Squat
Group 1: Vogelpohl, Pegg, Fleming
Suspended chain squats for these guys today.  Didn’t see exactly what they worked up to, Chuck took it somewhat easy today after a heavy couple of weeks, while Pegg went heavier after squeezing himself into a pair of Chuck’s briefs, and finishing with a few sets in his suit.  Mark got to squat with the big boys today and hung in there.

Group 2: Sengos, Johnston, Chewy, Schwab
Free squats with hanging purple bands for this group, as all are doing the July meet (push/pull for Chewy).  Johnston just took 1005 for a ride 5 days ago at the APF Seniors, and wisely shut it down early after getting some work in.  He’ll get back to the meet cycle next week.  Chewy went to a box today, working up to 805 for a double in briefs.  Sengos and Schwab put their suits on for the last 2-3 singles and finished 25-50 lbs heavier than their planned 3rd attempts, with Sengos finishing at 795 and Schwab finishing with 975.  Hot as balls in the gym in just clothes, full gear made it miserable and ran us out of gas.

The usual Friday crew was also in there, my brain shut down when I was done squatting, no idea who did what but they were free squatting in gear to openers for the July meet.

Deadlift
Chuck, Pegg, Chewy, and Fleming pulled from the floor today, but Chuck had them pause for a 2 count just below the knees, and then finish the pull.  It looked brutal on the back, and forced you to work through what is a normal sticking point by removing any momentum you get from the floor.  They worked up to around 600.

Everyone finished with some ab work and other accessory work and quickly sought water and cool air.

Group 2: Chewy, Billings, Schwab, Gualtieri, Tattoo
Hanging purple bands for these guys onto a box.  This is a deload week for Schwab as he starts heavy squatting for July meet next week, so he worked up to a double of 705 and bowed out.  The rest continued on and finished with a heavy single to a higher box, with Chewy hitting 875 to finish.

Group 3: Henry, Fleming, Gretsky, Earl, new guy
Free squat in gear for this group, as a few are also getting ready for July and worked up to near openers.

Deadlift
Most everyone then did speed pulls against double monster mini bands for singles.  Most worked up to 4 or 5 plates, Billings took 6 and tore a callous, Chuck worked to 7 plates.

Everyone finished with various accessory work, including ab work, shrugs, and some hip work.

Bench Day
Group 1: Wenning, Mello, Hauss, Meyers
This group, with the exception of Meyers, are a little over a week out from the APF Seniors, so they worked up to about 50% in their shirts just to keep a feel.  Wenning finally has his Ace dialed in, should hit a big bench if things goes as planned.  They followed up with some cable pulls and various other back work

Group 2: Chewy, Jerry O, Strong, Gaultieri
Benching into foam blocks for these guys.  I didn’t see exactly what everyone worked up to, but Chewy hit 5 plates raw with a closer than competition grip.  They then did some suspended kettlebell benching with the football bar, and various other back and tricep work to finish

Group 3: Johnston, Schwab, Dague
Dague is 2 weeks out from his bench meet, so today was his last heavy shirted day, and worked up to the range of an opener of 535.  Mikey worked up to 5 plates off a 3-board, shoulder is getting stronger but no point in an injury this far out from the July meet.  Schwab took 555 and 585 to the chest to get some full range work in, since his issues are usually at the bottom of through middle of the lift.  They followed this up with close grip bench off the 3-bard, 3 plates for 3 sets of 5, and finished with pulldowns and various other back work.

Squat
Group 1: Chewy, Dague, Tat, Schwab, Johnston
Box squats against single blue band on each side using the buffalo bar.  Chewy is working his way back, so he kept it somewhat light to get reps in.  Tat worked up to 4 plates for doubles and finished with 4 and a quarter for a grinding single.  Schwab took a few doubles with 5 plates then added a 6th plate for a single to finish.  Dague worked with 4 plates for singles in his suit.  Johnston is working on depth in his suit, so he went suit only and worked up to 6 plates for a single, then took a couple doubles at 4 plates and paused in the hole to feel the pressure.

