Sunday's Workout

Dynamic Bench Press: 3 Grips

8x3 @ 60% / 60s rest + 1x2 @ 70%

6x [(1/2 Max Reps) Pullups + 15 standing tricep extensions]

5x5 Pendlay Rows

Farmers Walk (25ft and back until almost failure) x 3

Saturday's Workout

Standing Pull Down Abs + Sled dragging with power belt 90lbs 100m x6

Friday's Workout

Snatch 10x1 (80%/45s rest)

Clean 10x1 (80%/45s rest)

D.E. Squat 10x2 (60%/ 60s rest)

D.E. Deadlift 10 x1 (60%/45s rest)

Front Squat 4 x 8

30 GHD Raises

Thursday's Workout

GHD situps + 25min Upperbody Sled Dragging 70lbs + flexibility/mobility

Wednesday's Workout

Max Effort Floor Press

5x50%, 3x60%, 2x70%, 1x80%, 1x90%, 1x95%, 1x100% or new P.R.

3x3 Lying Tricep Extentions

6 x 1/2 Max Reps Pullups

5 rounds (Barbell Curls x 15) + Shoulder Complex (front raise + side raise + rear raise) 20 reps each

Farmers Walk: 25 ft and back till almost failure x 3

Tuesday's Workout

GHD Situps, Light sled dragging 25min, Mobility, Flexibility, and Foam Roll.

Monday's Workout

Snatch 10x1 @ 80% / 45s rest

Clean 10x1 @ 80% / 45s rest

Max Effort Good Mornings

Set A New 3 Rep Max P.R.

50% x5 60%x3 70%x2 80%x1 then go for 3rm P.R.

Over Head Squat 5 x 5

30 GHD Raises (however many sets it takes)

Row 500m (set a new P.R.)

Sunday's Workout

Rest

Saturday's Workout

Dynamic Effort Bench 3 grips 8x3 @ 60% /45s rest
Push Press 3x5
5 rounds of (Ring Dips x max reps-2) + (Pullups x 1/2 max reps)
5 x 5 Pendlay Row

Heavy* Farmers Walk (25ft and back x 1) x 3

* We define heavy as a weight that is close to failure in one trip of 25ft and back.

Friday's Workout

Light Sled Dragging + Abs + Flexibility/Mobility Work

Thursday's Workout

Snatch 10x1@80%/45s rest

Clean 10x1@80%/45s rest

D.E. Box Squat 10x2@55%/ 45s rest

D.E. Deadlift 10x1@55%/45s rest

Row 500m (go for a new P.R.)

Wednesday's Workout

abmat situps

light upper body sled dragging 45 lbs about 20 min

foam roll, flexibility, mobility

Tuesday's Workout

Max Effort Floor press:

5x50%, 3x60%, 2x70%, 1x80%, 3x90% or new 3 rep max

5 x 1/2 max rep pull-ups

Shoulder raise complex 5 x 20 reps each of front raises, side raises, and rear raises

5 rounds of db tate presses and db hammer curls x 15 reps

Heavy Farmers walk: 25ft and back x 3 use a weight where 25ft and back is near failure.

Monday's Workout

4 rounds of GHD Situps and GHD back extensions

20 min power walking with sled 70 lbs

20 min flexibility / mobility work

Today's workout is for raising G.P.P. and to help recover from yesterday's.

4/18/2010 Day 1

Snatch 10x1/45s rest 75%

Clean 10x1/45s rest 75%

Max effort Good mornings: 3 Rep Max

Work up to: 5@50%, 3@60%, 2@70%, 1@80%, 3@90%

Repetition Effort: Zercher Squats from floor: 4 x 15

200 Kettlebell swings 1pd.

This is day 1 of a 72 day cycle.

Sled Dragging

I had this sled made for me by WeldAir in Wasilla. I will be incorporating all types of sled dragging on my off days for restoration and to increase G.P.P. Here is an article by Dave Tate called "Drag your butt into shape" This link has the article originally published on T-Nation, but without the oily, shaved bodybuilder pictures in the margins. Here at Matanuska Barbell we try and limit our exposure to greasy men in bikinis as much as possible.

Floor Press

We mainly use the floor press as one of our special exercises on max-effort day to improve upper body strength. The 2 main differences between floor pressing and regular bench pressing are as follows…

#1 – Floor pressing builds a tremendous amount of starting strength because it prevents “bouncing” the weight in the bottom position. All too often, athletes will use their chest as a “spring board” when performing a max-effort bench press. A proper floor press will eliminate bouncing because most floors don’t have much “give”! In other words, if you try to “bounce” your triceps off of the floor while holding a heavy weight in your hands, the only thing in between the weight and the floor are your forearms! This gives new meaning to being “stuck between a rock and a hard place”! If you don’t want to break your forearm, you must perform this exercise with strict form! When floor pressing, we have our athletes lower the barbell under control until their triceps touch the floor; then, the athlete pauses on the floor for a split second and presses the weight up explosively. This exercise helps with the bottom & mid portion of a regular bench press and it’s an awesome triceps builder!

#2 – Lying on the floor when bench pressing also takes away from your leg drive. Basically, more load is placed on your upper body because it’s harder to push off with your legs while lying on the floor.

Floor press description taken from Defranco's training

Farmer's Walking

I realized that those damn Farmer's Walk implements will always feel heavy to us unless we get stronger. And we know how to get stronger, right? Lift heavy stuff!

When we increase maximum strength we also increase strength endurance. So, here is the Matanuska Barbell's new and improved (heavier) farmer's walk.

450 pounds of fun!

O-lifters

Check out these guys from California strength. I was impressed not only by how powerful they were, but also by how much fun they were having.

Lifting Straps

I picked up some lifting straps for the gym today at The Sports Authority. I want to experiment with them on the farmers walk and deadlift just to see how much of a limiting factor my grip is. I suspect it will be substantial.

Thinking about Deadlifts

I am sitting around daydreaming about Deadlifts. I can't wait until it is time to do some. I've just completed some max effort good mornings , and I am hoping it will pay off on my deadlift which seems to be lagging behind my squat. I was tooling around the net and found this article from the Diesel Crew on deadlifts.

Eatin' Good at Mickey D's

I really hate fast food. Some times due to poor planning, I end up there. I fork over my money for an overpriced bag of garbage that always leaves me feeling like shit afterwards. When I am not cheating on my diet, I prescribe to the paleo plus dairy diet as outlined on the Crossfit Football site. ( Although it seems here lately I have been cheating a lot.) So I end up at Mickey D's today and I looked at the breakfast menu. Instead of ordering a couple of McMuffins or one of the numbers from the so called "value" menu I asked for 2 orders of eggs, 2 sausage patties, 2 milks, and apple dippers (without the dip). Now I know this isn't organic free-range omega-3 eggs with wild hog patties and grass-fed raw milk, but who can afford that shit anyhow? I think that for Mickey D's it was a good choice.

Warm ups

It seems the consensus on the proper way to warm up is some dynamic range of motion moves plus some activity specific movements to prepare the body and nervous system for top performance. Static stretching should only be done after your workout to improve flexibility. See this article on stretching

You don't know skwat!

Here are some videos about how to fix your squat.

I will no longer be publishing my workouts on this main blog. All of my future workout can be found here at jbworkoutlog.blogspot.com . I will continue to publish stuff here that I think might be of interest to our gym. All of the old posts from here can be found on my new blog.