CEnlow's training log

[CEnlow]

To start with here is a little bit of background on me. I am 22 years old and I started out just lifting to get back in shape after letting myself go when I stopped playing football in high school. I then transitioned to doing a few raw meets because I found that having a set day to test my progress in a meet kept me motivated. I found this very helpful to keep making progress. Now I would have to classify myself as a multiply lifter. I made this change after starting to train at SC Barbell with Spud Bartley and Dale Stiefel as well as the rest of the crew there. I have done two full power multiply meets since then where I totaled 1800 at 275 in my first one and around 8-9 months later 2025 again at 275. Currently I am just doing some base work and addressing weak points since I have a long way to go in order to get where I want to be.

Training from Saturday
6/30/2012 – ME Squat
Giant cambered bar box squat:
bar 3x5
165lbs 2x5
255lbs 1x3
345lbs 1x3
395lbs 1x3
435lbs 1x3
add single ply titan briefs
525lbs 1x2
575lbs + 1 chain per side 1x2
575lbs + 2 chains per side 1x2
575lbs + 3 chains per side 1x2
575lbs + 4 chains per side 1x2
575lbs + 5 chains per side 1x2

I was having trouble keeping my upper back tight today and I felt it rounding over on most every set so that’s something I’ll have to work on more in the future.

GHR superset with belt squat
BW x 6 / 205lbs x15, BW + 10lbs x 6 / 205lbs x15, BW +25lbs / 307.5lbs x 10

Doubled monster mini band hip abduction 2x50, stretched my hips a lot in between these sets

Dumbbell side bends 75lbs 3x10 each side

Not a bad day overall

[CEnlow]

Feeling a little bit stiff today so I did some light recovery work. Took a bit of a walk around the neighborhood to try to get loosened up somewhat. It was a very short walk since this was either the second or third day we have been over 100 degrees. Got back home and decided to give the banded good mornings with the mini band that Chris Mason mentions in his last article.

Wide stance good mornings with mini band 1x100
(I've never done these but I like them, I've had decent success doing banded leg curls as feeder workouts in the past so I figure I'll give this a shot)

Finished up with some hip mobility work and a ton of hamstring stretching and foam rolling.

[CEnlow]

Heavy bench day (sort of)

Been doing a lot of lower volume work lately so I decided to do some volume work on an exercise I suck at for a bit of a break.

Wide chest supported rows 5x10 with 1 plate as part of warmup

Close grip floor press with swiss bar and 150lbs of chain

empty bar 2x10
bar + half of chain weight 1x6
bar + all of chain weight 1x6
(from here on everything will include the chain)
125lbs 2x6
175lbs 1x6
205lbs 1x3 (hands started to slip so I racked this early)
moved hands out to the wide handles and started working up again
125lbs 1x8
145lbs 1x8
175lbs 1x8

My chest and shoulders were smoked from this, much more so than I expected.

Some of the other guys were doing some board work with the fat bar and I jumped in since I have never done this before:

close grip 4-board press with fat bar
255lbs 1x8
345lbs 1x6
called it here to save something for the next week, just wanted to see how it felt

high pulley face pulls
2x30 30lbs, 1x40 20lbs, 1x50 10lbs

fat tricep rope lat pull down
1x15 100lbs, 1x12 130lbs, 4x10 150lbs

TRX abs 3x15

I finished with some light rotator cuff work and band shoulder traction then called it a night

[RobmoriRB]

One hell of a work out keep it up...an how do you like the Fat bar for bench pressing?

[CEnlow]

I like it for a change but I definitely wouldn't use it all the time. My favorite bar to bench with honestly is our older squat bar, its not quite as fat as an actual fat bar but noticeably thicker than the power bar is. I typically use the fat bar when my elbow's feel beat up or I will usually use it for floor press since it is more comfortable for me personally.

[CEnlow]

Deadlift:
This is by far my worst lift of the three and as I've honestly struggled with finding what works for me to build this optimally. I made a drive upstate to do some pulling with my buddy Gordon Lake as he has helped me tremendously over the past couple of years with my training. He started me off pulling conventional, which I'm absolutely awful at compared to my sumo pull.

135lbs 2x5 1 set sumo, 1 conventional
225lbs 3x5 1 set sumo, 2 conventional
315lbs 1x3 conventional
405lbs 1x3 conventional
455lbs 1x3 conventional (big PR for me as this is my previous 1RM)
455lbs 1x3 sumo
405lbs 1x3 sumo
455lbs 1x2 conventional, missed the third rep

Stiff leg sumo deadlift
1x6 315lbs, 1x6 365lbs, 2x6 315lbs

Meadows rows with t-bar row
1x12 1 plate, 4x12 1 plate and 25, done for each arm
superset these with 5x15 tricep rope pull down abs

1 arm chest supported machine row 3x15 100lbs
superset with wide grip pulldowns 1x15 120lbs, 2x10 170lbs

Called it here as I starting to feel smashed and I had a long car ride back home. I was happy with the conventional PR but I have a lot of work to on this lift. Today's session exposed a very glaring mid back weakness that will hold me back from performing like I should on meet day.

[CEnlow]

Upper body accessory/repetition day

tricep pressdown
1x15 60lbs, 1x12 80lbs, 5x10 100lbs

I got the idea for this from reading Steve Pulcinella's log. I kept it light so it wasn't difficult but it did give a massive shoulder pump
10x10 overhead press 95lbs
superset with rear delt fly 10x10 with 20lb dumbbells

rolling dumbbell extension on floor
1x10 20lbs, 5x8 40lbs

six ways
2x10 12lbs

Did some band traction and called it a day. I tried to keep breaks short as possible between sets and exercises since this is kind of a cleanup day to build some extra muscle and pump a lot of blood into my problem areas in my upper body since it seems to help with my recovery.

[CEnlow]

Squat day:

straight bar free squat
bar 2x10
105 2x5
145 2x5
195 1x5
235 1x5
285 1x5
325 1x5
375 1x5
415 1x5
465 1x5
505 2x5

GHR 4x8

Absolutely smoked form this. I am having trouble staying tight on heavier sets of 5 throughout the entire set and it makes the work much harder than it should be so I'll need to work on this as I get into prepping for my next meet.

[CEnlow]

Went in today to help my fiance bench and decided to knock out a quick extra session while I was in there.

Conventional stance mini band good morning 1x100

Long strap reverse hyper 3x12 200lbs

light band assisted pullups 1x20 neutral, 1x20 pronated

long ab strap standing abs 4x12

I did a lot of stretching and mobility work while waiting on her to finish her assistance work. Hopefully I won't be so stiff again tomorrow when I wake up.

[CEnlow]

Blah bench night with a PR

standing abs with long ab strap 3x20

bench with squat bar - pinkies on rings
bar 2x10
105lbs 2x5
145lbs 2x5
195lbs 1x5
235lbs 1x3
285lbs 1x3
325lbs 3x3
345lbs 1x3 PR

add slingshot
415lbs 1x2

add shirt and 3 board
(just had the sleeves pinched and really just wanted to see how much it effected the feel of the shirt)

505lbs 1x3

switch to 2 board
560lbs
1x0 way misgrooved reset immediately and did
1x2 much better but not as comfortable as I'd like it to be

I had a pretty terrible night benching overall even with the PR. I wore different shoes than normal and my feet were sliding all over the place all night and I don't think I kept my back planted for a single set like it needed to be so I called it there since it wasn't really a shirt work night and I just wanted to get a feel for the altered fit.

Cambered bar presses out of the monolift using the squat box as back support.
This is a weird exercise and somewhat similar to a floor press but its killer for stability and lockout strength.

empty bar + blue band 1x10
25lbs and 2 blues per side 1x10
empty bar + 3 blue bands per side 1x2.75 (I have never used this kind of band tension before and it was brutal, just couldn't lock out the third rep
45lbs + blue band per side 1x10

face pulls
40lbs 4x20

finished off with some band traction and shoulder mobility work

[CEnlow]

Deadlift

I'm having my good buddy Gordon Lake help me with my programming for bringing up my deadlift leading into my next meet, which barring anything unexpected should be SPF record breakers in November. He has been one of those most helpful people I have met since I started competing and has a great eye for addressing weaknesses so I'm looking forward to the the work.



hip abductor machine 100lbs 4x25
super set with hip adductor machine 100lbs 4x25

2 inch deficit conventional pulls (all sets done with 45seconds to a minute rest)
135lbs 2x5
135lbs + quadded mini bands 8x3
165lbs + quadded mini bands 1x3
185lbs + quadded mini bands 1x3

close(r) stance front box squat to a way down there box
135lbs 1x6
225lbx 4x6 -> These were brutal for some reason, probably a combination of a weak back and being much deeper than I'm used to or needed to be with these.

supinated barbell rows 135lbs 1x8, 225lbs 5x8
super set with incline situps bw 1x12, bw + 25lbs 5x12

balls of thunder neutral grip pulldowns
funny named handle but blows up the forearms and lets me focus on pulling with my back
120lbs 4x15

[CEnlow]

Upper accessory day,
Reverse close grip bench press
135lbs 2x8
185lbs 2x5
205lbs 1x5
225lbs 1x5

illegallly wide incline press
135lbs 2x8
185lbs 1x8
205lbs 1x8

neutral grip chest supported row
1 plate 1x25
2 plates 1x18
3 plates 1x10

KB snatch press
24kg 2x6

monster mini band fly
3x15

machine cable curl 3x20

[CEnlow]

Squat

Box squats to a right around parallel box with giant cambered bar
bar 2x10
165lbs 2x5
255lbs 1x5
305lbs 1x3
395lbs 1x1

added single ply briefs

485lbs 1x1
575lbs 1x1

added suit bottoms

665lbs 1x2 <- this was awful in just about every possible way. I haven't put my suit on since the meet so it was weird anyway. Spud kicked my stance out a little bit and adjusted my feet to try to keep me from being so bunched up. Every set from here on out

665lbs + 40lbs of chain 1x2
665lbs + 80lbs of chain 1x2
665lbs + 120lbs of chain 1x2
665lbs + 160lbs of chain 1x2

*stopped here for the day, I like the adjustments to my stance but it will take some getting used to especially pushing back hard enough and maintaining stability throughout the lift. here is video of the last set you can see what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFy6t...1&feature=plcp

kettle bell high pulls with a narrow sumo stance
20kg, 24kg, 28kg, 32kg, 40kg, 48kg for 10 reps each set

kettle bell side bends
28kg 3x15

[CEnlow]

Heavy bench day

blast strap rows 3x10

Did reverse band bench with the squat bar
started without the bands
65lbs 1x10
95lbs 1x10

I moved over to the reverse band set up at this point. We used average bands today with it set up so the bands all but let go completely at the top. All sets from here out are with reverse bands.

255lbs 2x5
345lbs 2x3
395lbs 1x3
435lbs 1x3
485lbs 1x2 (misgrooved the third one and called for the spotters to take it, focus wasn't there)
added slingshot
525lbs 1x3
575lbs 1x3 foam 1 board
615lbs 1x3 foam 2 board
645lbd 1x0 <- pretty much everything I could have done wrong with this during my setup I did

did close grip work with the same reverse band setup to a foam 3 board to help with lockout power
395lbs 1x8
435lbs 1x8

average band overhead triceps extensions 1 x 50,30,20

dumbbell lateral raises 30lbs 1x12, 40lbs 3x12

bear crawls with 12kg kettlebells for 2 trips of 50ft

TRX style abs with feet on exercise ball 2x15

reverse pec dec 4x25 50lbs

smoked from this but good workout today, just need to improve my focus under the heavier weights

[CEnlow]

Pulls from yesterday

machine adductor 100lbs 5x25
super set with machine abductor 100lbs 5x25

Conventional pulls off 2-2.5" deficit
135lbs 3x5
225lbs 2x5
315lbs 1x3
365lbs 1x3
385lbs 1x3
405lbs 2x3
425lbs 1x3 <- PR, terrible yes but it is progress

front squats to parallel box instead of around the 9" or so one from last week
135lbs 1x12
225lbx 4x12
I like how these feel but holding the bar in the rack position tore my hands and forearms up.

