Solid sessions. Definitely feel about 95% back from being sick the last couple of weeks.
Squats definitely felt heavy heading into the top set, but the increase in e1RM over last week is about on the average for the last 5 blocks. I've been tracking week-to-week increases to see if I could reliably predict which weeks would have larger increases during a training block (an old Paul Carter idea). That kind of seems to be getting blown out of the water, but we'll give it a few more blocks.
High bars felt very good.
BG Deadlift also felt very good, although I was kind of ready for the session to be over at this point. I think I've let my conditioning work wane a bit the past couple of weeks, and it may be impacting my resistance training. I'll try to be better about logging the conditioning, and see if that helps with accountability.
DB Bench -
45sX15@6
55sX18, 13, 12 @9.5 (350 Method; 43 total reps)
Inverted Row w/feet flat - BWX12, 10, 10 @8/10
Second session of the new block went pretty well. A bit of fatigue and DOMS from the first session, but so far doesn't seem as bad as the first cycle of the last block, so I'm hopeful I have my approach to pivot blocks more dialed-in. We'll see how everything feels for Session C which is a full body layout.
Bench went very well, and I tried to go past my target but ended up over-shooting slightly. Back-offs were all right on target.
DB Bench this cycle is using Paul Carter's old "350 Method." Pick a weight you can get 15-20 reps with, and do 3 AMRAP sets with short-ish normal rests. You use the same weight each session until you get more than 50 total reps, then you go up in weight. Looking back through some old logs, I saw that sometimes when my bench made big progress, I was doing high rep DB assistance work. So I dusted off this method to revisit that idea.
I threw strict, straight-legged inverted rows into my pivot block and quickly discovered that I couldn't do very many. One day, a strong-ish guy worked in with me on those and I noticed that he put his feet flat on the ground with bent knees. Basically unloading the feet and shank from the movement. I'm decided to roll through into the development block with that adjustment, and it got me well into the rep range I want for this block. I suspect that before the block is over, I will start playing with "one leg up" etc. to increase the difficulty.
Only took video of the comp bench today. Top two singles, and final back-off.
Squats went pretty well. Still trying to get better depth. Maybe marginal improvement on this day. Last set shown.
Bench was pretty tough. Got a lift-off for the last two sets just to try and save energy. Strength was there, just the medium volume/medium intensity set up for pressing movements on the middle day is always tough. Last set shown.
Decided to mix things up on Chins. I'd told myself I was going to get to 50 total reps on a day before I decided this volume approach wasn't working. Well 50 is an arbitrary number. I knew I needed to change it up, because I was starting to dread chinning at the end of this day. I consume a lot of stuff from various Starting Strength people, and SS adjacent stuff. Inspired by stuff Andy Baker wrote here, and also some of the Barbell Medicine stuff (recently splintered off from SS). The BM guys talk a lot about the importance of volume over intensity, and even over tonnage which is interesting. I don't consider myself nearly smart enough to really grok the big picture of half the stuff they present, and definitely not to experiment with on my own on the main lifts.
But for chins?
From what I gather, their point of view is that intensity doesn't matter nearly as much as volume. Specifically, that once work weight gets into the 70%+ range, it becomes largely equal in it's ability to drive hypertrophy. And that, after a proper novice phase, hypertrophy becomes far more important to strength gains than the neuro-muscular effects trained by super-high intensity. That singles, etc. are still important practice for strength sports, but take a lot more out of you than lower intensities that are just as effective at driving strength. In some ways, it reminds me a lot of Paul Carter's strength programming. i.e. Working up to 1-3 heavy singles, and then do a bunch of sub-max back-off sets.
So that's all to get down what I'm thinking about it at this moment. And that's why I'm moving to less sets of chin-ups (high intensity/stress) and adding in sets of pulldowns and chins to keep the overall volume up on the prime movers in the movement. I had been doing 8-10 sets of Chin-ups @ around 40 total reps. I'm moving that down to 4 initial sets here @ 19 total reps. Then I have 3 sets of pull-downs and 2 sets of biceps for a total of 9 sets "for chins." I will look to add reps to the chins until I get up to about 25 (per Andy Baker's link above). But if the 1st set reps aren't increasing and/or the total sets required to get my reps is plateauing or going up, then I will add a set to pull-downs and/or curls. If I get to 5+ sets of chins, 5 sets of pulldowns, and 3 sets of curls (Andy Baker, again), and there is no progress, I will have to add a 2nd day. I'll reset the 1st day back down to 4, 3, 2, and then both days will follow the previous progression, but the movements on the 2nd day will be those from Baker's 2nd day.
