December 29, 2010 - ME UB

Dynamic Warm-ups

Viking Presses w/ IW#2's dbl
No Bands
40x10
70x5
100x3
Add Bands (+100lbs)
30x3
60x3
90x1
120x1
140x1
160x0
160x1
170x1
180x1
190x1
200x0
161x2

Axle Incline Rack Half Presses w/ IW#1's dbl (+95lbs)
75x3
105x3
135x3
165x3
195x3 PR+2 reps

Neutral Grip Pullups
bw+20x12 PR+5lbs
bw+20x12
bw+20x12

Comments: Yesterday's workout had taken its toll on me. Back was sore and stiff from rack pulls and my abs were doing the wiggle worm and wave from the zercher harness lifts. Getting to bed late didn't help matters either. The viking press was a new setup for me. I've tried many before and they all had problems. My first setup was just plain dangerous and frustrating. The second was much better but involved moving the tiered squat rack in front of the smith machine as well as elevating it 9" off the ground. This one just involved the power rack and the one session I had done testing with it, worked. Well this was the actual run through and I had some issues. First, the gym was crowded when I started lifting so I had to be a bit of a dick to get the equipment required for the viking press ("sorry, I need both of the bars" "yes, I'm using the clips, they are actually mine"). Like most of my setups for the viking press, the biggest issue is anchoring the pivot point. See, the advantage to the smith machine was that it was wide and I could use big plates to anchor it (like I do for simulated car deadlifts) but I couldn't do that for the viking press in the power rack. This lead to a problem when I put 120lbs on with the bands as my 5lbs anchor plates came loose and the bars attacked me. I then tried 25lbs plates but two of them were too wide to fit. 10lbs plates seemed to do the trick but I also anchored 25lbs behind them. Also, the rack isn't bolted down so it moves a bit with the press. So yes, a long a frustrating troubleshooting session of a workout but I finally got it working (I guess). So, on to the actual workout haha. I'm doing the viking presses strict so i can work on being explosive with my shoulders and get my hips into the press (also push pressing would rattle the power rack like crazy). Not sure what the issue was with the first attempt with 160lbs (perhaps my abs and back were too tired from yesterdays) but I crushed it the second time. Actually surprised with how I kept going up in weight. 200lbs was just too much today, shoulders and triceps were donezo and it showed with the downset with 161lbs. Not sure what the actual weight being lifted is but it shouldn't matter too much as this is going to be the lightest band tension I use on these. As I said, this took a long time so I rushed through my sets for the axle rack stuff. I wasn't entirely sure how I had setup the incline bench so I went with the tougher setup by elevating the back 1.5". The weight felt tough but I surprisingly hit my goal. Moved on to pullups (another good one) and stretched. Going to be another late night for me.