Friday, July 28, 2006
Bench Press - Bar x 20, 95 x 7, 135 x 5, 160 x 2
DB Bench Press - 55 - 2 x 7
Bent-Over DB Rows - 55 - 2 x 10
Seated Incline Bench DB Curls (3rd setting) - 25lbs - 2 x 7
Cuban Presses on Swiss Ball - 10lbs - 2 x 10
Hey man, I’ve been following your training for some time now, you do a great job and I can tell have a great concept of what you are doing and follow it well. You’re making improvements, keep it up.
One thing I notice though is that you never change the angle of your bench. From what I can see is that it’s always flat BB Bench and then occasionally DB Bench as well. What I’d recommend that maybe you give a trial run is to take a break from flat benching for about 2-3 weeks. Instead, whenever you have a day with a flat bench movement, substitute it with either decline or incline bench press. Personally, I prefer the decline bench press because you can lift more weight that way (thus training you mentally for lifting more weight to get your confidence up) than if you incline bench. In fact, I can generally lift more with the decline bench than with flat bench.
What I would do personally, is do decline bench press for the barbell lift, but keep with the flat bench for the DB movement because you already have the element of a unilateral movement to deal with and you want to keep some bit of form on the flat bench. Like I said, do this for about three weeks. Then switch back to regular bench and I think you’ll be surprised at how much you can improve this way. Normally, it will take about 2 workouts back with the flat bench to readjust to that angle, but after that I’ve noticed my improvements have been phenomenal.
Again, just my opinion from personal experience on this one. I think it’d be worth a trial run, but hey, in the end it’s up to you. You’ve done an awesome job getting yourself where you are so far, and whatever you decide you can make it work for you I’m sure.
thanks for the input…i think i may follow your advice
i had recently been thinking that my bench was kind of stalling, and i had sort of figured that my shoulder strength was the limiting factor, especially considering that i do limited shoulder work. this was my thought process yesterday, so i kind of devoted today to a bit of shoulder work. but i think for the next few weeks i will focus on incline and decline bench work (although i think ill be away next week)
i also considered that improving my tricep strength would be beneficial, but lately my left elbow has been bothering me when i bench and especially when i’ve tried skull/throat crushers, so i’ve been avoiding any direct tricep work outside of bench variants
as a means of variation, i recently purchased a swiss ball primarily for core work and a variation on my dumbbell benching, and its been a nice alternative to traditional flat-bench DB benching
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Incline DB Bench Press - 35lbs - 3 x 12 (could do more weight)
Lat Pull-Downs - 100lbs - 2 x 10
Shoulder Press - 35lbs - 2 x 8
Front Raises - 10lbs - 2 x 12
Lateral Raises - 10lbs - 2 x 12
Bent-Over Rear-Delt Flyes - 10lbs - 3 x 15
External Rotations - 15lbs - 2 x 15
Sunday, July 30, 2005
Agility Ladder Circuit
4 x 2 Tuck Jumps
3 x 4 Drop Jumps (land in ¼ squat) (3 steps on ladder = 33 inches)
3 x 4 Drop Jumps (land in ¾ squat) (3 steps on ladder = 33 inches)
3 x 3 1-Leg Split-Squat Jumps (each leg)
4 x 4 1/4 Jump-Squats w/ Reset - 95, 95, 75, 75
i’ve been feeling noticeable less explosive playing football and basketball so i thought i would reimplement some explosive/reactive work to hopefully get back to where i was before. the drop jumps were a bit less fluid than they used to be, which would seem to indicate that ive lost some sort of ability to absorb force, so hopefully this should help.
