Reactive Training Systems

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

RE: Andrew's Training Log

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

6/5 SB

Raw Beltless Squat
135x5
225x5
315x5
325x5
335x5

Standing Military Press
65x10
95x10
125x10

Good Mornings
135x8
185x8x3 sets

Lying Tricep Extensions
40x10x3 sets

Bodyweight Pullups
8x2 sets WG
8x2 sets MG
5 CG
6 CG

Abs

9/10
My squat didn't feel very strong, but I went for a pretty intense hilly bike ride yesterday so that was expected, still hit what I wanted to. The military press felt great. Pullups felt the best they have yet.

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

6/8 BDB

Raw Medium Grip Bench
135x8
185x5
225x5x(4-5) sets

Rack Pulls from below knee
225x10
335x8
425x6
475x4
525x2
550x1

Close Grip 3 board
135x10
225x5
275x3x3 sets

Bodyweight Pullups
5x10 sets

Abs

10/10
Everything felt solid today. The rack pulls hurt my hands with the high reps so I used straps on the last 2 sets so I wouldn't rip a callus. Next time its straps on for the high reps and no straps for the heavy stuff. Live and learn. The 3 board felt good, and pullups felt really good too. All in all, I'm feeling really good especially after riding 137 miles in the past week, including a 50 mile beast of a ride.

6/10

Beltless Squat
135x5
205x5
275x5
335x5
335x5
335x5

Standing Military Press
65x10
95x10
135x10

Good Mornings
135x5
185x5
225x5x3 sets

Weighted Dips
35x8x3 sets

Bodyweight Pullups

Abs

10/10
Good Workout, great military press!

-- Edited by Andrew Hollenbeck on Tuesday 16th of June 2009 05:49:10 PM

Tony Reid · Senior Member

Looking good Andrew. What's your weight now?

Wow, a 50 mile bike ride! I can't even imagine. I drive a car instead, it's much easier.

Great work.

Date: Jun 9, 2009

tony, my weight is around 170-175 right now. I really don't know how it isn't dropping with all the cardio I'm doing. I'm going to start eating a really clean diet for the rest of summer in hopes of shedding some fat. No crazy dieting this time though, just eating mostly fruits, veggies, meat, and nuts, with 1 or 2 starchy carb meals each day.

the 50 mile bike ride wasn't kind to my ass but other than that, it felt damn good! it is nice to be getting in shape finally, feels really good!

Date: Jun 16, 2009

6/15

Medium Grip Bench
135x5
165x5
195x5
225x12

Beltless Sumo Deadlift
275x3
315x3
365x3
405x3
415x3
425x3

Incline Bench -index on rings
135x8
155x8
175x8x3 sets

Bodyweight Pullups
10-8-6-6-7-7-6 = 50 total reps

Abs

10/10
All my lifts felt great, bench and deadlift were all smoked. 225 for 12 on bench felt really good. Pullups felt solid. I think for pullups, I'm going to alternate total reps with bodyweight and 10x1 - 10x2 - 10x3, etc with a 25 lb weight. Hopefully by the end of summer I'll be worked up to 50 total reps in a workout with 25 lbs. A big goal of mine is to do reps with a 45 lb plate so we'll see about that.

Mark Robinson · Senior Member

Nice work Andrew, you've got great conditioning/strength and manage to keep them both up which gives me hope. I've been set the challenge of a 100 mile off road bike ride at the end of August to complete in a day so I'm thinking its time to have it! Its amazing how little this stuff actually intereferes with powerlifting isn't it despite what everyone says on other forums!

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

Mark - That is awesome about the bike ride! I agree with you on that it doesn't affect lifting, atleast biking doesn't. I'm not sure how running or more impact related cardio would affect lifting, but biking definitely doesn't affect it much. If anything, maybe a little taxing on the shoulders and legs but not bad at all. I think it is great to do the cardio because exercise for the heart is most important to keep healthy. Powerlifting is great, but your health is the most important thing and getting out doing aerobic activity a few times/week is the best way for that.

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

6/17

Beltless Squat
185x5
225x5
275x5
315x10

Standing Military Press
65x10
95x10
125x10

Good Mornings
135x8
155x8
175x8
195x8

Weighted Pullups
35x1x10 sets

Abs

10/10
The squat felt amazing, 315x10 was a huge set for me. Military press felt solid, hopefully working up to 155x10. Good mornings were solid, still going to rotate 8s n 5s with them. Pullups felt good, going to use 35-45 lbs instead of 25, and work up to 10 sets of 5 with that weight hopefully by the end of summer. I am thinking about having phases of my training dedicated to certain things now to see how that works. For instance, summer work on maintenance/strength/size, fall work on power/strength, winter work on size/strength, spring work on endurance, something along those lines.

