Block 18 (Exploratory). Cycle 4. Session B.

sRPE @7

BW - 216

Press - 127.5X4, 4, 4, 4 @~8/9

Chin-Ups - 

BWX9 @~9

NG Density: 1 rep every 0:15; 4:30 (18 total reps) @8

Machine Pullovers - X15 @10

Toes-to-Bar - BWX6, 5 @8/9.5

DB Curls (myo-reps) - 37.5sX15, 5, 5, 4, 3 @10/10

Stretching rests out now on Press to try and keep in target RPE range.  I think I pushed it to 3:30 between 3rd and 4th sets.  PRs still pretty far away on this movement, although there's a chance I hit a 4X4 PR by the end of this block.  However, this is the first of 3 blocks with Press as my upper-body pressing focus, so I still have a few months to see if I can coax some PRs.

Chin-ups were...fine.  First set is a little meh for the second week in a row, but the density work felt stronger.  

Really enjoying hitting the machine pullovers with a BB style.  Pause at the top, strong concentric, squeeze against legs at the bottom, slow-and-controlled eccentric.  When I finished the last rep, it was like coming out of a tunnel.  Any my lats were on fire.  

TTB crapped out a little bit.  That's slot 3 for ya.

DB curls continue to project as stronger than my BB curls, lol.  I think that's just down to strictness.  I'm fairly strict on straight-bar curls because I start to get wrist and elbow issues if I'm not.  With DBs, I can "just curl." 

Block 18 (Exploratory). Cycle 2. Session A.

sRPE @6

BW - 219

Curls - 65X6, 12 @6.5/10

Bench - 

205X1 @6

155X13 @8

Machine Flyes - X10 @10

Deadlift - 

395X1 @~6

275X10 @~5

SSB Pause Squat - 180X9, 9 @~7

As usual, curls made a big jump in week 2.  One of the great things about curls always seeming to make a big jump in week 2, is that it seems to be independent of the drop-off between cycles.  Hopefully, in the next two blocks, using the data I've compiled over the last couple of years, I can get less of a drop-off between cycles,  AND get above average increases cycle-to-cycle.

These SSB Pause Squats are ass-to-grass.  Very bodybuilder-y and fun.  I am looking to push these closer to failure, but today the second set was actually easier than the first.  There's some acclimation to get through here before I'll really be able to push them.

Block 14. Cycle 4. Session A.

BW - 223

sRPE @8

Chin-Ups - BWX3, 3, 3, 3 @8/8.5

BB Curls -

60X11, 11, 11 @~8

55X11 @ 8

Deadlift -

365X4 @7.5

330X7, 7 @~7

Upright Rows - 60X10, 10 @~7

sRPE is still a touch higher than I would like, but I managed to bring it down into the more tolerable zone.  My strategy for that coming into this week is to keep the volume and RPE at targets for the first/main movements in each session.  Keep RPE up, but cut one set on the secondary movements, and keep volume up, but cut RPE on the accessory movements.

On chins, sets of 3 across is a bit of progress.  We'll see if I can extend that to 5 sets next week while staying below RPE 9.

Performance was comparable on curls to last week.

DL was up a bit across the board.  In fact, 330X7 is a Rep PR!  Always nice to get a Rep PR for sub-maximal sets across.

Switching Upright Rows to a bit more of a body-building feel, which I likely should have been doing all along.  Instead of driving the weight up, I'm focusing on keeping my scapulae down until my elbows clear parallel and then finishing with a trap contraction.  Basically, "keeping it in my delts" until the end of the concentric.

Transmutation to Accumulation Pivot Day 7.

BW - 218

Bench -
195X6, 6 @8

Close-Grip Bench - 155X11 @8

3-3-0 Tempo Squat - 215X3, 3 @7

GHR - BWX6, 6 @~7

DB Rows - 80sX10, 10 @~8.5

Pushed Bench and Rows a bit harder than I was supposed to on this day.  Meathead mentality, I guess.  Trying to do more than last time, instead of sticking to the plan 100%.

Bench set-up felt off the whole time.  I couldn't seem to "naturally" get settled into the movement.  Start position and leg drive were both inconsistent, etc.  Could be the relatively light intensity making it easier for my mind to wander.  I thought moving competition movements to first in the session order would generally improve them, but that was not the case this session.  Still, it's a wash-out block, so nbd.

First time doing tempo squats, I think.  These were fine.  They were supposed to be 3-3-0, but they were probably closer to 2-2-0.

GHR felt a little better grooved today.

Pushing the DB rows into @8+ is probably not that big of a deal, it's just old "body-building" habits kicking in when DBs are involved.

Reps and Volume. Week 7. More Accessories

BW - 202

Horizontal Leg Press -
Warm-Up - X12, 15
Work-Sets - X15, 15, 15, 15, 20 (straight-weight)

super-set with

Leg Curls - X20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20 (straight-weight)

super-set with

Machine Rows -
Warm-Ups - X15, 15
Work-Sets - X15, 15, 15, 15, 13 (straight-weight)

Tech rehearsals started this week, so no way to make it to the regular gym until the weekend.  Since I didn't get my regular accessory day in until Sunday, I didn't want to do the usual office gym pressing work-out becuase there's a lot of redundency with Acessory day.  Instead I did some Deadlift-specific accessory work.  These were non-stop giant-sets.  Good BB workout.

Off Week. Full Body, Machine Day

BW - 198

Leg Press Machine -
Warm-Up - X15, 10, 15
Work-Sets - X15, 15, 15, 15 (straight-weight)
super-set with
Leg Curls - X20, 20, 20, 20 (straight-weight)

Machine Shoulder Press -
Warm-Up - X10, 10
Work-Sets - X12, 12, 10, 10 (straight-weight)
super-set with
Reverse Machine Flyes - X20, 20, 20, 20 (straight-weight)

Machine Chest-Supported Rows -
Work-Sets - X15, 12, 12, 10 (increased weight between sets 2 and 3)
super-set with
Rope Extensions - X20, 20, 20, 20 (increase weight between sets 1 and 2)

Rope Hammer Curls - X20, 20, 20, 20 (straight-weight)

My schedule was all fucked up this week as I'm closing one show while I started rehearsals for another.  I need some time between work and rehearsals to work on my script, so I took most of the week off.

At the last minute, I decided to hop down to the office gym and get a full-body, body-building workout on the machines down there.  Worked up a good sweat with all the super-setting, and I expect to be fairly sore in places over the next few days.  Decent session.

Reps and Volume. Week 4. Accessories

BW - 197 (suspicious office gym scale)

Chins - BWX13, 6, 6, 5 (30 total reps)

Pulldowns - X20, 15, 12 (straight weight)

Straight-Arm Pulldowns - X20, 15, 12 (straight weight)

Reverse Grip Preacher Machine - X15, 12 (straight weight)
super-set with
DB Press - 35sX18, 10

DB Curls - 25sX15, 12
super-set with
Rope Extensions - X25, 20 (ascending weight)

Cable Curls - X21 (burn-out set)

Real good BB session at the office gym.  First set of chins felt really strong.

I may have had an interesting breakthrough on pulldowns.  The machine at this gym is one of the fake iso-laterals where the one cable attached to the weight splits into two and goes to some rope-ish handles.  While trying to find the right groove with this awkward thing, I started allowing my elbows to travel more forward throughout the movement as opposed to out to the sides.  Kind of like a combo pull-down/pull-over.  This really seemed to start making my lats burn.  Something I'll definitely keep in mind and see if I can replicate it with more traditional pulldown machines.

Reps and Volume. Week 1. Accessories

BW - 195 (!?!?!)

