Block 2 (Accumulation). Cycle 4. Day 1.

BW - 214

Squat - 245X8, 8, 8 @~6.5

Tempo Incline 2-2-0 -
120X5, 5 @6.5, 7
117.5X5 @7.5

Tempo Row - 110X8, 8, 8 @6/7

Because of the larger than planned jumps I ended up taking last session, I went in with slightly elevated targets for this session.

For Squat that ended up being right on.  2nd set felt easier than the first, and 3rd set was still @6.5

With Incline, I ended up taking slightly to big of a jump, and had to come back down a bit.  The TUT here still takes a lot out of me; combined with my pressing strength tends to drop off quickly.

Tempo rows were the one lift where I didn't plan to take a larger jump (planned +2.5 over last time), but a 5 lb. jump ended up being warranted after all.  However, my 2 count hold at the top doesn't quite stand up to video scrutiny.  Oh well.

Block 2 (Accumulation). Cycle 1. Day 1.

BW - 212

Squat - 225X8, 8, 8 @6

Tempo Incline Bench 2-2-0 - 105X5, 5, 5 @6

Tempo BB Row 0-2-0 -
100X8, 8 @~7
95X8 @8

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.

Video is all of final sets.

Hybrid Training. Week 9. Light Upper

BW - 227

Warm-up:
Cable Pushdowns - X20
Cable Stiff-Arm Pushdowns - X15

Bench  - 177.5X2, 2, 2, 2

CG Bench (4/0/0) - 157.5X3, 3, 3, 3

Rolling, EZ Bar Extensions - 80X6, 6, 6

Chest-Supported Rows - 115X8, 6, 9
super-set with
Chest-Supported Retractions - 115X10, 9, 9

Reverse-Grip Preacher Curls -
50X8, 8, 8
drop-set - 50X6, 40X4, 30X3

Face-Pulls - X20, 18, 15

Good session.  Had a lot of energy for a Friday.

Bench moved pretty fast.  I got a hand-off for all my work-sets to make sure I could stay as tight as possible.  Losing that little bit of tightness unracking myself seems to make a real difference in speed.

Added 1 sec. to the eccentric on close grips.  No problem at all.

Tried switching to rolling ez bar extensions this week.  Not sure if I got much out of them.  Will try to push them a bit more next week.

Really dug chest-supported rows to near failure into the retractions.  There was a bit of controlled thoracic extension on these as well.  My upper back was achy as shit for the next two days.

Hybrid Training. Week 8. Light Upper

BW - 229

Warm-up - Rope Triceps/Lats Pushdowns Superset

Bench - 167.5X3, 3, 3

CG Bench (3/0/0) - 157.5X3, 3, 3, 3

Incline, Paused Tate Press -
35sX6
40sX4, 4
giant-set with
DB Rolling Triceps -
35sX12
40sX7, 4

DB Rows - up to 80sX8, 6

Rope Face-Pull - X20, 15, 12 (straight-weight)
giant-set with
Rope Lat Pushdowns - X12, 10, 8 (straight-weight)

DB Hammer Curls - 35sX8, 7, 5 (paused on thigh)

That all looks like a lot of stuff, but it's actually just 5 things:
Barbell Bench - 7 sets
DB Triceps - 3 sets
DB Upperback - 2 sets
Cable Upperback - 3 sets
DB Biceps - 3 sets

Triples all moved nice and fast on the Speed Bench.

The 3 second eccentric with 157.5 wasn't nearly as challenging as 4 second eccentrics with 155 last week.  Kind of felt more like explosive work.

Giant-setting the Tate Press with the Rolling Triceps worked pretty well, but I was surprised how few reps I was able to get on the 2nd set.  Not sure if I should have stayed with the 35s or if I need to just start with the 40s (I'll probably do the latter).

That rope giant-set for upper back is still brutal.

Hybrid Training. Week 7. Light Upper

BW - 227

Bench - up to 157.5X5, 5

CG Bench (5/0/0) - 155X4, 4, 4, 4

Incline Tate Press - up to 40sX5, 4, 3

Rolling DB Extensions - 40sX6 (immediately following last Tate Press set)

DB Rows -
60s, 70s, 80sX8
85sX5

Rope Face-Pulls - X20, 15, 12 (straight-weight)
super-set with
Rope Stiff-Arm Pushdowns - X10, 10, 10 (same weight)

Had a lot going on this last week with family in town and some other stuff.  So it has been a week since I'd been in the gym, and I'd only gotten one run in the interim.  I had A LOT of energy walking into the gym today.  Since it was a light or "speed" day, I decided to push that energy into accessories instead of the speed bench.  (which was fine)

I stayed at the same weight for the TUT close-grips as I did last time.  These were a LOT easier following speed sets of 157.5X5 then 175X2.  I threw in an extra set, because the last rep on set 3 seemed too easy.  The last rep on set 4 felt more like what I've been used to.

