2013-12-15 Incline Bench and Meet Musing

Warmup

Incline Bench (~55 degrees) -
45x5
55x5
65x5
75x5
85x5
95x5
110x5x3
2 minutes between sets. I did these at the stadium gym, and I don't plan to do it again; the benches are too low to the ground and don't set to the angle I want, and the racks seem harder to set up. I did discover something useful, though: the sticking point on these is so low and so solid that I need to explode off the chest to get the rep. The line between easy and hard is very thin.

Pullups -
5, 5, 6, 4, 4, 4, 3
I'm actually better at these if I jump to the bar.
I'm also getting laxer on form, though I think I can stand that for now.

Curl -
50x8x3
2 minutes' rest and some rest-pausing; I'll repeat these next week.

Extension -
55x8x3
90 seconds' rest and less rest-pausing, but I'll repeat these as well. It'll probably be up to 60 for the next one though.

I'm not sure if i want to train 6 days out of 7 or 5 days out of 6 right now. 6 in 7 only nets me one extra training day every 6 weeks, but makes deload timing a little more intuitive and scheduling generally easier. 5 in 6 rotates the rest day and spurs progress, but makes timing harder. I think 5/6 just won out, though. I've got other options to eke out progress once things get really, really tough (3-1-2-1 in particular; I kind of like that in the present, but it loses more days).

I've got exactly 14 weeks until March Madness (so 12 weeks of training, giving 18 sessions per lift including the last two). Deloading every 6th cycle gives me 15 sessions of progress. Dropping 1lb/week puts me in a decent position to weigh in at 148 (with a serious water cut). Alternatively, I can wait another 2 months and enter the State meet, where I'll beast the fuck out of everything.

I guess it depends on whether or not I can drop to 160. Time to diet.