Deficit Paused Deadlift - 355lbs x4x4 sets smooth and simple. Felt much better than last week as I was a little inconsistent rep to rep last time and hesitant because of the my groin.
Bench Press - up to 252lbs x1 (smooth) then tried back-offs at 225 and re-tweaked my pec. back to the drawing board on my pec. Everything felt fine going into the workout and the first single at 252lbs easy (thats the best that kind of weight has ever moved for me). Despite that I had another tweak during my drop down sets.
Bent Over Barbell Row - 210lbs x10x4 sets
Looks like it’s back to the drawing board for the pec. Really did not see that coming as I haven’t been straining or struggling with any of my pressing workouts and the weight felt relatively light. So we’re going to go back to the drawing board and let it recover. I’m looking at a plan called the Starr Rehab Protocol to start things over from square one with the Bench Press. I’ll still follow my main Powerlifting plan for Squat, Deadlift and the accessories that don’t involve chest.
The first day of the Protocol calls for Benching the empty bar for 3x25, and slowly adding 5-10lbs to that every day until you’re eventually back within striking distance of your previous workout weights. Eventually you move off 25 reps and drop to 15s, then 10s, then 5s. People progress at different rates but the way I’m looking at implementing it my goal is to Bench 135lbs for 3x15 10 days from now pain free. The idea is to constantly promote blood flow to the area and prevent scar tissue from forming after an injury, and potentially breaking up any scar tissue already present. Everything I’ve read about from lifters who have used it is positive and it seems to consistently get people back.
I’ll be 6 weeks out from my meet/mock meet at the end of June starting next week. This probably means I won’t meet my Bench Press goal, but I just want to make sure I’m healthy enough to compete.
Little behind so this is actually from yesterday and will post today’s later.
5/18
Training
Squat - 375lbs x3, then 340x7x3 sets starting to feel a little heavier, but still gelt like I had 2-3 reps in the tank for that 375 top set
Bench Press - Bar x25, 55lbs x25 , 65lbs x25 very light get blood flowing to the pecs to promote healing. I’m doing this everyday and adding 10lbs each time so later today will be 55, 65, 75 for the 3 sets
Inverted Rows - 4x10 w/ 40 lbs of chains across my waist
DB Skulls Crushers 4x12, DB Lateral Raise 4x15, Band Pull Apart 3x35 extra bodybuilding work so I don’t wither away while my Pec recovers
I’m six weeks out for my meet/test day, so I have plenty of time to get the Pec healed up. Plus I have a deload week next week which I think will also help give it time to catch back up. But the end of this week I want to be hitting reps at 115 on the Bench.
Today I have Deadlifts, more light Bench and some back work which I will post later. Also have to pin today.
Deadlift - up to 405lbs x4x6 sets took a while to get going on these. The hips were talking to me a bit after yesterday’s squat workout. I probably didn’t start feeling good until about the 3rd work set. Overall though, technique was solid and bar speed is smooth. Deadlift continues to be my best exercise and I feel pretty confident that I can pull 500+ come meet/test time
Bench Press - 55lbs x25, 65lbs x25, 75lbs x25 75lbs was less painful than the empty bar was on Saturday so I think we’re making progress in terms of healing
Barbell “Pendlay” Row - 230lbs x7x3 sets
Weighted Pull Ups - 4x9 with a 20lbs chain hanging around my neck/shoulders.
DB Bicep Curl - 4x15
Other than my Bench Press setback I’m feeling strong right now. Im particularly pleased with my progress on Pull Ups 9 reps with the 20lbs chain wasn’t very difficult so I can other get more reps next week or add even more weight. The last time I really worked hard on the movement I got up to doing sets of 5 with 45lbs hanging off of me and while it’s not a competitive lift I’d like to see if I can beat that by the end of this cycle.
Tomorrow is an off-day and then I have a tough squat workout on Thursday. Still have to pin my test today, but first I have to train the old lady in our garage gym.
Squat - up to 352lbs x4x6 sets this felt way better than last weeks 335lbs for the same set/rep scheme.
