The Flywheel Effect.

[U]Medium - 3x10[/U]
[B]Bench Press[/B]
85 x 10
115 x 10
115 x 9
[I]Repeat[/I]

[B]Back Squat[/B]
95 x 10
95 x 10
95 x 10
[I]Drop to 65/95/95[/I]

[B]Pendlay Row[/B]
85 x 10
115 x 10
115 x 10
[I]Increase to 120[/I]

[B]Overhead Press[/B]
50 x 10
70 x 6
70 x 8
[I]Repeat[/I]

[B]Chin Up[/B]
BW-60 x 10
BW-25 x 10
BW-25 x 10
[I]Increase to BW-20[/I]

[B]Leg Curl[/B]
90 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10
[I]Increase to 125[/I]

[B]Face Pull - 2x15[/B]
22.5 x 15
22.5 x 15
[I]Increase to 27.5[/I]

[B]Leg Raise - 2xAMRAP[/B]
BW x 20
BW x 22


[B]Comments:[/B]Today's session was kind of messed up by a lack of equipment availability. I had to do some lifts back to back that I typically wouldn't want to. OHP was the one that suffered most. I did it immediately after bunching, and my performance suffered (expectedly)

Bench went pretty well. I'm think I could've squeezed out the final rep, but I really trying not to go beyond a 9 RPE right now. I'll repeat at the same weight next time.
I decided it's time to do a major reset on Squats. I've been overcompensating for weaknesses in so many ways, and it needs to stop now. I dropped the weight down to 95, and still struggled to hit the reps with relatively strict form. I could definitely feel the areas that are weaker. I'm okay with stopping short of my rep goal rather than overcompensating to allow myself to lift the weight for the designated number of reps. I'm gonna proceed cautiously, and make sure I only increase weight when I can truly complete the reps with solid form. I was really shocked at how much I struggled with 95 lbs.

Rows were relatively easy. I already touched on OHP. I'll repeat that again at the same weight. Chin Ups went well. I had probably 1 or 2 reps left in the tank. Leg Curls, Face Pulls, and Leg Raises were completed successfuly, with a few reps to spare.

I'll be off until Monday now, most likely.

[U]Heavy - 4x5[/U]
[B]Bench Press[/B]
65 x 5
115 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5
[I]Increase to 140[/I]

[B]Back Squat[/B]
65 x 5
85 x 5
115 x 5
115 x 5
[I]Increase to 125[/I]

[B]Pendlay Row[/B]
75 x 5
105 x 5
150 x 5
150 x 5
[I]Repeat[/I]

[B]Overhead Press[/B]
45 x 5
60 x 5
85 x 5
85 x 5
[I]Increase to 90[/I]

[B]Chin Up[/B]
BW x 5
BW x 5
BW x 5
BW x 7
[I]Increase to 5lbs on last 2 sets[/I]

[B]Leg Curl[/B]
70 x 5
105 x 5
140 x 5
140 x 5
[I]Increase to 145[/I]

[B]Face Pull[/B]
27.5 x 15
27.5 x 15
[I]Repeat[/I]

[B]Plank[/B]
BW x 45 seconds
BW x 75 seconds
[I]Increase to 60/75 sec[/I]

[B]Comments:[/B]
Wasn't planning to lift today, but an opportunity arose so I took it since there's a decent chance I'll end up missing a day this next week. I'm feeling pretty fresh now as well, so I didn't really feel the need for 3 days of rest.

Bench felt pretty good, but a few of the reps were a struggle. Squats were meh. Just like my previous session, I lowered the weight significantly. I'm still working on finding a stance (feet width and angle) that feels reasonably comfortable. I'll start increasing the weight more significantly once I get that figured out. Rows were marginal. I hit all the reps, but wasn't happy with a couple of them, so I'll repeat with the same weight. A few tough reps on OHP as well, but I'll increase it next time.

Chin ups felt pretty damn good, managing a few extra reps on the last set. I'll start adding weight now, initially going to add 5 lbs on my final 2 sets. We'll see how that goes. Leg Curls are going well. I'll continue to increase gradually. Face pulls felt good as well. I'll repeat them once more at the same weight though. Planks...I don't think I've ever enjoyed doing planks, but I got through them today, lol. I'll try adding 15 seconds to the first one next time.

Most importantly, I haven't had any shoulder issues the last two session (well...not any new, or unexpected shoulder issues. They never feel perfect).

[U]Light - 2X15[/U]
[B]Front Squat[/B]
70 x 15
70 x 15
[I]Increase to 75[/I]

[B]Romanian Deadlift[/B]
150 x 15
150 x 15
[I]Increase to 155[/I]

[B]DB Incline Press[/B]
35 x 15
35 x 15
[I]Increase to 40[/I]

[B]Lat Pulldown[/B]
75 x 15
75 x 15
[I]Increase to 80[/I]

[B]Tricep Pushdown[/B]
47.5 x 15
47.5 x 15
[I]Repeat[/I]

[B]Chest Supported Row[/B]
40 x 15
40 x 15
[I]Increase to 45[/I]

[B]Hammer Curl[/B]
20 x 15
20 x 13
[I]Repeat[/I]

[B]Seated Calf Raise - 2x20[/B]
35 x 20
35 x 20
[I]Repeat[/I]


[B]Comments:[/B]Front Squat, RDL, DB Incline Press, Lat Pulldown, and Chest Supported Row all went very smoothly, and I'll bump up the weight next time.
I hit my rep goal on Tricep Pushdowns and Calf Raises, but will repeat them once more at the same weight. Hammer Curls saw an improvement from last time (from 25 to 28 reps). I'll repeat the same weight on those as well. At some point soon I'll probably need to change my progression approach for this day, since I'm not going to be able to progress in a linear fashion for too long. I'll keep milking it for now though.

[U]Medium - 3x10[/U]
[B]Bench Press[/B]
85 x 10
115 x 10
115 x 10
[I]Increase to 120[/I]
Everything felt good. The last rep was probably around an 8.5-9 RPE. I'll be bumping up the weight, but I'll make sure I stop short of failure next time, as I expect I'll be unable to complete all the reps.

[B]Back Squat[/B]
65 x 10
95 x 10
95 x 12
[I]Increase to 65/105/105[/I]
Still feeling off a little bit. I tested out a narrower stance, and it felt decent. I realized after the fact that it would've felt better if I'd angled my toes out a bit more. I did a few extra reps to focus on keeping my weight back, because I noticed I was shifting my weight to the balls of my feet. I can increase weight comfortably, but I have work to do yet in getting a solid stance and weight distribution. Those will be my primary focus moving forward.

[B]Pendlay Row[/B]
85 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10
[I]Increase to 125[/I]
The last few reps were a grind, but I completed them with pretty solid form. Starting to get in the groove on this movement finally. An important key for me has been keeping my core tight/stable.

[B]Overhead Press[/B]
50 x 10
70 x 10
70 x 8
[I]Repeat[/I]
A 4 rep increase from last time. This was the best I've felt doing this lift yet. I made a small adjustment to my shoulders (not retracting them as much as I typically have) and the motion felt much more natural. I had no shoulder discomfort at all, which is basically unheard of for me.

[B]Chin Up[/B]
BW-60 x 10
BW-20 x 10
BW-20 x 10
[I]Increase to BW-15[/I]
Piece of cake today. Probably could've done 5 more reps. I'll continue to increase slowly though.

[B]Leg Curl[/B]
90 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10
[I]Increase to 95/130[/I]
Starting to feel challenging, but I had a reps in the tank still.

[B]Face Pull[/B] - 2x15
27.5 x 15
27.5 x 15
[I]Increase to 32.5[/I]
I'm feeling pretty comfortable with these now.

[B]Leg Raise[/B] - 2xAMRAP
BW x 22
BW x 23
[I]Repeat[/I]
3 Rep increase from last time. I'll continue doing AMRAP's until I get up to 50 reps, then I'll probably change to something else.

[B]Comments:[/B]
The consistency and repetition is starting to pay dividends finally. With the exception of Squats, I'm seeing solid improvements in the lifts pretty much across the board. Form and bar paths are improving significantly. This is something I'm going to continue to focus on, especially on the higher rep days.

[U]Heavy - 4x5[/U]
[B]Bench Press[/B]
65 x 6
115 x 5
140 x 3
140 x 3
[I]Repeat[/I]
My form is staying tight even as the reps get harder, which is really encouraging. I may have had another rep in me on each of the work sets, but definitely wasn't going to hit 5.

[B]Back Squat[/B]
65 x 5
95 x 5
125 x 5
125 x 5
I think this is the last time I'm doing back squats for a while. It just felt all kinds of wrong again. I'm thinking I may put Leg Press in on my heavy day, move Front Squat to medium day, and do some single leg work on the light day. I'll think about for a few days though. I'll definitely revisit back squats at some point in the future.

[B]Pendlay Row[/B]
75 x 5
105 x 5
150 x 5
150 x 5
[I]Increase to 75/115/150/150[/I]
Better form throughout the sets than last time. I was happy with all of the reps except the very last one, which wasn't bad but also wasn't great. Instead of increasing my work weight, I'll keep it the same for one more week and slightly increase my warmup weights. If I perform reasonably well, I'll then drop the warmup weights back down a bit and increase the working weight.

[B]Overhead Press[/B]
45 x 5
65 x 5
90 x 3
90 x 3
[I]Repeat[/I]
Same story as Bench here pretty much, though I was probably just a bit closer to failure.

[B]Chin Up[/B]
BW x 5
BW x 5
5 x 5
5 x 5
[I]Increase to BW/BW/5/10[/I]

[B]Leg Curl[/B]
70 x 5
110 x 5
145 x 5
145 x 5
[I]Increase to 75/110/150/150[/I]
Still feeling strong on these. It should be a few weeks yet before I start to struggle.

[B]Face Pull[/B]
32.5 x 15
32.5 x 13
[I]Repeat[/I]
I could've pulled through the last couple of reps, but it was getting tough enough that I was concerned about a form break.

[B]Plank[/B]
BW x 60 seconds
BW x 75 seconds
[I]Increase to 75/75 sec[/I]
My whole body started shaking 15 seconds into the first plank, lol. Somehow I managed to get through it.

[B]Comments:[/B]
It was a very long day at work. I'm quite short of sleep. Kind of surprised today went reasonably well. I almost didn't even go to the gym because I got off of work so late, was tired, and both of my wrists were sore from working on the computer all day, but I don't know if I'll have a chance to go again until Monday so I sucked it up and went anyway. I have a full slate of Christmas get togethers this weekend, and somehow need to fit all of my shopping and wrapping in there too.

[U]Heavy - 4x5[/U]
[B]Bench Press[/B]
65 x 6
115 x 5
140 x 4
140 x 3
145 x 2
[I]Reduce to 130[/I]
One more rep than last time. After failing twice in a row at this weight, I'll reduce it next time and work my way up again.

[B]Leg Press[/B]
180 x 5
270 x 5
360 x 5
360 x 5
[I]Increase to 410[/I]
This was my first time ever really doing a leg press before. I'd only ever done single leg previously. I just kept adding plates until it felt reasonably challenging.

[B]Chin Up[/B]
BW x 5
BW x 5
5 x 5
10 x 3
[I]Repeat[/I]
I banged my knee pretty hard on the damn pullup machine, which prevented me from attempting any more reps on the last set. I doubt I would've made it to 5 regardless. I was trying to hold a plate between my feet, which resulted in me keeping my feet more forward than normal and hitting my knee. I'm planning to go get a dip belt tomorrow that should help with this in the future.

[B]Leg Curl[/B]
70 x 5
110 x 5
145 x 5
145 x 5
Well ****...I forgot to log my progress on this the other day, so I repeated at the same weight again. I'll be dropping this from my heavy day anyway.

[B]Face Pull[/B]
32.5 x 15
32.5 x 15
[I]Repeat[/I]

[B]Plank[/B]
BW x 75 seconds
BW x 75 seconds
[I]Increase to 60/90 sec[/I]

[B]Comments:[/B]
Wasn't able to get in a rack since they were all being used the entire time I was there, so I had to improvise a bit. Other than there, there was nothing really of note today.

I'm making some more adjustments to my program in an effort to simplify things a bit since I feel a lot of the stuff I've been doing is unnecessary for me at this point. Now that I'm back on a pretty regular schedule and not needing to lift on back to back days, I'm going to drop the Light Day, and just alternate Heavy and Medium days. I'm also cutting back from 8 to 6 lifts on each day. Here's what it will look like:

[U]Heavy[/U]
[B]Deadlift[/B] - 2x5
[B]Bench Press[/B] - 4x5
[B]Leg Press[/B] - 4x5
[B]Chin Up[/B] - 4x5
[B]Face Pull[/B] - 2x15
[B]Plank[/B] - 2 sets (timed)

[U]Medium[/U]
[B]Overhead Press[/B] - 3x10
[B]Front Squat[/B] - 3x10
[B]Pendlay Row[/B] - 3x10
[B]Leg Curl[/B] - 3x10
[B]Tricep Pushdown[/B] - 3x10
[B]Hammer Curl[/B] - 3x10

For most lifts I'll be ramping up to my working weight with one or two lighter sets (60-70% of my working weight). I'm also going to try implementing some of the concepts from 5/3/1 to hopefully aid in progression once I begin stalling. I'll introduce these when I've failed to hit the required number of reps on a given exercise. On Heavy days, if I fail I'll continue ramping up the weight until I'm only able to do 1 or 2 reps. On Medium days, I'll do drop set/s at 70% of my working weight. I think it makes sense to build towards heavier weights on the heavy day, and add more volume on the medium day when I'm struggling on a particular lift. I'm ONLY going to do this when I've failed to hit all the reps on a lift, since I don't see the need to ramp up volume across the board at this point.

