Wilhelm's Will To Power

[Wilhelm]

2023 sessions ~
271 Made/ *3 missed ~ One meet (10 pending just putting them in now)
*1 week break from squat and DL

2022 sessions ~
239 made/ 3 missed / ~ (Tooth extraction 2 & post covid vertigo 1 )
One meet

2021 sessions ~
235 made/ 0 missed
Two meets

2020 sessions ~
234 made/ 2 missed
No meets

[Idlehands]

Welcome Wilhelm! Strong showing man. I figured you’d enjoy it here.

[Wilhelm]

Welcome Wilhelm! Strong showing man. I figured you’d enjoy it here.

Thank you, good sir.

I can already tell this place is going to be good for me.

Deadlifts later today. Food now.

[Idlehands]

Yah, I may deadlift too. No idea what to do for the next block. This week messed me up and I'm gone again first week of dec

[Wilhelm]

Saturday Oct 28th
lbs

Ohp - 107.5 x 8X8
Not sure how long i can keep hitting 8 sets of 8. I've kept ohp on the scheme from my short volume block, but i'm adding weight to get it back to "strength sets"
My old max was 115X5X3 on August 31st. So i think hitting it with some volume has really helped.

Conventional deadlift - 345X1X8 <90 second rests w/ hook grip and full set up each rep.
This is all uncharted territory as i aim to add 10lbs a week up to a 1RM test December 9th.
So 6 singles @355 next week.

After i have an accurate 1RM, i will do a ten week SSPT percentage based cycle that will conclude one week before the February 24th meet.

I'm finally getting off my ass in regards to my DL. Feels great.
I'm recording them from the front for a while to ensure i'm getting good lockouts. Looked good today.

***Oh yeah. Best of all is i again managed to not tear any skin hook gripping. Woot!

[Wilhelm]

Monday October 30th

Bench - varying degrees of paused
175 x 5X2 8X1
The last rep was an ugly grinder. I probably shouldn't have taken it, but i have gotten attached to 8 reps for my third sets.
I take what i can get without breakdown next time.

Low bar back squats
330X5X3

At least half of these were only parallel. I'll stay at 330 thursday and get them to depth and try for another rep third set.
I did go up 5lbs twice this week though, and 325 was much better. I'll take it for now.

[Cody]

Dassa lotta pressing!

[Wilhelm]

Dassa lotta pressing!

Doh!
That reminds me, still have pull ups to do.

[Wilhelm]

Dassa lotta pressing!

Doh!
That reminds me, still have pull ups to do.
************
Adding pull ups back in to the 4 day per week (off days) frequency sets.
Dropped them near the end of my mini accumulation block as i was set to go up to 10 total sets of 5.
Doing those every 15 minutes was pushing the "non fatiguing" principle of gtg.
Well, i was doing them 6 days a week, and have dropped that to 4.

Also keeping my more recent "regular style" after workout PU sets on squat days
Going for a very gradual overload on gtg now though.
10 sets of 4, then i'll add just one rep to a single set every week.

[Wilhelm]

Thursday Nov. 2nd
lbs.
Paused bench - 177.5 5X3

Low bar back squats - 330 5X2 6X1
13 of 16 reps to depth.

Pull ups - Body weight 5,5,5,5,4,4

Was hoping for 6 on the last bench set, but my bar path was straight up off my chest on the 5th rep, and i knew that was it.
Took what was there.

I'm going to repeat 330 again monday for squats. Hopefully get depth on all reps.
Higher AMRAP should be doable too.
That will still put me in overload for the week since i did 325 and 330 last week, both for 3X5
There is just no sense adding weight till i've 100% got this.

So i titled this Bench -not tng. I'm not sure if this really qualifies as paused bench. First two are shorter than the others.
This is the 2nd set


My squats were crisp and lovely at 325. 330 not so much.
This the 3rd set AMRAP.
Oh well, i'll get 'em all nice next time.

[Wilhelm]

Just frequency sets of pull and push ups today.

Deadlifts tomorrow! Woot!

I'm going to switch out my last remaining ohp session in favor of a third bench session.
I need to drive my total up before the meet, and i can't add more squat or dead sessions and expect to recover how i need to to keep this up until then.

I kind of hate to halt my ohp progress, but it will be there for me after the meet.

[KarlM]

Nice work! I'm curious why you're including pushups in your training. Good luck at you meet!

[iamsmu]

Nice work! I'm curious why you're including pushups in your training. Good luck at you meet!

Me too. If wrist angle is the issue, high rep dumbbell bench presses solve that problem and they seem kinder to the wrists.

[Wilhelm]

Thanks, guys. : )

I don't have dumbbells other than some i rigged up for rotator cuff specific stuff i do.

