Old Man Texas Method. Week 10. Volume Day

BW - 226

Squat - 365X5, 5, 5

Bench - 202.5X5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Deadlift - 315X5, 5

Things went pretty well on this day.

365 for 3 sets of 5 ties my LP PR for Squat.  First two sets of squats were pretty hard, but something clicked for the last set, and it was the best of them.  I will say, that after my illness lay-off last week, and even though I got in last Friday and had a sort of day of "ramping back up," my legs are pretty damn sore today.  That's exactly what I was hoping Friday would mitigate, but we'll just have to see if it gives me trouble the rest of the week.  Last set shown.

Bench moved very, very well.  Didn't even feel the need for a lift-off/spot on the last set (shown).

Deadlift was also solid.  Nice and fast as this weight has been for the last 5 weeks I've had it as my work weight on Volume Day.  I've got one more week with 315, before it starts to go up.  Left-hand still feeling sore when I use it for the supinated grip.  May just need to switch to right-hand supinated for a few weeks to give it time to recover.  2nd set shown.

Greyskull LP. Session 22

BW - 227

Bench - 210X5, 5, 8

Chin-ups - BW; 28 Reps; 8 sets

Deadlift - 360X5

210X8 is a Rep PR on Bench and a 3X5 LP PR.  RPE 10 thanks to the spotter pushing me to get that last rep.  No video, but this was a max effort, one arm locks out way before the other, slooooooow PR.

More reps AND sets on chins on this day.  Mostly used my least favorite chin-up station in the gym (wobbly stand and has smooth, large diameter grips), so might have beaten the total reps in fewer sets at a better station.  Whatevs.  Volume uber alles.

360X5 is a Rep PR on Deadlift.  4 reps would have been a PR, but I was determined to get a 1X5 LP PR.  Similar to how I've been handling the Squat, I really took my time on these instead of trying to "blast" through them.  While that made the initial reps maybe feel a little slower, I think it helped the later reps.

Greyskull LP. Session 6

BW - 225

Bench - 190X5, 5, 10

Chin-Ups -
BW+30X2
BW+25X3
BWX7, 5

Dips - BW+30X8, 8, 8

Deadlift - 305X8

190X10 is a Rep PR in Bench.  Everything felt pretty good.  Pushed this to the just about the limit, and should probably start getting a spotter for these AMRAP sets, as I almost hit the J-Hook when I went to rack it.  Tried a different video angle.  This might be the best one so far.  At least it was informative in that it showed I'm not centered on the pad, and that appears to be causing an uneven lock-out because the shoulder hangs over. 

Chin-ups did not go well.  Tried backing off the weight for the 2nd set, but it didn't help.  Time for some kind of reset.  Thinking I will drop back down to 20, and start micro-loading.  If I hit a wall there, I will possibly start over with body-weight and  a different grip, or dead-hangs.

Dips went fine.

305X8 is a Rep PR on Deadlift.  Primary limiting factor here is still fatigue.  At the end of the session, and having to breath hunched over, I just run out of gas.  Fatigue aside, I believe this is about RPE 8 for pure strength.

Novice LP. Session 67 (Greyskull Squats and Press)

BW - 228

Bench -
240X2
215X5, 5

Chin-Ups -
BW+25X3, 3
BWX10, 6

240X2 is an all-around PR on Bench.  2nd rep was slow.  You can see my spotter thought he was going to have to take it, but I didn't really ever think he would have.  However, we are definitely at RPE 10 here where technical mistakes will likely result in a miss.  Back-off sets were quite strong.  2nd back-off set shown in the video.

253 (BW+25)X3 and 228 (BW)X10 are both Rep PRs on chins.  I think that 10 rep PR can largely be chalked up to not doing a lower body movement beforehand on this day.  After hitting 405X2 on Squats, I decided to take a session off from lower body work before I reset.  I want to try and give this adductor some room to heal up.  I'll take the 10 Rep PR, though.

Novice LP. Session 66 (Greyskull Squats and Press)

BW - 227

Press -
155X2
140X3
125X10

Squat -
405X2
360X3
325X6

Chin-Ups -
BW+20X5, 5
BWX8, 5

155X2 is an all-around PR on the press.  RPE 10.  I thought the first rep was RPE 9.5 actually, hahaha.  Oh!  125X10 is a Rep PR, as well!

405X2 is an all-around PR on Squats.  RPE 9+.  I was only supposed to do 400 today, but the gym was full of quality spotters, and I thought I'd take advantage  instead of rolling the dice with whoever was in the gym on Friday.  I was pretty happy about this as you can see in the video.  I was pretty mentally worn down by the time I got to the AMRAP set and only went to about an RPE 8.5 on that.  I will probably do a reset on Squats now.  I don't want to spend too much time on triples and doubles.

247 (BW+5)X5 is a Rep PR on Chins.  Felt hard, but got both sets.  2nd set shown.

