Pressin' Out Week 9. MAX

sRPE @6

BW - 225

Press - 

-    up to 1675.5X1(PR) @10

-    170X0, 0, 0

Bench - up to 245X1 @9.5

JM Press - 85X5, 5, 5 @~8

Hack Squats - 150X5, 5 @8

Incline Rear Delt Flyes - 12sX12, 11, 10 @~10

Chipped my best Press for a new PR.  It felt really good, so I made several runs at 170 with no luck.

Was still feeling good, and thinking about pivoting to Bench focus for a while, so I went ahead and worked up on it.  That's my first straight bar bench since 7/3/24 when I hit 250.  Not a bad place to start if that's what I decide to do.  

Med.-Rep Volume PRs. Week 4. Session A.

sRPE @7

BW - 222

Squats - 

315X1 @6.5

255X6, 6, 6, 6 @5/7

Press - 105X3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 @6/7

JM Press - 75X16, 16 @8/9.5

105 for 6 sets of 3 is a Volume PR on Press.

I'm annoyed by the Squats because back in  July, prior to all the schedule disruptions I've had, I hit 265 for 4 sets of 9 at comparable RPEs.  Mike T. always says, "you can't get back, you can only move forward," but it's hard not to want to be back where I was only 3 months ago.

Med.-Rep Volume PRs. Week 2. Session A.

sRPE @6

BW - 226

Squats -

275X1 @5.5

305X1 @6

245X6, 6, 6, 6 @~5

Press - 100X3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 @5/6

JM Press - 70X15, 15 @~7

Stationary Bike - HIIT; 10 rounds / 6 minutes

100 for 6 sets of 3 is a Volume PR on Press.

Med.-Rep Volume PRs. Week 1. Session A.

sRPE @6

BW - 224

Squats - 

275X1 @4

225X6, 6, 6, 6 @4/3

Press - 95X3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 @4/5.5

JM Press - 70X14, 14 @~7.5

Schedule should somewhat stabilize from here through the winter holidays.  Decided to drop intensity way down and hit the full, programmed volume.  If I'm ready for, or acclimate quickly to, this volume at this low of intensity, then I can likely start to ramp intensity up to target fairly quickly.  From there, I'll just have to see if my normal time-to-peak for a given cycle "starts" here and gives me a 4-6 week runway, or if having done a version of this for several weeks already limits my TTP, and I hit the wall in 4 weeks or less.

Squat was interesting today because the back-off sets got easier set-to-set.  That happens sometimes in a regular Week 1, so I'm hopeful that's a sign.

JM Press was also way easier today despite adding reps over the previous session.  Maybe a combination of diminished general fatigue from my time off, lower weights on the preceding Press sets, and acclimation to the movement.

Med.-Rep Volume PRs. Week 0.75. Session B.

sRPE @7.5

BW - 222

Squats - 

315X1 @6.5

275X6, 6 @~6.5

Press - 105X3, 3, 3, 3, 3 @5.5/6.5

JM Press - 70X12, 13 @9/10

Stationary Bike - HIIT; 9 rounds / 16 minutes

Squatting continues to be the lift that I struggle with the most during times of schedule disruption.  Was hoping the top single would be bigger today, and also hoped that the RPE on the back-offs would have dropped a bit so that I'd feel comfortable adding more sets.  Oh well.  I'll keep treading water on the the Powerlifts, trying to add volume on the lower stress movements, and otherwise biding time till my schedule stabilizes a bit. 

Med.-Rep Volume PRs. Week 0.5. Session A.

sRPE @6

BW - 224

Squats - 

315X1 @6

330X1 @7

225X6, 6 @6.5/7.5

Press - 105X3, 3, 3, 3 @6/7.5

JM Press - 70X12, 12 @7/8

Rower - HIIT; 10 minutes / 6 rounds

Just slowly working to rebuild/maintain work capacity between schedule disruptions.

Med.-Rep Volume PRs. Week 0. Session A.

sRPE @6

BW - 218

Squat - 

315X1 @7.5

275X6 @7.5

Low Pin Bench - up to 205X1 @9

Press - 105X3 @6.5

JM Press - 70X12 @8.5

Stationary Bike - HIIT; 6 rounds / 10 minutes

Just back from a few days of travel.  Taking it REALLY easy volume-wise, as I jumped in too hard after my last trip.  I'll just do 1-2 sets per movement, and add volume as it seems advisable.  I have a lot more trips coming up in the next few months, so I will take a very conservative approach to volume to avoid DOMS and other issues that overly impact my life-at-large.

Pivot Block. Cycle 3. Session B.

