Week 17: Volume Day

Squats

Warm Up: 47/15, 138/6, 228/3, 278/2
Work Sets: 303/5,5,5,5,5
This was probably the most difficult Volume Day I've ever had.  I knew I was in for a rough night after the first set of 303.  After the 4th set, I was seriously wondering how I would complete the 5th.  When I say I barely made it through the 5th set, I mean that in the truest sense of the phrase.  I think this week was so difficult because I have not done a Volume Day in two weeks.  Unfortunately, I am the type of person that loses strength very quickly when I take only a little time off.

Bench Press

I came across the website lift-run-bang.com, authored by Paul Carter, an accomplished strength athlete.  As you may be aware from my previous posts, I have been stagnant in the bench press.  In light of that, I have decided to give Carter's 5/4/3/2/1/1/1 bench press program a try.  So, for bench press only, I will be doing this program instead of the Texas Method.

123/5
143/4
168/3
185/2
195/1
205/1
217/1

Incline Press:

123/15 (I paused for 2 seconds with the bar on my chest in between each rep.)
123/18 (no pause)

After the incline press, I did 3 sets of triceps pushdowns.