Friday, September 18 - Deadlift day
Conventional DL
555x1 - I was going to do a few more singles but it wasn’t happening, not having a good day. This one felt a little shaky and slowed around the knees, not a max or anything but my singles with 545 a couple weeks ago were much better. I went for another one with straps but it didn’t want to go anywhere, normally I’m fairly fast off the floor but this came up about 2 inches and rather than try to grind it out I just dumped it. Since my kids started school again I’m getting up early every morning and I’m having trouble getting used to it, and it’s starting to show. This is one of those days where I just can’t get moving, maybe more caffeine before training would have helped.
RDL
495x4 - I would have been going for 6 or 7 reps but it’s just not my day. Next week is a deload so I still need to get some work in, otherwise it’s a complete waste of time.
I skipped barbell rows.
Chin ups - 45 degree supinated grip
bw+35x10, 7 - This was the only thing that felt good today. When I’m tired I find I can still push upper body stuff but my lower body won’t cooperate.
This was the worst deadlift session I have had in a while.
Saturday, September 19 - Bench assistance day
I went to bed early last night and slept well, but I have to work today so if I want to train I have to get up early. If I hadn’t already set things up so that next week is a deload I probably would have slept a couple more hours and skipped training.
Floor press
340x3, 3 - Could probably grind out another rep on both sets. Not terrible, but I would have wanted 4 or 5.
Military press
205x8, 7 - I still added another 10lbs as originally planned, the advantage is that I can’t quite tell how bad this is.
Side raise
30’s x13, 9
W shoulder rotation
super mini x3 sets
So this didn’t suck as bad as yesterday, although it was still below expectations. I find that deadlift is the lift most affected by fatigue, and pressing is the least affected.
Looking at deloading vs. having easy sessions here and there, seems like both have their pros and cons. Today and yesterday were two days where I would have otherwise turned it into an easy session, but right now that would mean a week and a half deload. A week seems like more than enough as it is anyway. Maybe the solution is to deload less often (like every 8 weeks or something like that) combined with easy session here and there?
The issue right now isn’t fatigue from training, rather not getting enough sleep for the last 2 weeks and it suddenly catching up with me in the last couple of days. I was falling asleep in the afternoon yesterday so I drank an energy drink but it had zero effect, not exactly a good sign.
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Monday, September 21 - Squat day - deload
Squat - wraps - SBD
505x1
Squat - sleeves
375x3
Leg curls
light band x15
Band bad girl
light band x15
I dropped the leg extensions because they feel awkward with the band and I don’t think I’m getting anything out of them.
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Wednesday, September 23 - Main bench day - deload
Bench press
310x3x2 sets
Close grip 2 board
285x3x2
Band pushdown
super mini x15x2
I’m already anxious to lift something heavy. I think I’m going to set my training up differently so I only have a full deload every 8th week or so, it gets boring fast.
Friday, September 25 - Deadlift day - deload
Conventional DL
505x1 - Nice and easy, I felt tempted to pull something heavier. Not sure if that would be a good or bad thing, but the plan is 565 next week and keep going up from there.
Chin ups - 45 degree supinated grip
bw+10x5x2 sets
Barbell curls
95x15 - The last few weeks my left wrist has been hurting when I squat, the part right by the thumb. I figure the muscles that pull my hand that direction are tight, so trying to loosen that up plus doing some curls here and there to work the other parts of my forearm should help sort it out.
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Where do these numbers come from for u? Progressive overload during a block? RPE target?
I tried pulling sumo last week and hit a 10lb PR right off the rip. So, as of now, that will be my go-to when it comes to the deadlift.
I was supposed to go in today, but I’ve been feeling under the weather, so hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow or Sunday.
Either way, this week begins with 5’s on everything.
Side note: Late night snacking has made me entirely too fat, so I need to do something about that.
Pretty much progressive overload. I pulled 555 last week, so 10lbs more. If it had gone better then maybe I would go for 570-575 but last week wasn’t good, but 545 for 3 singles a couple weeks earlier went well so I’m confident the 565 will be no problem. The plan here is moderately heavy singles every 2nd week for the next bit.
If you’re instantly pulling more with a different technique that you haven’t been using then that’s a sure sign you are better off with that.
Your post kind of sounds like it was supposed to be in your training log though.
