Today starts my second run of the Renaissance Periodization Powerlifting Strength template.

When you fill out the template, you put in various 5RM or 8RM values, depending on the movement. It so happened that the week 4 numbers of the prior cycle worked well for this. Granted, I didn’t have true rep-maxes on week 4: it was designed for 1/fail, and some I was able to crank out more than say 5 reps (on a 5RM exercise). But that’s fine. Borrowing from Wendler, it’s never a bad thing to start too light, to be a little more sub-maximal. Granted you can’t go way down, but heck: if I cranked out 6 reps and had one left in the tank, AND it’s still a progression from the prior cycle, I think that’s an alright place to start.

I am not changing much on the layout of the sessions themselves: basically keeping the same movements, tho maybe some slight modifications. For example, I’ll still dumbbell press but I’m using less weight and adding a pause in the bottom position — as a means to work with my present shoudler issues.

Side note: I am more and more convinced my issues are in my shoulders. I’m giving some thought to doing my bench pressing with the swiss/football bar so I can use a neutral grip as that will basically force my elbows more into my body — they really can’t flare out. Not sure, just started to think about the mechanics of that over this past weekend.

But then speaking of issues…

I picked up a new set of knee sleeves. I noticed my elbow sleeves had ripped so I bought replacements (same as before: Mark Bell’s STrong sleeves size XXL), and while I was at it I opted to buy another set of knee sleeves — not that I needed them, but I wanted to try one size smaller to see how it went. So I picked up the STrong knee sleeves size XL (normally I do XXL). For sure, they fit a bit tighter and getting a full knee bend is a little harder. I did notice a hint of pop in the bottom position, but really it’s not much.

What I really noticed tho? The added compression felt good on my knees and kneecap. My left knee has been giving me troubles (and yes I’m on the cusp of getting X-rays on it), but boy if it didn’t feel good all through the session and even now as I write this up.

I’m also really working on “TIGHT” as my main cue. I know to be tight, and I think to be tight, but I know that 1. I could be tighter, 2. I could be more completely tight (e.g. whole body), 3. I need to keep that tightness.

I think part of my arm issues is because lack of tightness — in my grip. I notice if I work to crush-grip the bar AND KEEP THAT then life’s better. It’s really evident doing something as simple as band pull-aparts in my warm-up. If I let my wrists be only somewhat rigid, there’s some tension in my elbows. But if I really squeeze hard and ensure my wrists are solid, no pain.

And also, when tight, everything just works better, is stronger, etc.

So when squatting today, I did my best to make every rep a time to reset. Get tight, go down, come up, take a moment to reset myself and get tight, then do another rep, etc.. I think that made a big difference. I still need a bunch of work, especially at ensuring the upper back remains tight. But I’ll get there.

Anyways, this is a good first day of the new cycle. Light, minimal, just getting into the groove.

2/fail. 3 minutes rest on big movements, 2 or 1.5 on smaller movements.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle 2, week 1

• Squat (low bar)
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 225 x 5
  • 255 x 3
  • 285 x 6
  • 285 x 6
  • 285 x 5
• Front Squat
  • 165 x 10
  • 165 x 8
• Competition Deadlift (triples)
  • 135 x 3
  • 225 x 3
  • 265 x 3
  • 265 x 3
• Stair Calves
  • 70 x 10
  • 70 x 10
• Reaching Situps
  • 22 x 12
  • 22 x 12

Deload.

Nothing special to write home about.

I am going to take the rest of the week off.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 5

• Competition Grip Bench (with pause)
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 155 x 6
  • 155 x 6
• Incline DB Press
  • 55e x 7
  • 55e x 7
• Barbell Bent Rows
  • bar x 10
  • 125 x 6
  • 125 x 6
• Barbell Upright Row
  • bar x 10
  • 75 x 6
  • 75 x 6
• Reverse Curls
  • 45 x 8
  • 45 x 8

It’s been a long time since I could say I set a PR. 🙂

It was a rep PR: incline bench, 7 reps at 215#. Nothing huge, but given all things to date, it’s a big deal for me. And it’s an all-time rep PR too, which is cool. I had some more in the tank too, but that’s fine — it’s the heaviest week of the cycle, but we’re still not supposed to go to failure. So I’m very happy about this.

