Yes… Tuesday.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 1

• Work Set – Bench Press (working max: 230#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x3x140
  • 1x5x150 (work)
  • 1x5x175
  • 1x8x200
• Assistance – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10 x 135/135/135/120/100
• Assistance – Pull-ups (band assisted)
  • 5 x 7/7/7/7/5 x BW
• Assistance – Stuff
  • Flat Bench DB Flies
  • JM Press
  • Hammer Curls
  • 3 sets, 8-15 reps, enough weight to make it hard

First things first: I went on Tuesday. Why? I’m going to try 4x week. The Wendler 5/3/1 program is traditionally a 4x week program, tho you can adopt it for other layouts. I’ve done 3x week out of schedule, but schedule is different and I must admit… between the CBL and this crazy itch to hit the weights a lot (addiction?!?!?!) I figure what the hey, try 4x. There was a time I did 2x and it was NOT workable for me; I think I didn’t hit the “training adaptation curve” just right and I think 2x was too much… basically I was doing things only once a week and I think it was too long between sessions. So hey, in the name of science and finding what works for me, let’s try 4x week. Yes, this was a whim; opted to do it last night before I went to bed. Or maybe it was just an excuse so I could down a bowl of ice cream before bed. 😉

On my work set, I worked hard at my grip and arms. I have read about how you should “break the bar”, but I guess I misinterpreted it. When they said “pull the bar apart” I took it to mean like I was pulling it such that it would stretch the bar like taffy. I read something last night from Spud (If I can find the article again I’ll post it) that lead me to think that instead it’s more like well… like the strongman trying to bend a steel rod into a U-shape? Like that. That does seem to activate the lats more, the triceps more AND also cause the upper arms to tuck more. So hey…. maybe that’s the thing? So I focused on that. That I hit 8 reps with 200 was pretty cool. When I look at past progress, I’ve certainly done more than that, but this is with my new technique. Plus, last cycle was 195 for 7, so 1 more rep and 5# more? Heck, alright!

Trouble is, I noticed while I was focusing so much on the grip technique, I totally lost my leg drive! Feet were on the floor, but there was no drive. So I opted to set the swiss bar aside for the assistance benching and instead just do some light benching for my 5×10 assistance work so I could focus on technique and experiment. I did some stuff with my feet that I think may be closer to finally a good position. I sit, feet/legs are at right angles. Most importantly, my feet/knees/legs are closer together than they would normally be if I just sat down. Furthermore, ensure my feet/toes are pointed straight ahead, instead of the slight toe-out cant that normally happens. When I do this, I can get a hell of a lot of drive and stability. I still need to tweak it, but yeah, this might finally be the road to my leg drive platform.

Anyways, everything else just chugged along. I am not going to do the “drop sets” at the end of things because I’m expecting I have enough work and with 4x week well, why push my luck eh?

So far so good!