Post your own conditioning workouts and I’ll tell you whether they are useful or not.
With the advent of CrossFit and other various conditioning methods out nowadays, the average trainee or lifter think they have a good grasp on conditioning. Personally, I don’t like most suggestions readers make for their programs for various reasons. Instead of giving you guidelines for conditioning (I’ve done this before and will do so again more specifically in the future), this post will give you an opportunity to post conditioning workouts that you would use in a strength and conditioning program.
I shouldn’t have to clarify, but there are two such versions: 1) a program that aims to increase strength while maintaining or improving conditioning and B) a program that aims to maintain strength while improving conditioning. #1 is the case of a person who still needs to get stronger and wants to add some conditioning in OR an athlete in their off-season who is increasing their strength base; #2 is someone who is already strong — they are fucking cocked-diesel, or have more than adequate levels of strength for their sport/activity — or someone who is in sport preparation and needs to add conditioning in.
So, post your conditioning workouts and I’ll grade them out on their usefulness in a program while making other relevant notes.
This is a conditioning picture.
PR Friday
If you’re new to the site, Friday is the day where you can gloat. Post your PR’s to the comments. They can be lifting, eating, tossing, or cloth ripping related. If you didn’t hit any PR’s, then give everyone an update on your training. The regular posters will remember your name and mostly say nice things, and the lurkers will continue to creepily stalk you. Fun!
No PR updates for me, because I’ve been out for a while with a lower back injury. I had really bad form on a heavy deadlift rep a while back that initially injured it. I ignored it and continued to train heavy and hurt it again in November. I’ve been seeing the chiro for about 5 weeks now but I still have some pain. Hopefully it will be better in a few weeks so I can go heavy again.
Goals for 2011: Squat 500 lb (was at 405 for 4 reps before my injury), Bench 350, Press 225, get into Olympic lifting for serious
Were you accustomed to heavy reps when you hurt yourself on the heavy rep? Were you an experienced deadlifter at that point?
Quote my questions in your response since there are so many comments in this post.
–Justin
Conditioning:
10×10 front squats (75% 1rm)
Megabolic Circuit:
Strict pullups to failure
10 Bent over rows
10 bent over rows (drop weight for max pump)
Curls to failure
5 rounds (more if you drink milk while doing it)
That front squat workout is a NO GO. 100 reps at 75% max? That’s gonna fuck someone’s world up, and it will obviously inhibit strength training.
Second little workout is a swollertrophy workout; not really for conditioning. You can breathe hard doing it, but that doesn’t mean it conditions you. It may be something that can be repeated IF you’re strong and focusing on the swollertrophy.
–Justin
what are your thoughts on crossfitfootball.com, justin?
I like it and I like Welborn. I don’t keep up with the workouts. At times it may have more conditioning workouts than necessary, but it’s hard to program for a random population (and they have crossfitters to please). But I like it a lot and enjoyed the CF Football seminar.
Oh, I also think people attempt the more advanced stuff to early in their training career. The “novice” is referred to as “high school” I think, so everyone thinks they are above that (they aren’t).
–Justin
PRs:
Clean and Press 205×1
Bench 259x5x3
Dip +135×5
Pullup +105×5 also did +55×15 as a back-off set
Also gained 2 pounds from last week.
Negatives: I just hurt my back worse the other day attempting to switch back into low bar squatting. I had been doing high bar in December due to sharp shoulder pain from LBs that felt fine with HB. Anyways lesson is even though LB is ‘easier’ to lift more with you definitely can’t the first week or two you switch back to them.
LB squat is harder to do, for sure. Your shoulder hurting is more than likely a grip issue. If you’re gonna be able to do it without pain, try and figure out what the issue is.
Conditioning: Starting about 3 weeks before this fall’s TSC I added these 2 conditioning workouts after my lower body days each week.
