Brusier's Training Log

[Bruiser]

Well, something happened to my account and I was accidentally "banned for spamming" this week. Which wiped out all my posts and my entire training log. So I'm not going back into all the f'n details about what has led me here, why I do it or any of that shit. So here's my journey.

[Bruiser]

Wow, I actually spelled my journey title wrong... what a moron

[Bruiser]

Since I did a push/pull Saturday, I decided not to bench and just hit tris/abs.

CGBP:
6x8-20

Tricep PD:
6x8-12

Each set was SS with abs

Standing rope crunch
Seated rope crunch
Muay Thai knee lifts

I recently switched from a rope to a V-Bar for PDs. Wow! I can handle about twice the weight and my triceps are blowing the hell up! Love it!

[Bruiser]

High box squats:
Bar - 3x20
135 - 3x10
185 - 3x5
225 - 1x1
245 - 1x1
265 - 1x1
275 - 1x1

Because of back issues I've never been able to squat more than 225, and when I did that I weighed 270! So hitting 275 off a high box after 12 sets while weighing 225 was amazing!

Preacher curls:
3x8-12

DB curls:
3x8-10

EZ bar curls:
3x8

[Bruiser]

My back was tight this morning from squats so I took it easy today.

OHP:
6x8-15 (various weight)

DB laterals:
3x10

Face pulls:
3x10-15

Front DB raise:
3x6

[RobmoriRB]

solid work out and subbed....

[Bruiser]

solid work out and subbed....

Thanks man

[Bruiser]

Since I did a push/pull max out last Saturday and did heavy box squats Tuesday, I planned to take it easy today... Lol. But speed rack pulls felt good so I ended up working up to a PR! My best sumo DL was 315, and my best conventional was probably under 260. Conventional just never felt right, until today! Who woulda thought that pulling sumo all this year was nothing more than assistance work?! Lol. I'll be sticking with conventional stance now and I see hitting 400 by Nov/Dec easily!

Warm up:
Bar squats - 3x10
Rack pulls w/ bar - 3x5

Speed Rack Pulls (mid shin, sumo):
115 - 3x2
165 - 3x2

Deathlift:
135 x 1
225 x 1
295 x 1*
320 x 1**

*PR for conventional
**PR for ALL DL

Back work:
WG PDs - 3x10
Reverse grip PDs - 3x10
Fixed DD handle PDs - 3x10

Grip work:
4" grenade ball holds - 3x ALAP
CoC - 3x Failure
Wrist curls - 3x15
Reverse wrist curls - 3x8

[Bruiser]

Since I'm now gonna be pulling conventional instead of sumo and my squat is doing great with no back pain I'm switching up my routine. I've had trouble with joint pain while running Westside/conjugate so I'm altering it a little to work best for me. I don't have assistance work listed but here it is.

Week 1:
Mon - ME Bench
Tue - DE squat
Wed - OFF
Thu - OHP
Fri - ME deadlift (sumo)

Week 2:
Mon - DE Bench
Tue - ME squat
Wed - OFF
Thu - OHP
Fri - DE deadlift (sumo)

Week 3:
Mon - ME incline bench
Tue - DE box squat
Wed - OFF
Thu - OHP
Fri - ME deadlift (conventional)

Week 4:
Mon - DE incline bench
Tue - ME box squat
Wed - OFF
Thu - OHP
Fri - DE deadlift (conventional)

Repeat:

I think this is gonna work great. Then either once a month or every other month on a Saturday I drive the 4 hours round trip to train at Jakked Hardcore in Montgomery, IL where I will do two ME lifts to test my strength (bench/DL, squat/DL, squat/bench).

I'm really psyched to out this into action!

[J L S]

looking good man, im in to see how it all works out for you! congrats on the DL pr

[Bruiser]

looking good man, im in to see how it all works out for you! congrats on the DL pr

Thanks man, I appreciate it!

[Bruiser]

I usually just lift to see where I can get to. But I've decided to set some goals to work up to.

Short term: 1,000 lb total by November

Current: bench 265, squat 225, deathlift 320 = 810 lbs

This seems VERY doable now! Just a few weeks a go I thought I'd never be able to squat more than 225 because of my back, but after hitting 275 on high box squats after doing 10 sets... I'll have 300-350 by November easily. I haven't tested my squat in almost 8 months. I will be doing it a week from this Tuesday. Can't wait!


Long term: an elite total (RAW) by the time I'm 40 (2016)

This will be an extremely amazing accomplishment for me. After the botched back surgery a while back and being told I'd never lift 50 lbs again, then almost dying from pancreatitis this year (which I'm still on medication for)... this will be truly awesome! Plus I'm sure there's not too many 40 year olds in WI hitting Elite Totals RAW (if any)! Lol.

So this journey begins. And I can't wait to take you guys along for the ride...

[Bruiser]

This was the beginning of my new training split. Went pretty good.

DE Bench (flat):
45% - 9x3 (varied grip)
+30 lbs chains - 2x5
+15 lbs chains - 2x5

Triceps:
CGBP - 3x5-8
V Bar Pushdowns - 3x6-8

Abs:
Rope crunch - 6xFailure

DONE

[Bruiser]

Wow! This sucked today, bad. But I know what's wrong with my squats now. The most I've ever been able to do was 225, and then last week I crushed 275 off what I thought was a "high" box after 10 sets of 1-10 reps! Well, today I was working up to a max on squats and when I got to 185 it felt like 285 so I stopped. I figured I was just not recovered from ME deathlift last Friday. So I dragged my bench that I used for "high" box squats into the rack. I loaded 135 back on the bar and decided to just do high volume box work to punish my legs for being weak. On the first set i realized that depending on foot position, the bench was actually parallel, not high after all. On the second set I looked over at where I had the pins set for squats. Wtf?! I thought I had them set about 1-1.5" below parallel to catch the bar if I had to bail. But from where the bar was resting when my ass was on the box/bench... the pins were over 8" lower! No fucking wonder my squat sucks! Plus I know at the bottom of my squat my knees would come forward a little too. All this combined means I've been trying to squat about 8" or more BELOW parallel! Lol. I was wondering how I was box squatting over 50 lbs more than I could squat. Considering a lot of people box squat less than their 1RM. Duh! So now I know I need to get together with someone to help me with my squat before I try to max out again. So I'm gonna have to change up my new split until I can. It's just too hard training by myself to know when I've hit deep enough. So until I get someone to help me with my squat (1-2 weeks is all) I'm going to keep doing box squats since I KNOW that takes me to parallel and stay away from regular squats. I don't wanna risk going to deep and ending up with an injury from trying to correct the shit myself. So although it was a shit session, I learned a lot.

Squats:
Bar - 3x10
135 - 3x5
155 - 1x1
185 - 1x1

Box Squats:
135 - 3x10
185 - 3x10

Biceps:
Hammer curls - 3x10
Preacher curls - 3x10
DB curls - 3x10

DONE

[Bruiser]

I've decided that for my first PL meet I'm going to do the 2013 Relentless meet in MN. It's a huge fundraising event for the Hope Kids foundation. I'll get to be under the same bar as some amazing lifters, great friends and even better people. I'll be sharing that experience with Marshall "Freakshow" Johnson, "Nasty" Neil Heisick and Pamela Bosko. Not to mention a lot of other lifters. This will be a great experience for me and my whole family. My wife even likes the idea and we'll be taking the kids along with us for the 10 hour round trip drive. I can't wait...

[Bruiser]

Crushed some OHP and delts tody. Decided to tweak my split for OHP the way I use to. The last time I did this I was putting 5-10 lbs on my OHP and bench every month. I don't know why I got away from it, other than it seemed weird doing conjugate work on basically an assistance exercise. But here we go again.

Week 1 - DE OHP
Week 2 - High volume OHP
Week 3 - ME OHP
Week 4 - no OHP

Plus I found I'll be training in Madison at Ford's Gym on the 14th so I can work with a buddy of mine on my squat form. He's a PL and a certified strength and conditioning coach. Should be just what I need.

Delts:
Face pulls - 5x10-12
Front DB raises - 5x8-10
Seated DB Laterals - 5x10-15

OHP:
Bar - 3x10
95 lbs (50-55%) - 8x3
95 lbs 1x18

DONE

[J L S]

nice work man, with the squats you could set up a camera or prop your phone up somewhere to see your depth, The idea of keeping a box in there is good though, you can use it as a depth guage for normal squats, just touch the box and fire up, dont have to pause on it.

your story is pretty awesome and its good to see somebody picking meets! get after it buddy! nice work

[Bruiser]

nice work man, with the squats you could set up a camera or prop your phone up somewhere to see your depth, The idea of keeping a box in there is good though, you can use it as a depth guage for normal squats, just touch the box and fire up, dont have to pause on it.

your story is pretty awesome and its good to see somebody picking meets! get after it buddy! nice work

Thanks man. I'm pretty psyched right now. My goal of 1,000+ total by Nov looks like it'll be happeneing, once I get help with my squat all my big lifts will dialed in AND I've got my meet picked out. It's such a great cause with some amazing lifters there that it'll be the perfect meet for me.

