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,

 

Multi Grip pull down Attachment.
This cable attachment has four different grips to it, much like the Swiss bar pull down attachment, except this is a little bit wider. The bar is actually the American press bar without the sleeves on it for plates, so we just took the American press bar, put a center channel on it to be able to attach to a cable machine, and that's what it is. Three warm up sets and then two work sets with each grip, working from the widest grip in. By the time we were done, it was 12 work sets between 8-12 repetitions, each set to failure.

 

 

Low rows using the comfort grips elbows out.
We set the low row handles up so they were working independently of each other instead of at the same time. This allowed you to be able to do one arm at a time if you wanted to. It also allows for a little different feel in a greater range of motion. Two warm up sets and then two work sets, of 10-12. In one of the work sets, I did is a muscle round, holding one arm in a contracted position. I did four repetitions with the opposite arm and then switched back and forth three times.

 

Low rows using the comfort grips elbows down.
After those four work sets, we used the same handles and the same movement, but instead of pulling with the elbows out, we pulled more with the elbows in to take the traps out of it and did two work sets there. There was a total of seven work sets of 8-12 repetitions again, 12 sets to failure.

 

 

Prone bench rows, using the kettle bells
As I explained in past training blog posts, I really like the kettle bells for this because you can get up higher, or your elbows up higher. There's no warm up sets with this, just straight up at four work sets of between 5-8 reps to failure. I slow it down, the eccentric part of this tremendously and use the 1- or 2-second contraction if it's hot. By doing this, I knocked my number of reps down tremendously. Typically, I would be able to do between 12-15, with the weight I used I was failing really easy between 5-7 repetitions per set.

 

 

Partial deadlifts chains.
It's been a long time since I've done this, been on my mind now for a few weeks so I wanted to give it a shot to see how I feel. I had an exercise to kind of test where I am with my training as far as conditioning and strength. This is one of those exercises I use.  With this I try to pull from either mid-chin or chest, a couple inches under knee cap. We'll use anywhere between 225 and 315. Today I used 315 and then do triples with one chain per side and keep working up chains until I get to a weight where 3-5 repetitions begins to feel a little bit challenging. At that point, I'll take a break, 3-5 minute rest, and then come back with that same weight and do as many reps as I possibly can.

The most I've ever been able to get training in this sequence was 17 repetitions. Today I think I got 12, but to be completely honest I'm not sure. We did film the training session today, which hopefully will turn out to be a really cool training video, so we'll see then. At this point I'm not really too sure, I just know that it was a challenge set and it fucked my world up. That's twice this week that I put myself on the floor with a challenge set, which is ... To me, it's a good thing because it's telling me that I'm getting in shape to be able to train the way I think I need to be able to train, so I'm getting closer to the starting gate to what I'm going to want to do.

 

Kettle bell pullovers using a flat bench.
Usually, I'm going to do this exercise using a cable machine standing because I get a better range of motion, but I have found by using the kettle bell handle that I can get a pretty decent range of motion. I'm not saying it's a good range of motion because my shoulder is only going to go so far, but it is a range of motion that I can feel my lats stretch and I can feel my lats contract. Two work sets of 10-12 reps and then switch the grip a little bit and did two more work sets, for 10-12 reps.

 

After everybody left,
I realized that I didn't do anything for my neck or traps, so I did four sets of highs shrugs on a standing cab machine of 12-15 reps and then two sets of neck work using a light band in all four directions.

 

 

Saturday

Back - 23 sets   

BASE DAY

 

John Meadows, who I trained with on this day, sent me an email later saying he was going to add the session we did into his program #22. This is the program he is using right now.

He has added a RPE Table to his programs, I feel this will take his custom programs to the next level. He gave me permission to post the training day but I am not compfotale posting the definitions for his RPE but will say.

 

RPE 10 = to failure with perfect form.

RPE  11 = to failure with perfect form and then loose form for extra reps

 

Neutral grip pulldowns – On these we used a new bar that EliteFTS is carrying. You can see me doing a set on my Facebook and Instagram for 12/12/2015. What we did was 2 working sets on each handle starting wide. You will notice there are 4 handles on each side, so this was 8 sets. These sets were all taken to failure with good form, and my lats were on fire.  8 total work sets

These sets are all RPE of 10.

Goal – Activate and Pump

Low cable row – We did these with individual handles as I have been doing lately. I did 3 sets supinated and then did 2 sets pronated for 5 total work sets. All sets were taken to failure with good form. Our rep range was 8 to 10.  5 total work sets

These sets are all RPE of 10.

Goal – Supramax pump

Kettlebell rows – On these we did 4 sets of 8. On each set we really try to get our elbows up as high as possible, as that is the advantage of using the kettlebells due to their shape. After we can’t raise the dumbells up to at least waist high, we cheat a little to get a few extra reps. We did this on all sets. 4 work sets.

These sets are all RPE of 11.

Goal – Supramax pump

Tbar row and deadlift combo – See my video posted on 12/12/2015 on my Facebook and Instagram for these. We set up a landmine to do this. What I did was low rep sets of 4 to get to a weight that made for a tough 6 and 6 (6 rows, and 6 deads). Once there I did 4 sets. I was completely exhausted after this. 4 work sets.

These sets are all RPE of 10.

Goal – Supramax pump

Dumbell pullovers – I finished with 2 sets of 10 here and really just tried to stretch everything out. 2 work sets.

These sets are all RPE of 10.

Goal – Train muscle from a stretched position

This was a brutal workout, and is a sign of what’s to come.