Conjugate/hypertrophy Training Week 5
TRAINING WEEK 5
- WEDNESDAY: DE UPPER
- THURSDAY: DE LOWER
- FRIDAY: UPPER MAX
- SATURDAY: ED COAN SEMINAR
Nothing like starting the week on a Wednesday! I’m getting away from the pin presses a bit for bench to try to work on my range of motion. DE UPPER wasn’t going as well as I had hoped. Bringing the bar down lower was not an easy task with my shoulder pain. I added the shoulder saver and it still felt like shit. My upper pecs are super tight. I thought this was going to be a shitty training week but it got better as the week progressed. Kind of surprising because I didn’t have time to take a break.
Speed squats moved pretty good but I think the SSB bar is starting to cause some pain in my upper/mid back. Probably not keeping it tight when I get tired. At least with the SSB or Cambered bar, I can’t bounce the bar off my back like I normally do when I use speed.
I’ve started cutting out warm up’s and pretty much all of my accessories on my Maximum Effort days. This saves time and energy. It’s powerlifting. One rep, right? So, I started doing singles up to positive failure (I got it but probably won’t get another). To help me determine what increments I’ll increase, I know in my head doing more than 4 reps at 90% or above is risking injury. I don’t start counting the singles till I get into the 90% range. I time 3 to 6 minutes between sets. It’s still taking me about 3 hours from set up to finish. I take the time at the end to do a good amount of rolling, stretching/yoga after some ab and low back work. Remember, we never skip those.
I have very lofty bench goals. I want to bench 300lbs in a meet so that it is officially documented. My current meet max is 275lbs. My training max (one year ago) was 285. My last meet (2 months ago) was 245lbs, due to my shoulder/scap pain.
This week I hit a nice PR on reverse banded pin presses of 315 lbs! This was 115% of my max! Man, I bawled my eyes out after this! Hitting these kinds of goals really allows you to show yourself what you can do with hard work, discipline and above all faith.
But wait! The week isn’t over! Saturday, I had the most amazing experience of getting to attend a hands on seminar with the GOAT, Ed Coan. There was a nice, small group of maybe 20 people. Ed wasted no time. We got right to work on squats. Both of my knees have issues. Ive torn all 4 meniscus’s. Two of them were removed and I’ve had acl reconstruction about 11 years ago (that I’m not even sure is still in tact). Ed could see I have a shoulder/scap mobility issue and he told me to, “high bar squat.” Well awesome, because I can’t low bar squat! Lol I have been feeling like a bit of a looser because of this and Ed assured me high bar squatting is OK! (He also told me over arching on bench is not necessary and limits the amount of surface area one can bench off of. Another bit of great news because I can’t bend like that without hurting my low back). He changed my set up and stance in a way that alleviated any pain and helped me feel so much stronger and more in control.
Ed’s tips on set up and cues were all extremely helpful. We had a nice group discussion afterwards. I felt like a little kid absorbing all of the valuable information I could. The group was amazing to work with also. I got to bond with some USPA Florida people, who I look forward to connecting with again soon to re enforce what we learned at the seminar. There was even one young man that approached me to thank me for sharing my story about alcoholism. It’s really nice to connect with people, especially in the strength community.
So, what started as a slow training week certainly ended up being a remarkable one. For that, I am grateful.
WEDNESDAY: DE UPPER
PAUSED BEHIND THE BACK SHRUGS: a bunch
SPEED BENCH W/ SHOULDER SAVER:8x3x55% Timed 60 seconds between sets.
CAGE PRESS vs BANDS: 5x5
UNDERHAND BARBELL ROWS: 3x8
BANDED SERRANO PRESSES: a bunch
BARBELL ROLL OUTS
THURSDAY: DE LOWER SSB SPEED SQUATS: 8x3x50%, plus one chain per side SPEED DL vs BANDS: 8x3x50% BELT SQUATS: 3x8x2 plates REVERSE FACING ROPE LAT PULL DOWN: 4x10 BICEPS SUPERSET: 1.) DB INCLINE CURLS 2.) REVERSE GRIP DB CURLS
FRIDAY: UPPER MAX
REVERSE BANDED PIN PRESS: SINGLES
1x1x80% 225LBS
1x1x 90% 245lbs
1x1x95% 265lbs PR
1x1x100% 275lbs PR
1x1x110% 305lbs PR
1x1x115% 315lbs BIG PR HERE!!
HANGING LEG RAISES: 1x10
REVERSE HYPER MACHINE: 100 reps
SATURDAY: ED COAN SEMINAR
