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Reverse grip bench press

370 lb Bench Press PR, Mat Pulls, Curls, Speed, My Approach To Conditioning, And Stuff You Should Read

March 3, 2013 — 4 Comments

Let's see what happened this past week...

Bench Press PRs

I haven't attempted a 1RM on the bench for over a month (last time being January 18, 2013, where I benched 360 lb).

This past Friday I managed to get a 365 lb bench press. It felt really easy, so I slapped on another 5 lb (actually removed all the smaller plates and put on a pair of 25 lb plates) and attempted 370 lb.

Got it!

It felt a bit harder, but not to the point where I felt like I was struggling with the weight and had doubts on whether I would press it up or not.

Only 30 more puny pounds to go until I'm a member of the 400 lb bench press club!

I was going to move onto my work sets, but then decided since I was wearing my new Three Wolf Moon shirt, I might as well go for three PRs! Put on 335 lb on the bar and cranked out a 3 rep max (previous 3RM was 330 lb, done on January 25, 2013).

ROM Progression Method Week 1

Started my first week of the ROM progression method with mat pulls:

I have a feeling the weight that I'm using is too much for now. Pretty tough at this point to pull the weight that I'm using, and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to use the same weight as I remove a mat and lower the bar to the ground every week. I might stick with this weight, and then lower it later, or lower it next Friday. Not sure yet.

Barbell Bicep Curls...Outside The Rack

Also busted out some barbell curls.

I'm going to add barbell curls back into the mix because I want to get my arms (17" around, unpumped and flexed) as thick as my neck (18.5" around, unpumped and flexed).

Squat

Speed is something I'm working on (during the concentric part of the squat).

I'm trying to be more explosive out of the hole during squat, trying to come up as fast as possible for both my warm up sets and work sets.

I feel that it gives me a better warm up and better prepares me for my main sets, even when using the same weights. Plus, it feels cool to attempt to pop the bar off my traps and hear the plates rattling.

I do find it easier to explode out of the hole from a high bar squat than a low bar squat.

With a high bar squat, I pretty much just drop down somewhat slowly, then bounce and power it up with my quads while focusing on keeping my chest up.

With a low bar squat, I find I need to be more deliberate on the descent, and need to focus on keeping tight in and out of the hole. I think half way up I can finally explode while keeping good form.

Conditioning

Lastly, someone asked me about conditioning and the Texas Method, and I give me approach to it:

Stuff You Should Read

Anyway, check this out:

  1. Meet the Man Who Squats 905...RAW - an interview with Ray Williams @70sbig
  2. The Ten Rules of Progressive Overload by Bret Contreras
  3. The Best in Training by Jim Wendler
  4. Set a PR Every Day by David Dellanave
  5. Training for Maximum Strength by Dr. Michael Yessis

 

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Deadlift Secret Weapon(s), Rep PR’s, Training Updates and Stuff You Should Read

February 24, 2013 — Leave a comment

Here is my new secret weapon(s) to increase my deadlift:

rubber-pavers (1)

rubber-pavers (2)

rubber-pavers (3)

Ok not that much of a secret, because I found out about it here: ROM Progression Method.

The idea with ROM progression method is to increase the range of motion over time.

I kinda-sorta played around with the ROM Progression Method before, doing rack pulls in my power rack, but that was a pain in the ass to adjust the safety bars every time.

I had to set the safety bars on my rack to the right level, which involves pulling it out of the holes from front-to-back, and sliding it back in at the right level, all while listening to the screeching sound and feeling the vibrations from metal sliding on metal contact.

At the same time, I didn't use my B&R bar for rack pulls. I used an old, no-name crappy Olympic bar that I got from Kijiji. I've read that rack pulls done in the power rack runs the risk of bending whatever bar you're using, and I did not want to bend my best bar. The crappy Olympic bar is a bit thicker than the B&R bar, and the chrome is peeling off. Also, it barely fits inside of the safety pins of my power rack.

Well, getting my deadlift up has been a bit of a mystery to me, but partial deadlifts seemed to have helped before.

So, I figured I might as well do this right and pull from rubber mats rather than doing rack pulls in the power rack.

I had some left over rubber stall mats, so I cut them up resulting in 8 pieces of roughly 18"x24" rectangles. I also purchased 8 x 18"x18" rubber paver tiles from Home Depot ($7.99 before taxes and free shipping!).

With a total of 8 mats on each side, this raises the bar so that it's about 2" below the bottom of my kneecaps.

