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Chez vs The MM8: Whatever it takes


Chez

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3 hours ago, Chez said:

haha, I just noticed I forgot "machine" in the title of the exercise. I just edited it. I wish I could curl that free weight :) This pulley is much easier. 

Ahhh that makes me feel better about my curls haha. I had no doubts though that you were free curling with one hand, what I do with two. Great work on everything Chez! That last session looked like a fun one!

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On 11/6/2017 at 3:41 PM, Andrew Dube said:

Ahhh that makes me feel better about my curls haha. I had no doubts though that you were free curling with one hand, what I do with two. Great work on everything Chez! That last session looked like a fun one!

Thanks buddy!

Got to the gym late tonight. My girl stepped on a very small piece of broken glass so I brought her to a local urgent care to get it out. Only had time for chest. I'll have to hit squats tomorrow. I went into the session tired but it turned out to be a great one. Felt strong 💪 

Bench Press 

275 lbs - 6 sets of 3x. Really happy with that. I had to let out a war cry for the last rep so I decided to drop some weight next set since I knew I wouldn't get it.

255 lbs - 4 sets of 3x. Went pretty easy

Incline Hammer Strength Machine Press

3 45s each side - 3 sets of 5x

 

Quick session but a good one

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Tonight's training:

Squats

295 lbs - 3 sets of 3x

Lat Pulldowns

150 lbs - 10x

160 lbs - 10x

170 lbs - 10x

Rear laterals

25 lb DBs - 3 x 10

Row Machine

187.5 lbs (whole stack) - 3 x 8

1 Arm Machine Preachers Curls

125 lbs - 3 x 8

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4 hours ago, Anemptybox said:

Man you're strong. Cool to see a <200 GHP9, good luck on that one and keep up the good work!

Thanks buddy. I follow your log. Good luck in reaching your goals and keep killing it. 

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lots of good training this weekend. I'm nice and sore. Time to update the log. 

Saturday 11/11/17

Met with the NYC crew (Anthony, Anton, Jose and Ken) for a training session. We train outside and It was nice and cold but I still ended up sweating once I started to work hard. I sweat no matter what. Here is what I did:

Standing Overhead Barbell Shoulder Press

45 lb Bar - 20x

115 lbs - 5x

135 lbs - 4x

165 lbs - 3x

170 lbs - 2x

180 lbs - 1x

170 lbs - 3 sets of 3x

145 lbs - 2 sets of 5x

Ironmind Little Big Horn

- First time touching this in a long time (years). I pyramided up in warm ups to figure out my starting point. I have to admit I started to have a few flash backs from when I tore my bicep. The tear was on the V bar but this is also a vertical lift so I made to have my palm facing my body and arm straight to eliminate bicep engagement. Once I started to get to the heavier weight I did curls in between sets to get blood in the arm.

166 lbs - a couple singles each arm. better lifts with the left. Everyone says my horn is slick as soon as they touch it. It just never seasoned well. I decided to stop here since I'm just getting into the groove with this thing and its cold outside (dangerous for the bicep).  

146 lbs - 3 doubles each hand

126 lbs - 3 sets of 5x each hand

2.5" FBBC Crusher

127 lbs - 5x each hand

140 lbs - 2 sets of 2x each hand 

127 lbs - 5x each hand

 

Sunday 11/12/17

Single Arm Machine Tricep Extensions 

110 lbs - 10x each arm

125 lbs - 2 sets of 10x each arm

Leg Press Machine Calf Raises

340 lbs - 3 sets of 20x 

Ab Machine Crunches

110 lbs - 20x

125 lbs - 2 sets of 20x 

Deadlifts 

- Done DO no hook and no straps to work the grip

275 lbs - 10x

315 lbs - 10x

Stiff Leg Deadlifts

- Done DO no hook and no straps to work the grip

225 lbs - 2 sets of 8x

Double Hand Strict Plate Wrist Curls (Forearms on Bench)

35 lb Plate - 10x

45 lb Plate - 2 sets of 10x

Single Hand Strict Reverse Plate Wrist Curls (Forearm on thigh)

10 lb Plate - 3 sets of 10x each hand

Extensors 

IM Blue Band - 3 sets of 100x each hand    

 

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Real Quick Sledge wrist work last night. My left felt much better than my right last night which is strange since my right usually is dominant on levering. It just felt uncomfortable in my right hand. Maybe my right is just beat up at the moment.  

