[quote]AshyLarry wrote:
Pemdas wrote:
Since you don’t have the bands yet, I would start rotating in strait weight, or you can just buy the bands. the purple ones aren’t really that expensive.
Another option, which I think that you might benefit from is rotating in some rep work on your DE days. For example, 4 weeks of speed work then 1 or 2 weeks of reps. Your buddy defiantly needs rep work. He is way too skinny and needs to put on some mass.
I want to see you start doing 3 or 4 week waves this time around.
I’ll buy some bands, I was going to buy the purple and green until I noticed the price is for one band! I’ll get the purple ones for now. Rep work would probably be useful, I could do every 5th week do reps instead of speed.
My roommate definitely needs to add some size, but he is probably the most unmotivated-motivated person ever. He likes lifting, but once we leave the gym its over for him. I’ve been on his case for the past year or two since he started lifting with me to eat more and more, but he’s been 170lbs since the day he started.
Pemdas wrote:
205 was way too high for DE bench seeing that I know your max is around 230. I still don’t think you need speed work for bench. You setup still needs a lot of work. I like sets of 8 but for you I might do sets of 3 or 4 for like 8-10 sets. You need practice with that first rep. I also wouldn’t have used the boards for speed work. The are good for a supplemental movement after, but you are a raw bencher and need the speed off your chest.
I see what you’re saying there, while my setup is getting better as I get more flexible, its still a while away from being ‘good’. If I switch to 8-10 sets with 3-4 reps should I wave or just go with whatever is around my 5rm for 4 weeks, or add weight every week? I’m truly terrible at figuring out what to do for my bench.
Pemdas wrote:
Are you still training at night? We may have come up with something for DE lower days. I need the rack that you usually use to tie the bands to at least for the next 3 weeks. The other two don’t have enough space under them. The blue bands are far too strong to use DBs to hold them down. I think that we can just use both sides. I am almost positive that we have another set of J-hooks lying around. After that, I will be going back to the purples for three weeks so we can just work in if you want to give them a test drive.
Fridays are my only day I lift at night. If you need the good rack thats fine, I can use the one that never has the right height setting in the corner. As long as I’m not maxing I don’t have to use the good one. I remember when you tried using the db’s on the heavy bands a while back and they just kept pulling the weights up, so I can see what your saying.
I’m still kind of stuck figuring out what to do on ME upper days, I don’t want to just straight bench all the time, and I don’t want to use boards for the ME lift because like you said I bench raw and my biggest problem is off the chest. Any suggestions?
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For the Bench rep work I wouldn’t use something that is about 5 RM. I would start with something that you could do for like 8 or 10. use the same weight for all your sets, but add 5lbs every week. It is better to start low and work up to heavier weight so that you don’t burn out too fast.
Boards are fine for ME work, but I would stick with just the 2 board.
Try this:
Bench 2 weeks
2 Board 2 weeks
Incline 2 weeks
Floor Press 2 weeks
I suggest doing DB work, but not with weight that you used this week. I would lower it to something that you can do for like 3-4 sets of 10-15. This and the reps work will definitely help. I would do the db work on ME days. Maybe rotate incline and flat ever 3-4 weeks for a while.
Do A LOT of upper back work. Face Pulls, DB Cleans, Pull-Downs, Rows. I would try to do more back work then pressing for the time being because of your shoulder issues and I know for fact that your upper back needs some work. Keep the weight relatively light and make sure that you really squeeze the shoulder blades together. This should help your flexibility. I also suggest doing some rehab-prehap work. Like external rotations. I’ll show you what those are if you don’t know. Basically, you want to do everything possible not to rotate your shoulders anymore forward.