Block 8. Cycle 7. Session A.

BW - 229

Waist - 43.5"

sRPE@7

Squat -
370X1 @8
287.5X12, 12 @7.75, 9

Leg Press (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) -
4.5ppsX15, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 @9/8.5

Nice bounce back session on Squats.

Top end strength on Squat dipped last week.  I went 370@8.25 two weeks ago, but last week was a solid 360X8.  I was ready to only shoot for 365 today, but I still warmed up for 370, and the warm-ups all felt strong, and led to a very nice single at 370.

287.5X12 is an all-time 12 rep PR, and considering I did it for 2 sets with a little room to spare on both, I'm very happy about it.

5pps was clearly an overreach last week on Leg Press.  I backed it off to 4-on-1-side, 5-on-the-other, and it was definitely back on track. 

With Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, I'm going to try and push into an 8th week.  I haven't pushed that far since I started using the Emerging Strategies framework, but this is a good chance to see if I can sustain or increase my peak for an 8th week.

Block 8. Cycle 6. Session D.

BW - 231

Waist - 43.5"

sRPE @8

Chin-Ups -
BW+20X4, 3, 3, 2 @~10
BWX5 @9.5

Rack Chin-Ups (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests) - BWX9, 3, 3, 3, 3, @~9

Dips -
BW+20X8 @7.5
BWX13 @9.25

Rope Pushdowns - X19 @10

BB Curls -
75X8, 8 @9,10
65X12 @10

Okay session.  We had folks in town all of last week, so I had an extra day off between sessions, and also ate a shit ton of food.  So everything was a bit sluggish today.

Still everything generally still increased in weight and/or reps.

Block 8. Cycle 6. Session C.

BW - 230

Waist - 42.75"

sRPE @ 8

Deadlift -
385X1 @8
300X12, 12 @7.75, 8.5

GHR (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rests, harder setting than previous) -
BWX14, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 @8

Solid session.  DL progressed normally. 

I increased the difficulty slightly on the GHR by raising the food pad one notch.

Block 8. Cycle 6. Session B.

BW - 226

Waist - 43"

sRPE @ 8

Press -
142.5X1, 1 @~8, 8.5
125X5 @8

Bench -
230X1 @8
170X12, 12 @7.5, 8

Chin-Ups - BWX6, 3, 4 @~10

Pull-Downs - X10, 7 @9,10

Solid session all around.  Pressing strength showed slight to average progress. Vertical Pulling strength was a little stagnant.

Block 8. Cycle 5. Session D. and Cycle 6. Session A.

5D:

BW - 226

Waist - 43"

sRPE @ 7

Chin-Ups -
BW+22.5 X4, 3, 3, 2 @~10
BWX5 X9.5

Rack Chins (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rest) - BWX8, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 @~9

Dips -
BW+30X8 @9
BWX12 @9

Rope Push-Downs - X16 @10

BB Curls -
72.5X8, 8 @8.5/10
65X10 @9.5


6A:

BW - 226

Waist - 43"

sRPE @ 8

Squat -
360X1 @
285X12, 12 @7.75,8.5

Leg Press (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rest) - 5ppsX10, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 @~8

Two interesting sessions.

Weighted Chins rep strength appears to have jumped a bit.  Chin-Ups in general are feeling more "in control."  No joy on the rack chin volume work.

Added more weight on dips, but e1RM actually went down.  We'll see what happens.

Curls maybe ticked up a tiny bit.

Squat strength on the 1@8 dropped dramatically, but this was also training on a Sunday morning, which is generally my worst time for training.  And I added 10 lbs. to the back-off sets of 12 at comparable RPE to last week.  I knew high-rep strength gains were outpacing low rep on this block, but I was surprised to have a session where they moved so dramatically in opposite directions.

I added another plate-per-side to the Leg Press, but it seems like a bigger jump than I wanted.  Will probably drop down to a 25-per-side next session to keep the reps a bit higher.

Block 8. Cycle 5. Session C.

BW - 226

Waist - 42.75"

sRPE @8

Deadlift -
380X1 @8
290X12, 12 @7.5, 8.5

GHR - (Myo-Reps; 30 sec. rest) - BWX20, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6 @7/8

Nice session.

My low back was bothering me to various degrees the prior three days, but even thought it felt okay on this day, I did have some trepidation going into this DL session.

Everything ended up going well!  Technically this was the smallest perceived increase in DL strength of the cycle, but DL has been gaining far faster than the other lifts in general, so in some ways this may just be a return to the overall mean.

Also added some reps on the activation set on GHR, so it's time to increase difficulty somehow.  There's a few options I could choose. 

The seemingly most obvious would be to add weight, but I'm not eager to mess with BBs, DBs, KBs, etc. with this particular movement.  I could use chains, but I've only got a few chains available at the gym, and that would make it harder to dial-in specific loading out of the gate.

Another option would be to add in a pause under tension somewhere.  I've been doing these coming all the way down with a little bit of spinal flexion at the bottom.  I personally think the best place to do that would be at the midpoint where the spine and hips have extended, but the knees haven't started flexing.  That would make the final "leg curl" portion much more difficult by removing any trace momentum from the bottom of the movement.  However, because I'm using an Emerging Strategies approach, this would be perceived in a change in movement variation that would muddy my data.

Instead, I think I'm just going to adjust the GHR to something that feels a bit more difficult.  I've had the cross-bar on the lowest setting, so I'll try moving it up a notch next week and see what that does.

Lots of text for something I don't even video.

Block 8. Cycle 5. Session B.

BW - 226

Waist - 42.75"

sRPE @ 7

Press -
140X1, 1 @8
122.5X5 @7.5

Bench -
225X1 @8
165X12, 12 @7.5, 8

Chin-Ups - BWX6, 4, 4 @~10

Pull-Downs - X11, 8 @~9

Nice session.

Press and Bench both took a strong jump over last week.

First set of chins wasn't that much of a jump, but I managed to get 2 more reps total across the 3 sets than last week.