Week 5 of 16

Day 1 (Wednesday, 3/16/11)

Bench
3x215
2x225
1x245
3x225
2x235
2x1x255 (93%)

Squat
1x5x250 (50%)
2x5x295 (60%)
2x5x335 (68%) [added belt]
3x5x345 (70%)

Seated Cable Rows (wide-grip)
4x10x100

DB EQI
20lbx80sec.

Hip Adduction
110x15, 15, 11

Comments: Some long pauses on bench today, including the 255 sets, almost paused too long and missed the 2nd single.

Back is still absolutely thrashed from suit squats Sunday, just too much volume.  When I unracked 250 it hurt like hell.  I went high bar and suffered through all the sets, started 10 pounds lighter than the weight I was scheduled to do but the sets kept getting easier.  I'll keep rolling my upper back and try to get it to speed up its recovery.

From what I understand the Badger Open will be 2 weeks earlier than I had planned for.  I am abandoning my second week of suit squatting and deadlifting and I will get back to a raw cycle.  The plan now is to focus on raw work then do a competition cycle with gear about 6 weeks out.


Day 2 (Friday, 3/18/11)

Incline Pause Bench
5x135
5x145
5x155
5x145

Deadlift
1x5x290 (50%)
2x4x345 (60%)
2x3x405 (70%)
5x3x440 (75%)

Band Face Pulls
4x8xlight

Dragon Flags
4x5

External rotations
3x10x4lb

Comments: Look forward to the day when I can do an easy set of 5 with 225 on incline bench, for now 155 for 5 reps is pretty hard, awful.

Upper back wasn't happy during deadlifts today, but the form was tight and it was easy enough.  Skipped snatch grip deadlifts to hopefully speed up recovery.



Day 3 (Sunday, 3/20/11)

Floor Press w/chains
5x180
5x180+25lb
5x180+50lb
3x180+75lb

Squat
1x5x250 (50%)
2x4x295 (60%)
2x3x345 (70%)
5x3x370 (75%) [last 3 sets belted]

Pin Bench at chest (pin 7)
2x1x185
4x1x205 (75%)

Reverse grip curls
10x55
70x10, 8, 8

Supinated band pullaparts
4x8xmini

Comments: Same old story, upper back hasn't recovered yet.  Today was the day I decided to really lock my upper back in for all sets of squats and focus on a consistent "gaze point" throughout each rep.  Probably should have gone high bar and just worked around it but I was feeling pretty stubborn.

I bought Josh Bryant's ebook and he is a big proponent of the "dead bench" as he calls it.  Just a pin bench at chest level without an eccentric.  So it looks like he starts his clients at 75% for 4-6 singles after several other bench exercises.  This was fairly hard and I think I'll keep them in for a few weeks and see what happens.

If the upper back isn't recovered I'll be doing something I haven't done in a long time, take the bar off my back for a few days, maybe even the whole week.