Andrew Hollenbeck · Senior Member

6/19

Medium Grip Bench
135x5
185x5
225x5
245x10

Rack Pull from above knee
225x10
335x8
425x5
515x3

Incline Bench
135x5
175x5
205x5x3 sets

Bodyweight Pullups
10-8-7-7-6-6-6 = 50 total reps

Abs

10/10
Bench felt awesome, rack pulls the same, and incline bench too! The pullups felt allright, still not great. I feel like my body composition is changing for the worse and I'm eating really clean right now so I don't know what to think about that. I'm seriously contemplating another diet atleast until early August. I don't intend to be shredded lean, but I also don't want to be fat. It just baffles me that my body composition is possibly getting a little fatter when I am eating clean and exercising, doing cardio, the works. My body hates me haha

Tony Reid · Senior Member

I am not an expert...I have read nothing on the topic...I have taken 0 anat/phys classes...
BUT---

I think you are shocking your system and your body does not know how to react, so it just holds on to everything. The reason I think this is because we have this discussion in The Pound quite often. My dad will say..."all I ate was 1 piece of grilled chicken, a banana, and a diet coke, plus I rode the bike and I did not lose any weight today" We always go back to, your body was put under stress from the bike riding, you were calorically depleted, so your body just sort of freaked out and held everything. It seems that when your body goes into that state, nothing comes off and once you get through that, all that comes off is strength and not fat. I would guess that after your body weight has gone down and up and down, it is looking for a baseline and doesn't know how to react. I would continue to eat clean and let the chips fall where they may. I eat ridiculously clean all the time, BUT by doing that I never think twice about eating burgers or pizza when it's around. I wouldn't want to be the "salad guy", but if you eat say 4/5 times a day, that's 28/35 meals a week, then 32-33 can be clean and 2-3 can be crap w/ beer and you'll be fine and still be able to enjoy life.

Eric Talmant · Senior Member

Mark Robinson wrote:

Nice work Andrew, you've got great conditioning/strength and manage to keep them both up which gives me hope. I've been set the challenge of a 100 mile off road bike ride at the end of August to complete in a day so I'm thinking its time to have it! Its amazing how little this stuff actually intereferes with powerlifting isn't it despite what everyone says on other forums!

I have been yelling this from the rooftops for years!

Eric

Date: Jun 22, 2009

That is some really interesting theories you have Tony and they make complete sense.

Eric - While I agree that for some reason it may not seem to affect the lifting, I don't see how it couldn't affect your gains to a decent extent, especially in the long run. Long duration aerobic activity will convert muscle tissue to slow twitch, while lifting fast twitch, so if doing long duration aerobic activity, your body is going to want to hold onto those slow twitch muscles instead of converting them to the fast twitch that can be better used for lifting. Now I haven't taken any AnP courses yet, but this is what I can make of the knowledge I have so far.

6/22

Close Stance Olympic Squat
135x5
225x5
295x5
345x2x5 sets

Standing Military Press
65x10
95x10
135x10

Good Mornings
135x5
185x5
225x5
235x5
245x5

Weighted Pullups
35x2x8 sets

Abs

10/10
I decided to rotate beltless olympic squats with belted power squats for my squatting. Possibly some front squats could be thrown in on the olympic squat day. I'm still debating exactly how to do both of them, but I'm thinking olympic squats more geared towards speed and power squats geared towards heavier weight. Military press felt great, good mornings were solid. The weighted pullups also felt pretty good. I am going to do 10x1 - 8x2 - 6x3 - 4x4 - 2x5 for my weighted pullup cycle, doing 50 reps total for bodyweight for the duration of that. I will decide what to do after I complete that, whether to stay weighted 100% of the time or still rotate them.

Mike Tuchscherer · Guru

This is a really interesting discussion. Of course, I want to chime in as well.

Conversion between fast twitch fibers to slow twitch fibers and vice versa is almost entirely genetically determined. The amount of conversion from one to another is almost non-existent.

What Eric is saying is basically that if done in the right proportions, aerobic activity is a fantastic (and almost necessary) form of general preparation activity. The thing is it hurts your long term gains more to skip the aerobic/cardiac work (assuming good programming of the work). All energy systems are connected to a degree, so having one grossly out of shape will bring the others down too. The aerobic energy system is a foundation for all the other energy systems, too. If it is poorly developed, your recovery between sets will be abysmal. If your heart is weak, your autonomic nervous system will quickly go out of balance, and your recovery subsequently goes in the toilet. Where this becomes truly meaningful to a powerlifter/strength athlete is when you consider that to get better at your sport, it often requires an increase in volume (up to the MSIC level). If you exhibit the problems I mention above, you wouldn't be able to increase your volume because if you did, you would quickly outrun your body's ability to recover. Since you couldn't increase volume without overreaching, you wouldn't be able to build strength. Because of a poorly developed aerobic system. And if you wonder how often this happens, in my experience, it's far more often than most lifters would like to believe.
Eric does a fantastic job explaining this in his DVD (he even goes in to how much to do and when).

Mark Robinson · Senior Member

Andrew, how could you possibly be fat with your strength levels/conditioning at your bodyweight? I always assumed you must be ripped to shreds doing all of that...