16 weeks out of a meet I’m doing for fun. Work is picking up like crazy, it’s hot as hell, just got married, life is great but hectic and busy as ever. After work I barely have the want or time to train. Have been training 4 times a week. But, honestly only 2 of the sessions are worth a shit. The other 2 are just going through the motions and basically just taking time away from my wife and little boy. So I’ll be going back to the 2 day split that worked very well for me before.
Day 1 bench and upper and Day 2 Squat and lower focused. Upper back on both days. I’ll do atleast 1 day of major mobility and tissue work. Would like to 2 which is feel will be easy enough can just come home, cool down, and stretch, roll, and temper.
Week 1 Day 1 - Bench and Upper
3 Count Descent Bench Press:
10x8 w/ 205
Widest Handle Swiss Row Pause at Chest:
6x10 w/85
DB Side Laterals
2x10 with 40s
1x10 with 40s/ drop to 20s for 10/ drop to 10s for 10
Wide Nuetral Grip Pulldown: 6x10 paused at chest w/ 140
Superset next two
*Rope Triceps Press 3 count negative:
3x15/14/13 with 50
BW Dips:
8,7,6
Alternating DB Curls:
30s for 12
35s for 10
40s for 7 drop to 20s for 8
I got rained out of work today unfortunately and had absolutely nothing to do today so I went in and just did some easy squats for volume. 335 for 10x5 out of boredom High Bar Squats and went home.
@halcj1 I don’t think it makes a massive difference on how you set it up. I personally just don’t deadlift much never really have so I just spend that second day focusing soley on bench. As for the upper/ lower vs bench/squat I think it depends on the goals. If just looking for overall fitness upper and lower is perfectly fine. But with powerlifting specifically you have to address your weaknesses and you have to do it with precision and in limited time when training 2 days a week. You also have to do it in a hour and half maybe two hour time frame or so. If truly making 2 days work you have to push hard so just doing a whole bunch of reps on some isolation just inst the best bang for your buck.
My weaknesses right now…
Squat are my quads and upper back. I’m training specifically for a sleeved meet. I’m also specifically training to do it with a high bar in oly shoes squat as it takes my hip out of the movement and I can do it pain free. So my time has to be spent on quads and upper back.
Bench I don’t even know I just suck so I’m just trying to get practice and bring up my weak areas of off the chest so chest and shoulders work plus more upper back work.
Deadlift is always upper back. Have missed every deadlift I have due to letting my upper back get out of postion and have the bar slip out in front of me.
So my lower or Squat day revolves around high bar squats with a ton of reps and intensity on a simple linear progression leading into this meet. Accessory move is a old school feet together, chest vertical, squat down to my tip toes and knees forward squat. Nothing hits and destroys my quads harder. It’s not a power move at all but it does what I need and trains me in the absolute worst postion I could wind up in a high bar. Then upper back is hit hard with two different moves. Finish with a hamstring move and go home.
My upper/bench day focused on the comp bench with lots of pauses right now. I’m also having to bench with really flared elbows like a body builder to one focus on my pecs and off the chest strength as well dealing with serious bicep tendonitits any time I try to break the bar. So hopefully in 8 weeks I’ll be able to bring my biceps and lats back into it. If not I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing. Next is usually a shoulder or incline fly/press combo. Follow with once again two basic but hard back moves. My upper back is my limiting factor in everything so I want to destroy it every chance I can. Might do some direct arm work if I have any thing left in superset fashion to get some blood.
So biggest thing is just making sure you know why you suck and making sure you focus on doing what you suck at. Such as my high bar squats. I have managed an easy 425 (505 wrapped) for 20 reps but 355 for 25 was all out torture because of my quads. So I have to make them a priority. If I screwed up your question I apologize haha.
I have this issue as well, but I am not sure if it’s actually that my upper back is weak, or if the problem is actually taking a lazy position at the start of the lift that makes it easier to crack the bar off the floor, but then puts me in a crappy position at the knees and says “Hey, lats, I know we put you in a terrible spot here, so please wake up and save the lift.”
The answer, of course, is just to get so brutally strong overall that it doesn’t matter.
Yeah, I do notice that when I pull overhand-with-straps, it becomes much easier to get the lats into the game (for a laugh, go to my training log and watch the vids of a 550 deadlift with mixed-grip and the 565 with straps; it’s almost funny how much easier the 565 was than the 550, and I think it was mostly that the mixed-grip made it much harder to fully engage the lats whereas overhand-with-straps made it much easier to flex the lats and finish the lift).
Lol no problem man. I agree about being easier to do with straps unfortunately they aren’t allowed in comp haha. So, as you said my best bet is to learn hook grip (which isn’t happening) or to just get a strong enough upper back it just doesn’t matter that I’m out of postion.
Nuetral Grip Pulldown:
140 for 12
150 for 12
160 for 3x12
Barbell Strict Paused Row:
115 for 4x15
Gonna probably hit some delts and arms tomorrow since I got the weekend off work. Probably hit some hams too since I didn’t get to today due to helping a bunch of guys squat.
Incline DB Press:
85s for 15
100s for 10 and then a set of 7/3 forced and drop to 50s and hit 10
Cable Crossover 3 count Negative and pause at top:
30s for 15
35 for 15
40 for 12 drop to 30 for 10 drop to 20 for 10
Side Laterals Paused at Top Superset With Cable Upright Rows:
25s for 12 and 40s for 12
25s for 12 and 45 for 10
25 for 10/5 partials and 50 for 8/4 forced reps
Giant sets of rope pushdowns, cable overhead, dips to basically technical failure 3 sets. Just kept going.
