Skinny/Tall Armature Powerlifter/Novice Strongman Log(with recently torn back muscle)

[JonnyMie]

Just wanted to say hi to everyone. This board has always been an great resource. I've always just been a lurker haha... reading posts and not posting. Hopefully I'll also be able to contribute something useful here now and then, and get more involved here.

I'm 31, 6'2" with a short torso, gorilla arms and stilts for legs, and right now about 190 lbs and pretty lean in the low single digits body fat trying to do a 181 lb class meet in about 2 months; and then my longer term goal is to get into the 220 lb class next year which should be much better for my leverages. I tore a muscle in my lower back a month and a half ago, so i'm coming back from that but feel almost fully recovered, although the lump is still unsightly.

I love competing, definitely armature (it's always been more a competition with myself that other competitors), but I take it serious. I compete in powerlifting in the 181 to 198 lb class (should total around 1300 at 181 lbs raw coming up, which was my last total at 198 lbs), and right now just novice strongman. I have a few friends that are professional strongmen, and train with them often, so I may do some more of that as my strength increases further.

My goals relate almost solely to walking the line between staying healthy and injury free and being as strong as possible. Always a skinny guy (6-2 and 140 lb when I was 20 years old!) and with a short torso and arms and legs so long that you can't help but think of inspector gadget when you see them, I've battled through a lot to bring my lifts and muscle mass up over the years to where they are now. I'm fascinated by the human body and how much it's able to adapt, and that's where a good bit of my love for these sports comes from.

I'll admit I also enjoy being shredded and muscular; even though it's not an admitted focus of my training and diet. My ego's damn too big and I'm a single guy that loves women, so I can't lie... the hypertrophic side of training comes into play for me and you'll catch me doing my bicep curls.

I also love research and DIY. Suppliments .. diets .. programs .. everything ... I prefer to learn everything I can about something and completely educate myself on a topic, and then do it myself or make it myself. I love learning so please feel encouraged to give me your input and any reference material that you think might help me or further educate me!

I'll try to keep a general log here, although I'm not online as much as I used to be, so it'll be more of a highlights real of my training etc.. hopefully it's useful to someone and I get some good input on my training, diet and lifting-related stuff.

Thanks everyone!
-Jonny

 

[JonnyMie]

Here's some brief details on my training:

I train full body with heavy singles and triples 4 to 10 times a week (I like 2-a-days here and there, they work well for me). It's worked incredibly since I started training like this a few years ago, coming from a modified body part split. It's not as much volume as it seems. The actual total reps are low but the frequency is high and the work is always in the top range above 85% 1RM, except for assistance and prehab/rehab work as needed. Off days I usually do body weight movements for recovery. Hypertrophy is actually pretty good; enough where I have to be careful how i eat to stay in my weight class, despite being a very hard gainer. I've never been injured badly except for this recent tear (I was dehydrated some which I think contributed), and recurring tendinitis when I neglect my prehab.

My typical workout consists of 3 main excersizes. The first a squating or "hinging" movement (Zerchers, stones, front squats, back squats, deadlifts, good mornings etc... or a combination like jump squats with bands followed by partial squats) Then I'll ether go to a pressing movement (OH presses, bench, curl to press, logs etc..) and then a pulling movement (Pull ups, some variation of a row, etc.. ) or I'll alternate pulling and pressing movements with some assistance/prehab work thrown in here and there. Almost all main excersizes are heavy singles double and triples, but sometimes I'll do higher reps as explosively as possible ... usually in groups of 3 reps with short rests, or with pull ups just throughout the workout almost as a tonic to stretch my body out after all the compression.

First of all after 11 years of battling to get stronger, I have clear empirical evidence that this program works for me for an extended period of time ... but more importantly, it's just plain fun to train like this. I just like moving heavy things. The down side is eventually you'll probably get hurt (the severity of which depends on too many things to list, some controllable, some outside of our control), but by training smart I hope to eliminate any real injury.

My diet switches around a lot but almost always is some kind of carb cycling program. I use different pieces of different diet philosophies depending where my body's at and where I want it to be, and is specific to my naturally low body fat hard gainer body type.

I know I've rambled on but that's my story to date.

