Those all make sense. I find as the weight gets heavier, things like keeping tight and gripping the bar really hard tend to get forgotten.
You are absolutely right. When the wieght gets heavy we start thinking about the pressure in our hands rather than maintaining good form.
So this morning I did somethign stupid… I went to a free 1 hour crosstraining class with the g/f. Thankfully it wasn’t too stupid and not too much random arm flailing or retarded movements. Ended up being a good 120-150 heart rate active recovery/cardiovascular conditioning workout. This afternoon I will be doing some close grips. 275 4x4… Should be intense.
So Wednesday:
Week 2 day 1 Bench 2:
Close grips:
185 x5
225 x5
275 x4 - 2bd
275 x4 - 1bd
275 2x4 - chest
Desperately need to work on 2bd height… It was probably harder than from the chest.
DB OHP seated:
45x8
65 3x6
65 x10
Lat pulldown:
70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140 8x8
Walkin on treadmill 9 minutes or something for 3pmh 5% incline
Thats probably why your shirted bench sucks (2board strength)… just sayin
You are probably right. I will start doing these weekly. Do you think 3 board or 1 board is also worthwhile? What about doing foam presses? Slingshot? Close grips?
A lot of questions, but just curious what you think is the best remedy. Anything oyu know of that has worked for others with similar problems?
slingshot - like I tell people in the gym who ask me, if I didn’t have a shoulder injury I would never ever use it…it’s been good for taking some pain away when benching heavy though
2board and 3board - by far the most important boards, my bench lives and dies by them (and for another example, my russian friend uses 2 and 3board every single workout after his bench sets)
1board - again, only found it useful for injury relief. If your form is solid, your full range and 1board should be the same
close grips - love them
foam presses - I’m a pretty big advocate of don’t do too much stupid shit…foam presses fall into that category
Hahahahahh I guess you dont like foam presses lol…
Well as far as programming, what do you think of this:
I will be adding 2/3 boards after normal bench sets. Perhaps increase from top set by 5-10% and do 3 sets each time? But instead of the usual ~4 benches per week, I will drop to 3 and add in a 2nd OHP variation per week to try and work on a shoulder weakness. Of the 4 benches per week, 1.5 will be closegrip as well.
As far as working with the shirt on, would you advocate weekly shirt sessions or every 2nd week? Any suggestiosn given the video I posted?
Ok so thursday at noon:
Week 2 Day 3 Deadlift 1:
225 x4
275 2x4
335 2x3
385 2x3 - no straps
405 2x3 - straps
405 x3 - no straps
Now those no strap sets were an achievement. This was at the gym where the bars are about as rough as my hardwood floor. IE: I would say it is harder to hold onto that an axle.
behind the neck OHP:
95 x6
115 2x4
135 3x3
95 x20 - Push pressed
Easy.
Tonight will try to make time to do a quick conventional workout.
Thursday PM:
Conventionals:
225 x5
275 x4
285 x4
305 x4
325 2x4
Rack pulls from bottom of patellar tendon: 225x20 - gahhhhhh… Don’t know why I did this. Probably because some dude bitched about my noise so I wanted to do one big set with a lot of noise lol
Bench recovery: 45lb 4x20
Ab rollouts: 20reps with 25lb then 15reps BW… all in one set… feel the burn!
Easy session. Tomorrow bench pyramid and a bit of upper back.
Ok so decided to keep the session easy today. Feeling a bit beat due to poor sleeping and stress at school.
W2D3 - Bench Pyramid:
185 x5
225 x4
265 2x3
305 3x2
280 2x3
265 x4
225 x6 - in between usualy close grip and medium grip
185 x8 - same
185 5x5 - pin presses with between medium and comp grip. Pin at about 1.5bd height… Well I guess I have fond my weakness… 1.5-3bd height I think will probably be my worst area of the press. Gonna start adding this in constantly… Thanks for the advice ED.
Chest flyes: 15lb 3x10
Tricep extensions: 15lb 3x10
Alternating curls: 35lb 3x8
Calf raises: 4x12 60lb or something stupid light. Just decided I should stop neglecting bodyparts no matter how useless I think they are. The body likes behing balanced and sometimes you gain strength for the most unusual reasons so what the heck!
