Pivot. Week 1. Session A.

sRPE @6

BW - 221

Box Squat - up to 345X1 @9

Wide-Grip Press, paused on chest - up to 125X2 @10

Pull-Downs with end-ROM drop-set - X10/6; 10/5 @~10

Been a roller-coaster couple of weeks fighting through a lingering cold, traveling for 3 days, then coming back with the flu.  Decided to stop trying to eke out gains from the prior training block, and just pivot and start a new block (hopefully) next week.

The planned new block would be lower rep work, so my plan here was to work up on some relatively novel variations to try and stimulate the skill of low rep work ahead of starting the block.

It's possible box squats are no longer novel enough for this kind of thing, as I pretty quickly aggravated my right glute.  So now I have that on top of everything else, lol.

WG dead-stop presses were fun if a bit awkward to figure out the grip width and walk out.

REALLY liked the mechanical drop-set on the pull-downs.  This kind of thing is becoming more popular in the body-building world as the literature around end-range partials for hypertrophy continues to grow.  What I did here was take a long ROM pull-down to technical failure then keep going only brining my upper arms down to ~parallel.  The burn on the drop-set partials was real.  

Block 10B. Cycle 3. Session A.

BW - 229

Waist - 43.5"

sRPE @ 8

Squat -
377.5X2 @ 9
320X6, 6, 6 @~8

WG Deadlift - 285X9, 9, 9 @8

Leg Press -
495X7 @7
520X7 @8

Everything went pretty well.  I keep forgetting the WG Deadlift is supposed to be @7 this block.

Block 10B. Cycle 2. Session A.

BW - 229

Waist - 43.5"

sRPE @ 8

Squat -
370X2 @9
315X6, 6, 6 @7.5/8.25

WG DL - 275X9, 9, 9 @~7.5

Leg Press - 495X7, 7 @8

Block 10B. Cycle 1. Session A.

BW - 226

Waist - 43.25

sRPE @ 8

Squat -
377.5X2 @10
310X6 @ 8.5
300X6 @ 8

WG Deadlift - 270X9, 9 @~7

Leg Press - 5.5ppsX7 @ 8

Weird session.

I felt a little out-of-it walking into the gym, but tried to rally for Squats.

Warm-ups went OK, but not great.  I backed off of my target top set weight, but it was still harder than I wanted (targeting RPE 9).  Then the first back-off was slightly heavier than I wanted it to be, but I could tell than the next set was going to be even harder, so I backed the weight off again, and hit the RPE target.  At this point, I remembered how I'd dropped a set per movement from the first week of Block 10A, and decided to do that again today to make sure I could get through it.

Then Wide Grip DL and Leg Press were all right on target.  Dunno.

Block 9. Cycle 2. Session C, D., Cycle 3. Session A.

BW - 227, 230, 228

Waist - 43", 43.75", 43"

sRPE @ ~8 for all

2.C:
Bench -
205X3 @8
155X15@9.5

Chin-Up 1.5s - BWX6, 6, 6 @~10

Upright Rows (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) - 90X12, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 @~9

Curls -
65X12, 12 @8, 10
55X12 @8.5

2.D:
Deadlift -
375X3 @8
290X15 @9

RDL - 290X7 @9.25

Hack Squat (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) - 75X17, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 @8/8.5

3.A:
Chin-Ups - BW+25X4, 4 @~10

Press -
147.5X1 @8.5
135X3, 3 @8

Dips - BW+20X10, 8 @8.5, 9

WG Pull-Downs (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) - 85X20, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 @8.5/8

Block 9. Cycle 2. Session A.

BW - 232.9

Waist - 43.5"

sRPE @ 8

Chin-Ups - BW+17.5X4, 2 @~10

Press -
152.5X1 @9.75
137.5X3 @9.5
127.5X3 @8.25

Dips - BW+10X10, 10 @8,9

WG Pull-Downs (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) - 85X18, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6 @8/9

Weak session.

Chin-Ups and Press just weren't quite there for me on this day.

With Chins, my BW spiked on this day, and that really does seem to make a huge difference even accounting for total weight.

But when Press also took a step back, I thought maybe it was just an off day.  I still tried to push for my target weights, but both the top single and the first set of 3 were clearly to heavy on this day and so I backed off for the second set of 3.

Dips were slightly better, but the RPE shouldn't have jumped so much on the second set.

Pull-downs were fine though, lol.

Block 9. Cycle 1. Session A.

BW - 227

Waist - 43.5"

sRPE @7

Chin-Ups - BW+17.5X4, 3 @~10

Press -
150X1 @9
135X3, 3 @~8

Dips -
BW+25X10 @9.5
BW+5X10 @8

WG Pull-Downs (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) - 85X16, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 @8/9

Decent session to start the new training block.

I shifted things around to start off with the movements that struggled the most last block.

Chin-ups were about as expected.

Press ended up being a bit stronger out of the gate than expected.

I thought the opening weight on Dips might be a bit ambitious and I was right.  Will back-off a touch next week.

Using extra-Wide Grip bar on pull-downs to see if I can get a little more focus on all the little muscles that struggle at the top of a chin-up.  Theoretical, and probably a bad idea.