Alex's log: The road to Spring Supremecy

[Alex M]

Figured I should start a new log since fall is ending.

My focus now is on the RPS meet Spring Supremecy on April 26th in Rochester. My ideal goal, like if I have a dream meet, is 500/350/650 @ 242. That's a 1500 total. I'll break 1400 for sure, but if I hit 1500 it would just be awesome. I weigh 231 in the mornings right now so there's plenty of room to eat and get stronger.

Still running the program that I wrote myself. Moving back to Rochester on January 18th so I'll be training at RIT for the most part and World's Gym if RIT is closed or I just want to train alone or something.

Overall, I'm very happy with my progress and very optimistic about this spring. I'm the biggest and strongest I've ever been. A little softer than I'd like to be but it's nothing unreasonable.

[Alex M]

12/17/2013

I felt sick on Monday. Took the day off work, slept all day then all night. Hit my squats and deads tonight to make up for it.

Squats - 

275x 7 triples - low-bar

Deadlifts - 

445x 5 triples - 3 sumo, 2 conv

Good/bad girl, CS rows, lat pulldowns, curls

Did squats with a group of old powerlifters/oly lifters who were very impressed with my form. One said "You've got skills, who trained you?" I was glad to hear that. Deadlifts felt perfect. The nagging pain in my glute was not felt at all tonight.

[Alex M]

12/19/2013 

Bunch of guys using the lift and I didn't have time to wait for them to finish, so I benched last night and will squat tonight.

Bench Press - 

270x 5 doubles

BTN press, rear delts, pec dec, tricep press, laterals, curls, tricep extensions

No elbow issues tonight. Weight still feels way heavier on the way down than on the way up, which seems strange to me.

[Bob Stevens]

Engage your lats and upper back more when you bench, keep the weight off your hands. 

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[Alex M]

On Friday, December 20, 2013 9:06:32 AM UTC-5, Bob wrote:

Engage your lats and upper back more when you bench, keep the weight off your hands. 

Hmm I think I'm pretty good and engaging my lats on the bench press, but maybe not so much upper back. I will keep this in mind. 

[Alex M]

12/21/2013

I'm probably going to go off-program again because I'm at home now with nothing to do but train.

Squats - 

305x 6 triples

Sumo deadlifts + 4 chains - 

495x1,1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43WETM3usbI

Squats didn't feel as good as they did last time. That made me mad so I wanted to deadlift. Those felt like sex. They were super easy, only stopped because the gym was closing. Sumo feels best right now and I think it has to do with me squatting right before, getting my hips really super warmed up. I will probably try to squat again today.

[Sereni]

Lol at the recommended videos after watching this.

"Superior gold bracelet chain!"

Two of them were actually powerlifting videos though, so I guess that's impressive.

[Louie P]

That dead lift looked very easy. Still gaining weight or has that slowed?

[Alex M]

On Monday, December 23, 2013 1:19:57 PM UTC-5, Louie P wrote:

That dead lift looked very easy. Still gaining weight or has that slowed?\

It's been weird lately, my appetite has been down for the past couple weeks. Been between 231-236 in the morning. Not gonna fight it and start forcing food down. It'll come back. 

[Alex M]

12/23/2013

Squat - 

325x5 doubles

Sumo Deadlift - 

585x2 - PR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61XRUaeLa8o

[Bob Stevens]

Nice pulls Alex, you remind me of Chris duffin when you pull, pure fight off the floor and strong after that.  Check him out if you haven't seen him already.  His YouTube is kabuki warrior I think

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[Alex M]

On Wednesday, December 25, 2013 11:13:41 AM UTC-5, Bob wrote:

Nice pulls Alex, you remind me of Chris duffin when you pull, pure fight off the floor and strong after that.  Check him out if you haven't seen him already.  His YouTube is kabuki warrior I think

Heard of that guy but haven't seen him. I'll check him out for sure.

12/26/2013

Squats - 

345x 3 doubles

Deadlift - 

615x1 - PR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aURiLlQiICc

CS rows, Lat pulldowns, good/bad girl, leg curls 

[Alex M]

Training has been unstructured lately as I've been all over the place not really able to keep my schedule, and that's going to continue until I move back to Rochester in late January. Still training my ass off so I'm not worried. I've just been squatting up to 405 and pulling up to 495 every session then deciding what I want to do from there. Benching has mostly been doubles and triples with 275, then back off sets of 10-12 with 225. My bench doesn't feel 'healthy' right now so I haven't been pushing it very hard. I feel I have a muscle imbalance in my shoulders, or it may just need a rest altogether.

Only two numbers I need to remember - 

Low-bar squat - 

435x1

Sumo deadlift - 

605x2 - PR

Bodyweight STILL jumping around from low 230s up to around 237. Appetite has been returning nicely and I've been eating around 5000 calories per day. I think I was a little sick and that's what caused my appetite to dip for a bit.

[Timothy Copeland]

It's crazy how fast your deadlift is moving, well done

[Alex M]

1/3/14

Sumo block pull - 

700x1 - clean lockout this time

1/5/14

High-bar squat - 

405x3

315x5 - paused

Conv. deficit deads - 

545x1 - PR

BOR - 

315x5,5,8

lateral raise, front raise, face pulls, tricep ext., rope curls, tri pushdowns

[Alex M]

Little update - 

Weighed in at 240.2 in the morning a few days ago. WOOO :P. Kinda fat but there are much worse guts to be hard for a guy that's 5'9" 240. I'm attaching a pic from that morning. The loose skin has come a LONG way since a year ago which is fucking awesome. I think it will completely go away on it's own eventually, which doctors told me it never would. (That black spot is a bruise from my belt, not sure when it happened exactly.)

