Rows, Hack Squats, Upper/Lower Accessory

sRPE @6

BW - 226

CS Rows - 100X12, 11, 11 @8/9.5

Cable Upright Rows -

-    Straight-Sets X11, 10 @9.5/10

-    w/ Rest-Pause X10/6 @10

Hack Squats - 90X10, 10, 8 @8/9.5

Hypers -

-    Straight-Sets X12, 12 @7.5/8

-    w/ Rest-Pause Long ROM Partials - X14/15 @9.5

super-set with

Cable Pushdowns -

-    Straight-Sets X10, 9 @10

-    w/ Rest-Pause Long ROM Partials - X8/6 @10

First good chance I've had in a while to get a 3rd day in.  Only real plan I had going in was CS Rows.

Shoulders and Chin Accessory

sRPE @6.5

BW - 222

Push Press - up to 155X1 @9.5

Hammer Incline - 90X13, 11, 10 @~10

Cable Triceps Pullover - X32 @just stopped

Cable Upright Rows - up to 7@10

Drag Curls - 50X12, 10, 8 @~10

Cable Rear Delt Rows - X10, 9, 10 @~10

Was a little pressed for time.  Would have liked to work in some lower body stuff, but this just turned into a funky shoulder day.

Block 17. Cycle 6. Session A.

sRPE @7

BW - 215

Curls - 62.5X13, 13, 13 @~8.5

Press -

135X2 @7.5

85X12 @5.5

Upright Rows - 75X15, 12 @8/10

Toes-to-Bar - BWX5, 4, 2 @~10

Deficit DL (plate) - 335X5, 5 @6/7

62.5 for 3X13 is a Volume PR on Curls.

Press and TTB continue to plateau/regress which is fine as they aren't focus lifts for this block.

Block 17. Cycle 5. Session A.

sRPE @7

BW - 219

Curls - 60X13, 13, 13 @8/9

Press - 

135X2 @7.5

95X12 @7

Upright Rows - 75X15, 11 @8/10

Toes-to-Bar - BWX6, 4 @9/8

Deficit DL (plate) - 335X5, 5 @~6

60 for 3X13 is a Volume PR on curls.

Press fell off a cliff this week for some reason.  Hopefully it bounces back a bit next week.

Was hoping for 2X6 on TTB, but it wasn't there this day.

Deficit pulls continue to keep pace with regular DL.  I don't really track PRs on these, but these are all PRs.

Block 17. Cycle 4. Session A.

sRPE @6.5

BW - 219

Curls - 57.5X13, 13, 13 @~8

Press - 

137.5X2 @7

95X12 @6

Upright Rows - 75X15 @8

Toes-to-Bar - BWX5, 5 @~8

Deficit Deadlift (plate) - 325X5, 5 @6/6.5

57.5 for 3X13 is a Volume PR.

Press was right on target.  This week, I should have been taking the upright rows to failure.  Mis-noted it in my program.

2X5 is a Volume PR on TTB.  These are feeling good.  Coming under a bit more control as well.

Added a set of Deficit Pulls.  Middle of the block and time to start pushing up volume and/or intensity on accessories. 

The current approach is this (helps me to write this out and look at it occasionally):

Session lay out:

Slot 1: Main lift; relatively heavy and high volume

Slot 2: Secondary lift and related accessory; hypertrophy focus with slightly lower RPE and higher reps on the secondary lift, high RPE/Reps on the accessory

Slot 3: Tertiary lift; maintenance focus with 1-2 rep ranges; relatively low RPE and volume; (on Session C this is currently an accessory slot for the Session B main lift).

Slot 4: Accessory related to the main lift from the prior session; 1-2 sets moderate to high RPE/Reps (on Session C this is currently an additional accessory slot for the Session A main lift).

Weekly Progression:

Week 1: 1-2 sets per movement / 1-2 sets less than block target; RPE 1 lower than block target

Week 2: Increase RPE to target on all movements

Week 3: Add 1 set to slot 1; take slot 2 accessory movement to failure

Week 4: Bring main lift to full volume (if not already); Add 1 set to main lift accessories

Week 5: Add 1 set to slot 2

Week 6: Add 1 set to slot 3; all movements at full volume if not already

Week 7: Reach for some low hanging PRs (Rep or Volume).  Adjust volume as prudent to keep sRPE near target.

