Steve 4/30/2012 Military Press

Today I continued my quest to try and develop some shoulders. This is my last week of my modified Smolov Jr and I'm feeling pretty solid going into my test week next week. Thanks to Moe's burritos and a butt ton of creatine I'm bloated up to about 150lbs and looking pretty thick. Today's workout was as follows:

Dynamic Warm up/ Foam Roll

Military Press: 5x45, 5x7 @95lbs

Pull ups: 8, 8, 8

Bent Over Rows: 9x95, 9x105, 9x105, 9x105

Here's some footage of my military presses: 

Please note the awesome music selection of the fitness center. These felt good considering I'm an awful military presser.




Today's exercise of the day is: Good Morning Squats



Guys, feel bad. Laura Phelps-Sweatt WILL embarrass you. I find that these are amazing for hitting your glutes/hamstrings/erectors and have become one of my favorite exercises. That's all for today folks. Until next time, stay pissed.

Steve 4/28/2012

Today I did a little bit of everything. I started off with some jumping, did some benching, then a conditioning circuit. Today's workout went as follows:


Dynamic Warm Up/ Foam Roll


Box jump up to 40"
3x1 Reactive box jumps


Bench: 5x45, 5x95, 4x9x140


Conditioning circuit (3x with 9 sec rest between):


20kb swing @ 35lbs
10 conventional deadlift @ 185lbs
20kb burpee snatch @ 20lbs




Here's some footage of my box jumps:

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These are great for developing reactive strength for squatting. The extra weight of the dumbbells helps to enhance the stretch shortening cycle to develop more reactive strength. I need to work on my landings though. Some time soon I'll have a write up on reactive strength. Until next time, stay pissed.

Steve 4/27/2012

This workout is my absolute nightmare. I pretty much picked my 3 least favorite exercises and hit them hard. Today's workout went as follows:

Dynamic Warm up/ Foam rolling

Rack Pulls: 5x10 @ 275

Good Mornings: 135x8, 155x8, 155x8

Back Extensions: 4x10 @ 25

I'm hoping that all this will help put some meat on my back and help fix my shitty ass lockout. I should have videos of the rack pulls soon.

Hot Topic: Contrast Therapy

Contrast Therapy is something I learned about very recently. As a dancer, I've had plenty of injuries and experiences with delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS. Usually we are told to use cold when treating an injury that is inflamed. Cold causes vasoconstriction which will reduce the inflammation in the injured area and reduce pain. Heat, on the other hand, is used to relax aching muscles.

Contrast Therapy is when you use a combination of both heat and cold. There are a few ways to do this-you can use cold and hot packs to put on just one area of the body, or you could use immersion. Immersion could be just sticking one body part in water, such as a foot or wrist, or you could do total body immersion. This can easily be done in the shower. You want to go as cold as you can handle and as hot as you can handle to get the best results.

Contrast therapy can be used after workouts to help control DOMS. Contrast therapy will produce a cycling of vasoconstriction and vasodilation which results in a "pumping effect" of the blood. When applying heat, the blood rushes to the area, and when applying cold, the blood rushes away. Contrasting hot and cold helps to maximize the benefits of both and reduce the limitations of each. Variations in hot and cold also may confuse nerve pathways that lead to the sensation of pain. This will lead to a temporary reduction in pain. In terms of how long to do the hot or cold, different people will tell you different things. The most consistent answer I have heard is 30 seconds of hot followed by 30 seconds of cold, switching between the two for about 3-5 minutes.

There is plenty of evidence out there that suggests this kind of therapy is best for athletes, however I would recommend that anyone who works out and is prone to sore muscles give it a try. I'm definitely going to try it out after my next workout. What do you guys think? Has anyone ever done contrast therapy before? Let us know!! Just a word of caution--NEVER put heat on an inflamed injury or swollen body part. This can make the swelling worse and will delay the healing process. Happy training :)

Days off

Today I'm taking a much needed day off. Literally my everything hurts from the past 3 days and I'm thankful to have nothing but some light foam rolling on my agenda. I feel the need to tell you all about this because I feel that a lot of die hard fitness buffs don't appreciate the importance of a day off.

I know that some people think that no matter what, the more you do the more you're going to improve. This could'nt be further from the truth. Take it from a guy who's obsessive about fitness- if you try to go hard every day, you're going to go nowhere. Until the past year or so I always thought I could mentally will myself to always do more work and that it would just make me in better shape. I tried to simultaneously lift 5 days a week for powerlifting while in season for rowing and all it got me was a deadlift that was stalled at 395 from April until August.

It wasn't until I talked to some smart people that told me how much of a dumbass I was that I realized I was sabotaging my own training. I credit these people with drilling it into my head that progress is made during recovery. Now this doesn't mean you can lift 1 day a week and you'll make crazy gains but it means take 2 or 3 days a week to rest, eat, and do some active recovery work (foam rolling, stretching, light jogging) and you'll see progress in your lifts, in your physique, and in your mental state.


On that note, I'll leave you all with today's exercise of the day: Fire Hydrant Circles

 
Take the time to check out all of DeFranco's hip mobility drills. Believe me, your hips will thank you in a few years. I love these to get my miserable tight hips warmed up before squatting, deadlifting, or simply on a recovery day. So many people disregard mobility and its helping to short circuit their gains, but thats a story for another day. That's all for today guys, until next time. Stay pissed.