Metcon 1:
21 80lb DB Snatch L
rest 1 min
21 80lb DB Snatch R
rest 1 min
15 80lb DB Snatch L
rest 45s
15 80lb DB Snatch R
rest 45s
9 80lb DB Snatch L
rest 30s
9 80lb DB Snatch R
I increased the weight whenever I could do the 21 snatches unbroken.
I like it. Looks like an under 10 minute workout that isn’t too strenuous on any body parts (shoulders perhaps). I wouldn’t have anyone do it the day before any upper body work (so one day of rest) and not if they were going to sn, cj, or press/push-press.
Metcon 2:
*two dumbbells are setup ~50 yards apart*
4 rounds:
Sprint 50yds
15 75lb DB swings
The second one would kill me, I always intended to do 5 or 6 rounds starting out but 4 was all I could ever do and still sprint with justice.
This is an effective, short conditioning workout. Simple and effective. 60 KB swings may be a bit much for some people, so you could drop the reps/weight. I wouldn’t do this two days before deadlifting or squatting heavy. It’d be a good Saturday morning workout whether you’re on a LP or TM. Should be fresh for upper body stuff the next two days after this workout.
I don’t usually condition except walking/biking for transportation, I see it as calories of my food and portions of my recovery not spent on making me bigger and stronger and that always talks me out of doing it more.
Truth here. Everyone should pay attention to this post. If you are aiming to get bigger and stronger, then conditioning workouts like these will take away from your recovery. If you wanted to maintain some health, then go walk your dog at a quick pace for thirty minutes at night. If you don’t have a dog, adopt one.
Nice work, Antigen.
–Justin
pr:
deads 475×5
conditioning:
10 hills with a 10 yard sprint (massive incline)
10 bear crawls up hill with 10 yard sprint
5 back pedals up hill
Is that all one workout? Sounds brutal. Lesser adapted people can drop off the second two things. This would be a good workout for a football player, or a sport where this is sprinting and stoppages of play.
other conditioning:
complexes. lots of them. once a week i do a 10-9-8-7-6 complex and the other is 6-5-4-3-2-1. i start with the barx10 and add 20 each set; the other complex starts with 95 and adds 20 each set.
You didn’t specify what exercises, but you probably pick and choose. Complexes are great. They can help maintain muscle mass when conditioning and possibly even build some. Gant used them to a lot of success leading into a Judo tournament (they are a good tool for a Judo player). For other sports that would require maneuvering — like football — they shouldn’t be the only option, but a complex could help establish a base in the gym before getting more specific on the field.
–Justin
My conditioning workout:
Clean + 2 front squats + 2 jerks, go to as high a percentage of your cl+jerk as you can. Good luck and don’t pass out!
More specific to Oly lifting and won’t have a very long duration, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. You could argue it’s more of a “maintain correct technique while tired” for Oly than a super useful conditioning workout to make a change in physiology. Good finisher in an Oly workout.
–Justin
Finishing up my stint with the S&C program (I need to lose some body fat, get faster, and increase cardio capacity for job) and hit the following PRs today:
Back Squat: 3×5 @ 365#
Bench Press: 3×5 @ 245#
BW: 250#
Don’t forget to adjust your diet, especially for the body fat.
–Justin
Conditioning?
Cosgrowe Evil 8 (http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/screw_cardio_four_complexes_for_a_shredded_physique) and some mindless cardio-yadayada, usually on the cross-trainer, for about 1h each week.
No new pr’s to report but I started a new 531-cycle on Sunday so I expect something to happen next week.
I won’t read that now (lots of posts to get to), but bring it up later.
–Justin
RE: Big Mike
I hurt myself deadlifting November 2009. I originally thought I hurt my back, and I definitely seriously strained it. I had x-rays and went to physical therapy and it turns out I messed up my piriformis muscle. Anyway, 14 months later and I am still dealing with the pain. I am able to lift heavy and in fact I am regaining all of my lost strength, but it has been a pain staking process. I’m not sure where your pain is, but mine is deep within my glutes buried down there near the base of my spine wrapping around to my hip. I no longer feel pain in my lower back… Not sure if any of this info is helpful, but thought I’d throw it out there.
I find this very weird. What training have you been doing? I’ve had some pretty weird back injuries and have trained people with bulging discs, and they didn’t experience this kind of duration from a muscle injury. Have you had your pelvis adjusted? As in chiro?
–Justin
New years party PR:
A girl at the new years party who i didn’t know asked me to walk her home because in her words I was “pretty burly”. I felt really honored that I was considered burly and that it made me more useful than the skinny male friends she came with.
Lifting PR:
Friend of mine at the gym noticed my grip on the press was particularly wide and helped me correct it. Did 3×5 at the weight the was previously a PR and it felt so easy. feels like i can get another 10-20lbs on it just from fixing the grip
Training for rugby
conditioning:
Barbell Complexes
Low-ish weight clean/presses for reps
sprint intervals
food pr:
A month and a half ago I’d been vegan for 6 years, vegetarian for 10. Yesterday I grabbed a double down on my way to the gym…
You have been saved. Thank the lords of cobalt.
–Justin
A while back, before I eliminated all conditioning from my program, I would occasionally cherry pick workouts from the Crossfit main site.
A lot of their workouts look deceptively simple on paper, but turn out to be complete ass kickers (at least if you’re not a regular crossfitter anyway.)
I can remember having a particularly tough time with this one:
5 rounds
40 box jumps
30 double unders
20 KB swings
Doesn’t look like much, and I was determined to do it unbroken.
Unfortunately Jesus started talking to me in the 4th round, and the 5th loosely resembled the casino scene from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
7 month old daughter PR – first tooth starting to show.
That workout has too much volume and it lasts too long to be useful in a strength and conditioning program. The only population I can think of it benefiting are SOF military personnel who have to get used to prolonged suck-fests.
–Justin
Hi Justin,
I’ve been on SS for a while and moving on to TM. I’ve started competing in powerlifting comps. My best lifts are:-
-Squat 418lbs 5 x 3
-Bench 215lbs 5 x 3 (paused on chest)- very weak!
-Deadlift 424lbs 5 x 1
Im focused on increasing strength but have started throwing in come conditioning workouts to maintain.
I do this 2x per week making sure I leave a day after to rest before a lifting session. So I do one on Sat, and one on the evening of one of my lifting days.
I’ve been doing 3 rounds, with 2 mins rest between rounds of:-
-5 burpees
-10 press ups
-10 sandbag (55lbs) clean and presses
-8 sandbag swings
10 hindu squats
I’m 22 and 240lbs (15% bf).
What do you think?
Conditioning is Heavy 5×5 back squat days.
I don’t get to post PR Fridays often, but I guess it sort of counts that I had three of my easiest sets of 495×5 ever on Monday, and hopefully I can compound that over the next two months into a good showing at the Arnold.
Sounds good. Hope to see you posting here leading up to the Arnold.
–Justin
Currently not doing any conditioning, still gaining weight (slowly) and have a long way to go strength wise. Currently 213 lb @ 6’2″.
Did a “mini-meet” this week with one of my friends to test our progress this year. 3 max attempts at Squat, Bench, and Deadlift.
Squat: 300 lb (PR)
Bench: 200 lb (PR)
Deadlift: 365 lb (failed at 375)
The squat and bench attempts were uncharted territory for me, I had never done max attempts before.
Deadlift results were disappointing. My PR was 375 months ago, so I was hoping for 400. While warming up I must have got sloppy and tweaked something between by abs and my rib cage up near my sternum (no belt). Either way, I didn’t feel the best and didn’t want to really injure something so I played it safe, it was only for a bit of fun after all.
STAY BIG everyone and have a great weekend!
PRs:
I haven’t posted PRs in a while.
Squat: 325 3×5 (last night set rep PRs of 330)
Bench: 265 3×5 (also set rep prs on 270)
OHP: 140 3×5
Barbell Row: 180 3×5
Deadlift: 375 x 5
Bodyweight: 195
PU: ate a dozen eggs and a dozen mozzarella balls yesterday. My office wife wasn’t pleased.
