Squats came in a little under target, and chin strength was fairly level. I think my stance was a bit wide on Squats. Sumo feels like it's going to march, though.
First time using a SSB so...Rep PR! I was told the bar is 70 lbs. so 2 plates should be 250. Had to fiddle around with pad placement. Putting it right on tom of my shoulders, I felt it pushing down into my neck rather than my upper back, and it also made it fairly vertical feeling coming up. On sets 2 and 3, I worked to find a "natural" way to set it a bit lower on my back, and was able to use a bit more hip drive with that placement. Ideally, I'd like the mechanics to fall half way between a high bar and low bar, give the benefit of the upper back work from the camber, but also allow for a narrow-to-medium stance to lessen strain on my adductor. 1st and 3rd sets shown for comparison.
This was still the ramp up week for the new program so I just left the press top-set at the same weight as my 3X5 last week. Top-set and last back-off set shown.
Last week, 315X5 on DL felt very easy (as I would hope), so I did add weight to this movement. These were harder than I would have expected, but my set up is pretty weak. My upper back is definitely not extended or "proud" the way it should be prior to the pull. This needs work.
Pull-Downs - X10, 10, 10 (straight-weight; same as last week)
BB Curls - 45X12, 12
Left adductor pain and a terrible schedule the past few, and upcoming, weeks have led me to admit that I haven't really been doing the program successfully for a couple of weeks and won't be able to really follow it for a month or so upcoming. I'm stuck trying to formulate a sort of "maintenance" block.
Failed pretty hard on I.D. last week and then couldn't get back into the gym because of Memorial Day schedule. Left adductor is killing me (appointment with my P.T. tomorrow) so I went with the "middle day" programmed weights. I also started playing around with moving my stance in a little bit as I saw some stuff on the SS forum about narrowing stance and switch to squat shoes helping with this issue. Felt maybe a little better in the session and probably helped depth the most. Walking with a limp the next day because of adductor pain. Video of 3rd set shown.
Because of the adductor pain, I also move my feet in on bench, and used the same middle day weights as last time. While the leg still hurt, the weight itself felt very easy. Possibly a stronger foot placement for this lift? Last set shown.
Chin-ups were okay. One more rep and set than last week. That's pretty normal for the ebb-and-flow of this movement, but at the same time doesn't feel much like progress.
I failed to get 10 reps on the 3rd set of pull-downs last time so repeated the weight and got all the reps. Will move up next week.
Also managed to get to 12 reps on both sets of curls, so will add weight.
