a little info on me
and sorry this is a long post
i spent my youth doing weights and moved into powerlifting/strongman training in my early 20's.
i had a bad fall about 2 and a half years a go and decided to try something different. i started off in jkd and then tried bjj.
i have been doing bjj for the last 18 months but have kind of got to the stage where i have fallen out of love with it.
im at a stage in my life where i cant train 5-6 times a week like the teachers wants everyone to do and its kind of annoying that if your not training every night of the week then your nothing in his eyes.
it got to the stage where i wasnt looking forward to bjj and i dont want to be involved in something im not enjoying.
so i guess im semi retiring my white belt.
hopefully i will fall back in love with it one day when i have the time to commit to it.
i do a wrestling class once a week and also an mma class once a week as well when i can.
so i realised weights are my true love. have been and always will be. i mean i love wrestling as well because i dont get moaned at all the time if i use any strength like i do in bjj but i want to start working on my sadly deprived lifts.
so the two things i want to start my work on first is deadlifts and odd lifts(sand bags etc)
i sat down with my old school rugby coach who taught me alot of powerlifting in the first place and heres my routine we came up with so far
TUESDAY
we have an old army hold all with a sand bag inside it zipped up. it weighs in at around 45kg.
sand bag snatches 3 x 6
get a grip on the hold all and just heave it up whilst keeping your elbows up. really works the fucking grip
dumbell clean and press 3 x 6 each side 20kg dumbell
dumbell deadlift twists 3 x 6 each side 35kg dumbell
the set up for this exercise is as follows. dumbell on the outside of your left foot. squat down and pick up with left hand. stand up. turn upper body. lower dumbell down to right side. stand up. then pick up dumbell with right hand. you get the idea.
sandbag slams 3 x 6 each side
pick the sand bag up and hoist onto left shoulder. squat down then stand up. slam bag onto floor as in hip throw movement. then repeat on right side.
dumbell swing throughs 3 x 6 20kg dumbells
dumbell positioned between legs. wide stance. reach down with both hands and then swing it up and through. use good negative in return of dumbell. controlled.
russian get ups 3 sets of 6
10 kg dumbells
this was so much harder than i thought it would be
guess it really works the balance.
we finish off our tuesday session with neck work then some stretches and ab work. this is completed in around half an hour. only 20-30 second rests between sets. its an absolute fucking killer.
we tried an extra movement this week. sandbag clean and press. i did ok but i found i kept losing my grip on the material of the army hold all. guess its something extra to work on.
sunday
deadlift day
i fucking love deadlifts
back when i was a young bum my max deadlift was 245kg but i did nothing all week but sleep eat and train and had nothing else to worry about. i guess the big challenge for is to see how i can do with a family, 60 hours a week of work and bills to worry about.
i spent my first week of deadlifts just dipping my toe in the water
i failed on 200kg but i guess that was down to bad form and a creeky back.
when i used to deadlift i hardly ever did reps. i would maybe get a few reps in for the first plates or so but from then on it would be singles. i wanted to change that around this time. i want to work on some sets of 3 and go for singles but not 100% singles so as to avoid burn out.
my gym uses big red 25kg plates so i have some strange multiples on my big lifts.
last week i did 3 sets of 3 at 170kg and then did a single at 200kg. this wasnt really a struggle. it was more down to breaking the mental barrier.
now my idea to improve myself is to add a little weight each week to either my 3 x 3 or my single. and then swap my increase each week.
so this week i did 175kg for 3 sets of 3 and then did a single at 200kg. i felt like i had more in me but i hate finishing on a failed lift so i ended there.
next week i plan to add either 2.5kg or 5kg to my single deadlift.
at my gym if you cant lift 220kg then your nothing. i beat the mental barrier of it once but i guess im gonna have to work to beat it again. its just daunting. 4 big red plates either side. but when you do lift it you feel fucking awesome. i cant wait to do it again.
now after deadlifts i do front squats
i feel this exercise has the best carry over for deadlifts and seeing as im not doing squats in my current routine i thought i should include these.
i do 4 sets of 8 with 70kg and then a set of 4 or 5 with 100kg.
now you may ask why im not doing squats? well the simple answer is although i love them i cant really fit them in with wrestling and such. in wrestling we do around 500 body weight squats for our warm up and the last thing i want is sore quads.if i wasnt doing anything but weights then i would be squatting my fucking arse off.
i finish with good mornings. i use hardly any weight for this exercise but i believe that doesnt matter. if you do it correctly you will feel it in your ham strings the next day.
now i know im missing alot in my routine. but its a start.
if time permits i would like to add a third day on thursday. i would base it round log lifts, full cleans, dips, barbell row and pull ups. but i want to start off slowly and add from here. so no running before i can walk.
so what do people think of this routine? any advice?
if you have read all this then thanks..
im currently 210lbs and im 5,8
