Thoughts: I had to do the 3 day version this week due to everything going on. It has been a very stressful week and I lost a lot of sleep this week, but thankfully life can go back to normal next week. Rack pulls kind of sucked today. 255 was supposed to be a warmup, but felt about a 7. It was probably a little under judging by my last 3 sets there, but still close. Likely just due to the stress and lack of sleep this week, deadlift seems to always be the lift that gets hit the hardest for me whenever external things happen. We will see how next week goes. Oh and on a good note, I did get my AirDyne AD2 this week. So far so good.
Thoughts: Really good day out there! 3rd time was a charm for 265 on the squat. I was able to keep my form locked in this week, and that was definitely felt better than the last couple of weeks. That is a bench PR right there, and not just competition bench with a pause (which is still new to me), but that would have also been a TnG bench PR! Stress levels are back to normal this week, so training should be able to go back to normal as well. We will see how deadlift goes tomorrow, that’s always the true test for me and how happy/unhappy my body is, hahaha.
Thoughts: Took a step back on my deadlift this week. I think that I have been overshooting my RPE’s, especially judging by last week hitting a 9.5 on the single. I think I’ve been letting my ego get in the way, wanting to keep it going up. So I was a bit more cautious this week, and I may have undershot a hair, but I think I was close enough at least. I didn’t feel beaten to shit after deadlifts today, so that’s a good thing. On press I kept getting dizzy for some reason. There were a couple times I almost fell over. I gotta work on taking of a belly breathe instead of a chest breathe on press.
Thoughts: So I realized today after the fact that I’ve been miscalculating the weight on banded bench. The bands are 35lb each, not 35lb total… so in the future if I’m looking back on this log all prior weeks banded bench add +35 to get the real weight. I can’t believe I did that, me of all people, who is so good at numbers, hahaha. Oh well.
Oh and I guess I can share my good news here on the internet since it’s all official, and the reason why I was so stressed out last week, I accepted an offer at GoDaddy and turned in my two week notice at work yesterday. Last week I was interviewing and had 3 different competing offers to decide between. It was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever had to make as all 3 offers were really good. I lost a lot of hours of sleep over it, lol. But now it’s all official and life is good, I start after memorial day. We will see how this job effects my training schedule, especially the first week or two. They have a flexible schedule so hopefully I’ll be able to keep my current training schedule, at least once I’m fully on boarded. The first week or two I may have more constraints so I may have to get a 1 month membership at a gym so I can train in the evening (as the evenings are too hot to train in a garage this time of year here) as opposed to the morning if I have to be in early.
Thoughts: Undershot my RPE’s a bit on the DL supplemental lifts. I was overshooting a couple weeks back, so I guess undershooting is better than over, but still I gotta get that better calibrated. Close grip felt great though, my bench is definitely responding really well to the 3x per week frequency, of all lifts that is the one that has made the biggest percentage gain since starting the 12 week strength template.
Yates Row 145: 50
Ab roller from feet: 43
Hammer curl 25: 49
Neck Extensions 25: 90
HIIT: Air Dyne 20 second sprints x7
Thoughts: Added back in some neck harness work. I’ve had chronic neck pain for years, it seems to go away whenever I regularly do neck extensions, and whenever I stop it comes back in a few weeks (this week it came back). So I guess I’m better off just doing them once a week, even though I hate them with a passion. Also did Air Dyne HIIT for the first time. I haven’t done any HIIT in any form in probably 8 months or so, so I’m definitely a bit deconditioned. The first 3 intervals were like riding a bike (pun intended), but the last 4 I was huffing and puffing. Good news is that I spent so many, many years training conditioning exclusively that this stuff comes back to me super fast. My body is genetically better suited for conditioning/endurance than it is for strength unfortunately.
Weekly Composition:
Average weight: 161.89 (+0.09lb)
Waist: 31.75 in (+.0")
Average Calories: 2761
Thoughts: First day of low stress week. My squat doesn’t seem to want to keep pace at 5lb per week gains, so I’m going to cut my weekly gain attempts to 2.5lb. I do like rotating out variations like this, keeps things a bit more fresh. That was my first time I’ve ever done a 3ct paused bench. It did a good job really working that bottom position. I really felt it in my chest.
Thoughts: Sadly, that’s a press PR! That is also the third time over the last year since I ended my LP that I’ve attempted 117 (the most recent being just 3 weeks ago) and every time I’ve attempted it it’s been an complete and utter failure, like bar won’t even budge / immovable object kind of failure. But today I hit it for a solid 8 RPE. Which means that for the first time since my LP ended my press is finally getting stronger. In that time I’ve run Andy Baker programs, Jim Wendler programs, and Greg Nuckols programs. I’ve done hundreds, if not thousands, of press reps yet essentially gotten nothing for it. Finally, it is actually making progress Now if only I can actually get my fucking deadlift moving again, then the impossible will really have been done…
Thoughts: My dog passed away yesterday. So I’ll just call it lucky that I was able to even force myself to lift today. It took every drop of discipline in my body.
Thoughts: That’s a 13lb TnG bench PR, and not only that but it was @8 and the lower end of 8 at that. I definitely could have hit it @8 with a couple extra lb on the bar. There’s no doubt my bench is responding very well to this program. That was also my first time doing paused DL and SLDL’s. I do like how they introduce new movements on a lower volume week, as it does take a lot of time feeling out the right weight on a new movement. I probably undershot my paused deadlift a hair judging by how my second set came in at an 8.5 instead of a 9. SLDL felt right on the money though.
Thoughts: Whole lot of bench volume right there. My top singles didn’t feel great today. I fumbled the bar a little bit out of the bottom on the bench, else that probably would have hit the target @8, and squats in general were just moving slow for me today, I could tell in my warmup. All in all, not a bad day all things considered.
Thoughts: Pretty shit day out there. Did not sleep well or feel well going in. Feel very beaten up after yesterdays workout, I think I detrained to the volume a bit over the low stress week last week. Everything was heavier than it should have been today. Oh well, I guess bad days happen.
Thoughts:I think I undershot paused squats and floor press a bit. Paused squats were hard to get an RPE reading on because they move so much slower than a normal squat. But the fact that I was able to do the backoffs for all 3 sets @8.5 signals to me that I was under the intended stress. Similar situation for floor press, though I actually did auto regulate up on the single, that was a 10lb increase from last week. Press was dead on though. Also throwing in a 3rd day of curls in the week because my arms have actually been getting smaller on this program. Curls don’t really generate enough fatigue to throw my training off, so why not?
Thoughts: 200lb TnG Bench PR!!! That’s a pretty big milestone, and @8 to boot. My bench is just blowing up on this program. I wish my deadlift and squat would finally start gaining again. I undershot my pause deadlifts a bit, that’s another new variation that is hard to get an accurate RPE reading on. I’ll be a little more aggressive on those next week.
Thoughts: Small PR for both squat and bench. I overshot 3 ct paused bench, as is obvious by the 9.5 on the last set. I need to be a bit more careful there next week. The 3 ct paused bench surprisingly really fries my side delts.
Thoughts: Still having a hard time feeling out RPE on floor press. That was definitely still an undershoot by a bit. Paused squats was also a slight undershoot, but only by a bit, and I did auto regulate up 15lb from last week.
Now if only I can actually get my fucking deadlift moving again, then the impossible will really have been done…