Transmutation to Accumulation Pivot Day 1.

BW - 219

SSB Squats -
235X4 @7
250X4, 4 @8, 8.5

1-Leg Extensions - X10, 12 @ 8, 9 (straight-weight)

Bench -
210X2 @6
230X2 @8
190X7 @8

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.

HLM. Week 12. Day 2. (full-auto day 1)

BW - 221

Low Bar Pause Squat -
245X5 @6
275X5, 5, 5,5 @ 8, 8, 8, 8.5

Bench -
210X2 @7.5
215X3 @7
225X3 @8.5
207.5X5, 5, 5 @8, 8.5, 9

3" Block Pulls -
305X5 @6
335X5 @9
317.5X5, 5, 5 @8, 8.5, 9

Since I'm dieting and have been having these weird quad pain issues, I decided to just open it up and go sort of full auto-regulation on my programming.  Gonna try and stop worrying about the specific weight on the bar, the specific reps/sets, and just try to hone my ability to hit RPEs.  I've missed enough reps anyway. 

Generally, I know what movements I'm going to do that day (although I may need to change the order to make the "main" movement first), and I'll have a target rep range for each movement.  Sets of 1-3, 2-4, 4-6, etc.  And on the main movements, a top set range and then back-offs.  The straight-sets and back-off sets will all be RPE Stop sets.  For "light" movements like Pause Squats, I will shoot to keep rest times ~2 minutes to limit total number of sets.  "Medium" movements, ~2-3 minutes.  Main or "heavy" movements will have ~2 minutes between test /final warm-up set and top set, 2-3 minutes between top set and first volume / back-off set, and then ~2 minutes between volume sets.

So for Low Bar Pause Squats, I was targeting 4-6 reps around 275.  Test set/last warm-up of 245X5@6 pointed me right at 275, and that worked well.  My intent is to go for @9 RPE Stops, but I've only been doing 3 sets on this day, and figured a week to pivot into higher volume might not be terrible, especially since I'm still dealing with quad issues.  So I hit a 4th set @ 8.5 and called that good enough for this week.

Bench was a little all over the place.  Was looking for a top set of 2-4 reps in the 235 range.  Went for a test set with 210 (90% of target) and felt like it was almost @8 after 2 reps.  So I added 2.5% and tried again, but this time got X3@7.  So either I wasn't fully warmed up for 210, or my technique was off.  Anyway, this ended up being more predictive.  Took the 5% jump to 225 and it was just a hair over @8 for 3 reps.  Back-off sets ended up getting to @9 pretty quickly.  This is why I might need to move the main movement to the beginning of the training session.  Just in case adding additional volume to the initial movement of the day may negatively impact ability to do volume on the primary movement.

Block-Pulls went okay although I overshot the first work-set, and ended up with a top set and back-offs (not the plan, but whatevs.  AUTO-REGULATED).  305 is heavier than the test sets I've been doing, but this felt @6 and this movement has been moving really well the last couple of weeks.  But 335 was definitely not a weight I was going to pull for sets across.  Backed down to 317.5, and that felt like a weight I was going to pull all day, but with the 2-3 minute rests, I got to the end fairly quickly, which is how I planned for this to work.  So yay me.  Tried to get video of all top sets and final volume sets, but missed the Bench top set.

HLM. Week 11. Day 2.

BW - 220

Pause Squats -
270X5, 5 @ ~8
277.5X5 @ 8

Bench -
220X5 @ 8.5
197.5X5, 5, 5 @ ~7.5

3" Block Pulls -
285X5 @ 5
325X5, 5, 5 @ 8

First session in over a week and a half that felt "normal."  No low back trouble, and no quad trouble.

277.5X5 is technically a PR on Pause Squats, but I haven't done low bar pause squats in a long time.  This puts them right around 80% of my full squat which is fairly normal based on my history with this movement.  Switched from High Bar to Low Bar for these in the hopes that raising relative intensity of my squat supplementals will help with this weird quad DOMS and/or strain I've been having.  My theory is that lower relative intensity is allowing some de-training to take place between full squat days.  Going to stick with SSB for my "medium" day this week.  Hopefully, I can keep the relative intensity at or above this level, plus a touch more volume.  Otherwise, I'm not sure I know what squat variant would fall in between full and paused low bar squats.  Possibly regular High Bars or beltless Low Bar.  If none of those work, I may try tempo squats.  I've never used those before, though.  Last set shown.

Bench is 10 lbs. off a 5 Rep PR.  @8 and after a weird couple of weeks, I'm okay with that.  I couldn't do full power bench last week because of my back, and the week before I did 245X1@10 and 212.5X3@8, so 220X5@8.5 seems like a bit of a bounce back.  Still toying around with how to do back-off sets of 5 after a top set of 5.  Basically dropping 10% here, but the RPE feedback seems off.  Top set and last back-off shown.

Block pulls felt good.  This is only the 2nd time at this height, and the 1st was beltless.  Last set here (shown) was probably 8.5. 

HLM. Week 9. Day 2 and 3.

Day 2 BW - 221

High Bar Pause Squat - 257.5X5, 5, 5 @8

Bench -
245X1 @10
212.5X3 @8
197.5X5, 5, 5, 5 @8

Block Pulls (3" mats) - 305X5, 5, 5 @8

Day 3 BW - 221

Safety-Bar Squat -
262.5X5, 5 @~7
275X5, 5 @~9

Press -
155X1 @9.5
122.5X5, 5, 5 @~8
115X5, 5 @8

Deadlift -
365X1, 1, 1 @8
342.5X5 @8

Few weird situations going on with these two sessions.  Day 2 was at an away gym with no belt.  Day 3 was back at my regular gym, but I forgot my shoes and had to lift barefoot. 

I went full over to RPE this last week for a few reasons:
1)  Not sure how the diet is going to impact programming, and auto-regulating intensity seems like a good move.
2)  Since I started the diet, I've had pretty intense DOMS going on in my quads.  I'm actually concerned I wasn't getting ENOUGH intensity on my squat supplements to keep up adaptation, so I'm hoping auto-regulating intensity will help with that.
3)  The beltless thing, the shoeless thing, and mysteriously crapping the bed on bench as the away gym, meant I wanted a solid framework for "guessing" what weight I needed to use.

Videos are all top sets, final top sets, or final back-off sets.