Halfway Routine Review

This article is a follow-up to Two by Two Powerlifting Training Plan - 2016; Pre-Contest Routine, Weeks 1-6 of 12.

I just finished Week 6 of my 12-week Pre-Contest Powerlifting Training Routine. I am thus halfway through it, and it is going great. I have already tied or bettered 50s PRs for most of the exercises for which I already had 50s PRs. New exercises for which I do not yet have 50s PRs have also been going very well. This means the changes I made to my routine that I detailed in my Routines Review and Preview have been working. It also means the new home gym equipment I’ve purchased of late have all proven to be good investments. For details, see New Home Gym Equipment. And with six training weeks left to go before my next contest, APF/ AAPF Ohio States on September 10, 2016 in Mansfield, Ohio, I am hopeful I will see further progress. Here’s trusting the LORD that will be the case.

However, what has not going well is my morning cardio. I have been hitting a heavy bag inside in my home gym twice a week and going for walks outside on two opposite days (see Cardio Logs - January through June 2016 and July through December 2016). But I am always taking a chance walking outside as a myriad of things can happened to cause me problems due to my allergies and multiple chemical sensitivities, leaving me in an allergic reaction the rest of the day. But that half an hour walk twice a week is usually the only time I get outside, so I was trying to continue to do it. But I’ve had too many problems of late to continue to do so. As such, I am going to go back to doing what I did back in the mid-00s when I first set up my home gym: step-ups on a 11” high box and/ or jumping rope inside in my home gym.

But this change will work out well. Along with hitting the heavy bag twice a week in the mornings, I’ve been doing a couple of minor (isolation) lifting exercises. Such exercises work well as part of my morning cardio, as I do higher reps (8-15) and rest much less between sets (30-60 seconds) for them than for the powerlifts and other major exercises I do in my regular lifting workouts in the late afternoon. For those I do 1-7 reps with 2-5 minutes rest. I also do not get psyched up for minor exercises like I do for the powerlifts and related lifts. Plus, moving these minor exercises to the mornings helped to shorten my regular lifting workouts.

Thus now I will move some other minor exercises to the mornings after the twice weekly step-ups and jumping rope. These again are exercises for which I do higher reps, take short rest times, do not get psyched up for, and moving them should further shorten my regular lifting workouts, which have still been taking a bit too long. For what I’m planning on doing, see the updated Workouts Summary page.

Two minor exercises I will be doing are standing and sitting calves raises. I never thought the latter was important for powerlifters, but I’ve been noticing my calves are sorer after squat and deadlifts workouts with my legs bent than straight, so the soleus must be involved in those lifts somehow. Here is a good article in this regard: A Unique Look at Building Calves.

A minor exercise I have been doing on deadlift days is side bends, also sitting and standing. But being a pull exercise, they are best done on deadlift days. Thus in the mornings, I will instead do crunch-side-bend combos, on a flat bench now in this routine and then on a decline bench in my next Post-Contest Routine.

For my workouts using this updated plan and up until my next contest, see Two by Two Powerlifting Training Plan - 2016; Pre-Contest Routine, Weeks 7-12 of 12.

Powerlifting and Back Pain

The first book is geared towards the beginner to intermediate powerlifter. It presents sound training, competition, dietary, and supplement advice to aid the reader in starting and progressing in the sport of powerlifting. The second book details how I overcame years of crippling low back and was able to return to the sport of powerlifting.

Starting and Progressing in Powerlifting: A Comprehensive Guide to the World's Strongest Sport

Overcoming Back Pain: A Mind-body Solution (Second Edition)