More good news: I found out yesterday that I won a graduate teaching assistantship contract for while I earn my M.A.. That means I get a job (optimistically, lecturing a section of intro philosophy or into ethics), a stipend (enough for me to fully cover living expenses + save a bit more for law school), and an additional half-tuition scholarship (which I may get as a cash award since I already have a full ride).
Really happy with how the deferral situation turned out, since there were at least four or five points where UVA or Bama could’ve unilaterally said no and made it impossible/not financially viable, but everything ended up falling into place.
My main goal for the next year is to put myself in a position to apply to PhD programs in the future—rec letters, a writing sample, demonstrated research interests, publications and conferences on them, etc. No idea if I’ll actually end up going through with it (actually being a lawyer is probably the easier path at this point, and will 100% be something I do for at least several years on account of the money), but options are always nice.
DB Curls: 55sx8+5+3
Hammer Curls: 50x12 (55s in use)
Smith Squats: 365x6+2
(Straight Into) Leg Extensions: 150x16+4
DB Egging Pulls: 90sx8
Great day. I’m becoming increasingly partial to the Smith squats, which is something I didn’t see coming. I want to push them to 400+ for comfortable reps.
Checked my weight for the first time in a while, and I’m sitting at 189. I think that’s the lightest I’ve been in like a year and a half now—I’m used to walking around at like 200. I’m not actively trying to lose weight, but being home for the summer (no dining hall food) makes it come off pretty quickly. Most of my current PRs came from when I was at about 205, so if I really want to break them asap then I need to fatten back up lol.
Strict curls (leaning back against a wall, keeping my shoulders touching it, using an EZ curl bar) feel great. Going to be able to keep them much more consistent than a normal barbell curl as I progress. Cable forearms (wrist flexion in the top position of a pushdown) also feel great. And I found a setup to add weight beyond the pushdown machine’s stack, so for the rest of the summer I’ll probably swap the rope pushdown for a heavier normal pushdown.
Great day in general here. In theory I have a deload in a session but I’m feeling very fresh so I’ll probably push for another couple weeks (if I remember correctly, DC says 6-10 weeks between deloads/cruises, so I’ll be staying in that range either way).
DB Curls: 55sx9+5+3
Hammer Curls: 55sx10
Smith Squat: 365x7+3+2
DB Egging Pulls: 95sx5
Great day, done in under forty minutes. Felt like I had more to give after squats so I rest-paused those too. I may stick with that for the smith squats in particular—they’re fun to grind out. I am still really enjoying this style of training (maybe that means I’m doing it wrong lol) so I will be sticking with it until it fails me, or I decide I want to start focusing on barbell numbers again for a while.
