Progress is good. Press is always a tough one for me — especially after last night seeing footage of Andranik Karapetyan at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Horrific, and I hope he’ll be OK. But boy… trying to keep that image out of your mind while you’re Pressing is tough.

The biggest thing for me is continuing to find a way to make my setup work so I don’t pass out. It’s just a weird thing with breath for me. I tried full breath, unrack, exhale a little bit, and in a way it worked but it really didn’t because it was too much loss of tension in the “rack” position thus starting off less than optimally. Today I tried the opposite, about a 90% inhale before unracking, which is enough to get tight, chest upwards, lats out, etc., but still a little room for some from oxygen. Well, while in the rack position, I just couldn’t get that last little inhale. I kept going and it actually seemed to work — I didn’t feel the dizzy. However, my body didn’t like it. It’s natural for the body to want to take a “big breath” before such exertion, and I’m cutting that short. So it felt odd, my body wanted to fight me. But it actually does seem like it could be promising. So I’m just going to have to keep playing with it.

Only other thing of note is on face-pulls, lowering the weight. When I start off with face pulls, I pick a weight that seems about right, but after a couple sessions I adjust. Face pulls aren’t some max-effort movement, but rather I want it to really be about just contracting the muscles of the upper back and shoulder — minimizing involvement of my arms, and that it’s really just my back muscles “reverse flying” my upper arms out. So usually I end up lowering the weight some to help me really get into feeling it and doing that. Always works out for the better.

Next week — 5/3/1 week. Huzzah! And yes, planning on doing 6-week cycle so it’ll be right into the next one.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 65 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
  • 80 x 5
  • 95 x 3
  • 110 x 3 (work sets superset with pull-ups)
  • 125 x 3
  • 140 x 10 (10RM PR)
• Close-Grip Bench Press
  • 130 x 8 (sets superset with pull-ups)
  • 150 x 8
  • 170 x 6
• V-Bar Pulldowns
  • 110 x 20
  • 110 x 16
  • 110 x 11
• Face Pulls
  • 90 x 20
  • 90 x 15
  • 90 x 13
• Lying Triceps Extensions (superset with curls)
  • 60 x 20
  • 60 x 17
  • 60 x 12
• Close-grip EZ-bar Curls
  • 55 x 20
  • 55 x 15
  • 55 x 12