Not quite the PR’s I wanted, but PR’s nonetheless.

“Week 3”

• 5/3/1 – Squat (working max: 280#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x5x140
  • 1x3x170
  • 1x5x215 (work)
  • 1x3x240
  • 1x3x270 (PR-tie)

• 5/3/1 – Bench Press (working max: 225#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x3x135
  • 1x5x170 (work)
  • 1x3x195
  • 1x6x215 (PR)
• Asst. #1 – Shoulder-width pronated grip, lat pulldowns
  • 3 x 10 x 130
• Asst. #2 – Back Raises (hands behind head)
  • 3 x 15 x BW
• Asst. #3 – DB Bench Press
  • 3 x 10 x 120
• Asst. #4 – Face Pulls
  • 3 x 12 x 70
• Foam Rolling

On squat, I was hoping for 4 to set a true PR, but only got 3. Rep 3 was bowling-shoe ugly so there was no point in going for 4. Prior to this, my best ever on squat was 270 for 3, so I at least tied it. But frankly, I think this is a better one. First, it’s a clear-cut improvement over cycle 11 (260 for 3 reps). Second, my form is a lot better than it was some months ago. I’m certainly going below parallel… from time to time other guys in the gym watch me and comment on my depth. I’ve been making a bigger effort at going deeper, chest up, neck into the bar, etc., and so with better form and using technique to get the bar up instead of muscling it all up there…. well, I figure this technically ties my all-time PR but I know it’s better than the last time I hit this weight.

Bench was a rep PR. I’ve done more absolute weight (220 for 3), but last time I did 215 was for 3 reps. So I’ll take this, be happy, and be excited about next cycle.

Thinking towards the future, and I’ll only mention it briefly now, I am likely to change my routine in the coming months. I want to get my bench press working weight to 225, and that’s 2 cycles (6 weeks) away. That should also take the top working weight of press to 160, deadlift to 350, and squat to 290. Yeah, part of me kinda wants to keep going to get my squat to 315 (which will be one hell of an accomplishment given how much I don’t like squatting), but I need to change gears on my goals: I need to shed some fat. I want to see if I have the discipline enough to drop about 20# in 3 months. That is certainly do-able, if I’m smart and dedicated. I’m not 100% sure what my program will be, tho I know it’ll primarily be about diet. My present thinking keeps 5/3/1 as my core, dropping my last set back to prescribed reps (tho on 5/3/1 week I’ll do a triple), accepting that strength may plateau (but I’m OK with that; I can live with not progressing, but I don’t want to regress), and increasing conditioning work. I’ve not settled on anything yet. Heck, I even thought it might be interesting to change squats to do a 20 rep program… tho that’d probably be wrong on a restricted diet. But point being squat a lot to boost up conditioning.

Diet will have to really fall in line too. I’m already examining my current ingestion and seeing what I can do. I figure there’s no better time than now to start tightening things up. For example, one simple change is no more whey in milk… just water. This should make my True Nutrition sample exploration more interesting; tho given that I MIGHT have one or two in milk just for taste research, but then compensate elsewhere.

And I know this puts off my longer term goals of getting into the 1000# club, but 1. I’ll be lighter and just as strong, and I’ll take the better ratio, 2. my greater goal is my health, not how much I bench, so I must work towards that end.