Friday, August 15, 2008

Eric Cressey's Maximum Strength: 2nd Pass, Phase 1

So I've decided to make a second pass through Eric Cressey's Maximum Strength Program. I often hear people rave about a program and the gains they got from it. It makes me wonder why they stopped the program or never got back to it. For me, the maximum strength program increased all my numbers across the board the first time through, so it was a no brainer to get back to it.

Aside from doing some additional pre-work and some added mobility/stretches in between sets I'm pretty much following the program to the letter. I just completed phase one and decided to do a comparison of my first pass through and now.

Eric says "don't forget your damn warm up!"

NOTE: I completed phase 1 for the first time in October, so this is roughly 10 months after the fact. I'm also doing this at a different gym and different training environment. Not having the boys at Cressey Performance(Shout outs to Eric Cressey, Tony Gentilcore, Brian St. Pierre and even Pete) monitoring me and pushing me hard has definitely been something I've been working to overcome. This is just a sample of the exercises, there is quite a bit more but these are the highlights.

Best set the first time through is in black, best new set is in red.

Walking DB Lunges: 30x8, 70x8
Bench Press: 155x3, 195x3
Seated Cable Row: 100x10, 140x9
Front Squat: 110x6, 165x6
Rack Pulls: 195x6, 305x6
Chin Ups: 1 Set of 6 the rest assisted, All sets of 6 Body Weight plus 15lbs.

I've also been using a chain overhead on my side bridges to add difficulty. So I'd say I've made some pretty good gains and honestly can't believe that I was that weak last time through. Isn't it amazing what consistent training and nutrition can do.

I'll be doing a quick wrap up of each phase of Maximum Strength so look forward to the phase 2 wrap up next month. If you haven't picked up a copy of Maximum Strength yet go here and order it already!

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