Based upon Paul Carter’s Strong-15 (LRB365)

Phase 2-3, Week 3-3

• Bench Press – cycle goal: 245
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 135 x 4
  • 155 x 3
  • 170 x 2
  • 190 x 1
  • 200 x 1
  • 210 x 1
  • 180 x 12
• Incline Press
  • 105 x 10
  • 105 x 10
  • 105 x 10
• Machine Flye
  • 65 x 20
• Pushdowns
  • 45 x 20
  • 45 x 20

Only 3 hours of sleep, but you still get up and go to the gym. Habit has a positive place.

The 210 felt fine.

The crazy thing? The AMRAP set. I only did 12, 13 would have happened, and 14 may have been a grinder… I basically chose to stop an leave a little in the tank. When you start plugging my AMRAP sets from this cycle into 1RM calculators, it pretty consistently calculates out int he 260-270 range. Really? Now, I don’t put tons of stock into that because it’s just a calculator plus the more the reps the less it directly equates to a 1RM. But still it’s curious enough to me and happening week after week (not just a one-off), that I am thinking when I test at the end of the cycle, I’ll hit my 245 goal, but then see how I feel. If the 245 winds up being a grinder, then I’m done. If it goes up easy, I may try for 250 or 255, and just play it by ear. Why the heck not? And same will hold for my squat and deadlift — if I hit the goal and am having a +10% day… heck, lets’ go for it.

I did feel one small downside to this Strong-15 program — it’s a strict program. One thing I liked about 5/3/1 was the “Jack Shit” template. Today would be a day that I would have loved to have taken a Jack Shit — little rest coming off a very long and tiring day, with today having to be a normal day (maybe a nap if I’m lucky). I know, horrible for recovery, thus why taking today’s session a little on the “less” side would have been useful. But I really don’t know what sort of allowance there is in Strong-15 for such things, and frankly I don’t think there’s truly much allowance in any peaking program (Strong-15 or otherwise). At least it’s phase 2 and volume is reduced anyways.