Bench and Squats both felt good today, although all the super-setting anything with Squats always feels extra hard. I'll try it out for a few more weeks and see if I acclimate.
Tried hitting 170 again on Press, but still not there. Likely, I'll take a few days off then come back and start a Bench focused block.
I've been dealing with some plantar fasciitis or similar the last few months. Saw direct calf work as one of the suggestions from BBM to maybe help work through it. I've started taking the bus to and from the gym a bit more to cut back on walking. Will look to supplement that with some more conditioning work in the gym until this clears up.
Took a lot more time with my Squat warm-ups. Gave time for my HR to come down between warm-ups sets, and focused generally on being more "ready" for the next set even though they were just warm-ups. Usually I basically just re-load the bar and go. Ended up with a slight improvement in the top single over prior weeks, and also was able to add a 3rd back-off set without feeling like it added significantly to acute fatigue.
Similarly, I was able to add a 4th set to the Deficit DLs. Fatigue was still good, but between longer warm-ups and getting pulled into a couple of conversations, it took about an hour to get through the first two movements.
Accessories were all good, but I was already an hour and a half in at this point (and got to the gym late). TL;DR: I skipped conditioning.
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.
255 for 2+ sets of 13 is a Volume PR on Squat. These took a lot of mental effort to get through today.
85 for 2+ sets of 13 is a Volume PR on Press. As the reps have come up weekly on the first two sets, this is the first week I wasn't really able to push further on the final, AMRAP set.
Barely had any gas left for the Press accessory, much less conditioning. Press volume on this day will be comparable next training block, and I think I will drop the compound Press supplement in favor of some lower stress triceps accessory. As work sets go up and reps-per-set come down on the main movements, the supplement/accessory slots may need to shift to lower stress movements in general.
Late start and feeling tired so just got some work in. Because it's a 30 minute walk both ways to the gym, it's always easy to let myself off the hook for conditioning work.
Mash-up a couple of GPP sessions and still skipped conditioning, lol. Just a lot going on heading into the holidays so getting in what I can/what I'm motivated to do.
Backed off a bit on TTB reps as calluses were bothering me.
No conditioning today because I was in a time crunch. I've already got a brisk, 25 minute walk each way to and from the gym so there is still some conditioning work in every training day.
Everything felt pretty good this session except the session took almost 2 hours. Some of that was socializing.
Close Grips started to feel very good after the first back-off set.
Top set of Deficits was WAY easier conditioning/fatigue wise than it's been in the first 3 weeks. I've been pretty gassed by the time I finished that set, previously.
BW - 228 Waist - 43.75" sRPE @ 7 Bench - 207.5X3 @8 177.5X7, 7, 7 @~7 CG Bench - 170X6, 6, 6, 6 @7.25/8 Rack Pull-Ups - BWX7, 7, 7 @~8 GPP Day - - Circuit: Straight-Arm Pull-Downs, DB Press, Hammer Curls - 7 minutes; 3 rounds; sets of 8-10 - Rower - HIIT; 7 rounds; 14 minutes
Okay upper body day.
Right elbow was feeling a bit sensitive, and slowed down the lock out on my top triple, raising the RPE. I was able to increase the weight slightly on the back-offs, but all-told e1RM was relatively flat from last week. Expect a bounce back next week!
Closed-grips were a little better initially, but the RPE ramped up fairly quickly. This may be somewhat a function of adding an extra set to both bench movements.
I ended up not adding an extra set to the rack pull-ups because I always had this set a 3 sets for this program, i.e. I didn't drop a set for the first two weeks like I did with everything else. I'm also getting extra upper-back work on the GPP days, so no big.
sRPE ended up being right about on target, I think.
GPP Day -
- Circuit: Straight-Arm Pull-Downs, DB Press, Hammer Curls - 7 minutes; 3 rounds; sets of 10
- Rower - HIIT; 6 rounds; 12 minutes
Solid upper-body session. sRPE was sub-target for the 2nd week in a row, so if I'm feeling well fatigue-wise next week, I'll be adding a set to each movement.
Bench took a 2% jump in e1RM this week, which is above average for the last year. In my best training 4 training blocks over the last year, bench jumped about 3% in week 2 on average, but the TM on the first week for those bench blocks was 92.7% on average (below the mean for the year), and this block started at 98.9% (the highest of the year). So year-best TM and an above average jump in week 2, are a combo that I haven't seen on bench in the last year, and an auspicious start to the block.
Last week, RPE on Close-Grips ramped quickly on the sets across, but this week I was able to both add weight, and maintain it at target RPE. Nice to have that on track in week 2 as well.
