Most people OHP with some degree of leaning back so yes it hits the upper chest decent. If upper chest is your priority incline bench variations probably better though
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Definitely go for that 225 OHP.
It’s gonna be hard work, OHP really is a difficult lift for many… including me.
Put in some incline presses as well for assistance.
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Thanks guys. I think I’ll stick to the incline bench for now and evaluate the results once I hit 225. In the end I think I’ll get plenty of delt work with the incline press and dips combined. I’m thinking of doing something along these lines:
Wednesday
Rows 4x8
Incline press 4x8
Facepulls 4x8
Lateral raises 4x10
Bicep Curls 4x8
Friday or Saturday
Deadlift 5x5
Sunday
Incline press 5x5 (ramping up to a high effort working set)
Pullups (pyramid sets)
Dips (pyramid sets)
Lateral raise 4x10 (or to failure)
Rear delt raise 4x8 (or to failure)
Really only going to be tracking the weights for the deadlift and the incline press. As long as I can get a decent amount of fatigue from the accessory work that should be solid already.
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Feeling great today. Couldn’t pull off the 385 for 5x5 but it was close.
Deadlift
2x5x135
3x225
3x275
2x335
3x5x385
2x4x385
Incline press
8x95
3x135
3x155
1x185
1x205
8x145
8x135
2x5x135
Facepulls 4x8
Lateral raise 6 sets of 6-8
Bicep curls 3 sets to failure
Deadlifts today felt awful. Should have waited another 2-3 days.
Deadlift
5x135
3x225
3x275
2x335
1x365
5x1x405
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Bent rows
4x8x155
Incline press
8x135
2x5x155
3x155
3x135
Facepulls 4x8
Lateral raises 4 sets to failure
Bicep curls 4 sets to failure
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Decided to give one of the popular gyms downtown a try. Bars had way more flex than I’m used to and the pulls felt better. Lots of hex plates lying around unfortunately so I’m not entirely sold on the place.
Deadlift
5x135
3x225
3x315
4x3x335
1x365
3x1x405
2x405
Farmer walks 4 sets
Lateral raises 5x10
Rear delt raise + bicep curl supersets (4 sets)
Facepulls 4x8
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Dafuq just go to a proper lifters gym already
Haha man I swear I never thought it would be so hard to find a good powerlifting gym in NY. The good ones are too far away from where I’m staying.
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So we have a date for the big pull now. Good.
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So how many minutes are you willing to travel?
@losthog yes sir! I’ve done my fair share of screwing around since the summer and decided I need to get back on a proper routine.
@guineapig grad school is absolutely brutal and I spent this past semester just trying to survive the courses. It’s a course based program so you can fail out pretty easily if you’re in the bottom 10% of the class. I’m willing to take a subway for about 20 minutes, not anymore than that since I’ve got a free campus gym within 15 minutes walking distance. Honestly im still undecided if this new gym is even worth it. The only real benefit I can see besides having more equipment is that it’s less crammed together which is nice since my campus gym is pretty claustrophobic
gg lol
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My thoughts exactly. But I would like to hit my new goals and I’ll be damned if a campus gym gets in the way of that!
What are your thoughts on front squats vs back squats for improving the deadlift? I’d like to add one of them back in as a main lift and set a hard goal for it. I’m leaning more towards the front squat since I’ve read it requires much more thoracic mobility and strength (which I lack)
Hmm. Either of them aren the best for deadlift IMO lots of other stuff you could do depending on your individual weakness. Front squat would be the better of the two I think but if somethings worked for you before it’s a good indicator it’ll work again.
Front squat would be good for general athleticism and somewhat for Powerlifting but for DL only I think you’re better off putting work elsewhere.
I forget what your form is like but it’s back dominant no? Maybe get in some neutral backed hamstring dominant assistance work e.g. snatch grip Romanians (off blocks if you can’t do off floor)
Depends on the purpose also. Deadlift already is taxing and your body only has so much recovery to go around. If you are gonna do something big and taxing like a squat you better be sure it transfer to the DL.
If you just want more volume or hypertrophy maybe go with something less taxing like hamstring curls or lighter variations like Romanians snatch grip or stiff leg and/or back off the main deadlift a bit
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To be fair I haven’t ever given front squats a proper go. Before my mock meet earlier last year I did high bar squats twice a week and that seemed to work great. The only way to find out is to try I suppose.
I definitely round my upper back when I pull, even at lighter weights it’s always felt more natural for my leverages. Im not really sure if I am a back dominant puller, but it’s likely given that my squat hasn’t been trained in forever. I definitely plan to add RDLs back in.
Plan currently looks like (excluding accessories)
Day 1
Front squat or back squat
Bench
Dips
Day 2
Deadlift
Day 3
RDL/Dimel/SLDL (might rotate these)
Incline bench
Rows
And add in some accessory work for the shoulders, core, upper back
So is this volume/Hypertrophy training or strength
I think you’ve been doing strength a while maybe time for a change
For squats I’m going for something like 5x2. Deadlifts I’m going to be doing krocs deadlift program which is similar to 531. Bench and incline press are most likely going to be 5x5. RDLs 5x5 as well. So definitely going for mainly strength for front squats, and a mix for the rest
kk like I was saying maybe time for some volume gains.