Hi everyone,

I followed the latest plan up until a few weeks ago. I did two cycles and it went real well. This Lower/Upper type split is my comfort zone, but it's time for some change. With another Bench Press meet coming up in late June, I asked Eric for some advice to improve my Bench Press max. He immediately pointed me to the Singles Scene article over at GUS. So I'm changing Bench ME to heavy single rep sets and pretty much keeping everything else on maintenance, upper accessories are mostly bench focused. Eric and Joe Weir co-authored the article and it's just what I need. I posted this over at GUS also. Eric and Joe replied to the post and gave some insight regarding what I've done so far, especially Week 1. Below are my three previous workouts. The first week was not counted. I used it to get used to singles and gauge how the workout might go. The plan is this:

Still Lower/Upper split.

Bench ME
Week 1: 8 singles over 90%
Week 2: 6 singles over 90%
Week 3: 10 singles over 90%
Week 4: 2 singles over 90%
Week 5: max test

Week 0
240 x 1
250 x 1
250 x 1
250 x 1
255 x 1
255 x 1

Week 1
245 x 1
255 x 1
260 x 1
265 x 1 (fail)
265 x 1
265 x 1
270 x 1 (fail)
265 x 1 (fail)

Week 2
250 x 1
260 x 1
265 x 1
270 x 1 (fail)
275 x 1 (PR)
265 x 1

Looking back, Week 1, I think I spent too much time near 100% instead of using slightly less weight and completing the reps. With this in mind, for week 2, I choose 265 for my last lift. I realize missing reps is OK, but missing over a third I think may be too much.

Week 2, Notice I choose 275 after failing at 270. That's because I knew I had the 270, but missed because of technique, I didn't like my explosion (or I should say lack of) to start the lift. The 275 was a sweet lift, I really nailed it, the bar never stopped moving and it was truly a max effort.

Phil