The Break Room

****SUBJECT TO ADDITIONS****

Saturdays have become my day for benchmarking where I am strength-wise in the following categories:

• Bench Press
• Squats
• Deadlifts
• Barbell Rows
• Overhead Press
• Barbell Curls

This morning, I spent most of my time doing the first 3 and the last bullet.  I sort of hit a wall when rotating to my Rows and Overhead Press so I will make one more attempt later this afternoon after a few hours of recovery. 

So far, here is where I am with each along with comments:

Bench Press 1RM 300#: 

•  I usually do one warmup set since this is my first benchmark exercise with 135# as the weight.  My focus in the warmup rep is on warming up the joints, technique, press pace and synch-ing my breathing with my press motion.  All of this is to maintain control while achieving the most quality reps without allowing my head to get in the way, especially in later reps. 
• After doing 15-20 warmup reps, I rest for a full 3mins and then go to the heaviest comfortable weight I need to achieve the most reps. 
• Today, I felt like a 225 press just to measure if I drop off my current one-rep max 325# or if I go over my usual reps.  
• I pressed 10 unassisted reps at 225#.  Not exactly thrilled with this since I can get out about 12 but as I got past my 8th rep, my pace was off and I tried to regain it, but by the time I was able to collect myself, my energy (or lack thereof) got the best of me.
• To compensate for this, I did additonal sets at 275#/3 reps; and 295#/2 both with a spotter.
• Following my additonal sets, I did 3 additional sets at 225# 5/4/5 reps respectively. 
• I clearly psyched myself out of pressing the most reps the first time around since each additonal set was done with only 1-minute of rest.  What I will likely do next week is up the starting weight to 255# and set my mind to fire off 9-12 reps.  This increase will up my 1-rep max to roughly 328-367#. 
• Overall, my goal is to achieve a 400lb 1-rep max by April.  In order to achieve this goal, I want to press 315# 9-10 reps.

Squats 1RM 309#:

• After a 5 minute rest, I moved on to my squats.  I only did two sets today in part because my legs were not feeling too great.  Nevertheless, I did my first set at 275/5 reps followed by an addtional set at 225/8 reps. 
• Not very impressed with my sets, however I truly have not been training my lower body as much as I have my upper. 
• My goal is to achieve 525lb 1-rep max and will set 2 months for reaching this goal. 

Deadlifts 1RM 344#: 

• My warmup set was at 225#/15 reps.
• Set following was 295#/6 reps; then 315#/4 reps; and 335#/1 rep.
• Before I did my last two sets, I did increase the weight to 365# and attempted to lift this weight twice and failed.  Admittedly, I rushed both sets and did not allow myself ample reset following my 315# set which reflects my 1RM.

Barbell Curls 1RM 120#:

• By this point, was done physically (or at least I thought... see final comments).  I attempted to do my Rows and Overhead and had nothing in the tank.  My arms however we still strong so I pressed 90#/10 times and did a second set at 100#/5 times.  My first set was my 1RM benchmark.

In addition to doing the above sets, I included 10 total pullup sets with a variation of wide/close grip pullups and crunch levers 8-10 reps each with the final pullup wearing a 25lb plate hanging from my waist. I also did 5 dips again with the last set with a 25lb hanging plate.

I will reserve my final reflections until after I make a second attempt at my two outstanding benchmarks.  Until later...To Be Continued.

Updated 2/11/2012 @7:57pm

I was way too exhausted after this morning's workout.  I didn't even try to finish up my remaining two 1RM benchmark exercises.  I will most likely fit them in tomorrow at some point.  Instead, I decided P90X2 Recovery+Mobility was just what the doctor ordered.  60 minutes on the foam roller to help my body recover from all the abuse I put it through this week.

 Speaking of this week, I truly took a beating with everyday waking up at 4:30am every single day.  I'm usually a 5:00am guy who hits the snooze for about an hour.  But this past week, I was just bright and early.  Unfortunately, this did not bode well when I was going to bed fairly late in the evening.  So I have to correct that this coming week and hopefully this will help me in the gym when I go nuts again next Saturday. 

As for my upcoming week, here is a breakdown of my routine:

 P90X2 Phase 2 Strength (Next 3 weeks)

Each morning I will do my daily P90X2 routine with my wife before work which includes:

Monday

• AM: Chest+Back+Balance & Ab Ripper X2*  Any pullups will be done in the evening workout which is at my gym.
• PM:  Chest workout at the gym and outstanding pullup exercises from AM P90X2 routine (Bench, Incline, Decline; 6 sets 8-12reps + failure set).

Tuesday

• AM: Plyocide
• PM: LEGS -- Squats, Leg Press, Legs Extensions and Leg Curls; 4 set 12-15 reps.

Wednesday

• AM:  Rest
• Midday: Lunch Cardio
• PM:  Recovery + Mobility

Thursday

• AM:  X2 shoulders + arms & Ab Ripper X2
• PM:  Traps, Shoulders and Triceps (6 sets 12-15 reps with 1 additional set to failure)

Friday

• AM: Rest
• Midday:  Circuit training
• PM:  Yoga X2

Saturday

• AM:  1RM benchmarks
• PM: Base+Back & Ab Ripper X2

Sunday

• Recovery+Mobility

This routine will last until March 5 when I will pick up my next recovery week.

 As far as body weight, my goal is to drop at least another 5-7lbs by then which will put me around 185lb.  My bodyfat is around 8% so I hope to drop roughly 1/2% which should keep me on a good pace to be around 7% by 4/18.

That's about it for now.  Rest is call me.  Until next week, Be Well!