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.
Wednesday, legs.
Leg extensions
to warm up the knees. 3 sets, 15 repetitions with a weight that I probably could have done 20 or 30 more repetitions with.
Seated leg curls.
4 warm-up sets of 10 reps, 2 work sets of 15 reps with about 10 reps left in the tank, I'm more worried about just getting a pump in the hamstrings, not going to failure and warming up for the next exercise...
Box squats using the yoke bar.
Last week I went heavy on this, this week I wanted to actually see where I was doing the old death squat which is using a box a couple inches high, once again I defined parallel based upon my hip joint to the top of the knee, not the crease of the hip to the top of the knee. The death squat is with 3 plates per side for as many reps as possible.
Several warm-up sets using the bar, 135, 225, even took 315 for a couple of singles, didn't quite feel right, something with my upper abdominal area, psoas just was tight so I basically just decided to say, "Suck it," and ignore it and did another single just to see how it felt but on this one I'm braced a little bit differently because I actually weighed myself and realized that I was a lot heavier than what I thought I was. My weight was about 287. If you can believe this, I actually thought I was about 269. The holidays have been good for me. When my weight is up and my weight is higher, I have to brace my torso a little bit differently when I squat than when my weight is lighter. With that in mind, I changed the belt position a little bit, I changed my back arch angle slightly and I changed how I hold in my air differently.
It's really hard to explain in text the difference between how I would brace when I'm 260 compared to how I brace when I'm 289. The difference essentially is because I have more girth aka fat is an easier way to say it, around my torso. When I brace the same way, when I brace when I'm lighter, it puts a lot of strain on the obliques and the psoas as compared to how I would brace when I'm lighter. Making that observation and making that correction, it didn't hurt when I did the 3-plates for one rep which I think I noted as 315. I consider the safety spot bar to be forty-five pounds if I'm actually writing it down in a training log when it actually weighs between 62 and 70 pounds depending upon the bar and the handle. Three plates per side is what's used for the death squat.
With all this in mind and all the corrections made and now I'm in a position to actually do a set, I got 32 reps before having and racked the weight. Not bad considering I haven't done this for a very long time. My record on this is 50 but I was a hell of a lot lighter, I think I was 250 at the time when I did that and it was before I had my hip replaced as well. I'm happy with that, I like to see it around 40. Most of it's breathing and how I'm sitting back but finished the year with 32 on that which I'm satisfied with that.
Leg extensions,
this time, four work sets, 15 reps and 15 partials. These were taken to failure
Leg curls
4 work sets of 12-15 reps, each set to failure.
Hip abduction,
4 sets of 12 to 15 reps, all sets to failure.
Glute press
2 sets, 15 repetitions,
Kettlebell squat
3 sets of 12 to 15 repetitions, each set was about 4 repetitions shy of failure.
Lying neck work using the sand bells
2 sets each direction.