Block 1 (Accumulation). Cycle 2. Day 2 (Bench focus).

BW - 217.9

Bench - 165X8, 8, 8 @6/7

High-Bar Box Squat - 185X6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 @6/6.5

Pull-Ups w/ Straps - BWX3, 3, 3, 3 @~10

Back was feeling better today*, and so I was optimistic about the training session.

Bench felt fine, but still got to @7 after only 3 sets again this week.  Interesting.

HBS to a low box were super solid.  Still trying to keep rest times to ~2 minutes, but I ran into one of the strongest guys in the gym who I don't see that often anymore, and we inevitably got to talking training between sets.  With the longer rests, the RPE just wasn't going up very much on these, so I cut it off after 6 sets.  Will still probably expect a higher intensity next week.

*Tried doing mat pulls, but felt my low-back twinge just a bit after 2 reps with 225, so I shut that down.  We'll try again with pulls from the floor on Friday.

I'd done chin-ups instead of DL on Monday, so today I decided to do pull-ups.  I already had my straps out for mat pulls, and I was stuck using my least favorite pull-up station, so I decided to try them with straps for the first time.  Wow.  I really didn't expect them to make as much of a difference as they did.  These were only sets of 3, but for pronated pull-ups which I haven't done in some time, these felt much stronger than I would have expected.  These were very strict with a swinging, straight-arm hang at the bottom and chest to the bar at the top.  It never occurred to me that grip strength might be limiting my chin strength this much.

Block 1 (Accumulation). Cycle 1. Day 2 and 3 (Bench and Deadlift focus).

Day 2

BW - 217

Bench - 165X8, 8, 8 @6/7

High-Bar Box Squat - 185X6, 6, 6, 6, 6 @6/7

2" Mat Pulls w/ Straps - 257.5X7, 7, 7, 7 @6/7

Day 3

BW - 218

Deadlift - 242.5X8, 8, 8, 2* @6/*10 (tweaked low back)

Tempo Squat 2-2-0 - 185X5, 5, 5 @6/7

Close-Grip Bench - 127.5X8, 8, 8, 8 @6/7

Bench went from 6 to 7 pretty fast.  Not sure what that was about.

High-Bar Box Squats and Elevated Deads both went fine.

Day 2 felt solid overall.

Not so much Day 3.  Tweaked my back on the 2nd rep of the 4th set of Deads.  Video of 3rd and 4th sets below.  Probably just getting in too much of a hurry because the low intensity is kind of boring, and makes the higher rep sets seem to take forever.  Feels about 80% back to normal 3 days later, and didn't prevent me completely from finishing the training session.

I have to take the tempo squat weights with a grain of salt because of the back injury.  If the low back is fine this week we'll see how they do.  Generally would expect these to have been heavier.

CG Bench was a shit show getting to my work weight.  It took me 4 sets to find this weight, at which point I was already fairly fatigued.  Theoretically that should mean this will be a conservative number come the next session.

Hope the low back continues to heal quickly.  Was very happy to be starting a new cycle, and would hate to get derailed in the first week.