[WEEK 1]

My training actually started last week. I do everything raw except squats, I add a Valeo belt(it's all mental). Here it goes:

WEEK 1

Schedule for this week is SQ/DL Wed; BP Thurs; Upper Back/Traps Fri

7/11/07
Squat
warm up 2@135lbs, 2@225lbs
add doubled small bands 2@bar, 2@135lbs, 2@225lbs, 2@315lbs, 2@405lbs

Deadlift
warm up 1@225lbs, 1@315lbs, 1@405lbs
work sets 1@495lbs, 1@565lbs


7/12/07
Reverse Band Bench - all sets done with small bands
warm up 2@135lbs, 2@225lbs, 2@315lbs
work sets 3@405lbs, 1@515lbs

Band Bench - all sets done with doubled smalls
warm up 2@bar, 2@95lbs, 2@135lbs, 2@185lbs
work set 3@225lbs

7/13/07
Shrugs 5x10
Seated Row 3x10
Machine Row 3x8
V Bar Pulldowns 3x8


WEEK 2

Schedule for this week is SQ/BP Mon; DL Thurs; Upper Back/Traps Fri

7/16/07
Reverse Band Bench - all sets done with small & mm bands
warm up 1@225lbs, 1@315lbs, 2@405lbs, 2@495lbs
work set 1@605lbs

Band Bench
warm up 3@135lbs
add doubled smalls & mm
3@bar, 1@135lbs, 3@165lbs, 1@225lbs

Squat
warm up 2@135lbs, 2@225lbs
add doubled Greens  2@bar, 2@135lbs, 2@225lbs, 2@315lbs, 2@345lbs (wow)

I second what James said, it's a privilege to follow how you guys prepare for the upcoming meet... so, thanks Mike for taking the time!

I do everything raw except squats, I add a Valeo belt(it's all mental).

Will you lift in the meet sans belt as well or do you plan to add it in later? If that Valeo belt is one of those velcro things I am familiar with from my early iron days, then it is indeed all mental... and probably very good for your core stability. Not much support compared to a thick powerlifting leather belt.

Last, but not least, please read the journal posting guidelines, especially the part about notation. Besides the obvious benefits of a common notation for readability across journals, I will also look into the option of auto-parsing journal entries to include both kilograms and pounds. One of my goals for this project is to make both people who think in pounds and kilograms feel at home without having to trouble any poster to do the conversion manually. The @ notation works well for this since the script will then know that the number following it is the weight to be converted. But enough about that, back to lifting matters!

Thanks guys. My weight right now is around 280 and hopeully it won't get much higher! The valeo belt is exactly what your thinking of Kris. After my workout last night my abs were cramping up so bad. That's usually what happens when I get into the higher tension squatting. If I wear a belt in the meet it would just be the velcro valeo one. I have a thicker powerlifting belt but it feels uncomfortable to me.

Hey Kris, I tried to edit my journal 3 times to meet the guidelines but everytime I hit the save button it sent me to a "404 error page" and if I hit refresh or back it wouldn't save my changes. Feel free to make adjustments yourself and my future post will meet the standard. Thanks for reading guys.

Hey Kris, I tried to edit my journal 3 times to meet the guidelines but everytime I hit the save button it sent me to a "404 error page" and if I hit refresh or back it wouldn't save my changes. Feel free to make adjustments yourself and my future post will meet the standard. Thanks for reading guys.

I need to fix that ASAP. The redirect after modifying a post is broken due to a forum module I am using to clean up the URLs. It should still save your post though, but apparently it isn't in your case for some reason. Sorry about that, I'll be happy to reformat the post for you. Also, thanks for your understanding. I know everyone has their own prefered notation, but there is a lot to be gained by using a common format, especially as this project aims at becoming truly global.

EDIT: Fixed the issue, you should no longer see any 404s.

My low back is still a little beaten up from the squats on Monday. Usually I squat/deadlift the same day early in the week but my work schedule has not been allowing that. So I will rest my body for the rest of this week and pick up fresh Monday. Looking back on it though, I never do heavy band tension squats 2 weeks in a row so that may have been what caused the problem.

Alright, back feels 97%(it's never 100) so schedule for this week will go:
Monday - Bench/Deadlift      Thursday - Upper Back/Traps

I'm going to do this meet with a sumo style deadlift, which means I will have to squat and deadlift on alternate weeks. This has worked well in the past. On bench/deadlift day I will be adding leg presses and seated leg curls. With 6 weeks left that gives me 3 squat and 3 deadlift workouts. I will be lifting on the 7th so this gives me a full 14 days to recover before the meet for the deadlift and 10 days for the squat, perfect.

