Cheers Anuj :)

Stress Day, Ok day today squats were great, but bench was poo poo! I missed a rep on my 2nd set and then onwards,this is a thing thats happening regularly now.I can make reps (5x5) for 2-3 weeks straight and then I miss, I might rotate exercises on stress day for bench and see how it goes,I might go 2 weeks on each of flat bench, 2 board press and then floor press? sound ok? After that was pullups at bodyweight.Sore today!

Stress Day 5/5/08
Squat 5x5 106kg
Bench 1x5,4,3,1,1,1 82.5kg
Pullups BW 4x6

Anyone with thoughts on what to do with bench are welcome, cheers!

Well, have you thought about how much sense it really makes to have a 5x5 bench day and a DE bench day and yet never use any real maximal lifting? I know that Rip recommends DE work can be put in but for the life of me I can't figure out how the DE work is really going to help you get reps on 5x5. At the same time can't see how volume oriented work is going to contribute to you explosivitey for the DE :)

In other words you've got two different goals at work, imo. One is "getting reps" which is, imo, not as important as intensity when it comes to strength. Then you're doing DE work which is supposed to work on explosiveness and I take it it is in the strength-speed realm. So that is to help with absolute strength...which you are not really working efficiently with 5 sets of 5.

Sooo....I would think about whether your goal is to get stronger on bench or to get reps on bench and go from there :)That is to say that there comes a point when just getting the volume is just not going to have so much value as it once did from a max strength perspective.

These are the exact things I have been thinking in my head!! I am just not sure how to go about loading! I have been considering going on a westside setup for a while what are your thoughts on that? The goal is just strength, IE increasing my 1RM so it makes sense to me!

Deadlift Day

Form was pretty good on deadlifts today,I hit 4x2 fairly easy,I should let you all know I have been setting up with the bar a bit furthur away from my shins, about midfoot and pulling has never felt so natural.Moved on to press next and did 5 singles with last weeks weight (which I could only do a double with) so that was cool.I did a back off set of 15kg with dumbells this time, my 1st time in ages using dumbells and it felt great.Finished off with face pulls and abs.

Deadlift Day 7/5/08
Deadlift 4x2 135kg
Press 5x1 50kg, 15kg dumbells 1x8
Facepulls and Abs

Good stuff man :weights:

good stuff on the deads man...always good to have it feel natural :)

So I'm going to ask this one more time. Is that 135kg + the 8kg bar...so 143kg...or 135kg total. I'm always confused about that. Either way, good work.

IronWorker

Ya its 135 + 8kg bar so 143kg total or roughly 315 lbs, I never list the bar cos its easier to track for me just weight on the bar.

Cheers IW

DE Day

Felt shit in the gym today, but my box squats were much better!! go figure.I was much tighter and felt alot more explosive,very cool.I did some Gms after but a mere 75kg felt like a tonne, so I dropped back in weight to 40kg and did a few reps, think Im a little beat up from squats and deadlifts during the week.Bench was ok, I am screwing around with my setup a bit and trying to get a bigger arch and reduce my ROM a bit, but fuck me its awkward I may post vids in the near future for some help.I was getting a little frustrated cos I find it hard to keep my shoulders pinned down sometimes and I come loose losing my arch,especially on heavier sets so I worked up to 85kg which felt a bit heavy.I will deload for upper body next week for sure and then come back with a different loading scheme, emphasising heavier stuff.

DE Day 9/5/08
Box squat 10x2 65kg
GMs 2x3 65kg,75kg 1x6 40kg :lame:
Bench 8x3 47.5kg

Glad to hear the box squats felt good :weights: