Not terribly happy with the top set, but it’s still a small PR. My squats seem to drop off really fast when the weight goes over ~275, which might be mental, or because I only have 4 ‘heavy’ sets per seven weeks, or because nine times out of ten I’m up stupid late on Saturdays.
Either way, we have more important stuff to cover.
I stopped giving you guys the romantic blow-by-blow of my life a while back, but I have a boyfriend now. We went out to an abandoned mental asylum last night (the building has literally just been rotting unattended since the 70’s, very horror-movie-esque) to take some cool photos.
Press: 3x45/45/75/95/105/115/135, 7x150 (PR)
Clean & Press: 5x5 @ 135
Pull-Aparts: 5x20
Smashrock Curls: Bar x 60/28/20
Crushed the top set, and assistance went well. I’m going to spend three days in Atlanta with an uncle in about a week for Thanksgiving, so we’ll see how scheduling plays out. Most likely I’ll just buy a week-long pass there and keep with what I have going. Also, I picked up a 102% on my third bio test of the semester.
Also, here was breakfast today. Two servings of scrambled eggs/bacon/sausage, four hard-boiled eggs, some fruit, milk, waffles, and biscuits with gravy (not sure how I made it through 19 years of life without these).
They’re like poundstone curls, but I’m cheating by using Fat Gripz instead of an axle, and not hitting 100 (yet). It seemed disingenuous to call them that given the differences, so here we are.
I’ve just given up on trying to understand what’s going on with my press, lol. It’s starting to look like I’m going to put up 185 or 195 strict before I bench two plates, which I can’t say I’ve ever heard of before.
Ya know, I kind of feel you there. I’m starting to focus on bench a bit, but when I was just doing my own thing, I was hitting 185x3 on press while only doing like 235x5 on bench, which seems a bit disproportionate to me. I prefer to think of my press being abnormally strong rather than my press weak lol
Deadlift: 3x135/225/285/325, 12x365 (11) (PR)
Fat Gripz Deadlift: 10x1 @ 245
WG Pull-Ups: 10/9/8/7/7
RP Prone Ham Curls: 7/5/2 (Hamstrings Shot)
365x12 isn’t a PR by itself, but starting off the set with 11 touch & go reps is. And it’s probably a more ‘honest’ PR than spending an extra minute pulling singles, lol. Scheduling’s going to be janky over the next week between travel and the gym here being closed a couple days, but I’m going to try and get a day ahead of it before leaving.
Bench: 3x45/95/115/135/145/165, 185x5*+3+2 (PR)
Larsen Press: 3x5 @ 165
RP Kroc Rows: 120x19+9+5 (PR)
RP Pushdowns: 85x14+7+5
A very solid day all around. Ended up with a 95% on the last chem test (82% median,) so between that, having a drop test, and a slight curve across the class, I have a test average of 96.7% heading into the final in a few weeks.
Spent the day checking out Birmingham with my boyfriend. No training in particular. Since wrestling’s off for now, I’m going to start doing conditioning on Saturdays again. When I go back to MD, I’m going to most likely train with my HS team 3X/week, lift the other days, and add some sort of conditioning to each bench/press day. Sticking with that for the ~1 month duration of my break should leave me in a good place once the competition season starts. #1 priority at that point will be getting in match-ready shape and figuring out a weight class.
5/3/1 W13D3: Squat
Squat: 3x35/135/184/225/245/275, 5x305 (PR)
Max ROM Leg Press: 5x10 @ 385
Chins: 5x3 @ +65 (PR)
Solid top set, probably had one or two more reps if I wanted to push it and take a few breaths between them. I want to hit 315x5 next cycle.
I wish I had good advice to give there, but to be honest my study habits are pretty awful. I did under one week of independent SAT prep before I got the score that won me like ~$200,000. And I spent like one night getting ready for that chem test.
When I’m taking a test that I actually do study for (finals this semester, AP exams in high school, etc.) I’ll try to find recorded lectures or go through the applicable chapters in my textbook, write out a thorough set of notes, as I go (I find that doing that keeps me from letting the info go in one ear and out the other,) and then read over those notes and do practice problems until I feel set. If I have multiple days to work with, I’ll chunk it up chapter by chapter or unit by unit.
The only other thing that really comes to mind is that I find getting some sleep right after studying helps consolidate everything, but if your schedule doesn’t let you do that it’s not really realistic.
Another solid day. Very happy with that top set pressing. I’m going to deadlift tomorrow, condition Wednesday-Saturday, run my Deload week Sunday/Monday/Wednesday/Thursday, condition Tuesday (and after the two upper days, I really want to start forcing that habit) and start my next cycle next Friday.
That’s ugly as fuck but having it actually written out is helpful. There’s a few annoying factors going into scheduling here, but it’s just a Deload week so it’s pretty hard to fuck up. Once again, I’m thinking I’ll go with TM singles.
Felt really good coming into this, and snagged the easy PR. I’m honestly even happier with the stuff that came before it, because everything was moving stupidly fast. This makes next week somewhat redundant, but that’s hardly an issue.
Weight: 176.0
11 pounds from where I need to be. Very doable.
