Training update 6/17/2012

Hey guys. Sorry for the long lapse in updates, the past couple weeks have been hectic with me moving to Mass and getting set up at my internship and whatnot. I'm finally all settled into a regular schedule so hopefully I'll be able to pay more attention to this blog. But anyways, in other news, Chrissy is currently in Italy for 2 weeks so her training is on hold. My training is taking a drastic turn due to my internship at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning.

 At MBSC you are required to do the entire summer workout plan while interning. Their philosophy is that you need to be able to do a workout to coach it. Unfortunately for me, their program is centered around field sports and isn't conducive to powerlifting. The program is centered around a lot of unilateral limb work and stressing stabilizers and synergist muscles. Because of this, my training is sort of on hold. I'm using this time to heal up my hips and gain some balance in my upper body. On sunday's ill be doing the Bench/Deadlift/ and possibly military press work sets of Juggernaut to keep my training progressing and I'll try to post fitness tidbits on here as much as possible.


Here's how today's workout went:

Dynamic warm up

Deadlift: 135x5, 225x3, 285x8x5

Bench: 45x5, 115x5, 140x8x5

Military Press: 45x5, 80x8, 80x8


My shoulders were feeling dead so instead of continuing I called it quits after 2 work sets since I have 4 days in a row of working out at Boyles ahead of me.


Here's todays exercise of the day: X-Pulldowns

 

These are awesome for scap. stability and for improving the strength of your scap retractors (which everyone needs). Ideally these are done on a Kesier but any functional trainer will do. Just remember to keep your shoulders set and worry about form rather than weight.


Well thats all for today guys. Until next time.

Steve Juggernaut Test Week Part 2

Hey guys. Here's my write up for the end of my test week last week. Overall things went great. I made some HUGE rep PR's and I've put on a LOT of mass. I can't wait to start competing in the 148's this summer. This year's goals are a 400 squat and a 500 pull in the 148 class.


Thursday: Military Press

Military Press: 45x5, 60x5, 75x3, 85x1, 90x12

Slingshot bench: 185x2, 225x2, 225x2, 225x2 (with 25 band pull apart between sets)

Chest Fly/Hammer curl superset: 3x10x35/25

Tabata Push ups


I didnt get as many reps for this as I wanted but it was still a rep PR. I had to lift 4 days in a row this week due to other commitments so I attribute this to fatigue. Hitting 225 for 3 doubles in the SS was also a PR for me that felt good.


Friday: Deadlift

Dynamic Warm Up/Foam Roll

For this I did a VERY extended warm up because of how sore I am. Soon I am going to post a video of all my mobility work I do on my lower body days.


Deadlift: 5x135, 5x225, 3x255, 1x275, 20x295

Tabata Push ups

Tabata Isometric Back Extensions


Here's a video of my deadlifts:
s

I was blown away by the fact that I was able to pull 295 for 20. This has me feeling great going into my 8's wave of Juggernaut.


Now that I have all my rep maxes I'll be able to move up my theoretical maxes. For each rep that I got above 10 in my test week I'm moving my projected maxes (2.5lbs per rep for lower body lifts, 1.25lbs per rep for upper) to base my next wave off of. This week is my deload week. I'm real excited because my body is feeling absolutely burned out. Thats all for today folks. Until next time.

I'm Baaaack!

...kind of. So since graduation I have moved back into my parents house and done absolutely nothing except interview for various jobs. Like my mom likes to say, "job-hunting is a full-time job". Well, she's right. Every day since I came home a week ago (with the exception of a much-needed Memorial Day weekend on the Cape), I have been going to interviews and worrying so much about THAT that I've kind of fallen off my workout plan. Ok-totally fallen off. I'm an unemployed college grad, and I'm broke. I don't have the funds to pay for a gym membership, and why would I when I soon hope to be employed at a gym? I found out today that I can work out at my high school between 6-8pm for $1, so starting maybe tomorrow but definitely next week I'm going to be doing that. In the meantime, I did my own bodyweight workout today consisting of a lot of different exercises done Tabata-style. They were:

Squats
Push-ups
Curl-ups
Supermans
Planks
Russian Twists
Hip Thrusters
Leg Raises
Bird-Dogs

Obviously this isn't a "replacement" for my workout, just a temporary placeholder. I also found a cool iPhone tabata app that I downloaded and used. It's just a fancy timer, but it beeps twice after 20 seconds and once after 10 seconds so you know when to start and stop. This was useful because I could just hit start and not have to worry about keeping an eye on the timer. I think it will also be useful to use when I have clients.

Well that's all for today. I'm going to work on getting my butt into a real gym because I've lost a lot of time...my fault. Also if anyone knows of any fitness jobs in the greater Boston area...LET ME KNOW!! :) Until next time...

Steve Juggernaut Test Week part 1

So this week is my 10's wave rep test week. Things have been going awesome so far and I've crushed some of my old rep maxes. Here's how my first two workouts went.