The only problem if figuring out where to put that if I'm on a 3 day split and Deadlifting twice a week. Maybe Intensity Day.
Jumped up to 1/2 mile intervals at target pace. I probably could have gone for at least one more, but since I don't need to really do more than 6, there was no point in killing myself while I've still got a few weeks until the race.
On my first squat set of 325, I got over my toes on the 3rd rep and missed it. Had no concerns about getting it on the 2nd set. Felt pretty solid all around. I probably could have gone for a 3rd set, but I still needed to hit back-off sets and deadlift.
For deadlift, I'd only programmed in to go up to the squat back-off weight, 257.5, but I just went to 265. After a couple of sets, I still felt pretty good, so I did a few fatigue singles a la Paul Carter to see how things were feeling ahead of heavy deadlifts next week. The top single felt pretty slow. Maybe not so bad for a fatigued state. Next week, I'm looking to pull a few singles at 342.5 fresh. That should be do-able.
Intervals - alternated jogging and walking every block from gym to home
Starting to get the feel for the Powerlifting + 5K program from Alex Vida's Hybrid Athlete manual. I took a nasty fall while on vacation and my shoulder has been bothering me, and so I wasn't sure how this would go. Between that and having company this weekend, I knew I wouldn't be able to jump fully into the programming, thus "Week 0" of getting acclimated to it as time allows. Also, I need to read the full manual in depth to understand progression.
Despite the shoulder injury, I had no issues on any of the lifts here. Everything moved nice and easy. It's a percentage based program, and I used what I call my "Lifetime" Every Day Max (LEDM) as the basis. This is a bit different from Paul Carter's EDM concept where the # is sort of instinctual. I've always kept track of my lifetime rep maxes from 1-20. I average those out and take 90% for my LEDM. For example, on Bench, my best single is 231, and my best set of 20 is 135. Together with all the other rep records from 1-20, that averages out to a projected max of 225-30, and 90% of that is 205. So when I need a good starting point for something on bench, I take 205 as my LEDM.
The program calls for 3X10 on pull-ups. As I've been coming back from the previous shoulder injury that impaired my vertical pulling, 5 reps have been about max, so I just did 5 sets of 4-5 here.
Intervals felt good. Although it's been since August '15 since I did any running, and my gait felt a bit awkward being out of practice and carrying an extra 20-25 pounds.
High Bar Squats -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X3
225X2
255X1
205X11, 9, 8
Hack Squats -
1ppsX10, 10, 11
Good session. I went up to 255 for my last over-warm-up on High Bars just to see how it was moving. My best ever High Bar Squat is 255X5, I believe. This single moved pretty well, but the bar was positioned a little bit too high on my neck and so it was fairly painful resting on bone. I also got 1-2 more reps per work set here for 4 more total work reps than last week.
Hack Squats felt a bit better this week as I got more in the groove. I thought about adding more weight but said screw it, it's just extra quad volume.
I start rehearsing a new show next week so my schedule's going to go in the toilet. I'm going to run Paul Carter's Strong-15 Short cyle as a twice-a-week program with a Squat/Dead day and an Incline/Chin day, and then get in some extras at the office gym or what-not as time permits. Just stuff like biceps and leg curls, maybe some machine rows and that kind of thing. Nothing crazy.
Deficit SLDL (on a plate) -
135X5
185X4, 4
225X3, 3
245X3, 3
265X2, 3
245X4
225X4
185X10, 10
Chest-Supported T-Bar Row -
45X5
90X9, 7, 6
70X9
Why not. I originally planned to hammer RDLs for a couple weeks. However, I kept thinking about this weird (to me) concept of the Stiff-Leg Deadlift that's been floating around. Since I was a teenager, I always thought an stiff-leg DL was done by keeping the legs locked and perpendicular to the ground, and bending only at the waist so that the bar descends in an angle AWAY from the legs as it moves to the floor. Basically a movement for the erectors. And if you search for it on the 'net, that's still a pretty common definition.
For a few years now though, I've been seeing Paul Carter do what he calls a deficit stiff-leg. To me it looked like an RDL that just started off the floor. That is, the knees locked but slightly bent, and the butt moving backwards and forwards as the bar goes up and down basically staying in contact with the legs through the movement.
I did find an piece by Bret Contreras where he describes the SLDL this way, but it still just seemed like an RDL with a different starting position.
I decided on this day to just break down and try it. I was very cautious however about making sure my low back didn't round at the bottom. Keeping the back flat and NOT bending the knees in order to drop the bar those last few inches is really tough, and so these reps were slow and not at all explosive. I don't know. My hamstrings are sore today, so I'll try it again next week. Still feels a lot like an RDL, though.
