That wasn’t quite what I expected.

Given where my weight is going and how going back to cutting is only weeks away, I kinda want to see about getting my weights up. Yeah I know, reps… but when I’m back to cutting reps will be what it’s all about — whatever burns more energy, whatever helps build muscle mass. But right now as things are feeling stronger, I really wouldn’t mind putting a little more weight on the bar.

I recalculated my numbers. The goal was to put about 10# more on the AMRAP sets, so there’s still some reps being done. And the work-up is adjusted accordingly. I plugged in some numbers, got percentages, and off I went. Funny thing tho was after I got to the gym I had a hard time finding the 2.5# plates and opted to say “screw it” — there seems to be a powerlifter “rule/joke” that the smallest plate you use is the 10# plate. 🙂 Well, I’m still too weak for that, so 5# plates for me… skipping the 2.5’s. I opted to round everything up, so instead of say 260 I did 265.

All in all, it went well. I actually felt I could have done a couple more reps, but things were tiring and I didn’t feel like risking my back given the pains I was feeling last week and that today it’s finally feeling awesome (slept a lot over the weekend). No need to rush back into things, y’know? Still, was happy with 12 reps on 215; in fact, a little surprised. One thing that’s helping is technique for sure, especially really locking up my shoulders and back and arms, then just trying to be in a solid groove… not too fast, not too slow, not rushing, but just having a solid rhythm and ensuring it’s not really 1 set of 12 reps (or whatever), but 12 sets of 1 rep all in a row, y’know? Make every rep solid and unto itself. Form really felt good today.

I even bumped up weights on stiff-legs.

Still tho, when I did a quick volume check, my overall volume and comparisons to last week went down. Not sure how I should feel about that, but not going to sweat it too much. I worked as hard as I could today, so that’s the best I can do.

All in all tho, I’m happy to try to get my weights back up. I swear… once I’m fully done with The Defattening Project, I really do wonder if I might want to do 3 months of 5/3/1 BBB or something similar to just focus on strength. But I dunno… I can tell so much I need to get muscle mass back. I’m just tired of all of this. 🙂 Ah well… it’s all good in the long run.

Based on Paul Carter’s “Guaranteed Muscle Mass” article.

• Squat
  • bar x 5
  • bar x 5
  • 125 x 5
  • 155 x 4
  • 185 x 3
  • 235 x 2
  • 265 x 1
  • 215 x 12 (AMRAP)
  • 215 x 6 (50%)
• Stiff Legged Deadlift
  • 145 x 5
  • 175 x 4
  • 215 x 3
  • 265 x 2
  • 305 x 1
  • 245 x 12 (AMRAP)
• Split Squats
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10