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Fairly aggressive lol tho that’s a bit rich coming from me at times. It’s just a training stimulus at the end of the day no? It’s not your actual max that’s increasing just a stimulus that’s going toward upping your max. 555… 565 it’s all about the same stimulus smidge more. In a fatigued state a lesser single 5-530 may be about as stimulative. Maybe not get too attached to dem numbers?
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In a fatigued state you likely aren’t capable of stimulating anything to the same degree.
But PL is all about numbers, and how else would you progressively overload?
I mean like not mucho ded fatigued but more like managed fatigue that accumulates over the course of hard training. One approach I notice is lifters using singles as both stimulus and indicator of progress throughout a training cycle. If singles at RPE 8 are steady over a block as we are technically more and more fatigued it’s stronger. If RPE 8 weight goes up by the end of a block even better. Well that’s a very RPE focused approach
Anyways I think u are kinda auto regulating but the thing with specific numbers is that we aren’t in control of the rate of progress and it can be slower than like 5 lbs a week and even then be masked by fatigue. Within the narrow range of numbers we are talking about for singles the training effect/stimulus is about the same.
Progressive overload is pf the training stimulus over time, some product of intensity volume RPE etc., so what u hit for a single as part of the training stimulus last week compared to this week doesn’t particularly matter too much in the grand scheme of things. A bigger single no doubt contributed to that stimulus in the short term but thereabouts will do. If your RPE 8 singles progress over the long term that’s your indicator and progressive overload would come from working with that increase. I don’t think progress can be forced but we can let the adaptions happen and roll with it.
That’s my thinking. Isa my spiel I guess I’ve come to appreciate RPE based stuff a lot
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If you keep lifting the same weight at the same RPE then you aren’t making progress. Sometimes you just have to push yourself a little harder. And Mike T, the king of RPE, would have you adding 5-10lbs to your singles each week as long as it’s not way over the desired RPE.
That’s why I’m planning to lift something I’m sure I can lift no matter what, then see how it goes and plan the next session based on that. The goal is to always be at least as strong as last week, and of course make some progress. If you are weaker then either stress from training and/or outside stuff is too high, or sleep or maybe nutrition are lacking.
To some degree it can, you force yourself to lift something heavier or for more reps than what you have previously done and you will adapt. At one time I used an RPE-based approach, always autoregulating working weights, and I wasn’t making much progress at all despite the fact that I hadn’t been training seriously for very long. Also the volume was a bit too much, but sometimes you just need to push yourself a bit harder.
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It’s like RPE and Progressive Overload are both flawed models trying to explain how lifting works but coming up a little short.
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I still use RPE to some degree to rate my work sets, but the way Mike T is into autoregulating for the sake of autoregulating doesn’t make sense to me. If you barely finished the lift this week you probably wont be able to do it with 10lbs more next week, but sometimes things don’t get easier and you just need to push harder.
I’m not sure what you see as flawed with progressive overload though, you need to lift more weight or do more reps to continue to make progress. That’s what progressive overload is. It’s just not guaranteed to happen at the rate that you want or expect.
Thatsa what velocity based training is for lol
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There are flaws with that too, and apparently those machines are not very accurate. I think tendo units work properly but they are very expensive too, but those other bar velocity trackers will give you two different readings on two different units even if both are the same model. Mike T was taking about that years ago. Also many of them are pretty inconsistent too, so even if you go by the numbers on one machine they could be off by quite a bit now and then. I just look at bar speed on video, as well as technique.
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Saturday, September 26 - Bench assistance day - deload
Floor press
310x4
Military press
185x8
Side Raise
20’s x15
W shoulder rotation
super mini band x2 sets
I think I had enough of deloading, these kind of workouts where it’s basically an extended warmup are tedious. I’m ready to lift something heavy.
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Hmm guess we going with RPE after all. I think I’m not that accurate rn with RPE could be off by a full point either way at times. Hmm I’m feeling and watching on vid how hard or slow a lift is through me sticking point but it’s a bit hard to tell at high RPEs because I’ve not much experience at RPE 9 or more
The Sheiko Gold app breaks it up into like ranges like ez (sub 7), medium 7-8), hard (8-9), near max (9), max (10). So I rate it like that alright but it’s not super accurate. I think being super accurate isn’t required as long as we are just mostly responding to the training data we are getting.
If you can’t accurately gauge RPE then it isn’t really a useful tool for you. Also it’s much easier to gauge at higher RPEs simply because there is less room for error. It’s easy to know you might not make another rep, or your barely finished the last one. It’s hard to tell if you could get 3 more vs. 4.
The RPE bands have done the job so far.