Back in the gym!

I got hit with something – cold? allergies? I don’t know exactly but it knocked me out end of last week and into the start of this week. The gym was not happening. But I’m about over it now, so back I go.

It’s 3’s week, and I only missed half of it, so what I decided to do was squat and bench today, deadlift and press tomorrow. And that’s all: just do the main movement, don’t push too hard on the last set, and leave it at that. I might do a little more tomorrow since I’ll have the weekedn to recover, but since I’m going to squat and bench today then deadlift and press tomorrow, I didn’t want to push too hard today and take away from my ability to handle tomorrow. As well, since I’m maybe 90-95%, I don’t need to dig the recovery hole too deep. Just stimulate (don’t annihilate), keep things on track, etc..

I really don’t want to derail since with next week’s 1+ week I’m going to be doing some fun stuff, like once again getting my squat to 300, and I could set a new all-time Press PR. So I want to be smart about things.

That said then, today went surprisingly well.

The squat work-up went well, and the 285 felt really good. Tight tight tight. I certainly left a few in the tank.

Bench work-up went well too. Again, left a few in the tank here too. I went in to today telling myself to just focus on getting the required reps and only do more if I felt good, and sure I did.

So yeah, it wasn’t the most killer of sessions, but this is about getting back on track after the time off due to illness. The important stuff is next week. 🙂

My own massing template, based upon 5/3/1 SST and some Paul Carter principles

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 125 x 5
  • 160 x 5
  • 190 x 3
  • 220 x 3
  • 250 x 3
  • 285 x 5
• Bench Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 100 x 5 (warmup sets superset with neutral-grip pulldowns)
  • 125 x 5
  • 155 x 3
  • 180 x 3 (work sets superset with neutral-grip pulldowns)
  • 205 x 3
  • 230 x 7