Thanks so much for the info on the Texas Method. The information and advice this site provides is invaluable.
What’s an office wife?
–Justin
Can only fit 2 barbell days in during the week and 2 squat days have been good so far!
PR:
Squat 310 3×3
Rack Pull: 405 1×5 (First time with these)
Conditioning stuff:
10 min. of 300m row/ double kettlebell cleans or snatches
OR
Kettle bell swings with the 2 pood
Main thing with KB work is making sure the volume, or in this case the accumulated work on the hamstrings, doesn’t get too out of control. You wouldn’t want diminished performance on squat or deadlift a couple days later because of this. As usual, I wouldn’t have anyone do sq/DL the day after these.
–Justin
No PR’s this week. 5 weeks in with this stupid cast on my foot. I get it off on Wednesday and have never wanted anything more in my life. It should be interesting how things work when I get it off. I feel like my glute on the leg with the cast is about half the size it was prior.
Last week my brother called me and asked me for help to with his 40 yard dash time. He has a professional soccer combine coming up and that is one of the events.
I have little experience with sprint training but attempted to write something up for him. I posted it on strengthvillain.com and Jim steel advised me it would be much more productive for conditioning than speed training.
Here it is:
Sprint training
5 x 10m 30 sec rest
4 x 20m 1 min rest
2 x 30m 1.5 min rest
1 x 40m
Steel is cool. If you guys get a chance go read his stuff on Strength Villain. But yes, what you have listed wouldn’t be optimal for speed because when training for speed you want full recovery for each sprint.
–Justin
PR: snatch 165 lbs
power clean 205 lbs
Conditioning:
1-2x/week Tabata run on treadmill, 12% incline
1-2x/week complex (thanks for introducing those by the way)
Typically I alternate weeks of 1 tabata with 2 complex or the other way around.
What speed on the treadmill?
To everyone else: I don’t know what Jake’s goals are, but if the goals aren’t conditioning specific, then 3 conditioning workouts a week is unnecessary.
–Justin
For conditioning I wrastle large animals and punch them in the nuts, then run as they try to eat me.. And I do crossfit with strength bias, I also do assistive lifts such as shrugs and rack pulls,etc etc pretty much anything that will help me lift heavy stuff
This is one Ellington Darden came up with:
Sprint 100 yds
10 Dead Hang Chins
Sprint 100 yds
10 Bar Dips
6 Rnds for time, target time = 12 mins
Question: How well would it work to abandon dedicated BP & Chin strength training (eg 3X5 w/ linear increases every workout) and use only this Sprint-Dip-Chin WO twice a week to build pressing & chinning strength? For a big guy who can’t do a huge # of Dips & chins?
1. That workout may be a good “get your heart rate up for a while and work on your callisthenics thing”, but it isn’t optimal conditioning because it isn’t very good bang for the buck. Substrates won’t be in a deficit here because the intensity is too low.
2. You’re asking me if eliminating strength work will increasing pressing and chinning strength?
–Justin
I’m going to train — will reply to these when I get back.
What do you think about just playing a sport for conditioning? I’m currently doing the 5/3/1 program and play pickup or league 5-on-5, full court basketball 2 to 3 times a week for about an hour. It’s a solid hour of sprint, jog, jump, rest. Goals are to steadily increase strength/athleticism while having fun competing in basketball on a recreational level. Should I add additional basketball-specific conditioning? If so, what would that look like?
PR’s within the past week:
6 foot 5, 254 lbs,
High Bar Squat: 315×5
Bench: 240×10
Deadlift: 455×6
Power clean: 245×1
I think if you already had a base of conditioning then your basketball is perfectly fine. We forget that York Barbell guys would go play racquetball and shit like that.
Basically if you’re gonna play a rec sport, you want to be in a condition where you aren’t going to injure yourself on day one. If you have done zero running for 6 months and you’re about to ball and do some alley oops, then do some interval running and get your joints adapted to jumping again (high jump, broad jump, box jump, etc.). You don’t even have to do the jumping in a workout.
