Great way to end the week and the 2nd cycle.

I admit I wasn’t sure how this was going to go. The heavier weights are messing with my head. I realized it wasn’t even the weights so muc as the reps. That I had to do “5’s PRO”. I’ve always done traditional 5/3/1, so the 3rd week has an approach of “at least 1, and if more great”. Well, this is at least 5. It’s all in my head for sure.

All the work-up sets felt solid, but that last rep of the 155 set was a bit of a grind — I knew it was because I fell out of groove coming down on the 4th rep, but still it made me unsure of the 170. Well, I put on my wrist wraps, my belt, chalked my hands, played some Hatebreed, went through my setup ritual, and nailed out 5 reps @ 170 easily. I mean, it felt stupid easy.

I was pretty damn happy about that. 🙂

Press has been a tough one for me, but it’s been doing better. I think that spending time working to find a workable setup has been a huge help, because then the reps come instead of things being messed up. For example, before I touch the bar I take some deep breaths, then take a big breath and hold it and squeeze my whole body HARD for a few seconds, then relax. What this does is spikes my internal pressure and gets the dizzy to happen THEN, not when I get under the bar. I relax myself totally and allow the dizzy to fade — I cannot rush it, and be in a hurry to “beat the closing window”. I have to let myself fully recover from the dizzy. Then I clench the bar, squeeze it hard, clench my glutes and let it all radiate through (to remind me to clench my glutes and have whole-body tightness when I press — it matters!). Unrack the bar, step back, and pause… keep the bar in the rack position, let my body be tight (flare the lats and use them as a shelf), then breath out and in — this has been the most recent thing I found is to allow that rack breath. If I play it right, I do NOT lose tightness and the bar won’t droop. And then I get a fresh breath, which makes all the difference since I’ll have a fresh shot of oxygen. THEN I can press, exhaling at the top.

This has been a long time coming in terms of setup, and this isn’t to say more refinements won’t come. But I am at least finally to a point where I feel strong, stable, and don’t have breathing nor dizzy problems. It’s a lot more steps to go through, but it’s working.

And I pressed 170×5 easily today.

I’ll take that

After that, it was what it was. I had to bail early because I was getting my recertification in Adult & Pediatric CPR/AED and First Aid. Good reason for ending a session early. 🙂

And so, next week is deload

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

• Press
  • bar x 5
  • 70 x 5
  • 90 x 5
  • 110 x 3
  • 135 x 5
  • 155 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
  • 90 x 10
• Bent-over Lateral Raises (superset with press warm-up sets)
  • 15e x 15
  • 15e x 15
  • 15e x 15
  • 15e x 15
• Normal-grip Pulldowns (superset with press work sets)
  • 140 x 12
  • 140 x 12
  • 140 x 12
• Barbell Row (superset with press BBB sets)
  • 165 x 8
  • 165 x 8
  • 165 x 8
  • 165 x 8
  • 165 x 8