We'll see how that works out. Sometime in the future I foresee myself moving even closer to 5/3/1 programming, where I'll have my working weight be a percentage of my 5 / 10RM, and utilize Joker Sets on Heavy Days, and First Set Last on Medium Days. Further down the road yet, I'll probably transition into running 5/3/1 exactly as it's written. I feel like it's too early for me to limit my progression to that extent right now, which is why I'm not ready to follow it strictly quite yet. I'm planning to run my current setup for a good 6 months, assuming I can continue to progress steadily for that long.

My cut is going reasonably well. I'm down about 8 pounds in the last 6 weeks. I've been able to do it without feeling like I'm any hungrier than normal. Also been able to maintain or increase most of my lifts. I still have quite a ways to go before I get to where I really want to be. I'm thinking that once I drop another 8 pounds I'm going to maintain that for a month or so to help establish that as a 'new normal', and then cut about another 10 pounds. By sometime in the summer (mayber earlier), I should be in a position to do a well controlled bulking phase. That's quite a ways off though obviously.

[U]Medium - 3x10[/U]

[B]Overhead Press[/B]
50 x 10
70 x 10
70 x 10
[I]Increase to 50 / 75[/I]
I did a seated barbell shoulder press instead of a standing press because it was the only option I had at the time. Historically my OHP and seated shoulder press have been virtually identical, so I'm fairly confident I would've made the reps on OHP also. I'll increase the weight next time.

[B]Front Squat[/B]
65 x 10
85 x 10
85 x 10
[I]Increase to 65 / 90[/I]
The front squats feel infinitely better than the back squats, but I still have quite a lot of work to do on tightening up form. I'm able to keep the weight better balanced between each leg on front squats for whatever reason, which is my main problem on back squats. I still struggle a little bit with foot placement (stance width and foot angle), and with forward/backward weight balance. I definitely have a tendency to lean forward slightly at some times, and shift my weight too far back onto my heels at other times. Some reps feel great. It's just inconsistent. I'll keep working on it.

[B]Pendlay Row[/B]
85 x 10
125 x 8
125 x 9
[I]Repeat[/I]
Despite failing to hit all of the reps, I kept my form tight throughout, which is something I've struggled with in the past as I neared failure.

[B]Leg Curl[/B]
90 x 10
130 x 10
130 x 10
[I]Increase to 95 / 135[/I]

[B]Tricep Pushdown[/B]
32.5 x 10
47.5 x 10
47.5 x 10
[I]Increase to 37.5 / 52.5[/I]

[B]Hammer Curl[/B]
15 x 10
22.5 x 10
22.5 x 10
[I]Increase to 17.5 / 25[/I]

[B]Comments:[/B]
Not much to say about today's session. Everything went well. My work pace was good and steady, finishing in less than an hour easily. All of the lifts went reasonably well. Not sure if I'll be able to lift on Friday since I may have another commitment that day. The weekend is a question mark also. I'll be traveling Mon-Thurs next week, with no gym access whatsoever. There's an outside chance I'll be able to lift on both Friday and Sunday, or this could have been my last session for over a week. We'll see what happens...

[U]Heavy - 4x5[/U]
[B]Deadlift[/B]
155 x 5
225 x 5
225 x 5
265 x 2
[I]Increase to 235[/I]
The work sets at 225 were no problem at all. Bumped it up to 265 for 3 more reps, but my grip failed. I'm pretty surprised by how poor my grip has gotten after about a month of not deadlifting. I'm planning to stick to a double overhanded grip and allow my grip strength to limit my weights for a while, since I'll sometimes be deadlifting twice a week. Trying to limit the stress on my lower back for now.

[B]Bench Press[/B]
75 x 5
90 x 5
130 x 5
130 x 5
135 x 3
140 x 3
[I]Increase work sets to 135[/I]
130 was easy enough, as expected. Did a couple of 3 rep sets afterward with slightly increased weight. I'll be doing these additional sets at higher weights on my heavy days, based upon how I'm feeling at the time.

[B]Leg Press[/B]
230 x 5
270 x 5
410 x 5
410 x 5
[I]Increase to 430[/I]
No extra work after the work sets. Still getting used to doing these, so I didn't want to overdo it. I could probably handle another 50 pounds at 5 reps, but I'll continue to increase slowly.

[B]Chin Up[/B]
BW x 5
BW x 5
5 x 5
10 x 6
BW x 4
[I]Increase to BW / BW / 10 / 10[/I]
Got a dip belt as planned. It helped out enormously. I've felt like a weakling doing them assisted, so I'm super pumped to finally be able to finally do weighted chins.

[B]Face Pull[/B]
32.5 x 15
32.5 x 15
[I]Increase to 37.5[/I]
These felt noticeably easier today.

[B]Plank[/B]
BW x 60 seconds
BW x 90 seconds
[I]Increase to 75/90 sec[/I]

[B]Comments:[/B]
I'm making good, steady progress right now on pretty much all lifts. The reduction from 8 to 6 lifts per day feels great. I have more energy to put into each lift, and don't feel like I'm losing anything. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what progress I can make over the next several months with this setup.

Diet is going okay. My weight stayed essentially steady over the last week. This next week will be a challenge since I'll be away from home, and won't be able to cook my own meals (also won't have access to a gym during that time). I'm hoping I can tread water for another week, and then tighten up the diet a bit again. I may be getting to the point where I'll need to slightly decrease my calories to continue dropping weight, but I want to give it at least one more weeks at the current level and see how it goes. On the bright side, I've found some foods that I really enjoy eating, that are also quite healthy and compatible with a weight cutting phase. Been eating lots and lots of salmon, eggs, green beans, asparagus, pea pods, ground turkey, and mixing in some protein bars and coffee as my 'treats'. It's a diet I feel I can maintain comfortably for quite a long time.

As I mentioned already, I won't be lifting for about a week, so the thread will be inactive for a while.

[U]Medium - 3x10[/U]

[B]Overhead Press[/B]
50 x 10
75 x 10
75 x 5
45 x 10
[I]Repeat[/I]
I should've stopped earlier on my first work set. I went to about a 9 RPE and then had nothing left in the tank for the final set. I dropped it down to just the bar and did 10 more reps after about a 30 second rest to get in some more volume.

[B]Front Squat[/B]
65 x 10
90 x 10
90 x 10
[I]Increase to 95[/I]
All good here. I did a few reps of back squats w/90lbs immediately after. Gonna try to work in a few reps with light weights during each workout for a while and focus solely on getting comfortable with the movement.


[B]Pendlay Row[/B]
85 x 10
125 x 10
125 x 10
[I]Increase to 130[/I]
Made 3 more reps than last time, with a couple in the tank still.


[B]Leg Curl[/B]
95 x 10
135 x 10
135 x 10
[I]Increase to 140[/I]
These are starting to be pretty challenging now.


[B]Tricep Pushdown[/B]
52.5 x 10
52.5 x 10
[I]Increase to 57.5[/I]
Had some discomfort in my right shoulder on the first set. The second set felt really good. Strange how that happens sometimes. It seems like something inside my shoulder joint gets slightly out of place. When that happens I'll feel some discomfort even with pretty light weights. Other times I can lift much more weight without feeling anything at all. I get the same thing when doing bench, OHP, squats, face pulls, chins. So pretty much everything, lol.


[B]Hammer Curl[/B]
25 x 10
25 x 10
[I]Increase to 25 / 30[/I]
It going to be a challenge to increase weekly from now on, since I'll be jumping in 5lbs increments. I'll try increasing the weight on one set at a time and see how that goes.


[B]Comments:[/B]
Just got back from my vacation yesterday. The diet wasn't very good, but I somehow managed to only gain 1 pound, so I'm pretty happy with that. I had an early flight back (had to be up at 3am to get to the airport), and only got a few hours sleep. As is usually the case, I felt pretty good yesterday despite the lack of sleep. It typically hits me the day after though, and my energy level has been low today. I had to take longer than normal rests between some of the sets because I was struggling. I'm surprised I only failed on my first lift of the day. Was pleasantly surprised at the improvement on Rows.

I've been watching a lot of videos and doing a lot of reading about lifting over the last several months. Learning a lot. I've been working on planning my programming for the next several years. I'm still in the early stages, and don't really have any reason to jump into it in too much detail because I know that things can change quickly; I may encounter new ideas I hadn't been aware of, things could happen in my family, work life, or health that change things, etc. At the moment though, I'm really enjoying soaking up the information. My rough plan as of now is to continue with the program I'm running right now until I'm no longer progressing. I'm thinking I should be able to continue progressing in a relatively linear manner for several month yet, maybe longer. I still haven't figured out exactly how I'll know when I've reached end of the line, but at this point I guess I'm just trusting that I'll know. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to move on to when the time comes... Been learning a ton about 5/3/1. I've read the original book and Beyond front to back a couple of times each. I haven't decided whether I'll get Forever since I already have a good grasp of the system, AND a pretty good idea of how I'd want to run it initially. I'm really liking the Boring but Big assistance template. I think a good next step for me would be to run that with the version that has the assistance work being different than the core lift (Squat on Deadlift Day, OHP on Bench day, and visa versa). This will give me the 2x/Week frequency on the main lifts that I want to have still at the early intermediate stage. I'm the kind of person that generally like to stick to what's working for as long as it's working, and 5/3/1 seems like the kind of program that can work for a LONG time. I don't see any reason why I couldn't continue to see good progress with it for several years to come. But anyway, for now I'm happy with the progress I'm making, especially considering I'm in the middle of a cut. I'm looking forward to continuing as is for quite a while. Also happy to be confident about what direction I want to take my training in the future. And like I mentioned earlier, really enjoying learning a lot through books, articles, and videos.

As of now, I'm planning to be back in the gym on Sunday for my Heavy day. Looking forward to some Deadlifts. :)

[U]Workout A[/U]
[B]Deadlift - 5x5[/B]
115 x 5
165 x 5
185 x 5
210 x 5
235 x 5
[I]Increase top weight to 240[/I]
Tried a hook grip. It helped enormously. Also hurts like hell, lol.

[B]Overhead Press - 5x5[/B]
45 x 5
65 x 5
85 x 5
85 x 5
85 x 5
[I]Increase work weight to 90[/I]
Solid effort here. Still experimenting a bit with hand placement. Started closer than normal on the first set, and widened it slightly each set. I feel much more comfortable with a wider grip. Not sure if it's doing my shoulders any favors though.

[B]Paused Back Squat - 3x5[/B]
55 x 5
80 x 5
105 x 5
[I]Repeat[/I]
Wanted to try this out to see if it helps pinpoint some issues with my squats. It definitely did. I'm pretty weak coming out of the hole, and particularly on the right side of my body. Found myself compensating for it even at this light weight. I'll continue doing this, and may supplement it with some bodyweight split squats on my right leg on off days to try to build up some strength.

[B]Chest Supported Rows - 2x10[/B]
45 x 10
45 x 10
[I]Increase to 50[/I]

[B]French Press - 2x10[/B]
35 x 10
35 x 10
[I]Repeat[/I]
Last few reps were a struggle. I'll either repeat at the same weight or drop to 30, depending upon how I feel next time.

[B]Glute/Ham Raise[/B]
BW x 4
Just messed around with this since I've never used it before. It felt extremely awkward. I may try to get someone at the gym to help me out with it sometime, since if seemed like I didn't really have it setup correctly. Even with the few reps I did, I can see why people recommend these. I could feel it working the back side of my legs pretty good.

[B]Comments:[/B]
Well, for anyone that's been watching my progress, you can see that I changed things up again, lol. I probably spent another 15 hours studying over the last couple of days, and made some more tweaks as a result. I noticed that my program is getting to be pretty similar to some of the popular beginner programs around here. I guess that's probably a good sign, though certainly not intentional.
I came to the conclusion that there was no real benefit for me to be alternating reps schemes daily at this point. Also wanted to make sure that my 'core' and 'supplementary' lifts were setup more appropriately. I removed 1 supplementary lift from each day, since I want to really be focusing on the core lifts. I changed around some of my supplementary lifts as well, hoping to focus on some weak points rather than just picking something generic to hit a muscle without thinking about why. Here's a screenshot of my log sheet.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]8813581[/ATTACH]

[U]Workout A[/U]
Deadlift - 5x5 (ramping to 1 heavy set at the end, as can be seen in this post above)
Overhead/Military Press - 5x5 (2 lighter sets, then 3 work sets)
Paused Back Squat - 3x5 (ramping the weight up each set)
Chest Supported Row - 2x10
French Press - 2x10

[U]Workout B[/U]
Front Squat - 5x5 (2 lighter sets, then 3 work sets)
Bench Press - 5x5 (2 lighter sets, then 3 work sets)
Chin Up - 3x5 (1 lighter set, then 2 work sets)
Face Pull - 2x15
Plank - 2xTimed

[U]Workout B[/U]
[B]Front Squat[/B]
55 x 5
80 x 5
105 x 5
105 x 5
105 x 5
[I]Increase to 110[/I]

[B]Bench Press[/B]
65 x 5
100 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 3
65 x 10
[I]Repeat[/I]
The last rep on the 3rd set at 135 was nearing a 9 RPE. Extremely doubtful that I was going to hit 2 more reps. Dropped the weight significantly and did another easy 10 reps. I probably should've done at least 85 pounds on the last set. Oh well...

[B]Chin Up[/B]
BW x 5
10 x 5
10 x 5
BW x 5
[I]Repeat[/I]
Final rep @10 lbs was around a 9 RPE. I'll keep the weight the same until I can get at least 1 or 2 extra reps.

[B]Face Pull[/B]
37.5 x 15
37.5 x 15
[I]Drop to 32.5[/I]
Was a bit more difficult than I want this exercise to be. Dropping the weight next time to make sure I'm not sacrificing form to complete the reps. I'll increase once I'm able to complete all the reps at 32.5 a bit easier.

