The Flywheel Effect.

[U]Floor Press[/U]
170 pounds x 1 rep
155 pounds - 5 sets x 3 reps

Was also supposed do squats but wasn't feeling up to it. I've felt progressively worse over the last 3 days and am not feeling up to doing much of anything. I'm sure I'll start feeling better over the coming days.

[U]Bench Press[/U]
145 pounds - 4 sets x 4 reps

[U]SSB Squat[/U]
155 pounds - 5 sets x 4 reps

First workout in nearly a month. I was sick for about a week and then went on a vacation overseas. I got back home on Thursday, but 18 hours on a plane can really do a number on a person so I needed a few days to recover. Still not feeling close to 100%, but wanted to get some work in today. Kept the weight light but it still felt quite hard. It's a start...

[U]Bench Press[/U]
115 pounds - 6 sets x 6 reps

[U]Conv Deadlift[/U]
275 pounds - 5 sets x 3 reps

Bench felt much better today. Deads kicked my butt. Both lifts move fast and smooth. Deads in particular felt really good from a technique standpoint.
I'm light headed and have a headache now. I expect it'll take a week or two for my body to reacclimate to lifting. Just going to keep forging ahead...

[U]Bench Press[/U]
145 pounds - 4 sets x 4 reps

[U]SSB Box Squat[/U]
205 pounds - 8 sets x 2 reps

Energy level was a bit better today. Both lifts felt much heavier than they should have - especially the squats.

[U]Bench Press[/U]
115 pounds - 5 sets x 6 reps / 1 set x 16 reps

[U]Conv Deadlift[/U]
325 pounds - 6 sets x 2 reps

Bench was great today, feeling strong and fresh. AMRAP on the final set was around a 7-8 RPE.
Deads moved like a warmup weight. Muscles felt strong throughout but energy level crashed after about 4 sets.
I'll probably take 1 or 2 rest days now.

[U]Bench Press[/U]
155 pounds - 6 sets x 3 reps

[U]SSB Low Box Squat[/U]
155 pounds - 6 sets x 4 reps

I know - weird to squat the same weight that I bench, lol. Squats and deads are still wrecking me though. The weight was light but I still felt like I could vomit after getting done. Just trying to build up some kind of work capacity. I'll likely increase the squat weight next time.

[U]Bench Press[/U]
135 pounds - 6 sets x 6 reps

[U]Conv Deadlift[/U]
275 pounds - 6 sets x 3 reps

Got through the workout without feeling nauseous, so that's a win. Both lifts went well. Deads especially felt very easy.

[U]Bench Press[/U]
155 pounds - 4 sets x 4 reps

[U]SSB Low Box Squat[/U]
205 pounds - 9 sets x 2 reps

Had a few slow reps but felt good overall.

[U]Bench Press[/U]
135 pounds x 11/8/6 - all sets @8 RPE

[U]Conv Deadlift[/U]
325 pounds x 6 reps - @8
275 pounds - 2 sets x 2 reps

Rest times were 2 minutes or less on everything. I'm going to mix in workouts like this somewhat regularly to help with building work capacity.

The weights I'm using are staying basically the same on each lift right now - alternating between a lighter day and a heavier day on each exercise. I have rep goals that will trigger me to increase weight. The goal for deads was 7 reps today and I could have made it but really don't want to go beyond 8 RPE on anything since my frequency is pretty high right now. Improving my work capacity should help and I fully expect I'll hit the goal on my next attempt, though that may be a few weeks off.

Increasing the weight on the bar is NOT my primary goal at this point. I'm really just trying to get in a lot of good clean reps in the 60-80% range. I feel like it's going very well. I feel fresh and can tell that my strength is gradually increasing.

[U]Bench Press[/U]
155 pounds - 7 sets x 3 reps

Skipped squats and then added an extra rest day because one of my knees hasn't been feeling right for about a week.

[U]Bench Press[/U]
135 pounds - 8 sets x 6 reps

[U]Conv Deadlift[/U]
275 pounds - 5 sets x 4 reps

Was feeling pretty good today so I ended up skipping ahead and doing the sets x reps that were scheduled for the following session instead. I'd guess that the extra rest day helped.
I'm getting better at modifying my plan for the day according to how I'm feeling and performing at that moment. I feel like this should pay dividends in the long run.

[U]SSB Low Box Squat[/U]
165 pounds - 5 sets x 4 reps

[U]Bench Press[/U]
155 pounds - 8 sets x 3 reps

I switched the lift order so that I'm freshest when doing squats. It worked well. Good energy level was good through the squats and I didn't notice any real impact on bench. I'll probably do the same thing on deadlift days as well.

