The trend of progress continues.

For sure, things are starting to feel a little heavier, but still there’s progress. Again, the final work set went right up to the 10-rep threshold. Weight goes up, reps go up, life’s good. It won’t last forever, so I’ll just keep taking it as I get it.

That said, front squats were a bit tough today. I’m trying to keep myself leaned back — really, upright, but the mental thought is leaning back so that I do stay upright. That makes it harder, targets more what it should, and keeps the bar from rolling off! That was a tough thing today — it’s very hot and humid in Texas right now, I’m at the gym at a time when there’s no A/C and it’s hotter in the gym than outside, so I’m just drenched in sweat and everything is slippery. I almost lost the bar a couple times just because things were slipping around. I would use chalk, because that would be safer, but stupid gym policies….

I did the glute bridges one-legged today. For sure they are hitting my hamstrings more than anything else. Interesting stuff.

Anyways, good day. Excited for tomorrow, and for next week’s 5/3/1 work.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Deadlift
  • 135 x 5
  • 165 x 5
  • 195 x 3
  • 230 x 3
  • 265 x 3
  • 295 x 10
• Front Squat
  • 140 x 8
  • 160 x 8
  • 186 x 6
• Elevated Glute Bridges (one-legged)
  • BW x 10e
  • BW x 10e
  • BW x 10e
• Twisting Crunches
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 14
  • BW x 8
• Seated Calf Raises
  • 35 x 15
  • 35 x 15
  • 35 x 13

Sooner or later this run of excellent sessions will run out, but until that happens I’m going to enjoy them. 🙂

Today went quite well. Again, the final work set got pinned at the 10 rep threshold — weight goes up, reps continue high and/or increase, and I’m just happy with the constant progress. And while I’m not really tracking my pullups, those continue to increase as well.

On that 3+ set, it went really really well. Today I focused on crush-gripping the bar. Not just because that helps the whole body get tight, but it helps to lock the wrist. With the wrist pain I’ve been feeling, no question it’s in part because I haven’t been keeping that locked wrist and the pressure has gotten to all those little bones. Thing is, I often start with a locked wrist but then I lose it as the reps progress because I’m focusing on other things. Well, today I focused on keeping the wrist locked, and damn if everything didn’t just move. I mean, I often think about leg drive and just don’t feel like the leg drive is really helping — but today, every rep had great drive and I felt it actually working! Amazing what happens when you stop (over) thinking and just do. 😉 That 3+ set really was awesome.

The change I made in terms of the back work seems to be working ok. I’m not unhappy or feeling as unbalanced as before, so I’ll just go with this emotion.

The trade-off of course is having to do cardio at the end of the session. 😉 But I need to get my weight reigned back in, so between tightening up the diet and adding in a little more work, it’s just what I have to do.

Part of me wants to skip deload… I’m just not feeling like I NEED it, but I know it’s something where you should take it before you need it. That said, often good lifting cycles will go 9 to 12 weeks before deloading so who knows… maybe I’ll go one more cycle. I don’t want to push it, but given I’m feeling very good and not beat up, I’m at least considering it.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Bench Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 95 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
  • 115 x 5
  • 140 x 3
  • 165 x 3 (work sets superset with neutral-grip pull-ups)
  • 185 x 3
  • 210 x 10
• Incline Press
  • 125 x 8 (sets superset with neutral-grip pull-ups)
  • 145 x 8
  • 170 x 6
• Cable Rows
  • 100 x 20
  • 100 x 18
  • 100 x 14
• Shrugs
  • 185 x 20
  • 185 x 20
  • 185 x 20
• Overhead Triceps Extensions (superset with curls)
  • 55 x 20
  • 55 x 20
  • 55 x 18
• Hammer Curls
  • 25e x 20
  • 25e x 15
  • 25e x 12

Who can argue with progress?

It’s really awesome when everything goes up. Today’s 3+ set, went rather well. I’ve been sleeping like crap over the past week, and yesterday it all caught up with me and I napped hard throughout the day. I was drag-ass out of bed this morning and even the gym started of slowly. But you know the work to do, and you just do it. I expected I might not crank out the reps, but it just kept going and next thing I know I’m shutting it down at the 10-rep threshold. Nice.

I mean, the weight went up — both from last week, and last cycle’s 3+ week. Reps went up too. I am very happy with that.

Assistance “went down”, but again I’m really striving for no more than 60 seconds between sets and exercises, so cranking like that and yeah, reps go down. But whatever. The work is good and still generally progressing there as well.

Really, this is all very good, and I’m very happy. I’ll admit, it makes me wonder if I do want to add in the “first set last” or not. Only because if I’m progressing well like this, it tells me I’ve hit a good balance of work and recovery that’s enabling forward progression. Why disrupt that, y’know? But, I still think it’d be good for at least 1 6-week cycle to try it out. I’d probably do the AMRAP version where you go back to the “first set” weight and just do 1 set for AMRAP. I think so long as the weights are light, one AMRAP set will be a good FSL approach (whereas the 3-5 sets x 5-8 reps approach will be better when the weights are heavier, towards getting in the volume).