Novice LP. Session 21

BW - 227

Squat -
345X3
310X5, 5

Bench - 195X3X5

Chin-Ups - BWX5, 4

Negative Chins (0/0/3) - BWX4X4

After failing on Squats on Monday, I could have taken several approaches:  Repeat the attempts, reset to 90%, do 1 set of 5 followed by 2 back-off sets at 90%, switch programs.  My low back has been giving me low level achy-ness fairly continually for a couple of weeks, so I didn't want to try the sets again, and since I failed on the first set, I wasn't even stoked about the idea of a set of 5.  At the same time, the LP has generally been running so well, I didn't want to do a full reset, and certainly didn't want to jump to a different program.  So I settled on a slightly different approach.  I went UP in weight for the first set, but reduced reps to a triple.  Then followed with the two back-off sets of 5 @ 90%.  This felt really good.  This is the approach I plan to take as all the lifts stall out, and we'll see how it goes:

Bench felt fairly weak on the 1st and 2nd sets, but I get a lift-off for the 3rd set and it went well.

Chins also felt stronger.

Full-Body. Week 4. Bench

BW - 228

Squat -
BarX5
135X5
205X4
245X3
295X3, 3, 3

Bench -
BarX5
115X4
145X3
175X2
195X1
175X12, 6

Chins - BWX3, 3, 3

Deadlift -
135X3
225X3
265X3, 3, 3

I had an unplanned day of rest before this day, and while I wasn't motivated to get in the gym, things felt great once I got going.

295 felt easier this day than the previous 3X3 day on squats.

175X12 is a Rep PR on bench.  This was probably an RPE 9.  I didn't use a spotter, so light enough to get out of the rack on my own and still get a PR, but I wouldn't have gone for another rep without someone there.

3X3 on chins pain free!  My P.T. does good work.

Deadlifts moved really fast.  Ultimately, I don't know how I want to program this day, because I want chins back in the weekly rotation if I can do them, but I'm finding a lot of value in the technique reinforcement of the "speed" deads.  Maybe put chins on Small Session days like I did with Dips?  That's a thought...

Novice LP - Session 26

BW - 227

Squat -
BarX5
145X4
195X3
235X2
275X1
305X5, 5, 5

Bench -
BarX5
105X3
135X2
175X1
197.5X5, 5, 5

Cleans -
Up to 1 yellow and 1 white per side

Good session.  Felt pretty strong throughout. Got waaaaay far forward on the 3rd rep on my last squat set, but managed to push through and gut out the last two reps to complete the sets.  Felt really pumped about getting through that.

Got all the reps on bench with no spotter to unrack for me.  Felt good about that too.

Cleans aren't pretty but I didn't have any trouble getting these to land mostly on my shoulders.

Still had energy to spare walking out of the gym.  Nice day.

Phase 1. Week 5. Bench

BW - 210

Bench -
BarX15
95X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
185X7, 2

Cambered Bench -
155X2
135X5, 5

Incline Bench -
155X4, 4
135X7

185X7 is barely at my goal for this weight.  I went for an 8th, and the bar got back over my face way before lock-out.  Both I and my spotter thought I would have had the rep if I hadn't mis-grooved.  Nevertheless, I think I'll stay at this weight for next session.

All the accessory lifts felt heavy as hell, and I ended up backing off weight on both of them.  Wondering if it would be a good idea to stay at lower weight and hit higher reps on these for the rest of the cycle.  I'd actually planned on the opposite: Higher Weight, Lower Reps More sets through the end of the cycle, and then trying to use the same weights for Higher Reps, Less Sets and the beginning of the next, but maybe that's backwards.

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 6. Bench

BW - 206

Bench -
BarX10
95X5
115X4
135X3
155X2
185X1

165X10, 5

Chins (Close, V-Grip) -
BWX5
+15X5
+20X3, 3
+25X2
+30X1

+25X6, 4
BWX7, 3

DB Bench - 65sX15, 6, 6, 5

Solid session.  I benched without a spotter, so cut the back-off set of bench at 10.  Feel confident I would have gotten at least 1 more with a spot, so I don't think this is really a step back from last week.  Also, I had trouble with my set-up.  The bench I was using had less 'grip' to it, and I had hard time getting set so that I could use leg-drive without sliding backwards on the bench.

Chins and DB Bench were all fine.  Similar to last week, with maybe a bit more volume thrown in.

LRB 365: Big-15. Phase 2. Week 5. Bench

BW - 205

Bench -
BarX15
85X5
105X4
125X3
155X2
175X1

165X12, 3

Chins (close, v-grip) -
BWX5
+25X2, 2
+45X1

+25X6, 3
BWX7, 5, 5

DB Bench - 65sX15, 6, 6

Good session.

165X12 is a Rep PR and my goal for the cycle.  I got a 13th rep, but the spotter had his fingers on the bar, and I have no idea how much he may have helped.

I tried to switch some stuff up with the chins by running up faster and to a heavier single.  I was hoping that would leave more in the tank for the back-offs AND make them feel even lighter.  Didn't work out this time, and so I added a couple more BW sets to make up for the lost volume.

65sX15 is my cycle goal for the DB Bench.

2 goals hit to start Week 5.  Good stuff.