I’m an idiot. 115 was supposed to be my last warm up for 6 reps, and I was like “shit that felt like an @8. I guess I’ll put aside my ego and do 115 for another 2 sets.” Upon reviewing the footage I realised I did 7 reps. And then somehow did the same for my last set.
I haven’t been carefully looking at my squat vids. The bar has not been over the centre of my foot for a while. I placed the bar down farther than I wanted to, and cued open hips and down and it looked a bit better (as opposed to cueing hips back) and felt a bit more comfortable. I think I have to cue chest up or to keep tight/neutral on the way up because I think it’s collapsing a bit in conjunction with hip drive which is making my bar path not exactly straight, and over my toes.
Bench w/ belt: 80x6x3@8
Super happy with this. I think the belt is helping and probably all the benching volume in this program.
Pendlay row: 62.5x14@8, 62.5x4x5-6, 62.5x3
Deadlift w/ belt: 140x6x2@8
2ct pause incline bench: 60x8x2@8
2ct pause leg press: 110x12@8 110x4x2, 110x3 (went too heavy and was in a huge rush today)
my quad cramped during the first back off set so RPE is kinda weird
my RPE with press in general is so weird. Like I’m not actually sure if I could do 4 extra clean reps with my @6, and modifying the weight by only 1kg feels like it can drastically influence the RPE
SLDL: 60x8x4@8
first time doing these so loading may not have been most accurate
CGBP: 60x12@8, 60x4x4, 60x3
Press: 73x1@8, 62x6@8.5, 61x6@9 (assumed @9 was due to technical error - I lost balance during one of the reps), 61x6@10 (rip)
SLDL: 65x8x4
CGBP: 62.5x12@8, 62.5x4x3, 62.5x3
Random notes: I realised I didn’t incline bench for 4 sets last week, oops. And also that 100kg bench press @8 this week was the first time I actually benched two plates! And it was an @8! Woo.
I don’t think I’ll be upping the e1RM for my working set targets this week. The rep drop from 6 to 5 is upping the intensity enough for me this week. I’m just a tad worried about deadlifts tomorrow lol.
So my absolute best 1ct pause bench was about 2 weeks ago, which was 100x1@8.5. Which I failed to increase the following week. Now this is the first time I’ve used a slingshot, and I managed to slap on an extra 10kg and do it for 4 reps with an easy, solid rep in the tank. This thing is ridiculous, it’s completely cheating haha.
I was really worried while using this to warm up - bar path was completely off, I couldn’t bring the bar down to my chest… but that’s only because the weight was too light. It started feeling better at about 80kg, so I think in the future I will warm up doing a regular 1ct pause bench, and once I get to 80kg I’ll put on the slingshot.
Bar path still feels a bit different to raw bench - but I’m not concerned
CG Incline Bench: 65x10@9
For the comp lifts I’ll be doing my first back off as a part of my warm up, I’ve seen Jordan mention this before as a viable way to warm up for a 1@8. So with my squat I did 120x5@6?, 135x1 (10% away from my projected top single), 150x1@8, then 120x5x4. Worked like a treat.
Did the same thing with bench. I was actually worried about doing the back off sets at 80kg because I remember during The Bridge I would struggle with that weight. I rested 3.5 minutes in between these sets and it was no issue at all.
I’ll see how I go but I’m already loving this approach to training - doing the back offs at these weights is far less psychologically taxing, and obviously physically as well. Plus I know volume at this intensity is still useful and productive.
83x6x3@8