Pretty solid day. Rep PRs and everything.

Pressing went quite well. Had nothing on my mind other than lifting, and performance is generally better when I can focus. That said tho, the top-set was off. I knew 170 would be no problem, but I get half-way through the first rep and the bar stops moving. WTF? I just kept pressing through it and got the rep but it was rather odd that it took so long. Got 3 more reps without a problem. Looking back my only guess is I started in a bad position. There’s some issues in using this rack at the gym that make it annoying to get into a good start position. I think I rushed it a bit and just started out of groove, bar a little too far from me, so things stalled out. Still, managed to set a rep PR here so I’m OK with it, but I can only dream of how many more reps I could have gotten had I not expended so much on that first rep. Ah well, live and learn.

On the pulldowns, I continue to be happy with the small tweak to the movement, where it’s not just down, but realizing there’s still a bit “back” you can go at the bottom. That little extra makes a big difference.

Dips continue to do better. I’m getting technique better dialed in, so I attribute that to the increase in reps.

Skullcrushers had to change. I normally use the EZ bar but couldn’t get to it (other gym folk). So I just picked up 2 35# dumbbells (was going to do 70 on the bar) and off I went. Should have not used the same weight; should have dropped it down a bit. The movement is a bit different with the DB’s vs. the bar. I kinda liked it, just need to adust some things (e.g. where I lay on the bench so I can get a better range of motion given the DB’s bump the bench).

Anyways, not a bad way to wind up the week. All big movements set rep PRs. Getting stronger is a slow but enjoyable process.

• Press (superset with pulldowns)
  • bar x whatever
  • 70 x 5
  • 90 x 5
  • 110 x 3
  • 135 x 5
  • 155 x 3
  • 170 x 4 (4 rep PR)
  • 155 x 5
  • 135 x 7
• Lat Pulldowns (pronated grip, to chest)
  • 110 x 12
  • 120 x 12
  • 130 x 12
  • 140 x 12
  • 140 x 12
  • 140 x 12
  • 140 x 12
  • 140 x 10
• Dips (superset with shrugs)
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 8
• DB Shrugs
  • 80e x 15
  • 80e x 15
  • 80e x 15
• Front Plate Raises (all the way above head)
  • 25 x 30
  • 25 x 15
  • 25 x 10
• Skullcrushers (DB)
  • 35e x 12
  • 35e x 8
  • 35e x 7
• Hammer Curl
  • 40e x 10
  • 40e x 10
  • 40e x 9

Today was better. Rep PR.

It’s funny that deadlifts were always a sweet spot for me, but I find I enjoy them less. I still do enjoy them, I guess it’s that their place hasn’t changed but my love for other things (e.g. squatting) has grown. Still, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as walking up to a heavy bar and picking it up off the ground.

I had a nice rep PR of 5 @ 400#. I could have done more, but today was about leaving something in the tank, so I did. While the first down set left just a couple in the tank, the last downset left a bunch in the tank. I double-overhanded it and my grip started to give, so I stopped to switch, and while I was stopped my body said “that’s good” so I just left it. You don’t have to kill yourself to make progress, and I’ve been making progress.

That said, I wasn’t as dead to the world so I did some hyperextensions. I’m trying a different approach with my feet at 45º angles, my upper back rounded over. When I do this, I find the movement is much more glutes and hams than lower back, which is what I’m after. Good deal.

Anyways, I chalk today up as a solid 80% day. Happy with it.

I’m still not 100% sure what to do about this day. It’s one where I had a plan, the plan didn’t pan out, so I’ve been loosely winging it. But I think this is going to be ok to just do what I’m doing here. Because so long as there’s progress, I’m good.

In other news… I should mention that part of my problem today was feeling discomfort in my biceps, especially in the area where they attach to the elbow. Grr. I’m working to un-slack myself about stretching, massage, and other things in that area. Not just on the arms, but also pecs, shoulders, upper back, etc. I don’t neee to go down this road again. Regarding benching, I’ll be taking next week deload (since I’m taking time off work too) and I’ll see how things go. My thinking right now is to either just keep benching (provided the rehab, massage, stretching, etc. works out), or to go with inclines and see how I respond to those.

• Deadlift
  • 170 x 5
  • 210 x 5
  • 250 x 3
  • 315 x 5
  • 355 x 3
  • 400 x 5 (5 rep PR)
  • 355 x 8
  • 315 x 7
• Hyperextensions
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 12
• Leg Curls
  • 35 x 12
  • 35 x 12
  • 35 x 12
• Crunches
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 10

Well, that wasn’t what I wanted.

That biceps/arm pain I was experiencing some time back? It’s returning.

I started to feel it last week while benching. I thought it may have been due to the back work, so I switched grips. I continued with that different grip (neutral) today, but no change. In fact, as soon as things started to feel icky I stopped the back work. No question — it’s benching.

Arms just feel shakey and unstable. And there’s just achy pain. It’s in the biceps and brachialis; in fact, massaging my arms afterwards and the brachialis really felt sore.

Ugh.

Anyways, I worked up to the top set. I did set a rep PR, which was nice. I actually could have done more, but I stopped because of the pain. Just not worth it.

I then packed up and headed home.

Hrm.

I don’t want to stop benching, but no question it’s my worst offender. What I’m thinking is a few things:

1. I’m betting my posture at work has been degrading. I have to recheck myself. And yes, this means I have not been explicitly paying attention to it, so likely it’s gone to crap.
2. Going to spend time massaging my arms and shoulders as best I can. I may seek professional assistance again.
3. I likely am going to have to adjust my bench training — but how?

On this last point I’ve got a few thoughts:

1. Stop benching. Not at all the option I want, but I have to be real and realize it may have to happen.
2. Try incline benching, which is a different angle and lighter weights. Same approach tho. This may be the least different option that should still allow me to somewhat progress.
3. Use DB bench as a primary. Not really desirable as I expect with the instability issues DB’s won’t be an improvement. But in fact, the lighter weights and different motion may work out ok.
4. Machine bench. There’s a flat bench “machine” at the gym. I’ve never used it, but I might consider it. Was speaking with another guy this morning and he told me he can’t BB bench because it irritates his shoulder, but on that machine he has no problems. So it’s a maybe.
5. Keep flat benching, but a different approach, e.g. basebuilding.

Off the top of my head, I’m thinking I may do something like incline bench, working up to a top set of a single (5/4/3/2/1), then drop back to an AMRAP and 50% set — yes, Paul Carter protocol. Then follow with flat DB bench.

Don’t know yet.

• Bench Press (superset cable rows)
  • bar x whatever
  • 105 x 5
  • 130 x 5
  • 155 x 3
  • 195 x 5
  • 220 x 3
  • 245 x 4 (4 rep PR)
• Cable Rows
  • 105 x 12
  • 115 x 12
  • 125 x 12
  • 135 x 12

5 rep PR with 325 lb.. Progress is good.

I don’t find myself getting as mentally bothered by “300 pounds” any more. If anything, it actually excites me. It’s cool to no longer flirt with the 300’s but to be working in the 300’s. And then when I have days like today, 400 doesn’t seem too far away.

Last night before I went to sleep I thought about it. I knew 3 reps would be doable, so 4 was my goal. When I came up after the 4th I was 90% sure I could get a 5th rep so I went for it. There was a bit of grind at the sticking point, but not much. 5 reps at 325 is a nice achievement. I feel like a single @ 365 is workable, and maybe even a little more. But this is not the time for 1RM’s — this is just a time to keep working. Steady progress.

Pause squats. Gee if I don’t find myself liking these. Went for only 3 reps today just to keep a pace.

Upping the volume slightly on lunges and extensions. I’ll continue this. My knees are happy for it. I figure with lunges I’ll work up to like 4 sets of 15 reps each leg, then I’ll start adding weight.

