LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 3. Incline

BW - 204

Incline -
BarX20
75X5
95X4
115X3
145X2
155X1

135X18, 10

DB Press - 35sX15, 10, 10, 9

Pullover Machine - 3 sets of 15

BB Rows - 135X10, 8, 8, 7

Deadlift (practice) -
135X5
185X4
225X3 (mixed-grip, right hand)
275X2 (mixed-grip, left hand)
315X1 (double-overhand, held for 12 sec.)

Nice session; a lot of fun.  The 2nd pressing day has consistently been my favorite day on the Big-15 program.

135X18 is an all-around PR on Inclines.  I mis-read my notes, though, and I was supposed to back-off with 145.  I'll move that up next time.

DB Pressing felt "good" in that bodybuilding way where everything burns and is uncomfortable, and you miss all your last reps.

Added one more plate to every set of pullovers.  Still squeezing the contraction, and controlling the eccentric. 

My back really feels 'ready to go' on rows after the pullovers.  135X10 is actually a Rep PR on hanging BB Rows.  Mostly always fucked around with Pendlays before.  Again, these were very strict with a fixed back angle, squeezing the contraction into my torso, and stopping each set when I couldn't touch the bar that way anymore.

Deadlift practice was good.  Although I couldn't hold the final rep as long as last time.  All the reps felt really fucking strong, though.

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 3. Squat

BW - 203

Calf Raises - 3 sets of 15+

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
115X5
145X4
175X3
225X2
255X1

215X13, 5

Standing, Single-leg curls -
3 non-stop sets of 12
1 set of 15 (failure)

Single-leg press - 1ppsX20, 20, 15, 12

13th rep on Squats was slow, but smooth through-out.  Rep PR.

Got a good pump on the leg curls, and the single-leg presses were stronger this week.

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 3. Bench

BW - 202

Bench -
BarX10
85X5
105X4
125X3
155X2
175X1

165X10.75!, 5

Chins (close, v-grip) -
BWX5
+15X5
+20X3, 3
+25X2
+30X1

+25X5
BWX10, 7

DB Bench - 60sX18, 11, 9, 5

Early morning sessions are often dicey for me as my body doesn't feel like it's 'going' yet. 

This is the first time I think I've ever missed a bench at lock-out.  I was SOOOO close to that 11th rep.  I think grinding and failing on that one took a chunk out of me for the rest of the session.

On chins I felt so weak on the back-off with 25, that I didn't want to gut out a 50% set of 2-3, so I dropped the weight and pounded out some more BW chins to up the total volume over last session.

I pushed the 1st set of DB bench a little farther also trying to up the over-all volume, but my strength was leaving me pretty quickly at this point as evidenced by the final set being only 5 reps (failed on the 6th).

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 2. Shoulders

BW - 202

DB Laterals - 25sX10, 10, 10, 10, 10
super-set with
Face-Pulls - 5 sets of 10

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 2. Squat

BW - 199

Standing Calves - 3 sets of 15

Squat -
BarX10 (Paused)
95X5 (Paused)
115X5
145X4
175X3
225X2
255X1

215X12, 5

Single-Leg Curls - X20, 15, 15, 10

Single-Leg Press - 1ppsX15, 20, 15, 15

215X12 is a Rep PR.  The changes I've made to my form are becoming a bit more natural.  Also, I didn't have the pain in my left quad this time, so that's good.  My right-leg felt like it caved significantly on the last rep of the 12, so I focused hard on 'knees-out' in the back-off set.

Single-leg curls can eat a dick.  Single-leg press was better this time without the quad pain.

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 2. Shoulders and Arms

BW - 201

DB Laterals - 20sX15, 15, 15, 15, 15
super-set with
Face-Pulls - 5 sets of 15

BB Curls - 50ishX10, 10, 10, 10, 10
super-set with
EZ Bar French Press - 50ishX10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Ab Wheel - 5 sets of 12

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 2. Bench

BW - 200

Bench -
BarX15
85X5
105X4
135X3
155X2
175X1

165X10, 5

Chins (close, v-grip) -
BWX5
+15X5
+20X3, 3
+25X2
+30X1

+25X6, 3
BWX8

DB Bench - 60sX15, 12, 10, 8

Good session.  165X10 is a Rep PR on bench.

I didn't hit any Rep PRs on Chins or DB Bench, but I increased the total volume in the work sets over last session.

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 2. High Bar Squats

BW - 197

Seated Calves - 90X15, 140X15, 110X15

High Bars -
BarX15
85X5
105X4
125X3
155X2
185X1
155X20

RDL -
135X15
185X12, 12, 9

Lunges - BWX26, 20, 20, 20

Trying High-Bars for the first time.  I programmed conservatively, and I clearly can bump the #s up a tad.  An old bugaboo reared it's head however.  On one of the reps during the 155X20, I got over my toes AND lost tightness at the bottom.  This always results in a low-back strain.  It's not too bad, as it happened on or around rep 8 and I was able to go to 20.  I've done this to myself a couple of times before front squatting, so I'm familiar with the problem and how bad it can get.  Should be okay to squat again when it comes around in a few days.

Otherwise, I like the high-bar squatting.

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 1. Arms

BW - 202

BB Curls - 40isX15, 15, 15, 15, 15
super-set with
EZ Bar French Press - 45ishX15, 15, 15, 15, 15

Ab Wheel - X10, 10, 10, 10, 10

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 1. Incline

BW - 200

Incline -
BarX20
65X5
85X4
95X3
115X2
135X1

125X20, 10

DB Press - 30sX15, 12

Machine Pullovers - 3 sets of 15

BB Rows - 135X8, 8, 7, 7

Deadlift -
135X5
185X4
225X3 (mixed-grip)
275X2 (mixed-grip)
315X1 (double-overhand and held: 18 sec.)

So it turns out that having Incline first in a session makes a BIG difference.  My goal going into this cycle was to Incline 125X15, hahahaha.  Now that I've blown that out of the water, I'll up the weight on the next session.  Big all around PR.

When I get the working weight dialed in on Incline, I'll probably add in more sets of DB OHP.  Or maybe not.  My goal for the cycle is 40sX15.

We've got an old-school pull-over machine at my gym.  Inspired by Dorian Yates love for the thing, I asked Paul Carter about including it in this cycle, and he suggested a few sets as a warm-up for rowing.  That's basically how Yates had it as well.  Hard squeeze on the contraction and slow negative on all reps.

Rows were controlled and super-strict, squeezed at the top, and I stopped when I could barely touch my chest with the bar.

Deadlift practice was fine.  Getting in some mixed-grip practice, but also getting some grip work at the end.

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 1. Shoulders and Arms

BW - 198

DB Laterals -
25sX20
20sX20, 15, 15
super-set with
Face-Pulls - 5 sets of 20

BB Curl -
40ishX20, 20, 20
30ishX20, 20
super-set with
EZ Bar French Press - 40ishX20, 20, 20, 20, 20

Ab Wheel - 3 sets of 10

Missed the 1st small session, so I wrapped it together with this one.  Hopefully it won't negatively impact my Pressing day today.

Started off too heavy with the laterals.  Will try with the 25s on X15 day.

Don't know what the short bars weigh.  Started off with a 10 on each side of the straight-bar for curls, and dropped it to a pair of 5s.

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 1. Bench and Squat

Saturday -
BW - 196

Bench -
BarX15
85X5
105X4
125X3
155X2
175X1

165X8, 5

Chins (V-Grip) -
BWX5
+15X5
+20X3, 3
+25X2
+30X1

+25X7, 3
BWX5

DB Bench -
60sX20, 8
55sX9, 7

Monday -
BW - 200

Calf Raises - 3 sets of 15

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
115X5
145X4
175X3
225X2
255X1

215X10, 5

Standing Leg Curls - X20, 20, 20, 12 (each leg; no rest between 1st and 2nd, and 3rd and 4th sets)

Single-Leg Press - 1ppsX15, 15, 15, 12 (per leg)

Back into it after a week off.  I went very low carb during my down week and dropped around 5 lbs.  What makes that interesting is that 165X8 on bench is a Rep PR.  My previous best was 165X7 at 203.  So a PR even at the leverage disadvantage.

I videoed my chins to see if I was cheating or cutting them high.  I have mixed feelings about what I see in the video.  On my phone it looked bad, but it looks okay on a larger screen.  Think I will first try keeping my heels back towards my butt and see how that feels/looks.

My goal for the cycle on DB Bench is 65sX15.  Should be close to that now, and will switch to them next session.

I'm still playing around a lot with squat form, and it was going pretty well on the first session back, but then I started having some pain at the top of my left quad.  It was particularly limiting on the back-off set with 215 where the weight felt fine, but the pain limited me.  Here's a vid of the 175X3 set that I took to check my form mid-way through:

Getting a bit more sit-back, and the depth is still good.

Standing single-leg curls were particularly brutal trying to go back and forth with no rest. 

Left quad pain was still there for the single-leg presses, but I think pushing through them may have helped.

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 1. Mini-Review

Quick and minimal results and a few notes from the 1st round of Big-15 training on the LRB-365 program:

Bench - Goal met: 155X15.  I labored in the X13-14 range for a couple weeks, and finally hit this during my final bench session.
DB Bench - Goal met: 60sX15.  Got it at the end, and also hit 55sX20 the week before.
DB Incline - Goal met: 55sX15.  Got this 1/2 way through the cycle.

