Messed up the top set of Squats and stopped one set early. Should have been going for ~335 @8 here. Then I lost count on the back-off set and ended up doing an extra rep, and STILL hitting under target RPE @9. We'll try to dial that in next week. Eventually, it will be have to be heavy enough, right?
265X7 is a Rep PR on High Bar Squats. I dropped weight and hit a quick triple on high-bars to make sure technique was dialed-in, before jumping back up to the work weight. Worked well.
Hip-thrusts were interesting this week. Pushed the RPE on the top set pretty good, but all the myo-reps sets were too easy. Probably want to up those to 6 reps each for next time.
WG Pull-Downs (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) - 85X18, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6 @8/9
Weak session.
Chin-Ups and Press just weren't quite there for me on this day.
With Chins, my BW spiked on this day, and that really does seem to make a huge difference even accounting for total weight.
But when Press also took a step back, I thought maybe it was just an off day. I still tried to push for my target weights, but both the top single and the first set of 3 were clearly to heavy on this day and so I backed off for the second set of 3.
Dips were slightly better, but the RPE shouldn't have jumped so much on the second set.
DL went really well. Like all the powerlifts in this first week, the target weight for 15@9 ended up being too light, and just like all the others, I didn't give a shit and will just try to get @9 next week.
275X7 is a Rep PR on RDL. With straps, but I kind of don't care, because I'll probably train this lift with straps from now on. The movement just feels more focused with double-overhand.
I was worried about the Hack Squats, because single-leg Hack Squats in the pivot block were such a shit show. Ended up just fine. These were all fairly deep as well.
Got access to the gym in my office building and am starting to do conditioning on off-days.
I hoped to push Bench to 225 for the top 3@8, but warm-up made that seem unlikely, and it turned out coming in roughly on target at 220. Back-off set came in a little under target RPE @9, but I expect that on the first week or so as I dial-in the target weights.
Based on something Greg Nuckols said on a recent podcast, I thought I'd try a version of 1.5s on Chins. With this version, I get within a rep or 2 of failure on the full reps, and then I do half-reps in the bottom ROM to within a rep or 2 of failure. Not sure how to put my performance on these in context. Last block, I started un-weighted chins by getting 10 total reps across 3 sets. Here, I got 9 total, full ROM reps across 3 sets, plus nine, half-ROM reps. So...that's more? I will say, I felt a little "fresher" after these sets than I think I do after sets of full reps. We'll see!
Haven't done upright rows in a while. Thought I would be starting out with more weight for more reps, but whatevs. My traps were really sore a couple days after doing these.
Hip Thrusts (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) - 135X15, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 @ 8/7.5
Solid session.
Top triple on Squats moved really well. Weight came in above target, and probably could have gone up 2-5 lbs., but these top sets are really final warm-ups in this block.
Targeting @9 for the sets of 15 this block, and I know it's going to take some calibration to get there. This weight was still above target, but definitely well below @9. On the first week, I didn't want to add in another set for a couple of reasons: 1) want to avoid adductor and quad DOMS as these have caused me problems at the beginning of past blocks, 2) at reps this high, I could see myself adding weight and suddenly finding myself @ 10+ in the first week.
Plan for High Bars was to shoot for 7@8 with the final weight from low bar. Hoping to be able to go straight into it, and avoid taking off weight and doing a "warm up" set. Tried that today, and it was a bit awkward having not done high bar in a few blocks, but I'm hopeful I'll get back in the groove.
Hip thrusts went well in my first real session using them. May need to up reps on the myo-rep sets, as RPE was a little low throughout.
WG Pull-Downs (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) - 85X16, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 @8/9
Decent session to start the new training block.
I shifted things around to start off with the movements that struggled the most last block.
Chin-ups were about as expected.
Press ended up being a bit stronger out of the gate than expected.
I thought the opening weight on Dips might be a bit ambitious and I was right. Will back-off a touch next week.
Using extra-Wide Grip bar on pull-downs to see if I can get a little more focus on all the little muscles that struggle at the top of a chin-up. Theoretical, and probably a bad idea.
