Slicin' and Dicin'

[Dustin07]

Free Day/week

Bench
5 x 95
3 x 135, 175

1 x 205, 245, 270, 290
1 x 305 (PR tie)
1 x 310 fail

Slingshot
1 x 315, 335 (PR)

Drop set/ raw
14 x 225 (2 rep PR)

Notes
Missed my 310 attempt, got it about 6"+ off the chest so sticking point was like dead center of ROM but I threw the bar forward so I think it's a skill issue more than strength.

previous rep PR at 225 is 12.... preparing for the NFL combine.

Week one of age 44.

 

[akboom87]

Free Day/week

Bench
5 x 95
3 x 135, 175

1 x 205, 245, 270, 290
1 x 305 (PR tie)
1 x 310 fail

Slingshot
1 x 315, 335 (PR)

Drop set/ raw
14 x 225 (2 rep PR)

Notes
Missed my 310 attempt, got it about 6"+ off the chest so sticking point was like dead center of ROM but I threw the bar forward so I think it's a skill issue more than strength.

Precious rep PR at 225 is 12....

Week one of age 44.

What I think of when I see 44

 

[Dustin07]

was going to bench at lunch at maybe squat after work, thats why we did zero accessories today, just chasing heavy 1RM stuff, but that was a good hard effort, especially with the AMRAP finisher, so I might push squats off till tomorrow.

Yeah we do have some near us, but my wife and I like to go up to the Smoky Mountains and Gatlinburg TN. There is a place called Cade’s Cove that you can drive through and stop and see some really old cabins and churches. We can spend a whole day there just walking some of the trails and you see Black Bears, deer, and even an occasional coyote, but they let you go inside the cabins and churches. It’s really cool to see how they built all those structures with such primitive tools 150 to 200 years ago.

my wife and I have been trying to figure out a way to get out of town this winter like Jan/Feb for some sunshine but that region would be a cool adventure! probably won't be a sunny Mexican beach but man it would be nice.

How funny, when I saw that I thought HMM we must be having this convo in @Smont's thread. I mean it was cannibis related, so nothing to make me think different. LOL

lol fair mixup all things considered

 

[Dustin07]

FWIW my buddy just came in telling me he was thinking about my bench today. I've been lucky to have him available my past couple sessions to push bigger numbers. He said my 305 attempt was the worst bench he's ever seen me muster, despite the fact that it was a clean legal rep. pushed the bar away and fought it, then of course 310 was the same thing where even his spot was a challenge cause he said it was like I was fighting him more than the bar. I'm a little surprised by that but it validates I have a skill issue to work on there!

throwing 95 and 135 up felt like tossing pillows, but things started feeling tight around 245/270. I think I would have done well with more warming up.

not to create excuses but our heater broke at work so from 6am until 11am I kept sticking my hands in my pockets, running them through hot water, etc trying to warm them up so I did walk into the gym feeling cold as hell already. I didn't have the eye of the tiger when I made this attempt.


that doesn't mean I have 310 or 315 but just that I'm not sure I gave it 100% either. I'm not worried, I set two PRs for birthday week, tied a lifetime PR. last cycle I hit 300lbs on bench, this cycle I finished with 305. Stay the course and see if I can snag a 306-310 next cycle. I still have a lot of time to finish the year with three wheels.

 

[gphagan1]

Free Day/week

Bench
5 x 95
3 x 135, 175

1 x 205, 245, 270, 290
1 x 305 (PR tie)
1 x 310 fail

Slingshot
1 x 315, 335 (PR)

Drop set/ raw
14 x 225 (2 rep PR)

Notes
Missed my 310 attempt, got it about 6"+ off the chest so sticking point was like dead center of ROM but I threw the bar forward so I think it's a skill issue more than strength.

previous rep PR at 225 is 12.... preparing for the NFL combine.

Week one of age 44.

Congrats on the PRs….that 225 x 14 is impressive, especially after the 305 and 310 attempt. You should start adding in some Spotos, they really help in the area where your sticking point is.

was going to bench at lunch at maybe squat after work, thats why we did zero accessories today, just chasing heavy 1RM stuff, but that was a good hard effort, especially with the AMRAP finisher, so I might push squats off till tomorrow.



my wife and I have been trying to figure out a way to get out of town this winter like Jan/Feb for some sunshine but that region would be a cool adventure! probably won't be a sunny Mexican beach but man it would be nice.



lol fair mixup all things considered

Actually we’re pretty cold here in Jan/Feb and Gatlinburg is even colder then, but by March it starts warming up quickly. Of course our cold is not as bad as yours. Sometimes we go down to Florida to see my sister in the winter. She is always trying to talk us into moving down there, but Georgia is home sweet home. Ha, we’ve considered going up your way eventually to see all the beautiful scenery up that way and eventually go to Alaska, on a cruise….ha, in the Summer.

