Okie dokies. Itching to train, so tomorrow will be fun. I’ll DL, and push for nine or 10 at my TM unless things are feeling sluggish.
Anyways. Attempts.
I think, because I’m not going to be peaking in any realistic way, I’ll look at adding five pounds onto every lift. What I’m considering, though, is only banking on two attempts and leaving the third open depending on how I feel, although when I put it like that it is a remarkably stupid idea. I think my picks will end up something like:
Squat
440 lbs
473 lbs
506 lbs
Bench
242 lbs
253 lbs
275 lbs
DL
492 lbs
517 lbs
556 lbs
Or something. Possibly not. I’ll set them out five weeks out probably, or three when I’ve hit some heavier triples.
Edit: KISS and just add five pounds to each attempt from July. Duh.
Edit two: further to that, it means
Squat
445 lbs
478 lbs
506 lbs
Bench
242 lbs
258 lbs
275 lbs
DL
489 lbs
522 lbs
555 lbs
That’s a total of 1336 lbs. Most likely I’ll try to get down to 181 lbs for the meet. If I start intelligently a week out even 15 or pounds should be fine, and if all goes according to plan the most I’ll be walking around is 193 lbs and that’s a worst case scenario. Hell, ditching most of my veggies a few days out would probably do half of that.
Sorry, so much rambling going on here recently. My brain has been percolating.
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Woke at 192.3 lbs, looking OK.
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Today’s training
Lazy lifter
Deadlift, raw, stiff bar conventional
TM is 451 lbs
Work up from 132 lbs in 44 lbs x3-5 to 60%, varying grip pull-up fives between sets (which felt very good today)
1x313 lbs, under 6 RPE, beltless, hook grip - cues from to Clint Darden video are a game changer
1x363 lbs, under 6 RPE, beltless, hook grip
1x407 lbs, under 6 RPE, hook grip
By now despite my pulls feeling neat and fast it was also apparent I wasn’t in shape to hit a rep PR. Decided on a sort of EMOM-ish approach
7x1x451 lbs, all around 6 RPE or under, hook for first two then straps, four and a half minutes - belt to second last hole, would have been too much effort to last hole. Fat much? Jokes.
Around 45 seconds rest, considering what to do because I didn’t see myself finding 451 for singles particularly challenging for a while, then
5x451 lbs, 7-8 RPE, straps
That seemed like a good point to call main lift for the day. This was pretty good, I think I got some good practice in. Definitely getting stronger, because it really seems like 451 lbs is something I can pull repeatedly and for reps without issue.
Sumo DL paused off floor, beltless, straps
3x3x313 lbs, all hovering around 6 RPE - hamstrings pretty much toast by now
SSB squat, beltless, narrow stance
3x5x275 lbs, no hands 6-7 RPE, hands on camber 6-7 RPE, hands on pads 7-8 RPE - back and abs simply fatigued. No sense in pushing reps for pride, and also definitely time to rest the SSB for a while. It’s done its usual stellar job of trashing my back, time to switch back to straight bar until November.
Reverse hyper 3x25x242 lbs - lower back feeling awesome pump and just generally good
Abs/shoulderals
Standing cable crunches 3x20x77 lbs
Kb rope upright rows 3x20x35 lbs
Nasty AF trap and ab pump
In and out under two hours.
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Trap and ab pump is the fucking tits. Welcome to the Emom party brother 
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In and out in under 2, did you miss half the work out !!! Lol only kidding good work mate.
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Woke at 191.6 lbs, looking tighter than yesterday.
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Quick observation: in recent times I’ve started being able to feel what stops me during a lift. It used to just be ‘too heavy’, now more often than not it’ll be ‘abs and lower back are out’ or ‘triceps are out’. I can only imagine that this will turn out to be very useful.
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Look what Jeremy just got!! He said I can use it. Guess what I’ll be box squatting with after DL next cycle?
