That’s what I’m talking about.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 23, week 2

• Work Set – Bench Press (working max: 220#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x110
  • 1x3x135
  • 1x3x155 (work)
  • 1x3x180
  • 1x7x200
• Assistance – DB Incline Press
  • 5 x 10/10/10/7/7 x 55
• Assistance – Pull-ups (superset between each pressing set)
  • 11 x 4 x BW (band-assisted)
• Assistance – DB Rows
  • 3 x 10/10/13 x 55

This was a good session. Worked out quite well. I was happy to crank out 7 reps with 200. I kept things really tight, with the pull-ups working me, and even my incline presses pushing me to my limits. So all was good. Felt focused, driven.

One thing I did differently was instead of benching on the normal bench, I moved a flat bench into the squat “rack”. It’s not a true power rack, more like one of those racks with the inclined rack of pegs and then one large flat “catch” somewhere well below where most people would be at depth. I wanted to see how I would fare and how it would work out. One set of pegs was just out of reach… I could do it if I shrugged my shoulders forward to get the bar out, but that won’t happen nor be good for setup with heavier weights. The peg I have to use is kinda low, but oh well… it will serve as a good peg to fall into if I can’t get lockout, which is kinda the point. And if I get stapled well… the catch rails are 2-3″ below me so I will be rolling the bar on my body, but by the time I get to my legs I can get it onto the rail and well… this isn’t ideal, but it’l be better than the free-standing bench.

I want to do this so if I start pushing my benches with things like Joker sets or other 1RM testing, I can handle possible failure. I’d rather not miss the rep, but shit happens. I’ll work this setup for a while and see how it goes.