Not a big difference in top end strength on Swiss Bar this week, BUT on the back-offs I did start to remember some old pressing tricks for squeezing the quads and glutes. We'll see if I can translate that into a bigger single next week.
Messed around seeing how deep of a barbell squat I could get. I thought it would be high bar, but my body naturally wanted to lean forward, so it ended up being low bar with the heels pulled closer together and the toes pointed further out. These were fun.
Safety Squats went well. Starting a new squat wave after this so intensity on everything will come down a bit. Last set shown.
Press went okay. Had to "get up" for this set. Dealing with a little bit of a form issue where pushing through to get under the bar is getting me over my toes a little. Back-offs were very easy, as usual so far. Didn't get video of the last back-off, so only the top set is shown.
Squats moved very well. RPE 8 at the most. Glad the weight is going up next week as these may be starting to feel to easy. Final sets shown in all videos.
Press volume felt better today at heavier weight than last Press VD. RPE 8.5 on the last set probably. Technique felt much more dialed-in and controlled for one thing, and probably a bit more acclimated to 5X5 staring week 5.
Deadlifts starting to feel heavier, so probably (hopefully) closer to the correct weight/volume to trigger adaptation. Probably RPE 8 on the last set.
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.
140X6 is a Rep PR on the Press. These felt okay. Noticing a tendency for my hips to shoot out a little too one side or the other at the transition/sticking point. Can't really see it in the video. May try a different angle to see if it's visible.
Chins felt pretty good. 7 reps on the 2nd back-off set may be a PR of sorts for this programming.
Squats felt much better today. I worked on controlling the eccentric a lot more today. Sacrificed some pop out of the bottom for a bit better of a bar path. Still not nearly as good as it was before Thanksgiving, but better. And as a result, I was able to go over 5 reps on the AMRAP set. Needed 7 for a Rep PR, but was happy to not be struggling as much.
Everything moved pretty well. Press was probably easier than last volume press day. That's probably getting technique better dialed-in as well: keeping abs tight and heels planted.
Not a bad session despite running out of juice on squats.
327.5X5 is an all-around Squat PR! First set felt great, ran into some trouble on set 2, and then didn't have anything left on the last set.
137.5X5 is an all-around Press PR! Approached the bar with aggression and got the sets. Got a very helpful cue from my coach not to let my chest drop when I receive the bar at the bottom of reps.
Got through the Deadlift plateau from last time. Felt pretty strong on it.
I've stalled out enough times on Squat that my coach is going to start transitioning me to the Intermediate program, the Texas Method. I've got some instructions for how to adjust my Squat workouts the rest of the week. I'm fairly clear on how Squats will be handled going forward, but not sure about the other lifts.
Good session. I knew I would bounce back from the (literal) shit-show on Monday. 325X5 is an all-around PR. I should have gotten all 3 sets of 5, but I didn't hit the bottom right on the very last rep and ended up just sitting in the hole with it. A technique error, and not a strength failure. Will go at it again this weekend.
Press was awesome. I felt like a found...I don't know. Maybe it's most simply described by saying, "I found the groove." Even as reps got hard, it seemed like I knew how to stay under the bar in a way that allowed me to push through. On to 137.5, hahaha!
Got a few more reps on chins, but also attacked them with a bit more abandon, i.e. not coming to full extension.
285X5 matches a Rep PR. Getting it for 3 sets is pretty great. Definitely getting heavy, though.
Only manage 5 reps on Press on the 2nd set, weirdly. Form issue mostly. Will take another shot at it on my next coached session. Still, the first two worksets were both Rep PRs.
Deadlift is also really fucking heavy, but I got all these reps so I don't know. The lift feels slow all the time.
