Friday - Bench. Week 3 Cycle 5

Last week's bench was a miss as was today's -- I think. Today I needed 7 reps at 240 to match last month's 235x7, but only managed 240x6. To be fair, I've never done reps on bench with this weight, so it's all new territory for me. Also, my assistance work continues to improve quite a bit, which is making the question of whether I've fallen behind on bench these past two weeks not so easy to answer.

I've had a couple hiccups on the bench on this program a few times before (e.g. getting only 2 reps at 220lbs in week 3 cycle 1, and, on two separate occasions, not improving my rep count for a weight I had encountered before), but overall there has been good progress. Even week 1 of this cycle showed improvement. So I'll see how the bench goes next cycle and if it stalls again or drops, I'll recalculate some new training numbers!


Week 3 bench lifts for 5 cycles thus far have been:

• Cycle 1: 220x2
• Cycle 2: 225x5
• Cycle 3: 230x7
• Cycle 4: 235x7
• Cycle 5: 240x6

Goals for today:

190x5
215x3
240x1

Lifted:

190x5
215x3
240x6

Assistance work: 

70lb db's on flat bench for 5 sets of 15, 15, 15, 15, 14. One rep shy of all 75. Last week I did 75 reps with the 65lb db's so this is a pretty good jump.

100lb db's for one arm rows. 5 sets of 10 reps. I didn't increase the weight, but these have become easier; my grip is much better. 

Video of final set below: