Bench Press and First Day of 5-3-1!

This afternoon I cracked open my old copy of 5-3-1 and decided that I'd start using it in my training. The one big change I'm making is that instead of doing press, bench, squat, and deadlift; I'm doing bench and squat twice per week. I just don't think my shoulders can handle a lot of pressing, especially higher volume pressing, and my giant belly might completely preclude me getting down to the bar.

I've decided to use the "boring but big" accessory template, which involves 5x10 at 30 or 40% of your training max after the main sets. I may throw in a different exercise now and then and I'll certainly be doing prehab work for my shoulders and hips as needed.

One other note: I finally got my feet out of "no man's land." I was reading some stuff on the EFS forums and saw a couple of references to having your feet directly below your knees. I had totally forgotten about the notion that you need your feet under your ass (or at the very least, your knees below your hips) to do well on the bench. Let's just say that tonight I was WAY tighter in my setup and the weight felt like nothing.

BENCH PRESS
45 x 10
95 x 10
135 x 5
185 x 5
215 x 5
245 x 12 (implied rep max of 345)

Fun and felt awesome!

BENCH PRESS "ACCESSORY"
5 x 10 @ 135

Onward!

Squat

Saw some pictures of myself today that really motivated me to cut my diet down and put in more volume in the gym. So that's what I did.

SQUAT
45 x 10
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 5
405 x 3
455 x 3
455 x 3
455 x 3

My right hip was looser today but it did take a lot of work to get it there. Just need to stay consistent on the tennis ball, stick, and foam roller work.

Bench Press

Tonight was pretty awful. I had some trouble getting my right shoulder blade to squeeze in on the bench, but once I was warmed up it seemed to cooperate. I'm really looking forward to Christmas as I may get a chance to really test my bench with a spotter.

BENCH PRESS
45x10
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 3
275 x 3 (wraps)
315 x 3
315 x 2 (hit the pins)
315 x 1 (hit the pins)
315 x 3 (struggled here... again an issue of back tightness)

CROSS BODY CURLS
40s x 10, 8, 6

I didn't want to further aggravate my back so I didn't do any heavy pulling. After all the benching I was ready to leave.

Squats ("new" max)

Tonight felt okay, except for my right leg. The stretching has helped, but I have a long way to go to loosening it up.

SQUAT
135 x 8
225 x 5
315 x 3
405 x 3
455 x 2
495 x 1
545 x 1
315 x 3
315 x 3
315 x 3

445 is my max right now. It was tough and I did get forward a bit. I just bought a new pair of shoes (Vans) and they're quite a bit flatter than my old shoes. Something to get used to.

I didn't feel like doing pull thrus because of my hip and knee, so I just banged out a few more triples as "accessory" work.

Accessory

Just some light stuff. Taking tomorrow off.

PULL THRU
3 sets, whole stack

MACHINE CHEST SUPPORTED ROW
2 sets

FACE PULLS
2 sets

HEAVY TRI PUSHDOWNS
3 sets

Bench and Bodyweight

Today I was at 350 again. Need to push into the 340s.  My back is in pretty intense pain from bar burn. I may take tomorrow night off just to give it an extra day.

BENCH PRESS
45 x 10
135 x 10
185 x 5
225 x 3
275 x 3
315 x 1
335 x 1

Movin on up!

PUSHDOWNS
3 sets of 10

LAT PULLDOWNS (straight bar)
4 sets of 10

Squat

Tonight was okay. I'm kinda tired and tight in my right leg, so I need to start foam rolling it and stretching my hip flexors some more.

SQUAT
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 3
405 x 3
495 x 1
515 x 2

Still moving up!


Rack Pulls
225 x 3 x 5 reps

Forgot my handles, so I did this instead of pull throughs.

Dumbbell Bench and Bodyweight

I am really tired today after staying up til 4:00 AM last night. We had a good Thanksgiving with the Siccardi's and the kids had a ton of fun.

Bodyweight was 350 even. Slow progress.


DUMBBELL BENCH PRESS
45s x 10
55s x 10
65s x 8
75s x 6
85s x 5
90s x 3
90s x 3
90s x 5

These felt awesome! Need to continue to to improve my posture and sleep to keep my back muscles healthy.

CABLE ROW
3 x 10 ascending to heavy weight

CLOSE GRIP PULLDOWN
3 x 10 ascending to heavy weight

Really felt a good burn on everything.