Viking Strength....Let's hope

[MattimusMaximus]

**Session on 4 hours of sleep... yuck.



BW: 233.9 lbs



Volume Bench: Beltless; 5 min rests

240*5 (@6.5)
240*5 (@6.5)
240*5 (@7)
240*5 (@7)
240*5 (@7.5)

Intensity Press: 5 min rests

175*3 (@8)
175*3 (@8.5)

Accessory: 2 min rests

Light LTE: 110*11 (@8), 10 (@9)
Light BB Curls: 107.5*10 (@8.5), 10 (@9)



**Benching felt insanely easy tonight... I hope that's some foreshadowing for good things to come!

Filmed the Bench 5 sets of 4


Here's the Press: Listen closely and you'll hear my t-shirt ripping on each rep.

[MattimusMaximus]

**Getting tired from these new early morning work shifts... not used to getting up at 5:45am


BW: 240.4 (PM Weigh-in... not liking this sudden increase)



Volume Squats: 4 min rests

325*4 (@6)
325*4 (@6.5)
325*4 (@7)
325*4 (@7.5)
325*4 (@7.5)

SLDL: 4 min rests

290*4 (@7)
290*4 (@7.5)
290*4 (@7.5)

Accessory: 2 min rests

Light BB Pendlay Rows: 195*10 (@8), 10 (@9)
Light Chins: BW*7 (@7.5), 7 (8.5), 7 (@10)


**Feeling lots of fatigue this week from earlier work shifts but I just need a bit to adjust.

[BigA]

How are you liking the SLDL's? I don't see too many people around here doing them. They usually do deficits instead.

[MattimusMaximus]

How are you liking the SLDL's? I don't see too many people around here doing them. They usually do deficits instead.

I actually like them but I'm still just getting used to them though. I'd never done them before until I tried this version of the texas method. It's still hard to gauge my RPE's on a new movement such as this but I'm starting to get the hang of them and I'm preferring them to DE deadlifts so far haha.

[MattimusMaximus]

**Last early morning shift of this set of shifts... tfg! I'm exhausted from a combo of early mornings, crappy night sleeps, and just a busy week in general. #dadlife


BW: 239.1 lbs (PM weigh-in)



Intensity Bench: under 5 min rest

280*2 (@8.5)
280*2 (@8.5)

Volume Press: Beltless; 4 min rests

150*4 (@6.5)
150*4 (@7)
150*4 (@7.5)
150*4 (@7.5)
150*4 (@7.5)

Accessory: 2 min rests

Heavy LTE: 125*7 (@8.5), 7 (@9.5)
Heavy BB Cheat Curls: 142.5*10, 9


**I was seriously contemplating postponing this session until tomorrow which is very uncharacteristic of me so I soldiered on and once I "woke up" a bit more it wasn't so bad.

[MattimusMaximus]

BW: 239 lbs



Intensity Squats: 5 min rests

380*2 (@8)
380*2 (@8)

Intensity Deadlifts: 5 min rests

390*2 (@8)
390*2 (@8)

Accessory: 2 min rests

Heavy BB Pendlay Rows: 215*6 (@8), 6 (@9)
Heavy Chins: 284*3 (@7.5), 3 (@8), 3 (@8.5)


**Need to tighten up more on squats... annoyed with myself for not staying tight throughout.

**Here's the squats/deads/and one set of Chins

[MattimusMaximus]

**Late Night Sesh


BW: 237.6 lbs



Volume Bench: 5 min rests

250*3 (@6.5)
250*3 (@7)
250*3 (@7)
250*3 (@7.5)
250*3 (@7.5)

Intensity Press: 4 min rests

180*2 (@8)
180*2 (@8)

Accessory: 2 min rests

Light LTE: 112.5*11 (@8.5), 9 (@9.5)
Light BB Curls: 110*10 (@8), 10 (@9)



**Wrist pain from taking my kids to an indoor playground... my daughter made me follow her up the play structure and I was much too *cough cough* big for it. I had to get on my hands and knees to crawl around like a little kid (there were other dads too lol) and now my left wrist is killing me (previous old work injury). We had lots of fun though so it was worth it! The only thing is I noticed it affected my lock out power in pressing movements tonight, hence why I wrapped my wrists for volume bench tonight despite not normally needing to at this intensity.