[B]Plank[/B]
75 Seconds
90 Seconds
[I]Increase to 90 / 90[/I]

[B]Extra Work[/B]
Back Squat: 95 x 4
Deadlift: 135 x 5
Dip: BW x 3
Glute/Ham Raise: BW x 5

The back squats are purely to work on grooving good form. Watched video I took of myself doing the paused back squats a few days ago, and noticed some things I need to work on. My focus today was on keeping my weight balanced more even through my feet, and on leading more with my back than with my hips. It's feeling a bit more comfortable now. I did a bunch of Bulgarian Split Squats with only my right leg on my off day yesterday. It's super week, and I'm only able to do 4 or 5 before I REALLY start to struggle. Left leg is significantly stronger right now, so I'll continue the extra work for the right side.

I also filmed my last deadlift session, and was surprised at how poor my form appears to be. My back feels flat, but doesn't look flat in the video. It's especially noticeable on the eccentric portion of the lift, so I wanted to do some light work focused on trying to improve that. I felt fine lifting the weight, but even at 135 lbs I felt like I didn't have great control of the bar on the way down, and felt like my back was rounding. I'll continue putting in some extra work at light weights.

On the dips, I honestly just want to try them out. I've avoided doing them because of weakness and pain in my wrist and shoulder joints making them pretty uncomfortable. I still felt some discomfort (not pain, but a bit more of a stretch in my shoulders than I was comfortable with). It definitely wasn't as bad as it had been previously. I'm hopeful I'll actually be able to do this comfortably once I build up a little more strength in my shoulders. I'll continue doing them for low reps every now and then.

I had one of the trainers at the club show me how to do Glute/Ham Raises. I ended up learning how to do normal back raises... I don't know what I expected, lol. I DID learn how to adjust the machine correctly though, which helped enormously. I was then able to do the exercise correctly, so it was worth it.

[U]Workout A[/U]
[B]Deadlift - 5x5[/B]
120 x 5
170 x 5
190 x 5
215 x 5
240 x 5
[I]Increase top weight to 245[/I]
I may do Sumo style next time. It's been a while since I've done it, and I'd like to mix it in every now and then.

[B]Overhead Press - 5x5[/B]
45 x 5
70 x 5
90 x 3
90 x 4
90 x 3
[I]Repeat[/I]
The bar got out of position on the fourth rep of the first set at 90, or I would've had 4 reps for sure. Not a big deal though. I'll repeat w/the same weight next time. Not expecting to get all the reps, so I probably add a drop set at 70 lbs to get in some extra volume.

[B]Paused Back Squat - 3x5[/B]
55 x 5
80 x 5
105 x 5
[I]Reduce to 95[/I]
Pretty much the same story as last time. Completed all reps, but my right side fatigued and I was compensating for it slightly on the last couple of reps. I'm just going to drop the weight and work up pretty slowly. I'm sure it's going to take quite a while to build up the strength in my right leg. I've obviously been compensating for it pretty significantly, and I need to break that habit. I'll continue doing bodyweight split squats with my right leg on off day for the foreseeable future, and once I've built up a bit of strength I'll add then into my scheduled workout and start doing them weighted.

[B]Chest Supported Rows - 2x10[/B]
50 x 10
50 x 10
[I]Increase to 55[/I]

[B]French Press - 2x10[/B]
35 x 10
35 x 10
[I]Increase to 40[/I]
Got through the reps a bit easier this time, so I'll bump up the weight slightly

[B]Comments:[/B]
Nothing like shoveling after Deadlift day...
Energy level was a bit low today. Probably because I've been short of sleep the last couple of days. Not a bad workout though. Just took slightly longer rests between sets.

[U]Workout B[/U]
[B]Front Squat - 5x5[/B]
55 x 5
80 x 5
110 x 5
110 x 5
110 x 5
85 x 5
[I]Increase to 115[/I]
Solid reps. As the weight gradually increases, I'm beginning to notice the right side weakness that's been impacting by back squats. I'm just going to focus on keeping the weight balanced between my legs and progress as best I can.

[B]Bench Press - 5x5[/B]
65 x 5
80 x 5
100 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5
140 x 3
145 x 3
[I]Increase to 140[/I]
I have no idea what happened, but this felt freaking fantastic today. I felt like I had more than 1 rep in reserve on every set. Huge improvement over last time. I think I can partially chalk it up to increased focus on the ramping sets. I made sure that my body was in a good position, my hands were placed correctly, and I was being as explosive as possible. My progress on this lift over the last couple of months has been tremendous. I'm no longer worried about hurting myself because of my form, and I'm not able to really put some force into it. Actually, it probably helped that I did his as my first lift of the day since the squat rack wasn't open. My squats ended up being fourth, without any noticeable difference in strength. I'll see how it goes next time (with doing squats first), and potentially look into swapping the order if there turns out to be a big difference. Working weight will go up to 140 next time.

[B]Chin Up - 3x8[/B]
BW x 7
BW x 7
BW x 7
[I]Repeat[/I]
The 5 reps per set I've been doing has felt like too little volume. I'm going to aim for a minimum of 8 reps from now on. I felt kind of weak on the lift today. Expected to get 8 reps on the first couple of sets, but that didn't happen. I'll repeat at bodyweight again next time.

[B]Face Pull - 2x15[/B]
32.5 x 15
32.5 x 15
[I]Increase to 37.5 / 32.5[/I]
Felt good today. Form was flawless on all reps, and I didn't feel overly fatigued. The jump up to 37.5 feels pretty big for me still. Next time I'll do one set @32.5 and one @37.5.

[B]Plank 2xTimed[/B]
90 Seconds
90 Seconds
[I]To 105 / 60[/I]
Have I mentioned how much I dislike plans recently? lol. They suck... I'll increase the first set to 105 seconds, and then see how long I can go on the second set. Still planning to work my way up to 2 sets for 2 minutes, and then start adding weight.

[B]Extra Work[/B]
Dips: BW x 5
Bulgarian Split Squat (right leg only): 10lbs x 5
The dips felt pretty good today. I feel like I'm to the point that I have enough upper body strength to do these without putting too much stress on my joints.
Went as deep as possible on the split squats, and focused on initiating the upward movement with my glutes & hamstrings, since they've seemed to be my weak point. I tired out quickly. Just gonna keep at these consistently for a while.

[B]Comments:[/B]
Not much else to say about the workout. My diet needs to get tightened up right now. With the holidays and traveling, I've basically maintained my weight, which isn't the worst thing ever. I'm a bit disappointed about this last week though. I had a couple of doughnuts that I didn't really need, and added in some snacks here and there even though I wasn't particularly hungry at the time. I have to cut those unnecessary items out so I don't prolong this cut too much. This weekend may be a challenge with new years eve, but after that I'll dial it back in and get back on track again before I create any bad diet habits. I'll probably be back in the gym on Tuesday.

[U]Workout A[/U]
[B]Overhead Press - 5x5[/B]
45 x 5
70 x 5
90 x 4
90 x 4
90 x 4
65 x 6
[I]Repeat[/I]
A 2 rep increase here. Not bad. I probably had at least 1 rep in reserve on each of the sets at 90lbs.

[B]Sumo Deadlift - 5x5[/B]
125 x 5
160 x 5
195 x 5
220 x 5
245 x 5
255 x 4 (extra set)
[I]Increase top weight to 250[/I]
Did Sumo Deadlifts for the first time in forever. They felt fantastic. When I'd done them before they always felt a bit awkward, but felt like the most natural thing ever today. Weird... I felt much more explosive off the floor, and made all of the reps pretty easily. I liked that it was a little easier on my lower back. I want to keep working on both styles. I'll probably go back to conventional next time.

[B]Chin Up - 3x10[/B]
BW x 9
BW x 8
BW x 9
[I]Repeat[/I]
This was a 5 rep increase from last time. Super happy with that obviously. I'll continue at bodyweight until I'm able to do more than 30 reps total.

[B]French Press - 2x10[/B]
35 x 12
35 x 12
[I]Increase to 45[/I]
Well...I found out that the EZ Curl bars jump in 10lbs increments, so I wasn't able to do it at 40lbs like I had planned. I still had a few reps left in me with 35 even after doing 12 on each set, so I'll try it with 45 next time.

[B]Plank - 2xTimed[/B]
105 Seconds
60 Seconds
[I]Increase to 105 / 75[/I]


[B]Comments:[/B]
Had lots of energy to start the session today. It was probably the freshest I've been in a while. My energy crashed pretty quickly after each of the final 2 sets of Deadlift, which is why I stopped even though I could've done 1 or 2 more sets with 10 pound increases. I may end up changing Planks to my other day, just because my core was pretty shot after doing deadlifts. Not sure if it'll be any easier on Squat day though, lol. The program is feeling really good. I have more energy on my primary exercises, and still seem to be getting enough accessory work in. Feels like everything is on point right now.

[U]Workout B[/U]
[B]Front Squat - 5x5[/B]
55 x 5
85 x 5
115 x 5
115 x 5
115 x 5
125 x 3 (Extra Set)
135 x 2 (Extra Set)
[I]Increase to 120[/I]
Still feeling weak on the right side. I suppose it's going to take quite a while before that imbalance goes away. I changed up my cadence, speeding up the descent a bit, and being as explosive as possible on the way up. Seemed to help a bit, but I still struggled on the last few reps. It's such a small amount of weight to be struggling with, but there's nothing to be done about but to continue grinding away and pushing myself.

[B]Bench Press - 5x5[/B]
70 x 5
85 x 5
140 x 5
140 x 4
140 x 3
115 x 6 (Extra Set)
[I]Repeat[/I]
The fourth rep on the second work set got a bit sloppy, and was probably a 9+ RPE. Stopped after three reps on the following set with 1-1.5 reps in reserve. I expect to get pretty close to hitting the reps next time, but I'll keep it conservative to make sure I don't have any breakdown in form.

[B]Chest Supported Row - 3x8[/B]
45 x 8
55 x 8
55 x 8
[I]Increase to 60[/I]
Changing from 5 reps to 8 reps, I decided to drop the weight 10lbs, back to 45. That turned out to be much easier than expected, so I bumped it back up to 55 and completed the next two sets easily.

[B]Face Pull - 2x15[/B]
37.5 x 15
32.5 x 13
[I]Decrease to 32.5[/I]
Wore myself out on the first set, and didn't have enough energy left to hit the reps on the second.

[B]Hammer Curl - 2x10[/B]
30 x 7
30 x 6
[I]Decrease to 25[/I]
Not even close to 10 reps. I'll drop back down to 25 and stay there until I'm able to do 14-15 reps.

[B]Extra Work[/B]
Back Squat: 115 x 3 (done right after I finished front squats)

[U]Workout A[/U]
[B]Overhead Press - 5x5[/B]
45 x 5
70 x 5
90 x 5
90 x 4
90 x 5
65 x 8 (extra set)
[I]Repeat[/I]
Another 2 rep increase. My grip was probably a bit too wide on the second work set, otherwise I think I would've hit all the reps. I should make it next time.

[B]Deadlift - 5x5[/B]
125 x 5
165 x 5
200 x 5
225 x 5
250 x 5
275 x 3 (extra set)
[I]Increase top weight to 255[/I]

[B]Chin Up - 3x10[/B]
BW x 8
BW x 8
BW x 8
[I]Repeat[/I]

[B]French Press - 2x10[/B]
35 x 15
35 x 15
[I]Increase to 45[/I]
Decided to stick with 35 for one more session. Another huge increase, with 6 more reps than last time.

[B]Plank - 2xTimed[/B]
105 Seconds
75 Seconds
[I]Increase to 105 / 90[/I]

[B]Extra Work[/B]
Bulgarian Split Squat (right leg only): 20lbs x 10 / 50lbs x 5

[B]Comments:[/B]
Solid effort today. OHP felt good. I've usually had discomfort in my right shoulder on this lift, but today was basically painless, which was really nice. I struggle with pretty much everything after Deadlifts. I may need to reduce the number of sets I'm doing, or reduce the number of reps in some of the earlier sets. Not sure yet...I may keep it as is for another session and see how it goes.

[U]Workout B[/U]
[B]Bench Press[/B]
70 x 5
105 x 5
140 x 5
140 x 5
140 x 5
115 x 6 (Extra Set)
[I]Increase[/I]
Not sure if I had another rep in me at 140. The last one didn't move easily, but I really didn't want to stop one rep short when I was pretty sure I'd be able to do it (typically been trying to leave a minimum of 1 rep in reserve). Curious to see how many reps I'll be able to do at 145

[B]Front Squat[/B]
70 x 5
90 x 5
120 x 5
120 x 5
120 x 5
85 x 10 (Extra Set)
[I]Increase to 125[/I]
Still struggling to even out my imbalances on squats. My left glute was shot after finishing my squats, which tells me that I'm still primarily relying upon the left side of my body. I'll talk about this a bit in the comments at the end.

[B]Chest Supported Row[/B]
60 x 8
60 x 8
60 x 8
[I]Increase to 65[/I]
Still relatively easy. I"m going to continue increasing at 5 pound increments though.

[B]Face Pull[/B]
32.5 x 18
32.5 x 18
[I]Repeat[/I]
I'll probably keep the weight the same until I get up to 20 reps on both sets.

[B]Hammer Curl[/B]
25 x 10
25 x 10
[I]Repeat[/I]
I could only track down one 25 pound dumbbell, lol. Ended up doing 10 reps for each arm consecutively rather than alternating like I typically do. It actually worked out pretty well. It was a struggle to complete the reps, where it had been probably a bit too easy the other way.

