5/3/1 Log: Cycle 2. Week 2. Incline

BW - 198

Incline (steep) -
BarX10
65X5
95X3
110X3
130X3
145X3

DB Rows - worked up to a heavy set of 20

Lying Leg Curls - 5 sets of 10-15

Swiss-Ball Crunches - 5 sets of 20-25

1 mile run - 9:30

Used the steep fixed incline bench today.  So  much more like an overloaded front press than the shallower bench.  Hoped to get 5 reps on the top set, but 3 was a grinder, but projected higher than my previous session on this particular bench so all good.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 1. Week 3. Incline

Defranco Shoulder Mobility
Incline -
BarX10
95X5
120X5
135X3
150X3
125X10

Klokov Press -
45X5
65X3
75X2
85XFail

Chin-ups - BW(206)X10, 4

Cable Rows - 3 sets of 10-12

Swiss Ball Crunches - 3 sets of 15

Not a bad session for having been out of the gym for over a week with a low back strain.  I used a different incline bench that's a little less vertical, and my pressing was predictably stronger.  I guess I'll just have to start tracking which bench I use in a session.  Still, because my incline was weaker than anticipated in my first week, for the next three weeks, I'm dialing back my training max in the hopes to get more reps on my top set.  Because I could only get 3 reps on my top set here, I decided to do the back-off set with 125.  Both the 150X3 and the 125X10 projected to increased maxes on this movement, but again, it was a shallower bench.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 1. Week 2. Press

Defranco Shoulder Mobility

Press -
BarX10X2
65X3
85X3
95X3
110X7

DB Rows -
45sX15
50sX10
55sX25

Chin-ups - BW(205)X5 stupid

Leg Curls - 5 sets of 15

Farmers Carries - 18 minutes
Empty Handles (120)X1
160X1
200X1X9

20 minutes brisk walking

My right shoulder has been feeling a bit tweaked lately, and I suspect it's from the rapid sledge hammer swings.  I took an extra warm-up set with the empty bar on pressing, and it felt fine on the 2nd set.  This was a really great Press session actually.  110X7 ties a Rep PR, and I probably could have gotten 1 more, but I didn't want to push to the limit because it's only the 2nd press day of the cycle, and I was also cognizant of the shoulder issue.  Still, it was nice to see that if I get up for it, I can still push up towards my best projected 1RM in this lift.  I was worried after my incline session last week.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 1. Week 1. Incline Press

Defranco Shoulder Mobility

Incline -
BarX15
85X5
105X5
120X5
135X5

DB Rows -
45X15
50X10
55X20

Standing Leg Curls - 3 sets of 10-20

Farmers Carries - 25 minutes
Handles (120 lbs.) X1 trip down and back
160X1
200X1X5; 60 second rests
160X1X8; 45 second rests
120X1X5; 30 second rests

Incline bench was a little heavier than I expected.  Not having done it in over a year, I thought I would try 80% of my bench as my training max, similar to what I'm doing with Pause Squats, and similar to Pause Squats the weight is probably heavier than it should be.  I'm going to try and get through the first cycle just getting at least the required reps if possible.  If training is generally going well and not interfering with my rehearsal process, I will drop the training max and continue with the 2nd 3-week cycle.  Again similar to the plan for the Pause Squats.

BLAB Log: Week 3.Day 1

BB Bench, warm-up sets - 45X10, 65X10, 95X5, 115X3
BB Bench - 120X6, 130X4, 140X7

DB Incline Bench - 80X26, 80X16

One-arm DB Row - 50X10, 60X10, 65, X10, 65X10
superset with
Rope Pushdowns - 25X10, 30X10, 35X10, 35X10

BB Shrugs - 95X10, 115X10, 135X10
superset with
DB Incline Delt Flyes - 25X12, 25X12, 25X12

BB Complex (pulls, bent rows, hang cleans, push press, squats) - 65X10, 55X10, 50X10, 45X10

I mentioned I was going to add more increments to my ME warm-up sets for squats, and I've decided to do that for all my "heavy" lifts.  You can see that here where I added the 65 lb. set.  Bench went well.  The last set called for 2+ reps and I got 7.  According to Jefit, that is a perceived max PR.  Since that includes the innacurate, and allegedly lighter-than-advertised weight I was lifting at B@lly, I feel pretty good about that.
I haven't done one-arm rows in over a decade, so I wasn't sure where to start.  I see a lot of talk about Kroc rows, which are vaguely described as one-arm rows for reps with "a ridiculous amount of weight."  I'm a little confused about that because I don't understand why you would do this lift with less weight than you think you can handle for the target reps.  I thought maybe brief rests were involved, but I just saw video of Wendler doing these, and he went non-stop from the first to last rep.  Whatever, I worked up to the most I could get for the 10 reps.

Speaking of B@lly, I was doing the rope extensions, and I was using around the same weight as I had used at the cable station in the free-weight section of that gym.  But they had another cable station in the machines area where I would have to more than double the "weight."  What is that?  I understand that having more pulleys etc. in-line with the transfer of force reduces the amount of work required to move a given amount of weight, but shouldn't they relabel the plates so that we have an accurate idea of how much force we're generating?  Just sayin'.

Well the bar-bell complexes have been getting harder with the sets going up every week per the program, but I've decided to increase the difficulty by adding weight every week.  Defranco is vague on this point.  The program as written seems to imply an empty bar, but the example YouTubes show a trainee with a weighted bar.  Last week, I added a 5er to each side for the first two sets, and this week I decided to work down from a 10 on each side to just the bar.  I don't know how hard this "finisher" is supposed to be, but this was brutal and I'm keeping it.  However, on the middle two sets I had to set the bar down between reps 5 and 6 of the cleans because my forearms felt like they were going to rip open.  I have  zero practicle knowledge of proper clean technique, but I must be doing something wrong because I did straight-up curls on the last set and it didn't burn at all.  I'll take a look at some Rippetoe stuff and see if I can figure out what I'm doing wrong.