Road to Nationals Week 4

The best part of this week had nothing to do with the gym. We are getting a round of awesome weather here on VI and we took full advantage of it on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was a beautiful hike along the Stoney Hill Trail and then Sunday we crushed it with a spectacular hike up to Green Mountain for 360 degree views of awesome. Well worth the sweat on both trips, its not all about lifting pig iron!!

Day 1 Shoulders
The BBB seated smith machine sets went awesome as I burned thru 5 sets of 10 reps with 135lbs and averaged about 45 seconds rest between sets. Paused all my feet up close grip bench press and 235lbs was feeling great for sets of 5 reps. Once again did lots of upper back work and I'm now at 95lbs DB for one arm rows for 5 sets of 10 reps.

Day 2 Squat
This is the start of another wave for the 5's progressive but the difference this time is my training max has been increased by 10lbs for the squat. For my top set in the 5's progressive this is how it looks. Week 1 315 x 10, Week 2 330 x 5, Week 3 345 x 5, Week 4 320 x 5, Week 5 340 x 5, Week 6 355 x 5. I call it the slow and steady method which is working for me. Making big jumps with the weights has always lead to injuries for me in the past.
For the BBB (boring but big) it's not a wave load but linear progression, basically pressing the gas pedal harder each week and topping out at week 6 which will be hard I have no doubt. It's amazing how the body adapts, when I look back at week 1 doing these sets of 10 reps I was rating a 6 RPE. Now after week 4 I'm doing 10 reps at 8 RPE with 55lbs more weight.
Week 1 185 x 10 5 sets, Week 2 205 x 10 5 sets, Week 3 225 x 10 5 sets, Week 4 230 x 10 5 sets, 250 x 10 5 sets, Week 6 265 x 10 5 sets.

Day 3 Bench Press
Still lots of upper back work on this day. The BBB sets gave me a awesome pump by the end and I'm definitely feeling these sets as the weeks progress. This will be my last session with my feet up for the 5's progressive sets as I want to start working on my technique for the bench press. Come week 7 I'll be back in the groove with normal benching and ready to spank 315lbs for reps.

Day 4 Deadllift
In the gym with my new barbell and it was feeling gtg. I switched up the programming on my deadlifts after getting the new barbell to a classic 5/3/1 workout except for deadlifts it's 3/5/1. Not much volume but I've found for me I do not need it to progress. Plus I feel not bad the next day. Other then warm up sets all I did was 345 x 3, 385 x 3, 430 x 3, 475 x 1 all conventional pulls with no back down sets. Sticking with conventional pulls and so far my lower back is hanging in there. Finished up with some low pin squats and that was it.

Day 5 Arms Race
Doing heavy ass dips I quickly found out I had lingering chest soreness from two days ago :). First workout doing heavy weights for low reps so I was feeling my way into it and figuring out what weight was good for the required reps. The weighted dips will hopefully help out my bench press. Was doing sets of dips with 145lbs strapped to me for 4 clean reps and this will go up each workout as my body adjusts.