I'm super psyched about getting my squat dialed in. It's gonna help my total so much! Between bringing up my squat and strengthening my deathlift... my total is gonna keep climbing and climbing! Not bad for an old man! Lol.

It's off to do DE DL, back and grip work. Then I'm taking my oldest son (13 yr old) to go see Dark Knight Rises. Gonna ben a good day.

[Bruiser]

Had a real good session this morning. I've never been able to really explode from the floor with deads, even on DE/speed work. Today was a breeze. 50% felt like 25%! I'm giving the credit to my box squats this past few weeks and to the crew at Jakked Hardcore for helping me dial in my form. 400 is right around the corner!

DE Deathlift:
160 lbs (50%) - 9x1
I did three sets DO grip, three with alt grip right out, and three with alt grip left out. I've never had much strength with alt grip, if anything my strength would drop SEVERELY. Everything is just falling into place right now.

Sumo Pulls:
160 lbs - 3x6-8

Back:
WG Pulldowns - 3x10
Reverse grip Pulldowns - 3x10
Fixed DD handle PDs - 3x10

Grip:
Reverse wrist curls - 3x8
Wrist curls - 3x15
CoC - 3xFail

DONE

[J L S]

nice man! you found a crew to train with already? if so thats sick!

[Bruiser]

nice man! you found a crew to train with already? if so thats sick!

I've been training with the PowerCorps down in Montgomery, IL once a month. They've helped me out a lot. Now I'm gonna be going up to Madison to train with a buddy of mine who is a certified strength and conditioning coach. So I'll be working out at two locations not counting the gym in my garage.

[Bruiser]

This morning I was down to 220 lbs! I love this intermittent fasting shit. My strength is actually going up and I'm burning fat like a muthafucka! Lol. I figured it out and the way I'm doing it, I'm eating more calories on Sat-Sun than I do Mon-Fri! But the fat is just falling off me.

Wanted to get a new PR on bench today, but was thrilled to hit my previous PR at another 10 lbs lighter. Plus the only times I've hit 265 bench (March/April at bw of 270 & 2 weeks ago at bw of 230) I was running orals. So 265 at 220 bw w/out Dbol is HUGE!

ME Bench:
Bar - 3x10
135x5
185x5
205x3
225x1
245x1
260x1
270x0
265x1

Triceps:
CGBP - 5x10
V bar Pushdowns - 5x10

Abs:
Standing rope crunch - 5x Failure

DONE

[Bruiser]

Now that I thought I had my new split/program figured out... It's all coming to an end. I was contacted by big man Brandon Lilly about running his Cube Training System for 10 weeks for FREE! Wow! I'll be starting it Sept 17th. The monday after I work with my strength and conditioning coach to fix my squat.

The Cube Training is similar to what I was trying to come up with. It's a 3 week rotating conjugate style program. I really love what I've seen so far. It's gonna help me reach my goals in no time!

So with getting to work with Coach Bryan to fix my squat, training with the PowerCorps at Jakked Hardcore and running Brandon Lilly's program... I feel like a noob just getting started. Because I haven't even come close to my potential with having these amazing PLs working with me.

I truly love the camaraderie in this sport!

[J L S]

Damn haha! All falling into place! You're a lucky dude! Wish I was in your position! Did you contact Brandon yourself or did he message you!? Etc. how did it come about!

I worked with josh Bryant for a while and he was great, it's good to have somebody else help with your training so you can just get in there and do the fun part! LIFT!

[Bruiser]

Damn haha! All falling into place! You're a lucky dude! Wish I was in your position! Did you contact Brandon yourself or did he message you!? Etc. how did it come about!

I worked with josh Bryant for a while and he was great, it's good to have somebody else help with your training so you can just get in there and do the fun part! LIFT!

I had seen on Facebook that Brandon was competing against Brian Carrol in a CGBP contest for charity. And he had done it for Autimsm Speaks. I messaged him to thank him for that, seeing as my youngest son has Autism. After chatting on FB for a while he asked me to take part in it! I was floored man! Even though I won't be working with him in person, I'll be able to contact him whenever I need to, so for someone that lives in a different state it's just as good as a training partner. Which is something I've never had until recently. I train by myself in the gym I built in my garage. So having all these people helping me now is amazing!