I did and it felt good.
Thursday:
Bench press (Rather narrow grip, btw)- ramp to 185, couldn’t get 195 (which I got very easily a week or two ago). Still working on technique. I always blast them off my chest and then hit the wall. This was a weird day, I was failing at 175 at first… but later on 185 went up fast. I feel like I’m somewhere in the low 200’s. My technique just sucks. (Either that or I’m somehow super fast-twitch…) This is why I don’t like benching.
So then I did weighted dips and ramped up to a hard single at 115 with pretty short rests. That was cool.
Then angled one arm machine chest press (lol) for a few hard sets of 5-8.
Hammer curls - lightish x a few sets x mid range reps
Deadlift tomorrow!
Friday didn’t work cause of exams. (which I’m killing, incidentally)
I’m gonna start throwing for my college starting in January. Throwing is pretty much the embodiment of most of my long term goals so this should be a great way to light a fire under my ass and get competitive.
Saturday:
Deadlift (5/3/1)
(no warmup and very short rests, the gym was closed and I had to keep moving before anyone noticed someone was in there. Their locks suck hahaa.)
185 x 5 (DOH)
205 x 5 (DOH)
235 x 9 (had one or two more in me) (Mixed grip)
Hopefully backing off like this’ll do my grip good too.
Then I spent an hour or two in the woods shirtless throwing rocks and logs and jumping and stuff. I tried out some technique and hopefully didn’t mess myself up too much with bad habits. And with shitty, SHITTY technique I can put a rock (erring on the heavier side - definitely over 16 lb) about 30 feet (assuming my foot is a foot long, which it is at least). No idea about discus. I just did my best with some flat rocks of about the right weight. I didn’t try any spinning or anything. Just standing throws.
Good enough!
I always try to work on too many goals at once. Here’s the big goals I really want to work on.
(Deadlift is a big one of course, but it’s taken care of)
ATG Squat 1RM ~290 … x … 315
Hang snatch 1RM 120 … singles at 120 … 140
Bench 1rm ~205 … 5/3/1’s on the case … 240
OHP 1rm ~130 … triples at 120 … 145
weight 148 (very little food, lots of water, right after training) … 155 (After dinner. On the home scale.) … 163 (Fuck it, why not try)
By February 1.
Vague schedule:
deadlift (farmers walks)
bench (rows) /plyo pushups
snatch (clean)
OHP (prehab type stuff)
squat (pullups) /jumps
Also I need to stop slacking and train my abs and such. Full contact twists if I can pull it off maybe.
Monday:
Med ball horizontal throw. Some standing, some kneeling, some with jumps, just trying it all out.
Bench - just working on technique - up to a few doubles at 175.
Incline press (about 45 deg) - I’ve never done them before so I wanted to try them out. Did a few with the bar, a few with 95, and a few at 135 and they feel WEIRD. I don’t like them.
Close grip bench - got some work in - up to a double at 185, then two cluster reps also at 185.
Full contact twists - up to a few sets of ~2 per side with 3 plates. (Using the 35 lb bar. Don’t want to hog the 45 lb for silly bullshit like this.) EDIT: Lol, I’m doing these way wrong. I kinda like my version though. We’ll see. 
Dumbbell rows (strapless. For my grip, didn’t even faze my back, lol.) 103 x a bunch of sets of 5 or 6. Sometimes with a reset at the floor for the last few reps cause my grip was losing it.
Shrugs - up to 225 for a few sets of mid range reps.
Hang snatch - just a few with 55 to get the technique.
Kind of a deload/technique day. I’ve got a bit of a cold.
Monday session 2: I couldn’t stay out of the gym…
Floor press: up to a single at 175, then ~10 doubles at 155, then a few singles at 165. (These definitely hit my weak point. The pause is brutal.)
Speed/technique bench press: 95 for a few sets.
Tuesday: Remember to snatch and OHP today cause you won’t have time tomorrow.
Tuesday: (I forgot that I’d benched yesterday until after training today. I was kinda wondering why my lockout was weak…)
Hang snatch - worked up to 120. Lots of singles around there. I filmed myself and I tend to have a fairly knees forward/upright posture stance on these. I don’t know if that’s a problem.
OHP (My left collarbone was bugging me a bit on these. Haven’t had that happen in a while.) - ramped up to a whole bunch of doubles at 115. Some strangeness here - I couldn’t even get one the first rep, a few sets later on I almost got a triple… I filmed myself on these and I think I’m actually pushing the bar too far BACK behind me. I’ll post that, my deadlift, and the hang snatch when I can. (in a few days)
All this was on a little bagel-ish thing and two cups of milk… Fucking finals week.
Considering all my excuses, I think I did pretty well. At least I got some work in.
Tuesday session 2:
Lateral raises to front raises - 3 x 8-10
Reverse cable crossovers - 3 x 15-20, held the last two sets 15-20 seconds on the last rep.
Some Y’s and L’s. I couldn’t do T’s cause I was so bloated from eating basically all my food in one meal my stomach was getting pushed against the bench in a not-so-nice way. Can’t afford to lose all those hard-fought calories!
Then a few minutes of internal rotation mobility
Just catchin a pump, bro.
