So tempted to, but it’s not a dyed in the wool PL gym so I try to play nice.
Yeah, just dicked it up on a day I had no real margin for error. The 506 felt like garbage, which should have told me something. Ordinarily that would have been an 8-9 RPE set, I had it as 9 and even that’s being optimistic.
If you look at the failure, I wasn’t tight enough descending, I kind of wobble, so when I came up I couldn’t stay in position. Like I said, on a good day I get that for sure.
Relieved AF for sure.
Yeah, that is a good rack and yes, that’s a row cup. It’s narrow too, so I can grip wide which is awesome. The floor could be better, the mats are a few mm different in height right where I stood so my right foot was on a small edge.
Actually, no. We were at his cousin’s place (TL;DR my fiancee’s aunt is pretty much her mother, so pretty much my mother in law to be) and one of them does gymnastics and was doing stuff so we all joined in.
Hope she is better now, god bless her
She is, thanks brother.
Cycle 7, week 3 - 531 week
Yesterday’s training:
Left shoulder feeling marginally better but decided to sub out press for floor press. I figured with a bung shoulder something that takes strain off the bottom part of pressing would help. Decided to just do my bench day loads since generally floor press is a bit stronger. I’d have preferred to press as normal, but no sense in risking further issues.
Agile 8 plus shoulders
Floor press
35 pull aparts between warm up sets one to three
4x225 lbs, kind of 8 RPE but also kind of 10 RPE because holy hell it hurt!
3x253 lbs, 8-9 RPE, still painful but not as bad
1x286 lbs, 9-10 RPE, unrack really painful, once approaching lockout not much better and left side just felt weak
Tried an FSL set and gave up after three reps, just too painful. Turns out it’s lockout that hurts. From touch through to the top of the second third is basically painless, then pain kicks in real fast. Kind of like a needle jabbed into my acromion.
More good news: lat pull-downs hurt as well, also when the arm extends. Not quite as painful as pressing, but still shit.
3x12x143 lbs seated Fat Gripz cable rows - felt different, not as good as lat pull-downs or chest supported rows.
3x35x200 lbs standing calf raises - used a different machine, annihilated my calves. Saw some dude using the same machine for squats, and stupid as it may sound it looked like maybe not a terrible idea for quad work.
Jump rope: about 375 leg-to-leg, stopping periodically to stop the rope coming loose from the handle. Maybe time for a new jump rope. Then about 15 double unders in a lot of seven (maybe eight) and then more.
A shittier session I have not had in a while. Even changing gears on the drive home hurt like a bastard, ditto holding the steering wheel.
Looks like a token bench on meet day, or rather whatever lets me hit a PR total even by five or 10 lbs. Ideally my shoulder will be back to normal by meet day, but I don’t see myself benching or pressing meaningfully between now and then. The best I can come up with is DB bench and maybe DB incline without locking out and tricep push downs. Either way, I’ll be surprised if 302 lbs is realistic on the day. As it stands I’m thinking a 242 lbs opener, and maybe leaving it at that; if my shoulder is feeling good a jump to around 275 lbs and then maybe, just maybe a crack at 302 lbs.
This is all assuming DL isn’t affected, which I’ll find out later today.
Going to see a physio later in the week.
On a more positive note, felt much better this morning.
Got me an appointment at the physio this Saturday morning. As luck would have it I know a guy from training who is a physio, and I booked in with him. I’m way happier going to someone who trains.
Good luck with the shoulder mate, hopefully its nothing a little rest won’t fix!
Really, really didn’t want to train today. Mainly, I didn’t trust my body not to throw some curveball at me again.
Today’s training
Agile 8
Deadlift
10 strap(?) fat-man pull-ups between warm up sets one to three. Couldn’t find the TRX so used some kind of webbing strap with loops at each end. Felt really good.
5x407 lbs, under 6 RPE - felt light for a 400 lbs bar, which I take as a good sign in terms of my everyday strength. Left shoulder hurt a bit holding the bar in lockout by the last couple of reps but decided to keep going since that was the highest rep set.
3x462 lbs, 6 RPE - first rep felt pretty quick for above 440 lbs. I’m starting to notice an encouraging trend with squat and DL feeling faster and/or lighter at loads six months ago I’d have expected to be much harder. Worked harder than I normally would pinning my scaps back and that helped my shoulder.
1x517 lbs, 7-8 RPE - again, felt light and fast for a 500 lbs bar. Shoulder fine.
1x578 lbs, 9-10 RPE - for 5 or so lbs shy off my all-time PR this felt GOOD. Confident in it as a third attempt.
On went the Oly shoes for close stance SSB squats
4x308 lbs, 8 RPE - back knackered and then some, gentle reminder from my body that not all is exactly as I would wish.
15x242 lbs, 8 RPE - quads worked, which is what I wanted
Running out of time and more importantly energy.
3x12x30 lbs hammer curls
1x14x120 lbs DB shrugs, grip the limiter
Bonus picture I thought was kind of artistic
@andypee here’s hoping! I’m honestly shocked at how much better it felt this morning and that gave me some hope.
I’m squatting Thursday then on Friday I’ll try some short of lockout DB bench and pushdowns to keep my bench movers working. Probably chuck in more of those TRX-a-like fatman pull-ups too given how cool they feel. Also more shrugs.
Just take some rest if it carries on, I was stupid enough to think it was somethin minor with my shoulder and fight through it, it didnt end so well for me!
I am laughing my ass off right now because I get some of that same stuff, I assume every gym does. It would have been acceptable if they were actually using the Mono Lift to rack and unrack the bar. My worst was when the cleaning ladies would eat in my farmers carry path. There was only one space in that gym for that yet a million places they could eat away from prying eyes.
Which brings me to the next super annoyance I heard the clang of trying to rerack the weight in your squat video and I cringed. My gym has those racks and they are the worst. Theirs are also the perfect distance apart to always clip the weights on walk out. Enraging marvel of terrible engineering.
Even after the bad unrack you had 240kg.
I agree, and thanks. It helped having it that 240 kg relatively easily the week before. I’m hitting 245 kg tomorrow. In the mono.
On a separate note the Plazma I ordered last week arrived, and with it an awesome Nalgene two litre drink bottle with funnel. Not sure if that’s standard with your first order, or a free gift but either way I’m impressed.
Couldn’t have come at a better time with my last heavy squats coming tomorrow plus I’ll have it for my meet. I’ll start using it properly when I go back to normal training post meet, planning on using it for my squat and DL days because honestly, I don’t work hard enough on press or bench say to warrant using it.
@Mod_Phoenix thanks for helping me out!
Am curious to find out what you think. I’m such a cheap bastard I just buy from Amazon . . . but, I did order some Flameout.
Well, I had a sip while mixing it up this morning and it certainly tastes pretty damn good.
Shoulder update: hasn’t really changed much since Tuesday morning so in other words not massively painful but still very obviously not OK.
On palpation, the ONLY pain is directly on the acromion. Even a centimeter away is painless to touch.
Will be interesting to see how limited ROM DB bench and tricep pushdowns will go tomorrow.
Oh, and also.
Decided to reintroduce paused front squats after DL as a main assistance. Haven’t done them in over a year, but there is little doubt that they work. I’ll stick with the 5x2 format, and start at 264 lbs and work upwards if needed. When I stopped doing them I think I used around 250 lbs, but even though I’m stronger I haven’t done diddly front squat.
It’ll be a change from 10s with the SSB, which I’ve done for two cycles now and I can’t see how they won’t transfer to squats as well as DL. I’ll reply on my close stance FSL squats and hack squats for quad size.
The main reason for this is that I recommended the paused front squats to a mate whose back was bugging him to the extent he couldn’t train his DL and it was stuck around 440 lbs. He did them for maybe three months and pulled 550 lbs easily last week. I really can’t ignore that, especially combined with how well they worked for me last time I did them.
Do any of the supplements from biotest actually work? I’ve always thought that anything other than protein, creatine, and caffeine (whatever form you like it in) was bullshit that takes up money that could be spent on better equipment, or specialist work. Then again I am the cheapskate that has an Elitefts brand bar (which is actually really good for squatting and benching to be honest) instead of a texas bar.
Though if the nice lads from t-nation/biotest felt like sending samples I might change my opinion. 
I’ve only used Plazma the once and no other Biotest products so I honestly couldn’t say for sure. If you look at the main ingredients in Plazma, I certainly think they aren’t going to hurt and quite possibly will help - provided your diet is OK and your training is OK.
Look, I had a fantastic session today, one of my best ever. It was after work, and the only stimulant I had was a very strong coffee about an hour and a half before training, which is fairly normal for me. The only thing different was I was using a scoop of Plazma. Arguably, that could have had some effect. I’ll know more when I start using it regularly.
Today’s training
Scoop of Plazma in 1.5 litres of water, started sipping about 30 minutes before training
Agile 8 plus shoulders
Squat
Wraps went on for last warm-up set, 6 revolutions. Left shoulder doesn’t enjoy wrapping my knees, especially the right one.
5x379 lbs, 6 revolutions, under 6 RPE by miles
3x434 lbs, 6 revolutions, under 6 RPE
1x484 lbs, 7 revolutions, 6 RPE
1x539 lbs, 7 revolutions, 8-9 RPE
Happy AF with this. I think you were right @BOTSLAYER Feeling confident that 550 lbs is a good third. I think I’ll go 462/506/550.
3x15x220 lbs hack squat - wore my Chucks and actually felt my quads more although my knees hurt a little unless I really pushed them out. Could have been the lack of knee sleeves.
I may do my hacks and narrow stance squats in my Chucks for a while.
3x15 45 degree back raises with 44 lbs of chain and a medium-ish band
5x12x30 lbs hammer curls between hacks and back raises
@max13 I thought I’d put this up too, because for some reason I think you’re interested in how I wrap my knees. That is 6 revolutions, for a seventh I just go over the top of the cross
