Recovery Squat. Medium Bench. Chin-Ups

BW - 227

Squat - 325X5, 5, 5

Bench - 210X5, 5, 5

Chin-Ups - BWX7, 5, 5, 4, 3 (23 total)

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.

Old Man Texas Method. Week 6. Middle Day

BW - 228

Squat - 305X5, 5, 5

Press - 135X5, 5, 5

Chin-Ups - BW; 38 Reps; 8 Sets

Squats were fairly easy both today and on Volume Day.  6 weeks in (4 weeks since I tweaked it based on the Barbell Logic podcast, and some SS forum posts), I'm starting to suspect that I need to increase the weight at least on the light day.  There is a quote on the podcast about, "light day should feel as hard if not harder than volume day" and "if you do two sets on light day and it's easy, you better add a set, and you might need to go up in weight."  I'm already at 3 sets.  I've been going at 87.5% of VD weight.  That's because the suggestion was 85-90% and I decided to just go in the middle so I had room to adjust up or down in that range.  Believe I will adjust up now, but just 1% and go from there.  I.D. weights are in PR territory from here on out.  My warm-ups on I.D have felt pretty crappy until the last single or so, therefore I want to make sure I'm not dipping to far into my recovery to fast.  Final set of this day shown.

Pressing movements on light day have been at a much higher relative intensity, and continue to feel like it.  2nd set was a bit of a struggle as bar path got off at lockout on the final rep.  Pulled it back together for a decently hard 3rd set (shown).

Big jump in chins today.  Went from 37 reps in 10 sets last week, to 38 reps in 8 sets this week.  That's my first time averaging 5 reps per set since I started this volume experiment!  I did get into a lengthy chat with the gym owner before the last two sets and so was well recovered, but I got 5 reps on both sets, which is pretty big for me.  Still telling myself I will take this experiment to 50 total reps before making any changes.

Old Man Texas Method. Week 5. Intensity Day

BW - 228

Squat - 385X5

Press - 150X3 (fail on 4), 3

Deadlift - 375X2 (fail on 3), 2, 2

385X5 is a PR on Squats.  As has been usual on Intensity Day, the late-middle warm-up sets didn't feel great, but the last single of warm-ups felt okay, and then the work set felt really good. 

That was the good news.  The rest wasn't so good.  Press felt very heavy in the late warm-ups.  I girded my loins and still went into the work set looking for 5, but failed on rep 4.  So okay.  We'll move on to 2X3 for Press on I.D.  Technically, this is a 2X3 PR.  Both sets shown.

Deadlifts were an even bigger disaster.  Based on advice I got from a Starting Strength coach on their forum, I reset my DL by 15 lbs. so that I could progress again with the preferred 1X5 -> 2X3 -> 3X2 -> 5X1 ID progression.  Well, I failed on rep 3.  However, watching the video and being honest with myself, I think I gave up on it pretty quick.  The 2nd and 3rd sets of 2 looked plenty strong and fast.  Therefore, I will go at this weight again next week.  I will either get the 5, or look for 2X3 to progress on.  1st and 3rd sets shown.