For the record, I did have my elbow sleeves and also wrapped my wrists – not sure if they made any difference. And I continue to work on benching with my pinkies on the rings (slightly narrower than I have been).

Still, all of this did cause enough irritation of things in my arms/shoulders, so I played it conservative. Even more so when it came to the DB benching, because I was scheduled to use the 100’s — which would have been another all-time personal best. Never benched the 100’s, it’s 100, it’s 3-digits, all sorts of things because we like round neat numbers. But I opted against it because I was just too unsure. No reason to make things worse for me. So instead I dropped the weight down and tried doing what I’m planning for next cycle: paused. Keep the DB’s 45º to the body, let the weight sink down as far as I can, pause, really sink into it, then press out really emphasizing it by contraction of the pecs & anterior delts. That worked well. Part of me thinks I should have just gone through with the 100’s, but I can’t let ego talk right now.

Everything else was what it was, no big deal, just assistance work.

Still, I’m very happy with how this past week went. I feel that while I’ve lost some strength in the short term, overall I am stronger — I just have to remember how to be strong. 😉 To get comfortable again under heavier weights, to improve my technique under heavier weights — especially setup. I’m really looking forward to this next cycle.

Next week I’ll take the deload, then into cycle #2, which will will mostly the same structure as this past cycle.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 4

• Incline Bench Press
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 3
  • 215 x 7 (rep PR)
  • 215 x 6
  • 215 x 5
• DB Bench Press (paused, sunk)
  • 70e x 10
  • 80e x 10
  • 80e x 9
  • 80e x 8
• Neutral-grip Pulldowns
  • 105 x 10
  • 165 x 10
  • 165 x 10
  • 165 x 8
• DB Lateral Raises
  • 35e x 8
  • 35e x 8
  • 35e x 8
• DB Hammer Curls
  • 25e x 10
  • 45e x 10
  • 45e x 9
  • 45e x 8

Today was great!

Going into today I was a little nervous. There’s the arm pain – which is diminishing, but still present. It’s heaviest weight I’ve benched in a long time, and the crazy thing is that any time I’ve been working with this weight, there’s always been arm pain present and it’s always gotten in the way. So I really wasn’t sure how things would go. In fact, I was so unsure how this would go that I asked for a spot for all 5 of my working sets; normally I go without a spotter, but I just wasn’t sure how today would go and didn’t want to kill myself.

And I didn’t kill myself; in fact, I exceeded my expectations!

I told myself that if things got so bad that all I could do was a single, then so be it. I wanted to do well, but I am not out to kill myself or make things worse. I was just going to get under the bar and take each rep as it came. I added a single at 225 as a warm-up so it wasn’t as huge a jump from 185 to 240.

But then I started on my work sets, and the reps just kept coming.

I think part of it is setup. I focused more on setup on these sets than I probably ever have. To get really tight, really place myself. To “slide” the bar out of the hooks to minimize disturbance to the shoulders. Take a moment to reset the shoulders, and even take another deep breath. Everything I could think of to really ensure I was tight tight tight. I also did my new thing of pinkies on the rings (instead of ring finger). I shouldn’t be surprised, but it did influence my bar path — my body wanted the bar to touch higher, but that slight adjustment made things want to touch a bit lower. It was an interesting “fight” but I just went with it as best I could.

I will say, the first rep descent on each work set was the most worrisome as that’s where I felt more instability; but once that hit, every subsequent rep was great. I want to work more on my descent, having that tight “controlled drop”, like I’ve been doing with squat. And I’m going to need to find that new groove and bar path with the new hand position. But all in all, not a bad deal. That will come.

