Texas Method Team Training. Week 14. Volume Day

BW - 222

Squat -
315X5
305X5
295X5
285X3
275X3

Bench - 190X5X5

Chins - BWX5, 3, 3

Pull-downs X6

Back was feeling okay, but power output was still low.  Coach decided to see how I handled a descending set of 5 on Squats.  The first 3 sets were all brutal.  Final reps on every set were very slow, and I was completely gassed following the sets.  On the 4th set, I cut if after 3.  Just went for 3 on the final set, and all reps were strong.  Definitely felt like 5 would have been easy, but it also felt good to end feeling strong(ish).

Bench sets all took focus, and I was having trouble keeping my butt down on final reps, but everything went well.

I decided DL was a bad idea after the way squat went, so I did some chins instead.

One more training session before I go out of the country on vacation for a week.  We'll probably do 3X3 across instead of 1X5.  Just to promote a bit more adaptation carrying through the break.  We did that when I went out of town for a week for Thanksgiving, and the results were solid.

I see a lot of veteran lifters talk about "your body will let you know when it's time to back-off, if you're listening."  I've been going full bore since after Thanksgiving, so maybe that's what this is.  I'll go on vacation for a week, come back and ?probably? reset, and see what happens.  Switch to sets of 3 on Volume and Intensity days is an option, and so is 5/3/1.  Coach just switched one of the older guys in our group over to Wendler's thing because of a nagging knee issue.  We'll see!

Hybrid Training. Week 6. Light Lower

BW - 227

Squats - up to 255X5, 5, 5

Pause Squats - 235X4, 4, 4

Bench Grip DL -
up to 225X3, 3
then 245X3

Hanging Leg Raises - X8, 8, 8

My low back felt a bit touchy from the jump, but everything went okay.  Still feels off today.

Speed on squats and pause squats were all good.

Bench-Grip DLs were done for speed as well and felt pretty solid.  I didn't feel the need to do an explosive movement following these, as they were fairly fast.  First rep felt like it had better positioning on all sets, than subsequent reps.

Leg raises were kept super strict.  Legs straight, bringing feet down until the back of the heel touches the ground, pause, then lift back up.

LRB 365: Strong-15 Short. Week 1. Squat

BW - 196

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
115X5
135X4
165X3
185X2
205X1
215X1
225X1

Pause Squats - 165X3, 3, 3, 3

Leg Press - 2ppsX24, 20, 18

Leg Curls - X20, 15, 12

Standing Calf Raises - 245X18, 16, 14

Solid session, as it should be at these weights.  Playing with explosiveness again on the squat.  Previously, I made the mistake of focusing on driving my hips through hard at the top, and this was causing low-back strains.  This time I took the opportunity of these light weights to think about making the bar come up off my shoulders at the top.  That did happen on every rep, including the pause squats, and no low-back trouble. 

I doubled-down on the sets of Pause Squats initially recommended in the manual.  However, what I'm taking to heart is this little nugget,

"The lower the intensity, the more volume you are going to need.  So that would mean more back off sets to be added on.  If you choose to play with that, don't go haywire.  Add in 1-2 extra back offs in addition to what the program calls for and go from there."

I'm actually programing lower for this cycle than I did for the Strong-15 cycle to begin the program, so I think it's a perfect opportunity to explore the extra back-offs.  My form was extremely tight on all these.  So much so, that my mid-back is really fatigued, and a bit sore today.  I'm enthused.

Leg press was all done narrow stance to hit the quads harder.

Curls and Raises were curly and raisin.

LRB 365: LRB Split. Week 2. Back - Heavy

BW - 194

Deadlift -
135X5, 5
155X4
185X3
225X2
235X1
245X1
255X1

T-Bars -
25X18
45X12
70X10
90X15
95X8

Good-Mornings -
95X8
115X8
135X8, 8
145X7

BB Curls -
BarX10
65X5
BarX22, 18, 12

I've got my program stored on google drive, and I couldn't get it to pull up on my phone, so I had to wing the #'s on this day.  It turns out I low-balled the Deadlift #'s, and should have gone up to 275.  Oh well, everybody always says stay as light as you can so...

Then I went way over on T-Bars.  I was supposed to work up to 70 for max reps, and ended up going a little over my week 4 #'s.  Again, oh well.  90X15 and 90X8 are both Rep PRs.

Then I went right ahead and fucked myself up a little on GMs.  It's clear now that the way I periodically mess myself up with Squat position exercises is on low-to-moderate weights where I try to lock out so explosively that my lower back rounds at the top, and something in there gets strained as hell.  I figured it out before my top sets and those were alright, even though I had to be really ginger about it.  All in all, this will be healed up pretty quickly, but I definitely don't think I maximized this movement today.

My empty bar curling has dropped way off of my 45-or-so rep previous efforts.  Or I was tired.  Not sure.

LRB 365: 100 Reps. Week 2. Dead

BW - 200

Pause Squats -
BarX10
95X5
135X5
165X5, 5

Deadlift -
135X5
165X5
185X4
215X3
245X2
265X1
275X1, 1

BB Shrugs - 135X65, 35 (no straps)

Everything went pretty well even though I'm operating in a big sleep/nutrition deficit because of having company in town all week.

Pause Squats were smooth, but I'm making them be harder by pausing long in the bottom and really focusing on exploding upwards.  What I mean is, these would be easy if I just dropped into the hole, held it for a beat, and then casually stood back up.  Much harder this way.

Deads are all still feeling strong and fast.

Decided to try the shrugs without straps for some extra grip work, and it wasn't a problem!  So I'll keep that as I work towards getting 100 non-stop.

LRB 365: Strong-15. Week 1. Bench

BW - 201

Bench -
BarX10
85X5
95X4
115X3
125X2
135X1
145X1
155X1
115X15

Incline -
105X10, 10, 10, 10, 10

DB Flyes - 2 sets of 20

Rope Pushdowns - 4 sets of 20

80+% session.  Now that I'm past all the limiting symptoms of last weekend's head-cold, I felt like this session was a more realistic introduction to the new program than Saturday's plague-ridden squat session.

As promised, the introductory weights all felt light as hell, and I was able to focus on applying maximum explosiveness while also keeping my form tight.  This has been one of the biggest difficulties for me of late:  keeping my upper back tight while driving lighter weight to lock-out.  I find that high bar speeds tend to pull my shoulders apart at the top resulting in a loss of tightness for the following reps, and I'm trying to correct this problem.  There was progress on this today.

I would like to have gotten more than 15 reps with 115, but the bar was moving way slow and I was just out of gas.

I think this was an over-all volume PR for inclines, however.  Don't think I've gotten 5 full sets of 10 with 105 before.  As maximizing assistance volume is one of the top-tier goals for the introductory phase of the Strong-15, I'm pleased with this, and will continue to push it in coming weeks.

I haven't done DB flyes in...I don't know.  And I kind of remembered why.  In order to keep stress on the muscle, the range of motion is severely limited.  I double-checked the manual, and it just says "Flat Flyes," so I think I will switch to pec-deck.

It's also over a year since I did any kind of cable push-down, and these 4 sets of 20 really fried me.  I kept the weight light, and tried to focus on feeling the triceps pull and relax.

All in all, felt like a pretty good body-building session.  My first in I don't know how long.  I'm certainly reminded how boring aspects of training this way can be however, but maybe I can focus on adjusting my perspective in that regards.