuries or any pain to speak of. I will treasure this moment for as long as I can. So I am just going to do what I want. I want to not be able to fit in doorways because my shoulders are so large, so how do I plan to accomplish this? With these exercises…

 

1. Captain Kirk Upright Rows 
2. Farmer carries
3. Seated cleans 
   1. I have never used these in training but I stole them from a Jim Wendler article. (Look up an old picture of Jim and you’ll see that his traps barely stayed in his shirt.)

 

Now for the shoulders. I have never done a lot of direct shoulder work. My overhead press is rather unimpressive. Which is great since I have something to work on and only get better. But I want to throw more bodybuilding stuff in.

 

Shoulder exercises:

1. Lateral raises (Relatively heavy)
2. LOTS of rear delt’s 
   1. Banded rear delts  are my favorite right now 
3. Incline Barbell Front raises 

 

Lower Goals:

 

Hamstrings all day. I plan to throw some bodybuilding tactics in like supersets, drop sets, and some more machines than I usually do. My hamstrings are weak so it’s time to make sure they catch up to the rest of me.  I have always hit two lower body days with one being more squat focused and the other being more deadlift focused. My deadlift day would involve some direct hamstring work, but not so much on my squat day. 

 

NOW I plan for both days to be hamstring driven. For example on squats I plan to widen my stance to fully hit the hamstrings while super setting with Fatbell or Dumbbell stiff leg DL’s. This combination allows me to feel the hamstring throughout the squat movement. So exercise choices will include:

 

1. Slow eccentric stiff leg DL
2. Machine hamstring curls 
   1. Single leg
   2. Slow eccentric 
   3. 20 reps 
3. GHR (Glute Hamstring Raise)
   1. Slow eccentric
4. Wide stance leg press 

 

I’m looking forward to this change of pace and excited to have some fun with new challenges in terms of my own training. 

Lindsey’s Training Log

 

We recently had the “goal-setting conversation” as a staff – something we hadn’t done for a long time. Coming up with work-related goals was easy (there are a lot of things I’m excited to get under way in order to make UF a more efficient place) and I already knew I had the general goal of prioritizing getting my health back in order, but I didn’t have anything specific down for training. 

 

I haven’t done a meet since early 2018, but I’ve been starting to get the itch. I’ve also been really enjoying running again. So naturally, I found a goal that would let me do both! 

 

End of 2019 Training Goal:  compete in both a powerlifting meet AND run a half marathon… in 48 hours.

 

Is this a ridiculous goal? Hell yes. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone that isn’t a little crazy. But it’s what I have my heart set on. It’s also secretly something I’ve been thinking about for the past 5 or so years, and I think now is the time to make it happen.

 

I do have some specific numbers in mind for both events, but I’m not getting attached to them. Just getting through both events is the primary aim on my first go at this. 

 

I do have a race on my calendar for September, but I’m looking at that as a tune-up and something I’m doing mostly for fun. My hope is to do this in November – I have two options for meets, but will have fewer options for real races. I may need to do the run solo, just using the official Pittsburgh Half course.

 

Training adjustments

 

My training structure hasn’t changed all that much, just targeting my runs a little bit more. I do all of my strength training during the week, focusing on my heaviest work early in the week, so I can save energy for weekend runs. 

 

Monday – Heavy Bench variation, heavy on the upper body assistance work, maybe some elliptical work

Tuesday – Heavy Squat variation, focus on single leg squat variants for assistance, hard interval run in the evening

Wednesday – REST, mobility, but nothing hard

Thursday – Upper Body Hypertrophy day, with a focus on DB Bench variations and some vanity lifting, followed by a tempo run in the evening

Friday – Deadlift, low volume but high intensity pulls, followed by explosive lower body work

Saturday – Long Run!

Sunday – Recovery run or complete rest

It is June 21^st and I am ending my second week of a new training cycle.  Two weeks is enough time to give feedback into how I am liking this new training style. My main lifts are heavy and light and I am alternating heavy (1-5 reps) one week and light (6-12 reps) the following. The idea is to keep the exercises the same for 4 weeks however, the load changes. This might be more difficult to adapt to and overload on, but I might be able to maintain this cycle for a longer period of time.

