Block 20 (Maintenance). Cycle 1. Session C.

sRPE @5.5

BW - 207

Squat - 325X1, 1 @~7

Hack Squat - 100X8 @6.5

Toes-to-Bar - BWX4, 4 @~7

Hammer Curls - 30sX15@8

Lowest BW since May 2015.

Block 19 (Tier 2). Cycle 7. Session B.

 sRPE @6
BW - 210

Press - 

110X7, 7 @8/8.5

105X7 @8.5

Chins- BWX6, 6, 3 @7/7.5

Toes-to-Bar - BWX8 @9

Less frequent posting since my diabetes diagnosis and thinking about what I want from training.

Definitely throttling back session volume and intensity a bit.

Lowest BW since Feb. '19.

2X6 on Chins is a Volume PR.

8 reps on TTB is a Rep PR.

Block 19 (Tier 2). Cycle 6. Session B.

sRPE @8

BW - 213

Press - 

110X7, 7 @~8.5

95X7, 7 @7

Chins- BWX7, 4, 4 @7.5/8

Toes-to-Bar - BWX5 @8

Hanging Leg Raises - BWX13 @9

BB Rows - 145X10, 10, 10 @8/9

Had to gas at all walking into the gym today and everything was a chore.  Likely a combination of my restrictive diet post-diagnosis, and just general stress.

Block 2 (Accumulation). Cycle 1. Day 2.

BW - 211

Squat - 205X10 @5

High-Bar Squat - 205X3, 3, 3 @~6.5

Bench -
160X8 @ 7
152.5X8 @7
140X8 @6.5

Deadlift - 225X8, 8 @6/7

I've tried to go back through my old logs and look for places where the comp lifts seemed to make a lot of progress, and note down how I was training them at that time.  I'm going to try sprinkling them in here and there, a block at a time.  This Squat session is the result of one of those.  There was a point where I was doing LRB training, and the squat training was a low bar set of 10 followed by three triples of high bar at the same weight.

Because I haven't squatted much the last few weeks, I had pretty good DOMS going into this session, and it made stuff a bit more difficult.  The weights I landed on seem ok.  Hopefully, I'll get more acclimated over the next cycle or two and can dial this in a bit tighter.  All in all, felt fine.

Bench was all over the place.  It's been a bit like this recently where the expected weight ends up being way over on RPE, and nailing down the right intensity is a bit of a ride.  We'll see how this progresses.  Possibly BW drop has something to do with it?

Was really nervous about DL after 2.5 week back injury, but these felt good.  I did fatigue quickly and got to @7 on set 2, when I'd planned 3 sets, but we'll see how that goes next time.  I made some changes to my set-up and inter-rep patterns.  Used to, I would take my breath before I dropped my knees, and then I'd lock my knees to take a breath between reps.  I think that got me in trouble with these low intensity DLs last time, and caused the bar to be moving around a bit much, and that may have contributed to the back tweak.  This whole session and cycle have really been about recommitting to focus.  Taking time to do things right even when the intensity is relatively low.

And also not freaking out about how much lighter all these weights are than what I used to use.

Pivot Day 4

BW - 212 (2 year, 3 month low)

Seated Leg Curls - 4X8

DB Seated Press - 40sX4X8

DD Handle Pull-Downs - 4X8

Single-Leg Raises - 4X8

Happy about the diet progress.

Knock on wood, the low back feels about ready to start a new block on Monday.

HLM. Week 12. Day 2. (full-auto day 1)

BW - 221

Low Bar Pause Squat -
245X5 @6
275X5, 5, 5,5 @ 8, 8, 8, 8.5

Bench -
210X2 @7.5
215X3 @7
225X3 @8.5
207.5X5, 5, 5 @8, 8.5, 9

3" Block Pulls -
305X5 @6
335X5 @9
317.5X5, 5, 5 @8, 8.5, 9

Since I'm dieting and have been having these weird quad pain issues, I decided to just open it up and go sort of full auto-regulation on my programming.  Gonna try and stop worrying about the specific weight on the bar, the specific reps/sets, and just try to hone my ability to hit RPEs.  I've missed enough reps anyway. 

Generally, I know what movements I'm going to do that day (although I may need to change the order to make the "main" movement first), and I'll have a target rep range for each movement.  Sets of 1-3, 2-4, 4-6, etc.  And on the main movements, a top set range and then back-offs.  The straight-sets and back-off sets will all be RPE Stop sets.  For "light" movements like Pause Squats, I will shoot to keep rest times ~2 minutes to limit total number of sets.  "Medium" movements, ~2-3 minutes.  Main or "heavy" movements will have ~2 minutes between test /final warm-up set and top set, 2-3 minutes between top set and first volume / back-off set, and then ~2 minutes between volume sets.

So for Low Bar Pause Squats, I was targeting 4-6 reps around 275.  Test set/last warm-up of 245X5@6 pointed me right at 275, and that worked well.  My intent is to go for @9 RPE Stops, but I've only been doing 3 sets on this day, and figured a week to pivot into higher volume might not be terrible, especially since I'm still dealing with quad issues.  So I hit a 4th set @ 8.5 and called that good enough for this week.

Bench was a little all over the place.  Was looking for a top set of 2-4 reps in the 235 range.  Went for a test set with 210 (90% of target) and felt like it was almost @8 after 2 reps.  So I added 2.5% and tried again, but this time got X3@7.  So either I wasn't fully warmed up for 210, or my technique was off.  Anyway, this ended up being more predictive.  Took the 5% jump to 225 and it was just a hair over @8 for 3 reps.  Back-off sets ended up getting to @9 pretty quickly.  This is why I might need to move the main movement to the beginning of the training session.  Just in case adding additional volume to the initial movement of the day may negatively impact ability to do volume on the primary movement.

Block-Pulls went okay although I overshot the first work-set, and ended up with a top set and back-offs (not the plan, but whatevs.  AUTO-REGULATED).  305 is heavier than the test sets I've been doing, but this felt @6 and this movement has been moving really well the last couple of weeks.  But 335 was definitely not a weight I was going to pull for sets across.  Backed down to 317.5, and that felt like a weight I was going to pull all day, but with the 2-3 minute rests, I got to the end fairly quickly, which is how I planned for this to work.  So yay me.  Tried to get video of all top sets and final volume sets, but missed the Bench top set.

HLM. Week 11. Day 3. and Week 12. Day 1.

W11.D3.
BW - 222

Safety Squat - 250X5, 5, 5, 5 @ 8

Press -
132.5X3 @ 9
122.5X5 @ 7.5
125X5, 5, @ ~9
120X5 @ 8.5

Deadlift -
345X3, 3 @ ~8.5

W12.D1.
BW - 218

Squat -
335X1 @8
315X3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 @~8 (last set @9)

45 degree Incline Bench  - 165X5, 5, 5, 5 @8

Chin-Ups - BWX4, 3, 3, 2 @~9

BB Rows - 215X3, 3, 3 @8

Conditioning - Treadmill Sprints - 20 second sprint / 120 second walk; 7 rounds

Nagging quad pain is playing hell with my squats.  W11.D3. also just seemed to be an "off" or "down" day in general.  Press top-strength was underwhelming, although back-off strength was higher avg. intensity that previous.  Deadlift was definitely down.

Then I went out-of-town for 3 days.

I hoped that the extra day off would help with the quads, but not really.  Squat strength on W12.D1. was definitely limited by pain.  Was hoping to work up to a triple @ 8, but ended up doing a single @ 8 (no video) and doing triples for the back-off.  These intensities are disappointing, but at least I hit another 2-year BW low coming off a wedding trip.  Anyway.  I knew I wasn't going to be able to handle much volume at a decent intensity for back-off sets of 5, so I decided to use the "fatigue drop" / "RPE Stop" technique of doing volume sets until the RPE rises a certain amount.  In this case, I dropped to 3's @ 8, and did them until I hit a 3 @ 9 with that weight.

