Monday, January 14 - Main bench day - deload
Bench press - paused
300x2x2 - time to start pausing comp. benches again, plus adding a couple sets.
Floor press
270x3x2
Close grip incline
180x8x2
Floor pause DB fly
45’sx8x2
Band puhdown
light bandx8, super mini w/knot x10
Chin ups - wide overhand
bw x6x3 - didn’t feel anything weird in my left lat, whatever was going on seems to have passed. Or so I hope.
Tuesday, January 15 - main squat day
Squat w/ wraps
450x2x2 - first set both reps were right on the borderline, maybe good maybe not but close at worst. 2nd set I made the necessary adjustment and hit depth on both reps. Probably a warmup set in wraps would have helped but the weight is light, I squatted 415 in sleeves and went straight to 450. The funny thing is that it’s harder to squat to depth than it is to lift the weight (due to wraps and mobility issues), the bar flew right up. I figured out exactly what I need to do to hit depth, I need to push my hips back just slightly and when I’m about 3/4 of the way down I drop fast and catch a big bounce. Now I just need to do that with 600 and I can say that I accomplished something.
I will start posting videos once I lift something worthy of attention, this is too light to bother with.
CAT squat
335x3x4
Pause squat
330x2x2
SSB GM
200x5x2
Nice that you found something that worked. Pushing the hips back wasn’t what I expected but whatever
Where do you think mobility is restricted? Ankles?
How do you wrap your knees? Maybe change up wrapping style? somehow get less material behind the knee?
How do you squat maybe tweaking stance let’s you go deeper while catching the rebound? I moved my stance narrower and toes in and I feel like it restricts my depth (my problem was going deeper than necessary) and opposite just a little bit and I’m hitting ass to grass.
Hips. My adductors were giving me problems, mostly the left side. It seems to be an issue that just gradually crept up.
It has nothing to do with the wraps, I was having trouble squatting to depth without wraps a couple weeks ago. Hitting depth in wraps can be an issue but I already managed to wrap my head around that a while back. Another issue here was that I spent 10 weeks doing all my heavy squatting with the SSB, there is slightly less hip flexion at the bottom of an SSB squat so I was able to do that without issue but going back to the straight bar combined with the adductor thing was throwing me off. I expected it to feel a little bit off at first but the adductor issue made it worse.
I could squat with a narrower stance to hit depth easier but then that will also not allow me to lift as much so it’s not really worth it. Right now I have 14 weeks until the meet, that’s plenty of time to get my squat technique sorted out. I’m going to drop the weight down to 475 and do 3x3 this next block, if it goes well then I will make some big jumps from week to week but at the moment the main limitation is technique and mobility, the weights I have been squatting move easily but they just need to move right.
Hmm what does being restricted by adductors feel like? Pain, stretch?
The problem is that I was pushing my knees too far forward and my legs couldn’t bend anymore but I still wasn’t below parallel, less forward knee travel (but still full knee flexion) and more hip flexion (which can only be accomplished by shifting my hips back a little more) is exactly what I need.
One time a couple years ago I was having some terrible arm and shoulder pain from low bar squatting, I spent about a month doing only SSB squats and when I switched back to the straight bar I had a hard time hitting depth. It’s just the fact that I have never been particularly flexible or mobile combined with getting used to a different bottom position in the squat.
It just feels like some vague tightness, mostly on the left side. I realized the left side was messed up when I tried rolling my adductors with a lacrosse ball, it hurt like hell and the right side wasn’t half as bad. I wasn’t really even paying attention to my adductors until then, and that’s when I realized they were a major issue. The only thing I’m really doing different from before is the tactical frog stretch and more squat stretches than before (sitting in a full squat for 30 sec. at a time) and it seems to be working.
I mentioned this before, it seems like sometimes you can have something wrong with a muscle on one side and the other side tightens up too, like the body is trying to keep things in balance or something. I had this thing a couple years ago where my psoas and QL cramped up and wouldn’t let go for a couple days, when I got the right side to relax the left was suddenly alright too.
Do you find that heavy workouts interfere with sleep?
I’ve noticed that the night of heavy squat/ deadlift workouts, I can’t seem to stay asleep.
No, not for me.
Nothing revolutionary on here from what I can tell
Yeah, that’s pretty much standard tricep work right there.
I was thinking of doing rack lockouts from below my sticking point when I get closer to the meet.
