Stealth's Workout Journal

Good workout – much better than Monday. Bench felt pretty decent – got some solid singles in, but still not feeling strong enough to go for a 1rm PR, but I did get a 3rm PR, which I’m happy with. With as beat-up feeling as I am, I am ok with what I did today. Slingshot bench press went well – PR with 435 for a double, but I am still having troubles touching. I moved down to 355 and used a full arch (something that always helps my bench, but I hate doing) and was able to get the weight to touch finally, and banged out a solid 10 paused reps. This hit harder than the heavier low rep sets, so I think I will continue doing higher reps with the slingshot – and pausing occasionally. Conventional deads felt pretty decent, considering how achy and sore my hips/back are right now. Worked up to a tough single @ 595, which is the heaviest I have hit this training cycle. Did rack pulls from the top of the knee to really hammer the lockout. Easy weights, but the point was to work that hip/glute strength for lockouts. Finished with some tricep work.

Paused Bench Press:
135x10x1
195x3x1
235x3x1
275x3x1
315x2x1
335x1x1
340x1x1
345x1x1
315x3x1 (PR)

Slingshot Bench Press:
315x5x1
355x3x1
385x3x1
415x3x1
435x2x1 (PR)
355x10x1 (PR)

Conventional Deadlift:
225x5x1
315x3x1
405x3x1
495x3x1
565x1x1
595x1x1
565x1x1
525x5x1

Rack Deadlift (bar @ top of knee):
315x5x1
405x5x1
495x5x1
585x5x1
665x5x1

Seated Tricep Extension Machine:
75x10x1
75x10x1
75x10x1
75x10x1
75x10x1

Band Pull-Aparts:
red x50x1
red x50x1
red x50x1

Duration: 120 minutes

Tough session today. Feeling under the weather from yesterday’s festivities and generally sluggish. Right rear delt feeling achy so did what I needed to do and that.was.it.

Push Press:
135x10x1
185x5x1
225x4x1
255x3x1

Wide-stance Squat (single-ply briefs):
225x10x1
315x5x1
405x3x1
495x3x1
515x3x1
535x3x1

Flat DB Bench Press:
80x8x1
110x8x1
110x8x1
110x12x1

Incline Bench Press:
225x8x1
225x8x1
225x8x1

Band Pull-Aparts:
red x50x1
red x50x1
red x50x1

Duration: 70 minutes

Wide-stance box squats were the dynamic effort flavor of the week. These rip my hips apart, in a good way. Front squats were brutal on the hips as well, but strength is steadily improving. 4 triples @ 335 without too much trouble. No pressing at all today – giving the upper body a break there. Chins felt good – need to do those more.

DE Wide-stance Box Squat:
225x2x1
275x2x1
275x2x1
315x2x1
315x2x1
335x2x1
335x2x1
335x2x1

Front Squat:
225x5x1
315x3x1
335x3x1
335x3x1
335x3x1
335x3x1

Chins:
bw x10x1
bw x10x1
bw x10x1
bw x10x1
bw x15x1

CG Pulldowns:
250x5x1
250x5x1
250x5x1

Band Pull-Aparts:
red x50x1
red x50x1

Band External Rotations:
red x50x1
red x50x1

Duration: 70 minutes

Pretty damn good session today. Lots of DOMs in my back and forearms (especially) from squats and overheads, but was able to hit some decent rep work on deads. Heavy singles were out of the question today. Hitting those higher rep sets was a nice change of pace. One more rep at 640 would have been a 5rm PR, but considering how beat up I felt, I am pleased with those 4 reps. Three-board bench was tough with all the forearm soreness, but throwing on the elbow sleeves helped quite a bit with that. Moved on to slingshot after some decent singles on 3-board and hit a couple rep PRs there as well. Could have gone for some heavy singles but figured the rep work would be more beneficial. Inclines went well despite being very fatigued. Finished off with my current favorite movement – the paused neutral grip flat db bench.

