Hey Brian Mincher...

[Screwball]

Brian,

Sorry I didn't back get back to you earlier about lifting on Sunday but I'm not going to be able to make it. I do want to try to hook up with you and BigOkie as soon as possible to train again.

I also wanted to remind you about training your side & rear delt heads more frequently to stabilize your shoulders. I really think it helps with the transition point in the bench press. I think if you can address the transition point in your stroke you will make it to 500+ by the end of the Summer. What do you think?

Hopefully my shirt will have arrived by the time a return home on Sunday. I need to get some work in as soon as possible. I really would like to get a couple of shirt workouts with you & BigOkie before the meet. We'll talk...

- Screwball

 

[bigokie]

What's up Screwball. I was wondering if you had the phone number of the place in Tulsa that is hosting the contest in May. I want to go up there and try out the monolift. And also the rev. hyper if they have one. I think it's on the paper that has the contest sign up.

Did your shirt come in yet? Give me a holler if your ever close to Stillwater. Thanks

 

[Screwball]

Hey BigOkie...

I'm out of town. I'll be home Sunday night and I'll email the phone number of the gym in Tulsa to you.

I'm hoping that the shirt has arrived and if so I'll give it a test run Monday night. I'll keep you up to date. Do you think we can try to schedule another training sesssion this upcoming weekend? I would really like to discuss more training techniques with you & Brian.

- Screwball

 

[bigokie]

Sounds good

I'm ready anytime. Maybe before too long we can do a dynamic squat as I really want to see the speed you guys do on squats to check out mine.

Hope your shirt gets there soon. Karins is good about shipping and all. They told me two weeks at most and more then likely less. I'll definitely order through them.

Off topic but have you tried the timed db presses we talked about yet? I've been doing them now for almost a month and they are helping a lot. Worked up to 50's for 5 minutes and 35's for 8 minutes. Seems to really help recover and I come back stronger when I go back to the gym. What are you gonna shoot for in May at the meet? Good luck

 

[brianmincher]

hey guys,

Whether your shirt comes in from Karin's or not, I have a couple of shirts for you that a buddy dropped off Sunday. I have an Extra High Performance Heavy Duty Poly, and a double EHPHD, the Double is a velcro back. I am pretty sure that they would fit you, and we will try them out ASAP. I would be game for getting together either at the house or in Stillwater in the near future. Just let me know what works for you guys.

I have started to spend some extra effort on the shoulder stabilizer's and I have begun implementing the new program. On wednesday's I will do a regular max effort exercise of some sort, probably relying on bands and full range motions most of the time, and stopping short of failure. On Sunday's I will be doing shirt/board presses with a competition grip.

Yesterday, I did shirt/board presses, with a 2 board, and a comp grip. Did 135 for 3, 225 for 3, 275 for 3, 315 for 2, put on the shirt, then 365 for 1, 435 for 1, 455 for 1, 475 for 1, and a very close miss with 500! Everything up to 475 was very controlled, very fast, and felt great. On 500, I hit the boards out of groove high, and never could recover the groove. When I hit low on the boards (everything up to 500) then the weights flew up, and I was nowhere near hitting the racks. I really think doing the board presses wearing a shirt is going to help me maintain the groove.

500 will fall this year in the 220's. I have absolutely no doubt about it. At this point I am thinking 440, 460, 480 in may, and 460, 480, 500 in July.

B.

 

[bigokie]

Brian, are you planning on dieting down to the 220's? So now your pretty much doing ME twice a week?

Screwball, thanks for the info in email. I'm gonna call them this week and try to go up there on Friday to try out there monolift and hopefully rev. hyper if they have one.

I'm game to lift again anytime you guys feel like it. Just drop a note on here and tell when and where.

 

[Screwball]

Hell yeah...

Great workout with the 2-boards. I just wanted to remind you that I'm doing only ME upper body days but I'm on an 8-day training week. Do you think that the 72 hour break you have from Sunday to Wednesday will be enough? You may have to drop your accessory work volume a bit to keep from overtraining.