Tried out the Tate Press for the first time.  Probably went way to heavy.  I tried to mitigate that on the last set by taking the same DBs on jumping over to a flat bench for a set of rolling extensions.  I used an incline bench for the Tate Press, because I'd seen a video of a guy doing them that way, and thought it might hit the triceps slightly different than CG Bench.  I will either go lighter on these in the future, or do them on a flat bench and finish every set with rolling triceps.

Did some DB Rows, and they felt pretty strong.  Looking back, I've never gone over 70 on these before, so...Rep PR!

Finished off with the same rear-delt/lat superset from last week (forgot to do biceps).  Still hard as hell.

Hybrid Training. Week 6. Tempo Run and Light Upper

Saturday:

Tempo Run - 3 miles @ 00:37:00

Sunday:

BW - 225

Bench - up to 175X2, 2

CG Bench, TUT (5/0/0) - 155X4, 4, 4

Rope Face-Pulls - X20, 15, 15 (straight-weight)

super-set with

Rope Stiff-Arm Pushdowns - X20, 15, 11 (straight-weight)

BB Drag Curls - up to 70X5, 4

Hit my distance on the tempo run this weekend, which is great.  Next week I'll push to 3.5 miles, and then look to reset to 2.5 miles and start increasing pace.

Bar moved pretty well with 175 on speed bench.  Final rep was probably too slow.

Tried the TUT close-grips with an explosive concentric; similar to what I did in Columbus with Matt Wenning.  Felt good.  Final reps on each set were getting pretty hard.

Supersetting the facepulls with straight-arm pushdowns using the rope attachment for both and the same weight was interesting.  Pre-fatiguing the rear delts, I discovered I could "feel" them in the pushdowns, and with a slight alteration I could "remove" them from the movement which also made the movement more difficult.  I'll look to keep this one in the rotation and see what pans out.

I guess I did drag curls a couple of times in 2011.  That must have been when I first started and was doing the DeFranco program.  I found this a challenging movement to get down.  Focused on keeping the shoulders down so that I wasn't doing a shrug/row hybrid.  By the end, it started to feel close to right.

Hybrid Training. Week 3. Light Upper

BW - 227.4

Bench - up to 175X2, 2

TUT (5/0/4) CG Bench - 145X5, 5, 5

DB Laterals - 35sX6, 6, 6

BB Curls - up to 65X12, 5

Speed bench moved pretty well.

I increased the eccentric on the TUT bench by 1 second.  Last rep of the last set was dicey.

Upped weight on laterals.  Normally I don't care too much about weight on this sort of movement, however these are being done very strict: seated, with a full stop at the bottom of the rep, and no body english to get them started.  Progressing in that manner is satisfying.

Was totally out of gas on the 2nd set of curls.  5 reps looks bad, considering I got 2X10 last week, however another way to look at it is that I only came up 3 reps short.

Hybrid Training. Week 2. Light Upper

BW - 228

Bench - up to 165X3, 3

TUT (4/0/4) CG Bench - 145X5, 5, 5

DB Laterals - 30sX6, 6, 6

BB Curls - up to 65X10, 10

I'm trying out a little waving on the light day as well.  Gonna do 5s, 3s, and 2s and see how that goes on the speed bench.

For the TUT close-grips, I'm leaving the weight the same but waving the tempo inversely to the reps.  So last week was 6X3/0/3, this week was 5X4/0/4, and next week I'm going to try staying at 5 reps, but going 5/0/4 on the tempo.  This tempo work is really interesting.  So far, the first set feels like cake, and the last set feels like it's near-failure.

Hybrid Training. Week 1. Light Upper

BW - 228

Bench - up to 155X5, 5

TUT (3/0/3) CG Bench - 145X6, 6, 6

DB Laterals - 30sX6, 6, 6

BB Curls - up to 65X8, 10

Solid session.  Upped the weight by 5 lbs. on the TUT close-grips, and the last set was pretty tough.  The tempo work is interesting, and I'm curious to see how it pays off.

Hybrid Training. Week 0. Light Upper

BW - 228

Bench - up to 155X5, 5

TUT (3/0/3) CG Bench - 140X6, 6, 6

DB Laterals - 25sX6, 6, 6

BB Curls - up to 65X8, 8

Light and easy as expected.

I did learn on the CG Bench that it's more comfortable for me if I use more of a "medium" grip (one hand-width in from competition grip), and don't tuck my elbows as hard.  My right shoulder is still bothering me a bit from something that happened over vacation.  I went in and tried to do CG bench the way I used to do them, when that was the only way I benched.  And I found that having my hands at "press grip," that is, touching the smooth, and keeping my upper arm parallel to my torso through the movement made the shoulder hurt like hell.  It reminded me a lot of the feeling I got when I injured my shoulder benching in 2014.  Makes me wonder it that technique was really the underlying issue somehow.  Moving out the grip and letting the elbows angle out a bit completely eliminated any discomfort in the injured area.  And the movement just felt more "right" somehow.

Only thing that felt heavy today were the curls.