Power Clean
135x3, 185x3, 225x3, 245x3, 265x3
Notes: Moved kind of sluggish today, but pretty cool that 265x3 is now where I stop when I'm not feeling much pop on a sluggish/slow day. That was 225 for a long time.
Deadlift: 2" blocks, beltless
495x3, 545x3
Notes: Both were slow off the floor, low back feels fatigued, but moved fast once they broke the floor. Skipped planned 495x3 backoff set because of low back fatigue. No need to be a hero this early in the program. And I want to do something heavy over the weekend from the floor, in addition to squats, so sparing myself a bit.
545x3 DL from 2" and 265x3 power cleans on IG
Plank
30s x2 - pretty easy, just reintroducing these. Will do a bit of ab wheel on Saturday.
Press: Belt for 255 only
225x5, 255x5 @7.5-8, 225x5
Notes: My PR is 260x5; and while I probably COULD have done 270x5 at one point, it's still very exciting to me to hit 255x5 with 2-3 reps in the tank on my very first full week of a training cycle. All the building has paid off, and I'm excited to crush some PRs in hopefully all lifts coming up. I hit a new 10RM and 4RM press in 2020, but haven't hit a new 1RM press since Jan, 2019, so excited to finally beat that.
255x5 press on IG
DB Bench Press
135x8, 145x8x2
Notes: Had a better handle on unracking and re-racking from the new DB trays, so this went well. Very pleasantly surprised how strong 145x8 DB bench was. Everyone knows DB work is harder relatively than just doubling the # of the DBs and applying it to barbell work - and I don't think I realized quite how much stronger my benching is for 145x8 to be so smooth here. While I don't think there's an exact coefficient to compare, this is still fun to do and to see the progress. I might be able to squeeze on 155 once my new 10s come in, but I think that'll be as heavy as I can go on these loadable DBs.
Lat Pulldown: narrow neutral grip
160x10, 185x10x2
DB LTEs
45x10x2 - just getting readapted to tricep work, which I haven't done in a while.
Last edited by Michael Wolf; 04-10-2021 at 12:58 PM.
Squat: belt + sleeves
535 @7.5
475x5 @7
Notes: Happy with these. First heavy single of the cycle and moved well, backoff moved well too. I hit a 3 and 2 rep PR in Jan and Feb - PRinos, but my first squat PRs since 2016 - but haven't really squatted since as my knees began to revert to their old ways. They're feeling better now after nearly 2 months off squatting, so we'll see how they hold up. My plan is to squat 3x/month right now, but will adjust if needed.
535 and 475 squats on IG
Deadlift
515x1, 585x1, 635x1 @8.5, 535x1
Notes: Felt off from the start. Not sure if it's due to being unadapted to pulling after squats, but my low back has also felt fatigued since coming back from my trip out east, despite not squatting at all or pulling heavy in the week and a half since. The thing with my low back is that it gets like this sometimes even if I'm not training at all or hardly training, so it's hard to decouple it and figure out if I started the cycle too aggressively, or if it's just my low back randomly doing this once in a while as it does.
Practically, I was hoping the 635 would fly up and be RPE 7 or less - remember I hit 635x3 with 2-3 reps in the tank in December, which was at the end/after a good ~10 week hard cycle, but after not having done anything for 6 days. So I hoped to start this cycle not TOO far behind that, so was kind of disappointed by this one. It moved fast enough once it broke the floor, but it was SLOW breaking the floor, and knowing well the feeling in my back, I know that the speed is deceptive because for me, it's the breaking off the floor and the first few inches that matter.
I've only once in my life (7 years ago) missed a DL I got to the bottom of my knees. I miss on or right off the floor. And knowing how I miss and how my back felt, this was a slow rep. Not terribly slow, but slower than I wanted.
The plan afterwards was 535x5 backoff, and I actually didn't get my first attempt off the ground. At all. At 100 lbs less. I then sacked up and pulled it for one, but that was it.
