Ya. Id didnt have to find trouble. It found me. Still avoid bars. Best thing that ever happened to me was meeting my Wife…then soon after getting a second shift job that included working fri. N. Sat. Fast fwd 11 years own my own house cars 3 kids still at that job…better shift tho.
Monday 3-3-14
B.w 222 w. Shoes.
Bench 10x3 @ 295
Closegrip paused 2 x amrap @250
Pause squats beltless 5x3 @ 220
-setted w. Chins
Pretty difficult day. Ive done 295 on this…but this was first time w. One min rests all 10 sets. Didnt feel as explosive as I do sometimes. After 6 th set the third rep was slower a bit outta groove sometimes. So I punished my self. Last set brought grip in one finger width and even paused last rep. Thatll teach me !&#@&
Closegrip was good. Fair ly heavy. After that bench session…but a goal was within reach and I got it. Got 250 for 8. Last good form rep was at 6 …which in general is where id rack it…but I wanted 8 at 250 n got it. Paid for it on 2nd set… had to make myself do a 4th rep…which involved a 2second pause and 3 second lockout.Grinder.
Onto the never ending story of squats sucking. Ended up not toobad. But started slow on warm up. Followed my urge to widen my stance a hair …too about my deadlift stance…toes a hair more forward. Lock in . Go. 220beltless is a tough weight for pausing. 1st cple sets could feel a little more leg drive and just tell it wasnt my exact stance. Taped the last 3. Tough sets…mostly 3rd rep. Looking up is the key for me. Got some solid pauses znd even tho I struggled form is very decent from what ive seen. Took a pic… you see. Anyways hit the 5x3 and did 2 back off sets
205x3 full 2 sec pause
135x3 full 3 sec pause
Monday 3-3-14
B.w 222 w. Shoes.
Bench 10x3 @ 295
Closegrip paused 2 x amrap @250
Pause squats beltless 5x3 @ 220
-setted w. Chins
Pretty difficult day. Ive done 295 on this…but this was first time w. One min rests all 10 sets. Didnt feel as explosive as I do sometimes. After 6 th set the third rep was slower a bit outta groove sometimes. So I punished my self. Last set brought grip in one finger width and even paused last rep. Thatll teach me !&#@&
Closegrip was good. Fair ly heavy. After that bench session…but a goal was within reach and I got it. Got 250 for 8. Last good form rep was at 6 …which in general is where id rack it…but I wanted 8 at 250 n got it. Paid for it on 2nd set… had to make myself do a 4th rep…which involved a 2second pause and 3 second lockout.Grinder.
Onto the never ending story of squats sucking. Ended up not toobad. But started slow on warm up. Followed my urge to widen my stance a hair …too about my deadlift stance…toes a hair more forward. Lock in . Go. 220beltless is a tough weight for pausing. 1st cple sets could feel a little more leg drive and just tell it wasnt my exact stance. Taped the last 3. Tough sets…mostly 3rd rep. Looking up is the key for me. Got some solid pauses znd even tho I struggled form is very decent from what ive seen. Took a pic… you see. Anyways hit the 5x3 and did 2 back off sets
205x3 full 2 sec pause
135x3 full 3 sec pause
Nice work, just finished my own workout, and i’m really starting to respect the 1min rest thing, did it again today myself, are you going up in weight, thought you were 212 a while back, but might be mistaken, anyway goodstuff
I vary. Heaviest always on monday. Lightest always on Fri daynight. 214-222 seems to be my zone right now… 1 min rests aint easy…but youll adapt ! Sets of 3 makes it liveable. Sets of 5 tests your soul!
If I was that narrow with my squat there’s no way I would get down there let alone get back up lol
These vids ive taken have changed my whole perspective. On feel. VS. Reality.reps that feel tough are faster and better form than they feel. Going this full range of motion is limiting my progression on upping the weight. Widening my stance a hair may pick things up. Nothing drastic. Im better than I was… beltless pause squats have made my abs thicker n harder at the top already.
