Old Man Texas Method. Week 5. Intensity Day

BW - 228

Squat - 385X5

Press - 150X3 (fail on 4), 3

Deadlift - 375X2 (fail on 3), 2, 2

385X5 is a PR on Squats.  As has been usual on Intensity Day, the late-middle warm-up sets didn't feel great, but the last single of warm-ups felt okay, and then the work set felt really good. 

That was the good news.  The rest wasn't so good.  Press felt very heavy in the late warm-ups.  I girded my loins and still went into the work set looking for 5, but failed on rep 4.  So okay.  We'll move on to 2X3 for Press on I.D.  Technically, this is a 2X3 PR.  Both sets shown.

Deadlifts were an even bigger disaster.  Based on advice I got from a Starting Strength coach on their forum, I reset my DL by 15 lbs. so that I could progress again with the preferred 1X5 -> 2X3 -> 3X2 -> 5X1 ID progression.  Well, I failed on rep 3.  However, watching the video and being honest with myself, I think I gave up on it pretty quick.  The 2nd and 3rd sets of 2 looked plenty strong and fast.  Therefore, I will go at this weight again next week.  I will either get the 5, or look for 2X3 to progress on.  1st and 3rd sets shown.

Greyskull LP. Session 15

BW - 230

Press - 140X5, 5, 7

Chin-Ups (strict) - BWX5, 5, 5

Squats - 345X5, 5, 5

Coming back from a sporadic couple of weeks of training capped by a trip to New Orleans, I decided to pull back on most of my lifts.  Backed Press and Squat up by two weeks, resetting the BW movements to be as strict as possible, and repeating the previous Deadlift weight.

140X7 is a Rep PR on Press.  Definitely didn't expect that on the first day back.  On the last few reps, I focused in on sort of "locking" my hips in place as the bar clears my head.  Kind of creating a more stable pillar to finish the press out after the initial movement to get the bar from chest to the forehead.

For Chins, I'm looking now for full elbow extension, and a breathing pause at the bottom of each rep, and chin over the bar at the top.  Reset to 3X5 at BW.  I was nervous I wouldn't get them all, but I did.  I've also built a calculator that will allow me to add ~2.5 to the TOTAL weight lifted after each time I get all 3X5.  Basically I just plug in my body weight for that day, and it will tell me how much weight to add.  I expect this to look a bit silly the first few times as I'll have a dip belt with a 2.5 hanging off of it.  Third set shown.

After everything, I'm very happy with 3X5 on squats.  I would have needed 8 for a Rep PR here, and that was unrealistic.  Although this final set was probably RPE 8.5.  I focused on letting the bar settle "back" on my shoulders after the breath.  I'd noticed sometimes I would take the deep breath and immediately descend, and the bar was rolling forwards a bit.  This seemed to help with that.  Also  continued to focus on a very controlled descent to make sure the bar path stays good.  Again, felt very good about the results here.  Keeping these points in mind for next week, I'm optimistic I'll feel good about getting some more reps in.

Greyskull LP. Session 14

BW - 231

Bench - 200X5, 5, 10

Chin-Ups -
BW+25X4, 4
BWX10, 5

Deadlift - 345X6

Dips - BW+30X11, 6

200X10 is a cool little Rep PR on Bench.  Felt confident it would be there, and was probably RPE 8.5.  Nice milestone I didn't even really know I was looking for. 

Chin-Ups went okay.  I'm going on a little trip this weekend, and I think I may reset chins and dips when I come back and try to get them all stricter.  More on the dips below.  Video is 2nd weighted set, and first BW set.  Angle sucks, and was way off-center on the BW set.

345X6 is a Rep PR on Deadlift.  Only needed 5 for a PR.  About RPE 9.  Felt pretty good today.

Dips were much harder today for some reason.  I wish I'd gotten video, because I suspect I was going way deeper than usual. Shoulder may be in good shape for deeper dips now.  I will take a little weight off, and reset using a plan I've been hatching for a chin-ups reset that takes total weight into account.  Will be better about getting video, and holding myself to a stricter, fuller range of motion on both movements.

Greyskull LP. Session 7

BW - 229 (big lunch, I guess)

Press - 135X5, 5, 8

Chin-ups -
BW+20X3, 3
BWX8, 5

Squats -
345X5, 5
275X10

135X8 is a Rep PR on Press. Felt pretty good going into the set, but this was definitely RPE 10.

Reset the chins back to 20 and will work up again in 2.5 lb. increments.  See if I can bust through 30.

Squats are a shit show right now.  Getting really off my heels.  Where the problem used to be the bar sliding forward in the hole, now it's moving forward through-out the descent.  Really baffling that a couple of week lay-off could fuck it up this bad even with the reset.  After the 2nd set of 5 (shown), I just said fuck this and did an AMRAP set at 275 just to try and get some quality volume in.  Even those reps are technically poor despite having the strength to rep them out.  Starting to formulate a programming shift for squats and/or considering a consultation.

Novice LP. Session 69 (Greyskull Squats and Press)

BW - 225.9

Bench -
245X2
217.5X5, 5

Squat - 325X5, 5, 9

Chin-Ups-
BW+25X5, 4
BWX9, 5

245X2 is an all-around PR on Bench.  I was supposed to do 242.5, but I'm ready for a reset, and so said 'fuck it.'  Jumped to more of a milestone.  RPE 9.5.  Back-off sets felt strong.  2nd back-off shown.  Will now reset Bench to the GSLP.

325X9 is a Rep PR on Squats.  Gave my legs a week off after hitting 405X2 in the hopes that rest and a GSLP reset would allow the adductor strain to fade away, but it came roaring back on these sets.  Next thing will probably be to meet with a P.T., and probably plan a longer lay-off of squats around our annual Thanksgiving trip.  Still this was maybe RPE 8.5.  Definitely could have gotten one more.