Sledge to Forehead 

12 lb Sledge - 8x each hand

12 lb Sledge - 2 sets of 5x each hand

10 lb Sledge - 2 sets of 10x each hand

Supination/pronation 

6 lb Sledge choked up - 3 sets of 10x

 

Been neglecting wrist work ever since coming back from the bicep tear and started to late after hearing it will be at gripmas so I don't expect doing well at this event. Just trying to get as much work in as I can to maximize points. It is what it is. At least this motivated me to start the wrist work again and hopefully I can keep it up since I do believe its important. Its just hard to make time for everything.  

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argh. Trained last night but I felt tired and weak. Some days you have it and some days you don't. I actually started to feel super tired on the drive to the gym. I pushed through the workout anyway and got some good volume in. It was chest day and here is what I did:

Bench Press

280 lbs - 3x. I hit the pins on the second rep and it totally threw me off. I had to rack the weight and reset and got the third. 

280 lbs - 3x

280 lbs - 3x. Spotter had to put his finger tips lightly on the bar right at lock out for the 3rd rep. Not happy about that. I can tell my strength is down. Decided to drop some weight

265 lbs - 3x. Got it but this shouldn't feel this heavy. Decided to drop the weight even further to get quality reps. 

245 lbs - 6 sets of triples. My buddy said my reps looked better as the sets went on. I felt tight and sore at the start. Maybe I just needed more time to warm up tonight. My right elbow has been a little sore from all the heavy pressing. 

Incline Smith Machine Bench Press

- we were moving faster with less rest on this exercise so my memory of the weights is a little fuzzy but this is what I remember:

185 lbs - 10x

210 lbs - 8x

235 lbs - 8x

255 lbs - 6x

285 lbs - 2x 

Dumbbell Floor Press

- First time trying floor presses and I really like them. I laid back with one dumbbell and he handed me the other. 

80 lb DBs - 5 paused reps

90 lb DBs - 5 paused reps

100 lb DBs - 5 paused reps

80 lb DBs - 8 paused reps

- Been failing lots of lifts right at lock out so I'm going to keep doing the floor pressing to try and blast through plateaus. 

 

 

 

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Did a quick session tonight because my dishwasher was acting up and I had to run home to check it out:

Squats

305 lbs - 3 sets of triples. The weight wasn't an issue. I recently tweaked my left ankle trying to play basketball with my nephew at a family party. I think I was hesitate bending it so I was pitching forward a little on the squats. Not a big deal. 

230 lbs - 8x. Just a back off set for volume. I am going to keep doing this as a finisher. I had more in me but that is good enough

1 Arm Machine Preacher Curls

125 lbs - 3 sets of 10x

 

Edited by Chez
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Piss poor training this weekend. I think I got contaminated and my food allergy was acting up. Low energy and it effected me in the gym. Not going to bother logging. I’ll treat it as a deload. Time to move on. Tonight’s training:

Bench Press

240 lbs - 6x

250 lbs - 5x

260 lbs - 4x

270 lbs - 3x

280 lbs - 2x

290 lbs - 1x

Incline Hammer Strength Machine Press

115 lbs on each side - 8x, 8x, 7x

Sledge to forehead Lever

12 lb sledge - 5x5 each arm

10 lb sledge - 10x each arm

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Went to the city to train with Anthony and Anton today. Beautiful day for training outside.

Standing overhead barbell press

45 lb bar - 20x

135 lbs - 5x

160 lbs - 4x

180 lbs - 3x

190 lbs - 2x

205 lbs - 1x

180 lbs - 3 sets of 3x

160 lbs - 2 sets of 5x

2 Hand Pinch Euro

First time using the Euro in a long time. Been using the Flask for 2 HP. I wanted to work up to a moderate single to get an idea of my opener for gripmas. Worked up to 199 lbs for a super easy single. held it at the top and looked around. probably the easiest I have ever lifted near 200. I think I may have a chance to PR at gripmas since Chris's and Jedd's euros are very seasoned. I figure my opener will be 200. I would be very happy with 215+

IM Block Buster

Just got this as an early christmas gift. Its the third event at Nate's comp at the end of Feb. Literally opened the box at the training session so it was super slick to start. need to keep using it to get it seasoned. Worked up to a single with each hand to see where I am starting at. Lifted 66 and change right hand and about 64 left. Right felt much better on this. I guess its good since I'm better right with grippers but better left with the hub and horn so 2 events per hand at the feb comp. I think I can get this in the 80s as I continue to work it and the implement seasons. 

IM Little Big Horn

146 lbs - 3 sets of 3x each hand

2.5" Crusher

140 lbs - 3 sets of 2x each hand

127.5 - 5x each hand

 

Hoping to train with them next week as well. I will go light since its the week before gripmas but I want to mess around with the ivanko super gripper to figure out an opener. never really trained the thing before.   

