Flying, Rep Ranges, and the Inverse Pyramid

So Thursday was Chest Day.

I’m really thinking about doing a chest/back split and not having a “leg day.” The most leg work I’m going to do are deadlifts on back day and the obligatory cardio work. I have to figure out how to work my squats in, or perhaps I’ll just… abandon it for a while… ugh. Any time I drop squats entirely from my plan is the time I know I’m going to fuck myself. I have to do more thinking/reading on the issue, but for now I just need to log my workout.

It’s pretty low-volume, relative to what I’m used to seeing in local programs, but at the same time relative to my own conditioning this was quite a lot of work outside of my normal rep range. It’s been a while since I last benched, so I decided to work for an additional rep rather than adding weight to the bar. This turned out to work out beautifully.

Flat Bench

1. 95lbs. x 5
2. 65lbs. x 6 (I wasn’t paying attention, this should have been 85lbs.)
3. 75lbs. x 7

Incline Bench – 5RM test

1. 45lbs.
2. 55lbs.
3. 65lbs.
4. 70lbs. (failed at 4 reps)

Incline Fly – 8RM test

1. 5lbs.
2. 10lbs.
3. 12lbs.
4. 15lbs.
5. 20lbs. (failed immediately, couldn’t even hold the bells out)

Here’s what it’s going to look like now that I have definite numbers to play with, next week:

Flat Bench

1. 100lbs. x 3-5
2. 90lbs. x 4-6
3. 80lbs. x 5-7

Incline Bench

1. 65lbs. x 5-8
2. 55lbs. x 6-9
3. 45lbs. x 7-10

Incline Fly

1. 20lbs. x 5-8
2. 15lbs. x 6-9
3. 10lbs. 7-10

I’m basically working strength-volume on flat bench, as it mostly functions to me as a warm up for incline benching. I would just do a max-single and move onto incline, which sounds like a fantastic idea on paper, but I’m too much of a pussy to actually attempt a single. So the volume: is for warming up more, and… balance. I don’t want to really increase the size of my lower pecs but I don’t want it to look neglected, either.

My goal with the chest workouts is firstly strength, of course, but from the standpoint of aesthetics I’m trying to also increase mass of the upper chest to achieve the ‘square pec’ look. Some evidence that I may be on the correct path is the tenderness I feel from armpit to armpit between collarbone and nipples. My lower pecs are not experiencing any soreness whatsoever. The reverse pyramid scheme allows me a set in which I can push the muscle hardest while it’s freshest, and then further volume to fully exhaust the muscle.

My only real concern is that perhaps the incline flies won’t be possible to reverse-pyramid. I don’t really know how to tell the difference between nervous and muscular failure, other than muscular failure is probably when it hurts and nervous is probably when my arms aren’t doing what I tell them to. If this is indeed the case, my failure with 20lbs. dumbbells was a nervous failure, and I may have to approach it with more simple volume than I would originally intend.

Finally, following the lifts, I spent 20 minutes on the treadmill alternating in 30s/90s jog/walk (convenient to have these labeled on the machine at 2 and 4 mph.) Though it was fairly easy, I want to do four more sessions at this intensity before I progress to doing 30/30, as I don’t want to overextend or overtrain myself through overconfidence. Slow progression is all I seek in regards to cardio.

I think next post I’ll detail some of the things I’m considering as far as diet. Right now I’m hovering around 2000 calories and doing a haphazard ephedrine/caffeine stack, which is probably only a 300 daily calorie deficit now that I briefly think about it…

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