Pivot Block. Cycle 1. Session A.

BW - 232

Waist - 43.75"

X-2-3-3 Tempo Chin-Up Negatives: BWX5, 5, 5 @~9

3-2-0 Tempo Beltless Squats: 225X5 @6.5

3-2-0 Tempo Bench: 140X5 @5

1-Arm Lat Pulldowns - 60X10 @10

I've been working out at home with training from my old coach at Kratos Strength.  This was my first day back in the barbell gym.

Novice LP. Session 34 (Greyskull Squats)

Squat - 315X5, 5, 7

Press - 140X2, 1

SLDL - 185X5, 5, 5

Went and got a tune up yesterday with my old coaches at Kratos.  I wanted them to review my programming to date, talk about next steps, take a look at my squat form, and help get me acclimated to using a belt.

I've decided to start using a belt to see if it will help this lingering back pain.  I've used one a couple of times in the past, and it no doubt helps lift heavier weight in the squat.  But will it help with the pain?  I've found conventional DL to be really fucking uncomfortable in them, but I'll just have to work that out.

315X7 is a Rep PR in the Squat.  The low-back discomfort was there even with the belt, but no where near as painful or all-around limiting as it has been.

Crapped out on Press though.  I suspect some of this is reversing the order I've been lifting in.  I'll try it again next go-round with pressing first and see if I get it.  If not, I will give it a shot on the GSLP and see if I can break some walls down that way.

These guys would like to see me move to an HLM program sooner than later.  Part of that would be SLDLs.  I'm not ready to switch over whole sale just yet.  Current plan, per lift, is as follows:
 - Squats: Continue to run the GSLP.  If it stalls, reset ONCE and run up again, or switch to HLM.  Depending on how I'm feeling with the belt.
 - Bench: Continue to run the Advanced Novice LP.  That includes pushing into triples like I did with Squats.  If it stalls, try resetting to GSLP and go from there.  Eventually moving into HLM.
 - DL: Adding the belt.  I got all my reps this last time with the current programming of top-triple/back-off-triple, so I'm going to progress that with the addition of the belt.  We'll just have to see how the belt changes things.  If it's better, I continue on this path.  If it stalls, I will go ahead and reset to HLM, which is just the same old 1X5 per week.
 - Press: Try 140 again, but as the first movement of the day.  If I get it, continue.  If I fail, I will try resetting to the GSLP and see how that goes.  Eventually moving into HLM.

Now the question is whether I should try to incorporate the prescribed SLDLs sooner rather than later, and what would that look like.  One way may be to pull chins back to 1-2X/week, and alternate DL and SLDL every other week.

Novice LP. Team Training. Session 6

BW - 222

Squats - 282.5X3X5

Press - 110X3X5

Pull-Ups and Ring Chins - BWX3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2

Pull-downs - X8

My coach and I mis-communicated on today's weight, and so we mis-loaded the bar.  We just decided to stay at the weight and just balance the load back out.  These went well.

Press also went well.

I tried out some pull-ups.  First time in a while.  Hard.  There's no chin bar in the room where the team trains, but someone had hung some rings.  After a few sets of pull-ups, I went back into the team room and did some ring chins.  Also hard.

This is almost certainly the last team training session.  Kratos Strength, the coaches I've been working with, are opening their own facility.  It's in a less convenient location, and will be more expensive than the current set-up.  I'm going to check it out over the weekend, but it's hard to imagine I won't be back to training on my own-some starting next week.