Day Three, Week Two: Heavy Bench Press

Had yet another very encouraging bench press workout the other day. Began at 315 intending to do four sets of four reps at that weight, but after the second set of four I increased the weight to 320 for the third set, and then to 325 for the fourth set and did five reps instead of four! At this time leading into my previous competition, just one rep at this weight was difficult. A record-breaking 358 lb. bench in competition is continuing to come into focus.

The bad news is that as of the morning I completed this workout, I was still at about 290 pounds. So with 3 weeks remaining before competition I still had about 15 pounds to lose to compete in my desired weight class. Fortunately, this morning revealed some encouraging news. For that, see my next post.

Squat Day
Exercise	11/5 2010	11/12 2010	Week Three	Week Four
Bench Press	135x10	135x10
	185x10	185x10
	285x5	315x4
	290x5	315x4
	295x5	320x4
	300x7	325x5
45° Smith Press	140x12*	140x12*
	150x11*	150x9*
	150x6*	150x9*
16" Floor Press	135x12	165x12
	155x12	175x12
	185x11	185x10
Triceps Pressdown	90x12 (P)	90x12 (P)
	95x9 (P)	95x9 (P)
	95x8 (P)	95x9 (P)
* Not counting weight of bar (P) Machine used at the PRO Club

Day Two, Week Two: Squats

Another great squat workout today! There was a teenage kid and a couple of guys staring in awe at the weight I was squatting. Appealed to my ego a little bit :)

Squat Day
Exercise	11/4 2010	11/11 2010	Week Three	Week Four
Squat	135x10	135x10
	185x8	185x8
	380x5	410x4
	385x5	415x4
	390x5	420x4
	395x6	425x4
Seated Row	140x12 (P)	160x12 (Y)
	160x12 (P)	170x12 (Y)
	180x11 (P)	180x12 (Y)
Hang Clean	115x12	115x12
	115x10	115x12
	115x10	115x10
Back Extensions	0x12	45x12*
	25x12*	60x12*
	45x12*	70x12*
* Plate/dumbbell held to my chest (P) Machine used at the PRO Club (Y) Machine used at the YMCA

Day Four, Week One: Deadlifts

Was a little bit of a tough deadlift workout today. My goal in my 4th week is to lift 560, and spreading that out across four weeks meant today I'd lift 520. Because that is not usually approaching 100% effort, I added two more lifts of increasing weight to the three working sets I did last routine, for a total of five successively heavier lifts starting at 440. Well boy, I tell ya, what a difference two more lifts makes. Adding to that, I worked out by myself today so I didn't have as much time to rest between lifts. As a result, that fifth lift at 520 took nearly everything I had. Definitely gonna go down to four working lifts next week.

Also, when I got to work I climbed the stairs to the top of the building and back down again, which I'll repeat around lunchtime. Hopefully my 1,300 step weight loss plan gets me to where I need to be in, wow, less than 4 weeks now!

Deadlift Day
Exercise	11/8 2010	Week Two	Week Three	Week Four
Deadlift	135x5
	225x3
	315x2
	405x1
	440x1
	460x1
	480x1
	500x1
	520x1
One-Arm Row	70x12*
	80x12*
	80x11*
Box Squats (Explosive)	245x3†
	255x3†
	265x3†
	275x2†
	285x2†
Rear Delt Fly	20x12*
	25x12*
	25x10*
* Weight is per arm † Used adjustable height box at lowest setting, rather then traditional bench, increasing difficulty

My 1,300-Step Weight-Loss Program

Well, I may have put off getting serious about my weight until the last minute, but with 14 pounds to lose in 4 weeks in order to compete in my desired weight class on December 4th, I'm not going to go down without a fight. I may be swamped at work and unable to fit visits to the gym into my schedule (beyond weight training), but in a sense I have a gym located conveniently within my building.

Today I climbed the stairs to the top of my building and back down—twice (once in the morning, once in the afternoon). That's twice over 28 stories' worth of stairs, including those of 3 underground stories in my morning climb, for a total of something on the order of 1,300 stairs, up and down. 275, I'm coming to getcha...

Day Three, Week One: Heavy Bench Press

Every workout seems to be more encouraging than the last! As was the case with yesterday's squat workout, I started my bench lifting a certain predetermined amount of weight greater than I did at the start of the previous 5 weeks, but found it so easy that I increased the weight each additional set, lifting 300 in the final set for 7 reps instead of the planned 5! A 358 lb. bench press in competition is looking very reasonable! Oh, and I've FINALLY lost one pound. "Only" 14 more to go, in 4 weeks... Ugh...

Squat Day
Exercise	11/5 2010	Week Two	Week Three	Week Four
Bench Press	135x10
	185x10
	285x5
	290x5
	295x5
	300x7
45° Smith Press	140x12*
	150x11*
	150x6*
16" Floor Press	135x12
	155x12
	185x11
Triceps Pressdown	90x12 (P)
	95x9 (P)
	95x8 (P)
* Not counting weight of bar (P) Machine used at the PRO Club

Day Two, Week One: Squats

Oh man I think I'm gonna kick butt at the squat. Same squat routine as previous weeks (4x5, 4x4, 3x3 and 3x2) but with increased weight. I had intended to lead into the competition having done 3 sets of 2 at 470, which is 20 pounds heavier than the last week of the previous routine, and so accordingly I started today's workout by increasing the 4x5 by 20 pounds, from 360 to 380. But one set of 5 at 380 was pretty easy, so I did a second set of 5 at 385, a third set of 5 at 390 and a fourth set of 6 at 395! A successful third attempt in competition at 520 is starting to look very possible :)

Squat Day
Exercise	11/4 2010	Week Two	Week Three	Week Four
Squat	135x10
	185x8
	380x5
	385x5
	390x5
	395x6
Seated Row	140x12 (P)
	160x12 (P)
	180x11 (P)
Hang Clean	115x12
	115x10
	115x10
Back Extensions	0x12
	25x12*
	45x12*
* Plate held to my chest (P) Machine used at the PRO Club

Day One, Week One: Light Bench Press

Day one of my new workout was two days ago. These are the last four weeks of training before my upcoming competition, and I still have 15 pounds to lose (ACK!).

Speed Bench Day
Exercise	11/3 2010	Week Two	Week Three	Week Four
Bench Press (Explosive)	135x10
	185x5
	245x5
	245x5
	245x5
	245x5
	245x5
	245x5
	245x5
	245x5
Seated Shoulder Press	45x12
	50x12
	55x12
3-Board Press	275x5
	280x5
	285x5
Cable Triceps Extensions