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 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. Loved the training didn't like the competing aspect so I went back to my first love, powerlifting. Injuries have been a part of my life ever since I can remember and were the biggest reason for leaving the sport (I can no longer hold a squat bar on my back). I have degenerative joint disease, have had two shoulder surgeries (right shoulder now needs replaced), one full hip replacement, knee surgery, herniation's in all three regions of my spine, Bone spurs in places I didn't know you could get them, planter facetious, tendinitis and bursitis. 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.
October 13th. - Chest and Shoulders.
First exercise. Smith machine, flat bench press. I started with the bar for 4 or 5 warm-up sets of 10 repetitions and then began to work-up a quarter per side using sets of 12 repetitions. Once I got to 4 quarters per side, I did 4 sets of 12 repetitions. Each set was 3 to 4, maybe 5 reps shy of failure.
Second exercise. Machine press. 3 warm-up sets with about a third of a stack. Then, I jumped to 3 quarters of a stack and did 2 sets of 12 repetitions. Then, I went to full stack for 4 sets of 8 repetitions with a very slow temp on the eccentric. Probably around a 4 to 5 count eccentric.
Third exercise. Cable flyes. 4 sets, 15 repetitions. I didn't need any warm-up sets at this point because my chest was already warmed up and had a pretty good pump and a lot of blood in it. I was more concerned about the stretch. After the 4 sets, I did one loaded stretch holding for a 45 second count.
Forth exercise was dips, 4 sets to failure. The first couple of sets I used a very slow tempo to try to fail between 10 to 15 repetitions. My goal was to hit 10 to 15repetitions for each set. As the sets progressed and I wore out more, I increased the tempo to be able to get the 15 repetitions.
Fifth exercise, standing side raises using kettle bells, 4 sets of 15 with 30 seconds rest. The way these were performed is a strict fashion, trying to pause at the top for a 1 second count, if I could. Typically, I was not able to do that but that was what I was shooting to accomplish.
Sixth exercise was spider crawls. With the spider crawls, I used a mini band, a short mini band, and put it around my wrist and then stand facing a wall and just pull my arms apart to the side and walk up and down the wall in various different patterns to blow my shoulders apart. The goal is to get ... Is to try to never hit the same position twice with your hand until you get to a point where you can't even move your arms anymore. I did that for 2 sets. The
Seventh exercise of the day was the rear delt machine. Two warm-up sets of 10 reps to figure out what weight I was going to be able to use. Once that was accomplished, I did 4 sets of 20 to 25 repetitions, each set to failure.