Machine Pullovers -
Warm-up - X13
Work-sets - X15, 10, 8 (straight-weight)

Chin-Ups (V-Handle) - BWX8, 5, 6, 5, 4, 4 (32 total reps)

Pull-Downs (Double-D Handle) - X18, 15, 10 (straight-weight)

EZ Bar, Reverse Grip, Preacher Curls - 40ishX20, 15
super-set with
DB OHP - 35sX20, 15

DB Curls - 25sX15, 13
super-set with
Rope Push-Downs - X20, 18

BB Curls - 45X20, 15

So I opened a new show last week.  I took the week leading up to opening off from training, and I took most of this last week off from tracking my diet.  Somehow over that time, basically 8/15 - 9/1, I lost a solid 5 lbs. of BW.  The first couple times I weighed myself last week and I was at 198 and 197, I thought it might be just a fluke, but now I've gotten consistently lighter over the last week of resuming training and NOT being strict with my diet.  I'm going to assume I've just been casually under-eating.  I'm upping my target daily intake by 250 calories for this phase, so I'll have to buckle down and make sure I'm getting enough food going forward.

Still...my abs are showing pretty well...

Anyway, adding back in a 4th day of body-building style training basically the same as what I did in my Strength and Hypertrophy phases from earlier in the year.  The genesis for this comes from Brandon Lilly's CUBE method.

I'm about 3 plates down from where I was at on Pullovers in early spring.  I expect that strength to rebound quickly once my body gets used to the movement again.

With chins, I'm still just targeting 30+ reps in the fewest sets possible.  On the last phase, I got that down to 4 sets.  After the pullovers, it took me 6 sets here.  I'll be working to try and get it back down to 4 sets.

Supersetting biceps work with Bench accessory.  I think 35sX20 is actually a Rep PR for DB OHP.  I don't really track Rep PRs for movements like that, just Proj.1RM PRs.  Pretty sure about this one though.  Seems like all that PBN volume may have helped out.

Only 2 sets of push-downs, but my triceps were really fucking sore after about 36 hours.  Good stuff.

The idea with finishing with empty bar curls was to just do one burn-out set, but when I only got to 20 reps, I thought I should add another.

Higher Reps. Week 4. Squat

BW - 209

Squat -
135X5, 5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2

Pause Squats - 235X3, 3, 3

High Bars - 185X10, 6, 5

Hack Machine -
100X12
120X8

Leg Extensions -
pyramid upX15, 15, 15, 15, 10 (top set heavier than last week)
back-offX24 (heavier than last week)

Lunges - BWX22, 20, 22, 22

Dragging ass heading into the gym today.  Did an extra set each out Pausers and High Bars to try to get my motor going before grinding out the bodybuilding stuff.  235X3 is a Rep PR on Pause Squats, but then the bottom fell out a little bit on High Bars and I came up 2 reps short of last week.

I think the Hack Machine may get cut out of my program.  My right knee has been bothering me, and I'm starting to suspect this machine.  Also, when the reps start to get really hard towards the end of sets, I'm losing some stability in my trunk, and that may be aggravating whatever has been going on with my low back.  What's happening is, because the feet are set against the plate, and my shoulders are set against the pads on the track, whenever there is a stability "leak" my butt kind of starts to move around against the sled.  Maybe I'll switch over to leg presses to get some comparable work in.

For similar reasons, I decided to cut out the hypers this week.  They were supposed to be a buttress against the low back issues, but I'm worried they were aggravating it as well.

Accessory +Biceps. Week 1.

BW - 208

Machine Pullovers -
warm-up set
work sets X12, 8 (straight-weight; same as previous session)

Chin-Ups (underhand) - BWX6, 4, 4 (paused at top and bottom)

Pulldowns (medium, neutral-grip) - X16, 13, 15

Reverse-grip, ez-bar, preacher curls -
20X15
30X10, 9, 9, 8

DB Curls - 35sX10, 10, 10, 10

all curls super-set with
Rope Extensions - X20, 20, 22, 18, 15, 15, 15, 16, 16

Ab Wheel - X10, 12

Solid session.  Back to a biceps focus for a few weeks.  Brachialis and triceps are really sore from this, two days later.

Running behind schedule and had to cut the ab work short.

Higher Rep. Week 1. Deadlift

BW - 209

Deadlift -
135X5, 5
185X5
225X4
275X3
315X2
365X1
345X2, 2, 2

Deficit Deads -
275X5, 5
295X5, 3

BB Rows - 155X12, 8, 8, 8
DB Rows - 60X12, 12
all rows super-set with
Leg Curls - X20, 20, 15, 15, 15, 15 (straight-weight)

Hmmmmm.  Think my body might be trying to tell me something.  After last week's deadlift session, something in my low back has felt...off.  I did mobility and stretching all week, didn't have any problems on Squat day, but still came in today with some trepidation.  I didn't exactly feel anything 'wrong' today in that area, but my speed off the floor seemed diminished in the way it often is when I'm coming back from a low-back tweak.  Then lying in bed last night and again this morning, the 'off' feeling in my low back seemed a bit stronger. 

Considering that, and that my squat and bench strength also seem to be waning a little bit, I believe it may be time to make an adjustment.  I'd already started transitioning my accessory work from heavy strength movements to body-building style hypertrophy movements.  I believe it's probably a good idea to back the weights off on the main movements as well.  What I'm considering doing with Deads, as an example, is lowering the top single down to the 315-335 range, and then going straight to deficits as my back-offs.  I bumped the deficits up to 295 in this last session, because 275 is starting to feel to easy.  I might stick with that, but also looking at reducing the deficit from a 45 lb. plate to something a little smaller.  This is all spit-balling right now, but I expect the actual plan to be close to this.  I'm going to spend some time thinking about adjusting the Squat and Bench programming in a similar fashion.

Back to this session, I already noted that I bumped the deficits up to 295 for the last two sets.  If I move forward with that, I might back straight off to sets of 3 instead of trying to push 5's all the time.

155X12 is an all-around PR on BB Rows.  The DB Rows were okay.  It's a movement I suck at, and have to focus really hard not to over-rotate and stress my lower back.  Fucking low back.

All the leg-curls super-setting were tough.  I was sweating like a pig, and those things always make my hamstrings scream.

Higher Rep. Week 1. Bench

BW - 209

Bench -
BarX20
95X5
135X5
155X2
185X2
215X2
165X11
165X5

Incline -
135X8, 5
115X10

DB Press -
25sX12
35sX12
45sX5
35sX11

Dips - BWX20, 15, 10

Still not getting anywhere near that 3rd rep with 215.  It took me six weeks to hit my target for 185, so 215 is only half-way there.  Still feels like it's taking forever.  I attempted a 2nd set, and it was fucking ugly-ass nigh-impossible to get 1 rep with so I'm not even counting it.  So close to attempting, and solidifying a 225 bench...

As long as I'm banging my head against low reps with 215, I will continue to push back-off sets with 165.  My Rep PR with 165 is 12 reps; so only 1 off from that today after grinding on 215.  Nice?

Incline was okay.

Swapping out cambered bench for DB over-heads for a few weeks.  Similar to swapping out Front Squats for Hacks and Leg Extensions on Squat day; this will be a small shift over the next month or two towards body-building style accessory work for more of a hypertrophy focus.  Then when the weather starts cooperating, I will start adding some outdoors stuff and look to gradually transition from hypertrophy to conditioning.

Oh, and I've never done 20 reps on Dips before, so Rep, and all-around, PR.  This alternating weighted and un-weighted every week seems to be working out okay!