 

[Hyde]

“Never tie your PR, dude.”
-Louie Simmons

I think about that a lot. You generally don’t have the energy to tie, then go up again. You need to jump from 290-295 prior to 310.

 

[Rockslide]

Congrats on the 225. Impressive after the 1RM stuff.

I’m 7 years younger than you but your thread and you hitting PRs and some discussion in @gphagan1’s thread the other day has me wondering… how much of a performance drop off with age is age and how much of is is just an injury that you can’t recover from due to age. I think it’s more the 2nd. Providing not a massive fall off in hormones the PRs probably can keep coming well into the early 60’s in people on HRT. The reality of the situation is probably more that the connective tissue fails in almost all lifters at some point and once a major injury that sidelines someone for 6 months occurs in the mid 40s on, it’s very very hard to get back to that baseline

Keep up the good work, you’re crushing it.

You’re like 10 grams of creatine , a high carb meal, 4 trest caps , some amp citrate away from 3 wheels right now. No doubt you will have it by the new year

 

[Dustin07]

Congrats on the PRs….that 225 x 14 is impressive, especially after the 305 and 310 attempt. You should start adding in some Spotos, they really help in the area where your sticking point is.

You think spottos are the cure for me over full bottom position pauses? I'll take any advice. should I take them as a 5x5 at like 240 vs my normal 5x10?

Sometimes we go down to Florida to see my sister in the winter.

We did 12hrs in Miami.... i'm going to need a new location lol.

your way eventually to see all the beautiful scenery up that way and eventually go to Alaska, on a cruise….ha, in the Summer.

I know I've said it before but if you guys end up in Washington, i would 100% set time aside to meet you guys!!!!

“Never tie your PR, dude.”
-Louie Simmons

I think about that a lot. You generally don’t have the energy to tie, then go up again. You need to jump from 290-295 prior to 310.

I thought about this hardcore. I think you're right. I felt "safe" at 305 but I think in the future I'll yank those micro plates either way.

The reality of the situation is probably more that the connective tissue fails in almost all lifters at some point and once a major injury that sidelines someone for 6 months occurs in the mid 40s on, it’s very very hard to get back to that baseline

You’re like 10 grams of creatine , a high carb meal, 4 trest caps , some amp citrate away from 3 wheels right now. No doubt you will have it by the new year

after all these years I think its 100% individual.
I'm basically Irish/Scottish. we aren't huge and we know how to fight.
I spent 10 years building an engine that could go go go. it was moderately strong. I didn't shift my focus to 1RM efforts until about age 40. so if I'm hitting these numbers now, maybe they'd be 100lbs heavier if my focus was 1RM 10 years ago, instead of 1 mile times + muscle ups + how many 225lb deadlifts I could do in an hour.

all i know is everything hurts every day. I'm surrounded by people that tell me they can't, I can't, you can't, and I'm going to keep can'ing until I die. I don't expect to break a 1000lb deadlift, but when I'm 60 I plan to be stronger than the guys who turn 40 that year. I've torn ligaments and muscles, broken bones, I have steel plates in me, I've watched @gphagan1 and @Hyde and @MrKleen73 heal from injuries and I don't plan to let injuries stop me. even today I felt a twitch and I knew to be carefull but I also know that if I do get hurt I can heal. I'll stop when I'm dead

I have to though, my wife is a fox.

 

[Rockslide]

A large percentage of people hurt every day. They then use that excuse to do nothing , they lose strength , muscle mass , core stability , decondition from a cardiac standpoint. They still hurt. They get fat , then they hurt even worse. Hurting is part of life. Being healthy and hurting , and hurting because you are doing something to benefit you physically and mentally is much better than sitting around hurting and waiting to die

 

[Dustin07]

A large percentage of people hurt every day. They then use that excuse to do nothing , they lose strength , muscle mass , core stability , decondition from a cardiac standpoint. They still hurt. They get fat , then they hurt even worse. Hurting is part of life. Being healthy and hurting , and hurting because you are doing something to benefit you physically and mentally is much better than sitting around hurting and waiting to die

Amen brother. This is my philosophy

 

[gphagan1]

You think spottos are the cure for me over full bottom position pauses? I'll take any advice. should I take them as a 5x5 at like 240 vs my normal 5x10?



We did 12hrs in Miami.... i'm going to need a new location lol.



I know I've said it before but if you guys end up in Washington, i would 100% set time aside to meet you guys!!!!