Really happy with today. Great way to start the week.

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 135 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 205 x 3
  • 255 x 5
  • 290 x 3
  • 325 x 5 (5 rep PR)
• Pause Squat
  • 255 x 3
  • 255 x 3
  • 255 x 3
• Lunges
  • BW x 12e
  • BW x 12e
  • BW x 12e
• Leg Extensions
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 15
• Twisting Crunches
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 16
  • BW x 10

Today was alright. Solid day, no complaints.

Pressing went fine. Didn’t set a rep PR, but it was still a fair showing for the day.

Dips were weird. My body just didn’t want to do them. It didn’t feel muscular (like muscles were exhausted), but rather like things just didn’t want to fire. Hard to describe.

Working shrugs to be fast/explosive on the concentric is kinda weird feeling, because it’s such a small range of motion — and it’s shrugging. I don’t quite have the weight dialed in either, but it’s close. I did feel like this is getting me something tho, so I’ll stick with it.

Anyways, things just chug along.

Current feelings? Work next week as usual. Keep carbs in check. Week after take as a deload (debating if I’ll jack-shit deload or proper deload), and I may go lo-carb that whole week to try to shed some bloat. I’ll probably get more out of it if I don’t jack-shit but do a proper deload and throw in some cardio. I have to work to keep my weight in check.

• Press (superset with pulldowns)
  • bar x whatever
  • 70 x 5
  • 90 x 5
  • 110 x 3
  • 125 x 3
  • 145 x 3
  • 160 x 6
  • 145 x 8
  • 125 x 11
• Lat Pulldowns (pronated grip, to chest)
  • 105 x 12
  • 115 x 12
  • 125 x 12
  • 135 x 12
  • 135 x 12
  • 135 x 12
  • 135 x 12
  • 135 x 12
• Dips (superset with shrugs)
  • BW x 8
  • BW x 9
  • BW x 5
• DB Shrugs
  • 70e x 15
  • 70e x 15
  • 70e x 15
• Front Plate Raises (all the way above head)
  • 25 x 28
  • 25 x 18
  • 25 x 15
• Skullcrushers
  • 65 x 12
  • 65 x 12
  • 65 x 12
• Hammer Curl
  • 40e x 10
  • 40e x 10
  • 40e x 8

Today had to be a “jack shit” day as I had to get somewhere early today.

Things felt a little heavy, but I still moved around alright. The top set was a rep-PR, so cool there.

In related news, I have some thoughts about rest. That either I’ll go to 3x/week and stick with 6-week cycle (well, 2-cycles back to back before deload), or stick with 4x/week but deload after each cycle. Not sure yet….

• Deadlift
  • 170 x 5
  • 210 x 5
  • 250 x 3
  • 295 x 3
  • 335 x 3
  • 380 x 7 (7 rep PR)
  • 335 x 7
  • 295 x 9

On paper, an 80% day. To me tho, a -10% day.

On paper the day is a good one. Things went up, progress was made. But I just didn’t feel great about it.

Bench work was unstable. I just couldn’t get my lower body to fire, to be tight, to have drive. Things just felt all over the place and it manifested in wasted energy and lost reps. I’m not 100% sure why things sucked, but they did. Did not make a rep PR.

The one thought is the rows. I’m doing them with an EZ-bar and a pronated/overhand grip, just for variety. That pull involves more biceps than a neutral grip. I felt my biceps getting a little irritated, not unlike the prior issues I had before, tho certainly not quite the same. Given what I was feeling, that may have been at the root of the instabilities. Hard to say. On the last 2 sets of rows I switched to free handles and a neutral grip and felt more back and less biceps recruitment. I’ll probably stick with the neutral grip.

But otherwise, things are what they are.

