Workouts for Saturday 20 to Friday 26 February

OK, so week three after my deload.  This will be the interesting one… 

My goals

For what it is worth, my current goals are:

• a double bodyweight pull up;
• a 2.5x bodyweight conventional deadlift; and
• bench 100kg (220lbs).

Progress so far and notes

This week was largely about finding out where the right weights were on my second set of max effort exercises.   Not much to report, really.

• Bench/Dip: I hit 47.5kg (105lbs) for my 5RM dip and just missed 50kg (110lbs) so I’ll be looking to hit that in 2 weeks.  I am aiming for 95kg (210lbs) on my bench this week and it will be interesting to see how that feels. 
• Wide grip pull up/Elbow flexor pull up: I got 37.5kg (85lbs) on the 5RM elbow flexor pull up but failed to get 40kg (90lbs) with only 3 reps!  I was absolutely done for after that, though.
• Zercher/Box squat: Box squatting again after so long was odd but fun.  I was tentatively aiming low by starting at about 90kg (200lbs) but I kept putting the weight up until I got to 110kg (245lbs), which still felt OK.  Form was good throughout.  I should be able to hit 120kg (265lbs) next time, I would think.  Zerchers again this week and I’m going for 90kg (200lbs) this time to equal my lumberjack 5RM. 

So what’s the plan?

Just to recap, the plan is to adhere more closely to (what I understand of) the Westside (or more exactly the WS4SB) principles for a while as follows:

• keep to a pure upper and lower split;
• switch up assistance work if it isn’t working or stalls;
• identify and strengthen weaknesses;
• keep to doubles (lower body) and triples (upper body) with short rests on repetition day; and
• rotate my max effort exercises more frequently than I used to.

As regards rotating max effort exercises, to begin with, I’m going to try the following upper max lifts in a 4 week cycle:

• Bench 5RM + wide grip pull up 5RM
• Dip 5RM + elbow flexor pull up 5RM
• Bench 3RM + wide grip pull up 3RM
• Dip 3RM + elbow flexor pull up 3RM

For lower body maxes, I’m going to stick to 5RM for as long as I can and use zerchers and back squats to a box until my lower back starts complaining again.

Without further ado, here is the workout plan

Saturday – Upper (max)

Sunday – Lower (repetition)

Tuesday – Upper (repetition)

Thursday – Lower (max)

Notes on assistance exercise PRs

On the last 2 week cycle, for 10 sets of 5 on 1 minute:

• Floor press – 64kg
• Barbell row – 74kg
• Glute-ham raise – blue band with half of pink band (using sling)
• Hip thrusts – 66kg

I write a post every day so don’t forget to subscribe or you’ll miss out