So Saturday:
Squat
236 x5
286 2x4
326 2x3
376 4x3
Back felt tweaked so called it… good call. backs been very iffy
Sunday:
Bench
185 x5
225 x4
255 2x3
285 4x4
Weigt and speed was decent despite feelin like crap
High bars: 225 5x6 + 225x10
Easy. Good blood flow. Excited to do some 90-95% tests on tues/wed/thurs
Ok so monday for recovery:
On the bike for like 15 minutes
Did like 18-20 high rep easy sets of various upper body exercises like db press, OHP, rear delt flyes, chinups, pulldowns, rows etc etc
Then decided I felt like doing some behind the head OHP for fun. Did 165x1 push press then 165x1 strict press which was a PR. yay? lol
Ok so Tuesday:
Squat skills evaluation:
225 x4
275 2x3
315 x2
*belt
345 x2
385 x2
415 x1 - Easy but I tipped forward a bit
435 x1 - Decent.
450 x0 - Lost my damn balance and back lost tightness as a result… Sigh… For raw squatting I really need some heeled squat shoes. This will help a lot… I will go 190 - 200/202/205 - 207/210/212
Ok so PM squat:
225 x5
275 2x5
330 5x5
365 x5 - PR… huh?
GM: 135x5, 185 3x5, high bars 185x5
This was a great session. This puts my 1RM of beltless squats at about 440lb/200kg which comfortably puts 1rm belted 210kg. Shame this mornings test went so poorly. Tomorrow I will be testing bench. Hoping to put up 352.5lb/~160kg without it being an absolute max. Might call it at 340lb though. Not less though… unless bad shit happens hahaha.
Ok so bench went better than squat but still a bit disspointed:
185 x5
225 x4
255 x3
275 x3
295 x2
320 x1
332.5 x1
345 x1 - 15lb PR. This single was excellent. Based on this I felt that 352.5 should be no prob but…
352.5 x0 - Missed it. Dunno what happened. I think my setup was a bit weak and I forgot my leg drive and lat activation so the speed off the chest was pathetic and the bar froze at 1.5bd height. Damn.
Pin presses from like 2.5-3bd height: 225 3x10, 275x6
I think I am going to start adding in a lot of pin presses and board work.
Ok so GF wanted to in the PM so I said why not?
OHP (kept it super easy)
75 x8
105 x6
125 x4
140 x2
145 x2
150 x2
160 x2 (GF squatted this beltless for an easy PR! RPE wasn’t even at 9 probably. This is exciting!)
Did lots of stretching… I mean a lot… Hips feel way better now
Walked for 20 minutes at like 2.8MPH and 6% incline or something of the like.
Ok so did some skills evaluation on deadlift… yay!
Deadlift:
236 x4
306 x3
356 x2
396 x1
426 x1
belt
456 x1
476 x1
496 x1 - PR
516 x1 - Big PR
[quote]arramzy wrote:
Ok so did some skills evaluation on deadlift… yay!
Deadlift:
236 x4
306 x3
356 x2
396 x1
426 x1
belt
456 x1
476 x1
496 x1 - PR
516 x1 - Big PR
Those looked awesome, nice work. I couldnt help but admire buddies power curtsies behind you…
hahahah thanks man! I was pretty excited with those pulls.
Evening I went in for fun/active recovery:
walked for 20 mins at like 7% incline and 2.5-3MPH
Then did overhead squats:
bar 3x8
65lb 2x5
85 2x3
Snatches: 105 2x3, 135 6x1
Then did some snatch grip deadlifts to a high pull: 135 x5, 155 x5, 175 x5
Power cleans: 175 x8
Pendlay rows: 175 x8
lol… stupid session but it was realy fun and actually rejuvinating.
Ok so January 27th AM bench:
185 x5
225 x4
265 2x3
305 5x2
305 x3
*add ~3bd height
305 2x5
*reduce to ~1.5bd height
305 2x4
Chest flyes: 22.5lb 2x10
Good session. Will post video.