My 3 squat workouts will go  Med+MMx2 - 200chainx2 - 590x2. This should give me an easy 615 second attempt. My last 3 deadlift workouts: 455x2 off plate -  RDL 485x5 - Reverse Band DL(smalls) 575x1(Bands give out just below knees). This should give me an easy 605 2nd attempt. I only list my top sets, I work up to these making 60-90 pound jumps so that I try to do 5x2, after warm ups, every workout. If anyone has any questions on how/why I set my training up this way, please ask. My benchcycle is a little more complicated. Later guys.

I'm going to do this meet with a sumo style deadlift, which means I will have to squat and deadlift on alternate weeks. This has worked well in the past. On bench/deadlift day I will be adding leg presses and seated leg curls. With 6 weeks left that gives me 3 squat and 3 deadlift workouts. I will be lifting on the 7th so this gives me a full 14 days to recover before the meet for the deadlift and 10 days for the squat, perfect.

Highly interesting! Like you, I am a back case. Keeping the low back decently happy is a daily chore. It has also forced me to switch to sumo. So, I'd be really interested in hearing a bit more as to why you alternate squat and deadlift weeks. I've taken the precise opposite route by deadlifting after squats every workout to condition for the meet. Last meet, I was left at my opener in the deadlift (a weight I had tripled in training) and don't want to see that happen again. I've also taken my squat stance in considerably as I felt going wide also took kilos off the sumo due to their similarity (plus my hip got really beat up from going wide on both). How wide do you squat, and is this also a factor in your decision to alternate weeks? Also, what kind of back problems are you suffering from and how do they affect your training routine?

Sorry for the many questions, but I'd love to hear more about this being in pretty much the same boat.

 How wide do you squat, and is this also a factor in your decision to alternate weeks? Also, what kind of back problems are you suffering from and how do they affect your training routine?

Sorry for the many questions, but I'd love to hear more about this being in pretty much the same boat.

Honestly, I don't think I'm a wide squatter. Maybe 24-30 inches between my heels. But, I use a fairly high bar position and lean forward a bit. This stresses my quads and low back, two very important muscles in a sumo style deadlift. With these muscles being taxed so heavily the only deadlifts I was able to do after squats were singles and speed work. Which is what I use to do, reverse band speed deads 5x2 working up to 80-90% of my projected max over 3 weeks. Results, decent but my back was still an issue. So, somewhere along the lines I read an article by Fred Hatfield in which he talked about training the dead with Doyle Kenady. Fred did sq/dl on the same day where as doyle broke them up. Why? It allowed him to train the deadlift heavier then if he did it on the same day as squats so when the meet came around he knew that his max would be a weight he handled for a triple plus 10 pounds. If he had squatted and deadlifted on the same day he felt he may have been good for 50 pounds less less at a meet b/c he had not handled a lot of weight in training.

But, being drug free I had to come up with a better way. So, I tried doing squats and deads on the same day for awhile and it helped my low back a lot. But, as I got stronger this became unrealistic. Doing 560x5 raw in the squat then hoping for 575x5 in the sumo dead after was not easy and would leave my body taxed for weeks(by the way, I only got 575x4 that workout). So, due to certain time constraints I began to alternate weeks for my squat and dead. The result, well in 2 months I went from 605x2 to 665x1easy rep in the deadlift. Squat from a hard 565x2 to an easy 585x2. The extra rest and ability to put 100% effort into each lift made all the difference. The last time I did this I didn't get to a meet so we shall see what happens now.

The kind of back problems I have occur on the sides of my back in certain sweet spots. The pain jumps back and forth and sometimes my back gets very stiff. I injured my back in 2006 during the early part of traditional linear/western periodization cycle doing 50% of my max for 10! I used periodization for years and loved it, still do. But I just can't use it anymore. Thanks for reading!

Mike, thanks for the in-depth answer!  Much food for thought there. My weights are still way below the numbers you cite as being problematic for you when squatting and pulling on the same day. Also, I seem to thrive on plenty of volume on the main lifts and the thought of only going heavy pre-meet on each every second week is almost frightening... but I can indeed see that an experienced lifter with good technique might fare a lot better this way. I am also lucky that my back can take the main lifts decently well (can't cope with much flexion though). I'm actually squatting and deadlifting twice a week right now (one being a chain suspended SSB squat before the deadlifts), but it remains to be seen whether this is too much or not. So far so good though, although I can't say I have been totally pain free.

