TCam's Log - The Road to Elite

Training Training Logs
1601

FORTITUDE

Week 17 - Day 3 - Lower

Conventional Deadlift w/ Belt - Clusters:
4 x 3+3 x 455 - 30 sec cluster rests, 2 min set rests

A1 | Lying Leg Curl:
3x10-15x75-100

A2 | Seated Calf Raise:
15, 12, 10 x 70

Hack Squat:
3x8x270 - Never done 3 plates on a hack squat, PR lol

Hanging Leg Raise:
2x10xBW - Same style as shown on Day 1, but higher bar position. Shoulders did not like it that way

Deadlifts were meh. I don’t think that clusters feel great with them. But I wasn’t feeling super strong here anyway.

Hack squats were surprising. Last week was my first real working sets of hack squats probably ever. I was sure 3 plates was just going to hurt my knees, but it felt fine. Definitely easier with a close stance, but I’ll work on both close and wide(r).

Week 17 - Day 4 - Upper

Incline Bench - Clusters:
4 x 5+5 x 205 - 30 sec cluster rests, 2 min set rests

A1 | Cable Crossover Rear Delt Fly:
15x30
2x12x45

A2 | DB Hammer Zottman Curl:
2x10x30s

Kneeling Cable Low Row:
10/10x80
2x10/10x100 - These were done kneeling behind the normal low row seat, with the working side’s hip pressed against it. Fully protraction and slight lean forward for stretch

DB Preacher Curl:
2x15/15x15
12/12x15 - Done with arm over a Smith Machine bar with torso leaned away for maximizing tension at stretched position

Cardio:
1 - 10 mins stationary bike x Lvl 10 x 90-95 RPM
2 - 5 mins step mill x Lvl 8-9 x Die
Oura Ring Data - HR 142 bpm average / 153 bpm max - 148 cals

Forgot to mention on one of my catch-up logs I did 8 miles in 26 mins on the stationary bike with mostly level 11 a couple of weeks ago. Something to note and beat.

Lots of clusters this week obviously. Just feeling it out to see what comes of it, but I’m definitely not going to be doing it as frequently as I did this week. Just adding tools to the toolbox.

1 Like
1602

FORTITUDE

Week 18 - Main Things Catch-Up

Day 1

Paused Squat w/ Belt/Oly Shoes:
5x5x365 - Still having some mild adductor irritation, but working through it and this didn’t cause additional irritation in the days following it

Day 2

Paused Bench:
4x3x315
8x315 - First time over 275 in several weeks due to pec issues

Day 3

Sumo w/ Belt/Straps:
3x5x495 - First time doing sumo in several weeks due to the adductor issue

Hack Squat:
10 + 5 + 3 x 270 - 15 sec rests
10 + 6 + 4 x 270 - 15 sec rests
These were supposed to both supposed to be myo-rep match sets, but I forgot I did 10 and not 8 on the first initial set lol

Day 4

Mostly just light bodybuilding work with high inline press, lat pulldown, and pec/triceps cable work.

Pretty good comeback week on some things. Most notable negative thing was probably the knee pain that came after Day 3. Sumo had been super irritating to my medial right knee several months ago, to the point where I thought I had a meniscus tear or something like that. But it had gotten better. Now I did sumo and a couple of hard sets of hack squats (a new exercise for me) and that pain is back. Not sure if it’s sumo, hack squats, or both but I’ll need to observe them separately. Sumo was very easy and conservative because of the adductor, so it’s annoying if it’s that again.

1603

FORTITUDE

Week 19 - Day 1 - Lower

SSB Squat w/ Belt/Oly Shoes:
3x390
4x3x410

Belt Squat w/ Oly Shoes - Quad Focus:
4x10x270

Hyper:
12,12,10 x BW+60 - KB held at the chin made this way harder than more weight with arms straight down

Ab Wheel Rollout:
3x15xBW

Only a single small feeling in the adductor during the 390 set today and nothing else for the remainder, so good stuff there. I was definitely still not trying super hard to maintain my pelvic position to reduce the stress on it there though, so I’ll probably try to do that with some lighter weight next time.

