Reps and Volume. Week 4. Squat

BW - 201

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X1
245X10, 3, 3

High Bars - 185X5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Good-Mornings - 135X8, 8

Single-Leg Extensions - X15, 15

Good session back after taking a week off from barbell work.

245X10, and for 16 total reps meet my goals for that weight, so I can move up to 255 next week.

Everything else was fine.

Off Week. Full Body, Machine Day

BW - 198

Leg Press Machine -
Warm-Up - X15, 10, 15
Work-Sets - X15, 15, 15, 15 (straight-weight)
super-set with
Leg Curls - X20, 20, 20, 20 (straight-weight)

Machine Shoulder Press -
Warm-Up - X10, 10
Work-Sets - X12, 12, 10, 10 (straight-weight)
super-set with
Reverse Machine Flyes - X20, 20, 20, 20 (straight-weight)

Machine Chest-Supported Rows -
Work-Sets - X15, 12, 12, 10 (increased weight between sets 2 and 3)
super-set with
Rope Extensions - X20, 20, 20, 20 (increase weight between sets 1 and 2)

Rope Hammer Curls - X20, 20, 20, 20 (straight-weight)

My schedule was all fucked up this week as I'm closing one show while I started rehearsals for another.  I need some time between work and rehearsals to work on my script, so I took most of the week off.

At the last minute, I decided to hop down to the office gym and get a full-body, body-building workout on the machines down there.  Worked up a good sweat with all the super-setting, and I expect to be fairly sore in places over the next few days.  Decent session.

Reps and Volume. Week 4. Accessories

BW - 197 (suspicious office gym scale)

Chins - BWX13, 6, 6, 5 (30 total reps)

Pulldowns - X20, 15, 12 (straight weight)

Straight-Arm Pulldowns - X20, 15, 12 (straight weight)

Reverse Grip Preacher Machine - X15, 12 (straight weight)
super-set with
DB Press - 35sX18, 10

DB Curls - 25sX15, 12
super-set with
Rope Extensions - X25, 20 (ascending weight)

Cable Curls - X21 (burn-out set)

Real good BB session at the office gym.  First set of chins felt really strong.

I may have had an interesting breakthrough on pulldowns.  The machine at this gym is one of the fake iso-laterals where the one cable attached to the weight splits into two and goes to some rope-ish handles.  While trying to find the right groove with this awkward thing, I started allowing my elbows to travel more forward throughout the movement as opposed to out to the sides.  Kind of like a combo pull-down/pull-over.  This really seemed to start making my lats burn.  Something I'll definitely keep in mind and see if I can replicate it with more traditional pulldown machines.

Reps and Volume. Week 3. Squat and Bench

BW - 200

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
245X6, 4, 3, 3 (terrible)

High-Bars - 185X5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Bench -
BarX20
95X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
135X12, 8, 3

CG Bench - 135X3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 5, 5, 5

My schedule is all jerked around this week, so I tried combining Squat and Bench into one day.

Squat was pretty terrible.  I got 235X13 last week, but could only get 245X6 this week.  Oh well, at least I added the volume control to make sure that I get around the same amount of total work-set volume each week.

High-Bar sets were fine.

Bench was also pretty shitty, but mostly because my shoulder started hurting on the empty bar warm-up.  It started to feel a little better as things went along, but between the shoulder and the fatigue from squatting, it was a blah day for bench.

I did manage to up another tail-end set of CG bench to 5 reps.  Actually the first few sets of CGX3 felt stronger than the last set of regular benchX3.  Interesting...

Reps and Volume. Week 3. Accessories

BW - 199

Chin-ups - BWX11, 6, 5, 5, 4 (32 total)

CG Pull-Downs - X18, 12, 10 (straight-weight)

Machine Pullovers - X15, 10, 8 (straight-weight)

RG Preacher Curls - 40ishX17, 14
super-set with
DB Press - 35sX25, 14

DB Curls - 25sX15, 15
super-set with
Rope Extensions - X18, 15 (straight-weight)

BB Curls - BarX21

Tried switching up the order of the lat work.  The original Pullover/Chins/Pulldowns progression was inspired by reading about Dorian Yates back training.  But I'm not Dorian Yates, and I felt like the trade-off of pre-fatiguing the lats to make them work harder on the chins wasn't worth the drastic reduction in reps per set on chins.  Thought I'd try treating chin-ups more like a power movement for a while by placing them first.

