LRB 365: LRB Split. Week 5. Back - Light

BW - 199

RDL -
95X10
135X8
185X5
225X5
245X5 (no straps; held last rep for 20 seconds)
245X10 (straps)

Cambered Bar Pull-downs - X20, 20, 20, 16, 11 (to a top weight)

Hypers - BWX30, 30, 25, 25

DB Curls -
20sX20, 20
25sX20

Hanging Leg-Raise - 5X5 (slow eccentric)

Good, balls-out session.  245X10 on RDLs is an all-around PR (never even done 245 before).  I really wanted to go for 10 on the last set, and I knew it would take straps for that.  To make up for it, I did 245 on my next to last set and held the last rep for time.

Since I had the straps, I ended up trying them out on my last two sets of pull-downs as well to see if it would allow me to get extra reps on my top sets.  Inconclusive.  I've been doing these at my "away" gym which has a traditional pull-down bar.  I was at my regular gym yesterday, and I'd never really thought about it, but the bar I use there is a home-made bar with an additional camber in the middle.  I can't find a picture of one like it on the webs, so you (imaginary readers) will just have to imagine the traditional bar, with another camber in the middle.  The point is that the ROM with this bar is much deeper, and so these reps were very different from those I've been getting on this cycle.

More R/P on the hypers to get more reps in.  This really feels like a superior way to do these sets for me right now, as opposed to taking it up till failure and stopping the set.

Watched a really great old video of Doug Young the other day.  Made me decided to do DBs instead of the preacher machine.  More fun anyway.

More humbling leg raises.  Basically hurling my ankles towards the bar and then trying (and failing) to keep them from falling back to earth.