Progress seems slow here…but ill take anythingni can get .the last week of this cycle has my 10x3@ 240. Thats actually not to bad if I hit it… in 2 cyes itll be for 250… my first real goal…
Just lookin at the pic of that squat, makes me hurt all over, I could never squat like that, the bar placement, depth, knee travel, foot placement. I can’t imagine any of it, but you make it work some how. Cheer’s to ya,
Oh and today I was doing sets of 5 with the 1min rest on BORs, seemed to work pretty well on those as well, I’m going to set a little goal of getting them up to 3plates, since some of my other lifts are stuck, I figure I might as well add in some new lifts I can keep moving, like the front squats, ROM deads, and now BORs, if my squat dosn’t want to move, I’ll just build muscle around them 
later
Haha… it’s all I know. Just glad the wicked soreness is in the past ! Ya my bench should stall soon… 315 10x3 0n the horizon.lredy thinkin of adjustments ahead of time.
ya I went a little nuts there for a month or so when my squat wouldn’t budge, trying all sorts of crazy shit, but now basicly decided it’s a good time to get some other stuff movin, that I haven’t been puttin much effort into, either because I wasn’t training them, like front squats and BORs, or just becuase I was only half assed training them, like deads, and bench. the point being if I divert my focus away from the squat ( been kind of squat obsessed the past year ) and get ther other lifts moving, I think my squat will benift anyway.
Front squats, deads and BORs all directly affect the squat anyway, it’s just that for me, once I found a way to squat pain free, after years of not being able to squat, I kind of became obsessed with only squating, and looking back over the past year ( nice to have a log ) I was kind of giving my other lifts a free pass, so we shall see
As far as your bench, you never know, you may just sail right on past 315x10x3, and end up getting stuck way further down the line, when my bench stalls I just switch it with incline as my main pressing priority for a couple months, and when I come back to it, feels fresh and strong Later
Wednesday 3-5-14
Deads from 1" def 10x3 @285
Incline pause bench 5x3 @250
Rows 4x6@180
B.w 217 no shoes
Failure. Unforseen failure. Im guessin lack of recovery… monday I hit 10x3 bench 295 on the minute, solid pause squats which left some red spots around my neck from strain and solid pause both top n bottom chins that had my upper back and rear delts destroyed. I had some unexpected doms Monday night, more than usual. Worked late and then got little sleeep cusni had to wake early and spend whole day on daughters field trip only to arrive home in time to leave for sork. Work late again. Felt like shit at work stiff. Unrecovered and sleepy tired too. Came home. Got a good stretch n hot shower which helped. But little sleep again… wake and this lift was on the menu…
Incline bench first- this is whers it began to show felt slow. Added extra warmup set here and seemed tonspark thing. Each set got better and better paused each rep w. 250 = awesom. Last rep on last 3 sets got a full 2 sec pause and each rep was a grinded. Really worked these as I hope it leads to a small goal of mine on this- 5x3 @265 unpaused. Which I go for next week…
Deads- felt a bit stiff. Nothing crazy warmed up. Felt a bit heavy . But nothing pointing to what happened next. Loaded 285 and first set felt brutally heavy. Added belt.2nd set… More of the same. … added a minute rest for 3rd set. Grinder. Damn! So go touch n go for sets 4 and 5. Felt like hell. 6 didnt come off tha ground !!!
In a fit of rage ripped weights off to 225 and did 5x5 on tha minute as fast as possible. No belt. Double over hand. This took care of the rage. I was whooped. A 5x3 grinder fest that ended in failure blows you out. On paper the 5x5 should be warmup…but actually fried my back and i was suckin air on the minute.
Rows- well now my backs fried. Warmup felt like toothpicks after that the 4x6 then felt a hair heavy. Wtf. Well… my back was fried so…once I focused on form each rep it got betted. Later noted inloaded 185 in the frenzy vs. The planned 180. Got a dead hang set last set and a paused set to finish.
Some quick punishment for w.e reason to end it.
-135 snatchgrip shrugs x20
-135 snatchgrip highpulls x 6
-135 snatchhrip bent rows from hang x6
Not mad. Just disappointed. Upfront- plan to go for reps n sets as planned next week and just assume its an anomaly. I set this up to eventually fail…on the 4th week…not the 3rd! Of a cycle. Expecially on a weight ive hit twice before on this…
[quote]barbedwired wrote:
Not mad. Just disappointed. Upfront- plan to go for reps n sets as planned next week and just assume its an anomaly. I set this up to eventually fail…on the 4th week…not the 3rd! Of a cycle. Expecially on a weight ive hit twice before on this…[/quote]
One of the things I found really interesting about using the ramp to maxes is how much strength fluctuates between workouts. The squatting every day thing was new to me, but even then, some days I just felt a good 10 lbs stronger or weaker than the day before. And that was even with food and sleep and everything else as consistent as could be.
I get the idea of “peaking for a meet” and wanting that to be great, but I wouldn’t make a big deal of it in training.
Sounds like you got good work in though.
