Tempo Incline 2-2-0 -
120X5, 5 @6.5, 7
117.5X5 @7.5
Tempo Row - 110X8, 8, 8 @6/7
Because of the larger than planned jumps I ended up taking last session, I went in with slightly elevated targets for this session.
For Squat that ended up being right on. 2nd set felt easier than the first, and 3rd set was still @6.5
With Incline, I ended up taking slightly to big of a jump, and had to come back down a bit. The TUT here still takes a lot out of me; combined with my pressing strength tends to drop off quickly.
Tempo rows were the one lift where I didn't plan to take a larger jump (planned +2.5 over last time), but a 5 lb. jump ended up being warranted after all. However, my 2 count hold at the top doesn't quite stand up to video scrutiny. Oh well.
Everything felt pretty good on this day. No pain issues with quads or low back.
Squats actually seemed to get easier as I went on. If I was auto-regulating volume, I would have done another set. I'm getting plenty of warm-up reps with: BWX10, 45X10, 135X8, 185X5, 205X3, but I may need to that if the work sets continue to feel easier as they progress. Could try reducing reps on the last couple of sets, or conversely shifting some reps from the lighter sets to heavier sets. Could also give longer breaks between the last couple of warm-up sets.
Tempo work all felt about right. My ego would obviously like these weights to be heavier, and after the first sets I often think I should go up, but experience has told me that my strength falls off a cliff on upper-body movements, and by the time I get to the 2nd and 3rd sets, the weight turns out to be about right.
Low back pain seems all but gone, and gave me no issues on day 1 of this block.
While this is conceived as an accumulation block, I'm starting off with good 'ol 3 sets across. As I've been struggling with injuries for so long, and had so many pivot blocks, I want to make sure I easy myself back into both volume and intensity on the big movements.
Squat felt better than it has in a long time as neither my back, nor my quads gave me any issues here. Focus was on very controlled reps.
Tempo incline topped out at a lower weight than I would have expected, but I've never done these before. I took a moderate grip, but nevertheless triceps began fatiguing very quickly. I originally conceived everything in this cycle to be 3X8, but it became clear on the warm-ups on these that the tempo was hitting me hard and fast, and so I called an audible to do these for 3X5 so that I could keep relative intensity a bit higher.
Rows paused at the top are also fairly new to me, and the weight was hilariously low. I'm only doing a 2-day cycle this time around, and I'm a bit nervous this movement could be too light in relative intensity for a DL accessory. However, coming of a 2.5 week low-back strain, I wanted to kick off with something that would put low intensity tension on the low back to "test" it. Hmmmm. We'll see.
