70's Big: A.C.

Haven’t really had anything to write about. Just been enjoying my time now that I am done with school. Looking forward to hearing back from some of the places I applied to.

In the mean time, enjoy this picture.



5/21/13
Squat: 485×3 Felt groggy during the lift
DE Deadlifts: 315/On the Min/10 Min
Back Extensions: 25x10x3
DB Curls/Hammer Curls: 40x10x2/40x12x2

5/20/13
Bench: 405×2
Close-Grip: 335x3x3
Pull-Ups: 25x5x2/BWx2x10
Tricep Push/Pull Downs: 3×15

Graduating from grad school in a few days, then time to job hunt. It’s nerve racking and exciting at the same time. Trying to send resumes to some colleges in Georgia for S&C coach. There is also a potential job in Louisiana that I would really like to have. I think it would be fantastic. Gonna start looking around at private schools as a potential job source as well. I will be sporadic with my posts. You guys can understand why.

They remodeled my old dorm. I feel bad for the dude in this office. I spent many lonely nights in there. If you catch my drift.



5/17/13
Squat: 405x5x2/405×8
RDL’s: 185x5x3
Rows: 185x5x3
DB Curls: 40x12x4
Sprints: 6×20

5/16/13
Bench: 325x5x3
Press: 200×2/210×2/225×2
DB Incline Press: 90×10/110×8/120×8
Dips: 90×8/90×6/90×6

5/14/13
Deadlift: 510×3 Was gonna do 5, but I almost puked. Didn’t feel like cleaning puke
Dynamic Effort Squat: 225×1/On the Minute/10 minutes
Back Extensions: BWx12x3
DB Curls: 40×10/35×12/30×15

5/13/13
Bench: 395×2
Close-Grip: 330x5x2/330×3
Pull-Ups: BWx10x3
Tricep Push/Pulldowns: 3×12

Missed Fridays workout for Graduation/Etc

5/9/13
Bench: 325x5x3
Press: 185×2/195×2/205×2
Dips: 90lbs 3×6

5/7/13
Power-Snatch: 145x2x3
Squat: 475×5
Speed Deadlifts: 310×1/On the min/10 Min
Back Extensions: 25x10x3
GHD Sit-Ups: 3×8

5/6/13
Bench: 390×2
Close-Grip: 325x5x3
Pull-Ups: 3×10
Tricep Pushdowns: 90×10/100×10/110×10
Tricep Pulldowns: 70x12x3
Curls: 40x10x4

The Squat, the Bench, and the Press are all out of the way now. The Deadlift is the last to talk about, for now. Hopefully up to this point the posts have been simple and clear enough for you guys to get a good base concept of “How-To”. There are many ways to teach a Deadlift and tons of cues you can use so this is not meant to be a definitive guide to strictly follow. Take what you find informative and use it. Like the other articles I have written, this will follow in line with being easy to understand. With that said we can get started.

Pay attention so you can get big traps.



There are 5 cues we are going to use for this Deadlift. The first one is going to be “Stance“. If you have been to one of Mark Rippetoe’s seminars all of this will seem really familiar to you. Walk up to the bar. You are going to place your feet under the bar right where you tie your shoes (mid-foot). Your feet are also hip width apart (inside of the smooth part of the bar). There should be a bit of distance between your shin and the bar. You aren’t going to touch the bar with your shins at this point, simply because the bar will roll away from your mid-foot when you flex your knees and we don’t want that.

The second cue is “Hands“. From this point you are going to take a grip on the bar right outside of your legs. Just far enough away as to not interfere on the way up. Now you are awkwardly leaning over showing all the boys your milkshake. Perfect.

The third cue is “Shins“. WITHOUT rolling the bar in any fucking direction (so help me god if I see anyone do this I’ll fucking find you) you are going to bring your shins to the bar. Let’s look at that sentence again “You are going to bring your SHINS to the BAR”. This “shins to bar” movement will set the knee angle for the pull off the floor. Lastly, with this “Shins” cue you are going to apple slight pressure into your elbows by opening your knees. This is just going to help you get your back into a better position.

The Fourth cue is “Squeeze“. At this point your going to put your back into extension by squeezing your chest up. You should feel a wave of extension all the way down your back. You are squeezing as tight as possible. Remember, you are about to pull a lot of weight off the floor. Your back is going to anchor down your hips so your hamstrings can do some work.

The very last thing you are going to do is actually pull the bar off the floor. For this it’s real simple. Use the cue “Pull“. You are going smoothly pull the bar off the floor and stand all the way up. The way this works is that you are going to imagine driving your feet through the floor. Almost as if you are pushing the floor away from you. As the bar begins to leave the floor your knees constantly extend until locked at the top. Once you are at the top you are maintaining good extension and your chest is still up.

Now to visually put all that information together. Chris pulls 700+ here. It’s pretty fucking textbook, besides some shaking it’s pretty god damn spot on.