Tuesday:

Dynamic Warm up/Foam Roll

Bench: 5x45, 3x115, 1x125, 17x135

Incline Bench/Bent Over row superset: 4x10@95lbs each

Facepulls: 4x25

This workout went awesome. My previous rep max for 135 was 12 so this was a 5 rep PR. My bench is feeling real solid for the first time in a while and I'm excited to be putting mass on my chest/shoulders.

Wednesday:

Dynamic warm up/ Foam Roll

3x seated box jump. 28", 28", 30"

3x Standing box jump: 30", 30", 32"

3x Kneeling jump: bodyweight, 45lbs, 45lbs

With my plyos I've been focusing a lot on my landing mechanics so I've been doing less height. I feel like adding jumps has definitely been making me more explosive so I'm going to continue them into my next training phase. 

Squat: 5x45, 5x155, 3x185, 1x215, 20x230

Conventional Deadlift: 8x185+ quaded mini band w/ 30s rest between reps

Tabata push ups


This was another huge rep PR for me. My previous 20 rep PR was 185lbs so I destroyed that. I also wanted to die for about 20 mins after that set haha. I took a phone video but the quality was awful so I'm not going to bother posting it.


In other news I got my MRI on my right hip yesterday. I don't have the results yet but I'm hoping there's no year in my labrum. Squatting super close stance has taken a lot of pressure off of it but I still need to take pain medication to make it through a full workout. I should have my results soon so we'll see.




Well thats all for today folks. Until next time.
 

Juggernaut week 2 part 2

Hey guys, I just finished week 2 of my 10's wave of JTS (intensification week). Below are my write ups for Friday and Sturday


Friday:


Dynamic Warm up

Deadlift: 5x135, 5x225, 5x245, 3x10 @ 265

Good Mornings: 4x15 @ 95lbs

Body rows/hip extensions 4x5 each leg

 
These are absolute MURDER on your posterior chain. They kill your glutes and hamstrings along with working your upper back. Not to mention it takes a good deal of core stability to do these.

Tabata Isometric Back Extensions



Saturday

Dynamic Warm up

Military Press: 5x45, 5x65, 5x75, 3x10@85

Close Grip Bench Press: 5x45, 5x135, 5x145, 5x145, 5x145

Pec Fly/Hammer Curl: 3x10

Tabata Push Ups

 5x100 yard Hill Sprint



So far everything is feeling good. I'm looking forward to going into next week and crushing some rep PR's. My weight is running real high right now (thanks senior week) so I'm starting to watch my carb intake and timing to help get back down to the 145-148 region which has historically been the weight where my training goes the best. I've noticed that with my weight gain, my work capacity is going down and its causing me to take excessive rest between sets so I'm throwing in some conditioning work. Thats all for today guys, until next time.
 

Chrissy Juggernaut

Hey guys! Its been super busy with senior week and graduation and everything and I've fallen waaay behind on my blogs. Sorry! Anyways, I started Juggernaut last week and so far its going well. Instead of recapping all the workouts I forgot to blog (my bad) I'll just start with this week.

Monday:
Deadlift 5x45, 5x65, 5x10x75
Military Press5x10x12.5
Good Morning 3x10x65
Hip Thrusters 3x15
Banded Monster Walks  4x20yd
Banded Lateral Walks 4x20yd
Core Circuit of plank, ball crunch, bird-dog 3x30sec
Tabata iso back ext

Tuesday:
Bench 5x45, 3x10x45
Bent-over Row 5x10x45
DB Fly 4x10x10
DB Skullcrusher 4x10x10
Core: incline sit-ups, oblique machine, roman chair leg-lifts

Here's a video of my deadlift from Monday:


Thats all for today! In other news....WE GRADUATED!!! :)

Steve Juggernaut week 2

Hey guys, I'm now in week 2 of Juggernaut. I'm still in the 10's wave. Here's my workouts for the past 2 days:


Monday:

Dynamic stretch/foam roll

Squat: 5x45, 5x135, 5x175, 5x195, 3x10@205

Here's a video of my squat:
 

Deadlift: 8x1 @ 185 + quaded mini




This was a little bit less than usual but I was feeling gassed so I figured I'd make them feel explosive rather than have to grind them out.

After this I did a core circuit of:
 3x
30s planks
30s bird dogs
30s pikes on stability ball 

then tabata Russian twists

Tuesday:

Dynamic Warm up

Bench: 5x45, 5x105, 5x115, 3x10@125

Slingshot bench: 2x185, 2x225, 2x225, 2x215

Here's a video of my slingshot bench:

  

Close Grip Incline bench: 4x10 @ 95

Bent Over Rows: 4x10 @ 95


Overall, things have been going well. My hip is getting progressively better and now that Senior Week is over I'm back into the swing of lifting so expect more updates. Until next time