I got my shirt from Karin today. It's sweeeeet! It is tight as hell though. I don't know if I can lock-out what it will take to touch. Maybe 500+. I'm trying it tonight with boards. I'll let you know.

- Screwball

 

[Screwball]

Hey guys...

Can we try to hook-up at Brian's this weekend? Saturday or Sunday afternoon works for me.

BigOkie, I tried the timed dumbbell presses on the stability ball last week and it kicked my ass. I was using it for AR as you suggested. I used 25 lb. or 30 lb. dumbbells and could only press for 2 minutes before my muscles were burning. Is this a continuous pressing? Do you get a lactic acid build-up when you do timed presses. What the hell am I doing wrong???

I have no idea what I can hit in this new shirt. I may not be strong enough to use the damn thing... I'll have to wait and see.

- Screwball

 

[Sebass67]

I wouldn't mind doing some stability ball work...

What does that exercise entail.?

 

[bigokie]

I'm game if you guys are up for it. Sunday would be best for me.

Screwball, I do them in a timed fashion. Doing 1 rep every 6 seconds. I press them, count to 6, press, and so on. Doing them this way causes the lactic acid to build up. After about three minutes I start to burn like hell. All over, pressing is still easy. It's just when I have to hold them for the six seconds It kills me. I've made seven or eight minutes of timed presses. This is killer no matter how heavy I go. Louie refers to it as lactic acid tolerance training. It builds strength endurance. And when you push up your strength endurance you push up your absolute lifts.
It works good. You'll feel it as you do the presses. If your muscles aren't burning afterwards you aren't doing them right. Also, it doesn't matter where you hold the dbs, it will work the muscles to the full extent. A great by product of this is it allows blood into the muscles to help them recover.

A little off topic, but today I went in to do dynamic bench. I started working up by 5-10 pounds per set until I got to 175. I got timed at 175 and still was under 3 seconds. Next week I'll try 185, I think this is where I need to be working to keep the time around 3 seconds.

 

[Screwball]

Sunday afternoon sounds good to me. What do you think, Brian?

BigOkie: When you pause between reps is it at the top or the bottom? I need to increase my tolerance/endurance and press for at least 4-5 minutes. I do think this will help me tremendously and I plan on doing timed presses for AR after my ME & DE days.

BigOkie: I think you are doing the right thing for your dynamic pressing. Continue to push your DE weights up until your speed begins to fall off. Don't let your DE day affect your ME day. That's the formula for success. Let us know how the Monolift and Reverse-hyper traing goes if you make it to the Tulsa gym.

- Screwball

 

[bigokie]

Screwball, well to begin with I pause it at the chest level, never letting it sit on the chest supporting it with the arms at the bottom. Then when the pain gets unbearable, and it will, I start to pause the reps at the top to cheat out more. Then for the last bit I pause on the bottom again. Louie says that no matter where you pause it at it will work your muscles to the fullest. I believe him. The good part is I'm never sore after the presses. He also says not to go above about 30% for restoration. I've been doing them twice a week and my lifts have definitely gone up in the last 3 weeks since starting them. I hit a good 300+ pounds of off a 3 board which for me is right in my sticking point. Since starting these my sticking point seems to be going away.

Definitely gonna use 185 plus the 5/8 inch chains next week. I used 175 and was still moving it way fast. Well under 3 and closer to 2 seconds. Don't think my ME work will fall off. I feel fine right now, no real soreness, just a little tight and that's normal for me. I'm also gonna experiment with the purples choked down hard on Dyn day. I know alot of people can't use these but I feel like I can and that they will help me.

On another topic, I got in my Frantz double squat suit today and tried it on. Seems to fit good. I will try it on Friday for Dyn day. Pretty damn tight in the bottom. It also seems to pull my knees in, so I'll have to learn to fight that. Any suggestions on how to break the suit in?

Tell me what you guys figure out about Sunday. If we can I would like to do it about the same time as last. If that's not too early for you. Let me know. Gotta go, gotta try to get this damn suit off before my nuts fall off.

