My training History: I trained less than one year before competing in my first powerlifting meet as a teenager back in 1983. Before leaving the sport partially due to injuries in 2005 I achieved my elitefts status in the 198,220,242,275 & 308 weight class. Throughout these years I did have a 3 year run in the bodybuilding world. I have  degenerative joint disease, have had two shoulder surgeries (right shoulder now needs replaced), one full hip replacement, knee surgery, and herniation's in all three regions of my spine, Bone spurs (all joints). I can't even begin to list the number of muscle tears I have had, surgical and non surgical.  I am "The Mashed Up Meathead" and this is my story. 

You can find my training log archives HERE and my most current training log posts HERE. 

My best lifts are behind be but my best training is yet to come. 

* Unless otherwise noted the tempo of the work sets is about 1/2 of what most would consider normal. In most cases, if I did the set with normal temp what I fail at with 8-10 reps in training I could do for 20 reps with a normal tempo. This is to keep the joint stress down while increase the stress on the muscle. I have found this to work best for me provided the conditions listed in my training history above.

 

 

Monday, chest day.

 

I actually originally planned to train yesterday but things didn't quite work out as I planned because of work and the work schedule this time of the year gets a little hectic and a little out of control so I gotta work around it a little bit.

Bench press with the shoulder saver pad and chains.
If I was to guess how many warm ups that there was, I would say probably ten or fifteen sets of anywhere between four and twelve repetitions per set working up to one plate and two quarters per side which the bar I was using is 245. From there I did sets of six and added one chain per side with every set until I got to a point where I didn't think I was going to be able to get six reps anymore. I got up to five chains per side. I actually do think I might have been able to go up one more chain but my back started cramping. The last time I did these, I believe last week, my lower back was cramping as well so this week I tried to keep my feet out in front and drive my feet into the floor.

I have a feeling moving forward with this I'm gonna have to pretty much pull all my legs right out of this. I don't think it deals so much with my back being the issue but more so with my right hip. The one they did not replace, the one that's kind of on the waiting list to be replaced but I'm starting to have a little bit of issues with that. We've been able to keep it under control with the MAT therapy that I've been getting. Any time I do anything that has drive or any kind of pressing like that, it seems to kind of cramp everything and bunch everything up so when I jam that hip socket up, it kind of fires into the lower back and I think that's what I'm dealing with. The other option is to put my feet on the bench or just not bench at all. It really doesn't make any difference but I'm having fun doing it, it really wasn't that big of a deal so we'll move on.

 

 

135  Bench Press Rep Hell
Using 135 I proceeded to do 1 rep and racked the bar, yet kept my hands on the bar, count to 10, un-rack the weight and do 2 reps, rack, count to 10, and keep repeating. I made it all the way to 11 reps and tried to hit the next set of 12 and go crushed after 4 reps.

 

 

Slight incline press
This uses a dumbbell bench and putting one end of it on top of a thick 45 pound bumper plate so it is a very slight incline. I used the tsunami grips and chains for this. Six sets of ten reps. Unlike last week, I did not put a time period in between the sets and I did let go in between each set. Right around 60 and 90 seconds per set. Ten to fifteen reps is what I averaged. I kept the tempo under control, it fell between ten and fifteen reps.

 

 

Hammer decline press.
I did this in a fashion where I used one arm at a time. I press out with both arms, keep one arm static, did four reps with the other arm, held it static and went back to the arm that was being held static and did four reps there and just went back and fourth for three rounds or until I couldn't do four reps anymore. I was able to get three rounds, four or five sets and then on the sixth set I wasn't able to get really two rounds. At that point I was done with that exercise.

 

Dips using the assisted dip machine.
Put my knees real far back on it so I could lean into it almost in a push up type position. Controlled the tempo and used a lot of weight where on this machine if you use a lot of weight that means you have more weight helping you. So, I didn't use a lot of weight because I wanted to have total control over the exercise and I wanted to get a pretty good stretch in the shoulders, not a stretch to the point of being pain but a stretch to a point of it being a little bit past what would be normal. Then, using my chest to contract out of the bottom kind of is a peck minor dip but then actually continue on and come all the way up. Took about three or four warm up sets of three to four reps to kind of gauge my position and what weight I was going to be able to use. Then I did five work sets of ten reps.

 

One arm cable cross over.
The cable machine was set at chin level and I used one of the tsunami ladder grips so it keeps my hand at a more horizontal plane that I can pull across my body further than I would be able to pull if I was doing both handles at the same time. Two sets of the failure so it was two sets of fifteen to twenty reps, somewhere around that range.
Band neck work four ways.
I didn't count the reps I just used a light band and did one set per direction, front, back, side, side. That was it.