If you are a proponent of the big compound lifts; power cleans, deadlifts, bench press, and squats you probably know of Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore and their well-known book, Starting Strength, Basic Barbell Training. I can’t think of a better how-to book to learn these lifts.
Have you ever used Wikipedia, the user-editable online encyclopedia? Then you have an idea about the Starting Strength Wiki. There is some great information here in this wiki so I invite you to take a look.
Here are a couple of classic Mark Rippetoe quotes you’ll enjoy.
“There are few things graven in stone, except that you have to squat or you’re a pussy.”
“Pierre, if you are eating 5500 calories a day, then I am a female kangaroo with a Sonic Drive-In franchise and a heroin habit.” (I have no idea what that means).
On steroids:
“There are no shortcuts. The fact that a shortcut is important to you means that you are a pussy.”
“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general.”
Monday, June 16, 2008
Sandbag Clean to 10 Zercher Squats x 4
Back Squat: 135 x 3/225 x 3/225 x 3/225 x 3/245 x 3/245 x 3/ Snatch Deadlift, 130 x 2 x 3 Push Press, 135 x 5 x 5 Pull-ups, (w/mini band assistance) 8/7/8 Sandbag Turkish Get-ups, 70#: 5 each side
———————————————————
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Deadlift Singles to 90% 1RM
Snatch Grip: 155×3/199×3
Std.: 289/339/379/429/450f/379/379.
Pull-ups, (band assisted): 8/7/7.
Good Mornings, x 5: 65/85/95/115/115.
——————————————————-
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Rest Day
——————————————————–
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Warm-ups, including 3 rounds of Burgeners
Snatch + Hang Squat Snatch + Overhead Squat x 3: 65/75/88
Cleans + Hang Squat Clean + Front Squat x 3: 88/115/125
KB Snatch, 24 kg: 20/20/20/20
Stopped when my form went away. Very hot and humid.
—————————————————————–
Friday, June 20, 2008
Warm-ups with mini-bands, OHS 45×10 x 2; BB Presses 45×10 x 2; Snatch Balance 45×5 x 2; Power Snatch 45×5 x 2.
Two Position Snatch, 60% x 4. 60% = 70#
Snatch Balance, 88×2 x 3/100 (85%) x2 x 3.
Band Assisted Pull-ups: 7/8/9/8/.
10# Ball Slams: 50
——————————————-
Saturday, June 21, 2008
2 Station 2 Man Metcon
Station 1: 70# sandbag. 1 clean to 10 zercher squats, press overhead and walk 50 meters and drop. Clean to shoulder, walk back 50 meters and bear hug squat 10 x
Station: 2: 88# BB Power Cleans until the other guy finishes the sandbag set.
Repeat Station 1:
Station 2: 3 BB deadlifts + 3 overhead presses. Repeat until the sandbag guy finishes.
Repeat Station 1:
Station 2: 24 kilo kettlebell swings until the sandbag guy finishes.
After a minute rest, I repeated the Station 1 sandbag set and the Station 2 Power Cleans
Kettlebell swings 24 kg: 20/20/25/.
Ring Dip Ladder: 2/4/6/8/10/8/6/4/2. Ast my strength waned on some of te higher repped dips, I did jumpers to lockout. Ring Push-up Ladder: 2/4/6/8/10/8/6/4/2.
Last night Jon Curry and I trained with power cleans and squat cleans. I went more with the former. Many lifters and strength coaches consider the power clean one of the top three most beneficial compound lifts with the deadlift and the squat. For that reason, athletes at all levels train with this classic lift. A lot of power goes into this movement, (hence the name). I like power clean after the deadlift and before the squat.
Take a look at this video and notice the good technique. I need to get more of the shrug into the lift if I want to increase my poundages as well as exploding the lift.
A couple of good “add-ons” to the power clean are the front squat and the push press. I added in some of the push presses yesterday when I got as heavy as I was going to go.
Taking a heavy barbell and picking it up off the floor and lifting it over your head is a great feeling, (as is dropping it to the floor after a successful lift and knowing you won’t get kicked out of the gym for doing it!)
Ah, yes, another lift I wish I would have been introduced to 30 years ago! I do get a kick out of the fact that I am probably the oldest guy in my gym doing the cleans, squats, snatches, deadlifts and definitely the kettlebell stuff and the guys I train with are 15-20 years my junior. The rest of the folks just don’t know what they are missing!
This was a pretty good week for training as I got in some Oly lifting, powerlifting, kettlebells, skating, and even a run. I would say that is mixing it up!
Monday, 4/7
Kettlebell Swings, 32 kg. 1 minute rest 20/20/20/20 Kettlebell Swings, 24 kg. 20/30. Kettlebell Swing/Walk, 24 kg. 15/15/15/15. Kettlebell Snatch, 24 kg. 8 x 5/5
14,100 lbs
————————————–
Tuesday, 4/8
3 rounds of Burgener warm-up
Clean & Push Press, x 3 45/65/90/100/110/120/120/130/140/110.
Rack Pulls, singles at knee height 225/315/405/455f/455/475/500.
——————————————————
Wednesday, 4/9
Rest
—————————————
Thursday, 4/10
BB Snatch doubles, full squat:
65/75/75/80/90/90/95/100/105.
