Ah deadlifting. How I did miss you.

It does feel good to (conventional) deadlift again. It’s funny tho. My strength here is less than it has been, and on the one token that frustrates me. But if I actually look back over time, I’ve overall progressed in some way. With deadlifts in specific, I think my form/technique is better now than it’s ever been. I’m using that 5-step deadlift setup (see Alan Thrall video), and it’s really worked wonders. If nothing else, it provides me with a consistent approach to setup and the pull, and the bar path feels so much better. So yeah, maybe a step backwards, but overall there’s some sort of forward progression — so I’ll take it.

Just a few notes.

2/fail. Generally 3 minutes rest on deadlifts and squats, 1-2 minutes on everything else.

Back raise. I’m trying to not raise/hinge at my hips and “raise” my back, but rather work as if I’m pushing my hips through the pad. That’s more applicable here.

Pauses felt great. I actually felt like I could crank out more, but it’s 2/fail — reign it in.

Remembered to do calves! 🙂

And as I rate this workout, it’s zeros across the board. Even tho I wouldn’t feel horrible about rating it higher, I want to be more conservative this cycle and not raise the volume too much more.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 2

• Competition Deadlift
  • 135 x 5
  • 225 x 5
  • 315 x 3
  • 360 x 5
  • 360 x 5
  • 360 x 5
• 45º Back Raise
  • 20 x 10
  • 20 x 10
  • 20 x 10
• Pause Squat
  • bar x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 3
  • 225 x 5
  • 225 x 5
  • 225 x 5
• Stair Calves
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
• Slant Board Situps
  • 15 x 10
  • 15 x 10

That biceps pain is returning. Sigh.

It’s been teasing me the past couple weeks, and today it finally kicked in. It wasn’t crippling and didn’t cause me to stop, but it did interfere. First reps might have hurt, and some things – like the upright rows – got cut a little short as a result.

I’m still not 100% sure what causes it, but I am starting to lean towards my arms being in a flexed position for extended periods. Not that I’m flexing my biceps, but rather the elbow joint is in a closed position — like if I’m lying on the bed and looking at my phone for extended periods. I notice sometimes when I do that, it’s the same pain sensation — not actually painful, but the sensation. And then say when I’m squatting how my arms are, bottom position of dumbbell bench pressing, and I feel it. So not 100% sure, but it’s enough to give me pause.

Still, did what I could during the session. Then spent a bunch of time “rolling” the biceps, my front and side delts, and then my usual rolling and stretching.

I’ll see how things pan out.

As for the lifting itself. Still 2/fail. 3 minutes rest on benching, else everything was 2 minutes (or less).

The benching itself feels good, esp. on technique. Of course today felt a little off due to the arm pain, but in general I’m growing happier with my setup and technique here.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 2

• Competition Grip Bench (with pause)
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 3
  • 230 x 6
  • 230 x 6
  • 230 x 6
  • 230 x 5
• Incline DB Press
  • 80e x 10
  • 80e x 10
  • 80e x 8
• Barbell Bent Rows
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 8
  • 185 x 8
• Barbell Upright Row
  • bar x 10
  • 110 x 8
  • 110 x 8
• Reverse Curls
  • 20 x 10
  • 65 x 8
  • 65 x 8

Starting week 2.

A similar pattern of progression: a larger jump in weight/intensity, and maybe a jump in sets; stay at 2/fail. To jump in sets is based upon how things went rating the “prior” session, and so far it felt ok so I did go up. But will I go up from here? Sorta. That is, ratings from today will affect Thursday’s deadlifting. I do want that to go up and feel that will be fine. But then rating that deadlift session? Unless there’s something compelling to rate it a +1 or -1, I’ll rate it a 0 so sets of squats are the same next week. I think this workload is good, and I want to try to stick more to the “do as little as possible that still gets you the desired results” approach. Why do more work if it doesn’t help me gain or only risks causing decline (or stagnation)?

I also am looking at this cycle as just priming the pump a bit. I’ve been away from such work that some numbers are a guess. But also, my body isn’t quite primed to do this sort of work. So how much is the gain here truly getting stronger vs. my body just remembering how to lift this way. Take that the way the template is set up, you provide the template with your 5RM in squats then it figures out of the 5 weeks. Today, week 2, should be lifting that 5RM – but then stopping 2/fail. So in theory I should be hitting 3 reps for however many sets. But I hit 5. Did I undershoot? Am I stronger? is my body simply remembering?

This is why my plan is to run the cycle once, then run the cycle again. I reckon at least 2 runs should be a better indicator, with run 2 hopefully being truly more productive. What to do after that second run? Don’t know. I want to see how things go. Might do it a third time, might do a peaking, might a powerlifting-hypertrophy. Don’t know, too soon to tell.

Anyways, things today felt generally good. Squat itself felt good. Tight is the cue.

Front squats felt a little funky for me, because with the belt on it causes something in my glutes to twinge a bit. But I’m working on stretching and rolling that area more, and also just “working through it” so that my body can improve vs. always avoiding it and the body never does. So the first rep might be a little annoying, maybe shaves depth by an inch, but then things feel better and the subsequent reps hit depth and things just fine. Just something to continue to work through.

I did remember to do calves this week! Again, not trying to do anything massive here, just something to keep my feet and calves happy for overall health improvement.

Anyways, a nice start to week 2!

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 2

• Squat (low bar)
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 225 x 5
  • 255 x 3
  • 285 x 5
  • 285 x 5
  • 285 x 4
  • 285 x 4
• Front Squat
  • 170 x 7
  • 170 x 7
  • 170 x 7
• Competition Deadlift
  • 135 x 3
  • 225 x 3
  • 270 x 3
  • 270 x 3
  • 270 x 3
• Stair Calves
  • 65 x 10
  • 65 x 10
• Reaching Situps
  • 20 x 10
  • 20 x 10

A nice end to the first week on the RP powerlifting-strength template.

I am really happy to be back doing this. This is the style of lifting I love. I’m kinda unhappy at feeling so weak and being relatively in the same strength rut I’ve been in for so long, but I must acknowledge all the detours were necessary and good. I know I’m smarter, and hopefully after running this template for a bit and seeing what I can get from it I’ll be in a better position to try my own programming again. My plan is to run this template this cycle, run it a second time (likely with little to no change in the movements, just up the weight slightly), then run the RP powerlifting-peaking template. See how all that goes, then assess.

Today was just another good pressing day. It helps to keep in the work so the adaptation curves work out well. It’s not a ton of volume so there’s sufficient room for recovery. I do feel weird only doing 2 sets, but that will change next week. Next week remains at 2/fail, but the intensities go up as do some of the sets.

I do feel like things are dialed in well enough, so next week should be interesting to see how goes.

I’m also thankful for the shorter gym sessions. It lets me spend a good 10-15 minutes afterwards foam rolling and stretching (vs. a 2.5 hour session and I gotta rush home to get to work). My body is feeling a lot better.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 1

• Incline Bench Press
  • bar x 10
  • 135 x 5
  • 175 x 3
  • 195 x 9
  • 195 x 9
• DB Bench Press
  • 60e x 10
  • 90e x 10
  • 90e x 8
• Neutral-grip Pulldowns
  • 120 x 10
  • 150 x 10
  • 150 x 8
• DB Lateral Raises
  • 30e x 10
  • 30e x 10
• DB Hammer Curls
  • 25e x 10
  • 45e x 8
  • 45e x 7

It feels good to be deadlifting again.

For the longest time the deadlift was my favorite lift. I still enjoy it a great deal, so it felt good to do it again. I’m of course a bit saddened by where my strength is — but this is the tradeoff I’ve had as I’ve detoured to pursue other things. I have to remember it’s a long game, and it’s more about preserving my health than achieving numbers — but I still want the numbers. 😉

Today wasn’t too intensive, per the templates. Stopped well short at 2/fail, which is tough when you want to do more. I am also going to work double-overhand grip as long as I can. I think the gym has a deadlift bar, but I’m not going to use it — there’s an Ohio bar, which has been my preference as of late for everything.

Pause squats felt good to do again as well. I really like doing them and wanted to do more sets – but alas, all programming today is 2 sets. Again, I do want to try to be conservative on my ratings so I don’t blow up into ridiculous amounts of volume. But still, more than 2 sets please.

Oh, and I again forgot to do calf work. I’ll be sure to pick this up next week.

Anyways, good day. Good start to the cycle.

RP Powerlifting, Strength Cycle, week 1

• Competition Deadlift
  • 135 x 5
  • 225 x 5
  • 315 x 3
  • 345 x 6
  • 345 x 6
• 45º Back Raise
  • BW+5 x 10
  • BW+5 x 10
• Pause Squat
  • bar x 5
  • 135 x 5
  • 185 x 3
  • 215 x 6
  • 215 x 6
• Slant Board Situps
  • BW+15 x 10
  • BW+15 x 10

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