Thanks
Jonny

 

[JonnyMie]

I've had alot of problems with my bench, with tendonitis and general shoulder problems, so every meet prep I end up hurting my shoulder, and my bench always screws up my total. My bench was always weak besides that with super long arms and a short torso. I think I have it worked out now though. Reverse-gripping solves all my problems; I can bench a good +15% more and my shoulder never gets hurt benching reverse grip. If you see my avatar with a toothless smile you know my plan backfired haha.

I have good mechanical leverages for deadlifting (I've even got some sick scoliosis going on like Lamar Grant haha) and squating has been going pretty good. Plus I have a great team to prep for meets with some record holding PL's (a geared 1000lb squater in the group) and pro strongmen. I only compete raw but having guys like that around helps alot (and girl ... she just set some records geared).

The training schedule I spoke about is my day to day training. The last 4-6 weeks before a meet I switch to more or less a westside template with just 1 ME day per week and 1 speed day each for squatting/DL and pressing, so 4 workouts, with assistance stuff after the main lifts.

I'm no professional but I've overcome a lot of negatives to get where I'm at and am pretty pleased with the direction I'm going. Considering my height, leverages and lower BW, I'm not exactly cut out for these sports but I love them too much to accept that.

 

[JonnyMie]

Here's my twisted back:

 

[thatbloke]

if you have trouble with your bench go on youtube and search:

dave tates six week bench bench press cure

i use to have issues with both my elbow tendinitis and rotating cuffs in my shoulder wen benching until i learned how to bench properly, ive never had a problem with either my tendons or shoulder when benching anymore after i fixed my technique

i was stuck on 375 flat bench for awhile becoz of my shoulders, after getting my form right i got my bench up to 455, and ive always been the shitiest bencher, i was that guy who wen he first went to the gym couldnt balance just the barbell above him wen benching LOL

 

[JonnyMie]

Thanks thatbloke! That series and his series on squating did so much for improving both lifts for me. It did make my shoulders a little better when I watched those videos when I first started getting more into PL'ing and got my elbows in more and the biggest arch I could manage , but it's not enough. Even now with coaching from pro strongmen and pro PL's my shoulders can't handle any frequency of training without getting pain. And the clincher is, probably because of my leverages and super long arms (my elbows are a little lower than my navel, which means i have super long levers and getting a big arch is close to impossible regardless of flexibility), reverse gripping is a more efficient exercise for me personally and I'm just stronger on it. As a side point narrow grip bench isn't too bad for me.

 

[JonnyMie]

That's a huge improvement and some nice numbers! nice! you must have felt like you found the holy grail!

 

[JonnyMie]

Yesterday's workout was crap, mostly because I screwed up on diet yesterday and the off day before. I carb cycle as I feel I need it for a lot of reasons. Right now I'm lean enough where I just do an occasional short keto run and then carb backload like crazy with ala or something to keep insulin high/mimicked, both through the keto run to accelerate getting into ketosis and then after to refuel as quick and as much as possible. It's less about fat loss for me and more about keeping my insulin sensitivity high. I used to check my fasted blood glucose every morning with a BG meter to see when it was getting higher from a high carb diet; now I just occasionally check, but have a good feel for how I react to things. This helps me all the way around with both muscle gain and fat loss.

I've been eating a bunch of carbs for the past week so after Monday's workout and some carbs after, I cut them out until yesterday night at the gym. I screwed up because this last time I didn't get nearly enough calories/fat and was too busy with work to do more than spoon down some coconut oil and a protein shake for half my meals. By the time I got to the gym last night I was ready to pass out, even with a lot of stimulants before the gym.

I'll tell you though, a hand full of dry cereal, a disgusting carb/amino shake and some glucose tabs never tasted so good when I got to the gym ... I hate being hungry ... it's a rare day life interferes enough to stop me from eating good.

Here's the highlight real ... back squated and worked up to a double with 455 that ended up being an inch or 2 high, interspersed with maybe 70 pull ups total, a few light sets of bench here and there to get the blood flowing (tri's where feeling used up), some band pull aparts and some fat grip curls. I kept doing sets of that other misc stuff between heavy squat singles and doubles because I needed the extra time the way I was feeling between squat sets and figured I wasn't going to make it through a full workout and make it worth a damn. I got home and iced my lower back for an hour. 45 minutes with ice when I need it is the minimum that makes a difference for me, but it makes a big difference for me when I'm fighting inflammation. Feeling much better this morning; looking forward to eating non stop today.

