Technique feeling very dialed-in on Spotos, and may attempt a 3 rep PR next week if warm-ups feeling good.
Moved BSS to this day because I had a lot of quad discomfort on last Friday's Pause Squats after having 3 days off from any Squat movement.
Tried going as heavy as possible on the low bar PBN to see if that helped the bar return to the low bar position after the Press, but it didn't. Currently, I can start the movement in low bar position, but can't return any lower than the top of the traps. The point of this movement is to increase my shoulder mobility slightly to see if it lessens elbow pain with heavier weights on Squats. Probably we'll just roll with in the way it is and see if it improves over time, or possibly abandon in favor of something else. TBD.
Erector and Quad achiness are starting to get pretty continual so probably about time to deload and start a new block. Hoping a 3X10 PR will be there for me on Squats on Monday, and then will probably pull back.
Nice light session. I did get the front racked reverse lunges to feel okay on my quad by doing more extensive warm-up sets with BW first holding the squat stand for a set of 8, and then just free standing for a set of 8. I would have thought the tempo squats were enough of a warm-up, but last time that proved not to be the case. Anyway, I'm glad I got these to work, as the gym doesn't really have a good bench for the high-step ups I did last time.
Start of the pivot block. Goal here is to drop stress enough to allow fatigue to dissipate, but not so much that I detrain to a point that complicates the start of my next block (excessive DOMS, etc.). Also, to get some volume in with movement types that are in the next dev block, but weren't in the previous block.
Volume here is much higher than my previous two pivot blocks, but only about as high as the lowest volume of the last three dev blocks, and much lower than the volume in the previous or upcoming dev blocks.
Notes:
Intended to do front rack reverse lunges for a single-leg movement, but my left quad said "fuck you" to that. Still didn't totally love these step-ups either. Surprising, because it gave me no trouble in the tempo squat. Will monitor closely as I'm planning Front Squats for the next block.
Inverted rows were MUCH weaker than expected. That's good, because I can grease the groove a bit and hopefully the BB Rows in the next block will benefit.
Video is of 2nd sets of the first three movements. Wasn't particularly motivated to film any of this.
Felt good about this workout in general. Not a lot to say.
Squats feeling much stronger. Can't tell if the quad discomfort is getting less, or if I'm just getting used to it. Had trouble getting the bar set comfortably for high-bar on the first two sets.
Bench fatigue jumped a lot on the 3rd set. No idea why.
On Deadlift, the "master" cue right now is "patience." Commit to the new set-up (breathing at the bottom with shins still against bar), and don't rush from one rep to the other.
Quad still "tickles" a lot during warm-ups on squats, and a bit during the 10 rep set. I get acclimated to it, and it doesn't really interfere with my work sets. I am sometimes waking up in the night to find my quads really achy, and hard to get into a position where they calm back down. I get something similar when I've been driving for a long time.
Mis-loaded the bench to 155 instead of 145 and it was til @6 so....interesting.
On DL, getting more acclimated to holding position and taking a breath at the bottom of the rep. SUPER boring on warm-ups, but actually seems to help prevent cardio fatigue on the work sets. In addition to keeping form tighter.
Everything felt pretty good on this day. No pain issues with quads or low back.
Squats actually seemed to get easier as I went on. If I was auto-regulating volume, I would have done another set. I'm getting plenty of warm-up reps with: BWX10, 45X10, 135X8, 185X5, 205X3, but I may need to that if the work sets continue to feel easier as they progress. Could try reducing reps on the last couple of sets, or conversely shifting some reps from the lighter sets to heavier sets. Could also give longer breaks between the last couple of warm-up sets.
Tempo work all felt about right. My ego would obviously like these weights to be heavier, and after the first sets I often think I should go up, but experience has told me that my strength falls off a cliff on upper-body movements, and by the time I get to the 2nd and 3rd sets, the weight turns out to be about right.
Low back pain seems all but gone, and gave me no issues on day 1 of this block.
While this is conceived as an accumulation block, I'm starting off with good 'ol 3 sets across. As I've been struggling with injuries for so long, and had so many pivot blocks, I want to make sure I easy myself back into both volume and intensity on the big movements.
Squat felt better than it has in a long time as neither my back, nor my quads gave me any issues here. Focus was on very controlled reps.
Tempo incline topped out at a lower weight than I would have expected, but I've never done these before. I took a moderate grip, but nevertheless triceps began fatiguing very quickly. I originally conceived everything in this cycle to be 3X8, but it became clear on the warm-ups on these that the tempo was hitting me hard and fast, and so I called an audible to do these for 3X5 so that I could keep relative intensity a bit higher.
Rows paused at the top are also fairly new to me, and the weight was hilariously low. I'm only doing a 2-day cycle this time around, and I'm a bit nervous this movement could be too light in relative intensity for a DL accessory. However, coming of a 2.5 week low-back strain, I wanted to kick off with something that would put low intensity tension on the low back to "test" it. Hmmmm. We'll see.
First day of the new cycle! Very happy to be revving things up.
