Reps and Volume. Week 15. Bench

BW - 214 (PR)

Incline -
BarX30
95X5, 5
115X4
135X3
155X2
165X12, 5

Reverse Camber Bench - 205X5, 5, 5, 4

DB Bench - 55sX12, 10, 7
super-set with
DB Rear Delts - 30sX20, 20, 15

DB Hammer Curls - 40sX15, 10, 10

165X12 is an all-around PR for Incline, and matches a Rep PR for Flat Bench.  I had that as a back-of-mind goal for this session, and I'm happy to hit it.  The 5 reps on the 2nd set meets my goal 15+ total reps, so moving up next week.

However, the reverse camber bench was not good.  My shoulder started hurting after the 1st set, and I missed the 5th rep on set #4.  My shoulder was really achy by that point and is really achy today.  I'd settled on the hypothesis that whatever is wrong with my shoulder was only exacerbated by heavy movements that took the elbow behind the center line of my body, but that is CLEARLY not the case with this short ROM lift.  So until I get examined by a professional, I don't know what.  I'm just going to have to abandon this movement for now.  Next week, I will try some machine pressing and see what that's like.

DB Bench was okay, but felt like it could have been better if my shoulder wasn't bothering me so much.

Reps and Volume. Week 15. Squat

BW - 213

Squats -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
245X15, 5

High-Bars - 225X3, 3, 3, 3, 3

GMs - 135X10, 10

Single-Leg Extensions - X20, 16, 15

245X15 is a Rep PR, and together with 19+ total reps meets my goal for this weight.  Moving up to 275 next week.

Also, my 315 felt like it may have been a touch high this week, however it was ridiculously easy.  That should boost my confidence for the 315X1 going forward.

High-Bars are juuuuust starting to feel like I might need to do more reps with 225 for the volume supplement.  Since next week's jump on Low Bar from 245 to 275 is larger than normal, I'll still plan on sticking to 5X3.  That's actually the last week of this phase before I start shaping up for a beach vacation in early March.  No reason to expect to push assistance extra hard in that instance.

Back to Good-Mornings and my low back felt totally fine.  I really, really hate this movement, but it felt better today than it has in a while.  In effort to feel a good stretch in both my glutes and my hamstrings, I ended up bending my knees a bit and letting my hips move down at the "bottom" of the movement.  That seems technically incorrect, but my hips and spine felt perfectly stable/neutral, and I was able to really feel the stretch all through those two muscle groups before firing back up into the starting position.  Both areas are fairly sore today as well.

Reps and Volume. Week 14. Accessories

BW - 209

PBN -
BarX20
65X5
85X4
95X3
115X7, 4, 3, 1
super-set with
Chin-Ups - BWX10, 8, 6, 5, 6 (35 total)

DB Rows - 70sX20, 12

Machine Pullovers - X12 (upped the weight)

RG Preacher Curls - 50ishX15, 10
super-set with
DB Press - 45sX15, 10

DB Curls - 30sX12, 13
super-set with
Rolling Triceps - 30sX15, 12

Incline Treadmill - 15 minutes; walking

Mixed session.  115X7 is a Rep PR, and combined with 15 total reps meets my goal for this weight.  Moving up next week.

Everything else was a mix of slightly better, about the same, or slightly worse.  Weirdly, my biceps curling strength seems to be regressing.  May need to just try switching out some movements for a while.  I've been doing those same two types of curls, in the same order, on Saturdays for about 20 weeks straight.

Reps and Volume. Week 14. Squat

BW - 211

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
225X20

High-Bars - 225X3, 3, 3, 3, 3

GHR - BWX10, 10
super-set with
Single-Leg Extensions - X20, 15

Incline Treadmill - 15 minutes; walking

315X1 is a one-rep PR, and 225X20 is an all-around PR!  I took last week completely off in the hopes that my low-back strain would finish healing up, and lookee!  Two big PRs.  I knew that if my back was healed that the 315 would be there for me, but I was totally surprised by the 225X20.  That was a goal I was looking at for mid-January at the earliest.  That sets my total work-set volume level for the march to 365; meaning the workweight will gradually increase and the reps decrease but the total number of sets will be dictated by matching this level of volume.