KB Swings, 24 kg.
2H: 30/20/20.
H2H: 40/30/25/20/15.
200 swings, 10,600#
——————————————
Friday, 4/11
No liftin’ or swingin’ today. Instead, I went to the beach in the early evening and ran for 41 minutes. It went well and the weather was perfect.
——————————————————–
Saturday, 4/12
BackSquats: 135×5/135×5/185×3.
10 x 225# (70% 1RM) doubles, :45 rest between sets.
Deadlifts: 245×3//295×1/335×1.
10 x 365# (70% 1RM) singles, :45 rest between sets.
2 SloshPipe overhead walks; 50 meters or so. A “tsunami in a tube”.
Last night, for the first time, I added some rack pulls to the workload. Probably my favorite lift is the deadlift and so whatever complementary exercises I can do to pull more, I am interested.
I found this to be instructional and helpful to me:
While enjoying a day off, Val asked me to put together a strength workout for her that would help her performance as a runner. So what better than the deadlift, a total body exercise?
Here she lifts a 2RM of 130 lbs on the 10th set of doubles. No doubt she could pull more with less sets and each subsequent lift was heavier. Oh, and I left out one important part of this training; she only got a minute rest between sets.
Beginning with this week, I am posting my workouts for the entire week on Sundays. This will free up time for better posts when I do post articles. In addition, I will occasionally put up topics other than fitness. Since I sufficiently mix up my training for good reason, I will also mix up my blog posts and hopefully keep it fresh and interesting. In any case, I’ll put up whatever I think I might like and get read by you.
I am am open to your opinions and suggestions and invite your comments. Thanks for reading MFB.
Got off this morning with a few sets of kettlebell swings and ring push-ups before the deadlift mist rolled in.
KBSwings, 24 kilo, 20/20/20 RingPush-ups, 25/25/25 Burgenerwarm-ups, with drop snatches, MT bar x 3 PowerCleans, 45×5/90×5 SnatchGripDeadlifts on a platform, 155×3/200×3/200×3 Deadlift 245×3
With the warm-ups over, let the deadlift singles begin.
335/365/400/405/405f/335/335/335/. I “mist” the second 405 after just barely making the previous.
Did not have enough to go higher today, but a few reps at 90%+ never sucks.
It has been long while since I tested myself with the CFT; October of 2007, now that I think of it. I have set a few deadlift PR’s since then and even “acquired” a couple new injuries since then.
As I mentioned another time, I enjoy Saturday mornings at the gym but seldom enjoyed getting my ass kicked in something like “Fight Gone Bad” or the “Filthy Fifty” at Crossfit Marina. At Met-Rx on Saturday morning there is a good mix of the regular AM crowd and the PM crowd and that makes for some good energy.
Today was different. It is a beautiful day and the temperatures are in the 70’s so I think many went to the beach or maybe had to get some chores done that have been put off since the start of football season last year.
After my opening lift in each of the 3 exercises, I knew I was going to have difficulty rising to the occasion. Last time with the CFT I had a combined score of 890 and my goal today was 900 or higher.
I opened with the back squat, my weakest lift. I had already done sufficient lighter lifts to prepare for my 3 “money” lifts. I set the bar at 225 and it did not seem all the easy. Getting below parallel is a must so I set the safety bars in the cage accordingly. The squat scored 245/285/305/305. I did the 4th lift to cover for not quite getting as low as I wanted in the third lift and got lower.
The overhead press hasn’t seen any progress for a while and this one was a little tougher than it has been in the past. I completed two lifts, but failed at the third. 165/175/180f.
The last, my favorite and the one I have the most success with, the deadlift was the third leg of the trifecta. To get a score over 900 lbs I needed a pull of at least 420 lbs. With the way the lifts were going, it would prove to be difficult. When I made the first pull at 365 lbs I knew this would be difficult. I did get it though, with 5 lbs to spare and my last lift was at 425 lbs, 10 off the recent PR of 435 set recently. 365/405/425.
I am writing this several hours after I completed the CFT. After 1 hour, I was really hungry. After the second hour, I am really tired! Before, during and after the session, I drank BCAA’s in water for it’s anabolic and anti-catabolic effects. I’ll have another drink before bedtime for recovery.
Oh yeah, my CFT scored 905; 15 lbs above my last PR of 890. This was the first time, I PR’ed the total without PRing any individual lifts.
After feeling it from last night’s rack pulls, (the first time doing them), I find this great article by Ben Tatar on the deadlift. At my gym, Scott P. said once I get to 400# I can “take the skirt off”. Now that the skirt is off, this article will help get me to “monster” status!
My plan, (and I stuck to it), was to do deadlifts at 85% and more of my new 1RM of 435#. In spite of the injuries I have going on, it did not prevent me from getting some good, heavy lifts in.
As I warmed up, I did some rope jumps, 100/80/80/100. My warm-up continued with light deads with 155 x 5/245 x 5.
The money sets were 365/365/385/390, all done as singles.
The second half was doing Good Mornings, 5 reps per set. 95/95/115/135/135.
I did not feeling particularly strong tonight and fortunately, Ralphie was able to critique me on of my lifts and provide some insights into improving my technique.
