70X13 on BB Curls is a Rep PR and projected new PR Max.
360 for 2X4 is a volume PR on Deadlift, and I did 4X4. Top set didn't feel any stronger this week though.
DB Overheads felt generally stronger this week, as I chose to point my head up a bit more throughout the movement and not worry about pushing my head through at the top.
I was able to keep Press in target RPE range by stretching out rest times to 3+ minutes.
Top set of squat was solid, but kept the back-off work at 3 plates because I'm starting to get various lingering aches and pains in my legs following last weeks squat session.
Same weight on BB Curls for 2X13 as last week, but it was slightly lower effort.
DB Curls were slightly more weight, but at slightly more effort, so more or less flat.
First 225 bench since my gym re-opened, and it and the back-offs all moved very well.
415 is a new lifetime PR on DL, but the effort was higher that last week, probably more or less flat on the top set, but the heavier back-off sets moved very well. 355 would have been a Volume PR at 2X4, and I did 4X4.
Grip got wonky on the first work set of Press and actually dumped the bar forward. Really strange. The weight ended up being too much anyway.
Top set of Squat was a little awkward, but still nice to be flying over 3.5 plates on squat at this effort level.
Pulled back on Preacher Curls a bit. I've got forearm discomfort around the elbow that's starting to linger during this Curls-focused block, and this movement seems to aggravate it the most. Worked up slowly with very controlled reps, and this ended up being the right weight for that effort.
Chin-Ups were feeling a bit weak today, so I added an extra set.
262.2 (BW+30)X8 is a Rep PR for Dips, and I did it for 3 sets. These little bumps are the nice thing about tracking Rep and Volume PRs. You can grab the lower hanging fruit and throw it into your programming here and there to get the morale boost.
70X11 is a Rep RP on Curls. Nice to get it for 3 sets, too.
105 for 3X7 would be a 3 set PR, and I got that for 4 sets, although they were a bit tougher than I would have liked.
Top single on Squats felt great, but when I tried to go a little over target on the back-off sets, they were tougher than expected. I may need to start separating the projected work weights for the single and the sets of 4.
Preacher Curls were a lot harder on this day, and I had to back the weight off. No big.
62.5+ for 3X11 on BB Curls is a Volume PR. NBD, because I designed the rep ranges for Curls and Press this block to grab some low-hanging Volume PRs. Also, I took the trouble to weight the straight bar I've been using and discovered it's a ~30 lb. bar, and I thought it was ~20 lbs.
As above, 97.5 for 3X7 is a Volume PR on Press. Weight came in lower than I was targeting to start this block, but I've got a bit of discomfort in my right shoulder that seemed to come up doing tempo presses in the pivot. Food for thought.
Squat went well. 345 is the heaviest weight I've used since the pandemic started and it moved nicely.
3-2-0 Tempo Beltless Press (pause at forehead)- 70X7, 7, 7, 7 @~7.5
3-2-0 Tempo Beltless Squat - 225X4, 4 @6
Standing Single-Leg Adductor Machine - 75X8, 8 @6
Reverse Machine Preacher Curls - 10X12, 12 @7/8.5
Tempo Pressing got a real burn going in this slightly higher rep range; especially on the 2 ct. pause.
I wanted to try doing adductor work this Pivot to see if it could help mitigate the adductor DOMS I often experience at the beginning of regular training blocks. I always prefer to work in single-limb stuff in pivots if I can. That being said, this machine took a lot of awkward trail-and-error to get going with reasonable feeling reps. I may have to just see if I get any tell-tale soreness to indicate some work was done, otherwise I may have to switch to the regular adductor machine.
RG Preacher Machine had to be on the lowest setting. Ha ha.
I'm cutting this development block off here. Low back discomfort started to build during this cycle to the point my back was "out" by the end of this day. Interestingly, the next day it was 90% improved, and was back to normal the day after that.
Because of the months spent only working out at home, I'd been focused on improving chin-ups in that time. I decided to carry that into this first block back in the gym.
At the beginning of the pandemic, I was doing set of 2-4 with an unknown BW. By the end of this block I was able to get that up to sets of 5-6 at ~my heaviest lifetime BWs. In just this gym bock, my increase was roughly 3.6%. None of that doesn't seems great compared to the improvement I generally see on Barbell lifts. However, I've always struggled to progress chin-ups, and generally my progress has come by sacrificing form (i.e. cutting them high). My general impression was that at the end of this my chin-ups feel much more "under control," and I had a general expectation that I was going to be able to add a rep or two to a set or two every week.
