Strength Engineer Log

[StrengthEngineer]

12/8/17

Squat: 180 x8, 168 x8, 156 x10+: 18
RDL 120: 3x10
Bulgarian Split Squat 35: 3x10
Row 145: 3x8
Neck Extension 15: 25/25/25/20

Thoughts: Still sick, but starting to feel a tiny bit better today at least. I continued to kick butt on the squat, so I'm continuing weekly gains next week with +5lb. After months and months of struggling and regressing on the squat during my cut, it's finally starting to break out again

Oh and I almost forgot to mention, my Ohio Power Bar came today! Man is this thing a nice bar! The knurling is absolutely perfect. I love it. Now with that and my regular old multi-purpose Ohio Bar I am looking pretty good. Really, the only things left on my home gym wish list now are an ez-curl bar, blocks to pull from, and an erg bike. I also will hopefully have to buy more 45 plates soon, if all goes as planned.

[StrengthEngineer]

12/9/17

Weight Average: 156.4lb
Average Weight Change: +1.01lb
Waist Circumference: 31in
Body Fat Percentage 3-fold caliper: 11.15% (18 navel, 8 chest, 9 thigh)
FFM: 138.96lb
Fat Mass: 17.44lb
Body Fat Percentage (Navy Method): 11.1%

Thoughts: How frustrating is that? I struggle to gain any weight for weeks and weeks, then I gain whole pound on average this week, but my body fat percentage shoots up a whole percentage point. I can see it in the mirror as well. Ugh, so I guess I need to be a bit more careful with the calories. I was a bit more careless this week, there was a couple days I ate closer to 3100 calories, and I also wasn't as strict on my macros and was eating ~90g of fat each day, which is quite a bit more than I'm used to. So I'm just going to go back down to 2700 calories 155 protein, 75g fat, 355 carb. I'm also going to throw in an upper body accessory day today, as I lowered my volume quite a bit this week due to being sick and from knowing my body, I can tell my fatigue is low and I can use a bit more volume this week.

[StrengthEngineer]

12/9/17

CG Bench 110: 3x10 (RPE 7, 8, 8.5)
Chin: 20/17/12
Shrug 210: 5x5
Barbell Curl 65: 8/8/6
Situp: 3x20

Thoughts: That was actually kind of fun. I might do this extra optional accessory day more often, especially in hypertrophy blocks like I'm currently in. I just kind of did whatever I wanted to spend a little extra frequency/volume on. Kept things a little more low stress since it is an extra day. I also did some things I don't do regularly for variation like CG bench, heavy barbell curls, and bodyweight chin-ups (with a HUGE rep PR there, 20 reps in first set!). I am not feeling fatigued, so might as well do some extra work!

[StrengthEngineer]

12/11/17

Press: 92 x5, 86.5 x5, 80.5 x10+: 14
Dip 17.5: 3x12 (RPE 6, 8, 9.5)
Lateral Raise: 7.5 x12 (5), 10 2x12 (7, 8)
Pullup: 3x14 (6 7 8)
Face-pull (red): 3x20
Ab-roller: 3x20
DB Curl 17.5: 17/16/15
DB French Press 17.5: 3x15

Thoughts: Wow talk about a good day. PR's pretty much across the board today. For some reason everything just felt light today. That press AMRAP set was an e1RM PR (126lb). For context to how good of a performance that was, compared to last week I had 6lb more on the bar and got 1 more rep this week. That's a pull-up rep PR (with reasonable RPE's to boot). That's a 12 rep weight PR for dips, and a rep PR at 17.5lb for curls and French press. So pretty much literally PR's in everything I touched today. I'm also starting to formally track RPE's for my assistance work, since it's not strictly percentage programmed like the main lifts it will help me dictate loads week to week.