• Bench Press (superset cable rows)
  • bar x whatever
  • 105 x 5
  • 130 x 5
  • 155 x 3
  • 180 x 3
  • 210 x 3
  • 235 x 7
  • 210 x 11
  • 180 x 11
• Cable Rows
  • 100 x 12
  • 110 x 12
  • 120 x 12
  • 130 x 12
  • 130 x 12
  • 130 x 12
  • 130 x 12
  • 130 x 12
• DB Bench Press (superset with Kroc rows)
  • 75e x 10
  • 75e x 10
  • 75e x 10
• Kroc Row
  • 50 x 10e
  • 50 x 10e
  • 50 x 27e
• DB Upright Row
  • 25e x 15
  • 25e x 15
  • 25e x 12
• Overhead Rope Extensions
  • 60 x 13
  • 60 x 12
  • 60 x 8
• EZ Bar Curl (narrow grip)
  • 55 x 15
  • 55 x 14
  • 55 x 11

That was good.

I must be liking squats. 🙂 Last night before bed I looked up what I was to do today. “OK, 305 for reps. How many do I need to set a rep PR? 6 will work.” And went to bed.

Worked up, and 6 came pretty easy. I knew I could go for more and thought about it, but no, I set the goal of 6, met the goal, and left a couple in the tank, which is the smarter way to go. Very happy.

While you cannot use 1RM formulas to know what your 1RM actually would be, it is a fair way to compare progress over time. Right now my 1RM is calculating out to 365, and that calculation’s been pretty steady. Again, it doesn’t necessarily mean I could squat 365 right now, but it’s cool to see I’m now flirting in that realm — 3.5 wheels. I do 325 next week, which I expect I should do for 3-4 reps just fine. That’s my old 1RM. Then 2 more cycles and I’ll be doing 345, which is my current 1RM, for reps. Progress is good.

I am very happy with my choice for pause squats. Today I wasn’t sure how many reps I’d do, since the script is 3 sets of 3-5 reps. Being 3-week, do I still go for 5? 4? I figured to just wing it: if I can get 5, take it. And so I did. What was nice about this set was not just the same focus on technique, but in the hole I paused for longer. I found myself not just letting momentum dissipate, but then settling into the bottom position, and found a little stretch happening. Then having to come out of the hole was tougher, but better in terms of muscles recruited. I really dug it. Good good stuff.

One thing I found myself being reminded of throughout squatting today was the importance of WHOLE body tightness on the descent. I get the upper body tight, but the lower body doesn’t have that strict tightness. I found myself happier when I did, especially my knees.

As for everything else, it’s just a slow work-up for being good to my legs and making my knees happy. I’ll probably continue one more week of “ramp up” on the lunges and extensions, then afterwards up the volume with just 1 more set, etc. Again, slow ramp up, to help with my knees.

Good day.

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 135 x 5
  • 170 x 5
  • 205 x 3
  • 240 x 3
  • 270 x 3
  • 305 x 3 (6 rep PR)
• Pause Squat
  • 240 x 5
  • 240 x 5
  • 240 x 5
• Lunges
  • BW x 12e
  • BW x 12e
• Leg Extensions
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 15
• Twisting Crunches
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 16
  • BW x 14

Pretty good, pretty good.

Pressing went well. Set an 8-rep PR with the top set, which I was happy about. I must say, getting back to doing rep-PRs has put my mind at ease a bit, because the past 3 5/3/1-cycles felt heavy. They were fresh after a reset, so they shouldn’t have felt heavy, but it started to make me wonder if I was going to have to reset soon (typically it’s 5-8 cycles before a reset). But hitting things like I have this week has made me feel like things are on track.

The pyramid-down sets are killer. It’s basically 3 sets of AMRAP, and they are taking a lot out of me. It’s good stuff tho (well, apart from having to refigure how I’ll handle deadlift day). Interesting thing was on the last set what I felt give out first was my deltoids, which usually aren’t the first thing to give. Interesting.

From Tuesday’s bench day I had opted to readjust how much pulling I do superset with pressing, and to move my additional back exercise instead to be superset with the “other” pressing exercise. So I opted to do the same here, and I dug that. Flows better.

