3 Day SBD. Cycle 1. Session B.

sRPE @7.5

BW - 222

Bench -

up to 195X1 @6

180(80%)X3, 3, 3 @5/6

DB Bench - 65sX9, 8, 8 @8/10

Chins - BWX2, 2, 2 @7.5/8.5

EZ OH Extensions - 55X10, 10, 10 @8/9.5

super-set with

Machine Laterals - X10, 8, 7 @10

Rower - HIIT; 10 minutes

Abs were super sore from Monday's workout, which made unracking and bracing on Bench a challenge.  Despite that, weights/RPEs were on if not over target. 

Super-sets into conditioning left me a little gassed.  Have to see if I accommodate to that next week, or if I need to ease up a little there.

Hybrid Training. Week 1. Heavy Lower

BW - 228

Deadlift -
up to 285X3
back off sets - 265X6, 6

Front Squats - up to 145X5, 5

Hanging Leg Raises - bent kneesX10, 10, 5

Was very nervous coming in today because my low back had gotten so aggravated late last week.  My back still didn't feel 100%, but I wanted to see what was what.

I approached every set with laser focus on form.  This resulted in both slower reps and rapid "mental" fatigue.  However, I worked up to 285X3 with no issues at all.  On the back-off sets, I had programmed for sets of 8, but on the 6th rep of the first back-off set, it was becoming more difficult to keep the bar against my legs, etc., so I decided to stay at 6 reps.  No other apparent issues here.

Moved on to Front Squats, and was feeling really burnt, mentally.  Programmed for sets of 5 here as well, but again I felt form starting to break down at rep 5, so I stopped it there.  The reps were moving even slower as I focused everything I had on keeping good spinal position.  After the first set, my back was feeling a bit "off."  I did another set, and I could feel it starting to "pulse," so I stopped.

Went with slightly bent knees for all the ab work.  These were all paused at the bottom, and my abs were starting to cramp half way through the final set.

All in all, while I may have slightly re-aggravated my low back issue, I'm glad I was able to get through most of the workout.

Overheads

BW - 210

Standing PBN -
BarX12
65X5
85X4
95X3
115X1
95X12, 7

Face-Pulls - X20, 15, 12, 12, 13, 12

First time doing "standing" anything since my back injury.  All the seated OHP benches were taken, and I felt good enough, and the weight is light enough, that I decided to give it a tray.  No low-back problems, but my abs were fried after the 95X12 set.

Higher Reps. Week 4. Bench

BW - 209

Bench -
BarX20
95X5
135X4
155X3
185X2
195X3

CG Bench (no leg drive) - 165X8, 4, 4

Bench (flat back, no legs) - 135X8, 6, 6

DB Press - 35'sX15, 13, 12, 10

Dips -
BW+25X11
BW+25X6, BWX10 (drop-set)
BWX12
super-set with
DB Curls - 30'sX10, 13, 16

Half intuition and half rational thought led me to decide I've been spending a bit too much time and energy on Incline, when possibly more flat benching would help my...flat bench.  I've been doing close-grips with my regular set-up but no leg drive as my back-off sets for a few weeks.  Today I decided to scrap the Inclines for a while and do some more benching with my normal grip, but with a flat back and also no leg drive.  I just don't think it can hurt to spend more time working the actual pressing muscles with variations in a plane closer to the actual lift.  Since I'm pushing for reps and not weight on the bar in my programming at this time, the weights are a bit lighter and so I don't require as much technique to complete lifts.  We'll see how it goes.

DB Press was a lot stronger without the Incline sets before it, and Dips felt strong as well.

Skipped abs again.  May need to switch out Ab Wheel for something new, just to make it seem less dreadful.