Deadlift:
225x10x1
315x3x1
380x3x1
455x3x1
530x3x1
610x2x1
640x4x1
585x6x1
585x6x1

3-board Bench Press:
135x10x1
195x5x1
225x3x1
265x3x1
295x2x1
335x1x1
355x1x1
375x1x1

Slingshot Bench Press:
315x3x1
355x3x1
385x3x1
405x3x1
425x3x1 (PR)
405x5x1 (PR)
405x4x1
405x4x1

Incline Bench Press:
225x5x1
275x5x1
280x5x1
275x6x1

Paused Neutral Grip Flat DB Bench:
70x8x1
70x8x1
80x8x1
80x10x1

Band Pull-Aparts:
red x60x1
red x60x1
red x60x1

Duration: 120 minutes

Pretty great workout. Today I was determined to stick with using the clean grip for my push presses – typically these hurt by the time I finish a few warmup sets due to my right wrist having poor mobility (broken several times in the past), but today the clean grip was actually pretty comfortable. It feels really awkward, and strange not gripping the bar for each press, but using the clean grip creates a natural head-forward movement, which keeps my form nice and tight. Hit a pretty easy 285 double, then did some triples @ 255, which all felt really solid. The clean grip will hopefully continue to feel OK. Moved on to full squats and worked up to a pretty smooth 600 single, then backed down to go after some rep PRs. I ended up beating my previous 3 and 5rm bests with efforts @ 565 and 515. Happy with that! Did some flat db bench, which felt great, then ended things with curls and ab work.

Push Press:
135x10x1
185x3x1
225x3x1
255x3x1
285x2x1
255x3x1
255x3x1

ATG Squat:
225x10x1
330x3x1
405x3x1
460x2x1
530x1x1
575x1x1
600x1x1
565x3x1 (PR)
515x5x1 (PR)

Flat DB Bench:
80x8x1
100x8x1
120x8x1
130x8x1
110x8x1

Rope Cable Crunch:
75x10x1
100x10x1
112x10x1

Seated Curl Machine (one big mega-set):
75x12x1
62x12x1
50x12x1
87x8x1
75x8x1
62x8x1
50x8x1
100x3x1
87x3x1
75x4x1
62x4x1
50x6x1
37x10x1

Band Pull-Aparts:
red x50x1
red x50x1
red x50x1

Duration: 120 minutes

Pretty nice workout today. Speed work went well – 335 was flying. My upper body is just a wreck from the overheads on Monday and slingshot work on Wednesday – made for some interesting front squats. Regardless, I hit 355 for a triple, which is only 10lbs off my best, but I think I was not hitting depth like this back then. Humbling weight, but the strength will come. Inclines felt really rugged, but hit some not-to-tough sets with 275; pleased with that. Tried a set of seated DB presses but my shoulders emphatically said “no”, so I switched to neutral grip db floor presses. Really nice tricep blaster there.

DE ATG Squat:
225x2x1
275x2x1
315x2x1
315x2x1
335x2x1
335x2x1
335x2x1
335x2x1

Front Squat:
225x5x1
315x3x1
335x3x1
355x3x1
315x5x1

Incline Bench Press:
225x5x1
255x5x1
275x5x1
275x5x1
275x5x1

Seated DB Press:
70x8x1

Paused Neutral-grip DB Floor Press:
70x8x1
80x8x1
90x8x1
90x10x1

Band Pull-Aparts:
purple x20x1
purple x20x1

Band Face Pulls:
purple x30x1
purple x30x1

Duration: 90 minutes

Pretty tough, but good workout. Lots of shoulder and upper back soreness from all the overhead presses on Monday so I did not expect much from bench, but it went better than expected. Did 5 singles @ ~90%+ on paused bench, where my pauses are getting longer and longer, without too much trouble. Moved on to Slingshot bench and worked up to 415 for a triple (pr), a pretty solid 425 single, then back down to 405 to call it good. My forearms were completely fried and I could barely grip the bar for the 425 set. That presented a but of a struggled with deads, as a loose grip means loose traps, etc. Conventionals went OK – better than two weeks ago, but were very fatigued. The Slingshot and those heavy workloads really take a lot out of my core since I always bench with an arch. No real assistance work today, the heavy stuff was enough.

