Newbie to Sport, Need help with gear and workout

[TheRhino]

I first want to say that I have been on alot of forums and this looks like the most knowlegable one I have ever come across. I hope I get the same response and help some of these other guys do. First of all my background: I am 29 years old 243lb, 5'10" and BF%17. I am a burned out bodybuilder of 10 years who honestly lost his motivation for the last 2 of those 10 years. I have been back in the gym for about 3 weeks consistently and my no belt, no wrap, raw max is 345. Tried 365 next attempt and got stuck about 1/2 the way up. This really sparked something in me as to remember being able to rep 365 6x's at my peak. I am also drugfree.

I have read alot on belt selection and workouts from DocSust and really had some questions. I want to work my way up to competing in a local raw bench comp in 7 weeks. I have outgrown my other equipment so I need a belt and wrist and knee wraps to start. As a bodybuilder I just bought whatever the local sports store sold and never got really technical about it, but I see that powerlifting is serious business when it comes to equipment selection.

Also if anyone had any suggestions about a routine. I had one from the Beverly International Site (been using their products for 10 years) based on the matrix system. I appreciate the help in advance.

[TheRhino]

Was it something I said? HA HA. Have pretty much narrowed it down to an inzer belt, do not know wether to go with lever or single prong, red docsust remarks in another post put did not see which one would be the better. Just want one and I am going to be doing full power meets after this raw bench comp.

Today I did the posted routine from DocSust "Ryan Kenelly Modified Bench..." Went as follows

-Flat BP 285x3 made all 6 sets with good form and ease (starting at week 3 70% as I am 6 weeks out)
-Close Grip BP pinkys on ring 225x5 both sets easy
-Used the walk out rack and put a bench under it and did 2 sets with 225 for 5
-Lied on the floor and did 2 sets of floor presses for 5 reps with 225

Did not know were my strength would be so used this as a gauge. Took 30 mins to do all work. No wraps no belt. Now here is were I am stuck, what to do these other days till sat. Going to search some posts and see. Wrist and knee wraps, metal, titan or inzer? Any opinions?

[scottish]

I think your on the right track. Might want to check out some of the westside stuff for the rest of your core lifts.

[TheRhino]

Thanks Scottish for the reply.

I am looking into all the training. Workout with a coworker this moring and did a shoulder biceps routine 3 exercises each 3 sets of 6.

Doing some searching on West Side but have not had much luck. Read the article in the forum but don't have bands or chains, it looks like you can only dance around having that equipment so far in the routine. I would be interested in buying some bands or making my own chains if you know of any good sites I can go to.

Still researching belts and wraps, I guess I am just going to have to go for it and buy something. Going to hold off on a bench shirt and such till figure out what federation I will try to compete in. I live in WNC so any suggestions would be great.
Thanks again

[quarry206]

i don't know how far you are into bodybuilding when you did it.. BUT.. and this is a big BUT/IF/MAYBE .. some body buildiers build up an endurance level pretty high for their 50-70 perent range... so u might not be feeling the pump u think u need from the workout because you are so use to reping hard and fast at these weight ranges....

if this is the case two things, you will start to feel it alot more once you past the 75percent range, second u might want to really focus hard on form pauses and items like that.. for that is where you will have the biggest problem switching from a BB workout to powerlifting workout..

other than that i don't think i can be much help (if that helped at all anyways)

keep us posted.. some body buildiers switch to powerlifting and explode (jeremy hoornstra comes to mind) .. but most really have problems and have issues learning how to change their workout.. let the guys here help they helped me and i went from using a BB type workout (not that i was one) for years to now benching raw 2.25 times my body weight, and i honestly think the people on this forum deserve 90 percent of the credit for helping me do that...

[TheRhino]

You hit the nail on the head. I noticed on my reps when I paused that explosion was not there that I will need to take that bar from a dead stop to where it needs to be, and the pump was not there. I can tell you have been there.

Any workout suggestions you can make would be helpful as it seems we come from similar backgrounds, and any advise on a belt, I am having a real hard time with unbiased information on that subject. I have decided to go with titan titanium wrist and knee wraps, but still no belt help.