Just 4 exercises today, but it felt like a ton of work. Probably because of not squatting above 315 for a while. Belt squats and hypers were both pretty high RPE too though.

1 Like
1604

FORTITUDE

Week 19 - Day 2 - Upper

Paused Close Grip Bench:
3, 8, 3, 8, 3, 8 x 275 - Playing around with rep schemes, basically hitting both a dynamic effort and a repetition effort

Seated DB Lateral Raise:
25, 20, 15 x 25s

Bent-Over Cable Overhead Triceps Extension:
15x125
20x150
12x150
10x150

Seated Cable Rear Delt Row - Daisy Chain Handle:
15x80
12x100
2x12x110

Cardio - Stationary Bike:
30 minutes total - 3 min warm-up/cool down + 24 mins working at 2 min intervals
Interval 1: 90+ rpm x Lvl 9
Interval 2: 90+ rpm x Lvl 11
Metrics: 8.64 miles, 268 kcal, 145 bpm avg HR, 158 bpm max HR

First a note on the cardio: My best on the bike was a few weeks ago doing 8 miles in 26 minutes at mostly level 11 resistance. Today doesn’t beat that because the 6 minutes of warm-up and cool down probably added a mile, but the RPE was definitely lower overall. I’ll have to push myself when I’m feeling up for it to go for something like level 11 for the same 26 minutes for more distance or same 8 miles in less time. The challenge here isn’t to go harder on it though. I’m purposefully trying to stick within a Zone 2-3 heart rate, while getting more work done.

I liked the bench press scheme I did here just from a rest period standpoint really. The explosive triples in between the more sustained effort 8s allowed for a different type of rest. I’m going to play around with this.

Lesson of the Week: Cardio is for cardiovascular conditioning, not fat loss. If you get more efficient at cardio because your conditioning improves, the same amount of work stops being as effective for calorie burning. So you’d have to do cardio solely randomly so as not to adapt to it, but then it’s not frequently enough to matter. What it’s useful for is it for becoming more fit so that you can lift more and move more over the course of weeks and months. For fat loss training, it’s better to focus on maintaining/building muscle via lifting and simply walk 3-5k more steps each day at a normal walking pace and let that all add up over time for calorie burning. Otherwise it’s all nutrition.

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1605

FORTITUDE

Week 19 - Day 3 - Lower

Conventional Deadlift w/ Belt/Straps:
3x405
3x495
5x545 - 5 lb. PR! Seems surprising but looking at my e1RM charts, this would put me at a 640 e1RM, 17 lbs above my all time PR. Video here.
5x2x495 - 75 sec rests. Slow eccentric leading into 2nd rep, keeping slack pulled at the bottom

Hack Squat:
3x10x270 - Think I will take a shot at adding 25s next time on these. They were hard but otherwise casual

Seated Leg Curl:
12x100
12x140
10x140

Kneeling Cable Ab Pulldown:
15x125
3x15x150

I didn’t think this deadlift PR was as big of a deal as it is with my overall conventional deadlift career. The recorded 2RM and 3RM (585 and 575) both point to an e1RM of 627 or so for me (not sure when I did those, but it was a long time ago). The 10x500 I did several months ago is an e1RM of 640 or so Inaccurate at that many reps, of course, but the 5RM today pointing to the same number is pretty cool.

Since sumo is clearly bothering my knee still (no issues post hack squats today), maybe I’ll just shoot for a goal of hitting that e1RM (or more) for an actual 1RM.

