Originally Posted by Seanp156

Are you using the Z-suit in your meet? If so, is the meet this Saturday? If it is, I wouldn't plan on using the suit in the meet. Using any new suit for the first time in a meet, let alone your first meet isn't a good idea. You need to get used to the suit before using it in a meet. Maybe save the knees wraps til you use those a few times as well.

Originally Posted by Stewart20

Nov 19

Bench Press
135 x 8
225 x 6
275 x 3
315 x 1
330 x 1 (6 sets)

Seated OH Press S/S Rear Delt Flies
185 x 5 S/S 50s x 8 (2 sets)

Chest Supported Rows
160 x 5 (3 sets)

Originally Posted by AKIRA

Hey man, not to start up a fight, but whats with Pete coming into YOUR journal to defend HIS beliefs. Fuck him. Yeah I said it.

If I made a thread that said that I dont believe in gear or steroids for that matter, then anyone can come after me. But in my journal?

No fucking way.

Originally Posted by AKIRA

Hey man, not to start up a fight, but whats with Pete coming into YOUR journal to defend HIS beliefs. Fuck him. Yeah I said it.

If I made a thread that said that I dont believe in gear or steroids for that matter, then anyone can come after me. But in my journal?

No fucking way.

Originally Posted by AKIRA

OH! I was supposed to ask about the journal too!





I know this post is an older one, but it was the first one I wanted to ask about.


For singles, how long do you rest in between them?

Originally Posted by PeteTheGreek

Sorry to hijack your journal, Stewart. Let us know how you did today. I need to talk to you about some stuff you did leading up to your meet. I didn't want to say anything to fuck with your head prior to your meet.

Originally Posted by chiquita6683

Congratulations! I'm happy that you're happy!

Originally Posted by PeteTheGreek

Congratulations on a successful meet and the big deadlift. A couple of things about your training leading up to the meet. You were benching and deadlifting too often leading up to your meet. I was surprised with the big deadlift considering you pulled 3 or 4 times in the last 2 weeks. Perhaps since you were pulling less than 90% max is how you came up with the big dead.

My problem is that I tend to train my pull too heavy too soon going into a meet. I'm still learning that I need to back off on this lift. At my last meet, I pulled AND squatted too heavy too close to my meet. As a result, my squats felt heavy as shit on meet day and my pull was a disaster. However, my heaviest bench training for this meet was 495, which I did two weeks out. One week out I only went to 425 and shut it down. At the meet I ended up getting a PR 540. Yes, Dave, I'm adding 5 lbs for that 50 lb bar.

Also, you don't want to take a bench opener only 3 days out from your meet. This may be why you missed the 365. Also, like Dave said, if you miss a weight at a meet, you can't decrease the bar weight for any subsequent attempts. As you get older and stronger, all your max effort work for the squat and bench should be completed 2 weeks before a meet. It's OK to take a bench opener or maybe a last bench warm-up 7 days out but you don't want to do any of the big 3 the week of a meet. It's ok to do some ab work and other nickel and dime shit the week of a meet to keep the blood flowing but that's it. You're not going to get any stronger those last two weeks by training heavy so the better thing to do is just rest.

Also, the number one mistake you want to avoid now is resuming training too heavy immediately after a meet. This is how you get injured because you're already beat up training for the meet and competing in it. Immediately after my last three meets, I resumed training too soon and too heavy because I was anxious to either fix mistakes I made in a meet or improve on a good lift I made in a meet. All three times this resulting in an injury that set me back several weeks. Take a few weeks off from heavy lifting, but don't stop training. You've been doing the same thing, singles reps, for a while now. It's probably time to change things up a bit. Start hitting some moderate rep shit to get your conditioning back then get back at it.

Congratulations and get ready for your next one.

