Recovery Squat. Medium Bench. Chin-Ups

BW - 227

Squat - 325X5, 5, 5

Bench - 210X5, 5, 5

Chin-Ups - BWX7, 5, 5, 4, 3 (23 total)

Pull-Downs - X10, 10, 10 (straight-weight; same as last week)

BB Curls - 45X12, 12

Left adductor pain and a terrible schedule the past few, and upcoming, weeks have led me to admit that I haven't really been doing the program successfully for a couple of weeks and won't be able to really follow it for a month or so upcoming.  I'm stuck trying to formulate a sort of "maintenance" block.

Failed pretty hard on I.D. last week and then couldn't get back into the gym because of Memorial Day schedule.  Left adductor is killing me (appointment with my P.T. tomorrow) so I went with the "middle day" programmed weights.  I also started playing around with moving my stance in a little bit as I saw some stuff on the SS forum about narrowing stance and switch to squat shoes helping with this issue.  Felt maybe a little better in the session and probably helped depth the most.  Walking with a limp the next day because of adductor pain.  Video of 3rd set shown.

Because of the adductor pain, I also move my feet in on bench, and used the same middle day weights as last time.  While the leg still hurt, the weight itself felt very easy.  Possibly a stronger foot placement for this lift?  Last set shown.

Chin-ups were okay.  One more rep and set than last week.  That's pretty normal for the ebb-and-flow of this movement, but at the same time doesn't feel much like progress.

I failed to get 10 reps on the 3rd set of pull-downs last time so repeated the weight and got all the reps.  Will move up next week.

Also managed to get to 12 reps on both sets of curls, so will add weight.

Old Man Texas Method. Week 10.5. Intensity Day

BW - 225

Squat - 410X3, 2 (fail on 3)

Bench - 235X3, 3

Deadlift -
395X1
365X3

Pull-Downs: 3X10 (straight-weight; supinated)

Hammer Curls - 30sX10, 10

Well.  1st Intensity Day in a three weeks due to illness and schedule.  Probably went better than I should have expected.  410X3 is an all-around Squat PR.  Couldn't get that 3rd rep on the 2nd set, and dumped it like an asshole.  Both sets shown.

Shoulder and elbows felt like shit after dumping the bar off my back.  Still managed to get the prescribed work sets, but it was hard as hell.  2X3 PR.  Both sets shown.

At this point, I was out of gas and everything hurt.  I had a dim hope that Deadlift might miraculously come through, but that was not the case.  The 1st rep with 395 was slow and felt like the slowest of my life.  I knew there was not another rep there.  I threw in a back-off set at 365.  The way I felt, I was sure I could get 3, but hoped for 5.  Stopped at 3. Good news, I guess, is that 395X1 is a Rep PR.

I knew I wasn't going to be back in the gym for several days due to Memorial Day schedule for myself and the gym, so I through in a little bit of chin-up assistance that I knew could be done relatively safely and with less impact on my overall physical feeling.

Not sure what my plan is for the next 2-6 weeks.  I have family coming into town, and then a big camping trip.  All of this will impact schedule, recovery, etc.  I'm not sure how best to approach that yet.

Old Man Texas Method. Week 10.5. Middle Day

BW - 225

Squat - 325X5, 5, 5

Press - 135X5, 5, 5

Chin-Ups - BWX 7, 5, 4, 6 (first 3 sets before press, 4th set after)

Pull-Downs - X10, 10, 9 (straight-weight; plus "5" lbs. from last week)

BB Curls - 45X12, 10

Left adductor was killing me, but weight was fine on Squats.

After failing to get 5 reps on any sets with 140 last week, backed off to 135.  These were very hard.  Last set shown.

Chin-Ups actually felt pretty strong on the first couple of sets.  Dropped off on the third.  These sets were all done during warm-ups for Press.  Then I did the next set after Press and the strength was back.

Upped the weight on pull-downs.  Was feeling pretty fatigued, but still tried to keep rests short.  Couldn't get a clean 10th rep on the last set. 

Forearms were burning pretty good at this point which made curls kind of a bitch.  Hoping for some of the 'ol Adaptation here.