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1606

FORTITUDE

Week 19 - Day 4 - Upper

A1 | Inverted Row:
6x10xBW

A2 | Split Jerk:
6x4x185

⬆️ Cluster Superset - 60 sec rest between all sets ⬆️

B1 | BTN Lat Pulldown:
15x80
15x110
12x130

B2 | Push-Ups:
3x20xBW - First set normal, other sets hand release at bottom

Kneeling Cable Low Row:
12/12x80
8/8x100

Single Arm Cable Curl:
15/15x35
12/12x60
20/20, 12/12 x 30 - Incline curl for lengthened position

This was another good foray into the versatile side of my plan. Looking back in the log, I haven’t done a split jerk since May 2013. And that was my only logged PR in my spreadsheet at 3x225. If I’m going to get an appreciable amount of weight on the bar for these, I’ll need to learn how to do an Olympic front rack instead of just holding the bar like I’m going to do a strict press.

But today I was going to do something like 2-3 reps strict press immediately into 2-3 reps of split jerk, but it wasn’t there with 185. The first set I did was actually 2+3 of that, but knew I wouldn’t be able to maintain it for 5 more sets. The rest of the split jerks moved very well though. All of them were done with a relatively controlled eccentric, which may be a purposeful part of this sort of lift for me.

Left shoulder wasn’t super happy with the overhead movement overall, so I’ll be focusing some prehab attention there.

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1607

FORTITUDE

Week 20 - Day 1 - Lower

My low back was apparently wrecked from the deadlifts and (probably more so) split jerks. When I went to squat today, it felt like an injury was imminent. Like I don’t know if my back has ever felt as painful without being injured as it did then. So I took this day quite easy.

Squat w/ Belt:
2x5x315
3x5x315 - Pin Squat above parallel

Leg Press:
2x12x540

Hyper:
20, 20, 15

KB Twist Deadlift:
Couple of sets with 40 lbs - Just twisting to reach the KB to the outside of the right foot, then left foot

Adductor Machine:
2 sets at something

I wasn’t in any discomfort all day until I got under the bar. Probably my most obvious “ayo don’t do this shit” moment my body has given me in my lifting history lol. It hurt that evening and when I woke up the next day, but not horribly so. Now it seems fine again.

Takeaway here is probably to get more time in loaded lumbar extension (like the split jerks) and adapt to it.

Week 20 - Day 2 - Upper

Paused Bench:
4x6x275
12x275 - Not paused

Bradford Press - Full Lockout:
2x15x95 - Low RPE, mostly just lightly testing overhead position for my low back and getting some shoulder pump

Triceps Pushdown - Myo-Rep Match Sets:
10 + 5 + 5 x 120
10 + 6 + 4 x 120

Cable Curl + Cable Squat Curl:
15+10 x 75
2 x 10+6 x 95

Cardio - Stationary Bike:
30 minutes total - 2 min warm-up/cool down + 26 mins working at 2 min intervals
Interval 1: 90+ rpm x Lvl 9
Interval 2: 90+ rpm x Lvl 11
Metrics: 9.02 miles, 262 kcal, 158 bpm avg HR, 169 bpm max HR

Cardio note: There’s an argument that this work at least beats previous Oura ring data, with sustaining a higher avg HR over the same amount of time. But there’s an argument that getting a similar distance to my PR (8 mi in 26 min not including the warm-up/cool-down) at a higher HR is a poorer biometric reading for my actual fitness (i.e. HR should go down over the same effort over time). I’ll take it as a win for being able to handle more cardio effort.

Took bench pretty easy today other than the AMRAP set which felt fine. Just letting this week be a little deload overall.

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1608

FORTITUDE

Week 20 - Catch-Up

Didn’t realize I hadn’t logged Days 3-4. Here’s a quick recap:

I did some RDLs on Day 3 very conservatively to 405 for 6s and 315 for 10s. Low back was pretty much fine. I skipped hack squats for the week and did full depth split squats, which killed me. Having not done them seriously for a couple of months, due to the adductor strain, knocked me out lol

Day 4 I did a cluster set of low incline bench with bands to 8x5x185+70 and assisted pull-ups 8x8 with 100 lbs of assistance, I think.

Week 21 - Day 1 - Lower

Squat w/ Belt:
3x405
3x2x455 - Not bad for the first time over 365 in a couple of months
2x5x405

Belt Squat:
3x10x270 - Full depth, keeping knees forward throughout, deadly on quads

Seated Band Leg Curl:
2x12/12xMini

Deficit KB SLDL:
15x50s
2x12x70s

Crunch Off Bench:
10xBW+25
2x10xBW

Really happy with the squats here. Managed to keep my torso position very well. They felt hard, but the videos made it look pretty fast.

Week 21 - Day 2 - Upper

Feet Up DB Bench:
2x8x125s
12x125s

A1 | Cable Low Row - Moderate Neutral Grip:
15x190
12+3x190 - Myo-Rep Match
10+3+2x190 - Myo-Rep Match

A2 | Lean Back Cable Triceps Extension:
3x12/12x30 - Getting the shoulder into extension for the long head

B1 | Lying Rear Delt Fly:
2x15x25s

B2 | Incline DB Curl:
15x25s
12x25s

Cardio - Stationary Bike - High Intensity:
12 minutes total - 2 min warm-up/cool down + 8 minutes working at 15 second intervals
Interval 1: 70-80 rpm x Lvl 9-10
Interval 2: 90-110 rpm x Lvl 13
Metrics: 3.31 miles, 107 kcal, 153 bpm avg HR, 167 max HR

Cardio was very difficult with my quads and glutes being so sore from the previous workout. I want to see what my heart rate gets to with higher intensities with fresh legs, so I’ll do that soon. DB bench felt pretty solid today. I’m happy with the performance for starting some vague cycle on those.

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1609

FORTITUDE

Week 21 - Day 3 - Lower

Only had about 35 minutes to get in a workout today. Decided to do a heavier Crossfit-y thing.

A1 | Conventional Deadlift with Belt/Straps:
3x10x405

A2 | Goblet Squat:
3x15x80

A3 | KB Unilateral Front Rack March:
3x20/20x80

A4 | Hanging Knee Raise:
3x15xBW

Done in 23:15

This basically killed me. Deadlifts and goblet squats ended up getting a 15 sec rest mid-set after the first round. I wanted 4 rounds, but my left QL was screaming at me to chill. This was aerobically incredibly difficult, much more so than muscularly outside of the low back and deadlifts. I rested 90 seconds after the first round, then 2.5 minutes after the second. Then the 3rd round included about a minute of rest between each exercise while I tried to not puke.

Lesson of the Week: I do think this sort of workout is practically pointless though. If I had done the same warm-up and then had the same remaining 23 minutes to work with, I could have deadlifted 3x10x405 with 2-2.5 minutes rest in ~8 minutes. Then a 2-exercise superset with 1.5 minutes rest for 3 sets in ~8 minutes. And then another 2-exercise superset with the same thing for another ~8 minutes to round me out at 24 minutes.

The difference is that I could have applied a ton more force and focus into deadlifts that way, I would be safer, I could get more out of the subsequent exercises, and I ended up with an entire extra exercise. If I wanted an aerobic component not using cardio equipment, I could just giant set the last 4 exercises and not have deadlift be all ruined/ruining lol.

It’s a matter of understanding that just because something is hard doesn’t mean that it’s useful. Making something “easier” can allow you to make the effort more useful sometimes.

Does this mean I’ll never do this or anything like it again? I don’t know, I’ve been stupid before and did this stupid thing. I’m just playing around with different ideas still and figuring out what doesn’t align with my goals as much as what does.

2 Likes
1610

FORTITUDE

Week 21 - Day 4 - Upper

A1 | Seated OHP:
8x5x155

A2 | Machine Low Row / Machine High Row:
4x8x140 / 4x8x230

⬆️ Cluster Superset - 30 sec A1-to-A2 rest, 60 sec A2-to-A1 rest ⬆️

B1 | Band Overhead Triceps Extension:
3x12x2 Lights

B2 | Seated DB Curl:
3x12x30s

Machine Chest Press:
2x20x150

Felt pretty solid across the sets on OHP. Left shoulder is giving me some issues recently, but it didn’t seem super affected. Doing 8x8 pretty difficulty with rows superset with pressing affects the pressing less than I thought it would.