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Is that a buffalo or camber bar? I’ve never had the opportunity to use either…
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Same diff. Technically, a cambered bar is any bar with a camber I think. This is a bow bar, which is much like a Duffalo bar or Ox bar (Kabuki and Sorinex products respectively, I think they may be trademarks). Then you’ve got the MacDonald bar, which is a bar for benching and rowing with a two right angles (or nearly) a bit in from each collar so the bar actually lets you lower the weights way below your chest or row the bar further into your body. Finally you have the cambered bars like the SSB, Spider bar, giant cambered bar, etc, which you generally sit on your back with or without a yoke and which puts the weights lower and further in front of you when at the bottom of a squat or good morning.
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Oh gotchya! Cheers mate
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You take that back
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I’m abroad at the moment and have limited data - mind summarising?
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Don’t bury the bar deep in your hand, and don’t wrap your thumb around the bar @MaazerSmiit instead lay the top joint parallel to the bar and place your fingers over it. Don’t try to completely cover the top joint of your thumb with your fingers, and don’t crush it. Just put steady pressure on it. Believe it or not, it works. Feels a little odd no crushing with your hands but it ends up with your thumbs acting like straps.
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Feeling the fairly average sleep I had by the time I got into the gym. Upper back also quite tight/jacked up from yesterday. No bad thing, but notixeable.
Today’s training
Lazy lifter plus ahoulders
Bench press
TM is 225 lbs
Slightly modifying how I set up to accommodate the shirt, as I can’t get my hands to the uprights to push against. It’s a small change, I grip the bar instead and use it to arch. Took until the last two sets to gel.
Work up from bar in 22 lbs x3-5 to 60%, 20 pull aparts between sets (been playing with tempo on these for the last few weeks, BTW)
3x154 lbs, 6 RPE - leg drive timing completely off
3x181 lbs, 6-7 RPE - leg drive timing still off, but better
1x203 lbs, 7 RPE - leg drive timing almost there, but just felt heavy and slow
5x225 lbs, 8-9 RPE - OK, well, that was night and day. Felt grooved, controlled and modified setup TIGHT AF. Very pleased.
Upper back revolted, though, and caused what was turned out to be a doozy of an exertion headache that got progressively worse as training continued.
Decided to be stupid, and
Incline press
2x8x154 lbs, 8 and 8-9 RPE
1x6x154 lbs, 8-9 RPE
Shoulders were fine, turns out I’d probably just been lazy not squeezed them into position well enough before. Still keeping with the changes planned though.
Supersetted strict BB rows/single arm DB press
Rows 3x15x154 lbs, last two sets rest/pause - I won’t miss 15s next cycle, and extra weight will be nice
Press 3x10x45 lbs - again, I’m looking forward to heavier BB pressing
Rope lat pulldowns
3x15x77 lbs - OK, so the key is pulling my elbows back hard when I’m already at the bottom. Lights up my lats like nothing else. Wish I’d discovered that before the last set, but better late than never. These stay, load goes up, reps to 10 or so.
Bis/tris giant set, 60 second rests
BB curls 3x15x50 lbs
JMish press 3x20x50 lbs
Epiphany time on both those exercises: figured out what it means to contract the muscle against the weight and it felt so different (nasty but better)
In and hour in an hour and 35 minutes
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Woke at 191.2 lbs, looking fairly tight again. Headache seems to have dissipated, thank fuck.
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Quick note: I’m dropping conditioning for a bit (gasp). I clock in a decent amount of walking at work reasonably regularly (between 15 and 30 km a week based on my phone’s step counter being up to 50% inaccurate) and my intraset breaks are generally short these days, especially on assistance work. So, it’s not like I don’t do anything of that ilk.
I simply haven’t felt like doing conditioning in a progressed, regular way these last couple of weeks in the sense that my body was telling me it was too much. Oddly enough, Jeremy bore me out on this when I asked him.
Either way, we’ll see how it goes.
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You’re also not lacking conditioning brother, so dropping it for a bit is no biggy
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Hopefully you’re right. Besides, it’s a comparatively easier attribute to improve quickly if needed. I’ll go back to doing it regularly sooner rather than later, but not that much sooner.
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