Squat
45 x 12
135 x 8
135 x 5
275 x 3
345 x 3
405 x 2
465 x 1
495 2x3 RPE 5
Pause Bench
45 x 20
45 x 10
135 x 5
185 x 4
225 x 3
275 x 2
315 x 1
330 x 1
350 2x5 RPE 4, RPE 5 I’m counting this as a lifetime PR, even though I hit this before about a year ago- but it was also a all out 5 Rep Max. This was easy and low hype with reps left in the tank.
Smith Machine OHP
225 x 10, 8, 8
One Arm Bicep Curl Machine 100 3x10
Tempo Hamstring Curl 130 3x10
Reverse Curl 80 3x10
One Arm Reverse Delt Machine 310 2x8
One Arm Cable Row 260 2x5
SSB Good Morning 135 2x10
Bench has been the strongest ever. Hit a PR. I replaced OHP with Smith Machine, still kinda bouncing around trying to find a low fatigue accessory. I really liked this the most.
The squat is kinda on the back burner, capping it at 5 plates at a low(ish) intensity has helped with recovery a lot. But honestly, this is fine because I don’t think I’ve ever been this comfortable with 495, I’m can tell I’m getting stronger regardless of pushing the weight or reps.
Pause Sumo Deadlift
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 3
405 x 2
485 x 1
525 3x3 RPE 4
2CT Pause Bench
135 x 7
185 x 5
225 x 3
275 x 2
315 x 1
345 x 1
370 x 1 RPE 6.5
Close Grip Bench
275 x 5 RPE 4
250 x 5 RPE 2
Barbell Rows
365 x 2
405 x 2
435 x 5 RPE 7.5
Cross body Lat Pull 95 2x10
One Arm DB Incline Bench 75s 2x20
One Arm Pushdowns 125 2x8
2 Count Bench is going good. 370 was a perfect week 4 attempt, still pretty low hype and calm.
Deads continue to move faster week by week, the speed on 525 surprised even me. I brought my stance in by a couple inches to take some strain off the adductors and somehow it felt even stronger.
Honestly man? I don’t really know how to explain my training, haha. Other than it works. I wish I could delve deeper into it. Its just been something I’ve been running on autopilot without much thought and I don’t really know how to explain the progression or percentages I’m running in a way that doesn’t start sounding like gibberish. Alot of it is still by feel which is why I’ve been preferring RPE over RIR.
I’ve borrowed a lot from watching my training partner and seeing what his coach has him do. Guy is strong as shit so of course I’m going to pick his brain. That’s a big reason I’ve shifted to shorter blocks with more frequent deloads.
I’ve also mentioned Sheiko a lot and I’m still a big follower in his training philosophies when it comes to strength. His programming is pretty individual to the specific athlete which is why I never really followed any of the templates and rather just applied his training principles to my training to the best of my abilities and personal interpretation.
Here’s some snippets that I really have borrowed from:
The switch from hitting accessories and indicator lifts in an all-out fashion to one that is focused on using accessory movements as a tool for injury prevention has been huge for recovery too. The heavy lat, hamstring and curl focused work has really helped shore up alot of my long standing weak points. I make a effort to try to keep reps left in the tank and also find stuff that’s not gonna kill my recovery.
Prehab is a big one too. I still do it. I just don’t log it because its monotonous. It takes me like 20-40 minutes to get through it, depending on how stiff I am from work, which, if its bad, i’ll add in extra movements and light cardio too.
This is all just anecdotal though, I’m still learning a lot and there’s plenty others stronger than me. I’ve been finding training really fun lately, despite the tweaks I get. So that means a lot to me.
635 was hitched but it didn’t really feel “grindy”.
Something came up last night and I only got about 4 hours of sleep because of it. I also wasn’t able to eat at all. So coming in I was in a 2000ish deficit from last night. I also switched from the woman’s bar to the regular bar and it got rid of a lot of the whip.
With these training variables in mind, I’m still fairly confident in attempting 300KG/660lbs next week IF the warmups move better than today… At a minimum I’d like 650 even if it’s gotta be hitched. This is all uncharted territory for me right now so I’m still happy with today’s performance.
I was really happy with how conventional deads felt. It’s been like 7 to 8 months since I’ve pulled in this stance. My Psoas did fine. The first rep of the first set initially felt sketchy as I felt it tightening up but it was okay after that. I’m still being cautious on these though, there’s a lot more psoas loading because of the bent over position.
I’m going to start using my conventional stance for extra backdown work. Happy to see my technique is still there despite being detrained.