Higher Reps. Week 4. Squat

BW - 209

Squat -
135X5, 5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2

Pause Squats - 235X3, 3, 3

High Bars - 185X10, 6, 5

Hack Machine -
100X12
120X8

Leg Extensions -
pyramid upX15, 15, 15, 15, 10 (top set heavier than last week)
back-offX24 (heavier than last week)

Lunges - BWX22, 20, 22, 22

Dragging ass heading into the gym today.  Did an extra set each out Pausers and High Bars to try to get my motor going before grinding out the bodybuilding stuff.  235X3 is a Rep PR on Pause Squats, but then the bottom fell out a little bit on High Bars and I came up 2 reps short of last week.

I think the Hack Machine may get cut out of my program.  My right knee has been bothering me, and I'm starting to suspect this machine.  Also, when the reps start to get really hard towards the end of sets, I'm losing some stability in my trunk, and that may be aggravating whatever has been going on with my low back.  What's happening is, because the feet are set against the plate, and my shoulders are set against the pads on the track, whenever there is a stability "leak" my butt kind of starts to move around against the sled.  Maybe I'll switch over to leg presses to get some comparable work in.

For similar reasons, I decided to cut out the hypers this week.  They were supposed to be a buttress against the low back issues, but I'm worried they were aggravating it as well.

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 1. Week 5. Arms

BW - 202 (away gym scale)

DB Incline Curls - 30sX15, 15, 15, 10, 12 (higher incline on last rep)
super-set with -
PJR Pullovers - 45X15, 15, 15, 15, 15

Worked out at the office gym.  They've actually got an ab wheel I think, but I totally forgot to use it.

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 1. Week 3. Arms

BW - 201

Incline DB Curls - 30sX15, 15, 15, 12, 13
super-set with
PJR Pullovers - 45X15, 15, 15, 15, 15

Skipped abs like a punk.

LRB 365: LRB Split. Week 5. Back - Light

BW - 199

RDL -
95X10
135X8
185X5
225X5
245X5 (no straps; held last rep for 20 seconds)
245X10 (straps)

Cambered Bar Pull-downs - X20, 20, 20, 16, 11 (to a top weight)

Hypers - BWX30, 30, 25, 25

DB Curls -
20sX20, 20
25sX20

Hanging Leg-Raise - 5X5 (slow eccentric)

Good, balls-out session.  245X10 on RDLs is an all-around PR (never even done 245 before).  I really wanted to go for 10 on the last set, and I knew it would take straps for that.  To make up for it, I did 245 on my next to last set and held the last rep for time.

Since I had the straps, I ended up trying them out on my last two sets of pull-downs as well to see if it would allow me to get extra reps on my top sets.  Inconclusive.  I've been doing these at my "away" gym which has a traditional pull-down bar.  I was at my regular gym yesterday, and I'd never really thought about it, but the bar I use there is a home-made bar with an additional camber in the middle.  I can't find a picture of one like it on the webs, so you (imaginary readers) will just have to imagine the traditional bar, with another camber in the middle.  The point is that the ROM with this bar is much deeper, and so these reps were very different from those I've been getting on this cycle.

More R/P on the hypers to get more reps in.  This really feels like a superior way to do these sets for me right now, as opposed to taking it up till failure and stopping the set.

Watched a really great old video of Doug Young the other day.  Made me decided to do DBs instead of the preacher machine.  More fun anyway.

More humbling leg raises.  Basically hurling my ankles towards the bar and then trying (and failing) to keep them from falling back to earth.

LRB 365: LRB Split. Week 2. Squat - Light

BW - 194

Front Squats -
BarX10
85X5
95X5
105X5
115X4
125X3, 3
135X8 (Rep PR)

Leg Extensions - X33, 30, 25, 24

Lunges - BWX24, 22, 22, 22

Adductor Machine - X27, 20, 24, 20

135X8 is a Rep PR on Fronts, projects to a new 1RM, and I left reps in the tank.  The program calls for 5, 4, 3, 3, 3 to a top triple.  What I wanted to do for the cycle is hit a 3 Rep PR that also projects an increased 1RM on the last session.  Initially, I determined what that set would need to be (155X3), and programmed back to work up to it.  However, since this is more of a body-building day, I decided to hit the last set for reps, 531 style, and ended up with an all-around PR.  I'm going to keep the same weights that I've programmed, but keep going for rep maxes if I feel good like I did today. 

