Vacation Prep. Week 5. Back

BW - 204

Chin-Ups - BWX14, 8, 8, 6, 5 (41 total reps)

Standing, One-Arm Cable Rows - X18, 15, 12, 10

Solid little back work-out at the office gym.  I didn't get double-digit reps on my 2nd set of chins like last time, but 14 reps @ 204 is my 3rd best set of chins ever.

Vacation Prep. Week 5. Back

BW - 204

Chin-Ups - BWX12, 10, 8, 6, 5 (41 total reps)

One-Arm, Standing Cable Rows - X18, 15, 10, 10 (straight-weight; same as last session)

Pull-downs - X15 (burn-out set)

Good little session at the office gym.  Not sure if I've ever gotten double-digit reps on the 2nd set of chins before.

Between the last two back training sessions, I'm getting achy as hell all around my shoulder blades.

Vacation Prep. Week 4. Back

BW - 206

Chin-ups - BWX10, 9, 6, 5, 5 (35 total reps)

Standing, One-Arm Cable Rows - X15, 13, 10, 10

Treadmill - 10 minutes; intervals

Had a few days away from the gym because a buddy came to visit and we went out of town on a trip.  Couldn't make it to the gym to do any barbell movements, so I just repeated the same back workout from 3 days ago.

Vacation Prep. Week 3. Back

BW - 203

Chin-Ups - BWX12, 7, 6, 5, 5 (35 total reps)

Standing, One-Arm Cable Rows - X15, 12, 10, 10

Treadmill - Sprint Intervals; 10 minutes

Just a quick upper body accessory day at the office gym.

Chin-ups felt average.  The slightly higher reps on the initial sets are chalked up to a lower BW.

The cable rows were done standing over a low pulley to mimic a DB row position.  The DBs at my office gym don't go up high enough to have used them here.  There may be a new-ness effect, but I like the way these felt.  I kept my arm a bit away from my body and concentrated on pulling with my elbow until my shoulder blade felt fully retracted.

Sprint intervals were fine.

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

Stretches from Defranco's Simple-6 (foam-rolling at home)

Press -
BarX10
65X5
90X3
100X3
115X5

Rollovers into "V" Sits from Defranco's Agile-8

Deadlift -
135X5
175X5
205X3
235X3
265X4
super-set with
Hanging Leg Raise - BWX6, 6, 6

Dips (Gym weight 201) - BWX5, 10X5, 20X5, 25X8

One-Arm DB Rows - 65X13, 15, 10

BB Bulgarian Split Front Squats - BarX10, 8, 5

BB Curls - 45X8, 65X5, 75X5, 55X10

Hammer and Tire - 40, 40, 30

Press was weak as hell today.  That's two crap sessions in a row.  May have to look at this lift next cycle.

265X4 is a Rep PR for the Pull.  Felt a little heavy, but probably could have gutted out one or two more.  Set-up felt weird all day.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 3. Week 1. Pressing and Deadlifting

No warm-up (full body foam-rolling the night before)

Press -
BarX10
55X8
70X5
80X5
95X5
105X5

Deadlift -
135X5
170X5
190X5
220X1
220X5
250X7
super-set with
Hanging Leg-Raise - BWX5X4

Bench Dip - BW(201)X15, 15, 12
super-set with
T-Bar Rows - 70X10, 10, 8

BB Split Front-Squats - 85X8, 6, 8
super-set with
Hammer Curls - 25sX13, 15, 12

No Conditioning

In a rush to get in and out so I could shower and get to rehearsal tonight, so no mobility warm-up or conditioning afterwards.

Press felt heavy.  In the light of day, I wonder if I put 10s on instead of 5s and was actually pressing 115 on the last set.  Find out when I press 115 next week.

In contrast, Pulls felt great.  Slight hiccup on my 2nd work set where my headphones got tangled, and I had to stop and reset.  250X7 is a Rep PR and an increase to my projected max.  Probably could have gotten 1 or 2 more.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 2. Week 3. Pressing and Deadlifting

Defranco's Simple-6 and Agile-8

Press -
BarX10
65X5
80X3
95X3
105X7

RDL - 65X10

Deadlift -
135X5
185X5
215X5
240X3
270X3

Dips (Gym BW 203) - 10X7, 10, 15X5

One-armed Rows - 65X15, 15, 10

Goblet Squat - 75X8, 60X10, 10

BB Curl - 45X8, 65X6, 75X5
super-set with
Hanging Leg Raises - 3 sets of 5

With my schedule so hectic I've decided to switch to a 2-Day split.  This was supposed to be Week 3, or the 531 week of the cycle.  I'd already done that day for Press, so I used what would have been my Deload weight, or Week 1 weight for the next cycle.  I worked up in 3's as I would for the Deload week, but then decided to do 7 reps on the top set and match my previous best for that weight.  Demonstrating that my strength hasn't dropped off.

For the pulls, 2 reps on the top set would have been a 2 rep PR, so I got that plus one more.

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

Defranco's Simple-6

BB Bench-
BarX10
95X5
115X5
130X5
145X7
super-set with
Chin-ups - BWX5X5

Chin-ups - BWX5X5
supers-set with
Dips - BWX10, 10, 5, 5, 5

One-arm DB Rows - 65X15, 10, 12
super-set with
Dips - BWX6, 9

Shit session.  Bad decision making on top of what was probably gonna be a -10% day anyway.

The bench was fine, I guess.  I didn't come in planning on going for extra reps on the top set.  I would have needed 10 for  PR, but I'm trying to save my gas for Squat day.  I was feeling good about them and decided to split the difference and go for 7.  Honestly, I don't know if I could have gotten more.  I realized on the first two work-sets that I was bouncing the bar off my chest a lot.  So on the last set I brought it down a little slower and with more control.  Naturally this made everything harder, but correct.

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.