Med.-Rep Volume PRs. Week 0. Session D.

sRPE @6.5

BW - 222

Deadlift - 

385X1 @9.5 (grip)

315X6 @8 (grip)

Dips - BWX7, 7 @6/7

Band-Assisted Chins - Medium-Band under kneeX4, 4 @7.5/8.5

Stationary Bike - HIIT; 9 rounds / 16 minutes

I often find that when I take a week or two off from DL, my grip is wonky coming back.  Not worried about it.

High-Rep Volume PRs. Week 4. Session D.

sRPE @6.5

BW - 215

Deadlift - 

405X1, 1 @7

255X14, 14 @6.5/7.5*

Dips - BW+20X6, 6, 6, 6 @6/7.5

Chest-Supported Rows - 145X6, 6, 6, 6 @~6.5

*grip was giving out.  Some of that is because I DL TnG.  Gets more reps and (I believe) better hypertrophy, but can approach grip limit faster because of the shock and not being able to re-grip at the bottom of reps.

255 for 2 sets of 14 is a Volume PR on Deadlift.

235 (BW+20) for 4 sets of 6 is a Volume PR on Dips.

BBM PB I Block 1. Cycle 4. GPP Session C.

sRPE @5

BW - 205

Toes-to-Bar - BWX7, 5, 7 @8.5/10

DB Curls - 35sX15, 12, 11 @9/10

Rower - HIIT; 20 sec./140 sec.; 11 rounds (20 minutes)

Was having grip problems on the usual station I use for TTB.  Switched to another one, and everything was back to normal.

Block 18 (Exploratory). Cycle 7. Session A.

sRPE @6.5

BW - 218

Curls - 95X7 @10

Bench - 

215X1 @6

167.5X13 @8

Machine Flyes - X11@10

Deadlift -

405X1 @7

320X10 @8 (grip)

SSB Pause Squat -

210X9 @7

250X4 @6.5

300X1 @6.5

95 lbs. is a 1 Rep PR on Curls, and I did 7.  Sets of 95X10 across is a near term goal for me on this movement, so I decided to do a rep test here in the last week.  With this performance, this block seems to have out-performed the previous Tier 2, or "second best," block.  That previous Tier 2 is what my next block of Curl training is based on.  Will be interesting to see how they compare!

167.5X13 is a Rep PR on Bench.  I wish I hadn't skipped the back-off set last week, or I might have gotten two of these in a row.  I think this is my first Bench Rep PR (vs. Volume PR) on Bench in over a year.  Even though it was a secondary lift this block, it's worth nothing that the prior two blocks had Bench as a focus.

320X10 is a Rep PR on Deadlift.  Rated is @8 RPE because the bar was starting to come out of my left hand at the end.  Top single was a little harder than last week.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the SSB Pause Squats here in the last week, so I ended up working up in "big" increments.  Bar+1.25pps, bar+2pps, bar+2.25pps.  Interesting that it kind of got easier as I went up, and projects as an almost 50# increase over last week's e1RM.  Maybe it's just easier to do low reps at the end of a session.

At a bit of a minor programming "crisis" as I realize that the e1RM on my back-off sets of Bench is drastically higher than the e1RM of the top single.  PL programming would say to track off the single, and that's what I've always done.  For PL, that makes sense because it "keeps the goal the goal," but my goals are progress in a much wider variety of rep ranges.  Only tracking off of the lowest rep sets is the more conservative approach for sure.  More likely to undershoot vs. overshoot block-over-block targets in all rep ranges.  But it might also mask the actual progress being made in a block.  

For Bench this block, the back-off set had the higher RPE, and more closely mirrored the rep range of the Flyes, the accessory chosen specifically for bench.  So would it be more accurate to say I was training the higher rep range on bench this block, and if so, shouldn't I track e1RM off of that?  I think I should.  The downside is that it will likely over-project my  low-rep strength to start the next block, and I'll have to auto-regulate the weight down.  Not really that big of a deal as long as I'm conscious of it, and don't think something is "wrong."

I wrote out some new guidelines around this for future programming: 

    What rep range is getting "more" trained on the secondary and tertiary movement (higher RPE, more sets, more similar to accessory)?  Track e1RM for that range, BUT LOOK BACK at end of block and see which progressed more and base off of that.  Be prepared to have to auto-regulate projected performance in less similar rep ranges up or down at the start of the next block.

Block 11. Cycle 6. Session B.

 BW - 232

Waist - 43.75"

Chin-Ups - BWX4, 4 @8/9

Band Chin-Ups (under raised knee) - BWX7, 7 @~8

Deadlift -

345X6 @8 (grip @10)

315X6, 6 @6/7

Press - 

105X6, 6 @8/9

100X6 @ 9

Machine Pullovers - 

92.5X8 @7

95X8 @8

Hmmmm...

345X6 ties my previous 6 Rep PR on Deadlift, but grip was failing hard and the bar was down in my fingertips by the end of that set so I backed off to get all the volume in.  Thought, "need to work on grip."

