Hybrid Training. Week 3. Light Lower

BW - 229.4

Speed Squats - up to 255X5, 5, 5

Pause Squats -
225X4
245X4
235X4

"Bench" Grip DL - 225X5, 5, 5

Hang-Cleans - 133X3, 3, 3, 3

Hanging Leg Raises - X8, 8, 8

Finally.  Four weeks I've been on this program, and this is the first time I've been able to run this day the way I'm supposed to.  Low back trouble feels 95% recovered now, and isn't bothering my lifting at all.

It was humid as hell in the gym today, so the Speed Squats weren't as "speedy" as I'd have liked.  Also, I try to avoid max acceleration for the last 1/4 of the lift.  I sometimes find that "popping" up at the top bothers my back.

Haven't done Pause Squats in quite a long time, so I wasn't sure where the weight should be.  I Goldilocks'd that shit, and 235 was juuuuust right.

The program suggest Snatch Grip DL, but I've had trouble with deficit DLs aggravating my low back, so I didn't want to go that wide.  I went with my bench grip which is out to the rings.  I've wondered for some time about getting similar effects to deficit deads by just moving the grip out wider.  I started off a little too low on the first couple of reps (I could tell because I was scraping my shins suddenly).  I think I found the sweet spot, and these went pretty well.  My hamstrings and traps are fairly sore today, and the hamstring soreness at least is from these.

The program also calls for jump squats, but I've never felt comfortable with those.  I thought about doing DB or KB jump squats, but I thought I'd try hang-cleans instead.  I've never done these, and it took awhile to find how low to come down so that I could accelerate into the jump.  My left shoulder wasn't loving these, so we'll see.

Weekend Training

Friday:
Jump Squats - bodyweight; 10 sets of 3

Lunges - bodyweight; 10 sets of 3 each leg

Band RDLs - doubled band under feet; 3 sets of 20

Incline Sprints - 30 yards; 20 minutes

Saturday:
Push-up Progression -
BWX10
Doubled-BandX5
"Reverse Grip"X15
Doubled-BandX6
BWX20
super-set with
Band Pull-Aparts - 5 sets; 165 total reps

Band Medley -
Front Raises; Cross-overs, Upright Rows, Reverse Curls AMRAP

Working around my low-back strain (almost healed), and my heavy rehearsal and performance schedule.  I think I'm good to get back in the gym for at least an upper-body dominant session, but I'm not rushing because I need to be 100% when my new show opens in 2 weeks.  So I'm adhering very closely to the shake diet and getting in a lot of light band work and some conditioning to help make sure I don't erase my gains while I'm out of the gym.