Back from my last, expected out-of-town trip for a few months. I'll keep at this "Pivot"/General program through next week, and then plan to jump into a short-ish, Row specialization block.
I haven't done Leg Press in a long time, and performance was WAY off my best, but also standing calf raises were also way down. Maybe all the swimming I did over the weekend (humble brag)?
Had to leave town unexpectedly for a few days last week, and missed a training session.
Top single on Press was about the same as last week, but back-offs were maybe a tad stronger.
Over the previous 6 weeks, I'd hit a few PRs on DB Bench, so I decided to swap it out for Cambered Bar Bench. I will likely pivot to focusing on Bench after this Press-focused training runs it's course. Cambered Bench allows me to start splashing in some skill work on that while continuing to "overload" the delts beyond what I can OHP, but still with a lengthened movement.
Really tried to "beat the log book" instead of just "punching the clock" and add reps on GHR and Pullovers over recent performance while maintaining good technique. I do a lot of GHRs, and that's definitely a PR at anything close to this BW.
After all that, Overhead Extensions went in the tank a bit on the initial sets, lol.
Leg Press Drop Sets - 270X11, 225X9, 180X7, 135X7 @10
DB Incline Laterals - 15sX10, 12, 8, 7 @8/10
super-set with
DB Incline Extensions - 15sX12, 16, 10, 12 @7/10
First day back after 5 day camping trip. Everything felt good.
Went up to 5 total plates on Lever Dips. Historically, this lift has been ~90% of Dips, so I'm cautiously optimistic about how the wave of regular Dips will kick off next week.
Heard some of the science folks talk recently about promising studies on Drop Sets compared to Rest Pause approaches. I did a lot of Rest Pause recently inspired by Mike Israetel, but haven't done Drop Sets much. Thought I might give it a shot here and there on compound, low-specificity accessories.
Between the Drop Sets and the Super Sets it was like 45 minutes in and out of the front door. That basically demands I start doing HIIT conditioning at the end of sessions again, lol.
After a week of travel and emotional labor, I felt physically and mentally out of sorts heading into the gym today.
What I thought would be the last warm-up on Rows ended up being the first work set. That's fine.
Hypertrophy work all went well though. Some of that is the benefit of load not mattering nearly as much as result.
I wasn't sure if Mechanical Drop Set or Rest-Pause was going to be the way to go with GHR. I went ahead an tried the Drop Sets and it ended up being ok. My hamstrings were quite sore afterwards.
Next week, I go back to straight sets staring a bit further from failure and no intensity techniques.
Wide-Grip Press, paused on chest - up to 125X2 @10
Pull-Downs with end-ROM drop-set - X10/6; 10/5 @~10
Been a roller-coaster couple of weeks fighting through a lingering cold, traveling for 3 days, then coming back with the flu. Decided to stop trying to eke out gains from the prior training block, and just pivot and start a new block (hopefully) next week.
The planned new block would be lower rep work, so my plan here was to work up on some relatively novel variations to try and stimulate the skill of low rep work ahead of starting the block.
It's possible box squats are no longer novel enough for this kind of thing, as I pretty quickly aggravated my right glute. So now I have that on top of everything else, lol.
WG dead-stop presses were fun if a bit awkward to figure out the grip width and walk out.
REALLY liked the mechanical drop-set on the pull-downs. This kind of thing is becoming more popular in the body-building world as the literature around end-range partials for hypertrophy continues to grow. What I did here was take a long ROM pull-down to technical failure then keep going only brining my upper arms down to ~parallel. The burn on the drop-set partials was real.
Just back from a few days of travel. Taking it REALLY easy volume-wise, as I jumped in too hard after my last trip. I'll just do 1-2 sets per movement, and add volume as it seems advisable. I have a lot more trips coming up in the next few months, so I will take a very conservative approach to volume to avoid DOMS and other issues that overly impact my life-at-large.
Had to train barbells on back-to-back days because of travel.
sRPE is consistently creeping up, I'm getting gassed out earlier and earlier in sessions, and I'm having to just will myself through workouts. I may have exceeded my current volume tolerance, and will reduce by 1 set on most supplements and accessories next week.
45 for 4 sets of 14 is a Volume PR on Curls. I realized I was using 50 lbs. the first couple of weeks, but I didn't need that much weight to hit PRs. So I backed off to see if I can push 45 to 4 sets of 20 this block.
Gonna be traveling around the weekend, so shoved most of my GPP for the week into a single session.
Squat top set went very well. A touch heavier than the days target. However, I probably should have pulled back on the volume sets.
High-Bars and Wide Grip Deads were fine, but I was completely mentally wiped by the time I finished my low bar sets. I didn't want to do any more squats, and after squats, I didn't want to do anything at all.
I traveled out of town this last weekend, and I think travel and vacation activities may have contributed.
To this point, available evidence had pointed to a 7 week time-to-peak. However, the squat top set looks like my second best increase of the block, and my best Week 7 Squat. Unless Bench and Deadlift convincingly crash and burn this week, I will plan on extending this block another week.
Block cut short by upcoming travel. Honestly, ready for the break. Had a lot of late nights this week, and recovery was definitely way off. Made lifting more of a chore than usual.
Deadlift top single in particular was harder than I wanted it to be. A reduction in e1RM from last cycle. Back-off sets felt fine, though.
Front Squats and dips felt pretty good as well. Dips in particular felt very smooth.
Video is of top sets and final work sets. Didn't get video of the top set of dips.
