Thursday 8.10: Trap bar deads, Bench, Row

Thursday. Deadlift trap bar triples (up to 215kg). Bench singles (up to PR 108kg). Metcon, 5rds of: 10 bench (80kg), 500m row. Time, 19.50.

Thursday is currently that day when I pull from the ground and do bench. Those are the two main elements of this day. Today was a lot of success. In all possible ways. Got heavy pulls under my belt and received a personal record on the press. Metcon was heavier bench than I've ever done so there was a good volume too and heavy breathing on the rower.

Pulls.

• Trap bar deadlift
• 3x115, 145, 165, 185, 195
• 2x205
• 3x205, 215

My goal today was to give different type of stimulus to my body compared to conventional deadlifts. Trap bar is somewhat different than normal pulls from the ground. The centre of mass is right at the feet whereas in conventional deadlifts it tends to be a bit in front. If you look at it from the side, the grip is right where the feet is whereas in conventional deads the bar has to be a bit in front, slightly contacting the shins. This allows the athlete to put more pressure on legs.

And this really made my feet shake after each set. Back felt fine, and I believe the angle of my back was pretty straight, so I can look at these lifts with slight pride. There are two sides to this barbell. I started with having to go deeper in the start position so the distance pulled was longer. Went up to 3x195kg this way, and a double at 205kg. This is pretty sick as my 1RM is 210kg on conventional deadlift. After this, I flipped the bar over so the distance was shortened a bit. Then continued to pull triples at 205 and 215kg. It was awesome to hold this heavy barbell standing tall.

Deads

Strength.

• Bench press 10x60, 5x70, 3x80, 1x85, 90, 95, 100, 105, PR 108kg)

My point here was basically to prepare for the metcon. Doing heavier reps in the beginning, and then drop down to 80kg is a good tactic because then the barbell feels a lot lighter compared to when climbing upwards. First reps at 80kg felt semi-heavy but after going 100+ it felt light when I dropped down to 80kg.

Anyway, I took singles at 85kg and onwards. Thought about doing couple of singles and if it feels good, I might try to break the record because last time the PR was not the extreme max. Today I witnessed that to myself by taking 108kg up for a new record.

Metcon. Time, 19.50

• 5 rounds of:
• 10 bench press, 80kg
• 500m row

Combining rowing with any strength element as a couplet is tough. Try going deads plus row, and you're gonna be smashed. Or clean and jerks huh. Today it was bench and row. Okay I put the bench at 80kg which forced me to break the sets, except the first one which was unbroken. Then it was mostly 6-4 or 6-2-2, or something like that.

Rowing was 1.45-1.50 each round. My breathing went high on the rower but then dropped down on the bench. The reason for this was breaking the sets. Had I done this with 70kg I most likely would have done it unbroken. However, the goal of this workout was to familiarize myself with heavier barbell with good volume so this succeeded well. All in all, I feel like this metcon and the entire session was great.