Don't Let the Holidays F*** You Up

I get the feeling that alot of people take the holidays as some magical time that isn't reality. False! People love excuses. An excuse like, "I can't [fill in any activity] because it's the holidays" is bullshit. "Can't" or "won't?" is my question.
I think most commonly this is in reference to dieting. Now, I'm not saying that the holiday season should be some time of atonement and deprivation, a stand-off between your will power and the tray of desserts staring back at you. What I am saying is that with some discipline and motivation, a person can make it through the holidays without completely fucking up his or her goal-oriented plan. (On a side note, if you are doing something, anything, you need to set goals. Here is a great place to start learning about goal-setting: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/5_surefire_steps_to_setting_goals&cr= ).
Motivation is easy, and motivating coaches are a dime a dozen. Discipline is much harder. I cannot give you some magical plan that will keep you disciplined. I believe you need to find that discipline within yourself. You have to know that achieving your goals is much more important than eating yourself into a coma during the holidays. Interestingly enough, with a good plan, you could even schedule in a cheat meal or cheat day during the holidays, thus taking off a little mental pressure.
To switch gears, I'm going to address the skinny bastards out there. The holidays are your time to really sac-up. Mom's on a diet? Sister is too? GOOD! Eat their portions! It's not cool to be small and weak. I think there are dozens of reasons why society has shifted in the last 15 years and wants men to be 150lbs and androgenous, but that's beyond the scope of this article. The fact remains, you NEED to gain weight. If you're going to play a sport, fight somebody, or take care of your family, you better be big AND strong. So don't you dare let anyone else take the leftovers. They are yours to be consumed completely. You have a just-as-skinny-and-weak brother that wants those leftovers? Fight him for them. That's natural selection right there. Somebody is getting that food, and it better be you. Worried about losing your abs? Who cares! Are you going swimming is January? Doubtful. And even if you were, huge traps and tree-trunk legs are much more awesome and intimidating than 4 abs and no muscle.
Finally, if you think that the craziness of the holidays has to effect your training, you're dead wrong. I'm not telling a parent to prioritize a bench workout over seeing his or her kids (maybe a squat workout though); what I am saying is that you can get your shit done no matter what. Unless 3 family deaths, a tsunami, and a blizzard all strike at once, I think there's enough time in the day/week to get your work in, even if it's abbreviated. Plus, with all the extra food you should be consuming, the BLOAT will be epic and your numbers should go up nicely!

Training Catch-Up

Usually Thursday is an upper body assistance day, but due to Thanksgiving it was pushed to Friday. Turned out to be an awesome day. Big Steve worked up to something like a 435 bench press in his single ply shirt. He took 405 and got next to nothing out of the shirt. We decided to cut the back and crank down the sleeves and collar. BOOM! Like magic, 435 came up easily. He'll be doing a meet in just under 2 weeks and his training has been looking great lately. Big PRs are coming for him. Mike worked in his shirt also, and we had a guest visitor Doug from Maryland/PA (not positive). He is one of Mike's former training partners and a seriously strong dude. He worked up in the 6 or 700s range in his Metal King Bench shirt. Justin has decided to incorporate a speed bench day in his training ala Westside. I'm really excited to see how this works for him. Another Apollon guy Kenny benched also, working up to some heavy weights. It wasn't his day, but he's real strong and has a crazy custom bench shirt. Here's how my workout broke down:


*Friday 11/25/11

Push Press(half thumb from smooth)
bar x 12 x 2sets
95 x 3
135 x 3
155 x 3
170 x 3
185 x 2
(should have gotten 3 reps with 185, but i was too slow and out of position)

DB Rows
30s x 10; 50s x 10; 60s x 10 x 3sets

T-Bar 1.5s(elbows out)
plate x 10; plate+25 x 10 x 3sets
(pull to chest, go down half way, pull bar back to chest. that's one rep)

Tate Press
15s x 15; 25s x 15; 35s x 10 x 2sets

Fat Bar Pushdowns
70 x 12; 85 x 12 x 3sets

*Saturday 11/26/11

Squat
bar x 10
145 x 3
195 x 1(add Belt)
235 x 1
275 x 1(add suit bottom)
325 x 1 x 6 sets

(this was more of a "speed" day. the goal was to push as hard and fast as possible, while also ingraining good technique)

Romanian Deadlift(no belt)
135 x 8
225 x 5
315 x 5 x 3sets

Lat Pulldowns
110 x 8; 130 x 8 x 2sets

Glute-Ham Raise
BW x 8; +45lbs x 8 x 3sets

(afterwards, went and ate 2 burgers from 5 Guys. the ones with 2 patties each, not that pussy shit)

