16 Nov Danny Vega – 4 month off season – Week 1 bench

I am currently in off season mode. Over the next 4 months I will be focusing on building my bench and working on some weak points until I start meet prep for next May’s RPS Redemption meet. I will be competing raw with wraps in the 242 weight class.

Having not really done a whole meet, I felt like last week took forever to end and I was ready to get started this morning. One thing is for sure–I have very little work capacity in my upper body. Everything felt extremely light until 40 reps in, and I started to hit a wall. It didn’t help much that I kept rest to 2-2:30 tops. 

I expect next week to be much easier. Volume will drop from 56-48 reps on the main movement and I also find I make huge adaptations between week 1 and 2 of a higher volume off season. I’m nowhere near where I want to be on bench but this is a good place to start.

Bench 45×15, 135×5, 185×3, 225×1, 245×10,10,10,10,8,8, back down set at 225×10

Close grip bench 205×8,10,8 (pathetic, I know. This is usually light but my triceps are weak and have no work capacity. That will change)

DB incline bench 65×10,10,10

BW dips (didn’t even attempt to add weight at this point) 3×10

Smith machine JM presses 135×8, 95×12, 95×10

Stir the pot x50 reps 

Increasing the calories substantially is going to help me recover properly from all this volume and yield great results. It’s only a matter of time.

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Danny Vega

Danny Vega is a 220lb raw powerlifter with meet bests of 640 squat in wraps (610 raw), 400 bench, and 700 deadlift. A native of Miami, Florida, Vega received his bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2004, where he was a member of the football team and a three-time Dean’s List recipient. Vega earned his masters of science in human performance from the University of Florida, where he worked with the national championship men’s basketball team along with women’s basketball, tennis, and golf programs. He then went on to become the Strength & Conditioning coordinator for VCU basketball. The Rams were 2007 conference champions and made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

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