The high-incline bench was taken on this day, and I hate the gym's other incline bench because it's got a curve at the top that makes it much closer to a flat bench.  I was at the gym earlier in the afternoon than normal because I'd take an extra day off after our trip, so I dragged a particularly sturdy DB incline bench over to a power rack and used that instead.  Actually may be my favorite incline set up I've used at this gym.

Chin-Ups and rows were fine.  Rows felt a little weaker than last week, but no big.

Top-Sets and or final volume/back-off sets shown.

HLM. Week 11. Day 1.

BW - 219 (lightest since Sept. '15)

Squat -
365X3 @ 8.5
335X5 @ 9
315X5 @ 9

High Incline Bench -
155X5 @ 7.5
160X5, 5, @ 8.5
160X5 @ 9.5
150X5 @ 8

BB Row - 210X5, 5, 5 @ 8

Low back was finally feeling good, so I took squats for a ride, and the back was fine....however the left quad is very unhappy.  I'd been experiencing some nagging quad achy-ness two weeks ago, but it had seemed to be fading right before I threw my back-out.  It was back with a vengeance on this day.  My working theory is that all the novel movements I used to work around the back pain last week (leg press, belt squat) maybe provided novel stress on the quad issue as well while de-training the back-squat a bit, and then upping the intensity with a fully loaded low bar back squat blew it back up.  Feels somewhat better the next day, but we'll see.  I was limping around after this session, and having trouble with stairs.  I'm going to try switching my light squat movement mid-week from paused high-bar to paused low-bar and see what effect that has.  I've a feeling, in general, that I need to bring the relative intensity of my variations closer to that of the full squat.  Hopefully, it helps with this as well.

So this is all to say, Squats were interesting.  Managed to work up to an okay triple, but the resulting quad pain played hell with the back-offs.  I videoed the top set and the first back-off, but when I had to drop to 315, I was too disgusted to want to see it back on tape.

Oh, there was also a full PL meet going on in the gym this day.  Luckily, the were in the final flights of squats when I got there, and the rest of my session didn't cross-up too much with the lifters warm-ups.

High Inclines went fairly well.  Looking at the video of the last couple of session, I was pretty sure general fatigue was possibly inflating the RPE a bit.  I have to be careful with assuming that ahead of time, because pressing movements for me drop off a cliff very quickly rep-to-rep.  Nevertheless, I was open to higher intensities being available to me on this day, and they were.  160X5 is a Rep PR at this bench angle.  3rd set was feeling dicey, so I dropped down for the 4th.  Only took video of the final set of 160.

Skipped chins because my preferred chin station was a camp ground for lifters competing on this day.

Rows came in very strong today.  210X5 is a Rep PR for both deadstop and hanging rows (usually "stronger" on hanging rows).  Only took video of the first set when I decided to go to 210 to make sure I wasn't kidding myself about form.

HLM. Week 9. Day 2 and 3.

Day 2 BW - 221

High Bar Pause Squat - 257.5X5, 5, 5 @8

Bench -
245X1 @10
212.5X3 @8
197.5X5, 5, 5, 5 @8

Block Pulls (3" mats) - 305X5, 5, 5 @8

Day 3 BW - 221

Safety-Bar Squat -
262.5X5, 5 @~7
275X5, 5 @~9

Press -
155X1 @9.5
122.5X5, 5, 5 @~8
115X5, 5 @8

Deadlift -
365X1, 1, 1 @8
342.5X5 @8

Few weird situations going on with these two sessions.  Day 2 was at an away gym with no belt.  Day 3 was back at my regular gym, but I forgot my shoes and had to lift barefoot. 

I went full over to RPE this last week for a few reasons:
1)  Not sure how the diet is going to impact programming, and auto-regulating intensity seems like a good move.
2)  Since I started the diet, I've had pretty intense DOMS going on in my quads.  I'm actually concerned I wasn't getting ENOUGH intensity on my squat supplements to keep up adaptation, so I'm hoping auto-regulating intensity will help with that.
3)  The beltless thing, the shoeless thing, and mysteriously crapping the bed on bench as the away gym, meant I wanted a solid framework for "guessing" what weight I needed to use.

Videos are all top sets, final top sets, or final back-off sets.

