Block 19 (Tier 2). Cycle 1. Session C.

sRPE @6

BW - 220

Squat -

365X1 @6.75

315X4, 4 @~5.5

Dips - BW+25X8, 8 @7/8

Pull-Downs - X12 @6

DB Press - 45sX10 @7

Pretty good start to the block for Squats.  

Last time I ran this pivot, Squats started at 103% of the end of the previous block.  This one's a little less clear.  At the end of the last block, I hit 345X1 @~6 which has an e1RM of 400, and 300X8 @7 which has an e1RM of 425.  This new session had respective e1RMs of 410 and 407.5.  So the single rep strength e1RM was higher, but the lower rep strength e1RM was lower.  My general rule is the best e1RM of the day wins, so that means I dropped from 425 to 410, or 96.5%.

I figure if I've only run something twice, it's best to average the two together to decide if it's worth running again in the future.  The average of 103% and 96.5% is 99.75%.  Still very, very good, but not as good as the next best pivot which had a 101.1% increase.  So that pivot moves into Tier 2 for future consideration.  

Again, a very good start to this block for Squats, and for all 3 of my focus lifts.  Now, I get to look forward to seeing how much these increase cycle-over-cycle during this Tier 2 training block.  Still trying not to get unreasonably excited! 

Block 19 (Tier 2). Cycle 1. Session B.

sRPE @6

BW - 217

Press - 112.5X7, 7 @7

Chin-Ups -

BWX5 @6.5

Density - 1 rep every 0:10; 2:20 / 14 total reps @7.5

Toes-to-Bar - BWX3 @7

Hanging-Leg-Raise (90 degrees) - BWX8 @7

BB Rows - 135X10, 10 @~7.5

112.5 for 2X7 is a Volume PR.  Don't get many PRs in my intro weeks!  

This e1RM is also at 97.9% of where I ended my last block.  I used Tier 2 (2nd best) Pivot programming, and that result is even better than the last time I ran that pivot block (before Block 14).  The average starting e1RM between block 14 and 19 is 97.83%

Chin-ups also felt fairly strong on the main set (97.4% e1RM drop-off).  Not quite as good as the last time I ran this pivot (98.3% prior to Block 12), but both this result and the average between them of 97.8% is still better than the next best pivot I've run.

Density chins were tough, though.  The 1 rep every 10 seconds is just hard for me.  I remember it being fairly brutal through-out the last time I ran it, but it yielded good results so we'll see.

TTB also starting off strong.  This e1RM is 101% of the end of the last block!  That's even better than the last time I ran this Tier 2 pivot.  Getting pivot strategies that toy with 100%+ on e1RM change pan-deload is a stretch goal.  I don't really expect to reliably have e1RM maintain much less increase over a pivot/deload, but maybe?

Rows here are actually a Curls accessory.  Again, it's not intuitive for me to increase Curls strength by doing Rows and Pull-Downs, but my 2nd best Curls block of the last couple of years was actually a Chins-focus block where I didn't do any Curl variations, but did Rows, and Pull-Downs.  So we'll see what happens running that again.

Block 19 (Tier 2). Cycle 1. Session A.

sRPE @6

BW - 218

Curls - 75X10, 10 @7.5

Bench - 

210X3 @7

180X6 @6

Gaspari Bar High Front Raise - 50X8 @7

Deadlift - 

400X1 @7

340X4, 4 @5

Solid start to the new block.  I'm really excited to be jumping into Tier 1 and Tier 2 Emerging Strategies work.

For the pivot, I also used Tier 2 programming, which is to say the pivot block programming that had yielded the 2nd highest starting % for a prior training block.  While I did this for all 8 of my main movements, I'm primarily concerned about the 3 movements that are the focus of the block: Curls, Press, Squats.

When I did this pivot previously for Curls, it yielded a 97.8% drop-off from the end of the prior block.  This time it yielded 97.9%!  Curls in particular tend to have a big drop-off for me between blocks with an average start of 89.2%.  Really happy about this.

Bench came in slightly under target in both rep ranges.  After the curls, it seemed like I was "feeling the Bench in my forearms" a lot.  I've had curling first in a session interfere a bit with Press, but usually not with Bench.  We'll see how it goes.

Deadlift felt pretty strong.  DL is my only Squat accessory this block.  Not intuitive to me, but my 2nd best Squat block using Emerging Strategies was a block where I only Squatted and Deadlifted for 1@8 and 4X4 @6.  Excited to see how it goes revisiting that!