Cranked it up on the bench yesterday. Starting to push 10 RM record territory. I had made good progress for a while last fall until I ran into shoulder issues. Now, we're getting back there again and, I sense, in much better form as we reveal in this exercise analysis. One of the major tricks has been the recovery mandated by our periodization schedule.
Here's the workout in weight/repsXsets format. Percent of 1RM target is in parentheses, and rest as always is held at 60 seconds.
- Bench press (80%): 145/8X4
- Incline dumbbell flye (80%): 35/8X3, 40/8X2
- Dumbbell overhead press (80%): 40/8X3, 45/8X2
- Incline side laterals (75%): 15/6X2, 20/6X2
- Shrugs (80%): 60/8X4
- Incline dumbbell biceps curls (80%): 30/8X2, 35/8X2
- Seated calf raises (80%): 140/8X4
On some of the exercises, you will see that I worked at two different weights. The idea there was that the weight target fell between two different dumbbell sizes, so I alternated sizes to get an overall expenditure at target.
Ralfe raises a good point when he says that increasing the target to 80% or 85% of 1RM will increase the injury rate. I think there may be two factors:
- We are working at the 1RM targets we cranked out almost 6 weeks ago. We've made progress and may be prepared to lift heavier.
- Targets are just that, not do or die goals. We drop weight if it is too heavy.
- We warm up heavily on these heavy lifting days.
- Rep counts are lower. 85% 1RM will be performed for five reps.
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