5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 5. Week 3. Squat

Saturday:
BW - 199

Squat -
BarX10
95X5, 5
135X5
185X5
210X3
235X5

Front Squats -
95X10, 10, 10

T-Bar Rows -
BarX15
25X10
75X5
100X3
75X15

Dips - BWX10, 6, 5, 5, 5

Sunday:
Timed-Mile - 8:49

Kind of an 80% session, I guess.  Squats felt slower than I would have hoped, but 235X5 is pretty much dead-center-average for what I've hit the last 5 weeks.

Fronts felt solid.  Still playing with my grip trying to find a fingers under grip that's both stable and comfortable enough not to be a distraction.  I was planning on starting BBB with 115 for sets of 10, but I believe I will start with this weight at least until my grip is more settled.

Used Paul Carter's over-warm-up method on rows this time to great success.  I was struggling to get 75X10 just working up to it, and with the over-warm-up here the 15 rep set was solid.

Dips were okay.  It's still just a matter of being gassed by the end of the session, and still having the discipline to not only work through all 5 sets, but to keep pausing each rep at the bottom.

Fell off the conditioning band-wagon a bit since I've been back from vacation.  Had a tight schedule this week, but I made myself go out at sunset last night and run a mile.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 5. Week 2. Press/Dead

BW - 199

Pause Squats -
BarX10
95X5
135X5, 5
185X3
210X3
235X1

Klokov Press -
BarX10
65, 75X3
85X11

Deadlift -
135X5
185X5, 5
215X3
245X3
275X10

Leg Curls - 5 sets of 20

Great session.  +10%.

Pause Squats felt as solid as they have since I went to this top tier of %s.

85X11 on Klokovs is an all around PR.

275X10 on Deadlift is an all around PR.  Felt really good too.

Leg Curls are goddamn uncomfortable at just about any weight.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 5. Week 2. Bench

BW - 201

Pause Squats -
BarX10
95X5
135X5, 5
185X3
210X3
235X1

BW Lunges - 3 sets of 10

Bench -
BarX15
95X5, 5
120X3
140X3
155X7
95X12

Chins - BWX10, 8, 5, 5, 5

Pause Squats felt good.  Something that occurred to me about starting every training session with squats:  it forces me to take everything seriously.  Obviously I should take everything seriously, but the thrill/danger of squatting just puts me in a different place from the very first set than anything else.  And I'm not just talking about starting off with calves or neck or something.  Even benching and deadlifting with an empty or light bar does not snap me to attention in the same way that back squats will.  And once I'm in that place, I'm pretty much there the rest of the session, and able to focus in on every rep and set even at the end of a session when I'm fatigued and the last thing I want to do is another set of paused-chins.

Getting that extra leg work in with lunges here.

Bench felt really, really solid today.  155X7 is my 2nd best lift since I reset my form.  I went back to thumb around here, since thumbless didn't seem to help at all last time.  I good cue that I found this session was squeezing my shoulder blades together throughout the lift.  I realized that at the top of reps, I was extending my shoulders all the way forward and was losing tightness in my back.  This worked very, very well, and was something I hadn't understood about the lift previously.

I believe 201X10 is an all-around PR since I started pausing my chins as the bottom.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 5. Week 2. Squat

BW - 200

Squat -
BarX10 (long pause at bottom)
95X5 (shorter pause)
95X5
135X5
175, 200X3
225X8

Front Squats -
BarX5
95X10, 10, 10

T-Bar Rows -
25X10, 10
50X10
60X10
70X12

Dips - BWX11, 6, 6, 5, 4

225X8 on Squats is an all-around PR since I reset my form.  Felt good.

Looking back, I realize that a lot of the times I've tweaked my back I was either front squatting, or I had front squats in my program.  This made me a little paranoid, so I did some research, and worked hard on my form in this session.  The two cues that I focused on were breaking with the knees, and allowing them to travel forward to make the descent, and leading out of the hole with my chest.  This seemed to work pretty well, and everything felt tight. 

I also changed my grip from cross-arm, back to hands under the bar.  I toyed around with this a few ways, gradually moving to thumbless, and then actually settling on pinkie around the bar for the last two sets.  This creates a sort of "neutral grip" that seems unlikely, but seemed to actually work out okay, and elbow pain I started to feel during thumbless sets dissipated by the last set.  Gonna keep the weight light on these, and use them as my BBB back-off sets beginning next cycle.