Squat - Goal met: 205X15.  Hit this on week 3, and got up to 205X17.
Front Squat - Goal met: 125X20.  Got X19 in Week 2, and hit X20 in Week 4.

Chins - Goal met: BW+25X10.  This was an ugly set, but I got it.  May need to start filming these to see if I'm cheating them.  These were all shoulder-width, neutral-grip.
DB Rows - Goal met: 75sX12.  Got it in the final week.  In the previous session, two weeks prior, I got 70X10 for 4 sets across.

Seated PBN - No goal set because I hadn't really done them before.  Hit 95X15 for an all-around Rep PR for all types of PBN, and right around my Rep PR for all OHP.

All the lifts listed above were Rep PRs, and most project to increased 1RM.

In addition, I had my 36th birthday in this time and did my birthday squats that I started last year.  Got 135X36.  125X35 the year before.  Not a major increase but these are mostly a mental effort, excepting that the low- and mid-back fatigue in a way that they don't with lower rep squatting.

Also, on my final Squat day I'd had a few days off and had a week off coming up.  Rather than do the prescribed light hamstring and single-leg assistance, I opted to have some extra fun.  I did something I've never done before which was do all three powerlifts in the same session. 

Because most of my real worksets for a year or so had been in higher-rep ranges.  I decided to just work up to new 2-Rep PRs.  To be clear, I didn't work up to 2RM, but rather I knew I was so much stronger than my previous best 2 rep lifts on Bench and Dead that I just decided to top them both by 10 lbs. 

For Bench that was 185X2, and for Deadlift 325X2.  Bench in particular was ridiculously easy.  Deadlift was a little bit harder, but I had just done a high-rep Squat workout, hahahaha.  Anyway, 185 is projected as my 5-7 RM on bench, and 325 as my 4RM on Deadlift.  So like I said, these weren't humongous efforts, but rather just having some fun bringing my Rep records more in line with the current reality.

Looking forward to the 2nd cycle!

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 1. Week 6. Squat

BW - 202

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
115X5
145X4
175X3
215X2
245X1

205X16, 6

Bench -
BarX10
95X5
135X3
155X2
175X2
185X2

Deadlift -
135X5
185X3
225X2 (mixed-grip from here)
275X2
315X2
325X2

I had to take three days off from the gym before this session, so I was hungry as hell to lift.  I've also got this next week off before I start the 2nd Big-15 cycle.  So I decided that doing leg curls and BW lunges after my squatting wasn't going to cut it.  I realized later that this is the first time I've ever done all 3 lifts in one session.

Squats were okay.  After looking at the videos I started taking recently, I think my mechanics are way off for low-bar.  I've been breaking hard at the knees and they've been traveling past my toes, my torso is too vertical, and my depth way past parallel.  Basically I think I've been high-bar squatting with a low-bar setup.  I started trying to correct that with this session and taking video of the low-rep work-sets (form breakdown is pretty common for me with high rep squats, and that's why I didn't video those):

A little bit of progress here, although these still "feel" high to me despite all being well past parallel.  I'll keep working on this.

For bench and deadlift, I looked at my rep records and decided that I had plenty of head-room to set 2-rep PRs in both.  This was NOT working up to a 2-rep max.  I simply could see from the data that I was much stronger than my best 2-rep lifts.

With bench the 185X2 was smooth and fast as hell.  It actually felt easier than the 175X2 before it.  Right now 185 projects to be around my 5 rep max, and it definitely felt strong.  This was great.

For Deadlift, it was a little bit different.  For one thing, the previous two lifts, particularly the squats, had taken some wind out of my sails.  For another, Pandora would only play hip-hop and punk on my gym station, and I really wanted some Slayer hahahahaha.  So 335X1 is my best ever deadlift, and I've hit that a couple of times.  However, I've done 315X5 also, and 315X1 a million times and fast.  So I was pretty sure that it should be there for me without much trouble, but Deadlift is such a beautifully enigmatic monster, that there was a niggle of concern.  I knew it would be mixed grip so I switched to it early.  Chalked up well for the last two sets.  315X2 was fast and easy, but my back and glutes were feeling fatigued, and the mixed-grip was feeling unusually foreign.  I wish I'd grabbed a video for myself though, because the 325X2 was smooth and authoritative.  I love deadlifting.

Next day, and I'm pretty damn sore from all this.

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 1. Week 6. Arms

BW - 204* (office gym)

DB Curls - 30sX10, 10, 10, 10, 10
super-set with
DB Overhead Extension - 45X10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Ab Wheel - X14, 14, 14, 10

The two benches at the office gym were occupado, so I couldn't do the incline curls or the PJRs.  No biggie, just busted out some similar standing work.

Remembered there's an ab wheel there this time, too.