Also, bands on the deadlift was just killer. When I first started my weakest point was breaking the weight off the floor. There towards the end it was lockout and the bands really helped with that and forcing me to bring my hips in.

I see bands in any movement able to also aid different sticking spots. In the bench you really have to keep the bar moving so it helped me to speed up the bar as I moved really slow down and up. In the squat or deadlift if you have issues getting the hips in they really help with that.

I never really had problems off of the floor, except when I was in waaay too deep.
Eventually I found a sticking point right around my knees. Never worked through it though.

Started getting things together. Put down 2 sheets of 3/8 in plywood then put another 2 sheets on top of those cross ways and screwed them together. Makes for a good 8x8 base. Went over to Jesup yesterday and picked up some stuff. Got three sheets of 4x6 1/2in thick rubber mats. Wish they were 4x8 so I got the third one to cut to add in the missing area and have a little overlap over the plywood in one section so it's not so easy to stub the toes as you walk into the area. Their matting is top quality and grips really well.

The 7' 1500lbs bar is AWESOME!!! Damn sharp knurling and thick. Haven't had a chance to put on any weight on it yet as my weights are still at the old garage. I will be picking them up this week as I'm itching to use that bar. Also picked up a nice commercial grade incline, decline, flat bench rated to 1,000lbs. Should work great. While I was there I also saw this really heavy duty looking 45degree hyper machine. Checking it out I found that it has all sorts of adjustments and can go from a 45degree hyper to a straight forward roman chair. Then in between those settings I found one that made for a decent GHR. I was sold right there and then on that. Besides it's a Powertec and if Powertec is good enough for Jay Cutler it's good enough for me.


Here's some pictures of the flooring, bar, and hyper/roman/ghr in it's different settings and adjustments. Didn't get a chance to put the bench together yet.

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1/2in 4x6


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1500lbs Bar

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45degree

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roman

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GHR

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I love Jesup, mighty fine town.

Have you seriously been to Jesup, IA? Would highly recommend eating at Legacy's Sports Bar & Grill‎. Jesup Gym is pretty awesome. Rex Reinhart is the owner and was an oly lifter and still has several Highschool Basketball records standing from when he played in the early 70's. He stopped weightlifting when he shattered two of his lower vertebrate while performing the snatch I think it was. He's a big guy and still looks to have a lot of power in him.

He started Jesup gym I believe around 1985. You can workout there for $1 a day, buy tons of supplements from the shop and try out all the equipment he sells. He's got a HUGE warehouse filled to the top. Good quality stuff and cheap prices.

http://www.jesupgym.com/

Glad to hear things are starting to get better for you.

How's everything else in life?

Things are starting to get back to semi normal. We still have the long processes of giving our old house back to the bank now.

Best of luck w/that situation Jason. Are you taking a huge bath when this is all said and done or will insurance, etc help soften the blow mostly?

No insurance at all. It's either the bank will play nicely and take it back with no fight or they'll play hard ball and we have to go to an all out foreclosure and end up filing bankruptcy.

Been moving big rocks around, sandbag work, and using my first dragging sled I put together. Really wish I made a dragging sled a lot sooner. I love it and I can target the entire body with it. Mostly easy to put together. I think the hardest part was getting the old rusty bolts out. Several of them I had to get a pair of channel locks and really grip the hell out of them and bend them back and forth till they snapped in half. Second hardest thing I think was trying to get two pieces of roped tied off to identical lengths, at least for me it was.

Here's some pics of it:


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Week -20/Day 1

B/W:192

Time to complete workout:
???

Ass Bench
Push ups
3xmany

Band fly
4x15 w/ light bands

JM Press
1x15@bar
4x12@bar w/ light bands

Sled
several passes several ways

Comments
Need to get this started again. I figure I'm a good 20 weeks behind. By the time the Power rack gets here I should be fully ready to go full force.

Week -20/Day 2

B/W:not near enough

Time to complete workout:
30

Ass SQ/DL
deads
3x3@135
2x3@185
3x3@255

Unassisted Squats aka oddlift knee bends unassisted aka Steinborn Lift (the guy could do over 500 on this)
(Barbell Side Bend up to a squat to opposite side bend down (alternate starting side)
4x3 squat reps@135

Pull throughs
3x12 w/ average band

Peterson step-ups
2x10

Comments
That knurling on the new bar BITES. I still have nice diamond pattern marks in my hands. Felt really good to get the bar on my back though it was really light. The side bend part sucked a$$.