Time for me to be wordy, heh.
I know part of the reason that my bench has been being a prick is 'cause I've been losing weight. So realistically, when you consider it I've maintained my bench strength while losing 25 pounds since September. But, well... I'm a stubborn bastard, and maintaining isn't good enough for me. All my other lifts have gone up (squat especially, but squats seem to be my baby for whatever reason). I'm not 100% sure, but from the past couple of weeks I've discovered that I really like singles, doubles and triples (which is why I was doing doubles of incline bench yesterday). My thinking is that, when I ran a cycle of Smolov Jr. for my bench (which probably wasn't necessary, but oh well) it did quite well and and I seemed to thrive on the high intensity days. The 10x3 day (fourth day of the week) was actually the easiest, and what I enjoyed most, despite being the day after doing 8x4. So my figuring is my bench needs both volume as well as high intensity so as to keep used to handling heavy weights - and the multitude of sets also means a lot of form work. I honestly think that that's why my bench didn't do well on Madcow: Only 1 high-intensity set, and otherwise everything was relatively light.
So with that in mind, what I'm probably going to do is either singles, doubles or triples at 85%+, and keep rests low (60-90s seems to be fine and keeps me focused) for 10+ sets. It also seems to be easier to recover from due to it being less TUT and less stress on the CNS. I had been considering 5/3/1, and if this doesn't work I may go to that for my bench and press. First I'm going to try this, though.
Yeah, that I can understand. My form on deads still needs a bit of work, but off the ground is something that I'm familiar with and can deal with (it was my original sticking point in the lift). I've heard the cue of "leg press the world" a few times, and I will definitely be trying that in the future. I also need to remember to take the slack out of the bar more consistently (aka, every time instead of most). I do, however, try and pull the bar as fast as I can, and that actually helped with my lockout a lot, in addition to adding my ghetto GHRs every week. For a while I was also trying hook grip (about when I did my reset on it) and once I got back to a reasonable weight, realized I hate it and went back to AG. The downside is that my grip has to be a little further out, but the advantages for me more than make up for it.1. Lift the bar AS FAST AS FUCKING POSSIBLE. Squeeze into it, take the "looseness" out of it so that there's just enough pressure on the bar that your arms are locked out and it's not rolling, then RIP IT AS HARD AS YOU FUCKING CAN. The deadlift is all about momentum, the faster the bar moves the less work you need to do to keep it moving. Think of pushing the floor away instead of pulling the bar up. I always used to just grind every rep by using "slow strength" and this speed thing is working miles better.
I've been thinking about adding RDLs (or arched-back GMs, such as what KSC talks about) in somewhere. Chances are what I'll do is, for now, continue with the weekly decline sit-ups (which have definitely helped a lot already) and, GHRs, keep improving on that, and once I'm comfortably doing a few unassisted (which should be soon) and then see where my weakpoints are and decide on adding the RDLs/GMs in.2. RDLs. My posterior chain is a weak piece of shit, and by the sound of your "falling forward" squat problem, your posterior chain is probably also as shitty as mine. I have that exact same problem on my squats and it's because my knees start extending but I can't maintain my back angle because off a weakass PC, so it turns into a good morning. RDLs have brought up my hamstring/glute/lower back strength considerably. I usually do 3x8-10 or 5x5.
For the squats, it could either be a weak PC (I know, at least in the past, I was a walking checklist for weak glutes) or a weak core (first time I did decline sit-ups, I did 3x8 with no weight and could not have done another at all). I've been improving both, and my forward-falling has diminished. Problem is, I'm just not sure if it's one or the other, or both, that have been helping. But then, I'm weak in both, so I'm inclined to believe both.
Yeah, same thing for me. When I checked it last night, I saw that my friend and his brother were in flight 1 and was kind'a sad. The way it goes, I guess. And agreed, definitely looking forward to the meet and lifting in the same flight as you.Looking forward to the meet on Saturday man, glad we're in the same flight! I have another friend competing who is unfortunately in Flight 1 so I won't be able to warm up with him or even watch his lifts which really sucks.