1611

FORTITUDE

Week 22 - Day 1 - Lower

Squat w/ Belt/Oly Shoes:
3, 6, 3, 6, 3, 6 x 405

Kickstand DB RDL:
2x10/10x90s

Copenhagen Adduction Plank + Hip ER on Down-Leg - Right Side Only:
3x15xBW - Explained in notes below

Adductor Machine:
15, 10 x 130
10 x 90

Squats felt relatively good, even though it wasn’t near PR levels, but the issue I’ve had for years with twisting at the hips and/or spine is feeling more noticeable recently. I focused a ton on getting my right obliques engaged to pull my torso back into neutral, but it’s still rough. Basically at the bottom of the squat I end up leaned more to the right side and I have:

  • Decreased hip IR/adduction on the left and ER/abduction on the right
  • Decreased left torso rotation/extension
  • Decreased right shoulder ER
  • Decreased right ankle dorsiflexion
  • Left spine lateral flexion at the bottom of the squat (to keep from tipping over due to the right lateral pelvic tilt, my torso stays upright by doing this)

I don’t know if all of these things are the cause of the twisting and shifting or if some are the effect of it over time. But I do know it’s annoying and has been limiting my performance for too long. And it does follow some of the PRI (Postural Restoration Institute) patterns. PRI isn’t the end-all-be-all of biomechanics and they have some out-there concepts, but I’m going to use some of their ideas and see what happens. The Copenhagen plank variation I did incorporates the left hip IR/adduction, right hip ER/abduction, and right trunk lateral flexion. Most of the PRI exercises are too specific for my liking and not simple enough to perform in a normal gym setting. What I did incorporates a bunch of their ideas and makes use of normal gym things.

Basically it’s a Copenhagen adductor plank, but the bottom hip is flexed and the knee is on the ground. In my case the lift comes from all three of these: Left IRs/adductors, right ERs/abductors, and right obliques/QL. As I lift, I’m thinking about driving my right-side pelvis forward while keeping my left side pelvis stable (as to create pelvis-on-femur left IR and right ER).

This is mostly a neuromuscular exercise, so this only works as a compound if you can think of each element successfully. This is likely not something I would use with patients unless they were advanced enough to understand 3 different body parts’ efforts and the mechanics of it. I’m also not performing it on the left side. But isn’t that imbalanced? Yes, that’s literally the point.

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1612

FORTITUDE

Week 22 - Day 2 - Upper

Paused Bench:
3, 5, 3, 5, 3, 5 x 315
⬆️ Triples = 3 Ct Ecc/Pause, Fives = Paused ⬆️

Cable Triceps Extension:
15/15x30 - Lean back single arm
2x8/8x45 - Lean back single arm
2x8/8x65 - Bilateral

Lat Pulldown:
2x10x160

Seated DB Lateral Raise:
2x25x20s

A1 | Cable Rear Delt Fly - Daisy Chain:
2x15x55

A2 | Cable Facepull - Daisy Chain:
2x12x55

Cable End-Range Shoulder Extension to Neutral:
2x12x55

Still playing around with the alternating rep scheme. I think this one was probably too hard. If I’m trying to keep the same weight across the board, doing a harder variation for the triples just made them as hard as the fives. I should have done doubles with fives probably.

1 Like
1613

FORTITUDE

Week 22 - Day 3 - Lower

Sumo w/ Belt/Straps:
3x495
3x550
2x6x495 - TnG

A1 | Beltless Conventional w/ Straps:
5x3x405 - Focus on speed and bracing

A2 | Hack Squat:
8x180
2x8x270
2x8x320 - PR

Cable Lying High Row:
12x75
12x100
2x12x130

Copenhagen Adduction Plank + Hip ER on Down-Leg - Right Side Only:
3x15xBW

Seated Leg Curl:
20x80
2x15x120

Writing this the morning after this workout and my knee isn’t bothering me from sumo. Hopefully it stays that way. But I have been enjoying getting better at conventional again, so I’ll likely continue alternating or do something like a 3:1 conventional:sumo split.

