Wade Hanna

The bench grips go 18"-20"-22"-24" with two sets at each grip then a triple at the same weight with my competition grip. I take 2-3 singles with a pause at about 80% at the end of each bench session. To help with low-end power I do two sets of Cambered bar presses with my training weight after the singles. Unfortunately we lost the Cambered bar about halfway through the cycle so we had to substitute illegal wide grips (not as effective). I am going to experiment with some things on my current set-up to alleviate the loss of the low-end burst.
Week three starts the Deadlift “peak” so to speak. The rest period is minimal and basically, the time it took us to change the weight and get set was as long as our rest was. This is a torture test so be prepared if you try this out. The end result is awesome but, 15 times is a task. I think it would be easier to do 3x5 but, doing the singles you have to go through your set-up each time and mentally you get drained. This turns out to be a good thing though as the weights get heavier. The second Deadlift session I was a little nervous about being beltless since I cracked 500. I put the belt on but, I wore it loose. After this day we started to incorporate our suits into the sessions. We were coming up on the meet and figured we should get accustomed to the feel. We both DL in our squat suits except my brother uses a Champion suit and I have an Inzer suit (I have a Z-suit for squats but, I don’t like to wear it any more than necessary...something about legs and bruising). The 75% and 80% days were straps down and belts cinched up. These are not as taxing as the first days because you get done soooo much quicker. It almost makes the lifts easy. The last day at 85% is full gear...straps up and belts down. This is an ego booster when you rip a big weight 6 times and don’t feel like you are really working for it. The mental difference from the marathon sessions at the beginning is awesome.
Just a few points to touch on and I will wrap this up. I highly endorse the Pulley pull throughs. This is simply to take a handle on a seated row machine and face away from the stack with the cable between your legs. I know, it looks like you are cupping some important objects but really...you hold the handle. Once you are situated take a couple steps away from the apparatus and to perform a rep you just bend at the waist and let the weight pull back between your legs. Balancing takes a little practice and I don’t advise standing behind your partner, unless you like that kind of view ;-o. I let my knees bend ever so slightly and just round the back a tad at the extreme bottom. Be careful with the weight until you get the feel of it and see how it affects your hammies and lumbasaurus rex. Personally, I really like this move. In weeks 3,4,&5 we replaced the seated good mornings with these since we got a good feel from them.
A minor change I would make having the benefit of hindsight would be; changing the trap bar shrugs for reps to the first portion of the cycle and putting the heavy BB shrugs at the end. Some people don’t like the BB shrug but, I find them very helpful for the lockout of the DL not to mention keeping my upper back arched and solid throughout the squat. Also, I would allow a little more time to get some shirt work in at the end. We had to sacrifice some of the bench assitance days and a speed day for some actual shirted benching. I think this time around I may just do the speed days with the shirt and add about 40-50 lbs per set. Not too sure how I am going to attack that one yet.
Well, there it is. I tried to explain what things may have been a little shaky from just looking at the write-up. I passed over talking about all of it because, as some already know, I am not the briefest of people when it comes to talking about weights. My overall consensus of the results is pretty positive. Our next set-up is 11 Louie Weeks and is another push/pull. We will both BP and DL and I am planning a test of the squat routines’ effectiveness.
In November of 98' we will test the set-up for a full meet. Both of us are relatively new to competition so we are focusing on a solid foundation before we get hardcore on competing. The meets right now are more tests to see where things are at. I plan on keeping a running update of the progress with Louie’s training theories. Coupled with the Dinosaur factor I see big gains and some unexpected clothing bills. I hope I have been clear in my explanations of this set-up and covered what needed to be covered. If anything is unclear or I didn’t touch on anything feel free to put up a question on the GOHEAVY.COM Training forum or e-mail me directly. I will do what I can to help answer any questions and I would like to have any suggestions or ideas from other users of the Louie system. There are an infinite number of combinations to use for this type of training. It is just a matter of finding where you are weak and how to attack that area. Working the weak spots is no fun and even a bit discouraging (the weights drop quite noticeably) but, it is well worth putting aside your ego and working them because a 10-15lb gain in a mid-point weak spot equates to more than that in the full motion. So until the next installment train smart, be strong, and good liftin’!

-wade


Wade Hanna is a former High-School and Collegiate football player (Middle Linebacker and Nose guard) who was involved in Track & Field throwing events as well (Shot, Discus, Javelin). After College he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps where he worked in Corrections. A weightlifter since the age of 14 Wade is a recent addition to competitive Powerlifting. Bitten by the competitive bug he competes in the #275 weight class with hopes of advancing to the #319. Married and the father of one daughter Wade currently works for the Michigan Senate.

Want to discuss this with other lifters?

Then click here: