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.
Saturday back training.
Double D handle pulldowns using two comfort grip handles.
Four warm-up sets of 10 to 15 reps, then 5 worksets using the same weight for 10 to 15 reps, each set to failure.
4-inch grenade ball, standing table pullovers
One warm-up set to determine what weight to be used. Six sets of 10 to 15 reps, each set to failure.
Prone bench, kettlebell rows.
This is an exercise that has been in the routine now for maybe 4 or 5 weeks, so it's getting time to phase it out.
I took it a little heavier today. I'm not sure how much the kettlebells weigh because I used the Onnit Primal Kettlebells. Six sets of 6 to 8 reps with each set going to failure, going up in weight, took the repetitions down obviously. I'm going to hang with this for one more week, see if I can get these up to sets of 10, and go from there.
Tsunami bar, straight bar pulldowns,
Trying to keep the bar bent at all times, using a weight that was probably 70% of what I could do for 10 reps with loose form.
Performed 6 to 8 reps with tight form, each set to failure for 4 sets. Low rows with the wide D handle, 2 warm-up sets of 15 reps, then 4 work sets of 10 reps with about 2 to 4 reps left in the tank at the end of each set.
Neck work using the steel bells.
Just lie flat on the bench, throw the thing on my head, neck raises to the front, neck raises to the back, neck raises to the side. Two sets each way. Next exercise, thighs shrugs, using the standing calf machines. Two sets of 20 to 25 reps, each set to failure.
At the end of this, I did a loaded stretch, with the pads just pushing down on the shoulders, held for 60 seconds. I need to begin working more of the eccentric stuff back into my program again and more of the loaded stretching back into my program again. I can tell throughout the holidays and getting away from a lot of those things, has had an impact on how my shoulders and elbows and even my knees feel. While I didn't notice that big of a difference while I was doing these things, I am noticing a difference now not doing them.
End of Phase and Moving into New Phase Notes
I do see an added value to having them be a part of the program and will circle back around with ... I guess what I can call my program development team as I start to get ready for the next phase of training which will begin sometime next week and then hopefully end up taking me down to about 245, 250 pounds by May. Some of the factors that I need to focus on throughout this process, that I've got to be seeking advice from these people on, are joint health, obviously as always one of the first priorities. No matter what I do in training, I don't want to make my joints worse. They're already fucked up enough.
I have to find a way to get the cholesterol down. While I've been lighter and I've been heavier, it really has never had any type of significant impact on the cholesterol. Even diet-wise to this point with what I've done in the past, hasn't had the impact on the cholesterol that it should. I may have to think outside of the box on this one to see if
I can have any type of positive impact on that. The other blood variables will change without any problem just from taking the diet from being 50% to being 90% clean.
Cardio's another thing that I feel needs to be added into the program just for recovery more so than anything else. I'm not too worried about using it to burn fat or any of that other crap that's really never helped me with, because I'm not going to high intensity [inaudible 00:07:11] train, I'd rather just do more weight training sessions. I have noticed in the past that it does help with recovery. It's just a matter of time management, how to schedule my time to be able to get it in, because what seems to work the best for me, is for those sessions to be completely separate and at least 4 to 6 hours away from my normal training sessions.
The other thing is to have some type of training every single day. Not that it has to be hard, but something needs to be done every day. That also helps with the recovery for me. It sucks at times, but it does make a difference. Trust me, I'm not one of those train-every-day type of guys. I've never really have been in my entire life. I'd rather train 3 days a week, 4 days a week, and just bust my ass as hard as a I fucking can, than to have to do something every single day. With the arthritic state and joint issues I have, doing something every day does make a significant difference.
Those are some of the things that you can see and will come up throughout my training log as we progress and move forward. As far as the completion of the phase that I'm at right now, I'm happy where I'm at. I've accomplished most of the things that I've wanted to accomplish as far as putting muscle back on that had been lost, getting the strength back to a point where I think it needs to be to be able to start trying to get leaner. I haven't checked my body weight in a while, but I'm going to guess and say it's probably in the high 270s, 280 range.
I'm going to give it few days to let some of the holiday ham and all the other shit fall off, so I'm not bloated, so I can get a real accurate gauge of where my weight is. Then hopefully by next Saturday, be able to get an idea of what my body fat is, but the last few months training phase has been pretty much everything that I wanted it to be, everything that I've planned for it to be. The only thing I have coming out of it is my elbow feels a little banged up, but it's just a bucket elbow. It will better in a week or two. That's it. Everything else is fine, no injuries.