Jack's Powerlifting journey

[JackSouth]

Hi!
I'm 19 y/o powerlifter from Sweden.
Been training for 2years, 1year of powerlifting.

Natty*

Bench press PR (tap n go) - 135kg/298lbs
Bench press PR (pause) - 127,5kg/280lbs

Squat PR - 200kg/440lbs

Deadlift PR - 230kg/507lbs

BW - 80kg/177lbs

My current goals is to break the Swedish Total (667.5kg/1470lbs) in the 83kg/183lbs weight class junior division.

Goin to log my workouts here and maybe get some tips and tricks from you guys!
Workout 6days / week.
M - Chest
T - Leg
W - Shoulders
T - Back/Legs
F - Chest
S - Rest day
S - Back

Currently I have a knee injury so my leg workouts are just light weight stuff and rehab but I'll work my way up again!

I'll be happy if you follow!

 

[christ83189]

Im in

 

[jswain34]

Subbed in, man! Lofty goal, but thats how it should be!

 

[herderdude]

I'm in!

 

[JackSouth]

Nice to get some followers!

Today was back day and im doin a range of motion (ROM) program. I wanted to try George Leeman's PROM deadlift program but no way im payin 40USD for a program... So i just read reviews and watched some of his videos on YT and made my own program.
This is the 3rd time im doin it.. takes about 3 to 4 hours to do it....

1st exercise is a block/pin/rack pull whatever u wanna call it. I dont have a rack so take a block then i put some plates on it to get it to hight a want.
So first time i ran the program i did 250kg/551lbs for 10 reps, 2 set from about 1-2 inches above my knee. 2nd time i did 250kg/551lbs 7reps 2 set from knee hight and today i did from just under my knee, but had to lower the weight to 240kg/529lbs due to my tight glutes/hams that cause my lower back to bend. Did 6 reps, 2 sets.

2nd exercise is high rep boxsquats thats helps me build strength off the floor. I just put a bench behind me that makes me stop just a few inches above parallel, pause a quick second and then explode up. Did 100kg/225lbs for 20 reps 2 sets. Im always increase the weight but due to my knee injury i started light with this exercise. But i feels good tho! No pain in my knee and next time I'll ad 10kg/22lbs

3rd exercise is high rep deficit deadlift 15-20 reps, allways increase the weight here from week to week aswell. Did 110kg/242lbs 20reps. Due to my tight glute/ham problem i did only 1 set, usually doin 2 sets.

Thats the 3 "main" exercises in the program. Its 14 more and by this point you think you gonna die lol, but the next exercises is alot easier.

Yates rows 1 set, 15-25 reps, increase weight from week to week. Did 110kg/242lbs for 25 reps
shrugs 2 sets, 8-15 reps, increase weight from week to week. Did 180kg/396lbs for 12 reps
Dumbell rows 1 set, 15-25reps, increase weight from week to week. did 50kg/110lbs for 25 reps
RDL 2 sets, 15-30 reps, increase weight from week to week. Did 110kg for 30 reps
T-bar rows, 3sets, 15-10-5 reps, at diffrent weight ofc.
Chest supported rows 2-3sets 20 reps at as heavy i can do.
Weighted back raises 3sets, 20 reps with a 20kg/45lbs plate
Leg curls, work up to 3 sets of 5 reps then a drop set with atleast 15 reps.
Sittin calve raises, 1-2 sets of 15-20 reps
standing calve raises, 1-2 sets of 15-20 reps
Hanging leg raises, 3set 8-10 reps
weighted crunches 3 set ~15 reps
Sidebend 3 set 20 reps, increase weight from week to week, 40kg/90lbs
Ab press-out 3 set 15 reps, increase weight from week to week, 27,5kg/60lbs

Not so much to say about these exercises more than that they are great assistance work.

Felt pretty happy with my workout today, except that my lower back started to bend... did some stretching after. Will try to stretch gluts and hams every day now to get rid of the problem. I'll be a bit sore tomorrow but not stoppin me from benchin!! Will be goin for a triple on 127,5kg/280lbs!

If you have any question, just drop it and I'll answer asap! And sorry if my english is bad, doin my best.

 

[herderdude]

That's a serious training session, man. Nice work.

 

[JackSouth]

Yeah it is... Thanks!

 

[christ83189]

Good work man. Im no expert here just another lifter like yourself. But isnt it more beneficial to prepare for powerlifting by doing heavier weights and fewer reps to gain strength to get closer to your goal? Im not trying to tell you you're doing it wrong or anything i just dont know if you've ever tried lifting that way or not being 19 years old i dont know how experienced you are. Just throwing ideas out there good luck with your goals. I look forward to watching your progress.

