Dodgin’ Dadbods: Fortitude Training

With 205x8, that puts my max somewhere around 260. My goal was just to do a 245 incline this year, but I think a 275 incline Bench is super achievable. If I can get 225x8, that’ll yield a theoretical max of 285, so 275 should be hard. Next week I go to 210 for 2x8. I know, I know, I’m getting ahead of myself, but I can already do around 225x5 and I feel like 2 plates and a quarter on incline Bench is getting into reasonable weight.

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Cable Rows
16 on the stack 2x8

Upperback pulldowns
17 on the stack x8
16 on the stack x9

Pause shrugs
185 3x10

Did one plate raise and my left shoulder, which is the one that is 99% but occasionally gives me a twinge of some serious pain around my bicep tendon and labrum, did just that. Felt like it’d pop out of the socket, which is what I’ve been worried about with plate raises that end all the way overhead. So I did my 4x8 clusters with fairly heavy Wendler rows.

Double cable curl 3x12 (9 on the stack)

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Strong incline work! Are you stronger flat or incline?

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The last time I did anterior delt raises (plate, dumbbells, cables, didn’t matter) I seriously impinged something in the front delt/biceps area and had to stop all upper body lifting for three months.

TL, DR, you were definitely smart to listen to your body. I don’t bother with front raises any more; the various presses exercise my front delts plenty.

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I’d imagine incline only because I don’t flat bench anymore. I think I’m just more used to the motion. My shoulders don’t like flat bench, and my chest gets nothing from it, it’s all triceps and shoulders for me. I like decline bench too, but always felt some shoulder impingement from it, and I recently (past 6 months) was able to do dips properly again. Oh, and it’s because of Paul’s advice. Which I have to keep giving credit to because I’ve made numerous petty comments about how he can be a dick, but the advice he’s given out has really helped me. Letting my scaps move naturally through the motion of the dip instead of pinning them back fixed my supraspinatus pain. Letting them move naturally throughout rows, along with a neutral back position and not arched, got me lat contractions that I’ve never felt before. Gotta give credit where it’s due - I got the info for free and it’s helped me a lot.

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If the program is fucking with me, I have no qualms fucking with the program, haha.

Do you let your elbows go wide so it feels like all pec and no triceps? On flat bench I have to let my elbows go to the 45* mark, but I can keep them wider on incline and I love it.

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On incline they’re definitely more flared than on flat. More like 60-70. I love it as well. I also love my gym’s incline benches - the j-hooks are literally just straight pins with no bumps or ridges out at a slight upward angle, so the bar sits on them, and I can set the pins and the seat height such that when I reach up and grab the bar, my arms are a couple inches from lockout, and without pressing up at all, I can flex my lats and pull the bar off the smooth pins. Every other type of bench I’ve used requires me to press upwards and lose tightness before my lift starts.

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I used the Smith at work which is on a slight incline. It felt great. Have you tried those dirty 30 cable fly’s?

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Hahaha! What goes around comes around, even for programs.

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Nope! Not yet. I’ve been realizing the obvious: if I’m gonna attack this as a (mostly) 5-day routine, I should do smith incline/BB OHP one day and then BB incline/smith OHP the next.

I could do plate Raises 1 day, Wendler rows the next, and I could do LTH cable crossovers one day, dirty 30s the next

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I guess I’m not following Paul’s program. I stole some exercises for my new routine and I’m doing two chest movements per day.

This sums it up pretty well. Sometimes when he is being a dick though he is pretty accurate. The whole Stu thing, he was 100% right about Stus intentions. And I would be pretty pissed if I logged on to check my threads and give out free info only to find a someone having a “medial” dig, so although he was wrong about the young man’s adherence to a programme, maybe even the misusing the term (but he didnt invent it, just uses it as many of the body mechanics folk do) but he was right about the clown dick as it was a clown dicky thing to do.

Your feelings on benching are exactly the same as mine. I have not used a barbell for a chest exercise in years. Hope you enjoy the programme.

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Should have given myself a second day off. Woke up feeling sluggish, tired, and achey. Got to the gym and while warming up, pinched a nerve in my neck. Good sign to shut it down right? Nope, went ahead with the workout.

205 felt so heavy when I got to it, lol. Just did 2 sets of 6, couldn’t even handle 8, and just did some lighter weights and an extra set for every exercise. Not worth logging. Tomorrow will be restorative cardio, perhaps some abs, will rest up accordingly.

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Nothing today. No abs, no cardio, just nothing. Have to work still of course, but my mind tried convincing me to do all sorts of silly shit this morning and I had to just shut it down. Not doing stuff is hard, but halting progress from lack of rest or recovery is more frustrating.

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More profound than it seems on the surface. I have to be smarter about it myself. It’s fun to “survive” workouts, but then I always notice I’m stronger when I come back from a vacation or travel - even if I’m hungover and movements feel awkward/ out of the groove. Maybe I should be reading the clues??

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I’m reading powerlifting texas style by Kelso, he talks about training 2 times a week, 3 if you’re young and recover easily, 2 times in 10 days if you’re older. I don’t want to buy Into it as I’ve made gym part of my morning routine, but I’m starting to think there might be something to this less is more thing.

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@TrainForPain yeah, it’s something I notice too - and then subsequently ignore all the time. I’ll be back in the gym tomorrow, just need to program more rest periods in instead of trying to be a badass. Chest day is just so hard to skip, lol.

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I always make sure it’s leg days I’m skipping

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I do not have this problem on days where I have to work and do things.

I’m guessing this Kelso fella can move some impressive weights, so that frequency might be necessary. If you’re squatting in the 200s for your workouts (like me) then you can probably do more.

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