–Justin
my conditioning basically consists of trying to do my lifts faster (with less rest). Or at the very least, do warm up sets faster to get up to quality sets quicker (olympic lifting).
this guy’s training intensity and quickness between reps in a set is quite the motivation:
The attempt at less rest may hold you back on strength, depending on what your goal is.
–Justin
I tend to do a Catalyst Athletics type workout, consisting of various supplementary work. Sometimes a tabata workout with bodyweight stuff. I try to work in pullups, ab work, pushups, and dips at least twice each week.
I then hit the heavy bag using a program I took from Ross Enamit, using different interval lengths with different focuses.
Here is an example:
Three rounds:
10 GHSUs
10 box jumps — mid thigh box
10 pushups
Heavy bag work:
3min/1min skill work x 3
1 min/30 seconds speed and power focus
The first workout is kind of like a very modest conditioning thing while doing accessory. I like that for a lifter because it’s acknowledging that the end goal isn’t supreme conditioning (like you would need in an active sport like football) since you’re just a lifter. It elevates the hart rate, gets a little sweat on, and gets some various accessory work on the body. I wouldn’t have anybody go through such a workout like a spaz (i.e. like when you make fun of a crossfitter), but just a good pace to get the HR up.
The bag work is good and plays off of the interval concept where you manipulate work to rest ratios. You can modify the ratio as you progress every week. Good submissions.
–Justin
30sec/20sec punchout drills x 2
been waiting since wednesday afternoon to post some PRs…
5’11” weighing in somewhere near 195# I think
1 rep max day…
squat 330# (15# PR)
press 185# (10# PR)
dead 455# (20# PR)
I don’t specifically do any conditioning right now. I’m still trying to get as much muscle and strength as possible. Once I get a bit bigger and stronger I plan to try out the Lasket S&C program posted lasted year, including the optional sprinting (if my memory serves me there was optional sprints for 10 min or so) with the aim of improving conditioning and reducing bodyfat (that’ll mostly come from diet though). In other words I’m still growing and can’t waste my time and energy conditioning at the moment.
The sprinting would be more fore conditioning than speed, just to clarify (if you cram them in x amount of time). Very effective, but not optimal to develop speed.
–Justin
I should have included this in mine, but it is in addition to a standard 5/3/1 program using squats 2x a week, press 2x a week, bench press 1x a week, and deadlift 1x a week.
My goal for conditioning is fighting and sparring longevity, and also helping my main lifts with some supplementary work.
not really related topic:
I was watching some Cal Strength videos yesterday and came to the conclusion that glenn pendlay’s voice when he is the cameraman sounds like rex ryan (especially in rex’s feet videos that have come to light lately).
anyone else get this?
Ha, yeah.
–Justin
Conditioning:
24x25m Prowler pushes (currently using Prowler+50kg)
or
heavy sled pulls (with at least bodyweight)
This week’s PR: needing to stretch more.
You do 25 fucking prowler pushes? Are you just moseying along? I pushed a low sled with 180 pounds on it around 40 feet the other day, and it was pretty fucking hard (I climbed a mountain the day before).
Sled pushing/pulling is fantastic conditioning, more so when you improve work to rest ratios as you progress each week. Don’t over-do it, less is more.
–Justin
http://www.uspla.org/sites/default/files/downloads/ncsa_articles/Optimizing_Squat_Technique.1.pdf
interesting read.
apparently squats do nothing for your hamstrings…
I got bored of reading shit like that a long time ago. Fuck those guys.
–Justin
I train for strength, and my sport is highland games, so I do a good amount of throwing. Speaking of which, is anyone going to the North Texas Kickoff Games on Feb. 26th? I’ll be there, C-class athlete trying to make it to B.