Old Man Texas Method. Week 10.5. Volume Day

BW - 227

Squat - 365X5, 5, 5

Bench - 205X5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Deadlift - 315X5, 5

Missed Intensity Day for the 2nd week in a row.  Decided that I'll just repeat everything from last week and shoot for those I.D. lifts this Friday.  Sets with 365 on Squat did feel stronger this week than last, and that was a good feeling.  Butt shot back at the bottom of the last rep of the last set, shown.

I did up the weight a bit on bench.  I'd done 202.5 for two Bench V.D.'s in a row, and they were fast last week.  205 felt good this week.  Last set shown.

Was pretty gassed by the time I got to DL.  Maybe just conditioning falling off a bit from the erratic schedule the last 3 weeks.  Went with my "off" hand supinated for the last warm-up, and first work set.  Then switched to my "regular" supinated hand for the last set.  Worked in that the set felt better than the previous sets.  That hand still has a strained feeling after going supinated on DL.  Hoping that will go away soon.  Last set shown.

Old Man Texas Method. Week 10. Middle Day

BW - 223

Squat - 325X5, 5, 5

Press - 140X4, 4, 4

Chin-Ups - BW; 21 Reps, 5 Sets

Pull-Downs - 3 sets of 10 (straight-weight; +5 lbs. from last session)

BB Curls - 45X12, 10

Legs were super sore from the sick time I was away from the gym.  Squat strength was obviously there, but every rep sucked.  Last set shown.

Failed to get 5 reps on Press.  Blerg.  I actually missed my last middle-day press session because of programming around a trip.  Maybe I'll revisit the weight I was supposed to do that time, and go from there.  1st and last sets shown.

Chin-Ups were okay.  Starting to work total reps back up.

Started messing around with progressing the assistance exercises.  The plan is still not to add additional sets until Chins stall at 25 reps without increasing density.  Don't expect world-shaking results from this, just something I'm trying out:

Upped the weight on the pull-downs by "5" lbs. per set.

Decided to take the curl sets to within a rep or 2 of perceived failure or RPE 8-9.  Figure the best way to progress those until sets are added is to put reps until both sets are over 12, then up the weight.

Old Man Texas Method. Week 10. Volume Day

BW - 226

Squat - 365X5, 5, 5

Bench - 202.5X5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Deadlift - 315X5, 5

Things went pretty well on this day.

365 for 3 sets of 5 ties my LP PR for Squat.  First two sets of squats were pretty hard, but something clicked for the last set, and it was the best of them.  I will say, that after my illness lay-off last week, and even though I got in last Friday and had a sort of day of "ramping back up," my legs are pretty damn sore today.  That's exactly what I was hoping Friday would mitigate, but we'll just have to see if it gives me trouble the rest of the week.  Last set shown.

Bench moved very, very well.  Didn't even feel the need for a lift-off/spot on the last set (shown).

Deadlift was also solid.  Nice and fast as this weight has been for the last 5 weeks I've had it as my work weight on Volume Day.  I've got one more week with 315, before it starts to go up.  Left-hand still feeling sore when I use it for the supinated grip.  May just need to switch to right-hand supinated for a few weeks to give it time to recover.  2nd set shown.

Ramp-Up Day

BW - 227

Squat -
315X5
335X5
355X5

Bench -
195X5
205X5
215X5

Chin-Ups - BW; 4 sets of 5

Pull-Downs - 3 sets of 10 (straight-weight)

BB Curls - 45X10, 10

Was super-sick the beginning of the week, so training had to be totally scrapped.  This was what I did to ramp back up.  Squats working up to something a little lighter than what they will be to start the week, but at the same volume.  Bench working up to something well over what will start the week, but at less volume.  Ladder-up was to give myself the opportunity to feel things out.  Everything went very well, and I felt worked out the next few days, but not sore.  Ultimate test will be to see how this week goes.  I'm picking up the programming right where it was left off.

Last set of Squat and Bench here for reference.

Old Man Texas Method. Week 9. Intensity Day

BW - 228

Squat - 405X5

Press - 155X2 (fail on 3), 2, 2

Deadlift - 390X3, 3

405X5 is a Rep PR on Squat.  These felt pretty good.  The first couple of reps were a bit wonky, depth on the first, balance on the second, but the last three went pretty well.

Press didn't go so well.  The last couple of warm-ups felt heavy, so I was a bit worried about it, and then when I unracked the first work set it felt very heavy in my hands.  The 2nd rep was really tough, but I tried for a third to no avail.  Oh-kay.  So two session of triples, and forced right into doubles.  The 2nd and 3rd sets felt good though.  First and third sets shown.