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Decline Bench – Bar x 20, 95 x 7, 135 x 5, 155 – 3 x 5, 1 x 3 (didn’t really fail, just lost focus)
Chin-Ups – 3 x 12
Ab Wheel (on knees) – 3 x 12
Swiss Ball Crunches – 10lbs – 2 x 15
Saxon Side Bends – 5lbs each hand – 2 x 20
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
DB Pushups (horizontal) - 2 x 20
Alternating Hammer Curls - 25lbs - 2 x 12
Milk Carton (water) Shoulder Presses - 35 in, 35 out
Milk Carton (water) Lateral Raises - 20 in, 20 out
Milk Carton (water) Bent-Over Rear Delt Flyes - 20 in, 20 out
Cuban Presses on Swiss Ball - 10lbs - 2 x 10
Friday, August 4, 2006
Incline Bench Press (3rd setting) - Bar x 20, 95 x 7, 115 x 5, 125 - 4 x 5
Lat Pull-Downs - 100lbs - 2 x 10
DB Pushups (vertical) - 1 x 25
Standing DB Curls - 30lbs x 10 + 15lbs x 15 (only one set of each because my right wrist is hurting)
External Rotations - 15lbs - 1 x 15
Saturday, August 5, 2006
Ab Wheel (on knees) – 3 x 15
Swiss Ball Crunches – 10lbs – 3 x 15
ill be gone until next saturday, which sadly means i wont be able to do much workout-wise…hopefully i can do a little and keep track of it somehow
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Ab Wheel (on knees) – 2 x 15
Swiss Ball Crunches – 10lbs – 2 x 15
i dislocated my left pinky while on vacation so i cant bend it that much as is…hopefully it wont hinder my ability to lift too much…
Monday, August 14, 2006
Incline Bench Press (3rd setting) - Bar x 20, 95 x 7, 125 - 2 x 5, 1 x 7
Lat Pull-Downs - 100lbs - 2 x 10
DB Pushups (vertical) - 2 x 20
Standing Barbell Curls - 65lbs - 1 x 10
i couldnt really do any dumbbell work because of my finger. it made it to difficult to hold on to them…it also made the curls difficult, causing my left forearm to feel weird so i stopped…
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Agility Ladder Circuit
4 x 2 Tuck Jumps
2 x 4 Drop Jumps (land in ¼ squat) (3 steps on ladder = 33 inches)
2 x 4 Drop Jumps (land in ¾ squat) (3 steps on ladder = 33 inches)
2 x 4 1-Leg Split-Squat Jumps (each leg)
parallel squats
bar x 7
135 x 5
205 x 5
255 - 1 x 5, 1 x 9
for clarification, parallel has always been my butt touching my bench…the top of my bench is equal level to the bottom of my kneecap, so i figured it was around parallel…in fact its probably a bit above parallel
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
1 Mile Running - 6:12
around my neighborhood, which is a mile according to my car…its also a lot of uphill/downhill
Ab Wheel (on knees) - 2 x 15
Swiss Ball Crunches - 10lbs - 2 x 15
Side Planks - 20lbs - 2 x 30s (each side)
Friday, August 18, 2006
Incline Bench (3rd setting) - Bar x 20, 95 x 7, 125 - 2 x 7
Standing Barbell Curls - 70lbs - 2 x 10
Monday, August 21, 2006
Decline Bench - Bar x 20, 95 x 7, 135 x7, x10, x10, x10
Standing Barbell Curls - 70lbs - 2 x 10
i couldve done more weight on the decline benches, but the first sets were rough on my shoulders and wrists…probably due to the new movement and stresses on my joints…im now guessing that the wrist pain is probably due to using a somewhat curved bar
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Bench Press - Bar x 20, 95 x 7, 135 x 5, 155 x 5, 135 x 10
DB Pushups (vertical) - 2 x 20
Alternating Hammer Curls - 25lbs - 3 x 12
Ab Wheel (on knees) – 2 x 15
Saxxon Side Bends - 5lbs each hand - 2 x 20
Swiss Ball Crunches – 10lbs – 2 x 15
Side Planks - 20lbs - 2 x 30s (each side)
Monday, August 28, 2006
1 mile running on treadmill
Chin-Ups - 1 x 15
Chest Press - 200lbs - 3 x 12
Rows - 200lbs - 3 x 12
first day working out at college at georgetown…the gym is pretty nice, but i didnt want to wait for other people to use the bench and things…ill probably go at a different time in the future
50 Leg Raises
50 Alternating Pikes
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Chest Press - 10th setting - 3 x 10
Rows - 220lbs - 3 x 12
its so annoying trying to wait for freeweights at the gym, so it looks like ill probably be sticking to machines for a while unless i find a good time where its not so packed…i cant really use dumbbells well yet because of my finger which wont seem to heal
Saturday, September 2, 2006
Chest Press - 240lbs - 3 x 10
Chin-Ups - 3 x 10
Dips - 2 x 10
Lateral Raises - 15lbs - 2 x 10
External Rotations - 15lbs - 2 x 10
Decline Crunches - 25lbs - 2 x 15
Small Swiss Ball Crunches - 10lbs - 1 x 15
Tuesday, September 6, 2006
Horizontal Two-Side Leg Press - 300lbs - 3 x 10
Lying Leg Curls - 8 - 2 x 10
Swiss Ball Crunches - 10lbs - 2 x 20
Side Planks - 20lbs - 1 x 30s each side
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Chest Press - 260lbs - 3 x 10
Rows - 13 - 3 x 8
Dips - x12, x8
Hammer Curls - 25lbs - 2 x 10