I do 5/3/1, and for conditioning I do hill sprints (there’s a bitch of a hill in Spotts Park, for those of you who live in Houston) and barbell complexes:
BB Rows
Power Cleans
Front Squat
Military Press
Back Squat
Good Mornings
Rest 3 minutes between complexes. 8 reps on round 1, 6 on round 2, 4 on round 3.
As a finisher, I usually lie on the floor and wish I was in my 30s again (I’m 42)
Woops, forgot to mention: I do my complexes with 145. Not a super-heavy weight, but it smokes the crap out of me.
I play a lot of volleyball and just started getting into more PL-type stuff in this past year. I am still working on how to integrate the two. The big national tournament in June borders on an endurance event since it generally turns into 12-14 matches over 4 days.
Anyway, I have a rower in my garage gym so I like to use that. I also have tires/sleds to drag so this is usually what I do:
500m row/2:30 rest, 4-6 rounds. I try and keep to about a 1:45 500m pace.
I put about 75 lbs on the sled and sprint for 50m, walk back, drag again. Do this for 10-15 minutes.
Also will sometimes do stuff like 5 rnds of 300m row, 15 pushups, 15 situps, 5 pull ups.
These are all pretty good. To others: remember you wouldn’t want to do a whole lot of work on the muscles you’ll need to use in the next few days. Lots of sit-ups the day before deadlifting would not be good. Also, notice how hump doesn’t have an ass load of reps (especially in the callisthenics). Contrary to CrossFit lore, you don’t need lots and lots of reps. That last thing is something like I would do.
Also hump — and you already know this — getting on the sand and playing volleyball is your best preparation. Man, volleyball is so fucking fun.
–Justin
I’m a big fan of tabata rows and treadmill runs (@ preset incline and speed). The CFfootball “Chief” is must if the airsquats don’t leave you too sore (works well before a two-day off period). Using the “Kalsu” framework for accesory work seems like a good way to fit some conditioning in after your main lifts (maybe 100 dips or strict chins for time with three powercleans or 70% back squats, etc on the minute).
What are everyone’s thoughts on getting their conditioning to improve without hampering recovery from intense strength traing? I need advice. I’ll tell you my story but esentially it’s this: herniated disc, recovered, doing a greyskull lp and trying to get my lungs back soon without compromising my strength gains much. Thoughts?
Depends on where you’re at. If you are at zero base, then you could do simple things like walking for x time at a quick pace. For more fit strength athletes, I’ll prefer to use intensity and short duration to get the physiological adaptations like increased red blood cell count, increased hemoglobin count, improved heart efficiency, improved blood vessel functioning — stuff like that is built best by intensity when the trainee has a good base before it.
–Justin
I would be on SS, but I am doing your GPP program in preparation for a Marine Corps PFT in 6 weeks. I don’t care to train with enough specificity to crush the thing, I just want to not embarrass myself on the 3-mile run. Pullups are not a problem.
For my conditioning days, I’m thinking of simply doing:
4-6 laps of sprint the straights, jog the curves. I figure this will give me enough running “practice” without cutting into my recovery life running 5-10ks would, and will keep the heart rate high enough to force an adaptation, as I am almost completely unadapted to running right now.
For my goal, is this plan any better or worse than a few 400m repeats, or is it basically the same shit–i.e., get your heart rate way up for 8-12 minutes, details be damned.
400m repeats work well. MOA on StrengthVillain recommended doing 400m intervals with a 1:2 work:rest ratio (rest is double the work for you math goobs) and eventually working up to around 10 or 12. Tabata treadmill work will help the physiological side of things while the intervals and sparsely populated “distance runs” (where you go 2 or 3 miles) will get your structures adapted. E-mail me if you want — I scored a 298 at 195 lbs two years ago.
–Justin
Hey Justin, I am the guy from yesterday talking about doing the Texas Method while continuing a crossfit routine. Here is what I came up with to stay in condition and still be able to throw the fattest chick in the gym out the window.