The structure of this block also inspired me for a new roadmap for developmental blocks going forward. The general structure here was 3 days/week, 4 movements per day, with the first and last movements being devoted to chin-up development. I'm going to try carrying that forward in the next block. I've always cared about more than just the 3-4 lifts most strength programs are geared towards (the 3 Powerlifts + OHP), and I've often let myself be pulled in the direction of prioritizing those few lifts in order not to "bastardize" successful programs. I'm going to be looking to break away from that mindset.
Next bock will use the same structure to prioritize #1 Biceps Curls, and #2 Overhead Press. The first and last movement of each session will be geared towards those, with higher volume/set, and reps more in the moderate-to-high "hypertrophy" range. The Powerlifts will be in a strength maintenance phase with heavy top singles and low rep/ low fatigue back-off sets. Dips will also be in a hypertophy range in the hopes they will work as a Press Accessory. Chin-Ups will have to be in a lower rep / volume / fatigue zone because I'm not strong enough on them to really use either of the strategies I'm using for the other lifts. Hanging Leg Raises are quickly becoming another "main" movement for me, and they need a lot of improvement. For now, they will be treated the same as they were in this block as they were progressing similar to Chin-Ups despite only getting one slot per week.
345X6 ties my previous 6 Rep PR on Deadlift, but grip was failing hard and the bar was down in my fingertips by the end of that set so I backed off to get all the volume in. Thought, "need to work on grip."
But then Press also went backwards pretty hard, and I had to back off the weight there too. It occurs to me that I also had to back-off weight for my last set of Squats on Monday. Now I'm thinking it's time to wrap up this block, Pivot, and move to the next block.
Everything but leg raises were a little rougher this week than last week.
I dropped back the weight on rows to make sure I'm dropping my shoulders completely between reps. I think a few years of only doing Pendlays neglected that part of rowing technique, and I was tending to keep my shoulders up throughout the movement. The added ROM and slightly slower pace needed to reset the weight a little bit.
I felt a little out-of-it walking into the gym, but tried to rally for Squats.
Warm-ups went OK, but not great. I backed off of my target top set weight, but it was still harder than I wanted (targeting RPE 9). Then the first back-off was slightly heavier than I wanted it to be, but I could tell than the next set was going to be even harder, so I backed the weight off again, and hit the RPE target. At this point, I remembered how I'd dropped a set per movement from the first week of Block 10A, and decided to do that again today to make sure I could get through it.
Then Wide Grip DL and Leg Press were all right on target. Dunno.
Top strength on Bench was completely flat for the 2nd week in a row, but this time back-off set strength nose-dived after the first set.
I then backed way off to see how Close Grips were going to go, and the back-off weight ended up being the work weight.
Sleep hasn't been great this week, so maybe there's a recovery issue. Looking back at the last year+ of training with Emerging Strategies, I've never had two lifts plateau in week 4. This is really throwing a wrench into the experiment of doing back-to-back, 4-5 week "greatest hits" blocks. When I started this experiment, I told myself I would switch to Phase 2 if two lifts plateaued or regressed in Week 4, but I didn't really expect it to happen. On the other hand, it might be fun to have different stuff to do next week....
GPP Day -
- DB Circuit: Curls, Upright Rows, COne-Arm Rows - 7 minutes; 3 rounds; sets of 10
- Stationary Bike - LISS; 20 minutes
Up-and-down session.
e1RM on the top Squat set is fairly flat with last week despite being more weight. However, 300 is a 3X7 PR fwiw.
I haven't slept well the last couple of nights, and was kind of ready to just go home after Squats. Tried to just hit Front Squats at the same weight as last week, but it wasn't there. Ended up having to drop to the lower weight than I've used this block just to his target RPE. A little bummed about that, but also happy that I didn't just throw in the towel on the 4X9 or the session as a whole.
Hoped I would rally a bit on Sumos, but adding weight wasn't there. Ended up using the same weight as last week, which is fine.
Going back and looking at the block from March/April '19 that had Front Squats and Sumos in it, I realize that they weren't all on the same day with back squats. I probably should have paid more attention to that when I was laying out this program, but this part of the block is almost over. I may have this session again next week, or I may move on to Phase 2, depending on how the rest of this week goes. I need to find a way to get some better sleep the next few days, and put myself in the best position to succeed.
