5/3/1 Log: Cycle 1. Week 2. Deadlift

Defranco's Agile-8+

RDL - BarX10, 95X5

Deadlift-
135X5
175X3
195X3
220X3
250X5
155X10
135X10X2
super-set with
Hanging Leg-Raise - BWX4-5X7

Really rough session.  I threw my back out on the 250 set.  I'm pretty sure it was a form issue.  I said fuck it and went and did some of the BBB back-off sets anyway.  I got my form more dialed in on these, and my back actually seemed to feel best while I did them.  I think it was the right decision.

This is becoming a chronic injury for me, and the ironic thing is I was hoping DL's were going to help prevent back strains in general.  One way of looking at it is that this weight is 65lbs. heavier than the last time this happened Squatting, so maybe it IS helping.  I had bad form that time as well.

I did, however, realize something important.  I mentioned this in my last post, but I can now see the value in keeping rep PR's in mind.  Not getting in enough reps to project to a higher 1RM, but rather doing more weight for that number of reps than ever before, and being happy about it.  250X3, the prescribed final work-set of the day, would have been a 3RM PR for me.  I injured myself on the 5th rep.  If I had stopped at 3, I would be fine today.  I still believe it was my form and not the weight that got me injured, but there's still a lesson here.  I'm supposed to be focusing on my squats this cycle.  So it's okay to consistently settle for rep PR's in the other lifts.


Hanging leg-raises were ugly before the back strain.  Afterwards, they were ugly AND painful because of the stretch.  I decided to start super-setting them this week the way I do chins on upper-body days.  I'll get in more volume and get out of the gym sooner this way.  Once I can execute them more cleanly, I'll probably institute the same rep progression I'm doing for chins.  However rather than start loading them at some point (don't think this is really practical), I'll wait until I can get mulitple sets of 20, and then possibly move on to some weighted ab work (standing cable crunches or some such).