Block 17. Cycle 3. Session A.

sRPE @6

BW - 222

Curls - 55X13, 13, 13 @~8

Press - 

135X2 @7

95X12 @~6

Upright Rows - 75X15 @8

Toes-to-Bar - BWX4, 4 @~8

Deficit DL (plate) - 320X5 @6

55 for 3X13 is a Volume PR on Curls

222 (BW)X4 is a Rep PR  on TTB.

sRPE is a bit lower than I would like on this day.  We'll see what it's like in a couple of weeks when I've added more volume in.  It was an experiment to move Squats off of this day because I didn't want to do high rep squats and then do deficit pulls, but I think I may have thrown the balance of the week off a bit with a big sRPE spike mid-week (bench, chins, squats) book-ended by lower fatigue days.  My workset tonnage, something I don't usually pay that much attention to, is about 30K higher last Wednesday than it was on this Monday.

Block 17. Cycle 2. Session A.

sRPE @6

BW - 219

Curls - 50X13, 13 @~7.5

Press - 

135X2 @7.5

90X12 @6

Upright Rows - 70X15 @7

Toes-to-Bar (ceiling actually) - BWX3, 3 @~8

Deficit DL (plate) - 315X5 @6

Curls seemed to bounce back a bit this week.

Press felt a little off working up, but the top set felt solid even though it's the same e1RM as last week.

TTB at the "other" chin-up stations where I can actually push my feet flat against the ceiling at the top of the rep.  That's cool, but the trade off is the bar is a bit fatter and is smooth, so grip is a bit more work.

Don't really track a lot of accessory PRs, but 315X5 is certainly a DL PR pulling off a plate.

Block 17. Cycle 1. Session A.

sRPE @5.5

BW - 219

Curls - 62.5X10 @10

Press - 

130X2 @6.5

85X12 @5

Upright Rows - 65X15 @6

Toes-to-Bar - BWX2, 2 @~7

Plate Deficit DL - 300X5 @5.5

Curls were pretty weak to start of the block.  Pretty massive drop-off.  Hopefully I'll see a bounceback next week.

Everything else was more or less on target.  Press felt strong.

Block 14. Cycle 7. Session A.

BW - 222

sRPE @ 7

Chin-Ups - 

BWX2, 2 @8

Density Block; 1 rep every 15 seconds; Failure after 4 minutes

Curls - 

60X11, 11 @8/10

50X11 @9

Deadlift -

370X4 @7

Upright Rows - 55X10, 10 @~7

Got sick of spinning my wheels doing low rep "regular" sets of chins.  Going to try going back to some density work for a while.  This is the end of this training block, but will carry that idea over to the next one.

On curls, my form actually got stricter throughout this session.  Started playing with unlocking my hips and knees similar to the beginning of an RDL, so that my arms are hanging away from my body at the bottom, and making a point of locking out my elbows prior to the start of each rep.  This is trying to ensure a fuller ROM and also to make it less likely that the elbows drift in front of the bar and remove tension at the top.

Didn't do the back-off sets on DL.  Sometimes in the last week of the block, it's nice to just hit the top set.

Block 14. Cycle 6. Session A.

BW - 223

sRPE @ 7

Chins - BWX2, 3, 3, 2, 3 @~8

Curls -

60X11, 11, @~8

55X11 @~8

Deadlift - 

365X4 @7

320X7, 7 @~6

Upright Rows - 52.5X10, 10 @~7

Block 14. Cycle 4. Session C. and Cycle 5 Session A

4C:

BW - 222

sRPE @8

Press -

135X1, 1 @8/8.75

120X3, 3 @~7.5

110X9 @8.5

Squat -

300X6 @7

245X10 @6

Decline Cambered Swiss Bar - 100X10, 10, 10 @~6

BB Rows - 150X10, 10 @7.5/8.5

5A:

BW - 220

sRPE @7

Chin-Ups - BWX3, 3, 3, 2, 2, @8-9

Curls - 60X11, 11, 11 @7.75/8.5

Deadlift -

275X4

225X10

Upright Rows - 55X10, 10 @~7

Low back pain crept on over the weekend, so I only did token Deadlift sets/reps.

Block 14. Cycle 4. Session A.

BW - 223

sRPE @8

Chin-Ups - BWX3, 3, 3, 3 @8/8.5

BB Curls -

60X11, 11, 11 @~8

55X11 @ 8

Deadlift -

365X4 @7.5

330X7, 7 @~7

Upright Rows - 60X10, 10 @~7

sRPE is still a touch higher than I would like, but I managed to bring it down into the more tolerable zone.  My strategy for that coming into this week is to keep the volume and RPE at targets for the first/main movements in each session.  Keep RPE up, but cut one set on the secondary movements, and keep volume up, but cut RPE on the accessory movements.

On chins, sets of 3 across is a bit of progress.  We'll see if I can extend that to 5 sets next week while staying below RPE 9.

Performance was comparable on curls to last week.

DL was up a bit across the board.  In fact, 330X7 is a Rep PR!  Always nice to get a Rep PR for sub-maximal sets across.

Switching Upright Rows to a bit more of a body-building feel, which I likely should have been doing all along.  Instead of driving the weight up, I'm focusing on keeping my scapulae down until my elbows clear parallel and then finishing with a trap contraction.  Basically, "keeping it in my delts" until the end of the concentric.

Block 14. Cycle 3. Session A.

BW - 220

sRPE @8.5

Chin-Ups - BWX2, 2, 2, 2, 3 @8/9

BB Curls -

60X11, 11, 11 @8/9

50X11 @ 7.5

Deadlift -

362.5X4 @7.5

325X7, 7, 7 @7

Upright Rows - 65X10, 10 @7/8

Made sure to be very conservative with everything after Chins.  Still feeling beat down after the inadvertently high sRPE sessions last week.  Chins are the main lift on this day, so "keep the goal the goal" and just punching the clock on everything else.

I have some wrist and forearm discomfort lingering from last week, so I was especially conservative with the curls.  Backed way off and did relatively slow "controlled" reps.

Was still feeling kind of gassed by the time I got through DL warm-ups.  It might be that I'm just not used to this much DL volume this late in a training session.  Regardless, I was conservative with the top set, and didn't try to push the back-off weight past last week since I was adding a set.  Back-off sets ended up being on target AND a 3X7 Volume PR.

Upright Rows were similar to curls.  Wrists weren't loving it, so backed off and did slower reps.

Block 14. Cycle 2. Session A.

 BW - 220

Chin-Ups - BWX2, 2, 2, 3 @~8

BB Curls - 

75X11 @9

72.5X11, 11 @8/10

Deadlift - 

365X4 @7.5

325X7,5 @7/back-tweak

Upright Rows - 70X8, 8 @~7

Curls were a struggle today, but not as much as...

Deadlift.  On the first warm-up with 135, my adductors lit up like crazy.  I'd had some mild adductor DOMS over the weekend following Friday's squat session, but that was mostly gone by the AM of this training day.  And yet they lit up so hot that I was struggling to walk around the gym trying to get them to dissipate.  

I did some empty bar stuff and then came back and did 225X7 just fine.  The lifting wasn't bad, but getting down into position was SUPER uncomfortable as the adductors stretched.  So much so, that I knew my starting position was off, and I was having trouble getting good tension on the bar before the pull.  Nevertheless, the top set and first back-off set came in more-or-less on target, but then I tweaked my back on the second back-off set.

As I write this the next day, I'm mostly fine again; as expected.  Some lingering adductor and low-back tightness, but it was physically and psychologically stressful during this training session.

I'm really at a loss as to how to handle the adductor DOMS issue at the beginning of each training block.  The next step is probably to reduce pivot blocks from two weeks down to one (more of a deload week), and keep squats high volume and high specificity in that time.

