5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 3. Bench

LRB Diet - Week 9

BW - 199

Pause Squats -
BarX10, 10
95X5, 5
135X5, 5
160, 185, 210X3

Bench -
BarX10, 10
95X5, 5
125X5
145X3
160X7
95X15
super-set with
Pull-Ups - BW from a dead-hang; 6 sets of 1

Chin-Ups; Neutral Grip; Dead-hang on every rep -
BWX5, 5, 5, 3, 3

Hypers - 3 sets of 15

Nice session.  160X7 is a huge all-around Bench PR with close-grip, and pausing every rep on my chest.  This puts me in spitting distance of my previous best on wide-grip touch-and-go.  There's always a chance this was an above average day, and that I'll see a little bit of a drop-off, but then again maybe not.  I'm going on vacation, and probably won't bench while I'm away, so it'll have to wait till I get back.  My bench started to really take off here around September, 9.  I'm going to go back into my log, and try to really make sure I know what I did in the month or so leading up to this.

I'm resetting all my pull/chin-ups to a "dead-hang."  This isn't totally accurate.  What I'm doing is extending my arms almost fully at the bottom and pausing.  The reason it's "almost fully" and not a true dead-hang, is because I'm keeping enough tension to keep my scapula retracted.  My reps feel higher quality this way, and my chest comes more naturally to the bar, rather than just my chin.  Regardless, this is a significantly more difficult approach, and feels more "legitimate."

Had some time till the bus would come, so I kicked out some hypers real quick.