Return of the Rat

[hrat]

Tuesday 29th
Work commitment, so was tired and hungry and later than usual. Also, left knee sore from sitting on train. Tried to do _something_ anyway, but not much worked

Press 20 x 2 x 5, 25 x 3, 30 x 1, 35 x 1, 36 x 1, 37 x fail, fail. 36 x fail. 32.5 x 4 (aim was 5), 30 x 5.
Just didn't feel right at the forehead somehow. I don't think my grip was different or anything. Ah well.

Chins (red band) 2, 2, 2

Ah well.

[hrat]

Thursday 31st
Has been a tiring week. It's freezing here, I am sleepy, and unusually hung-over from 4 beers and a curry. Decided to go out, warm up, and feel it out.

Squat 20 x 2 x 5, 40 x 5, 50 x 3, 60 x 1, 65 x 5. Sluggish, hard and right quad feels sore. Stopped here.

Incline bench 20 x 2 x 5, 25 x 3, 30 x 1, 33.5 x 1, 37 x 3 x 4. Fine. Getting the hand of bracing feet without bridging butt off seat.

Flagging by this point, called it a day.

[hrat]

Another curry Friday night, and felt crappy all weekend. Oddly enough, tonight's session actually went pretty well. Mild headache, and touch of nausea but it stayed mild and eased off enough to deadlift even!

Sunday 3rd

Squat 20 x 2 x 5, 40 x 5, 50 x 3, 65 x 1, 75 x 1, 87 x 2 x 3, 80 x 5. Headache was at its worst here and felt a touch off balance, so went for a backoff set instead of a third.

Bench 20 x 2 x 5, 30 x 5, 35 x 3, 40 x 1, 45 x 1, 51 x 3 x 3. First set awful, almost lost first rep over face and was fighting that for the others. Sets 2 and 3 were fine, even easy, with a little concentration and taking one's time.

Deadlift 60 x 5, 85 x 5, 107.5 x 5. Felt fine, not easy, but moving strong.

DB seated OHP 3eae (~10kg ea) 3 x 8

[hrat]

Felt tired and a bit sick today too. No idea if I'm ill or what. But session went quite well.

Tuesday 5th

F squat 20 x 2 x 3, 30 x 3, 40 x 2, 50 x 1, 63.5 x 2 x 3. Second set felt I was losing upper back and putting too much on arms, so didn't do a third.

Press 20 x 2 x 5, 25 x 3, 30 x 1, 32.5 x 1, 35 x 4, 32.5 x 2 x 5. Trying a bit different to get an idea of current 3x5 strength. These were all snappy and solid, with none of the weird transition feeling of last week.

Chins (red band) 3x2, 2x1
Dips (blue band) 3x5

[hrat]

Thursday 7th

Fairly good day, although I ran out of energy fast.

Squat 20 x 2 x 5, 40 x 5, 50 x 3, 62.5 x 1, 73.5 x 3 x 8. Horrible. Not heavy, but breathless and tiring. Reps 6-8 had 2-3 breaths between each.

Incline bench 20 x 2 x 5, 25 x 3, 30 x 1, 35 x 1, 38 x 4, 2. 30 x 8. Didn;t even have 3 reps on set 2, so went to a backoff at 30 for 8 easy reps.

RDL 70 x 3 x 8. Straps for all. Basically fine, but felt heavy.

[hrat]

8's for assist have been working really well, and the double progression rep-range and weight seems to be paying off. Also, for press previously the best thing I tried was 5-3-1. So figured it couldn't hurt to build something off 8/5/2. Keeping the same HLM template, except I'm swapping H day squats to a top-set plus backoffs to keep some more in the tank for deads. Minor adjustments to assist for now.

Also, trying to reduce body fat a tiny bit, since I got rather chunky in the last few years. Hoping to get back under 70kg (5ft 5), and improve conditioning a bit, as 8-reps on anything kill me.

Sunday 10th
Squat 20 x 2 x 5, 40 x 5, 50 x 3, 62.5 x 1, 76 x 8, 68.5 x 2 x 8. Backoffs were not at all easy. Felt light, but just dying.

