Tricep and Shoulder Training 12/29/05

Good workout today with the chains. Used 18 inch grip for floor press and all sets had good speed, not great but good. Triceps have come a long way. Will be dropping the BNP next week b/c it causes undue strain on the side deltoid but also I feel I'm now getting enough work on shoulders with the wide&narrow benching. May put in another tricep exercise but I don't know yet. My support work has somewhat leveled off. It's no longer getting easier week by week so some changes are in order. Maybe go to 1 minute rest instead of 5-20 seconds like I'm doing now.

Floor Press with Chain 275+100chain x2x3/285+100chain x2x3/295+100chain x3
Behind Neck Press 185x5/195x5/205x5
Hammer Curl 75x2x8/80x2x8
Seated Row 260x8/280x8/300x8/320x8
Face Pulls 120x4x8
Shoulder Horn 5x2x25

Bitten by the Flu Bug

Well, I spent the better part on Monday night and ALL day Tuesday in the bathroom. I had a horrible fever, couldn't keep water down, and a ferocious haedache. Not to mention my joints felt like I was 80 years old and just got done running a marathon. Just a horrible time. So, I didn't work out yesterday. Which is a tell tale sign that I am sick b/c I just don't miss workouts. So I will resume training on Thrusday for triceps(working with my 250 pounds of 5/8 chain that I got for christmas!), and then will squat and deadlift on friday. Fridays workout is going to be brutal b/c I'm also going to try and do the majority of my support work as well. That's all for now.

Bench Press Training 12/26/05

Great workout toaday. Started with an easy near max at 345 for my skill and neuromuscular training. From there it was off to my 5x3. My speed is starting to lack somewhat so for the 315 I paused the first and last reps and for all the other sets I paused the first OR last rep. From there I did wide and narrow grip benching using a 34 and 22 inch grip and pausing the last rep. I feel it is important to note that when I pause I actually hold the weight with the tension and support of my muscles, barely letting it touch my chest. This keeps me tight and once you get use to it you also get a more efficent drive off your chest. As usual my support work is done as heavy and fast as possible.

Bench press 345x1/315x3x3/335x3/345x3
Wide & Narrow Grip Bench 225x3x10
Hammer Curls 75x2x8/80x2x8
Seated Rows 260x8/280x8/300x8/320x8
Shoulder Horn 5x2x20
Face Pulls 100x8/120x2x8/140x8

Raw Squat Training 12/23/05

The first and third reps on my squats were fairly easy but on my second one I got bent over too much and had to half good morning the weight. I had 5 reps in me for sure. My lower back felt the fatigue big time on the good mornings. Next week I'l do 475x5 and I'll videotape it as well just to check depth. These workouts, squat and deadlift, take about 45-50 minutes to do.

Raw Squat 475x3
Pause Squat 335x2x5
Good Mornings 255x5/265x5
Standing One Leg Calf Raise BW+25x3x12

Tricep and Shoulder Training 12/22/05

Solid training night. The 335 will probably be my working weight for 5x3. Floor press was done with a 1 inch from the smooth grip. It's been a long time since I did BNP so I will probably stay with 225 for 1 or 2 more workouts till the stability's there and I'm more satisfied with the performance of the reps. Support work felt tough today,except the face pulls. I don't know why.

Floor Press 275x2x3/295x3/315x3/335x3
Behind Neck Press 225x3x3
Shoulder Horn 5x2x25
Hammer Curls 75x3x8/80x8
Seated Row 260x8/280x8/300x8/320x8
Face Pulls 100x8/120x8/140x2x8

Deadlift Training 12/20/05

The 425 felt like 315. I know for a fact I could've done 15-20 reps with that weight! Today I could've done 455x10. The 255 on the rows was easier than 245. Shrugs were once again done maintaining constant tension in the traps. By the way, I do all my deadlifts raw with no gear not even a belt.

