Block 3 (Transmutation). Cycle 5. Session B.

BW - 213

2 ct. Pause Squat -
220X5 @6
245X5, 5, 5 @~7

Bench -
165X7 @6
195X3 @7.25
205X3 @8.5
172.5X7, 7, 7 @~7

Deadlift -
252.5X7 @6
297.5X3 @7
315X3 @8.25
267.5X7 @7

Everything went pretty well.  At the end of cycle 5, everything still seems to be climbing, although possibly slowing.

Now that Pause Squats are well above BW, RPE is getting a bit trickier to gauge.  Without the bounce  out of the hole, every rep "feels" hard on the concentric.  But required effort seemed more or less consistent across the work sets.

On Bench, the warm-up triple felt a little heavier than I wanted it to, but I still decided to jump to 205 for the top set.  Definitely over target RPE, but still represents an increase in e1RM.  Back-offs ended up being at the same weight as last week, but slightly lower average RPE, and that tracks.

Also decided to "go for it" slightly on DL.  Warm-ups suggested I use the same top weight as last week, but I wanted to see how 3 plates would feel.  Slightly heavier than target RPE, but similar to Bench represents a slight increase in e1RM.  Unlike Bench, the back-off set was heavier than last week and still on RPE target.

Video is of top-sets and final work sets.

Block 3 (Transmutation). Cycle 5. Session A.

BW - 213

Squat -
265X7 @6
300X3 @6
310X3 @7
327.5X3 @8
280X7, 7, 7 @7.7.5

CG Bench -
155X6 @6
165X6, 6, 6 @7

Plate Deficit Deadlift -
225X7 @6
240X7, 7 @6.5, 7

Solid session.  Busy gym, and I ended up working in with someone on Squat, and having a lot of side conversations during close-grips, so not a lot of video of those.

Quick Notes:
Squat went very well overall.  Getting comfortable with the weights being far in excess of BW again.

I've been playing with bench rep execution.  For higher intensity sets, still "resetting" between reps (taking a new breath, etc.), but for more "rep out" sets just going straight through, or in chunks.  Seems to be working much better than resetting every rep like I had been, and like I do on Squats.

On deficit pulls, playing with foot placement to try to emphasize glutes and hamstrings rather than quads for the majority of the stroke.  If I had it to do over again, I think I would prefer wider grip DL instead of pulling from a deficit to remove this issue.

Block 3 (Transmutation). Cycle 4. Session B.

BW - 210

2 ct. Pause Squat -
230X5 @6
242.5X5, 5, 5 @7.25/7.5

Bench -
155X7 @6
187.5X3 @7
197.5X3 @8
172.5X7, 7, 7 @7/7.5

Deadlift -
250X7 @6
295X3 @7
312.5X3 @8.25
262.5X7 @7

Last block,my lifts all peaked between cycle 4 (Squat), 5 (Bench), and 6 (Deadlift), so I'll be watching this next cycle with interest,

2 ct. Pause Squats have consistently been at or just North of 80% of comp squat, and that trend continued here despite Squats making a 5% jump last week.  Weight was probably just a touch higher than it needed to be, and I would expect a smaller jump this next cycle if I haven't peaked.

Bench jumped a slight bit more than the trend, but I will still expect a jump next cycle.

Deadlift increased, but at a much lower % than the trend, and a lower % than any other lift this cycle.

Top sets and final work sets shown.

Block 3 (Transmutation). Cycle 4. Session A.

BW - 212

Squat -
255X7 @6
285X3 @6
300X3 @7
315X3 @7.5
270X7, 7, 7 @6.5/7

CG Bench -
152.5X6 @5.5
162.5X6, 6, 6 @6.5/7

Plate Deficit Deadlift -
230X7 @6
245X7 @7.5
240X7 @7

Based on last block, I thought* there was a chance I could get a larger intensity increase on my comp. movements in the 4th cycle, and that turned out to be the case for Squat here.  *possible placebo

Nice to have 3 plates in the rotation again, and it came in even a tad under RPE target.  I could have tried going up, but I'm wondering about the cumulative fatigue* about warm-up sets @6+ when back-off sets are also going to be prescribed.  So I called it good and moved to the back-off sets, which moved REALLY well, and also came in slightly under RPE target to start. *possible nocebo, lol

Close-Grips also similarly were flying today.  I thought here about going up in weight just a touch, but last block started to plateau in cycle 5, so I don't mind giving myself a bit of "fatigue margin" this week as long as I'm meeting or exceeding goals.

I did get a touch greedy on Deficits and tried going a bit above what 230X7@6 would have indicated, and it did end up being a slight overshoot.

Video is of top sets and final back-offs.

Block 3 (Transmutation). Cycle 3. Session A and B.

Session A:
BW - 211

Squat -
297.5X3 @7.5
305X3 @8
260X7, 7, 7 @7

CG Bench -
150X6 @6
160X6, 6, 6 @~7

Plate Deficit DL -
225X7 @6
235X7, 7 @7

Squat is the only  movement so far this cycle that hasn't taken a larger-than-programmed jump in intensity at some point.  Don't know if that's a function of lingering tightness/discomfort in the left quad, it being a lift that's more "mature" because I've hit it so hard and often during the years, or something else.

CG Bench has been fairly predictable, and Deficit DL has been taking big jumps.

Session B:
BW - 212

Pause Squat (2 ct.) -
225X5 @6.5
230X5, 5, 5 @~7

Bench -
180X3 @6.5
192.5X3 @8 (no video)
167.5X7, 7, 7 @~7

Deadlift -
290X3 @7
305X3 @8
257.5X7 @6.5

Quad felt good, and Pause Squats made a nice, larger jump this week.

