Training: High Bars

BW - 212

High Bar Squats -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X3
225X2
255X1
205X11, 9, 8

Hack Squats -
1ppsX10, 10, 11

Good session.  I went up to 255 for my last over-warm-up on High Bars just to see how it was moving.  My best ever High Bar Squat is 255X5, I believe.  This single moved pretty well, but the bar was positioned a little bit too high on my neck and so it was fairly painful resting on bone.  I also got 1-2 more reps per work set here for 4 more total work reps than last week.

Hack Squats felt a bit better this week as I got more in the groove.  I thought about adding more weight but said screw it, it's just extra quad volume.

I start rehearsing a new show next week so my schedule's going to go in the toilet.  I'm going to run Paul Carter's Strong-15 Short cyle as a twice-a-week program with a Squat/Dead day and an Incline/Chin day, and then get in some extras at the office gym or what-not as time permits.  Just stuff like biceps and leg curls, maybe some machine rows and that kind of thing.  Nothing crazy.

Reps and Volume. Week 1. Bench

BW - 198

Bench -
BarX15
95X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
135X12, 8, 5

CG Bench - 135X3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 5

Incline (steep) - 95X10, 8, 7

Reverse Pec Deck - X20, 20, 20, 15

Hammer Curls - 25sX20, 18, 15

First time benching in 3 months.  Went well during the session, but my shoulder wasn't happy about it later.  I may just push through and see what happens after a few weeks.

I wasn't totally sure how I wanted to approach this as I came in.  I went mostly by instinct, and I'm pretty happy with what I ended up doing.  I'll probably make this the bench template for the coming weeks.

Started off with regular bench.  Did a very light over warm-up, and then repped out 135.  My goal is 20.  PRs will start at 18.  I also want a total of 23+reps on the work sets with 135.  Everyone's talking about volume these days, and it's something I'm going to start tracking closely.

After regular bench, I decided to do endless triples of close-grip with my regular grip working weight.  This is some Paul Carter inspired stuff.  It started off ridiculously easy, but get a bit tougher towards the end.  Still, I was able to hit 5 reps on my 8th set.  Will probably move down to 6X4 next week and just start pushing these up.  When I can do 8X5 with confidence, I will up the weight.

Moved over to the gym's steeper Incline bench next and did 3 sets of AMAP with 95.  It is what it is, and this is what it is right now.

Finished off with some rear delts (which is when my shoulder started feeling bad again weirdly) and then some light biceps.  I'll be doing more thorough biceps work on a different training day.

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

Saturday:
BW - 199

Squat -
BarX10
95X5, 5
135X5
185X5
210X3
235X5

Front Squats -
95X10, 10, 10

T-Bar Rows -
BarX15
25X10
75X5
100X3
75X15

Dips - BWX10, 6, 5, 5, 5

Sunday:
Timed-Mile - 8:49

Kind of an 80% session, I guess.  Squats felt slower than I would have hoped, but 235X5 is pretty much dead-center-average for what I've hit the last 5 weeks.

Fronts felt solid.  Still playing with my grip trying to find a fingers under grip that's both stable and comfortable enough not to be a distraction.  I was planning on starting BBB with 115 for sets of 10, but I believe I will start with this weight at least until my grip is more settled.

Used Paul Carter's over-warm-up method on rows this time to great success.  I was struggling to get 75X10 just working up to it, and with the over-warm-up here the 15 rep set was solid.

Dips were okay.  It's still just a matter of being gassed by the end of the session, and still having the discipline to not only work through all 5 sets, but to keep pausing each rep at the bottom.

Fell off the conditioning band-wagon a bit since I've been back from vacation.  Had a tight schedule this week, but I made myself go out at sunset last night and run a mile.