Forward Facing Hack Squat - 3x10 with 2.5 plates ea side
Bench Press - 75lbs x25, 85lbs x25, 95lbs x25 feeling less and less pain every time. I think when I hit 115lbs on Saturday I’ll throw on my Sling Shot and hit something a little heavier (like 135-145lbs)
It took a little willpower to not skip them today after the squats! Squats felt better than last week but I still feel trashed after all that volume. Got em in though and glad I did!
Deficit Paused Deadlift - 375lbs x4x2 sets, and then 375lbs x8 was supposed to do 4x4 but due a combination of laziness/wanting to get to my deload/wanting to test myself I decide to combine my last two sets and try for 8 and got it solid. I am feeling strong man.
Bench Press - 85lbs x25, 95lbs x25, 105lbs x25 almost 100% pain free at this point. Good sign
Rack Chins - Bodyweight x12, 20lbs of chains x10, 40lbs of chain x8x2 sets
Bent Over Row - 155lbs x12x4 sets typically I’ll do 200+ lbs on this, but I was so fried after those Deadlifts that I sandbagged here.
This was a big first 4 weeks on this lifting cycle (5 weeks since adding in the extra test). Without a doubt I feel the strongest I’ve ever been in my life. I’m taking weights I used to do a 1-3 heavy sets and I’m hitting them for 5-6 sets with way better bar speed and confidence.
Next week I will deload and then we’ll get into the 4 week “intensification” period where I drop the reps and start to ramp up the weight leading up to a (mock) meet. Obviously I’m still getting my pec back into fighting shape but it’s feeling better and better every time I bench. My plan there is to keep building it back up over the next two weeks, which will give me 3 weeks to ramp it up for the big show. Obviously I’m going to be conservative here as I would rather be healthy enough to get some attempts in and get a total rather than try to go balls to the walls and restrain anything.
I’m chomping at the bit to absolute dominant this in the month of June!
Litte behind again, so here is my training for yesterday and today.
DELOAD WEEK
5/25 (yesterday)
Back Squat - 325lbs x3, then 275lbs x3x4 sets with a 3s pause at the bottom.
Bench Press - 125lbs x15, 135lbs x15, 145lbs x15
Machine Rows - 3x8 (3 plates)
5/26 (today)
Deadlift - 395lbs x3x4 sets
Bench Press - 135lbs x15, 145lbs x15, 155lbs x15
Pull Ups - 3x10 (bodyweight)
Horizontal Rows - 3x12 (bodyweight)
Band Pull Apart - 1x50 (skinny red band)
Honestly felt a little rough on Monday. It’s normal for me to feel like trash the first half of a deload week. I think there’s a physical piece to that (feeling to affects of the previous 4 weeks of hard training) and a psychological one (expecting weights to feel light and they don’t feel that way). Usually I just have to get through the first few sessions, and I start feeling better the latter half of the week and ready to go for the next week.
Pec is feeling good. Reps of rehab benching have dropped from 25s to 15s. After a few sessions of that I’ll drop that to 10s and 5s. This process should take me through the end of next week and then I work back into normal training the week of June 8th.
For some reason this is sticking out in my mind but I finished my first bottle of Test PP which feels like a milestone somehow. “My first completed bottle of ug gear” . I started my second bottle on Sunday and I have another Pin today. Still just going with 150mg Test C and 200mg Test PP weekly. Trying to make progress with as little gear as possible. That way I have another card to play in the years to come on this journey.
@Bigmurph I appreciate the well wishes and support. I honestly never felt comfortable going down this path until I spent some time on this board. You and the other vets/mods look out for us and there are a lot of great sponsors that actually seem like they care about the members and don’t want to screw anyone over or hurt someone.
Your 100% right brother were all about harm reduction and members come first here I was happy to read about your chest getting better and also that you were actually taking it slowly
Its great though and I do wish you the best brother just keep doing what your doing and I believe that things will be well.
Machine Row - 2 plates ea side x15, 3 plates ea side x12x2 sets
Inward Facing Hack Squat - 2 plates ea side x10x2 sets
Squats today felt way better than Monday. Pec is feeling good and I think I’m almost back to fighting shape as you can see I dropped down to 10s on the last set of bench. I definitely could have done 15 reps like the other sets but I’m just being cautious. I’m not far off from where I was before I got hurt (my higher volume bench days was at 205lbs for easy sets of 7) so I don’t think I need to push it. Pinned 0.25cc Test C and 0.5cc Test PP. As predicted I’m feeling significantly more recovered now vs Monday and I’m anticipating being ready to rock and roll again once this deload is over.