I kept breaks on the back work to around 30 seconds between sets.
Hammer strength iso row
1 plate per side 1x12
2 plates per side 6x12

narrow grip lat pulldowns
150lbs 1x10
160lbs 1x10
170lbs 1x10
180lbs 1x10

We did some weird cable low row ab thing, not really sure how else to describe this but it worked pretty well.
100lbs 1x20
140lbs 1x20
160lbs 1x15
180lbs 1x10

[CEnlow]

Upper accessory work
I actually did a speed bench day for the first time in a few months. I'm not sold on going back to it every week but as of right now my biceps and shoulders aren't screaming so that is a good sign at least.

superset all sets of bench with light band pushdowns x20
bench with index on smooth
135lbs 1x10
185lbs 1x3
added a light band crossed behind back, holding onto the ends for extra resistance
135lbs + light band 2x3
155lbs + light band 1x3
moved grip out to index on the power ring
155lbs + light band 1x3
185lbs + light band 2x3
brought grip in to pinkies on the ring
185lbs + light band 3x3

shoulder and upper back circuit, did 2 rounds with a 2 minute break between rounds
clean and press from the floor 115lbs x 10 <-haven't done these since 9th grade so not pretty by any means
db lateral raise 25lbs x 10
barbell high pull 115lbs x 10
db front raise 25lbs x 10
bent over db fly 25lbs x 10

incline db curls
1x20
5x10

straight arm pulldowns with rotator bar
4x25 40lbs

[CEnlow]

Squat day
Felt kind of blah when I got in and started getting warmed up. I have 3 people I'm handling in their first meet at the SPF pro/am on amateur day so I mainly helped them and did some low box speed/form work in my single ply briefs.

bar 3x10
105lbs 1x5
145lbs 2x5
235lbs 1x5
285lbs 1x3
375lbs 1x2
added briefs here
465lbs 7-8 x 2 (first set was awful but I got my briefs seated a little better and smooth sailing from there)

Ghr bw 4x10

Ghr situps 6x10

Called it there for the day. Not a lot of work but identified some weaknesses that tend to come out in my squat so I have areas to focus on bringing up more now.

[CEnlow]

Bench day 7-23:
Bench with squat bar
bar 3x10
105lbs 2x5
145lbs 1x5
145lbs + 2 chains per side 1x3
195lbs + 2 chains per side 2x3
235lbs + 2 chains per side x 1
285lbs + 2 chains per side x 1
325lbs + 2 chains per side x 1
added slingshot
375lbs + 2 chains per side x 1
put on shirt
3 board 465lbs + 2 chains per side x 1
1.5 board 505lbs + 2 chains per side x 1
full range 555lbs + 2 chains per side x 1

swiss bar lockouts out of spud inc suspension straps
Dale and a few other guys did these a few weeks ago but this was my first time trying it out. Kind of fun but a little rough on the shoulders, much more forgiving than pin presses are though

empty bar x 8
empty bar + doubled purple bands x 8
125lbs + doubled purple bands x 8
215lbs + doubled purple bands x 5
175lbs + doubled purple bands 3x6

neutral grip incline DB press
40lbs 1x15
55lbs 1x15
70lbs 2x15

light band pull-a-parts 5x20

Cut the shirt work a little short this week but it was a decent night of bench work overall. Due to some schedule conflicts I'm going to do an earlier meet than I had originally planned. Looking at putting together a short training and picking up the IPA big south powerlifting meet at The Edge training facility in Columbia SC.

[CEnlow]

Deadlift day

machine adductor 100lbs 6x25
super set with abductor 100lbs 6x25

sumo deadlift
135lbs 3x5
225lbs 1x5, 1x3
315lbs 2x2
365lbs 1x1
add briefs
425lbs 1x1
add suit bottoms
495lbs 1x1
straps up (loose)
565lbs 1x1
tightened straps
605 1x0

Had some form issues, bar drifted out a little bit out and my back rounded over as soon as the bar broke off the floor. It felt easy enough but didn't want to try to grind for it 10 weeks out from a meet when my goal with today was really just to see where my form broke down.

