I once saw a enormous dude walk in the gym, pick up a hundred kilo barbell from the ground (someone was deadlifting there) and he just put it over his head for reps like it was a broomstick.
Then he left.
His session lasted literally one minute.
Crazy
26/06/17
Easy week
Squat superset with chins:
2x5x20, 5x40, 3x5x60, 2x3x60 (paused), 5x60 (paused)/ 10 chins
All the sets felt very fast and good. I rewatched the first of Alpha’s squat videos and tried out what he said; squeezing the glutes to start, pushing the knees out and dropping between them and pulling elbows under the bar. All seemed great cues except the one about pushing up on the bar as you ascend, I don’t know how to do that without dislodging the bar from my back as I lock out. Happy with how squats are feeling now. Chins felt good and none of the reps were too difficult.
Dumbell bench press superset with rows:
Both 3x10x18
Very controlled the whole time, felt good.
I’m glad I decided to take things a bit easier this week, I definitely needed it. Usually I don’t look forward to deload weeks but I have been this time. It’ll only do good things for me and I already feel better.
29/06/17
Bench press (TM-70):
2x10x20, 5x40, 3x50, 5x55, 3x60, 12x65 (PR), 1x72.5, 1x80 (PR), 1x85 (PR)
My friend was nagging me to try for 80kg since it was our last workout together until October and I failed it when I was with him months ago. The plus set went well I decided to go for it instead of a FSL set. 72.5kg wasn’t the fastest rep but 80kg felt very good and hardly slowed at all so I decided I had to try 85kg. That came up pretty well too for a 1RM so I’m very happy with it. My sticking point is definitely around half way up; I avoided thinking about it in the past but I think it’d be silly to ignore it and not target it with assistance exercises now. So on that point can anyone help me out with how to do that?
Front squat (cleaned from floor):
2x5x20, 3x5x40
I planned to front squat light anyway because I’m taking it easy (at least lower body wise) this week and couldn’t be bothered waiting for a rack so I did it like this. I need to get better at cleans with a lighter weight before doing this regularly for the sake of my collarbone.
Back extension: 15xBW
Lat pull-down:
50 total reps with rope attachment, 30 rep drop set with wide grip
Overall a very good session. I won’t max out at all on bench now for at least a few months so I suppose it’s good to see where I’m at. My girlfriend visited yesterday (Wednesday) and I’d rather spend time with her so I pushed the workout back to today and will do this and tomorrow’s workout back to back. For squats tomorrow I think I’ll take it easy again and stick with 3x5x60.
BW: 87.1kg
I’ve been out the last two nights and eaten and drank a fair bit so I expected this. Hopefully it drops back down in the next few days. I do think I look slightly leaner recently though.
It’s a very common sticking point. Just keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t worry about special exercises.
Yeah, usually just getting stronger and faster in the movement does the job - unless you are really advanced
Dude awesome soon youl be hitting that 100kg bench !!
30/06/17
Squat superset with chins:
2x5x20, 5x40, 3x5x60/ 6 chins
Felt good again and worked on the same cues as last time. I’m feeling ready to go back to some heavier weights next week.
Overhead press (TM-45):
2x8x20, 5x32.5, 3x37.5, 6x42.5 (PR)
I’m glad to have hit two PRs back to back in this because I didn’t feel like I’d got much better before. I didn’t do a back off set because I did a lot yesterday. TM will be back down to 40kg next cycle.
Deadlift (TM-100):
10x20, 2x5x60, 5x75, 5x85, 5x95, 3x3x75 (5 ct pause)
Also felt good other than the bar being hard to hold towards the end because my hands were so sweaty. First two pause sets were hook grip, I’m going to try it on my main sets next week.
I’m moving out in about an hour and live on the second floor so they’ll be a fair bit of carrying up and down stairs which I’m absolutely counting as conditioning. Diets been much better last two days and things are going good in general. I’m looking forward to starting the next cycle.
When are you planning on swapping programs from 5/3/1? Are you waiting for me to guinea pig on Alpha’s program first?
One more cycle similar to this one then three BBB then I’m gonna give WS4SB a try for a few months and I don’t know after that. Alpha’s LP is on my mental list of stuff I want to try but I’d be extremely limited with what I can do in giant sets in a busy university gym. I’ll probably try it next summer though when I’m back home from university again.
Funny you asked this, I was thinking today about writing down a list of the programs I want to try. That six week candito one you did looked interesting and I kind of want to try PowerliftingToWin’s program as well. They’re both obviously powerlifting programs so I may even consider a meet around then too. There’s also Juggernaut and Cube and even Korte’s 3x3 that have interested me as well as several Dan John programs, CT ones and a couple others from articles on here including some bodybuilding ones. I’m sure if I get 5/3/1 forever they’ll be stuff in that too. It’s a good job I’m young and have time to try them all. I didn’t realise how many there was until I wrote this. I can see some program hopping in the future if I’m not careful.
I had a look at Destroy the Opposition deadlift specialisation and now I want to run that. Looks like this
I’ve not heard of that before, is it a peaking program?
Sort of, you do three of the two week microcycles to build the strength then do a week of this max out schedule, this is optional though.
Then you max.Seems fun.
Thanks, another thing for me to look at if I consider doing a powerlifting meet at some point.
Congrats on your new bench PR. More to come!
Thank you, I appreciate your support.
3/06/17
Squat (TM-90):
3x5x20, 5x40, 5x60, 5x70, 5x75, 3x4x60 (3 ct pause)
Went okay, feel like I’m getting better at pauses.
Dumbell bench press superset with dumbell row:
Both 5x10x17.5
Sandbag carry superset with broad jumps:
3x30mx30/ 3x5
I suck at jumps but I wanted to finish off with something fairly easy that would get my heart rate up and the gym was busy so I was pretty limited.
06/07/17
Squat (TM-90):
3x5x20, 5x40, 5x60, 5x70, 5x75
Superset with: 8 chins and 7x10 band pull aparts
Squats felt smooth but a little heavy, however it was first thing in the morning so I expected it. Did the chins a bit differently to normal; I jumped up above the bar then lowered myself down and did a chin which I counted as one rep. Each set I tried to jump a bit less and pull myself up a bit more so they were kind of one and a half normal reps. The stretch reflex makes them much easier.
Bench press (TM-72.5):
2x10x20, 5x40, 5x47.5, 5x55, 13x62.5 (PR), 10x50
Superset with: 5 chins, 7x10 band pull aparts and 2x30s BW hangs
Bench seems to be going really well lately. I didn’t expect a PR and the weight felt quite heavy but it turned out okay. For these chins I pulled myself up from standing which was about half the way up and then did a full rep afterwards but I didn’t want to count the half reps.
Lat pull-down: 3x10
Treadmill run: 5 mins at 9 min/mile pace
The run was quite hard again. I’m just really bad at running but hopefully some more practice and losing a bit of weight will help with that. I think I’ll make this a weekly thing at the end of my bench workout. I’ll progress it by doing 30 seconds more each time until I run a mile then I’ll drop back down to four or five minutes at a minute quicker pace. Overall a really good and productive session. I’m enjoying training a lot at the minute and looking forward to starting BBB.
Good job on all the Bench PR’s, keep it up.
Bench is really coming along. Great job!
