Hope it goes good for you man
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26 March 2018 - Bench & Deadlift
Barbell Bench 6x5 255lbs
DB Bench 1x15, 1x14, 1x10 80lbs, 1x15 65lbs
Deadlifts 6x2 365lbs
Triceps Superset: Cable Pushdowns 3x20 + BTN DB Press 3x15
Notes
I got a spot on my 5th set of bench and that’s all. Gotta admit, it wasn’t moving all that well. My first 2-3 reps were all solid, but I paused for a second before my 4th and 5th reps in each set. Didn’t miss any reps (the last rep on my 4th set was an absolute grinder though) so today was a good bench day. I wasn’t able to get the volume that I wanted with the 80s on DB bench, but my overall tonnage (poundage is a little risque) today was still high enough because of the 6x5. 13,265 total pounds were pressed today. Not sure how that compares to any of my other sessions but I’m thinking that it’s about par. I don’t know how quickly my work capacity increases, but it must be slow, because my pecs and shoulders are always just about finished after heavy benching and a couple sets of DB bench, even though I’ve been training this way for a while. The important thing is that I’m getting stronger though! It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you follow a program with structured progressive overload. Lol. I’m very very happy and a lil surprised that this program is working. I can’t explain why. It just seems so simple, but it’s been working so well for me so far. When I started this program, I saw that my 80% weight was 255 which made me pretty nervous. My rep record with 255 was 7 before I started this, but I already feel like I could get 255 for about 9 reps. Maybe 10 if I get a good lift off hahaha. I recommend this 6x2 business to anyone who’s looking to switch it up. Only takes 8-10 weeks with consistent progression, so it’s hard to get bored of.
The deadlifts felt like any other 6x2. Sorta heavy, they moved decent, but I’m glad it wasn’t my 6x5 day for deadlifts today. Triceps were triceps, I got a good pump and then went home. My first day of spring break has been uneventful but that’s what I was looking for! Front squats for a 6x2 tomorrow after a little platform work. I’m thinking about dedicating Wednesday to upper back and shoulders, and Thursday to my 6x2 bench and 6x5 deadlifts. Saturday will be my 5x5 front squats at 285. I’ve been having very achey knees lately which I know is from my front squats. I was reading about it yesterday, and when the knees travel way out in front of your toes (like mine do wearing olympic lifting shoes while front squatting), that’s a common cause of knee pain. One suggestion was to wear flat soled shoes, so I’m going to try front squatting in my Chucks tomorrow which I’ve never done before. It shouldn’t be too bad, but I’m ready for my knees to stop aching. God bless y’all, time to go eat
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27 March 2018 - Cleans & Squats
Clean & Jerk 100kg x 3, 110kg x 3, 115kg x 1, 120kg x 1
Front Squats 3x2 275lbs
Face Pulls 2x35 42.5lbs
Notes
Did my c&js first today and used a little hook grip. I can’t say that it helped me all that much, but I think there was a slight difference. Maybe just placebo though. Anyways, tied a clean PR and got a 5kg jerk PR, so today was good. The hardest thing about jerks is not the actual pressing, but keeping the elbows locked out once you’ve fully extended your arms. Recovering from a jerk can be difficult too, because you can’t do it very well if your elbows are soft. Definitely something I need to work on.
Squats were enormously difficult today so I just cut it short. I had no energy, no bar speed. They felt like trash reps that were causing more discomfort than benefit. I usually do my squats first, and now I remember why. Even just being on the platform for half an hour wore me down a little bit. I tried front squatting in my Chucks, and that’s not going to work for me. I’ve spent this whole cycle squatting in my raised heels, so that’s how I’ll finish it. My knees have felt fine since Sunday, so I’m sure I can go for a few more front squat sessions. I still plan on doing my 5x5 on Saturday which hopefully will go very smoothly since I’ll have so much time to recover.
