Really enjoyed this program layout prior to the Rows specialization block so going back to it for a few weeks. This was a fun session.
Forearms didn't like the 'D' attachment on the rear delt flyes, but a buddy had mentioned using the single rope attachments. I tried those and they felt GREAT.
Incline DB Rear Delt Laterals - 15sX10, 10, 8, 8, 8 @7.5/9
Rower - HIIT; 7 rounds
Humidity was bad in the gym, but I was more mentally prepared for it. Made myself stay focused during rest breaks on Squats and Rows, and took my time with all the hypertrophy work instead of pushing pace.
I also head my wrist sweat bands today, so that may have made a difference. And head bands showed up in the mail so everybody better look out.
Low back felt fine the last day or so after tweaking it during Monday's DLs. However, I felt some discomfort in my last Squat set. I started warming up for BB Rows, and it didn't like that at all so I switched to Chest Supported and that was fine.
I started warming up on GHRs with my normal, "jack-knife" technique, but low back felt a little off still. I switched to a Westside-style only coming down to parallel. I'm not sure I've ever done those before, but they were much easier than expected; about 2/3 of what I can do jack-knife. I didn't feel it in my glutes nearly as much, but the hamstrings were clearly the limiter. A viable alternative for me to leg curls!
Back from traveling. I've got about 3 more weeks of travel/visitors to get through and then maybe I can get a consistent training schedule going for a few months.
Looking to balance this pivot time fairly equally between Push, Pull, Squat, and Hinge with some iso's at the end of sessions for more peripheral muscle groups.
June schedule disruptions are just too much to try and chase consistency in the gym. Going to go on a Pivot until July and (probably) start a short BB Row focused block.
Made this session up as I went trying to fill gaps from the last session, and had fun.
Only plan going in today was Chest-Supported Rows. Decided to just park myself at the CS Row and do a bunch of upper back stuff. The CS rear delt rows were a little funky so I hit some rear delt flyes to make sure they got good and worked.
If I was going to do this again, I might start out with the Flyes then go CS Rear Delts -> CS Rows - > CS Retractions. Or maybe it would depend on whether I was prioritizing Rear Delts vs. General Upper Back.
I've had an idea of super-setting HLR, GHR, and Cophenhagens, and in my mind I was calling it "The Big Hipper." I did GHR in the previous session, so I did a "little" version.
Here the next day, my upper back is very fatigued, and my hips are very sore.
First time using a Log for anything. I warmed-up with the lightest weight log (~50#), and then moved to the next lightest (~125#) for working sets. Interestingly, the lighter log has a larger diameter, and I found it made the rolling transition from lap to chest easier than with the smaller diameter. I think I possibly could have handled more weight with the larger diameter log.
During my recent hypertophy focused training, I felt like I was getting more "training artifacts" (burn, pump, DOMS, etc.) from really deep DB Flat and Incline Benching than I did from really deep machine flyes. Today, I tried using the Flyes as a finisher after the DB Bench. Hard to say how much impact it had, but I definitely have some pec DOMS today.
I thought I would do Hack Squats but the machine was ocupado. Decided to pivot to HLRs since I haven't done ab and hip flexion work in a while.
Finished with some more stuff I've never really done. Using the behemoth preacher curl machine, and bent-over cross-body rear delt flyes. Preacher curls were ok, but the rear delt flyes felt really good. Might bookmark those for later.
On DB Rows, I shortened the myo-rep break from 30 seconds down to 20 seconds. Got less total reps obviously, but it made the whole thing seem less endless.
Bench felt very good today on the technique side. Initial set-up was good for facilitating leg drive through-out (I'm pushing hard into my heels on the set up and kind of "keeping tension in my heels" from there); Eccentric was well under control, but not too slow; Concentric had an excellent bar path as I was really finding that "slidey" spot part way up where the bar travels back for a moment instead of up. I first heard Matt Reynolds talk about that back when I used to listen to the Barbell Logic podcast. His theory was that it allowed the elbows to open a bit more without having to work as hard against gravity. I don't know about all that, but it also lines up with that classic bar path graphic from Thomas McLaughlin that shows the difference between novice and elite benchers:
Two things I still need to work on:
Un-racking to over my shoulders. Unrack felt good until the weight got heavier, and I realized that "over my shoulders" was further back than where I was starting on my warm-ups. The result was that my shoulder blades weren't all the way down when I reached the correct starting position, and I had to spend some effort getting them into better position.
Foot placement. This is a weird issue because the actual issue is my foot sliding out from under me a little under load. This is probably more of a foot-wear/gym-floor situation, but there's only so much I'm willing and/or able to do about that. So the other option may be to try and pull my feet back a bit.
Safety Bar Squats were a bit better this week. I had to do some extra warm-ups because of lingering DOMS from squatting after vacation. They didn't feel great because of the DOMS, but I was able to lift more weight and at a lower RPE than my target. This top set is supposed to be @9, and I keep undershooting it, but I also don't want to push it if everything doesn't feel great.
Two sets of myo-reps on 1-arm DB rows really, really sucks.
Gonna start training with friends at one of their houses once or twice a month. This was a low stress, kind of feeling out session. Hit a couple of "real" lifts and fucked around on some other stuff.
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.