HLM. Week 9. Day 1.

BW - 221

Squat -
385X3
310X5, 5, 5, 5

High-Incline Bench - 150X5, 5, 5, 5

Chin-Ups - X3, 3, 3

BB Rows - 200X3, 3, 3

My quads are getting really achy.  Kind of a DOMS way, but kind of unusual as well.  They were distractingly achy during my first back-off set of squats.  And I woke up to them aching this morning.  For me, DOMS is usually a 24-48 hours later thing.  I would think it had to do with diet, but I don't see a reason why that would be effecting my quads and not anything else.  It may just be that back squat objective intensities are just the highest of any of my lifts.  I'm going to try using RPE to see if it raises the objective intensity of my Squat assistance movements so that my legs get more acclimated to heavier loads.  I started off this program with assistance at 80% of BACK-OFF sets on light day, and 90% on medium.  I've been saying they were too light, so I think that's biting me in the ass.

Anyway, top set of Squats felt @ 9.  Didn't get much sleep the night before.

Last back-off set felt @ 8.  Fatigue was tempting me to rush these AND get sloppy with them.  Really had to focus to be both patient and focused.

Last set of Inclines felt @ 8.  Looks fast though.  Again, poor sleep.

Had to use the shitty pull up station for neutral grips.  They were fine.  Was hoping my lighter bodyweight would make a noticeable difference, but I guess 3% isn't that big an off set, haha.

Rows were fine.  No straps.  Played around with hook grip a little, but finished with plain ol' DOH.  Gym was crowded so no video.

HLM. Week 8. Day 3.

BW - 222

Safety Bar Squats - 260X5, 5, 5, 5

Press -
150X3
120X5, 5, 5, 5

Deadlift - 345X3, 3

Tempting to credit the first week of diet work from BBM with the weight loss here, but it was also a weekend morning session as opposed to my usual weekday afternoon.  Still, that's my lowest bodyweight since April '17.

Top set of SSB felt @ 7.5, looks @ 6.5.  I'm a couple weeks into documenting this "feels" RPE and "speed" RPE data, so it's time to start thinking about how I want to use it.

Top set of Press felt @9.5, looks about like that.  It's so strange because the first two reps looks like I could do a set of 5, but just a little bit of bar path deviation ups the difficulty on the 3rd rep into max effort territory.

Last back-off set felt @ 7, and looks @ 6.  For me, there seems to be two kinds of "feels" RPEs right now: Strength and Fatigue.  This felt @ 7 because I was just getting gassed.  I guess the lesson here is that I should add some conditioning in, and get my work capacity up.

2nd set of DL felt @ 7 and looks @ 6.  Definitely not heavy enough, but I hope that's in part because the programming has been working.

HLM. Week 8. Day 1.

BW - 227*

Squat -
365X5
290X5, 5, 5

High Incline Bench - 145X5, 5, 5, 5

Chin-Ups (neutral grip) - BWX3, 3, 3

BB Rows - 190X5, 5, 5

*Day 1 of a new diet.  I'm working with a dietitian from Barbell Medicine.  BW should start to drop going forward, and training will have to be adjusted as necessary.  That could go a couple of ways.  The one thing I want to make sure is that I'm both keeping practice of high intensity weights in the program, but that I'm also keeping plenty of volume in.  So, will continue with top sets and back-off sets, but top sets may stop majority 5s and 3s, and become something more like 1-3 heavy-ish singles before back-off work.

Top set of squats was pretty good on this day.  Felt @ 9, looks @ 8.

Back-offs were all fast.  Last back-off felt @ 7.5, looks @ ~7.

As the Press has continue to feel harder than "it should," I've decided to switch from the lower incline bench for my Medium pressing movement to a higher incline.  To start, I just used last week's top-set weight of Press as my weight.  Maybe on the light end of the correct range.  Last set felt @ 8.5, looks @ 6.5.  It feeling so much harder is probably a fatigue issue plus a bit of "novelty" of the movement.  I may need to seek some guidance on "feels" RPE vs. "speed" RPE. 

