Hybrid Training. Week 8. Light Upper

BW - 229

Warm-up - Rope Triceps/Lats Pushdowns Superset

Bench - 167.5X3, 3, 3

CG Bench (3/0/0) - 157.5X3, 3, 3, 3

Incline, Paused Tate Press -
35sX6
40sX4, 4
giant-set with
DB Rolling Triceps -
35sX12
40sX7, 4

DB Rows - up to 80sX8, 6

Rope Face-Pull - X20, 15, 12 (straight-weight)
giant-set with
Rope Lat Pushdowns - X12, 10, 8 (straight-weight)

DB Hammer Curls - 35sX8, 7, 5 (paused on thigh)

That all looks like a lot of stuff, but it's actually just 5 things:
Barbell Bench - 7 sets
DB Triceps - 3 sets
DB Upperback - 2 sets
Cable Upperback - 3 sets
DB Biceps - 3 sets

Triples all moved nice and fast on the Speed Bench.

The 3 second eccentric with 157.5 wasn't nearly as challenging as 4 second eccentrics with 155 last week.  Kind of felt more like explosive work.

Giant-setting the Tate Press with the Rolling Triceps worked pretty well, but I was surprised how few reps I was able to get on the 2nd set.  Not sure if I should have stayed with the 35s or if I need to just start with the 40s (I'll probably do the latter).

That rope giant-set for upper back is still brutal.

Hybrid Training. Week 7. Light Upper

BW - 227

Bench - up to 157.5X5, 5

CG Bench (5/0/0) - 155X4, 4, 4, 4

Incline Tate Press - up to 40sX5, 4, 3

Rolling DB Extensions - 40sX6 (immediately following last Tate Press set)

DB Rows -
60s, 70s, 80sX8
85sX5

Rope Face-Pulls - X20, 15, 12 (straight-weight)
super-set with
Rope Stiff-Arm Pushdowns - X10, 10, 10 (same weight)

Had a lot going on this last week with family in town and some other stuff.  So it has been a week since I'd been in the gym, and I'd only gotten one run in the interim.  I had A LOT of energy walking into the gym today.  Since it was a light or "speed" day, I decided to push that energy into accessories instead of the speed bench.  (which was fine)

I stayed at the same weight for the TUT close-grips as I did last time.  These were a LOT easier following speed sets of 157.5X5 then 175X2.  I threw in an extra set, because the last rep on set 3 seemed too easy.  The last rep on set 4 felt more like what I've been used to.

Tried out the Tate Press for the first time.  Probably went way to heavy.  I tried to mitigate that on the last set by taking the same DBs on jumping over to a flat bench for a set of rolling extensions.  I used an incline bench for the Tate Press, because I'd seen a video of a guy doing them that way, and thought it might hit the triceps slightly different than CG Bench.  I will either go lighter on these in the future, or do them on a flat bench and finish every set with rolling triceps.

Did some DB Rows, and they felt pretty strong.  Looking back, I've never gone over 70 on these before, so...Rep PR!

Finished off with the same rear-delt/lat superset from last week (forgot to do biceps).  Still hard as hell.

Hybrid Training. Week 6. Tempo Run and Light Upper

Saturday:

Tempo Run - 3 miles @ 00:37:00

Sunday:

BW - 225

Bench - up to 175X2, 2

CG Bench, TUT (5/0/0) - 155X4, 4, 4

Rope Face-Pulls - X20, 15, 15 (straight-weight)

super-set with

Rope Stiff-Arm Pushdowns - X20, 15, 11 (straight-weight)

BB Drag Curls - up to 70X5, 4

Hit my distance on the tempo run this weekend, which is great.  Next week I'll push to 3.5 miles, and then look to reset to 2.5 miles and start increasing pace.

Bar moved pretty well with 175 on speed bench.  Final rep was probably too slow.

Tried the TUT close-grips with an explosive concentric; similar to what I did in Columbus with Matt Wenning.  Felt good.  Final reps on each set were getting pretty hard.

Supersetting the facepulls with straight-arm pushdowns using the rope attachment for both and the same weight was interesting.  Pre-fatiguing the rear delts, I discovered I could "feel" them in the pushdowns, and with a slight alteration I could "remove" them from the movement which also made the movement more difficult.  I'll look to keep this one in the rotation and see what pans out.

I guess I did drag curls a couple of times in 2011.  That must have been when I first started and was doing the DeFranco program.  I found this a challenging movement to get down.  Focused on keeping the shoulders down so that I wasn't doing a shrug/row hybrid.  By the end, it started to feel close to right.