Thanks

[scottish]

I got my belt and wraps from Inzer. I like the snap buckle. Just snap it and its locked in place.

[Doc.Sust]

belt, inzer lever, best on the market, about 60 bucks, good for all three lifts

wraps, i prefer metal, but inzer,titan and APT wraps are fine for raw work

gear slection isnt as important for raw lifters as it is for equiped, dont worry about the equip now, we can work on all that later

kenelly routine is a great starter raw routine for the raw press, keep up with it,

do you plan on doing all 3 lifts or just the press?

go to www.elitefts.com read the lifters training logs and the exercise index to understand what they are doing, i dont want you to do westside, especially if you plan on going raw, but familiarize yourself with their methods. it will help break you out of thinking like a body builder and give you new exercises to choose from. also read ALL the articles you can on the site, dont try to memorize them, just get an idea, westside, isnt written in stone. it is a template, not an exact program. it changes and evolves all the time. it is different for everyone, depending on your weaknesses and what works for you. learn the principles and later you will find what works specificaly for you

[TheRhino]

I plan on doing all three lifts. Like I said in the post I am going to enter a Bench Press comp on 10/30 at the local gym just to get a little taste of comp.

Going to pick up an inzer lever belt and some wraps today on the net. Will be ordering direct unless any of you have any suggestions on another distrubitor. I have looked and looked but after shipping it comes out about the same.

After reading alot of posts it looks like the 13mm is a good one to have for all 3 lifts. Am I correct on that? I will wait till this afternoon to order the belt so get back to me on your thoughts on this.

Thanks Doc for the advice. I had read a few of the logs already, and I will go back and pick a couple I like out. My long term goal is to compete in raw and equipped.

Thanks again for the advice and I will keep you up to date on my training as I am going to plan it out this weekend.

[Doc.Sust]

I plan on doing all three lifts. Like I said in the post I am going to enter a Bench Press comp on 10/30 at the local gym just to get a little taste of comp.

Going to pick up an inzer lever belt and some wraps today on the net. Will be ordering direct unless any of you have any suggestions on another distrubitor. I have looked and looked but after shipping it comes out about the same.

After reading alot of posts it looks like the 13mm is a good one to have for all 3 lifts. Am I correct on that? I will wait till this afternoon to order the belt so get back to me on your thoughts on this.

Thanks Doc for the advice. I had read a few of the logs already, and I will go back and pick a couple I like out. My long term goal is to compete in raw and equipped.

Thanks again for the advice and I will keep you up to date on my training as I am going to plan it out this weekend.

i like the 13mm for squating and deadlifting, i like pressing with the 10 mm, but i know alot of people who use just a regular old belt or no belt at all. start out raw, compete raw for awhile, and than when you feel ready, switch to equipment, than youhave to make the decission single ply contest or multi ply contests, again dont worry about any of that now.

[TheRhino]

I ordered a 13mm Lever Belt, Inzer wrist wraps 36", and the Inzer Knee Wraps 2.5m, looked at knee wraps and read alot of reviews about how good the apt and metals were but apt has like 4 kinds and most people just were the metals in meets thus my decision to go with the inzer. I figure I can buy a pair of metals later just for meets. Formulating my training plan today. Will keep everyone posted on progress and thanks for the help.

[RJstrong]

I ordered a 13mm Lever Belt, Inzer wrist wraps 36", and the Inzer Knee Wraps 2.5m, looked at knee wraps and read alot of reviews about how good the apt and metals were but apt has like 4 kinds and most people just were the metals in meets thus my decision to go with the inzer. I figure I can buy a pair of metals later just for meets. Formulating my training plan today. Will keep everyone posted on progress and thanks for the help.

good choices here! keep us posted so we can throw in some input on training. just a real quick tip that has worked for me over the years... i tend to warm up to 3 work sets of 5's, triples, doubles, or singles. basically attempting to beat my PR's weekly. i also like to squat, bench, and pull on a weekly basis (just a personal preference). I always take 3 days off every week... my mindset is as follows: if you train hard enough you need 3 days rest per week. that may be one of the hardest things to change up coming from a bodybuilding style training mode. anyway bro, good luck and keep lifting big! we are here to support ya!!!