Starting off cycle 6, and it wasn’t a good day, tho it got better.

“Week 1”

• 5 reps – Press (working max: 150#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x60
  • 1x5x75
  • 1x3x90
  • 1x5x100 (work)
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x5x130
• Asst. #1 – Press
  • 4 x 10 x 75
  • 1 x 12/6/4 x 75 (rest-pause set)
• Asst. #2 – Supinated Close-grip Pulldowns
  • 4 x 10 x 140
  • 1 x 10/4/3 x 140 (rest-pause set)
• GPP – Elliptical
  • Tabata style (20 sec. 160-ish strides per min., 10 sec. 100-ish strides per min)
  • 2 minutes slow (warmup)
  • 1 Tabata set
  • 2 minutes slow (cooldown)

First, I’m starting on cycle 6. I haven’t changed much compared to cycle 5. Cycle 5 was a bigger change to things and so I’m sticking with it for a bit, just letting the groove settle. I am trying to up the weights on assistance work and just push harder with things.

So the work pressing. Bleah. I only got the prescribed reps. I’m not totally sure why. I was just not there. This past weekend drained me with the medical training on Saturday, long-ass naps on Sunday, and then not eating/drinking like I should be doing. I also unracked the bar on that last set, felt light-headed, held the bar for a bit while I tried to regain things, but that did me in. Drained me too much, took away my focus, and I just couldn’t get that 6th rep out. Next time I should just rack the bar, wait a minute, collect myself, then try again. Live and learn.

Assistance pressing was fine. On rest-pause sets I’m fixing things to push myself… the first iteration isn’t just 10 reps but “to failure”. Push myself. But I was feeling better here. In fact, as I’ve been working to get the full body more into pressing (e.g. clench the butt), it’s been hard because when I try to just do that it feels unnatural and gets in the way. On the last couple sets here I found myself clenching naturally and my whole body getting tight and behind the lift. I need to pay more attention to when this happens and work to replicate that setup and feeling. Furthermore, don’t totally sweat it if the body doesn’t get into it… it will when it needs to.

Pulldowns. I opted to jump 10# from last cycle and was figuring that would take me to 5×8 across. Then last minute I changed my mind and figured to just do 10 reps and if it doesn’t happen my body will obviously tell me. It didn’t. 10 reps worked just fine. I’ll keep upping it as we go along. The intent is to get myself doing chins and get away from doing pulldowns, so I’m wanting my pulldowns to use heavier weight and start to go into the 5-8 rep range. I also realized that I have been forgetting to do chins between my assistance pressing sets. I adjusted my templated in my iPhone tracking app to help me remember to do that next time.

On the elliptical, I opted to bump the resistance setting from 12 to 14, and the strides per minute from 150’s th 160’s. That seems to have been just enough to push me, because I felt good and nauseous afterwards. 🙂 I want to keep upping my threshold. Before I start adding more “reps” I want to ensure the reps I’m doing now are as intense as I can make them.

Then on the walk home, my left calf cramped up horribly. I haven’t had a calf cramp in a few years, so this points to 1. that I worked things hard, 2. that there’s some nutritional issues from the past weekend. I’ll fix that.

On to the deadlift! I can’t wait… this cycle will have me break 300# in my work weight. Cool milestone.