Sam's training

TODAY'S SESSION - UPPER BODY WORK
hot in the gym. sticky heat all the kit was moist.

CG bench
100kgx5
120kgx2
130kgx1
140kgx8 singles. All solid.

floor press, paused
100kgx5
110kgx5

one DB bench press
60kgx5 L , 60kgx5 R

chins-2,2,2 (palms away first 2 sets, facing for the last one)

band pushdown / db curl superset

bodyweight - up. 280lbs again.

The training routine at the moment is working like this:

SUNDAY: max squat (1-3 rep max new PR every week), grip work
MONDAY: upper body work, (bench, overhead, back and arm work) sometimes grip work
TUESDAY: grip work
WEDNESDAY: volume squat (5x5 increasing weight each week), grip work
THURSDAY: upper body work (as monday)
FRIDAY: recovery squats (3x3), grip work
SATURDAY: usually nothing

Nice CG bench Sam ,your shifting alot of weight there.
Mark

Cheers Mark. The benching goals are 160kg this summer, 180kg at the whey consortium power challenge in Decemeber. I do all my benches close grip, i'm actually stronger like this.

recovery squats
3x3 @ 150kg

2 hand pinch
@54mm
warmups then
6 singles at approx. 90kg. All easy.

plate pinches
2x20kg x 3
2x20kg + 2kg of chain x 1
2x20kg + 4kg of chain (44kg weight total) x 1 (PR)
2x20kg x high pull

wrist curls both ways

Toying with the idea of doing David's comp in August - gave the plate pinches a go using some chain through the middle to add weight (keeping the plates loose). I think 50kg total weight will be doable - 2 20kg plates + 10kg weight.

Nice plate pinching there.

David Horne wrote:Nice plate pinching there.

Thanks mate!

Well done at the comp Sam.

Chris McCarthy wrote:Well done at the comp Sam.

cheers Chris!! I didn't do as well as i had hoped / been doing in training on the pinch, the rest went to plan.

i did extensor training at work last night.

SUNDAY TRAINING
5 lads down today training events. Always good.

SQUAT - MAX EFFORT DAY
60kgx5
100kgx5
140kgx3
add gay belt
180kgx1
205kgx1
210kgx1
215kgx1
220kgx1 (205-220kg are all PRs for not using knee wraps)
all squats were arse to the floor.

PLATE PINCH
RH - 7 lifts with 35kg on the euro @ 54mm
LH - 2 20kg plates x 1,1 +2kg chain x1 +4kg chain x TnG, TnG (pulled past the knees but could be better). Picked up a nice little skin tear here - the sticky heat doesn't help. Everything felt very slippery today.

THICK BAR
MARKR gold dumbell 71kg - 8 full lifts with each hand. Dumbell was wet with sweat for all these lifts, so all were hard work today.

WRIST CURLS
60kgx5
70kgx5
80kgx5
60kgx8

light reverse wrist curls

Nice lifting Sam! Also congrats again on the recent grip comp. Very well-balanced performances it looked like. Always strong on the grippers and your pinch is vastly improved from last year even.

Thanks Ben!! Everything else is catching up nicely - there was a time when all i trained was grippers and i think it shows

Back to the drawing board now - i think i have a good shot next year if training goes to plan and i work on my weaknesses - thick bar and supporting grip.

UPPER BODY WORK

close grip bench press
great start to the session - the little bench that i use (i bench in the rack) starting bending as i warming up with 100kg - turns out the pin was bending (125kgBW+100kg is quite a bit of weight on it). So i went over to the olympic bench setup and had to limit the weights because i have no way of bailing out should i fail. So:

130kgx2,2,1,1,2 (varying widths).

Felt strongest when i had 2 fingers on the smooth, and weakest when my hands were fully on the knurl. I either have the tricep strength of a god or the chest strength of a 12 year old schoolgirl, ha.

one arm DB bench
60kgx6 L and R
plate loaded an olympic dumbell handle to
66 approx x 2 L , x0 R so dropped back to 60kgx5 for the right.
I find i'm stronger on this when i keep the arm tucked in, engaging my triceps more.

seated one DB press
both arms
25kgx3, 25kgx3, 36kgx3, 36kgx3 about 10-20 secs rest between each.

strict DB curls
same with both arms
25kgx2,2
22kgx3,3,5,5,6,6
25kgx1,1
Each set was supersetted with band pushdowns with a blue band.
extensor work and powerball. Really hot in the gym again today.

Maybe the tricep strength of a god who is a girl?

well maybe compared to those of us who can CG bench 190kg.

had a little play with an LKB challenge gripper that i bought recently - easy. This gripper is basically an HG400. Over 100 closes(some reps aswell) with each hand in under an hour. I am going to use thick handled grippers for a while because they do not aggrevate my bruised right palm.