My shoulder/arm issues flared up a little bit today. For sure, pressing seems to hit it more. But is it truly pressing? or is it that the weight is directly upon those areas? Again, like with squats, if I grip the bar in a manner that doesn’t put weight on my arms (e.g. elbows back instead of under the bar), no real issues.

That all said, it’s made me think about a way to manage it a bit.

I’m thinking about keeping the general 5/3/1 progression, but changing the rep scheme to be more like Paul Carter’s 5,4,3,2,1 approach. Yes, then it’s not truly 5/3/1 but that’s fine. I would keep the sets and weight progressions the same, but swap Paul’s rep scheme for Jim’s. So of the 5 basic sets, it’d be 5/4/3/2/1, then the 6th set would remain a PR set with the goal of at least prescribed reps but more if I’m feeling good. When you step back and look at the way Jim and Paul program things respectively, they really are very close and I think this could be workable. The intention here is to see if reduction in volume helps minimize aggrevation of the issue, yet still getting work in, y’know?

This would just be for bench press, at least right now. I don’t feel a need to do this for anything else, tho press might get it if it winds up being an issue as well (tho so far pressing hasn’t been, which is curious). Going to try it for this next 3-week cycle and see how it goes, then I’ll see what happens after that (because things will be changing anyways due to cutting diet).

Anyways, apart from that it’s just a deload day.

But I did start to think a little more about my programming on the cut. I’m thinking about taking an approach based around the 5/3/1 Powerlifting “off-season for mass” approach, tho perhaps not strictly that book template. Reason is, I will get more out of things like lunges than leg press, so it’s not about the template as much as the underlying philosophy. And I am thinking about reducing to 3x/week because I recall from prior cuts that it was nice to “pare back” then give myself somewhere to go later on in the cut when things got harder. So with 3 days that means 3 days of “eating” and 4 of reduced intake. When things cut back pretty hard, then I can up to 4x/week so I can have another day of eating. That helped both mentally and in terms of progress.

Another thing? Trying to focus more on the eccentric. As it is, I do control the eccentric, but I don’t CARE about the eccentric, if you will. Basically lowering the weight is just something I have to do so I can lift the weight again. I mean, we ask “do you even lift?” we don’t ask “do you even lower?”, y’know? It’s about lifting, not lowering. BUT the eccentric can have a pronounced effect on mass building. Again, it’s a cut so I don’t expect to build mass, but I need to do everything possible to preserve it. Basically my approach is that the eccentric is something I do so I can get back to the concentric. Well, now I need to make the mental shift — and stick with it — that the concentric it something I do so I can get back to the eccentric. It won’t really take anything away from the concentric, but it will make sure I put more into the eccentric and squeeze more out of it.

Bunch of ideas floating in my head. Things are starting to gel.

5/3/1-based program

• Bench Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 105 x 5
  • 105 x 5
  • 130 x 5
  • 130 x 5
  • 155 x 5
  • 155 x 5
• Incline DB Press
  • 50e x 10
  • 50e x 10
  • 50e x 10
• Cable Rows
  • 130 x 12
  • 130 x 12
• Shrugs
  • 205 x 15
  • 205 x 15
• Rope-handle Pressdowns
  • 65 x 12
• EZ-Bar Curls
  • 65 x 12
  • 65 x 12

Taking this week as a deload. Normally I’d be going into the 2nd part of a 6-week cycle, but given the shoulder/arm issues I figured a deload week would be wise. I want to finish the year on a good note.

That said, squatting today went well. While I still have a ways to go to get the level of mobility needed for false grip and truly straight wrists, I continue to work towards it. Even tho I don’t have that ideal setup yet, I push myself into it as far as I can to work on the stretch. What I noticed today is while my wrists were still somewhat bent, I’m getting more of an angle where my elbows are behind me — think arms more parallel to the ground than perpendicular. Is this ideal? I see so many different takes on “ideal squat form” that who knows. But what I CAN say is this is doing one thing I want, which is ensuring the bar weight is NOT being supported by my arms; there’s no way I could press the weight off me. The arms/hands for sure are keeping the bar in place on my back, but are not truly supporting the weight.