Really happy with the hack squat PR. I don’t think I’ve cared for a machine PR in over a decade, but with how they originally felt it’s pretty cool to be doing 3.5 plates per side. They were hard sets, but it still felt like I could manage 4 plates. Likely going to continue with 3-3.5 plates for more reps to focus this day on volume and not just blow my intensity load for the lower body day though.

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1614

FORTITUDE

Week 22 - Day 4 - Upper

A1 | Seated OHP:
8x5x165

A2 | HS Iso-Row:
4x8x230 - Low handles, pronated
4x8x230 - Wide handles, neutral

⬆️ Cluster Superset - 30 sec A1-to-A2 rest, 60 sec A2-to-A1 rest ⬆️

Cable Decline Chest Press:
3x15x70

B1 | Bent-Over Overhead Triceps Extension:
3x15x110

B2 | Cable Reverse Grip Curl + Cable Curl:
3x10+8x85

Cardio: StairMaster
10 minutes pre-built intervals - Avg HR 143, Max HR 157, 167 cals

Side-Lying Shoulder ER:
2x10/10x10

Shoulders and definitely feeling beat up at the moment. Still went up 10 lbs on the 8x5 overhead press and it wasn’t too bad when I focused on bracing.

1615

FORTITUDE

Week 23 - Day 1 - Lower

3-Ct Eccentric SSB Squat w/ Belt:
3x390
3x430
3x455 - 5 lb PR! Video here
6x3x340 - Paused and 60 sec rests

KB Split Squat:
2x15/15x70 - Full depth

Kneeling Cable Ab Pulldown:
3x12x160

A1 | Hyper:
3x15xBW - Big ROM, slow eccentric, and focused on hamstrings

A2 | Seated Band Leg Curl:
2x15/15xMini - Fast with short pause

Seated Band Hip IR/ER for Left/Right Respectively:
2x10/10xMicro Mini

Very interesting. Sudden substantial PR (in fact, this is apparently a 10 lb overall SSB 3RM PR too) after a couple of months of the adductor strain keeping me from most squats. Couple of thoughts: The hack squats are probably a big part of this as a very direct quad strengthener and novel movement for me. The other is that I’m focusing a TON of effort into rotating to the left at the hips and torso, and weight shifting to the left, further than what feels comfortable to get to actual neutral / even positioning. This is due to the long post a couple of sessions back. Both of these things (hack squats and forced twisting to neutral) seem to help with staying upright (both sagittally and frontally) and use both of my legs.

The only things I need to look out for are the adductor on the left being suddenly overloaded and getting reinjured and any tibial rotation deficiencies causing knee issues. Hips are going to have to get used to it, because they’ve been most of the problem.

Also I had a goal of hitting 500 on SSB a few years ago that I never attempted. I hit 485 for a double and called it equivalent, but I may attempt that soon to actually take it. The 455 felt pretty light on my back, just a matter of controlling it out of the hole.

1616

FORTITUDE

Week 23 - Day 2 - Upper

Pause Bench:
10x135 - Feels bad
5x225 - Still feels bad
5x275 - Feels worse

HS Machine Incline Press:
3x10x180

I don’t remember the rest of the accessories. Cable crossover rear delt fly and some other stuff.

Cardio - Stationary Bike:
30 minutes total - 2 min warm-up/cool down + 26 mins working at 2 min intervals
Interval 1: 90+ rpm x Lvl 10
Interval 2: 90+ rpm x Lvl 12
Metrics: 9.74 miles, 310 kcal, 153 bpm avg HR, 172 bpm max HR

PR on the stationary bike. Previous best was at level 9 and 11 intervals for 9.02 miles and 262 cal. Best part is that the average HR is down 5 bpm from that day, so more effort and more distance despite that being lower is great.

