LRB Back & DL. Week 3. Pressing

DB Inclines -
35sX8
45sX8
55sX8
65sX8
55sX8
45sX8
35sX12

Cable overhead raise - X15, 15, 15 (straight-weight)

Cable Face-Pulls - X20, 20, 20 (straight-weight)

Rope Pushdowns - X100 (R/P 50, 25, 25)

Another session at the hotel gym.

Pyramiding up and down on the DB Inclines worked really well.

The combo of overhead raises and face-pulls worked the hell out of my rear delts.

My triceps are still tender from the 100 rep set 2 days ago.

All in all, this was a really great session despite using a hotel gym.

Higher Reps. Week 8. Squat

BW - 210

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2

Pause Squats - 255X3, 3, 3

High Bars - 185X15, 10, 5, 5, 5, 5

Single-Leg Press - 1.5ppsX15, 18, 15, 15

Leg Extensions -
Pyramid-Up X15, 15, 15, 15, 10 (top set heavier than previous)
Back-Off X22

Good session.

255X3 is a Rep PR on Pause Squats.

185X15 matches my best PR when I'm fresh, so doing it in a fatigued state is pretty awesome.

Single-Leg work was a bit harder than expected.

Managed to push the top weight up a bit on extensions.

Higher Reps. Week 7. Squat

BW - 206

Squat -
95X5 (paused)
135X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
275X2

Pause Squats - 245X5, 5

High Bars - 185X10, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Squat -
225X1
245X1
265X1
275X1

Single-leg extensions -
Pyramid-upX12, 12, 12, 12, 12
Back-offX20

Had business elsewhere in town last night, so I went to an "away" gym that I've use before in the area I was heading to.  So crowded.  So many people doing weird stuff.

Anyway, I thought the best way to stay sane amidst the chaos would be to just squat as much as possible.  I may or may not have been slightly inconveniencing several people who seemed used to having that space free for other stuff.  At one point, a guy doing really unstable lunges was reaching out and using the end of my barbell to keep himself steady.  I waited until his set was over, and politely pointed out that I was using it.  So weird.

Anyway, squats all went well.  245X5 is a PR on pause squats; my 5th in a row.  With High Bars, I was just looking for volume. 

Normally, I would have done single-leg work on the leg press at this point, but both the "regular" leg press and the horizontal leg press machine at this gym were occupied.  Paul Carter has this "fatigue singles" concept that he uses sometimes where you work back up with singles after all your main work-sets to test speed.  What I did here is very much NOT by his book about how it's supposed to go.  It was kind of fun nonetheless.  I worked over the winter to make 275 my heaviest "I can and will squat this any day" weight, and it was nice to test that in a fatigued state and find it very much there for me.

All the leg presses still had a queue, so I just did single-leg extensions instead.  I actually kind of liked this, and may do these WITH single-leg presses next week and see what that's like.

Higher Reps. Week 5. Squat

BW - 206

Squat -
95X5 (paused)
135X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
245X2
275X1

Pause Squats - 235X5, 5

High Bar -
185X8, 6, 5
135X8*, 10

Leg Extensions -
Pyramid-up - X15, 15
Back-off - X22

Single-Leg Press - 1ppsX20, 20, 18, 18

235X5 is an all-around PR on pause squats.  Both sets were grinders on the last reps, though.  I was planning to progress, alternating sets of 3's and 5's and increase the weight every other week.  I'll still try the 245X3 sets next week, but I'm prepared to adjust moving forward if need be.

After grind on the Pause Squats, I was diminished for the High Bars and couldn't even make 10 reps.

*After a few sets of 185, I dropped down to 135 and thought about doing Fronts (I'm done with the Hack Squat machine; made my back feel awful), but decided to do burn-outs on High-Bars instead.  On the first set, for the first 5 reps I did 1.5 reps.  That is, stopping half way up and going back down before going all the way back up.  This felt dumb, but it did "burn out" my quads.

Used a different leg extension machine, and it was a lot heavier.  That's why I have fewer pyramid sets.

Switching out lunges for single-leg presses for a while.

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.

Higher Rep. Week 2. Squat

BW - 208

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X4
225X3
255X2

Pause Squats - 225X3, 3

High Bar Squats - 185X10, 5

Hack Squats - 120X10, 10, 10, 10

Leg Extensions -
Pyramid upX15, 15, 15, 15, 10 (top set heavier than last week)
Back-offX20 (same weight as last week)

Lunges - BWX20, 20
super-set with no rest
Hypers - BWX20, 20

Okay session.  I'll be waving the top double on squats while I'm focused on building some muscle.  It was planned to be a single, but these weights are too light.

I still want to stimulate some top-end strength here while being cautious of whatever's going on with my lower back.  I thought pause squats as the back-off sets fit the ticket pretty well.  They force me to take some weight off the bar, while at the same time I get feedback on what's happening in the hole where my low back needs to keep tight.  This was a "getting reacquainted" session for pausers, and I expect to be pushing this up to 3 sets of 5 (similar to what I've been doing with deficit deads).  225X3 already matches my old Rep PR for these.  I'm much stronger now.  I won't push past 3 sets of 5 because I need to make sure I'm still fresh enough for...

High bars.   These will be the 'main' movent, and are starting here with 185X2XAMAP, or what Paul Carter would call a 50% set.  This is kind of a 2nd back-off set.  But as things progress, I hope to be able to push past 2 sets at this weight, and maybe set some volume PRs.

Hack Squats are so stupid hard, I'm basically ignoring the value of the weight on here.  I don't understand why these are so much harder than leg presses.  Over 5 reps on every set was eye-bulging.

Pushed another plate onto the leg extensions.  Feels like it will be awhile before I get that one up to 15.

I mysteriously cut my lunges/hypers after two sets.  In the light of day, I don't know why that was.  Hypers are much easier now that they're not coming right after a free squat movement.