Anthony King's Log

[Anthony King]

I think I heard Jordan once say that the hardest thing to lift through is emotional distress. This weekend was full of child custody rollercoasters, and it cut into my sleep and appetite. By the time tonight rolled around I felt like a piece of taffy at the state fair. But it went okay.

Comp. Squat (belt and sleeves)
275x4@6
300x4@7.5
315x4@8.5
330x4@10 Ooops. Overreached here, also got terribly loose in the hole on a couple reps.
297.5x4@8
297.5x4@8.75something-close-enough-to-nine

Top set was disappointing but something clicked and I owe it to the paused squats, I think. I've noticed those feel great because I concentrate on stayed tight in the hole so I can pause. At lower weights I can get loose and "bounce" out of the hole with speed. This often puts me on my toes but I'm enough past the sticking point that I can fight through it. Closer to my limit if I get loose I don't fly through the sticking point and the squat can turn needlessly grindy. I focused very hard on staying tight in the hole on the fatigue sets and they felt great--but of course they are lighter. The real test will come next Monday.

I also realized tonight that I'll go into these thinking "I know I have 330x5 in me so 330x4@9 is doable." but I'm thinking of that when I'd warm up by doing a single at 300 and then 330x5. Now I'm hitting the top set on my third set with about 4m rest, and I've done 8 reps at or above the intensity I'd previously do before I hit the top set. tldr: I need to worry about hitting the prescribed rpe and not get caught up in the weight.

2ct Paused Bench
165x4@nil
185x4@7.5
195x4@8
205x4@9
190x4@8
190x4@8.5
190x4@9.5
190x4@9

I saw a metronome suggested to keep lifters honest on these and leaned I'd definitely been cheating a bit--especially on later reps. Still improved a little over last weeks top set and got in volume. Bench feels great with the extra volume so far.

RDL
275x7@7
290x7@8
305x7@9
290x7@8
290x7@9

Lots of fatigue/volume prescribed today and I made it through with one hiccup after a motherfucker of a weekend. I'll take it.

[Anthony King]

Yesterday was a long day on the bike--ten miles back and forth with about 20 pickups. Hauling 100-200 pounds most of the time. Just over five hours but I wrapped up by 2pm and had time to rest before hitting the gym. I'm amazed how well my body is adapting to the day job--I wouldn't have thought there was any way in hell I'd be able to deadlift this much after a day of work but I go in with the attitude that I'm just gonna hit the prescribed RPE and the bar keeps moving well.

Comp. Bench
195x4@7
207.5x4@8.5
215x4@9
200x4@8
200x4@9

I felt a little underecovered and very off until the fourth set into this. Bar path was all over the place and I was just sloppy in general. I think this may have had something to do with the bench feeling so good Monday, which meant extra fatigue sets (28 reps total). I didn't increase my top set from last week.

Deadlift
315x4@nada
350x4@7
375x4@8
400x4@9
370x4@8

Felt like my CNS has woken back up by the time these rolled around. Felt solid. Kept rest periods to 5m, with an extra few seconds before the top set. Glad I had fatigue programmed or I would have reached for 405.

Press w/ Belt (one notch loose)
95x7@6
105x7@7
115x7@8
127.5x7@9.5
120x7@8.5

I'm going to start belting for these but not at full tighteness--I have a tendency to overextend my lower back a little on longer sets and the 4" belt helps prevent this by digging into my back.

Overall pretty happy, though I can feel the volume accumulating I'm recovering okay. I'm keeping weight on, which is a struggle with the calories I burn at work.