Missing 525 was disappointing but there were a lot of positives:
first PR in over a year
deadlift used to die just below knees, this wasn’t a problem at all up to and including 510
related: last time I touched anything over 435 (August) I missed 455 several times around the knee
first time in a long time all 3 main lifts are going up
One big fat negative:
Way too slow off the floor. I could feel this starting at 445. It was just the first inch or two - I was getting almost no leg drive.
To fix this I’m going to up the band tension on band deadlifts and add snatch grip deadlifts to the deadlift variations rotation. I’m terrible at snatch grip deadlifts but the last time I trained them I could feel I was recruiting my quads better, even compared to regular deficit deadlifts.
Disappointing. I’ve been benching through on-again, off-again shoulder and elbow pain the past few weeks and hoped I could squeeze another 5 lb out of it.
Two years ago, I made a thread complaining about my bench when my lifts were 315/205/415. Now they’re 445/235/510. Even more lopsided.
I know I need to add more isolation work for biceps, triceps and shoulders. I’ll be throwing in a couple exercises for each 1x a week, on different days. I will also throw another bench variation into the rotation, making it a 3-week cycle instead of 2. Will try close grip first, but not really sure what would be best here. I’m going to stick with 3x a week frequency for bench, since it seems to work a lot better than once a week (what I’d been doing for pretty much all last year). The elbow/shoulder thing just means I need to watch total volume on pressing.
What I’m really confused about is the general strategy. On the one hand, 235 is a beginner weight and I’ve seen beginners advised to stick close to the basic lifts and not work on too many variations/exercises all at once. On the other hand I’m reading this stuff about building vs training a lift, saying how weak points have to be trained with exercises other than the competition lift.
Reverse band squat 2x5x405, 445
Hamstrings got super tight, stretched and rolled them a bit then went home
One arm DB press 40s, 50s x10, 60s x 5/3 (R/L), 40s x 10 - About where I left off
Top half incline 3x10x95, constant tension
Reverse EZ curl 3x10x65
Band face pulls, pull aparts, BTN stretch 2x15
Reverse band squat 2x5x415, 445, 475, x505
Should have known not to go for the PR when 475 went so slow
Close grip bench worked up to 205x1
HS chest press 3x15x90
Triceps 3x15x145
Light band face pull 2x15
Mini band pull apart and BTN stretch 2x15
GHR abs 2x15x30, light bands
Rev hyper 2x15x85
Reverse band squat 2x5x425
Just felt tired and beat down every day, despite cutting back on some of the lifts. 425 reverse band squats were the heaviest any squat has felt in months. Hope to rest up better this weekend.
Squat 2x5x355, 385, 415 (just ok, elbow aggravated so I stopped here)
Reverse average band deadlift worked up to 495, 545, 585x1
I use this as an indicator lift but don’t train it directly. First and last time I did these I pulled 565x1, then 501 with straight weight a week and a half later.
Reverse hyper 2x15x90
s/s 2x15 band face pulls and triceps, light band
s/s 2x15 band pull aparts and BTN stretch, mini band
Squat 2x5x365 (PR), 395, 425 (again, ok, not great, elbow still aggravated)
s/s 5x10 band curls and tricep pushdown, mini band
s/s 5x10 band pull aparts and BTN stretch, mini band
Giant cambered bar squat to parallel box, 335x2, 375x1, 405x1
GHR abs 3x15x30 with light bands
Rev hyper 3x15x90
Band pull aparts and BTN stretch, 3 rounds of 15
Superset 10x10 One arm DB press (35) / reverse EZ curl (55)
Band triset as above
Morning weight 178
Deadlift 435x5
Bent DB row 115x5, 125x5 (PR)
The 435 set was easy, but I was going for 455 and didn’t realize the bar was misloaded until I was putting the weights away. I was loading it with a mix of olympic and standard weights and forgot to put on two pairs of 5s. Still felt good to handle a somewhat heavy weight for lower body this week as a break from all the upper body volume.
Just light stretching today. Not lifting again until next year.
Recap for last 3 months:
Squat
Goal 2x5x365, 455x1
Actual 2x5x365, 455x1
Bench
Goal 2x5x225, 245x1
Actual 2x5x215, 235x1
Deadlift
Goal 5x455, 525x1
Actual 5x435, 510x1
Weight
Goal 185-190
Actual 180ish
Squat went best with a little left in the tank. Bench and deadlift obviously fell short. The high frequency program worked great for dialing in squat form but as the weights got heavier it got to be too much on bench and DL. Doing lots of assistance worked and rotating variations of the main lifts definitely helped. Gained back all the weight I dropped for the previous meet while getting stronger on everything, but didn’t push past 185.
Squat 3x3x335
DB bench worked up to 80s x 5, 90s x 1 for PRs
T-bar row 2x15x225
Morning weight 179
I haven’t trained DB bench in about 2.5 years except for the 10x10 a couple weeks ago, so it’s even worse than my BB bench. But it was good to get past the old PR of 70s x 3.