Shoulders are just feeling trashy recently for pressing. It keeps jumping back and forth from left/right shoulder too, which makes me feel like I just need to give it some time and focus on other things.

Week 23 - Day 3 - Lower

Conventional Deadlift w/ Belt/Straps - Stiff Bar:
6x455
2x6x495
2x8x405 - Beltless

Hack Squat:
2x10x270 - Felt hard today, didn’t push for the next 1/2 plate

Cable Sissy Squat:
10x100
2x10x150

Cable Side Bend:
15/15x100
12/12x130

A1 | Copenhagen Plank - Left Side:
3x8xBW

A2 | Hip Side Plank - Right Side:
3x8xBW

Really happy with the performance with the Ohio Power Bar for conventional today. The first set with 495 felt like I could have gotten 10, which would be just under my deadlift bar PR. Not that it means much as a what-if, but interesting nonetheless. Second set I got pitched forward onto my toes on the first rep and the rest was hard as a result, but it’s cool.

Week 23 - Day 4 - Upper

Lat Pulldown - Wide Neutral Grip:
15x140
12x180
8x200
10x180

Kneeling Single-Arm Cable Low Row:
2x8/8x100

Cable Skullcrusher:
15x100
2x12x125

Cable Incline Curl:
15x60
15x80
2x15x100

KB Concentration Curl:
2x12/12x25

Kept today very simple with no real main lift. We’ll see how the shoulders feel over the next couple of days for deciding on pressing next week.

1 Like
1617

FORTITUDE

Week 24 - Day 1 - Lower

Duffalo Bar Squat w/ Belt:
2, 8, 2, 6, 2, 4 x 408 - The 8 was big hard

Machine Hip Thrust:
15x210
15x300
2x12x390

A1 | Leg Extension:
15x165
12x190

A2 | BW Squat - Heels Elevated, 3/4 reps, Controlled, Paused:
15xBW
12xBW

This was actually a Titan Yukon bar, which is 22 kg, but I’m keeping it as “Duffalo” for log/PR congruency. The set of 8 was actually just 7 lbs short of my 8RM PR. Only other PRs recorded with the bar are 2x475 and 6x435.

I do think it’s way too similar to what an SSB does to me to do them on consecutive weeks. The bendy bar just wobbles forward and backwards a ton on the descent, putting a lot of the strain on the torso. Legs still got wrecked and it’s a useful bar, I’m just probably in a low-mid back recovery debt now.

Still liking my alternating rep scheme. It does take a long time if the higher rep sets are high RPE though.

1618

FORTITUDE

Week 24 - Day 2 - Upper

Chest-Supported T-Bar Row:
3x8x135

A1 | Lateral Raise - Active ROM Only:
3x15x10s

A2 | Deficit Paused Push-Up:
3x15xBW - Two stacked plates deficit

Barbell Forearm Roller:
3 rounds x Ext/Flx x 50 lbs

Plate Isometric Hold:
3 x 30 sec x 45 lbs - Elbows at 90 deg, for shoulders and biceps

Just didn’t do an upper body day on Thursday and nearly didn’t do it at all, but figured I should get something in and went in on Friday. Shoulders (right > left) are just feeling bad. Since this is showing up outside of the gym, it seems like I need to spend more time working on them and not just try to modulate pressing volume/intensity to make it better.

1 Like
1619

great work T, how do you find the Duffalo(Buffalo??) bar

1620

Thanks, man! Some people are better with any of the Buffalo bar varieties, but they’re harder for me because they expose my weakness, just like the SSB. I like the SSB more because the weight isn’t literally rocking forward/backward like a Buffalo bar does to me. The SSB is technically harder to maintain position in, but I can grind through more weight with it. Buffalos are just another tool in the toolbox to make things harder on purpose though.