As a result, I felt NO aggrevation of the shoulder/arm issues today. Granted the weights were light and usually the pain doesn’t show up until later, but sometimes it shows up when things are light because I’m hitting things just right – well, really just wrong. 😉 So, this is good! I’ll continue to work on the mobility aspects, but in the meantime I’ll take “reduction of pressure” as a good thing too. I mean, ultimately that is how things should be when I get the proper grip, y’know? Just not as acute.

What will be more telling will be tomorrow’s bench session. It’ll be light, but the past couple bench sessions have aggrevated things right from the get go, so we’ll see.

5/3/1-based program

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 135 x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 160 x 5
  • 160 x 5
  • 195 x 5
  • 195 x 5
• Romanian Deadlift
  • 165 x 10
  • 165 x 10
• Hyperextensions
  • BW x 12
  • BW x 12
• Crunches
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 80 x 12
  • 80 x 12

Lifetime PR set!

Pressed (overhead) 170 lb. for 3 reps today. My previous best was 165… some time ago for 1 rep, then 2, and about a month ago I did it for 5 reps. So all PR’s in and of themselves, but 170 makes for a place I’ve never been before. And extra cool I did it for 3 reps.

I wonder if I could have gotten 4. A couple problems. First, I was very excited. I knew as I put up 135 then 155 that 170 was going to happen easily. Good confidence going in. But then as I pressed, I just got happy and excited and lost focus. 🙂 So second, my bar path was not very efficient. I doubt I’d have gotten more than a 4th rep, and I might have even been able to grind out the 4th. But, this isn’t about grinding.

All in all, felt quite happy. Press is one of the hardest movements for me to progress on, so moving ahead like this really makes me happy.

What was extra nice was my arm/shoulder pain not being much of an issue. It’s there, but didn’t get in the way nor get all that bad today. One thing I wonder about is I was watching a video:

Start around 6:45. All those arm/shoulder things. No WAY am I as flexible as Meg, but it’s good stuff and I’m working it into my warmup. And I’m not sure if it was in that video or some other one, but basically a weighted stretch. Think about standing up, then letting your back “curl” down (i.e. not a flat back), towards touching toes. Then I just held an empty bar in my hands and let it dangle. Basically it’s opening up my lower back and pulling my shoulders forward some, with just a little bit of tension. I would just dangle like this, then maybe “roll” up my spine into a fully-upright position (still letting the bar just hang), then roll down and hang there. Boy, I really felt stretch in my rotator cuff muscles like you wouldn’t believe. REALLY good stuff. I’ve done various stretches that “pull” my arms and shoulders out, but for some reason this particular movement hit things differently and in a really good way. I did this in between every set of pressing today and well, don’t know if it helped with the pains, but it sure feels like a great thing to adopt.

Anyways…

So Pressing was awesome.

Arnold Presses took a different approach too. Think about this. When you think the Arnold Press you think about the “untwisting”. And so when you twist something like that, where do you think you initiate the movement from? The forearm/wrist, right? Well, when I started to do Arnold’s again a few weeks ago, I took a cue from exrx.net to instead think about shoulder abduction instead of forearm pronation. Great thing, and if you focus that way it makes a difference. Today I added another change: to think about pressing upwards not by “pressing” – which will involve a lot of triceps – but instead think about lifting up by “rotating” from the shoulder. So in that bottom position it’s just anterior deltoid and upper back muscles contracting. Letting THAT be what raises the upper arm, kinda like a crane. Don’t think about actually pressing, y’know? Makes a big difference.

Chest-supported DB rows continue to be cool. As long as I keep it light and really work the back — again, I’m not pulling, I’m contracting the back, shoulder muscles, etc. moving from the elbows, etc.. Huge difference.

All in all, good stuff today. Just felt great. +10% day.

Thank you Thankgiving Apple Pie. 😉

That all said, I am going to break from the 6-week pattern and take next week as a deload for the sake of my shoulders/arms. I will still hit the gym, just going light and reduced. Then 1 more cycle, 1RM testing with hopefully some new lifetime PR’s, and then… cutting.

