Hit last week's top single on High Bar and it felt like a warm-up, so I went up. Nice little data point in my new approach of hitting the same weights until they feel "easier than they're supposed to."
Press was also slightly easier across the board.
My wrists were feeling a little banged up after HBS (I use a narrow, thumbs-around grip on that variant) and Press. So I controlled the eccentric a bit more on the Push Presses. It actually felt better in general to do them that way, so I'll switch over to that. Who knows, maybe I'll trigger a smidge more hypertrophy with the slower eccentric.
As is common in the last week of a training block, I find myself dropping volume a bit and reaching for some stuff for fun.
80X9 is a Rep PR on Curls. Did a couple of those and then did more of a "bodybuilding" backoff set with a slower eccentric to failure. Dropped the 4th workset I'd been doing.
Decided to max Press. This was nice because it both indicated a slight increase in 1RM over the prior week's estimate and was almost EXACTLY what I estimated e1RM to be at for this week. I don't usually get in my head about the difference between RPE based E1RM and "actual," but it was nice to see this. The rep was a real grind. Been a while since I'd done one of those.
Dropped the high-rep back-off set, and just did one AMRAP on laterals instead of two sets.
Worked up to a heavier double on Squat than I've been doing in this block to see what that was like. This is my heaviest sqaut since I did a 387.5X1 @8.25 in November of last year. This seems like at least slight improvement over that. Interestingly, that training block also had Session A's that went Curls, Press, Squat.
Also dropped the back-off sets of 10 on Squat. I had it as a possibility to do a 3X10 Volume PR on this day, but that just sounded hard in a boring way, and not in a fun way.
DB Rolling Triceps 3-3-0: 35sX8, 8 @8, 9
finish with tucked elbow DB Bench X10@8
3" Mat Pulls -
285X6 @6
315X6, 6 @8, 9
DB Rear Delt Flyes - 30sX10, 14, 12 @8, 9, 10
finish with DB Rear Delt Rows X10@9
I was so mentally and physically ready to move on to something different, I just decided to call an audible and start the pivot block early. Everything here was improved, and with out much of a plan. I decided to do a couple of work sets of each of the compound barbell movements that were originally slated, and then move on to single-limb movements
Safety Squats were hard and weak due to the continuing quad pain. Interestingly, the quad pain was still very present in the single leg extensions, but in general feels much better today.
For Bench, the 230X2 felt very solid. I decided to do a higher rep back-off of 7-9 @8.
The way I've always done DB rolling triceps is as an overloaded eccentric movement. That is, the eccentric keeps the humerus perpendicular to the ground through flexion, but then drops down to the ribs so that the concentric is a full press movement. I decided for no reason to turn that up to 11 by adding a tempo protocol of a 3 second eccentric, and a 3 second flexed hold at the bottom. Then finished the last set with a bro-tastic burnout set of tucked elbow DB bench. I'm sure by this evening, the triceps DOMS will be real.
Mat pulls actually progressed to 9 very quickly. Not sure if that was fatigue due to the shorter rest periods used prior in the session, or more general fatigue from feeling beat up by prior sessions. Had intended to just do 2 sets @~8.
Similar to the rolling triceps, I finished rear delt raises with a rear delt row burnout set.
Paused High Bars felt good, and looked good. Weight is probably too light. Last set shown.
Top set of bench felt solid. Didn't feel the need for a spotter. This weight is my 3X5 PR, so this is as it should be. Back-off sets were almost speed work. Top set and first back-off shown (forgot to film last back-off).
RDLs were nice and heavy. Nevertheless, I focused on a really controlled eccentric and reversal to try to correct the issue of the bar swinging out on the reversal. Seemed to help a bit. Hamstrings are very sore today. Last set shown.
Also, I ordered my first belt today. Should show up in a 4-6 weeks.
Upped the weight on both PBN and Flyes this week, and still got 12 reps on all sets. Two weeks ago, I fell 3 sets short of that with 75. Progress.
I'm really surprised, but these really light and slow rack pulls leave my hamstrings really sore the next days. I know, I know, DOMS does not equal Hypertrophy, yada-yada. Just surprising.
Still dealing with low back issues. I have an appointment with a different PT next week. I wanted to try and do something for legs and back, and this is what I came up with. Pre-fatiguing with iso-movements before moving on to compound movements where the lower back is supported.
Single-Leg Extensions - X20, 16, 14 (straight-weight; same as last week)
Good session. 285X5 was my goal, and 4 reps more than I've done with this weight. I also got my total volume goal of 14 reps, but it was a slog.
5X5 volume sets on High-Bars were fine. I could possibly consider bumping up to 215 here, but the volume sets on low bar are only going to get harder next week with 295, so we'll have to see. I stayed at 185 on those for 6 weeks even though it got easy, and my low bar kept going up. No need to go nuts on the accessory work as long as the main lift is still moving, right?
Good Mornings are still brutal, but this session felt like a bit of progress as I started contemplating a Rep PR with 135 on the 2nd set. The thing that makes them so hard is that my eccentric is agonizingly slow because I'm working so hard to keep my back flat while I push my butt back. And I wait until I feel the bar weight shift fully onto the back of my traps and off of my delts before I drive back up. It ends up being a 3-4 second tempo on the eccentric.
Pushed the reps up on single-leg work a bit this week.