Chins were fine.  They continue to not feel any stronger, but also not feel any weaker.  It will be interesting to see what happens with them as I drop weight.

Rows were very easy.  Likely far too easy.  Last set felt @ 6, looks @ 6.

Novice LP. Session 17

BW - 226

Squat - 330X3X5

Bench - 190X3X5

Band-Assisted Chins - RedLightBandX4X5

330 for 3 sets of 5 is an LP PR.  These were really, really fucking hard.  I had out of town guests for the 2nd weekend in a row, and I had to sit in jury selection all day.  That means my sleep and food and just general routine were all very irregular.  I tried pounding a coffee and doughnut before this session, but focusing seemed next to impossible until after the first work set.  That woke me up a bit for some reason, and I got through all three sets.  Here's the last set.  Probably too high for competition, but may be okay for training:

Bench went a little bit better.

2nd day of Niki Sims chin-up program, meaning first day with band assistance.  Red light band looped under one foot, and legs kept straight throughout.  By the 4th set of 5, these were actually a little harder than I expected, and I was really feeling them in my biceps.

Reps and Volume. Week 1. Squat

BW - 227 (lowest since 12/8/15)

Squat -
BarX5
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
275X12, 4

Pull-downs - X82, 17

Lunges - BWX30, 24, 20, 26

275X12 is a Rep PR.  I thought it tied a PR and that's why I stopped there.  I didn't want to push too hard my first week back.  My goal is 16.

Using the Phase-II protocol from LRB 365 for a little meet recovery.  Basically just means single sets of 100 reps on one or two movements following the main lift.  Didn't quite get there on pull-downs, and knew I wouldn't get there on lunges.  100 reps of lunges have always been a some'bitch.

BW down to a 3 month low after one week.  Shooting for a very slow, but steady decrease to try and shed fat while maintaining as much muscle as possible.  I've always done high-fat/low-carb in the past.  Reversing that this time to see if it's more manageable (meaning I can still drink beer).

Good start to the post-meet work.

Vacation Prep. Week 3. Squat

BW - 205

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
275X5, 3

High Bars - 225X3, 3, 3
super-set with
Low Bar Paused - 225X3, 3, 3

Front Squat - 135X11

Crunched for time, so I did a bunch of squat variations with short rests instead of 30 minutes on the treadmill.  Lots more fun this way.

The 315X1 moved okay, but the rep sets of 275 felt like shit.  Getting out of gas and just feeling shaky on the way up.  One or both of those may be due to the diet.  Anyway, that's another reason I decided to go with squat variations for my volume instead of regular squat sets.

I've never super-set (giant set?) high-bars with paused low bars.  I really liked it.  It's neat to be able to leave the bar in one spot with the same weight on, and get this kind of work in.  Also, my quads and hamstrings are both fairly "tired" feeling the next day.  That almost certainly means they'll be really sore tomorrow.

After the last pair of triples on that, I felt like it was time to be done with those, but I wanted to do one more thing.  I decided to just strip it down to 1pps and rep out some front squats.  I'm sure that also contributes to my quads feeling exhausted today.  My tracker told me this was an all-around PR, which seemed crazy to me.  I checked this morning, and found a flaw in the app.  13 would have been a Rep PR, but I would have needed to get up closer to 20 for an all-around PR.  Still, coming within spitting distance of a Rep PR after all the other volume ain't nuthin'.

Vacation Prep. Week 1. Bench

BW - 210

Incline -
BarX30
95X5, 5
115X4
135X3
155X2
185X1
135X20

Incline DB Flyes - 20sX15, 15, 15

DB Rear Delts - 30sX20, 20, 20

BB Curls - BarX35

Treadmill - 30  minutes; high-incline walking

135X20 is a Rep PR for Incline and also would be for Flat Bench.  Moving up to 145 next week.

I went round and round on what kind of assistance I wanted to do for this Vacation Prep period when I'll be in a calorie and carb deficit.  For lower body days, it was fairly easy to just pick some BW stuff.  For upper days, chins are the only viable BW movement because push-ups and dips aggravate my shoulder.  I'll be doing chins on OHP day but I didn't necessarily want to put them right before deadlifting until I see what my recovery will be like on the diet.