Originally Posted by Stewart20

Thanks! I keep watching clips of my 520 deadlift because frankly, I just can't believe I got it. Now it's on to 600

By the way, you look so different in your new avatar then you do in the picture in your gallery, it looks like 2 diffferent people, I think I like the long hair better

Originally Posted by PeteTheGreek

Breifs will fix the hip problem in the squat. You don't need to use gangster briefs. Inzer sells a brief called Power Pants. They cost about $50. You would probably be a size 36-38. They'll protect your hips while squatting but they don't give you much pop, maybe 30-40 lbs. I do 90% of my squat and deadlift training in these briefs.

You don't have to stop training, just back off on the percentages for a while. For the squat, we normally use about 50% bar weight but we are constantly adding bands or chains, changing bars, changing box heights, etc.

Instead of having a separate squat and deadlift day and since you're going to keep your squats light for a while, just pull heavy on the days that you squat, but don't pull heavy every week. Maybe every other week but do different deadlift variations. On the alternate day, do a lot of lower back conditioning for higher reps like back extensions, pull thrus, ghr's, reverse hypers etc.

Singles for the big three are fine if they work for you but your assistance work should be for higher reps. You may want to speed bench on your alternate bench day. Your program could go something like this:

Day 1: Squat every week/heavy deadlift movement every other week

Day 3: Heavy bench/lockout work, upper back assistance

Day 5: Lower back assistance and speed deads every few weeks.

Day 7: Speed bench, shoulders/upper back assistance

Originally Posted by PeteTheGreek

Good pull. A couple of things. Your hands are a bit too far apart. Pull your feet a little bit closer so your hands are hanging straight down. This will shorten your range of motion a tad. Secondly, lose the gym shoes and get some chuck taylors or wrestling shoes. The shoes you had on probably have a one inch heal. The heel prevents you from pulling back. Chucks have a flat sole and will get you closer to the ground to shorten your range of motion. Also, as soon as the bar clears your knees, thrust your hips forward as hard and as fast as you can. You're also pulling mostly with your lower back, which indicates weak hamstrings and glutes so start hitting those hypers and ghr's hard so you can keep your butt down. Finally, get that head up higher and keep it up. It will help keep your back from rounding.

Originally Posted by yellowmoomba

Nice job

520 is great!

Originally Posted by AKIRA

Good job Stewart. Fuck missing 365. You attained a great deadlift number AND a great squat number...which to me is a higher achievement.

As for PetetheCock, I will not longer use your thread for attack. But hes my new favorite fat enemy.

Originally Posted by RasPlasch

Good job man!

I watched your 335 bench video too. You put that weight up so easy, I'm surprised you didn't get 365.

Originally Posted by PeteTheGreek

Yes, the 335 looked easy. I'm surprised you missed 365. That's a pretty long bench stroke, longer than Dave's.

Originally Posted by Stewart20

here is the 365 debacle.

YouTube Video

Originally Posted by AKIRA

Was it coming back down? It looked like they gave up on you before you did.

Originally Posted by Stewart20

I like this plan actually. A couple of tweaks here and there and I think it's a solid plan. Although, I doubt I need lockout work at this point, I need more low end/middle range work.

About the briefs. Now, if I use these in training, then go to another meet and have to go raw, won't that be a problem? I won't have a suit to wear on the day of the meet, and I am sure you can't wear briefs in a raw division (although, the meet yesterday, you could wear the z-suit in the standard division, which is weird to me cause if you are going to wear that, why not just wear a single ply suit and compete in that?)

But if I do have the confidence and protection, I might keep heavy squats around for a little while longer, using my singles approach and just alternate deads and squats on that day every week.

Originally Posted by PeteTheGreek

If you're going to compete raw in the squat, you don't want to rely on briefs too much. If your hips are bothering you, you might want to bring your stance in a tad. From looking at the 365 bench video, you missed that almost at the top, which is primarily triceps. I've never seen a raw bench missed that high before. Usually a raw bencher misses the lift off his chest.

Also, if you find yourself completing your warm-ups too early in a meet, it's ok to take another warm-up with something like 285-295. 45 minutes to wait for you to be called up to the platform is too long.

