Great, great end to the block. No tweaks or injuries to note, very rare for training to go as good as it did. The aggressiveness to maintain the numbers paid off though. It’s a perfect bridge into week 1.
There really was no planned progression coming off my 4 week hiatus, it ended up looking chaotic with a much higher RPE, probably some overreaching, and grinders. My decision to level off this week was a good one. Pretty much feel fresh again.
Comp Bench is lagging behind because of the low frequency but my intention here is to simply maintain my groove going into the next block, Incline Bench and Close Grip are progressing fast with more room for growth. I’ll take the ego hit on my comp bench if it means a bigger PR in the long run any day.
I’ll be taking roughly the same weight on everything next week. I’ve got a good progression planned out and I’m confident I’ll hit what I need to hit. Main goal is still increasing the Push/Pull.
Thanks guys. I appreciate it. hope I can stay healthy and continue to grind, got a lot of years ahead of me and I’m still growing into my prime. Remaining hopeful
I think I’ve matured a lot since I started logging here a few years ago, a bit full of it and alot more ego driven. At least I try to think before I post, its progress haha
I’ve been using ChatGPT as an impromptu “guide” for a month or so now. It can give me some incredibly stupid answers sometimes but it has been amazing when it comes to load and injury management and troubleshooting.
The downside is that I have to be honest and very specific otherwise it seems to falls short, it’ll just give you information you want to hear.
Beltless Pause Highbar Squat
155 x 5
225 x 3
315 x 2
405 x 3 @ 5
Incline Spoto Bench
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 3
255 x 1
295 x 5 @ 7
Beltless Conventional Deadlift
225 x 2
315 x 1
405 x 1
485 x 3 (cluster singles) @ 3
Pendlay Row
355 x 5
One Arm Skjllcrusher 70s 2x10
Face Pulls 95 2x15
I’ll be reverting back to my old squat format. I thought maybe since my work capacity has gone up, I could handle the extra highbar day but nope, my joints are getting obliterated. It seems I do respond best to once a week squatting. Did a topset just because I already started squatting but I’ll be dropping it moving forward.
On another note, I have actually fallen in love with deadlifting. For someone who historically has thought he “was bad” at pulling, the issue was frequency, time under the bar, repetition and technique.
I really have found a pulling technique I can replicate without thinking and doesn’t make me hesitate before the pull. It feels so damn satisfying to hit reps.
I’m not quite sure what has changed in the last few weeks. The deadlift has felt flawless lately (at the expense of my squat lol).
No longer hesitating or thinking when I setup and get tight in my wedge. That little extra mental barrier I’ve had for years is just… Gone. feels like I’m tapping into that last 2-5% of strength I’ve been missing.
I know neural drive is a big component to strength in general. I’ve always had that dead calm when it came to the squat and bench to a lesser degree, always panicky with the pull though.
Sorry for the rant lol. I get passionate about training
Me and my training partner once again got told off for deadlifting lol. Second time the same lady has said “were scaring the clients” and demanded us to put the hexagon plates away and use bumpers.
When we told her how would we be able to fit the weight on the bars, she said she didn’t care and that those were “her” pads that we would break.
Real confusing since she doesn’t own the gym but whatever. At this point we don’t really care too much. The other staff (plus GM) has said they’re cool with it.
First time checking out your log man. Besides being way fucking stronger than I am, we train in a very similar fashion. Granted I’m a fan of some of CT’s periodized programs and will do a couple of them per year, but for the most part I train pretty much how I see in your log. Cool stuff man, I’ll keep checking in.
Thanks for stopping in man, nice to see a new face.
Its a pretty great training format. I didn’t make it myself though. This is the template that my training partner runs which he gets from his coach and his dad. A lot of RTS influence
I really love mundane, low rep work. I could sit and do sets of 3 all day, every day lol. Some people might find it boring but I love it.
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I haven’t tried any of CTs stuff, I’ve heard good things. I used to do my own periodization but I drifted away from the long training cycles, block training is better for me and have stuck with it since
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