A Bench Log, Yes it's Come to This

Training Training Logs
541

4/9 - Very light accessory lower body

4/12 - Long warmup. Deadlift, up to 585 for a pretty good single. Video below.

Speed pulls and upper back work to finish off. One more heavy pull this weekend then it’s time off until the meet

4/14 - Bench. 405 for 3 singles!! VERY long term goal and just smashed it today. Previous PR was 395 with no pause. When you have been training for as long as I have, days like this don’t come very often. As much as this number sucks, I am proud of it because it’s mine and I have worked like a dog for it. Heavy speed bench and pin presses followed up. Went out to a big dinner with mexican food and beer to celebrate. What can I hit at the meet?

542

Overall another very good week of training. Will update fully when I can but for now the big stuff.

Deadlift - up to 605, faster, cleaner pull than the 585 a week ago.

Bench - up to 420! A 15LB PR and a 25LB PR from the start of this training cycle!

All the big lifts are done now, just time to ease up a bit and rest/eat before the meet. Have video of both lifts, will do my best to get them up.

543

All heavy training is done. I pulled last saturday at about 80% and it felt terrible. Just need to rest and eat now. Have some treatment scheduled for next Monday.

Getting anxious and excited. This was a long block and I’m excited to see what happens. Either way, it was a great 15 week block. 25lb bench PR and a very easy deadlift after going through yet another setback.

544

In

545

Meet report:

Eh. I had fun. Not as enjoyable to me as strongman or highlands games but I will do another one. Still want a raw elite total at 275.

Squat - Left knee felt terrible warming up. I stuck with my original plan from when I first hurt them. Hit a 330lb token opener and scratched the next 2.

Bench: Last warmup of 365 was smoking fast. Opener of 385 good. Second at 410, miss, got out of the groove. Third at 435, miss, just to heavy. I had the guys helping me call my third. They asked how the 410 felt and I told them “light”. I personally would have called for 425 but I can’t be mad at them, I would have flipped out if I hit it. It was not far off, but it was too much.

Deads: Felt horrible in warm ups. My ass was cramping at 135 and I was getting dizzy. This is now 9:00 at night. Got better as it got heavier. Opener of 585 good, super fast. 610 second, good, looked better than the first. 633 third attempt good, just about a max for this day.

In the end I did not accomplish my goals. I wanted 420 or higher on bench and higher than 650 on the dead. The bench was there, the dead was not. I met some great people and had fun. I am not injured. These are all good things.

I am now looking at a strongman comp 4 weeks from now. Will try out some of the events this week, if they are within range I’ll train for it, if not then I am going to run the cube for 10 weeks and look at another PL meet later in August.

5/11 - upper body

push jerk; up to 285 for 6, just missed 7

db bench; 60x20,75x10,100x10, 130x7

standing strict bb press; 185x6x3

546

5/14

short warmup

axle cleans; up to 255, miss 265

cont axle cleans; went back down and worked back up. 265 easy, 280 miss. back down again for some sets at 245 and 265

leg curls; 3 setes of 12

ghr; 3 sets of 6

5/16 - events

axle deadlift; felt terrible. was the third time pulling in 7 days and for me, that is way too much. up to and ugly 425

farmer walk/keg carry medley; pretty light weights, 6 or 7 total runs.

That was it. I was shot. Fat kid is out of shape.

5/19 - back to benchin

First day of the CUBE. I want to keep working with Josh but until I get these knees fixed I am wasting my money. Will try the cube for something different and see how it goes. I am going to run as planned but the squat day will be replaced by rehab/prehab and lower body accessory work. I will deload after every 3 weeks.

Rep bench

comp bench with pause; 295x8x2, 275x8
close grip bench; 295x6x2
bench with pause 1" off chest; 260x6x2

That was BRUTAL. All the pausing really took it out of me and fried my triceps.

Lat pulldown; 4 sets of 15
Dumbbell laterals; 3 sets 10
Chin ups; 3 sets of 7

I was very tired at the end of the session but did not feel beat up. Overall pretty happy and a good first day.

547

Have continued to train. Eating has been terrible. Week 8 of 10 week cube cycle.

Hit a 380 bench at 95% of max. Deads are in the toilet. Knees feeling better, squat back up to a pretty easy 405 with no wraps and no major residual knee pain. Switching gears a bit for a highland games show soon.

Training from Saturday;

Log - 250x5 - 1 clean, 5 presses. Log 250x3, clean and press each rep. Cleans are shotty, press is strong. Cardio is HORRIBLE. Rep work after this.

Stone over bar - 250 x 5 no tacky, 350x5 easy, some singles and doubles after this. Strongest the stone has ever felt for me, and technical for some reason.

Prowler - 4 runs of 120ft sprints