I kept the same weight as last time for extensions, and just got more reps.  I might up the weight slightly next time.

Adductor machine was occupied, so I did lunges next.  I played around with  my form to try to shift the emphasis from where it had been (my glutes) to my quads.  I kept my upright posture, but stepped out just far enough that my heel could stay on the ground at the bottom of the lunge.  This seemed to work well, and we'll see if I have any glute soreness again.

Jumped on the adductor machine after this and upped the weight from last time.  Had to drop it back down after the 2nd set, though.  Want to make sure I'm getting quality reps.

I programmed for sit-ups this day, but I was way short of time and had to bolt.  Same old story.

LRB 365: LRB Split. Week 1. Back - Light

BW - 195

RDL -
95X10
135X8
185X6
205X5, 5, 8

Pull-downs - X25, 20, 20, 20, 20 (to a top set)

BW Hypers - 4 sets of 15

Machine Curls - X25, 25, 25 (to a top set)

Hanging Leg Raises - BWX5, 6, 7, 6, 5

205X8 is a Rep PR on RDLs.  Gonna push the weight and the reps on these.  Looking for a 5 rep PR by the end of the cycle.

With pull-downs I focused on holding each rep at my chest for a beat on the early sets, and making sure the bar touched my chest on the top sets.

Hypers were really burning.  Trying to keep my glutes relaxed, and keep as much of the tension on my erectors as I can.

Gonna use the biceps machine on the light back day for the cycle.  Just to see.

I'm adding ab work to two of the light days on this cycle.  I have to get in the habit of keeping that as an integral part of my programming if I want to get stronger there.  On these leg raises, I brought my feet to the bar on every rep, and tried to resist the descent.

LRB 365: Conditioning. Week 1. Squat

BW - 198

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X4
155X3
185X2
225X1, 1
245X1
225X5

BW Ladder Circuit -
BW Squats - 2 up to 10, back down to 2
Chins (supinated) - 2 up to 10, back down to 2
Sit-ups - 2 up to 10, back down to 2
Push-ups - 2 up to 10, back down to 2

Good session.  I would say great, but since I ratcheted the rep intervals back on the ladder circuits, I'm docking myself.

Squats were great using the larger intervals/plates.  Also, it's been a while since I repped out any higher (for me) weights on full squats, and it felt nice to do that again.

The ladders were all pretty solid, with the sit-ups being the hardest.  Next lower body session, I'm going to bump the rep intervals up on squats, sit-ups, and push-ups to get them closer to where they are supposed to be.  I'll leave it at 2s for the next Upper body session, although I'm hopeful that last session represented a trial-by-fire acclimation session, and that they will be as easy as these were.  Nevertheless, the Bench/Dip/Push-up combo could still pose some problems.

LRB 365: 100 Reps. Week 5. Squat

BW - 196

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
155X4
175X3
195X2
205X1
235X1, 1

Cable Rows - X70, 30

Lunges - BWX50, 20, 20, 10

Ab Wheel - 4 sets of 10

Weighted Vest - 35 minutes; walking

Nice session.  Squats still strong and moving with confidence.  So much so that I started toying with my form a little.  I haven't worried about my elbow/arm alignment in a while, but this session I started trying to get in the groove of keeping them pointed down to help keep my chest out.  The mental cue that seemed to help here was thinking aobut trying to bring them down alongside my hip-joints.

Cable rows felt really good today. 

Lunges, however, were a real asshole after the first hill-sprints of the year the day before.  Really brutal.

Had some time before the bus would be along, so I threw in some ab wheel.  I expect a real unwelcome surprise on the next phase when there are lots of sit-ups in the BW ladders.  Gonna try and at least get some wheel in every week to mitigate the coming disaster.

Walking felt great.  Really kind of digging it for the zone-out aspect right now.