Because this training block is getting cut short by travel, I had my eye on coming in and shooting for a big Bench PR of 275. However, it wasn't going to be there. I pushed the warm-ups and the top single trying to make it happen; telling myself, "maybe you've been sandbagging your RPE," but the 252.5 was @9 at best. And the back-off sets quickly escalated in difficulty. Of course, I'd only gotten 5-6 hours of sleep the night before, so I wasn't in the best recovery space. This was by far my worst week 4 bench results over the last 3 training blocks. I really think it would have bounced back next week with good recovery.
Oh, well. Something to look forward to next block. My bench has been starting new blocks around 92% of the previous block e1RM, and my lifts have been increasing by an average of about 2% per cycle over the last 3 blocks. That would put me right around 273 at the end of the next block. However, it's a higher intensity Transmutation block, and last transmutation block my results were a bit better than these averages.
I hit 50 total reps with the 55s last week on DB Bench, so I upped it to the 60s this week per the 350 Method. Felt a little harder than I expected, and I think that's a little bit of extra fatigue from pushing the bench a bit harder. Doesn't really matter as this block is over anyway.
Inverted rows actually felt really good. I think I'm more acclimated to this version of the movement, plus I came in at a slightly lower BW than the last couple of cycles.
Tougher session. Probably pushed the squats a little harder than I should have. The last two blocks I had about a 5% jump in Cycle 4, and I was trying to will that to happen here. It clearly wasn't in the cards, but I then tried to force a 10 lb. jump, and ended up overshooting a bit on my singles. I brought it back in line for the back-off sets, and they felt about right.
Rack Chins dropped off a bit, but I was also "holding the squeeze" pretty hard at the top of each rep.
I was pretty wiped by the time I got to Sumos, but they actually had a bit of a larger jump than last week. I just really had to will my focus.
I'm traveling next week for work and vacation, and I've decided not to try and shoehorn any training into that trip, so I will be cutting this block short after this cycle. Would have been interesting to see where it went, though. Lots of intriguing things happening.
Was out of town for a few days, so I backed up 10 lbs. on the Starr Rehab squats. Went ahead and backed reps off to 10 as previously planned. These were okay, but my adductor was kind of cranky throughout, and has been giving me discomfort ever since. We'll see how it goes next time. Finale set shown.
I was looking for doubles with 245. I failed on my first attempt. The first rep of the second set made it clear that doubles weren't happening, so I proceeded to complete 5 singles. Will continue with 5 singles adding only 2.5 lbs. per jump until I can't get 5. 1st, 2nd, and final set shown.
Was training on an off-day and plan to come in two days in a row to get back on track. So I didn't do any Chins or chin accessories. I will do just those and Starr Rehab squats today.
Because the adductor was cranky and because of the lay-off, I was conservative with the RDLs and backed off 20 lbs. If the adductor feels okay next time, I will jump back to the previous weight of 275. If it then continues to feel okay, I may start pulling from the floor again.
Pull-Downs - X12, 8, 6 (straight-weight; same weight as last session)
BB Curls - ~60X10, 9
Starr Rehab Squats continue. Adductor was bugging me a bit during the first set, but not the others. Weight has gotten heavy enough now, though, that low-back pump and conditioning are making it very difficult to complete all reps with good form. Gonna drop on down to 10 reps per set. Last set shown.
Went into this session with a lot more intel on using RPE in the BBM way (gleaned from some YouTube videos by Alan Thrall). Using the RPE chart, I was dropping the weight on the first and 2nd sets, and the third set would project to be around where it's been. 120X5 was supposed to be @6, but it felt much heavier than expected and was @7. Based on my understanding of the BBM approach to RPE, I should have stayed there at the next set. However, Press has been pretty demoralizing the last few weeks, and no progress has really been apparent. The prospect of reducing average intensity again was a real bummer. I'm about to go out of town to attend to some family issues, and really didn't want to leave it on this note, knowing I wouldn't be training again for several days. So instead I just maxed out. 165X1 is a Rep PR. That was nice to hit. Some might say that indicates progress, but frankly 165 has been right around my projected max for a while. Anyway.
Chin-Ups were okay at the new, stricter, double-paused, chest to bar execution. 1 less rep than last time, though. Whatever. Press PR.
RDL felt pretty strong. Grip seems to be the limiting factor right now. May just pack straps next time.
Got a couple more total reps on pull-downs with the same weight as last time.
Press was tough today. I had to "get up" for most of the sets, clear my mind, and focus on every tiny detail. Too bad, as it's the same weight as last Press V.D. Guess we'll see what happens. Final set shown.
Deadlift was okay, but I was out of gas at this point. Probably due largely to travelling over the weekend, and not getting a ton of sleep (probably applies to the Press situation as well). Also, my left hand has been starting to bother me being supinated on the mixed grip, so I switched to right hand supinated. Pain went away immediately, but was awkward as I haven't switched my grip in a long time. Probably ought to start alternating at least on V.D. 2nd set shown.
Squat reps were all high. Every single one. MAYBE a couple of them were close to parallel. Maybe. My headspace was scattered heading into this set. I knew I cut the first rep high, and from there I struggled to find depth. So disappointing. This week I'm travelling, and so will only be able to go to the gym twice. I guess I'm going to do V.D. on Monday, and I.D. on Thursday, and go ahead and try to go to 400. I'll try to grab someone at the gym I trust to call out my depth. From the video, I believe the strength is there, the execution was just garbage.
Press went well. 2X3 PR. 2nd set shown.
Deadlift also went well. The 2nd set continues to feel better than the first. That's not a new phenomenon in Starting Strength style training at all, but I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to use warm-ups to try to get the FIRST set to feel better. 2nd set shown.
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.
