Phase 2/ Week 6/ SAT 6FEB
Speed Bench Press: 95/95/95/95/95/95/95/95/185/190
Close-Grip Bench: 165
Chest Supported Neutral Grip Row: 80
So for the speed bench press we did 8X3@45% 1RM, then did 2X3 heavy sets. I gotta say I was skeptical about hitting 185 for 3, but the weight felt good and I thought I had a little left in the tank and with the encouragement of my training partner I put 190 on for the last set. Keep in mind we are not even half-way through the program and I am already leaps and bounds ahead of where I was less than 2 months ago. I realize I will not be able to keep adding 10lbs to my loads each week, but I wouldn’t be surprised if my Moving day bench number is at least 225.
armygrunt82, I came across your forum because I was thinking about starting a Maximum Strength log myself, but I’m already 11 weeks into the program. It looks like it’s going well for you, too. Nice job and good progress so far. Seeing your mid point max bench is pretty cool, so you’ll have that to look forward to in a couple weeks. Mine went up 20 lbs. in the 1st 8 weeks to 285. I’m really pushing to hit or exceed 300 at the end. I was there 10 years ago, but years of distance running zapped my muscle and strength significantly, and this program has given me the focus and motivation to rebuild and hopefully exceed it.
Anyway, keep pushing it and you’ll continue to make great gains. I’ve never felt stronger or healthier all around through the combination of workouts, foam rolling and mobility work. I think it’s a great program, and I’ve been writing and executing workout programs (very successfully) with clients for almost 10 years now as a personal trainer. Following this program has been a nice change of pace for me, as I was previously an endurance focused athlete, and even though I am CSCS and well educated in Strength and Conditioning, the majority of my clients have always been middle aged and primarily looking for weight loss and improved health and function. Plus, at the end of the day, it’s nice to follow a program that I didn’t have to write myself.
Keep training hard and good luck. It’s nice to see someone else making progress following a well put together program. I’ll have to check back in from time to time to see how it’s going.
Hey thanks for stopping by man, I think 20lbs more (205) is definitely a possibility for me to hit at week 8. I am amazed at how injury-free I have been on this program, I still get the occasional DOMS, and a few aches and pains here and there but for the most part I can’t complain at all.
Thankfully the PT I have to do with ROTC is so weak that it I really don’t think it is affecting my lifting, hopefully this trend continues. Good luck in your last phase!
Phase 2/ Week 7/ MON 8FEB
Front Squat: 190
DB Step-Up: 55
Bar Rollout: as Rx’d
Natural Glute-Ham Raise: as Rx’d
Single-leg Squat to Box: BW
Really wanted to try 195, but all the dumb-asses at my school gym had me pissed off and unfocused. There is 3 power racks in the gym, I just so happened to be working in the one closest to the chest-supported row. This means that the people using this apparatus felt it necessary to load, and unload plates on my rack in the middle of my cluster-sets! That coupled with the other guys in the rack next to me doing a 1/4 pull-up supersetted with bicep curls (in the squat rack of course) had me totally off my game.
Phase 2/ Week 7/ WED 10FEB
Incline Bench Press: 155
Medium-Grip weighted pull-up: BW+10
Flat DB Bench Press: 65
Head-supported row: 50
Cable backhand: 25
Zottman Curl:20
Started getting a little cold Tuesday morning so I countered with some emergen-c felt much better Wednesday morning. This workout was terribly long, we had to do 6 cluster sets of 4X1 on the bench and 4X2 on the pull-up. I actually recorded our time doing each part of the workout:
Warm-up: 1715-1730
Incline Bench Supersetted with Pull-up: 1730-1825
Flat DB Bench supersetted with row: 1825-1850
Cable backhand supersetted with zottman curl: 1850-1905
Now some of that time was spent waiting to use the pull up bar while some jackass did kneeling cable bicep curls taking up the entire pull-up bar area. Thank God next week is low volume!
Phase 2/ Week 7/ FRI 12FEB
Broad Jump: As Rx’d
Deadlift with bar slightly elevated: 245
Reverse Lunge: 45
Pallof Press: As Rx’d
Man the weather was SHITTY, so we had to do the box jumps in the garage, thus no measuring. Deadlift’s felt awesome though, we threw on 245 as a test set, it felt good so we stuck with it. We also measured how “elevated” our bar is compared to the ground and it is exactly 1 inch. Next phase is snatch-grip deads so I am curious to see how our loads will change. Regardless this is a PR for me, as my packing day 1RM Deadlift was 245.
Phase 2/ Week 7 SAT 13FEB
Speed Bench @ 50% 1RM: 105
Close-Grip Bench: 170
Chest-supported row with neutral grip: 85
Inverted row: As Rx’d
Scap Push-up: As Rx’d
Wow, could not believe how easy 170 felt, the first set is always a little rough, but eqach subsequent set actually felt easier. Kicking myself in the ass for not going up 10lbs, but since we did two more sets than last week I wasn’t sure if I could.