Pull Ups - 1x17 reps
*typically I do rack chins, but wanted to have fun and see how many Pull Ups I could do in one set pretty happy with 17 *
This was yesterday’s training and deload week is over. I will now move into an intensity/peaking block where the weights will go back up and increase beyond what I did the previous block but the reps will come down. This is a welcome change since the volume was starting to get to me and my body was starting to talk to me a little again.
As far as Bench Press. I went in and did another session today at 200lbs x5x4 sets without any issues. Starting to feel a slight amount of fatigue however (no pain thankfully), so I think I’m going to spread my sessions out and get away from daily benching. Probably move to a M/W/F schedule now to give myself 48 hours to recover rather than 24 hours. Pretty happy with where I’m at though.
Back Squat - Up to 395lbs x1 (smooth) then 375x3x5 sets coming off the deload I was a little nervous about these Squats. Warm ups felt bad but I gained some confidence when I hit the 395lbs very smooth (I’d say 7/10 difficulty), and the drop sets also went a lot better than I thought they would. 3 weeks ago 375lbs was a top set of 3 for me, so to have to do it 5 sets seemed daunting. Like the 395 however, I would call it 7/10 in difficult and was really happy with it.
Bench Press - 210lbs x6x4 sets I’ve jumped back on my normal bench program again after slowly resetting and building things back up over the last two weeks. These moved well (6/10 difficulty) with no pain. I still have my pec in the back of my mind, but today was a big step forward
Close Grip Bench Press w/1 Board - 195lbs x6, 205lbs x6x2 sets To err on the side of caution I did my close grip work to a 1 Board to avoid overdoing it. This will be a strategy I use moving forward to reduce my risk of re-injury. Doing normal Bench Press 3x per week may no be ideal for me, so adding some different variations with reduced ROM is something I want to try. Even if I under perform and don’t hit my goal for test day I’ll be okay with that if it means I stay healthy and actually able to test.
Inverted Row w/Chain- 4x10 & Band Pull Apart - 3x35
My pinning got a little off to start this week. On Sunday, I was pretty much at the end of my current bottle of TRT Test Cyp so I decided to draw out my full allotment for the week and pin it to be done with it (painstakingly extracting every last drop starts to get annoying after a while). Since I only use 1cc syringes that didn’t leave any room for my Test PP so I went ahead and pinned 1cc of that this morning and then I’ll pin another 1cc on Thursday to hit my planned weekly dosages. Seems like most people prefer to pin gear that has the PP ester 3x per week which is what I’ve been doing this cycle but this week I’ll only be pinning it 2x. I’m sure it’s not a big deal for one week, but felt like it was worth mentioning.
Deadlift - Up to 440lbs x1 (very easy 6/10 difficulty) then 410lbs x4x3 (from a ~2-3" block) I wanted to do a little more than 440lbs for my single but my back felt a little sore so I decided to cut it and also move the bar up for my volume work just to be on the safe side
Pin Bench Press (1/2" above chest height) - 225lbs x4x5 (6.5/10 difficulty) Giving these a try to help me psychologically. Lowering the bar to the pins feels like it gives the pecs a little help
Incline Chest Supported DB Row - 4x15
Weighted Chin Ups - BW+30lbs x7x5 sets
Back Extension - 3x15 (bodyweight only)
6/4
Pin Back Squat (pins set at full depth) - 335lbs x4x5 sets (7/10 difficulty) I noticed I’m letting the right side of bar tilt down while I squat, so this variation is to help correct that. The goal is touch the pins of the Squat rack at the same time which will ensure I’m coming down evenly.
Deficit Paused Deadlift - 375lbs x3x5 sets felt really strong on these. Felt like I could hold the pause for longer and more comfortably and I also held the rep of the last set of 10s at the top so my grip is feeling strong
Sling Shot Bench Press - Up to 235lbs x5x3 sets just giving my pec a break. I have the lightest Sling Shot model which takes about 10% of the load off at the chest.