 

[RegisterJr]

I want in.

 

[JackSouth]

christ83189 yeah i know what you sain. This is actually my only program with high reps. But as I increase the weight by the weeks the reps are gonna get less naturally. It's more of a peeking program!
And thanks for following!

 

[christ83189]

Ah ok cool.

 

[jimbuick]

I'll follow along for this.

 

[BeastFitness]

IN brother!

IF your goal is optimal strength adaptations, I would look into some more powerlifting oriented base programming.

 

[JackSouth]

Damn I'm sore today!! My back hurts, my ass hurts, my hams and gluts hurt, EVERYTHING HURTS!!

Even due everything hurts I still went to the gym (ofc) and benched.

My warmup sets:
2set with the bar
2sets with 50kg/110lbs
2sets with 70kg/154lbs
2sets with 100kg/220lbs
1set with 120kg/265lbs

1set a just do x reps and 2nd set I do about 3-5 pause reps.
The set at 120kg/265lbs I just do a easy single.

Then I went to my PR attempt... A triple at 127,5kg/280lbs...
2 first reps was nice but slow. 3rd rep just stopped about 3inches above my chest... Don't know if it was a lockout problem or a off the chest problem...
Anyway, I continued with a easy double at 137,5kg/303lbs with the slingshot just for overloading.

Not happy with my bench program at all atm. If someone have a good 5,3,1 program or something, please message me!

Continued with floorpress builded up to a easy double at 127,5kg/280lbs then dropped to 80kg/176lbs and did 20reps then 20reps at 60kg/135lbs.

Jumped over to weighted dips and did 3set of 10 with 40kg/88lbs.
Ended with a dropset.

Then I did a floorpress type of thing with a machine I never used before. It's all about creativity lol...

A pretty good workout expect the bench press.

 

[JackSouth]

BeastFitness yeah I know but as I said the deadlift program is a peeking program and you gonna switch out some stuff after a while. Hard to explain :/

 

[BeastFitness]

BeastFitness yeah I know but as I said the deadlift program is a peeking program and you gonna switch out some stuff after a while. Hard to explain :/

Even with a deadlifting peaking program, you can still make these other days optimal…no need to have it be less effective

 

[JackSouth]

BeastFitness yeah ofc. Everyday is a new day with maximum energy, sore or not ?

 

[JackSouth]

The only bad workout is the one that didn't happen, right?
Had to work an extra hour at work today so only had time for a 45min leg workout...

Anyway, did some warmup then builded up to 120kg/265lbs. Did a easy 3 sets of 5. My right knee started to hurt a little bit after the first set so did a quick stretch and some massage. Was pain free after that. Jumped over to some light front squats at 70kg/155lbs 3 sets of 5. Overall it's feels good in my knee and I'll increase weight next week.
Some massage now then to bed!

 

[JackSouth]

Damn... Its hard to bulk with clean food...

About 4 weeks ago I took one week of training because I was tired and sore. I dropped the amount of food I was eating from about 4-5k kcal a day to about 2k. Didn't take any supps at all. No Creatin, no betain, no ZMA.
I dropped from 78kg/172lbs to 75kg/165lbs.
That week I got f*#kin tired that I couldn't put on mass... So came up with a 7 week food/supp plan.
The plan was to increase the food intake week by week. As well as the supps.
I bought 2 cans of Animal M-stak, BCAA, Creatin, betain, beta-alainne and glutamine.

So the plan was up. I was fresh and motivated to get that mass.
My goal was to at least hit 82kg/181lbs after week 7 (1kg/week). Now after close to 4 weeks my weight is around 79kg/174lbs with clean food and my supps. Eating 5 big meals right now and 2 gainer shakes. I want to switch out those shakes to meals but my work doesn't allow me to do that.
At week 7 it gonna be 6 meals, 4 shakes and 1 FOOD shake. It's gonna be hard to get all that food in me but I'm gonna do it!! My friends says I'm not gonna make it but I'll prove them wrong...

All I do right now is "eat - sleep - train - repeat" aaaaaannd watching a lot of motivation on YouTube...

Anyway today's workout was shoulders and did sitting OHP and hit a PR! 80kg/176lbs x4! Rest of the workout was just shoulder health stuff to keep em healthy.

Back day tomorrow! ROP ROP!

