Used straps on most of the top sets this time. Hit nothing special but still improving week on week pretty much across the board. Dumbbell row PR is 18x35 so glad to be closing in on that when doing it as a second exercise, I think I’ll beat it next time. Not sure whether I prefer the hammer row or lat pull-down as a second lat exercise. There’s also a hammer low row machine I want to try too.
Very intense throughout. By the time I got to the hammer press I was already spent otherwise I think I’d be in for another PR. I haven’t pushed the shoulder pressing as hard as today before.
What I was calling close grip bench the last two times was actually a JM press, I just didn’t know that was a thing. With actual close grip bench my chest was failing before my triceps so I was doing a sort of skullcrusher/press hybrid instead. I had an idea it was an actual exercise but only found out its name today after some Googling.
Easing myself back into legs and don’t want killer DOMS for the next few days so kept it light and easy. Squats I need to build back up technically anyway and the good news is today’s felt pretty good.
Not the best session: head wasn’t in it and all I had consumed today was an half my intra-workout 10 mins before. Put an asterisk next to the dumbbell row topset because those weren’t 17 good reps, the last five were probably half reps.
Those single arm lat pull-downs were great, got the tip from @samul - thanks for that. It meant my back fatigued before my grip with the dumbbell rows which is a first and I had to drop the weight a lot too. Rack pulls felt rubbish: the lowest height I can use is right on my knee cap and I just can’t get them working. The gym used to have blocks that were a good height but couldn’t find them. I’ll probably swap it with barbell rows next time, probably in the smith machine because I can feel a better contraction in my upper back.
I’m in your same spot with rack pulls. Lately I’ve been doing them in the smith machine, set to the lowest pin. Have you tried that? I found it to be a good compromise, and the movement feels pretty much the same.
I considered it but thought that not having to pull the bar towards me like with a barbell would involve my back less. I’ll give it a try if it’s serving you well. Using blocks feels good for me but it’s a pain to set up, mostly because I’m lazy.
With the smith machine, you can focus on using your lat to push the bar towards yourself as you’re pulling up. It won’t move, of course, but that’s good to engage your lats. You actually can’t do that with a regular deadlift, or not as much, as your scrape your skin off with the bar, haha.
On a similar note, I found that doing Smith-Machine overhead presses makes it possible to engage your delts really well by means of pushing the bar forward against the rails as you’re pushing up, in a similar way than I described for the rack pull. The rails just allow you to apply force diagonally as opposed to just vertically, yet still have a straight up and down bar path.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll try it next week. What sort of height do you find best to pull from? In terms of back development that is.
My favourite way to overhead press is in the smith machine. It’s always felt really shoulder focussed vs dumbbells or a barbell and that might be why actually.
Good workout again and very happy with the PRs. Will probably do the chest press before pec deck every time in future. Not sure about JM press so might try something else.
Good session again. Single arm lat pull-down was even better than last week, absolutely toasted my lats. Also while not an all-time PR, I improved on dumbbell rows from last week so another win there. There’s no way I’m going to beat all-time PRs yet doing those pull-downs first. Only negative is I didn’t get to do a rack pull - I wanted to use the smith machine but it was busy all workout and all the barbells were at the end too. Regardless my back is still very tired so it probably wasn’t needed.
Overhead pressed in the smith machine instead of with dumbbells because it was busy. Did bench press because some university friends are visiting on Saturday and want to go to the gym where we will no doubt bench. We always have a bit of friendly completion who can bench the most but I haven’t benched since December. I figured one session will at least help a little bit anyway. Also did a little less this workout than usual and as a second workout today rather than tomorrow so I’m more recovered by Saturday.
I went to the gym with my old university friends on Saturday and bench pressed. I could hardly move 70kg (1RM is 90kg) and my friend I normally compete with got 95kg pretty easy for a 5kg PR. I was hungover, my chest was still sore from my last push session and I had only benched once or twice this year so I’ve got a nice list of excuses BUT this has lit a fire in me to get my bench back up.
The goal is at least 100kg by early December - my uni term finishes then and we usually all meet up for a gym session. This gives me 15 weeks of prep. I have written a plan using 5/3/1 where I will be benching once a week. First cycle is 5s pro with 5x10@ ~57% (just to get 40kg), second is 5s pro with 5x6 FSL, deload week, third cycle is PR sets with 5x3 SSL and final is PR sets with 5x1 LSL. Assistance to start will be one set to failure of a chest press, shoulder press, lateral raises and triceps. During the last two cycles I will be trying to gain weight so the training is planned to be slightly harder and I may add extra sets of assistance depending how I feel. There’s one extra week after cycle four where I’ll work up to my TM for a rep PR and then do a cluster set of singles with it. Aim is to build up lots of fatigue and get comfortable with the heavy weight, deload the next week then 1RM the week after.
The only hitch is I’m aiming to lose weight again until early October which is during the first two cycles and obviously isn’t ideal. However I’m expecting strength to come back to the 80kg-90kg range quickly from neurological and technique gains, hence lots of reps but light weight. The other thing is I’m going AGAINST 5/3/1 principles and adding 5kg to my TM each time. Reason being I want the weights to get heavy relative to my 1RM rather than building strength across a range of rep ranges and I expect strength to come quick initially like I just mentioned. I’ll adjust as I go along if necessary and if it bites me in the back, so be it
5/3/1 and 1 time a week benching seems pretty little for only 15 weeks of prep in my book. Then agsin you didn’t bench in quite some time, so theoretically gains will be fast.