Deadlift 425x10
Deadlift off Plates 455x5
Barbell Rows off Plates 245x5/255x5
Shrugs 345x4x20/225x30

Bench Press Training 12/19/05

Good workout tonight. I'm taking some advice from Josh Bryant and building up my bench from the bottom up and the exercise that has worked the best for me there is Incline bench. I also reverted back to my old faithful 5x3 on the bench with short rest periods. Once again though I didn't have a planned warm up for this workout and my easiest sets were the 295 and two sets with 315. So, I made up my warm ups for next week so we won't have this problem again. Dusted off the old shoulder horn and began that program again to help the shoulder out. Everything else was the same old same old. Deadlifts tommorrow! By the way, the split I've decided on that works best for my training partner and I is: Mon: Bench, Tue: Deadlift, Thurs: Shoulders/Tris, Fri: Squat.

Pause Bench 285x2x3/295x3/315x2x3
Incline Press 255x2x5
Shoulder Horn 5x2x20
Hammer Curls 75x3x8/85x8
Seated Row 260x8/280x8/300x8/320x8
Face Pulls 80x8/100x8/120x2x8

Rest For the Body

As you can see I havn't lifted since thursday. This tricep day caused a great amount of pain in my shoulder. So when Saturday morning rolled around and my legs were still sore as well as a lot of pain in my shoulder I took the extra time off. Blakley advised me to not do deadlifts right now with my shoulder the way it is but I have a better idea. With some rest needed I think now would be a good time to do the full transition to a hook grip on my deadlifts. I use it on all my warm ups so I feel that I'm prepared for the full assault. So some lighter weights for the DL may be in order but I feel the benefits are worthwhile.
As for my poor shoulder, I will only be benching once a week and doing the board bench on the same day. I will finish off that workout with narrow grip bench. I was also thinking of doing squats and deadlifts on the same day along with some calf raises. The reason? The less the bar is on my back the more my shoulder gets a chance to heal. I'm not so sure I'll do this as I'm seeing good results right now but it is in the back of my head.
The last thought that came to mind was splitting up my training and actually doing some direct shoulder work. I looked back in my old logs and found that even though I was handling much heavier loads per week I was never having shoulder problems. The difference? I was doing direct shoulder work. My best was 2x3 with 275 and 1x1 with 315 in the Behind the neck press. So I may add in a shoulder day and do 4x a week just split it up by doing Mon: Squat, Tues: Bench, Thurs: Shoulders, Fri: Deadlifts.

Tricep Training 12/15/05

Good elbow training tonight. I know I could do 385x6 if it was my first set b/c the 365 was so easy. I didn't rest long enough between my first and second set as evidenced by the drop and then the rebound. The bands really start to slack up at my sticking point with the 18 inch grip so this is a good exercise for me now. Everything is set in place so lets see what happens. I am corrosponding with a fellow blogger, John McDonald, in regards to the 8x3 program and it's long term application. I like the % loads as well as the 10 pound a week jumps. It is the same amount of volume as 4x6 but you get more sets in to groove the technique better. We shall see what happens!

Close Grip Reverse Band Press 365x6/385x5,4,5,3
Modified Close Grip Press 165x4x6
Hammer Curls 75x4x8
Seated Row 300x4x8
Face Pulls 60x2x10/80x10/100x10

Squat Night 12/14/05

This is my deload week where I hit a 10 rep max set. 405 was not a 10 rep max. I had 12 or 13 in the tank. Both my spotters said I was 2-3 inches below parallel on all my reps plus my technique was great tonight. Tommorrow is triceps, hoooah!

Raw Squat 405x10
Pause Squat 325x5/335x5
Good Mornings 245x2x5
Seated Calf Raise 160x4x12

A New Start

Bench Training 12/12/05

Tonights workout was awesome. I focused on my technique and nothing else and had no shoulder pain whatsoever. All reps were done with a 2 second pause and a 2 second hold at the top. I always do my support work as hard, as fast, and as heavy as possible. The seated rows were a killer considering I rest about 5 seconds between sets! I'm now motivated with a meet in the near future, possibly January but most likely March. The weights are going to fall!!

