Strength Programme - Goal: 100kg Military Press

Hi guys
 
I first started training about 4 years ago, but my training has been very sparodic - I've had spells of 3-4 months where I've not picked up a weight and others where I've been doing a lot of other sports so have just fitted in a bit of weights here and there.
However, at the moment, I'm really focussed on building my strength up to new levels so thought I'd start recording it all on here for motivation and hopefully to get some feedback. Stats below, then recent sessions below that.
 
Age: 25
 
Height: 5'11
 
Weight: my cheap £5 Argos scales currently say 87kg, stepped on some electric ones last night and they said 91kg. So around 14 stone roughly.
 
Current PB's:
Deadlift 185kg (when around 12.5 stone)
Bench 122kg
Military Press 6x69kg
 
Injury Restrictions:
Right knee's fvcked. Have had 2 ops this year, and am at the stage in recovery of gentle jogging. Deadlifts, squats etc are out the equation unfortunately.
Niggling problems with my right elbow and both wrists - don't do any sort of bicep curls as a result.
 
Goals:
Get as strong as possible on bench and military press by New Year / early January. I'm hoping to get my bench up to a minimum on 125kg (hopefully bit more) and military press up to 6x75kg. I'd also like to gain some size as well - as its nice when people (especially women :-p) comment and notice - however strength's my main goal.  
 
Routine:
2 day split, training generally every 2-3 days. Day 1 is bench plus support exercises. Day 2 is military press plus support exercises. I'm following a 2 month strength progression schedule, designed to gradually build up strength on these exercises - I'm aiming to complete the schedule as follows:
 
Session 1: Bench 3x6 100kg   Session 2: Military Press 3x5 66kg 
Session 3: Bench 3x5 103kg   Session 4: Military Press 3x4 68kg 
Session 5: Bench 3x4 106kg   Session 6: Military Press 3x3 70kg
 
Session 7:   Bench 3x6 103kg   Session 8:   Military Press 3x5 68kg 
Session 9:   Bench 3x5 106kg   Session 10: Military Press 3x4 70kg 
Session 11: Bench 3x4 109kg   Session 12: Military Press 3x3 72kg 
 
Session 13: Bench 3x6 106kg   Session 14: Military Press 3x5 70kg 
Session 15: Bench 3x5 109kg   Session 16: Military Press 3x4 72kg 
Session 17: Bench 3x4 112kg   Session 18: Military Press 3x3 74kg 
 
So far I've successfully completed sessions 1-7, albeit with 1 failure on session 2 on military press. I feel its going really well and I can feel the strength increases week on week.
 
Finally, here are my recent sessions (including whats above but also injcluding the support exercises):
 
Session 1 - Mon 16/11/09
 
Bench: warm ups, 3x6 100kg
Dips w/20kg: 3x12 (1 min recovery)
DB Incline Bench 2x8 32kg
 
Session 2 - Thu 19/11/09
 
Military Press: warm ups, 5,5,4 x 66kg
DB Side Raises: 3x6 13kg
Lat Pull Downs: 3x10 (1)
 
Session 3 - Sat 21/11/09
 
Bench: warm ups, 3x5 103kg
Dips w/22.5kg: 12,12,10 (1)
DB Incline Flys: 3x8 24.5kg
Slow Press Ups: 15 reps
 
Session 4 - Mon 23/11/09
 
Military Press: warmups, 3x4 68kg
DB Front Raises: 3x6 18kg
DB Shoulder Press: 3x8 27kg
Lat Pull Downs: 3x8 (30 secs)
 
Session 5: Thu 26/11/09
 
Bench: warm ups, 3x4 106kg
Dips w/22.5kg: 3x12 (1)
DB Incline Bench 2x8 37kg
 
Session 6: Sun 29/11/09
 
Military Press: warm ups, 3x3 70kg
 
Session 7: Mon 30/11/09
 
Bench: warm ups, 3x6 103kg
Dips w/25kg: 2x10 (1) - rucksack broke at end of 2nd set, need to buy a belt to attach weight to
DB Incline Bench: 3x6 37kg
 
 
I'll try and keep this updated session by session. Any comments / opinions appreciated - I'd be interested to hear what people think of the routine, in particular the volume - as I'm aware the volume is quite low. But at the same time, its working for me at the moment as I know that I'm making good progress week on week.
 
