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

I opted to make the change – and I’m happy I did.

I’m going back to powerlifting-style work. All the bodybuilding-style work has been fun and a good break for my body, but it’s not what I really love to do. I also think it was starting to get a little stale and taking a toll on my body in its own right, so it felt worthwhile to change instead of pressing through for whatever arbitrary reason. Part of me doesn’t like to do that, because often enough it happens that I’m wanting to see something through but I switch. But I know in the long run, it’s better for me and my body has appreciated it more. I have to keep my primarily goals in mind.

To that, it’s not just the style of lifting that I prefer, but I am hoping it’s a bunch less work and thus less impact on me. Sure the intensities are higher, but the load is overall less – fewer reps, far fewer sets. Besides, I built a bunch of muscle, time to make it do something useful!

So I’m starting on the Renaissance Periodization Powerlifting templates. They have 3 variants: hypertrophy, strength, peaking; designed to be used solo, or as a fully periodized cycle. I opted to go into the strength cycle because I’m coming off a lower-rep/higher-intensity hypertrophy cycle, so I didn’t see a reason to do that template. I also am not 100% sure where I should be on this. Yes, some of the movements I can easily pick the weights for, but some I have zero idea where I am. For example, I haven’t low-bar squatted in ages, so I made a reasoned guess. And conventional deadlifts? It’s been a VERY long time since I did them, so I guessed as well. But then with that, I actually opted to do an additional workup today. It’s NOT part of the program for today, but I wanted to get a strong idea of where things really are for me so I could get better benefit.

I also am opted to do a couple off-template things. I’m adding in calf work (tho I forgot to do it today) because I found that was very good for my feet and legs, in terms of just better health and getting around. I’m also adding in some biceps work for similar reasons. Not much of this stuff as I don’t want to impact the main work, but I know keeping a bit of this in will be good for me.

As for today.

It felt really good to low-bar squat again. I wasn’t 100% sure where to start on weight, but I made some fair estimates from my high-bar work and what I landed on felt good for a start. It just felt good, Period. 🙂

Front squats went quite well.

And then deadlifting. Again, hadn’t done it in ages, so while today was strictly light triples, it felt SO light — too light. I opted to work up in rough triples just to see where I might better be. Sure enough, things were beyond where I had estimated. Hitting a triple at 365 after all the prior work I did? The triple was good for the preceding work, and I wasn’t going to a rep0-max here. But this does make me revise for later this week. I’ll see how Thursday’s proper-deadlifting session goes and refine from there if I need to.

Anyways, happy time, happy time.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 1

• Squat (low bar)
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 5
  • 225 x 3
  • 270 x 8
  • 270 x 6
  • 270 x 5
• Front Squat
  • 160 x 8
  • 160 x 8
• Competition Deadlift
  • 135 x 3
  • 185 x 3
  • 220 x 3
  • 220 x 3
  • 315 x 3
  • 365 x 3
• Reaching Situps
  • 15 x 12
  • 15 x 12

I’m debating what to do.

So today was fine — it’s deload, it’s no big deal, nothing to write home about.

But it does have me thinking.

Do I need to change?

Part of me sees how my trip to Maui went. Looks like I did gain a couple pounds, which I should be able to shed easily, but it also got me thinking that maybe I want to shed more. What if I stayed on the current lifting program and spent the next 10 weeks on another cut? If say I lost 15-20 pounds, that would be awesome and put me in an awesome position for a powerlifting cycle (weight-gain-wise). Plus I’d have lost a bit more flab.

Part of me wants to change the program tho. I’m starting to feel some not so good things. My left knee is feeling strange, and my elbows are mad at me. I’m putting a hard guess at the elbows being from the heavier skullcrushers. And my knee? That I don’t know, but I’m just working to manage it right now. Still, I think the massive volume at the heavier weights is taking a toll on me. But then I think, how much of it is because of the poor sleep I’ve had the past some weeks?

And stuff will be changing soon. At the day job, the current client project is ending and I’ll be starting on some smaller projects shortly, which in theory should be less stress and happier times, more peaceful days. Plus if I stay on this cycle, it’s “meso 1 again” but this time aiming for a slightly higher rep range, thus weights should be a bit lighter. As well, exercise selection takes on more dumbbell work, which should be a little more polite on everything too.

But a change in programming would be a change to the RP powerlifting templates, starting with 1 cycle of their hypertrophy then transitioning to strength for a cycle or two. While intensities will go up, work will go WAY down — FAR fewer sets and exercises in a week. So it’s different stress, but in some regards should be easier because it’ll be say an hour in the gym (instead of 2-2.5), and just less overall work.

But then as well, I wanted to dedicate myself to finishing out this program attempt because there’s benefits to gain and things to learn (it has been eye-opening). But then, I’ve been taking this general approach for about 5-6 months, and I know from past experience I get beat up enough and sometimes radical program change is needed.

As you can tell from my thinking-out-loud that I just don’t know what to do right now. I’m not feeling good, but I want to see things through. Results have been good, but I’m getting worn. And in the end I gotta admit, I want to get back to powerlifting.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1.1, week 5, deload

• High Bar Squat
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 3
  • 210 x 5
  • 210 x 5
• Front Squat
  • bar x 5
  • 145 x 5
  • 145 x 4
• Seated Leg Curl
  • 115 x 5
  • 115 x 5
• Stair Calves
  • 50 x 5
  • 50 x 5
• Skullcrushers
  • 45 x 10
  • 70 x 5
  • 90 x 5
  • 90 x 5
• Military Press
  • 115 x 5
  • 115 x 5

Back from Maui and back to my home gym.

It’s a deload week. Starting a day late because of flying back home, and I’ll hit today and tomorrow. But the rest of the week I’m going to take off and focus on sleep and rest. My lower back is feeling much better due to the time off, but my left knee is acting up a bit. Might have been due to the hack squats, as that’s seemed to put a lot of sheer force on my knees. I’ll keep up with some Advil at night to help it out. But yeah, I really could use the rest.

I mean, today is deload, but everything still felt heavy. It’s just because I wasn’t into it because I’m worn out from the trip. All the travel, the lack of sleep, jet lag, etc.. I need rest.

That all said, I should be set up for my next mesocycle. What’s crazy tho? I’m thinking about another diet cut while I do it. I put on about 4-5 pounds in Maui. Ugh. I mean, I’m ok with it because I enjoyed myself and that’s important and worth doing. But I’m not really happy and this could be a good time to say focus this meso and the next (the metabolite meso) for the next 10-ish weeks on a cut. If I could drop say 15 pounds in 10 weeks, that’d put me in an even better place than the cut I recently finished. AND then I think that would put me in a really good spot to get back to powerlifting. I’ll think about it over the next few days — right now my brain is cheese. 🙂

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1.1, week 5, deload

• Incline Medium Grip Bench Press
  • bar x 10
  • 95 x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 175 x 5
  • 175 x 5
• Dips
  • BW x 4
  • BW x 4
• Close-Grip Bench Press
  • 135 x 6
  • 135 x 6
• Barbell Bent Over Row
  • bar x 10
  • 95 x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 165 x 5
  • 165 x 5
• Narrow-Grip Pulldown
  • 125 x 6
  • 125 x 5
• Upright Rows
  • bar x 10
  • 70 x 5
  • 95 x 5
  • 95 x f
• Reaching Sit-up
  • bw x 7
  • bw x 6

Another day at The Gym Maui.

They didn’t have all the equipment I needed but that’s ok. I know what the goals are of my program, my exercise selection, so I can pick alternatives. The only catch is I don’t know what those will work out to be. So when I didn’t know, I just started empty and worked up doing sets of 10 reps until I hit a weight that felt good, then stuck with that for my prescribed sets.

