Bench and Test

Dead Benches w/1-pr chains (clustered, 30 seconds between reps): 85x3, 105x3, 125x3, 145x2, 165x2x4.

2-Board Press: 185x5, 205x3, 225x4 (Rep Out Set).

12" Close Stance Box Squat: 135x5, 165x5, 195x5, 225x3, 255x2, 275x2 (2RM). Good for about a 285 single.

Test & a New PR

Sumo Deadlift: 135x3, 165x3, 195x3, 225x3, 255x3, 285x3, 315x1. Not the best that it has been, but I can work with it. Am trying to adjust my workout. Don't know how just yet, but I will think of something.

Incline Bench Press: 85x5, 105x5, 125x5, 145x3, 165x2, 185x1, 205x1, 225x1 (PR). 205 went up so clean that I decided to go for the 5-pound PR. So I had someone from work spot me and give me a handoff. I launched it quick and hit my sticking point but just kept pushing until it moved again. I think I could now say that the dead benches with the chains are gold. Or, I could just show the numbers:

1.) September 20: Incline Bench 195x3 (about 206-210 calculated max)
2.) October 5: started doing the dead bench presses w/1-pr of chains
3.) October 13: Incline Bench 220x1
4.) October 28: Incline Bench 225x1

EZ Bar Curls: 80x5x4

I have makeup Navy PRT next weekend so I probably won't go for it. But if I do, I will probably do another dead bench workout (maybe Saturday) and do a test on Wednesday on Inclines with 230. I don't have doubts that it works but if I nail this then I will be absolutely convinced.

Shoulders

Sunday:

Dead Benches w/1-pr chains (clustered, 25 seconds between reps): 80x3, 100x3, 120x3, 140x2, 160x2x5.

Monday:
Hoist Roc-It Shoulder Presses: Worked up to 126x4. If I decide to go with this movement for a while, will do 90% of the calculated max and 5/3/1 it.

Hoist Roc-It Lat Pulldowns: 86x10x4

Hoist Assisted Pullups: 85x10x4

Pushups w/Feet Raised 4": 17, 14, 11, 11 reps

Superset:
DB Shrugs: 50x10x3
Reverse Curls: 60x4x3

ME Bench

Incline Bench Press: 65x5, 85x5, 105x5, 125x3, 145x2, 165x3, 175x3, 185x3 (Rep Out Set). Not really a rep out set. My upper body was tired, at the highest weights I could barely hold it and I had no pop when I pressed it. If I had to take a guess, Jacob's Ladder tired my upper body out the day before.

Nautilus Nitro Close Grip Pulldown: Worked up to a 140 double. May stick to movements closer to chins. This did not feel natural at all.

Hoist Assisted Dips (Weight shown is after assistance): 124.5 x 15 x 3

Behind The Back Shrug: 85x15x3

EZ Bar Curls: 70x7x3, 70x6

Played basketball for an hour.

ME Squat/DL

Tuesday evening: Elliptical, 30 minutes, level 7 hill profile.

Today:
I had just dropped my son off at driver's ed and felt that I would rather drive fast to get to the base and work out than drive 15 minutes to home, rush a workout, get him, and do aerobics later. Since I didn't have the sled, I used the Jacob's Ladder as a finisher. This workout turned out to be pretty good for me.

Arched Back Good Morning: 45x8, 65x5, 85x5, 105x5, 125x3, 145x2, 165x3, 185x3, 205x3, 225x1. The 205 triple was really clean and the 225 less so: I almost lost my arch and I almost descended into a squat at the bottom and had to right myself fast. So if I had to use this as an accessory movement, I would compute the numbers based on the triple (about 217-220 pounds).

Hoist Leg Press: 210x10, 280x8, 350x6, 420x4, 490x3, 560x3, 630x3, 700x3 (3RM)

Superset:
Lying Leg Raises: 14, 10, 8, 6 reps
Assisted Situps on a Slant Board (Light Bands): 10, 8, 6, 4 reps.

Finisher:
Jacob's Ladder: 18 minutes (30 seconds on, 30 seconds off)

DE Bench Press

All Notation: Weight x Reps x Sets

Dead Benches w/1-pr chains (clustered, 20 seconds between reps): 75x3, 95x3, 115x3, 135x3, 150x3x4

2-Board Bench Press: 175x3, 185x3, 195x7 (Rep Out Set). Expected 5 reps tops at 195, did not see 7 coming.

T-Bar Rows: 45x5, 60x5, 75x5, 90x3, 105x2, 115x3, 120x3, 125x5 (Rep Out Set)

DB Shrugs: 50x9x4

EZ-Bar Reverse Curls: 50x7x4

Heavy Bag Work for 30 minutes

DE Squat

Banded Jumps (Light Bands): 5 sets of 3. Choked a band around the left and right sides of a power rack and put my weight belt through it, then put the belt on really tight. I then jumped as high as I could. Since I'm trying to get conditioned/be less of a fat ass, I'm gonna be doing more and having a bar on my back too much was gonna be taxing. I wasn't keen on doing singles on deadlifts, either, but deficit deads are just like speed deads but better. So there!