BW - 216

5-3-0 Tempo Deadlift -
232.5X4 @5
245X4, 4 @6

Single-Leg Elevated Hip Thrusts - BWX15, 13 @~8

5-3-0 Tempo Bench -
135X4 @5.5
140X4, 4, 4 @~6.5

JM Press - 85X8, 8, 8 @6/7

Pull-Downs - X11, 9 @~9

Leg Raises - X17, 14 @~9

Last session of the pivot block.  Everything went very well.  Very, very ready to start my next developmental cycle.

Video of the last sets of the tempo lifts.

Pivot Block. Cycle 2. Session B.

BW - 216

5-3-0 Tempo DL -
225X4 @5
235X4, 4 @6 (w/straps)

Single-Leg Elevated Hip Thrust - BWX14, 12 @8

5-3-0 Tempo Bench -
125X4 @5
135X4, 4, 4 @5.5/6.5

JM Press -
80X8 @5
85X8 @5.5
90X8 @7.5

Lat Pull-Downs - X10, 8

Leg Raises - X15, 14

Added straps for the tempo DL.  Did mixed grip on the last warm-up, and played around with breathing at the top vs. breathing at the bottom, but it was clear grip was going to drive up the RPE, and that wasn't the point of this movement.

Added a set of DL to my upcoming developmental block, so I also added a set of the single-leg DL accessory here just to keep total volume in line.  Crazy low back pump after doing these.

Tempo bench took a big jump.  Hopefully a sign of residual fatigue falling away.

Conversely, I had a hard time dialing in JM Press and then the bottom fell out on it.

Only took video of the tempo lifts today.

Pivot Block. Cycle 1. Session B.

BW - 217

Tempo DL 5-3-0 - 225X4, 4 @6, 7

Single-Leg Elevated Hip Thrust - BWX12 @8

Tempo Bench 5-3-0 -
135X4 @7.5
125X4, 4 @6

JM Press -
85X8 @8
75X8, 8 @6

Pull-Downs - X9, 7 @9

Leg-Raise - X10, 15 @6,10

Tempo DL was even harder than I expected.  Thought the weight would be light enough that I could go double-overhand, but had to switch to mixed grip and that still ended up being a challenge.  In this case, 5-3-0 means a 3 second pause right off the ground, and a 5 second eccentric.

Haven't done these single-leg elevated hip thrusts since back my DeFranco training days.  Still feels like it could be a useful movement in this context.

Nothing really to note about anything else.  Video is just of DL, Bench, and JMs.

Hybrid Training. Week 8. Heavy Upper

BW - 225

Bench -
up to 195X3, 3, 3
then 152.5X6, 6, 6

JM Press - 95X5, 5, 5

CG Chins - BWX6, 5, 4

Cable Rows - X8, 7, 7 (straight-weight)

Pretty solid session.  The top sets of bench were moving a bit slow on the 2nd reps, and getting kind of dicey on the 3rds.

I'm signed up for a meet on 9/6.  It's mostly just a practice meet to get another one under my belt before doing my main meet in March.  I have to be careful about pushing the lower body lifts too hard, because I've got a 5K at the end of September, but I should be able to keep pushing the bench, and so there is a chance I could get a small, lifetime bench PR at the November meet.

Hybrid Training. Week 7. Heavy Upper and Intervals

BW - 227

Bench -
up to 185X5, 5
then 155X10

JM Press - 95X5, 5, 5 (slow concentric, slight pause)

CG Pulldowns - X10, 8, 7 (straight-weight)

T-Bar Rows - 115X6, 4

Chest-Supported T-Bar Retractions - 90X15, 15

Intervals - 8, 1/4 mile intervals @ ~2:30

 Had a consult this week with a coach from Complete Human Performance, the company founded by the author of the Hybrid Training program.  Some of the new info gleaned went into this session.

I did a second top set of 5 at 185.  These were do-able but getting difficult.  I felt a 3rd set may have been overkill on this day.

I went for a rep out on one back-off set, instead of doing multiple sets for proscribed reps.

I tried JM Presses for the first time here as another heavy, triceps option.  The movement was much more difficult at much lighter weight than I expected.  Good.

I hit some pulldown and row variations.

The coach from CHP mentioned that he'd had great luck bringing up his upper back with chest-supported scapula retractions.  Never done this kind of thing before, but my upper back was really tired, and fried feeling after this.

Did intervals a couple of days later.  The coach said the important thing is to start getting the combined interval distance to match the race distance and at race pace.  So I added a couple of intervals here, and will look to add two intervals a week until I hit 12 quarter-miles, and then drop down to half-miles and work up to 6.