Novice LP. Session 51 (Greyskull Squats and Press)

BW - 229

Bench -
222.5X4
200X5, 5

Squat - 355X5, 5, 6

Chin-Ups - BWX5, 5, 5

Negative Chins (0/0/4) - BWX3, 3

222.5X4 is a Rep PR on bench.  5th rep just wasn't there.  Will give it a shot again next week, and either succeed and continue, or fail and move on with a top triple.  Forgot to film my top set, but filmed my back-offs.  Here's the 2nd back-off set.  Contemplating my elbow flare.  I thought I was keeping them in longer than this.

335X6 is a Rep PR, and 335X5X3 an LP PR, on Squats.  Squats were feeling very good today in practice, but under review, the bar seems to be drifting forward again at the bottom.  More work to do.

Chins weren't anything to write home about today.

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.

Phase 1. Week 7. Bench

BW - 208

Bench -
BarX20
95X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
185X6, 2

Cambered Bench - 135X5, 5, 5

Incline Bench (steep) -
135X5
95X10, 10

Bench was horrible today.  Reps came off my chest okay, but I struggled to lockout at least half my 185 reps.  Elbows flaring, one butt-cheek coming off the bench, it was just a goddamn train wreck.  1 rep short of last sessions mark, and significantly harder in general.  Is it possible I actually need fucking lock-out work?  Gonna start throwing some direct triceps work back in, and see if I can remedy this bullshit.

Fuck even talking about assistance.