*Monday 11/28/11

Floor Press(thumb from smooth)
bar x 15 x 2sets
95 x 3
135 x 1
155 x 1
175 x 1
190 x 1
205 x 1
220 x miss (bad position)
220 x miss (weak as shit)
195 x 4

T-Bar Row
plate x 8; 2plates x 5; 3plates+10+5 x 5 x 5sets

DB Tricep Extensions
20s x 20; 30s x 8 x 4sets
s/s
Pushdowns
55 x 15; 70 x 10 x 3sets; 60 x 20

Louie Simmons, John Bott, and Anthony Ditillo have all talked about the merits of supersetting extensions with pushdowns. They're all 500+ benchers. 1 thing I've learned: do what strong people tell you to do!

So now that my training log is up to date, I'll start posting more mini-articles, rants, opinions, haikus(kidding), etc... Stay tuned for more!

Last Week's Training

Because we were all in York, PA for the meet last weekend, the regular squat day had to be postponed. Luckily this gave me the opportunity to squat with Anthony who squats at John Bott's house on Sundays. And this was also the first time I squatted in full gear with knee wraps. Here's how it broke down:

*Monday 11/21/11

SQUAT
bar x 10 x 2sets
145 x 3
195 x 2 (Belt on)
235 x 1
275 x 1 (suit bottom on)
315 x 1
345 x 1 (straps up)
345 x 1 (straps tighter)
375 x 1 (knee wraps on)
405 x 1 x 2sets

Deadlift
135 x 3
225 x 1 (belt on)
315 x 1
365 x 1
405 x 1
425 x 1

Hypers
3 sets x 10 reps w/ mini band

Squatting went pretty well. 405 wasn't a max but it was solid for the day. And it was the first time I've squatted 405 so that's cool, although it's still really friggin weak.
On the deadlift we just wanted to see how I looked with just straight weight. Honestly, all those sets moved like ass, but I'll chalk it up to just not my day for pulling.

*Tuesday 11/22/11

Bench Press(pinky on rings)
bar x 15 x 2sets
95 x 3 x 2sets
135 x 1
165 x 1
185 x 1
205 x 1
225 x 1 (add reverse blue bands from top of rack; add bench shirt; add 4 board)
275 x 1
315 x 1
365 x 1
405 x 1 (3.5 board)
435 x 1
465 x 1
500 x 1
DB Bench
35s x 8; 50s x 8; 65s x 8 x 3sets

T-Bar Row
plate x 8; 2plates x 5; 3plates+10 x 5 x 5sets

DB Tricep Extensions
25s x 15; 30s x 8 x 4sets

Purple Band Pushdowns
2 sets of 20 reps

Hanging Leg Raises
4 sets of 10 reps
s/s
Pallof Press
4 sets of 10 reps w/ gray band

It was nice to get 500 in my hands, although with a reverse blue band it was really not very close to 500 lbs at all. But it still felt real heavy on the handoff and holding it at lockout. Overload is the point of the movement and that's what was accomplished.

IPA Nationals Recap

What an awesome weekend! Congratulations to Justin on 4 PRs! He went 8 for 9 with 800, 505, 710 for a 2015 total at 242. That's his 2nd Elite! Congratulations also to Big Eric going 9 for 9 with 700, 505, 600 for an 1805 total at 308 and best amateur lifter! Dave had a rough Saturday, going 6 for 9, but you can read his recap on EliteFTS in the next few days. Also congrats to Danny; not sure of his numbers, but he also went 9 for 9 with 4 PRs I believe. All in all an awesome showing for the guys from East Side Barbell and Apollon Gym.

I spent much of my time rolling knee wraps and loading/working the monolift in the warm up room. It's always great when the lifters you've never met before take time to thank you for the help you've given them. Shout out to Andy Vale who not only squatted a grand, but also was one of the coolest/nicest lifters I've met.
The real fun and learning happened during meals with everybody. Hilarious stories from past powerlifting meets and training partners. The amount of knowledge that is contained within guys like John Bott and others is almost too much to grasp. I definitely came away with a TON of knowledge and a much different/better perspective on the sport and the training.

Meet weekend also cemented in my mind that I need to gain some weight!!! I was lucky enough to have some food bought for me (thanks Anthony!) but when you're in the presence of multiple 250+ lb lifters, you really need to step your game up. So, I'm currently trying to get myself to 200lbs. I've got about 10lbs to go, but meat, potatoes, and milk will be my go-to foods to get me there. Thanksgiving certainly helped, but consistency is really the key to solid weight gain. So for anybody looking to get stronger and compete, GAIN SOME WEIGHT!!! It can't hurt ya!