Group 2: Gualtieri, Fleming
These guys went with lightened method using hanging monster minis, taking singles on the box.   From what I remember, they finished in the 6-7 plate range.

Deadlift
Pin pulls from pin 5, working up to a max single.  Chewy hit a PR at 815, Schwab a PR At 855.  Johnston finished at 795, then decided to make a jump with Schwab instead of Chewy since he lost track of the weight.  Wrong choice this time.  Gualtieri finished with 745, two times in a row he’s been strong from this pin height.

Chewy, Johnston, and Dague then did some back raises with the SSB on shoulders.  Abs and shrugs to finish.

Groups were shuffled around this week as a few guys were deloading for the Iron House, and a few guys squatted on Friday this week.

Group 1: Vogelpohl, Strong, Roush
These guys went with the lightened method using monster mini-bands and added monster chains to the bar.  They took 5 work sets for doubles without a box, and Chuck added a box for a couple of heavy sets in the 900′s to finish.  With this setup, the bands tend to pull you forward, while the heavy chain weight swings hard if you aren’t under control, so it is important to remain tight and under control both at the top and bottom of the squat or you’ll get knocked off balance.

Group 2: Henry, Halter, Gretsky
Suspended chains for this group, with the chains set at parallel.  5 works sets of 2, I didn’t catch exactly what weights were used but I know they were supposed to stay somewhat moderate and not too heavy in order to work on form.

Group 3: Dague, Fleming, Tattoo Dave
These guys also used monster minis for the lightened method, but went with a box and straight weight for doubles.  Fleming finished with a strong double around 690, Dague somewhere in the same range

Group 4: Schwab, Gualtieri, Murph
These guys are a week out from the Iron House, so they put on their suits for a few very moderate singles.  Anthony and Murph worked up to 4 plates, Schwab finished with 6.  They all finished with some light accessory work, had some fun with knee wraps, and called it a day

Deadlift
Speed pulls against monster minis for most of the groups, stopping somewhere in the 3-4 plate range.  Chuck’s group went heavier to work on form, particularly lockout, with heavier weight and “strong” band tension at the top.  These guys are short though, so you can barely feel the bands at that height!

Reverse hypers, shrugs, back raises, and ab work for most everyone to finish up.

The floor press was the movement of the day, with Wenning and Panora going with chains, and Chewy’s group going with monster mini-bands looped around based of power rack.  Wenning worked up to 500 lbs bar weight with 200 lbs in chains, while Panora worked up to 425 bar weigh + 200 lbs in chains.  Chewy finished with 405 +  the bands.

Schwab and Dague did some moderate shirt work on the bench, as Schwab is a week out from the Iron House and needed to work out some kinks.  The kinks are not fully worked out, some meet day adjustments will be needed.

Triceps

For tricep work, the floor press groups did a few sets with their grips moved in and added some reps.  I believe Chewy’s group removed the bands too and did straight weight.

Most everyone finished up with various back and shoulder work, including pulldowns, face pulls, and db raises.

Group 1: Vogelp0hl, Wenning, Panora, Fought
The general setup for these guys was a blue band side.   But they ended up doing things slightly different, as Greg and Matt squatted into the giant foam block for doubles with plate weight with the bands, working up to 7 plates per side and bands for doubles.  The Chucks free squatted and added a monster chain per side with the blue band, taking doubles.  These guys were followed by Strong, Jerry O, Hauss, and Roush.

Group 2: Johnston, Meyers, Schwab, Dague
Johnston and Schwab started the next phase of their cycle for the Iron House, Dague and Jeremiah joined in for some hanging monster-miniband free squats with briefs and suits.  Jeremiah is battling some injuries and wisely shut it down early.  Dague worked up to a nice 800.  Schwab finished with 950.  Johnston was fighting his suit, and after not hitting depth at 860, switched to Dague’s Leviathan and looked much better with singles of 860, 910, 950, and finished with a somewhat shaky 1000 as he got off-balance, but came up with the weight.   Nothing like trying out unfamiliar gear with 860 on your back.