So I'll be training lighter this week just on the chance that I overshot the start of this cycle, but given what I did last time + during the 4 months of off season, that would be a bit surprising to me. I pulled 600 off 2" blocks @6 just in Feb, for example, with no real associated fatigue beyond that of normal training.
Anyway. Here's the 635 vid.
Ab Wheel: 2x4
Bench Press
405x1, 435x1 @7.5, 385x3, 365x3
Notes; Upper body is doing great - 435 flew up. I've been strong enough to push 435 this fast twice before that I can recall, and both times were much deeper into serious training blocks. I'm excited about being here this early in a cycle.
435x1 bench on IG
Press: Strict
175x6, 195x6x2
Lat Pulldown: medium neutral
160x8, 185x8, 195x8x2
DB Curls
55x8x2
Took today off to give back a little extra rest. It still feels hypertonic. Annoying.
Back hypertonicity is reduced but what that's left in its wake is a pretty clear tweak somewhere deep, feels like QL. It's weird both how I couldn't feel it before as it was almost obscured by the grip of the hyperactive erectors, as well as that there was no moment where I felt it happen. I've tweaked that area before many times and have always felt it happen - often it's worse than I first thought, sometimes not as bad, but I always feel it. I have no idea when or why this one occurred. Anyway, it's a little less than before so I'm gonna try to squat today, and then do some pulls off 6-8" blocks, and we'll see how it goes. If it's not ready yet, I won't force it but I don't want to miss any more than the full week of pulls I've already missed, if possible.
Yesterday, I did:
Bench Press
365x5 @6
405x5 @8 - with wrist wraps
335x5, 315x5 both with first and last reps paused to begin working on paused reps for meet
Notes: 405x5 isn't a PR, but is like 98% of my PR, done with reps in the tank and early in a training cycle as opposed to at or near the end, so that's a first. Very happy about it.
405x5 bench press on IG
KB Press
28kg x9, 36kg x9x2
Notes: I ramped up bench from the 3x5 I'd been doing, to 4x5. So I reduced press assistance this week such that I did the same exact # of total work reps - 47 - as last week, except this week it was 20 heavier bench and 27 lighter assistance press, instead of 15 and 32 respectively. So upping the total work, tonnage, focus on bench, etc...but doing so stepwise instead of increasing everything quickly altogether at once.
Lat Pulldown: Narrow neutral grip
160x10, 195x10x2, 160x10
DB Curls
55x8, 62.5x8
Last edited by Michael Wolf; 04-21-2021 at 11:54 AM.
Today went great! Christmas in the gym situation. My plan was safety bar squats up to about 435x5, depending on back. But I just had an inkling it was a good day and I should take advantage so i took out the straight bar instead. Worked my way up to a 600 single, FINALLY getting that Monkey off my back!! Feels good to have it behind me. I know I'm capable of more - even today, I probably had 615 or 620, without any kind of real prep for it, so I don't think 290 is out of the Q at the meet. But that's too much speculation. For now, I'm just super happy to finally have done what I should've gotten under my belt 4.5 years ago, and 2 years of serious knee issues, 9 mos of back issues, and then a lockdown kept kicking away from me.
Squat:sleeves for all
475x1 beltless PR, technically (not that I keep close track) - this felt good and went up fast, and after this I thought hell ya, let's do 600 today!
525x1, 565x1, 600x1 - PR!!!!! Then 505x1 backoff.
Notes: I was gonna do the 505x5 as a backoff to nail 2 PRs in one day, and though it went up pretty fast, I could tell my mojo was spent on the 600, even though it wasn't a huge grind. I just didn't have the gas left to push a 505x5 set, so I racked it after the first rep. A wise move I wouldn't have made even just a couple years ago.
I'll post the video on instagram tomorrow. It wasn't speedy, but it wasn't a real grind either. There's more in the tank.
DL: 8" blocks
Up to 365x3x2
Notes: Not bad here. Back held up pretty well to these. We'll see how it feels tomorrow after these heavy squats and also over the next few days. Today didn't seem to make anything worse, in any case.
Plank
35s x2
Side Plank
15s x1 - just getting back into these after a while