Pause Bench 275x1/315x1/335x1
275x6,5,4,4
Hammer Curls 75x4x8
Seated Row 300x4x8
One Arm DB Row 60x3x10

Change of Plans

So I decided to pull out of my comp due mainly to 2 reasons; one I feel I peaked 2 weeks early. Two, with my shoulder in it's current condition to push myself to a PR at this time would be silly. Although the shoulder does feel better since I dropped the cleans, pull ups, and added in lots of high rep, light shrugs.
Now what, well I've got some plans. A full meet the end of January at 242 with meet attempts of 605-405-605 or thereabouts all raw. To accomplish this I was origianlly thinking of doing more work, 6x a week, and building up. But, I actually think that less work but with super high intensity is the way to roll. I will be sticking with my current Squat/Deadlift routine but my bench plans are up in the air. I currently have a serious lockout problem that needs to be addressed as well as some speed issues(though speed bench is not for me or my joints).
Any and all suggestions are welcome here as to possible bench ideas and whatnot.

Deadlift Morning 12/10/05

The 565 came up very easy. Almost suprisingly easy. Did 3 sets on the rows b/c the first 2 were easier than last week. Did machine shrugs today to see how they felt. They were ok but I'll probably go back to the barbell next week.

Deadlift 405x1/495x1/545x1/565x1(EASY)
Deadlift Off Plates 415x5
Barbell Row Off Plates 245x3x5
Machine Shrugs 270x20/360x2x20/270x20/180x40

Bad Bench Morning 12/9/05

Well, I didn't plan this cycle out well. I did 10 instead of 5 pound jumps, had low volume, intensity sucked the past 3 weeks b/c of my shoulder. So, I will return to my 4x6 after the meet and see how it all goes. I will not do another meet until I can kill 405 with a 3 second pause. I've also discovered something that not just works my chest but my tris for some reason. Fast, non lockout reps on the illegal wides and 22 inch grip benches.

Bench 365x1/385xmiss 3 inches from lockout/345x1/315x4
Wide and Narrow grip Bench 185x2x10
Hammer Curls 75x4x8
Seated Row 200x8/220x8/240x8/300x8
Backhand Rear Delts 105x4x8

Squat Night 12/07/05

Smoked the 500 to 3 inches below parallel at least. Probably could've tripled it tonight. Just ran out of steam on 525, the strength is there though. Weighed in at 236 tonight. That is a 45 pound gain on my squat in 3 weeks, not too shabby considering how low my volume is right now b/c of the comp. Should've got some clips tonight.

Raw Squat 405x1/455x1/500x1 SMOKED IT/525xMISS
Pause Squat 325x2x5
Good Mornings 225x5/245x5
Seated Calf Raise 145x3x12

Board Bench 12/05/05

I can't say today was a good day but it wasn't bad. On the board bench I hit the uprights on the 2nd rep of both my first and second set then just ran out of gas on the third. The strength was there just the technique was off today. Moved the modified close bench to today to giv ethe tris an even longer break by doing all my upper end type work on one day.

Board Bench 385x3x2
Modified Close Bench 245x2x3
Hammer Curls 70x2x8/75x2x8
Seated Row 200x8/220x8/240x8/260x8
Backhand Rear Delts 105x8/125x3x8

Deadlift Morning 12/03/05

The 500 was not a max set of 5. Maybe had 6 or 7 in me. Everything else was good as well. I will stay at 265 on the rows as they were not hard but not easy.

Deadlift 500x5
Deadlift off Plates 405x5
Bent Rows off Plates 265x2x5
Blakley Shrugs 325x2x20

Bench Press Day 12/02/05

Great workout tonight. The 375 slowed at about 6 inches off chest then flew up to lockout. The only change I made was only working the triceps on Bench day and letting board bench take care of itself. Otherwise, I have another 15 pounds in me. I did my seated rows with just enough time between sets for my training partner to change the pin. Did the rear delts back and forth alternating arms with little rest.

Bench Press 275x1/315x1/345x1/375x1
Close Bench(1 inch from smooth) 315x2x3
Modified Close Bench 225x2x3
Hammer Curl 70x2x8/75x2x8
Seated Row 180x8/200x8/220x8/240x8
Backhand Machine Rear Delts 90x2x8/105x2x8