Other stuff: I am now the proud personal trainer of a very impressive freshman 3 sport athlete. He’s a stout black kid, about 5’9" 205-210. He can already bench his body weight with bad form, elbows flailing every which way. He’s a super dedicated kid which is very nice for me. On Saturday and Monday, it was just me and him in the gym which was super cool. He’s an intellectual kid with a rough home life, which makes him even more endearing to me. He plays football and does wrestling and track (shot put & discus). He lives about 2 miles away and walks to and from practice. He lifted weights every day after wrestling practice which is anywhere from 2-4 hours. On Saturday, I was finishing up my workout, and he had been done for a while, just hanging out and talking to me and sorta picking my brain about various things. I was about to do my OHP amrap and asked him if he was waiting for a ride and he said, very nonchalantly, “nah, I’m gonna walk home.” Nah. He was the only kid who showed up on the first Saturday of spring break to work out. So I drove him home because real recognize real. I also bring fruit (oranges or clementines or apples) with me to the gym to eat while I work out. He doesn’t eat breakfast before he comes so I’ve been giving him a few pieces of fruit to keep him going during his workout. Overall, he’s just a really good kid. He reads a lot of books which tells me a lot about the kind of person that he is.
I think there’s two reasons why my coach is handing him off to me: first is that he and I get along really well. I’m one of the only people he talks to, so I’m in. He’ll listen to what I say (he already has, very promising) which will make my life very easy. Second, he gets in the gym long before anyone else and is usually the last one to leave. He doesn’t track his workouts, and he seems to do a lot of additional stuff that isn’t on the workouts that my coach has been giving him. I’m going to write him some stuff, and there will be a lot of volume, the way he likes it. The important part is that it’s controlled and I will be able to monitor and adjust based on what I observe as well as the feedback that he gives me. It’ll be a fairly aggressive linear progression scheme with a deload halfway through (we have about two months left in the season). I’ll spend the rest of this break working with him on his form, and once break is over, we’ll hit it hard. I’ll let him do what he wants for the rest of this week (of course I’ll suggest things to him and have things in mind for him to do in case he asks), but as soon as break ends we’ll get him started.
Decent day today. It feels like a Saturday to me, but luckily I get to wake up and lift again tomorrow. 6x5 deadlifts. However these feel will be a good indication to me of how well I’m doing with my recovery. I’m thriving during this break though… Water, chicken, burritos, netflix, and sleep. AKA heaven. Although I haven’t taken a nap yet… and it’s too late now… maybe tomorrow before I do my tax returns. Lol. Anyways, as usual, god bless you guys, and I hope everyone is doing well. I’ll check back in tomorrow. Peace
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28 March 2018 - Deadlift
Deadlift 6x5 365lbs
Good Mornings 1x15 95lbs, 3x10 135lbs, 1x10 155lbs
Single Arm Standing Machine Rows 5x10 3 plates (60 sec rest between sets)
Notes
One of those short workouts today. Moved 10,950lbs in deadlift form today, so I’m a little tired right now. My friends are all busy so I’m going to head to bed around 10 tonight after I watch The Godfather (never seen it before, pretty good so far). I watched 300 on Sunday and The Shawshank Redemption on Tuesday. I’m hitting all the classic guy movies this break.
Anyways, back to lifting. I must have slept funny last night because my left lower back was tight this morning. Training 4 times in the last 5 days is catching up to me though. I have a 6x2 bench tomorrow, and then the gym is closed on Good Friday. 5x5 front squats on Saturday, then 6x2 deads and 6x6 bench on Monday. So I got 2 rest days in the next 4 days. That should do me some good.
Actual feedback from the deadlifts? They were hard. My back felt weak and my legs felt weaker. I think now may be the time for me to start implementing an extra rest day than normal between my 6x2 and my 6x6, 5x5s, etc so I can be better rested for each session. 6x6 at 80% is tough. 5x5 at 85% is tougher though, at least on paper. 4x4 at 90% shouldn’t be awful, 3x3 at 95% will be a grind, but I’ll be so psyched up for 2x2 at 100% that I’m not worried about it.
As for the good mornings, well… I think it’s time for me to get a new hamstring exercise in the rotation. I’ve heard that hamstring flexion exercises have very little carryover to deadlifts or squats, but I’ve always been able to train them harder because I can feel them better. It’s difficult for me to train good mornings as a hamstring-focused exercise as opposed to one movement. Basically I’m saying that I don’t feel it in my hamstrings as much as I should. I can keep adding weight, but it doesn’t make a difference if the majority of the load won’t be moved by my hamstrings.