So right now I have 8 mats about 3/4" high. One week, I'll do my mat pulls with 8 mats, and then the next, I'll remove 1 mat so that there will be 7. This will be repeated until I am pulling from the floor.

It'll probably take a few "cycles" of this to reach my goal of a 600 lb deadlift.

I was going to start this yesterday, but ended up grocery shopping and then eating a hamburger instead.

Rep PR's and Other Training Updates

Hit some PR's this past week:

5RM: Low Bar & High Bar Squat: 430 lb x 5

2RM: Bench Press: 340 lb x 2

Overhead presses has been crappy lately, so I'm going to replace them with some good old fashion clean and presses. This should provide a "deload" from heavy OHP (because the weight I can use for C&P is limited by what I can clean, which is lower than my press), give me an opportunity to work on power (or muscle) clean technique, and get a little more yoked.

Also, looking at my Youtube channel I saw that the last time I tested a bench press PR was over a month ago. I might try 365 lb soon.

Stuff You Should Read

A few good articles I came across this past week:

  1. Self Assessments- Retarded In The Workplace, But CROOSH In The Gym (NSFW) by Jamie Lewis
  2. Random Things I've Learned Through Weightlifting And Writing- Part 1 by Kirksman
  3. 12 Fitness Lessons by Greg Robins
  4. 120 Tips on Strength Training for Women by Bret Contreras
  5. Increasing Work Capacity by Greg Nuckols
  6. A-List Exercises: Upper Body Pulling by Nick Tumminello
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Squat 5RM, Modified Bradford Press, Strength, Static Streching Mistakes and Tracy Anderson

February 17, 2013 — Leave a comment

This week my lower back was bothering me more than normal so I decided to replace low bar squats with high bar squats.

They have allowed me to squat despite low back pain in the past, and I can still say it's still effective.

I even hit a 5 rep max at 427.5 lb!

Bench press (reverse grip) is continuing to progress, as I hit the prescribed sets and reps at 317.5 lb (3x3). Recorded it at different angles to see what it looked like:

Also played around with the "Modified Bradford Press", which is essentially an overhead press followed by a behind the neck press. Not bad.

Anyway, check these out:

  1. Strength: An Endangered Species by Joe Amberlock (Orlandi)
  2. 15 Static Stretching Mistakes by Eric Cressey
  3. A Logical Argument Against the Tracy Anderson Method by Dean Somerset
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315 x 5 Bench Press PR, Overhead Presses, Dan Green Interview and Healthy Shoulders

February 10, 2013 — Leave a comment

Happy Chinese New Year!

Last week I only managed 4 reps with 315 lb on the bench press. This week I got 5!

Missed out on the 6th rep though. Felt like I almost had it, but it ended up drifting backwards a bit and hit the J-hooks.

Not a big deal. For next Friday, I might try a regular grip bench press and maybe a 2RM at 340 lb.

Also, lowered the volume on my volume days (Monday). My body has been aching more than normal lately (mainly lower back) and I don't think I need tons of volume in 1 day to progress.

I did end up squatting 5x this week however. They were high bar squats. I feel I can squat more often and more frequently with the high bar squat, whereas low bar squats seems to beat me up if I do them too much.

I do recall I squatted frequently (4-5x/week) back when I hit 500+ lb. Might have to squat more often in order to get back to that level again.

For OHP, I have a feeling it's going to be a while before I hit 260 lb. In the mean time, I'm going to increase the volume a bit for overhead presses and do sets across. I also experimented with behind the neck presses (standing) and they felt not too bad.

Anyway, check this out:

  1. Dan Green Interview
  2. A Few Words On Keeping The Shoulders Healthy by Paul Carter
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Bench Press 315 x 4 (4RM), Tea + Whey Protein, Kirk Karwoski Interview and Deadlift Technique

February 3, 2013 — Leave a comment

Well, I only got a 4 rep max on the bench press this week while aiming for a 5RM:

Out of all the 4 major barbell lifts that I do, the bench press benefits most from a little bit of psyching up and aggression. At least for me. I'll inject more of this next week when I attempt 5 reps again.

Other than that, my lower back seems to be aching more than normal, so I might "de-load" this week. We'll see.

Anyway, try this out:

And listen to and watch these:

  1. Interview with Captain Kirk by Paul Carter
  2. Deadlift Technique: How to Take the Tension Out of the Bar by Eric Cressey

 

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