Thanks. Ya… i made up for it… my low back and hams are fried right now. And your right. No meet. Just a miss In Training. Ect…
Just some thoughts. Yesterdays miss has me thinkin ahead. Normally I look at my routine on 4th week and make any adjustments form next cycle. Just doing it a week early… as I have no plans today n tskin it easy…over reading online.
- still finish cycle as planned. Not even a question.
- I been lookin for that sweet spot of makin everything work in 3 days and keeping it about an hour each. With this each has its own day. Bench/deads/squat . Well…leaves no room for a 2nd press day. Which for me is Incline and ive worked hard to get it up there a d refused to give it up… so hence hadto couple it w. Squat or deads…= time crunch.
- also only have two pulls. Chins/rows so they both must stay.
- I can say now ive got my incline up where I want it. And can finally sacrifice some to continue my lowerbody comittment.
- part of the @10x3 is that its the main movement and first. I broke this rule to make room for inclines. Doing inclines before deads. And while no prooof… look what happened. I do feel it throws me off…and this can’t continue.
- sticking w. 10x3. Gonna have just one press day but couple it all together.in ed coans program he does flat/incline/closegrip in same workout. Im gonna implement this and ridnof the 2nd pressday. My pressing is very good and comes natural. Ive done layer system for bench so I know the general idea w. Wormk.
- also gonna free up space on other two days to complimenf one another by doing 10x3 main movement/supplement opposing movement. Also gonna move benchday to wednesday. Giveng recovery time between mondays deads and fridays squats. So…I.e…
Monday
-10x3 deads
-pause squats
-barbell rows
Wednesday
-10x3 bench
-incline bench paused
-closegrip bench paused
-chins
Friday
10x3 squats
-stifflegged deads
-shrugs
Friday 3-7-14
B.w 217 no shoes
Squat 10x3 @235
Stiff legged deads 3x6 @ 245
Another day…another debacle. Not fun posting this stuff. Ive narrowed my issue down to tight n tired spinal erectors. I dont know exactly why. But thats what it is… wednesdays dead session showed it bad… today it just continued.
It feels a bit stiff. But nothing horrible. It really shows when you try to lift something. Again…no soreness or pain. But very little strength available. Normal activities are fine.
With this… I decided to try stiff legged first. A no no in my book …but ive been stiff before and a good deadlift session. Worked it all out. Not this time…
Stiff legged
135x6
205x6
225 @3x6 - never made it to 245. Felt slow. And had to rest pause last two sets. Embarrassing. Ive nailed this weight w. Good form for 3x8 fairly easy before.wow.
Onto squatting- did an extra warmup set in between and it felt awesome. Little did I know it wouldnbe the best set of the day.
My 225 paused rep felt like 250. So I belted up and paused 250. Yup felt the same.
Drop to 235 for my 10x3
-2nd rep of 1st set I got out in front of my self and my erectors decided there was no return… once I realized I actually just assisted getting the barbell to the floor w.o getn hurt. Which was forward…controlled amap…duck out last second. My first time ever missing a rep.
At this point the workout was blown and it was clear…even w. A belt weight wasnt an option. Wow.
Quickly regrouped. No rage this time . And just started gettn in work. Had to pull weights to re rack.
-135x3 paused front squat
135x3 paused back squat
-155x3 paused front squat
155x3 paused back squat
-185x1 paused front squat-last my grip will hold. Core felt way stronger.
-185x1 paused back squat
-205 x 3 atg squat
225 @ 3x3 atg squat- hard. 
Drop to 135
-5x5 atg 3 sec paused each rep for some core work
Shrugs -245 4 x8
135 x10 powerclean to finish
Felt like igot decent core n conditioning In at least.
One of the oldest well used press/chest tricks is to flip flat and incline work week to week. So heavy flat press, followed by incline volume work, next week heavy incline press, followed by flat volume work. This was the routine Arnold followed for years, followed by dip/fly super-set, that was his chest workout. the same set-up was touted by Lee haney, flipping incline and flat as first and second exercise, week to week. From a purely chest development arguement, you don’t get much better than these two, from a strength stand point, nothing improves my bench, more than incline work, so flippin them has merrit, and isn’t far off what I’m doing right now, just a sugestion, as I know your struggling to fit it all in.
Glad to see you making squats and deads a priority again, couple other things that can help make workouts compact, is superseting opposites, like pushing and pulling, or arms and legs, I love this way of training, and have done it for years. If I had two full sized bars I’d be setting bench and BORs right now, having a pump in your back, actually helps with pressing strength, and I convinced alot of guys of this over the years, also doing suppersets, trisets, or circuts for asistance exercises, after your main exercise, this is another one I’ve done for years, still doing, Pwnisher talks alot about this in his log as well.