My guy Cam did pretty well today. Clean & Pressed 70kg which is incredible for a freshman, but the best part is that he did it with absolute ease. I’m just worried about his front rack position; his elbows are a little slow and he catches it with vertical forearms (ouch) about 40% of the time. We’ll work down in weight and just focus on slapping the elbows up. He’s a beast, and he’ll be able to move some SERIOUS weight after a couple more weeks of one on one time with me. Also, to be clear, I’m not hailing myself as an amazing trainer. We have 3 coaches and over 50 throwers. It isn’t easy to give everyone the attention they require to develop at an incredible rate. Two freshmen have some extreme potential, and so they’re getting the most attention. One of them is my guy, so he’s getting one on one time with me. Like I said, I’m not an exceptional trainer, but I know enough about lifting weights to take this talented kid and help get him off to a good start. He has a shot at the clean record and bench record, The squat record is 405 for freshmen and he was struggling with his 6th rep with 185. Once he gets his form down and he’s comfortable, I think he could probably squat 275. Dude has big legs. Alright. Nuff talkin. I gotta eat some more protein and then watch the end of The Godfather. God bless you boys, good night
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ROMANIAN DEADLIFTS!! these are awesome for building posterior chain muscles and strength in the deadlift. My deadlift went up 40kg from doing RDL only.
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29 March 2018 - Bench
Barbell Bench 6x2 255lbs
Power Snatch 60kg x 3, 70kg x 2
Concentration Curls 3x10 30lbs
Cable Curls 3x30 30lbs resistance
Face Pulls 3x25 42.5lbs resistance
Notes
Bench felt great today. Every rep moved very well. So well, in fact, that I decided to challenge myself by taking my feet off the ground, not pinch my scaps together, and not have any arch for one set. It was harder but I still got both reps. I only did that for one set because I don’t think I could’ve gotten my last 3 sets doing that lol.
Snatch was alright. Weight moved well but I’m just so tired that it didn’t seem worth doing. I probably would’ve topped out at around 80kg today which would be a bad day for me. So yeah. Live to snatch another day.
I want my arms to grow very badly, so I wanna start hitting them like this twice a week. Plenty of volume and a great pump with a moderate weight. Perfect.
I had my guy Cam squat a little today. He did a few sets of leg press before I got to the gym, so I assumed he would be tired. Not true. Today we focused on a proper walkout after unracking the bar, and he struggled with that a little bit. Still more work to do for that, but that’ll come with time. He understands the concepts that I’m pushing, and he understands why he should do it, and he gets that it’s an easier/safer/more efficient way of doing things in the long run. So I wanted to work up to an RPE 8.5ish single. We got up to 290lbs and he took it for what looked like RPE 7. I was speechless. I called it there though because I don’t want to go too hard too fast with him. I failed 285lbs as a junior and he squatted 290lbs with legitimate ease today. So, add another record to the hunt. The 2nd place squat record is 335 for freshmen. 1st place is 405. I don’t think he’ll get to 405 this year, but he could easily get 355 or 365 IMO.
Overall not a great day, but not bad. Just had to punch the clock today and do my work. This sets me up for a Monday bench + deadlift combo day, probably with a rest day on Tuesday, then front squats Wednesday, bench Thursday, then deadlift 6x6 on Friday or Saturday. However the next week goes, I’m excited. I’ll be done with all my 6x6s about a week from today which means I get to increase the weight which is every guy’s ideal workout. More weight than last week. YES. So, 5x5 front squats at 285 on Saturday morning. I’ll be eating a lot and drinking a lot of water between now and then for sure, while resting and stretching my legs periodically. I’m so committed to the rest aspect that I won’t walk my dog today (someone else walked her, but I’ve been taking her on 40 minute walks every day this week). God bless and have a great end of the week!
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I’ve been messing with the idea of making straight leg RDLs an every-leg-day type of movement. We’ll see 
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Hey man, I’ve been looking at that programming of yours a lot lately.
Will incorporate 6x2 80% for my next round of 5/3/1 
just to try it out.