351(BW+25)X5 is a Rep PR.  Failed the 5th rep on set 2 (shown in video).  I will run this back next session and see if I can hit both sets.  First BW set felt surprisingly strong, and thought I was gonna run to 10, but the bottom dropped out as it usually does on this movement for me.

Novice LP. Session 68 (Greyskull Squats and Press)

BW - 227

Press -
125X5, 5, 11

Deadlift -
390X3
350X3

Chin-Ups -
BW+25X4, 4
BWX8, 6

Dips -
BW+30X6, 6, 6

125X11 is a Rep PR on Press.  RPE 10.  Took careful planning of shorter and longer breathing rests, and still, around Rep 8, I thought I might be in trouble.  Happy to have gotten it!

390X3 is an all-around PR on Deadlift.  Feeling slow and heavy, but still do-able with commitment. I only doubled 390 on Squat, so it's nice to see my DL outperforming the squat for once outside of a meet.  Didn't quite lock out the 3rd rep to competition standards, but I don't care.  Trying to decide if I just want to hit doubles the rest of the way, or keep pushing triples.  Oh, and btw, back in early August 350X3 was a Rep PR set.  Now it's a back-off set.

251 (BW+25)X4 is a Rep PR on chins.  Feeling heavy from the first rep now.  2nd weighted set and first BW set shown.

256 (BW+30)X6 is a Rep PR on Dips.  These were about as easy as I wanted them to be for a reset that still delivers an adaptation dose.  I'm eliminating the BW back-off sets starting with this session, and working on weighted sets only.  I'll run +30 up to the 10-12 rep range for 3 sets across, and then up the weight again.

Novice LP. Session 39 (Greyskull Squats and Press)

BW - 227

Bench -
210X5
190X5, 5

Squat - 315X5, 5, 6

Chin-ups - BWX8, 4, 4

Took about a week off for an annual camping trip.  Always a little roughed up coming back from that trip, so I took a small reset here.

Knocked 5 lbs. off the bench, and everything moved well.

Knocked 15 lbs. off the squat, and everything was moving okay, but I was having trouble staying off my toes.  That bit me in the ass on my AMRAP set, where I got too far forward on the 6th rep while going for 8:

+1 rep on my first set of chins as well.  Felt good.

Novice LP. Session 36 (Greyskull Squats)

BW - 225

Press -
140X2
120X5, 5

Squat - 325X5, 5, 6

Chin-Ups - BWX6, 4, 4

Press failed again to get 3 reps with 140.  Everything felt good, it was just too heavy.  Hit back-offs to get in volume on this day.  I will take a full GSLP reset, and work back up with 2X5, 1XAMRAP.

Squats felt heavy on this day.  A lot of variables at play being in the middle of a rambunctious holiday weekend.  Still managed to get an extra rep on the last set.  Despite the belt, the bar path looked much worse today than last time.  Saw it on the warm-ups, and still wasn't able to correct it very much.  Back didn't give me too much trouble, though.

Gonna try out 3XAMRAP, 2/wk. on Chins for a few weeks and see if I can get them moving again with more full range, fully loaded volume.

Novice LP - Session 19 (coached)

BW - 224

Squat -
BarX5
115X4
155X3
205X2
235X1
265X5, 5, 5

Press -
BarX5
70X3
85X2
100X1
115X5, 5, 5

Deadlift -
135X3
225X2
265X1
295X5

Had a little over a week off with Thanksgiving travel and holiday, so coach backed everything up 10% and we'll make 5-10 lb. jumps on everything until we get back up to where we were.  Basically end of next week.

Everything felt good for the most part.

Novice LP - Session 17

BW - 222

Squats -
BarX5
115X4
165X3
205X2
250X1
285X5, 5, 5

Press -
BarX5
85X3
95X2
105X1
125X5, 5, 5

Deadlift -
135X5
200X3
240X2
290X1
330X5

Solid session.  Squats and Press both moved okay.  Deadlifts just feel heavy as shit, but I got all the reps.

We're starting to get into what I'll call "moments of truth" with all the lifts.  While I've hit some awesome 5 Rep PRs in the Press and Squat, in none of the lifts have I hit a set of 5 that projects to a new, lifetime 1RM PR.  So the #'s I'm looking for coming up in order to get those new, projected maxes are:

Squat - 320X5 (35 lbs. away now; 10 lbs. away before last reset)
Bench - 210X5 (15 lbs. away)
Deadlift - 340X5 (10 lbs. away)
Press - 135X5 (10 lbs. away now; 5 lbs. away before last reset)

Squat and Press got closest, but I had to reset them.  I haven't had to reset Bench or Deadlift yet, but they're also further away from new lifetime numbers.  AND I've gone to alternating Deadlift with Cleans because they're getting so heavy.  The other kicker is that my previous lifetime, projected 1RM PRs happened at the following BW:

Squat PR - 275X11 @ 215
Bench PR - 155X17 @ 215
Deadlift PR - 245X4 multiple times @  209, 211, and 214
Press PR - 105X14 @ 213

So I'm looking forward to the extra 8-12 lbs. BW paying off with some new projected bests.

Novice LP - Session 16

BW - 224

Squat -
BarX5
115X4
165X3
205X2
245X1
280X5, 5, 5

Bench -
BarX5
100X4
130X3
160X2
180X1
195X5, 5, 5

Cleans -
up to 128X3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Squat reset.  Took 10% off, and will work my way back up again.  These went fine.

Bench went really well.  Optimistic about setting a PR next time.

Cleans were a shit show.  I just wasn't catching the bar on my shoulders.  The weight kept landing in my hands, and it was killing my forearms.  Luckily, we moved my next coached session to Wednesday, so I will get some coaching on the lift again next session.