310 for 4. Progress is good!

The only thing that sucked about today was — 310. Weights like 130, 220, 310, etc. – when you’re just 5 away from the next wheel. 🙂 But as tempting as it may be, you gotta stick to the program and do what you’re supposed to do.

Given my progress, I wanted 4 and got 4. I might have been able to do 5, but it would have been sloppy and that wouldn’t be acceptable so I racked it. I am starting to lean forward a little more, but I’m not sure if that’s from the weight or from the arm positioning struggle.

Yes, that’s still a struggle right now. I’m working hard to get and keep myself in that position — wrists straight and thus it’s strain on the shoulders right now since I’m not quite that flexible. But I keep pushing myself in and it gets better, but still not awesome. I just have to keep working on it. I’m also working to find a good stretching exercise that I can do at home during the week to help out with this; still haven’t found quite the one that hits things. The search continues.

But the squat itself went well overall.

RDL’s I continue to do light so I can really get the technique. I think today is the first time it’s clicked. Not perfect, but I’m working to really keep my back straight and only just a little knee bend. It’s very easy to let the back start to round and NOT notice it, or the knees to start to bend a little more. But when I really kept it all together, I could actually feel my hamstrings doing the work, as opposed to my back or other things. This was good! I will keep the weight light so can continue to improve on this.

Everything else was what it was. Nothing to write home about. Well, on crunches I stopped before I started set 3 — my abs cramped up HARD and I was not going to do a 3rd set in that state. 🙂

What I am thinking about tho is that 2016 is almost over. I have one more 3-week cycle remaining and what to do. See, my big goal is 3/4/5 – bench/squat/deadlift 3/4/5 wheels (315, 405, 495). Still a ways from that, but some months ago I said that I was not going to test my 1RM until the end of the year, just to make me avoid the temptation and give me something longer-term to work towards. Well, that time is almost upon us. What gets me is Press? That’s a new PR. Deadlift, I doubt I’ll PR but I’m OK with that so long as progress remains strong. Squat and bench tho are right at the cusp. I did the math to set up the next cycle and the 1+ week puts my squat working with 320 and bench with 250 — both 5# away from my all-time PR in that lift. What it tells me is that breaking my all-time PR should be quite easy at this point since that PR was a struggle to get 1 rep and now I’m scheduled to hit more than 1 rep.

But what to do?

Should I just do the 5/3/1 cycle as per and then the next week run some 1RM tests? Or should I do 5 and 3 week, then on 1+ week just work up to the new 1RM? Not sure. At this point, not going to make a decision either way. I can call it as I get closer to the 1+ week.

But it’s exciting — almost there, and looking to end 2016 on a good note. 🙂

5/3/1-based program

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 135 x 5
  • 160 x 5
  • 195 x 3
  • 245 x 5
  • 275 x 3
  • 310 x 4 (4RM PR)
• Romanian Deadlift
  • 135 x 10
  • 155 x 10
  • 165 x 10
  • 165 x 10
• Hyperextensions
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 13
• Crunches
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 10
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 80 x 12
  • 80 x 12
  • 80 x 12