Originally Posted by biggfly

Big Props to you Stew...you workout alone, in your basement, with none of the gear that probably all your competitors have access to(bands, chains, a training partner/crew, boards, etc etc) yet still have the balls to get on the platform head to head. Hats off dude...

Originally Posted by Stewart20

first time for everything huh? Honestly, that's always where I get stuck when I attempt a weight I think I can get but just miss it. So you think that's triceps huh? Interesting, I would have never thought that. So more floor presses and such huh?

Originally Posted by Stewart20

OK, holy shit, I just tried on the Z-suit that I ordered, damn that thing just killed my thighs in the openings. The leg openings are like the size of my arms, it's ridiculous. Are the real deal squat suits like this uncomfortable, because I can't imagine anything feeling worse than this z-suit, and if that's the case, fuck it, I'm getting a squat suit. I also wrapped my knees up and waddled around my basement for a couple of minutes in these things, how the hell do you guys do it? Bending into the squat position was pure torture on my legs, the suit just ripped into my thighs, they still hurt now, 30 minutes later--and this is with no weight on my back. I am anxious/curious to see what happens with weight and this suit. Is this pain really worth 50 extra pounds on my squat? DO you guys wear these to deadlift too, because it was damn near impossible to bend into starting position, I can see how it would help, but getting to the bar was a nightmare.

It was an interesting endeavor to say the least. I was hanging off of my dip bars squeezing into the thing. Getting it on is like a max effort workout in itself.

Originally Posted by Seanp156

It might help to put in on inside out at first too... Turn the suit inside out, put the legs on first and get them as high as you want them on your thighs. Make sure the tag's in the back, and pull the rest of the suit up until it's not inside out anymore. Pete told me that one. Also, you might want to leave the straps down. I've never even squatted with the straps up on mine.

Originally Posted by AKIRA

Was the deadlift Conventional?

Originally Posted by fufu

Great deadlift!

Originally Posted by Stewart20

did you not see the video???

Originally Posted by Stewart20

thanks, fufu. next stop 600

Originally Posted by Stewart20

Bodyweight Pullups
3 sets of disappointment

Originally Posted by Stewart20

Dec 10

Bench Press (Index finger on rings)
135 x 8
225 x 6
275 x 2
325 x 1 (4 sets)
*Practiced powerlifter bench form today, bringing the bar down to my upper belly with a wide grip and pressing back up from there. I discovered that if I slightly lift my head up as I am lowering the bar, I feel like I am incorporating my back into the lift, which I think is a good sign. I've seen other people doing it (lifting their head) and I found it really helps you to concentrate on getting your lats involved. As for the lift itself, these were all paused as in a meet, and they were really hard with this new form for me. 325 was a struggle where if I benched it my regular way, it is too easy.

I ordered a HD Blast shirt from Inzer the other day, one size too big and with an open back. I called them up and told them I mainly wanted protection and something I could put on by myself, they recommended the HD Blast for now with the open back. You know in a few months from now I will be doing this in a real deal bench shirt, if it makes a difference like the squat suit did, forget about it.

Raw 4-Board Press
315 x 5
315 x 5
315 x 5
315 x 5
*Moved my grip to middle finger on rings and felt much better that way, will try this out on the next bench day. Starting to focus more on triceps now, as Pete thinks that why I bombed my 365 lift at the meet. Obviously, I have off the chest strength, just no mid range. So I will do these for a while, and then on my bench assist day, I can do DB presses for the low end, floor presses for the mid range/triceps, and shoulder presses for my shoulders and tris.

Rear Laterals
50s x 10 (3 sets)

Originally Posted by Stewart20

520 deadlift. this was my third attempt.

YouTube Video

Originally Posted by Stewart20

Dec 13--Bench Assist

Floor Press
135 x 8
225 x 6
275 x 5
225 x 10

Stopped here because I felt an annoying pain in my right pec tendon, the one that is in my armpit area, then I started thinking if I keep this up I am gonna tear the fucker. This has happened before on the same side, but has generally gone away without doing much differently, but obviously something is not right. I think the floor press actually aggrivates it more than regular bench, so yeah, time to axe the floor press.

