Full Body-ish. Week 5. Squat

BW - 204

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
155X4
185X3
225X2
265X3, 2

 Cuff Work - external rotation with 5 lb. plates and Face Pulls; 2X20 each

BB Complex - 95X5, 105X5, 5, 95X5
1-Arm RDL, Hang High-Pulls, Cheat Curls, Yates Rows

My shoulder pain came back with a vengeance last week, so I'm dropping pressing this week and just doing legs and back.  It's the last week of the Full Body block anyway.

Absolutely no pop out of the bottom on squats.

Complex was still tough even without the overheads.

Full Body. Week 4. Squat

BW - 206

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
255X7, 3

DB Bench -
60sX16, 12, 6
45sX12

BB Complex - 95X5; 3 sets
1-Arm RDL, High-Pull, Push-Press, Cheat Curl, Yates Row

Gym closing early for Memorial Day, so I had to train in the AM.  I never feel as "strong" training in the morning.  Regardless of sleep and whatever.  I was hoping to approach 10 reps with 255 on the Squat, but I was having trouble even keeping my form tight and consistent.

Tried to push reps on the DB Bench, and I eked out a few on the first set, but then the bottom dropped out.  Finished off with the 45s to just try and up the overall volume.

Complex moved up to 5 reps this week, and was: Hard.  As.  Hell.  Gasping for air after 3 sets, and my forearms were screaming after 2.  Crazy.

Full Body. Week 3. Squat

BW - 207

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X4
155X4
185X3
225X2
245X10, 8

DB Bench -
40sX18
55sX18, 10, 12, 10

BB Complex - 95X4; 6 sets
1-Arm RDL (both arms), High-Pull, OHP, Cheat Curl, Yates Row

Felt good coming in today.  Got a good nights sleep, plenty of food, etc.  As a result, 5 more total reps on the Squat work sets than last week, and with 10 more pounds.  Had a guy I'm friendly with at the gym cuing me on.  Have to admit, I think that helped.

60s were occupied, so I went down to the 55s and added an extra set.

Added rows into this complex.  Want to maintain the Deadlift assistance focus (that's also why I went back to High-Pulls from the floor instead of cheat Upright Row).  Between the extra movement and adding extra reps to the sets, I ran out of gas much faster than the last two weeks.

Full Body. Week 2. Squat

BW - 208

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X3
225X2
235X8, 5

DB Bench -
40sX15
60sX15, 10, 9

BB Complexes (Deadlift focus) - 95X2X15
1-Arm RDL, *Upright Row, OHP, Cheat Curl

BB Rows - 145X10

Good session.  Squats felt great, an no issues with my knee.

Pushed the reps on DB Bench a bit.  As soon as I get a 10th rep on the 3rd set, I'll add another set.

This Complex is rounding out.  Once again, my hamstrings are quite sore the next day from these, although my lats aren't as sore as they were last week.  *These started to turn into High-Pulls by the last few sets, and I'm not sure if I should just do those the whole time.

Thought to do one burn-out set of rows at the end, so I threw a 25 on each side.  Ended up being a bit more weight than I needed for my purpose because I was so gassed from the complexes.  Next week I'll just leave it at 95 and also may switch to underhand, Yates row.

Full Body. Week 1. Squat

BW - 207

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
115X5
135X5
155X4
185X3
225X10, 5

DB Bench - 60sX15, 12, 8, 8

BB Complex - RDL*, High-Pull, OHP, Row*
95X2; 14 sets

Knee is still bothering me.  Mostly it's achy when I wake up.  I can feel it when I'm exercising as well, but it's hard to tell if that's because of discomfort or because I'm hyper-aware of it.  Anyway, it's time to get back to work, so we'll just have to see.

225X10 is solid I believe while being scared of the knee.  14 reps is my all-time best with this weight.

I was only supposed to do 3 sets of DB Bench.  Oh, well.

Playing around with the complexes to see what feels right.  I'd originally programmed for 5 sets; increasing the reps per set every week.  But 5 sets of 2 here was just nothing, so I kept going until I felt worked and that was 14 sets.