Steve 4/25/2012

Today I hit my shoulders pretty hard. Today's workout went as such:


Dynamic Warm up/ Foam Rolling


Push Press: 3x45, 3x95, 10x3x135


Superset: Skull Crushers/Pec Flys 4x10x45/40s


Hammer Curl: 3x10x22.5s


Barbell Curl: 2x10x40




This workout killed my shoulders and it was awesome. I'm REALLY hoping this cycle will help give me more pop off my chest and help me to put some meat on my upper body.




Exercise of the day: Spidermans
 

I LOVE these as a warm up. They're great for warming your hips up and you can enhance the stretch by reaching your same arm to the sky and looking to it as you bring your leg forward. Do these every day and watch your hip and thoracic mobility improve. 


Well thats all for today. Until next time. Stay pissed.

Chrissy 4/25/12

Hey guys! My workout this morning was pretty rough. I've been so busy lately that I haven't gotten much sleep. My dance show is this weekend so I've been rehearsing non-stop. My body is so tired and dead! So I was moving pretty slow today. My main lift was bench, which is the one I have the most trouble with. I just really don't like benching! My workout went as follows:

Bench:
5x35, 5x50x5

Incline Bench:
4x10x10

Pullover:
3x12

Skull Crusher:
4x10

1-arm Row:
4x10

Band Pull-Aparts:
3x25

Core:
2 sets of: Bird Dog, Plank, Side Plank, and Supermans, 1 min each

Unfortunately I don't have a video today, sad :( Steve and I decided today to push my max week back since I've missed a few workouts due to traveling. So instead of getting my maxes next week, I'll do them the week after, with Steve. That's all for today! Happy lifting :)

Chrissy 4/24/12

Hey everyone! So excited about my first blog post. So I've missed a few workouts due to the fact I was traveling all weekend, so I did my Friday workout today. My main lift today was deadlift. My workout went as follows:

Deadlift
5x45, 5x75, 5x95, 5x105x4

Snatch-grip RDL
5x5x50

KB Swings
3x15x20

Bent-over Rows
3x15x25

Hip Thrusters
3x15

Core:
2 sets of: 100 Penguins, 20 toe touches, 20 bicycle crunches, 15 ball crunches, 1 min plank

Tabata Squats
20:10, 15 each time

Here's a video of my deadlift. My first ever lifting video, so exciting!!

Steve 4/24/2012

Today I hit reverse band deadlifts hard and finally got back under the bar squatting. My lift went as such:

Dynamic warm up + foam rolling

Reverse band deadlifts: 225x3, 315x3, 365x2, 405x4x5
Squat: 45x5, 135x5, 225x5, 225x5
Good Mornings: 135x8x3
Hip Thrusters: 155x8x4

I was REALLY pumped on hitting 405 for 5 sets of 4 reverse bands. My lockout is feeling solid even though my hips are still way too high. Here's some footage of my first set.















Exercise of the day: Today's exercise of the day is definitely reverse band deadlifts. I swear by these for helping to fix my pathetic lockout. I also prefer them to regular banded deadlifts because it helps me mentally to get heavier weights in my hands.

Overall today was a very good day. It felt good to get back under the bar squatting even though my hip still isn't feeling 100%. I'm gonna continue to rehab it and hopefully 4 plates will happen in 2012.

Steve 4/23/2012

Hit some incline bench and upper back work today. My workout went as follows:

Short cardio warm up

Dynamic stretches:
Frankensteins
Hurdle Walks
Toe Touches
Thread the Needles
Spidermans
Foam rolling

Main workout:
Incline Bench - 7x5 @ 115lbs
Pull Ups - 10, 8, 8
Bent Over Rows - 9x95, 9x105, 9x105, 9x105
Facepulls - 4x25 @ 50lbs


I'm currently running a modified version of Smolov Jr (4x9, 5x7, 7x5, 10x3 rep scheme). I've stretched it out to 4 weeks instead of 3 because I don't think my shoulders could handle pressing 4x a week. I'm also rotating bench, military press, incline bench, and push press as the main movements instead of just using my bench. I'm hoping this will help my horrific shoulder strength deficiency and jump start my bench progress. So far I'm liking it.




Exercise of the day: Facepulls









If you aren't doing these yet, you should be. I've found facepulls to be one of the most useful exercises for helping to develop upper back thickness, which everybody needs. Having a solid upper back transfers to squatting, benching, and deadlifting; not to mention it will help you posture. Also, who doesn't want a sexy upper back? I know I do.


 That's all for today guys. Until next time.

What is this?

This blog is the training log for Steven Grosso and Chrissy Giorgetti. We're a boyfriend and girlfriend couple lifting out of Ithaca College. Steve currently competes in USA Powerlifting in the 132lb (60kg) and 148lb (67.5kg) class and currently holds the American Record Squat in the 60kg Junior (20-23) Division with a 319lb squat. 

Chrissy comes from a long history of dancing but recently decided to try her hand at powerlifting. She intends to compete in USA Powerlifting and plans to compete in the 105lb (40kg) class. She plans to make her lifting debut at the 2012 USAPL New Jersey State Championships.


Steve currently boasts PR lifts of:
340lb Squat (2/11/2012, Muscles in Motion Gym meet, 148lb class)
205lb Bench (12/3/2011 USAPL King of Prussia, 132lb class)
435lb Deadlift (Gym lift, done at 144lbs bodyweight)


Chrissy currently boasts PR lifts of:
110lb Squat
65lb Bench
135lb Deadlift


Here's some semi current training footage:





We're going to post daily training updates so follow our blog and let us know what you think