On GPP day, I decided to flop the first and last movements for a couple of weeks just to give them a slightly different stimulus. Also did LISS on a bike. May do HIIT on the bike for the next few sessions just to mix it up.
Good jump on DL, especially on the back-off sets. I was working in with someone that had a 100 and a 45 loaded on each side, so I just did that and it ended up being solid despite adding a set.
Speaking of adding a set, I stopped the second set of GHR at 16 because I just spaced that I was supposed to be doing 17.
Tempo incline was interesting. I felt like I started picking up a lot more kinetic feedback in this session sort of "guiding me" in how to keep my elbows under the bar. It made all the reps and sets a lot smoother and easier to execute than the first two cycles when strength seemed to be dipping quickly throughout a set.
BW - 228 Waist - 43.75" sRPE @ 7 Bench - 207.5X3 @8 177.5X7, 7, 7 @~7 CG Bench - 170X6, 6, 6, 6 @7.25/8 Rack Pull-Ups - BWX7, 7, 7 @~8 GPP Day - - Circuit: Straight-Arm Pull-Downs, DB Press, Hammer Curls - 7 minutes; 3 rounds; sets of 8-10 - Rower - HIIT; 7 rounds; 14 minutes
Okay upper body day.
Right elbow was feeling a bit sensitive, and slowed down the lock out on my top triple, raising the RPE. I was able to increase the weight slightly on the back-offs, but all-told e1RM was relatively flat from last week. Expect a bounce back next week!
Closed-grips were a little better initially, but the RPE ramped up fairly quickly. This may be somewhat a function of adding an extra set to both bench movements.
I ended up not adding an extra set to the rack pull-ups because I always had this set a 3 sets for this program, i.e. I didn't drop a set for the first two weeks like I did with everything else. I'm also getting extra upper-back work on the GPP days, so no big.
sRPE ended up being right about on target, I think.
GPP Day -
- DB Circuit: One-Arm Rows, Upright Rows, Curls - 7 minutes; 3 rounds; sets of 10
- Rower - HIIT; 6 rounds; 12 minutes
Good session.
sRPE had been sub-target for two sessions in a row, and RTS' TRAC system also indicated an increase in volume, so I took their suggestion and added 1 set per movement. This is the volume I'd originally envisioned for the program, but gave it a couple of weeks for fitness/DOMS to get inverse. sRPE ended up being over target on this day, but this is the hardest session of the cycle, and is the only one that has rest days before it. That's all to say that increasing the volume felt good, though hard, on this day, and that I'll keep an eye on it, but expect it should be fine.
Surprisingly, e1RM for squat on this day is the 2nd highest of the past year. That result seems unlikely, but we'll see how it plays out. The absolute intensity is still well off from my highest of the past year which was, I believe, 380X2@9.
I was pretty sure DL was going to bounce-back strong from last week's DOMS-laden session, and that was accurate. Had trouble pulling 330X3 last week, but 365X3 was right there for me today on target.
GHR and Tempo Incline all felt good.
sRPE has been sub-target for 2 session in a row, which was going to be my trigger to add a set to everything. Not coincidentally, RPS TRAC system also recommends that as of today based on my perceived fatigue metrics.
GPP Day -
- Circuit: Straight-Arm Pull-Downs, DB Press, Hammer Curls - 7 minutes; 3 rounds; sets of 10
- Rower - HIIT; 6 rounds; 12 minutes
Solid upper-body session. sRPE was sub-target for the 2nd week in a row, so if I'm feeling well fatigue-wise next week, I'll be adding a set to each movement.
Bench took a 2% jump in e1RM this week, which is above average for the last year. In my best training 4 training blocks over the last year, bench jumped about 3% in week 2 on average, but the TM on the first week for those bench blocks was 92.7% on average (below the mean for the year), and this block started at 98.9% (the highest of the year). So year-best TM and an above average jump in week 2, are a combo that I haven't seen on bench in the last year, and an auspicious start to the block.
Last week, RPE on Close-Grips ramped quickly on the sets across, but this week I was able to both add weight, and maintain it at target RPE. Nice to have that on track in week 2 as well.
