Novice LP. Session 29 (Greyskull Squats)

BW - 228

Press - 132.5X3, 3, 3

Squats - 285X5, 5, 10

Chin-Ups - BWX7, 4

Negative Chins (0/0/3) - BWX4X4

Starting to mix in the Greyskull LP starting on this day.  One of the two pillars of that set-up is Pressing movements come first.

These triples on press were all heavy, but only the last rep of the SECOND set was in doubt.  All the others were there.

This is my first time going over 5 reps on Squat since August '16, and my first time hitting double-digits since April '16.  Really fucking hard, hahahaha, but looked okay.  Conditioning was clearly the limiting factor:

Added a rep to the first set of chins.  Progress!

Novice LP. Session 28

BW - 224

Bench - 205X5, 5, 5

Band-Assisted Chins - OrangeLightBandX7, 6, 6, 5

Took a week off from Squats after hitting 365X3.  Was stoked for that PR, but my low back was feeling hammered all the time, and unracking/reracking the weight was getting painful on every work set.  I'm going to reset starting this week with the Greyskull LP on Squats (2X5, 1XAMAP).

But the regular LP is still working on Bench.  205 for 3 sets of 5 is another LP PR.  The last rep on the last set was really, really tough.  My spotter complimented me on pushing through for it.  I chalk it up to keeping focused, and executing each part of the lift correctly.  A technical error would have definitely caused a miss.

Couldn't find my usual band for chins, so I used an orange one.  Orange isn't on any of the band charts I've found on line, so I don't know how it might compare to my usual, red band.  It looked a little bit wider.

Whatever the case, everything went as programmed, except I missed the last rep on the last set.  So I'll repeat this one next time.

Novice LP. Session 27

BW - 227

Bench - 202.5X3X5

Chin-Ups - BWX6, 4

Negative Chins (0/0/3) - BWX4X4

202.5 is a Novice LP, or 3X5, PR on bench.  First reps were strong, last reps were slow.  I'm optimistic about 205.

Chin-ups feeling stronger than ever.

Novice LP. Session 26

BW - 228

Squat -
365X3
327.5X3, 3

Deadlift -
330X3
295X3

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.

Novice LP. Session 25

BW - 227

Squat -
360X3
325X5, 5

Press - 130X3X3

Band-Assisted Chins - RedLightBandX6, 6, 6, 6

360X3 is a Rep PR.

As has been the case since I moved into a top triple and back-off sets of 5, while the tripe feels objectively very heavy, the 1st set of 5 on the back-offs tends to feel the hardest.

No low back trouble on the top set.  On the back-offs, the rep itself doesn't hurt, but unracking the weight and standing with it has a lot of discomfort.  Really bothering me by the 2nd set.

Moved on to 3X3 on Press after stalling last session.  These were heavy, but very do-able.  We'll see how far these go.  When this stalls, the plan is to try again the next session, and then try resetting to 3X5 and mirco-loading the next run up.

Went up to 6 reps on all band-assisted chins.  Felt pretty good, but still challenging on the last reps on the last sets.

Novice LP. Session 24

BW - 228

Squat -
355X3
320X5, 5

Press - 127.5X5, 4, 3

Chin-ups - BWX6, 3

Negative Chins (0/0/3) - BWX4X4

Top set of Squats felt the slowest yet, but do-able.  This ties my previous 3 rep PR.  If everything comes together, I feel that a PR can be there on Monday.  After running through video of the last session, focus here was on keeping heels flat.  Had the safeties a notch too high, and hit them on the first rep.

1st back-off set felt really hard out of the gate, but much easier by the end.

Failed again on Press.  Some of it is just having my gas and low back reduced by the squat sets.  The current advice for stalling on Press in the advanced novice program is too continue with 3X3.  I'll give that a shot.

Got another rep on Chins.  Slow but steady progress.

Novice LP. Session 23

BW - 227

Squat -
350X3
315X5, 5

Bench - 200X3X5

Band-Assisted Chins - RedLightBandX6, 5, 5, 5

All the Squats felt heavy today as the low back was feeling really irritated.  Even some of the warm-ups were rough.  Technique got off on the last rep of 350, and the 1st back-off set was all over the place.  Maybe time to move DL back to a heavy day so that I have more recovery?

Bench was okay, but very heavy.

Band chins were fine.