February 27, 2011 - ME UB

I'm still throwing around ideas for my training lifts, keeps me on my toes and staves off boredom. Probably going to ease into lower body stuff with the slow approach but it depends on how my next lower body workout goes and how my leg feels the following few days. I also bought a deluxe glute ham raise from EliteFTS. Expensive, I know, but it was on sale and it is something I need to get my hamstrings strong. Seeing as how I'm not doing as many contests this year and the one Plat Plus I could even go to is not possible now, it seemed like a fair trade. Most likely going to wait until May or June to do a contest and try to do stuff within 4 hours of my house (besides the Michigan show in late July, but that's special). Nats will depend on location.

Dynamic Warm-ups

Close Grip Barbell Floor Presses
45x10
95x5
135x3
165x3
195x3
225x3
255x1
285x1
315x1
335x1
355x1 PR+5lbs
365x1 PR+15lbs
329x3

Swiss Bar Seated Presses w/ IW#4's (145lbs)
40x3
55x3
70x3
85x3
100x3 PR+5lbs

Neutral Grip Pullups
bw+60x8 PR+3 reps
bw+60x8
bw+60x8
bw+60x8

Seated Rope Cable Face Pulls
150x12
150x12
150x12

45 Minutes of Stretching

Comments: Left hip was a bit achy from yesterday's first lowerbody workout in a long while. Most likely from the zercher racklifts. Haven't done barbell floor pressing in a while. In the past, I had issues with a little deadzone about midway, couldn't really grind out a lift if I got stuck in that no man's land. Wasn't off to the best start when I misloaded my first single (forgot to add the weight to one side). I got into a groove and the weights felt easy. I had my first encounter with the deadzone on my PR attempt with 355lbs but managed to power through. I made a gamble and went for 365lbs. It felt heavy and I got stuck even lower than the 355lbs but I still pushed it up for a good lift. I think the dips are helping. Down set went well. My previous best triple was 306lbs but I've done 315lbs for four so I'm not sure if I can consider it a PR. I guess I could say I've never done reps with 329lbs so that's something. Moved on to rack suspended seated presses using the Swiss bar and average bands. Felt tougher than last time, probably due to me doing a similar exercise to a max last week. Really had to fight for a 5lbs PR and the last rep was ugly as sin. It's a strange exercise that allows me to work on pressing fast but also work on grinding out a lift. First set of pull-ups, much like dips, is typically a feeling out set and I usually feel better and become more efficient as the sets continue. Got all four sets but the last one was almost a near miss on the last rep so definitely the toughest these have been so far. Feels good to be matching PR's on these from when I was over 30lbs lighter. This was the easiest this weight has felt with face pulls but it wasn't super easy yet so I'll stick to this weight for at least another week. Did tons of stretching.