Quads felt fine during Squats. I have "normal" DOMS less than 24 hours later, and we'll see how that trends over the next 24. Otherwise, these felt great. Estimated target weight for the day was 252.5, and happy to have ended up in that ballpark. Mostly happy to just be squatting for volume (and reps) pain free, but am hopeful that I can see a robust increase in intensity through this block since this weight is about 100 lbs. under my best set of 7.
Over 3 years since I did DB flat bench, so I had no target. First set with the 55s was really awkward, and I thought I might have overshot, but the 2nd set was @6 tops, and then I sailed through until I hit a conservative @7 on the sixth set. Depending on fatigue and recovery for the first week, I would expect these weights to be higher next week. Didn't grab any video of these.
I've never used a trap bar. Ever. It was fun! If a little strange feeling. I decided to use the high handles for this cycle as they seem to involve less legs, and therefore more back? The range of motion feels very strange, but it was all good.
Last session of the pivot block. Mind is definitely ready for more, and I think my body is healed up a bit.
Close-Grips are the only "big" movement I've done higher-rep RPE work on. Not sure if it's normal to have a drop off in rep strength @RPE like that at higher reps.
Squats were again supposed to be 3-3-0. I just suck at counting seconds under load, I guess.
Squats felt pretty solid. Quad discomfort maybe has flared up a bit over the past 12 hours since the session, but nothing crazy.
Moved grip in a smidge on wide-grip press and it started to feel more natural. Some shoulder discomfort, so I'm glad I've decided not to use this in my next training block.
Despite the shoulder discomfort on the press movement, full depth dips felt solid.
Sunday is my #1 least favorite day to train. Fatigue kicked in pretty quickly across the board at this mid-day session.
Grip was by far the limiting factor on Deadlift.
Box Squats felt very solid. Shank is nice and vertical; really pushing the lift into the posterior-chain. No quad pain during set at all. No increase in quad discomfort outside of the gym within 24 hours following session.
Ran out of gas quick on the DB Inclines.
Looking forward to switching back to full training.
Quad pain was barely a tickle during squats, even if it's still causing me distraction outside of the gym, and Squats generally felt the best they have in a while. I had an e-mail consult with one of the rehab specialists from BBM, and they recommended staying this course for another week or so, but dropping leg press and belt squat. My plan for an accumulation block following this with sets of 6-8 and RPE 6/7 was agreed with. Caution was to just keep an eye on tonnage, to make sure there's not a huge jump in the next 4 weeks or so.
Bench-Grip Press didn't feel quite as natural on this day for some reason. Had more trouble finding the best grip so that the bar path felt smooth.
Per BBM, I'm going to discontinue the leg press in this block. Frankly, my left medial hip/adductor area that was hurt for so long earlier this year hasn't been loving the single-leg press, and I'd been considering dropping it for that reason anyway.
Dips felt good with more reps while depth stays good.
DOH BG DL (lol) went pretty well got up to @7.5 on grip strength, which is fine. Doing DOH for a reason.
I think the only other time I've done box squats was when I worked out with Matt Wenning a couple of years back. These felt very solid. I kind of thought the weight would be higher, but novelty, plus the lingering quad strain plus [waves hands].
Did DB Inclines for the 4th time in 4 years, haha. These also felt fine
Moving "comp" lift to first in the session order. Bench ended up coming in about 7 lb.s under target weight, but I'm also being conservative.
When I used to do close-grip bench, my offset was about 80%. I dropped 80% off my bench work weight, but upped RPE to 8. I didn't do the math ahead of time, but 12 reps is right on target for that 155/(195/78.6%)=62.5%=12@8.
Ended up getting more reps at my target weight than expected. I believe that's wholly a function of a still-very-novel movement. However I need to watch this on squat movements through this block as I'm trying to let my quad strain heal up and higher-rep sets are probably not the best idea, as it pushes the total volume back up. Need to really hone in on that 2X4-5 @7. I should have stopped the first set of 130 and upped the weight.
Haven't done GHR in forever. Medial hamstrings at the knee weren't loving this, but hopefully a little SRA will help with that.
Belted up for the DB Rows as I've had issues here and there with these in the past, and it's also been forever since I did them.
Quads are finally starting to feel a bit better. Seems like time and/or these pivot workouts are allowing the issue to dissipate. Still trouble enough to limit my squatting and leg pressing today (left hip didn't love the single-leg press), but felt MUCH better than the past several weeks.
Bench-Grip press again today to slot it into the "regular" OHP slot I had planned for this pivot block. Felt good. Getting the unrack and starting position more dialed-in.
I wanted to make sure I got good depth on Dips, and so did not push reps at all in order to protect my shoulder. My best is 22. This was X9 at a very conservative @7. Just "dipping" my toe back in the water.
Bench-Grip Press (dead-stop on chest) - 95X5, 5 @8
Bench-Grip Deadlift -
245X8, 8 @~7.5
255X7 @8.5
Rope Cable Curls - X9, 8 (straight-weight)
More improved pivot work. Broke a little further out of the mold on this day by using no comp. movements. Also didn't bother getting video of anything but the BGDL. Wish I'd gotten video of the BG Press, though. Those felt good.
