The knee rehab work has made deadlifting better.

I found it interesting that as I would get into position to lift, that would be JUST the right amount of angle in my knees for the weirdness and “instability” to kick in. It made deadlifting interesting, but I was always able to get through it. But now? I don’t even notice. I just get in position and pull. It’s great!

The PT work is NOT fun. In fact, sometimes it feels downright embarrassing how difficult it can be. But the results cannot be debated. Heck, this morning after I got home I was in the backyard with the dog. There’s a patio slab, and the ground adjacent slopes — so if you step up on one end of the slab it’s a small step up, but on the other end of the slab it’s rather a large step. Usually that’s been a challenge for me due to the knee issues. But today? Up and down with NO problems. It’s great!

Anyways, deadlifting went well. Good work-up. The 415 was heavy, but no problem getting the reps.

Belt squats I continue to experiment with, as a way to work on my knee issues. What I’m playing with is positioning. Right now I’m doing a setup like this:

• whatever with weight — just something enough to give some “work” while I figure this out.
• belt around the hips
• feet shoulder width apart
• toes/feet pointed forward
• get into the belt then step backwards from the rack until the belt is “horizontal” and taught
• feet should be “under” the body

And so when I squat down, feet end up being forward of the body. I’m kinda sitting back into the belt, letting the belt keep me from falling over backwards. Lift the toes up, striving to push through the heels. And go just below parallel — that seemed to help.

When I do this, I do feel it in the quads, lower, VMO-area, etc.. That’s what I want.

I’ll continue to play with positions and approaches. It’s all about getting that area stronger, to help my knees (and my overall leg strength/drive).

Everything else was just assistance work.

About 14 minutes on the bike.

Thinking ahead…

Next week will be deload according to the 7th week protocol. First time trying 7th week protocol, and I’m interested in how it will go. It’s not a normal deload because you work up to a single at your training max (vs. just doing a lot of light work). Curious how it will go in the grand scheme.

Then the 3-weeks after that will be:

• 3/5/1
• PR set
• Jokers
• FSL – probably 3×5 to start to scale down volume as intensities are increasing, but I may up this.
• And assistance work will be generally the same, especially oriented towards the knee rehab.

Then another proper deload week.

THEN I start all over. My thinking will be again a 2/1 approach, with the first 6 weeks likely staying with the same approach I’ve been using so far. However instead of 5’s PRO I’ll probably go 5/3/1 PR set, then BBB scaling back again to 3 sets then 4 then 5. Assistance work and so on basically the same. After I finish this 2/1 cycle I reckon I’ll be close to needing a reset, so I’ll readjust everything from there.

One fun thing I’m thinking about doing? Biceps work every session. That every session will get some sort of biceps work, even if it’s just 3 sets of curls. Why? Taking a cue from recent learnings and trying to hit something that can take the volume a little bit each day (vs. a lot 1-2 days) and seeing how it does. And why biceps? Simply because I want to, because we all love biceps. 🙂

One thing I might also do? I MIGHT ditch the bike and see about adding in something like reverse sled drags. TBD. The bike is good because it works the knee without load. The reverse sled drags will help the VMO, but they add load. So, TBD.

5/3/1 (Based on: Forever, BBB, 5’s PRO)

• Deadlift
  • 175 x 5
  • 225 x 5
  • 260 x 3
  • 325 x 5
  • 370 x 5
  • 415 x 5
• Band Pullaparts (superset with deadlift warmups and work)
  • Not tracked, but 15 each set
• Belt Squat
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 10
  • 100 x 10
• Seated Leg Curls
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 10
• Upright rows
  • 105 x 12
  • 105 x 12
  • 105 x 12
  • 105 x 11
  • 105 x 10
• Stair Calves
  • 70 x 15
  • 70 x 15
  • 70 x 12