Road to Nationals Week 3

With week 3 done I will now increase my training max for the squat/deadlift by 10lbs and the bench press/military press by 5lbs. All my weights will be recalculated based off this, which will increase all my weights. The first 3 weeks all my weights for the 5's progression went up each week, along with the BBB sets. The BBB sets will actually get harder these last 3 weeks then the 5's progression. But that is ok because this is more focused on hypertrophy. Still going to hammer my upper back with lots of supersets. Lots of muscle soreness over the last 3 weeks and mid way thru the third week I could feel my body saying "I need a 2 day break". For the BBB sets I'm going to reset at 60% for the start of week 4 and then increase 5% each week. Slight change from my original plan but every plan is flexible. My new barbell arrived on Friday which surprised the hell out of me, seeing all the snow Calgary and surrounding area got. With that I'll be changing up my deadlift routine for the last 3 weeks. I'll be going back to a classic 5/3/1 schedule for this and might add in some BBB sets of 10 reps as back down sets. Going to try out the conventional deadlift for now and steer clear of sumo deadlift, which is bugging my hips as of late.

Day 1 Shoulders
Kept the seated smith machine military press and today the 5's progression sets stayed much the same to last week but once I hit the BBB sets this weight went up from last week. Again I kept the rest period under 45 secs between the BBB sets so supersetting back was out of the question. As I started into my warm up sets for the close grip bench press, I supersetted in good old fashion chin ups. The close grip bench press went up to 250lbs today and it moved with authority for all 3 sets of 5 reps. My last exercise was one arm DB rows and I upped the weight again this week to 90lbs dumbbells. So far I think the idea of hitting the main bench press muscles hard with reps in the hypertrophy range is starting to pay off. Once I get to the 7th week protocol I will see if I feel stronger in the bench press.

Day 2 Squats
This was an early Sunday morning up and hit the gym style workout. Which meant drink morning shake and head out, probably a mistake looking back :). By the time I finished my three 5's progressive sets this shake was ready to auto eject...and with that my energy levels went south and this turned into a grind workout to finish. All my heavy squat sets where pin squats and the heaviest set was programmed at 345lbs x 5. The BBB sets I took my time once again not rushing the reps, everything was deliberate and focused on honing in my technique. These sets are at 61% of my training max and I'm really starting to feel these weight jumps each week now. My lower back is also complaining so I'm paying attention to this and might tweak my squat volume going forward or drop my bent over rows for something else more lower back friendly. RDL's went ok but I was out of gas by this time so once these where done I passed on doing front squats. Live for another day..rather than drill myself into the ground.

Rest Day turned deadlift day. Meet up with Ryan at the gym to crush some heavy weight or at least he did. Ryan normally trains at another gym so it was awesome to have another powerlifter in the gym. Basically hogged one small space in the gym with a good quantity of 45lbs plates and let the rubber hit the floor, while the young bucks in the gym watched. Ryan was programmed in for some heavy DL's and I was exact opposite but I worked up to a 495lbs single sumo style and later crushed 405lbs with about 10 reps going conventional. Real happy with the workout except the fact my hip flexors would not settle down while doing sumo. Converted to conventional on all my back down sets. I'm pretty sure Ryan pulled the heaviest deadlift ever in the gym at 565lbs, which was awesome.

Day 3 Bench Press
My programmed heaviest set was not what I hoped, missed it by 1 rep. This was feet up bench press and I managed 295lbs for 4 nice touch and go reps. Kept the ongoing theme of supersetting in a back exercise and for this one it was once again wide grip pullups. The weight went up once again for the cat style bench press to 185lbs and this time my paired back exercise was supported DB rows on a incline bench. Wanted to spare my lower back after deadlifting the day prior and this variation mimicked the bench press in a pulling fashion. Cut out the DB bench work at the end and called it a day. This is my third week running this bench press style and volume, without fail I'm getting chest DOMS within 24 hours each week.

Day 4 Deadlift
Dragged my new bar to the gym for this workout but kept with the programmed weights but less volume because of the deadlifting I did earlier in the week. This barbell is IPF spec with aggressive knurling so I had some hand DOM's by the end of the workout. Overall the barbell felt great and after a few workouts I'll be used to the knurling. For this workout everything was conventional deadlifts and my lower back felt pretty good, which is a great sign. With the way my hip area on the front is feeling I'll be sticking to conventional for awhile and see how it all plays out. My top sets today 315lbs x 10 reps nice clean reps and resetting each rep. Not just banging out 10 reps bouncing them off the floor. Followed up with some pin squats again which were heavier for my secondary squat day. 315lbs x 5 for 3 sets which felt heavy but I powered thru.

Day 5 Arms Race
This was my last arm workout using this particular routine I detailed in a older blog. Next will be a intensification phase which I'll push heavier weights for my arm workouts. This will be lower reps and higher intensity for this phase. Rest periods are at least 90 secs after each set.
A1 Dips 1x8, 2x3, 7x2
A2 Seated EZ bar incline scott curls 1x8, 2x3,7x2
B1Standing barbell curls 4 x 4-8 reps
B2 Decline EZ bar tricep extensions with or without chains 4 x 4-8 reps

Focus do not chase gym rats.

@lvdmedia