Never Felt So Weak :(

I've had a busy couple of weeks where I've missed sessions and meals etc but damn I've never underperformed so badly!

bench: 100 x 5. Not so bad but felt like 105.

Squat: 140 x 5 - this actually felt like a 5RM.

DL: 150 x 5  - heavy.

Holy shit this was bad.

Back in the Gym

So it's been days since I trained - with the move to Auckland and all that that has entailed. We've secured a place at Silverdale which is about 15mins North of Rangitoto College. The place is out of town in the sense that suburban development has stopped and and rural living begins. It's quite beatiful and the place Ronelle and I are going to rent is a little 2 bedroom farmhouse on a farmers property. The house is extremely basic but it's private and the surroundings are picturesque. We'll move in this weekend after the owner has put new carpets down.

For the rest of this week I'm staying in a house on the school grounds with Josh, a PE teacher. He runs the house and looks after any guests the school needs to take care of. Him and his Mrs a great so its made for a welcoming stay.

Had my first day of school today, taught all my classes and it went really well. Hectic teaching while also organising computers, log in etc but all in all I really enjoyed.

I was in the school gym this evening and its pretty good: 2 power racks, a bench, dumbells and plates as well as bumper plates.

Bench: 97.5 x 5 (p), 95 x 5, 90 x 5, 90 x 3 (p).

Press: 60 x 5, 5, 6.

RTPDs.

War of Attrition

yesterday I benched 102.5 x 5  - smashed it, 100 x 5 all paused - smashed it, 95 x 5 all paused and needless to say - smashed it.

Today wasn't as easy. Squatted 175 x 2 x 5 and 165 x 5. Just hard. See how I feel over the next 2 weeks. I've been running 5s for a couple of months now and they may be getting a bit stale. Got 4 options:

1. Drop down to about 160 and start building back up with 30 rep sessions.
2. Start using ladders to accumulate volume.
3. Keep progressing weight and drop volume; utilise heavy doubles and triples
4. Keep doing what I've been doing.

Looking at my options I think number 2, 3 or a combination of both seems most likely.

23rd

Squatted 180 x 3 x 3. Would of liked another set but rep 9 was a bit slow so I thought the reduced volume probably isn't a bad idea. I've squatted a lot of 20+ rep sessions lately. Might try and run a couple of ladders with 180 next week..3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1,

Riding A Wave

Yesterday was suppossed to be my second last session of that wave block hitting 97.5 x 2 x 5. I did indeed hit 97.5 x 2 x 5 but I ended up doin a bit more and it turned into a great session. Just as I was beginning my bench session, my mate Joe turned up. He's about my age, 77kg, lean as fuck, 5 foot 8 and close to a 1RM on the bench of 140kg. He's currently running Smolov junior for his bench and it's working well at the moment.

Anyway, we had our bench session  together and it definitely gave me a lift; I think training with someone who is stronger than you is definitely a good idea.

After I finished my 2 top sets, he encouraged me to do more. First I hit 100 x 5 but I could of smashed this set for 8 (and maybe I should of). Then put 105 on the bar. I was confident of a PR at this stage despit all of the reps I had just done. I hit 105 for 4 and got stuck half way up on the 5th. Somewhat remarkably (maybe not so remarkably?) I'm stronger on my bench now than what I was when I began my press cycle a couple of months ago, and this is all after only a couple of wave blocks without benching over 100kg once. I think my theory that benching heavy too often on the Texas Method was making me weaker was correct. But I kind of figured that out myself a couple of months ago when my own, volume orientated programme resulted in PRs.

I also squatted 175 x 5,165 x 5 (didn't feel great) and deadlifted a few reps. Apparently my back was set for each rep but it just didn't feel good. Back is a bit of a mess at the moment.

(Lift) In Times of Trouble

Sitting around bored as hell recently - not working much and unsuccessfully trying to find a teaching job. So, I've re-jigged my training schedule just so I train more. I'm really going nuts now after sitting around for 3 weeks.

Benched today: 92.5 x 2 x 5. Will try for more volume next session.

Light DB Press

Face Pulls

Keep Rolln, Rolln, Rolln, Rolln on

Squat: 170 x 5 x 4. I'm gonna be squatting 180 for fun in a few months.

Pull ups: 13.75 x 5, 10 x 5, BW x 8

Seated Machine Rows: 60 x 3 x 8

I'm about to head to the gym and bench again. Gonna bench 3 x a week and vary the volume over the course of the three sessions. I've done 3 bench sessions a week before on Pavel's programme and it worked fine so let's see how we go.