Bodyweight - 262
Warm up - good girl bad girl, ass machine 2x50, calf press 2 x 20
Squats - no wraps, no belt Olympic stance
135 x 10
225 x 5
315 x 4
405 x 3
455 x 2
515 x 1
545 x 1
565 x 1
515 x 5
500 x 5
Pause Squats - 405 x 5
Good Girl Machine - 3 sets of 8-10
Notes - Solid session to start the final three weeks. 565 was just unreal easy. Looking forward to 605 in two weeks.
hello. adam here again. i stook your advice and squatted yesterday with a much wider grip, and tried to get my hands on top of the bar as much as possible. it really stretched my shoulders and pecs quite a bit. it was uncomfortable, but its a flexibility issue and will gradually get better. the rack is relatively narrow, so i have to put my hands right where the bar rests on the hangers. that makes unracking a little interesting but once again, no big deal. so today, my back hurts. not my lower back, but the rest of it. my rear delts, traps, rhomboids, the top of my lats. never felt that from squatting before. not a bad hurt, just a hurt that lets me know i used them. i'm gonna stick with it. obviously one time does not a solution make, but i liked it, so we'll see. the owner of the gym i go to basically told me to do the same thing. does this all sound normal so far? next, on my bench day, i have really had some unspoken goals for a while. i don't like to talk about repping. BUT, the day i repped 185 for 10 was a big deal to me. i now feel fully confident of benching that weight for 10 on a given day. 185 is above the percentage your spreadsheet says i should be using for the back off sets. the weights i should be doing i am able to rep for 15-16. i am really more interested in the 8-10 range. i would like to continue with the heavier weight. so say i try for 190 next time for 8 or 10, and i stick with that until i get it then add 5 more. does that sound ok? man, i like to lift heavy. doing more than 10 seems like a waste. so what rep range should i be looking for? what would be best for a guy whose 1RM is only about 10 pounds over his body weight? thanks for taking time to read this. i anxiously await your wisdom.
ReplyDeleteHey, I just discovered your site when I was doing a search on powerlifting assistance work. I think you were the first thing that came up on google! lol Blog looks good, I added it to my "follow" list.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I was wondering if you have a favourite rep range for assistance exercises? I see most pros going with 8-10ish, but I sometimes feel like doing high reps takes focus away from the heavy sets I just did. What are your thoughts on that?
Adam - Good to hear that my advice seems to be the solution.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for me to say what you should do because you need to have some goals in mind. That's kind of for you to figure out. Write down some long term and short terms goals and go from there. That will serve you best.
Anonymous - Yeah I like higher rep stuff for my assistance. I will tell you why too.
1. Gives the joints a break. You're already going heavy on the big main lifts. Don't further wear out the hinges with exercises that ultimately don't matter in the grand scheme.
2. Use your assistance work really as hypertrophy work, like a bodybuilder. I think a lot of guys look at assistance work the wrong way. Getting stronger on assistance work doesn't guarantee you that you will get stronger on the main lift. In fact, it rarely does. What you should use it for, is to get the muscles involved in the big lift as jacked as possible. Because bigger body parts means a high strength ceiling for exercises involving those bodyparts.
Use assistance work the right way. To get the involved musculature bigger and stronger, not to worry about "sticking points".