It Takes Ball

[Itchysoles]

Squat 405#, 405, 450
Feeling much better, was going to do rep work after but turned out a perfect day to take the kids out to water park

Bench 405#, 405 x 2 RPE 9
First time with a 405 double since February surgery and other than weird bar path on the way down for first rep it felt great

And now it's after midnight, so rep work tomorrow.

[Itchysoles]

YouTube
405# x 2 bench from yesterday. Felt great but really not happy with bar path as I review the video. If I can dial that in I think I have a 440#+ PR within a month.

[Itchysoles]

Bench 355# x 4 x 4
Dead 424 x 4 x 4, 515# x 1 eezee
YouTube

[Itchysoles]

Then the squats.... Fuggin terrible up to 405#

Going to assume that's mostly in my head and try again tomorrow, cuz my legs feel fresh, even undertrained, but my upper back is a mess as soon as 400#+ is unracked. It might not be pain so much as panic.

[Itchysoles]

I hurt myself today
To see if I still squat
Focused upper back pain
But I just pretend it's not

155 x 5, 265 x 3, 355 x 2
405 x 2, 445, 465

It's worst on unrack and walkout, so I'm going to raise the hooks and put a mat down for unracking an inch higher. Might turn out one-inch spacing in the squat area is important.

I'm also having to rediscover stance, top single is definitely wider and more forward knee travel than I like.

YouTube

[Itchysoles]

Bench 355# x 3, 405#, 415#
Closegripfeetuppinbench 265# x 4 x 4 : I do these more now that I have safety straps instead of pins. Easy way to increase stress with a lot less weight.

YouTube
That bench single felt great, even easy, with none of the front shoulder pain I often feel on both sides after something heavy.

Dead warm ups

Fat grip chins 10, 10, 10

[John Helton]

415# is a big bench!

[Itchysoles]

Thanks, John. I didn't think about it but as a % of bodyweight it's slightly better than my 435# PR since that was at 230# bw.

Last week
Bench 420# and several more at 405
rep work every 2-3 days of about 4 sets of 3-4 at 355+

Squat. 445# for a few singles about every 3 days. Pushing at hard as I can to get heavy practice without aggravating upper back

Deadlift similar to bench several singles over last week up to 534# and rep work around 405#

Training weird like this because I haven't done enough heavy stuff and I randomly signed up for a meet on the 25th. USPA Battle at the Border in New Plymouth, Idaho on the 25th. Not likely to absolute PR anything, but I'd like to at least break my meet total of 1466#. Ideally I can do that on 2nd attempts and just go wild for 3rds. USPA is pretty new in ID, so I could probably even take conservative 3rd on bench to seal the total and take a 4th to shoot the moon on since I'll probably open with a state record