Didn’t get the PR I wanted, but did get an even better PR.

This week starts a new cycle, based around 3+/5/1+ (5/3/1 for Powerlifting) with Joker sets.

Work-up was to 250. I got 7 reps a few weeks ago on 3 week, so I was gunning for 8. Didn’t happen. The set was crap. Very unhappy with how it went. But then it was Joker time.

Before the session I planned to at least do 1 set of 1, and maybe a second set of 1 if things felt good. I do like doing at least 2 Joker sets on 3’s week, but I wasn’t sure. First, how did I feel. Second, the math for this put it at 280 for that 2nd Joker set. You see, 275×1 is the best I’ve ever benched – ever. So to try to bench 280 for a single after all that work? I wasn’t sure. Now, last week I did 275×3 and had a few left in the tank – so 280 itself shouldn’t be an issue. But after all that work, the shitty 250 set, I just wan’t sure.

But I opted to go for it. Because what’s the worst that can happen? And if I get it, that would kick ass – not just simply the great PR it would be, but under the circumstances too.

So I went for it. Got it. Went easy!

In fact, my spotter was surprised I only went for 1 (you can hear it at the end of the video).

Yeah… I have 300 in me. I’ll get there eventually tho. No rush.

What I really enjoy about this is doing things I’ve never done before. Pushing myself beyond my limits. Building greater confidence in my abilities, and my ability to READ my capabilities and limits. It’s pretty cool.

And this increases my confidence for the rest of the week. Can’t wait to see what deadlift and press sessions will bring!

5/3/1 (6th cycle, anchor, 3+/5/1+PR, Joker)

• Bench Press
  • bar x 10
  • 110 x 5
  • 140 x 5
  • 170 x 3
  • 195 x 3
  • 225 x 3
  • 250 x 7
  • 265 x 1 (Joker)
  • 280 x 1 (Lifetime PR)
  • 165 x 10
  • 165 x 10
  • 165 x 10
• Bent-over Lateral Raises (superset with bench warm-up sets)
  • 25e x 13
  • 25e x 13
  • 25e x 13
  • 25e x 13
• DB Rows (superset with bench work sets)
  • 100 x 12e
  • 100 x 12e
  • 100 x 12e
• Narrow-Grip Pulldowns
  • 90 x 10
  • 120 x 12
  • 120 x 12
  • 120 x 12
• Stationary Bike
  • 10 min

Things are feeling better.

I think taking this approach is helping. Is it helping my 1RM? TBD. But it is helping me fix my technique and rebuild confidence. More warm-up, slower work-up, then just hitting heavier singles. I can focus more on what I need, which is technique and confidence.

Today was working to remember upper back and torso tightness. Wasn’t great, but was better. But the cool part was I didn’t think so much about my legs, depth, etc. and that went well. In fact, watching video, depth was quite good. I gotta just stop (over)thinking so much.

One nice thing that’s happening too is I changed my warm-up a bit. I spend a little more time doing bodyweight squats working that up too. I start by standing, bending over to touch my toes — not just the stretch, but also helping my lower back to expand and relax. After that settles in well (I don’t rush it any more), I just keep my fingers on my toes and bend my knees. Take a long as I need, but this sort of forward position takes some of the weight off and thus I can ease into things better. I do that for a bit to start greasing the wheels. Once that feels good, I do proper bodyweight squats. I’m finding I can move a LOT faster now too!

I think the reduced volume has helped; not so beat up.

So all in all, this change-up is looking like a win. We’ll see where it takes me.

6th cycle, fixing my squat; modeled after Strong-15

• Squat (superset with band pullaparts)
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 8
  • 175 x 5
  • 205 x 4
  • 240 x 3
  • 265 x 2
  • 275 x 1
  • 295 x 1
  • 315 x 1
• Pause Squats
  • 230 x 5
• Leg Press (feet high and wide)
  • 90 x 15
  • 270 x 15
  • 360 x 15
  • 450 x 12
• Stationary Bike
  • 10 min

PR of 200 pounds overhead. That’s a cool milestone.

