Back from a week long trip. Basically starting the program over. This session looks almost exactly like the 'A' sessions from the first two weeks. It will be interesting to see if lifts progress faster, slower, or about the same.
Happy to report that I had not foot/plantar fasciitis issues at all spending 6 days walking around NYC and an upstate farm. We'll see if any of that discomfort reemerges (i.e. was it due to training?) or if the calf work and switching ~half my conditioning to the rower helped clear that up.
First, full, regular session back after Covid isolation. Only tried to add 5 lbs. to the main lifts (have been adding 10). I probably should have repeated the weight from prior sessions instead.
280 for 3+ sets of 9 is a Volume PR on Squats. I very much wanted to stop after the 2nd set.
I then I fully hit the wall on Bench. Top set was much harder than the same weight last week, and I was nearing failure by the 2nd volume set.
I called it there for Bench, and added 2 sets to the triceps extensions to get comparable volume for the day if not comparable training stress.
Also probably need to get back on my supplementation routine. I fell out of the habit of my morning shake during isolation, which means I haven't been getting any creatine.
Hit last week's top single on High Bar and it felt like a warm-up, so I went up. Nice little data point in my new approach of hitting the same weights until they feel "easier than they're supposed to."
Press was also slightly easier across the board.
My wrists were feeling a little banged up after HBS (I use a narrow, thumbs-around grip on that variant) and Press. So I controlled the eccentric a bit more on the Push Presses. It actually felt better in general to do them that way, so I'll switch over to that. Who knows, maybe I'll trigger a smidge more hypertrophy with the slower eccentric.
I've decided I won't push weight up on Squats until after the RPE has dropped with the current weight. Last week, 250X5 on Reverse SSB was ~7.5. It was easier this week, so if I feel normal next week, I'll go up in weight.
Have no idea how to gauge RPE on these low % EMOMS. Practically throwing it at the ceiling. But bar speed maybe started to slow down a little bit towards the end, so probably something was happening.
Density; 2 reps every 0:30; 3:00 / 12 total reps @8
DB 1-Arm Rows - 90X10 @8.5
Squat -
350X3 @7.5
215X14 @6
DB Curls - 37.5sX10, 11 @8/10
No PRs on this day, but most things went well.
Bench moving nicely at these lower reps. E1RM on the top single is averaging almost a 2.5% increase week-over-week.
Chin-Ups feeling strong the last couple of weeks. It occurred to me that I might be trying to "force" progress by looking to add reps to the density sets every week. I decided to sit back and say "keep those the same unless progress on the top set stalls." Top set has been going up, and this was possibly the easiest "12-in-3:00" of the block so far. That @8 on the last reps was the ceiling. Possibly @7.5.
I'd intended for the DB Rows to be an @10 set on this day, but they came in under with the weight I picked, and I didn't want to do another set before Squats.
Still taking a full 5 minute break between the upper back slot and Squats, but it didn't really help that much this day. E1RM stalled out, and everything felt pretty hard. Even though the back-off set was @6, I was still gasping for air afterwards. Very likely Squats move back into a primary training slot the next two training blocks. I need to keep in mind that they're not THAT far off from where I'd like them to be relative to my other lifts currently. But the way DL is going I have a feeling that gap is going to widen quite a bit by the end of this block.
Because this training block is getting cut short by travel, I had my eye on coming in and shooting for a big Bench PR of 275. However, it wasn't going to be there. I pushed the warm-ups and the top single trying to make it happen; telling myself, "maybe you've been sandbagging your RPE," but the 252.5 was @9 at best. And the back-off sets quickly escalated in difficulty. Of course, I'd only gotten 5-6 hours of sleep the night before, so I wasn't in the best recovery space. This was by far my worst week 4 bench results over the last 3 training blocks. I really think it would have bounced back next week with good recovery.
Oh, well. Something to look forward to next block. My bench has been starting new blocks around 92% of the previous block e1RM, and my lifts have been increasing by an average of about 2% per cycle over the last 3 blocks. That would put me right around 273 at the end of the next block. However, it's a higher intensity Transmutation block, and last transmutation block my results were a bit better than these averages.