I videoed the 315X1, but didn't get the 225X20 because I wasn't expecting it:

After the two PRs, I almost just left for the day, but I still got some other work in.

225X3X5 on High-Bars all felt solid.  Don't yet feel the "need" to go  for 5X5 with that weight so I'll let it ride.

I was finally starting to truly run out of gas so I cut the hamstring/quad isolation short at 2 super-sets. Got some quick treadmill work in, and called it a day.

Reps and Volume. Week 13. Accessories

BW - 210

PBN -
BarX20
65X5
85X4
95X3
115X2
105X11, 6
super-set with
Chin-Ups - BWX10, 6, 6, 6, 6, 4 (38 total reps)

DB Rows - 65X20, 18

Machine Pullover - X15 (burn-out set)

RG Preacher Curls - 50ishX15, 10
super-set with
DB Press - 40sX20, 10

DB Curls - 30sX15, 12
super-set with
Rolling Triceps - 30sX15, 12

Mixed session.  105X11 is a Rep PR and together with the 17 total reps meets my goal for that weight.  Move up to 115 next week.

Because my low back strain is lingering and I haven't done my regular Deadlift day in a few weeks, I decided to replace pull-downs with DB rows for a while so that in the meantime I'm getting a more well-rounded approach to Back.

I didn't seem to have any gas left by the time I got to Arms.  Except for DB Press where the 40sX20 is an all-around PR.  However, I got less reps on everything else with the same weight as last week.

I also sat up after the last set of Rolling Triceps with the weight still over my chest, and re-aggravated my low back a bit.  Yay.  I will probably just take this entire week off from training to try and get this healed.  If arm training is going to aggravate it, what could be safe?

Reps and Volume. Week 13. Bench

BW - 206 (fuck me)

Incline -
BarX30
95X5, 5
115X3
135X2
155X1
155X13, 5

Reverse Cambered Bench - 205X5, 5, 3, 5, 5

DB Bench - 55sX12, 10, 10
super-set with
DB Rear Delts - 30sX20, 17, 20

Hammer Curls - 40sX15, 14, 10, 8

Incline Treadmill - 20 minutes; walking

Good session.  155X13 is a Rep PR and only 2 off my best flat bench with that weight.

Pushed the weight up again on lock-outs with the reversed cambered bar.  That middle set of 3 is because I changed up my foot and shoulder positions simultaneously resulting in a greater ROM on the movement and also hitting the hooks at lock-out.  I corrected everything and got back to 5's.  Still, I should probably just repeat this weight next week.

Upped the reps on DB Bench and curls, and upped the weight on rear delts.

Reps and Volume. Week 13. Squat

BW - 207 (basically forgot to eat all day Sunday)

Squat -
BarX10, 10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
305X2, 1, 1
225X10

High-Bars - 225X3, 3, 3, 3, 2

GHR - BWX10, 10, 10
super-set with
Single-Leg Extensions - X20, 15, 15

Back strain seemed almost gone, but I was still really nervous about going in to squat today.  I warmed up with empty bar low-bar and high-bar squats since high-bars seemed to aggravate the injury the most last week.  Both felt good so I went forward.  The goal for 305 was 2 reps, which I got for a Rep PR.  The goal was also 13 total reps with the weight.  I thought, "fuck it, I'll just play it safe and do it with singles."  Because of my caution I was slow at the bottom and wasn't getting much rebound.  This was making everything harder, and I felt whatever muscles are strained in my back really working hard on the 2nd single, so I decided to stop.  I did a back-off set with 225 and called it good.  Still, I'm filled with more confidence for next week, and I think it's time to go ahead and get my 315 squat done.

I re-tested High-Bars with an empty bar and they still felt good so I moved on to them.  Here I thought I would play it safe and do sets of 3 instead of the sets of 5 I'd been doing.  What I didn't do was remember that I'd been using 205!  Only after the 2nd set did I realise I'd jumped weight up that much, but decided to move forward with it.  On the last set, I hesitated a moment in the bottom on the 3rd rep and didn't feel confident I could get it back up so I let it go.  Still, these sets also worked to increase my confidence for next week.

I didn't want to tempt fate with Good Mornings, so I did some glute-hams instead and super-setted them with the single-leg work.  All good.

