First bench day on the new program.

All in all it was fine. I got more sleep last night so I didn’t feel totally drag-ass this morning, which I’m sure helped.

I did underestimate my assistance work. Like the bent-over raises ought to be good for my upper back and shoulder, but too light — I may not up the weight tho, but just do more reps. TBD.

Benching itself was fine. It was actually kinda nice to use the lighter weights to better reinforce technique — especially telling myself with every rep to CRUSH the bar. I find that when I get into the bottom position I will loosen my grip on the bar, which is NOT what I need. So I am hoping that lots of reps at lighter weights (e.g. the BBB sets) will allow me to think less about the weight and everything else and just focus on that “CRUSH” cue throughout the rep.

Lunges were a little painful at first due to the knee issues, but I keep going in hopes this will make life better. I am doing them with a little assistance, so I can manage the pain issues but as I go along it’s less and less – I don’t want to use my hands to help me up, but I will if I need. But at least it seems to only truly be needed on the first few reps.

Everything else is what it is. It feels like not enough volume (a common 5/3/1 complaint), but that’s ok — I’m taking that cue from the RP work of starting with less and incrementally building it over the weeks.

5/3/1 (Based on: Forever, BBB, 5’s PRO

• Bench Press
  • bar x 10
  • 100 x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 155 x 3
  • 165 x 5
  • 190 x 5
  • 215 x 5
  • 135 x 10
  • 135 x 10
  • 135 x 10
• Bent-over Lateral Raises (superset with bench warm-up sets)
  • 10e x 10
  • 10e x 10
  • 10e x 10
• Kroc Rows (superset with bench work sets)
  • 60 x 10e
  • 60 x 10e
  • 60 x 21e
• Lunges (superset with bench BBB sets)
  • BW x 10e
  • BW x 10e
  • BW x 10e
• Pushdowns
  • 75 x 20
  • 75 x 20
  • 75 x 15
• Slant Board Sit-ups
  • 22 x 10
  • 22 x 10
  • 22 x 10