3/31 – Sheiko/WSB Hybrid – Squat ME – Session 4

Good session today. Started out with some light push presses, really focusing on form. The reason they aggravate my back lately is because I tend to push my torso back, finishing the press in an almost slight incline position, rather than pushing my head through as I lock out. Working on that. 255 didn’t feel heavy but it felt weird doing this. Moved on to ATG squats where I just did not have much peak strength – my core was feeling pretty tired today – probably from the benching yesterday. Hit some quality singles @ 575, then hit a paused ATG squat PR @ 550, which I was happy with. Hard rep that was. Inclines were kept light, and really focused on the pauses on flat neutral grip DB presses. Good stuff.

Push Press:
135x10x1
175x5x1
205x4x1
225x3x1
255x3x1
225x3x1

ATG Squat:
225x5x1
315x3x1
405x2x1
475x1x1
525x1x1
575x1x1
575x1x1

Paused ATG Squat:
550x1x1 (PR)
525x2x1

Incline Bench Press:
225x8x1
225x8x1
225x8x1
225x12x1

Paused Neutral Grip Flat DB Bench:
80x8x1
80x8x1
80x8x1
80x8x1

Seated Curl Machine (one huge drop set/mega set):
75x10x1
62x10x1
50x10x1
87x6x1
75x6x1
62x6x1
50x6x1
100x3x1
87x3x1
75x3x1
62x3x1
50x6x1

Band Pull-Aparts:
purple x30x1
purple x30x1

Band External Rotations:
purple x25x1
purple x30x1

Duration: 120 minutes

3/30 – Bench ME

An impromptu bench workout. Was at a friend’s house and decided to play around with his Slingshot ( http://www.howmuchyabench.net/sling-shots/maddog-sling-shot.html ) on bench and ended up turning it into a max effort workout.

Bench Press w/ Slingshot:
225x1x1
275x1x1
315x1x1
355x1x1
385x1x1
405x1x1
425x1x1 (PR)
405x2x1

Bench Press (touch and go):
315x3x1

Paused Bench Press (long pause):
315x1x1

Duration: 45 minutes

3/28 – Sheiko/WSB Hybrid – Squat DE – Session 3

Pretty great workout. This has, overall, been a real solid week of lifting. Started the session today with bench – again feeling really sore and tight, but everything was pretty easy and fast so I focused on ridiculously long pauses for each rep. Still had no problems with any of the doubles. Moved on to incline, which felt strong, and did some good paused neutral grip db presses. Those really destroy the tris. Light BTN overheads again, which I still have mixed feelings about. I might just go down to using only the bar every workout as a recovery/cooldown movement, like I do with the bands. Hit the DE squats and I really could not have moved 315 any faster. It might as well have been 135 on the bar, so I think those band DE squats are working. More of those next week. ATG squats are still a glaring weakness, but I am enjoying tackling them head on. 315 for 2 solid triples, without a belt this week. They did not shred my abs like they did last time, and a bit more confidence was there. Knees-locked strict GMs absolutely rip your hamstrings apart – they started seizing up on me after the second set, but I pushed through it and stretched them out well.

Paused Bench Press:
135x10x1
200x5x1
235x4x1
275x3x1
295x2x1
295x2x1
295x2x1
305x2x1
305x2x1