[U]Conv Deadlift[/U]
325 pounds - 5 sets x 3 reps

[U]Bench Press[/U]
115 pounds - 6 sets x 6 reps

I've still been having a slightly tender knee. It seems like it's bench press that's bothering it more than squats or deads so I went lighter on those today and used pretty much no legs during the lift. It was pretty easy, as expected.

Deads on the other hand were harder than expected even though I was never super close to failure - probably nothing over an 8 RPE.

[U]SSB Squat[/U]
205 pounds - 6 sets x 2 reps

[U]Bench Press[/U]
155 pounds - 6 sets x 4 reps

I'm removing the box on squats for now to try to get a bit closer to a standard squat. Would love to do some regular low bar squats but I'm not going anywhere near that until I feel my elbow has healed up fully.

Bench went well. Got near an RPE 9 on the last rep of the last set. Next time should be 7 sets of 4 and I'm sure that will be a real challenge.

[U]Bench Press[/U]
125 pounds - 3 sets x 8 reps

[U]Conv Deadlift[/U]
275 pounds - 3 sets x 6 reps

After 3 weeks being unable to lift, I've now been back at it for a month. I'm going to transition to programming that's a little different. I've mostly been doing many sets of lower rep work. I'm going to reduce sets and increase reps. Also planning to start adding in some accessory stuff sometime soon.

Both Bench and Deadlift were pretty easy - nothing higher than about a 6 RPE.

[U]SSB Squat[/U]
205 pounds - 3 sets x 3 reps

[U]Supinated Triceps Pushdown[/U]
10 pounds - 2 sets x 15 reps

[U]Close Grip Larsen Press[/U]
95 pounds - 3 sets x 10 reps

Squats went well.
Started out trying normal triceps pushdown but felt discomfort in my elbow right away. Decided to try it supinated and there wasn't even a trace of pain or discomfort so I'll likely continue doing them that way.
Doing close grip larsen press because I don't want any pressure on my knees. Close grip is just to add some variation some I'm doing a standard grip for all of my other pressing right now. 95 pounds was meant to be a warm up weight but after doing a few reps with it I decided it was going to be my working weight.

[U]Bench Press[/U]
155 pounds x 7 reps

[U]Deadlift[/U]
275 pounds - 3 sets x 7 reps

[U]Nordic Hamstring Curls[/U]
3 sets x 8 reps

Hit my rep goal on bench so I'll increase weight next time.
Deadlifts drained me enormously but were nowhere near failure. Next time will be 3x8.

[U]SSB Squat[/U]
165 pounds - 3 sets x 6 reps

[U]Leg Extension[/U]
75 pounds - 3 sets x 12 reps

[U]DB Bench Press[/U]
40's - 3 sets x 10 reps

Still struggling to build up work capacity on squats. I was very light headed after each of the 3 sets even though they weren't very close to failure. I'll aim for sets of 7 next time.
Leg Extensions and DB Bench weren't too difficult. Focus was on getting a full range of motion and controlling the weight throughout. Weight will go up next time around.

[U]Conventional Deadlift[/U]
325 pounds x 7 reps

[U]Bench Press[/U]
135 pounds - 3 sets x 6 reps

Pretty easily hit 7 reps on deads at about a 7-8 RPE so I'll increase weight next time. First time taking video of myself in a while. I should do it more often... Noticed on deads that my hips were shooting up right away and as a result coming through later than they should be. I believe this is because of the belt limiting me in the setup. Even though I feel like I get extra support from it, I'm likely better off not using it because something like this could likely be the difference between making or missing a lift that's closer to my 1RM. I could also just experiment with loosening it more...but I don't feel like I lose much (if any) strength without the belt.

Not sure what happened on bench today, but something clicked. It felt extremely light and the movement pattern seemed to be more locked in. I probably could've done 3x10 without needing to grind, but I'm content to go slowly, especially since the weight will be increasing on my heavier bench day this week.

[youtube]ieekpleR-bM[/youtube]

[U]SSB Squat[/U]
205 pounds - 3 sets x 4 reps

[U]Close Grip Larsen Press[/U]
105 pounds - 3 sets x 10 reps

[U]Supinated Triceps Pushdown[/U]
15 pounds - 2 sets x 15 reps

Squats got a little grindy on the final reps. Video of the second set is below. After watching it back I did a better job of getting to depth and maintaining tightness on the descent on the final set.