Deadlifts felt very solid, but this only matches my previous 3 rep PR.  Would be looking at a PR set next week, but 2 days after this session I got sick as a dog for 3 days and couldn't get out of the house much less train.  Gonna repeat this week's middle day on Friday (hopefully), and then try to do the Week 10 #'s next week.  We'll see how it goes.  2nd Deadlift set shown.

Old Man Texas Method. Week 9. Middle Day

BW - 227

Squats - 320X5, 5, 5

Bench - 210X5, 5, 5

Chin-Ups - BWX6, 5, 4, 4

Pull-Downs - 3 sets of 10 (straight-weight)

Barbell Curls - 45X10, 10

Squats went pretty well.  Still trying to get better depth.  Maybe marginal improvement on this day.  Last set shown.

Bench was pretty tough.  Got a lift-off for the last two sets just to try and save energy.  Strength was there, just the medium volume/medium intensity set up for pressing movements on the middle day is always tough.  Last set shown.

Decided to mix things up on Chins.  I'd told myself I was going to get to 50 total reps on a day before I decided this volume approach wasn't working.  Well 50 is an arbitrary number.  I knew I needed to change it up, because I was starting to dread chinning at the end of this day.  I consume a lot of stuff from various Starting Strength people, and SS adjacent stuff.  Inspired by stuff Andy Baker wrote here, and also some of the Barbell Medicine stuff (recently splintered off from SS). The BM guys talk a lot about the importance of volume over intensity, and even over tonnage which is interesting.  I don't consider myself nearly smart enough to really grok the big picture of half the stuff they present, and definitely not to experiment with on my own on the main lifts. 

But for chins? 

From what I gather, their point of view is that intensity doesn't matter nearly as much as volume.  Specifically, that once work weight gets into the 70%+ range, it becomes largely equal in it's ability to drive hypertrophy.  And that, after a proper novice phase, hypertrophy becomes far more important to strength gains than the neuro-muscular effects trained by super-high intensity.  That singles, etc. are still important practice for strength sports, but take a lot more out of you than lower intensities that are just as effective at driving strength.  In some ways, it reminds me a lot of Paul Carter's strength programming.  i.e. Working up to 1-3 heavy singles, and then do a bunch of sub-max back-off sets.

So that's all to get down what I'm thinking about it at this moment.  And that's why I'm moving to less sets of chin-ups (high intensity/stress) and adding in sets of pulldowns and chins to keep the overall volume up on the prime movers in the movement.  I had been doing 8-10 sets of Chin-ups @ around 40 total reps.  I'm moving that down to 4 initial sets here @ 19 total reps.  Then I have 3 sets of pull-downs and 2 sets of biceps for a total of 9 sets "for chins." I will look to add reps to the chins until I get up to about 25 (per Andy Baker's link above).  But if the 1st set reps aren't increasing and/or the total sets required to get my reps is plateauing or going up, then I will add a set to pull-downs and/or curls.  If I get to 5+ sets of chins, 5 sets of pulldowns, and 3 sets of curls (Andy Baker, again), and there is no progress, I will have to add a 2nd day.  I'll reset the 1st day back down to 4, 3, 2, and then both days will follow the previous progression, but the movements on the 2nd day will be those from Baker's 2nd day. 

The only problem if figuring out where to put that if I'm on a 3 day split and Deadlifting twice a week.  Maybe Intensity Day.

Old Man Texas Method. Week 9. Volume Day

BW - 232

Squat - 360X5, 5, 5

Press - 132.5X5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Deadlift - 315X5, 5

Squats went well.  3rd set shown.

Press was tough today.  I had to "get up" for most of the sets, clear my mind, and focus on every tiny detail.  Too bad, as it's the same weight as last Press V.D.  Guess we'll see what happens.  Final set shown.

Deadlift was okay, but I was out of gas at this point.  Probably due largely to travelling over the weekend, and not getting a ton of sleep (probably applies to the Press situation as well).  Also, my left hand has been starting to bother me being supinated on the mixed grip, so I switched to right hand supinated.  Pain went away immediately, but was awkward as I haven't switched my grip in a long time.  Probably ought to start alternating at least on V.D.  2nd set shown.