Hi, Dana Rosenzweig from Belleville, Illinois. I train with Brady Stewart and wanted to start posting my workouts here. I attended Mike's seminar in St. Louis and have witnessed first hand the incredible strength gains Brady has made with RTS. I've been a West Side convert for years with moderate success and have been reluctant to change.
I'm 51 and have been competing since 1976, but just as a washed up "Bench Only" guy now. Love the sport and can appreciate how seriously members here take their training. Glad to be here.
Accumulation Block, Week 3 (pushed up average intensity to 82%) WG Reverse Bands (Blue & Green) 405x3 @ 8.5 415x3 @ 8 425x3 @ 9 405x2 @ 8 425x4 @ 8 405x2 @ 7
Dumbell press 45x8 (5 sets) Lat Pulls 180x6 (4 sets) Rear Delt Raises 40x8 (4 sets) Plate Raises 45 4x10
10 lb prs on both primary lifts. High stress has me a little sore one day post workout. Two weeks left on this mesocycle, a week deload and a new 7 week cycle to get ready for the Ozarks Meet, March 21. Brady has been very helpful with helping me assimilate the new info.
Big Prs tonight. Next week I go back into a shirt for my Reverse Band work. Bodyweight finally over 200 lbs. Screwed up in I was supposed to change my RW#2 to a a 1 board cg.
Smith Machine Presses, V Pull Lats, Rear Delt Raises
Wow, 15 lb prs on both lifts today. I must have just been really weak when I started this mesocycle. Even paused the last reps on the last sets of each exercise today. Next week will be an average intenisty of 90% and we'll see what the heavy weight, low reps look like. My goal is to stay within 200 lbs of Brady's bench (lol).
Brady has me going equipped in the reverse bands, two out of the 6 weeks in this mesocycle and based on how my shoulder felt tonight, that's probably plenty. Another 10 lb pr in the pause benches. I've enjoyed the new training methods and that includes the programming that preceeds the workout. Thanks to Brady and Mike for their support.
1 Board ties a pr and cg w/chains is a 5 lb pr. Fewer sets was a nice break and the weights didn't feel heavy. Still recoverying from high stress of last week. Next week will be high stress/high intensity, but average drops to 90%. Will need to hit heavy x3s to set prs. Today at beginning of workout, left shoulder felt fatiqued, but improved. After next week, the deload week will be welcomed. Never thought I'd say that. The true test of strength and shoulder stability will be the next mesocycle that will include 6 weeks of shirted training as my LO #1 lift.
Close Grip 3 second Pause Bench 280x2 @8 295x1 @8 310x1 @8 325x3 @9.5 315x2 @8.75 300x1 @7
CG 3 Board 275x8 305x8 315x8
Last night's workout went great. The Reverse Band top set was the same weight I did 3 weeks ago in a shirt. I wish I had gone a bit heavier and cut the reps down. The CG Pause was a 10 lb pr and I'm still sore in my pecs today. I'm anxious to start the next mesocycle that will lead to a meet in 7 weeks. Brady has done a lot of my thinking for me so far. The program makes more sense the longer I'm with it.
Finally, the end of the mesocycle. This week being High Intensity/High Stress was tough on me, but I feel I've laid a good foundation for the competition phase that will follow. Already projected my LO #1, Shirted Bench for the next 7 weeks and the top end reps looks like: x4, x5, x4, x3, x1 (test), x3, contest.
Couple of observations so far- I don't miss speed work at all and the shoulders thank me for it. My triceps seem to be as strong as when I was doing all the isolation work with db and lying extensions. Even though I've benched for a long time, my set up and techinque is improving with the increase in volume. The next 6 weeks in a shirt will be interesting. I hope to only use two different shirts. I still have shirts that require 2nd and 3rd contest weight attempts to touch (425-440 range) and I won't be able to wear them in training. I'm projecting my test week to be 435 (95%). Oh well, I'm enjoying the mental portion of the program and should have plenty of time to adjust before the Bench Nationals (Sept). Its nice there are several of us at Belleville Weightlifting Club on the program. Gives us something to talk about other than the frozen pipes (absence of water)and "re-filling" drink bottles.
Feeling a lot "fresher" as a reslut of the deload. Though I thought the bar should have felt a little lighter in my hands today. Snow shoveling this week was unplanned GPP. Ready to get after it next week and will put a couple of my training partners on the same program. Now if they could only think for themselves.
First workout after deload week and though my strength was done from what I had hoped, the body felt fresh. At least I have a baseline to work off of now.