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a few questions, anyone who knows sth, pls feel free to enlighten me..

1) what purpose does the bench serve, at least for a baller, and as an exercise in itself?
cos when i do it, i generally don't feel my pecs being stressed all that much, instead when i am close to failure, i feel it in my arms and chest. i guess my point is, does it really work the chest all that much?

Upper body strength is essential to most athletes. Trying to get a shot up in the lane or while getting fouled? Upper body strength. The bench is one of the most basic exercises for doing that. Hard to give advice without watching you, but one thing to try is to treat it like a flye. That is, when you're pushing the bar up, think about bringing your hands together across your chest, like you would with a dumbbell flye, without actually moving them. Combine bench with some weighted pullups and you've got yourself a nice upper-body routine.

2) RDL--- straight back ala squats, or slight round?
i think im doing it wrong, i cant really feel my hips extending...
i set my weight on my heels, try to make my hips go as far back as possible, but on the way up, i suppose i dun feel it all that much.
abit, but not as much as i reckon it should, given that i think RDLs are supposed to be a hip driven exercise...

Not sure what you mean by "slight round."

Went to the gym today cause we got out of work early and I didn't really finish last night.

Warm up
usual

Work
run 25 mins @easy pace, hill workout on treadmill
core circuit

Cool down
stretch

Warm up
bike @easy pace x10mins
usual

Work
Bench 5x160, 5x170, 8x180
superset x3

• paused box jumps x5
• pull ups x7

core circuit

Cool down
bike @easy pace x5mins
stretch

Shins hurt. Otherwise this was good.

@ both of you guys:

My RFD/explosiveness is garbage, as you've both pointed out. I think Andrew's right: I got some sweet gains in strength from SS (vag: my squat is 320, thankyouverymuch) but definitely got stuck in a rut and mixing things up should be good. I'm going to try 5/3/1 for five or six weeks (one full cycle plus deload), retest and then try a couple of weeks of singles, per Andrew's suggestion. Then test again. Then probably switch to maintenance on the strength part and start working more heavily on sprinting and plyo-type activities, as well as conditioning, because by then it'll be the beginning of April and the ultimate season will be just around the bend.

The paused box jumps and depth jumps are meant to improve RFD and explosiveness/reactivity. Just to be clear, Andrew, you're suggesting that I add jump squats or some similar overloaded explosive movement (suggestions?) before heavy lower leg days, or before upper body days? I wasn't quite clear on what/when you were suggesting with those.

Thanks for the feedback.

Oh, one more thing, actually: The great thing I've discovered in my first two 5/3/1 workouts is that they're SO MUCH FASTER than SS. When you're doing a full warm-up and heavy sets across for two lifts, plus warm up and cool down, that shit takes forever, drains you and doesn't leave much time for anything else. With the new setup I can do core stuff, RFD stuff, etc. without spending 2+ hours in the gym.

Warm up

Work
OHP 5x100, 5x105, 7x110
superset of:

• inverted rows 3x10x25#
• paused box jumps 3x5

core circuit x3 (Russian twist, plank, OH med ball wall throws, hypers)

Cool down
stretch

1xfeeling sick superseted with 1xleaving gym at the middle of the workout.

3mins x driving back home fast.

2xpuke my guts ( censored? LOL )

Haha feel better man. Ginger ale, toast, and sleep.

Testing today. Vert mat is at the other branch of my gym. Coming back tomorrow. So...incomplete test. Will do DL and VJ on Tuesday.

Squat x1x275, 295, 305, 320 fail, 320 WIN

Bench x1x185, 195, 205, 215

Hit my targets in both, so that's cool. I feel like I could bench more but there's something up with my form cause my left elbow just isn't feeling it.