Anyways.

All in all, things were quite good.

Remembering to do 20-30 minutes on the elliptical after the session. Hate it, but at least it gets me back into listening to podcasts (quite a backlog).

Music today: Megadeth, mix from the first 3 albums.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 110 x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 165 x 3
  • 190 x 3
  • 220 x 3
  • 245 x 10
• Straight-leg Deadlift
  • 175 x 8
  • 205 x 8
  • 235 x 6
• Leg Curls
  • 30 x 20
  • 30 x 14
  • 30 x 11
• Hyperextensions
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 12
• Crunches
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 10
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 14
  • 50 x 11

Learned a few things.

First, Pressing overall is going well. I do look forward to more pressing with the 45’s because it does certainly affect the movement. Pressing 130 vs 135 isn’t much difference in terms of weight, but it is in terms of feel. That said, again I hit the threshold of 10 reps and shut it down. But whereas in other lifts I keep hitting 10 and have more in me, with Pressing I feel I’m right where I should be; that 10 felt like I only had 1-2 in the tank.

Second, chin-ups. I continue to experiment with grips to find what will be least stressful on my joints. So today I tried that really wide set of pull-up grips that every gym has. Took about half a rep to say “hell no”. I was surprised at just how much stress that put on my shoulders, in a bad way. So I just reverted to close-grip chin-ups. Second set I tried throwing a towel over the bar. That was ok, but no question my grip is my weak point. So I may not make these the staple, but maybe after a few sets of normal chin-ups I might throw these in. But for now, back to normal chins.

Third, just for the record, the face pulls were done on the cable crossover apparatus, thus pulling through 2 pulleys and so the weight value is deceptive vs. the mechanical advantage 2 pulleys give you.

Everything else went generally fine. Nothing exciting to report. 🙂

That said, there’s a bit of unexcited. Since I stopped The Defattening Project, I’ve been enjoying the freedom to eat — a little too much. I’m gaining weight faster than I should, and I can see it around my gut. I’m very unhappy with myself. So, I need to dig in about it. It’s been a combinaton of a few factors:

1. I upped my carbs
2. I didn’t up my fats
3. I dropped my workload

Upping carbs was a natural and necessary thing. Trouble is, I upped it too much. Just enjoying a few too many things.

I didn’t up my fats either. I mean, after almost 2 years of almost no fat in my diet, I’m just not in the habit of seeking out and consuming fat! To eat an avocado, to eat whole eggs, etc.. Not only would this help with my calorie levels, but it would add that level of satiation that I need — that’s also causing me to graze. Sometimes instead of getting an Oreo or two, a spoonful of peanut butter would work better. Gotta change some habits.

Finally, I dropped my workload. No more cardio? Yea! But really, even that light amount of cardio burned enough calories over the course of the week to add up and be beneficial. Plus, my lifting style is different and it’s not the same volume of work. So I need to bring my workload back up. I’m going to start doing this by adding 20-30 minutes of brisk elliptical work on my gym days after I’m done lifting, before I leave.

We’ll see how this goes.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 60 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
  • 75 x 5
  • 90 x 3
  • 100 x 5 (work sets superset with chin-ups)
  • 115 x 5
  • 130 x 10
• Close-Grip Bench Press
  • 105 x REP (sets superset with chin-ups)
  • 125 x REP
  • 145 x REP
• V-Bar Pulldowns
  • 100 x 20
  • 100 x 20
  • 100 x 14
• Face Pulls
  • 100 x 15
  • 100 x 15
  • 100 x 15
• Skullcrushers (superset with curls)
  • 55 x 20
  • 55 x 20
  • 55 x 15
• Close-grip EZ-bar Curls
  • 50 x 20
  • 50 x 18
  • 50 x 13

Oh yeah… I started really light. 🙂

I just keep hitting the 10-rep threshold, which isn’t a bad thing really. I’ll just keep taking the reps. Plus, I find that it’s been good for me to really get my technique and groove back to something, since I’ve been away from conventional deadlifts for so long.

That said, front squats are where they need to be. I’m finding that I really don’t like them that much, but I do find the new approach more workable (the wider stance). And again, when I get down in the hole, it really seems to do a number on my glutes. I’ll keep doing them tho, because it’s good for me.

The other “don’t really like, but is good for me” are the bodyweight unilateral stuff. I’m not going to change up with that yet (to work them back in), but I will say the glute bridges are curious to me. I found myself today focusing a little different as I did the movement, and I actually got more work on the hamstrings than the glutes. I’m going to keep playing with them, and eventually I will go to one leg. I hate this stuff, but I cannot deny it’s good for my aging frame.

No music today. Had bunch of stuff on my mind.

5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template

• Deadlift
  • 135 x 5
  • 165 x 5
  • 195 x 3
  • 215 x 5
  • 245 x 5
  • 280 x 10
• Front Squat
  • 115 x 10
  • 140 x 10
  • 160 x 10
• Elevated Glute Bridges (triset with crunches and calf raises)
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 10
• Crunches
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 10
• Seated Calf Raises
  • 35 x 13
  • 35 x 13
  • 35 x 13