Raw Squat
135 x 8
275 x 4
345 x 3
405 x 2
455 x 1
500 x 1
550 x 1
585 x 3 lifetime raw pr RPE 9.5
Pause Bench
155 x 10
225 x 6
275 x 3
315 x 2
335 x 1
355 2x5 RPE 7.5 PR
Smith Machine OHP
135 x 10
225 x 8
245 2x8
BTN Pulldowns 180 2x20
One Arm Pushdowns 135 2x8
Hell of a start to week 5. Two PRs back to back. It wasn’t my plan to triple 585 for week 5 but I woke up this morning and wanted to squat heavy for some reason, so I said fuck the program and went for it.
My training partner thinks I’m good for 625ish. I get about 60lbs outta wraps so 685lbs as my top end strength is a good spot to be at right now.
355 for clean sets of 5 with pauses and reps left is huge and I’ll consider this a PR based off effort and intensity. I’ll be taking 380 or 385 for my 2ct Single on Friday so that’ll really show me where my top end is.
Thanks for sharing that, I really like the idea training effectiveness reducing as you add more sessions. When I squatted 3 days a week I would always have the third session as a skill session, pauses or tempo work. Seems like this was a good idea.
Alright this is getting ridiculous lol. Im gonna invest in a gym pin soon so I can add weight to the machines much more efficiently and not have to worry about dropping a dumbbell on my foot.
Thanks , still feeling it I should be okay by tomorrow.
I’m a lot more anxious for Sunday though. Its been like that for days haha. If I can try to pull for a PR I will but failing might be even worse, It kinda plays like a collage
Now I know the plates fell off right at lockout but I’m still counting this because of the ease. I clearly got it past my knees and was going to lock it out…
I will get this without the plates falling off eventually. I did attempt another single with 675 which I’ll post when I finish my training but the same thing happened.
I’m a bit unsatisfied because obviously the plates fell off… But still happy because this was so easy. It felt like I had 700 today.
Sumo Deadlift
135 x 5
275 x 4
405 x 1
495 x 1
585 x 1
675 2x1 RPE 9, RPE 10
Pause 2CT Bench
135 x 5
225 x 4
285 x 2
325 x 1
355 x 1
385 x 1 RPE 8.5
Barbell Rows
455 x 5 lifetime pr
Cross body Lat Pull 115 2x10
One Arm DB Incline Bench 80s 2x20
One Arm Pushdowns 135 2x8
Great training day. 675 on the deadlift was a bit disappointing since I completed about 90% of a rep… but now that I know 675 is there, I have an established training max. The fact I could pull it a second time is also huge.
I have never in my life jumped straight from 585 to 675. I was attacking the bar with pure confidence and control today.
385 for a 2CT moved a tad bit slower than I wanted it to. Based off the speed I still think I’m good for 405 for a controlled, low hype albeit grindy 2CT. My top end should be around 425 with quick pause.
Ending off this week 5 with a pretty realistic training total of 625/420/675. It’ll take a couple more months to clean this all up and truly hit these numbers instead of doing estimates but im operating close enough to my maxes to have a pretty accurate gauge of what I could hit.
At this point I’ve blown past my old numbers and I’m so happy I’ve stayed injury free.
Squat
135 x 6
275 x 2
345 x 1
405 x 1
495 x 3 Terrible Depth RPE 4.5
Pause Bench
135 x 8
225 x 6
275 x 4
315 x 2
340 6x2 RPE 4
Pause Conventional Deadlift
315 x 3
405 x 3 got yelled at RPE 3
Squat depth was atrocious. I was dealing with a lot of hip flexor and quad tightness so mentally that played a role, still posting it though as I’ve made it a habit to record everything. It’s my Week 1 so this isn’t really that big of a deal. Just worked up to something I know I could hit without much issue or thought and focus.
I got yelled at for deadlifting. I was originally supposed to do 455 x 3 but I said fuck that and just left after this dude (and one of the gym staff) had a meltdown about me slamming weights… Not a super big deal. I still remained polite and apologized. I asked some others around me if it was excessive but they didn’t think so. I wasn’t even trying to make a show or ego lift… I was just focused on my technique and tightness lol. It was a deload + warmup.
Pause Close Grip Bench
135 x 7
225 x 6
285 x 2
315 x 2
320 x 2
325 x 2
320 x 2
One Arm Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raise 40s 2x8
Preacher Curl Plate Loaded 2pps 2x8
Sitting Hamstring Curl 220x8 , 240x8
Reverse Curl 105 3x10
One Arm Rear Delt Cable Flye 35 3x10
One Arm Cable Row 220 2x5
One Arm Pushdowns 95 2x15
Exercise Selection is remaining somewhat the same. Hamstring Curls will be replaced with Single Leg Curls starting week 2 since I’ve already maxed out the machines and need some way to progressively overload.
Reverse Curls and Plate Loaded Curls both seem to be god tier exercises when it comes to the ease I can progress on these, so this will stay in. I don’t see me maxing this out in awhile (which is good).
One Arm Pushdowns still remain a safe alternate to DB Skullcrushers for me as I felt these were taxing me way too hard once I got up to the 90s, there’s something about the movement that just doesn’t feel right, so I dropped it entirely. One Arm Delt Flyes off the cables are promising as I’ve maxed out the delt machines, these are significantly harder and have room to progress, same with switching from machine lateral raises to Dumbell Raises.
Incline DB Benching will remain in rotation for injury prevention purposes on Friday, it seemed to help loosen me up alot and build up confidence in that ultra stretched position. I will be shifting Smith Machine OHP to Friday as well to see if that gap between Saturday-Monday will help. The issue I ran into doing the OHP on a Tuesday was that the tightness and fatigue would carry over into my next two bench sessions. I’m hoping this 3 day gap will aid in recovery and bump up the quality of work for Weds/Fri.
I’ll also be adding the deadlift to my tuesday session for a full SBD day, which is partially the reason I was going to shift OHP to Friday as well. I used to traditionally do pullups on tuesday but I ran into the same issue with it fucking with my shoulder. So i’ll be adding in a One Arm Lat Pulldown Variation instead since BTN Pulldowns don’t seem to be really helping me and seem to cause equally as much issues than it does benefit. I need some sort of heavy direct lat work and I know these are gonna be hard as shit.
Squat programming worked so well that I’ll be doing the exact same thing but trying to add an extra set and bump up the working weights by 10-20 pounds. I’m still not sure how aggressive I want to be in my % jump.
I’m still sticking pretty close to my original blueprint of last block regardless of these mini changes. It was the first time I felt healthy, fresh and wasn’t complaining about tweaks or strains. I was hitting the right stride I believe.
Sumo Deadlift
135 x 8
275 x 4
405 x 2
495 x 1
545 x 1
585 x 1 RPE 5
Skipped Backdowns Replaced w/ rows
Barbell Rows
405 3x5 RPE 4
Single Leg Sitting Hamstring Curl 85 3x8
Neutral Grip Lat Pulldown 260 2x12
Neutral Grip Cable Row 260 2x12
Plate Loaded Preacher Curl 2pps 2x10
Reverse Curl 115 3x10
From yesterday
First time I had the confidence to do rows without using the pins, I’m trying to get over the last bit of fear I have from my injury, all mental at this point
Squat
135 x 10
275 x 8
345 x 3
405 x 1
465 x 1
510 3x3 RPE 4.5, 7, 7 (80%)
Pause Bench
45 x 20
155 x 7
185 x 4
225 x 3
275 x 1
325 x 1
345 x 1
365 x 1 RPE 4 (85%)
Low Pause Sumo Deadlift
155 x 4
225 x 4
405 x 2
475 3x2 RPE 3.5 (71%)
One Arm Lat Pulldown 120 2x8
One Arm Pushdown 160 2x8
Much better depth on squats. When I don’t have a mirror I tend to just sink it. Guess it works lol. I also had the guy call out depth so that helped.
About the fastest (and lightest) 365 has felt ever. I was really tempted to just try and PR with how good I felt but I realized that was an incredibly stupid idea, if it was a week 4 I would’ve done it but week 2 is way too early. It seems like moving the OHP to Friday did help with recovery. Let’s see how it affects tomorrow and Fridays benching.
Tuesday will be a Low Pause to work on setup off the floor and Friday will be a pause at the knees to work on the follow through.
I decided to check this strongman gym out and they had so much to offer. They also had a god damn deadlift bar which seems impossible to find around here. I almost cried when I loaded up weight and felt how smooth it was. I’m a slut for it
Pause Close Grip Bench
135 x 6
225 x 4
275 x 2
315 x 3 (78%)
275 2x5 (68%)
One Arm Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raise 50s 2x8
Preacher Curl Plate Loaded 100 3x8
One Leg Hamstring Curl 100 3x8
Reverse Curl 145 3x10
One Arm Rear Delt Cable Flye 42.5 3x8
One Arm Cable Row 240 2x8
Single Leg Leg Extensions 100 2x12
Pretty good training day, lots of room to progress on everything again, made the right choice with accessory switch up
I should be okay by tomorrow.
