Lexen Xtreme Training Tips

Most of the Saturday guys are 1 week out from the Lexen Pro-Am, so today their work consisted of working up to around 60-70% free squat, some light accessory work, and calling it a day.  Vogelpohl worked up to 700, really working on his form.

The guys not doing the meet did the following today:

Squat
Chewy, Schwab, Johnston, Brown
Box squats with chains and foam cushion, using buffalo bar
Warm-ups
Bar + 170 in chains x 10
Bar + 250 in chains x 5
145 + 250 in chains x 3
235 + 250 in chains x 3
325 + 250 in chains x 3
Add briefs
415 + 250 in chains for 2 sets of 2
505 + 250 in chains for 3 sets of 2
595 + 250 in chains (Schwab for a single, Johnston and Brown doubled)
645 + 250 in chains for 2 (Johnston and Brown)

The chains and foam cushion really made things unstable coming off the box, so we really had to maintain tightness to get up with the weight.

Speed pulls
245 x 3
335 x 3
425 for 3 sets of 3

Finished up with 3 sets of reverse hypers, some shrugs, and ab work.

Squat

Week 2 of circa max phase for the guys doing the meet.  I’ll keep this pretty basic, since most everyone worked up to a max single with bands in their suits.

Group 1: Chewy, Johnston, Schwab, Dague were the outcasts over on the red monolift since we’re waiting until the April meet
Box squats using the buffalo bar and chains
Doubles for 4 sets at 405 + 250 in chains
Doubles for 3 sets at 495 + 250 in chains

Group 2: Meyers, Mike Brown, Mike Roush
Roush is only guy in this group doing this meet, but they all went with 2 sets of blue bands.  We didn’t get much video of these guys, but they all took singles in their suits.  Roush finished at 5 plates + the bands, which puts him on a nice pace for an 800+ squat on meet day.

Group 3:  Gretsky, Gualtieri, Strong
All 3 doing the meet, used a blue and a purple, around 300-320 at the top for these shorter guys.  Missed what Gretsky finished with.
Gualtieri hit a strong 495 + 300 in bands

Strong hit 605 +300 in bands

Group 4: Wenning and Vogelpohl
And in the main event, these guys chasing world records didn’t disappoint and finished this training cycle with strong performances, using 2 pairs of blues and a pair of greens

Wenning finished with 605 lbs in bar weight + 600 lbs in band tension at his height.

Vogelpohl took 695 lbs in bar weight + 550 lbs in band tension at his height, in briefs and his super suit slippers, and handled this with no problem

Chuck then added his suit and took 785 lbs in bar weight + 550 in band tension.  Wasn’t the cleanest of lifts, but he stood up with it without help.

Most everyone pulled heavy last week, so they finished with some light accessory work.

Wenning took a slightly different schedule and pulled to a max this week with plates raised on 4 pads, worked up to 825.

Jeremiah Meyers, who is not doing this meet but enjoys lifting more weight from the floor than anyone currently in the gym in between sips of Wild Turkey, pulled 865 with this same setup.

Group 1: Brintlinger, Bandy, Pud, Sengos
This group did box squats with chains
Raw warmups to 235 + 160 lbs chains
235 + 200 lbs chains
235 + 240 lbs chains
285 + 240 lbs chains (Bandy, Sengos)
325 + 240 lbs chains (Bandy, Sengos)
375 + 240 lbs chains (Sengos)
415 + 240 lbs chains (Sengos)

Conventional deadlifts-belt only. We kept adding bands to 225 then added bar weight. The tension was something ridiculous- 325 lbs or so.

225 + choked minis
225 + choked minis + lite bands
225 + choked minis + monster minis
275 + bands
315 + bands
335 + bands

Finished up with 3 sets of 10 reverse hypers and standing ab rope pulldowns

Group 2: Burke, McLovin, Titus
This group did full gear squats with straight weight. Burke made 805, McLovin shut it down at 615 and guest lifter Titus was doing triples, ending with 750ish.

