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.
