Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Structural Balance for 280




Last bench cycle, this was what I used as a guide for my bench. It's written in Excel, I just plug in a value for the Flat Bench Press. The addition of the Nautilus Bench (3 is the seat height S and 4 is the setting to push the back rest forward D for more depth) and Incline Bench is because those two movements I currently finding the most challenging in the bottom position, my weakness right now. As you can see, the supinated chinups need a lot of work as do the preacher curls - - - I also say that because the chin is tough to increase. My mindset is that my back work would finally break the 200 lbs barrier only when my bicep strength greatly increases, like my bench barriers broke with the addition of heavy triceps movements. My off the chest movements require work, no doubt, but not as much as one would think. That's only because I use my lats and upper back to help launch the weight from the bottom, as well as speed work. Once I get that weight 3 inches off my chest, my 2 board strength takes over. At some point, I will do behind the neck press just to stay in line but getting a 26 pound gain in that lift in 15 weeks won't be a problem. The goals for external rotations won't be a problem either, but I'm not stopping there. I might gun for the same goal in YTWLs, just because they made me eat humble pie. Close Grips are doable but I may have to do forearm work so that I can hold that much with a close grip. I think all the deadlifting will help there.

4 comments:

Alberto said...

The Nautilus Bench has a seat setting from 1 to 6. At 1, it simulates the bar touching the chest and at 4, it's like benching with a camber. I could do something like that with dumbbells (which will be in this program) but can't use as much weight - - - my gym doesn't have a cambered bar either. The first time I tried wave training was with this machine, but I also used it because it was close to my real bench at the time (with a 1 setting)and I didn't have bands - - -it's heavy at the start and get's tougher as you push. Since it improved my flat bench, I kept it. Machines aren't all bad, Stinn, and some are really effective. It's just another tool; they accomodate resistance, too. But because of cam patents, their resistance curves are different so you have to find the most effective ones. I also like the machines by Strive and Hammer.

Alberto said...

For the 5 max effort cycles I have in this program (each 3 weeks long), it is the only main movement done on machine.

Kris said...

I just plug in a value for the Flat Bench Press

I have probably missed something somewhere, but am curious to know how the flat bench fits in with the rest of the numbers. AFAIK, the original Poliquin article based everything on the close-grip bench.

Alberto said...

I'm sorry about that, Kris, that part was strictly mine. My close grip bench press is about 93.1% of my bench, so in Excel it was set to compute the needed CGP once I punched in the flat bench press value in Excel. Everything else is per Charles Poliquin's article, based on the CGP. If you did a spreadsheet for this, you would have to find what your own CGP correlation to the bench press is. For my bench, the CGP has had the greatest effect on my bench by not only improving my tricep and bottom end strength, but improving my tuck.