[B]Extra Work[/B]
Split Squat: 25 x 7 / 35 x 10
Glute/Ham Raise: BW x 8


[B]Comments:[/B]
As mentioned above, still having issues with my imbalances when squatting. I believe this all stems from some knee issues I had on right leg when I was younger. I did a lot of water sports, and did what seems to have been some permanent damage to my knees (knee boarding and wake boarding were both pretty hard on my legs). I remember being nervous about my right knee just totally giving out, causing me to fall down. It would occasionally give out randomly when I was going up or down stairs, for example, or even just when walking on a rare occasion, so I had reason to be wary. As a result, whenever I was standing for any length of time, I'd purposely put most of my weight on my left leg. I've noticed that I still have that habit, even though my right knee is much healthier and stronger than it was at that time. It's pretty much an unconscious habit at this point. Even though I think about it and try to maintain even balance when squatting, I find myself leaning towards my left leg repeatedly. On top of it being largely a habit, I still have that lingering fear of my right knee giving out, or of doing some damage to it (it does crack pretty regularly when doing the lift, but I've never felt anything painful or really concerning. It's just a mental thing). So anyway...I believe that's the root cause of my issue. As I was walking to my car after my session today, I noticed that I even walk with my weight more centered over my left leg, and when stepping with my right leg I almost feel like I'm walking on it like people usually do on injured legs (gingerly, and transferring my weight back to the other side a bit quicker than would be normal). This is despite the fact that both knees are feeling pretty damn good. It's just habit at this point. Which means that it's going to take a major effort on my part to resolve this issue. It's not just a squatting issue, it's an issue in general, which becomes more apparent when squatting. I'm going to need to retrain myself to stand and walk in a more balanced way. When I'm squatting, I'm probably going to need to exaggerate in the opposite direction if I'm going to have any hope of fixing it (shifting my weight so that it actually favors my right leg). And it needs to be fixed. There's no good reason for me to be favoring one leg when they're both healthy. And so ends my squatting bitch session for the week, lol. Tune in next time...

[U]Workout A[/U]
[B]Overhead Press[/B]
45 x 5
70 x 5
90 x 5
90 x 5
90 x 5
100 x 3 (extra set)
[I]Increase to 95[/I]
Felt pretty good today. Finally increasing the weight. :)

[B]Deadlift[/B]
125 x 5
165 x 5
200 x 5
230 x 5
255 x 5
[I]Increase top weight to 260[/I]
All of the reps moved pretty smoothly. I didn't have anything left after the final set though. I'll reduce to 3 sets of 5 next time (One at working weight, with two lighter sets at 60 & 80%). This should allow me to be more fresh for my work set, and give me more flexibility to decide if I want to do either lighter or heavier follow-up sets, or just stop at the three sets if I'm spent.

[B]Chin Up[/B]
BW x 9
BW x 9
BW x 9
[I]Repeat[/I]
Completed one extra rep on each set. The final rep was a grind, and I probably didn't have another rep in me. Continuing at bodyweight until I get to at least 30 reps total. It'll probably take a few more sessions.

[B]French Press[/B]
45 x 10
45 x 10
[I]Repeat[/I]
I felt like I had about 3 reps in reserve on the first set, but the second set was a grind to get to 10. Gonna follow the same process (work up to 30 reps total before increasing).

[B]Plank[/B]
105 Seconds
90 Seconds
[I]Increase to 105 / 105[/I]
Ouch

[B]Extra Work[/B]
No extra work today

[B]Comments:[/B]
Feeling a bit under the weather today. My voice is totally and completely gone, and I'm feeling a little wore down. Nothing catastrophic, and I didn't even think about skipping the session, but I was wore out by the end of it. Hopefully it's just a fast passing bug and I'll still be able to lift on Friday.

Diet-wise, I'm struggling a bit. I do great during the week, then struggle on the weekend. I'm constantly getting dragged to buffets and restaurants, and even though I don't get crazy with the amount of food I'm eating, it ends up equalizing the work I do during the week. I think I'd still be able to make progress if I knew about the eating plans ahead of time so I could adjust the rest of my meals for the day accordingly. I'm dealing with a young lady that's allergic to planning things ahead of time though, lol. Anyway, the end result is that I've mostly been maintaining weight for the last several weeks. Weighed in at just over 168lbs this morning, which is down 10lbs from my starting weight. Still planning to cut to at least 155, so the scale needs to start moving in the right direction quickly. The one reason I'm not freaking out about it too much is that I'm seeing progress in the mirror. I'm pretty sure my bodyfat is continuing to drop, because I'm definitely seeing more muscle over the last month or so. Still, I'd rather be dropping the weight even if it means losing a small amount of muscle. My bodyfat% is still much too high (probably mid to upper 20's). Just gonna keep at it. Keep turning that flywheel. ;)

[U]Workout B[/U]
[B]Bench Press[/B]
70 x 5
105 x 5
145 x 4
145 x 3
145 x 3
85 x 13 (Extra Set - Close Grip)
[I]Repeat[/I]
I'm starting to feel more comfortable doing this with a slightly narrower grip. It puts less stress on my shoulders (obviously) and wrists. Strengthening my triceps has made a huge difference, because I don't feel such a huge difference in the amount of weight I can handle like I did initially.

[B]Leg Press[/B]
180 x 5
270 x 5
360 x 5
450 x 5
450 x 5
450 x 5
Wasn't able to get in a squat rack at all, despite the fact that it wasn't very busy. I'll hopefully be able to go back to doing Front Squats next time, but got a decent workout for my legs anyway.

[B]Chest Supported Row[/B]
65 x 8
65 x 8
65 x 8
[I]Increase to 70[/I]

[B]Face Pull[/B]
32.5 x 18
32.5 x 18
[I]Increase to 37.5[/I]

[B]Hammer Curl[/B]
25 x 12
25 x 10
[I]Repeat[/I]
I've been supersetting the face pulls and curls, and my arms are pretty exhausted by the time I'm done. I'll probably adjust my supplemental lifts a bit so I'm a little fresher for all of them. Just going to move some of them to different days.


[B]Comments:[/B]
Energy level was still slightly low, but not bad. Didn't do any extra work at all today. I was pretty disappointed that I wasn't able to get into a squat rack, but whatcha gonna do...

[U]Workout A[/U]
[B]Overhead Press[/B]
45 x 5
70 x 5
95 x 5
95 x 5
95 x 5
105 x 3 (extra set)
[I]Repeat[/I]
Gonna do this one again to make sure it wasn't a fluke, lol. I worked for about a month to jump up 5lbs, and now I jump up another 5 on the following workout? Seems strange. I'm honestly thinking the weight of the barbell or plates (maybe both) was lighter than what it was supposed to be. We'll see how this goes on Friday...

[B]Sumo Deadlift[/B]
155 x 5
210 x 5
260 x 4
[I]Repeat[/I]
I actually did Deadlifts as my very last lift of the day, because the racks were full up until I was just ready to leave (just too lazy to switch around the order they're listed here, because it makes it easy to copy and paste if I keep them the same). I was exhausted. Got light headed after the first set, and again after the second set. Took plenty of rest before the final set. I could'be completed another rep, but I got slightly out of position on the fourth rep and slightly tweaked my groin on the right side (nothing major at all). Decided to just stop there. The Sumo Deadlifts felt awkward again today. I'm going to just write it off to exhaustion though.

[B]Chin Up[/B]
BW x 10
BW x 9
BW x 9
[I]Repeat[/I]
Completed one more rep than last time. Going to repeat at BW again.

[B]French Press[/B]
45 x 11
45 x 10
[I]Repeat[/I]
1 more rep than last time.

[B]Plank[/B]
105 Seconds
105 Seconds
[I]To 120 / 60[/I]


[B]Comments:[/B]
Still under the weather, fighting a cold or flu. Energy was low. It's probably a good thing I didn't do Deadlifts until the very end. If I'd done them earlier, I probably wouldn't have had the energy to do anything else. Not a bad result at all today considering how I was feeling. I'll be back in the gym on Wednesday, assuming I'm feeling up to it.

[U]Workout B[/U]
[B]Bench Press[/B]
70 x 5
105 x 5
145 x 3
145 x 3
145 x 2
115 x 6
[I]Repeat[/I]
Struggled

[B]Front Squat[/B]
60 x 5
95 x 5
125 x 5
125 x 4
125 x 3
[I]Repeat[/I]
Struggled here too. I was having a hell of a time bracing. Couldn't seem to fill up my lungs and get my core stable (probably due to the fact that I'm still fighting a cold). Tweaked my back a tiny bit on the final rep of the first set. I stopped early on the subsequent sets because I still didn't feel like I had my core tight enough. Thank goodness I'm using minuscule weight or I may have actually hurt myself. Good reminder for me about the importance of bracing I guess.

[B]Chest Supported Row[/B]
70 x 8
70 x 8
70 x 8
[I]Increase to 75[/I]
Struggled here also on the last few reps.

[B]Face Pull[/B]
35 x 12
35 x 12
[I]Increase to 37.5[/I]
Wasn't able to get on the cable machine I typically use, so I'm not sure how closely the weights relate. Felt pretty close to the right weight though.

[B]Hammer Curl[/B]
25 x 13
25 x 10
[I]Repeat[/I]
First set felt great. Ran out of steam quickly on the second.

[B]Comments:[/B]
Today was just a slog. First time in a long time I left the gym thinking it would've been better if I had taken the day off. My energy level actual felt higher than my last two session, but I just didn't have any strength today for some reason. Tomorrow's another day. I mentioned it previously, but I'm going to be slightly switching things up. Swapping days for a few of the supplemental lifts for various reasons. No real major changes though, since I'm mostly happy with how things are going. It'll be:
[U]Workout A[/U]: OHP 5x5, Deadlift 3x5, Chest Supported Row 3x8, Hammer Curl 2x10, Plank 2xTimed
[U]Workout B[/U]: Bench Press 5x5, Front Squat 5x5, Chin Up 3x8, French Press 2x10, Face Pull 2x10

I'll start with A on Friday.

[U]Workout A[/U]
[B]Overhead Press[/B]
45 x 5
70 x 5
95 x 3
95 x 4
95 x 3
65 x 10
[I]Repeat[/I]
Yeah...last time was a fluke, or the something was off with the weights I used. Wasn't even close to getting 5 reps on any of the work sets today.

[B]Deadlift[/B]
155 x 5
210 x 5
260 x 5
270 x 1
280 x 1
290 x 1
300 x 1
310 x 1
[I]Increase to 265[/I]
These felt great today. The set at 260 was easy enough that I decided to continue to do ramping singles afterward. The most I've ever lifted is 315, and that was about 3-4 months ago, right before I started cutting weight. I stopped at 310 today, but it went up really smooth. I have no doubt that I would've been able to hit 320, probably even 330. There were two areas where I was really on point today, that seemed to make a huge difference. First was the bracing. I focused on keeping my core as tight as possible. The other was overall balance. Just like on my squats, I've had a tendency to shift my weight to my left side. I had much better balance today, and was able to put a little more force into each lift because I just felt more comfortable.

[B]Chest Supported Row[/B]
75 x 8
75 x 8
75 x 8
[I]Increase to 80[/I]
Probably getting close to my limit on these.

[B]Hammer Curl[/B]
25 x 12
25 x 15
[I]Repeat[/I]
Left a couple reps in reserve on the first set, since I kind of burned myself out on the first set the last couple of times. I'll repeat with 25's one more time and try to hit 14 reps on each set.

[B]Plank[/B]
120 Seconds
60 Seconds
[I]Increase to 120 / 75[/I]

[B]Extra Work:[/B]
Back Squat - 95 x 5 / 115 x 5 / 135 x 5
Everything was feeling so good today that I decided to try squatting for the first time in quite a while after I finished up everything else. They felt pretty darn good. I was really only planning to do one set at 95lbs, but they felt good so I jumped it up a couple more times. As I mentioned about Deadlifts, my balance felt really good today. I had better weight distribution between my legs, and it made a noticeable difference. I'll still be fighting against my habit to shift to the left for a while I'm sure, but I could see the difference in the mirror today. I had a rep where I started to slide the weight over to the left, but it was pretty minimal, and I was able to correct it again on the following reps. They definitely didn't feel or look perfect, but it was a huge improvement over what I'd been doing previously. I'll try to do these a bit more regularly again, keeping the weight pretty low and just ingraining the correct movement.

[B]Comments:[/B]
Mostly past the cold. I felt infinitely better today during my workout. It was like night and day from my last workout. I pushed it since I was feeling so good, and I'm starting to feel the soreness already. Haven't really been sore in quite a while, so it's almost welcome at this point. Otherwise, I covered the main points above already... If all goes as planned, I'll be lifting again on Sunday.

[U]Workout B[/U]
[B]Bench Press[/B]
70 x 5
105 x 5
145 x 4
145 x 3
145 x 3
105 x 10
[I]Repeat[/I]
Increased 2 reps from last time. I'm maintaining a closer grip now because it's much easier on my wrists (and shoulder as well, I'm sure). I'm definitely a bit weaker with the narrower grip, but the joints are more important.

[B]Front Squat[/B]
60 x 5
95 x 5
125 x 5
125 x 5
125 x 5
[I]Increase to 130[/I]
Much better today. Still struggled on a few reps, but fought through while maintaining reasonable form.

[B]Chin Up[/B]
BW x 10
BW x 10
BW x 8
[I]Repeat[/I]
Progress has stalled a bit. Same amount of reps as last time. I'll repeat one more time, and if I don't increase my reps I'll probably just start adding weight.

[B]French Press[/B]
45 x 13
45 x 12
[I]Repeat[/I]
Increased by 4 reps.

Face Pull
37.5 x 12
37.5 x 13
[I]Repeat[/I]
Stopped a few reps short of failure on the first set, so I had plenty left for the second.

[B]Extra Work:[/B]
Paused Back Squat - 95 x 5
Did these immediately after the front squats. I was pretty fatigued at that point, so I just did the one set.

