Now with more back work.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 22, week 2

• Work Set – Bench Press (working max: 215#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x85
  • 1x5x110
  • 1x3x130
  • 1x3x150 (work)
  • 1x3x175
  • 1x6x195
• Assistance – DB Incline Press
  • 5 x 10 x 50
• All Pressing work superset with band-assisted pull-ups, 3 reps per set
• Assistance – DB Rows (Kroc style)
  • 3 x 10/10/25 x 50
• Superset the DB rows with dips, 3 reps per set

This session felt really really good. Maybe it was all the pizza I ate last night and was just fired up. But I felt really good. By the end of things I felt worked, but not exhausted. In fact, I kinda wished I had worked a little more!

On the work set, I only did 6. I certainly left some in the tank and looking back I probably could have done 1-2 more and still not pushed it all the way. Oh well. I am trying to be conservative and leave enough in the tank now. But to that end, I then didn’t feel all that bad on inclines — I do think I should go up to 55’s. But I also changed form there a bit. I’ve been trying to be nice to my shoulder by letting my elbows come ina nd the dumbbells then turn a bit. I was reading something and I’m took more the approach of acting like the dumbbells were a barbell, in terms of keeping things oriented. That actually pushed my shoulder a little more, which I think it needed in a good way.

I mean, when I did the dips, that sort of bottom-position is precisely what I need for a stretch to my anterior delts, which I think is what they need right now to get over this issue.

But… what I really did that was different? More back work.

See, Wendler doesn’t spell it out, but he tells you that for every pressing set you need to do a pulling set (or two). I just don’t do that. The main reason was when I tried it long ago, my shoulders really hated it. I gave it up because I didn’t want to sacrifice the main lift. But I tried something different today.

First, I went really light. The pull-ups were band-assisted (cause I’m still too wussy to do so much volume unassisted), and I only did 3 reps per set. I will slowly work it up, sets across for now, so next session will get 4 reps, etc..

Second, I am going against the plane. That is, there’s something to be said for doing the push and pull in the same plane. So if you bench, you row. If you press, you pulldown/pull-up. That keeps the motion in the same plane. Well, in the past when I did it, that’s how I superset, and I don’t think my shoulders liked it. But now I’m going “perpendicular”. So my push was benching, so my pull was pull-ups. I’m thinking for my pressing days, then to do something like face-pulls. My shoulders didn’t complain today, but I also didn’t have them under heavy stress. So, we’ll see if this strategy pans out for my shoulders and back.

But also, one reason I chose to do extra work afterwards was for arm work. I mean, I didn’t get enoug bicep and forearm work, right? But now if I do this much extra back work, well, I’ll get a bunch. So I really didn’t bother doing any extra work. But I did think after I did my rows to superset in some dips… just because dips are cool, and I think that stretch may help my shoulder issues right now.

So there we go. Today felt awesome. I liked how it went. and I hope that as I ramp it up more that it’ll pay off more all around.