Deadlifts w/35s: 115x5, 135x5, 155x5, 175x3, 195x2, 205x5, 220x5, 230x7 (Rep Out Set)

Backwards Sled Drags (Includes Sled Weight): 115 pounds for 6 trips of 40+ yards

Lying Leg Raises: 4 sets of 13, 9, 8, 7 reps

Assisted Situps (Light Bands): 4 sets of 20, 15, 11, 8 reps

Incline Bench Press PR

Incline bench Press: 60x5, 80x5, 100x5, 120x3, 140x2, 160x1, 180x1, 200x1, 220x1 (PR), 170x5, 160x5, 150x5. The original intention was to do the 5 part of 5/3/1 based on a 210 max. But I havent done inclines in 2 weeks and was curious, and all my reps were flying. I was jumping up and down on the inside, because I have never inclined over 210. It's too early to call but I think the dead benches may be helping here, too, because even with a slight pause I'm getting better movement out of the bottom. To keep with the original intention, I did the 5 part at the end and dropped the triceps accessory movement.

Hoist Roc-It Lat Pulldown: 86x10x4

Hoist Assisted Neutral Grip Chinup (weight shown is after assistance deducted): 84x10x4

Behind the Back Shrug: 105x10x3

EZ Bar Curls: 70x6x3

12 minutes on Jacob's Ladder, 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off. Think of a Versaclimber fused with a Stairclimber, but with a ladder. 30 seconds on was about all I could handle at a stretch, partly because of the leg burn.

Lower Body Workout

12" Close Stance Box Squat: 80x5, 105x5, 130x5, 160x3, 185x2, 195x5, 210x5, 225x8 (Rep Out Set)

Forward Sled Drags: 80 pounds for 6 trips of 40+ yards

Assisted GHR (Light Bands): 5 sets of 8

Lying Leg Raises: 4 sets of 15

Assised Situps (Light Bands): 23, 15, 11, and 8 reps

Mowed the lawn;)

Upper Body Work

Dead Benches w/1-pr chains (clustered, 15 seconds between reps): 75x3, 95x3, 115x3, 140x3x5

2-Board Bench Press: 165x5, 175x5, 185x7 (Rep Out Set)

Barbell Rows: 45x5, 55x5, 65x5, 75x3, 90x2, 95x5, 100x5, 110x7 (Rep Out Set)

Assisted Chinups (Average Band): 5 sets of 5

Barbell Push Press: 95x10, 8, 6, 5, 4 reps.

Barbell Reverse Curls: 40x10x4

Heavy Bag Work for 30 minutes

Test: Deadlifts w/35-Pound Plates

Deadlifts w/35-Pound Plates: 115x3, 150x3, 185x3, 220x3, 255x3, 290x2 (2RM). Weird, 255x3 went up smooth and I felt like I had a good amount left in me but at 290, I felt like I had run out of steam.

Assisted Dips (Light Band): 1 set of 8 for every deadlift set, supersetted.

Interval program on a treadmill for 30 minutes.

Aerobics

45 minutes on the elliptical.

Week 3: DE Bench

Since I had a week off to rest up for my Navy PRT (that will get it's own blog post), I restarted week 3. I also decided to experiment with a new way to try and improve my bench press.

1.) It started with this article http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/training-articles/bring-your-bench-press-alive-with-the-dead-bench/

2.) I then decided to test what my dead bench was using singles: 185 was a horrible 1RM (took some body english) and 175 hard but clean with very good form. That's a 40-50 pound difference. So while I may not have enough speed yet out of the bottom to increase my bench, I obviously need more strength at the bottom.

3.) Since I knew that just doing singles would decrease my training volume/density and hurt my overall bench, I thought clusters might help. I found this article snippet from Christian Thibaudeau that hit the spot:

Auto-Regulatory Clustering

Clustering refers to the rest-pause method: you use a heavy load and do single reps with short rest intervals. This allows you to do a lot of reps with a near maximal load while still having a high training density. I like to use auto-regulatory clusters, meaning that I never have a set number of reps to complete, rather I let the completion of each rep dictate if I continue or not.

I’ll stop a set of cluster reps when I can no longer lift the weight fast enough (or smoothly enough). You can use a stopwatch and have a partner time the overcoming portion of the lift or go by feel; it doesn’t make much of a difference in most cases. This table will give you a time target to shoot for:

Load (Test 1 RM for that particular lift)
Rest between reps
Overcoming time threshold
Target number of total reps

90-95%
30 seconds
1.2 seconds
5-8

85-90%
25 seconds
1 second
7-10

80-85%
20 seconds
0.8 second
9-12

75-80%
15 seconds
0.6 second
11-15

4.) I also didn't want a new sticking point to develop from the bottom end work. If you notice from my last few speed workouts, I've been doing 3x3 with boards after the speed sets. So I'll do this with 2-board benches for a a few weeks since that's usually my transition point from the launch and what I can triple on the two board, I can single on the regular bench.

5.) So yesterday's workout looked like this (all notation: weight x reps x sets). Note that the dead benches are about the same weight as the speed work here, done at 75% of 175. I will add 5% a week to the worksets. During the rest part of the cluster, I take my hands off the bar and take them out of the bottom position to relax so that there is no stretch component:

Dead Benches w/1-pr chains (clustered, 15 seconds between reps): 75x3, 95x3, 115x3, 130x3x5

2-Board Bench Press: 135x3, 160x3, 185x3

Barbell Rows: 45x5, 60x5, 70x5, 85x3, 95x2, 105x5, 115x5, 120x5

Barbell Push Press: 95x10, 8, 6, 5, 4 reps. Had little bottom end as the sets went on.

Barbell Reverse Curls: 45x8x4