Benching up

Ah, yes, the Thursday bench press.

I guess from all the years I started every workout with the bench press, I look forward to the bench press days as the "easy" workout. And that's odd, considering I'm never, ever satisfied with my progress on the bench press.

Today I did pretty well. No, not satisfying, but the progress according to the plan I've sketched out is right on schedule.

I felt a lot better today than I have on recent days. I've really felt rundown lately, so to go into a workout feeling energized was a nice change. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with my caloric intake. I have always had a problem getting enough to eat. I always plan on eating at least 5 meals a day—mostly chicken and vegetables—but I often end up missing one of those meals. So I've taken to snacking on peanuts during the day to make up for it. I think it's working.

Today I maxed out at 215 on the bench press for three reps. I was hoping to do five, but it just didn't happen. According to Fitocracy, that's a personal best since I started tracking my workouts on the site. As impatient as I am to move forward, it's still solid progress, so I'll take what I can get. I'm a long way from my all-time best, however, and I hope to get back into that range before the end of the year. I figure I'll have to eat a lot more steak to make it happen, though.

I did a sort-of reverse pyramid after the max on the BP and finished up with four sets of 10-12 reps at 135. During the reverse pyramid, I supersetted in sets of bent-over row and single-arm dumbbell row.

I've been wimping out a lot lately on the assistance work, so I was pleased to get in a full workout with assistance work and high volume on the main lift.

All in all, things are looking up. I need to be more disciplined with my diet to ensure I'm eating enough. Tomorrow is squat day, so I'm going to shovel in as much food as I can.

Dreadlift Day

This was one of those days a part of me was looking for an excuse not to work out. The little voice inside my head said, "It's--it's deadlift day, isn't it?" Still too sore from the last couple of workouts, the voice said. Need a little more rest, the little voice said. That bar is going to get really heavy, really fast, it croaked.

The little voice was right in many ways. I was in fact still stiff from the previous workouts. I felt fatigued, and all I'd eaten to that point had been a couple of eggs and a couple of chicken breasts.

I was, however, also still hyped up on the frozen coffee beverage I got at Java Brewing Co. So I told the little voice to go take a little nap while I finished the workout.

Okay, I openly and unashamedly admit I did not complete the full itinerary.

At the start of the workout I felt like a dried up tree frog on Dixie Highway. With warm-up set one in the books, the little voice was saying its I-told-you-so's. Maybe I'll just go light today, I told myself, ignoring the snickering from Little Voice. Yeah, fine, I said, maybe some higher-rep, lighter-weight sets for today until I fully recover and get some good solid meals under the belt.

By warm-up set three, I was feeling a lot better. The tightness had gone away for the most part, and the fatigue was fading. I think I can do this, I told myself. We'll see what the next few sets feel like.

When I did five easy reps at 275, the idea of doing a few light sets was gone altogether. I followed that up with three reps at 295 as an acclimation set and then did a full five reps at 315.

Now, I've deadlifted more than 315 before, but I don't ever remember doing more than a few reps. Those were five big reps made all the bigger because all I wanted to do was curl up with a pillow.

I finished up with a reverse pyramid back down to 235. I had thoughts of doing a few sets at 205, but, frankly, after the last set at 235 my hamstrings were quivering, and Little Voice was accusing me of  being a masochist. Fearing Little Voice might be right, I quit for the day and didn't even bother with the hanging leg raises or the Pendlay rows. After hitting five reps at 315, I figured I'd done enough for one day.

Yes, Fitocracy, until another day.

Deload is over

Week 4 is in the books. Now I'm mentally preparing myself for BBB next week, the first week of cycle 3 for me on Wendler 5/3/1. I have a feeling I'm going to like BBB a lot. I'm thinking now maybe I've done things in reverse order of what I should have. I should have started with BBB and then cycled over to the Triumvirate after a few cycles. So I'm backwards. I still think it will work well.

Today I honestly wasn't quite sure exactly what I was going to do for my squat workout; all I knew for sure was that I'd made up my mind to skip the assistance work and do more sets of squats instead. The plan I'd sketched out using Black Iron Beast called for three sets of squats, topping out at 140. Instead, I topped out at 155 and then proceeded to do two more sets at 155 followed by three sets at 135 and finishing with a set at 95.

I knew I was working light and I knew I was performing more reps than usual, but it wasn't until midway through the workout that I realized I could make it an even 100 reps of squats across those ten sets. All I needed to do was average 10 reps per set. Since I did 5 reps in the last warm-up, that meant I needed to make up those 5 reps in the remaining sets. So I did 12 reps in two of the sets at 135 and finished with 15 reps at 95. In the end, it wasn't an even 100 reps; I think it was more like 104. Success!

I'm very seriously considering picking up a copy of Randall J. Strossen's Super Squats. I've already experimented in 20-rep squatting, and I think it could form the foundation of a solid workout plan. I may make a impulsive decision to quit Wendler midstream in cycle 3 to focus more on the squat. It certainly wouldn't hurt, given that the squat is by far my weakest movement proportionally.

Well, that's it for two cycles of Wendler. We'll have to wait and see what the future holds.

Check it out on Fitocracy.