Trying something different for my pressing.

I was working Press as pure accessory, with a little warm-up then just 5×8 across. I felt like it was going nowhere, so I opted to change it up a bit. I looked in Paul Carter’s “Strength, Life, Legacy” eBook and took the simple Big-15 programming progression, which is his 5-4-3-2-1 over-warmup approach, followed by an AMRAP set (8-15 rep range) followed by a 50% set (4-8 rep range). I kinda miss programming for Press like I did with 5/3/1, and if this might help me overcome the plateau, great.

I had no idea what weights to use, so I just took what I had been doing, made some calculations up and down the various formulas and percentages, and wound up with the weights you see here. Frankly, I felt like I could do more, like working up to 135 would be a little better. But then I hit the rep sets and they were actually right where they should be. So, I think I’ll keep it here and see how it goes.

Because you can also see, there were other effects later on. I bumped up the Upright Rows weight and that went well. But then I opted to drop the laterals weight because I wanted to be stricter, and I was but it was still good for me. I also felt like the close-grips and pressdowns regressed, but that’s only on paper. Is it actual regression? Can’t say, and really it doesn’t matter. Given the recent events in life, I’m not surprised if I lost a little strength and muscle and I stepped back a hair. Or maybe it’s just because I changed up enough stuff at the front of the session that the back of the session of course lost a little (on paper). Meh… it’s just a small step back, if it really is one at all. I’ll keep going, no big.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

Today was… ok.

Being down on food, sleep, and other things, while I chugged through today, it was a tougher day. I didn’t hit my reps on the stiff-legs, the squats were moving but moving slow. I just felt gassed, mostly…. Well, it is what it is. Nothing else to say.

I’ll get it back.

In other news… I’ve started to think again about competition. In many ways, it depends upon the state of things (e.g. The Defattening Project) and then how things go from there. But what I came back to, and I’ve thought about this before, is Hyde Park Gym (one of the bigger gyms in town, and if they were convenient to me I’d probably train there — there or Big Tex Gym, but they are completely on the other side of town from me), and how HPG does a push-pull event every summer. I don’t think you have to be a gym member to participate, and the barrier of entry is low, e.g. you don’t have to buy and wear special equipment, etc.. Sure, it’s not affiliated with any sort of Federation or anything, but it’s still judged, it’s still a competition. So who cares about the details, and yeah it’s not a full-meet, but whatever. If it could be the way to cut my teeth, I’m game to give it a shot. TBD.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Squats (model 1)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 165 x 5
  • 190 x 4
  • 225 x 3
  • 250 x 2
  • 285 x 1
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
  • 200 x 5
• Stiff-Legged Deadlift
  • 205 x 8
  • 205 x 8
  • 205 x 6
  • 205 x 6
  • 205 x 6
• Leg Press
  • 135 x 20
  • 135 x 20
  • 135 x 20
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10

Of all the things, I forgot my phone. But the session setup is pretty familiar to me. I got a few weights wrong, but on the whole I knew what to do and did it. Hooray programming!

While right now my normal work-up is to 215, I worked up to 225. I’m not totally sure why, but I just wanted to do it. Maybe it was the emotional/ego need of “2 wheels”, of “doing that”, or whatever. But I also know that in Paul’s approach of “over-warmup”, it just feels like there should be more gap between where I work up to and then where I come back down to for the work sets. I mean, going up to 215 then coming down to 205 to work — just feels like there should be a little more gap there. So 225 felt right (my “working max” right now is 240). It actually went up pretty well.

As I mentioned before, I finally had a critical breakthrough with my benching and “leg drive” — lifting my toes”. Doing that is truly helping me actually get drive, because I think in the past with the toes on the ground it would cause me to kinda press/lift/drive from the toes… the angle that drive creates. But with the toes up, now it’s truly the flats of my feet driving, and I am certainly feeling myself pushing “back”, like if you will, sliding myself (head first) off the bench. I’m still refining things now because that is changing my bench placement and technique. I did try different widths, different degrees of forward and back. I think I need to have about a 90º placement of my knee joint and then my shins relative to the ground and thighs. If anything, maybe a hair forward, but certainly not tucking back towards my head. But then I need to reposition myself on the bench because I was certainly pushing my head off the bench today and even one time banged the bar into the uprights on the ascent (then just modified my groove to keep from doing that the rest of the reps).

So, that’s just going to take time to get right, but it’s coming. I’m pretty happy about that!

I may well stick with the work up to 225, but we’ll see…. it’s not too critical right now either way.

On dips. I had planned to do as I did with chins, to strive for a reach goal (in this case, 10 dips in a row) and just keep cranking the reps until I got there, to worry about “reps across (sets)” later… get to 10 on the first set, and keep repping out on every set thereafter, until I get to 10 across. That’s what I’m doing on chins. But as I started doing the dips, I changed and just went to 6 (I did 5 across last week). As soon as I started dipping, the dipping felt more comfortable, more groove, but still not there. But it was better. Like last week, the first few reps of each set felt clumsy with me trying to find the movement groove. Today, after the first 1-2 reps I found the groove and moved well. So, I think I just need to stay slow and take my time, get the groove greased, get my body really happy with the movement pattern, and while I’m doing it sure… like next week I’ll aim for 7 reps. But the goal isn’t to try rep up then across, it’s right now getting the movement, then I’ll worry about the goal.

So, really, a pretty good day.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Bench Press (model 2)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 120 x 5
  • 145 x 4
  • 160 x 3
  • 180 x 2
  • 205 x 1
  • 225 x 1
  • 205 x 5
  • 205 x 5
  • 205 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 145 x 15 (AMRAP)
• Dips
  • BW (230) x 6
  • BW (230) x 6
  • BW (230) x 6
  • BW (230) x 6
• DB Incline Press (350 Method)
  • 40e x 19
  • 40e x 14
  • 40e x 11
• Polquin Flies
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 10

Training continues along.

I opted to make some changes because I think they’re better for me.

First, dips. I started doing “chest dip (between benches)“, which compare pretty similiarly to regular old chest dips. I did this because while I wanted to do regular dips, my body wasn’t quite happy with it. But the chest dips got better, I think my body adapted to the movement pattern, and for whatever it was worth I opted to just try regular old dips today. I mean, if I started and the body complained, it was no problem to stop.

So I dipped, and capped it arbitrarily at 5 reps. That was still fair work, I doubt I could have done 10 reps across, but it was good. I guess I may have been on a bit of happy high having hit the 5 chin-ups just the gym session prior, so why not see if I can stop sucking at dips too. 🙂 So, I’m going to continue. Same sort of approach here as with chins, aiming for 10 reps first, then 10 reps across.

Second, I changed my inclines from a barbell to dumbbells. This is a shoulder issue. With the DB’s I can rotate a lot easier and alleviate stresses on my shoulder. Incline BB’s aren’t horrible on my shoulder, but unless I get the groove and grip and everything exactly right well… let’s just say if I can get the benefits I need from DB’s and it removes some problems, all good. I don’t always care for DB-based work, but sometimes you have to do what you need to do instead of what you want to do.

Based upon Paul Carter’s Basebuilding

• Bench Press (model 2)
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 120 x 5
  • 140 x 4
  • 165 x 3
  • 180 x 2
  • 205 x 1
  • 215 x 1
  • 205 x 5
  • 205 x 5
  • 205 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 180 x 5
  • 145 x 17 (AMRAP)
• Dips
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5
• DB Incline Press (350 Method)
  • 35e x 24
  • 35e x 18
  • 35e x 15
• Polquin Flies
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 10
  • 15e x 10