My goal was to get from a current 285 bench to a 315. I’m currently at week 4.
For those who have done this program, or Thibs if he peeks in here:
How do you know how much to progress your baseline poundage?
How many reps is reasonable in the first session of the High Stress day? I’ve put up anywhere from 7 to 17 reps, and I’m not sure that my 1RM is baselined well enough based on this variation.
Has anyone actually completed a 5x5 at the specified poundage for the second session of High Stress day? I am only capably of around 60% of 1RM for a 5x5 by this time.
What’s a good follow-up program to keep the gains?
This workout went much easier than the last high stress day. I moved up poundage on all exercises, and the drop sets required less spotting. I feel more in the groove too.
This started the third week of my high intensity, high volume bench press workouts. I started taking a few more supplements this week: Biotest Power Drive (neural stimulant), and Biotest Surge (post-workout recovery drink). The Power Drive seems to be giving me a supercharge in the first part of my workouts, but then it leaves me tanked by the end. The Surge is good stuff; it seems to soothe my blood sugar levels post-workout.
Overall, more progress was made this week. For my first set of “as many as possible” singles w. 30 sec. rest, I’m up both in poundage and reps from two weeks ago. I started two weeks ago at 250 * 14, and now I’m at 260 * 17.
I’ve also adapted somewhat to this workout, and I don’t spend much of the week sore at all. This shows me that I am capable of way more than I thought I was. Just the first session of this workout has more volume and total poundage than I did in a week with my previous workouts.
The brutality continues into week 4. I somehow missed the chemical combination that gets me super powers for the first set, so as opposed to last week’s 260 * 17 for the first set, I only got 265 * 7 today. All other poundages were up.
I’ve been upping the max weight by 5 pounds each week, and for this workout I used a 1RM of 295 for the calculations. I used 295 for eccentrics during my last workout and feel I can do one if I rested a few days beforehand. If this is true, then I have put on 10 pounds on my 1RM in 4 weeks. But I can’t really say so until I do it.
There have definitely been some major changes to my body in the four weeks though. I have definitely put on a little size up top, and my recovery is much faster. Gained a few pounds, but probably some of that is fat.
Thanks for the thread, I’m in virtually the exact same place as you, within five pounds of your max and with the same goal. Doing 5x5 now, have been eyeing the Thibadeau bench program for a while though, may do it down the line.
[quote]GDollars37 wrote:
Thanks for the thread, I’m in virtually the exact same place as you, within five pounds of your max and with the same goal. Doing 5x5 now, have been eyeing the Thibadeau bench program for a while though, may do it down the line.[/quote]
It’s an asskicker! Coincidentally, I was just eyeing 5x5 as the follow-on program after a few weeks of deloading.