I only stopped at 7 on the first set because I was playing it conservative! Even on the later sets, my spotter was like “you had more in you”, and I did but again I was trying to play it conservative. So I’m really really happy with how things went.

And the arm pain was present, but not bad. Very manageable.

Oh, I should note that I do have my elbow sleeves and also added wrist wraps on the work sets. Is that helping? Probably. If that’s what I need, then so be it.

Anyways, very very happy with how things went.

Then on inclines, I was to do straight sets with 85’s, but I opted to drop down to not beat myself up too much. It gave me an idea tho. For next cycle I was contemplating dropping DB pressing but I think I’ll keep it — just change it. I’ll keep the DB’s at 45º to my body, then lower the weights and go paused on every rep. Sink the weight deep, get the stretch, pause, and only allow pec/delt contraction to move out of the hole. I think that will be good for me in a number of ways. The pausing (just like why pause squats are good), and it should be a little more friendly and productive for my shoulders.

Everything else was support work. While I do want to do this RP template one more time, I am looking forward to my own programming again because I want to address more of the things I need vs. what a template tells me. I want a little more pulling work, a little more shoulder and upper back work. Things to help me long-term manage and stay healthy.

But I’m happy for today. Very happy.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 4

• Competition Grip Bench (with pause)
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 5
  • 225 x 1
  • 240 x 7
  • 240 x 5
  • 240 x 5
  • 240 x 4
  • 240 x 3
• Incline DB Press
  • 60e x 10
  • 70e x 10
  • 80e x 8
  • 80e x 8
• Barbell Bent Rows
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 195 x 8
  • 195 x 7
  • 195 x 7
• Barbell Upright Row
  • bar x 10
  • 115 x 8
  • 115 x 8
  • 115 x 7
• Reverse Curls
  • 20 x 10
  • 65 x 9
  • 65 x 9
  • 65 x 8

Week 4 – the big week. And it went well.

I had a wee bit of trepidation going into this morning. I knew I could hit the weights, but it was hitting the weights with things like my knee and my arms, and all those little nagging things. It’s really weird tho, that my knees feel so much better WHEN I’m lifting, because I’m lifting. So I just wasn’t sure how it would all go.

And it went well.

I was telling myself I wanted to hit 5 — if I could hit that, even tho it’s a 1/fail week — then I could stop. On that first set @ 295 I know I could have done at least 1 more (and still left one in the tank), and maybe even 2 because things were feeling good. But I opted against it for a couple reasons.

First, I wanted to play it conservative as I’d rather hit all 5 sets and reasonable reps, than go all out on the first set and have nothing for the later sets. Plus knee, etc.

Second, I know you shouldn’t change technique at a time like this, but it happened. First, per last week I went with the eagle claw grip, but I hate that grip because I just can’t actually grip/squeeze the bar. I started using it, but immediately stopped and instead just took my thumb off from around the bar — basically suicide grip. That works, still allows me to generally clench/squeeze the bar, but if my hands need to angle a bit then they can. That carried me through today. Also, I am really emphasizing being tight, especially on that descent. Upper back, upper body, gotta be tight. If I do that right, my neck then is neutral and so my eyes look downward — it’s all a neutral directon, but just due to angles its how it goes. This is all good of course, but well… the squat racks at the gym are in front of a mirrored wall, so I often watch myself to check technique, depth, etc.. This is OK, but I’ve noticed that lately my eyes want to keep watching (especially depth). So today? there was a fight between head position and eyes watching, and it was bad enough that on the second rep at 295 I started to lose my balance and actually had to take a step to avoid falling over. Not good, not good.

What it tells me is I do need to stop with the mirror — it’s good now and again, but it’s somehow gravitated to paying too much attention do it. What I may start doing, at least at first, is with lighter weights just closing my eyes and doing everything by feel. yes, that’s how things should normally be, but take it a step further and totally cut out visual feedback. We’ll see.