5/3/1 BBB: Cycle 2. Week 2. Dead

BW - 204

Deadlift -
135X5
185X5, 5
225X3
260X3
295X8

Deadlift hold -
295X1X15sec.

Hypers -
BWX12
5X15, 15, 20
10X20

Ab Wheel- 1X2

Swiss Ball Crunches - 4 sets of 15-30

80%+ session.  295X8 is an all-around PR on Deadlift.  I really should try to enjoy these more, as they're bound to dry up again sooner or later, but it's become so routine for me to set PR's in this lift. I've only ever crapped out on Deadlift twice. Once was October of 2011 when I tried 315 for the first time and it wouldn't budge, and the second was in July of this year when I first started 531 Full-Body and ended up having to lower my training maxes across the board because I had lost a lot of strength in the lead up to opening a show.

Grip strength is starting to get dicey double-overhand, and that's why I added another 1 rep set just to time out my holds.  This was just an idea, and I might try to go with something more conventional, as my hands/forearms don't feel sore the day after.  I should probably also just start using chalk for my top sets to make sure it's less of an issue.

Added a bit more weight and reps on the hypers today, so that's cool.

Went to do the ab wheel, and my abs started screaming at me right away.   Guess they weren't fully recovered from last time.  Pretty weak.  I did some chiropractor crunches to get some work in on them anyway.

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

LRB Diet - Week 9

BW - 198

Pause Squats -
BarX10, 10
95X5, 5
135X5, 5
160, 185, 215X3

Klokovs -
BarX10, 10
60, 70X3
80X12

Deadlift -
135, 135X5
205, 235X3
265X10

BB Shrugs -
225, 315X10
405X7
455X3, 3, 3, 3, 5
405X12

Ab Wheel - 3 sets of 5-10

Pause Squats still feeling heavy.

Klokovs were pretty solid today, and 80X12 is a Rep PR.

Deadlift felt great, and 265X10 is an all-around PR.  My 3rd of the year.  Started with 285X5 in February, then 335X1 in May.  Maybe I'll hit another before the year's out!

Bumped up to 455 for the triples on shrugs.  Felt tired as hell by the time I got here, and my grip was rough even with straps, so I did a back-off set of 405 instead of progressing to singles.  405X12 is an all-around PR.

Got 3 sets of nothin' on the ab wheel before I called it and went home.  Pretty good session, but I was beat down by the end.

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. Press/Dead

LRB Diet - Week 8

BW - 197

Pause Squats -
BarX8
95, 135X5
160, 185, 210X3

Klokovs -
BarX10
55, 65X5
75X15

Deadlift -
135X5, 5
190, 220X5
250X11

Shrugs -
225, 315X10
405X5
425X3, 3, 3, 3, 3
455X1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 5

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 40

Pretty satisfying session, and looking leaner than I've been in over a year.  That 210X3 still felt pretty heavy though.  Probably an 8 or 9 out of 10 on the ol' RPE scale.

Klokovs felt a bit back on track.  I approached them somewhat differently, in that on the first 3 sets I paused every rep on my back so that I would have to take them from a dead-stop.  Then on the top set, I paused every 5 reps for breath.  The hardest part of this lift is breaking it off the neck, and that's why I "trained" the pause/break on all the up-sets so that I would be prepared for the top-set.  As the weight increases on this lift, I'm going to try and incorporate more pausing.  The difference between attempting this lift from a pause vs. with the stretch reflex is pretty drastic.

250X11 is right in the strength range for my last session, is a Rep PR for the 9-11 rep range, and everything felt pretty good.  So that's a good session.

So with shrugs I really hemmed-and-hawed and decided to go up to 455 for singles, and then when I decided to do max reps on the last set, I got 5 which is hilarious.  So next time, I'll do 455 for my triples I guess, and do 475 for singles and see how many reps I get at the end with that.

Heavy, heavy back day so I did crunches for my core work.