 

 

Edited by Chez
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3 hours ago, Fist of Fury said:

Great pinching with the Euro. You will be a top contender if you keep that up along with your gripper strength!

Thanks man. I’m working hard on it. I was making great progress on pinch before my life got crazy and my bicep injury. I want to be stronger than ever this year.

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The holiday week was crazy so I missed my squat session and had to do squats with deadlifts today. Pretty tough workout but I gutted through it because I can’t keep missing sessions if I want to achieve my goals. Here is what I did:

Ab Crunch Machine

125 lbs - 3 sets of 20x

1 Arm Machine Curls

125 lbs - 2 sets of 10x each arm. These felt really easy today so I decided to up the weight last set.

135 lbs - 10x each arm. PR on this machine. Nice. I need my old bicep strength back. Gotta keep pushing it

Decline Bench Press

225 lbs - 3 sets of 8x

Left Hand MMS Grippers

176 Lb MM3 - 1 single. Not bad considering I did thick bar yesterday and that usually kills my grippers. Left grippers aren’t a priority right now since the 2 upcoming comps aren’t testing it. I’ll prioritize them leading up to nationals 

176 lb MM3 - slight miss

174 lb RB 280 - 2 singles 

158 lb COC 3 - 3 doubles 

148 lb COC 3 - 3 triples

141 lb COC 3 - 3 sets of 5x

109 lb COC 2 - 20x. Decided to mess around with high reps. 20x is too high though and I could have kept going. Too easy.

133 lb COC 2.5 - 2 sets of 10x. I’ll throw in the 10 rep sets every now and then and see it helps. Not all the time though.

Deadlifts

300 lbs DO with no straps - 10x

340 lbs DO with straps - 10x

Stiff Leg Deadlits

250 lbs DO with no straps - 8x

Squats 

225 lbs - 5 sets of 5x. Tired at this point so went light and focused on form. Going deep.

Extensors

IM Red Band - 3 sets of 60x each hand

 

Definately earned some gluten free beer tonight. Good weekend of training 

Edited by Chez
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Time to catch up on the log. 

Tuesday 11/28/17

I planned on lifting Wednesday but the guy I have been hitting bench with asked if I could go tonight. I just training overhead press Saturday and decline bench Sunday so I knew my triceps wouldn't be fresh. I decided to go though because my sessions with him are always intense and its making me better. Here is what we did:

Bench Press

255 lbs - 2 sets of 5x

275 lbs - 3x

285 lbs - 2x. I set way too close to the pins so I wasn't in my normal groove making this harder than it had to be. 

295 lbs - 1x. spotter had to put his finger tips on it near lock out. Again, I set up way too close to the pins so I couldn't get full power into the press. oh well. 

Incline Smith Machine Bench Press

135 lbs - 10x

205 lbs - 5x

255 lbs - 5x

275 lbs - 5x

295 lbs - 2x. Those were tough. 

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

85 lb DBs - 8x. felt very easy. I thought I would be more fatigued at this point

95 lb DBs - 5x. Again these felt easy. 

105 lb DBs - 7x. I wasn't' going to go this high but my buddy wanted me to go even higher. I said maybe I can get 3 reps with this and I was shocked at how easy these were moving. This is more weight and reps than usually and on my third exercise when its normally my second. happy with this. 

Dumbbell Floor Press

90 lb DBs - 5x

100 lb DBs - 5x

110 lb DBs - 5x. I had to dig deep for the last one but got it. Happy with this. Much better than last time. 

Barbell Floor Press

185 lbs - 5x

235 lbs - 5x

285 lbs - fail. Haha. Got it half way up and he had to help. Heat check. Triceps are totally shot at this point. 

185 lbs - 5x. light back off set. 

- Pretty awesome chest workout. I know if I continue to work like this I can get my bench back up. 

Wednesday 11/29/17

Sledge to Head lever

6 lbs - 10x each arm

10 lbs - 5x each arm

12 lbs - 5 sets of 6x each arm

10 lbs - 10x each arm

 

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had dinner and got to the gym late tonight (I normally go straight from work). A short session but a great one:

Squats

275 lbs - 3x

295 lbs - 3x

315 lbs -3x. Nice. Most I have done in free weight squats in a long time. I know its not much weight but if you knew all the leg issues I have overcome you would understand. Reps were deep and smooth. 

225 lbs - 10x. These flew up. 

1 Arm Machine Biceps Curls

135 lbs - 2 sets of 8x each arm. This was my PR from last session on this machine and these were dam easy. I had to try more weight next set. 

145 lbs - 8x each. Not bad at all. More in the tank. New PR. Gotta get these arms big again.  

