Last week was a pretty good one.

Sunday was a Max Effort deadlift day at Apollon. The exercise was a mat deadlift with the plates on two mats (about 1 1/2-2 inches) and a doubled Mini band. The plan was to work up in a sumo stance with my suit on, but as I warmed up, I felt so good I decided to scrap the gear, and work up raw.

Worked up to a single with 475 plus the bands. I also brought back the hook grip because I just don't feel comfortable with over-under, especially in gear. I'll just have to work my grip harder and learn to control the bloat in my hands on meet day.

 

Monday was a bench day, and the exercise was a low pin press with 3 chains. Since the pin was just about at chest level, we took it out of the rack and lowered it first, rather than just grinding it off of the low pin.

I worked up to 285. I have no idea if this is good or not, since I've never done this movement, But it was a good strain so I really don't care all that much.

 

Thursday would normally be a speed deadlift day, but I kind of feel like the extra deadlift day is actually hurting me, even though it's light. So I just did extra assistance work, including back extensions, flute ham raises, dumbbell side bends and planks.

Friday was a raw bench day. Since my shoulders have been beat up, I've been doing this every other week as opposed to every week. Not only has it kept my shoulders in better shape, I've been noticing some pretty rapid strength gains from it. Two weeks ago I did 5 sets of 4 with 275, finishing with a final set of 10.

This week I did 5 sets of 5 with 275, then rather than pushing the reps, I bumped the weight up to 300 and got a final set of 5. Although I've been stronger, I know I couldn't have done this last time I ran this bench cycle.

Good stuff, and now my log is up to date, haha!