Tuesday, February 19 - Main squat day - deload
Squat w/ wraps
460x2x2
CAT squat
350x2x3
Pause squat
360x2x2
Snatch grip RDL - 5 sec. eccentric
340x4x2
Thursday, February 21 - Bench assistance day
Close grip bench
295x2x2
Close grip slingshot
345x3
Military press
195x3x3
Skull crusher
120x6x3
Face pulls
super mini band x12x3
Side raise
20’s x10x2
On deload weeks I cut back on caffeine and make sure to have none before training, combined with the lack of any challenge I sometime feel like I’m going to fall asleep.
Friday, February 22 - Light squat/main deadlift day - deload
1 1/4 squat
315x2x6 - 45 sec. rest
Deadlift
470x2x2
Deficit deadlift
410x3x2
Barbell row
350x4x2
If that is a deload day for DL sign me up to your program lol
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Send me a check
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Monday, February 25 - Main bench day
Bench press
360x3 singles - easy, moved fast, probably could have done a triple instead. Right now this looks like an opener, we will see how things progress over the next 9 weeks.
345x3 - I wanted to go for 4 but it wasn’t going to happen, those singles took more out of me than I had initially thought. Whatever.
Floor press
325x4, 4
Close grip incline
245x7, 6 - I cut one set to compensate for the singles
Floor pause DB flys
55’s x15,15, 13
Band pushdown
light band x 14, 9, looped super mini band x12, 9
Chin ups - wide overhand - normal style
+25x6x3 - not really pushing these too hard since they don’t actually increase my lifts, although not doing any lat work might be a problem for a number of reasons. I can say for sure that doing them with a slow eccentric doesn’t make you stronger on the concentric because this was a bit harder than I had expected. The only reason I did them with a slow eccentric is because something felt weird around my left shoulder blade.
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Just curious, why do you seem to like floor presses so much? Does it transfer well to your competition bench?
Yes, it does. I have short-ish arms and a thick upper body so the bar actually lightly touches my chest on floor press so it seems to help with bottom end strength, plus it’s some pressing with no arch or leg drive (I do it with my legs straight out too). It works for me but wont necessarily work so well for other people.
I see I see. I tried it and the bar was a good 6 inches above my chest, so definitely won’t work well for me. Haha
Solid bench day none the less and forgot to ask what the fees are like for the WPC??
No membership fee, I think I paid $100 for the meet entry fee.
It still might be of some use to you, but it would be more to work on the midrange than the bottom of the lift.
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Alright, got it!
Tuesday, February 26 - Main squat day
Squat with wraps
520x1 - easy
545x1 - hard - would have been easy but my hips shot back coming out of the hole, that’s one thing I need to work on. Also looks like I need about one more inch of depth here to be safe.
As you can see I changed things up a bit, I have had success doing heavy singles in the past so I will go back to that. The problem with a bunch of heavy triples and doubles is that the focus becomes on getting through the set rather than technical execution, and that results in inconsistent technique. So from this point forward, the plan is heavy single for the top set and a couple down sets (in wraps). I started to get the feeling that the CAT cluster sets weren’t doing much for my squat at this point, I had success with that in the past and it’s good for a volume block or hypertrophy phase but it just isn’t what I need right now and it doesn’t really transfer to my technique in wraps.
Down sets:
455x3x2 sets - depth was good on here, call this RPE 7 or so.
Dead squat - transformer bar on setting 1.5D, not their “back squat position” but I think it’s closer to my squat, otherwise I’m too bent over.
345x6 singles - 90 sec. rest - it felt easier after the first few. This should help with hips shooting back, as well as bottom/mid range strength which is exactly what I need
Split stance RDL
135x8x3 sets per leg - 30 sec. rest
I figured I should do something a bit less strenuous here, regular RDL would have me lifting more than triple the weight I’m using here and I don’t want to burn myself out. This is actually fairly challenging and got my glutes and lower back pumped up without totally exhausting me.
If I could go back in time I would change what I did for my squat. It seems like the SSB squats didn’t really transfer that well to my comp. squat, it would have been better to do high bar squats either in place of SSB squats or go SSB - high bar - comp. squat, and maybe a few weeks in sleeves before getting back into the wraps. My technique and bottom position are still not totally sorted out, but I still have a couple months to fix that so I’m not worried.
Still a while until I squat in wraps but I imagine something like that would be how I’d miss a wrapped squat with my hips shifting back and not being strong enough to recover from that position.
I’ve noticed with the wraps that I get sexy reps when I keep knees and hips forward and load up the wraps. Almost without exception if I don’t concentrate on and achieve this than I get shitty reps. Something I’ll work on for the future
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That seems like a better deal than the OPA:)
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That’s pretty much the position where you are likely to fail any sort of squat, wraps or not. The wraps just increase the speed that you come out of the hole which means that if you don’t extend your hips fast enough you will end up too bent over. It doesn’t feel good either, you get a lot of pressure in your head that you wouldn’t otherwise.
I will start posting some videos again soon, I just don’t want to post ugly squats.
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Thursday, February 28 - Bench assistance day
Close grip bench
330x4, 3 - first set was pretty much a 4rm, we will see if I can manage 335x4 next week. I might have been able to get 4 on the 2nd set but I wasn’t expecting it to be so easy, not sure how that happened.
Close grip slingshot
385x3x2 sets
Military press
220x6,5 - I wanted 7 on the 1st set but it wasn’t going to happen, triceps were feeling the effects of those close grip benches.
Skull crusher
135x13, 9, 8, 6
Face pulls
light band x25, 25, 25, 16 - barely finished the 3rd set and had nothing left for the 4th, arms felt all shaky. I cut out side raises and added a set here, not sure if they were any use and now is the time to cut out things of questionable value.
Friday, March 1 - Light squat/main deadlift day
Squat - regular squat in sleeves
345x2x6 - 45 sec. rest - I had intended to load 335 but I got distracted with something and put an extra 10 but I don’t think it matters, I only realized later but I will just go with that for the sake of consistency. Depth is good, trying to work on catching the bounce out of the hole which will help me get the most carryover from my wraps. It’s much easier to do that with light weights.
Deadlift
530x3 - I’m sure I would have done another rep, maybe 2, but the plan was 3 so I cut it there. This went well. Next week is 540, the week after the goal is 550x3 (5lb PR), and 560x3 the following week if possible.
480x6 singles - 1 min. rest - these moved fast.
Deficit deadlift
465x4x2 sets - could have done another rep or two but not trying to kill myself
Barbell row
390x6, 5, 5 - maximum cheating - I feel like I had passed the limit of good taste on these. But Ed Coan something something… I gave myself the option to do chest supported incline rows instead but my back felt pretty fresh so I will go with these for now, I think I will switch in the next block though.
Lol
For barbell rows like this as you progress through does form go from stricter to less stricter on purpose then?