It’s deload week, and strictly speaking I should have just worked up to my training max of 195 for a single. But come on… being that close to such a milestone? I knew I could do it. So instead of the pattern this week of doing the training max for up to 3 reps, I opted to just hit the PR for 1 rep.

It was great.

However, I can see a few things from it:

• I can get over-psyched at times and that can throw me off.
• As a result, I wasn’t getting my breathing and setup right. All on me.
• Note the slight pause towards the top – lock-out. Hrm.

Anyways, overall happy with it.

Rest of the session was simple and easy, since deload.

5/3/1 (5th cycle, leader-2, 5/3/1+PR sets)

• Press
  • bar x 10
  • 95 x 5
  • 115 x 5
  • 135 x 3
  • 155 x 3
  • 175 x 1
  • 200 x 1 (PR)
• Bent-over Lateral Raises (superset with press warm-up sets)
  • 25e x 6
  • 25e x 6
  • 25e x 6
  • 25e x 6
• Barbell Rows (superset with press work sets)
  • 185 x 5
  • 185 x 5
  • 185 x 5
• Wide-grip Pulldowns
  • 105 x 10
  • 145 x 10
  • 145 x 10
• Stationary Bike
  • 10 min

That was fun.

Deload week. Supposed to work up to 465×1. Did 465×3.

Thing is, 465 is my current training max, but it’s also the best deadlift I’ve ever done — about 4 months ago I went looking for a 1RM and 465 was it. So to hit 3 today — and still have something in the tank, that’s pretty awesome.

Again, shouldn’t have done it, but meh. It was fun.

Accessory work is whatever – deload week. I am going to stick with RDLs for a while tho, to see what I can get out of them. And I am going to slightly bump up the reverse hypers too.

All in all, pretty nice.

5/3/1 (5th cycle, leader-2, 5/3/1+PR sets)

• Deadlift (superset with band pullaparts)
  • 185 x 5
  • 275 x 5
  • 325 x 3
  • 375 x 3
  • 420 x 1
  • 465 x 3 (PR)
• RDL
  • 275 x 4
  • 275 x 4
• 1-Leg Reverse Hypers
  • 115 x 20e
• Stationary Bike
  • 10 min

This was as good day.

It’s deload week, so 7th week protocol would have me work up to a single at my current training max, which is 275.

Thing is, 275 is the best I’ve ever done on bench. Ever. I know when I did it way back when it was a true 1RM and hard to get. Well, this cycle, when I was determining 1RM’s I worked up to 265 and stopped. I could have done more, but I opted against it. 265 was good enough. Sub-max work for the win!

So today well… I felt like going for it. I told myself to see how the first rep went. If it was good, do another. If that 2nd rep was good, go for a 3rd — but no more. It’s supposed to be deload, so I didn’t want to do anything that pushed towards failure or only leaving 1 rep in the tank. Well, after 3 reps I racked it. I felt like I had at least 2 more in the tank.

That’s pretty awesome. Hitting my all-time best weight, for 3 reps (vs. 1) and still having more reps in the tank.

Watching the video:

especially happy because bar speed was constant throughout.

I feel that hitting 300 is within reach. 315? Well… let’s hit 300 first. 🙂

Not much else for today. Just kept it light since it’s deload.

5/3/1 (5th cycle, leader-2, 5/3/1+PR sets)

• Bench Press
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 165 x 5
  • 195 x 3
  • 225 x 3
  • 250 x 1
  • 275 x 3 (PR)
• Bent-over Lateral Raises (superset with bench warm-up sets)
  • 25e x 8
  • 25e x 8
  • 25e x 8
  • 25e x 8
• DB Rows (superset with bench work sets)
  • 95 x 6e
  • 95 x 6e
• Narrow Grip Pulldowns
  • 90 x 10
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 10
• Stationary Bike
  • 10 min

Not bad.