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On 11/30/2017 at 10:02 PM, Chez said:

Squats

225 lbs - 10x. These flew up. 

Yeah, gotta love how light the weights feel on a back-off set. Even before working sets... going to a heavy single or triple ("overwarm" technique I believe it's called), has been working really well for me. Makes widowmakers much more manageable!

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4 hours ago, DAVE101 said:

Yeah, gotta love how light the weights feel on a back-off set. Even before working sets... going to a heavy single or triple ("overwarm" technique I believe it's called), has been working really well for me. Makes widowmakers much more manageable!

Yep. I just started doing the backoffs sets and I love them. Been doing them for standing press also. Crazy how light the weight feels 

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Time to update the log with this weekends training:

Saturday 12/2/17

Meet up with Anthony for our last training session before gripmas. We planned on going light. No real strength to gain this close to the competition and we want to make sure our hands are fresh. He brought his Ivanko Super Gripper since I have never worked with one and I wanted to get a feel for it to plan my attempts. Here is what I did:

Standing Overhead Press

45 lb Bar - 20x

135 lbs - 5x

160 lbs - 4x

180 lbs - 3x

190 lbs - 2x

215 lbs - 1x. Little slow but it went up. I wasn't feeling particularly explosive today. 

180 lbs - 3 sets of 3x

160 lbs - 3 sets of 5x

- I think the bar I was using is 50 lbs instead of 45 lbs so all the numbers above could be 5 lbs high in actuality. 

Rear Laterals

30 lb DBs - 3 sets of 8x

Ivanko Super Gripper

I was really looking forward to trying this thing since I'm obviously a crush guy. I got a chart from Chris Rice with all the levels and poundages. We slowly kept increasing the resistance as i got a feel for it. I ended up closing the 323 lb rating pretty casually while looking at Anthony. It only goes one notch higher which is think is in the 340s and I'm pretty confident I can close that as well. I didn't try because I want to hold back and save it for the comp. Feel really confident with it now though. 

 

- With finished out the session with 2HP on the flask, some IM block buster and some IM hub. Nothing special. Real light work. Just focusing on hand placement and technique. 

 

Sunday 12/3/17

Ran into my powerlifting friend at the gym so he watched me on deadlifts and help me with form. 

Deadlifts 

365 lbs - 2 sets of 5x

Lying Hamstring Curls

125 lbs - 2 sets of 10x

Lat Pull Downs

160 lbs - 10x

170 lbs - 10x

180 lbs - 10x

Leg Press Calf Extensions

270 lbs plus apparatus - 3 sets of 20x

- light session. Keeping it light all week so I'm fresh for the comp.  

 

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So freaking tired. Spent 20 hrs in a small rental car to compete in Gripmas this past weekend. Hopefully tonight I will have the energy to do a comp write up in the log. I came in third to Andrew Durniat (1st) and Jedd Johnson (2nd). 

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Congrats on a great performance!

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14 minutes ago, Andrew Dube said:

Congrats on a great performance!

Thanks buddy. I was happy with my performance on 3 out of 4 events. My Euro performance was god awful and doesn't represent what I am capable of. It was a really weird day on the euro for me. I'll write about it when I do my comp summary in the log. 

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Alright let me see if I can get this log updated. 

Wednesday 12/6/17

Trained chest. I didn't bother noting what I did. The comp is Saturday so I wasn't going hard that night. 

Saturday 12/9/17

Competed at gripmas in Ohio. Here is a quick write up about my performance:

Event 1 - Ivanko Super Gripper

- I tried this thing for the first time the week before in a training session and did well so I was confident. Crush is my specialty and trying the device confirmed that regular gripper strength carried over. Doubts crept into my head anyway. For some reason I got worried that Chris's Ivanko would be harder than the one I tried in training and that the light that singles the close would be difficult to get on so I debated whether I should open at 297 or 308. I then snapped out of it because the event isn't raising bar (I can drop down if I miss) so I opened with the 308. Here are my thoughts on the attempts:

Attempt 1

308 lbs - Easy money. Like crazy easy. Glad I decided to open with this. This actually already won me the event since the next best close was Durniat and Nate at 278. 

Attempt 2

342 lbs - I wanted to take a bigger jump now. In training last week I hit 323 pretty casually so I wanted to go higher than that. I decided to attempt 342 and I got it. It felt pretty good. I thought I had more in the tank.

Attempt 3 

360 lbs - 360 is the next setting up and highest possible with 2 springs so I went for it. It was a good attempt but I missed it by a slight margin. I thought it was closed and the light failed to go on but Anthony told me he could see I was slightly off. I should have held on longer since other competitors were able to grind out closes by shifting and pumping the gripper. I quit too soon here.