 

I enjoy the light weeks because it teaches you to reinforce mechanics, flushes blood through, and provides not only a physical, but also a mental break from heavier loads. And honestly, it feels great training for hypertrophy. The modulation of stress from week to week makes recovery and training days feel more feasible and less taxing. Another spin on this cycle is the addition of cleans and overhead squatting. Both are not in my typical cycles throughout the year however, it’s something I need and want to get better at and not to mention they are both frustrating and a baaalasssta (how the kid’s say ‘blast’ nowadays). Below is probably one of my more favored days.

 

Here is what I did on Thursday:

Sumo DL 3×6 

Hang Power Clean + Front Squat 10x 1 + 2

A1. Cossack Squat 3×8

A2. Belt Squat RDL 3×10

B1. BB Good Mornings 3×15

B2. Landmine Bent Over Row w. Towel 3×8-10

C1. Leg Curl 3x (10 single, 10 together)

C2. AB Roller 3×10

Training log 6/14:

Ryan McUmber

 

After a lot of anticipation to finish my bench cycle with a huge Personal record, I ended it on sort of a dud. The goal was to max out the week after the meet but if anyone saw me at the meet I looked as though I got hit by a bus. A common thing I heard that day was “you look awful.” Thanks. But you were right. 

 

Unfortunately from being sick I lost some weight almost instantly. Which always makes me worried about it effecting my lifts. Usually after losing weight everything feels exponentially heavier. So, being sick forced me into a deload week, where I only benched 135 for 5×3. This is far lighter than I usually do for my deload week. Most of the deloads that I like program usually decrease the volume but not the weight too much. This was sort of drastic since I still felt rough. 

 

The goal for that week was to try to gain some of the weight back and shoot for the stars the next week. But of course none of the weight came back on and I tried to bench heavy anyway but soon realizing that this was a mistake. While warming up I felt every pound of 225 coming down on me while warming up. Which made me come to the conclusion that it wasn’t there that day as bad as I wanted it. 

 

I am partly beating myself thinking about it. Maybe for not pushing it that day or thinking that I should have tried harder to put the weight on. Either way I am here right now and clearly  know that I won’t be able to hit more than 315.

 

So what now?

 

Time to start a brand new journey of 3 months of hypertrophy work, then 1-2 months of strength work, and a tiny little peaking block for my bench to see what I can pull off. 

 

Back to the football bar for reps on reps for the next 3 months. This week was:

 

Football Bar bench: 3×8 with 195 and a chain on each side 2 min rest 

Cluster set: 3x(3x3x3) 125 with a chain on each side. 

The way I do cluster sets is 3 total sets with 1 min in between the larger sets but 30 sec rest between the triples. So do a triple then rack it. Wait for 30 seconds and perform another 3 reps. Repeat a total of three times. 

Inverted Rows: 4×15 with 1 min rest 

Upright rows paused at the top: 4×12

Slow eccentric Tricep Ext.: 4×15 

 

Even though I didn’t hit my ultimate goal. I did 300 for 2 sets of 3 reps. A year ago 300 was my one rep max. I’ll take that. As for my squat and deadlift…absolute disaster’s… both of them, which maybe I’ll touch on in the next training log. 

Training Log: June 

I just finished up a 4-week cycle of circuit training.   Since I am not training for anything specifically, I have the ability to play around with my programming.  Toying around with programming is fun for me because A: it keeps my need for constant variety satisfied and B: it fuels ideas for UF classes. Here are my advantages (and one disadvantage) for this style of training. 

 

Pros:

• Timed rest

This worked so well for me.  I previously found myself falling off towards the end of my sessions so the timed intervals helped me stay focused for the duration of my training session.  It also helped me from getting distracted in between sets, as I tend to talk too much, break out in dance sessions and do silly/ridiculous/probably unsafe things with my training partner. 

• More bang for my buck 

I could jam pack tons of movements and exercises into a short amount of time. Most days I can only fit in an hour workout into my day so this style is great for getting that feel good pump and accomplished feeling.

• Two birds, one stone

Since the rest is short, there is a cardio aspect to this style of training.  Since my metabolic training these days basically consists of what I call “treadmill desk”, I’ll take the cardio anywhere I can get it. 

