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

Defranco's Agile-8+

Deadlift -
135X10
185X5
205X5
235X3
260X3
155X10X5

RDL - 95X10, 7, 10

Great DL session.  I made a few changes, and I think they were good.  I opted not to warm-up with RDL's of the empty bar and 95 as I have been.  I jumped straight into 135lb. Deads because I wanted to focus on my form knowing that loose form caused my back strain last week.  Also, in all sets, I tried to give myself a moment between each rep to run through the checklist making sure everything was tight and reminding myself what do do on the pull.  As a result of all this, the pulls were all good.  I might have gotten more reps on the top set, but I felt my form starting to go so I stopped.  It's still a 3 rep PR for me.  I also had to use a mixed grip for the first time.  I felt my grip weakening on the 2nd work-set, so I switched to mixed for the top set.  No big deal.

I kept my head on straight for the BBB back-off sets as well, and they went well.  I was even able to shorten the rest period between most of theses sets.

My abs were still killing me from all the work they did in the last week, so I had to skip the hanging leg-raises altogether.  I opted to do RDL's instead to get a little more hamstring and grip work.  I actually had to cut the 2nd set short because my grip was weakening, but I managed to tough out 2 more reps on the last set.  In a vacuum, I'm stronger than this weight/rep scheme on RDL's, but my lower back was exhausted so I tried to take it easy and focus on keeping my chest up and getting a lot of pop from the glutes and hams.

As usual on DL day, I used a brisk walk home from the gym for some light conditioning.