The Best of Both Worlds

Training Logs
21

(Thursday) Upper body day 2(upper chest focus):

I have decided to switch from max effort/dynamic effort to more of a powerbuilding style training. I will keep both of my upper body days the same, but I will now be doing more volume and more reps for chest and triceps. I will be using a pyramid rep scheme as I have found that it works exceptionally well for me in developing size and strength in my bench/upper body. I will essentially have 2 chest/triceps/accessory days, but each day will have a slightly different focus. For example, sunday will focus on regular flat bench and bringing up weak areas, while thursday will focus on incline bench press to help bring up my shoulders and work my chest from a different angle. Here is what yesterdays workout looked like:

Incline Bench Press: 95x8, 95x5, 135x3, 155x3, 185x8, 195x6, 205x4, 215x4 (PR), 225x2 (PR, and I probobly had one more in the tank)

Incline dumbell press: (3 notches up) 70x10, 2 notches up 80x10, 1 notch up 80x10 (kept these light since I havnt pressed with dumbell in a long time)

Bench dips: body x10, 2 plates x10, 3 plates x10, 3 1/2 plates x 10, 3 plates x10

Pushdowns: 160x8, 160x7, 160x7

Neutral grip pull ups(dead hang): 5 sets, 7,7,7,7,6

Lateral raise machine: 3x12 w/ 125

Rear delt flye machine: 135x12, 155x12

22

(Friday) JM Deadlift:

Deadlift: 335 3x8 (did not do more than 8 on last set)

Bicep and forearm stuff

NOTES: This day was not too great. Deadlifts seem to be giving me a sharp pain in my lower back/tailbone lately and it is quite bothersome. Im almost completely convinced that it is because of the high reps and the fact that I have been pausing a lot of my reps (something I have never done in the past). From now on I will only do paused reps on sets of 3 reps or less, and anything over that I will do continuous reps. Oh and no more sets of more than 8. I feel like I am taking years off of my back when I do the AMAP sets lol.

23

Week 6, Upper body day 1:

Bench: 95 2x5, 135x5, 185x3, 225x7(PR), 235x4, 245x2, 255x1

DB bench: 80x12, 85x10, 90x6 (PR)

Guilotine Press: 135 3x12 (just wanted to try this one out because i read about it in a recent article)

JM Press: 95x10, 115 3x10

Overhead extention: 65x10, 80x10, 90x10 (triceps already felt worked from doing higher rep sets earlier in the workout so I stopped here)

Lateral raises: 20 3x12

HERE’S THE PLAN: I will deload all of my lifts next week, then train for about 3-4 more weeks and then I will test all of my maxes. Once I have done that, I will be running another 4-6 week cycle of CT’s Bench Program. I have decided that I can not wait any longer lol. The voice in my head keeps telling me how cool it would be to hit 295. So excited!!!

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Oh yea and by the way I have yet another story about my good friend Austin. He never ceases to amaze me on bench press. As you can see from my earlier videos he had hit 305 on bench pretty easily, and has hit 315 on floor press. So why the hell could he not even press 275 today? Here’s how his workout went:

Bench: 95 2x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 245x8, 255x4, 275x0, 225x3

What the hell is that? I understand lactic acid builds up and makes you lose reps but he lost a whole 30-40 pounds on his bench. He got 245x8 and I was like alright he’s ready to go, and then he could barley press 255 of of his chest for 4 reps, and then he couldnt even hit 275 once. He is just too strange lol. If you want to hear more stories of his bench press blunders, please let me know.

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And success stories too, he has completely surprised me on more than one occasion.

26

Yep so thats what i have been up to these past few weeks that i havnt posted. My bench has remained around 265, my squat has improved to 315x8, 335x6, and 355x2, and my deadlift has improved to 495x1. I am currently follwing a bodybuliding type split until my finals are done next week and then i will start my next cycle of christian thibadeu’s bench program and hopefully get my bench around 285-295.

27

So I have started the bench program and it is going pretty well so far. Here is what the first week looked like:

WEEK 1 DAY 1:

Single cluster: 235x10

Drop sets: 250x1, 235x1, 220x1, 205x1 (3 sets of this)

5x5 cluster: 225 5x5

Decline close grip: 185x6, 195x6, 205x5, 205x5, 205x8 (PR)

Seated DB shoulder press: 50x8, 65’s 4x6

Reverse grip push downs: 80x10, 90x10, 90x10

DAY 2:

Dead stop bench: 6x3 with 205

Bench press throws: 8x3 with 135

Pull Ups: bodyweight 5 sets to failure

BB Row: 135x12, 145x12, 155x10, 165x10, 175x8

BB curl: 65x8, 95x5, 105x6, 105x6

Day 3:

Pin press: 9 holes showing- 245x3, 255x3, 275x3 (still easy use more weight next week)
8 holes showing- 245x3, 255x3, 255x3

Negatives: 245x4, 245x4, 255x4, 255x4

Squat: 275x5, 295x5, 315x5, 325x4 (not feeling to strong with these at the moment)

Good Mornings: 135x8, 145x8, 155x8

And thats all folks

28

Finished the last day of this program on thursday and I must say I am once again pleased with the results.

1RM before program: 265
1RM after program: 285 ( 20lbs in 4 weeks)

I also benched today and set some new PR’s:

255x3, 245x5, 235x6, 225x8

If there is one thing I have learned from this, its that CT’s program is no joke and that when people tell you there is no program that will magically add 20lbs to your bench in 4 weeks…feed them this program and see what they say after that