T-Bars are weak for some reason, but I think I need to go back to doing an over-warm up on these as that had worked well previously, and worked well for Pendlays as well.  If I do that, and they are still weaker than before I did all those Pendlays, then I may need to second guess either that movement or my approach to it.

11 reps at 200 is an all-around PR since I started pausing my dips at the bottom of each rep.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 5. Week 1. Press/Dead

BW - 200

Pause Squats -
BarX10
95X5
135X5, 5
185X3
210X3
235X1

Klokovs -
BarX12
60, 70X5
80X12

Deadlift -
135X5
185X5, 5
200X5
230X5
260X11

Leg Curls - 5 sets of 20

Solid session.  80%

235 on the pause squats is still slow, but smooth as long as I'm focused.

Klokovs felt a little wonky.  Couldn't quite get in the groove.

260X11 on Deads is a Rep PR, and a tiny increase to my projected max.

Leg curls were murder.  5 sets of 20 was harder than the set of 100 I did on vacation.  Different machines, weights, etc., though.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 5. Week 1. Bench

BW - 201 (hmmm)

Pause Squats -
BarX10
95X5, 5
135X5, 5
185X3
210X3
235X1

BW Lunges - 5 sets of 10

Bench -
BarX15
95X5, 5
115X5
130X5
150X5

Chins - BWX8, 7, 5, 5, 6, 5

BB Curl - BarX20

Hypers - 5 sets of 15

Mostly good session except for the benching.

I moved up to the tier 3 %'s for the off-day Pause Squats.  The 235 was slow but absolutely do-able, and that's reassuring.

Doing lunges on this day is part of the additional leg work I'm adding into this cycle.  Back-off Fronts on Squat day, BW-Only Lunges on Bench day, and high-rep leg curls on Deadlift day.

I started trying out a thumbless grip on Bench here.  Funnily I was only able to get the requisite 5 reps when a good day would have been closer to 10.  Not blaming the grip though.  I just think it was an off day benching.

Paused Chins are starting to feel more solid.

I did this set of curls just to off-set all the pressing on the day.  Everyone talks about programming to have pulling movements equal or outweigh pressing movements, but it seems to me that very few of the popular programs actually accomplish that.

Had a long time till the bus would show up, so I did a bunch of hypers.  Started putting my hands behind my head instead of across my chest, and I'm surprised at home much heavier that feels.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 5. Week 1. Squat

BW - 199

Squat -
BarX5 (long pause to stretch at bottom)
BarX10
95, 135, 160, 185X5
210X8

Front Squats -
135X5, 5, 5

T-Bar Row -
25, 50, 75, 75X10
60X9

Dip -
BWX5, 5, 8, 5, 6

Hypers - 2 sets of 15-20

Solid first session back after vacation.

Squats felt solid, and not far off what I'd worked up to before the break.

I'm adding a touch of additional leg work for this cycle, much as I added some additional shoulder/trap work the last few.  To that end, I did a few sets of Front Squats.  I'm getting reacquainted with these, and will use them as my BBB volume sets in November and December.

Also decided to switch from BB to T-Bar rows for awhile.  This is a bit off from my best with this movement, but I'm focusing on keeping it very, very strict.  As long as the muscle is getting worked strictly, I'm not overly concerned about the weight.

With dips, I can see that energy plays a huge part when they're this late in the session.  I only did 5 reps on the first two sets because I was "trying to save myself" for the last sets because it's the first pressing motion of the day, and that's crap.  If I needed to save myself, I wouldn't have been able to get up for the 8 and 6 rep sets.  I just have to get in the mindset to attack the first set with everything I have, and let the reps fall out however they will on the later sets.

Had some time before the bus was due, so I kicked out some hypers to wrap up.

Vacation Training

Conditioning:
Steady State - One 25 min. session
Running - One 15 min. session
Hills - One 20 min. session
Hiking -
One light 1 hour trip
One heavy 2 hour trip with climbing

Lifting:

Deadlift Session:

Pause Squats -
BarX6 (looooong pause to stretch)
95, 135X5
155, 185, 205, 225X1

Press -
BarX10
65, 85, 95, 105, 105X5

Deadlift -
135X5, 5
185X3
225X3
275X2
315X2, 2, 2
275X2, 2, 1

Squat Session:

Squat -
BarX10, 10 (long pauses on the first set)
95X5
135X5
155X3
185X3
205X3, 3
225X3, 3

Front Squats - 135X5, 5, 5

Chins - BW 199X5, 5, 4, 3

Dips - BW 199X10, 6, 5, 5, 5

Seated Leg Curls - 100 reps

Band Pull-Aparts - 2 sets of 50