You're a beast at benching so I have no doubt you can get through Sheiko bench. The pulling is brutal but the squatting has to be the worst in terms of gutting lifts out. The squats, sometimes twice in a workout, just make you wish the end is near lol. Having said that, I think you underestimate yourself in the pulling. I think you can handle it given you're not on the road driving for those crazy hours you sometimes do. Plus, while I'm not saying they're easy bc they're not, deadlifts off of boxes are much more forgiving than pulling off the floor so roughly half or slightly less of your pulling volume is from a box instead of the floor which allows the total pulling volume to be pretty high. Finally you're Masters Fucking Powers and you'd kill it lol. I did take 40lbs off my meet PR for this training cycle bc of the back issues.
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You're a beast at benching so I have no doubt you can get through Sheiko bench. The pulling is brutal but the squatting has to be the worst in terms of gutting lifts out. The squats, sometimes twice in a workout, just make you wish the end is near lol. Having said that, I think you underestimate yourself in the pulling. I think you can handle it given you're not on the road driving for those crazy hours you sometimes do. Plus, while I'm not saying they're easy bc they're not, deadlifts off of boxes are much more forgiving than pulling off the floor so roughly half or slightly less of your pulling volume is from a box instead of the floor which allows the total pulling volume to be pretty high. Finally you're Masters Fucking Powers and you'd kill it lol. I did take 40lbs off my meet PR for this training cycle bc of the back issues.
IMO, the best thing for shoulder health is good form based on your dimensions. A powerlifting style bench takes a shit ton of stress off the shoulders. That's why I believe you hear more BBers complain about shoulder pain and bench press than you do from PLers. If you have muscular imbalances or wish to prevent them then yes I'd agree pulling and pushing from many angles can help (IMO overhead pressing the most). Western thinking is to bench and add a lot of accessory work to keep shoulders healthy like rows and OHP, etc. Eastern bloc philosophies like Sheiko, Bulgarians, etc bench 2-7x a week with minimal rows, presses, and pulling in any direction and it doesn't seem to bother their shoulders. Bottom line is find what optimizes YOUR specific training and helps YOUR goals first. We are each highly individual and things that help me may not help you and vice versa.
Ha! Wait till wks 2 and 4 when the total tonnage lifted on the main lifts goes up by 3000-5000lbs
. Lol. Glad you enjoyed it. It only gets worse from here on out. Mental toughness is just as important as physical. Once you get past the mind fuck you'll have a new appreciation for how hard the Russians train.So last Saturday I had to cut ANOTHER workout short bc of the back. That's 2 Saturdays in a row. I took Tuesday off of lifting and went in today. Did my normal Sheiko training for bench but will be skipping pulls and squats for the rest of the week to see if that will help ease some of the pain. Going to do some accessory work and weak point shit plus focus a lot of building up the glutes in the meanwhile.
Bench: 145x5, 170x5, 200x2x4, 215x2x3, 230x2x2, 215x2x3, 200x2x4, 170x7, 145x9 (the initial 145 up to the 230 sets were done with a 2ct pause and the pyramid down sets were touch and go)
RDLs: 135x10, 225x2x6, 185x8 (should not have went up to 225. These aggravated the back at that weight)
OHP: 95x6, 135x2x6, 95x12
Split squats: 4 sets of 10
BB curls: 3x10 @ 65lbs
Tricep push down: 3x10 @ 140lbs
Standing ab crunches: 3x8 @ 75lbs
Bench: 145x5, 170x5, 200x2x4, 215x2x3, 230x2x2, 215x2x3, 200x2x4, 170x7, 145x9 (the initial 145 up to the 230 sets were done with a 2ct pause and the pyramid down sets were touch and go)
RDLs: 135x10, 225x2x6, 185x8 (should not have went up to 225. These aggravated the back at that weight)
OHP: 95x6, 135x2x6, 95x12
Split squats: 4 sets of 10
BB curls: 3x10 @ 65lbs
Tricep push down: 3x10 @ 140lbs
Standing ab crunches: 3x8 @ 75lbs
1 wk of not squatting or pulling and I'm going through severe withdrawals.
sheiko bench: 145x5, 170x2x4, 200x2x3, 230x5x2
Split squats: 4x10
Sheiko bench: 160x4, 185x3, 215x5x2
Glute bridges: 155x4x10
Seated DB OHP: 50x4x10
Cat backat pull down: 3x6 with green band
BB curls: 4x10 @ 65lbs
CG bench: 4x10 @ 155lbs
Standing ab crunch: 4x8 @ 140lbs
sheiko bench: 145x5, 170x2x4, 200x2x3, 230x5x2
Split squats: 4x10
Sheiko bench: 160x4, 185x3, 215x5x2
Glute bridges: 155x4x10
Seated DB OHP: 50x4x10
Cat backat pull down: 3x6 with green band
BB curls: 4x10 @ 65lbs
CG bench: 4x10 @ 155lbs
Standing ab crunch: 4x8 @ 140lbs
Not bad and how's your back today brother?
