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.
Monday, chest day.
Flies using the machine.
Six warm up sets of ten reps. Four work sets of 12 to 15 going to failure on each set. On this exercise i set it so the handles were equal to pretty much nipple level, lower check level, and used a slower tempo and a two second contraction with a four second eccentric phase. After that I did one other set of one rep, adding a few more plates, with a 15 count eccentric and a 30 count loaded stretch.
Bench press using the shoulder saver pad.
Slowly over many sets. Can't remember how many warm up sets I did. Worked up to 225, and start added chains per side. Added one chain per side until I worked up to four chains per side. Did two sets of five with that, and then a final set of seven. I should have got more, but felt a little out of the grove. I would say realistically I probably could have got ten at the very most. I'm noting the weight on this because I do want to use a couple exercises for my pressing work as indicators to gauge where my strength is at.
Flat flies using chains and the tsunami handles.
The set reps scheme I used for this was a little unorthodox to what you would normally see. I started with 12 repetitions with a one second contraction at the top, and then let the chains down on the floor but kept ahold of the handles the whole entire time. Now when the chains are on the floor and I'm holding on to the handles, this is not stretching, it's completely deloaded. I'm just in a relaxed position. Then I slowly curled back up after a ten count and did ten repetitions. After the ten repetitions I put the chains back down again, counted for then, pulled them back up and did eight repetitions. Dropped them back down again while still holding on, curled them back up and did six. Dropped them down and pulled them back up, did four. Repeated again and did two. When I got to the two repetition set, the contraction at the top went to ten seconds for each repetition, and the last rep was a 45 count loaded stretch.
Decline hammer press with bands
Using two plates per side. Five sets of eight to ten repetitions. Each set being about two reps shy of failure. Once again making sure to get a decent stretch, not a radical stretch, and a really tight two second contraction.
Dips using the assisted machine.
I don't pay attention to how much I have on the machine, or how much weights being taken off. I just set it up so I'm going to fail somewhere between 12 and 15 repetitions. Took me about two sets to figure out what they weight was going to be, and then I did five sets of 10 to 12. Each set to failure, and that was a day.