Deadlift Stance

So there's been alot of great info that has been put out recently on the Deadlift aka the best mothafuckin' lift on the planet. Of course, I call it that because I don't completely suck at it. If you've never deadlifted before, then I think you sould check out this article  http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/blog/deadlift/ by Mike Robertson. For those of you that pull conventional, I'd like to talk for a second about your stance. When I seriously started training my deadlift (5/3/1 style back in 2009), my heels were only about 3-4 inches away from each other. Even at 5'6'' that's pretty close. If you saw me pull, you might say "Goddamn he's slow off the ground!" And you'd be right. In fact, up until about 4 months ago, my stance stayed pretty narrow, although it naturally widened out little by little as the weights got heavier. So what does this mean? Pull sumo? Pull with a stance like Donnie Thompson? Not necessarily. The reason a slightly wider conventional stance works is because it allows you to get that nice mix of hips and quads on that first tug off the ground. Basically, you want to think about doing a leg press-type movement to get the bar moving fast. Remember that you should be pulling the bar back, not up (unless you want to do a straight-leg DL and slow down your lockout). Thinking of pushing your legs through the ground can also help with keeping your chest up and not letting your hips rise before your chest. I suggest pulling with your heels about hip width apart (for me, thats almost twice as wide as how i was standing) and pointing your toes slightly out. If you're used to pulling conventional with your feet wider than this, my issue is that your hands must be placed further toward the collars of the bar. If your arms aren't long, than this increases the length the bar has to be pulled to lockout, which is just making things unnecessarily harder for yourself. Try it out and let me know how it goes. Drop comments, even if you completely disagree with me!

Here's my training from Monday:

*2-board Bench Press (raw)
worked up to 235x1, 245x miss, 240x1, 210x1x3sets

*T-Bar Row
plate x8, 2plates x5, 3plates x5x3sets

*Dip Machine Triceps
195x10, 225x10, 240x10x3sets

*Ditillo Rows
3 sets of 15-20 reps with some light weight
(these are rear delt flyes done on a cable machine with Spud Straps)

*Pallof Press
3 sets of 15 reps per side with a gray band

I should have hit 245 but I brought it down too slow and got out of position...and I wasn't set tight enough. 240 felt real good though. Did the down sets with 210 to get extra volume. Back and Tricep work is CRUCIAL!

Recap of Get Healthy Get STRONGER Seminar

This past saturday morning, Coach Joe Meglio (megliofitness.com) and I hosted our first ever Get Healthy Get STRONGER Seminar at the Underground Strength Gym. It was a blast! I was very impressed with how attentive and excited all of the attendees were to learn things that aren't exactly glamorous. I was also humbled by how grateful everyone was and by their willingness to learn and really try to grasp all of the concepts we were throwing at them. Topics we covered include foam/lax ball rolling, mobility exercises, activation exercises, band traction, and static stretching. Like I said, these topics are not considered glamorous and are not the first thing any hardcore lifter thinks of, but that does not mean they are not crucial in any lifter's longterm success. Injuries are a bitch and nobody wants to take time off from doing things they love, like squatting, benching, or deadlifting. With a little bit of proactivity, anyone can fend off injuries while continuing to make progress towards their strength goals.

But what if you're not looking for more strength? Well my answer is another question: What are you looking for? Bodybuilders require injury prevention just as much as powerlifters or Olympic lifters, perhaps even more since muscle tears can really alter physique. Athletes MUST be healthy to perform at the top of their game. If you're just training to "stay in shape," my advice is to stop kidding yourself and go find another hobby. Takehome point: do the little things required to keep your muscles, tendons, and ligaments healthy. You'll be in the iron game much longer and with far fewer set-backs.

After the seminar I had to get my squat workout in. The crew I'm in squats at 11am every Saturday morning, but obviously I couldn't be in two places at once (even though they're right across a parking lot). Here's how my workout broke down:

*Safety Bar Dead Squats(from 12in box)  
 worked up in singles to a hard (but not max) 285x1

*Romanian Deadlift
135x8reps, 225x5x3sets (was pretty wiped out so kept it super light)

*Wide Neutral Assisted Pullups  
 -60x8, -40x8x3sets

*Hypers w/band
mini band x 10x4sets

*The past 3 or 4 weeks I've been doing a deadlift movement as a secondary exercise on squat day. Nothing heavy, just getting some volume in. For the past 2-3 months I've been doing lat work on both squat and deadlift day(Wednesday). That is on top of the upper back(row) work I do on both of my upper body days(Monday and Thursday). I really like the higher frequency for lat/upper back work.