No Bulk No Power

Pressing is going well. I've been hitting 320 lbs. for sets of 6 pretty regularly, then doing two back-off sets with 285. Bumped these up to 325 and 290 respectively. I'm thinking about adding a third set at the lighter weight on really good days. After the heavy bench presses, I do 3 working sets of floor presses (close grip). These are awkward and hard, but I feel like they're working. I'm noticeably stronger in locking out heavier weights.

Second press day is done with a close grip, plus 2-3 sets of incline presses. These have been going well too. My goal is to hit around 4-5 working sets of 5-6 close grip, and I've been successful so far. Two press sessions per week equal is a lot of stress on the pecs and shoulders, so I make sure I do plenty of band pull-aparts and stretches every day. It's really made a difference and almost completely eliminated the shoulder pain I was having before.

Overhead pressing is done twice per week. Seated behind-the-neck presses in the Smith machine and standing military presses with a barbell. Not really pushing these lifts, just trying to stay in the groove.

Both squat and deadlift sucked this training cycle. I have dropped a bit of bodyweight (down to 215 now), but this shouldn't affect the lifts that much. The poundage I use on the leg press has gone down too. Everything felt great two weeks ago. On the plus side, there is no pain or anything that feels like an injury. Just soreness and weakness.

• Deadlift - worked up to 485x1. Didn't feel like I could do more.
• Squat - 450x3 with knee wraps. This was also a max for the day.
• Bench press - I hit 325x6 for two sets and 285x6 close-grip. Not bad.
• Standing overhead press - 195x2 after deadlifts and 190x3 after squats. Also good.