This is going to get brutal. 🙂

Jim has this template set up not to do an AMRAP set, but to do 20-reps. Oye. So I went light, but now I think it was too light. I went with 50% of the training max, but now I think it was too light. It taxed me, but just not enough — 20 should have been excruciating to get to. Of course, I’m still dialing things in as this is only the first week on this new template, so to be expected. I’ll probably go 60% and see how that pans out.

Originally I planned to do lunges instead of the template’s leg presses, but changed my mind on the fly. I hate doing unilateral work, but it’s good for me so I do it. And honestly? I don’t like doing leg presses for whatever reason. But I figure that this week so far has been a pretty good change-up for me in my approaches — and I have the soreness to prove it. So might as well continue to change things up. Plus, it’ll be easier to manage tempo with the leg presses than the lunges.

That was actually the harder thing about today: keeping that tempo to ensure the concentric was fast/explosive and the eccentric slow, likely with a pause in the middle just to let momentum dissipate. Just having to remember to do this, because it’s not my norm. Like on the hypers, I’ve been doing them already and had to remind myself to change the tempo — and boy, that does make a difference.

Hanging leg raises are more like knee raises. I can’t bring my toes up to the bar. Even if I could, the bar is only like 7′ off the ground and I’m tall so when I hang I have to bend at the knees to clear the ground. So I keep my knees bent and work to curl my knees up to my shoulders — well, that’s the ideal. I’m not getting to my shoulders and as you can see I really suck at these. 🙂 My abs still hurt from the wheels on Tuesday, so I reckon this will be another thing that will improve in time.

So this first week on the new template has generally been good. I will make very slight adjustments, mostly in amount of weight, to get things more in the right groove. And I have to keep myself focused on tempo. Otherwise, stick with the program and see how it fares for a cycle or two.

Based upon 5/3/1 for Powerlifting, off-season for mass

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 125 x 5
  • 155 x 5
  • 185 x 3
  • 200 x 5
  • 230 x 5
  • 265 x 5
  • 155 x 20
• Leg Press
  • 185 x 10
  • 225 x 10
  • 225 x 10
  • 225 x 10
• Hyperextensions
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
• Hanging Leg Raises
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 5
  • BW x 4
  • BW x 3