Squat

Tough night tonight. I was only in there about 25 minutes as my squats completely knocked the wind out of me.

SQUAT
135 x 5
225 x 5
325 x 5
375 x 5
425 x 5

This was just a ton of work and it really pushed the limits of my (terribly diminished) conditioning. Tomorrow, nothing but conditioning.

Bench Press and First Day of 5-3-1!

This afternoon I cracked open my old copy of 5-3-1 and decided that I'd start using it in my training. The one big change I'm making is that instead of doing press, bench, squat, and deadlift; I'm doing bench and squat twice per week. I just don't think my shoulders can handle a lot of pressing, especially higher volume pressing, and my giant belly might completely preclude me getting down to the bar.

I've decided to use the "boring but big" accessory template, which involves 5x10 at 30 or 40% of your training max after the main sets. I may throw in a different exercise now and then and I'll certainly be doing prehab work for my shoulders and hips as needed.

One other note: I finally got my feet out of "no man's land." I was reading some stuff on the EFS forums and saw a couple of references to having your feet directly below your knees. I had totally forgotten about the notion that you need your feet under your ass (or at the very least, your knees below your hips) to do well on the bench. Let's just say that tonight I was WAY tighter in my setup and the weight felt like nothing.

BENCH PRESS
45 x 10
95 x 10
135 x 5
185 x 5
215 x 5
245 x 12 (implied rep max of 345)

Fun and felt awesome!

BENCH PRESS "ACCESSORY"
5 x 10 @ 135

Onward!

Squat

Saw some pictures of myself today that really motivated me to cut my diet down and put in more volume in the gym. So that's what I did.

SQUAT
45 x 10
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 5
405 x 3
455 x 3
455 x 3
455 x 3

My right hip was looser today but it did take a lot of work to get it there. Just need to stay consistent on the tennis ball, stick, and foam roller work.