Here's the sesh:

[MattimusMaximus]

**Late night sesh; side note... found out I work with an ex Muscle Mag editor... kinda cool!


BW: 239.7 lbs (PM Weigh-in)



Volume Squats: 4 min rests

335*3 (@6)
335*3 (@6)
335*3 (@6.5)
335*3 (@7)
335*3 (@7.5)

SLDL: Beltless; 4 min rests

300*3 (@6)
300*3 (@6)
300*3 (@6.5)

Accessory: 2 min rests

Light BB Pendlay Rows: 197.5*10 (@8), 10 (@9)
Light Chins: BW*8 (@8), 7 (@8.5), 6 (@9)



**Good sesh, just doing the grind.

***Interestingly enough when I spoke to my co-worker I found out he squats over 600 lbs currently and he's gone as high as 715 lbs! He told me that even getting that strong, anything over 200 lbs starts feeling "heavy" because...it's 200 lbs lol. That made me feel so much better because I couldn't figure out why anything over about 225 starts feeling heavy on my back despite having a Max squat of 435 lbs. He also told me he still gets anxious before his training but it's more of an anxious anticipation for what's coming and a slight fear of not performing the best he can. It's like he stole the words right out of mouth!

**I'd love to name drop but to be respectful for his privacy and due to the nature of our job I can't disclose that info.

[MattimusMaximus]

Happy Halloween!
**Started feeling nauseous before my session tonight... not sure why...started feeling better after 1st warmup set with bench though.


BW: 235.7



Intensity Bench: under 5 min rests

290*1 (@8.5)
290*1 (@8.5)
290*1 (@9)
290*1 (@9)
290*1 (@9.5)

Volume Press: Beltless; 4 min rests

155*3 (@7)
155*3 (@7)
155*3 (@7)
155*3 (@7)
155*3 (@7)

Accessory: 2 min rests

Heavy LTE: 127.5*7 (@9), 6 (@9)
Heavy BB Curls: 145*9, 10


**Left shoulder has been bugging me since I had to reach behind a copy machine at work to unplug the damn thing for a hard reset. I must have retweaked that old injury... damn!
**Right forearm is still in pain when in floating press position (sounds like a yoga pose), and I'm guessing it may be "tennis elbow"... damn damn! I'm falling apart over here.
**Both injuries made my bench and presses a bit tricky which is why I suspect most of my bench reps look weird. Here's the vid of my 5 singles tonight! "Gotta Catchem All"

[MattimusMaximus]

**Wife was working so I had my 3.5 year old daughter in the gym with me tonight again... a 1hr 30 min session took just over 2hrs... majority of inter-set rest periods were spent trying to get her to stay away from the weights area and to stop rummaging through the junk in the basement. lol


PM Weigh-in: 242.3 lbs (This is a problem considering my shitty strength levels for that size)



Intensity Squat: under 5 min rests

390*1 (@8)
390*1 (@8)
390*1 (@9)
390*1 (@9)
390*1 (@9)

Intensity Deadlift: under 5 min rests

400*1 (@8)
400*1 (@8)
400*1 (@9)
400*1 (@9)
400*1 (@9)

Accessory: 2 min rests

Heavy BB Pendlay Rows: 217.5*6 (@8.5), 6 (@8.5)
Heavy Chins: 289.8*3 (@8.5), 3 (@9), 3 (@9.5)



**Not sure if tonight's session was affected by some external stress that's happened this week (it's been a stressful year up here in Canada eh), or the fact that I couldn't get my daughter to calm down (she was excited to watch daddy work out again) so my focus was more on making sure she was a safe distance from me and the weights. At one point she tried chalking her own hands and tried to lift the 400 lbs during one of my many rests. Super cute!

**Was not happy with how this session "felt" as in RPE. Even the reps don't look as fast or clean as the previous training cycle. I'm hoping it's just an off night... or else it really wasn't worth changing my training from once every 4 days to 3 times per week...

Here's the sesh: