Son of a Bench Week 3. Day B.

sRPE @7

BW - 223

Bench - 200X3, 3, 3 @~8

Squat - up to 315X1 @7.5

ATG Pause Squat - 225X5, 5 @6/7

Machine Flyes - X10, 8 @10

super-set with

DB Curls - 35sX8, 7 @8

Floor DB Rolling Triceps - 40sX10, 7 @10

super-set with

Machine SL Calf Press - X12, 11 @9

Rower - HIIT; 5 rounds

Working out on back-to-back days on a full body program is always a little rough.

Got on autopilot out of the gate and did an extra set of Bench.  Not supposed to add a 3rd set on this day for a few more weeks.  No big deal, just to say I was a little out of it.

Then Squats felt awful on warm-ups until I realized I was using my bench grip hand placement which is narrower than my squat grip.  Got that sorted and things went better.

Everything else was fine.

Post-Meet, Pre-Vacation Maintenance. Week 1. Session A.

sRPE @ 6

BW - 211

Squat - up to 345X1 @7.5

Bench - up to 205X1 @6.5

RDL w/Straps - 225X12 @9

Moved my grip on bench out to the rings.

HLM. Week 2. Day 1.

BW  - 227

Squat -
355X5
285X5, 5, 5

Incline Bench - 175X5, 5, 5, 5

Chin-Ups - BWX4, 3, 3

BB Rows - 175X5, 5, 5

The good belt that fits me got snagged by someone else, so I had to use one of those crappy tapered belts.  Pinched like a mofo.  Anyway, these Squats went okay.  I wish a set that's 50 lbs. off my best set of 5 felt a little stronger, but there it is.  Back-offs were easy even with the crap belt.  Adductor continues to just "pinch" coming out of the hole, but also continues to bother me outside the gym.  We'll see.  Top set and last back-off shown.

First time doing incline bench in over two years.  Because this is a curved bench, it took me some time to figure out my set-up.  When I pull my feet back under me like a regular bench, I end up arching up enough that it makes this basically a flat bench.  Putting my feet out in front helped keep the angle down a bit.  Grip here is "medium" or about half way between full bench and Press.  Definitely  made for a longer, triceps heavy stroke.  Last set shown.

Chins were about as strong as they've been lately.  I'm just going to focus on keeping them strict and leaving a rep in the tank, and they'll be what they'll be for a while.

Rows were very easy at this weight.  Had set these to be 50% of that week's DL top set weight, but I'm gonna up that to 55%.  Last set shown.

Hybrid Training. Week 5. Heavy Upper

BW - 226

Warm-up -
Rope PushdownsX20, 15
super-set with
Straight-Arm PushdownsX15, 10

Bench -
up to 190X2
then 160X6, 6

Dips -
BWX10
+10X6
+20X6, 6

Chins - BWX7, 5, 4

Lying EZ-Bar Triceps -
60X6
80X6, 5

T-Bar Rows - up to 110X6, 6, 6

Seated DB Overhead Extensions - up to a 70 lb. DBX6, 6

Straight-Arm Pushdowns - 1 set of 15

Way more volume on this day than I would normally do on this program.  Two reasons for that: A) mainly the coach that worked with me for my meet in March wanted to hear about my training with Matt Wenning, and so I was killing time till he was done with a client; and B) I wanted to start putting some of Wenning's recommendations into practice, so I was feeling out some things.

To that end, I warmed up per his recommendation by hitting some triceps and lats.  Just hit a couple of medium-high rep sets.  No big.

Bench went pretty well.  Grip is moved in per Wenning, and trying to focus on keeping elbows in through lock-out.  I was good for that one the heavy(ish) double, and the 2nd set of 6.  The first back-off set had a bit of elbow-flare about half-way up.

Then it was time to "trash the triceps and lats," per Wenning.  For the initial movements, I kept the Hybrid Training program in mind.  On heavy bench day, following the bench, the program calls for 2 hard, low-medium rep sets.  I'd been doing the Press as suggested by the manual, but Wenning's impression that I needed to get away from benching so much with my anterior delts, made me think that I should sub in a compound, heavy triceps movement.  My old favorite Dips seemed like just the ticket.  To keep the intensity higher than the volume, I went with weighted dips for the first time in a long time.  I was about 10-15 lbs. off my best for that rep range, but that's not bad as a place to start.

The program had barbell rows and then chins, but I thought I'd flop that to hit the lats first.  After that, I was bascially just going back and forth between triceps and upper back movements waiting on Bill to be done.  Tried to take everything into a range where 5-6 reps would be challenging for a couple of sets.  Trying to see what movements I might like to rotate in.  It will be dips for sure as the secondary movement for a few weeks

Training with Matt Wenning at Ludus Magnus Gym. Day 2. Speed Bench

Bigger crew today.  Some of them showed up later, and we ended up working in two separate groups.  Matt trained alongside us this time.

Warm-up -
Earthquake Bar Bench for 4 sets of 20.  Maybe a 15lb. kb on each side.
super-set with
1-arm DB rows - worked up to 90X8

Speed Bench - doubled red mini-band
6 sets of 3 up to a quarter each side
then 1 set of 3, 10 sec. rest, 1 set of 3 with 5 sec. eccentric

Skull Crushers - on the ground, long pause between reps, super slow eccentric
3-4 sets of 6-8 with 90 lbs.

Hammer Pull-downs, pulled to forehead - 3 pps.XAMAP;
2 sets, super-set with
X-Body Hammer Curls - 35sXAMAP

Bamboo bar bench was pretty fun.  They had me in at the beginning of the rotation with much lighter weights, so it never got as challenging for me as it was for some of the guys at the end of the rotation who couldn't finish their last couple of sets.

I've never done band bench before, and the first rep was an eye-opener.  The band definitely makes the bar come off your chest differently.  I was getting a ton of cue-ing from Matt and his crew on this movement.  Matt had a lot of take-homes for me on this one: "You're way anterior dominant on bench, and you're finishing with all delts.  Your grip is out to far, and your lats are weak.  Move your grip in (moved from the rings to a fingers width inside the rings), and make sure to keep your elbows in throughout the movement.  You need to warm up your lats and triceps before you bench, and completely trash them afterwards.  You need to do that for 2 years."

To his point about weak triceps, he had me start out at 110 on the floor extensions, and I couldn't get 2 reps.  Had to strip a 10 from each side, and I could continue.

Hybrid Training. Week 0. Light Upper

BW - 228

Bench - up to 155X5, 5

TUT (3/0/3) CG Bench - 140X6, 6, 6

DB Laterals - 25sX6, 6, 6

BB Curls - up to 65X8, 8

Light and easy as expected.

I did learn on the CG Bench that it's more comfortable for me if I use more of a "medium" grip (one hand-width in from competition grip), and don't tuck my elbows as hard.  My right shoulder is still bothering me a bit from something that happened over vacation.  I went in and tried to do CG bench the way I used to do them, when that was the only way I benched.  And I found that having my hands at "press grip," that is, touching the smooth, and keeping my upper arm parallel to my torso through the movement made the shoulder hurt like hell.  It reminded me a lot of the feeling I got when I injured my shoulder benching in 2014.  Makes me wonder it that technique was really the underlying issue somehow.  Moving out the grip and letting the elbows angle out a bit completely eliminated any discomfort in the injured area.  And the movement just felt more "right" somehow.

Only thing that felt heavy today were the curls.

Full-Body. Week 3. Deadlift

BW - 230

Squat -
BarX5
135X5
205X4
245X3
295X3, 3, 3

Bench -
BarX5
95X3
135X2
165X3, 3, 3

Deadlift -
135X3
225X3
285X2
325X4, 4

Switched back to regular grip bench for this day.  Since I'm able to do dips on small-session days at the office gym, I thought it would be better to get more practice on the regular grip than work to get the form down on a variation (which was proving trickier than I expected).

Deadlifts were heavy, but moved pretty well.  Technique didn't feel very dialed in, though.

Full-Body. Week 1. Low Bar Squats

BW - 228

Squats -
BarX5
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
285X12, 3

Incline - up to 155X3, 3, 3

BB Rows - up to 155X3, 5, 5

Done with the 100 reps accessory work I used to help my body recover from meet training.  Moving back into a full-body type program.

285X12 is a Rep PR.  Since I added a rep, I only hit the minimum volume goal with the 2nd set.

Haven't done Inclines in quite some time so it took a while to get back into the swing.  I'm starting by moving my grip in just a thumb's-width from my flat bench grip.  By the end I realized I was pressing a bit out of control and things felt better if I used a more deliberate eccentric and concentric with a pause at the top and bottom.

Also haven't done rows in a while.  I'm not sure if these will need higher reps or not, but my initial aim in this program is to limit worksets on compound accessories to 3-5 reps.