• Improved body composition

Part of this is due to my nutrition, as I’m currently in a (purposeful) caloric deficit but I am down almost 5lbs since starting this cycle. I feel leaner, with minimal strength loss. 

Con:

• Less ability to progressively overload

By sets 3 and 4, I am feeling pretty fatigued and instead of being able to increase weight, I find myself stalling out.  Less progressive overload means less strength gains, so I am planning my next cycle around fixing this issue. 

Here is the 4-week program I followed.  AM #powerful classes got a little taste of the circuits during their deload week last cycle.  If you try this out yourself, find a weight that is challenging but manageable for 8+ reps during the circuit.  Set up the clock to count the intervals & rest periods (don’t know how to set the clock? Ask me, I’ll show ya!) If it is a single sided exercise, make sure to perform the work intervals per side. Have fun! 

 

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Incline Bench	4×8-10	4×8-10	4×8-10	4×8-10
A1. Floor Press	:30/:30 x 3 sets	:35/:25 x 3 sets	:30/:30 x 4 sets	:35/:25 x 4 sets
A2. Tricep ext
A3. Seated FB shoulder press
A4. FB Lat Pullover
B1. Cable Facepulls
B2. Cable Biceps Curls
B3. Inverted Rows
B4. Bench Dips
AB Finisher
Squat	4×10	4×10	4×8	4×8
A1. Bulgarian SS	:30/:30 x 3 sets	:35/:25 x 3 sets	:30/:30 x 4 sets	:35/:25 x 4 sets
A2. Step up
A3. Standing windmills
B1. Heel elevated close stance goblet sq.	:30/:30 x 3 sets	:35/:25 x 3 sets	:30/:30 x 4 sets	:35/:25 x 4 sets
B2. Back ext. glute focus
B3. Cable Pull Throughs
Leg Finisher: Park loop lunge
Standing OHP	4×10	4×10	4×8	4×8
A1. Lean away cable lateral raise	:30/:30 x 3 sets	:35/:25 x 3 sets	:30/:30 x 4 sets	:35/:25 x 4 sets
A2. Seated KB Curls
A3. Cable Rope OH Tri Ext.
A4. Banded Pulls Ups
B1. EZ Bar Upright Row	:30/:30 x 3 sets	:35/:25 x 3 sets	:30/:30 x 4 sets	:35/:25 x 4 sets
B2. Reverse pec deck
B3. Chest Supported High Incline FB Rows
B4. Incline Lateral Raise Hold
AB Finisher
Deadlift	4×8	4×8	4×6	4×6
A1. Staggered Stance RDL’s	:30/:30 x 3 sets	:35/:25 x 3 sets	:30/:30 x 4 sets	:35/:25 x 4 sets
A2. Stallion Squats
A3. GHR’s
A4. Calves on Leg Press
B1. Leg Press	:30/:30 x 3 sets	:35/:25 x 3 sets	:30/:30 x 4 sets	:35/:25 x 4 sets
B2. Wide Grip Cable Row
B3. Cable Standing Leg Curl
B4. FB SA Rows
AB Finisher

This past weekend, June 1st and 2nd, was the third installment of the Iron City Open. It was a successful, rain free weekend that brought about 100 lifters together from all over the northeast (and further) along with the USPA Ohio/Michigan based crew, the Union Fitness family, and the Pitt Powerlifting Team.

 

I don’t have all of the results or details in front of me, so I’m shooting from the hip here. But some highlights from the Union Fitness lifters-

 

Mariah Sanchez– first meet and hit some flawless looking deadlifts!

 

Steph Stahovic– first meet and squatted and deadlifted over 300lbs!

 

Robyn Greer– finally hit her 264lb deadlift!

 

Catlyn Brooke– hit a huge PR deadlift at 248lbs!

 

Leah Jakaitis– came back to the platform with no training and still had a great day!

 

Luke Koval– injury free day!

 

Ian Hunter- first meet and took second in his weight class!

 

Doug Upton– did not have the day that he wanted but was all smiles and looking forward to the next one.

 

Justin Zak– hit a couple PR’s and keeps building his total meet after meet!