Bench 20 x 2 x 5, 30 x 5, 35 x 3, 40 x 1, 42.5 x 3 x 8. First set sucked, next two way better. Have to think one rep at a time and not try and rattle them out.

Deadlift 60 x 8, 80 x 8, 95 x 8.

Brief round of treadmill intervals 30sec at 12kph, 60sec at 5.5kph, 5 rounds then a couple minutes brisk walk.

DB OHP 3eae 10, 10, 6

[hrat]

Squat stands I ordered turned up today, so with that and a 15kg womens bar I can press without having to do an awkward sidestep and sometimes smashing the bar into a shelf at lockout. Been back-and-forth-ing on how to proceed and finally got fed up of the bar sitting idle. Proceeded to completely forget it was a 15kg bar for first two work sets, so had some extra warmups.

Tuesday 12th
Light Squat 20 x 2 x 5, 40 x 5, 50 x 3, 57.5 x 3 x 8. This was not easy given how light it was. 8's just kill me. But they felt and looked solid.

Press 15 x 2 x 5, 20 x 3, 23.5 x 2 x 8. At this point, noticed the bar weight. 28.5 x 3 x 8. Not easy, but felt pretty solid and no problems adjusting to new setup.

Chins (green band) 6, 5, 5
Dips (blue) 6, 6, 8

[hrat]

Still going. Feel a bit sluggish: am mostly hitting about 1900 cals for the last week which should be a bit of a deficit with training. I think its working, or at least, I had to take belt down a notch tonight, so something has changed. But, it doesn't make volume squats fun.

Thursday 14th
Squat 20 x 2 x 5, 40 x 5, 50 x 3, 62.5 x 1, 70 x 3 x 8. Seriously hard actually. Look good, depth nice etc. Didn't feel heavy just... hard.

Incline bench 20 x 2 x 5, 25 x 3, 30 x 1, 32.5 x 3 x 8. 5 min rests. First set sucked, second and third remembered to brace and leg drive and were way better.

RDL 60 x 5 (DOH), 72.5 x 3 x 8 straps, no belt. Looked basically fine. Felt heavy. Had to strap up for all sets, so followed with a ten second hold.

Hanging knee raise 3 x 8.

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5's this week. It's amazing what a relief that is after all the 8's.

Had some awesome breakfast tacos based off something we had in Dallas, so didn't eat much the rest of the day. Dinner in half an hour will be sausages, steak and salmon though.

Sunday 17th

Squat 20 x 2 x 5, 40 x 5, 50 x 3, 65 x 1, 75 x 1, 84 x 5, 77.5 x 2 x 5. Still can't work out the backoff numbers. This was not easy, and it adds up to about the same total tonnage as 3x5 at 80 which is volume day. Top set was sooper hard, wasn't sure I'd get 5 reps but muscled through. Depth good, knees a bit slidey.

Bench 20 x 2 x 5, 30 x 5, 35 x 3, 40 x 1, 43.5 x 1, 47.5 x 3 x 5. First set flew up. Second was too loose so was a bit grindy. Third better again.

Deadlift 60 x 5, 85 x 5 (4 reps DOH), 110 x 5. Not terrible. Upper back is struggling, must watch that.

Treadmill intervals 30 sec at 12.5, 60 sec at 5.5 at 3% for 4 rounds, then 12.5 for 60sec and a brief cooldown. Total of 1.2k in 9 mins.

DB OH press 3eae 12, 10, 7

[hrat]

Tuesday 19th

Squat 20 x 2 x 5, 40 x 5, 50 x 3, 60 x 1, 65 x 2 x 5. First set without belt, second with. Sucked.

Press 15 x 2 x 5, 20 x 5, 25 x 3, 27.5 x 1, 32.5 x 3 x 5. Got it. New PR 3x5 for all time, tragically. But, I did get it.

Chins (blue band) 4, 4, 3
Dips (blue band) 3 x 8