UB: Strong Week 4. Deadlift

Defranco mobility work

Standing Calf Raises - 285X15, 345X15, 385X15

SLDL - BarX10

Deadlift -
135X5
165X5
195X5
215X5
245X5
265X5

Power Shrugs - 365X11, 7

Chin-ups - Gym BW 207X10, 5

10 minutes on treadmill

Went up another plate in the stack on the calf machine.  2 to go.

Worried about Deads today.  I spent part of the day staring at my spreadsheet for this cycle and finally had to admit that my goal for Pulls was unrealistic.  I had projected a 30lb. increase in my 5RM, starting by hitting my previous projected max this week, then going for a 20lb. PR next week, and another 10lb. PR the week after that.  As it got closer, that just looked crazy, so I decided to back it off to the max this week, a 10lb. PR next week, and another 10lbs. for the week after, BUT will decide for sure about that after next week's session. 

Also, I had serious tightness on the left side of my mid-back coming into the gym.  Did the Defranco stuff which includes roll-overs, mountain-climbers, and groiners, then did some empty SLDL's and a set of 135, but nothing loosened it up (later at home, a combination of foam-rolling, ice, heat, and a 1/2 dose of ibuprofen mostly did the job).  I was really worried about attempting a near-max pull, but everything went GREAT.  While the top set was "hard," those reps actually went up as fast as any of the lower weight sets did.  Jefit actually projects 265X5 as a very, very minor 1RM increase.  Afterwards my back felt exactly the same as it did beforehand.  No aggravation from the assistance work either.  Either none of the stuff I did today really involved that tight area, or my form was super dialed-in.  Maybe a combination of the two.  I'll take it.

As I stated last session, I decided to just throw two 25's on top of 3 plates per side for the shrugs this session.  Kept me from getting all the way to 12 reps, but the main thing I noticed was how much harder it was to pull the bar off the rack and into position for shrugs.

I had a hard time getting the "mechanical" scale at the gym to give me a solid reading, so I used the digital scale.  The mechanical seemed like it was trying to put me in the 203 range, but since it was so wonky I have to go with the digital's 207 (206.6) read-out.  So Rep PR on chins if that's accurate.  Also, I got the 5th rep I realized I'd been missing on the 2nd 50% set of Dips and Chins.  I'll get that for Dips today as well, by God.

For some reason, my back tightness made me loathe to do core work today.  It could have been intuition, or it could have been my subconsious wanting to slack.  Either way I went with it, and just did 5 minutes of walking and 5 minutes of mild jogging on the treadmill and packed it in.