Chest/Shoulders 3/31/11

Close Grip Bench:

135 x 5, 175 x 3, 205 x 3, 225 x 3, 275 x 3, 305 x 3, 320 x 3, 225 x 6, 225 x 7, 225 x 8

Seated DB military press:

60 x 10, 70 x 10, 65 x 10

Lat pulldown:

170 x 8, 180 x 8, 190 x 8

Incline flies:

25 x 10 x 3

Side shoulder raise:

25 x 8 x 3

Hanging leg raises:

3 sets of 10

Not a long workout, kept the pace up, still feeling a little worn out. Right elbow is really hurting, but I managed to work around it, hopefully will give it a chance to heal up. Followed the workout with 30 mins of steady state work on the elliptical.

Recovery/Conditioning 3/30/11

30 mins elliptical A.M.

3 KB complexes, 2 sets medicine ball throws, 50 swings with heavy KB, 15 mins stationary bike P.M.

Nothing much, hit some high/low complexes with the kettlebell, tossed around the medicine ball, just got moving, kept the blood flowing. Definitely want to pick up the conditioning work to get ready for the summer competition schedule.

Deadlift 3/29/11

Dead:

135 x 5 x 2, 225 x 3, 315 x 2, 375 x 3, 430 x 3, 485 x 3

Dimmel deads:

135 x 10 x 4

Bent over row:

135 x 10 (stopped due to elbow pain)

Pulldown:

6 sets of 12

Face pull:

4 sets of 10

Reverse grip curl:

4 sets of 10

Ab wheel:

4 sets of 10

This was a get in, get the 5/3/1 numbers as prescribed, and get out quick workout. I felt really drained going in, knew it was gonna be a grind, but pulled it out. I am still feeling the effects of picking the farmers 6 times on Saturday as well as good stone reps. Hopefully next week my back will be fresh and I'll have a better pull. I had done 25 mins of hill climb on the elliptical earlier in the day, and after this workout did 3 sets of 25 on DB shrugs and jogged 15 mins at 5.5 mph and 5% incline on the treadmill. A decent training day, nothing spectacular, but I did what I was supposed to (BW at an even 260)

Bench 3/28/11

CGB:

95 x 15, 135 x 10, 175 x 8, 215 x 6, 245 x 8, 295 x 7, 265 x 10

Cybex Chest press (wide grip):

3 sets

Incline flies:

30 x 15 x 3

Seated DB military press:

65 x 15 x 3

Decline DB press w/ situp:

55 x 12 x 3

KB complexes, Medicine ball complexes, Burpees

I decided to keep this a relatively light day being that it was 2 days after a contest. I had taught a 45 minute bootcamp class at work a few hours earlier with lots of DB work, core, and bodyweight exercises. I feel like I got in some good rep recovery work and decent conditioning at the end of the workout. Sore, but making strides! (BW sitting at 261)

Quad Cities Contest

First off, I want to say I had a lot of fun at this contest. I thought it was a good challenge, but very doable. That said, I am a touch disappointed with a 4th place finish, but I realize there is a lot of work left for me to do to achieve better placings against strong competition.

The first event was the press medley. I finished the first 3 in just over 17 seconds, I managed to clean the 280 log, but I realized that any attempt to press it up would more likely result in me going down as I was seeing stars at this point. I was actually very pleased with the split I got although Bryan managed to edge me out by .07 seconds on this one. This went far better than expected.

The second event proved troublesome. On the 280/hand farmers walked I got a good first pick, but 6 steps into it my left hand gave out. I ended up with about 6 drops along the 80' course and finished in a pathetically slow 48 seconds. I was really displeased with this because farmers walk had gone really well for me in training for this contest. I guess I have more grip work to do in the coming months.

The third event was the duck walk/sled drag medley. I got a decent pace on the duck walk which is the worst part of it for me, but got a really fast pull on the prowler sled drag. I finished in a little over 20 seconds. Not a spectacular time, but much better than I had done in training.

The fourth event was the one I was most looking forward to, the truck pull. I got off to a fast start and easily got down the course finishing in just under 27 seconds. I was not surprised as this has always been a good event for me.

The last event was the one I had dreaded most in training for the contest. It was the 270 atlas stone over a 48" bar for max reps in 60 seconds. I had only been getting 5 to 7 reps in training on account of my overly deliberate lapping and re-gripping of the stone. At the contest, however, I managed to one-motion 8 of the 11 reps I got. It was truly unbelievable. It felt like an out-of-body experience. All I could focus on was going as fast as I could, I just heard Corey yelling at me the whole time. I don't know what was responsible for my turn around on this event, but it felt good. I felt manly.

Overall, I was pleased to have done as well or better than expected on 4 of the 5 events. I was able to finish every event but the press medley (which I did not expect to anyway) and I had a great time. I want to give a sincere thanks to my teammates who helped me at the contest. Bryan, Corey, and Ian, you guys are awesome. I'd also like to thank Bryan's lovely wife, Cassie, for coming out and taking lots of pictures, and my beautiful girlfriend, Brittany, for all of her encouragement and support. I also owe a huge thanks to Jesse Jobe for allowing me to train at his gym and for his advice, support, and encouragement, and to the rest of the Steel Jungle crew for all they do to help in my training. I am very excited to build on what I accomplished and learned at this contest and to venture into new territory as a LW competitor this summer.