RDL
225lbs 4x12

Dimel deadlift
135lbs 5x20

dead stop dumbbell rows
50lbs 1x12
75lbs 1x10
100lbs 3x8

pullups
1x5
added purple band for assistance
3x8

tricep rope cable crunch
100lbs 3x20
150lbs 3x20

short strap reverse hyper
50lbs 2x25

Decent night overall but I still have a lot of work to do on this lift.

[superdonut]

Do you still weigh 275? You're strong man, keep it up. Hope you can improve your DL.

[CEnlow]

Superdonut, my bodyweight is holding pretty steady in the 280-285 range. Thanks for the support.


bench accessory work from today
everything in the biceps and shoulders still feel ok so I did another speed bench session

Fat bar floor press
bar a lot of sets x5
125lbs 2x5
165lbs 2x5
215lbs 8x3 (3 sets narrowm, 3 sets moderate, 2 sets illegally wide)

underhand lat pulldowns
160lbs 1x8
200lbs 3x8

JM press
135lbs 3x6
135lbs + 2 chains per side 1x6, like how these felt but I'd need to lower the bar weight to get a lot of work in with the chains

underhand monster mini band pull aparts 4x25

light band pushdowns 2x50

[CEnlow]

Squat:
straight bar
bar for about a million, felt like no matter what I did I couldn't get my hips warm today
145lbs 2x5
235lbs 1x5
285lbs 1x2
375lbs 1x2
added single ply titans
465lbs 1x2
555lbs 1x2
added ace suit bottoms
645lbs 1x2
735lbs 1x1 <- should have been 2 but the new guy close the rack early
added stretched out reverse bands
straps up but loose
825lbs 1x2
straps a bit tighter with krait wraps
865lbs 1x2

Shut squats down there for the day. It was an easy day for the most part, just trying to get more comfortable with the new stance and get some full gear work in. I haven't done full gear doubles in over a year so that was a bit odd for me but I need the work and the practice being patient waiting for the up call.

speed pulls off 2inch block
135lbs 2x5
335lbs 5x2

dead squats out of spud inc suspension straps with SSB
bar 1x5
165lbs 1x2
255lbs 6x2

banded leg curls
light band 2x15

straight leg v sit ups 4x12

[CEnlow]

Bench:
did all sets with pinkies on the ring
bar 3x10
95lbs 2x5
135lbs 2x5
185lbs 2x3
225lbs 1x3
275lbs 1x3
315lbs 1x2
335lbs 1x2
added 3 board
365lbs 1x2
405lbs 1x2
425lbs 1x1, 1x2
455lbs 1x2 - huge PR for the night so decided to take it and run

light band pushdowns super set with close grip 1 board press (index on smooth)
1x50 / 225lbs 1x8
1x50 / 225lbs 1x8
1x50 / 225lbs 1x5 <- ran out of gas

dead stop partial dips
body weight 1x12
bw + average band 1x10
bw + strong band 3x8

strict overhead press on power squat machine
1 plate per side 2x8
1 plate and a 25 per side 2x8
1 plate, 25, and a 10 per side 1x7.5

machine assisted chinups from a dead hang 5x12

[superdonut]

Nice squats and benching man.

[CEnlow]

Thanks, I appreciate it. Still have a long way to go but its a start

deadlift day, kind of

adductor/abductor superset
110lbs 4x25 each

Arch back good mornings with SSB
bar 2x15
added around 100-120lbs of fully suspended chain from here out, very awkward and made the camber from the SSB much worse
bar 1x10
125lbs 1x10
145lbs 1x10
165lbs 3x10

Got these from my buddy Gordon Lake and they are awful but they have to help build my back up

RDLs:
135lbs 1x8
225lbs 1x8
275lbs 4x8

meadows rows
1x15 1 plate
4x12 1 plate and a 25lb

band assisted chinups 4x6

decline sit ups 5x20