Incline Bench Press:
225x8x1
265x8x1
245x8x1
245x8x1

Neutral Grip Paused DB Presses:
75x8x1
75x8x1
75x8x1
75x8x1
75x8x1
75x15x1

BTN Overhead Press:
95x8x1
95x8x1
95x8x1
95x8x1

DE ATG Squat:
225x2x1
275x2x1
315x2x1
315x2x1
315x2x1
315x2x1
315x2x1
315x2x1

ATG Front Squat:
225x3x1
275x3x1
315x3x1
315x3x1
225x5x1

Knees-locked Strict GMs:
135x8x1
135x8x1
135x8x1
135x8x1

Rope Face Pulls:
80x10x1
80x10x1
80x10x1
80x10x1
80x10x1

Band Pull-Aparts:
purple x30x1
purple x30x1
purple x30x1

Duration: 100 minutes

3/26 – Sheiko/WSB Hybrid – Deadlift & Bench ME – Session 2

Pretty great workout. Started out with bench just to get it over with. Very sore and tight from two sessions in a row with heavy benching so I did not expect much today. Regardless, I ended up hitting a pretty smooth 350 paused single. Only 5lbs off from my best and very fatigued – I count that as progress. Hit 325 for a paused double, which is a PR. Moved on to conventional deads and worked up to an OK feeling 575. Finished with a pretty easy set of 6 @ 525. Inclines felt pretty good, albeit tired feeling. Finished with some good assistance work. The BTN presses are for mobility, and they hurt – I have not figured out if its a good hurt to keep working with, or a bad hurt. Time will tell.

Paused Bench Press:
135x10x1
200x5x1
235x4x1
275x3x1
295x2x1
315x1x1
335x1x1
350x1x1
325x2x1 (PR)

Conventional Deadlift:
225x3x1
315x3x1
405x3x1
475x1x1
525x1x1
550x1x1
575x1x1
525x6x1

Incline Bench Press:
225x4x1
275x4x1
275x4x1
275x4x1
275x4x1

Flat Neutral Grip DB Bench:
70x8x1
70x8x1
70x8x1
70x8x1
70x10x1

BTN Overhead Press:
95x8x1
95x8x1
95x8x1
95x8x1

Single-arm Flye Machine:
80x8x1
80x8x1
80x8x1
80x8x1
80x8x1

Pull-Aparts:
purple x30x1
purple x30x1
purple x30x1

Duration: 120 minutes

3/24 – Sheiko/WSB – Session 1

I was pretty excited to start this cycle as I am implementing a few new changes: wide stance squats in loose single-ply briefs alternating every week with ATG squats, and sumo deads alternated with conventionals every week.

I did some light overheads to start things out and then moved on to wide-stance squats. These felt terrible to start, but I got into a good groove as I worked my way up. I paused all reps to emphasize depth and stretch my hips out, and ended up hitting a single-ply briefs PR already. Paused bench felt pretty solid, inclines went real smooth, and declines were easy. I had very little energy overall today so this workout really dragged out, but the strength was there.

Push Press:
135x10x1
210x4x1
235x3x1

BTN Push Press:
210x5x1
235x5x1

Paused Wide-stance Squats (single-ply briefs):
235x5x1
315x3x1
315x3x1
405x3x1
465x2x1
495x2x1
535x1x1
565x1x1
585x1x1 (PR)
535x1x1

Paused Bench Press:
200x5x1
235x4x1
275x3x1
295x2x1
295x2x1
295x2x1
295x2x1

Incline Bench Press:
225x8x1
255x8x1
235x8x1
235x8x1

Decline Bench Press:
235x4x1
275x4x1
275x4x1
275x4x1
275x6x1

45-degree Hypers:
bw x10x1
bw x10x1
bw x10x1

Band Pull-Aparts:
purple x30x1
purple x30x1
purple x30x1

Duration: 120 minutes

3/21 – Bench ME

Pretty enjoyable workout. Paused bench was feeling pretty good today, but not quite good enough for a 1rm attempt. Pleased with how 345 felt though with a long pause. Afterwards I tried my first heavy touch and go singles on bench, hitting 350 and 355. Maybe had another 10lbs there, so I am encouraged that I could do a decent number fresh. Moved on to incline and worked up to a nice 330 single, then hit 315 for a triple, which was a PR. Finished with some paused db shrugs (each rep held at the top).

Paused Bench Press:
135x10x1
190x5x1
230x4x1
270x3x1
290x2x1
315x1x1
335x1x1
345x1x1

Bench Press:
350x1x1
355x1x1

Incline Bench Press:
225x3x1
265x3x1
285x1x1
310x1x1
330x1x1
315x3x1 (PR)

DB Shrugs (reps held @ top):
150s x50x1

Seated Curl Machine:
75×8-62×8-50x10x1
75×10-62×10-50x15x1

Duration: 60 minutes

3/21 – Bench ME

Pretty enjoyable workout. Paused bench was feeling pretty good today, but not quite good enough for a 1rm attempt. Pleased with how 345 felt though with a long pause. Afterwards I tried my first heavy touch and go singles on bench, hitting 350 and 355. Maybe had another 10lbs there, so I am encouraged that I could do a decent number fresh. Moved on to incline and worked up to a nice 330 single, then hit 315 for a triple, which was a PR. Finished with some paused db shrugs (each rep held at the top).