On a side note, I took the NSCA-CPT exam today and passed easily. The only studying I really did was take some of their practice tests. If you have an exercise science background this test should be a piece of cake for you.
Good to hear it. I’ll be prepping for my CSCS in the fall.
[quote]IronAbrams wrote:
Good to hear it. I’ll be prepping for my CSCS in the fall.[/quote]
Yeah Once I get LDAC over with this summer I am planning on starting to study for it as well. I figure why not, the VA reimburses me for the exam fee so I would be stupid to not take advantage of it.
Phase 2/ Week 8/ MON 15FEB
Front Squats: omit
DB Step-Up: 60
Bar Rollout: As Rx’d
Natural Glute-Ham Raise: As Rx’d
Single-leg squat to box: As Rx’d
This is the low volume week which is why Front Squats are omitted.
So just an update to anyone following this log, I went to the field for our Spring FTX on Thursday the 18th of February. This meant I missed my fri/sat workout. Saturday night while still out in the field I came down with a stomach virus that was going around and pretty much staid jacked up until yesterday when I finally started feeling better.
So what my partner and I have decided to do is Friday’s workout today, and Saturday’s workout on Friday, essentially adding an extra week to phase 2. Next week Monday we will start Phase 3.
Phase 2/ Week 8/ FRI 25 FEB
Broad Jump: Omitted
Deadlift with bar slightly elevated: 250
Reverse Lunge: 45
Pallof Press: As Rx’d
Phase 2/ Week 8/ SAT 26FEB
Speed Bench @ 55% 1RM, then 1RM Test: 115, 1RM test=210 (PR)
Close-Grip Bench: 175
Chest-Supported Row: 90
Scap Push-up: As Rx’d
Inverted Row:As Rx’d
Thoughts on Phase 2:
Definitely harder than phase 1 especially those first cluster-set workouts.
I really enjoyed watching my bench numbers go up since this has always been my worst lift.
I suck at chin-ups.
I really despise workouts that take longer than an hour.
The Pallof press looks so easy, but it will kick your ass.
Don’t let injury or sickness ruin your motivation, adjust fire and continue mission. It’s not going to be the end of the world if you can’t do every workout on the specific day, shit happens.
Progress is looking good. Good luck with phase 3. I liked phase 3 more than phase 2, probably because it focuses a little more on muscle growth. I, too, started with deadlifts slightly elevated, and have now progressed to the floor. I’m glad I did it that way, as I feel stronger from the ground up now, and I haven’t strained by back at all (which was a risk in the past).
I only have 2 weeks left to complete the Max Strength program, and can’t wait until final testing day to see the end results. Nice work and keep lifting strong! Oh, also, nice job on the CPT. I have my CSCS as well. The NSCA has good accredidation and a solid reputation, so nice choice.
Great job on the bench PR!
You guys do your FTXs early, I don’t think ours is until the end of May.
[quote]IronAbrams wrote:
Great job on the bench PR!
You guys do your FTXs early, I don’t think ours is until the end of May.[/quote]
End of May? Damn! When is your semester over? I actually appreciate it being early that way I can concentrate on grades and not have to worry about getting evaluated at FTX. We got our LDAC dates as well and I am slated to go to 14th REGT which is the last one.
O.K. Just to get everyone caught up, this past Saturday I ran my first 15K, finished it in 1:13:41 which aint a bad time for someone whose idea of long distance is anything over 2 miles. Felt a little tightness in my Achilles tendon’s on Monday and was supposed to take a PT test Tuesday so I had post-poned Monday’s workout for Tuesday evening. PT test was re-scheduled for this morning (WED) on account of bad weather Tuesday morning. Still did the first workout Tuesday evening even though I thought it would make my run time suffer, surprisingly it did not. I ended up running a 14:09 which is pretty damn good for me, did shitty on push-ups though (64) so I have to start including some supplementary push-up workouts in to get that number up.
Phase 3/ Week 9/ MON 1MAR
Snatch-Grip Deadlift: 205/205/205/185/185
Speed Deadlift @ 60% 1RM: 135
Walking DB Lunge: 45/45/45/35
The set-rep range for the Snatch-grip deads was 3x3, then 2x5 with a lighter weight
" " Walking DB lunge was 3x7, then 1x10 with a lighter weight
Phase 3/ Week 9/ WED 3MAR
Floor Press (3x3, 2x5): 205/205/205/185/185
Pronated grip seated row (3x7, 1x10): 110/110/110/100
Band Resisted Push-up: as Rx’d
Face pull with external rotation: 40
behind the neck band pull apart: as Rx’d
Floor Presses felt weird, I probably could have done 210.
Need to find an easier band for the push-ups, the one I have from perform better is way too damn stiff.
Phase 3/ Week 9/ FRI 5MAR
Speed Free Squat (10x2): 125
Rack Pull From Kneecaps: 255
Wall Ankle MOB
DB Reverse Lunge Front Foot Elevated: 30
Cable wood chop
Elevated Split-squat ISO hold