My bench programming is poor. I need to rethink it sometime between now and Sunday, which is my next bench workout and the start of the 7 weeks before the AAU meet.
Bench Press
5x240 @ 8
5x240 @ 8
5x240 @ 9
5x240 @ 9.5
4x240 @ 10
Well, I guess it's for real. My bench has regressed. That sucks.
Dumbbell Bench: 5x5@90 (8-9)
Cable Row: 4x8@200 (cheated pretty heavily, especially toward the end)
Some Dumbbell Swings @ 100
Military Press: 6, 5, 4, 3 @ 155
I'm not sure what my options are, but I'm thinking of either going 6x4@240 and hoping to hit all sets, or resetting to 5x5@225 or 230 and working my way up (slowly). Any suggestions?
I am also officially Smolov Sore from Tuesday. Coming back after two and a half weeks off and hitting rep PRs is not a good idea. I'm an idiot. Don't do it.
Don't do Smolov either, unless you lower the maxes on which you're basing your weights, which is the best advice I've heard about it from other places.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
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Now that I think about it, maybe you should try the 6x4. I looks like you only really struggled at the very end, so maybe you were just tired? Idk, just my 0.03$.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing that, in addition to not doing real bench presses for a while, you're also somolov sore from a CNS perspective. The first two sets (5 x 240 @ 8) may imply that you are not in a bad shape after all. What was the previous weight for fives on BP? At what RPE? This is a good time to look back and compare.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I managed to do 5x5@240, I wasn't keeping track of RPEs (sometime in October), so I have no idea. I remember it being hard. The last time I tried 5x5@240 with RPEs was 12/10, and the first two sets were 9's. I don't remember that long ago, but I am almost certain that I had another two reps (or more) in me for the first set of this session, so maybe there is progress. I actually have lots of excuses this time around (whee). The CNS one is valid, but my legs and back were also really sore, which made it hard to arch and get leg drive, but I didn't pause either. I was also really tired. I also have deadlines to meet... Eh, excuses, not a good habit =).
ReplyDeleteI just dislike missing reps in training. For this cycle of RTS, I was planning on going 5x5, 6x4, 6x3, 3x3, 4x2, 4x2, deload, meet, for my main lifts (I think we talked about this before wrt squats, but I'm thinking it might work for all of my lifts). I was hoping to increase the weight slightly from 5x5 to 6x4, but maybe I'll just stick with this same weight. Thoughts?
This plan looks good to me, as long as deload is roughly one week, and not more. It's also not very different from what I'm planning for the next cycle. Nothing scientific, just some lessons I've learned (applies only to myself):
ReplyDelete* Make sure that volume <> intensity, and that intensity <> lifting till you black out.
* Stay away from singles: 400 x 2 is better than 380 x 1.
* Make volume block longer: 4 weeks.
* Get as much volume as possible: at least 20 reps overall.
* Go easy on last week of volume.