Bench press: 145x5, 170x4, 200x2x3, 230x6x3
Split squats: 4x10
Bench press: 145x5, 170x5, 200x5x5
DB press: 50s 3x8
Cat back lat pull: green band 3xAMRAP
Tricep push down: 3xAMRAP
Abs: 3x8
Split squats: 4x10
Bench press: 145x5, 170x5, 200x5x5
DB press: 50s 3x8
Cat back lat pull: green band 3xAMRAP
Tricep push down: 3xAMRAP
Abs: 3x8
Good session brother...stick it all the way through.Im on it-
Squatted for the first time today in 2wks. Felt very good. A little back discomfort but was able to take care of it. POB told me to look into some stretches for a particular muscle, the quadratus lumborum, and I found a bunch of info on it. Soon as the back acted up on squats I used a tennis ball on the area and almost instantaneous relief. Felt better squatting today than I have since around June time!
Primary squat: Competition Squats: worked up to a x4 @9 no load drop; 315x4, 335x4, 365x4, 385x4
Primary bench: Competition bench: worked up to x4 @9 no load drop; 185x4, 205x4, 225x4
Secondary bench: bench 3ct pause: x5 @9 no load drop; 185x5, 205x5
A guy that used to lift at my gym but haven't seen in years was in tonight visiting. He works as a trainer and rehab guy at a gym out west. He showed me a few more QL stretches as well as stretches for the psoas, hip flexors, and shoulders. He had suffered from some similar setbacks and really helped me out today learning some new stretches. Also, POB fukking rocks!
Primary squat: Competition Squats: worked up to a x4 @9 no load drop; 315x4, 335x4, 365x4, 385x4
Primary bench: Competition bench: worked up to x4 @9 no load drop; 185x4, 205x4, 225x4
Secondary bench: bench 3ct pause: x5 @9 no load drop; 185x5, 205x5
A guy that used to lift at my gym but haven't seen in years was in tonight visiting. He works as a trainer and rehab guy at a gym out west. He showed me a few more QL stretches as well as stretches for the psoas, hip flexors, and shoulders. He had suffered from some similar setbacks and really helped me out today learning some new stretches. Also, POB fukking rocks!
Good to hear you have found something to help that nagging back Doc! A tennis ball of all things, hmmm....interesting!
Also i gotta ask , what is a cat back lat pull? I never heard that term before.
Also i gotta ask , what is a cat back lat pull? I never heard that term before.
Thanks Mr.B66!
If you google the quadratus lumborum muscle you'll see some good stretches for it online as well as some trigger points to alleviate the tightness. In my research and from what my coach told me it's a highly used muscle and one that is the cause of a lot of low back pain, groin pain, and even sciatic pain. The stretches will help loosen it up and I also found a Donnie Thompson video (famous PLer) where he explains several stretches and strengthening moves for it. The tennis/lacrosse ball gets in the area perfectly. Laying on the trigger points with the ball for 1-2min then feathering the area did so much for me today.
Cat back lat pull is a lat Pulldown variation used by Brandon Lilly to train the lats with more specificity towards the bench press. The lats are highly recruited in benching but a lat pull down doesn't transfer over much to the bench press whereas a cat back lat pull has more transference. Here's a video:
Can't edit post 489 but secondary bench should be replaced with primary bench assistance. My mistake.
Hope all is going well Doc. Haven't seen you around much lately.
Awesome news my brother!
Thanks for sharing this, Doc. I've seen some people at my gym doing this exercise and was wondering how useful it is. I am going to incorporate this as part of my upper body training to help beef up my upper lats so then hopefully help out my bench. As my right shoulder is weaker than my left (fractured it as a kid) I will try using the catbacks to help bring up my right shoulder.
Haven't lifted in the last 2wks. 2wks ago had some bad stomach bug or something and was in bed when not at work. Down about 10lbs in that week. Week after my back flared up and I could not lay down without pain so I was getting less than 2hrs of sleep a night. Naproxen, tramadol, and even oxycodone was not giving me relief.
Feel better now and lifted Saturday. Just went in to shake the rust off. Will be back at it come Tuesday.
Glad to hear your doing better. It's that's time of year for colds shit going around. Welcome back
Spoke with a physical therapist today who is also a co-owner of a crossfit gym here in town. I've heard lots of good things about her plus she deals with mainly competitive athletes so she has a lot of experience in lifting and treating patients. Anyway I have a consultation with her next Friday for the back and elbow. Hopefully good things to come
Today:
Squats w/ belt: x4 @9 no load drop; 315x4, 345x4, 365x4, 385x4
Competition raw bench: x4 @9 no load drop; 185x4, 205x4, 225x4
3ct paused bench: x5 @9 no load drop; 155x4, 185x4, 205x4
Felt good for my second day back after almost 3wks off. Elbow after up a little but back felt fine. Did inversion therapy with a band before and after lifting and it def helps.
Today:
Squats w/ belt: x4 @9 no load drop; 315x4, 345x4, 365x4, 385x4
Competition raw bench: x4 @9 no load drop; 185x4, 205x4, 225x4
3ct paused bench: x5 @9 no load drop; 155x4, 185x4, 205x4
Felt good for my second day back after almost 3wks off. Elbow after up a little but back felt fine. Did inversion therapy with a band before and after lifting and it def helps.
Good to see you getting back it.
Thank you kind sir. Now my life will be complete once I get you I to a true PL program lol