For example, they didn’t have a hex/trap-bar, but they did have a Hammer Strength hack squat machine. First time using one, and man it was awesome! I started with the empty sled and just worked my way up. The sled itself was pretty heavy, and I really have no idea how much I was actualy moving — all weights are just using standard bar math (135 means a 45# plate on each side). Plus with the hack, I went pretty deep — after all that work I was really feeling it in not only my quads but my glutes. It was pretty cool. The Gym Maui is very much a bodybuilding oriented gym in terms of equipment and approach, and there’s something pretty cool about that in terms of the machines present. Hack squat – very nice.

Then I couldn’t good morning because there’s only 1 squat rack and it was taken up. No biggie; just did hyperextensions instead.

The leg press machine was different — straight and kinda like a pendulum dangle — moved through a plane of motion parallel to the floor. Hammer Strength, I believe. Again, just worked up in 10 rep sets.

On calves, I opted to use their seated calf raise machine because I could. Another Hammer Strength, and the design of it gave a really really good stretch. But then I remembered – I can’t afford to have sore/cramped calves because I have a wedding to participate in tomorrow! I couldn’t risk it so I shut it down after 4 sets. Still, it was a fantastic stretch and contraction, and if I wasn’t involved in the wedding ceremony, I’d have gone for it. 🙂

Curls were dropped down a bit in weight so I could use the fixed barbells. But that’s fine — going up would have been too much anyways.

Shrugs were in a smith machine, because it was free.

So, not 100% the same session as I’d normally do, but it still fit the bill for what I needed.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1.1, week 4

• Hack Squats
  • sled x 10
  • 95 x 10
  • 135 x 10
  • 185 x 10
  • 185 x 10
  • 185 x 8
  • 185 x 8
  • 185 x 8
  • 185 x 8
• Hyperextension
  • bw x 10
  • bw x 10
  • bw x 10
  • bw x 10
  • bw x 10
  • bw x 10
• Leg Press
  • plate x 10
  • 135 x 10
  • 225 x 10
  • 315 x 10
  • 315 x 10
  • 315 x 10
  • 315 x 10
  • 315 x 10
  • 315 x 10
• Seated Calf Raises
  • 60 x 10
  • 60 x 10
  • 50 x 10
  • 50 x 10
• Barbell Curl
  • 40 x 10
  • 60 x 5
  • 80 x 8
  • 80 x 8
  • 80 x 7
  • 80 x 6
  • 80 x 6
  • 80 x 6
• Barbell Shrug
  • 225 x 10
  • 280 x 10
  • 280 x 10
  • 280 x 10
  • 280 x 10
  • 280 x 10
  • 280 x 10

Today was different. I worked out at The Gym Maui.

I’m in Maui for my younger sister’s destination wedding, but that doesn’t mean I stop lifting! 🙂

It’s a pretty cool gym. From the pictures on the wall, I get the feeling it’s been around for a few decades. You can tell at the core it’s a hardcore bodybuilding gym, but it’s obviously evolved to the changing face of the modern fitness industry. When I was looking for a gym to visit while in Maui, it seemed to fit my needs the best. That said, it’s not 100% to my needs – I lift more in a strength/powerlifting style, and The Gym Maui is more bodybuilding oriented. That’s not to say it’s a bad gym — it’s great, actually, and I was able to do all I needed without problem.

But for example, the bench. The uprights weren’t actually upright, but were arched and the hooks were deep. Plus, there was no adjustment. As a result, pressing the bar out of the hooks was awkward because it was a little further behind and it was almost a half-press for me — just not the best leverages here. Then when you want to rack it, you want to hit the uprights then come down into the hooks, but the uprights were swayed back so you had a long way to travel to hit the uprights — again, not great when you’ve got a lot of weight in your hands. There was another bench that had straight uprights, but the hooks were even lower and the bench had a squishy cushion (not good for stabliity). Ah well. It’s minor nitpicks, but I’m happy with things overall. Frankly, seeing all those Hammer Strength machines made me drool a little bit. 🙂

But also, things were simply different. Many of my movements today were on selectorized machines, and things were just slightly different. Different gearing, different pulley diameters, counter weights, etc. and one’s numbers can’t be quite the same. So I adjusted as I could so I could still get good work. Those Cybex selectorized machines tho – very very smooth.

All this to say, if you just look at the numbers this session may not look like a progression, but from a workload perspective, it was.

Pulldowns were fine. One big takehome from running RP’s MPT is putting pulldowns first and going heavy on them — I’ve always put pulldowns as a later movement, but putting them first and going heavy? It works well!

Benching was a little bit of ego today. I was scheduled to do 220 but I did 225 because I hate the “almost-next-wheel” weights: 130, 220, 310, etc.. Stupid I know, but whatever. I enjoyed the session.

I did skip ab work because I did need to get going. Got a late start, and I’ve got things to do around the island today (like visiting Keālia Pond.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1.1

• Neutral-Grip Pulldown
  • 90 x 10
  • 130 x 5
  • 160 x 9
  • 160 x 8
  • 160 x 7
  • 160 x 7
  • 160 x 6
• Wide-Grip Pulldown
  • 130 x 8
  • 120 x 9
  • 120 x 8
  • 120 x 8
  • 120 x 8
  • 120 x 8
• Underhand EZ-Bar Row
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 9
• Cable Upright Row
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 10
  • 120 x 10
• Bench Press
  • 45 x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 3
  • 225 x 6
  • 225 x 6
  • 225 x 6
  • 225 x 6
  • 225 x 6
  • 225 x 5
• Incline Wide-Grip Bench Press
  • 155 x 10
  • 155 x 10
  • 155 x 9
  • 155 x 8
  • 155 x 8
  • 155 x 6

Last week my “lower” day was pretty bad, so I had to auto-regulate down on this workout. I was glad I did. I felt like I got good work, but not wrecked. My lower back continues to be a little nagging on me, but I know that’s just from the workload – so this is good.

I pushed decently hard, but again not out to kill myself here. Not ideal for the 4th week of the cycle, but better to get some work than to kill myself and sacrifice the whole macrocycle.

One odd thing out of this? Heavy Skullcrushers give me one heck of a pump. My guess? I have to move slow, so it’s a lot of time-under-tension.

Anyways, that’s that.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1.1, week 4

• High Bar Squat
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 3
  • 230 x 10
  • 230 x 10
  • 230 x 8
  • 230 x 6
• Front Squat
  • 160 x 10
  • 160 x 10
  • 160 x 8
  • 160 x 8
• Seated Leg Curl
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 8
  • 125 x 7
• Stair Calves
  • 55 x 10
  • 55 x 10
  • 55 x 10
  • 55 x 10
  • 55 x 10
  • 55 x 10
  • 55 x 10
  • 55 x 8
• Skullcrushers
  • 50 x 10
  • 70 x 5
  • 100 x 8
  • 100 x 8
  • 100 x 8
  • 100 x 8
  • 100 x 6
  • 100 x 6
• Military Press
  • 125 x 8
  • 125 x 8
  • 125 x 8
  • 125 x 6
  • 125 x 6
  • 125 x 5

Week 4. The big “reaching overload” week.

All went pretty well. I really think they did a great job at properly graduating the weeks here. So long as you are honest in your assessments when filling out the “seed data”, things do tend to progress well week over week.

My triceps are killing me tho. 🙂

Dips. Man, I forgot how much I love/hate them.

BB Rows. Technically was to do 180 today, but eh – why not 185 for that nice round plate math. Again, it’s the final week, intended for some intentional overreach. I was feeling good, so why not.

I did have to bail on the situps. Session was already 2.25 hours long (ugh) and I had to get home for an early morning meeting.