I thought about this hardcore. I think you're right. I felt "safe" at 305 but I think in the future I'll yank those micro plates either way.





after all these years I think its 100% individual.
I'm basically Irish/Scottish. we aren't huge and we know how to fight.
I spent 10 years building an engine that could go go go. it was moderately strong. I didn't shift my focus to 1RM efforts until about age 40. so if I'm hitting these numbers now, maybe they'd be 100lbs heavier if my focus was 1RM 10 years ago, instead of 1 mile times + muscle ups + how many 225lb deadlifts I could do in an hour.

all i know is everything hurts every day. I'm surrounded by people that tell me they can't, I can't, you can't, and I'm going to keep can'ing until I die. I don't expect to break a 1000lb deadlift, but when I'm 60 I plan to be stronger than the guys who turn 40 that year. I've torn ligaments and muscles, broken bones, I have steel plates in me, I've watched @gphagan1 and @Hyde and @MrKleen73 heal from injuries and I don't plan to let injuries stop me. even today I felt a twitch and I knew to be carefull but I also know that if I do get hurt I can heal. I'll stop when I'm dead

I have to though, my wife is a fox.

I definitely believe Spotos will help your sticking point. I would say from just a few inches above the chest all through the midway zone is the area they probably help the most. That stopping the bar and pause just a couple inches above the chest, and then the drive back up really seems to increase your stability strength and push through that halfway zone where many get stuck. I know Hyde could give you much better advice, but I know Spotos have really added to my ability stop, control the bar, and drive it home.
As far as a great place in the Winter to visit in Florida, eventually you should check out Destin on the Gulf coast. It is beautiful and has some of the nicest beaches in the US.

 

[Segansational]

Free Day/week

Bench
5 x 95
3 x 135, 175

1 x 205, 245, 270, 290
1 x 305 (PR tie)
1 x 310 fail

Slingshot
1 x 315, 335 (PR)

Drop set/ raw
14 x 225 (2 rep PR)

Notes
Missed my 310 attempt, got it about 6"+ off the chest so sticking point was like dead center of ROM but I threw the bar forward so I think it's a skill issue more than strength.

previous rep PR at 225 is 12.... preparing for the NFL combine.

Week one of age 44.

Happy birthday man! 44 is looking good already for you!

You’re like 10 grams of creatine , a high carb meal, 4 trest caps , some amp citrate away from 3 wheels right now. No doubt you will have it by the new year

Haha, love it! But probably true!

 

[Dustin07]

You need to jump from 290-295 prior to 310.

whats funny is I spent the last few days doing math. 310 x .95, 310 x .93, etc figuring out my jumps. When it came down to making a decision between 305 and 310 I can't tell you why in the moment I felt like 305 was the move, other than maybe because its likely my first 305 attempt in 2026 so it probably still felt like a reasonable improvement/milestone at the time, lol.

 

[MrKleen73]

I didn't really know them as Spotos but I can tell you for sure when I needed to work on the point I needed to flare my elbows to complete the press that pausing just before that point, and then pressing out of that area definitely helped. If you take the momentum you can generate off the bottom out of the movement and have to become explosive, or at least stronger in that area and position it is likely to help you get through the sticking point. Maybe some banded or speed work here and there as well. On your next heavy bench why don't you have your partner set the cam up and let us see your form, and where you seem to stick. You can always place it so you can't really see your face or just make it private and only share to certain people, or people you send the link to.

 

[MrKleen73]

whats funny is I spent the last few days doing math. 310 x .95, 310 x .93, etc figuring out my jumps. When it came down to making a decision between 305 and 310 I can't tell you why in the moment I felt like 305 was the move, other than maybe because its likely my first 305 attempt in 2026 so it probably still felt like a reasonable improvement/milestone at the time, lol.

It sounds to me like you just didn't feel super confident from the beginning, and probably got in your head a little bit. I do agree with Hyde, you should have taken a bigger jump, but that is hard to do if the confidence is not there that day. Still an awesome session!!!!

 

[Dustin07]

I didn't really know them as Spotos but I can tell you for sure when I needed to work on the point I needed to flare my elbows to complete the press that pausing just before that point, and then pressing out of that area definitely helped. If you take the momentum you can generate off the bottom out of the movement and have to become explosive, or at least stronger in that area and position it is likely to help you get through the sticking point. Maybe some banded or speed work here and there as well. On your next heavy bench why don't you have your partner set the cam up and let us see your form, and where you seem to stick. You can always place it so you can't really see your face or just make it private and only share to certain people, or people you send the link to.

yeah this is all making sense to me. I need to figure out how to modify the 531 template in a way that makes sense, maintains the current working sets but incorporates spottos and/or pauses and/or banded work without over doing it like I tend to do. Now that I think about it, when I ran cube there was a lot of pause work and it took me past my prior 300 1RM to 305, but what I remember best was that the 305 PR when I hit it on cube was FAR cleaner than my original 300 attempt, and I bet thats related to all the pause work.