How would you setup your program: one day OHP and bench and another squat and DL.
Or rather one day squat - OHP and another DL - bench ? OR a whole different way.
Thinking about doing it after the next two cycles of 5/3/1
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It’s really a personal decision I think. For me, I’ve found that my OHP doesn’t lose much, if anything, if I do it the day after a bench day. It doesn’t take much away from bench pressing either, so you could probably do OHP before benching on a 6x2 bench day. But right now, the general guidelines I’m trying to follow is this:
6x2 bench + 6x3,4,5,6 deadlift + deadlift assistance
6x2 squat + olympic lifts + OHP
day off
6x3,4,5,6 bench + bench assistance + 6x2 deadlifts
6x3,4,5,6 squats + squat assistance + OHP
It’s pretty much a 5 day split if that makes it easier to understand. Since all the working sets are at 80%+, I’ve found that I need a minimum of 2 days to recover.
The nice thing about the 6x2 is that it doesn’t have to be your first exercise of the day. I usually put it second behind whatever my 6x3,4,5,6 exercise is, and I don’t seem to lose any strength doing it that way. I’ve tried doing squat and deadlift on the same day, but it’s just a little too much for me.
The best piece of advice I can give you is this: treat your 6x2 as a recovery day. I’ve been referring to it as “a mini deload.” So for squats, I’ve been doing my higher volume sets (6x3+) on Saturday with my 6x2 on Tuesday or Wednesday. You’re a smart dude so you know that rest days are important, and as long as you rest, there’s really no issue with recovery. The weekly volume is low enough that you won’t have a problem with feeling sluggish when the high volume day comes around.
I LOVE 5/3/1 and I did it for about 6 months and got results that satisfied me. That being said, this 6x2 cycle is a fantastic change of pace. AMRAP sets are fun, but the 6x2 cycle (on average) gets you more reps at a higher intensity each week. I don’t doubt that 5/3/1 is a better long-term program, but doing a few cycles of 6x2 each year is my plan now. I’m about to bench my current 7 rep max for 6 sets of 6, which tells me that I’m much stronger than I was at the end of 5/3/1. I don’t think that doing 6x2s over and over and over again is sustainable for a long period of time like 5/3/1 is, but like I said, it’s a fantastic change of pace and it’ll make you approach your workouts differently. It’s awesome.
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31 March 2018 - Squats
Front Squats 1x5 285lbs, 5x4 285lbs
High Bar Squats 1x8 225, 1x5 275, 1x3 315, 1x3 335
Notes
Holy SHIT that was hard. My legs are absolutely done for the next 2 days. So it took me 6 sets to get my 25 reps today and that’s not ideal, but I DID get them. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel good (I felt great today), but 285 is just heavy as hell in a front rack for me right now. My eyes were bloodshot after every set for about 2 minutes. For a small bit of extra volume, I did some high bar squats to go after my quads even more. 335x3 is a high bar PR so I’m good with that.
There’s not much that I can say about today other than 285 was a perfect weight. Every 6x2 cycle I’ve done, 5x5 has destroyed me like this. I’m not surprised, because on paper and in all my experiences with the 6x2 cycles, 5x5 has always looked and felt very difficult. I have 4x4 at 300lbs next Saturday which will hopefully be more manageable. It’s a nice psychological relief to know that I only have to do 4 sets; that’ll make it easier for me to go all out and put everything I have into every set. With 5 and 6 sets, it’s extremely tempting for me to not go all out and save a little bit for the end sets. That’s what I did today, sadly. Buuuut, like I said, I got all 25 reps at 85% and I’m happy with it.
I’m still gunning for a 365lb front squat at the end of this cycle. Aim high. Miss low. Still end up with a PR. This does cause some concern for me when I think about bench. 5x5 at 270lbs? Zoinks. My PR with 270lbs is 4 reps, so doing it for 5x5 will be damn near impossible. I’ll do my best to get all the reps, even if I need my spotter to help me a little bit. Or a lot. Whatever. I’m getting them all somehow.
I hope you guys are having a good weekend. God bless and happy Easter!
