Rob's Brooklyn Block (periodization) Party

[Rob Israel]

Friday Night

Box Squat: 290x5
Solid and fast. Red faced. Felt a lot harder than it looked. Depth of these are borderline. I thought I had nailed it with my setup, but they could be a 1/2" lower.

Conditioning: 8 rounds of :25/1:05 couplet of treadmill push and med-ball-slams. Went a little longer and increased the rests. I may increase the rests again in order to keep the intensity maxed out through out although I really prefer the shorter time spent and just getting it over with.

Rushed out to meet my wife and our good friend. Waiting 30 minutes. Didn't get mad. Longer workout today which I'll post later.

[Rob Israel]

Saturday Day

Deadlift: 345x5, 375x5(@10)
Wasn't sure about my hamstring (tweaked it last Sat pulling), so I tried 345 and it was good so pulled 375. Unfortunately it was a max effort. Considering just going for it next week and continuing up with whatever I can do (fours, triples, etc). Also contemplating adding volume here, but am leaning to do that after I run through a decreasing rep scheme to higher and higher intensity.

Slingshot: 235x 6, 5, 6, 5
Not bad, but no improvement over last week.

Lat pull-down (narrow): 120x14x3
Seated lat-pull (narrow): 1230x14x3

EZ-bar skull crushers: 70x 12, 14, 15
DB curls: 30x20x3

[Rob Israel]

Monday Night Squat

Comp. Squat: 305x5 and 325x5
This got into my head a bit and I rushed the second set. Ended up with some form creep and slid into my left hip. On the 5th rep I basically came to a full stop when I then tried to overcompensate and shifted my weight into my right leg. Basically i tried to stand up with the weight with my right leg, couldn't, evened out and then stood up. A complete mess and I'm sore as shit since then because of it.

Iso-Lat Row: 160x14x3

Tuesday Night

Comp. Bench: 195x5 and 205x5x4
Added 10 pounds to last week. This was feeling strong. Funny, because my shoulder had been really achy since Saturday's workout and benching made it feel a lot better. Very confusing. It may be the squatting more than the benching.

Seated lat pull: 140x14x3

Curls: 33x15x3
For my elbow. And the guns.

Weird week so far. Very disappointed with the squat and seriously considered bagging this log and moving to the general logs. Between my sacrum soreness, elbow and shoulder, If I can't keep a progression going without regression or injury, I'm not going to be able to compete this year. But then the bench was surprisingly better...

I also realized it may just be time for a little deload. Things are hurting so it's time for some extra rest. The challenge I'm having there is that in the past I was doing so much volume, I could just peel off a bunch of sets and it would be a deload. Now, my volume is so low (at least lower body) there's nothing to peel off and I'll decondition.

I fly out to the west coast tomorrow and I'm bringing my gear. My plan was to workout Thursday, then I have a 3 day conference (not doing the 7am squatting thing like in November, FTS) then I fly to SF and I'll work out there 1 day. It's basically looking like 2 workouts in 5-6 days. Not sure I'll even deadlift, so some sort of deload will be happening. Maybe my squat will bounce back tomorrow and I'll feel like I'm back in the game.

[Rob Israel]

Flew to LA on Thursday, checked in the AirBnB and hit the gym:

Thursday

Box Squat: 275x5
I kept the weight down for additional recovery. Left Ham and sacrum not feeling good (from last Monday shitty squats). That lingered all weekend.

CG bench (no belt): 185x6, 195x6x3

DB Curls & Tri rollbacks: 35x15x3 and 35x12x3

HIIT: :25/1:05 for 9 rounds of ball slam and treadmill push. Took an extra 90 seconds rest after 6 rounds.

Spent the rest of the weekend in a Marriott conference room learning about coaching. Another great weekend in LA in a conference rooms. Doesn't sound great, but it was. Flew to SF Sunday night, got minimal sleep my buddy was up for the gym the next day.

Monday afternoon

Squat: 295x5
This felt pretty good and I could have gone up from here, but my back was reacting a bit and not super happy. I decided to lower the weight to 275 but it felt really uncomfortable so I racked after one rep. Back is really sore and tired now. Tight and I don't want to bend over. Kind of shitty feeling all over honestly.

Iso-lat Row: 180x14x3
This machine was much easier.

Workout was at one of "City Fitness" (LA Fitness) which I find pretty lame, although it did have a nice power rack. We needed to get going so kept it short and we'll go again Tuesday. Not super happy about the setback with my back, but I'm hoping I can tread water until it straightens out. Hoping I'll feel good to pull by Saturday.

[Rob Israel]

Back has not been happy since squatting Monday. My sacrum is pretty achy and low back is sore and fatigued. Definitely a bigger set back than I expected. Went to acupuncture (today, Thursday) and he said my hip was pretty twisted.

Tuesday in San Fran

Comp. Bench: 200x5, 210x5x2, 205x5x2
Last 4 sets all at about RPE 9.

DB Rows: 55x 14, 12, 12

Conditioning: :20/:40 for 9 rounds on the push treadmill. Took one minute extra rest in the middle.

[Rob Israel]

My schedule got screwed up when I got back--. Wife almost ended up in the hospital Thursday so I got to stay close to home that night and Friday. Thankful everything is OK. And I got to the gym today...

Saturday BB bizness

My back is still fucked so no pulling still this weekend. I had to miss my PT appointment on Friday to start getting it straighten out.

Slingshot bench: 230x6, 240x6x3
Moving on up. I'm getting back to September levels, could be promising.

Seat lat pull (narrow grip): 140x14x3
Lat pull down (narrow grip): 125x14x3

Skull crushers: 60x15, 15, 18
DB curls: 35x15x3, 30x15x2

Conditioning: Ball slams of :20/:40 for 6 rounds. 20# med ball got between 15-18 slams.

Pretty fun workout. I was procrastinating going but got in some decent work. Really annoyed about my back, but that could turn around pretty quickly, so I'm not going to get too upset. I looked at the video of when this happened. The first rep was absolutely smoked. I just don't have room for errors these days-- I tried to rush the set and paid the price.