Group 3: Henry, Fleming, Gualtieri, Gretsky
This group used the foam cushion on the box, and chains setup to the floor, for doubles.  And for a change, they finished squatting before another group.

Deadlift
Straight weight deadlifts from the floor, using competition stance, for singles.  Most everyone stopped well short of a max except for the group doing the Iron House, who worked up to close to openers.

Powerpohl
No Powerpohl for me this week, so I didn’t see the exact setup, but several groups did it after pulling.  I believe the setup was 2 plates on the pole and then chains hanging off the end and dragging, for 30 yard trips.

Most everyone finished up with ab work and shrugs.

Group 2: Schwab, Roush
This was a deload week for this “group” after 3 weeks of circa max, and Johnston deloaded by driving to South Carolina.   These guys took 525 for 5 sets of doubles, free squat, raw.  Schwab put on a newly altered suit for the last 2 sets to check the fit, as it”s briefs and suit and heavy weight next week for these guys, heading into the Iron House stretch run.

Group 3: Henry, Murph, Gulatieri, Gretsky, Fleming
Hanging monster minibands for this group.  It appeared that most of these guys worked up to 6 plates or so, but I lost track as they squatted for a good 2 hours, so they must’ve been taking 5 lb jumps from set to set.

Powerpohl
No pulling this week for most of the group, as the Powerpohl made an appearance with the warm weather.  This week it was 3-4 plates on the pole, walking backwards for 3 trips of 30 yards.  This really blew up the lower back and hamstrings, as we haven’t used this in awhile since it’s hard to find the space inside the gym for a good setup.

Hauss and Strong did some ultrawide sumo pulls with fairly light weight to work on hip strength, sets of 5.   At these guys’ heights, ultrawide looked like close stance to me.

Reverse hypers, kettlebell shrugs, and ab work to finish up.

The afternoon guys went with a similar setup, but used long chains instead of the hanging bands.  We stuck with a bar weight of 155 and added chains as we went, topping out at 155 bar weight + 255 in chains for sets of 5.

45 Degree Back raises
The morning guys used the light sand band behind the head, pausing for a 2 count at the top, then continuing to the next rep.  After the first few reps it is brutal trying to hold for the 2 count.  They did this for 3 sets of 10 reps.

I’m not exactly sure what additional accessory work the morning guys did, but I took the sled for a few trips since it was finally warm out, and we finished with grip work with the plate tree gripper, holding for a 5 count with thumbless grip, and then holding last set to failure.  Ab work today was on the decline bench with the 52lb kettlebell at chin.

Group 2: Johnston, Schwab
3rd and final week of Circa Max for this group, which was down to 2 guys today with no Dague or Chewy.  We replaced an older pair of blues with a brand new pair, giving us a pair of brand new blues, a pair of 2 week old blues, and a pair of week old greens.  The swap of blues was a huge increase in tension, so we wisely adjusted our plan.  Johnston took 335+ bands for 3 sets of 2 and 385+bands for 2 sets of 2.  Schwab was having trouble with setup, so he took 4 singles at 335+bands, finally dialing it in and hitting a 5th set of 335+bands for an easier double.  We left a little in the tank this week, and will deload next week before putting on the gear for a few weeks of lightened method.

Groups 3: Henry, Murph, Fleming, Gualtieri, Gretsky
This is the other group training for the Iron House, and they’re following our typical meet cycle, so today was their day to work to an opener in full gear.  Melissa Henry hit a pretty easy 475 in her loose suit, the rest of the group finished up in the mid-600′s.

Deadlift
Pin pulls from pin 5 today for singles.  Panora and Wenning both worked up to 855, Schwab hit 835, and Gualtieri nearly got himself a huge PR after some smack talk but couldn’t get 785 locked out.  He’s due for a nice deadlift PR at the Iron House.

Reverse hypers, shrugs, and abdominal work to finish up.  Sorry no video this week as our videographer was missing.