Tempo always takes a while to get used to, especially a new tempo, so I was fine with it being difficult to get the tempo pulls dialed-in.
And I also know that Hack Squats can be pretty tough, especially relative to Leg Press. I did NOT expect them to be "almost hitting failure with 10 lbs." tough. My left leg in particular seemed to kind of hate these. I tried staggering which leg I started with, but it didn't seem to make much difference. Not really looking forward to doing these again this week, but kind of curious what full hack squats are going to be like next block. I'll be doing them for myo-reps, and right now I'm thinking it will be fairly looooow weight.
Neutral grip DB bench, keeping the elbows close to mid-line throughout, is meant to be pivot assistance for Dips.
Trying out some reverse grip curls because my right brachioradialis has been kind of achy during the prior block from chins. Seeing if some more direct hypertrophy work for it while I'm not doing chins will help when I bring them back next block.
I'll have a bit more focus on Press next block vs. Bench, and so I've reduced the total Bench variation sets for the pivot, and upped the total reps on the Press variation. Press used Paul Carter's 350 method (3 AMRAP sets until you can get 50 reps, then up the weight next session). Blew past 50 here, so I'm going to up it to the 35s next week. That's a bigger jump than I would take in a developmental block, but with only a 2 week pivot and such high reps, I feel comfortable ramping intensity quickly here.
All the chin-up volume in the last block seems to have done wonders for the ol' flexed-hang knee raise. I've always done these as a partial curl-up, but I had no problem going knee to bar on these sets, and reps/set were comparable to past pivot blocks despite the longer ROM.
Reducing the tempo a bit on the PL variants this pivot to see what that's like. Also, made a game-time decision to do them beltless. Everything actually felt a bit tight and creaky. Maybe even more ready for a pivot block than I thought.
Pullovers felt solid. All reps paused at the top and bottom.
I'm going to be doing Barbell Hip Thrusts as an accessory next block, and I like to find ways to acclimate to upcoming, relatively novel development block movements in the preceding pivot block if I can. One thing that should certainly be true: doing this movement with two legs, should be MUCH EASIER than getting it set up for single-leg work. The weird descending RPE is because of getting acclimated to the set-up and execution.
Some ups and down on the last session of this training block.
257(BW+30)X4 ties a lifetime Rep PR on Chins. They didn't feel strong, but tying a Rep PR isn't nothing. Maybe poised to jump to some all-time PRs next block. That would be nice.
Rack Chins did feel strong. Even though I got less reps on the first set, I got more total overall reps, and sometimes you've got to be happy with that.
Dips definitely took a step back. Weighted sets were much harder this week with only ~4 more lbs., and BW back-off sets were much harder. HOWEVER, 262(BW+35)X8 is a lifetime Rep PR.
80X8 on Barbell curls is a lifetime Rep PR. These made nice, very linear progress here. Probably because I haven't had them in a regular development block in a long time.
All-in-all this block demonstrated to me the power of being able to put together a consistent run of training. Almost a year into using the Emerging Strategies framework (I may do a fuller write up of this to help organize my own thoughts), and I can see that a full ~7 "week" training block usually nets around 5-6% increases. Training Max is around 96%, and usually increases around 12% by the end of a full block. The big challenge is stringing those together around life interruptions.
Lots of PR stuff on DL. 405X2 and 315X12 are both lifetime rep PRs, and while both project lifetime e1RM PRs, that sub-maximal 405X2 really feels like one.
Similar to the other PL movement sessions this week, I dropped the second set of 12.
Press definitely didn't feel any stronger, but also didn't seem to backslide.
Bench high reps felt terrible on the warm-ups, but then the singles just seemed to lock in somehow, and I had a big, 10 lb. jump over last week, even with self lift-off. Hit the first back-off set, but it felt like it wasn't there (forgot to get video), so I skipped the second set, similar to Squats the day before, since this is the last week of this block. Just didn't feel like backing off more in the last week.