[StrengthEngineer]

12/12/17

Deadlift: 293 3/2/2 (8 9 6 *first 2 hook grip last one alternate)
Front Squat: 95 x12 (6), 105 2x12 (7 7)
Shrug 215: 5x5
Russian Twist 25: 3x20
Neck Extension 15: 4x25
Band Pull-Apart: 4x20

Thoughts: Another good day. I am on track to set a deadlift PR in my upcoming strength block. I've almost regained all my deadlift strength that I lost on my cut. I capped out at 300 x5 before my cut, and I could have hit 300 x5 today. I need to really work on my hook grip. You can see the first two sets I did hook and my RPE's were way higher than the last set I did alternate. It wasn't just that it felt heavier, but the bar speed was much slower. Very strange. Either way, I feel like on the whole I am getting stronger right now, increases have been easy this week. I love when that happens

[StrengthEngineer]

12/14/17

Bench: 152 x5, 142.5 x5, 135 x8+: 11
DB Press 27.5: 3x12 (6 7 7)
DB Incline 35: 3x12 (7 7.5 8)
Chin 22.5: 10/10/12 (6 7 9)
Sit-up: 20/18/17
Hammer curl 20: 3x15
DB LTE 20: 3x15

Thoughts: I'm in one of those rare periods where the gainz are just flowing. I'm PRing damn near everything I put my hands on this week. I have a lot of momentum going right now, obviously my programming is working, my nutrition is working, and everything is just locked in. Now we just keep it up. Next week is my test week, and I am aiming to add 10lb to every lift. My test next week is a 5+ set at 85%, so I need to hit at least 7 reps on all lifts to accomplish that. Considering this is still my hypertrophy block I'm really shocked at how much strength I've been adding. My body is responding surprisingly well to the higher rep ranges I've been in the last 2 months.

[StrengthEngineer]

12/15/17

Squat: 196 x5, 184 x5, 171.5 x8+: 10
RDL 115: 3x12 (6, 6.5, 7)
Bulgarian Split Squat 30: 3x12 (7 8 9)
Row 150: 3x8

Thoughts: Well I guess I opened my mouth too soon yesterday. I was killing it all week long; everything felt super light. Today was the opposite, everything felt very heavy. My squat especially has been breaking out lately and that was a very disappointing AMRAP, I got 14 reps with 5lb more on the bar a few weeks back. And even that top set of 5 at 196 was about an RPE 8 surprisingly. It was a stressful day at work today though so that may have had a lot to do with it. Chalking it up as a bad day. Next week I test and deload, but my schedule will be strange as I'm out of town most of the week.

[StrengthEngineer]

12/16/17

Weight Average: 156.94lb
Average Weight Change: +0.54lb
Waist Circumference: 31.0625in
Body Fat Percentage 3-fold caliper: 11.15% (18 navel, 8 chest, 9 thigh)
FFM: 139.36lb
Fat Mass: 17.57lb
Body Fat Percentage (Navy Method): 11.2%

Thoughts: Better week this week composition wise. Gained .5lb which is right where we want to be. Also, only went up 1/10 of a body fat percentage, which shows the this is a better rate for my body compared to going up a whole percentage point last week alone. So 2700 calories it is.

[StrengthEngineer]

12/17/18

Press: 97.5 x5+: 8
Dip 17.5: 3x6
Lateral raise 10: 3x6
Pullup: 2x14
Facepull (red): 2x20
Ab roller: 2x15
Curl 17.5: 17/16
DB French Press 17.5: 2x15

Thoughts: Deload/test week. I went in wanting to hit 8 reps on press, and I did it. Maybe could have gotten 1 more, but didn't push it. That's good for a +10lb increase going into my strength block. I set the goal to earn +10 across the board, so far I've done it for both press and. deadlift (deadlift tested last week, this week is pure deadlift deload), now I just have to hit it for bench and squat. This week is a little broken up as I'm out of town tomorrow through Thursday. So that's why I lifted today. Tomorrow going to do a quick deadlift deload in the morning before I leave, then I'll have 3 days off. I'll bench Friday and squat on Saturday. Here's hoping the travel doesn't effect my testing later in the week.

[StrengthEngineer]

12/18/17

Deadlift 244:5x3
Front Squat 105: 3x6
Shrug 215: 3x5

Thoughts: Deload day, nothing really exciting here today.