 

Bill Henderson– learned that squats and deads are as much fun as benching! Huge squat PR for Bill!

 

Eddy Jones– 500lb deadlift!!

 

Coach CJ– first meet, Ceej took a cross country road trip the week before the meet and I think he was still feeling it on Sunday. Great first meet dude!

 

Richard Lewis– hit some heavy paused squats and had a great meet 😉

 

Cody Nyegard– big bench and deadlift PR!

 

Larry O’Donnell– Larry and I had a heart to heart. We’re going to spend a lot more time together in the coming months. Great effort and great passion. Keep working big man.

 

Marco Rigazio– old man Marco had a tough training cycle leading up to the meet but he held it together like a veteran and finished strong!

 

Alex Johnson– he had a strong meet and left it all on the platform, literally.

 

We’ll have a full recap soon. Great work guys!

Hi all! I am excited to share my first training log, even though it’s nothing special right now.  In Casey’s last training log, he began by stating that we all work hard but we all also struggle from time to time.  With that said, here I am as another example of honesty. 

 

The past few weeks my weight training has been pretty half-assed.  I get the work done but my mindset has not been as present, my sleep has been subpar, my appetite has been low, and the time and days that I train have been more scattered than set like usual.  This is the first time in quite a while that I don’t feel as energized to train, but it does happen and I am working to make these controllable factors change. 

 

I write my own programming for a few reasons, but mainly to help me learn my body and “practice” on myself.  I still love doing it, but because life has been much busier recently, I have neglected to spend much thought on writing my program.  Preparation is usually the key to my motivation and I have not been doing my part to feel prepared.  Without a meet in sight I also tend to feel like I am training aimlessly, even though I know this isn’t true. 

 

Over Memorial Day weekend, a few of my friends convinced me to bench in a meet with them. A powerlifting meet is something I have never done spontaneously but it was so much fun and a nice spark.  I have also decided on the Live Large Fall Brawl III meet on November 9th (with some of the UF crew wooo!), giving me another spark of motivation to work on my programming with more intent. 

 

The next few weeks I will be continuing more of an “offseason” style of training with higher volume, shorter rest time, focus on weak points, and more overall movement.  Here is one of my favorite recent training days:

 

Camber Bar Box Squat		Small Jumps, all x5
Camber Bar Box Squat		5RM
Belt Squat		4×8
GHR		4×15
5 pad elevated Rev. Lunge		3×20
Heavy Pull-through		3×12
Face Pulls		100 total
Pullaparts		100 total

How to D-balls: The Carry 

 

Sometimes there is nothing better than just picking up something heavy and carrying it. I love the barbell lifts but sometimes I just want to feel like a barbarian that picks some heavy shit up. The D-ball’s that we have perfectly satisfy this feeling for me. If you have never seen the D-ball’s before they look similar to the medicine balls but are covered in a near bullet proof thick rubber. They’re also much heavier than the medicine balls at 50lbs, 80lbs and 100lbs- I like to call this one the “Big Kahuna.” The regulars that come to my Monday Powerful Bootcamp class are quite familiar with my love for these awkward tools. The possibilities to use these in your programs are endless but I will stick with the main one that everyone loves to do: The Carry. There are a variety of exercises you can perform but this one is a staple. 

 

Did I say it’s my favorite? Just pure will of strength. This one is special for me, however; before “The Carry” begins it is crucial you are in the correct position so there are some technique cues I want to stress. 

 

The Start Position: Placement of the D-Ball

Make sure that the D-ball is placed directly in the middle of your feet. Visually if someone drew a line in the middle of you everything would be cut perfectly in half. 

The ball also needs to be close to you before picking it up, limiting chance of injury. If someone is looking from the side of you, the ball should be placed ideally in the middle of your shoe- the arch of your foot.

 

The Deadlift 

Just like every deadlift you want to bring your hips back, maintain a neutral spine as much as possible, and squeeze your glutes to pull the ball up. 

More often than not, people have an urge to start curling the ball – Try to avoid this, because you want the force to come from your hips. This doesn’t mean that your arms need to be straight but ideally staying the same degree of bent during the whole movement. 

 

The Hug

Do not rush this beautiful moment with you and the D-ball. 