Originally Posted by soxmuscle

Holy shit.. I didn't know you competed. Reading all these replies it seems like everything's going well.. damn proud to see that.. I would like to do one of these one day.

Originally Posted by soxmuscle

I was going to do Floor Pressing tomorrow as my heavy first push exercise in replace of the bench because the bench kind of hurts my shoulder and the Floor Press hasn't so far... Thoughts..

Originally Posted by Stewart20

Dec 18

Squats
285 x 5
285 x 5
285 x 5
285 x 5
285 x 5

Bench Press
135 x 8
185 x 6
225 x 4
270 x 5

Chest Supported Rows
90 x 8
160 x 5

*Wore z-suit with straps down for squats. I reinvented my stance and it is wider now, no I wore it primarily for the protection to my hips. Honestly, this suit game me really nothing at the bottom, I didn't feel any noticable rebound in the hole, although I did feel safer and more sure of my reps.

*Pec tendon still funky. It isn't hindering my strength, it is just bothering me, and I have this nonsense in my head about rupturing the tendon and having to get surgery to reattach my pec to my shoulder. Will monitor, I guess a good thing about choosing this routine is the lack of max singles, although, they do say these things usually happen during the 135 warmup sets

Originally Posted by Stewart20

I love floor pressing, I would recommend it to anyone, I am not going to be doing them for a while cause of my tendon issue, but I would try them, because everyone says they are easier on your shoulders, blah, blah, blah, I think they are just as bad if not worse than regular bench press. To me, the stopping when your arms hit the floor causes more stress because in effect you are doing a paused bench on each rep, and in that regard, I think they are more stressful than a regular touch and go bench press.

But try them out and proceed carefully until you know your shoulder won't bother you doing them.

Originally Posted by Triple Threat

I agree with what you said about floor presses. When the bar hits your chest, there can be a little give before the bar completely stops. There isn't any give once the elbows meets the floor.

When I do them, I try to lower the bar very slowly so as to avoid that abrupt stopping point. I haven't noticed any difference wrt shoulders, though.

Originally Posted by yellowmoomba

You must be tired from typing all those sets.........LOL

Originally Posted by Stewart20

haha, yeah I took a page out of your book

hows mommy and the baby doing?

Originally Posted by yellowmoomba

That's right....

Mommy and Miller are doing fine. None of us are sleeping much - except for Miller. He sleeps all day long then he is up from 3AM - 6AM

Originally Posted by Rubes11

dang that looks like one hell of a workout how can you even do that?

Originally Posted by Stewart20

Yeah, it's pretty long, but it's not so bad because everything is based off of percentages of max and today, for example, the heaviest sets only reached 80% of max, so you figure you have 5 or 6 sets of 3 with a bunch of warmup sets before them, so when you look at it that way, it's not so bad.

Think about doing a workout of 10 sets of 3 reps for 2 exercises at 80% of max, that would be a crazy ass workout. This workout was one step below crazy ass

Originally Posted by Rubes11

looks pretty crazy ass to me but then again im only 19 and just gettin back into lifting again. i might have to try some of your workouts later on when im not playing a sport.

Originally Posted by Stewart20

well, I wouldn't exactly try my workouts without talking to me about your goals at the time, because, I wouldn't want you to start doing something that isn't tailored to what you are after. Right now, everything I do is geared towards powerlifting and meet preparation, so depending on what you want to accomplish, we would have to switch things up a bit.

Originally Posted by yellowmoomba

How's the pec feeling?

Originally Posted by RasPlasch

What style do you prefer when deadlifting?

Sumo or a closer stance?

Originally Posted by yellowmoomba

How was New Years Eve?

I was the DD so I felt great yesterday. (except that baby boy is not sleeping) ......

Any cool Christmas gifts?

Originally Posted by Triple Threat

When I saw these workouts where you squat, bench, and then squat again, I thought it rang a bell. Checking through some old files, I noticed that there's a Sheiko routine that is similar to that. Is this workout your own creation or did you borrow it?

