RTS Pivot Block 6. Week 1. Day 1.

sRPE @5.5

BW - 227

300 Tempo NoNoNo SBS - 

-    205X4 @6.5

-    205X2, 2, 2 @~5

CG Bench - 12RM AMRAP in 12 minutes

-    145X11, 7, 6, 6 @~10

Pendlay Row (beltless)  

-    135X10 @7

-    140X10 @7.5

-    150X10 @9

Rope Pushdowns - X13 @9

Was feeling a bit rundown and forgot to hit conditioning. 

RTS Pivot Block 4. Week 1. Day 1.

sRPE @8.5

BW - 229

High Bar Squat - 

-    230X10(PR) @6

-    245X10(PR) @7.5

530 HBS - 245X5, 5, 5 @8/9

20 minute circuit - 

-    BSS - BWX16, 14, 10, 10 @8.5/10

-    Pendlay Row - 135X11, 10, 8 @10

-    Press - 90X7, 7, 7 @9/10

Stationary Bike - SIT; 0:20/1:40; 10 minutes

Add knee sleeves and get a 40 lb. HBS 10 rep PR.

I will say my knees actually didn't feel great after the tempo squats, and were pretty creaky on the BSS.

RTS Pivot Block 3. Week 1. Day 1.

sRPE @5.5

BW - 227

Squats (w/sleeves)

-    up to 315X4 @7.5

-    305X2, 2, 2, 2 @5

CG Bench - 145X12, 7, 6, 6, 6 @10 (12 min AMRAP with 12RM)

Pendlay Rows w/Straps - 145X10, 10, 10 @7.5/9

First session using my new Pioneer 7mm knee sleeves.  I was not prepared for how intense these things are.  I can't naturally bend my knees while walking in them.

Based on recent Squat performance, I would have expected today's top set to be ~300X4 @8. Easily exceeded that just the first time using the sleeves. Only issue now is depth....

RTS Pivot Block 2. Week 1. Day 2.

sRPE @5.5

BW - 228

Beltless 320 Squat - 225X2, 2 @~4

Beltless Press - 

-    115X5 @8

-    105X5, 5 @~7

TnG Bench - 145X10 @8

Beltless 2" Deficit DL - 285X2, 2 @~6

Beltless WG RDL w/Straps - 225X9 @8.5

Beltless TnG Pendlay Rows w/Straps - 155X8, 8, 8 @6/8.5

New Year's gym availability threw a wrench in my schedule, so I kind of mashed the last two sessions of the pivot block into one.

I enjoyed the little DL, RDL, Pendlay sequence.

Block 11. Cycle 4. Session C.

 BW - 232

Waist - 43.75"

BB Rows - 145X10, 10, 10 @~8

Hanging Leg Raises - BWX6, 6, 6 @7/8

Dips - BWX10, 10, 10 @8/10

BB Curls - 50X10, 10, 10 @7/9

Everything but leg raises were a little rougher this week than last week.

I dropped back the weight on rows to make sure I'm dropping my shoulders completely between reps.  I think a few years of only doing Pendlays neglected that part of rowing technique, and I was tending to keep my shoulders up throughout the movement.  The added ROM and slightly slower pace needed to reset the weight a little bit.

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 3. Incline

BW - 204

Incline -
BarX20
75X5
95X4
115X3
145X2
155X1

135X18, 10

DB Press - 35sX15, 10, 10, 9

Pullover Machine - 3 sets of 15

BB Rows - 135X10, 8, 8, 7

Deadlift (practice) -
135X5
185X4
225X3 (mixed-grip, right hand)
275X2 (mixed-grip, left hand)
315X1 (double-overhand, held for 12 sec.)

Nice session; a lot of fun.  The 2nd pressing day has consistently been my favorite day on the Big-15 program.

135X18 is an all-around PR on Inclines.  I mis-read my notes, though, and I was supposed to back-off with 145.  I'll move that up next time.

DB Pressing felt "good" in that bodybuilding way where everything burns and is uncomfortable, and you miss all your last reps.

Added one more plate to every set of pullovers.  Still squeezing the contraction, and controlling the eccentric. 

My back really feels 'ready to go' on rows after the pullovers.  135X10 is actually a Rep PR on hanging BB Rows.  Mostly always fucked around with Pendlays before.  Again, these were very strict with a fixed back angle, squeezing the contraction into my torso, and stopping each set when I couldn't touch the bar that way anymore.

Deadlift practice was good.  Although I couldn't hold the final rep as long as last time.  All the reps felt really fucking strong, though.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 5. Week 2. Squat

BW - 200

Squat -
BarX10 (long pause at bottom)
95X5 (shorter pause)
95X5
135X5
175, 200X3
225X8

Front Squats -
BarX5
95X10, 10, 10

T-Bar Rows -
25X10, 10
50X10
60X10
70X12

Dips - BWX11, 6, 6, 5, 4

225X8 on Squats is an all-around PR since I reset my form.  Felt good.

Looking back, I realize that a lot of the times I've tweaked my back I was either front squatting, or I had front squats in my program.  This made me a little paranoid, so I did some research, and worked hard on my form in this session.  The two cues that I focused on were breaking with the knees, and allowing them to travel forward to make the descent, and leading out of the hole with my chest.  This seemed to work pretty well, and everything felt tight. 

I also changed my grip from cross-arm, back to hands under the bar.  I toyed around with this a few ways, gradually moving to thumbless, and then actually settling on pinkie around the bar for the last two sets.  This creates a sort of "neutral grip" that seems unlikely, but seemed to actually work out okay, and elbow pain I started to feel during thumbless sets dissipated by the last set.  Gonna keep the weight light on these, and use them as my BBB back-off sets beginning next cycle.

T-Bars are weak for some reason, but I think I need to go back to doing an over-warm up on these as that had worked well previously, and worked well for Pendlays as well.  If I do that, and they are still weaker than before I did all those Pendlays, then I may need to second guess either that movement or my approach to it.

11 reps at 200 is an all-around PR since I started pausing my dips at the bottom of each rep.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 3. Squat

LRB Diet - Week 9

BW - 197

Squat -
BarX10, 10
95X5, 5
135X5, 5
180X5
205X3
225X7
135X20, 12

Pendlays -
BarX15
120X3
155X3
140X15

Dips (paused at bottom) -
BWX5, 5, 5, 5, 3

Hoo-boy.  I did not get very much sleep the night before, and this session was mentally and physically exhausting.

225X7 is in line with the top-sets of my last two sessions, but no weight PRs.  That's fine and good, but the real story is then in the back-off sets.  Jefit says this a volume PR for me, even over the 195X20 session I did back in May when I was cutting my squats much higher.  I'd thought about form in the days between my last session and this, and theorized that if I kept my butt pushed back a bit at lock-out, I would be able to take a breath or two between reps without losing my arch as much.  This worked out very well and holding the weight with locked knees felt much safer for my back.  Also, being able to keep my arch tighter resulted in an almost painful low-back pump.

My goal for the back-offs was to hit 20 reps with 135 (5 more reps than last session), and then do a 50% set.  I was nervous going into the 20 because I felt a bit wiped from the top-set, but the new lock-out positioning helped me get it very solidly.  I then rested ONLY 60 seconds (this is how 50% sets work after all), and went back for another set.  I thought I would be lucky to get 10 as tired as I felt, but I ended up getting 12!  I probably could have gotten 15 with an all-out-maybe-dump-the-last-rep set, but I'd beat my goal, and called it good.

So that's my last regular squat session of the cycle.  I have two more pause-squat sessions, and then it's on to the "Birthday Squats."  I'll be using my current, projected 40RM of 125, and working up and then backing-off to it using Paul Carter's "Big-15" progression.  That will look like this:
BarX45
95X5
120X4
145X3
180X2
205X1
125X35
Gotta make sure I get more sleep the night before, and eat up a bit.

As fried as I was, 140X15 is an all-around PR in Pendlays.