Dips were funny. I haven’t done them in forever and was pretty trashed after the pressing, so I wasn’t sure how many I could do (plus I weigh more). On the first dip, I got to the bottom and collapsed. 🙂 My body was like “what the hell are you doing?” But then I remembered better cues about keeping tight and so on, so I continued along. In fact you can see that the later 2 sets had a couple more reps because body mechanics came back. LOL

The shrugs are a trial. As I’ve said before, I’m trying to work all my assistance to have that fast, explosive concentric and a slower eccentric (I realized this morning the tempo is akin to Jairo, from “Bob’s Burgers”, going “TIGHT! and relax…”). Shrugs generally have been a consistent tempo for me, so I wanted to start a little light to find what would work here, since this tempo does change how things go. I still am too light, but I think I know where to go from here.

Front plate raises were simply 25#, all the way over the head, AMRAP. Good stuff.

And then a little arm work. Which again, that tempo. I found it hard to remember to do the tempo with the skullcrushers because they start with eccentric. But gee if this sort of “TIGHT! and relax…” tempo isn’t working nicely.

Anyways, I thought this was a good session. The new routine is generally ok. A few adjustments, and we’ll see how they go next week.

• Press (superset with pulldowns)
  • bar x whatever
  • 70 x 5
  • 90 x 5
  • 110 x 3
  • 115 x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 155 x 8 (8 rep PR)
  • 135 x 10 (AMRAP)
  • 115 x 10 (AMRAP)
• Lat Pulldowns (pronated grip, to chest)
  • 105 x 12
  • 115 x 12
  • 125 x 12
  • 135 x 12
  • 135 x 12
  • 135 x 12
  • 135 x 10
  • 135 x 10
• Dips (superset with shrugs)
  • BW x 6
  • BW x 8
  • BW x 8
• DB Shrugs
  • 50e x 15
  • 60e x 15
  • 70e x 15
• Front Plate Raises (all the way above head)
  • 25 x 25
  • 25 x 15
  • 25 x 11
• Skullcrushers
  • 65 x 12
  • 65 x 12
  • 65 x 10
• Hammer Curl
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10

Ooof.

So first deadlift session of the new program and oh man…

Deadlifts themselves went well. It really reinforces how much I like going for rep PRs. Today’s top set did set a 10 rep PR for me. I wanted to stick with double-overhand grip as long as I could, and I did, then switched to mixed grip to finish things out.

The pyramid down sets. Oof. They were good, but it was rather evident that pushing towards “failure” was starting to blow up my lower back. Good way, but still. I certainly stopped not because of my legs, but because the lower back said that was enough. So I guess there’s a weak point. 😉

I wanted to continue working back down, thinking that going for failure with the warm-up weights would just be high-rep silly. So instead, switch to RDL to continue the work down. Nope. Again, the lower back had enough. In fact, I couldn’t finish. I went down for the 2nd set of RDLs and my body said “don’t be stupid”.

I tried doing hypers. Nope.

Now, if I sat and rested a good 15-20 minutes, things would have been fine to continue, but I don’t have that sort of time. I just did my leg curls and packed it up (forgot to do my ab work).

So I’m not sure what to do.

Part of me thinks I should just do the top set AMRAP and then leave it alone. Switch to something else that does more hamstring work, like maybe just RDL for higher reps (6-10). Or I may just stick with this, maybe instead of RDL in fact work the rest of the way down with conventional deadlifts. Don’t know right now. Going to have to think about this.

• Deadlift
  • 170 x 5
  • 210 x 5
  • 250 x 3
  • 275 x 5
  • 315 x 5
  • 355 x 10 (10 rep PR)
  • 315 x 7
  • 275 x 7
• RDL
  • 250 x 4
• Hyperextensions
  • BW x nope
• Leg Curls
  • 35 x 12
  • 35 x 12
  • 35 x 12
• Crunches
  • forgot….