BTW, not sure if I commented or not, but congrats on the meet lifts. Guess you've crossed over to the dark side and are now hooked.

Originally Posted by rks1969

Not judging ---just asking. Aren't you relying to much on your equipment. I've trained for power comp before & only used the bench shirt & squat suit closer to comp time.
I haven't read all your posts so if you don't mind my asking-- how much do you weigh / what weight class are you in?
I did see your deadlift video & that was a great lift. You made it look easy. Best I ever got was 480.

Originally Posted by Stewart20

To answer your question, no I don't think I am relying too much on the equipment. I am 34 years old and have been pounding the weights now for over 15 years, I'm not able to bounce back from ailments the way I used to, so for me, it's become a choice between wearing the equipment and continuing to be able to train heavy, or not use it, and not compete ever again. I just competed in a meet raw and let me tell you, I was pretty beat up afterwards, I don't know if I want to go through that again. My right pec tendon is still effed up from that meet. My groin is sore every day, but I keep going. also, if you look at what I am using, it isn't exactly heavy duty stuff. I am using a $40 squat suit and a $50 bench shirt, and I use them solely for the purpose of protection on the bench and squat. I don't wear the straps up on the z-suit, and they hardly give me any advantage other than peace of mind. My bench shirt is an HD Blast shirt with the back opened up that is one size too big that I have no problem getting into myself. If you know about the real deal bench shirts, it usually takes a small army to put them on, and this I can do by myself, so you see, there is no real advantage with it, other than peace of mind. I can touch with 135 on the bar in the thing, not much of an advantage I would say huh?

Sorry for the rant, but I am getting old, and I am using the gear to keep lifting heavy, through my pec injury and my sore groin without worrying about the injuries, so I can just lift.

Originally Posted by rks1969

Dude!!! Rant away!!! I don't mind. If you really hurt that bad maybe you need to give it a rest for a while. I'm trying to get thru a pulled hammy myself.
I've used one of those bench shirts(free-borrowed it) & it took 3 people to help me into it. HATED THE HELL OUTTA THAT!!! Afterwards I was bruised, scraped & sore as hell. Never again!!! That was back in '96. I got 3rd. I'm thinking of trying a raw meet sometime. What kinda #'s did you get at yours?

34 ain't that old, Hell I'm almost 40 myself & except for that awesome deadlift of yours I still get higher bench & squat numbers in a tshirt & shorts(not bragging,just saying not bad for an old dude LOL!!!). Yeah, I understand not bouncing back as fast. I've had to spread my lifting days further apart for better recovery.
I kinda understand the "peace of mind" you speak of with your gear. We all have things/rituals that help us get thru the heavy stuff.

Hope I haven't offended with anything I've said

Originally Posted by Stewart20

nope, no offense at all, it's good conversation See, you tried your bench shirt and it took 3 people to get it on, mine, I just slap on by myself, if you can see the difference there, you would see that there really isn't any performance benefit to it, just security. the powerlifts, (well squat and bench anyway) are the only lifts i will use something on, all my other lifts i go raw, I figure that if i keep competing I will need to use the gear anyway if i want to be even somewhat competitive, so might as well get used to it. Plus, I have kind of gone through a change in thinking, that it really doesn't matter to be to have a big raw bench, I have bought into the thinking that heavy raw bench presses will destroy the lifting careers of most people, so I think that now that i am over 300 pounds on it, I need to just be a little more careful, and my gear helps me accomplish that.
on the squat, i don't NEED to use the suit, but like i said I might as well get used to it, and anyway, my $40 z-suit isn't going to be helping me challenge the big boys anytime soon anyway.

I went into my meet with the mindset that raw was the way to go and the geared guys were a joke. However, I came out of the meet with an appreciation of why they use it and it's still pretty damn ballsy to load up 700+ pounds on your back and squat it, or to hold 500+ pounds in your hands and bench it. While I have softened my stance on the gear, I still won't be using the heavy duty stuff, at least not for a long time, I am perfectly fine using what I am using now. I almost equate it to using elbow sleeves on my elbows to protect them from tendonitis....same thing.