RG, EZ Bar Curls - 40ishX20
DB Hammer Curls - 40sX15
DB Curls - 30sX15
WG BB Curls - 45X20
Preacher, EZ Bar Curls - 40ishX15
For the couple weeks after my vacation, I just wanted to get some high rep work in on movements that I haven't pushed very hard, and so I decided to just move over to this bench temporarily.
This thing's probably around 60 degrees, so it's almost more of an overloaded front press. In the past I've only really used this thing when the "regular" incline wasn't available. I always hated it because I couldn't handle anything near the same weight, and didn't see the point if I was already doing 45 degree inclines AND overhead work. I sometimes struggled to get 95X10 at this angle when I used this movement for a supplemental lift.
I expected to only work up to 135 and then do medium-to-high reps with 95. What a nice surprise that 135 was so easy, that taking another single at 155 was a no-brainer. After that, I knew 95 was going to be way to light for a work-set. 115 was just right. I probably left 2-3 reps in the tank on the first set, and 1-2 on the 2nd. This is good feedback to get as my regular incline has been moving faster than my OHP. I'm instantly planning on using this to supplement regular incline and/or OHP in the future.
Biceps circuit inspired by some more recent Paul Carter stuff. My brachialis were screaming for 2 days after this.
High Bar Squats -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X3
225X2
205X10, 8, 6
Hack Squats - 1ppsX10, 10, 10
First day back in the gym after a two week vacation. Just gonna ease myself back into things with a couple movements a day. My schedule is about to get fraught, which will limit my training opportunities, however I didn't want to kill myself coming out of the vacation gate just because of that. I'll probably just cruise for a couple of weeks, and maybe try out Paul Carter's short peaking cycle as a twice a week program when my schedule gets tight. As a way of coming out the other side with my strength at my recent baseline.
Anyway, High Bars were solid. 205X10 is a Rep PR, and it's possible I could have gone for an all-around PR of 13 reps on the 1st set, but, again, not trying to kill myself out of the gate.
On the Hacks, I kept my feet close together and as far back as I could, and had my knees going straight forward to try and get maximum quad activation. My heel was coming off the plate slightly at the very bottom. This is such a strange movement. It doesn't feel heavy, but I still have to push hard coming out of the hole, and it's still slow to get back to the top. Interesting.
First time benching in 3 months. Went well during the session, but my shoulder wasn't happy about it later. I may just push through and see what happens after a few weeks.
I wasn't totally sure how I wanted to approach this as I came in. I went mostly by instinct, and I'm pretty happy with what I ended up doing. I'll probably make this the bench template for the coming weeks.
Started off with regular bench. Did a very light over warm-up, and then repped out 135. My goal is 20. PRs will start at 18. I also want a total of 23+reps on the work sets with 135. Everyone's talking about volume these days, and it's something I'm going to start tracking closely.
After regular bench, I decided to do endless triples of close-grip with my regular grip working weight. This is some Paul Carter inspired stuff. It started off ridiculously easy, but get a bit tougher towards the end. Still, I was able to hit 5 reps on my 8th set. Will probably move down to 6X4 next week and just start pushing these up. When I can do 8X5 with confidence, I will up the weight.
Moved over to the gym's steeper Incline bench next and did 3 sets of AMAP with 95. It is what it is, and this is what it is right now.
Finished off with some rear delts (which is when my shoulder started feeling bad again weirdly) and then some light biceps. I'll be doing more thorough biceps work on a different training day.
Needed to get in and get out, so I pared Full Body down to Deads and Chins.
Added an extra set of 285X3 and then took a shot at Paul Carter's Fatigue Singles again. Big difference after the volume work. To be clear, he does not recommend what I did here, which is the over-warm-up, then volume sets, then singles again. I just wanted to see what it was like.
Got to 30 reps on Chins in only 4 sets. That may be a personal best. Definitely the best I've done in the last few months.
Grabbed a DB for my 2nd set of single-leg work, but these just felt crappy this week. I'll try with weight again next week.
With Paul Carter's 350 method in mind, I got up to 50 reps in 3 sets with the 50's on DB Incline. Next week I'll go up to the 55's and start over.
Deadlift felt solid. Upped the weight and dropped the reps a bit on the work-sets. These felt good, and when 6X3 feels easy, I'll push it up to 5X5, etc.
Chins were okay. One more total rep than last time.
The most important thing is that the volume PBN went well, and a day later my shoulder still doesn't feel any worse. This was programmed based on Paul Carter's Base-Building book; specifically the section on building OHP for Strongman. Every rep and set, I was focused on keeping my shoulder-blades down and together.
Had business elsewhere in town last night, so I went to an "away" gym that I've use before in the area I was heading to. So crowded. So many people doing weird stuff.
Anyway, I thought the best way to stay sane amidst the chaos would be to just squat as much as possible. I may or may not have been slightly inconveniencing several people who seemed used to having that space free for other stuff. At one point, a guy doing really unstable lunges was reaching out and using the end of my barbell to keep himself steady. I waited until his set was over, and politely pointed out that I was using it. So weird.
Anyway, squats all went well. 245X5 is a PR on pause squats; my 5th in a row. With High Bars, I was just looking for volume.
Normally, I would have done single-leg work on the leg press at this point, but both the "regular" leg press and the horizontal leg press machine at this gym were occupied. Paul Carter has this "fatigue singles" concept that he uses sometimes where you work back up with singles after all your main work-sets to test speed. What I did here is very much NOT by his book about how it's supposed to go. It was kind of fun nonetheless. I worked over the winter to make 275 my heaviest "I can and will squat this any day" weight, and it was nice to test that in a fatigued state and find it very much there for me.
All the leg presses still had a queue, so I just did single-leg extensions instead. I actually kind of liked this, and may do these WITH single-leg presses next week and see what that's like.
Leg Extensions -
Pyramid upX15, 15, 15, 15, 10 (top set heavier than last week)
Back-offX20 (same weight as last week)
Lunges - BWX20, 20
super-set with no rest
Hypers - BWX20, 20
Okay session. I'll be waving the top double on squats while I'm focused on building some muscle. It was planned to be a single, but these weights are too light.
I still want to stimulate some top-end strength here while being cautious of whatever's going on with my lower back. I thought pause squats as the back-off sets fit the ticket pretty well. They force me to take some weight off the bar, while at the same time I get feedback on what's happening in the hole where my low back needs to keep tight. This was a "getting reacquainted" session for pausers, and I expect to be pushing this up to 3 sets of 5 (similar to what I've been doing with deficit deads). 225X3 already matches my old Rep PR for these. I'm much stronger now. I won't push past 3 sets of 5 because I need to make sure I'm still fresh enough for...
High bars. These will be the 'main' movent, and are starting here with 185X2XAMAP, or what Paul Carter would call a 50% set. This is kind of a 2nd back-off set. But as things progress, I hope to be able to push past 2 sets at this weight, and maybe set some volume PRs.
Hack Squats are so stupid hard, I'm basically ignoring the value of the weight on here. I don't understand why these are so much harder than leg presses. Over 5 reps on every set was eye-bulging.
Pushed another plate onto the leg extensions. Feels like it will be awhile before I get that one up to 15.
I mysteriously cut my lunges/hypers after two sets. In the light of day, I don't know why that was. Hypers are much easier now that they're not coming right after a free squat movement.
So it turns out that having Incline first in a session makes a BIG difference. My goal going into this cycle was to Incline 125X15, hahahaha. Now that I've blown that out of the water, I'll up the weight on the next session. Big all around PR.
When I get the working weight dialed in on Incline, I'll probably add in more sets of DB OHP. Or maybe not. My goal for the cycle is 40sX15.
We've got an old-school pull-over machine at my gym. Inspired by Dorian Yates love for the thing, I asked Paul Carter about including it in this cycle, and he suggested a few sets as a warm-up for rowing. That's basically how Yates had it as well. Hard squeeze on the contraction and slow negative on all reps.
Rows were controlled and super-strict, squeezed at the top, and I stopped when I could barely touch my chest with the bar.
Deadlift practice was fine. Getting in some mixed-grip practice, but also getting some grip work at the end.
Um...I think this is the first time I've ever done seated PBNs. Is that weird?
The hardest part of these is unracking them by myself. My shoulders felt...vulnerable in that position, so I started leaning back a little and that seemed to help. 85X17 is an all-around PR in BTN pressing. Are you supposed to be stronger seated vs. standing?
DB Rowing felt more stable than it ever has in the past. No low back discomfort like I've had in the past with them, however my abs started cramping up at the top of the rep on the last couple of sets. I redoubled my focus on keeping my shoulders steady, and that seemed to help. My goal for the cycle is 75sX12+. Should get there, and go past it, although this pressing day only happens 3 times in the 6 week cycle.
18 reps with the 55s is an all-around PR on DB Benching. My goal for the cycle is 60sX15+. Again, should get there even with only 3 sessions.
I am NOT supposed to be Deadlifting on the Big-15, however I don't feel confident that my technique is settled, much less ingrained enough to justify taking 3+ months off from pulling. So I will do maintenance pulls during these sessions. 275 is only 87% of my EVERYDAY Max, and, once again, this programmed day only occurs every other week.
