Tag: Bench

Wendler Cycle C Week 1 Bench Press (kind of)

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I have Shin and Maciek over from London for a week. And Maciek has been working out a lot so he really wanted to go to the gym today. The box wasn’t open so we looked up a gym in Estepona where we could drop in for free.

After wandering around the gym for a while, feeling a bit lost, I figured I could do my bench press. But I didn’t bring my notebook.. AND all the weights in the gym are in kg’s (as every other normal European gym except our box of course). So I kind of just did whatever felt right….

I started with a 5min run on the treadmill to warm up. Then for the bench press I did:

Bench Press

5 x 30kg (66 lbs)
5 x 35kg (77 lbs)
13 x 35kg (77 lbs)

I did 2 strict pull ups after each set.

So… I wasn’t that far off if I compare it to what I was supposed to do (5 x 60 lbs, 5 x 70 lbs, 12 x 80 lbs). Not too bad at all!

After that I was a bit lost again.. I had planned to also do the back squats, but they didn’t have a squat rack! They had a smith machine.. but I didn’t want to use that.

After looking lost again for a little bit I discovered a fun little area where they had some kettlebells and a dip station. So I did 3 rounds of

15 kettlebell swings
2 pull ups (from handles that they normally use for wall climbing)
5 dips

I finished off with 10 pushups and some playing around on the TRX that I also found somewhere.

I still feel a bit awkward in a gym somehow. But it’s nice to know that if needed I have a gym nearby to do some exercise at.

Wendler Cycle B Week 1 Back Squat and Bench Press

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After having a mega rough day at work I was so happy to walk into the box to do some heavy lifting. After seeing my form for the back squat in last weeks video I made sure I warmed up properly and practiced some deep air squats. I didn’t film myself this time so I can’t know for sure if my depth was good enough, but I think it was. I made a point of really going deep (which is probably just below parallel for me) and pausing at the bottom before going back up. It felt really good!! I still find squats the hardest exercise… but I was able to reach my rep goal of 8 on the last set.

Back Squat

5 x 85 lbs
5 x 100 lbs
8 x 110 lbs

I started with some warm up sets and in between all sets (so 6 sets total) I did 3 chin ups (strict).

Then I did bench press. I had a spotter for the last set so was able to go far beyond my rep goal of 9 by setting a new best at 12 reps of 75 lbs (according to the 1rm calculator that means my 1rm is about 110!!!! wooowww!!)

Bench Press

5 x 60 lbs
5 x 70 lbs
12 x 75 lbs

Afterwards I practiced some strict handstand pushups by doing 6 singles with 1 abmat and then 2 sets of 5 with 2 abmats.

Wendler Week 3, Bench Press and Back Squat

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So.. I finally did some strength training again.

Started with bench.. I didn’t have a spotter so didn’t go all out on the last set so I only did 7.. I should really not do bench without a spotter… cause I can do so much more than 7 and is just a waste when I don’t do as much as I can…

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I did 3 reps of pull ups between every set.

After that I did back squat.

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I filmed my back squat to see my form. I was unpleasantly surprised by how far forward I lean when doing them. I should really spend a lot of time on my mobility to be able to stay upright more. No wonder I have so much trouble doing front squats…. Also.. my depth… I hit parallel, but don’t break it. So should try and go deeper as well. Videoing yourself is so depressing lol… but learn a lot from it. I will post the video later.

After the back squats I finished with 50 kbs wings and 30 kb lunges with a 16kg kettlebell (sets of 10).

According to the Wendler program you have a deload week after the third week. But since I just had a long break from the program I’m going to skip the deload week and head straight into Fase 2 Week 1.

 

 

 

Wendler Week 2, Day 2 and 3, Deadlift and Bench Press

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After a rest day on Thursday I had a great training day on Friday. After a short row and some mobility I did a warm up together with Rich of 5 minutes of 25 double unders on the minute. I quickly started messing them up :s. I don’t know what it is.. but it’s so easy to lose that stupid movement. After doing them so good for the last couple of times I really felt like a clumsy fool again today. But all in all.. still managed to do 25 within each minute, so can’t complain too much.

Then it was time for some deadlifts.

week2day2

After the deadlifts I tried some one-legged bodyweight deadlift, which I read about here.

Then I moved onto the bench press.

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I was smart enough to ask for a spotter this time and managed to do 11! with the same weight as last week.

I still feel that the rep scheme is so low for this strength program. 3 sets of such little reps… it’s done within 10 minutes!

After the bench press I did a 10 minute EMOM of 2 pull ups on the uneven numbers and 2 dips on the even. I think next time I will try 3 every minute. The last dips did already get quite hard though.

After this I did 5 rounds for time of 5 front squats at 75lbs and 10 puhs ups, which I did in 9min53sec.

I finished with 50 pistol squats from a box (25 each leg).

Wendler Week 1, Day 3, Bench Press

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week1day3

I think I was done with the bench press in less than 10 minutes! The weights felt so light….. But the final round I did only 8 reps… I didn’t have a spotter (could have asked someone, but for some reason felt stupid :s) so didn’t want to risk getting stuck under the bar hehe. But think I probably could have done 9 or 10.. but now I’ll never know. I don’t know why, but sometimes I feel awkward doing these things. I find it hard to take myself seriously, especially with such low weights and then I feel a bit embarrassed I guess. But I’m going to stick to this program!!

I did way less chin ups than programmed.. I just can’t do loads of them and I did them strict so I think this was ok. While I was driving home I realized that I should have done 3 reps strict and then do the other 2 eccentric. Will make sure to do that next time.

After the above work I finished with a 1km row (in 4 minutes 39 seconds).