At the meet, I wound up squatting 350 on my 1st attempt, 385 on my second, and I missed 410 on my 3rd, bear in mind the squat has always been my worst lift. Bench was dissapointing as well, as I hit 335 on my first, then instead of doing a 350, I jumped right to 365 and got stuck halfway up, and failed my 3rd attempt also obviously. Deads went great though, as I pulled 450, 500, and 520. SO I got a 1240 raw in the 220 division in my 1st meet. not great, not shabby either.

Originally Posted by yellowmoomba

How's your body holding up to all these heavy sets???

Originally Posted by yellowmoomba

When's the next competition?

Originally Posted by Stewart20

i've decided to shut it down for a while in terms of competing. I have lots of little nagging injuries that I want to get rid of first before going super heavy again.

Originally Posted by Triple Threat

I would have thought given your recent success that you'd be anxious to get back on the platform.

Originally Posted by AKIRA

Board presses are when you just place a board on your chest right? Does it hurt? Its suppose to increase strength through certain portions of the lift, right?

Originally Posted by Malley

I see your starting to use the bench shirts huh? I hate trying to get em on and off, but they sure are a must when competing!

Originally Posted by Triple Threat

So now that you're an expert on bench shirts, let me ask you a question. Is there any carry-over to benching raw? That is, suppose your max is 300 raw. You use a shirt for several weeks/months. When you go back to raw, will your max be higher than 300?

Originally Posted by Triple Threat

So now that you're an expert on bench shirts, let me ask you a question. Is there any carry-over to benching raw? That is, suppose your max is 300 raw. You use a shirt for several weeks/months. When you go back to raw, will your max be higher than 300?

Originally Posted by Stewart20

TT...hardly an expert, but I am guessing that was a bit of sarcasm??

Originally Posted by Triple Threat

Not intended to be sarcastic. It seems that you've been doing quite a bit of research on the topic, so I thought I'd see what you think.

Originally Posted by AKIRA

Did you see gains from Floor Presses?

I am just thinking about when the elbows touch the ground, your triceps should flatten ON the floor. Not something Id want to do...

But what is your take on it?

Originally Posted by Rubes11

nice squats.

Originally Posted by AKIRA

How much do you weigh?

Originally Posted by AKIRA

Me too! Gonna try to get under 200lbs. See how strong I am vs. how look vs. how I feel vs. difficulty to maintain there vs. whatever the fuck else.

After wobbling on some squats, I started wondering how much longer I need to lift heavy weight with this beer belly.

Originally Posted by yellowmoomba

How's your lower back feeling after that workout?

Originally Posted by RasPlasch

How was the concert?

Originally Posted by Rubes11

dang bw+60 thats crazy

Originally Posted by Rubes11

dang bw+60 thats crazy

Originally Posted by Rubes11

so after that do you think your going to be able to walk tomorrow?

Originally Posted by Rubes11

i wanna do chinups with that much weight some day.

Originally Posted by yellowmoomba

Did you do a name change?

Originally Posted by chiquita6683

lookin good!
Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Originally Posted by soxmuscle

Was the number in your name not 14 a couple of days ago, or am I mistaken?

Originally Posted by Stewart14

Even though the link got deleted in the other thread, thanks for that link for the protein powder, snuck in there in time, got the link and ordered 2 tubs, can't beat that price. I was paying $70 for 10 pounds of ON whey and I thought that was a good deal, but this was fantastic, so long as this stuff tastes decent.

Originally Posted by Triple Threat

You can always mask the taste. I've used Gatorade to kill the taste of some less than great tasting protein powders.

Originally Posted by Stewart14

well....I chose the cupcake batter and cinnamon bun flavors, SO......I don't know if gatorade is an option with those!

Originally Posted by Stewart14

Came to the teary eyed conclusion that I am going to have to do without regular deadlifts in my program for a while. I just don't like the way my back responded to the ones I did the other day.