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.
Sunday - Chest
Flat chain presses
* starting with two chains per handle and working it up one chain per set for 8 to 12 reps. Worked up to seven chains per side for 1 set of 7 to failure, and a second set of 6 to failure. Chains set up on these with double chains with the snap in the middle of the chain instead of at the end.
Incline shoulder saver bar.
* As the week prior, worked up using sets of 5 to 6 reps to a top heavy set of 6. I don't pay that much attention how much weight I'm actually using, and to be completely honest, I'm really not too sure how much the bar weighs, without looking it up, but it does weigh over 45 pounds; somewhere in the 60 pound range, I believe, 62 pounds. My top working set was a plate per side of the quarter, two dimes and three 5's per side. The way it was actually loaded was a plate and five quarter with a dime and a nickel and so forth.
I don't worry that much about how the weight looks as it's loaded on the bar, I'm just going to load whatever the next jump's going to be, so to plate the dime was easy, so I do a quarter top that, then from there a 10 and a 5 and so forth, adding a 5, 5 or however it worked out. When it gets heavier to where it's harder for me to press, I'll start taking 10 pound jumps so I can get more sets out of it. There's around 4 working sets that are hard for 5-6 reps. I might have been able to get another 20 pounds on that day.
Declined chain fly's.
* Using a slight decline and the same chains that I used for the presses, left them there, came back to them, took half the weight off on a slight decline. I really don't need any warm up sets because by this time I was already warmed up.
Stretch Push Ups
4 work sets failing between 10 and 12. 2 sets of stretch push ups, failure. The repetitions for these are really only about 6-8 because I really suck at this because the way they're performed, you go to the bottom of a push up using either hex-bells or some push up handles so you're in a stretched position. Simply just retract your pecs to be able to get yourself to come up. You're going to be able ... I can only move 3 inches maybe 4 inches at the most, then back down. With both of my pecs being torn, they're weak as hell. It's more of a rehab motion than anything else. It does help. All the sets there were to failure as well.
I shut it down at that point because the chain presses were heavy into failure using a loose form. It wasn't my normal strict tempo. Then a close grip incline press with the shoulder saver part was the same tempo. Just a loose tempo. I've found over time when I use a loose tempo and I train to failure, it's way harder for me to recover. It's a lot harder on my joints. Obviously because the weights are going to be heavier than with the slower tempo, so I bag the volume on the weeks that I train with that style.