I suppose i could put my 10's on one side and my four 5s on the other PVC and hose clamp handles.
The budget for new gear is specifically earmarked for motel, singlet, USAPL membership and meet registration at this point.

Craig's list sucks up here as the area is quite sparsely populated.
If i could get some cheap 2" change plates, i'd be set.

Since i never did a lot of push ups, they seem to be having an effect on increasing my chest.
I'm pretty sure that's a help in my bench at this stage in my development.
And i'm not getting any wrist problems with them.

But i will take your observations under advisement and watch for any issues.
Thank you for sure. : )

I do tuck my elbows back to avoid any impingment issues as well.
And i do the frequency sets on non main lift days. Living room carpet makes a nice pad too.
But i would love to switch these out for dumbbell work.
I'll see what i can do about that after the meet. That will be months of hypertrophy work.

[hector]

Thanks, guys. : )

I don't have dumbbells other than some i rigged up for rotator cuff specific stuff i do.

I suppose i could put my 10's on one side and my four 5s on the other PVC and hose clamp handles.
The budget for new gear is specifically earmarked for motel, singlet, USAPL membership and meet registration at this point.

Craig's list sucks up here as the area is quite sparsely populated.
If i could get some cheap 2" change plates, i'd be set.

Since i never did a lot of push ups, they seem to be having an effect on increasing my chest.
I'm pretty sure that's a help in my bench at this stage in my development.
And i'm not getting any wrist problems with them.

But i will take your observations under advisement and watch for any issues.
Thank you for sure. : )

I do tuck my elbows back to avoid any impingment issues as well.
And i do the frequency sets on non main lift days. Living room carpet makes a nice pad too.
But i would love to switch these out for dumbbell work.
I'll see what i can do about that after the meet. That will be months of hypertrophy work.

As long as you don't go crazy with pushups, and you keep the reps sane, I think they will carry over to your bench.
As in, instead of going from 15 flat pushups to 20 flat pushups, maybe elevate your feet on a chair and then do 10-15 pushups at that more difficult angle after easily doing that amount at a flat angle.
(Keep in mind that while this was my experience, I'm not a phenomenal bencher or push upper.)

[Wilhelm]

As long as you don't go crazy with pushups, and you keep the reps sane, I think they will carry over to your bench.
As in, instead of going from 15 flat pushups to 20 flat pushups, maybe elevate your feet on a chair and then do 10-15 pushups at that more difficult angle after easily doing that amount at a flat angle.
(Keep in mind that while this was my experience, I'm not a phenomenal bencher or push upper.)

Thanks, hector.
That's a good idea

I'm adding a third bench session though, so i may just drop them altogether and just keep the pull ups.

[Wilhelm]

Four hours sleep last night. I usually sleep six, sometimes eight, and i do fine on five. Four sucks ass.
I always lift after my midday meal, which is a preworkout in reality, and that comes four hours after breakfast.
My schedule and set up routine kept me on track today. Also a walk in the woods this moring to get the body moving.

Short paused bench 180X5X3
Video is 3rd set. The 4th rep is more of a tng, but i've never pressed 180 before. I'll keep trying to pause as i move up.
Plan is to add weight and drop to triples when i can't hit 5 on any two sets. GSLP style.
During deload i'll try and do longer pauses.
This is also the start of three bench sessions a week. Just dropping ohp till after the meet.


Deadlift 355X1X6 Hook 90 second rests
Hit today's target. I feel like i'm just now beginning to actually deadlift.
Like each single i was "Oh, i guess i can lift this."
The first and last single were the best as far as lockout goes. I was able to hold the 345 from last week much better.
I'm still super pleased.

[RdC]

Strong DL and looked so easy!

[fishwife]

After a certain point, unweighted pushups don't carry over into bench from my experience. And as a MA student, I've done a shit ton of pushups in my day, and I did have a decent starting bench for a woman when I started lifting, probably due to the pushups. But at a fairly low weight, the only thing that would make my bench go up was pressing weights. But lots of pushups are pretty good for getting swole chesticles in conjunction with lifting. The benching, OTOH, made my pushups improve dramatically.

A good way to get a more friendly wrist angle is to get those gel-filled weighted balls that are useless for just about everything except this and grab them and do pushups on them. The ones that worked for me were grapefruit sized, but you may need larger ones. They just need to be large enough that, when they compress a bit under your weight, your fingertips don't touch the floor.

[Wilhelm]

After a certain point, unweighted pushups don't carry over into bench from my experience.

I'm just going to three bench sessions a week. Started the new session today before deadlifts.
Pretty sure i reached the point of diminishing returns with the push ups already.