T-Bone Strength 4-13-09

Repetition Effort Bench

Competition Set up (Work Done RAW)
185x5
225x5
315x1 (10 singles)

Pin Presses
225x10
315x8
405x5/3/1
315x12

Skull Crushers: 3 sets of 10

Dumbbell Rows: 4 sets of 8 110lb Dumbbell

Pulldowns: 3 sets of 8

Good first day into this new cycle. I picked up a copy of the 5/3/1 manual and have some good info on how I'm going to incorporate that into my training. I think I'll use it primarily on my accessory work but who knows I can throw it into my main movements for the day.

I decided to do a repetition effort day, now this isn't to say I'm going to max out on the amount of reps I can do on a particular exercise. This is to say I'm literally going to pick a weight (say 315) and do a single for as many sets as possible, hence repetition effort, because I'm doing the same thing over and over and over again. When I got to the 10th single, it became a little bit more difficult than I had anticipated. The speed went way down so I figured it was time to stop. I have to keep up the speed on the bench in order for me to accelerate my growth in strength and technique in the bench. 315 itself isn't a heavy weight at all, but I have to say it got heavy after that 10th single. Next time I do a repetition effort day I'll definitely go up in weight to around 335-365 and keep the work done raw. I imagine I can do this with a shirt on but I'll hold off on that until I have some sufficient spotters around me.

My diet I took in some Muscle Milk bars, 3 protein shakes, some pasta with ground beef, and a chicken sandwich. Overall my protein was around 340g so I cant complain, but I plan on upping my protein intake to around 400g/day. The goal will be to add some solid muscle while eliminating excess body fat. I would ideally like to be a solid 305-310 so I can make 308 easy. I'm 296lbs as of this morning and plan to at least make that into 310 by Nationals.

Another good day, I hope my squats and deadlifts go well this week as well!