7 November 2018 - Upper Body W3D2 Bodyweight: 220.2lbs (was 214.6lbs yesterday, wtf)
Warmup
Pause Bench 5x8 225lbs (PR!!) (LSRPE 7)
Barbell Row 5x8 205lbs
OHP 95x8, 105x8, 115x8, 135x7+1, 135x5+3 (LSRPE 10)
Chin Ups 3x8 BW + 5lbs (LSRPE 10)
Close Grip Bench 185x8, 205x8, 205x8, 185x8
Face Pulls 1x30, 1x25, 1x20 32.5lbs
Front Plank & Side Planks 1x45sec
Notes
Apparently I’m 220 now? Idk.
I completely ran out of gas after the barbell rows. I’m EXTREMELY happy right now about my bench though!! That’s a HUGE volume PR for me. I think I more than doubled my previous high rep count for one bench session by doing 225 40 times today. This is perfect; accumulating that volume and fatigue. I can tell that I am because of how dead I was by the end of the workout. I had nothing left to give to my planks, but thankfully I do some for my warmup now too, so it wasn’t a complete wash.
Also: I don’t know what to do about chin ups. Maybe start with 3x5/5x5 and add one rep every week? By the end of the program I’d be doing 3x11 and 5x11, or something like that. Maybe that’s gonna be the move. I don’t think I’m efficient enough at them to be adding weight yet. Also, weighing 5lbs more than I normally do also didn’t help lol.
OHP doesn’t want to do what I want it to do, which is frustrating. I suppose I can increase the weight now since I’m going into phase 2 with 5 reps instead of 8. My OHP just hasn’t felt powerful or sturdy lately, probably (definitely 100%) because of everything I’m doing beforehand. But, like I talked about with Maier, bench is my priority and I have no problem with my OHP stalling as long as my bench gets stronger.
Overall, phase 1 for upper body was a success, not counting OHP. I paused almost every single rep of bench. Touch n Go bench now feels like cheating to me, which is funny because a few months ago I was advocating for the viability of TnG bench. It has its place, no doubt, but for this meet we need to be pausing our bench presses.
I’ll probably end up saying this every day, but I love this program. There is not a snowball’s chance in hell that I could have done 5x8 225 at all, let alone paused, 2 months ago. I’m REALLY excited to bring on the bigger weight. I’m currently slated for 3x5 245lbs for next bench day. I don’t anticipate that being too difficult. Phase 2 will finish up at 5x5 255lbs, which is a solid spot. If that ends up being RPE 7-7.5 like 5x8 225 was, I will be stronger than I’ve ever been before.
Rest day tomorrow. 5x8 275 squats on Friday, and depending where I lift, I may be able to finally deadlift with chalk. We’ll see.