I ended up deciding to go with all light shoulder work.  See if I can build up shoulder strength and stability as much as possible around whatever is wrong in there.  It was hard NOT to do triceps work, but fuck it, we'll just see what happens.

Vacation Prep. Week 1. Squat

BW - 213

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
275X8, 3, 3, 3

Bulgarian Split-Squats - BWX20, 16, 15

GHR - BWX10, 10, 10

Treadmill - 30 minutes walking; slight incline

My target with 275 is 12 reps.  I got 11 last week, but I was strangely intimidated by the weights today.  Maybe that's must my subconscious saying, "you're in a caloric and carb deficit, you won't be able to lift this."  Whatever.  Before this last month, 275X8 would have been a Rep PR, so it's not terrible.

Oh my fucking God, I forgot how much those split squats can hurt.  Good stuff.

Still tweaking my GHR set-up and execution.  I feel plenty of 'H,' but not so much 'G.'  I started pushing my hips through hard close to the top of the rep and that seemed to help.

Reps and Volume. Week 6. Deadlift

BW - 207 (including 2 slices of deep dish)

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X3
185X3
225X3
265X3

Deadlift -
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X3
315X1
365X1
315X3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2

T-Bar Rows -
45X10
70X10
80X10
90X8
100X8
110X8

Single-Leg Curls - X12, 12, 10

Things felt a little heavy today.  Maybe I over-ate heading into the gym.

265X3 warm-up on Squat was do-able, but I would have been hard pressed to hit the 265X7 I'm targeting for the next full Squat session.

I got all the Deadlift volume I wanted with 315 (17 total reps), but this was not easy.  I'll have to decide if I want to repeat this next DL session, or move up to 325 (maybe for doubles).

Since I added Squat, I needed to drop either RDL or Chest-Supported Rows.  I decided to keep rows in, but go with free-standing T-Bars since my low back hadn't taken the usual hit from DL+RDL.

Reps and Volume. Week 1. Deadlift

BW - 197

Deadlift -
135X5, 5
185X4
225X3
275X2
315X1
285X5, 5, 5

RDL - 185X10, 10, 10

Chest-Supported T-Bar Row - Bar+50X10, 9, 7

Single-Leg Curls - X20, 20, 12 (ascending weight)

Solid session.  285X5 isn't really close to a PR (I've hit 295X8 before), however the 2nd and 3rd sets were harder than I expected!  I took last week off from training and tracking my diet, and my BW had a big dip as a result.  I tried to eat up for this session though [shrug].

RDLs felt good considering I haven't done them after Deads in a while.

Decided to try some chest-supported T-Bars for a bit.  I've always hated these because I have trouble getting set-up so that breathing isn't a chore.  I played around with it a bit and got to a place that was a little better.  The one at Quads (my 'away' gym right now) is a little more aggressive looking than most, but I have no idea if the bar and handles weigh any more than an average one.  Whatever the case, I definitely didn't need to be work with anything heavier than two 25s.

Quads also has plate-loaded leg machines, which are cool.  So I did single-legs on a plate-loaded, seated machine.  Went 25, 35, 45.  Haven't done hamstring iso's in a while, and I forgot how much I hate that crampy-tickly feeling of starting to do leg-curls again.

Full Body. Week 2. Squat

BW - 200

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2
195X15, 10

RDL -
135X10
185X10, 10, 10

EZ Bar French Press - 50X25, 18, 10

Solid session.  Managed to push the reps up on 195 a bit.  Ideally for this block, I'd like to hit a solid 20 reps on the 1st set, and start pushing the 2nd set towards 20 as well.  Energy is a bigger obstacle than strength right now.  As long as I'm keeping my calories where they are, that will continue to be an issue.  Bumping up calories is 5 weeks away at the earliest, and when it does happen will only be about 100-150 more calories a day.

Chalked up and added another set of 10 to RDL's.  Felt good.

Since my shoulder didn't love dips last week, but seems okay with PBN and DB Incline, I thought I'd throw in some overhead extensions.  These felt solid.