* Strict OHP is the weak link in this chain, and I have to keep the weight down to be able to do it.  But the RDLs and Rows just felt ridiculous, and the High-Pulls weren't much harder.  After about 10 sets, I started pulling the RDL's with one-arm and switched from Rows to Cheat Curls.  I'll try this from the top next week.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 2. Squat

LRB Diet - Week 8

BW - 197

Squats -
BarX10, 10
95X5, 5
135X3, 3
165, 190X3
215X9
135X15

Pendlays -
BarX15
110, 145X5
130X17

SL High-Pulls -
130, 145, 165, 165, 170X5

Dips -
BWX5, 5
+35X8, 6, 4

Chiro Crunches - 1 set of 40

Ab Wheel - 2 sets of 6

80+% session.  I won't say +10%, because RPE was pretty high on everything, but lots of little PR's today.

215X9 is an all-time Rep PR, and projects to an all-around PR with my deeper form.  Added 5 reps to my back-off set weight.  Will try for 20 with 135 next time.  It looks like the weight for my 35 birthday squats is going to be at 125, so 135 for 20 should be a good prep for that attempt.  Might want to add a 2 sets of 10 to follow it though.  40 total reps with 135 might be even better prep.

I also added additonal sets to my squat warm-ups based on a recent article by Paul Carter.  I will say that the 2nd set of each warm-up weight felt better than the first.  Hard to say if it helped my top sets any.  I'll try to keep this up with Squating and Benching and see if I think it's having an impact.

130X17 is a small all-around PR on the dead-stop rows.  The last few reps had one or two breaths between each, though.

16X5 was my previous best on the High-Pulls.  They still felt like they were right at the top end, but I suddenly remembered 2.5 lb. weights!  So I was able to bump up to 170 and get 5 for a small all-around PR on this move as well.

8 reps with 35 lbs. was my goal for dips this session and I got it.  Next session, I will go for 5 with a 45.  After I get back from vacation, I'm going to reset to BW dips for a little bit, and start pausing my reps at the bottom.  I'm worried that I've started cutting reps high, and pausing is the best way I know to fix that for any movement.  Looking forward to feeling humbled.

Started to do the swiss-ball crunches per normal, but I'm getting really bored with them.  I've noticed that an Ab Wheel has been able to stay at the gym for a while without being stolen, so I'm going to switch to that for awhile. 

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 1. Squat

LRB Diet - Day 48

BW - 198

Squat -
BarX10
95, 135, 155, 180X5
205X10
135X10

Pendlays -
BarX15
105X10
145X8
120X15

SL High-Pulls -
120, 145, 155, 155, 155X5

Dip -
BW, BWX5
+25X10, 6, 5

Chiro Crunches - 3 sets of 40

Nice session.  205X10 is an all-time Rep PR, and an all-around PR at full depth.  My birthday is coming up at the end of the month, and I'm going to institute a new tradition of picking a weight and squatting it for as many reps as I am years old.  This was inspired by Dave Tate's Halloween tradition of doing "Death Squats."  However, I don't want to go straight from working in the 5-10 range to trying for a 35 rep set, so I'm adding back-off sets on Squat day in the weeks leading up to try and build my work capacity.  Next week, I'll shoot for 15-20 with the 135, then 20-30 in the week after that.  On my birthday week, I'll make sure I have a couple days off and then work up to a mild single before backing-off to attempt a 35 rep set.

Was feeling a little gassed after the two, 10 rep sets of squats, and so the Rows and High-Pulls were a little on the weaker side today.

But I rallied for dips, and a 25 lb. plate for 10 reps at 198 is a weighted dip PR. 

Since there was so much back work today, just crunches for the core work.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 3. Squat

Friday Training

Band 2-arm biceps curls - 5 sets of 10
super-set with
Band Pull-aparts - 5 sets of 20

Saturday Training

AM Fasted Stready State - 20 minutes

LRB Diet - Day 42

BW - 198

Hypers - 5 sets of 15

Squat -
BarX10
95X8
135, 170X5
195X3
220X6

Pendlay Rows -
BarX15
110X3
150X3
135X15

SL High-Pulls -
135, 145, 155, 165, 165X5

Dips -
BW, BW, +25, +25, +35, +35X5

Not a bad session.  220X6 on squats is a PR with my new, deeper form.  Felt like it, too.  A little worried that all the Pause Squatting is now making regular squatting feel awkward.  That would suck, because pause squatting is what got me comfortable with full depth on regular squats to begin with, but regular squats just feel strange with the quick turnaround at the bottom now.