Feet Up 1 Board Bench Press - Up to 220lbs x5x4 sets again using the 1 Board out of caution
Barbell “Pendlay” Row - 265lbs x5x3 sets
As I’ve been saying things feel good. I feel strong on Squats and Deadlifts so the last hurdle for me will be getting over the physical and psychological hump with my Pec again. However, getting through the first week of normal Bench Training is a good step in that direction so hopefully we can keep that going for these last three weeks of prep I have for my Mock Meet.
Back Squat - Up to 408lbs x 1 (7.5/10 difficulty), then 376lbs x3x5 sets 408lbs potentially ties an all-time PR in the squat for me (can’t remember if it’s 408 or ~414lbs), and it moved pretty solid. Down sets where a good challenge but got through them without issues.
Bench Press - Up to 242lbs x 1 (6.5/10 difficulty), then 215lbs x6x4 sets Really happy with this, almost back to where I was hitting singles before I had my retweak. I’d say this 242 moved better than last time I hit it as well.
1 Board Close Grip Bench Press - 200lbs x5, 210lbs x3x5 sets Still keeping the 1 Board in for caution, though I might not need it anymore at this point
Hammer Strength High Row Machine - 3 plates ea side x12x4 sets
7 normal training sessions to go. I’m right where I want to be. Gaining confidence every session!
Deadlift - Up to 462lbs x1 (7/10 difficulty), then drop to 420lbs x2x5 sets technically a lifetime PR for 1 which is awesome. But overall it was a pretty easy rep and I know I have more in me. Goal for test day is 500lbs
Pin Bench Press (1/2" above Chest) - 225lbs x4, 231lbs x4, 236lbs x4x3 sets (7/10 difficulty) Really like these and I think I’ll continue to use them even when I’m completely in the clear with my pec.
Weighted Pull Ups - 33lbs (15kg plate on a dip belt) x8x3 sets
6/11
Training
Low Pin Squat (full depth) - 347lbs x3x5 sets (7/10 difficulty) these felt way better than last week, was a lot easier to keep the bar from tilting and so I could lower the bar to the pins evenly. Bar speed was smooth throughout and I never hit a sticking point
Barbell Overhead Press - 155lbs x5x2 sets, 160lbs x5 that 160lbs might be a PR set of 5 for me. Not really focusing on overhead strength so that’s just a nice little bonus
Unilateral Leg Press - 3x10
Chest Supported DB Row - 3x10 (70lbs)
Training is solid. Had a little scare last night while pinning. I mustve touched a nerve in my right delt because when I first put the needle in the delt immediately started to spasm. I quickly pulled it out, took a few breaths and went in another spot. A little unnerving because it was the first time that has ever happened and today my shoulder is a little more sore than usual, but I still was able to complete the injection so no big deal. Sounds like this is something everyone experiences and you just have the shrug it off and keep trucking.
Deficit Paused Deadlift - 385lbs x3x5 sets felt awesome on these. Very strong and very controlled.
Bench Press - Up to 248lbs x1x2 sets, then add 1 Board for 242lbs x4x2 sets and 242lbs x5 for a 3rd set.
Feet Up 1 Board Bench Press - 220lbs x5x3 sets
Pendlay Row - 275lbs x5x3 sets
6/15
LAST HEAVY WEEK
Back Squat - Up to 425lbsx1 and 430lbs x1 (BIG PR 8.5-9/10 difficulty), then 385lbs x2 and 395lbs x2 was supposed to do more drop sets, but felt a little zapped after 430lbs. I’ll add a little volume to my Thursday squatting to make up for it
Stoked I hit that 430lbs. Puts me within sticking distance of 440lbs which I’ll be very happy to hit if I can in the Mock Meet. I cut out some down sets afterwards because I got pretty amped for the 430lbs and felt a little drained after plus it might give me more energy for Deadlift tomorrow. I’d like to hit 485lbs on that so I can feel confident about going for 500lbs on the big day.
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. I started my second bottle on Sunday and I have another Pin today. Still just going with 150mg Test C and 200mg Test PP weekly. Trying to make progress with as little gear as possible. That way I have another card to play in the years to come on this journey.