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. Press/Dead

LRB Diet - Day 46

BW - 198

Pause Squats -
Bar, 95, 135X5
155, 180, 205X3

Klokovs -
BarX5
60X5 uh...heavy
70X3 heavy, da fug
80X6 WTF?!

Deadlift -
135X5, 5
215X5
240X3
270X8

BB Shrugs -
225, 315X10
405X3, 3, 3, 3, 3
425X2, 1
445X1, 1, 1, 3

Chiro Crunches - 5 sets of 40-45

Pause Squats felt a little heavy today, but not as heavy as...

...Klokovs.  As you can see from the notes above, I was completely baffled and caught off guard here.  I even "got up" for the top set because I was concerned by how heavy the other work sets felt.  3 weeks ago, I hit 75 for 15, and 2 weeks ago I hit 70 for 20.  It's inconceivable to me that a 5-10 lb. jump can cut my rep range down from the high-teens to the mid-single digits.  I'm gonna chalk this up to fucking astrology or fatigue from Bench Day or something, and I expect to rebound next time.

Deadlifts went really well however.  270X8 projects to a # 2 all time 1RM, and is a Rep PR.  What's more, the set was more about focus than straining, and I didn't walk away feeling gassed, nor do I feel wrecked today.  All good signs that my favorite lift is in pretty good shape at the moment.

Wanted to start flirting with increased weights on the shrugs so instead of hitting a back off set in the 300's after my triples, I started adding 10's and doing singles.  My form/ROM felt a little shitty, but I was able to get 3 on my last, all-out set.  Next time I may go with 425 for the triples, and bump up to 455 for the singles.

Skipped hypers at the top of the session to make sure my back was super fresh for Deadlifting, and so finally made myself get some ab work in the session.  I think that since I added in the additional shoulder work, the sessions just feel to damn long with both hypers AND crunches, so I'll have to start alternating.  I'll probably settle on crunches on Squat and Deadlift day since they've got heavier low-back movements, and do hypers on Bench day.

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 1. Bench

LRB Diet - Day 30

BW - 201 (I fucking knew that scale was wrong the other day)

Hypers - 5 sets of 15-20

Pause Squats -
BarX10
95, 135X5
155, 180, 205X3

Bench -
BarX10
105, 125X5
140X7
super-set with
Chins - BW; 5 sets of 5

Press -
BarX10
95X8
85X5, 5, 8
super-set with
Chins - BW; 5 sets of 5

Chiro Crunches - 3 really crappy sets

I really don't think I put on 12 pounds since Thursday afternoon.  Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that commercial gyms don't have light plates and scales.

Pause Squats are jumping to the Phase 2 %'s from the 531 Full-Body program.  From 60% up to 85% on the top set.  Also worth noting, I've been increasing the training max by only 5 lbs. per cycle on this movement.  205 was a little slow here, but I'm gonna hope that's at least partially due to the big weight increase.  We'll see how it feels again next session.

Bench felt a tad better.  I was hoping to just get 6, but I was able to press out 7 with one in the tank.  This is at least in line with my numbers from last cycle, and right now consistency feels awesome on bench as opposed to steady decline.

I'm adding in pressing on this day for the additional shoulder work mentioned in my last lifting post.  I was hoping to do 4 sets of 8 with 105, but the 95X8 warm-up was a grinder after the benching, so I dropped down to 85, and 5's felt about right under that weight.  On my last set, I got myself all amped up and ground out 8 reps with that.  Next week, I'll start with the 85 and see what that's like.

I superset all my pressing with sets of 5's on chins.  Chins continue to feel weak despite weight loss.  I tried to go for more than 5 on the final set, but no luck.  Hopefully reducing the reps per set like this, and going for more overall volume will see an uptick here.  I'll keep going for it on the final set, and when I can knock out 7 or 8, I'll up it to straight sets of 6 and repeat.

Got my core work back in at the top and bottom, but the crunches were miserable and I aborted them after 3 sets.  I think all the chins had taxed my abs a bit.  Don't know how I feel about that.