For Dips, I'd been saying I was going to work up to +45 by 5, and then re-set my form to full depth and with a pause at the bottom.  I got to thinking about this, and realized it's the same bullshit I used to tell myself with Squat and Bench.  "Yeah, I'm gonna reset my bench form to close-grip and pausing every rep at the bottom, but I just want to hit 225 with my hands past the rings and a lot of bounce of the chest first."  Why?  All that does is delay me hitting the target with the harder form.  So I said fuck it, 45X5+ will feel so much sweeter when I hit it deep and with a pause at the bottom than it will cutting high.  And how shitty would I have felt about myself if I'd done +45X5 today, and then discovered next session that I can't get much more than 5 BW reps with a deep pause?  Not lying to myself is a good thing.

Honestly, I almost skipped dips altogether because I was so tired, and that meant ab wheel was just not going to happen.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 2. Squat

LRB Diet - Week 8

BW - 197

Squats -
BarX10, 10
95X5, 5
135X3, 3
165, 190X3
215X9
135X15

Pendlays -
BarX15
110, 145X5
130X17

SL High-Pulls -
130, 145, 165, 165, 170X5

Dips -
BWX5, 5
+35X8, 6, 4

Chiro Crunches - 1 set of 40

Ab Wheel - 2 sets of 6

80+% session.  I won't say +10%, because RPE was pretty high on everything, but lots of little PR's today.

215X9 is an all-time Rep PR, and projects to an all-around PR with my deeper form.  Added 5 reps to my back-off set weight.  Will try for 20 with 135 next time.  It looks like the weight for my 35 birthday squats is going to be at 125, so 135 for 20 should be a good prep for that attempt.  Might want to add a 2 sets of 10 to follow it though.  40 total reps with 135 might be even better prep.

I also added additonal sets to my squat warm-ups based on a recent article by Paul Carter.  I will say that the 2nd set of each warm-up weight felt better than the first.  Hard to say if it helped my top sets any.  I'll try to keep this up with Squating and Benching and see if I think it's having an impact.

130X17 is a small all-around PR on the dead-stop rows.  The last few reps had one or two breaths between each, though.

16X5 was my previous best on the High-Pulls.  They still felt like they were right at the top end, but I suddenly remembered 2.5 lb. weights!  So I was able to bump up to 170 and get 5 for a small all-around PR on this move as well.

8 reps with 35 lbs. was my goal for dips this session and I got it.  Next session, I will go for 5 with a 45.  After I get back from vacation, I'm going to reset to BW dips for a little bit, and start pausing my reps at the bottom.  I'm worried that I've started cutting reps high, and pausing is the best way I know to fix that for any movement.  Looking forward to feeling humbled.

Started to do the swiss-ball crunches per normal, but I'm getting really bored with them.  I've noticed that an Ab Wheel has been able to stay at the gym for a while without being stolen, so I'm going to switch to that for awhile. 

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 4. Week 1. Squat

LRB Diet - Day 48

BW - 198

Squat -
BarX10
95, 135, 155, 180X5
205X10
135X10

Pendlays -
BarX15
105X10
145X8
120X15

SL High-Pulls -
120, 145, 155, 155, 155X5

Dip -
BW, BWX5
+25X10, 6, 5

Chiro Crunches - 3 sets of 40

Nice session.  205X10 is an all-time Rep PR, and an all-around PR at full depth.  My birthday is coming up at the end of the month, and I'm going to institute a new tradition of picking a weight and squatting it for as many reps as I am years old.  This was inspired by Dave Tate's Halloween tradition of doing "Death Squats."  However, I don't want to go straight from working in the 5-10 range to trying for a 35 rep set, so I'm adding back-off sets on Squat day in the weeks leading up to try and build my work capacity.  Next week, I'll shoot for 15-20 with the 135, then 20-30 in the week after that.  On my birthday week, I'll make sure I have a couple days off and then work up to a mild single before backing-off to attempt a 35 rep set.

Was feeling a little gassed after the two, 10 rep sets of squats, and so the Rows and High-Pulls were a little on the weaker side today.

But I rallied for dips, and a 25 lb. plate for 10 reps at 198 is a weighted dip PR. 

Since there was so much back work today, just crunches for the core work.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 3. Squat

Friday Training

Band 2-arm biceps curls - 5 sets of 10
super-set with
Band Pull-aparts - 5 sets of 20

Saturday Training

AM Fasted Stready State - 20 minutes

LRB Diet - Day 42

BW - 198

Hypers - 5 sets of 15

Squat -
BarX10
95X8
135, 170X5
195X3
220X6

Pendlay Rows -
BarX15
110X3
150X3
135X15

SL High-Pulls -
135, 145, 155, 165, 165X5

Dips -
BW, BW, +25, +25, +35, +35X5

Not a bad session.  220X6 on squats is a PR with my new, deeper form.  Felt like it, too.  A little worried that all the Pause Squatting is now making regular squatting feel awkward.  That would suck, because pause squatting is what got me comfortable with full depth on regular squats to begin with, but regular squats just feel strange with the quick turnaround at the bottom now.

135X15 is an all-around PR on Pendlays

High-pulls felt a little heavier today with the same weight as last session.  Hitting PR's on the previous 2 movements may have contributed, lol.

Getting re-acclimated to doing dips weighted.  Next session, I should try to bang out 10 reps with 25, and then at least 8 with 35.  If I do that, I should be able to quickly move to just using a full 45 plate for sets of 5.

Skipped abs again because I suck.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 2. Squat

LRB Diet - Day 35

BW - 197

Saturday and Sunday - AM fasted cardio 20-35 minutes

Squats -
BarX10
95X8
135X5
160, 185X3
205X7

Pendlay Rows -
BarX15
110, 140X5
125X17

Stiff-Leg High-Pulls -
125, 135, 155, 165, 165X5
super-set with
Dips -
BW+25, 2 sets of 5
BW+35, 2 sets of 5
BW+25, 1 set of 5

Was under the gun to get in and out this session, so no core work today.

Squats felt just okay.  Not spectacularly good or bad.

125X17 with Pendlays is an all-around PR.

Super-set the high-pulls with dips to try and make up some time.  165 for 5 was definitely at the top end of my ability for the day.

Haven't loaded dips in a while, so this felt like a "re-acquaint myself" session.  I was also using an adjustable dip station, and never felt like I got the bars at a comfortable width.  The last set was supposed to be a back-off set for higher reps with just the 25 lb. plate, but I forgot during the set and stopped at 5.  's All good, and I'll remember to do something along those lines next time.

All in all, an 80% session.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 3. Week 1. Squat

LRB Diet - Day 26

BW - ?189?

Squats -
BarX10
95X7
135, 150X5
170X3
195X8

BB Rows -
BarX15
95X8
135X8
115X15

High-Pulls -
115, 135, 145, 155, 155, 155X5

Dips - BWX8, 12, 16, 4, 6

I was pressed for time getting ready to go out of town for the weekend, and had to settle for going to the L@Fitness (formerly B@llys) near my home.  189 seemed like such a drastic drop-off from my last weigh-in that I'm suspicious of the scale.  However, when I set it down to Zero pounds, it counter-balanced correctly so who knows.

I need to be better about putting my head down and doing work when I'm in a strange gym; I always feel wound tight and get a little off my game wanting to get in and get out as fast as possible.  For this session that was manifested by skipping mobility warm-ups and all my core work.  I'll have to make up for all of that in spades next time I'm in the gym.

Nevertheless everything went pretty well.  Squats felt solid, and the results are in-line with steady progress after I reset my form.

I couldnt' really do Pendlays here because I didn't have access to bumper plates at this gym.  So BB Rows trying go keep my low-back parallel to the ground and using a brief dead hang at the bottom of each rep to try and simulate a dead-stop row as much as possible.  The results were predictably slightly off from previous sessions.

For the 2nd month of LRB Dieting, I'm adding in some additional shoulder/trap work inspired by a CNP article.  One of the reasons for choosing now to take my first ever stab at strict dieting, is because I'm going to a sort of weekend camping reunion of college friends at the end of September.  While I'm trying to trim up, I thought I'd also take a stab at building some "movie star" shoulders.  Kind of silly, but also fun.  So for this day, I'm adding in High-Pulls, a movement I've never done, but always wanted to try.  These are done incredibly NOT as a textbook version of the Olympic accessory, but more as an explosive, cheating upright row.  One cool bit of synergy here, is that it seemed to work out very well to use the weight from the back-off set of bent rows as the warm-up weight for the high-pulls.  I worked up to 155, where I was having to really use explosiveness and much face-scrunching to get the 5th rep, and knocked out 3 of those sets.  I used straps on this movement as well.  I really liked this movement, and my delts felt really sore the next day.

Dips were a bit wonky because this gym has a weird, trapezoidal dip apparatus.  Again, getting past this sort of thing is something I need to be able to do.  It's dumb to only be able to have good workouts in my regular gym.  Regardless, my target was to ladder up to, and back down from 16 reps.  I got that top set, but the back off sets were completely crap.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 2. Week 3. Squat

LRB Diet - Day 12

BW - 198

Squats -
BarX10
135X5
165X5
185X3
210X7

Pendlays -
95X10
145X3
130X15

Dips - BWX7, 17, 9

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 35-45

I ate an extra meal consisting of grilled chicken, hummus, and salad today that is probably contributing to the weight being slightly higher in the gym than the last couple sessions.  I wanted to make sure I had plenty of energy as I was determined not to have another crappy squat session.

And wah-la!  210X7 is an all around PR since I started dropping all the way down in squats.  I might have gotten 1 or 2 more, but they would have been grinding.  Almost more importantly, my form felt more dialed in than it has in a long time on full squats.

130X15 is also an all around PR on Pendlays.  15 was as many as I was going to do with anything resembling acceptable form however.

17 dips at 198 is a rep PR and projects as a new 1RM.  So...I guess an all around PR there as well.  +10% session all the way (except I forgot to do hypers).

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 2. Week 2. Squat

LRB Diet - Day 8

BW - 197

Hypers - 5 sets of 15-25

Squats -
BarX5
95X5
135X5
155X3
175X3
195X5

Pendlay Rows -
BarX10
105X5
140X5
120X15

Dips - BWX7, 10, 14, 10, 7

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 35-40

No energy for squats today, and my form was off on my first two work sets, and I kept getting on my toes.  I kept back on my heels on the top set, but 5 was a grind.  Regular squats feel less natural than pause squats to me right now.  Not sure what to think about that.

Pendlays just feel heavy over 10 reps.  120X15 is still in the range I've been working in however, so I'm not sweating it.

Set a PR on Dips last time, so just worked the ladder for volume this time.  This seems to be working very well so far, and I got a few more reps on each "rung" than I did 2 sessions ago when I did this.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 2. Week 1. Squat

LRB Diet - Day 2

BW - 200

Hypers - 4 sets of 15-20

Squats -
BarX5
95X5
135X5
165X5
185X10

Pendlays -
75X10
135X8
115X15

Dips - BWX7, 16, 8

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 35

First day with the reset training max on squats.  I've lost the "feel" of going over 5 reps with this movement, and I'm happy to be getting back into it.  I didn't really know what I needed to hit for a certain max projection, so I just set my sights on 10 reps for the top set, and got it.  This projects a 1RM in line with what I was doing last cycle, but I'm confident the additional reps at this lower weight will help stimulate some growth to start building up to new, heavier weights down the road.  With 531, it will be several months before I get the opportunity to try and beat my parallel squat single rep PR with my new, ATG form, but I am very much looking forward to that and any other chances to break old PR's with the new form.

I got side-ways in my head, and went too heavy too fast on the Pendlays, but still hit a nice 15 reps on the back-off set.

