Thursday - Squat
Squat Cycle (see below)
Barbell Row
Glute-Ham Raise
Ab Work
Pullup Retraction, DB Retraction, DB Protraction, Prone Internal Rotation
Friday - SE Bench
Bench Cycle (see below)
Press/CG Bench 5x5
Pulldown
Seated Cable Row
Curls
Sunday - Deadlift
Deadlift ROM Cycle (see below)
Kroc Row
Romanian Deadlift
Ab Work
BTN Band Pulldown, Band Pullapart, Band External Rotation, Face Pull
Tuesday - ME Bench
CG Bench, 2-Board, 1-Board, Bench
Dumbbell Bench/Blast Strap Pushup
Pulldown
Seated DB Clean/Rear Delt Fly
Curls
For squat day, I'll be actually squatting, and switched the barbell rows and glute-ham raises. That's partly to give some recovery time between leg-heavy movements, and partly so I don't have to go back to the annex after GHRs.
I did some reading today and heard a lot about Floor Press basically being a lockout exercise, and looking back this actually does agree with my experience - while DB Floor does seem to get my pecs involved, I've seen a really strong correlation between barbell floor pressing and failing off the chest. That's better than failing at lockout, but I have a feeling my other pressing movements cover that pretty nicely. I want to see how CG Bench goes, and I don't want to have to add in more movements to get my extra rowing (versus just subbing, which is what I've done here). Seated Cable Rows are one of Cressey's favorites for shoulder health, so I'll stick with those for a cycle and see what happens.
Deadlift day doesn't need much justification, since the only change is that I'm now getting in a ton of upper back volume via the Kroc Rows. Barbell Rows don't agree with my shoulder and I want to see how these go; the worst that can happen is I wind up moving the rear delt work over to SE Bench and doing more barbell rows here. I put the Kroc Rows here rather than Squat Day because I want to concentrate the volume in one place and take the other day as something of a break.
CG Bench is in the max effort cycle for the reasons above. I've taken it out of the supplemental movement because I didn't want to drop blast strap push-ups, and figure that if I really want DB Floor back in I can just do it in place of DB Bench. I'll keep 6s for the dumbbells and 10+ for the push-ups for now; once the push-ups get easier I'll add the micro band (increasing from there).
I've standardized rehab on the two lower days. Right now I'm including a shitton of curls because my biceps are embarrassing, but eventually I'll drop those to just SE Day and shuffle things around a bit so I'm only doing 3 Rehab movements per day (probably PUR+BBOHS+PUP on Dead day, DBRe+DBPr+PIR on ME Bench, and BTNBPD+BPA+BER on Squat. Probably keep Face Pulls in with the band work but whatever).
SE Bench and Squat Cycles (Rep*Set*%):
Week 1: 4x5x70%
Week 2: 4x5x72.5%
Week 3: 4x5x75%
Week 4: 3x7x77.5%
Week 5: 3x7x80%
Week 6: 2x10x82.5%
Week 7: 2x10x85%
Week 8: 3x4x72.5% (Bench), 1x18x87.5% (Squat)
Week 9: Break (Bench), 3x4x72.5% (Squat)
(Then retest squat max)
I figure that the stress of pulling a bunch of deads from the floor during week 8 makes it silly to try for a new squat max 4 days later, so I added in a heavier day to fill the squat void, set the deload the following week, and moved the max test to the first day of the following cycle to see what will happen. If it works out well I'll try the same thing with Bench and (basically) just start the cycle from Week 2 instead. The entire deadlift cycle is basically just built around body stress, so I'm not concerned about inhibiting it with heavy squatting.
Deadlift Cycle (based on Mats):
Week 1: 8 mats (2x25+2xMat)
Week 2: 7 mats (2x25+1xMat)
Week 3: 6 mats (2x25)
Week 4: 5 mats (1x25+2xMat)
Week 5: 4 mats (1x25+1xMat)
Week 6: 3 mats (1x25)
Week 7: 2 mats (2xMat, possibly get a solid 1.25in)
Week 8: From Floor
Week 9: Speed Pulls
Each mat here is 0.625" (5/8"), so the cycle starts from 5 inches and slowly works down.
With 9-week cycles, I can get in 5 cycles per year plus 1 serious meet. If I fiddle around and up it to 10-week cycles, that goes down to 4 cycles per year with 2 meets guaranteed, which looks a bit neater. That extra week will just add an extra mat for the deads (possibly advantageous) and extend the squat and bench cycles a bit (e.g. making the experimental squat one viable full-time). I don't know how I'd handle only having one extra benching week - probably either a deload or hitting an extra bench (or close-grip) triple between board presses.
Other ideas that spring to mind:
1) Add some speed pulls on squat day and/or some form of squat or squat accessory (e.g. Pistol/Lunge) on dead day. This is one of those "It's not broken..." areas - the only big changes I've made for this cycle are in the upper body supplemental work, and I'd like to stick with one real change at a time.
2) Make a huge change to the upper body layout by turning SE Bench into Press day (so Press first, and do it every week), replacing ME work with the current bench cycle, and filling in the gaps by either doubling the days per week in the cycle or just changing the accessory work around (presumably CG Bench/DBB on Bench day and BSPU/DB Floor for Press). This would actually help a lot with editing cycle lengths.
3) Pending how #2 works, trying some similar addition to the cycle on Dead day.
4) Integrate pullthroughs somewhere - probably as an alternate to RDLs or GHRs (not sure which; it hits the back more like an RDL, but I like RDLs and think the pullthrough more closely mimics my squat stance-wise...there's a lot that goes in here and I don't want to think about it right now). This is one that I'm almost certainly going to do at some point, possibly during the coming cycle (since it's not a huge change).
5) Possibly sub DB Floor in for DB Bench. I don't know if this is a good idea for strength off the chest, but it could help with shoulder issues.
6) Move Cubans over to SE/Press day and do the rowing on ME Day. This would open up some space for alternative rowing variations (handy if I ever get access to a Chest-Supported Row again).
So, that's the big spiel. Let's see how the next 8 weeks go.
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