 

[herderdude]

That's crazy, man. I'd be inclined to add some calorie dense junk food on top of that if it's that much of a struggle to gain, but I'm not lean, either. Don't worry, you're really young yet. Your metabolism will change and your body will get accustomed to the new weight. How tall are you?

 

[JackSouth]

That's crazy, man. I'd be inclined to add some calorie dense junk food on top of that if it's that much of a struggle to gain, but I'm not lean, either. Don't worry, you're really young yet. Your metabolism will change and your body will get accustomed to the new weight. How tall are you?

I'm 5'10" and I'm lean

 

[herderdude]

I'm 5'10" and I'm lean

Yeah I'd be adding junk to my diet if I were you. Try to get to Where you sit at like 87kg lean and cut water for your meet. Have you competed yet?

 

[JackSouth]

Right now it's hard to add junk food.. I eat as often as possible and with clean food I don't mean low carb or fat. I eat A LOT of carbs and try to increase fat and protein. I'll see if my food plan works. So far I've gained 1kg per week and I'm still lean ?
I don't wanna go that heavy, maximum 85kg.
I haven't competed yet tho... Here in Sweden you have to be in a lifting club to be able to compete. I had a plan to join a club in february but when my knee got hurt I decided to wait until it got better.

 

[JackSouth]

Yesterday workout was pretty much play around. Since my glutes are tight I can't do any heavy deadlifting so did son light weight pause deadlifts. I paused just an inch of the floor for about 3-4 seconds then exploded up from that. It will help me build some power of the floor. It really helps me with my technique because you learn to use you BW as a lever when you pause.
If you don't know what I mean, check out "How to deadlift with George leeman" on supertrainings YouTube channel.

 

[JackSouth]

1st of April today and didn't get fooled! Except for that my day at work was fun and everything went well. Ended work earlier like we do on every Friday. Got to gym and started my bench session.

Ok, so here's my Friday bench plan. I use 3 different bands that a cycle with. Hard, medium and light. So I take a band and build up to a double that I do for 3 sets. Last set I usually do as many as possible. Next time I get to that band I increase 5kg/11lbs.
So here's what I've done so far:

Week 1: Hard band 92,5kg/204lbs 2x3
Week 2: Medium band 102,5kg/225lbs 2x3
Week 3: Light band 112,5kg/248lbs 2x3
Week 4 (now): Hard band 97,5kg/215lbs 2x3 with 5reps on the last set.

Then I went to incline dumbbell press and did 8x3 with 40kg/88lbs and did 10 reps the last set.

The last set where you rep out its where you gain strength!!!

Rest day tomorrow, Will carbload and rest my body for the deadlift program on sunday!

 

[JackSouth]

Sunday's back workout was awful...
The bar is now about 1,5 inches under my knee and I had 240kg/529lbs on the bar. 1st set I did 5 reps, wasn't happy with it but I guess it was okay. Second set I only got 3 reps. 4 rep I lost my form totally. I felt like a f#ckin banana so I just dropped it.

The box squats felt heavy @ 110kg /242lbs but still did 2 set for 20 reps.

On the deficit deadlifts I increased the weight to 120kg/265lbs but dropped the reps from 20 to 18. Felt good, did 2 sets and was pretty much dead after that, the good way.
Moved on to Yates rows, 1 set 25 reps at 115kg/254lbs and damn it was hard. Probably gonna drop to 20 reps next time when I increase the weight to 120kg/265lbs.
Did my 2 sets of shrugs at 190kg/419lbs x12 easy and my set of DB rows with 52,5kg/115lbs x25.

So far so good. You probably wonder why I said it was awful... Well when I got to my RDL I did 2 sets x25 at 110kg/242lbs and I started to feel sick. I ignored it since I always get tired and feel hot. Did my seated row and the chest supported row but then I had to quit because it just got worse. Got headache and felt sick. Didn't wanna take any chances so I ended the work out here and went home to bed and rested.

Have anyone ever been in the same situation?

 

[BeastFitness]

It could be a number of different factors: your peri-workout nutrition or supplementation, breathing, possible infection/virus, etc.

 

[JackSouth]

It could be a number of different factors: your peri-workout nutrition or supplementation, breathing, possible infection/virus, etc.

Yeah you probably right, had a bad food intake the day before and felt a bit sick the day before as well.

 

[JackSouth]

Yesterday's bench press session!
Decided to start Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 program for my bench press. I'll post a link about the program if you don't know what it is.
It's only 3 working sets and first set was 5reps on 80kg/176lbs. 2nd set was 5 reps at 92,5kg/204lbs and last set you're gonna do as many reps as possible. I did 8 reps at 102,5kg/225lbs.
All set felt heavy but guess it was just the day...
Continued with my floor presses and did 2sets of 5 at 100kg/220lbs and last set a 5 on 102,5kg.
These felt very light tho.

Jumped over to dips and increased the weight from 40 to 45 this week. Did 2x5 and last set I managed to get 11 reps with is a big pr for me ?

https://www.t-nation.com/workouts/531-how-to-build-pure-strength

 

[JackSouth]

Sorry for not updating yesterday, had a lot to do....
Changed work place today. Got placed at a big hospital for a while where they need to change the big cables for the electricity. (I'm a electrician if I haven't mentioned that) And damn these cables are heavy... They are around 1100kg/2425lbs. Over 300m to pull through small hallways on ladders... Anyway, we are 7 guys who working with that so didn't have to use all my energy for that and had plenty left for the gym.

Yesterday's workout was just rehab for my knee so I did a lot of stretching and slow and light movements. Foam rolled a bit as well. Then I started to squat, slow and controlled to work on my technique. Felt no pain so I went up to 130kg/286lbs and did 2x3 with very slow and controlled reps.
Probably moving up to 140kg/308lbs next week if it feels good.

Today's shoulder workout was awesome. Pr on sitting OHP 82,5kg/182lbs. 2x2 and a 3rd set with 3 reps! Hopefully I'll get 2x3 next week on 85kg/187lbs!
Then I moved on the some shoulder health with side laterals and some heavy concentrated face pulls. Ended my workout with som bicep curls just to get some pump.

 

[JackSouth]

Yesterday's workout... Damn I'm to tired to update in the evening... It was back day and I finally getting rid of my tight hams/glutes. It still a little tight but I can lift over 80% now without my back rounding.
I worked on my pause deadlift and it felt a lot better than last week. Went up and did 3 easy singles at 180kg/396lbs. I'll make a progressive program for this as soon as I get more experienced with them.
Jumped over to weighted pull-ups and just played around to see where I'm at. Gonna do a progressive program here as well.
After this I didn't really know what to do but I had a lot more energy in me so I decided to do some standing T-bar rows. Didn't like it tho because of the short ROM, the plates hit my chest half way up...

Anyway today is chest day! Gonna do some band work with the medium band at 107,5kg. Aiming at 3 doubles at least ?

 

[JackSouth]

Yesterday's bench session was great. Did my 3 doubles at 107,5kg/237lbs with the medium band but didn't have anyone to spot me so couldn't do more than 2 on the last set.
Increased weight on the incline DB press to 42,5kg/94lbs and did 3 sets of 5 but on the last set I think I did 8 or so.

Rest of the workout I did some arm work for size and elbow health. Tricep push downs, ZB curls and som wrist curls.

Rest day today, will eat as much as possible lol. I've gained a bit of weight so am up to 79,8kg/176lbs. 2 weeks left with the Animal m-stak. Aiming to be at 82kg/181lbs by then. Started at 75kg/165lbs 5 weeks ago and I'm still pretty lean.

On my way to my gf's family to eat some dinner, I'm lucky they always make a lot of food!

 

[JackSouth]

I ran the deadlift program again but I decided to cut some exercises out.
DB row
Calves
Chest supported rows
T-bar rows
Leg curl

The reason was because I didn't feel like they was giving that much. Ok, calves gave some size but I don't want any more size on the calves because then I have to buy new sleeves lol.

The rows just took energy from me and the leg curl got picked out because I already to a ton of ham work.

Any way had to drop the weight down to 230kg/507lbs on
The block pull. I must say it was a bad day and I only got 3 reps... I'm gonna do the block pull one more time, from about 2 inches then I'll stop to do them and start with box squats.

Moved on to box squat and the reps are falling. Only got 2sets of 15 reps at 120kg/265lbs this time. Hopefully I'll be able to do 15 reps at 130kg/286lbs too.

Deficits deadlifts 130kg/286lbs 2x15.

Yates row 120kg/265lbs x20

Shrugs 200kg/440lbs 2x12

RDL 120kg/286lbs 2x20

Back raises 25kg/55lbs 3x20

And ended the workout with some ab exercises.

The reps on pretty much every exercise have started to drop weekly as I increase the weight.
Gotta admit it feels good to don't have to do so many reps any more lol.