Deload week. As I’m doing something different for my squats, I figured to stay in the flavor here. Stay light, keep the added warmups, work up to a single at what should be more or less EDM for this cycle.

All went pretty well. I videoed most of the sets and was very happy at hitting depth on everything. But I noticed a big problem, which you can see in the top set:

Watch the bar path.

I was noticing my upper back was losing tightness, especially as I got into the hole. My analysis of everything is that I’m very focused on my lower body right now: the stiffness in the knees, managing descent, hitting depth, getting up out of the hole, etc., and while I start with upper tightness, the lack of focus and I lose it. Oh, and I also noticed that working for 360º pressure into the belt does change my torso angle slightly (can’t arch the back as much) so that changes things a bit too.

So I started to change to get under the bar, get tight, but then KEEP it tight… readjust as needed. Unrack, take a moment to steady and retighten anything. Step back, settle, retighten. Basically, focus on remembering that upper back. Started to get it, but you can see it threw things off because thinking too much. Still, it was good to see this. For sure, the loss of tightness is part of the problem because it causes me to fall forward. So yeah, more to work on.

That said, the approach I’m doing with the increased warmups, less volume, more singles, I am enjoying it. My body is happier, things move better, and having just singles helps me put more into it. I realized that when I do > 3 reps, it’s too much for my brain right now. I want to a rep, pour everything into it, and analyze it to figure out what’s broken so I can fix it. When I do too many reps, it’s too much data. Just 1-2 reps is good because I can get just enough data, then apply it, see what affect there is, and so on. I even had the thought that maybe right now would be good to squat 2x/week so I could have more time under the bar to work on technique. Not going to change that up right now tho, but point is, so far so good.

I’ve got more things to work on, and so far happy with how things are coming back.

Anyways, all I did was squat. I was going to do a couple light sets of leg presses, but the leg presses were being taken up by the group classes and personal training, so meh. I just hit the bike for 10 minutes and called it.

5th cycle, leader-2; was 5/3/1-based, now trying to fix my squat

• Squat (superset with band pullaparts)
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 8
  • 165 x 5
  • 190 x 4
  • 215 x 3
  • 230 x 3
  • 265 x 2
  • 300 x 1
  • 330 x 1

That’s a good way to end the week.

Rep PR of 185×4. I actually had a 5th in me but on rep 2 I felt that weird thing in my neck and opted to not push it. The neck thing is simple: posture issues. Posture is at the heart of a lot of my problems. I know why it happens: day job is unrelenting right now, I’m not unhappy but wearing out — so as the day goes on, slumping over happens. It adds up. I struggle against it, and well… I just have to keep working at it.

Rows I cut back on. As I would row, the elbow pain felt a little more acute so I did some work but dropped it back. The pain isn’t getting any worse, and I’m trying things to help it improve. I’ve been skeptical of flossing, but I’m giving it a shot because why not. I need to remember I have the bands tho and do it 2x/day if I can — it’s just not part of routine yet, not on my radar to do.

But otherwise, felt good today. Looking forward to the deload next week, and what’s ahead.

5/3/1 (5th cycle, leader-2, 5/3/1+PR sets)

• Press
  • bar x 10
  • 80 x 5
  • 100 x 5
  • 115 x 3
  • 145 x 5
  • 165 x 3
  • 185 x 4 (rep PR)
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
• Bent-over Lateral Raises (superset with press warm-up sets)
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 12
  • 25e x 12
• Barbell Rows (superset with press work sets)
  • 185 x 8
  • 185 x 8
  • 185 x 8
• Wide-grip Pulldowns
  • 105 x 10
  • 145 x 12
  • 145 x 11
  • 145 x 8

and then I did some plate pinch grips: 2 10# plates smooth sides out, pinch with fingertips, hold for 20 seconds, switch hands, switch back, switch back, then rest for a minute or so, repeat. Just because.