Anyways – the squats generally went well. I’m happy, and I’m going to use 295 as my starting point for the next cycle.

Everything else was what it was. Overall volume up, strength up, and feeling good. Again, I don’t know for sure if I’m actually any stronger or just more in the groove given how light things started out coming into this cycle. I’m planning on doing this same template for another cycle, changing just a few things — like I’ll probably dump 45º extensions for good mornings, because something told me today that as much as I hate good mornings, they are also something that will benefit me well (just like more front squats).

So there we go.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 4

• Squat (low bar)
  • bar x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 225 x 5
  • 265 x 3
  • 295 x 5
  • 295 x 5
  • 295 x 5
  • 295 x 4
  • 295 x 3
• Front Squat
  • 175 x 8
  • 175 x 8
  • 175 x 8
  • 175 x 6
• Competition Deadlift
  • 135 x 3
  • 225 x 3
  • 280 x 3
  • 280 x 3
  • 280 x 3
  • 280 x 3
• Stair Calves
  • 65 x 12
  • 65 x 12
  • 65 x 10
• Reaching Situps
  • 20 x 12
  • 20 x 12
  • 20 x 12

Week 3 ends with a very light and minimal day. Very light triples on the larger movements, and just a single set on the assistance work. Almost felt pointless to go in today as I spent more time driving to the gym than actually in the gym. But it’s all part of the program so I do it.

I did try out the closer grip on the benching: putting my pinkies on the rings. It’s hard to say for sure because the weight was light and inclines are a different angle and engagement of the arms and shoulders. But it did feel somewhat good and seemed to have promise. I also did the DB benching with my hands at an angle (think the DB grips were like 45º to the body). All good.

So, nothing much for today, but really looking forward to next week. 🙂

That said, I did go ahead and rate today 1’s, which did up my benching sets for next week. I figure it’s good for me to shoot for that, but I am totally fine with cutting it back if pain prevents me. I might even just do singles if that’s all my body permits me to do.

That said, I’ve started talking with someone at the gym towards investigating my issue. We’ll see where it goes.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 3

• Incline Bench Press
  • bar x 10
  • 95 x 5
  • 135 x 3
  • 135 x 3
  • 135 x 3
• DB Bench Press
  • 65e x 3
  • 65e x 3
  • 65e x 3
• Neutral-grip Pulldowns
  • 100 x 10
  • 160 x 11
• DB Lateral Raises
  • 30e x 12
• DB Hammer Curls
  • 25e x 10
  • 45e x 10

So this is an interesting day.

The templates have it that the last 2 days of week 3 are very light days. Light weights, very low intensity, and just triples across the board (tho assistance can get a little bit of normal work). It’s a mild deload ahead of next week’s hardest week of the cycle. We’ll see how it pans out.

So to that, nothing really to report. Just went in, did the work, got out. Took me maybe 40 minutes including my warmup.

That said, 2 things did come out of it.

First, as I mentioned on Tuesday, I want to play with my grip width during benching. Tons of veteran advice that a narrower grip is easier on the shoulders and will enable longevity benching, tho maybe not the highest numbers. That’s ok, as I’ll never set a world record, but should still be able to (someday) achieve my personal goals — and that someday can only happen if I can keep healthy shoulders and all this weird pain stuff under control. But what would be right? As it is now, my normal-width grip is ring-fingers on the rings, so I thought to try an increment and put my pinkies on the rings. I found some stuff out there giving some more measured guidelines: measuring distance between the outer-edges of my acromion process, mulitply by 1.5, and viola that’s the width then between the inside edges of the index fingers. I checked it out this morning and guess what? It basically puts my pinkies on the rings. So I’m going to try that tomorrow; it’s another very light triples day but still I can feel the mechanics. I intend to do it next week as well, just going forward. I’m sure there’ll be some effect on things given I’ve been working up so far with a different technique, but that’s ok — I want to see how it goes and what data I can collect.

Second, I do need to get back to working on flexibility so when squatting I can do so with straight wrists. The bent wrists is back to putting pressure on wrists, elbows, everything, at least until I’m warmed up. Today I did the simple “eagle claw” grip thing and put my pinkies under the bar and it felt much better. So while I don’t like the eagle claw grip, I may have to go with it for now as a management trade-off.

Anyways, good things can still come from light days.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 3

• Competition Deadlift
  • 135 x 3
  • 185 x 3
  • 225 x 3
  • 240 x 3
  • 240 x 3
  • 240 x 3
• 45º Back Raise
  • BW x 3
  • BW x 3
  • BW x 3
• Pause Squat
  • bar x 5
  • 135 x 3
  • 150 x 3
  • 150 x 3
  • 150 x 3
• Stair Calves
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
• Slant Board Situps
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10
  • BW x 10

All things considered, a reasonable day.

I’ve been working on rehab things for the arm pain. There is improvement – slow, but improvement. I did have some pain today, but it wasn’t as bad as it has been, so that’s a good sign. It still got in the way a little bit, but all in all workable.

I opted to wear wrist wraps while benching, just to add some stability and give me a tactile cue to crush-grip the bar — that helps in a lot of ways. It’s possible it contributed to things moving well, don’t know for sure. But getting 6 at 235 with this week being 2/fail (and the arm pain), I can take that!

Here’s the interesting thing. As I benched, it felt like things were coming from the shoulder. That as my arms would flare as I approached lockout, I’d feel stuff. So when I did my DB incline work, I kept my elbows tucked, and despite the increased range of motion, less pain. Interesting.

This is why I know it frustrates people when they see me spending weeks in pain that I could probably alleviate. It’s not that I want to be in pain, but I want to understand the pain. I want to really figure out where and why it’s coming from, so I can work to ensure to not do that thing that brings it around. I think that some contributing factors are things like sitting at a desk all day, that winds up in poor posture, slouching, shoulders rolled forward, etc.. In some regard, it’s why I want to get back to my own programming, because I need to do things to serve my specific needs — like one-leg work, like shoulder stability work.

And I’m starting to think, I may want to bring my bench grip in. I mean, overhead pressing doesn’t bother me. If I remember correctly, close-grip bench doesn’t either — both have narrow grips. I currently flat-bench with my ring fingers on the bar rings. I might try going to pinky on the rings. I also just found this article, and I think it’s worth a quick measurement to see how that fares for me.

Anyways, all in all things went as groovy as I could expect.

What’s interesting about the next 2 sessions? They’re very light, almost a deload. Very light weights, just a few sets, and pretty much all triples. We’ll see how this works into things.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 3

• Competition Grip Bench (with pause)
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 3
  • 235 x 6
  • 235 x 6
  • 235 x 4
  • 235 x 4
• Incline DB Press
  • 80e x 10
  • 80e x 10
  • 80e x 9
• Barbell Bent Rows
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 190 x 7
  • 190 x 7
  • 190 x 7
• Barbell Upright Row
  • bar x 10
  • 115 x 8
  • 115 x 8
  • 115 x 8
• Reverse Curls
  • 20 x 10
  • 65 x 8
  • 65 x 8
  • 65 x 7

Week 3, and it’s rolling pretty well.

I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning (melatonin, perhaps) but off I went. Brain didn’t wanna, but body felt really good.

Again, I’m trying to keep my volume conservative — that I only rate a 1 if things were off the charts good; but if it felt “as expected”, leave it be. Today did feel really awesome, but I still rated it a 1 because again, I am striving to see if I can do more with less.

The squat warm-ups were hard, even 135. But when I hit 290, things rolled quite well. I felt good. I noticed I wasn’t as tight as I could be, in my upper body. But I think it’s because I’m taking a different approach to the descent. It really solidified a few weeks ago watching Kevin Oak squat 832 @ 242 for a new ATWR. If you watch it, his descent is just like… I’m going down. He’s tight, then it’s like a controlled drop of the bar, not like a squat descent. It’s hard to describe, but just watch how that descent looks different from a lot of other squat descents. I’ve found myself taking this mental approach to the descent, and it’s been good. The bar path feels better, the body feels better. There’s really not a lot of movement, nor even extraneous muscle tension — just “control drop” the bar and manage that, then hit depth and come out. Again, hard to describe, but it is different and feels good.

But it’s still difficult for me to judge where I am. I mean, when starting this cycle I was to program it with 285 as a 5RM. But today here I am hitting 290 for 5 with at least a couple left in the tank. I would thimk that, if 285 was the 5RM that last week (when I did 285) I should have gotten 3-4 (if I stop 2/fail) but I got 5. Then today, 290 and hitting 5 for more sets and still some in the tank. Am I stronger? Did I start too light? Is my body just remembering how to squat and it’s neural adaptations? I really don’t know. But there’s never harm in starting light. I look forward to how the next cycle will be set and how it will go as I think that will be more indicative.

Fronts went well. Same weight and sets, but an additional rep per set, which is great especially after the main work went up too. And here I find that the same approach of “controlled drop” really helps at keeping the torso upright.

Triples on the deadlift. While all the squat work got 3 minutes between sets, the deadlifts and everything else got 1-2 minutes of rest. Just boom boom boom, no big deal.

Feeling good.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 3

• Squat (low bar)
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 225 x 5
  • 265 x 3
  • 290 x 5
  • 290 x 5
  • 290 x 5
  • 290 x 4
• Front Squat
  • 170 x 8
  • 170 x 8
  • 170 x 8
• Competition Deadlift
  • 135 x 3
  • 225 x 3
  • 275 x 3
  • 275 x 3
  • 275 x 3
• Stair Calves
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
• Reaching Situps
  • 20 x 12
  • 20 x 12
  • 20 x 12

Not bad.

All in all, things proceeded about at the level I expected for this second week. On the templates, the second week creates a larger jump in intensities. I still am to go 2/fail. I also rated things so there’d be 1 more set per relevant exercise than last week’s session. And so, everything landed about where I would expect it to. Of course slight drop in reps, but relative to last week’s weight, at a level I’d expect (or just above). So all good there. Plus, with the added set it’s more volume than last week. All good.

That said, the biceps pain was there a bit. It didn’t affect the pressing that much, but more the ability to get things in position. For example, getting the DB’s in place for pressing was a little difficult because it needs the biceps for direct involvement to get them in place, then stability to keep them there. That wasn’t too happy, but things did go OK.

I’ve been spending a great deal of time working on things: tennis balls to muscle groups, foam roller, stretching, spending a lot of time to work the arms, delts, upper back. It just takes time. I also have realized my posture has gone into the can again, which I do believe contributes to this problem — the hunch, the rounded forward shoulders, etc.. I may be scheduling some time with a few gym folks to look into things a bit more. My goal isn’t to just manage the pain, but truly figure out where it’s coming from and why, so I can make the appropriate changes to avoid it. I’ve got a lot of data from before-times, and am collecting more now.

All in all tho, today rolled as well as I could expect. I won’t be rating things too high so I can keep volume about the same next week. What’s interesting about next week is the first 2 days go up, but the second two (deadlift day, bench day #2) actually go down — very light weights, and just triples. A small deload.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 2

• Incline Bench Press
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 175 x 3
  • 205 x 8
  • 205 x 7
  • 205 x 6
• DB Bench Press
  • 60e x 10
  • 95e x 8
  • 95e x 6
  • 95e x 6
• Neutral-grip Pulldowns
  • 100 x 10
  • 160 x 10
  • 160 x 9
• DB Lateral Raises
  • 30e x 10
  • 30e x 10
• DB Hammer Curls
  • 25e x 10
  • 45e x 8
  • 45e x 8