5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 3. Bench

BW - 201

Paused Squats -
BarX5
95X5
115X5
135X5
superset with
Chin-ups - BW, 4 sets of 5

Bench -
BarX11
95X5
135X5
155X3
170X1
superset with
Chin-ups - BW, 3 sets of 5, 1 set of 2

Pause Squats felt great.  Smooth and explosive.

I was in a rush this session because we had company coming over for dinner.  I skipped the hypers and crunches, and instead superset a ton of little chin-up sets across the workout.  By the time I got to that last set of 2, it felt like I had tweaked my mid-back a little on the left-hand side, so I did full-stop, feet on the ground reps with an overhand grip, and could only get those 2 reps.

Bench is what it is right now.  Much like adjusting my squat to go full ATG, and having to reset my training max for the next cycle to account for the lower strength curve, pausing the close-grip bench on my chest has significantly lowered my top weight on this movement.  I'm resetting my training max for the next cycle, so that I can finally get some reps in.  That being said, my form felt as tight as it has in a while, and these sets were all smooth, even if 170 was quite slow.