Squat 275x5x3
Power Clean 140x3x3
Pulldown 187.5x8x3
Squats were hard, but got them done yet again. Feels like it might have been what the RPE people would call a 9, especially the last set. Power cleans were okay. Pulldowns felt strong as hell. I don't think I was too beat up between the squat sets. Was resting 7 minutes between.
01-13-2022, 07:56 PM
CommanderFun
Thursday 1/13/2022
Press 140x5x3
Bench 226x5x3
Press was tricky but doable. Bench was right on the cusp of RPE 10 if not all the way there. That last rep of that last set was a real battle. Next week I'm gonna take the weight back 5% or so, down to 215. I'll try and bring it up by 2.5 jumps, while I see how much more progress I can squeeze out of the press. After that, I'll probably transition these lifts into a heavy/light type setup, but keeping the 3x5 volume.
01-14-2022, 10:10 PM
CommanderFun
Friday 1/14/2022
Deadlift 395x5, 315x5
Squat 220x5x3
Deadlift was good! Last rep was strugglish, but not a nightmare grind. Back off set was fine. I reset the light day squats since I was going to end up squatting 10 pounds higher than a true 80% of my work weight. These were starting to feel a bit heavy anyway.
01-17-2022, 08:14 PM
CommanderFun
Monday 1/17/2022
Press 141x5x2, 141x4 (fail), 141x1
Bench 215x5x3
Bike 20 second interval/10 second rest x3, intensity 15
Press hit a fail. I think trying to grind it out actually coaxed the double layback out of me. I felt it happening, the bar got hung up around eye level and that's when the layback triggered. Still didn't get it up, but it was interesting to experience. The reset bench felt pretty hard, especially on the last set. I think I'm going to just jump into the heavy/light programming for the pressing movements starting thursday.
Brought the bike back in, I noticed my legs actually got sore from my light squat workout which was really fucking weird. Figured it might help, and it doesn't seem to have really been killing my lower body lifts.
01-18-2022, 09:58 PM
CommanderFun
Tuesday 1/18/2022
Squat 280x5x3
Power Clean 145x3x3
Pulldown 190x8x3
Squats were quite tough today, though not as slow a grind at the end as I felt like they were. But that's squats for you, they always feel like a harder effort than they actually are. Think I had some thoracic flexion going on, posted a form check to verify. Hopefully there's something I can cue mentally to fix that shit and keep me going. I'm about to surpass bodyweight for sets across in the squat, which always has been a sticking point for me. Also, no knee pain, thank God.
Power cleans were harder, had to dip by bending the knees a little more for the catch. I'm still going to try for 150 next week though.
Pulldowns feel like they've still got more weight to go at this rep scheme before I have to drop to 5s.
01-20-2022, 08:48 PM
CommanderFun
Thursday 1/20/2022
Press 135x5x3
Bench 185x5x3
Bike 20 second intervals/10 second rest x3, intensity 15
Deloaded the press a bit and did them strict. Pretty tough. Light bench was not a problem, but still felt fairly hard.
01-22-2022, 12:41 AM
CommanderFun
Friday 1/21/2022
Deadlift 400x5, 320x5
Squat 225x5x3
Man, I was feeling weak as hell today. Got all my lifting done, but the light squats felt like fucking murder. I was hoping to take the opportunity to work on the thoracic flexion today, but I was so beat up I'm not sure I could. I definitely ate too light this week. Started to get freaked by bodyweight increases and my training has paid a price. Also, I'm cutting the bike out. I think it beats up my quadriceps too much. My knees were feeling really shaky on those light squats, and I wasn't able to get much powerful leg drive in the deadlifts.
Gonna keep both presses 3x5 for now, will explore adding more sets as they flatten out. I'm just seeing if giving each their own day to shine will give me any further progress. Bench got a slow final rep on the final set, but not a bad grind. Light press was heavy enough to feel like weight, but not heavy enough to induce a grind on any reps.
I added in some accessory work for 2 reasons. First, I've determined the best approach to figuring out if this kind of stuff helps you is to just try it and see. Some people seem to swear the accessory stuff helps build the main lifts up, and some seem to think the main lifts themselves are more than enough. I've seen people from both camps have great success. So I'm just going to try them and see. The second reason is because my girlfriend, of all people, wants to do arm stuff in our workouts. So I figure a nice little arm pump at the end will make her happy.
LTEs are an obvious choice. Barbell curls are there because, well, gotta hit those biceps if you're gonna hit the triceps. I'm doing these with a rest-pause type setup. There will be 30 seconds of rest between sets, and the aim is to try and hit 10 reps on all 3 sets. If I do less than that, the goal is to get at least one more rep somewhere in there on the next workout. If I get all 10, time to move the weight up. I've read this kind of work is good for accessory movements when you're pressed for time. We'll see how it develops, and if I get some improvements on the presses out of it. I can say for sure I did get a nice big arm pump. Couldn't even put my arms all the way down at my sides for a while.
01-25-2022, 09:37 PM
CommanderFun
Tuesday 1/25/2022
Squat 285x5, 255x5x2
Power Clean 150x3
Pulldown 192.5x8x3
What a fucking day. I wasn't planning to switch to back off sets, but that first set at 285 was absolutely brutal. Reps 4 and 5 were both grinds, which history has taught me means failure is very close. I was not going to be able to repeat that set two more times, probably even with 10 minutes rest. The back-offs proved me right, because even with 8 minutes of rest I was fucking hammered by those. My body heat was also way up and I was sweating all over the place.
Power cleans I managed to barely get the first set done. My legs were just operating so damn slowly. I was so beat up feeling I just called off the other two sets. My legs were not having it at all.
Pulldowns were thankfully okay.
I think the culprit in my weird feeling of fatigue on Friday might not be the exercise bike. I think it might be increasing my zoloft dose back to 100mg. I got the new prescription on thursday, and ever since it feels like the heavy work is heating me up and fatiguing me more.
Press felt pretty hard. Bench was doable. Managed to get one more rep on the curls, but the LTEs were actually harder than monday. I think I will be spacing out this assistance work a bit more through the week. LTEs on Monday, curls on Thursday.