It sounds to me like you just didn't feel super confident from the beginning, and probably got in your head a little bit. I do agree with Hyde, you should have taken a bigger jump, but that is hard to do if the confidence is not there that day. Still an awesome session!!!!

100%, although one thing thats sorta nice now days whether its squats or bench is when I am moving say 335 contemplating a move to 355 I think "its only 20lbs, I probably won't even notice it" lol. When I hit 245 yesterday I told my buddy, peice of cake. its just adding a bag of concrete from here. lol.

 

[Hyde]

Eric Spoto (who was an ATWR raw benchpresser, arm wrestler and gym rat with generally enormous arms), famously trained all of his bench press coming down to within an inch or so of his chest.

Now while this sounds like a cop out, what it did was both create massive reversal strength as well as control body position at the bottom - there is no resting with the bar on your chest. So pausing momentarily just off the chest instead of ever touching both teaches correct start position as well as eliminates the stretch reflex.

Everyone has taken a press where it’s just entirely too heavy. You heave it one inch off the chest, then it dies. You always have that first inch no matter what, so pausing an inch high or so cuts out the easy part of the reversal. That’s why Spotos work so well for starting strength - you must hold good position entirely with your muscles AND learn to accelerate explosively out of the pause.

 

[Hyde]

You could use Spotos for Boring But Strong after your primary bench.

Then to help pick up a tad more volume, which does seem to force the bench well, do one AMRAP (regular or closegrip) touch n go with ~60% of your TM on full range bench (not Spoto). This should net another 12-24 reps likely. This is a move from the Cube Predator that always seemed like a big ROI, but take clean reps only - you don’t want to ingrain bad patterns or tweak anything.

 

[Dustin07]

You could use Spotos for Boring But Strong after your primary bench.

Then to help pick up a tad more volume, which does seem to force the bench well, do one AMRAP (regular or closegrip) touch n go with ~60% of your TM on full range bench (not Spoto). This should net another 12-24 reps likely. This is a move from the Cube Predator that always seemed like a big ROI, but take clean reps only - you don’t want to ingrain bad patterns or tweak anything.

I was basically searching for all mentions of BBS on the book you sent me and generally it seems like a 10x5 approach on boring but strong could either be at 70% all three weeks, or run as FSL. From a programming perspective (and memory since I'm not seeing a way to shift the app from BBB to BBS) it seems like running 10x5 FSL for BBS would be the way to go:

with my TM at 315 currently on bench (interestingly high), that would put my 10x5 at 220 (at 70%).

so if I understand your prescription right:

hit my 5 (or 3, or 1)
drop to 10 x 5 spotto (say 220lbs)
then one last AMRAP finisher at 190 (60% of 315) touch and go?

definitely sounds like a fun change up on the programming for me...

 

[Dustin07]

50 reps spotto at 220lbs sounds like a lot more fun and moderately more challenging than the current 50 reps of like 160-170lbs for BBB.

 

[slimsaw00]

50 reps spotto at 220lbs sounds like a lot more fun and moderately more challenging than the current 50 reps of like 160-170lbs for BBB.

I have only limited experience with BBS and it was good for my deadlift. Seems like Wendler is a fan of it for the pressing moves per his YouTube.

After SVR I’m eyeing up God Is A Beast which mixes a strength spinal tap loading with BBS. Looks fun!

 

[Dustin07]

Squats
Bar x 10
5 x 135, 185
3 x 225

1 x 275, 315, 345
1 x 375 (PR)
*I almost died"


Notes
Let AI program my progression today and it basically quoted @Hyde / Louie lol.

I wish I could tell you that 375 was an easy PR for the taking but no. I have no idea what amount of grit I summoned to survive that rep. That was pure I'm not gonna fail unless I die. It was a toss up.

Still, haven't squatted over 355 in a year+. Lifetime PR is a lifetime PR.

30lbs to go

**** aging!

 

[Dustin07]

I feel like I look much stronger than I am

 

[gphagan1]

Nice work man…congrats on the PR.
Looking good in the picture….your upper body definitely fills out that T shirt. I didn’t realize you had such a big nose, but I like the’stache.

 

[Hyde]

THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT RIGHT HERE!!!

You grew it, and you reaped it. People forget that the cultivation is only part of the process - you must have the determination to reach out & collect your PRs as well. Any farmer will tell you: harvest time is crunch time! You’re gonna bust your ass, but it will be worth it.

Congratulations

 

[Hyde]

I forgot BBS is 10x5. Which makes much more sense, name-wise. I would not do the AMRAP in that case since volume won’t drop at all.

I also wouldn’t go up 50lbs from your BBB weights, but more like 5-10% and see how that flies for a cycle. You can always bump more if it’s a joke, but going from 50 reps of 170 right to 220 is asking for overuse issues. 185-200 would still be a solid increase in tonnage,