[B]Comments:[/B]
Would've liked to add in some more work, but I was on a pretty tight time frame today. As I've continued to increase weights, it's requiring me to work a little closer to failure. I'm getting uncomfortable with it, to be honest, mostly because I'm concerned about form breakdown and injuries. I'll keep grinding for a bit and try to hold a rep or two in reserve, but I find myself struggling to stick to that in favor of trying to add a rep or two. If I'm not able to keep my ego out of the way, I'll eventually either reset on some of the lifts, or start thinking about changing my programming. I'm planning to switch to 5/3/1 at some point, but I was hoping I could continue with linear progression for a while yet. Next lifting session will be on Tuesday.

[U]Workout A[/U]
[B]Overhead Press[/B]
45 x 5
70 x 5
95 x 4
95 x 4
95 x 3
45 x 20
[I]Repeat[/I]
1 Rep increase. I'll give it a go one more time, and then probably reset to 80 or 85lbs.

[B]Deadlift[/B]
160 x 5
215 x 5
265 x 5
160 x 10
[I]Repeat[/I]
Not happy with the last 2 reps. I completed them without any problem, but my core got way too loose. I was having trouble maintaining tightness through most of the reps (even the warmups), so maybe it was just one of those days. I'm not going to increase the weight until I'm able to do all the reps with solid form.

[B]Chest Supported Row[/B]
80 x 8
80 x 8
80 x 8
[I]Increase to 85[/I]
Last rep was a real struggle. It was probably a solid 9-9.5 RPE. Not really expecting to hit my reps next time, but who knows...

[B]Hammer Curl[/B]
25 x 15
25 x 15
[I]Increase to 30's[/I]
These felt good today. Much easier than the last few times. I'll increase to 30's and shoot for 10 reps next time.

[B]Plank[/B]
120 Seconds
75 Seconds
[I]Increase to 120 / 90[/I]
The 75 seconds was worse than the 120 seconds. Not sure I could've held out for 15 more seconds, so it'll be interesting to see if I can do it next time.


[B]Comments:[/B]
I got a full body workout in yesterday, shoveling and snow-blowing 15 inches of snow. Also pushed a car about 100 feet down my road through the snow, when someone got stuck while I was cleaning the driveway. I was thinking I'd have to skip my session to today, but I woke up feeling quite good. I got in another workout after my workout, cleaning up the mess from the snow plows (for those of you that don't know, when a plow cleans up 15 inches of snow, it makes piles that are about twice that high, and packed solid. Took me an hour again tonight to get the driveway clean. I'm praying it doesn't snow tomorrow, because I'm not sure I'll be able lift my arms. It's all good though. If this had happened a couple of years ago, I would've had to take half hour breaks every 20 minutes to get through it. It was nice to be able to power through all of it in one shot without feeling like I was going to die. :)

The scale has still been teeter tottering. I was down to 166 last Thursday, and back up to 170 by the end of the weekend. Been happening like that for a while now. I know I'm going to be going out to eat almost every weekend (sometimes multiple times), so if I'm going to continue to drop weight, I also need to drop my calorie intake during the week. I'm cutting it back another 200 calories daily this week, and we'll see how that works. I'm down to around 1300 calories per day at this point, so I'm not sure how much lower I can go and still be able to function. I've been just maintaining weight at 1500, and I start gaining as soon as I go over that. Seems ridiculous... It gets a bit demoralizing thinking that I may need to survive on that few calories for the rest of my life if I want to maintain a reasonable body weight. I'm just hoping that over the course of the next 2-4 years I'll be able to stabilize my bodyfat levels, and start slowly increasing my calorie intake and putting on muscle. I should be able to maintain around 160 eventually, but I hope I can do that with a higher calorie intake than I have currently. Conceptually, with a higher percentage of muscle I should be burning fat more efficiently, and be able to eat a bit more at the same weight. Time will tell I guess. All I know right now is that living on less than 2000 calories per day is a pain in the ass. My girlfriend eats more than I do, and she weighs like 110. When she packs meals for the work week, I literally have to remove almost half of it. :(
/moaning session

Expecting to be back in the gym on Thursday for some squats and bench presses.

[U]Workout B[/U]
[B]Bench Press[/B]
70 x 5
105 x 5
145 x 4
145 x 4
145 x 3
75 x 13 (Close Grip)
[I]Reset[/I]
Felt good overall. Improved my previous effort by 1 rep. I don't think I had another rep left in the tank though. Pretty much pushed it to the limit.

[B]Front Squat[/B]
60 x 5
95 x 5
130 x 4
130 x 4
130 x 3
[I]Change to Back Squats?[/I]
Used a Clean Grip on these for the first time in forever. It actually felt pretty good. It forced me to keep from leaning forward. I think I've probably been leaning forward lately when I struggle to complete reps. The extra pressure on my wrists made it really obvious with the clean grip.

[B]Chin Up[/B]
BW x 10
BW x 10
BW x 10
[I]Increase to 5[/I]
Finally hit my rep goal on all three sets. I'll start doing them weighted now, beginning with just 5 pounds.

[B]French Press[/B]
45 x 15
45 x 13
[I]Repeat[/I]
Another good increase of 3 reps. Trying to get to 30 reps total before increasing the weight.

[B]Face Pull[/B]
37.5 x 15
37.5 x 13
[I]Repeat[/I]
Same as above. 3 Rep increase. Going for 30 reps total before increasing.

[B]Extra Work:[/B]
Back Squat - 95 x 5 / 115 x 5 / 135 x 1 / 95 x 10
Had my stance to wide with 135 on the bar, and strained my groin ever so slightly as a result on the first rep.

[B]Comments:[/B]
Pretty good day. Though I'm not progressing in weights at an astronomical rate, I"m making fairly steady progress on the number of reps. Making really good progress on my form, and starting to feel the correct muscles being worked. Still shaky on the squats, unfortunately.

As I look forward to eventually transitioning to 5/3/1 w/BBB, I realized that it's going to be a pretty significant volume increase for me. It's an extra day every week. I'll also be doing far more reps on the assistance exercises. I'm sure I'll struggle mightily if I just change over. So, I'm thinking it will be good for me to start increasing my total weekly volume in preparation. I'm going to do this initially by increasing my lifting days from 3 to 4. I'm already doing one of my workouts twice each week, so I shouldn't have too much trouble doing both of them twice per week. Still, I'm going to try to ease into it. I'm pretty much stalled on all of my core lifts (all excepts deadlifts, which I was going to repeat at the same weight again anyway, after having a few poor reps last time). Seems like a good time to reset my working weight on all my core lifts, and work my way back up.

I'll be reducing all of my core lifts by 20 pounds. That will move OHP to 75, Deadlifts to 245,and Bench to 125. Rather than reset Front Squats, I'm going to switch back to Back Squats, probably starting out at 115. I'm still planning to increase weight after each session, assuming I hit my rep goal, so I'll probably be back up to the same working weights in about 2 weeks.

I'll slowly increase my overall volume over the next several months in preparation for the program change. Haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to approach that. If anyone has a good idea of how to do that, I'm all ears.

Probably won't be back lifting until Monday, unless things go differently than expected this weekend.

[U]Workout A-1[/U]
[B]Overhead Press - 5x5[/B]
45 x 5
60 x 5
75 x 5
75 x 5
75 x 5
[I]Increase to 80[/I]
As expected, this was pretty easy.

[B]Chin Ups - 3x8[/B]
5 x 8
5 x 6
5 x 5
[I]Repeat[/I]
Did these between sets of OHP. Since I was just doing them on the rack, my hands were at a different angle than I'm used to, which felt odd. Definitely felt more fatigue than I typically do, due to supersetting I'm sure.

[B]Deadlift - 3x5[/B]
145 x 8
195 x 5
245 x 5
[I]Repeat[/I]
Surprisingly, I was pretty low on energy after doing the OHP/Chin supersets. Just goes to show how poor my conditioning is right now. I wasn't really focused on the first set, and ended up doing 8 reps instead of 5, lol. Struggled to keep my core tight on all of the sets, and felt like my lower back was rounding ever so slightly. I'll repeat at the same weight again.

[B]Bulgarian Split Squat - 2x10[/B]
BW x 10
BW x 10
[I]Increase to 10[/I]
Using as large a range of motion as possible (knee touching the floor). I feel unbalanced, which maybe isn't surprising since I'm not used to doing these. Even without weight I felt a good burn. My calf actually cramped up at one point and I had to stop to stretch it out. I'll do them with 10lbs next time.

[B]Hammer Curl[/B]
30 x 11
30 x 11
[I]Repeat[/I]
Pretty happy with this result. I had 1 or 2 reps in reserve on both sets. Judging by the result today, I won't need to go all the way up to 15 reps before increasing weight. I'll probably just go up to 13, and then when I increase I should still be able to do 8-9 reps at the higher weight.

[B]Plank[/B]
120 Seconds
90 Seconds
[I]Increase to 120 / 105[/I]


[B]Comments:[/B]
As mentioned earlier, I'm switching from 3 days to 4, using an A-1, B-1, A-2, B-2 system. The 1 and 2 workouts are going to be really similar, with most of the exercise selection staying the same. I'll be alternating rep schemes on the core lifts though. So A-1 will have me doing 5 rep sets of OHP (which is the primary lift for that day), and 5 rep sets for Deadlifts. A-2 will have me doing 10 rep sets for OHP and 3 rep sets for Deadlifts (which is the primary lift for that day). B-1 and B-2 will function similarly, alternating rep schemes between Bench and Squat, with one of them taking priority each day. In addition, I'm adding an exercise each day (from 5 to 6), and I'll be supersetting Chins with OHP, and Rows with Bench. This should help prepare me for an eventual transition to 5/3/1 with BBB.

For now, I'll not be doing any additional work (Joker sets, FSL, etc.). It's already going to be a pretty big jump up in volume, so I'll wait until I adjust to it before adding anything else. The 10 rep exercises will only be done for 3 sets initially. I'll eventually add additional sets until I'm up to 5. At that point, the only thing that will really be different than 5/3/1 is the progression. I'll do a full change over once I'm pretty well stalled out with my current progression system (adding weight every time I hit the prescribed number of reps), which probably isn't far off, to be honest. I expect I'll be ready to do that in somewhere around 2-3 months, but we'll see...

I'll be back at it tomorrow.

[U]Workout B-1[/U]
[B]Bench Press[/B]
65 x 5
95 x 5
125 x 5
125 x 5
125 x 5
[I]Increase to 130[/I]
This actually felt much more challenging than I expected. Possibly because I'm not accustomed to lifting on consecutive days. I got through all of the reps cleanly though, so I'll increase the weight. I'm planning to superset rows with bench, but just wasn't able the access the equipment to do that at the time today.

[B]Back Squat[/B]
45 x 8
65 x 7
85 x 5
95 x 10
95 x 10
95 x 10
[I]Increase to 100[/I]
Form held up well I think. I'll need to film myself at some point to see if anything jumps out at me. I felt like the bar was maybe drifting slightly forward, but my perception could've very well been off.

[B]Romanian Deadlift[/B]
155 x 8
155 x 8
155 x 8
[I]Increase to 160[/I]
After realizing that people typically don't touch the floor when doing these, I tried stopping just short of touching the floor, while making sure that I was getting a good stretch and keeping my back flat and tight. What I found is that my flexibility allows me to stretch all the way to the floor relatively easily with good form, and I don't feel like I'm really getting a full stretch of my hamstrings if I stop short of the floor (even when I was 50+ pounds overweight, I was able to stand with my legs straight, bend over, and place my palms flat on the floor, so flexibility has never been an issue for me). What I DID really like about stopping short of the floor is that it required me to keep my core tight from the beginning of the first rep through the end of the last. I'm not used to doing that, and it's something that can probably help me with bracing in general. It's also definitely more demanding when it comes to grip strength, which is another area I need to improve in. I'll probably do a combination of going to the floor and stopping short, since they both have their benefits.

[B]Kroc Rows[/B]
40 x 20
40 x 20
Did sets of 20 for each arm. I only ended up doing these because I wasn't able to get on the chest supported row when I wanted to. It's an exercise I like a lot, so I'll probably continue to do these occasionally.

[B]French Press[/B]
45 x 13
45 x 13
[I]Repeat[/I]
Did 2 fewer reps than last time. I was more fatigued than I usually am when I did these today.

[B]Face Pull[/B]
37.5 x 15
37.5 x 15
[I]Increase to 42.5[/I]


[B]Comments:[/B]
Pretty much got what I expected out of today's session. It's going to take me a while to adjust to lifting on consecutive days, and doing some additional volume. Rest day tomorrow, then I lift again on Thursday.

[U]Workout A-2[/U]
[B]Deadlift - 3x3[/B]
155 x 3
205 x 3
255 x 3
[I]Increase to 260[/I]
Felt like I definitely could've done a few more sets, or a higher weight, but decided not to push it until I have a couple weeks of lifting for 4 days.

[B]Overhead Press - 3x10[/B]
65 x 10
65 x 10
65 x 10
[I]Increase to 70[/I]
I ended up doing Military Press since that's all that was available at the time. I thought I was starting pretty light, but this was tougher than I expected.

[B]Chin Ups - 3x8[/B]
5 x 8
5 x 7
5 x 6
[I]Repeat[/I]
A few more reps than last time, but I didn't do them as a superset due to equipment availability.

[B]Bulgarian Split Squat - 2x10[/B]
10 x 10
10 x 10
[I]Increase to 15[/I]
It was much easier balancing while holding some weight. My legs are weak af. I barely made it to 10 reps. :(

[B]Glute/Ham Raise - 2x10[/B]
BW x 8
BW x 9
[I]Repeat[/I]
Second set felt much better than the first, after I got more comfortable with the movement.

[B]Leg Raise - 2xAMRAP[/B]
BW x 22
[B]Decline Crunch[/B]
35 x 15
Wasn't able to get back on the doohickey for leg raises after the first set, so I did a set of decline crunches instead.


