Small guy's road to powerlifting

[K-R-M]

Name: Karim
Height: 5'10"
Current weight:: 165lbs
Previous sports: NONE.



My background in sports is almost non-existent. I injured my back badly two years ago and had to miss a semester of school. I honestly thought I was never going to be able to live pain free but deadlifts took care of that hehe.

I recently joined a powerlifting gym and was scheduled to compete at the end of september. But unless a disaster happens, I'll be in Prague for 5 months from September 9th to February 2nd. So my first meet will be organized by my gym owner in late February.

I don't know my current 1RMs as I don't strain myself yet to that point, I try to lift submaximal weights. I hope to do 400/300/450 in the short to medium term. My goal is a 400lbs deadlift, 360lbs squat and 250lbs bench for the meet (raw).

I'm doing 5-3-1 right now. I just planned a 6 week cycle for hypertrophy and to add more strength to my chest. I also need more speed at the bottom on the bench, so I added speed work on press day and a ridiculous amount of lat work throughout the week. I have long arms, wide shoulders, wide hips and obliques with short legs, so I try to take advantage of that.


Here's today's training:

Back Squat
warm ups (5 sets of 5 with barbell)
5 x 95
5 x 135
5 x 185
5 x 230
3 x 260
BELT ON
10 x 290

Back Squats for volume WITH BELT
15 x 225
10 x 225
10 x 225

Strict good mornings, close stance, until back is slightly rounded (light weight);
10 x 95
10 x 135
11 x 135
11 x 135
11 x 135

Ab situps on bench press with 45lbs bar, half ROM (way hard):
10
8
8
5
Supersetted with barbell curls (light)

Wood choppers on knees, with cable stack
10 x 4th pin
10

Supersetted with straight leg pulls (for glutes)
10 x 6th pin
10

I'm thinking of going wide on the GMs next time for more hip mouvement.

[K-R-M]

I was looking at my log when I started... here were my numbers:

Bench
75 x 8

Squat (1/4 squats actually)
95 x 8

Deadlift
95 x 5


Wow...

[chaddukes]

Welcome!

[K-R-M]

Thanks for the welcome chad.


Today was bench day. Reps had steadily been going down the last 3 weeks. But at some point, I had done 14 days straight with some sort of physical activity lasting at least 30 minutes. Took it easy and just stuck with what's worked the best yet, that's 4 days a week. This is how it went:

Bench Press (5-3-1 week) + pull ups

warm up 5 sets of 45lbs + 4 sets of 5, and 1 set of 8 Pull ups
5 x 95
5 x 115
5 x 135
5 x 150
3 x 170
10 x 190

Stoked about that last set as it felt really light. So I went ahead and did a few singles

1 x 205
1 x 215
1x 225

Last rep was really easy, went up as hell, surprised my spotter lol. I think I was good for 240lbs today.

Incline bench + pull ups
warm up + 8
10 x 135 + 7
10 x 135 + 10
6 x 135 + 5 (went light on the pull ups)

DB rows:

9 x 100lbs (felt terrible, probably all the pull ups)
10 x 100
10 x 100

Grip was shot before I even started. Had to drop the DBs a few times.

Dips:

17 x BW
10 x BW
9 x BW
7 x BW

Ab pulldowns + triceps pushdowns on lat machine
3 sets of abs, 2 sets of pushdowns, 9 reps and 8 reps at a light 60lbs.

[K-R-M]

Changed to a pure Boring but Big template. I don't always follow the deload protocols, but I'm overseas on an exchange and things are completely different.