Bench took a very large jump on the top set, although back-off sets ended up being right on target.  Interesting.

Deadlift was also right on target.

Block 3 (Transmutation). Cycle 2. Session B.

BW - 212

Pause Squat (2 ct.) - 220X5, 5, 5 @7

Bench -
185X3 @7.5
165X7, 7, 7 @7/8

Deadlift -
300X3 @8
250X7 @6.5

Everything went fairly well on this day as I would normally expect for the end of the 2nd microcycle.  I had an extra day or two off before this session, so I was a little concerned that I would have lost some fitness, but it wasn't really an issue.

Pause Squats moved well, and ended up being a slightly larger than expected jump in weight.

Top set of bench was about where I expected it to be, but the back-off sets didn't increase quite as much.  All good.

Deadlift was a little tricky as it was feeling a bit heavy as I approached the top set.  Ended up getting the looked for weight, but it was minimum @8 (can't bring myself to write 8.25 yet).  Second week in a row of the back-off weight coming in a little under on RPE.  I'm still not comfortable adding an extra set at that rep scheme just to grab another 0.5 RPE, but for next week, I will look to have a smaller load drop for the back-off.

All videos are of top sets or final back-offs.

Block 3 (Transmutation). Cycle 2. Session A.

BW - 212

Squat -
295X3 @7.5
302.5X3 @8
260X7, 7, 7 @7, 7,7.5

Close-Grip Bench -
145X6 @6
155X6, 6 @7, 6.5
157.5X6 @7

Plate Deficit DL -
212.5X7 @6
222.5X7, 7 @6.5, 6

Couple of interesting things.

Looking back at the previous developmental block, I thought there might be a chance for a large jump in week 2 as acclimation set it.  And coming into the session, my body and energy levels felt very good, and I thought that was going to happen.

That didn't turn out to be the case with the Squat where it only jumped 5 lbs. on both top set and back-offs.  Still very happy to make a pain-free jump.

However on the supplemental lifts, I did make a larger jump.  +5 lb.s on CG bench, and +12.5 lb.s on deficit pulls that still left some weight on the table.

I suspect my theory about acclimation in the 2nd week may carry more water with movements I do less commonly, i.e. I may have take a couple of weeks off of comp. squatting, but I've still done the comp squat thousands of times, as opposed to the supplemental movements that I've only did occasionally in isolated blocks.  I've made notes on this, and we'll see how it plays out through the rest of this block, and next dev. block.

All videos are of top sets or final back-off sets.

Block 3 (Transmutation). Cycle 1. Session B.

BW - 214

Pause Squat 2 ct. -
207.5X5, 5 @~6.5
212.5X5 @7.5

Bench -
180X3 @7.5
155X7 @6
162.5X7, 7, 7 @~7

Deadlift -
290X3 @8
240X7 @6.5

Found the right intensity with Pause Squats fairly quickly (as opposed to bench).  Weight ended up being pretty fair below the initial target it to be based on my history with this movement, though.  We'll see if it takes a big jump.

I had to hunt around a lot on bench.  Because of what happened with Squats on session A, I expected it to come in well below original target weight, but it end up coming in much closer.  Then the top set ended up leading me to underestimate the back-off weight.  Could mean a few things.  Off the top of my head: A) I tired myself out a bit finding the top triple, but then recovered between sets enough to show higher fitness on the back-off sets, or B) after the prior volume block, I'm better able to perform higher rep sets than lower rep sets.  We'll see how the block plays out.

Deadlift went very smoothly.  Top triple ended up exceeding target weight.  I still backed-off to the target back-off weight, and while that did end up being under target RPE, I'm fine with treading lightly on DL.

Video are all top-sets and final back-off sets.

Block 3 (Transmutation). Cycle 1. Session A.

BW - 216

Squat -
297.5X3 @8
260X7 @7.5
255X7, 7 @7

Close-Grip Bench - 152.5X6, 6, 6 @7

45 lb. Plate Deficit DL - 210X7, 7 @7

First session of the new block.  Some up's and down's.  Projected starting weights were based of a TM based off last block's best lifts.  TM was set around 92.5%, and on this day, everything came in closer to 90%.  However, I also had some weird fatigue on this day due to some work stuff.  So we'll see what happens on the 2nd session.

I'm also doing a bit more work on warm-ups with warm-up set reps mirroring work set reps.  For the main lifts where there is a top set followed by back-off sets with different rep schemes, I'm trying starting warm-ups with the higher rep scheme, and then dropping to the top-set rep scheme for the last few sets.  So for squats, I did sets of 7 up to 245 @~5, then did a triple with 275 @~6.  I then went to 290, but 290 was suddenly @7.5, so I went up just a bit more to get an @8 which was the target.

Likewise, Squat back-offs were a bit harder to dial-in, but I got there.

Close-grip benches went a lot smoother.

I haven't done deficit DL in a while.  We'll see how these go.

Pivot Day 4

BW - 212

Tempo RDL 5-3-0 w/ Straps - 125X5, 5, 5 @~6

Press - 97.5X5, 5, 5 @5.5

Neutral Grip Chins w/Straps - BWX3, 3, 3, 2(fail on 3) @~10

Parallel Bar 2-Leg Raise - 3X10

Everything feeling good at the end of the pivot.  Hopeful that nothing hits a wall at the start of the upcoming dev block.