Likewise, chin-ups and pull-downs were all comparable to last week. Plateaued at the end of the block.
Leg Press (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rest) -
4.5ppsX18, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 @9/8.5
Hard downturn in Squats this session as I try to push my block length pass my estimated time-to-peak. Top single was hard kind of out of nowhere based on warm-ups. First back-off set was so much more difficult than expected, the option was to drop weight, or just stop. Because this is the last squat session of the block, I just cut it and went to accessory. Didn't get video of the set of 12.
Leg Press did add some reps to the activation set, but with having skipped the 2nd set of 12 on Squats, who knows about that.
Another solid session as this block winds/comes to a close.
Chins continue to make slight progress. This was an increase in total weight on the weighted sets, and a block rep PR for unweighted chins.
Rack chins didn't get as many overall reps this session, but I played with the set-up, and got them feeling more stable in general.
Dips hit block PRs in both total weight X8, unweighted total reps, and e1RM for both. And these are both right around my all-time WeightsXReps for Dips even though the RPE is submaximal.
Tried to push the DL a bit. Was hoping to get in striking range to try 405X1 and 315X12 next week. That may be a bit of a stretch, especially if my Time-to-Peak is truly 7 weeks and I see a plateau-and-or-regression next week. Still wanted to make the push, and it went okay. Pushed the top single an extra five lbs., but it was a touch heavier than I'd hoped it would be. Pushed the weight for 12's by just 2.5 lb.s, and it worked out well.
Added a couple of reps to the activation set of GHR myo-reps.
I've been flagging Week 7 as my peak week since I've been using Emerging Strategies, and I will say that motivated me to dial-in a little tighter today.
Solid jumps on OHP.
Nice 5 lb. jump on Bench top set. 177.5X12 is a 12 Rep PR. Second set was much tougher for some reason.
Reps on Chins were comparable to last week, but BW was up 3 lbs. so it feels like progress.
Pull-Downs felt/have been feeling kind of plateau-y so instead of repeating the weight on the 2nd set, I dropped back to the work weight from week 1. That was 90X12 @8 on the first set in week 1, so 90X14 @9.5 on the second set feels progress-ish.
Leg Press (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) -
4.5ppsX15, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 @9/8.5
Nice bounce back session on Squats.
Top end strength on Squat dipped last week. I went 370@8.25 two weeks ago, but last week was a solid 360X8. I was ready to only shoot for 365 today, but I still warmed up for 370, and the warm-ups all felt strong, and led to a very nice single at 370.
287.5X12 is an all-time 12 rep PR, and considering I did it for 2 sets with a little room to spare on both, I'm very happy about it.
5pps was clearly an overreach last week on Leg Press. I backed it off to 4-on-1-side, 5-on-the-other, and it was definitely back on track.
With Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, I'm going to try and push into an 8th week. I haven't pushed that far since I started using the Emerging Strategies framework, but this is a good chance to see if I can sustain or increase my peak for an 8th week.
Okay session. We had folks in town all of last week, so I had an extra day off between sessions, and also ate a shit ton of food. So everything was a bit sluggish today.
Still everything generally still increased in weight and/or reps.
Leg Press (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rest) - 5ppsX10, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 @~8
Two interesting sessions.
Weighted Chins rep strength appears to have jumped a bit. Chin-Ups in general are feeling more "in control." No joy on the rack chin volume work.
Added more weight on dips, but e1RM actually went down. We'll see what happens.
Curls maybe ticked up a tiny bit.
Squat strength on the 1@8 dropped dramatically, but this was also training on a Sunday morning, which is generally my worst time for training. And I added 10 lbs. to the back-off sets of 12 at comparable RPE to last week. I knew high-rep strength gains were outpacing low rep on this block, but I was surprised to have a session where they moved so dramatically in opposite directions.
I added another plate-per-side to the Leg Press, but it seems like a bigger jump than I wanted. Will probably drop down to a 25-per-side next session to keep the reps a bit higher.
