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View Full Version : Andy Askow's Quest for 4 American Records



andyaskow
10-02-13, 6:58 pm
Hey guys. I decided to start a training log here. I've never done a log so excuse me for any mistakes or abnormal posts. My competition is the USAPL Wisconsin State Open on January 25th, 2014. That puts me just about 16 weeks out. Last year I won this meet in the Teen(18-19) and Open class at 275+. I also set 6 Wisconsin state records and 2 USAPL American records for the raw squat and bench; 605 and 410 respectively. This year I'm hoping to break 4 American records in either equipped or raw division (I already hold the equipped bench at 535). I'm currently being coached from afar by Mike Zawilinski from Northeastern University. This is my quest.

Monday 9/30/13
Squat: 3x6 @ 385 no-no-no (no belt, wraps, suit)
Bench: 3x6 @ 285
Hexbar Shrugs: 2x10 @ 230
2-board Press: 3x5 @325,325,365
Barbell Rows: 2x8 @ 185
Dumbbell Side Bend: 2x10 @ 65

Monday felt pretty solid. Depth on the squats was good, but could have been better. For the past couple years all I've done for mobility is PVC/foam rolling. I decided that this needed to change. I implemented 2 days a week of pure mobility training. The bench was ridiculously fast and easy but I decided to stick it out at 285 per coach's recommendations. The assistance work all went well. Overall I had a pretty solid workout.

Tuesday 10/1/13

Tuesday was all mobility. My hips have been really tight lately, so I decided to focus on them today. I spent 5-10 minutes working on hip traction before I started any serious mobility work. I did this by hooking an average band to a table, fitting it around my foot, and scooting away. After I was in position, I worked on moving around my leg and hip, flexing and relaxing, etc, then did the same for the other leg. I feel like this really loosened my hips up. After this, I spent a considerable amount of time grinding knots out on my PVC pipe. I hit everywhere I could think of (IT band, quads, hamstrings, hip flexors, hip rotaters, glutes, plantar fascia, peroneals, etc). After I couldn't stand the pain anymore, I did some other mobility work. I found one stretch that I absolutely love. I hooked a heavier band around one knee, around my back, and around to the other knee so that it spreads my legs apart. Then, I scooted to the wall and laid on my back in a squat-like position and added a little more pressure on my legs outward. This did wonders for my external rotation. After that, I stayed in the same position except for putting one foot on the opposite calf (figure four) and held that, switched and did the other. Following this I did various other hip, ankle, and upper body flexibility work. I felt the loosest that I've even been after Tuesday's workout.

Wednesday 10/2/13

The new program I'm on has me squatting and benching 3 days a week with varying intensities. My Wednesday workout consisted of:

Squat: 3x6 @ 445 no-no-no
Bench: 2x12 @ 205
JM Press: 3x5 w/ 6 sec eccentric @ 135 (first time doing JM press)
RDL: 3x5 @ 135 (mostly worked form as I haven't done RDLs in quite a while)
Ab Rollouts: 2x8
Lat Pulldown: 2x10 (don't quite remember what weight it was; had to hit it and run to my econ exam)

Today felt good. The squats were SO much deeper after mobility yesterday and a good warm-up stretch beforehand. I slowed down my normally quick stroke allowing more control and giving me a bit harder of a workout. The bench was ridiculously easy even though I'm quite sore from Monday's work. The auxiliary work is what got me. These are exercises that I'm not used to performing. JM presses were interesting and the RDLs (even though it was lightweight) tore me up. I'm interested to see my progression with all these new exercises and intensities.

Firefist
10-02-13, 8:04 pm
Welcome to the Forvm brother. You are sure to find like-minded individuals in here who will understand where you are coming from.

What a base to start off with and what a goal. Smash some weight and break some records brother.

andyaskow
10-02-13, 8:26 pm
Welcome to the Forvm brother. You are sure to find like-minded individuals in here who will understand where you are coming from.

What a base to start off with and what a goal. Smash some weight and break some records brother.

Thanks man. Looking forward to it.

andyaskow
10-03-13, 7:17 pm
Today was supposed to be solely mobility but I looked at my program and decided to deadlift today instead of tomorrow. I started of by doing some hip mobility stuff and jumped right into deadlift. It felt the best that it's felt in a LONG time. I had a 12x1 @ 435 (no belt) with 45-60 second rest intervals. Every single lift was clean, quick, and FLEW off the ground. I felt like I could have gone MUCH higher but I'm going to listen to my program for once. Unfortunately, I had to cut my session short today. I just got a new job and my first shift is tonight. I'm quite sore from the past three days and I'm interested to see how I feel tomorrow. For now, this is all the time I have to write. Stay strong friends.

andyaskow
10-04-13, 9:11 pm
Today went very well. I was running low on sleep because I had my first night bouncing last night, but I crushed it today.

Bench:
Program called for a 3x6 @ 245.
I ended up doing:
6x245 -- Super fast, legal pause, and had a lot left in the tank.
6x245 -- Super fast, long pause, lots left in the tank.
10x245 -- All fast, touch and go, 5-10 left in the tank.
17x245 -- First 12 super fast, last five slowed down. 2-4 left in the tank.