Reps and Volume. Week 12. Accessories

BW - 209

PBN -
BarX20
65X5
85X3
95X2
115X1
95X16, 8
super-set with
Chin-Ups - BWX12, 6, 7, 5, 5 (35 total)
and
CG Pull-Downs - X16, 15 (straight-weight)

Machine Pullovers - X15 (burn-out set)

RG Preacher Curls - 50ishX16, 13
super-set with
DB Press - 40sX16, 14

DB Curls - 30sX18, 12
super-set with
DB Rolling Triceps - 30sX18, 12

BB Curls - 50ishX15 (burn-out set)

Standing Calves - X12, 15, 12
super-set with
Seated Calves - 90X15, 15, 15

Incline Treadmill - 20 minutes; walking

Whew, that looks like a lot.  With the super-setting, it didn't take much time, though.  And a lot of those movements only had 2-3 sets so it's not THAT much stuff.

If you actually add it up, that's 9 sets of Pressing, 8 sets of Lats, 5 sets of biceps, 2 of triceps, then 84 non-stop reps of calves.  Compare that to my last full Squat day, where I did 18 sets of squats, 3 sets of quads, and 2 of hams/glutes.  That's 25 sets vs. 23 sets.  This is a day to fill in little gaps and therefore just has more variety instead of being focused on building one specific movement.

95X16 is an all-around PR for all OHP.  Together with the total volume goal of 18+ means moving up to 105 next week.

For the calf work I'm adding in to try and take advantage of BW gains, I did these super-sets completely non-stop just going from one machine to the other.  This hurt like hell, but combined with the high-incline walking immediately afterwards, my calves finally got sore for a few days.  So this will be something I stick with.

Reps and Volume. Week 12. Squat and Bench

BW - 210

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
305X1

Incline -
BarX30
95X5, 5
115X3
135X2
155X1
145X13, 6

Reverse Cambered Bench - 195X5, 5, 5, 5, 5

DB Bench - 55sX11, 10, 9
super-set with
DB Rear Delts - 25sX25, 25, 25

Hammer Curls - 40sX14, 13, 11, 13

Thought I would give Squats a try even with my tweaked back.  It was dicey working up, but with a ton of sit back and keeping my shins fairly vertical, I managed to work up to a new 1 Rep PR of 305.  I went for 2, but I felt my back strain tweak a little and dumped the bar.  I stipped it down to see if I could move on to High Bars, but even with the empty bar they hurt pretty bad at the bottom of the movement, so I moved on to a bench day.

145X13, 6 beats my single-set and total volume rep goals for this weight, so I can move up to 155 next week.

Managed to eke out 5X5 with 195 on the reverse cambered bench, but it was hard as hell.  I'm going to go ahead and move up next week since I got the full 5X5, but it's getting dicey.

Upped the weight on DB Bench and the reps on Rear Delts.  Also upped the weight on hammer curls.

Reps and Volume. Week 11. Holiday Training

BW - ???

PBN (standing) -
BarX20
65X5
85X3
95X2
115X1
85X20
super-set with
Chin-Ups - BWX11, 8, 6, 6, 4 (35 total reps)

Deadlift -
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
345X4 (strained back on attempted 5th)

Chest-Supported Hammer Rows -
1ppsX15
1.5ppsX12, 12, 11

Rolling Triceps -
25sX20
30sX15, 12

85X20 is the Rep PR on PBN I was looking for before moving up to work-sets with 95.  It seems a lot easier to get these standing vs. seated.  Some of that is that I find it awkward to unrack the bar by myself on the PBN bench, and sometimes the bar hits the pins as well.  May just try to do them standing from now on.

Since I was back home for Thanksgiving, I was just going to work up to a single set of my next tier working-weight with Deadlifts.  I thought maybe a triple or a set of 4.  When I got the 4th rep, I decided to go for a 5th which would have been a PR.  Strained something in my lower or mid-back on the attempt.  That's two Thanksgivings in a row where I've injured my back in the gym.  I'm blaming air-travel and the guest bed at my parents house.

So I was completely on track for some big Squat PR's over the next couple of weeks, and that will probably be de-railed while my back heals up.  I'll go in for squatting and see how it feels, but will absolutely not push it.  If anything feels even unusually tight, I'll just make this a bench focus week, hahahaha.