After deadlifting the D-ball, take a second to place it in your lap. Possibly the best way I can describe it is to perform a wall sit without the wall. Meaning squat down with your chest up trying to place the D-Ball into your lap as much as possible. This position shouldn’t be strenuous if done correctly.

Once the ball is in your lap make sure to get it as close to your stomach and chest as possible. You want to fold your upper body over the D-Ball. Now wrap your arms around it to make this moment as special as possible. 

Once there is no space between you and the D-ball try to think about rowing the ball through your chest. The ball should not move but this will create more tightness and safety for your back. 

 

The Lift 

Once you are one with the ball squeeze your glutes as if you life depends on it. 

The power from your hips and glutes should be your ‘movers,’- how we get the D-Ball up. Everything else, specifically your back, should be stabilizing more than moving. 

 

Where do I put this thing? 

Once you have the D-ball up you might be asking “where the hell is this thing supposed to be?” Fantastic question. 

I believe with great posture, or as like to call it “big proud chest”, in the middle of your sternum with a tight upper back is the best place. But with female anatomy this can be difficult. So for the all the females out there, having the D-ball on a shoulder is perfectly safe as long the posture does not suffer. 

 

Like any lift, it will take some practice to perfect this exercise but I believe this will soon be a fan favorite. Each one of our classes are implementing it more and more due to the strength benefits and overall “fun”; depending on your point of view. So next time you want to get your heart rate up while challenging your strength, take some of these cues and pick one of they heavy D-Ball’s. 

In our gym, we practice what we preach. We eat well. We sleep eight hours (except our morning crew). We train hard. And we rest when we need to.

 

But we’re also human. And our team does a great job of being vulnerable, so that you all realize we go through ups and downs in our lives as well, both inside and outside of the gym.

 

I’ve had no desire to train as of late, so I haven’t. But that’s also wrapped up in two serious health related items- 1) I’m partway through a medication change for my UC treatment and 2) I’m scheduled for shoulder surgery next week. It’s arthroscopic and should be a pretty simple in-and-out case. I’m looking forward to it actually, so that once my gut heals I can get back to training hard again with a healthy shoulder.

 

I did train recently and it looked like this…

Belt squat 3 plates/side 10×10

Push ups, BW 10×15

Rest :30 after each super set

I was sore for a couple days afterwards so I know what I’ll be in store for in about six weeks.

May 17^th, 2019

Alexa’s Training Log

 

Hi, it’s me again. My training has changed and here is why. I was preparing for my very first powerlifting meet on June 1^st at Union Fitness. This is no longer happening. I was going through the motions, week after week and training was becoming a chore. I no longer felt any ounce of me that wanted this and I did not feel well, physically. My sleep was 4-6 hours per night (and believe me, I take sleeping seriously), my body felt fatigue and inflamed, the only thing that I had covered was my nutrition, mostly because it’s the only variable I could control in this situation. Basically, I was not recovering well. 

 

I had just returned from a trip, pushing hard to get back into my programming, but I could not get myself to push my body further. I knew it was time to make a decision. It comes down to this, my passion for powerlifting is not strong enough to continue this meet prep. This meet was supposed to be a fun thing for me. It was no longer that. Not even slightly. After I decided to nix the idea, I felt very sure. I’m not going to write it off completely and say I won’t try this again, but for now this is not my time to shine in that realm. 

 

So, what am I doing now? Well, I am moving and feeling great. That is what I train for. My intention is to feel good, train with many modalities, and body comp changes are always a plus!

 

I’m not getting away from weight training at all, but I am using a timed variation on my strength training for the time being- timed work periods and timed rest periods. The breathing is labored, the back sweat in flowing like the Nile, and I am feeling strong and well. 

 

Here is what I did today:

Deadlift	4×10@75%
A1. Staggered Stance RDL’s	:30/:30
A2. Stallion Squats
A3. GHR’s
A4. Calves on Leg Press
B1. Leg Press	:30/:30
B2. Wide Grip Cable Row
B3. Cable Standing Leg Curl
B4. FB SA Rows
AB Finisher	:40/:20
-Tuck Ups
-Banded In and Outs
-Classic Plank
-Cable Side Bends