Reps and Volume. Week 3. Deadlift

BW - 197

Deadlift -
135X5, 5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
365X1
295X3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

RDL - 185X12, 12, 12

Chest-Supported Rows - 50X10, 9, 7

Single-Leg Curls -
35X20
45X20, 15

Good session.  I decided I needed to up my volume on Deadlift work-sets.  I realized I'd been working off of a goal of 365 instead of 405.  So the goal here was 6X3 which I got, no problem.  Now I have to decide whether to stay at this weight and up the reps per set, or move up in weight.  I suspect I will move up, because I could have kept doing triple here a while longer.

Added 2 reps to all sets of RDL.  This was hard freakin' work, though.

Chest-supported rows are so humbling.  This weight was actually harder this week than last.  Because of the increased Deadlift volume?

Still digging this plate-loaded hamstring machine at Quads.

Reps and Volume. Week 3. Press

BW - 197

PBN -
BarX20
65X5
85X5
95X4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5

DB Incline - 45sX12, 10, 10

Cable High Row -
Warm-Up - X20
Work-Sets - X13*, 20, 9 (ascending weight)

French Press - 40ishX40, 35, 12, 14

Doing this every other week instead of benching, along with some other mobility/PT stuff, to see if I can get my left shoulder to STFU.

I'd been doing 8-10 sets of 3 with 95 on PBN the last few months instead of benching.  Going to keep it at 8 sets and try to slowly push the reps per set up starting from the end.  So here I did 7X4 and then 1X5.  That 1X5 was difficult but doable.  Next time, I'll try 6X4 and 2X5, etc.  When I'm doing 8X5, I'll up the weight.

Had to pull way back on the DB Incline after all that Pressing volume.  I did 50sX23 just a few weeks ago.

I thought about doing the same Reverse Pec Deck that I'm doing on the Bench day, but I thought the lighter overall weights that I'm handling here gave me the opportunity to do something slightly heavier for Back.  Decided I wanted to go with High Rows since the recovery shouldn't really negatively impact Deadlifting a couple days later, and it gives a slightly different stimulus than the other back work I've got on the program.
*...Unfortunately they don't have a high-row machine at my regular gym, so I had to set up at a high-cable station.  I took a shot at trying them with just a lean back, but when I got to my work-sets, I was expending a lot of energy just keeping myself in position on the first set.  So I stuck a DB bench up against the cable stack and was able to brace my foot against that.  The jump from 13 reps to 20 reps was with the same weight; just with the different bracing.  TMI.

Triceps were extended repeatedly overhead.

Reps and Volume. Week 2. Squat

BW - 197

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
235X13, 5

High Bar - 185X5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Good Mornings - 135X8, 8

Single-Leg Extensions - X18, 15

235X13 is an all-around PR.  Beats my phase goal for reps, with the 2nd set of X5 it meets my required volume.  Moving up to 245 next week.

Volume sets of High Bar were a bit harder after the Low Bar sets.  It will be interesting to see how these feel as the Rep sets on Low Bar continue to get heavier.

Good Mornings felt slightly better this week.  Slightly.

Dat Quad Pump.

Reps and Volume. Week 2. Accessories

BW - 200

Machine Pullovers -
Warm-ups X15, 20
Work-sets X15, 13

Chins - BWX7, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4 (31 total)

Close-Grip Pulldowns - X20, 13, 12

EZ Bar, Reverse Grip, Preacher Curls - 40ishX18, 12
super-set with
DB Press - 35sX18, 10

DB Curls - 25sX12, 10
super-set with
Rope Extensions - X20, 20

BB Curls - 50X15, 12, 9

I little out of gas from a busier than expected day.  Also at the 'away' gym, so it took an extra warm-up set here and there to find the right working weight.

Reps and Volume. Week 2. Bench

BW - 197

Bench -
BarX20
95X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
135X15, 8, 4

CG Bench - 135X3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 5, 5

Incline (45 deg.)-
115X8
95X12, 8

Rear Delt Machine -
X20, 20, 20, 20, 17 (ascending weight)
X30 (back-off)

Hammer Curls - 30sX18, 14, 11

Shoulder is getting really angry again, really quickly.  I'm going to try alternating flat bench with OHP week-to-week.  And probably start looking at some PT.

