Workout Log 5/28/2013

Oh leg day. I had a fantastic leg workout with Brandon. The high volume mixed with him pushing me along was a combination for amazingness! Here's what it looked like:

Squat:
3x8
1x5
2x2
1 Heavy Single

Good Morning
1x12
2x10

Walking Lunges
3x12

Single Leg Press
3x8

Turkish Get Ups
*I have no idea how many, but they hurt

On paper it doesn't look like a ton but it felt like a ton when we were actually doing it. Brandon was teaching me Turkish get ups because it's a great exercise that I had little experience with. There are a lot of steps but once I got the hang of it I really liked it! After the workout I went home and took a contrast shower. Not exactly fun (I don't do well with the cold) but it definitely helped with my soreness today. I'm taking the day off from lifting today but am going to get some light cardio in; probably just a nice walk. I've decided to go ahead and compete June 29th and I'm just a few pounds away from being in the weight class that I want to be in so as long as everything goes as planned I should be able to get my weight down fairly easily (hopefully).

Sunday night I had my carb meal and it was AWESOME to say the least. We went to Scotty's (one of my favorites) and I had a cheeseburger on a gluten free bun with steak fries (chips and salsa for the appetizer because we were starving) then once I was home we had coconut milk ice cream with puppy chow as a topping. Then I was in a carb coma and slept like a baby. Last cycle I went two weeks without carbs, I'm going to go at least a week this time and see how I feel. Depending on my weight I may stretch it out a little bit longer.

My squats are looking better. I've significantly reduced the weight and am getting back to the basics. Brandon has helped me experiment a little and we've found I do a lot better when I elevate my heels on five pound weight plates. I'm looking into buying Olympic shoes for this reason and have also started to incorporate ankle mobility work. I'm also doing way more stretching and foam rolling and hip mobility work. I think as long as I devote appropriate time to all that I should be able to get a decent squat at my meet.

Make it a great day, everyone!!!

High Volume Workouts, Bench Press PR and All That Fun Stuff

Happy Wednesday! Now that my competition is in the books and I took a nice deload week, I've started with a brand new workout program that is completely different from what I was doing. But before we get to that, let's back up a bit.

My exciting news for the week...

On Saturday I finally benched 135 for the first time!!! This has been a huge goal of mine for quite sometime and I was beyond thrilled to get it! It certainly wasn't the prettiest thing I've ever done and definitely needs a little work but the fact that I did it makes me feel very happy and accomplished and like my hard work is definitely paying off.

Anyway, back to my new program. I'm doing more of a mountain dog training program for awhile. It's way more volume than I was doing for my powerlifting training but I love it so far. I'm only on day 3 but day 1 and 2 both got the best of me. Mountain Dog training is a program that will train the muscle, not the movement like all the powerlifting training I've been doing. It's definitely a big change but I'm very excited to see the results it brings.

I've also changed up my diet a bit recently. I'm doing a mix between carb nite and the velocity diet. With the velocity diet, I have protein shakes throughout the day and then at night I have a real meal and keep it very clean. Once a week (still Sunday) I have my carbs like I was doing before. It was an adjustment to only have liquids during the day but I'm liking it so far. The biggest thing I have to do is make sure my shakes are large enough or else I find myself not getting enough calories and completely without energy.

I'm leaning towards the idea of doing another competition the end of June (my first full meet). I haven't decided 100% but I think it would be a ton of fun and I would really like to get some sort of a squat number on the board (even though it's definitely my weak lift)

I learned a ton at the LTT seminar over the weekend and can't wait to apply what I learned to my lifts because I think it will help me make awesome gains. It was a really fun experience to get to meet such talented and hard working lifters and have them give me advice to better myself. I'm very pleased with how my weight lifting is going and I can't wait to continue to work hard on my new program and keep progressing!


The ABC's of a great day.

First Meet is in the Books!

Saturday marked my first powerlifting meet and it was such a great experience! I was gone on vacation last week and had very limited access to workout equipment. I was a little concerned it was going to have a significant negative impact on my performance but overall I was pleased.

The meet began at noon, so I had plenty of time in the morning to prepare myself and make sure I was good to go. I'll admit, my nerves were really getting to me, especially during the bench press since that was the first event. We got to the meet about an hour and a half before go time and I weighed in and stretched and had my protein shake. The meet started and I was second up on bench. I opened with 105 and got it. It felt a little heavier than I would have liked but overall it was good. For my second attempt, I decided to up it ten pounds and was successful with 115. My goal for the competition was to bench 125 so of course that's what I took for my third and final attempt. Sadly, I missed 125 but that's okay, it just gives me something to keep working towards for the future! I definitely need to work on my pauses a bit more, as I can see that was a problem area for me.

Next up was the deadlift. I opened with 200 pounds and if felt lighter than I expected. I went up to 220 for my next attempt; it felt heavier but I knew I still had quite a bit more in me. Prior to the competition, 225 was my PR. In my head I really wanted to get 250 at the competition but my instincts told me not to go that high so I stuck with 245 and I'm so glad! It felt heavy and as I was lifting it I was a little concerned I wasn't going to get the lockout but I got it and now have a 20 pound deadlift PR!

After the meet we stuck around for the awards and I got two medals (getting a medal or trophy was pretty much my ultimate goal) then we had a great Mexican lunch with our new friends we met at the meet. Overall it was a perfect day and an awesome experience! I can't thank Brandon enough for all the help, time, and motivation he has given to make me better. He's the absolute greatest and I can't wait to see what the future holds for my lifting. I never could have done any of this without him and I'm so glad it's something we can do together.

This week I'm taking it pretty easy but I'm going to be back at it hard on Monday when I start Mountain Dog training and I can't wait!

Enjoy the day!


Thanks for everything, B! You rock!!! :)