1/fail, 2-3 minutes rest.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1.1

• Incline Medium Grip Bench Press
  • bar x 10
  • 95 x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 195 x 8
  • 195 x 8
  • 195 x 8
  • 195 x 7
  • 195 x 7
  • 195 x 6
• Dips
  • BW x 9
  • BW x 8
  • BW x 8
  • BW x 8
  • BW x 8
  • BW x 7
• Close-Grip Bench Press
  • 150 x 8
  • 150 x 8
  • 150 x 8
  • 150 x 7
  • 150 x 6
• Barbell Bent Over Row
  • bar x 10
  • 95 x 5
  • 135 x 3
  • 185 x 8
  • 185 x 8
  • 185 x 8
  • 185 x 7
  • 185 x 7
  • 185 x 6
• Narrow-Grip Pulldown
  • 140 x 10
  • 140 x 9
  • 140 x 9
  • 140 x 8
  • 140 x 8
  • 140 x 7
• Upright Rows
  • bar x 10
  • 75 x 5
  • 105 x 10
  • 105 x 9
  • 105 x 8
  • 105 x 8
  • 105 x 8
  • 105 x 7

Today – not so good.

I’m tired. Sleep has been poor all week – thank you Daylight Saving Time. And some other things have me run down, so despite feeling awesome yesterday, today I was gassed from the get go. I figured with all the wear and tear coupled with the fact tomorrow I’ll be leading classes all day at KR Training, I needed to cut back today to not dig too deep a recovery hole. Let my body recover so I can go into next week strong.

Thus, I treated today kinda like a deload, cutting things in half. Most were scheduled for 5 sets, but I only did 3. Weights were the same as scheduled. Reps were kept like “4/fail” — enough to get some work, but no where near exhaustion.

I am wondering if this is situational, or actually is training-related. That is, is it due to the poor sleep? Or could it be this is too much? The MPT is very high volume, and moderate-to-high frequency. There are a few variables one can change in training: intensity, frequency, volume. Generally it needs to be a balancing act of inverse proportions. For example, if intensity is high, you shouldn’t also have high frequency and high volume; instead, maybe medium frequency and low volume. Well, this variation on the template puts me into high intensity (relatively speaking), so it may be things are too much — and I need to change my regulation on it regarding volume. Not sure, but it’s an interesting thought.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1.1, week 3

• Hex-Bar Deadlift
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 225 x 3
  • 275 x 1
  • 290 x 6
  • 290 x 6
  • 290 x 6
• Low-Bar Good Morning
  • bar x 10
  • 125 x 8
  • 125 x 8
  • 125 x 8
• Leg Press
  • 135 x 10
  • 245 x 5
  • 370 x 8
  • 370 x 8
  • 370 x 8
• Calves on Leg Press
  • 130 x 8
  • 130 x 8
  • 130 x 8
• Barbell Curl
  • 45 x 10
  • 65 x 5
  • 80 x 8
  • 80 x 8
  • 80 x 8
• Barbell Shrug
  • 185 x 10
  • 275 x 8
  • 275 x 8
  • 275 x 8

Today went well. Not much to say other than that.

Worked to keep rest periods to 2 minutes (except during bench press, 3 minutes). Working 2/fail. I am getting much better about estimating that, and it’s really good when you hit it because the way the templates are structured, if you hit it right it makes for fairly consistent sets. It can be amazing what 1 more rep closer to true failure can take out of you and how much it can destroy later sets (and getting in volume).

One take-home is working on my eye positions, especially when benching. I noticed when benching my eyes tend to look “downward”, and as a result so goes my bar path. I am working on looking more up (trying to see my forehead, if you will), so that I can have a better bar path. Just like when driving a motorcycle, the bike goes where you look? Same with the bar.

RP Physique, Mesocycle 1.1, week 3

• Neutral-Grip Pulldown
  • 90 x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 160 x 8
  • 160 x 8
  • 160 x 8
  • 160 x 8
  • 160 x 7
• Wide-Grip Pulldown
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
  • 135 x 8
• Underhand EZ-Bar Row
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
• Cable Upright Row
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
  • 125 x 10
• Bench Press
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 8
• Incline Wide-Grip Bench Press
  • 150 x 10
  • 150 x 10
  • 150 x 8
  • 150 x 8
  • 150 x 8
• Slant-board Sit-up
  • 15 x 10
  • 15 x 10
  • 15 x 10
  • 15 x 8