Week 5 Training Notes:
Okay, there’s a lot of mental notes to unpack. Frequency has been getting to me as of late for the lower body, think I was a little aggressive in my weight jumps and choices, but you live and learn… Rotating lifts, using variations and the such is much needed, and I’m bad at explaining things, so I’ll just let the lift choices speak for themselves when I log. Bench in particular has been loving the high volume. No shoulder issues, elbow issues or tendonitis I used to get on low bench frequency, so I’m sticking with 3x/wk. Benching after a Deadlift/Squat day also still hasn’t been an issue for me, and it’s probably because I’m getting used to it. It’s allowing me to train it more frequently, and most days, I just pretend I didn’t even deadlift the day before, and its been going good.
I’ll be starting to train with Elbow Wraps moving forward, with raw benching sprinkled in, just depends on how I feel. I’ll be looking to push up my Deficits, Rack Pulls, Box Squat and Leg Press Up for the next 4-6 weeks, again, just depends on how I feel. I’ll be training bare knee and beltless on my squat for this final week before I start throwing on my wraps & belt in Week 7. So that’s my current priorities moving forward at the moment. I expect to hit some PRs soon but I’m taking my time.
Some notes on form: Close Grip Bench is now my new Regular Bench Grip. I get way more power from my lats the closer I bring it in. I feel the same amount of pecs being used as a wider grip (maybe slightly less), but the benefits outweigh the negatives, because I also feel a majority of my Lats, Shoulders and Tris working together this way, as opposed to a wider grip.
I’ve been constantly doing foam rolling, 15 minutes of Cardio, and deep stretching after all my workouts since I started picking up training again. It’s annoying some days, but it’s a good habit I’ve started to form and I genuinely think it is helping me recover a little better day to day.
Calories are being bumped up to 4200 from maintenance going forward. A nice surplus of 400. I’ve been coasting around 227lbs still. I love The Vertical Diet, it’s simple, it’s cheap, and I feel very good when waking up and throughout the day.