Block 14. Cycle 1. Session A and B.

 Session A

BW - 224

Chin-Ups - BWX2, 2, 3 @8

BB Curls - 70X11, 11, 11 @7.8/9

Deadlift - 

350X4 @7.5

315X7 @6.75

Upright Rows - 95X10 @10

Session B

BW - 222

Dips -

BW+37.5X4 @7.5

BWX11 @8

Bench - 

205X3 @8

155X10 @7

Toes-To-Bar - BWX4, 4 @~8

Band Chins (under knee) - BWX5 @8

Block 9. Cycle 2. Session C, D., Cycle 3. Session A.

BW - 227, 230, 228

Waist - 43", 43.75", 43"

sRPE @ ~8 for all

2.C:
Bench -
205X3 @8
155X15@9.5

Chin-Up 1.5s - BWX6, 6, 6 @~10

Upright Rows (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) - 90X12, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 @~9

Curls -
65X12, 12 @8, 10
55X12 @8.5

2.D:
Deadlift -
375X3 @8
290X15 @9

RDL - 290X7 @9.25

Hack Squat (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) - 75X17, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 @8/8.5

3.A:
Chin-Ups - BW+25X4, 4 @~10

Press -
147.5X1 @8.5
135X3, 3 @8

Dips - BW+20X10, 8 @8.5, 9

WG Pull-Downs (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) - 85X20, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 @8.5/8

Block 9. Cycle 1. Session C.

BW - 230

Waist - 43.75"

sRPE @ 7

Bench -
220X3 @8.25
155X15 @ 8.5

Chin-Ups 1.5s (bottom-half) - BWX3,3; 3,3; 3,3 @9/10

Upright Rows - (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) - 90X10, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 @8.5

BB Curls -
65X12 @9
60X12 @9
50X12 @8

Okay session.

I hoped to push Bench to 225 for the top 3@8, but warm-up made that seem unlikely, and it turned out coming in roughly on target at 220.  Back-off set came in a little under target RPE @9, but I expect that on the first week or so as I dial-in the target weights.

Based on something Greg Nuckols said on a recent podcast, I thought I'd try a version of 1.5s on Chins.  With this version, I get within a rep or 2 of failure on the full reps, and then I do half-reps in the bottom ROM to within a rep or 2 of failure.  Not sure how to put my performance on these in context.  Last block, I started un-weighted chins by getting 10 total reps across 3 sets.  Here, I got 9 total, full ROM reps across 3 sets, plus nine, half-ROM reps.  So...that's more?  I will say, I felt a little "fresher" after these sets than I think I do after sets of full reps.  We'll see!

Haven't done upright rows in a while.  Thought I would be starting out with more weight for more reps, but whatevs.  My traps were really sore a couple days after doing these.

Curls were also a bit weaker than I expected.

Vacation Prep. Week 7. Full Body (Deload)

BW - 211

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3, 3

Incline Bench -
BarX30
95X5
115X4
135X3
155X5, 5

Upright Rows - 95X8, 8

BB Rows - 135X10, 10

That's it.  One last quick workout for the hip and shoulder joints, and now I'm off to Vietnam for two weeks.

Vacation Prep. Week 6. Press

BW - 210

PBN -
BarX16
65X5
85X4
95X3
115X2
95X16, 7

Upright Rows - 95X10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Hmmmm.  Well, 95X16 matches exactly the all-around PR I set in early December.  I also felt generally strong today, as I was able to up the volume on Upright Rows as well.  I really want to push the PBN up to 95X20+, but I have to keep telling myself that vacation is just a couple weeks away, and that driving towards bigger goals can wait for March.

Vacation Prep. Week 4. Press

BW - 206

PBN -
BarX20
65X5
85X4
95X3
115X2
95X14, 7

Upright Rows - 95X10, 10, 8, 8, 8

Treadmill - 25 minutes; incline walking

Been a long time since I've done upright rows.  I liked this session.  Short and to the point.  I hit the shoulders hard, but was able to balance out elbow extension and flexion this way.