I hit 50 total reps with the 55s last week on DB Bench, so I upped it to the 60s this week per the 350 Method. Felt a little harder than I expected, and I think that's a little bit of extra fatigue from pushing the bench a bit harder. Doesn't really matter as this block is over anyway.
Inverted rows actually felt really good. I think I'm more acclimated to this version of the movement, plus I came in at a slightly lower BW than the last couple of cycles.
Tougher session. Probably pushed the squats a little harder than I should have. The last two blocks I had about a 5% jump in Cycle 4, and I was trying to will that to happen here. It clearly wasn't in the cards, but I then tried to force a 10 lb. jump, and ended up overshooting a bit on my singles. I brought it back in line for the back-off sets, and they felt about right.
Rack Chins dropped off a bit, but I was also "holding the squeeze" pretty hard at the top of each rep.
I was pretty wiped by the time I got to Sumos, but they actually had a bit of a larger jump than last week. I just really had to will my focus.
I'm traveling next week for work and vacation, and I've decided not to try and shoehorn any training into that trip, so I will be cutting this block short after this cycle. Would have been interesting to see where it went, though. Lots of intriguing things happening.
Bench moved really well. Had to dial-in hard on pacing for the back-off sets of 9, but the top single felt very good. Targeted a 5% increase in eRM over last week, and hit it.
Hit 50 total reps with the 55s on DB Bench. Per the 350 method, I go up to the 60s next week. Nice!
Inverted Rows were fine.
Video of Bench top set and final back-off, and 21 rep set on DBs.
What an adventure. I ended up looking at last week's programmed DL numbers instead of my squat numbers. Didn't realize it until have my last warm-up set of 9. But that set felt @7 so....I went with it. Top set ended up being a touch heavier than I wanted, so probably should have been closer to my original target of 345. Still I decided to push the back-off sets up by 5 lbs., and that worked out okay...although it might have negatively impacted my sumos later in the session.
Interestingly, this is the third block in a row of having a big jump on squats in cycle 3 and/or 4. Interested to see what happens next week.
Rack chins took a little step back with the increase in BW. Need to get that increase under better control.
Sumo were actually a little weaker than last week. 285 was supposed to be my last warm-up, but was clearly @7+ so I stayed there. As I mentioned above, I suspect going a little harder on Squats earlier in the session may have contributed.
Chin-Ups - BWX 7, 5, 4, 6 (first 3 sets before press, 4th set after)
Pull-Downs - X10, 10, 9 (straight-weight; plus "5" lbs. from last week)
BB Curls - 45X12, 10
Left adductor was killing me, but weight was fine on Squats.
After failing to get 5 reps on any sets with 140 last week, backed off to 135. These were very hard. Last set shown.
Chin-Ups actually felt pretty strong on the first couple of sets. Dropped off on the third. These sets were all done during warm-ups for Press. Then I did the next set after Press and the strength was back.
Upped the weight on pull-downs. Was feeling pretty fatigued, but still tried to keep rests short. Couldn't get a clean 10th rep on the last set.
Forearms were burning pretty good at this point which made curls kind of a bitch. Hoping for some of the 'ol Adaptation here.
365X3 is an all around PR. Heaviest weight I've ever had on my back. Felt pretty good, although depth is not as clean as I would have liked:
As has largely been the case since I switched to triples and back-off sets, the top tripe feels much better than the following sets of 5. Low back irritation and mental fatigue from the top set really gum up the following sets. On this day, I ended up only doing triples on the back-offs. Here's the shit-show that was the first back-off set:
At this point, it hurts to get out of bed in the morning. So having hit this big milestone weight, I'm going to deload and reset to a weekly progression on squats.
I was in an unavoidable time crunch, so I skipped a bench session that would have been going for an LP PR, and just went to deadlift.
Deadlift felt pretty good all things considered, but I forgot to film it.
