Novice LP. Session 22

BW - 225

Squat - 275X3X5

Press - 102.5X3X5

Deadlift -
325X3
290X3

80% Squats and Press all went pretty well.  Squats were harder than the Press.

Similar to the adjustment I made to the last heavy Squat session, I needed to do something with DL to account for failure on the last session, and to give me low back some recovery.  I reduced the top set by 10lbs., reduced the reps to 3, and added a back-off set of 3 at 90%.  My back was already feeling better coming off of the changes I made to squats, and I'm feeling positive about these changes.  I still feel like there's a lot of room to work on tightness all along the spine, however.

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.

Novice LP. Session 20

BW - 226

Squats -
340X4
305X5

Press - 127.5X5, 5, 4

Band-Assisted Chins - RedLightBandX4X5

Woof.  Every rep of the 1st set of squats was hard, and the 4th one wouldn't go up.  Though about doing two more sets, but decided to get take a back-off set at 90% instead.  Will try 340 again this week.

Press failed on the final rep of the final set.  Will try this again when Press comes back up in 1.5 weeks.

Band assisted chins felt stronger this time.

Novice LP. Session 19

BW - 225

Squat - 267.5X3X5

Bench - 152.5X3X5

Deadlift -
335X2
300X5

Squats and Bench all felt good on the light day.

Heavy day for Deadlift.  Failed on 3rd Rep.

So then I did a back-off set at 90%

I'll try this weight again next week.

Novice LP. Session 18

BW - 227

Squat - 335X3X5

Press - 125X3X5

Chin-Ups - BWX5, 3

Negative Chins (0/0/3) - BWX4X4

Whew.  Squats were hard and exhausting again on this day.  I'm in brand new LP territory here having set an LP PR last session, and never having had the 80% days before.  I'm gonna try and push this as far as I can: fail2X, reset, fail2X, top-set+back-offX2, 3X3, etc.
3rd set shown below.

1st set of press was really hard as well.  They got more do-able the further I got from the squats.

Little bit of progress on the chins.

Novice LP. Session 17

BW - 226

Squat - 330X3X5

Bench - 190X3X5

Band-Assisted Chins - RedLightBandX4X5

330 for 3 sets of 5 is an LP PR.  These were really, really fucking hard.  I had out of town guests for the 2nd weekend in a row, and I had to sit in jury selection all day.  That means my sleep and food and just general routine were all very irregular.  I tried pounding a coffee and doughnut before this session, but focusing seemed next to impossible until after the first work set.  That woke me up a bit for some reason, and I got through all three sets.  Here's the last set.  Probably too high for competition, but may be okay for training:

Bench went a little bit better.

2nd day of Niki Sims chin-up program, meaning first day with band assistance.  Red light band looped under one foot, and legs kept straight throughout.  By the 4th set of 5, these were actually a little harder than I expected, and I was really feeling them in my biceps.

Novice LP. Session 16

BW - 227

Squat - 260X3X5

Press - 97.5X3X5

Deadlift - 325X5

Light day for Squat and Press.  2nd weekend in a row of having folks visit from out of town, so no conditioning this weekend.

Half way through my deadlift set, I tried taking as big a breath as possible because my back wasn't feeling awesome, and I discovered that I hadn't been taking nearly big enough breaths.  Last reps felt much better than first reps.