Squatting still difficult because of quad pain. A little better on belt squat, but obviously much lower intensity.
I used to do a fair amount of PBN, but I tried doing these as dead stops on my traps, and they felt like crap. May try them again in the future with a floating rack above the shoulders.
A year or so ago, one of the strongest guys in the gym had mentioned that he got more carryover from the press to his bench if he moved the grip out and allowed the bar to sit fully on his chest. I've had that in the back of my mind ever since. I rolled it out today, and once I found a good grip position they felt great. Feels very stable, especially with a belt on. The lift kind of starts with the hips pushed forward already to allow the bar to sit on the chest. This makes it virtually impossible to use hip drive, and thus makes the movement much "stricter."
Decided to do a wider grip DL and only use double-overhand. SGDL has always made me a bit nervous as far as technique breakdown under fatigue, but bench-grip has always felt comfortable to me. Decided to do this of high single-digit reps. The capped it with some rando-curls.
DB Rolling Triceps 3-3-0: 35sX8, 8 @8, 9
finish with tucked elbow DB Bench X10@8
3" Mat Pulls -
285X6 @6
315X6, 6 @8, 9
DB Rear Delt Flyes - 30sX10, 14, 12 @8, 9, 10
finish with DB Rear Delt Rows X10@9
I was so mentally and physically ready to move on to something different, I just decided to call an audible and start the pivot block early. Everything here was improved, and with out much of a plan. I decided to do a couple of work sets of each of the compound barbell movements that were originally slated, and then move on to single-limb movements
Safety Squats were hard and weak due to the continuing quad pain. Interestingly, the quad pain was still very present in the single leg extensions, but in general feels much better today.
For Bench, the 230X2 felt very solid. I decided to do a higher rep back-off of 7-9 @8.
The way I've always done DB rolling triceps is as an overloaded eccentric movement. That is, the eccentric keeps the humerus perpendicular to the ground through flexion, but then drops down to the ribs so that the concentric is a full press movement. I decided for no reason to turn that up to 11 by adding a tempo protocol of a 3 second eccentric, and a 3 second flexed hold at the bottom. Then finished the last set with a bro-tastic burnout set of tucked elbow DB bench. I'm sure by this evening, the triceps DOMS will be real.
Mat pulls actually progressed to 9 very quickly. Not sure if that was fatigue due to the shorter rest periods used prior in the session, or more general fatigue from feeling beat up by prior sessions. Had intended to just do 2 sets @~8.
Similar to the rolling triceps, I finished rear delt raises with a rear delt row burnout set.
Since I'm dieting and have been having these weird quad pain issues, I decided to just open it up and go sort of full auto-regulation on my programming. Gonna try and stop worrying about the specific weight on the bar, the specific reps/sets, and just try to hone my ability to hit RPEs. I've missed enough reps anyway.
Generally, I know what movements I'm going to do that day (although I may need to change the order to make the "main" movement first), and I'll have a target rep range for each movement. Sets of 1-3, 2-4, 4-6, etc. And on the main movements, a top set range and then back-offs. The straight-sets and back-off sets will all be RPE Stop sets. For "light" movements like Pause Squats, I will shoot to keep rest times ~2 minutes to limit total number of sets. "Medium" movements, ~2-3 minutes. Main or "heavy" movements will have ~2 minutes between test /final warm-up set and top set, 2-3 minutes between top set and first volume / back-off set, and then ~2 minutes between volume sets.
So for Low Bar Pause Squats, I was targeting 4-6 reps around 275. Test set/last warm-up of 245X5@6 pointed me right at 275, and that worked well. My intent is to go for @9 RPE Stops, but I've only been doing 3 sets on this day, and figured a week to pivot into higher volume might not be terrible, especially since I'm still dealing with quad issues. So I hit a 4th set @ 8.5 and called that good enough for this week.
Bench was a little all over the place. Was looking for a top set of 2-4 reps in the 235 range. Went for a test set with 210 (90% of target) and felt like it was almost @8 after 2 reps. So I added 2.5% and tried again, but this time got X3@7. So either I wasn't fully warmed up for 210, or my technique was off. Anyway, this ended up being more predictive. Took the 5% jump to 225 and it was just a hair over @8 for 3 reps. Back-off sets ended up getting to @9 pretty quickly. This is why I might need to move the main movement to the beginning of the training session. Just in case adding additional volume to the initial movement of the day may negatively impact ability to do volume on the primary movement.
Block-Pulls went okay although I overshot the first work-set, and ended up with a top set and back-offs (not the plan, but whatevs. AUTO-REGULATED). 305 is heavier than the test sets I've been doing, but this felt @6 and this movement has been moving really well the last couple of weeks. But 335 was definitely not a weight I was going to pull for sets across. Backed down to 317.5, and that felt like a weight I was going to pull all day, but with the 2-3 minute rests, I got to the end fairly quickly, which is how I planned for this to work. So yay me. Tried to get video of all top sets and final volume sets, but missed the Bench top set.