Attempt 3 

360 lbs - I had to try the 360 again but something weird happened this time. Either one of the springs wasn't fully in the notch or the springs made contact because I heard and felt a spring move and it really threw me off. oh well. Good performance anyway. I was well in first at this point. This almost always happens since grippers are always first and its my specialty.

Event 2 - Euro 2 HP

- And this was the low of the contest for me. Worst performance by far. Things were moving so fast at the comp that I had forgotten to eat again and drink water. I'm at my all time biggest (I wake up at 275 and walk around at 280) so I'm hungry constantly. Chris's Wife made us breakfast but I didn't eat enough due to nerves and it caught up with me. I noticed it but half the guys were going to pinch at my width (58mm) so I knew my attempts would come up soon (we started at the thinnest width and moved up) and I left all my food in Chris's house. To make things worse I tweak my back, ankle and knee leading up the comp so one competitor noticed I was shaking on my euro lifts. To top things off I mistimed my warm ups. I took one last warm up around 190 and it was shaky and slow. I planned to opened at around 200 because I dominated 199 recently with complete ease. Well, change of plans. I opened with 194.69 since it was the next jump. Here is the disaster:

Attempt 1

194.69 lbs - miss and a bad miss. Not even close. I don't even remember if I broke ground. Dammit. This event is raising bar and I have never bombed an event. I remember the texture of the euro feeling very different than I'm use to. The chalk felt very dry powdery and I usually blow into my hands to get that stick feeling but it wasn't working. Obviously nervous at this point because you can't recover from a "0" in a 4 event comp. 

Attempt 2

194.69 lbs - regrouped and got it. Not a dominating pull by any means. That was a big relief.

Attempt 3

199 and change - miss. my god. just not my day

Attempt 4

199 and change - another miss. dammit. I wanted to open with this and I ended up lower than it. Really bad. Training was going so well that I thought I had a chance to beat my all time competition PR of just under 211.    

Event 3 - Medley

- So i have always been historically bad at medleys. I'm not really made for speed which is obvious if you see me (I'm a big guy with a history of leg issues). There were items in this medley I have seen on youtube but never touched (tractor weight, scale weights etc.). I had an advantage though because we attempted the medley in reverse order of our standings (so last place entering the event went first and so on). I was still in first place at this point because my ivanko close was so dominate and the best 2 hp was by Jedd at just under 240. I watched the competitors before me to figure out my strategy (paying special attention to the more experienced guys). I also lightly tried some of the items in between competitors (making them just break ground or hover to not waste energy) to see if I had a shot of lifting it. The strategy paid off because I think I had my best medley showing ever. I got 33 points. Durniat and Jedd destroyed the field with 54 and 45 point respectively but I expected that. I was happy staying close to Chris rice and Jason. 

Event 4 - Double Sledge Lever to head for reps

- I dropped to third going into this event since Durniat and Jedd passed me with amazing medleys. If you read my log leading up to this, I was super nervous about this event because my wrist have never been a strong point and I have neglected training them since coming back from the bicep tear. I did the best I could in training. I wasn't sure I would even get one rep with the heavier 16 lb hammers. I got a 16 lb Sledge lever in the medley for the first time ever so that gave me confidence. Chris let us try them and I got one rep pretty easy so I knew I could use them. As the reps started my confidence grew because the first 10 went up pretty easy. I was even looking at chris for each go command. The last couple felt much harder and I ended with 14. As I watch the video, I think I should have stuck with the 15th rep longer in an attempt to gut it out. i was happy though. Jason was 4th right behind me at the start of this event and he got 15 so I knew I had to stay close to him to secure 3rd. It worked out and I got third overall behind Durniat and Jedd. Durinat got 20 reps on this event and Jedd 18.

 

Overall

Happy with my performance overall. I performed as expected on the Ivanko, under performed on the Euro but did better than I expected on the medley and Hammers. I'll take things easy this week at the gym to recover and then start hitting it hard for Nate's comp February 24th!

 

Here is the video of my sledge performance

 

 

I have a vid of my best ivanko close that I will add later.        

 

 

 

Edited by Chez
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the video of my 342 lb rated Ivanko Gripper close at gripmas:

 

I trained Chest and arms tonight with my buddy at the gym for over 2 hrs tonight. So much for deloading this week haha. To tired to update the log but I'll update tomorrow. 

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Behind by 3 workouts in my log. I started my training for my next competition though which is Nate's comp on Feb 24h. I sat down and mapped out all my training sessions leading up to the comp. I don't have much time but I'm trying to peak for the competition by starting light and ramping up. I'll update the log tonight best I can. 

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