Thursday, January 17 - Bench assistance day - deload
Close grip bench
280x3
Close grip slingshot
325x3x2
Military press
175x6x2
Neutral DB pushups
bw x8
Skull crushers
100x10x2
Face pulls
super mini band x20x2
Side raise
20’s x10x2
I’m starting to look forward to some real training.
Friday, January 18 - Light squat/main deadlift day
1-1/4 squat
315x2x5 - 1 min. rest - I think my left leg is back to normal. It actually feels weird, I got used to it being tight.
Deadlift
465x2x2
Sumo SLDL
315x6x2
Barbell row
330x5x2
Nothing too exciting.
Monday, January 21 - Main bench day
Bench press - paused
325x5x2 - Probably could have done 6 on the first set but the plan was 2 sets of 5. Seems like the pause might actually make this easier.
Floor press
305x5x2 - All those people bitching about arching in the bench press are full of shit. The bar lightly touches my chest on these, I’m not arching and my feet aren’t even touching the ground (legs straight out) so I have zero leg drive, and I’m doing sets of 5 with 20lbs less after benching.
Close grip incline
210x12, 10, 7 - I went too hard on the first set and paid for it after. I didn’t expect to get 12, I was going to stop at 10 but it was kind of easy so I kept going. +10lbs next week.
Floor pause DB flys
55’s x15, 12, 10
Band pushdowns
light band x11, 7, super mini w/knot x11, 9.5 - couldn’t lock out the last one
Chin ups - wide overhand - slow eccentric
bw x12, 10, 8, 6 - My left lat and other muscles surrounding the shoulder blade felt weird the last couple times so I thought I would focus more on the eccentric since that’s when the weirdness was happening. It made this significantly harder, but that’s not a bad thing.
My bench feels good, I’m not great at doing reps in comparison to max singles but speed off the chest is good and the weight feels light. I think my triceps grew a bit too, I sure hope so.
Tuesday, January 22 - Main squat day
Squat w/ wraps
475x3x3 - Depth was either right at parallel or below on all reps, nothing blatantly high but still not consistently to depth. The weight feels easy though, next week I’m going to jump to 490 and I think 505 and 520 the following weeks. The back of my knees felt rug-burned on the last set, doing a bunch of reps in wraps is not much fun.
CAT squat
375x3x5 sets - Good depth, no issues here.
Pause squat
375x4x2 sets
Snatch grip RDL - 5 sec. eccentric
365x5x3 sets - I thought 365 was going to be a warmup but it was way harder than I expected. I was doing RDLs with about 200lbs more not long ago. My lower back and glutes were finished after this, I had to lay down for a bit. Lifting the weight back up isn’t even hard, it’s the eccentric that is the challenge.
Thursday, January 24 - Bench assistance day
Close grip bench - touch & go
310x5x2 sets - maybe could have managed 6 on the first one. Pausing or not pausing seems to make little if any difference in difficulty for me.
Close grip slingshot
365x5, 4 - the last rep on the first set was an all-out grind, hopefully this carries over to locking out heavy comp. benches.
Military press
200x9, 7, 6 - Not bad considering my triceps are fried. Performance always seems to drop fast on this exercise.
Skull crushers
115x15, 8, 6 - Not sure what happened here, my triceps totally died after the first set. Now that I think about it I might have loaded 125 by mistake, I’m not quite sure but somehow I still managed 15 on the first set. So I dropped the weight for the last set:
95x9 - breaks between sets were 90 seconds, which accounts for the reps dropping off so fast.
Face pulls
light band x25, 23, 18
Side raise
25’s (plates)x15, 12, 8
Friday, January 25 - Light squat/main deadlift day
1-1/4 squat
315x2x6 - 45 sec. rest
Deadlift
485x5x2 sets - This went better than I expected, I think I could have done 2 more reps on the first set. Speed off the floor is good too, maybe those isometrics worked after all. One thing I can say is that I’m glad I did them far from the meet because the way my deadlift felt the last couple weeks my confidence was way down, maybe this is one of those “delayed transformation” type of things although I have used bench isometrics in the past and the result was immediate. Anyway, looks like things are back on track and if 1rm calculations mean anything I should be able to pull around 600 based on this.
Deficit deadlift (1.25")
425x5x2 sets - I used straps because my thumbs can only take so much. This was good for a starting point.
