3 Day FB Hypertrophy. Cycle 4. Session D.

sRPE @7.5

BW - 224

Deadlift - 335X3, 3, 3 @5/6

031 Tempo Work:

-    Lying Leg Curls - X9, 9 @10

-    Pull-Downs - X10, 10, 10, 10, 10 @7/9

-    Machine Flyes - X10, 10, 10, 10, 10 @7.5/9

Rower - HIIT; 10 minutes

Good session for pull-downs.  Felt a lot of burn during the session, lats were already sore a few hours later, and are still quite achy the next day.

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." 

Maintenance / Rehab Block. Week 9. Day 2.

BW - 225.7

Squat - 285, 295, 305X10

Press - 130X5, 5, 5

Pull-Ups - BWX3, 2, 2

RDL - 275X5, 5

Pull-Downs (supinated) - X10, 8, 7 (straight-weight; +~5lbs. from last session)

Hammer Curls -
40sX5
30sX12, 10

Starr Rehab Squats felt much better today.  305X10 is actually a Rep PR.  Probably going to go ahead and drop down to 8's for the next 1-3 sessions.  Didn't get the same painful low-back pump as the other times I switched, but we're starting to get into range of pre-injury workset weights.  It seems better to kind of "glide" up into 5's, making sure form is consistent rather than grind myself down chasing higher rep sets.  Last set shown.

RPE experiment on Press is over.  Maybe with additional guidance, or more time, I would have found my way into making it productive, but I was sick of each workout with the same weight feeling harder than the one before it, so I'm going back to more traditional SS programming.  I may still stall out this round, but at least I'll have a clearer idea of how to proceed.  Last set shown.

Pull-Ups were fine.  Hadn't done them in about 10 days due to travel, etc.  Left a rep in the tank on every set.

I brought my straps in today for RDLs.  So much easier to execute this way.  Really focused on: 1) bar stays in contact with leg, 2) bard drops because butt moves backwards, and 3) shoulders back hard at the top to contract the lats.  Two sets of 5 and my lats were burning after the first set this way. 

Upped weight on pull-downs with now predictable results.  Will stay here until I get 3X10+.

Dropped the top-set reps on Hammer Curls and that left more in the tank for the back-off sets.  We'll see what happens when I up the weight next time.

Hybrid Training. Week 6. Tempo Run and Light Upper

Saturday:

Tempo Run - 3 miles @ 00:37:00

Sunday:

BW - 225

Bench - up to 175X2, 2

CG Bench, TUT (5/0/0) - 155X4, 4, 4

Rope Face-Pulls - X20, 15, 15 (straight-weight)

super-set with

Rope Stiff-Arm Pushdowns - X20, 15, 11 (straight-weight)

BB Drag Curls - up to 70X5, 4

Hit my distance on the tempo run this weekend, which is great.  Next week I'll push to 3.5 miles, and then look to reset to 2.5 miles and start increasing pace.

Bar moved pretty well with 175 on speed bench.  Final rep was probably too slow.

Tried the TUT close-grips with an explosive concentric; similar to what I did in Columbus with Matt Wenning.  Felt good.  Final reps on each set were getting pretty hard.

Supersetting the facepulls with straight-arm pushdowns using the rope attachment for both and the same weight was interesting.  Pre-fatiguing the rear delts, I discovered I could "feel" them in the pushdowns, and with a slight alteration I could "remove" them from the movement which also made the movement more difficult.  I'll look to keep this one in the rotation and see what pans out.

I guess I did drag curls a couple of times in 2011.  That must have been when I first started and was doing the DeFranco program.  I found this a challenging movement to get down.  Focused on keeping the shoulders down so that I wasn't doing a shrug/row hybrid.  By the end, it started to feel close to right.

Hybrid Training. Week 5. Light Upper

BW - 229

Bench - up to 165X3, 3

DB Rolling Triceps (w/controlled eccentric) - up to 55sX6, 6

Face-Pulls - 3 sets
superset with
Machine Pullovers - 3 sets

DB X-Body Hammer Curls - 30sX14, 20 (long break before 2nd set)

Solid session.  165 moved pretty fast.

Continuing to hit triceps and lats following bench per Matt Wenning.  I didn't go in with a specific plan of what I would do for them.  Since the original programming for this day had more body-builder-ish accessory work suggested, I didn't go with any barbell work, and focused a tad more on isolation work.

Left tricep was feeling a bit sore during the extensions, and has a lingering soreness that's different from DOMS.  Something to feel out on the next upper body day.

Training with Matt Wenning at Ludus Magnus Gym. Day 2. Speed Bench

Bigger crew today.  Some of them showed up later, and we ended up working in two separate groups.  Matt trained alongside us this time.

Warm-up -
Earthquake Bar Bench for 4 sets of 20.  Maybe a 15lb. kb on each side.
super-set with
1-arm DB rows - worked up to 90X8

Speed Bench - doubled red mini-band
6 sets of 3 up to a quarter each side
then 1 set of 3, 10 sec. rest, 1 set of 3 with 5 sec. eccentric

Skull Crushers - on the ground, long pause between reps, super slow eccentric
3-4 sets of 6-8 with 90 lbs.

Hammer Pull-downs, pulled to forehead - 3 pps.XAMAP;
2 sets, super-set with
X-Body Hammer Curls - 35sXAMAP

Bamboo bar bench was pretty fun.  They had me in at the beginning of the rotation with much lighter weights, so it never got as challenging for me as it was for some of the guys at the end of the rotation who couldn't finish their last couple of sets.

I've never done band bench before, and the first rep was an eye-opener.  The band definitely makes the bar come off your chest differently.  I was getting a ton of cue-ing from Matt and his crew on this movement.  Matt had a lot of take-homes for me on this one: "You're way anterior dominant on bench, and you're finishing with all delts.  Your grip is out to far, and your lats are weak.  Move your grip in (moved from the rings to a fingers width inside the rings), and make sure to keep your elbows in throughout the movement.  You need to warm up your lats and triceps before you bench, and completely trash them afterwards.  You need to do that for 2 years."

To his point about weak triceps, he had me start out at 110 on the floor extensions, and I couldn't get 2 reps.  Had to strip a 10 from each side, and I could continue.

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.

Full Body. Week 2. Squat

BW - 208

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X3
225X2
235X8, 5

DB Bench -
40sX15
60sX15, 10, 9

BB Complexes (Deadlift focus) - 95X2X15
1-Arm RDL, *Upright Row, OHP, Cheat Curl

BB Rows - 145X10

Good session.  Squats felt great, an no issues with my knee.

Pushed the reps on DB Bench a bit.  As soon as I get a 10th rep on the 3rd set, I'll add another set.

This Complex is rounding out.  Once again, my hamstrings are quite sore the next day from these, although my lats aren't as sore as they were last week.  *These started to turn into High-Pulls by the last few sets, and I'm not sure if I should just do those the whole time.

Thought to do one burn-out set of rows at the end, so I threw a 25 on each side.  Ended up being a bit more weight than I needed for my purpose because I was so gassed from the complexes.  Next week I'll just leave it at 95 and also may switch to underhand, Yates row.

Full Body. Week 1. Hill Sprints

Hill-Sprints - 15 sprints; just over 15 minutes

First day back out on the hill felt good.  Not trying for any particular speed, just wanted to go for 15 sprints or 15 minutes, whichever came last.  Will go to 20 and 20 next time if everything feels good.

Also, my lats and hamstrings are sore as hell from before the sprinting.  Can that be from the complexes on Monday?

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 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.