Here are 2 more close up pulls for you to watch. I really don’t like linking this video because this was my worst meet and I don’t like linking my own shit, but it’s more for you guys to visually see the set-up and execution. It should be cue’d up to the Deadlift portion. If not, click to 1:31.

Feel free to comment with questions on anything or maybe I left something out. Thanks for reading.

–A.C.



5/3/13
Power-Clean: 200x3x3
Squat: 405x5x3
RDL’s: 155x5x3
Rows: 155x5x3
Curls: 40x10x4
GHD Sit-Ups: 3×5

5/2/13
Bench: 315x5x3
Press: 185x2x3
Dips: 90x5x3

4/30/13
Snatch: 130x3x3
Deadlift: 450×5 (75%)
DE Squat: 275×1/On the Min/8 min
Back Extensions: BWx10x3
DB Curls: 55x10x3
Leg Raises: 3×10
Sprints: 6×20′s

Went to the USAW level 1 coaches certification this past weekend. It was a great time and I learned a lot. It was held at Crossfit Hyperformance, Drew Mackenzies place. Fantastic coaches and it was a really enjoyable weekend.



I look like a fat piece of shit with my wide ass red shirt.

4/29/13
Bench: 385×2 USAW Cert left me pretty tired
Close-Grip: 315x3x3
Pull-Ups: BWx10x3
Tricep Extensions: 90×10/100×10/100×10

At the end of Spring practice football does a little competition known only as the “Ironman”. This competition separates the strong from the weak, the fit from the fat, and the wolves from the sheep. It is a series of obstacles/exercises to complete as fast as possible. There are 4 winners; Skill, Big Skill, OL/DL, Overall. It is a brutal test of strength, conditioning, and will power. This shit will fuck you up.

Here is our gay ass picture lol. This is the equivalent of the “high school back turned pic” except its grown men.



I had a blast doing it. It is the most leg intensive/fire breathing thing I have ever done. The sled pulls a fuckin nightmare zone. It just sucks ass. I had an improvement of almost 2 minutes from last year. The previous year I had gone into it with zero conditioning and no mental preparation. It spanked my ass. I attacked it this year round and it was a lot more gratifying to come into it strong. Although I was sick for an entire weak I still did much better and I was proud of myself. Some may think it’s a silly competition and it means nothing, but it means something when you are trying to prove to yourself that you can do it. Had a blast.

And heres what I did today for my last set

4/26/13
Squat: 405x5x2/405×10
Rows: 220x5x3
Glute Ham Raises: BWx5x3
Curls: 40×10/45×10/50×10

4/25/13
Close-Grip Bench: 315x2x3
Pull-Ups: BWx5x3

4/24/13
Iron Man Competition:
Monkey Bars
Wheel Barrow Push
Tire Flip x 2
Atlas Stones: 115/135/175
Zig Zag Bear Crawl: 20 Yards
Med Ball Throw x 3
Sled Drag: 115×60 Yards Backwards
High Knees Over Bags
Farmers Walk: 60 yards
Cart Push: 10 Yards

Time: 4:45 PR

4/23/13
Front Squat: 250×3/285×3/310×3
RDL’s: 155x5x3

4/22/13
Bench: 350×3/365×3/385×3

I think I am sick. Probably wont be posting today.

I usually get really fucking sick once a year. Pretty sure I get strep and the flu at the same time. It’s a great experience.

I am getting better. Taking a z-pack. It’s a series of antibiotics. I’lll probably start lifting Friday and do some light work all around and try to kick it back up next week.

Update:

I had strep throat. I get it bad once a year, as I stated before. I’ll be training regularly and I’ll be posting my lifts in my log this upcumming week. Thanks for the concern and thanks for the Batman video. Those are always amazing.

I went and saw Evil Dead. It was pretty badass. Personally, it was the best horror movie I have seen in a long time. I was a big fan of the originals. It wasn’t a carbon copy remake, but they did really well. It was legit scary at some points. The movie wasn’t just cheap scares. I think thats why I liked it so much.

Worked on Saturday. The real redneck singer wanted a picture of me mopping. It was a little weird, but I suggested we make it look like the clay pot scene from Ghost.



I know the flag in the back probably doesn’t make some people happy. Remember, I just work there. I don’t decorate the place.

Squat: 425×2/450×2/480×2
Conditioning

Power-Clean: 240×2/250×2/250×2
Close-Grip: 270×3/290×3/315×3

4/9/13
Front Squat: 250×3/285×3/320×3
RDL’s: 185×5/205×5/225×5
Conditioning

4/8/13
Bench: 345×2/365×2/385×2

Question: Does anyone that checks this blog do logo designs? If you help me out I’ll send you my 70′s Big Shirts as a reward (two of them). They’ll probably increase your squat if you wear em.