My low back was bothering me to various degrees the prior three days, but even thought it felt okay on this day, I did have some trepidation going into this DL session.
Everything ended up going well! Technically this was the smallest perceived increase in DL strength of the cycle, but DL has been gaining far faster than the other lifts in general, so in some ways this may just be a return to the overall mean.
Also added some reps on the activation set on GHR, so it's time to increase difficulty somehow. There's a few options I could choose.
The seemingly most obvious would be to add weight, but I'm not eager to mess with BBs, DBs, KBs, etc. with this particular movement. I could use chains, but I've only got a few chains available at the gym, and that would make it harder to dial-in specific loading out of the gate.
Another option would be to add in a pause under tension somewhere. I've been doing these coming all the way down with a little bit of spinal flexion at the bottom. I personally think the best place to do that would be at the midpoint where the spine and hips have extended, but the knees haven't started flexing. That would make the final "leg curl" portion much more difficult by removing any trace momentum from the bottom of the movement. However, because I'm using an Emerging Strategies approach, this would be perceived in a change in movement variation that would muddy my data.
Instead, I think I'm just going to adjust the GHR to something that feels a bit more difficult. I've had the cross-bar on the lowest setting, so I'll try moving it up a notch next week and see what that does.
Weighted chin-up strength seemed up a bit from last week, and in line with the BW only session a few days ago.
Rack chins were bothering my right forearm today. I've had a little bit of achy-ness there the last week or so, but it really lit up on this movement. Tried shifting to pronated, and that may have helped a bit. Something to keep an eye on.
e1RM on Dips dropped a bit with the addition of weight, but I expect that to start moving back up as long as I don't have any aches/pains interfering with the movement.
Curls were a little rougher today, but still represents a slight increase.
DL came in just about on target. Top single was a touch light, but I didn't see a need to go up. Back-off sets were right on.
GHR didn't add any reps to the activation set this week. BW was up a touch over previous session maybe, but also, coming into this session, my low back was still feeling a bit fatigued from prior sessions. All good.
Press strength and/or technique on the top singles seemed to jump up a bit. Back-off strength, not so much.
Bench also felt very good. I was working in with someone, and we mis-loaded my second back-off set. No big.
Chin-Ups felt MUCH more locked in and stable on this day. Almost a 3% e1RM increase over last week's weighted session, and over a 6% increase over last week's BW-only session. Forgot to get video.
Leg Press (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rest) -
4ppsX15 @8
4ppsX5, 5, 5, 5, 5 @~7.5
Solid session.
Strength on the top Squat single was probably comparable to the previous session, but the rep strength on the back-offs ticked up just a tad (although it was the slightest improvement of the block so far).
Added a plate per side to the leg press. Definitely felt heavier in that way that's not based on strength, but on the proprioceptive feedback of the absolute load against the body.
Chin strength seemed to tick back up a bit after a bit of a dip on the last BW-only session, however Rack Chins dipped a bit.
Dips surged forward. That inflammation in my trap from the first Dips session continues to recede. That combined with getting re-acclimated to the movement is probably just allowing me to more fully display the strength that was there. Nice to be getting into the groove with these.
Top set on the DL moved up a touch, but the rep strength seemed to increase a bit more than that. Acclimation to the programming, etc., I'm sure. While target RPE is 8, I didn't feel the need to go up this week since I was already adding 10 lbs. to last week's weight.
GHR is also getting pretty well acclimated. My low back felt fairly worked after DL; not a pump, but more of a...kind of light poking sensation. So I was a little on edge going into these, as I'm doing them with a bit of flexion. However, I still added reps to the activation set, and on the final myo-rep set I ended up repping it out a bit more without even thinking about it because they were feeling so easy. Once I hit 20 reps on the activation set, I will adjust the settings on the bench to be more difficult.
Press strength was not down, but if it was up, it was just barely.
