Becoming a Squat Freak

[Alcoholiday]

Originally Posted by Matthew

Ya well, can you do 275 for a single right now?

My focus right now is getting my squat up to six plates. So.. race to 315?

ps. is it six plates, or three plates? I always say the number of plates I have on one side, so 315 would be three plates, but other people say the number of plates on the bar total...

pps. we still haven't finished our race to a 135 military press

it's 3 plates. I don't know what i can squat now, considering i've had 2 back squat workouts since i've been back

[Alcoholiday]

Originally Posted by Chris D

I forgot to add the Just Kidding part to this. Manny's front squatting weight that you and I can only dream of (if I remember correctly!)

Oh yeah...you need a better photographer!

[Alcoholiday]

mojitos are delicious.... mmmmm.....

[Lost Dog]

TRX Flat Pushups, 10/9/9

You have me beat by a lot!

[Alcoholiday]

Originally Posted by Lost Dog

TRX Flat Pushups, 10/9/9

You have me beat by a lot!

i found a lot of it has to do w/ shoulder stability, and also repetitions.

For example,
12/1: 8/6/6
3/10: 10/8/6
3/26: 12/10/10

and then i didn't really do them until recently. I did a lot of overhead stuff though. I also haven't benched in like 2-3 months, and bs pushups are the only horizontal pressing i do.

So, you'll get there. I'd like to be able to do sets of 20, which i'll try next workout, and then maybe a set of 30 or 40.

[Lost Dog]

Originally Posted by Alcoholiday

i found a lot of it has to do w/ shoulder stability, and also repetitions.

I hear you on the shoulder stability. Toward the end of each set my arms were shaking and vibrating, big time! My shoulders felt like they were giving out, more than the chest or tris.

[Alcoholiday]

Originally Posted by Lost Dog

I hear you on the shoulder stability. Toward the end of each set my arms were shaking and vibrating, big time! My shoulders felt like they were giving out, more than the chest or tris.

yea, that'll go away as you do them more, and get to doing them consistantly above 10 rep sets. Now for me, it's just that my arms get fatigued.

[Alcoholiday]

Had a nice 3 days off of doing nothing, and it's time to get back to the grind.

7-4-07:
Hip Mobility
Sled Drags:
around ankles: 2 trips. This fries your hips

Front Squats (clean grip):
...
155x2
170x2 (pr)
150x2
160x2x2
145x4

RDLs:
205x6x3

work. blah. Squats are feeling better. Clean grip feels soooo much better than using a cross armed grip. If i went to singles, i could have probably gotten 185. The second rep of 170 started slipping and almost dumped it.

[Alcoholiday]

7-6-07:
Shoulder mobility

Push Press:
...
120x2
125x2x2
130x1x2 (not bad. I figure i'm good for a slow single around 145-150)

BS Pushups:
bwx13
bwx11
bwx8

Chins:
4 sets, 2 of them using eagle loops

Front Squats:
6 sets of doubles

Ankle and hip mobility, wrist stretching

[Alcoholiday]

7-8-07:

Sled Pulls: 3 sets

Deadlifts:
...
275x3
300x3
320x2 (rep pr)
300x3

DB Walking Lunges:
25x6 or so
30x6x2

real nice quick workout. sister's graduation party is today, so i had to do a real quick workout. 95 degrees here plus humidity.

[Alcoholiday]

ME Shopping today:

95 degree heat x 2 hours

short rest to eat a hot dog.

bought a $185 pair of jeans for 15 bucks from Polo. The shirts were ridiculous though. I was going to get a t-shirt, but they were really short, and really wide?

[Alcoholiday]

7-11-07:

Front Squats:
...
170x1
175x1
180x1
165x1x2

RDLs:
215x6x3

Ab wheel

[Matthew]

That's a hell of a deal. How'd you land that?

Nice front squats.

How are you liking the ab wheel?

[Alcoholiday]

i dunno, lucky i guess?

for the ab wheel, i just used an adjustable db, and put some plates on each side and did them. They're rough. I'd like to be able to do them standing

[Alcoholiday]

5-13-07:
Shoulder Mobility

CG Bench:
155x3x2

Seated DB Presses: 3 sets
One Arm Rows: 3 sets
Rear Raises: 2 sets

Keeping it light for big day sunday.