Barbell row
370x8x3 - my back feels strong, maybe it’s from those slow eccentric RDLs
Monday, January 28 - Main bench day
Bench press
330x5, 4 - I’m sure I wouldn’t have got 6 but maybe I can get 335x5 next week. The 5th rep slowed at the usual sticking point but it looks like my triceps are catching up so it was no problem.
Floor press
310x5, 4 - I didn’t want to push for 5 on the last set in case I fail because trying to get out from under the bar is not much fun.
Close grip incline
220x10, 9, 8 - Didn’t go all out on the first set this time
Floor pause DB flys
55’s x15, 14, 10
Band pushdowns
light band x12, 7, super mini w/knot x13, 10
Chin ups - wide overhand grip - slow eccentric
bw x12, 11, 9, 6 - ran out of gas on the last set
Tuesday, January 29 - main squat day
Squat w/ wraps
490x3x3 - First set was all about parallel, I didn’t really think through my technique except that I need to hit the bottom fast but after reviewing the video I remembered what I was supposed to do which is shift my hips back and then kind of accelerate into the bottom. The first two reps on the 2nd set were good, 3rd was borderline and looks like I shifted my knees forward too much but not a big deal. I’m talking centimetres here. For the 3rd set I thought I would try wrapping my knees tighter and adding another revolution, so far I have been wrapping to about 85% of how tight I can go and that gives me 6 revolutions in these wraps (big legs and stiff wraps). So I went for 7 revolutions, none of the reps broke parallel unfortunately. I got a slightly bigger boost out of the bottom but it’s no use if I can’t hit depth. Maybe with another 100lbs it would work but for now I’m sticking with what I was doing before, the extra tightness and extra wrap behind the knee makes the last two inches of the descent much harder to get through.
CAT squat
380x3x5 - 90 sec. rest - depth is good here
Pause squat
385x3x2 sets - I was thinking sets of 4 but this was hard enough. I could have pushed for another rep but it wouldn’t be worth it.
Slow eccentric snatch grip RDL
370x5x3 - not nearly as bad as last week but still bad.
So it looks like my depth issue has been resolved, my left adductor is better, I just got greedy and tried to wrap extra tight but it didn’t pay off. 3 more months until the meet, I’m sure I will sort out the minor details in that time and get stronger too.
Thursday, January 31 - Bench assistance day
Close grip bench
315x5, 4 - I think this might tie a PR but this is with a closer grip. I stalled a bit at the top on the 5th rep but managed to finish it still, I’m definitely better at grinding out reps than I was before.
Close grip slingshot
370x4x2 - Not sure I would have had 5, that’s fine still
Military press
205x8, 6
185x10 - I figured more volume is better than a hard set of 4-5
Skull crusher
120x15, 10, 8, 7 - Now I’m sure I misloaded this last week. No big deal though.
Face pulls
light band x25, 25, 20
Side raise
25lb plates x15, 13, 9
Things seem to be moving along well. I’m thinking I might drop close grip bench in the next block and do comp. bench twice a week, one day some heavy singles and triples/doubles the other day. I would still do some sort of close grip work like slingshot or board press to work on the lockout. I just get the feeling that for bench I get more out of hard sets where I’m straining or at least lifting a higher % rather than CAT bench. The bar path isn’t the same with lighter weights and I’m sticking close to the top rather than in the middle or near the bottom, plus my bench is fairly explosive anyway. CAT work seems to benefit my squat the most, so I will keep it for that.
Friday, February 1 - Light squat/main deadlift day
1-1/4 squat
315x2x6 - 45 sec. rest
I wore my singlet to be sure of depth, most reps are just barely below parallel and some are right on the borderline (as in possible red lights). That’s not really good, with technique work like this I want to be squatting well below parallel so that when I squat heavy in wraps I will hit depth even if I cut it higher than normal. My CAT squats on Tuesday looked good, I’m not sure what my problem here is.
Deadlift
500x4,4 - Not satisfied with this. 485x5 last week was easy and felt like I could have pulled it for 7, the first 3 reps were easy and for whatever reason the 4th ended up being fairly hard so I cut it there. Maybe I could have pulled 5, maybe not, but it was not supposed to be a 5rm or anything like that. I think maybe the bar was too far in front of my shins when I pulled the 4th rep, that’s the only thing I can think of. 2nd set was about equal to the first. After reviewing the videos I was disappointed with myself for not going for a 5th rep because it looked like it should have been there, but whatever. Life goes on, there’s always next week.
Deficit deadlift
435x5x2 - 2nd set felt easier for some reason
Barbell row
375x8x3 sets