We ran through some one rep max testing over the last few weeks. The bad news is that my bench press didn't move up at all. We worked our way up to 170 lbs for one and then made the jump to 180. I had the same issue as last time where I got stuck a few inches off my chest. Since then we've gone back and worked on a few different assistance lifts to try and break through the sticking point. Things like 2 and 3 board bench press, floor press and pause benches. I just wrapped up a second week of 5 rep benches so it will be a while before I'm back to testing again.
On to the good news. Testing on squat went very well. The lift progression went something like:
Warm-Up to 255 or so
275 x 1 (5 lb PR)
285 x 1 (15 lb PR)
I was really happy with this and I think I might have been able to get more out of it. The biggest change we made was that I started using a belt, which I felt definitely helped on the lift. The increase in thoracic pressure definitely helps when you're coming up and helps push more. My goal is to get this lift over 300 lbs by the meet I'm doing in July.
Another boost happened earlier this week on deadlift. My prior one rep max was 350 the last time we tested 5-6 weeks ago. Well, last week we were working sets of 3 and trying to break where I had been stuck the week before at 340. So last week's progression went:
Warm-up
320 x 3
340 x 3
350 x 3
Not only did I break the sticking point, but also did my previous one rep max 3 times! I was stoked! So this week we tested. We started at 345 just as an in-between from the warm-ups and then jumped to 365 which was my goal. I nailed that lift and still felt pretty good about it, so we increased to 375 and I went again. The first attempt I threw myself off during set up and could barely get it off the ground. So I took a break to regroup and came back for a second attempt. I got the bar up to about knee level, but couldn't make it all the way. I think I was just exhausted myself from the previous work, but a 15 lb gain is still nice! This puts me 35 lbs away from my goal for the meet, so I still have a ways to go, but I'm determined to make it happen!