I don't have to bench until Monday so I thought I'd push it. I've been doing a lot of high weight and low reps recently so I thought burning out on reps would shock the pecs. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

No-no-no Squat:
12x320 -- I never, and I mean NEVER, do this many reps. They were super light but the reps build up quickly. High rep squats may be something for me to experiment with in the future.
12x320 -- Same as the first set.

Deadlift:
Program called for deadlift today but I did it yesterday to split it up. I know I posted about it yesterday but I have more time to elaborate today.
12x1 @ 435 w/ 45-60 second RIs -- I started out my career as a young lifter who hated deadlift. Because of this, I typically skipped EVERY deadlift day. This caused a HUGE weight discrepancy between my squat and deadlift. Last year, I switched from conventional to sumo. I loved it. I ended up pulling a PR 605 after a couple months of training (previously PR was 600 conventionally with a deadlift suit). After a while, I plateaued with the sumo, so I switched back to conventional this year. The pulls are GREAT. 435 (even though it's relatively light) flew off the ground for every rep. This was a rare occurrence before. I'm hoping for big things with my deadlift in the coming months.

Glute/Hamstring Curls w/ 6 second eccentric:
This is an accessory lift that I've heard good things about, but never got to try (lack of equipment).
5x110 -- super light, quick, easy
5x160 -- a tad too easy for my liking
5x175 -- perfect weight

This TOTALLY smoked my hamstrings. I sure hope I don't drop anything tomorrow.

Triceps:
After watching Ben Pakulski's video on cable work for triceps, I thought it'd try it out. (The video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3AbFlyLYOA) Great video, smoked my triceps. I did 3 sets till failure on each arm.

Lat pull-downs:
I did 3 sets with lighter weight, strict form, and long eccentrics. I don't remember weight I used but it wasn't very much. I'm new to back workouts so I'm sure I'll be feeling this tomorrow.

Biceps:
I never NEVER NEVER do biceps. I thought I'd play around with them after seeing so many bicep problems from years of deadlift. Curls for the girls!

andyaskow
10-07-13, 10:40 pm
Lifting today was rushed. I had school stuff to deal with so I decided to split up my workout. Today I squatted and benched, and tomorrow I will do today's accessory work. On an unrelated note, I'm thinking about adding another meet to the schedule in November. This would most likely be an equipped meet. I'll have more on that later.

Squat
415x4x4

My depth has gotten immensely better lately. I crushed every one of these squat without a belt. My core feels as strong as it has ever been. No forward lean, no hips shooting up early, etc. All I wish is that the weights were heavier.

Bench:
315x4x4

Super easy. I feel like I'm not lifting as hard as I could be on this program. I think I'm going to change my input maxes.

I'll write more in-depth tomorrow.

andyaskow
10-09-13, 9:23 pm
Today I felt great. Got a lot of sleep last night, ate well all day, and just felt good about myself in general. I finally got to go kind of heavy for squats today.

Squats: 495x4x4 (no-no-no)
Bench: 225x2x10
Shoulder Press: 55x3x8
RDL: 225x4x5
JM Press(6 sec eccentric): 155x4x5
Ab Rollouts: 2x8

andyaskow
10-14-13, 7:40 pm
So I haven't posted my last couple days because I haven't had time. School has been hectic lately and I just got a new job bouncing at a bar here in LaCrosse. So for those of you (if anyone) that read this, sorry about that. With that being said, I'm back. Last night I went to Menards and bought 7 feet of 2x4 and 5 ft of stick-on velcro to make a 1-4 board for bench press. I cut the 2x4 and stuck the velcro on and I have a nifty 1 board, 2 board, 3 board, and 4 board. Really handy for lockout work on the bench. Anyways, here is my work for today.

***Low-bar*** Squats (no-no-no) 455x5x3

I have low-bar on there because this is my first time doing low bar for more than just messing around ever. I have always been a high-bar squatted (all my squats in the entire 7 years I've been lifting). Now that I'm getting serious with competing, I see higher number in my future if I compete with a low-bar positioning. The squats felt solid and were all pretty fast (most of them, the bar popped off my back at the top) and most of them were paused (so I could see depth on the video).

Bench 325x5x3
All easy, nothing special to write about.

2-board press 340x5, 3x365x5
Easy, used my new boards (hell yeah).

Barbell Shrugs 225x3x10
I hate barbell shrugs but someone was using the hexbar.

Barbell Rows 165x3x10

Dumbell Side Bends 90x3x10 each side

andyaskow
11-06-13, 8:06 pm
Here's the lowdown. I tore my lateral meniscus and I didn't want to post my training until I knew I'd still be able to compete in January. However, today I finally had a heavy enough workout to test it. I've also taken up Olympic Lifting.

Monday:
Squat 3x2 @ 515
Bench 3x2 @ 405
3 Board Press 3x5
Shrugs 4x8
Single-Arm Farmers Carry 2x25 yards
Barbell Rows 4x8

Monday(second workout):
Snatch Technique 10x2 @ 60 kg
Snatch Workout 5x2 @ 70 kg

Tuesday:
Jerk Technique 8x2 @ 110 kg
Jerk (Behind Neck) 8x1 @ 120 kg
Clean Technique 8x3 @ 90 kg
Clean and Jerk 1x120 kg
Mobility Work

Wednesday:
Squat 3x2 @ 585
Paused Speed Bench 7x3 @ 225
Good Mornings 4x5
Shoulder Press 3x5
JM Press 3x12
Hanging Leg Raise 2x8