Paused Bench Press:
135x10x1
190x5x1
230x4x1
270x3x1
290x2x1
315x1x1
335x1x1
345x1x1

Bench Press:
350x1x1
355x1x1

Incline Bench Press:
225x3x1
265x3x1
285x1x1
310x1x1
330x1x1
315x3x1 (PR)

DB Shrugs (reps held @ top):
150s x50x1

Seated Curl Machine:
75×8-62×8-50x10x1
75×10-62×10-50x15x1

Duration: 60 minutes

3/19 – Deadlift ME / Deload

This was a stellar session. First real sumo deadlift workout in several months and it completely validated my instincts that I needed some time off from the lift. Goal was to do a few singles @ 650 (~90%) and I ended up crushing 585, so went on and hit a pretty easy 675, and then proceeded to hit 4 singles @ 700. First time I have pulled 700+ for more than one set in a workout. I know a new 1rm PR effort was not in me today, but this was definitely an intensity/volume PR. Finished with real low intensity hypers, pull downs, and curls.

Deadlift:
135x10x1
225x5x1
315x5x1
405x3x1
495x1x1
585x1x1
675x1x1
700x1x1
700x1x1
700x1x1
700x1x1

45-degree Hypers:
bw x10x1
bw x10x1
+25x10x1

Pull-downs:
150x6x1
150x6x1
150x6x1

Seated Bicep Curls:
75x8x1
75x8x1
75x10x1

Single-arm DB Hammer Curls:
55x6x1
55x6x1
55x6x1

Duration: 80 minutes

3/17 – Deload

Nice, moderate intensity low volume deload session. Did a few heavish singles on push presses. BTN push presses felt pretty good for not having done them in a long, long time. Did not push anything too hard today.

Push Press:
135x10x1
180x3x1
205x3x1
245x3x1
275x1x1
245x3x1
245x3x1

BTN Push Press:
135x3x1
185x3x1
225x2x1
255x1x1
275x1x1
275x1x1

Incline Bench Press:
225x3x1
275x3x1
300x3x1

Flat Neutral Grip DB Press:
60x10x1
60x10x1
60x10x1

Pec Flye Machine:
70x30x1

Pec Flye Machine (single-arm):
70x10x1
70x10x1
70x10x1
70x10x1

Duration: 70 minutes

3/14 – Sheiko Hybrid – Session 12

Great session. Gave the ATG DE Band squats hell today, topping out with 305 bar weight + 420 in band tension. Did not go beyond that as the bar was starting to slow down more than I would like, defeating the purpose of the movement. Compared to how I felt last week, though, I was much faster and explosive today. Bench started out feeling terrible, but ended up feeling pretty strong. Nice long pauses on the last few 310 doubles, and the 320 and 330 singles. 315×3 was a touch and go set and it went real smooth. Pauses on the 275 and 235 sets were ridiculously long (10-15s per rep). Neutral grip DB presses felt great – really enjoying that movement.

DE ATG Squat:
135+180 band tension x5x1
135+320 band tension x2x1
135+420 band tension x2x1
185+420 band tension x2x1
235+420 band tension x2x1
285+420 band tension x2x1
305+420 band tension x2x1
235+420 band tension x4x1

Paused Bench Press:
195x6x1
235x5x1
270x3x1
270x3x1
310x2x1
310x2x1
310x2x1
310x2x1
320x1x1
330x1x1
315x3x1
275x4x1
235x6x1

Flat DB Flyes:
60x10x1
60x10x1
60x10x1
60x10x1
60x10x1

Flat Neutral Grip DB Press:
70x8x1
80x8x1
90x8x1
100x8x1
110x10x1

Band Pull-Aparts:
purple x30x1
purple x30x1
purple x30x1

Band Face Pulls:
purple x20x1
purple x20x1
purple x20x1
purple x20x1

Duration: 120 minutes