Wow, it’s been a busy week for me.
St. Paddy’s day is a huge holiday in Boston and a favorite of mine. We have family traditions such as hitting the St. Paddy’s Day Broonz game.
That’s Bruins for those of you not from Boston.
We also go to the Dropkick Murphys show and usually hit a car show or a chopper show if one is in town.
Sometimes we shoot at stuff too.
We started St. Patrick’s WEEK off with a chopper show Sunday and got home about 4:00 pm. I told the boy I was smoked and was taking a nap after being up until 3:00 am Saturday.
Not five minutes into my nap the phone goes off. It was my friend Luke and he wanted to know if we wanted two all access passes for the Dropkicks.
Really?
My usual ticket hookup was unable to come through this year and we had resigned to missing the show since all five were sold out. I told Luke we would be there at 7:00 and we were.
Did someone say school night?
Whatever.
When we showed up and the line had about 5,000,000 people in it and stretched around Lansdowne Street.
The boy looked at it and groaned. I said not to worry, that’s not for us.
Like a Ginger Haired Punk Rock God, Luke appeared and smacked us in the chest with two all access VIP passes and whisked us in the stage door.
We hung out in the VIP room for a bit had some Guinness and a coke and then walked around to let the boy check out the scenery. The show was awesome.
We were lucky because it was a triple bill.
Blood or Whiskey, the Mahones and the Dropkicks were playing. I’m a huge fan of Blood or Whiskey both figuratively and literally, never saw the Mahones and what can you say about the Dropkicks?
If you ever get the chance to see them, do it. They are awesome live.
Anyway, the first two bands kicked ass and in the 10 minute intermission between the Mahones and the main event, the boy goes out like a light on my shoulder.
The show starts and it is deafening in the House of Blues.
He’s still out.
I woke him up after the first song and he asked if we could go home. Like a good father I asked him if it was cool if we stayed for a few more songs.
He promptly fell back asleep. Five songs in I woke him up and we went home.
Five songs is better than none right.
Next up, Broonz game on St. Paddy’s day.
The seats were right against the glass, the game went to a shootout and we had a great time even though they lost. The boy even snagged a puck from the net over the glass.
Handsome little guy
OK, the St. Patrick's Day review is over, on to some training stuff:
My lifters in the TPS method for Powerlifting are smashing PR's left and right.
They are not hitting 1 rep maxes, but rep PR's. Almost every one of them is hitting prior maxes in the Squat, Bench and Deadlift for doubles and triples.
This is obviously due to my incredibly superior programming.
Or is it?
Sure, the programing is great. I think the reason they are all smashing weights is because they are all now taking the training much more serious, not skipping sessions, doing the extra work and training like a team.
Anna, my webmistress smashing 135 for a triple. RAW.
Last week, we worked on establishing a second attempt for them. It looked like this:
Squat 4x2 RPE 10
Bench 3x2 RPE 10
Deadlift 3x2 RPE 10
We are using their best double as an estimate for second attempts.
This week we are deloading with this:
Squat Day
1. Squat openers for 3 singles
2. B/R (3x12-15)
3. Backwards Sled Drag (3x100ft.)
Bench Day
1. Bench-deload
Openers 3x1
2. DB Flyes (2x15-20)
3. FG Pullups (2x 15-20)
4. Plank (2xalap)
Deadlift Day
1. DL openers for 3 x 1
2. KB Swings (2x15-20)
3. GHR (25)
Next week they are off except for mobility and some light sled work.
The meet is Saturday the 28th and I fully expect them to go 9 for 9.
Liz working the bench.
I have been finishing up a wave of beltless deadlifts and I think I will run it again.
I switched the bench the past two weeks to using the Swiss Bar and it is going well. I did 225 for 4 sets of 5 last week with no hip pain and will add some weight this week. Just a little.
I am going to keep the weight progressions very small.
I also realized that the Cambered Bar is not for me. I used it for Good Mornings this week and my shoulder was jacked from it.
It's a great bar, but the position of the hands on it really gets my shoulder screaming. I'll stick with the Safety Squat bar.
This week I used a Safety Bar that I am pretty sure no one else has. Fred Hatfield gave it to me years ago.
It's a prototype he had made and is like a cross between a Safety Squat bar and a Cambered bar. It is a beast and weighs about 90 pounds empty. I added 8 chains and did set of 5 with it. That sucked.
Fives are brutal but they get you strong(er).
After the Good Mornings I did about 4000 reps on the 45 Degree Back Raise and I can't remember what else.
I am also pretty sure I will switch over to running an RPE based system in the near future. The blocks I have been doing of 8's, 5, 3's and singles seems to be going well, but as you all know: when stuff is working I usually change it like an idiot.
I am really liking the idea of using the RPE system. I trained Westside style for most of my time lifting and used block periodization as well as percentages for a bit.
I loved Westside style, but I think switching to something totally different will give me a boost and produce some strength. Who know, maybe I'll actually get strong.
That's all for this week.
I welcome comments and questions, and if there are any topics you want me to address, please leave a comment and I'll do my best.
Remember this too:
Spend as much time with your kids as you can, take them to a car show, a concert, the park or whatever it is they like to do.
They won't be young long.
Ask me a question-Be sure and Type to Murph in the header
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Vincere vel mori