Give thanks to Batman. Without him coming back this world would have been in utter Chaos

As I have stated before I am currently doing Georgia-Southerns off-season work outs. I am enjoying them. There is a little more hypertrophy work than I would typically do, but nevertheless it is refreshing. There is really no intensity day each week with this program. More like an 8 week taper. Also doing some conditioning twice a week. After this 8 weeks is up I am going to transition back to the old program. Totally lost my train of though.

4/5/13
Squat: 395×3/435×3/465×3/330×10
Press: 180×8/190×5/200×5/205×5

4/4/13
Power-Cleans: 220x2x3
Close-Grip: deload

4/2/13
Deadlift: 510×3
Conditioning

4/1/13
Bench: 320×3/350×3/375×3

3/29/13
Squat: 370×5/395×5/435×5
Press: 160×6/175×6/185×6/195×6

Something to Note: I do more accessory work, but I don’t feel like writing down. Just an FYI if you are trying to figure out the programming.

Been out of town since Friday. Just got back in late last night. I’ll do an update post shortly. Well maybe not. I just bought GOW Ascension. Probably gonna be busy with that.

Beach pics for your enjoyment until a post is done.





So GOW: Ascension sucks major ass. Huge downgrade for the series. It’s like they had a meeting and said “Remember all that fun stuff we had in the other games? Let’s not put that in this one”. The game was drawn out and boring. No secondary characters to fill the gaps in story. Very little cut-scenes. None of the events had a real impact on the story. The only epic fight was the last one. It was cool, but there should have been about 8 more of them. Also, the game is buggy. Lot’s of soundFX missing and off-timed. Ruins the atmosphere. I’m real upset by this considering it’s been my favorite game since the first one came out. It’s like a dent on my childhood.

In other news,

Been road tripping. Went to Louisiana for a couple of days, then stopped in Panama City for the night. It was real fun. Bourbon street wasn’t that cool, it was cool to see. I’ve been jaded by the bar scene ever since I started working at one. It’s no longer fun to get drunk at shitty/seedy places anymore. I’m over it. Never really been a “lets go out” kinda guy, but w/e.

3/28/13
Power-Clean: 220×2/220×2/240×2/250x2x2
Close-Grip: 260×5/280×5/290×5

3/26/13
Front Squat: 250×3/300×3/320×3
RDL’s: 175×5/185×5/195×5
Short Metcon

3/25/13
Bench:260×5/300×5/320×5/350×5

3/22/13
Squat: 360×8/380×8/395x4x2 (Had to split the last set. Legs were gassed from heavy pulling/travel)
Press: 160×8//170×8/175×8/180×8

3/21/13
Power-Cleans: 215×3/220×3/230×3/235×3/235×3
Close-Grip Bench: 240×8/250×8/260×8

3/19/13
Deadlift: 545/575

3/18/13
Bench: 280×8/300×8/320×8

Starting a new 8 week program. It’s the off-season football work outs. It still contains Squat/Press/Bench and some cleans. The big lifts and plus some. Gotta figure out where to program in deadlifts. Just can’t go without those. I’m sure after that I will look into 5/3/1 or maybe go back to my previous program. The workout today was just so refreshing, mentally and physically. Different stimulus with the rep range and exercises. You can’t imagine how good that feels after doing a very repetitive program.

There is a handful of accessory work as well too. The variety is nice.

Football did their bench/clean maxes today. A lot of awesome work got done. Most, if not all, hit PR’s on both lifts. Some guys matched previous bests after a return from an injury. It was an exciting day. It was a proud day for me.

Starting from left to right: Tik, Koehlbeck, Jerick.



Tik can’t bounce the bar off his chest due to his shoulder/pec. He has to lightly touch and go. He basically paused 370. His best is 385, with a bounce. Koehlbeck hit 405 weighing 210ish. Jerick is the QB and he has done 405 as a joke before. He injured his hand so he couldn’t bench or clean today. He has hang cleaned 335×2 with ease. Also, my good buddy Trevor hit 440 with a close-grip. He has to because his shoulder can’t handle a wider (normal) grip.

Unfortunately, there was one guy who got injured on a 455 bench. I felt bad for him. He crushed 425 (previous best was 415), then he went on to DESTROY 440. His last attempt was 455. Apparently on the way down he felt some pain in his pec, yet he still decided to try the rep. He should have called for the spotter. He may have torn something. I hope not. I feel partially responsible for what happened due to the fact that I was coaching him through his lifts that day. It can happen to anyone though. I am just having a hard time coping with the fact that injuries can happen to anyone. Thats the first time it’s happened with me. It’s tough to deal with because you want the best for the guys that come in there.

3/15/13
Squat: 335×10/350×10/370×10
Press:150×10/160×10/170×10

3/14/13
Power-Clean: 200×4/210×4/225×4
Close-Grip: 230/10/250×10/275×10

3/12/13
Front Squat: 255×5/270×5/300×5
RDL’s: 155×10/160×10/175×10

3/11/13
Bench: 270×10/280×10/300×10
Power Shrugs: 315x8x3