Events & the Twilight Bench Comp: Just Enough

JUST enough overhead work today. It was a great outcome, really; I was very happy to be clean-pressing for reps what would be 65% or more of my best ever, ever, and with no pain or reduced movement. But I knew when it was time to stop. I'll be back to 20-rep sets of the axle next Wednesday and now isn't the time to be pushing it.

There's been some changes to my routine thanks to the recent positive developments with my squat. I'm going to start squatting with everybody else at PTC, Mondays nights, and it also means I'll be getting back under the straight bar for the first time since... shit, I have no idea. To start out I'll be going at my own pace and probably won't be hitting proper depth much of the time, to avoid further aggravation.

I held off on performing anything heavier on deads to save myself for next week. I got a little excited as the weight went up and started bounce-lifting it, so had to reset and do the next 5 at 230 properly.

And it's starting to sound like I'm just name-dropping Brandon Lilly for the sake of it here, but the truth is a great deal of his advice is resonating with me, and it's really helping me developmentally. My squat has benefited from regular leg pressing and I'm betting my OHP press strength and stability is going to improve with this new exercise called the Cambered bar walk.*

It was another busy Saturday. At 3PM I left the Pit and headed to PTC to assist with loading and spotting (and sweating) on their Twilight bench press competition, which was one of the best run competitions I've ever witnessed. It was a bench only novice comp, but even so, everything was wrapped up in just one hour. The inimitable MLC (master of lifting ceremonies) Adam Coe on the mike, kept things lively, and the day saw some truly monster pressing from Ando (the Boss) Nguyen and a home trainer (I think?) by the name Steven Bennett. Full results can be found on the PTC Perth website, or by clicking here.

warmup w/bands

OHP w/swiss bar
35 kgs x 10
55 kgs x 8
65 kgs x 5

Axle clean-press
45 kgs x 5 press only
65 kgs x 5
75 kgs x 3 TPR

Cambered bar walks
*These will take some explaining. I walk with an approx 30 kilo cambered bar held overhead, and every ten paces I stop and press the bar twice. I was feeling pretty beaten by the end of it. Gonna put weight on the bar next time...

Seated rows
full stack x 18 PR

Deadlifts w/hexbar
80 kgs x 10
130 kgs x 10
230 kgs x 5 bouncelifts
230 kgs x 5
280 kgs x 5