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I want this programs format brother. We may use this a cycle and then 5,3,1 after we are done with this Hypertrophy program…great job on the squats! You need an ice bath after that…
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Week 1: 6x2 (80%), 6x3 (80%)
Week 2: 6x2 (80%), 6x4 (80%)
Week 3: 6x2 (80%), 6x5 (80%)
Week 4: 6x2 (80%), 6x6 (80%)
Week 5: 6x2 (80%), 5x5 (85%)
Week 6: 6x2 (80%), 4x4 (90%)
Week 7: 6x2 (80%), 3x3 (95%)
Week 8: 6x2 (80%), 2x2 (100%)
Week 9: 6x2 (80%), 1x1 (~105%)
If 9 weeks is too long, and/or you want to focus on ONE lift mainly, you can do it 3 days per week (i.e Monday, Wednesday, Friday). That’d look like this:
Week 1: 6x2 (80%), 6x3 (80%), 6x2 (80%)
Week 2: 6x4 (80%), 6x2 (80%), 6x5 (80%)
Week 3: 6x2 (80%), 6x6 (80%), 6x2 (80%)
Week 4: 5x5 (85%), 6x2 (80%), 4x4 (90%)
Week 5: 6x2 (80%), 3x3 (95%), 6x2 (80%)
Week 6: 2x2 (100%), 6x2 (80%), 1x1 (~105%)**
**If it were me, I’d give the 1x1, AKA new 1rm attempt, its own week. I’d create a 7th week and give myself a little extra rest, an extra 3-5 days. Cramming 18 high intensity sessions into a 6 week period is hardcore and it seems like a great way to accumulate extreme fatigue. Extra rest is probably the best bet for uncovering strength gains the best.
If you’re thinking about using the same schedule that I’m doing (2 days/week), I think 1-3 extra days of rest is sufficient. Your nutrition has been on point every time I’ve seen you post about it, so I don’t think you’d need 3 whole extra days (that’d be 6 total rest days between your last 6x2 and your new 1rm attempt).
I’m glad you’re considering it though. It’s a ton of fun, a really great challenge for sure.
Thank you!! One of the toughest squat sessions of my life without a doubt. I would love an ice bath OR a hot tub… I’ll just have to settle for drinking a ton of water and foam rolling. Damn.
Edit: Just did a little math. Theoretical stuff of course. It seems that if you were to run this Russian cycle 3x in one year (allotting time for sickness, minor injuries, and hypertrophy blocks) you could increase your max by about 15.6%. This is assuming that you hit a new 1rm of approximately 105% at the end of each of the 3 cycles. I don’t know how realistic it is (we’ll find out, because I’m going to do it), but that would get me 495/365/525, and I’m assuming it would get you equally surprising numbers. But… not sure how realistic it is for me to put 50lbs on my bench in 9 months. 30? Maybe. MAYBE. 70lbs on my squat in 9 months? Could happen. I managed to get an 80lb increase in 5 months. A 455lb deadlit to a 525lb deadlift? I have no idea. I don’t know what the strength progression timeline looks like for deadlifts. I would assume it’s similar to squats, but I really don’t know. 70lb increase on my deadlift in 9 months? I can only hope. And continue lifting and eating. But mostly just hope. I think you’ve got a lot of potential for your deadlift because you’re already pulling ~405 if I remember correctly.
So, the good news is that mathematically, it looks extremely promising for everyone. Increasing your max by 15% in a year is pretty solid. For less experienced lifters, I’m sure they could see better gains as long as they eat enough protein. That’s all. I have to do some chemistry homework that I ignored all break. Happy Easter Hog!!
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So two lifts a week? How would the lifts work out…in a week?
Week 1:
Mon: bench, light OHP
Wed: squat, light DL.
Fri: OHP, bench
Sat: DL, light squat
Is that right ?
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Yup, that layout looks great. Spacing out your rest days like that is perfect too by the way. Right now this is what I’m doing:
Same idea as yours, the only difference is that I’ve been doing some Olympic lifts lately. Probably going to cut those out soon though, just because I feel like it takes away from my deadlifts a little bit.