I benched 300 for a bunch of doubles the other night with no funny shoulder feelings. Doing eleventy billion front/side/back raises with 10 lb dumbbells at home seems to have corrected whatever issue was developing. I will keep that up at a lower intensity.

I've been squatting every single damn day(exclusively high-bar) and it's only getting better. 405 is automatic and pretty fast now and I even did it without safeties or spotters at my YMCA gym. Breaking those mental barriers is a big deal for me, especially with the squat. Most of my work though has been done between 315-365, just practicing basically. I got a Dick's gift card for Christmas which I used to get a pair of Reebok Crossfit lifting shoe thingys(http://www.roguefitness.com/reebok-crossfit-oly-men-s-white-black-flat-grey.php?gclid=CLeF1qG5_LsCFS1gMgodRHIAxQ). Basically they're just Oly shoes, and I like them a lot. I tested them in the store by walking over to the barbells, throwing 25s on one and doing about 100 squats lol. I got some looks but that's part of the fun!

I'd love to go 485/350/635 at the RIT meet on Feb 22nd. My prep will start when I move back to Rochester next week. Can't wait!

[Alex M]

Oops, here's my fat gut pic.

[Megan K]

Can't wait to see you pull that! 

[Alex M]

RIT winter meet numbers -

236 lbs bodyweight

Squat - 390/445/470 - 5 lb PR

Bench - 305/340 miss/340 miss

Deadlift - 560/625/635 - 20 lb PR

1410 total - 20 lb PR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFFn3cBwEFo&feature=youtu.be

Well I'm really disappointed with my bench, but with 3 other PRs I'm not that upset with my day. I had been training bench with a slightly wider grip than normal, which I thought was stronger. On my last attempt with 340 I went to my closer grip and I was closer to getting it. I'm gonna stick with the closer grip from now on. I'm not sure why I tried to change what wasn't broken.

Thanks Megan for putting the meet together, and to Chris and Bob and everyone else that helped run it. Competing is always a lot of fun and when it's at RIT it makes it super convenient.

Back to normal training tomorrow, and I'll stop being a lazy ass about logging it.

[Alex M]

2/25

Flat DB press - 

90x8,8,8

Incline Press - 

185x5,5,5,5,5

Paused close-grip incline - 

185x5,5,5

Shrugs - 

405x8

BOR - 

225x8

315x8

DB row - 

80x15,15

laterals, curls, abs

[chris]

On Monday, February 24, 2014 9:41:34 PM UTC-5, Alex M wrote:

RIT winter meet numbers -

Good job on Saturday.  That bench was just about as close to lockout without locking it out as you can get. 

[Alex M]

Thanks man. And seriously, next time I'll remember to not leave my triceps at home.

2/26 

No hands SSB - 

185x5,5,5

SSB box squat - 

225x5,5,5

Hack squat - 

1 plate x10,10,10,10,10

Leg curl, leg ext., good/bad girl

[Alex M]

2/27

OHP - 

165x5,5,5

Paused close-grip bench - 

185x10,10,10,10,10

Tbar row - 

4 plates x10,10,10

Dips - 

1 plate x8,6

DB row - 

100x10,10,10

flyes, laterals, curls

[Bob Stevens]

Alex, don't forget when you bench to flare your elbows out once you get the weight a few inches off your chest, on your second attempt you were still tucked when you stalled and flaring would have kept the weight moving. 

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[Alex M]

On Saturday, March 1, 2014 10:31:04 AM UTC-5, Bob wrote:

Alex, don't forget when you bench to flare your elbows out once you get the weight a few inches off your chest, on your second attempt you were still tucked when you stalled and flaring would have kept the weight moving. 

Yeah I'll work on it. It's not something I ever thought about before.

2/28

Friday night boredom session, just messing around

Spoto press - 

185x5,5,5

225x5,5,5

Bench press - 

225x8

cable rows - 10 sets of 15 

[Alex M]

3/1

Squat - 

405x1

340x5,5,5

Conv. Deadlift - 

495x5,5,5

Leg ext, Leg curls

[Dan]

Nice lifts, 1400 is a good starting point.

One thing I noticed with the squat - you have a high bar position but about halfway up you lose thoracic extension - your upper back rounds (noticeable on 2nd and 3rd attempt).  With your back and hip angle you would be much better suited to a lower bar position. 

This may also have something to do with your height/limb length.

[Alex M]

Probably right. I need to put in the time to get strong and comfortable with a low bar position, just don't want to do it with another meet coming up. I'll hit 500 high bar then start throwing in some low bar work to try to transition.

[Alex M]

Had quite a few days away from the gym as I took a short trip to LA to visit a friend. I got one session in, and it was at muscle beach, so that was pretty awesome, but it's basically been a week since I trained.

3/11 - 

Paused Bench - 

275x3,3,3,3,3

Incline bench - 

225x5,5,5

Shrugs - 

585x5

405x20

Speed pulls -

405 x 8 singles

Session cut short because I had shit to do, but I can always make up accessory work later.

[Alex M]

3/12

Squats - 

365x2

375x2

385x2

395x2

405x2

Paused Squats - 

315x5

Hack squats - 

2 plates x8,8,8

Leg ext., Leg curl, laterals, curls

[Alex M]

3/13

Close-grip bench - 

225x5

235x5

245x5

255x5

Slingshot bench - 

275x2

285x2

295x2

305x2

Block pulls - one sumo, one conv

495x1,1

585x1,1

635x1,1

Tbar rows - 

5 plates x5,5,5,5,5

BOR - 

135x20,20,20

pushdowns

[Alex M]

3/15

Squats - 

405x5

315x3,3,3,3,3

One-leg press, Leg ext, pull ups, laterals, curls