Paused Bench Press:
135x12x1
195x5x1
235x4x1
275x3x1
315x1x1
335x1x1
320x1x1
320x1x1
320x1x1

Slingshot Bench Press:
320x2x1
350x2x1
385x2x1
415x3x1 (PR)
425x1x1
405x2x1

Conventional Deadlift:
225x3x1
315x3x1
405x3x1
495x2x1
545x1x1
575x1x1
575x1x1
495x3x1

Duration: 90 minutes

This session absolutely wrecked me. Still working up gradually on push presses using ‘proper form’, where I hit pretty easy doubles at 265 and 275. I was feeling pretty good so I decided to do some BTN push presses, where I ended up hitting a big PR of 305. Went for 315 and just barely missed it -talk about frustrating. So close, but I know I would have hit it if I had jumped to it straight from 285, or at least had not done all of the regular push presses first. Moved on to squats, but I was just exhausted already. Ground out 5 reps @ 90%+ at least to keep the session productive. Kept inclines light for the 5 sets of 8, then did a huge drop set for curls to end it.

Push Press:
135x10x1
185x5x1
210x4x1
235x3x1
265x2x1
275x2x1

BTN Push Press:
225x3x1
255x2x1
285x2x1
305x1x1 (PR)
315x0.9x1

Wide-stance Squat (single-ply briefs):
315x3x1
405x3x1
475x2x1
545x1x1
565x1x1
525x3x1

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

DB Hammer Curls (all sets done in one big dropset):
50x10x1
40x10x1
30x10x1
60x8x1
50x8x1
40x8x1
30x8x1
70x5x1
60x5x1
50x5x1
40x10x1
30x15x1

Band Pull-Aparts:
purple x50x1
purple x50x1
purple x50x1

Duration: 120 minutes

Good workout despite having just benched a bunch yesterday. I figured my bench would be crap today but it ended up going really well. Gaining confidence there for sure. Squats were exhausting. Front squats were bothering my hip so I did not push them too hard – still too beat up from those deads yesterday. Kept inclines light.

Paused Bench Press:
135x10x1
200x5x1
235x4x1
275x3x1
315x2x1
315x2x1
315x2x1
315x2x1
315x2x1

DE ATG Squat:
225x2x1
225+180 band tensionx2x1
225+320 band tensionx2x1
225+420 band tensionx2x1
225+420 band tensionx2x1
225+420 band tensionx2x1
225+420 band tensionx2x1
225+420 band tensionx2x1

Front Squat:
225x3x1
275x3x1
275x3x1
275x3x1

Incline Bench Press:
225x5x1
225x5x1
225x5x1
225x5x1
225x5x1

CG Pulldowns:
150x8x1
150x8x1
150x8x1
150x8x1
150x8x1

Band Pull-Aparts:
purple x30x1
purple x30x1
purple x30x1

Duration: 120 minutes

Had to push the session from yesterday to today. This was a real fun session. Paused bench went smooth, hitting 5 nice singles with long pauses, then I moved on to using the Slingshot again. Figured since I maxed it out on Sunday with a real grinder @ 425 I would just do triples with it today. Of course I got excited to go heavy and ended up crushing 415 for a double, then 430 and 440 for singles. Real pleased with how things felt today. Definitely more in the tank, too; just did not want to push the shoulders too much. That is a big increase in workload for them to be handling. Moved on to deads and I was just toasted. Barely got 675 for a single and 635 and 600 for doubles. First world problems. Incline went surprisingly smooth, but I did not push it too hard, either. Forearms, triceps, front delts, and traps are blasted. Finished with some light flyes and band work.

Paused Bench Press:
135x10x1
200x5x1
235x4x1
275x3x1
295x2x1
315x1x1
335x1x1
340x1x1
340x1x1
330x1x1
330x1x1

Bench Press w/ Slingshot:
315x2x1
345x2x1
375x2x1
405x2x1
415x2x1 (PR)
430x1x1
440x1x1 (PR)
405x3x1 (PR)

Deadlift:
225x3x1
315x3x1
405x3x1
495x1x1
585x1x1
675x1x1
635x2x1
600x2x1

Incline Bench Press:
225x5x1
255x5x1
265x5x1
265x5x1
225x5x1

Flat DB Flyes:
55x8x1
55x8x1
55x8x1
55x8x1

Band Pull-Aparts:
purple x30x1
purple x30x1

Single-arm Band Rows:
purple x30x1
purple x30x1

Duration: 120 minutes