I’ve also been mixing bench + deadlifts and then giving squats their own day. That way, I’m able to devote my entire session to just squats on a squat day. That’s just my preference though since I’ve been prioritizing squats pretty much from the day I started seriously strength training last summer. Part of it is that front squats are more taxing than bench press or sumo deadlifts (for me), so giving them their own day is a way to ensure that I’m able to go all out. I don’t think I’d be able to do 6x2 deadlifts after a 5x5 front squat… I could barely stand still afterwards LOL
Edit: I haven’t necessarily been following a strict 7 day split. It’s more of a “2 days on, 1 day off” split. Bench + deads, then squats the next day, then a day off. Then bench + deads, followed by a squat day, plus a day off. Just that cycle over and over again. So overall it’s essentially a 6 day split provided I don’t miss any training days, which has happened once or twice I think. So, on paper, this should be about a 9 week cycle, but I’ll probably finish it in like 8 weeks & 4 days. Or something random like that. It’s inconsequential though. Your split looks perfect
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Thanks for the ideas…
The concern I have is my strength is so low to begin with it may not move me as fast as I could if my numbers were overall higher. It may be something I do later in the summer…
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No problem boss. I get that though, that’s how I’ve been feeling about my OHP. It’s low proportionally to my bench press and my bodyweight, so i think there are more strength gains to be had using 5/3/1 or some other more direct/linear form of progression. I knew it was time to switch over to this 6x2 once my 1+ days (from 5/3/1 obvi) were only 3-4 reps. I was okay with anything from 5-7 for a 1+, but the last 5/3/1 squat session I had ended with 3 reps. That’s not bad, but it’s a sign that I needed to reset. Once you get to that point, I suggest switching things up and going with a 6x2, or maybe changing your compound movements (I did both! lol) to build up some different muscles. I’m hoping that my new quad strength will allow me to back squat a little more, although we’ll see… I’ll keep updating as always with how these things go!
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Hey Hog, you’re not weak.
You’re a strong MF. You like the grind, so I think you’ll like this kind of workout.
I will do it too someday. Not DL 6x6 @ 80 % will tax the shit out of me
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Not looking forward to that. Lol
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2 April 2018 - Bench
Barbell Bench 5x6, 1x5 255lbs
DB Bench 3x10 80lbs
Triceps Superset: 4x15 Tricep Pushdowns 40lbs, 4x15 DB BTN Press 40lbs
Notes
Missed a rep on my bench. Not ideal but I did get 5 sets of 6 which is fine with me. My 5x5 will be hard, and to be honest, I expect to miss reps on that. I think that getting all your reps with 6x6, 5x5, etc, is definitely achievable if your recovery and assistance work is well-structured. However, very few of us are able to train and then devote the other 22 hours of our day purely to recovery and nutrition. That’s why I’ve historically missed reps on my 6x6 and on the later, heavier sets. I’m not making an excuse, just stating facts.
Now please, allow me to take the rest of my log and explain why I think that 6x6’s and below are so effective. My mind is wandering and I have absolutely no science to back this up. Pure speculation from here on.
6x6 @ 80%, 5x5 @ 85%, 4x4 @ 90%, 3x3 @ 95%, 2x2 @ 100%. The thing that all of these have in common is that they’re all difficult. In my experience, 90% is usually hit for 2 reps and 95% is hit for 1 rep. Attempting to perform 3 sets of 3 with a weight that you would normally do 1 (MAYBE 2) reps with is very difficult. I understand that the first half of the cycle is designed to prepare you for this heavy set/rep scheme, but like I said before, the limiting factor here is recovery (nutrition and sleep), especially* in a program that is this aggressive.
The reason that I say that I expect to miss reps starting at the 6x6 is for that reason. I don’t sleep or eat or hydrate as well as I should. Recovery is an area that everyone can improve in. I digress. The strength adaptations that I have made thus far are already apparent to me, and while I haven’t maximized them, they’re still there.
I do think that there are benefits associated with performing 3 reps with 95% of your max, for instance. It is essentially an AMRAP, because the odds that anyone gets more than 3 reps with 95% is pretty low. If you can AMRAP 95% of your max for 3 reps and 3 sets, your body will respond positively to that stimulus. In a way, it’s similar to 5/3/1 which I think we have all tried and benefitted from. So yeah. In conclusion, I think that missing reps is okay as long as you’re pushing as hard as you possibly can. The best analogy I can think of is your parents are expecting you to get 100% on an exam, and you study with all the effort and time you have. You want that 100%. You come home that afternoon with a 92%. Did you meet your goal? No. Did you get smarter during that unit? Did you prove it on the test? Yes. You got a few questions wrong, but you got 92% of the points. You did get smarter and it did show when it really mattered.
The triceps supersets were a lot of fun. The DB bench was nearly impossible. I pressed 8,925lbs on the barbell today. Wow. That’s crazy. 6x2 front squat and 6x2 deadlift tomorrow. That’s all I got for tonight. Good night fam
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3 April 2018 - Squat & Deadlift
Front Squat 6x2 275lbs
Sumo Deadlift 7x2 365lbs (not a typo)
Conventional Deadlift 315x5, 365x2, 385x1, 405x1, 425x1, 445x1 (425 & 445 are PRs!)
Good Mornings 2x10 95lbs
RDLs 2x10 225lbs
GHR 2x10 Bodyweight
Single Leg hamstring curls 2x10 50lbs
Face Pulls 4x20 42.5lbs resistance
Notes
Front squats weren’t too bad. Deadlifts were a little shaky for the first few sets but as I continued working, they felt better. I think part of my issue lately for deads is that I feel warm when I start, because I squat or bench first, but I don’t get into my deadlift groove until after a substantial amount of reps. I need to start doing 135x10, 225x8, etc while I warm up. Today I did 135x3, 225x3, etc, so not quite enough volume for a solid warmup. Right now, I think that the most technical lift for me is my deadlift, strictly in the sense that it is the lift that I am still the least comfortable and familiar with. Cues that I used to have to actively think about for squatting and benching are automatic now, so I just need to continue working on deadlifts until I get to that point.
Tomorrow will be a low intensity back day. It should be halfway between an active rest day and a full-fledged back day. I’m thinking some DB rows, single arm machine rows, some banded pull ups, and of course some biceps destruction.
Thursday will be a 6x2 bench day with some very light weight assistance work. 40-50lb DBs for 15-20 reps for DB bench, maybe a couple sets of 50 for tricep extensions with 20lbs of resistance on the cable machine. On Friday I am working at a wedding from 2:30 til midnight, so that’s going to be a long, long night with minimal food. I’ll have to think of something to do for food… I’ll probably bring some chicken in a tupperware container or something to eat halfway through my shift. We were supposed to have an outdoor meet on Saturday, but the forecast is a high of 36 and no sun. Possible rain or snow. So it’ll probably be canceled, in which case we will have lifting from 10-2, open house style (for me, the kids have assigned times). I’ll try to get 9 hours of sleep and be in the weight room by 11 for my 4x4 front squats, and depending on how I feel afterwards, I may decide to do my 6x6 deadlifts in addition for 100% total annihilation. The fun has officially begun since all of my lifts are now at 6x6 and beyond. Bigger weights are always daunting, especially when you have to rep them. I hope to be pleasantly surprised with how well my deadlift and bench have progressed, but we will see. If I improve both lifts to 105% which is the standard finishing point, I’ll have a 330lb bench and a 475lb deadlift. I’ve also decided that when my front squats are done, I’ll take a week off from squatting, then do 1-2 months of 5/3/1 BBB. OG 5/3/1 has been very good to me, and I have faith that BBB will produce proportionally similar results in the realm of hypertrophy as opposed to strength. Granted, I did 5/3/1 for 6 months, and I’m only doing BBB for 1-2 months, but still. 3-4 cycles of that coupled with a caloric surplus will almost definitely get me the size I’m looking for without costing me any strength. Of course, it’s tempting for me to go right into a 6x2 cycle for back squat and take advantage of the quad strength I have now, but we’re all in this for the long haul. In the grand scheme of things, spending 4 months on hypertrophy each year is not that big of a deal. We’re just building new strength potential. It’s like putting money in the bank. God bless y’all, I hope everyone’s week is off to a good start!
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