Comments:
Not much to comment on. Had to switch out some exercises for alternatives based upon what was available to be used. Energy level was good throughout.

[U]Workout B-1[/U]
[B]Back Squat - 5x5[/B]
55 x 5
85 x 5
115 x 5
115 x 5
115 x 5
[I]Increase to 125[/I]
No problemo.

[B]Bench Press - 3x10[/B]
95 x 5
95 x 5
95 x 5
[I]Increase to 100[/I]
Did these very deliberately, focusing on keeping my core tight, and paying close attention to my arm and wrist positioning, along with bar path. Got to be challenging towards the end, but that's probably mostly due to the slow bar speed.

[B]Pendlay Row - 3x8[/B]
115 x 5
115 x 5
115 x 5
[I]Increase to 125[/I]
A bit too easy. I'll bump it up 10lbs next time.

[B]Leg Curl - 3x8[/B]
135 x 8
135 x 8
135 x 8
[I]Increase to 140[/I]
This was the only lift for the day where I really had to push myself. Still had a few reps in reserve on all of the sets though.

[B]Calf Raise - 2x10[/B]
20 x 10
20 x 10
[I]Increase to 25[/I]
Doing these with the fullest range of motion I'm able to do.

[B]Face Pull - 2x10[/B]
42.5 x 15
42.5 x 15
[I]Increase to 47.5[/I]


[B]Comments:[/B]
Got through this session in less than 50 minutes, even with a bit of dawdling. Intensity level was quite low, and I didn't even break a sweat. I was able to get through the first 4-workout week pretty easily. I'll start ramping up the intensity next week.

The scale is going the right direction again. I weighed in at 164.6lbs this morning, which is exactly 2lbs lower than I was last Friday morning. I'll continue at the new calorie level.

I've never really talked about what I'm actually eating, but here was today's food for anyone who cares:
[B]Breakfast[/B] = 2 pancakes with maple syrup ([B]545 calories[/B]). I typically just have 1 or 2 eggs for breakfast during the week, and have something like this one per week at most.
[B]Noon[/B] = about 20 dark chocolate almonds ([B]160 calories[/B]). Generally eat protein and veggies here, but just had a snack since I indulged for breakfast.
[B]Afternoon[/B] = 4.5oz Salmon. 1/2 cup each of steamed asparagus and green beans ([B]320 calories[/B])
[B]Treats [/B]= 2 cups of coffee with a bit of cream and sugar ([B]124 calories[/B]), and a Pure Protein Bar post workout ([B]190 calories[/B])
[B]Daily Total = 1,339 calories[/B] - This is typically about where I end up Mon-Thurs. Fri/Sat/Sun are a crap-shoot, depending upon if I end up out to eat at all. Just found out that I'm not going out tonight for the first Friday in about a month. I'll probably end up eating another protein bar since I'm pretty hungry right about now. That'll put me just over 1,500 calories for the day.

[U]Workout A-1[/U]
[B]Overhead Press - 5x5[/B]
45 x 5
60 x 5
80 x 5
80 x 5
80 x 5
[I]Increase to 85[/I]
My shoulders felt fantastic today. Not a hint of any pain or discomfort. It was odd, lol.

[B]Chin Ups - 3x8[/B]
BW x 10
BW x 8
BW x 8
[I]Repeat[/I]
Dropped back down to bodyweight on these, since they're much more difficult when supersetting them. I'll work my way up to at least 10 reps across before adding weight.

[B]Deadlift - 3x5[/B]
145 x 5
195 x 5
245 x 5
[I]Increase to 255[/I]
Much tighter form than last time. It mostly seems to come down to balance for me, which seems strange, but I don't know why it seems strange. Obviously poor balance is going to F up a deadlift.

[B]Bulgarian Split Squat - 2x10[/B]
BW x 15
BW x 15
[I]Increase to 20[/I]
Starting to get more comfortable doing these now. Struggled with some of the reps with my right leg. :(

[B]Hammer Curl - 2x10[/B]
30 x 12
30 x 11
[I]Repeat[/I]
Just one more rep than last time. Planning to stay at this weight until I'm able to do 13 reps in both sets.

[B]Plank - 2xTimed[/B]
120 Seconds
105 Seconds
[I]Increase to 120 / 120[/I]
Been working my up to 2 minutes for a long time now. Hoping I can do 2 minutes twice next time, then I'll start doing them weighted.

[B]Comments:[/B]
Second time around this merry go round. I expect it to go pretty smoothly this week. I didn't add in any extra work today, but I definitely plan to tomorrow. Probably get in some extra bench work after my final set, either dropping down and doing an AMRAP set, or ramping up as far as I can at 3 reps per set. It'll just depend upon how I'm feeling.

[U]Workout B-1[/U]
[B]Bench Press - 5x5[/B]
65 x 5
95 x 5
130 x 5
130 x 5
130 x 5
135 x 3
140 x 3
145 x 1
150 x 1
[I]Increase to 135[/I]
All good today. Form stayed tight even as I approached 9 RPE. Really happy with that.

[B]Chest Supported Row - 3x8 (supersetted w/bench)[/B]
85 x 8
85 x 8
[I]Increase to 90[/I]
Last few reps were a grind, but I felt the same way at 75 and 80... We'll see if I'm able to hit the reps again next time.

[B]Back Squat - 3x10[/B]
45 x 6
65 x 5
85 x 5
100 x 10
100 x 10
100 x 10
[I]Increase to 105[/I]
Everything felt really solid today. I want to take my time increasing the weight so I can really get comfortable with the lift again, so I'll just be increasing by 5 pound increments. I may increase by larger increments on my heavier squat day, depending upon how difficult or easy it feels.

[B]Romanian Deadlift - 3x8[/B]
160 x 8
160 x 8
160 x 8
[B]Increase to 165[/B]

[B]French Press - 2x10[/B]
45 x 14
45 x 14
[I]Increase to 55[/I]
Another 2 rep increase. I'll make the leap up to 55 next time and see if I can handle it.

[B]Face Pull - 2x10[/B]
47.5 x 10
47.5 x 8
[I]Repeat[/I]
This is pushing the limits for me. I struggle to brace myself enough to really do them right. I'll try one more time.

[B]Comments:[/B]
Good session today. Energy level was steady throughout. Really happy with the squats and bench work. I'll have a day off tomorrow, and then do my heavy deadlift day on Thursday.

[U]Workout A-2[/U]
[B]Deadlift - 3x3[/B]
155 x 3
205 x 3
260 x 3
275 X 1
295 X 1
315 X 1 (PR)
335 X 1 (PR)
[I]Increase to 265[/I]
It's kind of crazy how much easier it is for me to do singles than multiples. I didn't even have to grind it out much at 335. Could've definitely done another 10-20 pounds. I've made some adjustments in my setup over the last month or so that are making a huge difference. On both squats and deads I had been setting up with a pretty wide stance. I've narrowed it significantly, so that my feet are basically at shoulder width on both lifts, and for some reason it feels fantastic now, where it felt really uncomfortable before. With the narrower stance, I just feel like there's less resistance. I suppose I was fighting against my body somewhat with the wide stance, and now I'm not. I have much better balance. I'm not needing to think about my weight distribution. I'm not concerned about my knees giving out. I'm able to just focus on moving everything upward in a straight line. I'm blown away that I was able to beat my previous PR by 25 pounds with relative ease. The fact that I felt confident in jumping up another 20 pounds after hitting the PR at 315 should speak volumes for how smooth it was. Feels good man.

[B]Overhead Press - 3x10[/B]
70 x 10
70 x 10
70 x 10
[I]Increase to 75[/I]
Last set was around 8.5-9 RPE. The lift felt great. Second time in a row I felt absolutely no discomfort, and was able to move the weight smoothly.

[B]Chin Ups - 3x8-12[/B]
BW x 10
BW x 8
BW x 7
[I]Repeat[/I]
My shoulders were pretty well exhausted when doing these. My rear delts were feeling it from the deadlifts, and then I was supersetting these with OHP. Surprised I got as many reps as I did.

[B]Leg Press - 3x10[/B]
270 x 10
270 x 10
270 x 10
[I]Increase to 290[/I]
My legs were a little wobbly from the deads, but these felt good. Last set was maybe around a 7 RPE.

[B]Glute/Ham Raise - 2x10[/B]
BW x 6
[I]Repeat[/I]
My right calf cramped up on the very first rep. I got down and stretched it for a few minutes before resuming. On the sixth rep, I felt a twinge in both calves at the same time. Decided to cut it short at that point.

[B]Leg Raise - 2xAMRAP[/B]
BW x 25
BW x 25
[I]Repeat[/I]
I was probably able to do more than I typically would because I skipped out on the glute/ham raises. That's usually taken just a little bit of steam out of me since it requires me to keep my core really tight.


[B]Comments:[/B]
Excellent session. My mid/upper back and my rear delts are still feeling fatigued now, over 2 hours removed from the session. I'm sure they'll be a bit sore tomorrow. Nonetheless, I'm really looking forward to tomorrows workout. I tried to refrain from getting too excited about it, but my squat session on Tuesday felt so freaking good. I can't wait to squat tomorrow and see if it feels good with a little heavier weight. I've been battling squats for so long. I don't think I've ever looked forward to a squat session before.

Feels like everything is coming together right now. A lot of the balance issues I've been commenting on over the last 6 months seem to be working themselves out after I've made some adjustments. I've been dealing with bad shoulders and knees forever (even before I started lifting), and those issues have improved enormously lately. I haven't had any discomfort in my knees in several weeks, and even the cracking has mostly gone away. My shoulders still give me issues (it's felt like the joints are slightly out of place for decades), but I've recently not felt any discomfort at all when lifting. Definitely going through a good patch right now. This is literally what I was hoping to achieve when I first committed myself to lifting regularly. It's why I named my thread the Flywheel Effect, because it refers to the fact if you just keep pushing on a flywheel consistently for long enough, it eventually gains momentum, and once there's enough momentum the wheel keeps spinning mostly on it's own, without requiring much external force. I'm hoping this momentum will continue for a while now. I'm going to ride it out as long as possible.

[U]Workout B-1[/U]
[B]Back Squat - 5x5[/B]
65 x 5
95 x 5
125 x 5
125 x 5
125 x 5
135 x 3
145 x 3
155 x 3
165 x 1
175 x 1
[I]Increase to 135[/I]
Felt great again today. I got misaligned in the rack slightly at 175 and the plates hit the safety bar on the left side. I re-racked, rested for a minute, and did the rep correctly. Decided to stop at that point though because I kind of lost focus.

[B]Bench Press - 3x10[/B]
45 x 20
100 x 10
100 x 10
100 x 10
[I]Increase to 105[/I]
Last set was around 8 RPE. Form felt on point through all the reps.

[B]Pendlay Row - 3x8[/B]
125 x 8
115 x 8
115 x 8
Thinking I may replace this with Kroc Rows. With doing deadlifts twice per week and RDL's, my lower back is getting stressed a bit. I was noticing it while squatting, and definitely noticed it here. Lowered the weight after the first set because I was having a hard time keeping my form tight.

[B]Leg Curl - 3x8[/B]
140 x 8
140 x 8
140 x 8
[I]Increase to 145[/I]

[B]Calf Raise - 2x10[/B]
25 x 10
25 x 10
Increase to 30

[B]Face Pull - 2x10[/B]
47.5 x 10
47.5 x 10
[I]Repeat[/I]
Hit all of the reps, but I don't think I can brace well enough to do it with any more weight, so I'll keep it the same for now.


[B]Comments:[/B]
Another solid day. Gonna rest up over the weekend and be ready to hit it hard again next week.

[U]Workout A-1[/U]
[B]Overhead Press - 5x5[/B]
45 x 5
65 x 5
85 x 5
85 x 5
85 x 5
90 x 3
95 x 3
100 x 1
105 x 1
[I]Increase to 90[/I]
Got some solid work in. This is probably the most volume I've ever done on OHP. I failed my final attempt at 110, but it stalled out at about eye level. I was happy with how my core held up, it stayed really stable even on the failed attempt. I've seen a big improvement in that area over the last couple of months.

[B]Chin Ups - 3x8[/B]
BW x 10
BW x 8
BW x 8
[I]Repeat[/I]
Kind of stalled out at the moment. I've been putting in a lot of extra work on my other lifts though, combined with supersetting, so I'm not really surprised or worried about it. I'll just continue doing AMRAP sets at bodyweight.

[B]Deadlift - 3x5[/B]
155 x 5
205 x 5
255 x 5
[I]Increase to 265[/I]
The weight went up relatively easily. The one bad habit I need to get rid of is letting my shoulders sag (typically only my right shoulder). I tried to focus on keeping it solid, but still seemed to lose tightness just slightly on a couple of the reps. I don't really notice it much at this weight, but it start becoming a problem at higher weights. I'll keep working on it.

[B]Bulgarian Split Squat - 2x10[/B]
BW x 20
BW x 20
[I]Repeat[/I]
Had to reset after the 8th rep on my right leg because it totally gave out. I'll repeat at the same weight again next time.

[B]Hammer Curl - 2x10[/B]
30 x 12
30 x 13
[I]Repeat[/I]
I stopped a couple of reps short of failure on the first set so I wouldn't fatigue myself. I should have a good shot at hitting 13 reps on both sets next time.

[I]Plank - 2xTimed[/I]
120 Seconds
120 Seconds
[I]Increase to 10 pounds x 60 seconds[/I]
Well that was really uncomfortable. Didn't honestly think my body would hold up when it started shaking like crazy about 45 seconds into the second attempt. I'll drop down to 60 seconds and add weight next time.

[B]Comments:[/B]
Really happy with the OHP today. Squats will be the focus tomorrow.

[U]Workout B-1[/U]
[B]Back Squat - 5x5[/B]
45 x 10 (WU)
65 x 5
100 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5
145 x 3
155 x 3
95 x 10
[I]Increase to 140[/I]
Felt off today. Nothing too noteworthy...balance was just off a bit.