 

[JonnyMie]

I forgot to mention the real depressing part... at the beginning of the workout yesterday I felt, despite starving, really strong. 405 lbs felt like 135 ... then I think the pre-workout/stimulants wore off when I did 455 .. this was over an hour into my workout (usually I'm only there about an hour total) between throwing in other sets and going to a gym I hadn't been to in a while where everyone was talking to me I wasted too much time, but because I had it in my head I should do more, I loaded 475, which would have been a nice PR for me at this lower 183 lbs (yesterday's morning carb depleted weight), unracked it, walked it out, reracked it and went home lol.

What I wouldn't have given for an ammonia cap right then. For any of you that are training for strength and haven't ever tried an ammonia cap or smelling salts when going for a PR you might want to try them. I absolutely love them once in a while for a PR or for my 2nd/3rd attempt at a meet ... in lieu of a training partner to kick you in the face to get you going before the lift haha.

 

[JonnyMie]

Here's some video from the 19th, Zercher Squats from pins:
http://www.youtube.com/v/Qsi2t94gb_E

and partial squats from pins I think a day or two before that:
http://www.youtube.com/v/uWXn_O3N_1U

 

[JonnyMie]

I'm still feeling a little run down today, even though I've been eating non stop and am weighing over 190 lbs tonight with some bloat going on. 5 of those pounds came after the gym today from the 6 hour long meal I just finished and my homemade intraworkout "swell" drink. I didn't do much today beyond some recovery and prehab work, general lighter weight stuff like DB curl to press, band pull aparts, and some bodyweight dips and pullups ... and these 1 armed barbell snatches. I'm really annoyed that I couldn't even do 135 lbs on this .. mostly I'm annoyed because now I have to keep doing them until I get the hang of it again OCD style.

This is from today bored and feeling beat up still, making a spectacle of myself at the gym with 1 armed barbell snatches ...

1 arm barbell power snatches 115lbs @ 185lb body weight (Feb 22) - YouTube


and here's some useless video of me squatting from yesterday ...

Back Squat 455lbs x 1 @ 183 lbs bodyweight (Feb 21st) - YouTube

Both of these videos pretty useless, but I'm having fun recording these workouts and editing them so for now at least I'll keep doing it for motivation and record keeping.

 

[JonnyMie]

Carb'ed up these past few days and weighed in at 190 this morning on empty. 7 lbs in a few days. I know a good portion of it is water and carbs, but I feel a lot better, and my morning weight is usually pretty accurate. I hit 198 lbs when I weighed myself last night after the gym and dinner, from 183 lbs in the evening at the gym just a few days before. I may experiment with adding glycerin to my carb/protein shakes at some point to see how it effects getting some major bloat on when I need it in the gym and also to practice rehydrating and refilling glycogen after making weight for a meet. I have a bottle of glycerin but haven't had time to read up enough to come up with a plan of self experimenting for different applications. Does anyone have any input on that?

It was another "nothing to write home about" workout last night but I really pushed it after slowing down for a month this past week, so I'm sure it'll pay off after a couple days rest this weekend. I front squatted and did weighted dips and pullups to stretch everything out and finished with some ab work. My spine's feeling a little compressed and beat up, and even though it loads the spine, front squats feel theraputic for my back. It's just a personal feeling; I'd like to hear what anyone else thinks of that. I iced everything on my hour ride home from the gym. I worked out near where I work so I'd have a long drive to ice my back and hips (I bring extra ice packs in my cooler) ... sometimes I need to trick myself into doing the boring but necessary stuff... And I feel great this morning.

Of course I had to make a video, even though the workout wasn't anything noteworthy, because this movie editing software is just too much fun not to use:

Front Squats 365 lbs and Dragon Flags (2/23/2012) - YouTube

The idiot who recorded the ab work was obviously unqualified to operate a complicated cell phone camera, and has it zoomed in on me and hits stop mid way through the set, but I still think they look cool with only my shoulders touching the bench ... i know i'm vain haha.