Currently coming back around from a lower back injury. It happened right after a switch to DL’s, so I’ll be going back to PC’s and sticking with them for a while (working back up slowly of course). (DL PR 5x405#)/(PC PR 3x230#)
Squats: Starting back in after my lower back healing. Starting a breathing squat program, working up from 10 reps to 20 (adding 2 reps per week), with 225# to get form and breathing down perfectly before moving back up. (PR 5x335)
OHPress: Definitely overtrained, could barely get 3x175# on my first working set the other day. Will drop to 5x135# for one month, then up to 1x5x155#. I’ll add one set per week until I hit 5x5x155#, then reset to 1x5x165. I’m going this, because I’ve already tried pushing it hard and fast and got nowhere. This go-round I’ll see how the slow/steady/smooth treats me. (PR 3x205#)
Neck: Gotta love the neck work. I always thought it was a little goofy. But, the stories I read about necks saving lives is pretty convincing. The USMC utilizes a weak, but doable, waist/neck-taping if you’re over your height’s prescribed bodyweight. At 260# (usually 240 in the past when I wasn’t deployed and lifting heavily), I’m over the 237# limit. So, the bigger the neck to waist ratio, the lower BF, and it needs to be at or under 18% (based on tapings I recently did 2 months apart, same general activity level, food/water composition & volume, but on one I’d eaten recently and on the other I fasted to include water and taped 18% the first time and 12% the second). Anyhow, I do neck bridges and lifts lying on my back on the bench with a 25# plate on my forehead (with a towel or something between). My neck bridges are currently 3 sets of 50 seconds (started with 3x30sec). I’ve been doing these for a month or two so far, and I’ve gone from a somewhat painful and difficult 30sec set to a laughably-easy 50sec set (1:30 rest between each). That combined with my shrugs currently at a 20x330# work set, I feel a rugged steel brace forming where my neck once was.
Pulls: I’m doing my pulling work right now with suppinated weighted pullups. With these, I’ve started a slow program of my working set being about reps with 60# hanging from my waist right now (I have a record of exact specifics of all these “about” numbers; I’d have to look at my log). Slow & steady is the name of the game for milking the strength portion of a cycle for all it’s worth. On my non-pullup workout day, I’ll do reverse curls. They provide extra grip work, and regular curls were leaving me a little taxed for my day with suppinated pullups and vice versa.