Keep up the hard work and let's hope we both check in at the meet with our backs at 97% percent! 

[WEEK 3]

WEEK 3

Schedule for this week: Monday - BP/DL       Thursday - Upper Back/Traps

7/23/07
Reverse Band BP - all sets done with doubled Green Bands
2@295, 2@405, 2@585, 1@635

Band BP - all sets done with doubled Greens
2@bar, 2@135, 2@185, 2@225, 1@275

Sumo Platform Deadlifts - done standing on 100 pound plates
2@135, 2@225, 2@315, 2@405, 2@455(easy!)

[Week 47/30/07Squat and Bench PressSquat - Using Doubled Mediums and Doubled Smalls2@135 / 2@225add Bands2@bar / 2@135 / 2@185 / 2@225Reverse Band Bench Press - using doubled mediums and smalls2@405 / 2@585 / 1@725 / 1@765 / 1@765Band Bench Press - doubled mediums and mon. mini2@bar / 2@95 / 2@135 / 1@155 / 1@175Standing Abs 4x20@120+small band]

Week 4

7/30/07
Squat and Bench Press

Squat - Using Doubled Mediums and Doubled Smalls

2@135 / 2@225

add Bands
2@bar / 2@135 / 2@185 / 2@225

Reverse Band Bench Press - using doubled mediums and smalls

2@405 / 2@585 / 1@725 / 1@765 / 1@765

Band Bench Press - doubled mediums and mon. mini

2@bar / 2@95 / 2@135 / 1@155 / 1@175

Standing Abs 4x20@120+small band


Went with the band squats instead of the chains to help get more out of the residual effect. My next squat workout will be chains then 590x2-3. I'll probably be good for 5 with that weight so I may try 2-3 reps with 600+. Rest until next Monday when I got Sumo RDL 485x5.

[8/6/07 ME Squat/DeadliftBox Squat with chain(11 inch box used)2@1352@2252@315Add 120# of chain2@315Add 200# of chain2@3152@4052@4552@500Good Mornings8@1358@2258@225Standing abs 12@100+med band12@120+med band12@120+med bandChain Leg Raise(with 5 sec. static hold)5@ 1 chain5@ 2 chain5@ 3 chainLeg Extension2x20]

Ok, so I switched things up just a tad so that I can use the virtual meet as a warm up meet. I've never done any type of westside program but the one I will be working with has many of its' theories behind it. I do think that the virtual meet crowd could see a 700 raw squat from me, maybe So on to todays workout:

8/6/07 ME Squat/Deadlift

Box Squat with chain(11 inch box used)
2@135
2@225
2@315

Add 120# of chain
2@315

Add 200# of chain
2@315
2@405
2@455
2@500

Good Mornings
8@135
8@225
8@225

Standing abs
12@100+med band
12@120+med band
12@120+med band

Chain Leg Raise(with 5 sec. static hold)
5@ 1 chain
5@ 2 chain
5@ 3 chain

Leg Extension
2x20

Oh yeah, my schedule will be: Monday ME SQ/DL / Wednesday ME BP  / Friday DE SQ/DL  /  Saturday DE BP

[8/8/07 ME BenchFloor Press with Chain1@135+3 chain1@135+5 chain1@225+5 chain1@275+5 chainMISS@315+5 chain(this was heavy!)Elbows Out Incline Extension 6x10@35Seated Rows 4x8@300Hammer Curls 3x12@50Decline Sit Ups8@458@908@1108@110]

8/8/07 ME Bench

Floor Press with Chain
1@135+3 chain
1@135+5 chain
1@225+5 chain
1@275+5 chain
MISS@315+5 chain(this was heavy!)

Elbows Out Incline Extension 6x10@35

Seated Rows 4x8@300

Hammer Curls 3x12@50

Decline Sit Ups
8@45
8@90
8@110
8@110

That's all she wrote. I got planted by the 315 floor press. I do though pause all floor presses for 3 seconds. If you've ever seen Blakleys' XTM tape he does 405 for triples with 5 chains a side!

Hi Mike,

it is great that you share your training log here.
Some posts ago you mentioned Sumo RDL standing on plates.
Well, I tried those yesterday for the first time and these felt amazingly intense. When I stumbled out of the weight room I knew it was one of my best workouts ever. Thanks for the inspiration!

Best regards,
Christian.

Great to hear! Those are great for developing overall strength for a sumo deadlifter. Keep your reps at 5 for those and you should shoot for 80% of your best sumo deadlift for 5. Thanks for reading.