Bench and Squat

Workout 16 January 2010:

Bench Press 1-10-1-20-1-30 reps

Front Squat 1-10-1-20-1-30 reps

Results:
Bench: 190-145-195-110-190-85lbs (Total 915lbs)
Squat: 205-145-210-105-215-65lbs (Total 945lbs)

Previous best: none

Today and Monday I'm trying out a new rep scheme that combines max effort with varying reps for endurance.

Overall, I'm a big fan. It's been a long time since I've gone heavy on the bench press and I'm very happy with the weights I was able to press. I probably could have gone 5lbs heavier on each of the one-reps, but didn't risk failure since I was benching alone. One of the hardest parts of this workout is figuring out the best weight to use for the 10-20-30 rep rounds. Go too heavy, and you end up failing before all the reps are complete. Go too light, and you're disappointed you could have gone heavier. Fortunately, the weights I used were just about perfect.

The squats went equally well. Again, figuring out the proper weight for the rep-rounds was tricky but again I guessed well.

For this workout, ensure plenty of rest between sets. For the 10-, 20-, and 30-rep rounds, you must do all reps in a row without setting the bar down. For the bench press, you can "rest" momentarily with the barbell locked out overhead. Likewise, you can rest on the front squats with the bar on your shoulders. Of course, if you have to put down the weight, do it, but it doesn't count towards your total. As said above, the difficulty in this workout is picking out the proper weight for the rep-sets. If anything, air of the side of going too light. You can always add more weight the next workout. For most people, the 10-rep weight should be 70 +/- 5% of your 1 rep max, 20 reps should be 60 +/- 10%, and 30 reps should be 50 +/- 10%.