Added a rep to all the Rack Pull-Ups but BW was down, so whatevs. I'm not going to stress over these, even if the data says they were one of my top-6 DL accessories in the last year. They'll progress or they won't.
GPP Day went very well. Got another 3 round in 7 minutes on the resistance circuit. I added weight to all movements, and still hit 10 reps on all sets. Thought I would add 2 rounds to the HIIT, but only adding 1 felt right in the moment.
GPP Day -
- DB Circuit: One-Arm Rows, Upright Rows, Curls - 7 minutes; 3 rounds; sets of 8-10
- Rower - HIIT; 5 rounds; 10 minutes
Solid little session.
Went in expecting to get a lot more on LBS and Sumo than the previous session, and that turned out to be true. Just the way I felt on the previous session, and some experience of how this tends to go over the last year played into that expectation. Still, I used RPE on warm-ups to calibrate what the top set would actually be. I tend to go in with the assumption of a larger than average jump, but a 4% jump is WELL above average for me cycle-to-cycle.
First set of back-offs on the Squat were a touch harder than target, and so dropped back on the 2nd set. I expect to be adding a set to each movement over the next couple of weeks, so don't see any reason to push intensity on those now.
Front Squats ended up not progressing as quickly. Maybe just fatigue still from the low bar sets.
Sumo was a bit weird. This is actually the same e1RM as last week, but the RPE dropped slightly on the 2nd set. I think it's technical acclimation coming into play. Likely see a big jump next week if I had to put money on it.
On GPP Day, I still got a third round of the circuit. Switched over to HIIT from LISS on the rower. Last week was just an intro for that. Cut the total conditioning time in half, and will look to add a round or two every session until I'm up in the 7-10 range. Then maybe switch movements?
Adductor DOMS from Squats lit up HARD on my first warm-up set of DL. Made all of the subsequent sets incredibly difficult, and drove up the sRPE. Still, once the back-off set of DL got moving, the expected strength levels appear to be there, so I'm optimistic this all bounces back in Cycle 2 once the DOMS start to fade.
GPP Day -
- Circuit: Straight-Arm Pull-Downs, Seated DB Press, Hammer Curls - 7 minutes; 3 rounds; sets of 10
- Rower - LISS; 20 minutes
Nice little upper-body session.
200X3 @7.5 is interesting because that's about at 99% of where my bench was at the end of the previous, aborted cycle. That was back on 12/22. So almost a month later, with minimal training, bench strength is about where it was. Not sure if there are any take-aways, but if the lift trends upwards from here, and especially if I get a couple of larger-than-average jumps (my Bench tends to have those), I could end up with a good little bench block.
I had to drop weight on the last set of Close-Grips, as the RPE started jumping pretty fast. All good (probably).
Rack Pull-Ups were fairly easy, especially as I'm still dropping a set from each movement in this first week.
vi
GPP Day went well, too! Was able to move through this combination a bit faster and with more reps, resulting in getting a 3rd round in the same amount of time. I think the prior GPP day's circuit probably had a lot more biceps involvement in each movement and that created more fatigue.
Also doubled my time on the rower with no difficulty. Will probably switch to HIIT next week.
GPP Day -
- DB Circuit: One-Arm Rows, Upright Rows, Curls - 7 minutes; 2 rounds; sets of 7-10
- Rower - LISS; 10 minutes
First session getting back to it after a rough few weeks of derailed training and a week of travel.
Testing some stuff I've observed with Emerging Strategies in this block. Based on the last year of using that framework, my best results occur in the first 5 cycles of a training block, and then taper off for a couple of cycles before I pass my peak. This will be a 10 cycle block where the first 4-5 cycles are my "2nd best" rep ranges and assistance movements transitioning into a 2nd round of 4-5 cycles with my "greatest hits" rep ranges and assistance movements. With no pivot block in between, I'll see if I can extend my Time to Peak and if the cycle-to-cycle gains stay high, or if it still tapers off after the first 4-5 weeks and/or peaks around 7-8 weeks.
Something else I'm trying is cutting a set from each movement in the initial session/week to see if that helps with DOMS after little to no training the last couple of weeks.
Squats and Front Squats both went well.
Sumos w/ straps we're way off where I expected them to be on paper, but I was just a little gassed at this point, and didn't want to push the sRPE up.
Also taking advantage of the office gym to get some conditioning and some isolation/hypertrophy work that I always find it difficult to wedge into regular training sessions.