Monday: 5×5 Squat, Bench and maybe another lift. (suggestions? I don’t want to DL that day)
Tuesday conditioning: crossfit style workout for 3 to 8 min like 1000m row(3 min) or AMRAP in 6 min of 5 pull-up, 5 burpees, 5 box jumps.(not sure about box jumps day after squats) Basically goes balls out for 3 to 8 min and call it a day.
Wednesday: 3×3 Squat, Bench and maybe that other lift
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 1RM Squat, Bench, and DL or 1×3 DL
Saturday conditioning: crossfit style workout for 3 to 8 min like AMRAP 3 min of power cleans(I love power cleans) at 70% of 1RM. Again…try to make yourself puke.
Sunday: Rest
**I may only DL every other week.
What do you guys think? My ultimate goal with this is to squat 405(currently 325), DL 500(currently 405), bench 315(currently 265) and still be able to crush peoples spirits when I go to a crossfit gym.
I like this David. It’s something I would write up. Don’t worry about increasing the weight on Wednesday — it’s a light squat day. If you add a lift on Monday, it could be power clean or barbell rows. And the puking thing was probably said in good natured, but puking would mean that the dose was too high for the response (i.e. a lesser dose would have accomplished the same thing).
–Justin
As that was my first post here, I’ll also add thanks for the site. Great info and motivation. I hope things continue to go well for you.
Thank you and welcome.
–Justin
Squat 250×8 Rep PR
Deadlift 345×4 PR
No longer fit into the pants of one of my two suits-took them off before ripping though.
Also conditioning consists of 30-45 minutes rolling Jiu Jitsu 2 or 3 times a week.
Solid.
–Justin
mikes gym strength wod 4 days a week, then random crossfit metcons3 days.
PR-ripped the thighs of my jeans
Conditioning for me is usually:
100 ft farmer carries with 200(that’s 200# ea hand), then 10 600# tire flips, then either push the prowler for 100 ft or do rope swings for 30 seconds or however long I can handle. I maybe do this twice a week and it destroys me.
Or, do 5 power stairs to 12″ platform, then 1 tire flips. Do for 3 rounds…
Just some man-shit right here.
–Justin
PS, I’m still fat :P
@KeMP – What kind of stuff did you do to remedy that injury? Was physical therapy what worked. It kind of sounds like an injury I had as well, I just do lots of stretching and hip flexor work and it seems to help. I mostly do the stretch where I cross my leg with my ankle on my other thigh and push down on my knee to stretch it out. Every now and then though I turn just right and tweak it though. Just curious if there’s some other preventitive measures I can look at. Thanks.
Stopped being an idiot PR – Got my Rogue 0.5″ Rips weightlifting shoes in the mail yesterday. I had been embaressingly lifting in wrestling shoes all this time. I’ve realized after hitting heavier weights however, there was next to no arch support in them. Can’t wait to hit the gym with the new kicks. Might wear them around the house some to break them in a little.
Also registered and paid for my first competition the other day, 50 bucks for the 2011 Maine Games Powerlifting Meet. March 26th, really looking forward to it!
Gotta get some football talk in: who’s got predictions for the weekend? I’m really looking forward to the last game of the weekend Philly vs Green Bay. I had Green Bay vs New England as my preseason superbowl pick, so I hope Green Bay pulls out the win, but I think Philly will take it. Either way, winner of that game goes to the superbowl in my mind.
The other decent game will be Indy vs. NYJ – hard to pick against Manning in that one, but as a Pats fan, I’d love the Jets to win so we could kill them in the 2nd round! Loving two full days of great games, beer and food!
I want the Packers to win, but they are gonna have a chore. Their defense might be able to pressure a gimpy Mike Vick, though. Andy Reid has never lost after a bye week (he rested most starters last week, sorta bye week).
Jets need that game verse the Colts — if they lose, all the pre-season rah-rah shit will make them look stupid. Seems like the Jets can do well, but we’ll see if Peyton gets out to a lead. If it lies on Sanchez’s shoulders, the defensive ends of Indy might win the game.
I really don’t see how the Ravens can lose to the Chiefs, but I’ll be rooting for the Chiefs.
