PRESS+ Tuesday: MOOAARR!!

TALKING to Paul tonight about programming. Paul has written programs for many people over the years, with varying degrees of success but success nonetheless. The programs were performed to completion and the subjects were stronger by the end of them. Only, when it comes to his own programming, he has never had a positive outcome. He said he literally cannot program for himself.


This I found pretty interesting, and I wondered how many other coaches might attest to having the same issue. My own templates have brought me some successes, but plenty have been failures too. I still attribute most of my gains to the training advice I've gotten from other people, but I am pretty trite in saying this as nobody lives in a vacuum and all gained knowledge came from someone else. But I've never actually followed templates written by people I don't know. Nothing from established strength trainers past or present - not unless I've actually met them in person. Weird, I know. But then I've never been accused of being normal. I like to do things my own way, wherever possible.


The work I am doing now is some of the most intensive I've done outside of strongman events. In previous years, when strongman was my primary - if not only - focus, I would invest the majority of my time and energy into events training on weekends, and the squatting, pressing and pulling I did midweek were of secondary consideration. A session would last 90 minutes to two hours at most, and in that time I would be coaching others also.


Nowadays, things have reversed. The more injuries I have sustained, the more I have focussed on coaching, which since PTC Strongman became a thing has only been on Saturdays while at Genesis I coached every session. Then the most recent injury forced me to abandon a whole bunch of strongman events because of the direct strain they placed on the bicep. So my non-events training became the focus. Now I'm doing 35 set press routines and spending 2-3 hours per session. Feeling stronger than I have in a long time.


PROS: When I finished my last program I topped out benching 140 kilograms for a triple, and strict pressing three triples of a 100 kilo axle... far from my best work. This program finishes at the end of August, and tonight I benched 130 for four sets of 5 and overhead pressed a 90 kilo axle for three sets of six. More, actually - I hit seven reps on the first set. So I'm still not there yet, but I'm not too far away. And a hell of a lot stronger than I was a mere five weeks ago.


CONS: rushing bench press! Bouncing and sloppy, no pause. For shame. What the fuck am I training for again, exactly.


On a side note: this week I also need to get squatting again, and it's high time I switched to a straight bar.


More good news on the re-composition front. Progress has slowed, but I continue to get heavier and leaner at the same time. Now sitting on 139 kilos bodyweight and 26% body fat. But, to be more certain, I need to go get a proper dexa scan and see what variance there is between the two assessments.

PRESS+ Tuesday July 25th
Stretch
Bench press:
bar x 10
60 kgs x 5
100 kgs x 3
130 kgs x 4 x 5 TPR
Axle OHP (strict):
50 kgs x 5
70 kgs x 3
90 kgs x 7, 6, 6 TPR
45 incline BB press:
60 kgs x 4 x 8
DB front raises (p/h):
7.5 kgs x 10
10 kgs x 10
12.5 kgs x 10
Seated French press:
25 kgs x 4 x 10 - failed last rep!
super-set w/Triceps pushdowns:
full stack x 2 x 20, 2 x 15
HS chest press (p/h):
40 kgs x 4 x 8
super-set w/HS bicep curls (l&r):
15 kgs x 4 x 10