5/3/1-based program

• Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 70 x 5
  • 90 x 5
  • 110 x 3
  • 135 x 5
  • 155 x 3
  • 170 x 3 (3RM PR – lifetime best)
• Arnold Press
  • 40e x 10
  • 40e x 10
  • 40e x 10
  • 40e x 10
  • 40e x 6
• Chest-supported DB Row
  • 45e x 12
  • 45e x 12
  • 45e x 12
  • 45e x 12
  • 45e x 10
• Straight-arm Lat Pulldowns
  • 60 x 12
  • 60 x 12
  • 60 x 10
• Cable Lateral Raises
  • 20 x 15
  • 20 x 12
  • 20 x 10
• Machine triceps Press
  • 85 x 15
  • 85 x 15
  • 85 x 12
• DB Curls (alternate, neutral-to-supinated hand while curling)
  • 35e x 12
  • 35e x 11
  • 35e x 8

Pretty good day. Gotta earn that turkey, right? 😉

Deadlifting continues to go well. As always, working on form, sitting back more when I lift, pushing the hips through, and generally trying to do things better to get stronger — even if I lift less weight. My back is stronger than my hips/posterior chain so….

I hate lunges, but they are good for me. And everything else is just solid assistance work.

As I get closer to wrapping up this leg of my training I start thinking ahead to what’s next. For sure I’m going to be hopping back on a serious Renaissance Periodization-based cut diet to shed some of the fluff I’ve acquired. In doing so, a “mass building” training program is best. So something like 5/3/1-Powerlifting’s off-season mass program is a good philosophy to follow. Thing is, I’ve wondered about instead switching to some Paul Carter stuff, like basebuilding or Paul’s mass philosophies. The more I thought about it tho, really they wind up being about the same thing. Paul starts with a big movement (e.g. bench press or squat), you work up to some weight (what he calls “over-warm-up”), then back off and do work sets. Well, that’s not much different from something like a 5/3/1, just hitting prescribed reps, then doing something like a first-set-last. Slight differences sure, but fundamentally the same approach.

And what I’m also thinking? Because of the wear-and-tear I’m accumulating, trying to really take more of a bodybuilding approach. So yeah, work the main movement as it works, but then take the assistance work, really drop the weights down, and really focus on not even the slightest bit of momentum, strict-strict-strict form, mind-muscle connection, really making that muscle do the work, eccentric focus, and so on. Not really my favorite way to train, but I am thinking this may be good for me for the 3-months or so that I’m doing the cut diet. Still thinking.

Anyways, good day.

5/3/1-based program

• Deadlift
  • 150 x 5
  • 190 x 5
  • 260 x 3
  • 285 x 5
  • 325 x 3
  • 360 x 8
• Walking Lunges
  • 40 x 10e
  • 40 x 10e
  • 40 x 10e
  • 40 x 10e
• Leg Curls
  • 45 x 12
  • 45 x 12
  • 45 x 12
• Twisting Crunches
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 15
• Seated Calf Raises
  • 65 x 12
  • 65 x 12
  • 65 x 10

OK, this is getting old.

Every time it happens, I get stronger support for this being a shoulder problem – not an arm/elbow problem. Today was no different; in fact, I’d say today provided some of the strongest support. Just where the pains were, how things would feel with the bar in my hand, whatever.

It started as soon as I put the empty bar in my hand for warmups: I started to feel the pain grow. I wasn’t sure if perhaps the elbow sleeves were contributing to the problem so I took them off and left them off the whole time. But I knew if the pain was starting with warmups, it was not going to be good.

When I did 220 it sucked. I was actually not sure I wanted to go on, but I put 245 on the bar, told myself to get 1 rep. I psyched myself up pretty hard, generate a little adrenaline to tune out the pain, and go. The first rep was ok, tho a little shaky. Like I normally do, it’s just a series of 1-rep at a time (mental approach). I figured to go for a second. That was OK. But then I racked it. I felt I had the strength for 5-6 reps, but the mindfuck of the pain plus the knowledge that the more I repped the worse the pain would be (plus I didn’t want to risk a bigger problem, like dropping the weight). So I racked it.

Pain was pretty bad, so I stopped everything else.

Yeah I know. I’m stupid. I am going to go see someone, and start to get this all looked into.

Just yesterday I was thinking how to approach this last week so I can test 1RM’s before the end of the year. At this point, I think I may take next week as a true-jack-shit deload, not even going into the gym: just sleep a lot, massage, rest and heal up. Hit one more 3-week cycle, test out, then shift gears for 12-16 weeks while I go back on a RP cutting diet.

5/3/1-based program

• Bench Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 105 x 5
  • 130 x 5
  • 155 x 3
  • 195 x 5
  • 220 x 3
  • 245 x 2

310 for 4. Progress is good!

The only thing that sucked about today was — 310. Weights like 130, 220, 310, etc. – when you’re just 5 away from the next wheel. 🙂 But as tempting as it may be, you gotta stick to the program and do what you’re supposed to do.

Given my progress, I wanted 4 and got 4. I might have been able to do 5, but it would have been sloppy and that wouldn’t be acceptable so I racked it. I am starting to lean forward a little more, but I’m not sure if that’s from the weight or from the arm positioning struggle.

Yes, that’s still a struggle right now. I’m working hard to get and keep myself in that position — wrists straight and thus it’s strain on the shoulders right now since I’m not quite that flexible. But I keep pushing myself in and it gets better, but still not awesome. I just have to keep working on it. I’m also working to find a good stretching exercise that I can do at home during the week to help out with this; still haven’t found quite the one that hits things. The search continues.

But the squat itself went well overall.

RDL’s I continue to do light so I can really get the technique. I think today is the first time it’s clicked. Not perfect, but I’m working to really keep my back straight and only just a little knee bend. It’s very easy to let the back start to round and NOT notice it, or the knees to start to bend a little more. But when I really kept it all together, I could actually feel my hamstrings doing the work, as opposed to my back or other things. This was good! I will keep the weight light so can continue to improve on this.

Everything else was what it was. Nothing to write home about. Well, on crunches I stopped before I started set 3 — my abs cramped up HARD and I was not going to do a 3rd set in that state. 🙂

What I am thinking about tho is that 2016 is almost over. I have one more 3-week cycle remaining and what to do. See, my big goal is 3/4/5 – bench/squat/deadlift 3/4/5 wheels (315, 405, 495). Still a ways from that, but some months ago I said that I was not going to test my 1RM until the end of the year, just to make me avoid the temptation and give me something longer-term to work towards. Well, that time is almost upon us. What gets me is Press? That’s a new PR. Deadlift, I doubt I’ll PR but I’m OK with that so long as progress remains strong. Squat and bench tho are right at the cusp. I did the math to set up the next cycle and the 1+ week puts my squat working with 320 and bench with 250 — both 5# away from my all-time PR in that lift. What it tells me is that breaking my all-time PR should be quite easy at this point since that PR was a struggle to get 1 rep and now I’m scheduled to hit more than 1 rep.

But what to do?

Should I just do the 5/3/1 cycle as per and then the next week run some 1RM tests? Or should I do 5 and 3 week, then on 1+ week just work up to the new 1RM? Not sure. At this point, not going to make a decision either way. I can call it as I get closer to the 1+ week.

But it’s exciting — almost there, and looking to end 2016 on a good note. 🙂

5/3/1-based program

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 135 x 5
  • 160 x 5
  • 195 x 3
  • 245 x 5
  • 275 x 3
  • 310 x 4 (4RM PR)
• Romanian Deadlift
  • 135 x 10
  • 155 x 10
  • 165 x 10
  • 165 x 10
• Hyperextensions
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 13
• Crunches
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 10
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 80 x 12
  • 80 x 12
  • 80 x 12

Good, good.

Again, working with alternatives to try to continue making progress yet contend with my pain issues.

Pressing went well. One interesting thing I noticed was because of limitations of the gym’s “rack”, I actually unrack the bar pretty low. Instead, I’m now squatting just a little more (another 1-2″) thus starting with a slightly higher rack position when I bring the bar out. That keeps the bar from being “too low” and thus creating greater elbow flexion — and seems to have made things a little happier this morning. Plus more focus on straight-wrist (including using wrist wraps on the last 3 sets). Things went well. For once, I feel like my Press is progressing.

Very excited for next week as that will be Pressing 170 for truly a lifetime PR.

Continued with the Arnold Presses. It’s interesting. Just like with back work shifting focus to “pull with the elbows”, here with the Arnold instead of focusing on the twist with a wrist/forearm rotation, focus on it from the shoulder — almost like doing a fly. That does change the movement slightly and I actually felt something pretty good in my upper back, in those rotator muscles. Kinda cool. I’ll continue to go with these a bit.

Also continuing to not superset pressing with pulling to see how that fares — so far, inconclusive. Chest supported DB rows I’m finding interesting because it is a different plane of movement, with the back at more of an incline than a lot of other rowing movements. But also the forced-strictness really provides opportunity to ensure the back muscles are doing the work. I’m digging this. Still finding my groove, but so far so good.

Straight-arms – they are what they are. Still finding groove here, but so far pretty cool.

Cable lateral raises I had a revelation about. I really can use more unilateral work in places I don’t tradtionally get it, like shoulders. For sure my left arm/shoulder is weaker than my right, and this is turning out to be a pretty good thing in terms of trying work stuff. Will continue.

Tate Presses were an effort to find something different for my triceps. Alas, not enough range of motion and when the weights got heavy enough to feel something, what I really felt was a lot of elbow pain/pressure. Not sure if that’s normal or just because of my current issues, but it’s enough to not do this movement. Instead well… the gym has one of these triceps machines: rest your upper arm on a bench (think about an almost horizontal preacher bench), then there’s a couple “arms” that you hold onto (hands in neutral position) and you extend your arms. I figured why not, I’m looking for something different and this machine is different (never used it before). I’ve softened my stance on machines: they have pros and cons, just like freeweights have pros and cons. This wasn’t too bad; the main problem I had was as all machines do, forces me to conform to the machine’s plane of motion. All in all not too bad, but I’d prefer if my arms could have been raised about 1-2″, because as it is it causes a slightly awkward wrist flexion. We’ll see how this goes.

Anyways, all in all not too bad.

And of course, the new Metallica came out this morning so it was my soundtrack. I like a few tracks off the album, but so much mid-tempo stuff… not sure. Feeling like a 3.5 out of 5 stars sort of thing. Maybe I’ll like it with more listens (been that way with me with a lot of albums lately).

5/3/1-based program

• Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 70 x 5
  • 90 x 5
  • 110 x 3
  • 125 x 3
  • 145 x 3
  • 160 x 6 (6RM PR)
• Arnold Press
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 10
• Chest-Supported DB Rows
  • 40e x 12
  • 40e x 12
  • 40e x 12
  • 40e x 12
  • 40e x 12
• Straight-arm Lat Pulldowns
  • 50 x 12
  • 50 x 12
  • 50 x 12
• One-arm Cable Lateral Raises
  • 20 x 13
  • 20 x 13
  • 20 x 10
• Triceps Machine
  • 50 x 15
  • 70 x 15
  • 80 x 15
• DB Curls (alternate, neutral-to-supinated hand while curling)
  • 35e x 12
  • 35e x 10
  • 35e x 7

Today was short and sweet. I got a bit of a late start, and had to be somewhere early, so I opted to do a “jack shit” approach and just deadlift and make the most of it.

I sometimes like doing that because sometimes I pace myself to leave things in the tank to still give proper due to the assistance work. When I do “jack shit, I really try to eek every bit of work out of it I can. So today when I worked up, I felt I might have normally shut down around rep 7 or 8, but I kept going not to try to grind out more reps and get sloppy, but to really hunker-down into good form and pushing to get the most out of every rep. That 9th rep actually felt really awesome. I didn’t feel sloppy, but I felt really nicely worked — haven’t felt that sort of response in my posterior chain in a while. It was pretty cool. I felt like it was a very productive session, despite being brief.

That said, the reps went well. Felt very good, very strong today. Making good progress.

5/3/1-based program

• Deadlift
  • 150 x 5
  • 190 x 5
  • 230 x 3
  • 265 x 3
  • 305 x 3
  • 340 x 9 (9RM PR)

Yes, I’m going to see someone about the pain.

The more and more I do things, the more support for the hypothesis that it is shoulder issues — not arm/biceps/triceps/forearms/elbows issues. Again, I’m not trying to hurt myself: I’m trying to continue progressing while investigating and collecting data. I mean, any doctor I’d see would want as much information as possible and would rely on whatever I could relay to them. They’d also run tests to find out more, and that’s pretty much what I’m doing.

And yes, it’s to a point where I’m going to go see someone. It’ll take a little time due to scheduling, but it will happen.

So while benching this morning the same pain slowly increased. I do not think that supersetting the pulling work is a problem, per se, but I do think that it makes the pain kick in sooner.

I am happy with how things went tho. Getting 8 @ 235 was good, despite the issues. I felt slower, more controlled, better bar path, all those good things.

But here I swapped things around. Instead of incline barbell I did incline DB work. I wanted to see how that would fare. I started very light and worked up, and it actually felt pretty good and seemed like a good alternative. I shall continue to explore this route.

Everything else was about standard, tho 1-fewer sets. Some stuff was lighter than usual because again the pain and wanting to manage it.

But all in all, things were alright today. Feeling generally on-track.

5/3/1-based program

• Bench Press
  • bar x whatever
  • 105 x 5
  • 130 x 5
  • 155 x 3
  • 180 x 3
  • 210 x 3
  • 235 x 8
• Incline DB Press
  • 30e x 10
  • 35e x 10
  • 40e x 10
  • 45e x 10
  • 50e x 10
• Cable Rows
  • 130 x 12
  • 130 x 12
  • 130 x 12
• Shrugs
  • 205 x 15
  • 205 x 15
  • 205 x 15
• Rope-Handle Pressdowns
  • 65 x 12
  • 65 x 12
  • 65 x 8
• BB Curls
  • 40 x 15
  • 50 x 15
  • 50 x 11

Squats are starting to mess with my head. 🙂

I’m nearing some big milestones. Flirting with 300# (today was 290, last week’s 1+ week was 300, this week’s is 310). Flirting with my all-time PR (325). Getting close, and it’s all messing with my head. Thing is, 290 today is cake. I’ve done 290 before, I’ve done 300 before, so today I KNEW wouldn’t be an issue, but it still messed with my head. 🙂 But I put it out of my head and told myself that last time I did 290 I got 5 reps so today I need to get 6.

Getting 6 was pretty easy — I knew I had 1 left in the tank, and maybe a 2nd. Good deal! But I told myself get 6, that felt good, so I left it alone.

Only complaints about squats? Trying to get that new arm/hand/wrist/shoulder position is still quite difficult. I was really tight this morning and it took a while for me to get things rolling. Even in the beginning I would get under the bar, work into the position, struggle to get into position, stay there a moment, try to settle in, then just get out from under the bar — treat it like a stretch. So it took me a little while longer to squat this morning, but eventually things got there. Even still, it wasn’t really ideal and I did find my wrists being cocked back, pressure on the arms, and it did start to manifest in some arm pain towards the end. Not big, but just enough to provide even stronger support to the hypothesis that squats are a prime contributor to my problems. I just need to keep working on positioning and getting that shoulder mobility to do so.

RDLs continue to be “light” because I’m really wanting to ensure I’m getting technique correct. I’ll get there. Happy with this tho because this assistance is certainly working my posterior chain well.

5/3/1-based program

• Squats
  • bar x whatever
  • 135 x 5
  • 160 x 5
  • 195 x 3
  • 225 x 3
  • 260 x 3
  • 290 x 6 (6RM PR)
• Romanian Deadlift
  • 135 x 10
  • 135 x 10
  • 155 x 10
  • 155 x 8
• Hyperextensions
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 15
  • BW x 12
• Crunches
  • BW x 20
  • BW x 17
  • BW x 11
• Standing Calf Raises
  • 70 x 12
  • 70 x 12
  • 70 x 12