[B]Bench Press - 3x10[/B]
105 x 10
105 x 10
105 x 10
[I]Increase to 110[/I]
Good solid reps all the way through. Was primarily focusing on keeping my back tight and stable, and keeping the bar sitting in the correct position within my hands.

[B]Kroc Row - 2x15[/B]
45 x 15
45 x 15
[I]Repeat[/I]
Definitely going to stick with these in place of the Pendlay Rows. I was pretty fatigued on the last few reps with my left arm. I'll repeat again and try for a few extra reps.

[B]Leg Curl - 3x8[/B]
145 x 8
[I]Repeat[/I]
Wasn't able to get back on the machine after my first set, and I was in a time crunch, so couldn't wait around.

[B]Calf Raise - 2x10[/B]
30 x 10
30 x 10
[I]Increase to 35[/I]

[B]Face Pull - 2x10[/B]
47.5 x 10
47.5 x 10
[I]Repeat[/I]
A struggle to brace myself again. Not going to increase the weight until my strength increases enough to handle it. I'll just work on adding more reps.


[B]Comments:[/B]
Squats felt awkward, as I mentioned above. Everything else went well today. I was pretty short on sleep, which may have impacted the squats.
Weight is still basically about the same, fluctuating from about 164-168. Body composition is certainly changing though. The belt is one notch tighter than it was a few weeks ago. Still trying to keep the calories low, but I struggle with it on the weekends. It's all good though. I have my priorities in the order I want them, so I'll just continue doing the best I can within that framework.

[U]Workout A-2[/U]
[B]Deadlift - 3x3[/B]
160 x 3
210 x 3
265 x 3
305 X 1
305 X 1
305 X 1
[I]Increase to 270[/I]
My lower back started feeling funky yesterday. Not sure if I slept wrong, or what. I haven't really had any pain. Just feels like somethings slightly out of place. I decided not to push it too far today as a result of that. 305 is going up pretty smoothly now for singles. I did the three singles in pretty quick succession with no problem.

[B]Overhead Press - 3x10[/B]
75 x 8
75 x 8
75 x 8
[I]Reduce to 70[/I]
I did NOT expect a 5 pound increase to result in 6 fewer reps. Not sure if I was just having a bad day today, a good day last time, or what... I really don't want to be grinding out reps on my lighter OHP day, so I'll drop back down to 70 next time.

[B]Chin Ups - 3x8-12[/B]
BW x 9
BW x 9
BW x 9
[I]Repeat[/I]
A 1 rep increase, but I had pretty long breaks between sets. My exercise order was all jumbled up. Ended up doing a circuit of sorts, jumping between these, Leg Press, Glute/Ham Raises, and Leg Raises depending upon what was available.

[B]Leg Press - 3x10[/B]
290 x 10
290 x 10
290 x 10
[I]Increase to 320[/I]
This felt easier than last time, despite the extra 40 pounds. Gonna make another big jump next time.

[B]Glute/Ham Raise - 2x10[/B]
BW x 10
BW x 10
[I]Repeat[/I]
Making progress. It felt significantly better/easier than my previous attempts. I'll continue trying to increase the number of reps for a while. I don't want to add weight until I'm really comfortable doing these.

[B]Leg Raise - 2xAMRAP[/B]
BW x 30
BW x 30
[I]Repeat[/I]
Well this came out of nowhere. This is 10 more reps than last time, and 18 more reps than the time before that. Not sure why the number of reps I'm able to do is skyrocketing, but I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing.


[B]Comments:[/B]
Not much to add. Hopefully the lower back will be totally back to normal soon. If it's not by the end of the weekend, I may take a bit of a break since that's not something I want to mess around with. On another note, I made a general observation today that my posture and balance have definitely improved. Not that I've never really had bad posture. I just know that I need to pay close attention to it when lifting, because slight imbalances or misalignment's are dangerous and much more noticeable. That attention has just carried over to other areas of my life. I sit in a better position. I walk more erect and balanced. All of my movements feel more natural.

[U]Workout B-2[/U]
[B]Bench Press - 5x5[/B]
45 x 10
65 x 5
100 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5
140 x 3
115 x 10
[I]Decrease to 125[/I]
I hit all the reps, but I'm going to reduce weight next time. I took video of myself, and didn't like what I saw. My bar path was okay on some reps, but wavered quite a bit on a few. The bar was also going up slower than I thought it was. I still have work to do on my setup, maintaining tightness throughout my body, and bar path.

[B]Chest Supported Row - 3x8 (supersetted w/bench)[/B]
90 x 8
90 x 8
90 x 6
[I]Reduce to 70[/I]
Time to reset. Last rep on the second set was a grind. The sixth rep on the last set was pretty poor.

[B]Back Squat - 3x10[/B]
45 x 5
105 x 10
105 x 10
105 x 10
[I]Increase to 110[/I]
Much like the Bench Press, I still have a lot of room for improvement. I had one rep where I leaned too far forward. Didn't have any problem completing the rep because the weight is so light, but it might've been ugly with a heavy weight. Some of the other reps seemed to be a little unbalanced too. I've noticed that I have trouble activating my right glute on both squats and deadlifts. My left glute is working harder, and is sometimes noticeably sorer after finishing workouts. I'll be focusing on getting the right side of my lower body tighter on those lifts.

[B]Romanian Deadlift - 3x8[/B]
165 x 8
165 x 8
165 x 8
[I]Increase to 170[/I]

[B]French Press - 2x10[/B]
55 x 5
45 x 10
[I]Reduce to 45[/I]
Holy hell. I never would've thought I'd struggle to even get 5 reps with 10 extra pounds. Not sure if I'm going to drop to a lower weight, or switch to a different triceps exercise.

[B]Face Pull - 2x10[/B]
47.5 x 11
47.5 x 11
[I]Repeat[/I]


[B]Comments:[/B]
My back was feeling much better today. I'm still feeling good about how things are progressing. As I continue to get more experience with the main lifts, my deficiencies become more obvious. I'm enjoying the process of noticing and working through these deficiencies. Taking video when I'm able to is proving to be very helpful. I'm just going to keep being consistent with my lifting schedule, and constantly trying to improve how I perform the individual exercises.

[U]Workout A-1[/U]
[B]Overhead Press - 5x5[/B]
45 x 5
65 x 5
90 x 5
90 x 4
90 x 4
65 X 12
[I]Repeat[/I]

[B]Chin Ups - 3x8[/B]
BW x 10
BW x 9
BW x 9
[I]Repeat[/I]
2 reps better than last time. Not a fair comparison at all though. I ended up starting out with these since there were no racks available.

[B]Deadlift - 3x5[/B]
155 x 5
210 x 5
260 x 5
[I]Increase to 265[/I]
Really focused on overall tightness during these reps, and did a much better job of keeping my shoulders and back tight. Being more attentive to maintaining tightness resulted in slower, less explosive reps. I hit all of them easily, but I'll need to work on combining the tightness and the explosiveness. When I get that, I expect I'll see another big jump in the amount of weight I'm able to lift.

[B]Bulgarian Split Squat - 2x10[/B]
BW x 22.5
BW x 22.5
[I]Increase to 25[/I]
I was supposed to repeat at 20 after failing last time, but there were no 20 lbs dumbbells available, so I grabbed a 22.5 and hit all of the reps with good form.

[B]Hammer Curl - 2x10[/B]
30 x 13
30 x 13
[I]Increase to 35[/I]
Made it to my goal of 13 reps on each set. I'll try 35's next time. Hoping I can get to about 8 reps initially, and work my way up from there.

[B]Plank - 2xTimed[/B]
60 Seconds x 10 lbs
60 Seconds x 10 lbs
[I]Increase to 25 pounds x 60 seconds[/I]
This was a bit too easy. I'll jump it up to 25 pounds next time, and start increasing the time with that weight until I'm up to 2 sets @2 minutes again.

[B]Back Squat[/B]
65 x 5
95 x 5
These weren't part of my plan today, but I watched some videos on squat form over the weekend, and since I finished earlier than normal I decided to do a few light sets to see if the cue's I picked up would be helpful. They were. My balance was better. The reps felt more natural, movement wise. Damn though...my hips are weak. I've been overcompensating to have my quads help get the weight up, and fixing that made it really obvious that I have a weakness in my hips that needs to be improved. I'm interested to see how tomorrow goes, since it's supposed to be my heavier squat day.

[U]Workout B-1[/U]
[B]Back Squat - 5x5[/B]
45 x 5
70 x 5
105 x 5
140 x 5
140 x 5
140 x 5
85 x 15
[I]Increase to 145[/I]
Must've gotten slightly off on one of the reps because I felt a twinge in my back. It's perfectly okay. Didn't even need to stop the set. Otherwise it went smoothly today. On the last set, I honestly just ran out of energy. Not used to bracing for that long, and I was getting light headed. One good thing came out of today's session. I think I figured out one of the reasons my weight shifts to my left side. My lower body on my right side is relaxing too much, especially on the descent. Meanwhile, my left side stays tight, and the muscles are better prepared to initiate weight going upward. I tried to pay attention to that and keep my right side tighter. It's something I'll need to be really conscious of. Habits suck...when they're bad.

[B]Bench Press - 3x10[/B]
110 x 10
110 x 10
110 x 10
[I]Increase to 115[/I]
This was easier than it was at 105 last time. Tried to get my feet under my hips. I was keeping my lower body and core pretty tight previously, but didn't have my feet under me enough. That adjustment made a noticeable difference.

[B]Kroc Row - 2x15[/B]
45 x 15
45 x 15
[I]Increase to 50[/I]
These were much easier than last time also.

[B]Leg Curl - 3x8[/B]
145 x 8
60 x 8
60 x 8
[I]Increase to 70[/I]
Decided to try out a standing single leg curl after my first set because the leg curl machine I've typically used wasn't available. I like it. Prevents one leg from taking over, and felt like it did a better job of isolating the hamstring. I'm going to continue using it moving forward.

[B]Calf Raise - 2x10[/B]
35 x 10
35 x 10
[I]Increase to 40[/I]

[B]Face Pull - 2x10[/B]
47.5 x 11
47.5 x 11
[I]Repeat[/I]


[B]Comments:[/B]
Bracing/Tightness continues to be the biggest challenge and area of focus for me. Made some improvements on Squats and Bench today. Still have a long way to go. It's really the only thing I'm worried about right now, since I feel like I've go the basic movements all down. I'm starting to notice a buildup of fatigue. I'll wait and see how I feel at the end of this week. I'll be taking a deload week either next week, or the week after. I think it's been about 6 or 7 weeks without one, so I'm probably due.

[U]Workout A-2[/U]
[B]Deadlift - 3x3[/B]
160 x 3
215 x 3
270 x 3
305 X 1
325 X 1
205 x 5
[I]Increase to 275[/I]
Attempted 345 after doing 325 fairly easily. It didn't come off the floor initially, so I dropped the weight and worked on technique. For all of the reps, I focused totally on bar speed and tightness. It's literally the only thing I was thinking about. Also tried starting a hair closer to the bar. Then, just thought 'bar speed and tightness, bar speed and tightness'. Results were good. I still have a long way to go on tightening up my glutes, lower back, and shoulders, primarily on the right side of my body. Still seems strange to me that I do a pretty good job of keeping the left side of my body tight, but I lose it on the right side the moment I stop thinking about it. Bar Speed and Tightness is going to be my mantra on deadlifts for quite a while I think.

[B]Overhead Press - 3x10[/B]
70 x 10
70 x 10
70 x 10
[I]Increase to 75[/I]
Ended up doing Military Press because that's what was available. Went within probably 1 rep of failure on all three sets (definitely within 1 on the last two sets). I've recently been able to lift more doing OHP than military press, so I'll bump it up 5 pounds next time and see what happens.

[B]Pull Ups - 3x8-12[/B]
BW x 8
BW x 7
BW x 7
[I]Repeat[/I]
Decided I wanted to try pullups instead of chins. I've avoided them because they put more stress on my shoulders, but my shoulders have been feeling really good lately. Not surprised, but I wasn't able to do as many reps as I have on chins. I think I keep alternating between the two for a while.

[B]Leg Press - 3x10[/B]
320 x 10
320 x 10
320 x 10
[I]Increase to 360[/I]
I should be able to handle another big jump next time.

[B]Glute/Ham Raise - 2x10[/B]
BW x 12
BW x 10
[I]Repeat[/I]
These are really hammering my hamstrings. I'm needing to make sure I stretch a bit right before doing them, because my calves keep wanting to cramp up. I'm liking this exercise so far.

[B]Leg Raise - 2xAMRAP[/B]
BW x 32
BW x 32
[I]Repeat[/I]
Another good increase, four reps. Working my way towards sets of 40...


[B]Comments:[/B]
All good today. Deadlifts are feeling pretty good. Shoulders are feeling good on both pressing and pulling exercises. I don't have a single complaint. Feeling real happy about how things are going. I'll be lifting again tomorrow, focusing on Bench Press. I'm heavily leaning towards deloading next week. I may just take the week off since my schedule is going to make it hard to lift on Monday and Tuesday anyway. If I end up doing any lifting, it will be low intensity.

[U]Workout B-2[/U]
[B]Bench Press - 5x5[/B]
45 x 10
65 x 5
95 x 5
125 x 5
125 x 5
125 x 5
135 x 3
145 x 3
95 x 10
[I]Increase to 130[/I]
I watched Dave Tate's series on Bench Pressing and made some additional adjustments. Felt really awkward, to be honest. I'll have to do some experimentation. Also need to video myself at some point probably, because my foot position seemed to be better and my lower body was tighter, but I felt like I had no lower body drive at all. Not sure if I was just too rigid, or perhaps need to adjust foot position a bit.

[B]Chest Supported Row - 3x8[/B]
70 x 8
70 x 8
70 x 8
[I]Increase to 75[/I]
No problem at the lighter weight. I was able to focus more on utilizing the 'correct' muscles.

[B]Back Squat - 3x10[/B]
45 x 10
95 x 6
110 x 10
110 x 10
110 x 10
[I]Increase to 115[/I]
Video'd myself today. Didn't look terrible, but my bar path started to drift forward on about the 4th rep of my first set. Probably happened after 1 or 2 reps in the following sets. I may upload it and post it here if I have time.

[B]Romanian Deadlift - 3x8[/B]
170 x 8
170 x 8
170 x 8
[I]Increase to 175[/I]

[B]French Press - 2x10[/B]
55 x 4 / 45 x 10
45 x 12
[I]Repeat at 45[/I]
Decided to try with 55 lbs again to make sure it wasn't just a bad day last time. Epic fail, lol. Struggled to even get the four reps (last rep was crappy, and shouldn't even count). I'll be staying at 45 until I can do it for 16 or 17 reps on both sets.

[B]Face Pull - 2x10[/B]
47.5 x 12
47.5 x 10
[I]Decrease to 32.5[/I]
I'm just not happy with how I'm doing this exercise at this weight. I'm going to lower it, and focus on getting higher quality reps.

[B]Comments:[/B]
My energy level was kind of low today. For the first time in a very long time, I didn't have meals prepped. Ended up buying ramen noodles out of a vending machine for 2 of my meals today. It got the job done as far as getting some calories in me, but didn't really agree with me (stomach was rumbling, and had bad gas). The session got better as I went along. All in all, not a bad week. I'm continuing to make progress on pretty much every lift, by increasing the weight used, refining form, or both.

Weight loss is still pretty slow. I weighed in at 163.8 today. I started cutting at the beginning of November, at 176.6 pounds, so that's a total weight loss of almost 13 pounds. Pitifully slow, but it is what it is. At least it's continuing to go the right direction. Just gonna keep at it.

Got a chance to upload a couple of videos. I realize the quality isn't great. I'll try recording with a widescreen view next time and see if that helps.

The first is a deadlift from 3 or 4 weeks ago. I don't remember for sure, but I think I was lifting about 315 pounds, which would've matched a PR at the time.
[youtube]xB_QwVNGRcs[/youtube]

My lower back was rounding slightly. I always look very awkward when lowering weights that are heavy for me. Not sure if that's a big deal or not, or what to do about it.
I've made some adjustments since this was recorded, standing a little closer to the bar, and improving my bracing and overall tightness.


This is one of my squat sets from yesterday. It was 10 reps at 110 pounds.
[youtube]fvmS3LA8U7o[/youtube]

I know I've never shared video of myself before, but this is an enormous improvement on my squat form. Still have a lot of room for improvement though. In general, I still struggle to get my feet positioned in a way that's comfortable (I don't necessarily notice it as I'm doing a set, but I can see clearly in this video that my feet were shuffling about between reps). I also still tend to favor my left side (I'll try to get video from the front or back at some point).
The other things that jumped out for me in this video are that my elbows are poorly positioned. I need to get them a little more under the bar and straighten my wrists more. Also, at about rep number 4 I start leaning forward on the ascent, and it gets a bit worse as the set goes on. I'm assuming this is the result of weaknesses in the lower back, glutes and hips. Hopefully some of the assistance lifts I'm doing will help bring up my strength in those areas.

If anyone sees anything else that I've missed in these videos, or disagrees with my assessment, I'd love to hear it.

Taking a deload week this week. I lifted today, not following any particular plan. I'll probably lift again on Thursday. Not sure if I'll get another workout in after that or not. I kept the weights pretty light across the board, mostly doing 3x10, with 3x5 on lower body lifts.

[B]Paused Back Squat[/B]
45 x 10
115 x 5
115 x 5
115 x 5

[B]Sumo Deadlift[/B]
165 x 5
165 x 5
165 x 5

[B]Deficit Deadlift[/B]
165 x 5
165 x 5
165 x 5

[B]Leg Curl[/B]
30 x 10
30 x 10
30 x 10

[B]Calf Raise[/B]
20 x 10
20 x 10
20 x 10

[B]Military Press[/B]
45 x 10
45 x 10
45 x 10

[B]Spoto Press[/B]
45 x 10
65 x 10
65 x 10
65 x 10

[B]Back Raise[/B]
25 x 10
25 x 10
25 x 10

[B]Decline Crunch[/B]
25 x 10
25 x 10
25 x 10


[B]Comments:[/B]
Worked on bar speed and tightness. I kind of have a hard time focusing on tightness with lighter weights. It's something I need to get better at for sure. It's really just a matter of focus, so there's no good excuse for it. My next workout will be similar, but have some more pulling included.

[B]Back Squat[/B]
45 x 10
115 x 5 (paused)
115 x 5

[B]Trap Bar Deadlift[/B]
225 x 3
225 x 3
225 x 3
It seems like most people find these to be easier than doing them with a conventional bar. Not the case for me at all. Being pretty small, I'm used to having a narrow grip. This forced me to have a much wider grip than usual, and felt pretty awkward as a result.

[B]Leg Press[/B]
180 x 20

[B]Incline Press (Paused)[/B]
95 x 5
95 x 5
95 x 5

[B]Pullup[/B]
BW x 5
BW x 5
BW x 5

[B]Kroc Row[/B]
40 x 10
40 x 10

[B]Face Pull[/B]
27.5 x 10
27.5 x 10

[B]Hammer Curl[/B]
17.5 x 10
17.5 x 10

[B]Leg Raise[/B]
BW x 40


[B]Comments:[/B]
Kind of a mish-mash of exercises again today. Just wanted to hit the main movements without killing myself. Most of the accessories were done while I was waiting for a rack to open up. I'll probably be lifting again on Friday with the same goal in mind.

[B]Bench Press[/B]
45 x 10
65 x 5
95 x 5
115 x 3
135 x 3

[B]T-Bar Row[/B]
35 x 10
75 x 10
75 x 10

[B]Squat[/B]
45 x 5
95 x 5
115 x 4
135 x 3
155 x 3

[B]Sumo Deadlift[/B]
45 x 5
95 x 5
135 x 5
225 x 5

[B]Deficit Deadlift[/B]
225 x 5

[B]DB Shoulder Press[/B]
20's x 10
25'x x 8
30's x 5
35's x 5
40's x 5

[B]Lat Pulldown[/B]
70 x 10
100 x 10
130 x 6

[B]Hanging Leg Raise[/B]
BW x 5


[B]Comments:[/B]
Messing around a bit again today. Form on Bench was slightly improved, but I caught myself relaxing my hips multiple times. The squats got better as I went along. I did a far better job of breathing, and maintaining tightness. The later sets were smooth, and the weight moved pretty easily. Sumo Deadlift felt really good today too. I narrowed my stance slightly, and did a better job of pulling the bar close to me. The 5 reps at 225 were pretty effortless. Hanging Leg Raises suck, lol.

On Monday I'll be starting 5/3/1, running this - [url]https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?p=1483508011#post1483508011[/url]
I'll be using BBB (5x10) for everything except Deadlifts, where I'll do BBS (5x5). I'm looking forward to it, and plan to be on this program for a long time.

[U]Day #1 of 5/3/1[/U]

[B]Bench Press / Kroc Row (Superset)[/B]
45 x 20 (WU)
95 x 5 ____________35 x 15
110 x 5____________35 x 15
125 x 9 (AMRAP)____35 x 15
135 x 3 (Joker)
145 x 3 (Joker)
95 x 15 (First Set Last)

[B]OHP (Boring But Big) / Chin Ups (Superset)[/B]
45 x 10___________BW x 5
45 x 10___________BW x 5
45 x 10___________BW x 5
45 x 10___________BW x 5
45 x 10___________BW x 4

[B]French Press / Hammer Curl (Superset)[/B]
35 x 10___________22.5 x 10
35 x 10___________22.5 x 10
35 x 10___________22.5 x 10

[B]Face Pull[/B]
27.5 x 15
27.5 x 15
27.5 x 15


[B]Comments:[/B]
I was planning to start out with Squats, but there were no racks available and I didn't feel like waiting, so I decided to start off with bench since there was one open.
It looked easy on paper, and while it wasn't necessarily hard, it felt like a lot more volume than it looked like. Supersetting the rows and chin ups along with the presses wore me out. I'm sure my body will adjust to the new program within a week or so. I'm glad I started out light. My right shoulder was pretty sore after benching. Feels perfectly fine now, but I think I let my grip get a little too wide. I'll have to be careful about that.

Not sure if I'll make it to the gym tomorrow. Most likely I'll have a crap load of snow to clean up. We'll see what happens.

[B]Back Squat[/B]
45 x 20 (WU)
100 x 5
115 x 5
130 x 9 (AMRAP)
145 x 3 (Joker)
155 x 3(Joker)
100 x 11 (First Set Last)
The squats didn't feel good today. It was one of those days where they just inexplicably felt off, but I was unable to pinpoint what was wrong. My energy level was really low to start off with, which definitely didn't help matters. I stopped both of the AMRAP sets because my form was getting out of hand.

[B]Deadlift (Boring But Strong)[/B]
240 x 5
240 x 5
240 x 5
240 x 5
240 x 5
I struggled more with grip strength than anything on these. I'm not really used to doing this much volume. Aside from that, the lift went well. Everything was tight and efficient.

[B]Single Leg Curl[/B]
40 x 10
40 x 10
40 x 10

[B]Leg Raise[/B]
BW x 30
BW x 25
I was gassed by this point. I had originally planned to do Brazilian Split Squats, but I had nothing left in the tank.

[B]Comments:[/B]
I need to get some more sleep. I had less than 6 hours each of the last 2 days, and it kind of caught up to me today. I was low on energy throughout the workout. I'll take a rest day tomorrow, and lift again on Thursday.

[U]5/3/1 w/Boring But Big - Press Day[/U]
[B]Overhead Press / Pullup (Superset)[/B]
45 x 10 (WU)
60 x 5
70 x 5
80 x 8 (AMRAP)
85 x 3 (Joker) _______BW x 5
90 x 3 (Joker) _______BW x 5
95 x 3 (Joker) _______BW x 5
100 x 1 (Joker) ______BW x 5
105 x 1 (Joker) ______BW x 4

[B]Bench (Boring But Big) / Chest Supported Row (Superset)[/B]
70 x 10_____________55 x 10
70 x 10_____________55 x 10
70 x 10_____________55 x 10
70 x 10_____________55 x 10
70 x 10_____________55 x 10

[B]Rope Curl / Tricep Pushdown (Superset)[/B]
30 x 10_____35 x 10
30 x 10_____35 x 10
30 x 10_____35 x 10


[B]Comments:[/B]
I had planned to do Deadlifts today, but was still pretty sore from Tuesdays workout so I decided to do OHP instead. Not a whole lot to comment on today. Everything went reasonably well. My workouts are taking longer than I'd like. I'd like to be able to do them in an hour, and it's been taking me about 75 minutes. I should be able to pick up the pace once my body gets adjusted to the new stimulus.

That 3rd set on bench... That was THE ONE. The clouds parted. The sun shone through in all its magnificence. The reps were perfect. God smiled upon that 3rd set on bench. Seriously though, it's the first time where everything felt right. I think it's the first time I've ever really got the setup right. My whole body was locked into place. I could feel my feet under me, driving with each rep, while my body remained statue-like. It was effortless (and it wasn't just because I was only lifting 70 pounds, lol). I know what I'm aiming for now. I got close, but wasn't able to replicate it exactly in the 4th and 5th sets. I still need to figure out how to consistently get my feet placed correctly before locking in my upper body. Will continue to work on it.

Tomorrow is Deadlift Day. Looking forward to kicking some ass.

[U]5/3/1 w/Boring But Big - Deadlift Day[/U]
[B]Deadlift[/B]
45 x 3 (WU)
95 x 3 (WU)
135 x 3 (WU)
185 x 3 (WU)
195 x 5
225 x 5
255 x 9 (AMRAP)
275 x 3 (Joker)
295 x 3 (Joker)
315 x 1 (Joker)
I had good control today, but felt weak, especially with my grip. I dropped the bar on the 3rd rep at 295 immediately after locking it out. Decided to stop at 315 even though I could've gone higher. I had a rep or two left in the tank, and that's pretty much where I want to call it quits on the Joker and the AMRAP sets. My glutes were fried when I was done, which I'm not really used to. Don't know if did something different. I was just a bit more methodical, which I supposed required my muscles to fire for a bit longer than I'm used to. I'm happy with how the day went with deadlifts.

[B]Squat (Boring But Big)[/B]
75 x 10
75 x 10
75 x 10
75 x 10
75 x 10
Started to get fatigued on the last couple of reps on the final set, but no real problem here. I tried taking video of myself from the front, but there's only about 2 feet of space. You couldn't see my head, or anything below my knees, lol. When I watched it back it looked much easier than it felt. I guess that's a good thing. I may try getting a view from behind next time, but there's not really a good way to set that up either. We'll see...

[B]Plank[/B]
25lbs x 90 seconds
25 x 60

[B]Comments:[/B]
I tried doing Brazilian Split Squats after the planks, but my right leg gave out on the first rep attempt. I tried to reset and go again, thinking my balance was just off, but it wasn't happening. It's strange, because my legs didn't feel particularly tired, but there was just nothing there when I tried the split squats.

I have a much better idea how I want to approach my workouts now that I've got through the first week of 5/3/1. I should only have to do some small tweaks as I figure out how much assistance work I can handle. I like the focus on the primary lifts, so I want to keep the assistance work pretty limited to assure I have plenty of energy for the primary lifts. All in all, I got what I wanted out of the week. I'll rest up this weekend and be back in the gym on Monday.