Bench top strength was down on the single, but rep strength on the back-off sets was up. This is a rep strength focused block for Bench, so it's generally good news. It will be interesting to how the gap between max strength and rep strength changes as the block goes on. Similar to Squat, my 12 rep strength seems to be a slightly higher % of my e1RM based on the single that the RTS RPE table predicts. I'm going to continue to base week-to-week projections on prior week performance, but I think I will definitely need to update my table at the end of this block.
Chin strength wasn't great, but when is it ever. Added a set of pull-downs because Session RPE was still vary manageable, and as always I want to try and kick chins in the butt.
Solid session. Everything ticked up a bit except for Dips.
Dips sometimes really bother something in my right trap area. That was the case last week. Still lingering discomfort coming into this session. I decided to ditch the extra weight and just work with BW. On my warm-up set, the pain flared up a little bit, but seemed to actually fade a bit during the work sets.
I added a set of rope pushdowns to get some extra triceps volume since the volume and load on dips are lower than I'd expected coming into this block.
Leg Press (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) -
270X18 @8
270X5, 5, 5, 5, 5 @7/7.5
Solid session.
So far, the projected maxes for my top single and my back-off sets of 12 are at odds. I'm going to do separate projections for those going forward. Might be worth logging as a custom RPE. Don't know. This cycle the 12@8 was about 66% of the e1RM based off the top single. That's about 5% higher than on the standard table. We'll see where it ends up.
For Leg Press, rather than increase the weight, I figured I'd just try to add reps, and up the weight when I hit 20 reps @~8. The myo-rep sets were a bit easier this time, but as long as the first set is increasing reps, I'm okay with that.
Chin-ups felt fairly smooth for so low reps. Saying that feels like deja vu.
Rack chins were tougher for the myo-reps than either leg press or GHR. Combo of the set-up being more awkward, and just being weak in vertical pull movement patterns, I guess. Still, it sort of reinforces the idea that these are more specific to chins that pull-downs.
Dips weren't feeling great up around my collar-bone on this day. Sometimes they give me some discomfort there. I don't think that's the main reason for the surprisingly poor performance on the BW back-off set, but it probably contributed. No where to go but up!
Only took video of the dips. I'm allergic to videoing my chins for some reason. Probably need to commit to that.
I wasn't looking forward to sets of 12 on Deadlift. They weren't terrible, but they weren't quite @8 either. We'll see if acclimation to higher reps on this movement keeps pace with intensity.
GHRs were on a very low setting; meaning the cross-brace all the way down so the ankles are well below the knees, and also the push as far back as possible while still having the hips against the pad. I wasn't sure if I would be able to get enough reps on this movement to use myo-reps, but the low setting made it entirely feasible. Hamstrings are still quite lit up a couple of days later.
Only took video of the DL top single, and final work set.
Haven't really trained the Press in a while, and I'm resetting to strict (no hip action), and it showed. Focus for the Press in this block is 1RM strength, so will just be training low reps on the actual movement, and letting volume/hypertrophy come from the higher rep work on Bench and Dips.
Bench came in right on target. Wasn't sure how heavy pressing beforehand would effect it, but not much if at all this session.
I also expected Chins to be weak out of the gate having not trained them in a couple of months. Encouragingly, they felt smooth.
Finished up with some pull-downs to backfill the volume I can't get from doing full chin-ups.
Only took video of the pressing movements. Top sets and final work sets.
Leg Press (Myo-Reps / 30 sec. rest) -
3ppsX15 @8
3ppsX5, 5, 5, 5, 5 @7
First day of the new block brought some new stuff and some stuff I haven't done in a while, but everything went well.
Big gap in E1RM to start the block between 1@8 and 12@8. Will be interesting to see if that gap closes over the course of the block. Program calls for 2X12@8, but I didn't want to do extra work sets X12 because I've had so much trouble with Squat-related DOMS at the beginning of dev blocks. Will also be interesting to see what a true 2X12@8 feels like as I get that more dialed-in.
Haven't done regular Leg Press in a while, and first time using the density technique currently referred to as Myo-Reps.
Probably haven't had this much of a "quad pump" in a while, although it was relatively mild compared to what I've experienced with "purer" hypertrophy training in the past.
Missed two weeks of training due to a variety of health issues. Doctor's orders not to go to heavy pending my next specialist consultation. So a two week pivot to prepare for what will hopefully be my next dev block.
This was all fine, although (and I've noticed this before) it seems like after a complete layoff, RPE increase much more drastically between work sets.
Tried to push Bench a bit a overshot slightly. Still a slight increase in e1RM over last time.
Also pushed Chains Squats. I had adductor DOMS going into my last session with these, and knew that was limiting me. Upped the bar weight by 15# this time, and these were @8 max. Felt good.
Did NOT want to DL afterwards, however. Could have gone up in weight on these a little bit, but was just feeling gassed and ready to get it over with so stuck with the target weights.
Solid session even though I was dog tired running on only 4 hours of sleep. I got an iced coffee on the commute to the gym, and just kept topping it off with water all session to keep the caffeine drip running. Seemed like it may have helped get through.
Squats felt pretty good. The second to last single was on the heavy side, but then the top single felt as easy if not easier. I thought about going up one more, but I didn't want to push it with so much work still to do in the session. Back-offs all felt very good.
I pushed the weight up a bit more than projected on both Paused Bench and DL w/ Straps. All went pretty well. DL felt fairly heavy, but still @~8, and it IS meant as overload, so...
Video is of top sets and final work sets in each rep range.
I had a feeling that DL was going to be better than my Training Max would indicate and it was. This projects to be around the same e1RM as I ended the last block. Not sure why this happened, or why I intuited it, but it was nice to have happen. I did fatigue a bit by the end, and ended up only doing 6 reps on the last back-off set. That set is meant to be 5-7 stopping @8, so that's fine.
I haven't done beltless worksets on Squat in a while so I had no idea what to expect. This weight came in around 93% of Monday's belted Squat. I was a little nervous about heavy-ish squatting with no belt, especially after DL, but it seemed fine.
A buddy at the gym gave me an extra single-ply, Inzer Blast bench shirt a while back, and I'm trying it out this block as my bench overload movement. I cut open the back to make it easier to get on and off. I thought I might get as much as 20% out of it, but starting off this is about 105% of Wednesday's regular bench. Interested to see where this goes.
Video is of top sets and final work sets in each rep range.
Bench was a little bit difficult to get dialed-in, but I did hit my target top single relatively easily, but then the back-off weights didn't quite line up with that projection. I think execution on the top set was just above average.
I'd expected to get a lot more weight on the bar for Chain Squats. I was struggling with some lingering adductor DOMS from Monday's Squat session, and that was likely a confounder. I'd expect this to climb as I get re-acclimated to regular training. Still, the proprioception of the heavy weight in the walk out and the descent may be a bigger factor that I anticipated. I'd been hoping for an e1RM on these 5-10% over regular squat, but this was only about 0.7%.
Pause Deadlifts went slightly better than expected. Had targeted 90% of Deadlift TM. We'll see what the actual DL ends up being on Friday.
Video is of top sets and final work sets in each rep range.
Conditioning - Rower; HIIT; 20 second rounds; 5 rounds
Solid first session.
This is designed to be a higher-intensity block in a full-body layout with tightly ascending singles to 1@9 on the main lifts followed by 2X4 @8 and 1X5-7 @8, then a slightly lower intensity variation, and a variation with a bit of overload. The last back-off set on the main is 5-7 because I want to see if I can learn a little "RPE on the fly," and also to give myself elbow room for better and worse days without having to add additional work sets to hit the target.
On Squats, the expected top single target ended up being correct, although warm-ups felt good enough that I thought I might go up. However, 357.5X1 was right @8.5, so I stuck to the plan. The second back off set of 4 was noticeably more difficult than the first. That seems about right given the fatigue I would expect to have accumulated on this lift by that point. I screwed up my formula projecting the weight for the final back-off set. It should have been closer to 290, but I don't mind so much on day 1, and we'll see how it goes now that I've fixed it.