BW of 200 for 16 reps on Dips projects a new 1RM PR.  Yayee.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 3. Squat

BW - 201

Hypers - 5 sets of 15-20

Squats -
BarX5
95X5
135X5
185X5
210X3
235X1

Pendlays -
BarX10
95X5
115X3
135X3
125X15

Dips - BWX7, 9, 12, 9, 7

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 25-35

Continue to like the hypers over the reverse hypers for now.  Interestingly, in the first few sets I feel the muscles really getting worked, and then for the last few, they just feel warm and "capable" for lack of a better word.

Squats actually went pretty well, and I possibly could have gotten another rep or two at the end, but I'm lowering my training max after this without a deload, so I didn't want to grind this out beforehand.

Tried something a little different with the Rows, and that was going back to something I did on Paul Carter's UB - Reps Strength program where I over warmed-up on rows and then did my rep-out set as a back-off.  Went great, and 125X15 is a Rep PR and projected 1RM increase.

For dips, rather than try to push a new projected 1RM, I went back to the ladder I ran 2 weeks ago, and tried to run it with 2 more reps per set in order to push the overall volume for the session up.  This worked very well, as I got all the reps on each set, but the last reps on the last two sets were all out efforts.

New diet starts on Sunday.  I broke it out into a table for myself yesterday, and will do the grocery shopping for the first week soon.  This will take a lot of pre-planning and vigilance to pull off over the next 2 months, and I'm excited about it.

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 2. Squat

BW - 200

Hypers on the GHR - 2 sets of 15

Squat -
BarX10
95X3
135X3
175X3
205X3
225X4

Pendlays -
BarX10
95X5
120X15

Dips - BWX6, 15, 6

Chiro Crunches - 3 sets of 30

Didn't feel like setting up the Reverse Hyper today, and really just wanted to get to the squats, so I only did a few sets of extensions on the GHR.  I did use some form tweaks that Paul Carter discusses in his new book, and I felt them in my back more, and my glutes less.

Squats were good.  Everything felt solid form-wise, and I probably could have gotten a 5th rep on the top-set.  I think my training max is still too high for a starting cycle, though, as I should be contemplating a 10th rep rather than a 5th at this point.  Now that I'm going ATG, the strength out of the very bottom just isn't there for many reps at this weight, BUT it's feeling better all the time.  One thing I found today is that, if I control my descent a bit more then I feel a tad more explosive on the turn-around.  I suspect this is a by-product of increased stability.  Still plan to finish out this cycle to establish a revised max with my new depth, then reset my training max for the next cycle. 

5/3/1 Full-Body: Cycle 1. Week 1. Squat

BW - 201

Reverse Hyper - 5 sets of 10

Squat -
BarX10
95X5
135X5
160X5
185X5
210X5

Pendlays -
BarX15
95X8
110X8
120X8

Dips - BWX5, 7, 10, 7, 5

Chiropractor Crunches - 5 sets of 20-30

Now that my show is opened and my parents have left town, I'm finally sliding into the program I've been eyeing for a few months.  Namely 531 Full-Body.  Because I'm being an asshat, and not doing exactly the movements laid out by Wendler, this will probably take some calibration.  Case in point, I programmed Pendlay Rows and Dips instead of DB Rows and DB bench for squat day as you can see here.  The dips were fine, however I was going to try and do 8/5/3 for the Pendlays in the spirit of the 5/3/1 lay-out, and that just didn't feel like the way to do it after this first session.  If I had to do this again, I would have repped out 110 instead of working up to 120.  Some of this will be re-acclimating myself to the movement, and some just tweaking for what is going to work best.  Just because Jamie Lewis does heavy sets of 3 on that movement, doesn't mean it's going to work for me.  At least, not yet.

5/3/1 Log: Cycle 2. Week 1Bench

Defranco's Simple-6

Bench -
BarX10
95X5
115X5
130X5
150X7
super-set with
Chin-ups - BWX5, 5, 7, 7, 4

Dips - BWX6, 5, 7, 5, 6, 6
super-set with
Pendlay Rows - BarX10, 95X7, 135X5, 155X3, 155X4
and
Neutral Grip Pull-downs - 90X8, 100X8, 100X6

Sick today.  Bench was the only thing that felt good.  Working on getting tighter and up on my back more.  150X7 is a rep PR.