Condensed Conjugate – Week 3/Day 1 (ME Lower/DE Upper)

This was a successful workout for multiple reasons, although I’m a little annoyed that I skipped out on the accessory work. I was running short on time during my lunch break from work, so it was just forced by circumstance to cut the workout after hitting the ME Lower and DE Upper work. That said, everything felt solid, and I felt surprisingly strong.

One thing I noticed, though, is that I need more lower body work per week. I’m going to start getting more lower body work on my extra workouts, either through more squat pattern training, or simply by way of moving more throughout the day.

A1. SSB Pause Squats (2 count pause) – Work up to a heavy set of 5 (RPE 9-10)

  • BWx20x2
  • 65x10x2
  • 115x5x2
  • 155×5
  • 205×5
  • 245×5
  • 265×5 (RPE 9.5)
    • This set was tough, way tougher than I would have expected it to feel, but this is largely why I’m thinking I need more lower body work throughout the week moving forward. That said, I’m really happy with the weight that I got for this 3rd week. I’m running 3 week cycles for each of max effort movements, so this was a great number for me to switch on.
    • I was certainly feeling something in my lower back on the left side, not pain, but a odd tightness. It’s the day after today, and it’s definitely tight, but luckily not restrictive or painful.

B1. SSB Pause Squats (2 count pause) – Down sets 3×5 @ 85% of top set

  • 225x5x3
    • To be fair, 85% of 265 was actually 225.25, which means I should have rounded up to 230 for these sets, but I couldn’t readily find my 2.5lbs plates, and I was too lazy to search for them. I’m not unhappy about it, the extra 5lbs wouldn’t have made a significant difference on these sets. They were light and easy, without any issues.

C1. Speed Bench Press (3 grips) – 9×3

  • 45x20x3
  • 95x10x3
  • 115x5x3
  • 135x3x9
    • The warm-up volume might be excessive, but I’m fine with that. I need to learn how to generate maximal acceleration and velocity in a fatigued state, so I’m still happy with how these sets went. I definitely noticed a significant decrease in peak velocity with 135 compared to 125 from last week, but not slow enough for me to feel like I wasn’t training the appropriate attributes here.
    • The medium grip sets definitely felt the best, and I’m thinking this is simply just my strongest grip on bench press, and should be my competitive grip. The grip with pinkies on the rings really hit my pecs, and the closest grip lit my triceps up like crazy.

D1. Close-Grip Bench Press – 1xAMRAP @ Speed Bench Weight

  • 135xAMRAP (16 reps)
    • I really wanted to hit 17 reps with this again, but by rep 10 my triceps were gassing out hard, and rep 16 was basically a RPE 10 effort to lock it out. I’m still happy with this. I got only 15 with 115 during week 1, 17 with 125 on week 2 and 16 with 135 on week 3. That’s a pretty decent progression, and my elbows, triceps, shoulders and pecs are all still feeling good. I can’t ask for much more at this point.

Anyway, like I said, I had to skip on the accessory work of pull-ups and dips, but frankly, I have a feeling that dips would have been a major challenge to hit the requisite reps. My triceps were completely fried by the end of my bench work.

For the next 3 week wave, I think I’m going to switch over to some front squats for ME lower body work, maybe throw some chains on the bar and go for a top set of 8 (I really want more volume on these), and I’m also considering adding in a secondary lower body movement that I can do super set with the front squats. Right now, my first thought is trap bar deadlifts as I would like to reintroduce a hip hinge, with a bar that won’t conflict with the front squat. Ideally, I’d just pick a static weight and do sets of 5, something in the RPE 6 range for the first set, and perform them with a higher hip position to really hit the posterior chain.

For DE Upper work, I’m going to drop the bar weight to 105 and throw some doubled up mini bands onto the bar, and increase the volume over the 3 weeks. Week 1 will be 10 sets (with a static grip), week 2 will be 15 sets and week 3 will be 20 sets. I’m going to try and stick with the 30 seconds of rest between sets, but will allow for up to 60 seconds as the number of sets increases week to week.

I’m going to keep the accessory work the same, and really just try and push the vertical pulling volume overall as I go.

That’s it, just have to rest up and do some extra work for my hamstrings and back today, and prepare for tomorrow’s DE Lower and ME Upper work!

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