Week 15 of 32

Day 1 (Wednesday, 9/28/11)

Raw Bench Test
1x225
1x245
1x265
1x285
1x295
1x300
1x305 (20 pound PR)

Deadlift
8x135
6x225
5x275
3x315
3x365
3x405
3x435

NG Pullups
5x3

Ab Wheel
5x8

Band Scapular Retraction
5x12xmm

Comments: Originally I was planning on using this day as a deload.  I then considered trying the Titan Ram, and finally I decided I feel fresh, my shoulder is feeling good, this is a perfect day to test my max before I start hammering the shirt work.  When I was warming up I knew this was a good day to test, and the linear progression program ended up yielding a 20 pound PR, hell yes!!!  I'm pretty sure that focusing a lot of attention on my awful incline barbell press has made a big difference as well.  I believe this marks a 40 pound improvement in bench in 13 months without gaining any weight.  If I can get to 335 before moving up to the 220 pound class I would be very pleased.  As for deadlift, on my set with 135 my upper back erectors hurt so I knew this was going to need to be a light day.  Next week I should be ready to start pushing it again.  I knew moving my suit squat up this quickly was going to really work the shit out of my erectors.  I have 16.5 weeks until the meet, I have plenty of time to sort it all out.




Day 2 (Friday, 9/30/11)

Rack Pulls w/fat gripz
3x135
3x165
3x185
1x205
1x215
0x225
2x1x225

Pull-throughs
10x150
10x190
3x10x225

DB Bench
10x40
10x50
3x10x60

Band Scapular Depression
3x10xlight

Band Face Pulls
3x10xlight

Comments: Damn, erectors still smoked, this was just an easy session to hopefully recover enough to squat on Sunday.  I walked out 225 just to see how likely it would be that I would be able to squat on Sunday and it hurt quite a bit.




Equipped Bench (44 Katana)
2x235
1x265
*add 3 board and shirt
3x295
3x315
3x335
3x355 (hard)
*2 board
1x355
*1 board
1x355

Squat
2x8xbar
2x8x95
5x135
5x185
5x225
3x275
3x315
3x355
3x385

Pallof Press
5x5x70

Comments: I considered taking it easy on bench today, but I felt pretty recovered from Wednesday's test session.  Things went really well, especially for my first session in a shirt for about 3 months.  I'm pulling the shirt down now so it is tight over the touch point, this will be very beneficial in the long run.  I have to also work hard on controlling the descent and flaring at the right time.  Thankfully, I'll have something like 12 more weeks in the shirt before the meet.

If my massage therapist hadn't spent 30 minutes on my erectors yesterday I don't think squatting would have been possible.  After 3x275 I thought it was time to cut it for the day, but 315 felt a bit better, and at that point working up to a reasonable triple became possible.  I was happy for 3x385 for today and it felt that the form was solid and I wasn't favoring my right hip so this seemed like a good decision.  I'm hoping I can get the erectors where they need to be so I can suit squat as planned next Sunday.

I just realized, this is a record breaking week. I've never ONLY taped bench in a given week.


Raw Bench Max Test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrriJNrZySM




Shirt Bench to 1 board
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd2fsOt6yI4