Back to Benching

4 January 2015


Straight-arm pulldown 3s x 8-10

BTB row + shrug combo 4s x 10-12

Bench press 255 lbs. 3s x 5

Seated cable row 12-10-8-6

BTN press 115 lbs. 2s x 5, front press 135 lbs. 1s x 5

Felt a weird pain in my right scapula while BTN pressing, so decided to go light.

DB fly 3s x 10

DB tricep extensions 3s x 10

Cable curls 4s x 12-15

Squats and Pulls, New Year Edition

3 January 2015


Back squat 135x8, 226x5, 275x3, 315x3, 365x3, 405x3, 455x3 (belt+wraps), 500x3 (B+W)

Deadlift 345 lbs. x 15 singles, under 60 seconds rest in between reps.

Bent-over row 185 lbs. 3s x 8

Fat Gripz Hammer curls 3s x 8

Fat Gripz EZ bar reverse curls 3s x 8

Hip thrusts 4-5s x 5

Ab machine 3s x 8

Ringing in 2015

1 January 2015


Straight-arm pulldown 3s x 8-10

Upper back superset 3s x 10-12

Incline press 135x6, 185x6, 205x5, 235x3, 255x5

Push press up to 215x1, then front military press 135x5

Ring pullups 3s x 5

Close-grip bench press up to 235x4

Biceps tri-sets 3 rounds

2014 In Conclusion

After reviewing my old training logs, it turns out that my last heavy deadlift of 2014 only tied my 2013 PR. I somehow thought my old PR was 510. I did hit minimal PRs in the squat and bench press, so I guess I haven't just been spinning my wheels. In the coming year I plan to do more deadlift work and try to bring my pull in line with my squat. I think I've found a system that works (squat and DL on the same day, nothing but singles on the DL). Also to stick to the tried-and-tested bench press cycle and finally hit the long-expected 405.

Squat:



2013 Max - 535 lbs. @ 213 lbs. BW

2014 Max - 540 lbs. @ 215-220 lbs. BW

Increase: 5 lbs. Not great, but I feel like I should have tried 545 or 550. I did a lot of backing off from the heavier poundages this year and reduced heavy volume even further, and still my squat kept going up. Also my quad size has improved considerably. In 2015 I plan to de-emphasize the squat and work on my deadlift more, so I'm not planning on big squat gains. But another 5-10 pounds should be doable. I'm in a really good zone squat-wise and I hope I'll stay there for a while.

Bench Press:
2013 Max - 385 lbs. @ 214 lbs. BW


2014 Max - 395 lbs. @ 215-220 lbs. BW


Increase: 10 lbs. Knocking on the door of 405. I feel like the SlingShot is helping a lot, and I recently acquired the reactive model, which I'm pretty excited to try out. Also hit 410 with the SlingShot and missed 415. I tried experimenting with heavy singles, but the 6-5-3-2 system still yielded the best results.

Deadlift

Increase: None. Deadlift training in 2014 has been hit-and-miss. Messed around with deadlifting every other week and working up to triples, then switched to the "bastardized Gillingham program" which I had good success with a couple of years ago, but which didn't really yield results this time round. In 2015 I'll be sticking to the singles program and experiment with sumo pulling (seriously).


Things I'm going to try out in 2015:


- More conditioning work, and more consistent conditioning work,

- More light, high-volume exercises for the upper body,

- More front squatting and quadricep work,

- Tackling the sumo deadlift,

- Incline bench 315 pounds. Because I feel like it.

Last Workout of 2014

30 December 2014


Volume squat 325 lbs. x 5, 405 lbs. 2s x 5

Tried to do these with a closer stance, and the quads definitely felt it.

Front squat 5s x 3 - I feel like these work better than 3 sets of 5.

Leg curl 3s x 8

Ab crunch machine 3s x 8-10

3,500m row.

Inclines

26 December 2014


Straight-arm pulldown 3s x 8-10

BTB row + shrug combo 3s x 10-12

Incline bench press 135x5, 185x6, 205x5, 215x5, 225x5, 235 x 2s x 5

Wasn't supposed to go this heavy today, but the reps felt nice and fast.

Close-grip bench press 185x5, 205x5, 225 x 2s x 5 - triceps were a bit fried after the inclines.

Pulldowns 12-10-6-6

Tricep pushdowns 3s x 10-12

Cable pec machine 3s x 10

Cable curls 4s x 10-12

Minor Deadlift PR and Some Squatting

26 December 2014

Did some presses and rows on the Smith machine at work, along with a few arm exercises. Better than missing a workout, I guess.


27 December 2014

Squat 135x6, 225x5, 275x3, 315x3, 365x3, 405x3 (belt+wraps), 455x3 (B+W)

I kept the squats pretty light in order to have some energy for the deadlift.

Deadlift 295x1, 365x1, 435x1, 485x1, 525 x fail x 2, 515x1 (PR)

I was supposed to hit 525 and attempted it twice. First time wasn't even close, second time the bar stalled out around mid-shin. By this time I was pretty tired, but I wanted to set at least a symbolic PR for the year, so I tried 515 and it went up. My deadlift training has been spotty this year, so any increase is good, I guess.

Hip thrust 2s x 5 warmup, then three work sets of 5 - still trying to figure out the right weight and form here.

Chest-supported DB row 3s x 8

Ab machine 3s x 8

EZ bar reverse curls with Fat Gripz 3s x 8 - wanted to try out my new toy, it's pretty great.