Today with the pull, I worked on something Paul Carter's been talking about which is finding the spot where your hips don't get so low that your shoulders and knees get away from the bar path. This seems to involve a more vertical shin position for me, but with the shins still already touching the bar at the start. Another big difference is that this has my chest starting off down a bit more, and so I have to cue chest up even harder after the pull starts to keep a neutral spine. The 275 was fast, but it should be, and therefore it's hard to judge the form tweaks.
Solid session, as it should be at these weights. Playing with explosiveness again on the squat. Previously, I made the mistake of focusing on driving my hips through hard at the top, and this was causing low-back strains. This time I took the opportunity of these light weights to think about making the bar come up off my shoulders at the top. That did happen on every rep, including the pause squats, and no low-back trouble.
I doubled-down on the sets of Pause Squats initially recommended in the manual. However, what I'm taking to heart is this little nugget,
"The lower the intensity, the more volume you are going to need. So that would mean more back off sets to be added on. If you choose to play with that, don't go haywire. Add in 1-2 extra back offs in addition to what the program calls for and go from there."
I'm actually programing lower for this cycle than I did for the Strong-15 cycle to begin the program, so I think it's a perfect opportunity to explore the extra back-offs. My form was extremely tight on all these. So much so, that my mid-back is really fatigued, and a bit sore today. I'm enthused.
Leg press was all done narrow stance to hit the quads harder.
This will be short, as I suspect the LRB Split and the Strong-15 Short cycle go hand-in-hand in a way that will result in a more complete picture emerging at the end of that 2nd cycle.
Generally speaking, the goals for this cycle were to maintain top-end strength on the main lifts relative to where they've been during the conditioning cycle, while allowing some more carbs back into the diet in order to stimulate muscle growth by going hard with the assistance lifts.
My bodyweight started out hovering in the 192 range at the end of the conditioning cycles, and by the end of the LRB Split was hovering around 195-196.
I set the following PRs on assistance work in chronological order:
RDL:
205X8
225X9
245X10 (with straps)
DB OHP:
20sX25
25sX35
30sX28
Front Squats:
135X10
145X8
155X9
T-Bar Rows:
95X8
110X7
Barbell Rows:
145X9
Good Mornings were a new movement to me with this cycle and I progressed them as well:
135X8
145X7
145X8
145X10
Regarding Front Squats, I was doing them every week. They were the first assistance exercise following back squats on Heavy Squat days, and they were the main movement on Light Squat days. All the PRs were set on Light days, however it's worth noting that while I PR'd with 135X10 on a Light Squat day at the beginning of the cycle, by the end I was doing 135X8-10 for four sets across as assistance on my Heavy Squat days. In addition to all that, I kept my stance narrow on all the Leg Pressing, and went hard to push reps on leg extensions. Increasing quad size/strength was my primary goal for this cycle, and I feel good about the results.
I also got some good hamstring volume in with all the RDLs and GMs in addition to the maintenance Deads. Had sore hamstrings every week.
Lots of shoulder volume on the cycle as well. In addition to the DB OHP, my regular Press was getting within 5 lbs. or so of PR territory by the end. Lots of high-rep Inclines, Upright Rows, and Rear Delt Flyes to round it out, all pun intended. Although I honestly haven't noticed very much growth in my delts. Hopefully, we'll see some of this work translate into Bench strength on the upcoming cycle.
All in all, I had a really good time through most of this cycle. Hitting PRs on Fronts and RDLs was really fun, and seeing my wheels growing as a result was really great as well. Near the end, I had a little bit of a crisis of confidence because I didn't instinctively know if my Every Day Max had improved, and was grumpy about what to set as my goals for the Strong-15 Short Cycle. In the end, re-reading the manual, and reading an inspiring post by Carter along the lines of the Patience and Belief mantra that he and Brandon Lilly have been going over helped me get my head on straight. I've decided to program lower for the Strong-15 Short than I did for the Strong-15 at the beginning of the program. My final singles for the next cycle will be right around weights I've hit a million times before. With the work I did on this cycle, and the extra back-offs I'm planning for the first few weeks of the next, I'm confident that I will be crushing the weights all the way up to the end. And isn't that what we're supposed to do?
Bench all felt pretty smooth. 155X8 is one rep off of my best with that weight.
I've been leaving Inclines pretty much at the same weight per Paul Carter. Usually I've been pretty gassed by the time I got to these and was glad I wasn't trying to increase the weight. Today they felt light as could be, and I ended up doing them a bit more body-builder style without locking them out at the top.
