Paused bench press 300x1, 325x1, 350x1
Bench press (touch and go) 310x5
CG bench against minis 215x2, 240x2, 260x2
Lat pulldowns 5x10
Scap retractions 4x15
Band pushdowns 4x45
Abs
Notes: This was a pretty good session, ignoring the fact that I forgot to do the wide-grip presses, lol. My left hip/glute is still on the tight side, but it is getting progressively better. The top set of paused bench felt just as easy as the first single I did with 300, so I have a pretty good feeling about what lies ahead at the meet. Touch and go set was solid, too. Only negative was that I didn’t pause as long as I’d like to, but there was a distinct pause.
Benching against minis wasn’t too bad, though my forearms didn’t appreciate the band tension a great deal. The most painful exercise of the day was the band pushdowns - even with just the monster mini my triceps were on fire.
I pause the main work sets, but everything else is touch and go for the most part. Doing a lot of rep and paused work has done wonders for my off the chest strength.
Paused bench press 325x1, 245x3x3
WG paused bench press 205x2x6
Lat pulldowns 3x10
Scap retractions 4x15
Band pushdowns 4x45
Hammer curls 3x10
Abs
Notes: Broke protocol by working up to my opener instead of just doing the 245 for 3 sets of 3. What was nice about today is that I barely ate anything due to being extremely busy at work today, and still didn’t have any trouble with the 325 at all. Rest of the work was pure deload. Oh yeah, hip is about 85-90% now so should be ready to go after the meet for lower body training.
[quote]VikingsAD28 wrote:
Nice benching, when is your meet and what do you want to hit?[/quote]
Meet is next Saturday, Nov 5th. Since this is my first meet in 2 years, my main objective is to put up a respectable number (for me). However, I think I have a shot at something like 375, which would be a good launch toward my goal of hitting 400 by my next meet in the spring.
[quote]inkaddict wrote:
Good luck with the upcoming meet, man. Hope you smash PR’s like it’s your job!
A 375 bench would be AWESOME man, good luck.[/quote]
Thanks ink. I benched 370 2 years ago, but to me it will be a huge accomplishment ‘only’ to get a 5-lb PR as my training since that meet has been so utterly crap-tastic - apart from my time working with Josh, of course.
Oh yeah, get that 500 DL pronto. You’re close - I’m telling you.
[quote]inkaddict wrote:
Good luck with the upcoming meet, man. Hope you smash PR’s like it’s your job!
A 375 bench would be AWESOME man, good luck.[/quote]
Thanks ink. I benched 370 2 years ago, but to me it will be a huge accomplishment ‘only’ to get a 5-lb PR as my training since that meet has been so utterly crap-tastic - apart from my time working with Josh, of course.
Oh yeah, get that 500 DL pronto. You’re close - I’m telling you.[/quote]
I’m working on it man, trust me. I want it BAD!!
[quote]Element_26 wrote:
Go smash it man! Can’t wait to hear what you do.[/quote]
Thanks. I’m off in a little less than an hour to make the drive up to Philadelphia. Weighing in this evening, should be around 210 so I’ll be a light 220er again.
First attempt 325 good
Second attempt 355 good
Third attempt 370 price is right fail horn
Notes: Steve Pulcinella’s gym is awesome. It’s too bad I didn’t get into powerlifting until after I moved out of the Philly area, otherwise that would have been the best place to join. Also, had some time to hang out with Scott Yard and a few of the guys he trains with. The meet itself was full of lifters and since there was only one monolift in the place, squats took forever. I didn’t get to bench until about 2 pm. The bench warmups were a bit of a mess, too, and I think that might have handicapped me and just about everybody else. Anyhow, my opener with 325 was a piece of cake - flew right up. The 355 was harder than it should have been; I was actually a little thrown off by the quick press call. On 370, the weight felt good on the hand off and on the descent. When I started to press after command, my hip/glute area that was injured twinged on me a bit but thankfully that was all. I was a little bummed that I didn’t get the 370, but my main goal going in was simply to get back on the platform and hit a respectable bench.
I’m going to be working on my training plan for the next few months and will probably share some details as I flesh things out. Here’s the video - happy viewing.
After some thought and bouncing a few ideas off of people, I decided to use 5/3/1 for my training plans for at least the next few months. I will be starting off with very low maxes for my squat and deadlift numbers since I am just coming off that hip/glute/lower back injury.
I can always bump the numbers up a bit faster each subsequent mesocycle should things become too easy, but I would rather exercise caution and make steady gains than try to jump back in full force and then get injured, pissed off and possibly more bad ju-ju.
