Ah yes, all feels more right in the world. Yes, I’m happier going back to powerlifting style lifting.

Things felt light and easy today, but that’s the point for this first week. It’s also not a lot of volume — even less than one would get from 5/3/1. I’m striving to be more conservative here in the workout ratings so I’m not dying by week 4 under a mountain of volume. We’ll see how it works out long-term.

Cue of the day? Tight!

Getting as tight as I could under the bar. Heights of everything were set well so the bar just came out of the rack so easily with little shift in setup. Tight! Descend, pause, and go. Crush-grip the bar. Tight. I am opting to only pause on the first rep, but making sure it’s a solid touch and pause.

Everything else is just is, all supporting work. Nothing that I’ll really grow from, but it’s at a level of maintain. It’s interesting how on the templates not everything gets rated. Like rows will remain at 2 sets for weeks 1 & 2, then go to 3 on weeks 3 & 4; weight increases and the x/fail changes, but it’s interesting how everything’s kept at a pretty conservative amount so that focus can be on the main movement.

And so here is one break from the templates: curls. Specifically reverse curls and just a couple sets. It’s important for me to do something to help manage my arm issues, and I felt reverse curls would be useful for what they target relative to why I need to keep curling.

Oh — and this is all a 2/fail type of week. 3 minute rest between benching sets, 2 minutes everything else.

Anyways, so far so good this first week.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 1

• Competition Grip Bench (with pause)
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 3
  • 220 x 8
  • 220 x 7
  • 220 x 6
• Incline DB Press
  • 75e x 10
  • 75e x 10
• Barbell Bent Rows
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 175 x 8
  • 175 x 8
• Barbell Upright Row
  • bar x 10
  • 105 x 9
  • 105 x 8
• Reverse Curls
  • 20 (bar) x 10
  • 65 x 8
  • 65 x 8