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.
Leg day, Wednesday.
Yoke bar box squats using a box that was just above 90 degrees.
The way that I calculate parallel for 90 degrees is based upon my hip joint to my knee, not the crease of my hip to my knee. I do this because of the hip replacement surgery but actually more so because of the other hip that we're trying to keep from being replaced. I do still keep some restrictions in place. One of those restrictions is to not go lower than the 90 degrees, especially on heavier squats. I will go lower than 90 degrees if it's a lighter goblet squat or hack squat or some other squat of that sort but if I'm going to go heavier that's where I keep it at. Where I squatted at on this training session was about three inches lower than I squatted since I've had my hip replaced. I also wanted to push this some to see where I was really at.
Before it was all said and done I've worked up to six plates per side for five. It really wasn't all that bad. I think I could've got ... Well, actually I guess it really doesn't fucking matter but I think I could've got a quarter more for 5 or one more plate for 3, but after six plates that's getting to a point of using more weight than I've used since my hip replacement without using chains and other accommodating resistance, just using straight weight.
After that set, I do think I had more energy. There's not doubt about that. The guys that were spotting me, I told them as soon as I got out from under the bar to strip the bar down as fast as they could, just to keep me from doing more stupid shit than I already did. The reason why I did this is I had spotters for one, next week I'm not going to have spotters. I didn't want to have a year pass without really knowing where I was.
Does it really matter where I was?
To me it does. I guess it's all that really matters in the end.
Kettle bell squats which I'm also trying in my training block is kettle bell dead lifts.
All I do is grab the primal bells, which seem to work way better for this because they have a little bit lighter grip and they sit at different heights off the floor. I squat down, grab the bells, stand up, keeping my back and my torso braced for sets of 10-15. I used the 90 pound bell for 4 sets of 15. That's what I've been doing over the past several weeks. I finished with one set just jumping from one kettle bell to another kettle bell for a total of 100 reps.
Leg extensions
4 sets of 15 with 20 partials.
Hip abduction
2 sets of 20.
Hip adduction
2 sets of 20.
Glute press
2 sets of 20.
Neck work
2 sets of 20 lying flat on the bench with a plate on my forehead. Old school neck raises. That was it.