[youtube]TnkciNS0LTo[/youtube]

[U]Bench Press[/U]
165 pounds - 3 sets x 3 reps

[U]Conv Deadlift[/U]
275 pounds - 3 sets x 8 reps

[U]Nordic Hamstring Curl[/U]
3 sets x 8 reps

Not sure I could've done 4 reps on any of the bench sets, so it'll be interesting to see how next week goes when I should be doing 3x4.
Deads were pretty easy. Tried out my smaller belt and I like that much better for deadlifting. It's a 3 inch belt and I think 10mm while my main one is 4 inches and 13mm.

[U]SSB Squat[/U]
165 - 3 sets x 7 reps

[U]Leg Extension[/U]
90 pounds - 3 sets x 12 reps

[U]DB Bench Press[/U]
45's - 3 sets x 10 reps

[U]Conv Deadlift[/U]
335 pounds - 3 sets x 3 reps

[U]Bench Press[/U]
135 pounds - 3 sets x 7 reps

All smooth. Used the smaller belt when deadlifting again today and it felt great. Will likely stick with using this when I do belted work.

[youtube]4oE363d09Mw[/youtube]

[U]SSB Squat[/U]
205 pounds - 3 sets x 5 reps

[U]Close Grip Larsen Press[/U]
115 pounds - 3 sets x 10 reps

[U]Supinated Triceps Pushdown[/U]
20 pounds - 2 sets x 15 reps

Squats felt good. I'll increase weight next time. As you may have noticed watching my vids lately the 2 year old is constantly hovering around me. Half the time I setup and end up not even starting the set because he stands under me or under the weights. At some point I may need to lock him out of the room when I'm lifting, but I pretty much know if I do that the whole workout is over because a tantrum is highly likely.

I can tell something is going right on bench because if was easier than last week even though it was 10 pounds heavier.

[youtube]Y3y4osXYSrc[/youtube]

[U]Bench Press[/U]
165 pounds - 3 sets x 4 reps

[U]Conv Deadlift[/U]
285 pounds - 3 sets x 6 reps

[U]Nordic Hamstring Curl[/U]
3 sets x 8 reps

Last week bench was 3x3 with this weight and I said I didn't think I could've done 4 reps on any of the sets. Did 3x4 this week and felt like I could've done more reps on each set. Interesting how that works sometimes...

Deads was quite easy today as well despite a 10 pound weight increase from last week.

Work capacity has definitely improved. Overall the fatigue in each session is reduced. I never felt fatigued at all today and probably could've done all of the sets with 60 second or less rest between. I'm very happy with how things are going right now.

[youtube]fYK0hK730IM[/youtube]

[U]SSB Squat[/U]
165 - 3 sets x 8 reps

[U]Leg Extension[/U]
100 pounds - 3 sets x 12 reps

[U]DB Bench Press[/U]
47.5's - 3 sets x 10 reps

[U]Conv Deadlift[/U]
335 pounds - 3 sets x 4 reps

[U]Bench Press[/U]
135 pounds - 3 sets x 8 reps

Did deads beltless. They felt heavy today, but I was never close to failure.
Bench Press was easy sailing. I'll increase to 145 next time.

[U]SSB Squat[/U]
215 pounds - 3 sets x 3 reps

[U]Close Grip Larsen Press[/U]
125 pounds - 3 sets x 10 reps

[U]Supinated Triceps Pushdown[/U]
25 pounds - 2 sets x 15 reps

Good workout. Doing 2 days of rest instead of 1 before this workout is making a big difference. I'm feeling much fresher. Also getting pretty comfortable with the SSB bar. Squats are going really well.

[youtube]-Jko6rWmv7I[/youtube]

[U]Bench Press[/U]
165 pounds - 3 sets x 5 reps

[U]Conv Deadlift[/U]
285 pounds - 3 sets x 7 reps

[U]Nordic Hamstring Curl[/U]
3 sets x 8 reps

Continuing to get stronger on bench. Not sure what I'll do next week. I'll either do an AMRAP at 165, do paused bench at 165, or increase to 175 and do a 3x3. I'll see how I feel as I work up.

[youtube]9GaDDVQRcHc[/youtube]

[U]SSB Paused Squat[/U]
165 - 3 sets x 6 reps

[U]Leg Extension[/U]
105 pounds - 3 sets x 12 reps

[U]DB Bench Press[/U]
50's - 3 sets x 10 reps

Changed to paused squats. I'll work up to 3x8 on this before increasing weight because the next weight jump is going to be a big one.

[youtube]tGsH8-w_62Q[/youtube]