 

[brianmincher]

Guys, Sunday may be a bit of a problem, I should know for sure by Thursday. My son has two makeup games sometime this weekend, and my dad is needing help putting up some trusses on a room he is adding on to his house.

I will let you guys know something as soon as I know.

Bigokie, great job on the 3 board!!! I have tried to timed dumbells, but it sounds like I need to do quite a bit more of it.

Yes, I am now doing 2 max efforts per week, but on Wednesdays I am not going to failure, and I am making sure Wednesdays movement is a full range movement, and I will incorporate a lot of bands and chains on Wednesdays. Sundays will be board and shirt work. I never hit my groove in McAlester, and I never hit it since then until Sunday, when I did, weights that were hitting the racks on the way up are blasting to lockout, and they are 6 inches or more away from the racks. I just have to work in a shirt to keep my groove, and it also allows me to work around the shoulder problem and use a lot more weight.

Screwball, even if you have problems with the Karin's shirt, I have two double poly's that I am pretty sure would fit you.

B.

 

[brianmincher]

Bigokie,

yes, I am going down to the 220's. I weighed Saturday, and after a week and a half, I am already down to 224, so I should have no problem losing the rest in the next 3 and a half weeks.

B.

 

[bigokie]

Jeez, you've already dropped like 15 pounds then since we saw you last. Heck, you really don't need to lose any more between now and then, just cut out carbs for the 36 or so hours before the weigh in. So are repping on Wed, if your not going to failure or just using a lighter weight than you could? It sounds like a good idea for someone who is trying to get used to a shirt. I'm hoping for 315 off the 3 boards without any bands in a couple more weeks.

Hey Screwball, let me know if you need any help breaking the shirt in. Can't give you much help there other than to spot you since I've never worn one but anything you need I'll try to help with.

 

[brianmincher]

Not quite that much of a drop. I was about 230 when i saw you last.

And yes, doing some more reps, and stopping a little bit short of failure on Wednesday's. Similar to the method Jay uses, but instead of just flat benching raw every week, I will change the exercise every week, last week reverse band press, next week, bench with 2 choked minibands and chains, the next week just raw with weights, and so forth and so on.

B.

 

[Screwball]

Brian: Your plan sounds solid to me. If you feel like your getting a little burned out you can adjust your volume accordingly. Your exercise swaps from week to week look good. The 220's are right there for you. You're right where you want to be at this point. Are you going to work the 2-boards next week? And continue to drop the height while maintaining your shirt groove? If we can't get together this weekend then we can do it another time. No sweat! Family commitments are more important.

BigOkie: Thanks for the shirt-help offer. We'll see what happens. I tried the timed dumbbell presses off of the stability ball again and did much better. I used 25 lb. dumbbells and pressed for 2 sets @ 3 minutes each. I pressed every 6 seconds or 30 times in 3 minutes. Good burn and I really think it will help with AR. I supersetted mini-band pressdowns to failure with the timed dumbbell presses and my triceps were screaming. I supersetted 2 sets each of seated dumbbell cleans and reverse pec deck for shoulders. Then I supersetted seated, chest-supported rows with medium-grip, overhand pulldowns for 2 sets each. Finally, I supersetted 2 sets each of E-Z bar curls and hammer curls. I used moderate weight and 10-15 reps for all sets. Kind of bodybuilding but it felt pretty good (all AR stuff). I was finished in 35 minutes and had a partner. I didn't do any accessory work yesterday because I was breaking the new shirt in. I had to make up for it.

Congrats on your 3-board work. I think you are going to make some rapid gains if you continue to train with your current routine.

Thazzit!

 

[brianmincher]

I was actually thinking about working a 3 board with a shirt on and a comp grip, then the last sunday before the meet, go just the shirt, and try and find an opener. As of now, I am thinking of opening with my bigger shirt and 440 just to get one on the board, then see how I feel from there.

I still might be able to get together on Sunday, just not sure yet. I should find out about this weekend's games tonight. Call me on my cell to coordinate - (918) 850-3198.

B.