But then Press also went backwards pretty hard, and I had to back off the weight there too.  It occurs to me that I also had to back-off weight for my last set of Squats on Monday.  Now I'm thinking it's time to wrap up this block, Pivot, and move to the next block.

Block 1 (Accumulation). Cycle 2. Day 3 ("Deadlift" focus).

BW - 218

Tempo Squat 2-2-0 - 185X5, 5, 5, 5 @5.5/6.5

Close-Grip Bench - 135X8, 8, 8, 8 @6/7

Chin-Ups Supinated w/Straps - BWX3, 4, 3, 3, 2 @~10

Conditioning - Treadmill; 20 minutes walking

Low back has been not great the last few days despite taking Friday through the weekend off from lifting.  Started popping NSAIDs on Sunday, and felt okay to go to the gym on this Monday.  Decided ahead of time not to Deadlift.  Perhaps won't deadlift again the rest of this block or at least a week after the low back feels good.

Went with the same weight as last time on tempo squats.  RPE came in lower which was good, but I didn't want to adjust the weight upwards as I started to "feel" the low back injury a bit.  I did throw in an extra set just looking to get @6+.  Decided to play it safe, but was enthused that these felt better.

Worked up to last week's Close-Grip working weight of 127.5 and it was @5 at the most, and so warranted a jump to 135.  Same number of sets to get to @7.  Low back gave me a little trouble getting set up, but not too bad.

Decided to continue last week's new adventures with pull-up variations with straps.  Early days with these, but...my forearms strangely feel like they're getting more work?  Like, burning after the set like you get with high rep isolation work.  It seems counter-intuitive to think the forearms (i.e. "grip muscles") would be getting more work with straps.  Not sure exactly how to test that. 

Still avoiding HIIT conditioning till the back feels better.  No video today.

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

BW - 217.9

Bench - 165X8, 8, 8 @6/7

High-Bar Box Squat - 185X6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 @6/6.5

Pull-Ups w/ Straps - BWX3, 3, 3, 3 @~10

Back was feeling better today*, and so I was optimistic about the training session.

Bench felt fine, but still got to @7 after only 3 sets again this week.  Interesting.

HBS to a low box were super solid.  Still trying to keep rest times to ~2 minutes, but I ran into one of the strongest guys in the gym who I don't see that often anymore, and we inevitably got to talking training between sets.  With the longer rests, the RPE just wasn't going up very much on these, so I cut it off after 6 sets.  Will still probably expect a higher intensity next week.

*Tried doing mat pulls, but felt my low-back twinge just a bit after 2 reps with 225, so I shut that down.  We'll try again with pulls from the floor on Friday.

I'd done chin-ups instead of DL on Monday, so today I decided to do pull-ups.  I already had my straps out for mat pulls, and I was stuck using my least favorite pull-up station, so I decided to try them with straps for the first time.  Wow.  I really didn't expect them to make as much of a difference as they did.  These were only sets of 3, but for pronated pull-ups which I haven't done in some time, these felt much stronger than I would have expected.  These were very strict with a swinging, straight-arm hang at the bottom and chest to the bar at the top.  It never occurred to me that grip strength might be limiting my chin strength this much.

Transmutation to Accumulation Pivot Day 8.

BW - 216

Bench-Grip Deadlift (DOH) - 270X4, 4 @7, 8.5

Pause Squat to Low Box - 225X4, 4 @7

Standing, Single-Leg Curls - X13 @8

DB Incline - 60sX8, 8 @~8

Plate Full Raise - 25X15, 12 @~6.5

Conditioning - Treadmill LISS; 20 minutes

Sunday is my #1 least favorite day to train.  Fatigue kicked in pretty quickly across the board at this mid-day session.

Grip was by far the limiting factor on Deadlift.

Box Squats felt very solid.  Shank is nice and vertical; really pushing the lift into the posterior-chain.  No quad pain during set at all.  No increase in quad discomfort outside of the gym within 24 hours following session. 

Ran out of gas quick on the DB Inclines.

Looking forward to switching back to full training.

Transmutation to Accumulation Pivot Day 5.

BW - 217

DOH Bench-Grip Deadlift - 270X4, 4 @7

Low Bar Box Squat (beltless) - 215X4, 4 @7

Standing, Single-leg Curls - X13, 9 @8

DB Incline - 60sX8, 8 @7

Plate Full Raise - 25X15, 15 @8

DOH BG DL (lol) went pretty well got up to @7.5 on grip strength, which is fine.  Doing DOH for a reason.

I think the only other time I've done box squats was when I worked out with Matt Wenning a couple of years back.  These felt very solid.  I kind of thought the weight would be higher, but novelty, plus the lingering quad strain plus [waves hands].

Did DB Inclines for the 4th time in 4 years, haha.  These also felt fine

3 years since I did plate raises.