Added a rep to all the Rack Pull-Ups but BW was down, so whatevs. I'm not going to stress over these, even if the data says they were one of my top-6 DL accessories in the last year. They'll progress or they won't.
GPP Day went very well. Got another 3 round in 7 minutes on the resistance circuit. I added weight to all movements, and still hit 10 reps on all sets. Thought I would add 2 rounds to the HIIT, but only adding 1 felt right in the moment.
GPP Day -
- DB Circuit: One-Arm Rows, Upright Rows, Curls - 7 minutes; 3 rounds; sets of 8-10
- Rower - HIIT; 5 rounds; 10 minutes
Solid little session.
Went in expecting to get a lot more on LBS and Sumo than the previous session, and that turned out to be true. Just the way I felt on the previous session, and some experience of how this tends to go over the last year played into that expectation. Still, I used RPE on warm-ups to calibrate what the top set would actually be. I tend to go in with the assumption of a larger than average jump, but a 4% jump is WELL above average for me cycle-to-cycle.
First set of back-offs on the Squat were a touch harder than target, and so dropped back on the 2nd set. I expect to be adding a set to each movement over the next couple of weeks, so don't see any reason to push intensity on those now.
Front Squats ended up not progressing as quickly. Maybe just fatigue still from the low bar sets.
Sumo was a bit weird. This is actually the same e1RM as last week, but the RPE dropped slightly on the 2nd set. I think it's technical acclimation coming into play. Likely see a big jump next week if I had to put money on it.
On GPP Day, I still got a third round of the circuit. Switched over to HIIT from LISS on the rower. Last week was just an intro for that. Cut the total conditioning time in half, and will look to add a round or two every session until I'm up in the 7-10 range. Then maybe switch movements?
GPP Day -
- Circuit: Straight-Arm Pull-Downs, Seated DB Press, Hammer Curls - 7 minutes; 3 rounds; sets of 10
- Rower - LISS; 20 minutes
Nice little upper-body session.
200X3 @7.5 is interesting because that's about at 99% of where my bench was at the end of the previous, aborted cycle. That was back on 12/22. So almost a month later, with minimal training, bench strength is about where it was. Not sure if there are any take-aways, but if the lift trends upwards from here, and especially if I get a couple of larger-than-average jumps (my Bench tends to have those), I could end up with a good little bench block.
I had to drop weight on the last set of Close-Grips, as the RPE started jumping pretty fast. All good (probably).
Rack Pull-Ups were fairly easy, especially as I'm still dropping a set from each movement in this first week.
vi
GPP Day went well, too! Was able to move through this combination a bit faster and with more reps, resulting in getting a 3rd round in the same amount of time. I think the prior GPP day's circuit probably had a lot more biceps involvement in each movement and that created more fatigue.
Also doubled my time on the rower with no difficulty. Will probably switch to HIIT next week.
GPP Day -
- DB Circuit: One-Arm Rows, Upright Rows, Curls - 7 minutes; 2 rounds; sets of 7-10
- Rower - LISS; 10 minutes
First session getting back to it after a rough few weeks of derailed training and a week of travel.
Testing some stuff I've observed with Emerging Strategies in this block. Based on the last year of using that framework, my best results occur in the first 5 cycles of a training block, and then taper off for a couple of cycles before I pass my peak. This will be a 10 cycle block where the first 4-5 cycles are my "2nd best" rep ranges and assistance movements transitioning into a 2nd round of 4-5 cycles with my "greatest hits" rep ranges and assistance movements. With no pivot block in between, I'll see if I can extend my Time to Peak and if the cycle-to-cycle gains stay high, or if it still tapers off after the first 4-5 weeks and/or peaks around 7-8 weeks.
Something else I'm trying is cutting a set from each movement in the initial session/week to see if that helps with DOMS after little to no training the last couple of weeks.
Squats and Front Squats both went well.
Sumos w/ straps we're way off where I expected them to be on paper, but I was just a little gassed at this point, and didn't want to push the sRPE up.
Also taking advantage of the office gym to get some conditioning and some isolation/hypertrophy work that I always find it difficult to wedge into regular training sessions.
DL went really well. Like all the powerlifts in this first week, the target weight for 15@9 ended up being too light, and just like all the others, I didn't give a shit and will just try to get @9 next week.
275X7 is a Rep PR on RDL. With straps, but I kind of don't care, because I'll probably train this lift with straps from now on. The movement just feels more focused with double-overhand.
I was worried about the Hack Squats, because single-leg Hack Squats in the pivot block were such a shit show. Ended up just fine. These were all fairly deep as well.
Got access to the gym in my office building and am starting to do conditioning on off-days.