135X15 is an all-around PR on Pendlays

High-pulls felt a little heavier today with the same weight as last session.  Hitting PR's on the previous 2 movements may have contributed, lol.

Getting re-acclimated to doing dips weighted.  Next session, I should try to bang out 10 reps with 25, and then at least 8 with 35.  If I do that, I should be able to quickly move to just using a full 45 plate for sets of 5.

Skipped abs again because I suck.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 2. Squat

LRB Diet - Day 35

BW - 197

Saturday and Sunday - AM fasted cardio 20-35 minutes

Squats -
BarX10
95X8
135X5
160, 185X3
205X7

Pendlay Rows -
BarX15
110, 140X5
125X17

Stiff-Leg High-Pulls -
125, 135, 155, 165, 165X5
super-set with
Dips -
BW+25, 2 sets of 5
BW+35, 2 sets of 5
BW+25, 1 set of 5

Was under the gun to get in and out this session, so no core work today.

Squats felt just okay.  Not spectacularly good or bad.

125X17 with Pendlays is an all-around PR.

Super-set the high-pulls with dips to try and make up some time.  165 for 5 was definitely at the top end of my ability for the day.

Haven't loaded dips in a while, so this felt like a "re-acquaint myself" session.  I was also using an adjustable dip station, and never felt like I got the bars at a comfortable width.  The last set was supposed to be a back-off set for higher reps with just the 25 lb. plate, but I forgot during the set and stopped at 5.  's All good, and I'll remember to do something along those lines next time.

All in all, an 80% session.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 1. Squat

LRB Diet - Day 26

BW - ?189?

Squats -
BarX10
95X7
135, 150X5
170X3
195X8

BB Rows -
BarX15
95X8
135X8
115X15

High-Pulls -
115, 135, 145, 155, 155, 155X5

Dips - BWX8, 12, 16, 4, 6

I was pressed for time getting ready to go out of town for the weekend, and had to settle for going to the L@Fitness (formerly B@llys) near my home.  189 seemed like such a drastic drop-off from my last weigh-in that I'm suspicious of the scale.  However, when I set it down to Zero pounds, it counter-balanced correctly so who knows.

I need to be better about putting my head down and doing work when I'm in a strange gym; I always feel wound tight and get a little off my game wanting to get in and get out as fast as possible.  For this session that was manifested by skipping mobility warm-ups and all my core work.  I'll have to make up for all of that in spades next time I'm in the gym.

Nevertheless everything went pretty well.  Squats felt solid, and the results are in-line with steady progress after I reset my form.

I couldnt' really do Pendlays here because I didn't have access to bumper plates at this gym.  So BB Rows trying go keep my low-back parallel to the ground and using a brief dead hang at the bottom of each rep to try and simulate a dead-stop row as much as possible.  The results were predictably slightly off from previous sessions.

For the 2nd month of LRB Dieting, I'm adding in some additional shoulder/trap work inspired by a CNP article.  One of the reasons for choosing now to take my first ever stab at strict dieting, is because I'm going to a sort of weekend camping reunion of college friends at the end of September.  While I'm trying to trim up, I thought I'd also take a stab at building some "movie star" shoulders.  Kind of silly, but also fun.  So for this day, I'm adding in High-Pulls, a movement I've never done, but always wanted to try.  These are done incredibly NOT as a textbook version of the Olympic accessory, but more as an explosive, cheating upright row.  One cool bit of synergy here, is that it seemed to work out very well to use the weight from the back-off set of bent rows as the warm-up weight for the high-pulls.  I worked up to 155, where I was having to really use explosiveness and much face-scrunching to get the 5th rep, and knocked out 3 of those sets.  I used straps on this movement as well.  I really liked this movement, and my delts felt really sore the next day.

Dips were a bit wonky because this gym has a weird, trapezoidal dip apparatus.  Again, getting past this sort of thing is something I need to be able to do.  It's dumb to only be able to have good workouts in my regular gym.  Regardless, my target was to ladder up to, and back down from 16 reps.  I got that top set, but the back off sets were completely crap.