Finished another 5/3/1 cycle, sanity checking my notes here:
-Upper body was marvelous, I fixed form issues on bench and had a big gain on it and OHP. INDJS has been fantastic for upper. This month I’ve been putting in an extra high rep fun set after uppers, like 225 x 15 on bench.
-Deadlift was nice after I remembered how to do it. I forgot the ‘feel’ for deadlift, but I regained it by remembering to drive through my heels and came away with a nice 445 x 7 PR
-Squat truly suffered, and I think I’ve identified the cause. I’m a lot slower out of the hole now, and I blame being lazy on training cleans. For me my squat always has benefited from my explosiveness, and doing less explosive work has definitely reduced squat. The learning lesson here is to prioritize cleans and plyos above strength.
All in all, a good cycle with a lot of progress in key areas with the exception of squat which regressed, but I have a plan and know what adjustments to make. Going to avoid lower body deload (or make it smaller) and put a real priority on speed work this next month.