5/3/1 & Bodybuilding - c18w2d6 (w2 redux)
Friday - 25 November 2022
Workout: Legs & abs, 0820-0950 (90 minutes)
Indigo-3G - 0800
Surge - 0830-0922
Warm-up
Throws + jumps
Begin: 0840; End: 0948; Duration: 68 minutes
Squat - 115x5, 150x5, 180x5 | 215x3, 245x3, 280x7
BB hack squat - 135 lbs - 15, 15, 15, 15, 15
Leg curl - 75 lbs - 15, 15; 100 lbs - 10 + 5; 75 lbs - 15, 15
Leg extension - 100 lbs - 12, 12, 12, 12
Ab wheel - ramp (19) - 12, 10 + 2, 10 + 2, 6 + 4 + 2
Upright row - 55 lbs - 15, 15, 15, 15, 15
Semi-fasted: black coffee upon waking, then Indigo-3G and Surge as above.
Bear with me here, 'cause I don’t have much time pressure today…
A few lingering thoughts about yesterday:
- Much like the chins on Tuesday, I was short of breath during those dips. The struggle there was as much about that as it was about chest/triceps fatigue, particularly in the earlier sets.
- The push-up part of the burpees yesterday afternoon were HARD. That tells me my to-failure sets earlier in the day did their job.
- There was a sharp “pain” in my mid-back, ever so slightly to the right, during the walk yesterday. I say “pain” because there’s isn’t a better word for it. It was basically that feeling like your back needs cracked, you know?
Now, on to today…
So, Sven, my dude—you gotta remember: It’s about effort. Not about weight. Or reps. But effort. And total effort at that—not just on one set, or one movement. Total effort, day after day, week after week, month after month. So don’t sweat that top set. Just keep your head down, and do the work.
Decided last night I was going to let myself sleep in today, so I disabled my alarm and crashed hard. Didn’t get up until almost 0700. And I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck when I did. (That’s right, @simo74: Yours truly was actually sore! And not just from yesterday’s chest & triceps work: I’m pretty sure I was feeling Tuesday’s deadlifts and back work too!) I took my time getting going this morning, and finally got this started about 0820, or about 3 hours behind “schedule.”
Was feeling decent by the time I hit the weight room, but the 14+ reps I would need for a rep PR were making me anxious. I had be waffling about whether or not I was even going to try, but when I got under the bar at 280, I figured, “Why not?”
I took the full weight of the bar on my back and—squish—that spot that was bothering me during yesterday’s walk fired right up. Again, “pain” isn’t quite the right term, but I was very aware of that spot (and I still am, just sitting here typing this out over an hour later). I had to start fighting to get reps 4-7, pausing to breathe deeply between reps—not quite true breathings squats, but one or two pretty deep breaths before continuing. That might have made it even more miserable, because of course my spine was barking the whole time.
So I gave it a run, but I had to hang it up after 7 and 14+ just didn’t happen. Looking back, I have no idea how I got 285x13 during Hardgainers—go me! (Haha.)
And just for the record, I did everything beltless today, and that was the right call: I’m pretty happy with my bracing during squats and I’ve been finding the belt distracting lately, but it absolutely helps my deadlifting (particularly during the eccentric).
Warm-up sets in 5 minutes, work sets in 10 minutes, and supplemental BB hack squats in 14 minutes. I once again had the thought, “I could do more on these hack squats,” but by the third set, I was hurting—135 lbs does the job. Regardless, these might be my new favorite love-to-hate movement.
From there, it was onto the remaining assistance and today’s daily upper-back work over 4 rounds (and then finishing out the remaining leg curl and upright row sets). I got to the 3rd set of leg curls and I just died—I absolutely hit a wall, struggling to get the first 10 reps and then doing what basically amounted to singles to get to 15 total. It was awful. I was really hoping I had misloaded the plates or something, but everything looked right as I transitioned to leg extensions. Okay, just a bad set, shake it off, load up for leg extensions, move on.
It wasn’t until I hit the first rep of the leg extensions that I realized I had, in fact, misloaded: that 3rd set of leg curls was 100 lbs, not 75! But I was so toasted that, even when I checked to see if I had misloaded, I didn’t realize I had. My head was totally in the clouds…
I had a really good laugh at myself over that, switched out the plates (again!), got the correct loading for leg extensions, and finished out the round feeling much better about my hamstrings (even if I was just plain stupid in the moment).
Anyway, fatigue was building up quickly so I was moving slowly, but I finally finished everything up in an agonizing 68 minutes total. In that respect, I really appreciate days when I have to get the kids off to school and get online for work: there’s not much slack in my morning schedule, so I can’t dawdle (even if my body says it wants to).
Right, so that’s that. Easy conditioning to follow, but first, I get to rehang all the cabinets I took off the basement walls early last week—the painting is done and the new carpet goes in on Tuesday, so we’re starting to see the light at the end of that tunnel, at least!