Group 3: Bobby, Cody Underwood, TPH Esterline, Carter James Pillbeam, Tim Sansbury, Lynn Halter
This group’s getting ready for the Pro/Am on Feb 06 and finished their last heavy squat day using reverse mini bands

Carter James Pillbeam: 450
Cody: 665
Bobby: 665
Tim: 725
TPH: 800
Lynn: 805

Squat
Group 1: Johnston, Schwab, and Wenning’s visitor (these guys 14 weeks out from April meet)
Box squats with short, swinging chains, used buffalo bar
135 x 10
225 x 10
225 + 110 in short chains for 3
225 + 220 in short chains for 2
315 + 220 in short chains for 2 sets of 2
365 + 220 in short chains for 2 sets of 2
405+ 220 in short chains for 2 sets of 2

Group 2: Roush, Jerry O, Myers, Wenning, Vogelpohl (these 3 weeks out from Pro-Am)
Circa Max week 1: box squat with bands
Roush, Jerry O, and Myers worked with 2 sets of blues (400 lb or so at top), Wenning and Vogelpohl worked with 2 pairs of blues  and a pair of purples (500 lb or so at top)

Roush worked up to 375 + the bands for a single.  He really worked on form as this was the most band tension he’s used.
Jerry O finished with a 465 + bands for a single
Jeremiah took 495 + bands for a single
Wenning and Vogelpohl used more band tension as they’re obviously much more advanced squatters and need the higher percentage of band tension at their numbers.
Matt took 595 + the bands for a single.

Chuck took 665  + the bands for a double.

This group goes even heavier next week to finish the circa max phase.

Also of note, Lynn Halter from the old guy group hit a strong 785 squat using hanging monster mini-bands.

Deadlift
Most everyone pulled for singles with the plates elevated on 4 mats.  Gretsky, Strong, and Gualtieri worked into the mid-500′s, with Gulatieri hitting a nice 605 PR with this setup.  Schwab worked to 735 with gas left in the tank, and Vogelpohl just missed a raw 840 PR when bar slipped at lockout.

Wenning and Myers opted to pull from floor against minibands, as they’ll pull from the elevated mats next week for their last max effort prior to the meet.

Powerpohl
We then moved to the Powerpohl to completely fry our backs.  This week, we did stationary holds, starting with 3 plates, and adding a quarter for each of the next 2 sets.  The twist this week was to stand erect for 5 seconds, slowly bend your upper body forward for a 5 count, then thrust hips forward and shoulders back to an upright position for another 5 second hold, repeating 5 times for each set.  By the last rep of last set, we were spent.  This setup was good work to simulate pushing those hips forward at lockout on the deadlift.

Ended with some abdominal work, and some COOKIES!

Friday we started our two week circa max for the Feb 06 Pro-Am in full gear. Reverse monster minis this week, reverse minis next week, a deload week then the meet. The monster minis deload about 75 lbs and everyone shut it down with about 50 lbs to spare. I’m not sure of everyone’s numbers as I was running around wrapping people in two different monolifts while I was trying to get my own work done.

Ltn Dan: 735
TPH Esterline: 700
Cody Underwood: 600
Bobby Don’t Know Your Last Name: 600
Carter James Pillbeam: 465
Pud did a very impressive squat-morning with 575

Everyone then worked up to a moderate deadlift, something in the neighborhood of a last warm-up, followed by some heavy ab work. Next week the goal is to hit the same target weight with the mini bands.

Friday crew: Preppy, Sansbury, Sengos, Halter, Burke, McLovin

Reverse band squats-2 mini bands-briefs only. Some of the guys are getting ready to start their circa max next week for the Pro-Am so we did some reverse band squats to get some moderate weight on our backs. We don’t have any purple bands so we used two minis, about a 90 lbs deload:
raw warm-ups to 445 X 2
Add briefs
535 X 1
625 X 1
675 X 1
735 X 1
Everyone shut it down here.

Deadlift off mats-conventional-about two inches below knee:
warm-ups to 405 X 1
405 + 40 lbs chains X 1
405 + 80 lbs chains X 1
405 + 120 lbs chains X 1
405 + 160 lbs chains X 1
405 + 200 lbs chains X 1
405 + 240 lbs chains X 1
McLovin gave 405 + 310 lbs chains a ride but missed at the top

Reverse hypers:
210 X 10
280 X 10
280 X 10

GHR’s:
2 sets to failure

Standing ab pulldowns:
110 for 3 sets of 10

Shirt work today with 120 lbs of chains to overload the lock-out portion of the lift. Sansbury, an expert in Musical Bench Shirts, was wearing a loose Katana with no lock-out support. Sengos was using an old single ply Karins shirt he hasn’t worn in 5 years. Halter was in a double Karins and Gretsky was in a double Rage X.

raw warm-ups to 275 + 120 lbs chains X 1
315 + 120 lbs chains X 1 (Sengos, Sansbury, Halter, Gretsky)
365 + 120 lbs chains X 1 (Sengos, Halter, Gretsky)
405 + 120 lbs chains X 1 (Sengos, Gretsky)
455 + 120 lbs chains X 1 (Gretsky)
505 + 120 lbs chains X 1 (Gretsky)

EZ Curl bar skull crushers with 35 lb hanging kettlebells:
3 sets to failure

Tricep rope pushdowns:
3 sets of 15

Rear delt face pulls:
4 sets of 10

Side lateral raises:
3 sets of 12

Ab wheel with chains around neck:
3 sets to failure

Squat
The gym was full today, with all 3 monolifts going with different types of training.  Chewy and Mike Johnston broke off and used the usually idle red monolift for straight weight box squats using the giant cambered bar, onto the foam cushion.   The smaller guys, including Nate Strong and Nate Gretsky, went with free squats using hanging monster mini-bands, which allows for work on form while deloading the weight in the hole.  The other groups, including Dague, Schwab, Rouse, and then Vogelpohl, Wenning, Meyers, and Mike Brown did free squats into the suspended chains.  This allows to work on free squat form while also giving a slight pause in the hole to force speed out of the hole.  We also adjust chain height to alter depth.

Dague, Schwab, and Rouse worked up to 6 plates for 5 sets of doubles.
Mike Brown stayed at 665 for 5 sets of doubles as he was really working on form with input from Chuck and Matt.
Meyers took singles in full gear, working up to an even 900.
Vogelpohl and Wenning also took singles in full gear, both working up to 935.

Deadlift
Lots of band tension today, as we used purple bands quad-looped around the base of the power rack.  This put the bar at pin 1, and really forces you to pull fast while those bands really kick in for those last few inches at the top.  Most everyone worked up to 3-4 plates, with Wenning and Meyers taking 455 + the bands.

Powerpohl
The setup today was 2 monster chains attached to the pole with another 40 lbs at the end (150 lb total chain weight) and then 100 lbs in plate weight on the pole.  We took this for 2 trips of 30 yards walking forward, and then finished with a set of a stationary hold of 20 seconds, which was brutal.

Finished up with standing ab pulldowns and some shrugs.

Deload today for the old people:

Cambered bar low box squats:
335 for 8 sets of 3

Speed pulls:
315 plus double choked minis- 6 singles

Reverse hypers:
210 X 8
245 X 8
280 X 8

Glute ham raises holding 25 lb kettlebell:
2 sets to failure

Heavy standing ab rope pulldowns

The guys getting ready for the Pro-Am were doing reverse band squats with the monster minis, briefs only, working up to a single:

Nate Strong: 775
Nate Gretsky: 685
Anthony Gualtieri: 645
Mark Fleming: 555 (raw)
Melissa Henry: 535
Jerry O: 735

A third group was doing heavy cambered bar box squats onto a foam pad, working up to a heavy single:

Chewy: 735
Mike: 775

Here’s video from last week and this week: