Between my back feeling dodgy and my resurgent right elbow canceritis (left seem to be OK), I was prepared to not do anything heavy today. But I fiddled with things enough to find a promising workaround for the squat, and my back held up pretty well to some actual heavy lifting. 2 aleve about 3 hours before training surely helped, but I was still very pleasantly surprised with how I rose to the challenge. Being able to train with some soon-to-be-leaving NYC friends, the famous @megsquats and her boyfriend, Ryan, helped and was a ton of fun.
Squat - belt + SBDs
495x2,2,2,2 @ 7, 7.5, 7, 7.5
495x3 @7.5
Notes: I was desperate to find a way to low bar squat without utterly wrecking my elbows. The pain had become nearly unbearable (though a hard massage on Weds + SSB squats only on Thurs helped some). I tried wearing a slingshot compression cuff 2.0, but it seemed to hurt more than help. In the past, I've tried wrapping thumbs around the bar and letting my wrists take some of the stress but it didn't seem to help. Today, I wrapped my thumbs around and additionally really focused on dropping my elbows down lower than I wanted before the rep (unracking and walking out this way felt too unstable, so I unracked and walked out with elbows up, then dropped).
I had mixed success with this grip adjustment in two ways:
1. I'm so used to keeping my elbows up that I did it on some reps anyway
2. I am so unused to keeping the bar stable with this configuration that there was a little bit of bar movement that I could feel while squatting and it effected my technique.
That said, I did 5 heavy sets at 495 for 11 total reps, which is more reps than I've ever done in one workout with that much weight, without going anywhere near failure. Some of the doubles workouts I was doing last summer and fall (I seem to recall a 465x2, 495x2, 515x2, 525x2, 495x2 one in particular) may have been slightly harder, but this was still another really solid step back towards gains. Especially only 4 days after the 455x5x5 and with a cranky back.
First and last set at 495 on IG (w/more bonus booty)
Close Grip Bench Press
275x5, 295x5, 315x5 @7.5
285x5x2 - first and last rep paused
Notes: Pretty solid. Elbow tweakiness was present but minimal compared to previous workouts after squatting. Reduced by ~80%, I'd estimate. Which helped these A TON.
315x5 CGBP on the insta
6" Block Pull
155x5, 265x3, 375x3 - DOH
465x3 - mixed grip + belt
555x3, 625x3 @8.5 - straps + belt
Notes: Despite surviving squats, I could still feel the back tweakiness so elected not to pull off the floor. 6" blocks didn't feel perfect off the bat but way better than the floor and seemed to improve as I warmed them up so I kept going. They felt ok and they felt OK and before you know it, I had 625 on the bar and pulled it for a triple.
I haven't done a rack pull in ~3.5 years. The only time I did them was for maybe a 3-4 month period in 2013 on the 3-day Texas Method. The heaviest I did was 580 or 585x5 from right at the bottom of the kneecap, when my 1RM from the floor was just around 600. Kinda cool to come back a few years later and hit 625x3 from a lower position on a day when my back was tweaky and uncooperative.
HSPU - tripod
3,3