Been so long since I benched with a regular pause that I kept forgetting to pause on the first rep. These sets actually got easier as it went along, so it will be interesting to see where the offset between this and the TnG version ends up by the end of the block.
I don't think I've ever really done much conventional DL with straps. I guess-timated a 5% bump over mixed-grip, and that seems like it will be fairly close depending on where comp DL falls at the end of this first training cycle.
As always with pivot blocks, one of my objectives it to find ways to "practice" or otherwise prep for anything rather novel that may be happening in the following block. Give me the opportunity to sort of grease the groove on different grips, ROMs, etc. Squatting with chains is one of those novel things, so I took this opportunity to start seeing what setting them up is like. I've seen it done often enough both live and on video, that I had a good idea of how to do it. I think it went pretty well, and will feel confident setting them up for regular squats next week.
Trap Bar Split RDL are just another way to find single-leg Deadlift assistance. Weren't quite as awkward as I expected, but....weren't NOT awkward either, lol.
Took video of the last set of each of those movements.
First session back from our big annual camping trip. This trip was...a lot. Recovery definitely not on point, and so happy to only have pivot sessions to deal with this week.
Because of the DOMS generated by regular training coming out of the last pivot cycle, I'm making some changes to how I program pivots. I had to do some of it on the fly because I didn't get it done prior to my trip. Now that I've had some time to work on it, I shorted Squats by two sets here, so I'll up Squat assistance on other days.
Everything else was fine. Took a lot of sets to find my work weight for DB Inclines. Don't think there was anything else to note.
Solid bounce-back session. Still had some residual fatigue and tightness from the terrible DOMS I was dealing with mid-week, but felt much more recovered for this workout.
Squat is still obviously the lift that suffered the most, as the adductor DOMS were the worst of all the muscle groups. Obviously RPE will determine what happens, but hopefully in the upcoming, final training session of this block, I can at least get back to the day 1 performance.
Bench was back on par with the Day 1 performance. Everything felt solid.
DL bounced back about as well as Squat on the top set. The back-off set and deficits even more so.
Well that sucked. I definitely fucked up my pivot block. DOMS from the first session was so bad, that it made everything on this day very hard, and that should not have been the case. Total work sets per session are exactly the same as last block, and total work reps are only ONE more than last block. Definitely not such a change that DOMS should have been this bad. Volume on the pivot block was just too low. I thought it might be at the time, but there was so much weirdness pivoting from a 3 session cycle to a 1 session cycle, etc., that I tried to trust to the process, and the process is clearly off.
Interestingly, Bench was much less heavily impacted than the lower body lifts. This was primarily an adductor DOMS problem, although low back and chest were also very sore.
Anyway, didn't get video of the top sets of Squat and Bench because they both topped out sooner than expected. I got everything adjusted well enough to predict where the top set of DL would fall.
This block is composed of one session cycles so that I can try and see how much improvement I can get before I go on a short vacation mid-July. I'll probably only get 5 session/cycles in before my trip. Mike Tuschsherer did this in the last year or so, and that's where I got the idea. My intuition says it will be fairly tough to do the same exact workout each training session and expect to see weight increase, but I'm looking forward to finding out what happens.
To try and give myself the best chance of this working well, I based everything on a Meta-Block Review from the RTS on-line app. It suggests that these rep and RPE ranges on the mains, and these assistance movements should be my best bang for the buck.
Squat and Bench movements all went fairly well. I think I may see that Bench and Deadlift lag a bit on this program because they've been first order movements the last several blocks, but here they will be relegated to competition order. Bench performance seemed to be hitting a bit of a wall by the time I got to the close-grips.
Deadlift was much more difficult. Again, possibly the shift from first to third order. The target RPE here is 8.5 and I both overshot that and undershot my original target weight of 390.
Plate deficits were really wonky on the one warm-up set I took on them, but that gave me enough feedback to make some adjustments, and the work set felt pretty good. Came in a touch under target RPE, but at the end of the workout, I didn't want to push more volume