[Alcoholiday]

q&a of the day:

Mike Ruggiera: Just to clear things up, by suppliments I was refering to creatine, glutamine, protein, and I plan on adding just a little bit of caffine to speed back up my motabalism from this rediculous lack of sleep ive been gettin (Four eleven hour workdays suck)! Anyways, since you really didnt have a preference between the 4 and 5 day split, is there any other workout regimine you might recommend? Just a little background, I've really only been lifting hard for about 15 months, so I suppose I gots lots of improving yet to do. I got my workout from a friend Joe Pacello who was a former body builder. I switched up my workout a while back once my gains started slowin down, but Im back on it now. Since Im still so new to lifting, would you recommend just keeping this routine, eating alot, and just lifting hard, or do you think there may be something else benificial for me?!? I do plan on tryin to walk on and play some DI football a year from now (still tryin to come back from an acl, mcl, miniscul tear) so Im really tryin to kick it up a notch with my lifting. Thanks for your time and help, and sorry for this long ass post!!!!

--


Ben,

What I would recommend is switching your routine up from time to time. Instead of a four day, switch to a three day, then maybe to a five day. When you're training each muscle group just once a week I don't think it matters much how many days a week you go into the gym. However, make sure your calorie intake and rest are up to snuff for those days when you're in the gym 5 days a week. Recovery is the key.

Personal experience... I used to train 6 days a week. Why? That's what all the Muscle&Fitness magazines said to do back in the 80's. I didn't know any better and I believed all the bullshit that they were publishing. Sure, I looked great, had a lean look that resembled a surfer out in California. That's not what I wanted. I wanted to look like a NFL lineman... big traps, neck, thick upperbody and tree trunk legs.

Well, in 1988 I was living in York PA making a living doing construction work. I just got done reading another 'great' article out of M&F, this one about arginine and ornithine, two amino acids that were guaranteed to help boost gh levels in the body. I said "Shit! I gotta have this stuff!" So I drove up to Silver Springs, just outside of Harrisburg. There was this flea market that had a place that sold supplements and health food pretty cheap, not to mention there was a pretty hot babe that worked there. When I got there, the hot babe wasn't there but her husband, Bob, was and who just happened to be one of the biggest guys I had ever seen. He asked if he could help me and I said sure, and started to ask if he had any arginine and ornithine. He wanted to know what I wanted with these two amino's and I started to tell him about the article I just read. Bob said I should be taking something that had all the aminos in it and then started to ask what I was training for. I told him I was training for strength and size. Then he questioned how I was trying to achieve this. "How many times a week do you train?" I said six. "No wonder you looked all ripped up. You should only train three days a week." I looked at him a little strange. Hell, the all knowing M&F mags all say 6 days is prefered for maximal muscle hugeness. He then asked "How many times do you train your chest and how many exercises?" I said twice a week and 4 or 5 exercises. "How many sets of bench do you do?" I said 5 or 6 not including warm ups. He started laughing. "Train each muscle group once a week, no more than three sets per exercise and no more than three exercise per bodypart." Bob emphisized, that by training each muscle group just once a week that I need to hit it hard, heavy and with intensity. That only going to the gym 3 days per week and training each muscle group once a week that I was allowing for optimal recovery. Instead of burning calories left and right from doing physical labor and then going to the gym those 6 days a week that I was allowing myself to consume more calories with the extra time I had off by training just three days, allowing for weight gain. I said to him no way that would work, I needed to be in the gym six days a week to give my body the work it needed to get big. Bob then invited me to come up to Silver Springs to train with him to show me that three days a week was all I needed. I never took him up on his offer, it was a bit too far to drive from York but as big as this guy was, who was I to say he was full of shit. I took his advice and trained that way for ten years. My bodyweight went from 195 to 310 or so. Bob really changed my life with that visit to his store that day. I got bigger, stronger and with that I got interested in powerlifting. I wish one day I could run into Bob so I could shake his hand and say "Thank you."

Now, go lift some weight would ya?!



Live Strong!!!,
Mike Ruggiera

[Alcoholiday]

7-15-07:
Sled Dragging: 2 trips
Hip Mobility

Full back squats:
..
185x3
205x2 (pr)

Yoke:
130 x 90ft x 3
220 x 90ft x 2
270 x 30ft x2

Walking DB Lunges:
30x6x2
35x6

Hammer Curls

First time trying out a new yoke. Felt pretty good, so i'll start pushing it in the next few weeks. Squats felt good, even though form was off, they felt pretty easy.