PRs Two Days in a Row

Well I have been really busy trying to move back into Gainesville, so the blog has gone on the back burner for a while. Work has been kicking me in the teeth too. I have people wanting to come back and train with me, but I'm not sure if I have room. I've been trying to find the correct balance of training clients and taking care of both my Personal Training Team and my duties as Education Team Leader. To make it even better, I have a new intern coming in and I need to find time to make sure that I can devote enough time to her so that she can get the most out of the experience. I've got to suck it up, be a big boy and just get it done.

I've still been training and still been working my butt off trying to get everything ready for the upcoming Highland Games "season". I've been forgoing almost all accessory work to fit in time for throwing drills. I have been working mostly on footwork for the 28 and 56lb Weight For Distance throws and the Stone of Strength(like a shot-put). Here is how my past few days have broken down:

Monday: Deadlift
135x a few
225x5
315x5
405x3
455x3(Rep PR in itself)
495x1
525x1(PR)
I almost called it quits after pulling 495 as every other pull felt slow and way too heavy. Hell, 405 felt like it didn't want to budge, but I sucked it up and lifted anyway.

Footwork and Throwing Drills to finish the day


3 Board Press:
Bar x 5 or so
135x5
185x3
225x3
275x1(PR)
295x0 bombed
275 flew up faster than I expected, so I decided to go straight for 295. I flared my elbows too soon and stalled. Oh well, a PR is a PR.

Footwork and Throwing Drills to finish

I am feeling ready for the Central Florida Highland Games and I look forward to throwing a ton of PRs. My double spin is coming along well for the weights for distance and I have been throwing close to 60 feet in practice. I hit over 75 feet in the Hammer which would be a huge PR if I could make it translate to the Games.

Well, wish me luck

My Gains since August

Last time I did measurements was in the summer and here is my progress.

Then(Aug 4th):
weight: 285
Calves at 19.25"
Biceps: R-19.5/L-18.5
Chest 51"
Butt 51"
Forearm: 15"
Thigh: R-30" L-29"
Neck: 18.5"


Now:
Weight: 310 (bodyfat only up .5%)
Calves: 19.5"
Biceps: R-19.75"/L-19"
Chest 54" (3" gain holy shit)
Butt: 52.5"
Neck: 18.75"
Thigh: 32.5"
Forearm: 15.5"

Not bad. I like good, solid, steady gains. I'm really impressed with my chest measurement, but I guess that is what hapens when you actually train your upper body.


Yesterday was an accessory day, so I just did:

Power Jerks
up to 225x3

Single Arm Power Snatch
worked up to 130x3

Finished with tris and hypers

Bad Squats and Good Mornings...

Today has been hellacious to say the least. Water pump went out last night so I had to get up early to shower at the gym. Wake up was 3:45am and the drive into work was 19 degrees. Oh yeah, you read that right, 19 degrees in FLORIDA, its killing me.

Started seeing clients at 6am, had a straight run of them until 11am, headed over to see my son's end of the year Christmas Show thingy-majigger. First I was late, then as I'm walking up my son sees me and freaks out. He starts crying and the whole nine yards. Christmas thing gets over, then we go to the mall to go see Santa and he wants nothing to do with it. Picture was bad, not to mention I make Santa look like the size of an elf in the picture. Rushed back to work, saw one more client, trained, then saw my last client of the day. I was supposed to see two more, but I've got to get the pump fixed before sundown.

TRAINING:

Squats
worked up to 465x1. I planned on doing 3 here, but the weight felt shifty and I wasn't feeling it. I called it a day and moved onto supplementary lifts.

Good Mornings:
135x5
225x5
275x5
315x5(added Belt)
365x5
405x5 (Rep PR!!!)

At least I got some quality Good Mornings in after the crap squats I did.I had to go change and see one last client and did some Lunges with her to finish up the day.

Notice how I did not mention eating anything? Yeah, I did not, so that's probably why I felt like garbage on the squats. Now I'm gonna go fix the pump and try to eat.

Deadlift, Jump PRs and "Yoostas"

Did a complex for the monthly challenge here at work early this morning because one of my clients cancelled. It was set up like this:

Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Power Press
All of this is done back to back and is considered one rep. You have to complete 8 reps for the weight to count. My goal was to beat clients and trainers by 100lbs, but one of the clients threw out 115lbs. So I shoot for 220 and it almost killed me. On rep 7 my shoulder gave out after the Power press and all 225 slammed down on my right Quadriceps. I now sport a lovely blue/red/purple mark.

So I rested and had twenty bajillion other clients, then I got the urge to Deadlift. So I did.

Conventional Deadlift:
135x a few
225x10 or so
315x3
365x3
405x3(added belt)
455x1
495x1
505x1(Conventional Stance 30lb PR!!!)
I was Deadlifting in the Sumo stance, but after evaluating my body, I decided that I'm built for a more conventional stance. I felt as if I could have gone higher, but with the torn part of my glute screaming at me I decided to call it a day. Thank God for Blue Heat and Spud Inc. belts.

Seated Box Jumps (24") from Distance:
4'x5
5'x5
6'x3
6.5'x3
7'x2
7.5'x2(Distance and Rep PR)
First attempt at 7.5' was short by an inch so I didn't stick the landing.

Did some Naural Glute Ham Raises and Kettlebell Single Leg Romanian Deadlifts to work out some the crap in the Glute.

"Yoostas": Every gym has these guys. You know them, or you may be one of them. They are the guys that talk about what they "Yoosta do". As I'm deadlifting this guy comes up to me and tells me how he yoosta squat 500+ for 20 reps. Yeah, and I can piss all the colors of the rainbow. Don't tell me what you were able to do at some point in time, show me what you can do now.

Get in the gym , SFW and don't make excuses. I can make all the excuses in the world, my doctors certainly gave them to me, but I don't. I keep driving, I keep going, I keep getting better, I keep throwing farther, and most importantly I keep my head up.

Links:
Blue Heat
3 Blue Heat, 1 Free Hot Pink
Spud Inc 3-ply Belt
Spud Inc. 3 Ply Deadlift Belt

Dehydration, sorta PRs and Grinding Through Training

I woke up this morning with a huge headache and a wicked case of cottonmouth. So I downed a bunch of Gatorade and water and went on my way. Trained about 83 people today and finally got around to my own training. To sum it up, I didn't feel like doing a damn thing. I did as any other meathead would and sucked it up and just did it.

Incline Press
190x5 for 3 sets Rippetoe Style

3 Board press
worked up to 255 for 2
I would have called this a PR, but everything I'm doing for upper body is a PR. Now that the shoulder is healthy enough I'm trying to build strength, but take it real slow.

Bent-Over Rows
155x10 for 4 sets

Triceps Overhead Rope Extension
5x10

Lat Pulldown w/ towel for grip
5x8

Short Workout, Glute Tear, and Squat PR.

No time, so I had to make some time...

Squat
135x10 or so
225x5
315x5
365x5
405x6 (Rep PR)

Romanian Deadlifts
135x5
225x5
315x4 plus a glute tear


Called it quits