Thanks
 
Ian
 
  
 
 

Session 8: Thu 3/12/09

Military Press: Warm ups, 3x5 68kg
Side Raises: 3x6 13kg
Lat Pulldowns: 24 reps

Session 9: Fri 4/12/09

Bench: Warm ups, 3x5 106kg
DB Incline Flys: 3x8 22kg (1)
DB Incline Bench: 14,5 32kg (1) Maxed out Both Sets

Hope someone's actually reading this btw!!

Some very strong lifts there mate. Will be keeping an eye on this.
How do you manage to do the weighted dips with bad wrists and elbows? As I find that this exercise puts far more stress on them then curls do

Thanks mate. I'm finding the strength progression programme I laid out on my first post is working really well for me - I can feel the strength increases week on week.
In terms of the elbow and wrists - its strange cos I never feel them on dips at all. The elbow pain is actually about an inch above my elbow, I take a couple of painkillers for it before benching and its not getting any worse. In terms of the wrists, they're ok at the moment but I've injured them twice before on curls, so leave curls out to be on the safe side.

Time to update this again - in my last session, I slightly pulled a muscle in my left shoulder and unfortunately have had to take just over a week off.
Anyway, got back on it tonight after a couple of painkillers and was pleased to find that not only did my shoulder hold up, but I also managed to complete the next session as scheduled (I'd thought I might not be able to after the break). However I kept the volume very low as I was still worried about my shoulder.

Session 10: Mon 14/12/09

Military Press: Warm ups, 3x4 70kg
Lat Pull Down: 24 reps, 9 reps

Have also managed to get hold of a small CD player that takes batteries (I train in my garage which has no electric), made it a lot better having music to train to.

Another short session tonight - been very short on sleep the past 3 nights and also feeling a bit under the weather. I was still annoyed to not quite hit the 3x4 I was aiming for on the bench, but all things considered, it wasn't a bad effort. Was my first time repping such a weight - only ever previously done 109kg + as singles building up to a 1 rep max attempt.

Session 11: Wed 16/12/09

Bench: Warm ups, 4,4,3 x 109kg
Dips w/5kg: 12,12,12 (getting used to new weights belt)

Another short session this avo: had cold, sore throat, headache etc teh past few days so kept it short, pleased to hit the target on military press considering. Looking forward to being fully fit so I can start stepping up the volume a bit, got 2 weeks off work now too :-)

Session 12 : Sat 19/12/09

Military Press: warm ups, 3x3 72kg
Lat Pull Down: 25 reps, 5 reps

Good session, this. After only managing 4,4,3 on 109kg bench last time out, I thought there'd be no chance of 3x6 with 106kg, but got really close. Last rep final set got halfway up and was at the sticking point for about 5 seconds, but couldn't quite get it beyond halfway. Still a good session tho.
 
Session 12: Mon 21/12/09
 
Bench: warm ups, 6,6,5 x 106kg
Dips w/10kg: 3x12 (1)
DB Bench: 5 reps 42kg (totally fvcked by this stage!!) 
 

Latest session this morning, military press session. Gonna train again tomorrow (due to lack of time over Xmas day/ Boxing day) and also still had DOMS this morning from Monday's bench session. As a result, decided to make today's session very short and sweet, with just military press.
Unfortunately, I c0cked up - had it in my mind that today's sesh was 3x5 with 68kg - whereas in fact it should have been 70kg. Only realised after the 2nd set, so put it up to 70kg for the final set and maxed out.

Session 14: Wed 23/12/09

Military Press: Warm ups, 2x5 68kg, 6 reps 70kg

Felt quite hard today even on the 68's, probably due to the DOMS, annoyed at myself for the weight error!!

This was a tough session today - DOMS was raging beforehand, and my eating hadn't been great beforehand either cos went out last night. All things considered, not a bad sesh, think 3 days rest will be welcome tho so I'm fresh for the next session.

Session 15: Thu 24/12/09

Bench: 5,4,4 109kg
Dips w/10kg: 3x12

Looking forward to testing my bench 1RM in a couple of weeks, reckon I can put a few kilos on top of my 122.
Happy Xmas to everyone reading this!

Good session this, very pleased with the military press - on the 3rd set, the 1st 3 reps went up comfortably so I decided to go for 6 - to attempt a new 6RM. Video'd it on my phone as well, will try and work out how to put it up. Still getting a bit of jip from my left shoulder tho so didn't do much in the way of other exercises.

Session 16: Tue 29/12/09

Military Press: Warm ups, 4,4,6 x 72kg
Lat Pull Downs: 24 reps,10 reps

What I'm wondering now is where do I take my programme from here. I've almost finished the 2 month programme that I set out at the start of this log and am really happy overall with my progress - however I'm starting to struggle to hit some targets, particularly on bench - and so I think after I'll do teh final 2 sessions, I'll look to change.
My goal is simply to build strength, whether I gain size is neither here nor there to me - however I'm wondering whether it might be worth spending 2 months training for size (with higher volume, higher reps and a sh1tload of food) with the idea that an extra few kilos of muscle should lead to greater strength.
The alternative is to adapt a new strength programme (possibly similar to what I'm doing but focusing 2-3 reps rather than 3-6?)
Any thoughts?

I'll post this in power and strength as well to hopefully get a few more opinions.

Anyone?? - lol - not had a single response on here or in Power & Strength!!

Anyway - very good session today - really pleased to hit 3x4 on 112kg bench. Looking forward to the 1RM test now!

Session 17: Thu 31/12/09

Bench: Warm ups, 3x4 112kg
Dips: 3x12 w/12.5kg
DB Incline Bench: 11 reps w/37kg

Last session of the 2 month programme today - only a short session - had DOMS from chest yesterday and I'm gonna attempt 1RM's on Sunday - so wanna keep myself fresh for that.
74's felt hard cos of the DOMs, bearing that in mind, was just pleased to complete all 3 sets.

Session 18: 1/1/10 

Military Press: Warm ups, 3x3 74kg

Gonna do some research over the weekend into new strength routines - having a properly drawn out routine has really helped the past 2 months so I'm keen to find another.

Session 19: 3/1/10

1RM day - been building up to this for a little while. Got new PB's in both bench and military press, although should have had more in bench - absolutely p1ssed 125, but couldn't quite lock out 130 - in hindsight, should have gone straight from 115 to 130. But overall, can't complain at 2 new PB's.

Bench:
6x49kg
4x69kg
2x89kg
1x104kg
1x115kg
1x125kg - PB
130kg Failed
130kg Failed

Military Press:
4x37kg
2x47kg
1x57kg
1x67kg
1x78kg - PB
1x80kg - PB

Have got all PB's and PB attempts video'd on my phone - will try and work out how to upload them later.

Re the IRM videos, have managed to get them onto my PC as MP4 files under 'Media Player Classic'. However being a technophobe, I can't seem to link them onto Muscletalk - anyone know how to do it?

Wasn't intending to train until tomorrow but unexpectedly didn't have to go work cos of the snow :-D.
So decided to squeeze a session in. I've decided to stick with my strength progression routine for another 6 sessions, since I'm gaining well on it.

Session 20: 5/1/10

Bench: 3x6 109kg
Dips w/15kg: 12,12,7

Bench was strange today - I never felt 100% comfortable with it - like I wasn't in quite the right position or summat. But still, got the 3 sets of 6 so can't complain! 

Had a bit of DOMS for this session, gonna leave it til Sunday now for the next session.

Session 21: 7/1/10

Military Press: 3x5 72kg
Side Raises: 2x6 14kg, 1x6 12kg
Lat Pull Down 23 reps
30 mins pad work (training with my housemate tonight)

Ended up leaving it til today (Mon) for this session. Good session, but left shoulder's giving me jib again, even after knocking back a couple fo painkillers and covering it in deep heat - might need to give it a week off sometime soon.

Session 22: 11/1/10

Bench: Warm ups, 3x5 112kg
Dips w/20kg: 3x10
Press ups (with push up stands and 10kg on back): 20 reps
15 mins pad work

First session for a week due to shoulder. Pleased to say shoulder didn't feel too bad although I only just completed the military press - think having a week off and previously a 4 day gap to the session before that has maybe caused me to lose 1-2% of strength.

Session 23: 18/1/10

Military Press: Warm ups, 3x4 74kg
Side Raises: 6x14kg, 2x6 13kg
Lat Pull Down: 12,12,5 (30 secs)

You seem to be increasing the weights at a nice decent pace, well done with the PBs on the bench and Military. Keep it up