Higher Rep. Week 1. Squat

BW - 211

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5, 5
185X4
225X3
275X3
225X5

High Bars - 225X3, 3, 2

Hack Squats -
90X10, 10, 10
110X10, 10

Leg Extensions -
Pyramid upX15, 15, 15, 13
Back-offX20

Lunges - BWX20, 16, 16, 14
super-set with no rest
Hypers - BWX20, 15, 15, 15

Crap session.  Too much partying this weekend.  Didn't even want to be in the gym.  Squatting all sucked, and had to dump the bar on the last set of High Bars.

Luckily, I'd already planned to swap out some of my barbell accessory work for high-rep, body-building stuff heading into Spring.  That stuff was all fine, and more approachable the way that I felt.

Phase 2. Week 5. Accessory

BW - 209

Machine Pullovers -
Warm-up set
Work-sets X 14, 8 (straight-weight; same weight as last week)

Chins (overhand) - BWX5, 4, 3 (paused at top and bottom)

Pulldowns (underhand) - X15, 10, 10 (straight-weight; same weight as last week)

Machine Flyes -
Warm-up set
Work-sets X20, 10 (straight-weight; same weight as last week)

DB Bench (elbows out; neutral grip ) - 50sX15, 11, 10

Rope Extensions - X20, 15, 15, 15, 15 (straight-weight; same weight as last week)

Ab Wheel - X12, 12, 12

Okay session.  Some movements felt stronger than others with no apparent pattern.  I pushed the pec work an extra week, and I think that's about right.  One week as a "get-to-know-you" and then 4 weeks of solid work.  I'll switch back to biceps next week, do that for 5 weeks, then I'm thinking I should hit some calves.  However, by the time the next 5 weeks are up, it'll be conditioning/fat-loss season and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to tweak my programming for that yet.

Phase 2. Week 4. Accessory.

BW - 211

Machine Pullovers -
Warm-up set
Work Sets X13, 8 (straight-weight; same weight as last week)

Chins (overhand) - BWX4, 3, 2 (paused at top and bottom)

Pulldowns (underhand) - X15, 11, 9 (straight-weight; same weight as last week)

Machine Flyes -
Warm-up set
Work Sets X15, 10 (straight-weight; same weight as last week)

DB Bench (neutral grip; elbows out) - 50sX18, 12, 9

Rope Pushdowns - X20, 15, 15, 15, 15 (straight-weight; same weight as last week)

Ab Wheel - X12, 12, 12

Felt weak today, but managed to push everything to or past the same volume per movement as last week.

Have to decide whether this will have been the last week of chest focus on this day.  I originally set up the Accessory day to be:  1) Lats, 2) bodypart 'X' on a 4 week rotation, 3) Abs.  Awhile back, I also added in Light Triceps to help with my bench.  This was the 4th week of pec focus, but I'm thinking I'll go with it for another week or two until I've got my 225 bench in the books.  4 weeks may not be ideal anyway.  I did biceps previously while I was settling into this format, and that went on for 8 weeks, but that seems to long.  The plan has also been to alternate biceps in every other cycle since there is not other direct biceps work in the program.  So, once I finish with pecs I'll go back to that.  I think.

Phase 2. Week 1. Accessory

BW - 208

Machine Pullovers -
warm-up set
work sets X12, 8 (straight-weight; increased over last week)

Chin-ups (overhand) - BWX4, 3, 3 (paused at bottom)

Pulldowns (underhand) -
warm-up set
work sets X12, 8 (straight-weight)

Machine Flyes - X15, 8 (straight-weight)

DB Bench (neutral grip) - 50sX15, 10, 8

Rope Pushdowns - X18, 15, 15, 12, 12 (straight-weight)

Ab Wheel - X10, 10, 10

Forgot how much harder over-hand chins can be.

Moving on to some pec work for this phase.  It took me some time to figure out exactly how I wanted to structure the programming for this 4th day, but, now that I have, the phases probably won't last more than 4-6 weeks.

 Today was more of a feeling out day.  Trying out the pec machine to get a feel for the right weight for a machine I've never used and a movement I haven't done in a long time.  Similarly, wasn't sure how the DB benching would be following the flyes.  Using a neutral grip and keeping my elbows out a bit, and really letting the DBs "sink" at the bottom.  All to try and work the pecs, primarily.  I expect the weight and/or reps will be pushed much further on both movements next week.

All this was done in under 45 minutes.

Phase 1. Week 8. Accessory

BW - 207

Machine Pullovers -
Warm-up set
Work SetsX14, 8 (straight-weight)

Chins (close, v-grip) - BWX6, 4, 3 (paused at bottom)

Pulldowns (close, netural) - X14, 10, 7 (straight-weight)

Hammer Curls - 25sX18, 12, 12
Preacher Curls - 40ishX14, 12, 10
all curls super-set with
Rope Pushdowns - X22, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20 (straight-weight)

Ab Wheel - X10, 10, 10

Felt a touch stronger on everything this week.  Didn't up the weight on anything, but pushed the reps farther on almost every set over last week's numbers.

Phase 1. Week 7. Accessory

BW - 208

Machine Pullovers -
warm-up set
worksetsX12, 8 (straight weight, increased from last session)

Chins (close, V-grip) - BWX6, 3, 2 (paused at bottom)

Pulldowns (close-grip) - X12, 8, 6 (straight weight, increased from last session)

Hammer Curls - 25sX15, 12, 10

Prearcher Curls - 40ishX12, 10, 10

all curls super-set with
Rope Pushdowns -
warm-upX30
worksetsX15, 15, 12, 12, 14 (straight weight)

Pushed the weight up a bit on the machine lat work.  I know that with bodybuilding-style machine work, I can sometimes get content to do the same weightXreps week after week.  Have to remind myself to try to take it to a new level periodically and try to establish a stronger base-line.

I've been concerned about my increasing bench lock-out trouble, so I'm adding in triceps work on this day.  Looking at my programming the last several weeks, I realize that direct triceps work was missing, and that might be the key.  Hopefully.

Phase 1. Week 4. Accessory

BW - 209

Machine Pullovers - X15, 15, 8

Chins (Close, V-Grip) - BWX5, 4, 3 (paused at bottom)

Close-Grip Pulldowns - X12, 11

BB Rows - 135X10, 5

Hammer Curls -
25sX12
30sX8
20sX12

Transitioning this day into a straight body-building style lats day.  My shoulders and elbows were starting to feel beat up, so I thought cutting out extra OHP and triceps work might be beneficial for now.  This routine is based mostly on Dorian Yates lat training.  By being almost total lats, there was no difficulty doing this the day after I deadlifted, however I may still prefer to have rows on the Deadlift day.

Pullovers, pulldowns and rows were all very strict with a strong concentric, squeeze at the contraction, and a controlled eccentric.  I stopped every set when I could no longer complete full ROM in this strict fashion.  An interesting note, my triceps were quite sore the next couple of days from the pullovers.

I'm hoping that doing pullovers to pre-exhaust my lats, and then pausing at the bottom of my chins will help the chins carryover to lat growth instead of just practicing the movement of chinning.

Phase 1. Week 3. Accessory

BW - 206

Press -
BarX10
65X5
95X3
115X6, 4

Chin-ups (close, v-grip) - BWX5, 3, 3, 3 (all paused at bottom)

Close-Grip Pulldowns - 2 sets of 10

Hammer Curls - 35sX14, 10, 8

Decent session.

115X6 ties a Rep PR, and was my goal for this weight.  Moving up next week.

The chins were all paused at the bottom, but weren't "dead-hang."  I kept my my scapula retracted and my elbows slightly bent at the bottom.

Tried some strict CG pulldowns to see how my lats would feel the next day.  Results are indeterminate.  I'm contemplating changing this day up a little bit to be a bit more of a body-building style lat day after the OHPs.  Meaning I might cut out chins for a while, or minimize their place in my lat training.