Incline advice- take this for what its worth as most ppl on here are better lifters than I am. The only time i really did incline seriously and consistently was during this phase i went through around 19 when i was so frustrated with my flat bench progress i set it aside completely. During this time my entire training was dedicated about 70/30 to cleans and incline bench respectively. I found that touching chest on incline (which i ALWAYS do on regular bench, not touching is heresy) was sometimes painful in my shoulders and I just didnt feel powerful in the movement in general. What I ended up doing, and I cannot stress this enough- this is grain of salt advice- is using a range of motion that bottomed out about my chin. What I saw from this was that #1 I experienced no pain anywhere, #2 I eventually could do a shitload of weight, I think just a shade more than i could bench. When i went back to benching, I found within 2 or 3 sessions I was pr’ing after months of neglect. I think this is because i was incapable of bouncing the weight at the bottom of reps, since there’s nothing to bounce on. i was just legitimately busting my ass against heavier and heavier weight.
Thanks for the advice man! I think I ought to do more incline as I’ve totally ignored it my whole time lifting. I’ll give that a shot.
Today’s deadlift plan: 215 x 3, 245 x 3, 275 x 3
probably do some kind of pressing too.
Here’s some videos from the last week or so that I can finally upload.
Thoughts on technique? Is it just me or am I actually pressing the bar too far back on the OHP’s?
Saturday: (I haven’t trained since Tuesday. Holy shit.)
Deadlift:
215 x 3
215 x 3 (misload)
285 x 3 (probably had one more in me. I forgot I was supposed to rep it) DOH (on my bar at home which is way thinner and has better knurling. I think this is why I never used to have grip problems…) This was misloaded too. Supposed to be 275. Also, I had a weird unstable setup here. Sandbags hanging off the bar and stuff like that.
I mangled 5/3/1 pretty nicely there. Doesn’t matter, I’m progressing anyway.
Pressed various logs and rocks in various ways. Just having some fun.
Sunday: Bench press - lots of singles and such to work on technique. Sadly, my setup at home is extremely shaky and unstable so I may be spinning my wheels a bit. Near the end I did 155 for 7 with good technique. Don’t have time for much more. I can start really training again on Monday.
I’m gonna put bench on 5/3/1 too. Fuck it…
Using 205 as my 1RM.
120 x 5, 140 x 5, 155 x 5+
130 x 3, 150 x 3, 165 x 3+
140 x 5, 160 x 3, 175 x 1+
Monday will be my bench day. I’m also scrapping the crazy PL arch while I’m at it. Hurts my back. Thoracic extension only from now on.
Before I forget, I’m gonna OHP 125 for however many reps tomorrow. Triples would be cool.
bench 5/3/1. top set was 155 for 11 (Quite short rests. my setup is way more stable now. I’m also way stronger without the crazy-ass arch)
OHP - ramp to 125 for a hard triple (after benching…)
ATG high bar squat - ramp to a single at 240 and a fail at 280 (meh)
not a whole lot of time on my hands. I did a few dumbbell overhead presses in there too.
plus a couple sets of handstand/high incline pushups later on in the evening. (these tore up my side delts, oddly)
tomorrow i plan to do some rows and some jumps. maybe some o-lifts. I haven’t done PJR pullovers in a while either
Thursday session 1:
Box jumps up to shed plus four 2x4’s (42")
Power snatch up to some funky 120’s. Didn’t really warm up for these.
A few light OHP’s.
Threw a bunch of log sections and quarters around for ~half an hour.
More later tonight.
About the incline, have you tried the rowing the bar to your chest?
I don’t really get how to do that on a flat bench press, so definitely not on incline either, lawl. Is it related to pulling the bar apart?
[quote]hastalles wrote:
I don’t really get how to do that on a flat bench press, so definitely not on incline either, lawl. Is it related to pulling the bar apart?[/quote]
Sort of
Rowing the bar down and using my lats are my main technique problems with bench at the moment. It sucks cause my lats are disproportionately stronger than the rest of me and I’d love to take advantage of that.
How’d you learn how to use your lats and how to row the bar down? If you’ve got the time to point me in the right direction I’d really appreciate it. Thanks!
Friday - Deadlift 5/3/1
5,3,1+
Top set was 290 x 4 (mixed grip, though I think I could have gone DOH)
I tried to film for form but it was too dark outside for my camera. I kept my lats tight on the earlier sets but forgot all about it on the last.
Saturday:
morning: carrying and throwing a bunch of log sections.
afternoon: BTN Push press - ramp to a fairly hard single at 190 (no dip under)
Zercher squat - ramp to a double at 250
Not much volume due to time. Christmas is hectic…
Saturday session 2 (right before bed, unfortunately):
got in some elite pre workout nutrition (a shitload of christmas cookies) and dragged, pressed, and pulled with my sled for about 45 minutes. There’s no sleds at college, so it felt good to be back to that!
Monday:
Dumbbell rows - ramp to a sloppy rep or two at 150. (not too much strength lost for not training my upper back in ~two weeks like an idiot) then quite a few sets of 8-10 with 110. Many of them I squeezed at the top to prove to myself I wasn’t just jerking it up. Pretty short rests.
bottom range chinups to failure, then hold to failure (15-20 seconds). rest a bit, then the same with bottom range pullups. These actually hit my triceps long heads pretty hard. And my lats of course…
No straps for any of this nor was it a problem. My grip’s stronger/my palms aren’t sweating since I’m outside.