I really don’t see how the Seahawks can lose to the Saints. This irrelevant game could get ugly for the ‘hawks.
–Justin
Justin –
I am currently on the TM method wanting to get stronger so I can enter as many competitions as possible this year.
I will be entering a competition this March to start me off.
I’m 27, 5.8 and weigh 86 kg, I want to compete in the 83kg class.
I bench on volume and intensity day to get my bench numbers up.
My typical next week’s session will be:
Monday
Squat 132kg 5×5
Bench 107kg 5×5 (reset from 110 5×5,)
P cleans 82kg 3×5
Wednesday
Squat (80% of 5×5) weight 2×5
Press 65kg 3×5
Chins
Friday
Squat 157 kg 1×3
Bench 115kg 1×5
Dead 182 1×3
Below are my current 1rm:
Squat 1rm 170kg
Bench 1rm 125kg
Dead 1rm 195kg
On my max day I will change the numbers round from a 1rm, three’s or five’s.
What are your thoughts on how I have adapted to the TM method.
Do you have any useful suggestions on how I can make it more productive?
I am finding that my max bench day is suffering as the numbers are getting quite close and my body is too tired to perform.
What makes things quite difficult for me is that I work in a hotel doing shity hours so some days I will be lifting after only 4 – 5 hours sleep and my training days change from one week to the next! I am however looking for a 9-5 job!
Thanks for your help Justin.
P.S when are you guys coming to the UK?
UK is still in logistics mode.
I’d say switch the bench to doing triples on intensity day. Alter the volume days so you get progress out of your intensity day. If your volume day increases and intensity doesn’t, this won’t help in the meet. Triples are very descriptive for choosing attempts in the meets too. Stick with triples on intensity and see how high you can get them. If you miss the third rep down the road, figure out why. You may need less volume, and in rare cases more volume.
–Justin
I’m running 5/3/1, and on one of my off days (after deadlift day and before bench press day) I do the bear complex for conditioning:
10 sets of 2-rep bears at ~60% of my power clean singles weight. Rest 60-120 seconds between sets.
My conditioning level is crap because I had never been an athlete in the past, and am really only doing it now to help with controlling body weight and to help me get accustomed to the volume of 5/3/1 (BBB) workouts.
Any points, suggestions, comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks man.
5/3/1 is set up nicely to get conditioning work on the lifting days. You don’t want to fatigue muscles that are needed prior to benching — upper back muscles, for instance, that squeeze the chest up and pinch the shoulder blades together. Jumping and running in spurts will help non-athletic people develop some athletic skill. Look at Steel’s athlete program on Strength Villain.
–Justin
Conditioning:
Tabata Wild Turkey, feel the burn.
Side note, holy shit Justin, you mention conditioning and the comments go nuts. A lot of people here have conditioning boners. Some need it, but I’m certain many are neither strong enough, nor competing in a sport which requires it. Must be cf’ers.
Seriously. There were 20 comments when I woke up. Those agility docs give you ideas?
–Justin
This has been a good two weeks of lifting for me. My small hip stabilizers are recovering from surgery and my squat form and speed is coming back! I reset weight from 225X5 to 185X5 and it made a huge difference in form. I expect to see big gains in the coming months.
Weekly PR’s:
Bench: 245X5
Press: 140X5
BW: 196.5
Deadlift stayed at 315 this week, as the bar kept slipping out of my hands.
Oh, and food wise, I feel like I ate half a cow!
I was out of the gym for almost 2 weeks with a sick wife and an even sicker dog. Finally made it into the gym last night and hit deadlift singles.
I pulled 475# for an 8# PR.
I was told by my training partner to stop there, even though I thought I had more in the tank — apparently, this is advice Louie gives… once you hit a PR, stop. Also, I was climbing toward a bodyweight of 181# but due to poor eating and sleeping, I am down to 175#. Still have another 7 weeks before my next competition to add more weight.
Getting greedy with strength training can lead to overtraining or injury. Good call.
–Justin
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