Despite that, I still made a good jump in reps on my first set from last week, and also managed to meet my volume goal in only 2 sets.  I threw a 3rd set in to ice the cake (and maybe that kind of behaviour contributes to my shoulder problems).

On close-grips I bumped the reps on the 2nd to last set up to 5.  This might be a fun way to go: seeing if I can add reps/set starting with the last set and moving backwards every session.

I was at my 'away' gym, and their incline benches are more standard incline so I tried upping the weight on the first set, but that was not awesome.  Backed off for the next two, and that was fine.

This gym has a really nice dedicated rear delt machine like this one.  The chest pad is at a good height, and instead of grabbing handles, it's got roller pads at elbow distance.  So you're only using your upper arms on the moment and there's not stress from the elbow to the hands.  Really easy to feel the muscles back there and focus on making them work with this one.  Also, last week my shoulder started bothering me on the reverse flye, but there was zero pain in my shoulder with this one.  Maybe because the lower arm being free allows the shoulder to rotate during the movement instead of locking it into a fixed plane of motion?

Upped weight on hammer curls.  That's really the body just getting accustomed to the programming, I think.

Reps and Volume. Week 1. Squat

BW - 199

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
225X14, 5

High Bars - 185X5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Good Mornings - 135X8, 8

Single-Leg Extensions - X15, 15

225X14 ties my Rep PR, and meets my phase goal for this weight.  I also met my volume goal of 18+ total reps.  So next week I move up to 235 and shoot for one set of 12+, and 17+ total reps.

5X5 with 185 was very do-able here.  I might stick with it again next week, and then consider upping the weight slightly.  The idea here is just to get extra, quad-dominant volume.  Not trying to beat any rep or volume records here at this point.

Good Mornings were much harder than I expected.  Last time I did these, I did sets of 10 with 145.  I'll definitely be sitting with 135 for awhile and trying to push the reps up on that.

The High-Bar volume did the trick, because my quads were fried by the time I got to single-leg extensions.  These were all done with one, single plate, and I still could barely get the final reps on each set/leg.

Reps and Volume. Week 1. Accessories

BW - 195 (!?!?!)

Machine Pullovers -
Warm-up - X13
Work-sets - X15, 10, 8 (straight-weight)

Chin-Ups (V-Handle) - BWX8, 5, 6, 5, 4, 4 (32 total reps)

Pull-Downs (Double-D Handle) - X18, 15, 10 (straight-weight)

EZ Bar, Reverse Grip, Preacher Curls - 40ishX20, 15
super-set with
DB OHP - 35sX20, 15

DB Curls - 25sX15, 13
super-set with
Rope Push-Downs - X20, 18

BB Curls - 45X20, 15

So I opened a new show last week.  I took the week leading up to opening off from training, and I took most of this last week off from tracking my diet.  Somehow over that time, basically 8/15 - 9/1, I lost a solid 5 lbs. of BW.  The first couple times I weighed myself last week and I was at 198 and 197, I thought it might be just a fluke, but now I've gotten consistently lighter over the last week of resuming training and NOT being strict with my diet.  I'm going to assume I've just been casually under-eating.  I'm upping my target daily intake by 250 calories for this phase, so I'll have to buckle down and make sure I'm getting enough food going forward.

Still...my abs are showing pretty well...

Anyway, adding back in a 4th day of body-building style training basically the same as what I did in my Strength and Hypertrophy phases from earlier in the year.  The genesis for this comes from Brandon Lilly's CUBE method.

I'm about 3 plates down from where I was at on Pullovers in early spring.  I expect that strength to rebound quickly once my body gets used to the movement again.

With chins, I'm still just targeting 30+ reps in the fewest sets possible.  On the last phase, I got that down to 4 sets.  After the pullovers, it took me 6 sets here.  I'll be working to try and get it back down to 4 sets.

Supersetting biceps work with Bench accessory.  I think 35sX20 is actually a Rep PR for DB OHP.  I don't really track Rep PRs for movements like that, just Proj.1RM PRs.  Pretty sure about this one though.  Seems like all that PBN volume may have helped out.

Only 2 sets of push-downs, but my triceps were really fucking sore after about 36 hours.  Good stuff.

The idea with finishing with empty bar curls was to just do one burn-out set, but when I only got to 20 reps, I thought I should add another.