Do the main move, than do a circut of 2,3, or 4 exercises,easy way to get some added conditioning while your building muscle, fixing weaknesses. Anyway just a couple tricks to condense workouts, I’ve been training abriviated training since I was 10yr and got Brawn for Bday present, keeping the workouts short, heavy, and basic is all the rage now, but McRoberts has been preaching it for years.
Goodluck, with the new template, Later
Ya. That template looks solid and im glad I did it a week early. Cus now I have time to do some programming.
Obviously on pressday doing all 3 will be tricky. Coan had 2 sets of each flat/incline/closegrip. That makes it easy. However im doing @10x3 flat first so that skewes any pre made template. Which at this point is cool cus I get to tinker and put everything ive learned to test. Im thinking of doing something like you said jake. Light week of flat means heavy week for incline and vice versa. On light weeks ill just add more volume. And that covers two… ive always used closegrip as a finisher and still will. Pry 2 sets- I need to test w. Weight because the fatigue of @10x3 followed by incline is unforseen.
Maybe…
Week 1 @10x3 bench
3x3 incline 90%
2xamap closegrip
week 2 @10x3 bench
5x3 incline 85%
2xamap closegrip
week 3 @10x3 bench
3x5 incline 80%
2xamap closegrip
week 4 @10x3 bench heavy week
5x5 incline 75%
2xamP closegrip
I missed both lowerbody movements. Pin pointed lumbar erectors. Dont know why. But this also could be a stall… most 10x3 have a true deload or are only ran for x-amount of time as a change up. Next week is the 12 straight week for me… Which alone from what I seenwas the longest pre programmed it was ran…and… they started dropping sets off weeks into it. I did not.
Ive got some ideas to keep it going.
- I found on 5/3/1 the pre programmed sets leading up were perfect warmup/ activation sets. And I learnednon layer system how handling a heavier weight then dropping down works as activation as well. I need to do something like this that still is work but hits that speed set type of work. Much like CAT training the 10x3 wants fast as possible reps…
Could be something like this:
Week 1 - 10x3 @80%
Week 2 - 9x3 @82.5% w. 1x3 speed set first
week 3 - 8x3. @ .85% w. 2x3 speed sets first
Week 4- 7x3. @87.5% w 3x3 speed sets first
Still get 10 sets of 3…just at diff percentages. Only one week is below that 24-25 rep sweet spotand thats the heaviest week. All other weeks are at or above that range. I like this idea on paper! The weight ill pick will be heavy enough to move fast but not be stupid small.
Bench 275 for speed sets
deads 265 speed sets,
squat ? No idea. Either way the number sucks. Maybe 205
Monday 3-10-14
Heavy week -2 min rests- no planned accesories
Bench 10x3 @305
Beltless pause squat 5x3 @230
B.w 214
And what a great day it was…p.r city
Bench- never was a set in doubt. 2 min rests help allot. 305 faught me a bit on 3rd rep…but no grinder. No outta grooves <---------- key.
Pause squats no belt- hit every set! 230 isa p.r on beltless paused. 3rd rep was a grinder and most sets. Just fight thru. Honestly I got 2 sec pauses on first 2 sets and it was draining energy a bit…so I made sure just pause n go rest of way. Hadto finish these!
- decided to do some backoff core sets. Dropped to 135 and did full 5 sec pauses really pushing abs out and focus onstaying tight. Wanted a 5x5…but quickly realized each rep was draining anything left. Settled on a 3x5. Still-goal met core drained.
Went for 1 repset of chins only got 8 . My p.r is 10. This was last and between being tired and my hands sore. ( wrenched on stuff this weekend and the 305 benching lit it up!).
Im convinced after getting buckled by 235 friday on a belted squat. .and then pause squatting 230beltless monday …that im better at pause squatting. Friday I got outta groove…n w. My erectors fried they wouldnt save it. So yes… I know why. But most problems are on free squat day.
Thibs has been doin some slow decent squats and I messed w. This and it coincides w. Pause squatting wheras im tighter and under more control . My free decent and rebound are what get me sometimes. The speedn rebound sendin me forward a bit at times. I also notice im more erect untill a certain point of depth…after that slighly more forward.
Anyways… I tried slower decents in warmup…first 2/3 slowdecent… last 1/3 fullspeed rebound outta hole. Gonna try this more n see… it let me control things better…