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 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. Loved the training didn't like the competing aspect so I went back to my first love, powerlifting. Injuries have been a part of my life ever since I can remember and were the biggest reason for leaving the sport (I can no longer hold a squat bar on my back). I have degenerative joint disease, have had two shoulder surgeries (right shoulder now needs replaced), one full hip replacement, knee surgery, herniation's in all three regions of my spine, Bone spurs in places I didn't know you could get them, planter facetious, tendinitis and bursitis. 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.
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* 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.
Spring bar bench presses. This is a bar that essentially has spring in the middle of it. As you press up you can push your hands in to compress the spring. I did five warm up sets with just the bar of five to seven reps. Put a quarter on each side. Did three sets of ten reps holding the spring in or the contraction in for two count. Then did three work sets with a plate per side with the same contraction hold. Four sets of failure ranging between six and eight repetitions.
Flyes flat, chain flyes, for six sets of twelve to fifteen reps. All sets taken to failure.
Hammer machine, decline press, one plate per side for ten reps, three sets. Those were warm up sets. Two plates per side so four work sets of ten to twelve reps. I kept the weight down on this. My shoulders are still not recovered from Tuesday. I really slowed the tempo down to make the repetitions even harder and to ensure that I would fail between ten to twelve reps.
One arm cable cross overs using a horizontal grip. This would be the same as you would do normal cable cross overs except you're using one arm at a time and your grip is in a horizontal position.. I used one arm at a time on this to get a greater range of motion. I don't have my hands stopping me in the middle. I can also get a little bit greater stretch because the way my body position is according to the machine. Four sets, fifteen reps.
Pec minor dips. The way these are performed is you get into the top of the fit position and basically do a reverse shoulder shrug. You let your body weight pull you down, then contract your pecs to push your weight back up again. It's a really short range of motion. Your arms are just slightly bent and all the contraction is coming through the pecs. I suck.
Triceps - not logged