Maybe. I'm not all that confident on assessing RPE, even on video, for my lower body lifts, since I attempt one rep max-ish type lifts so rarely. I assume that will change over the next few months (at least while squatting).

Fair. Speed tho indicates you are good. You only slowed down after the midpoint, when something threw your balance off. Good speed and power out of the hole. Proceed with confidence.

PR is a PR

Congrats. Who cares if it's "sadly" a PR? You've been crushing it lately.

Thanks guys.

I'm actually, oddly enough, almost as proud of the OHP. Bodyweight press actually seems within reach at the end of this lean massing phase.

Dude, go get yourself a fat bar and OHP bodyweight TODAY!

PRs are good.

Eat some damn meat and make more PRs!

I foresee much gains in your future

4/23: 181.0

A
Incline bench (5/3/1): wu, 145x5, 160x3, 180x1, 195x1, 210xf, 180x5, 170x6, 150x9
DB Row: 6x10x90
One Arm Cable Row: 6x15

B
DB Bench: 8x90; 7x95; 7x100 (PR); 8x95; 8x90
Machine Rear Fly: 6x12

C
Seated DB Press: 5x9x50
Cable Upright Row 4x12

D
Facepulls (light, seated, strict): 4x15
Lying DB Skullcrusher: 3x10
Lying DB Tri Ext (externally rotated): 3x10
Seated DB Tri Ext : 3x10

Pretty good day; got a touch from the spotter on the way up with 210 -- may or may not have gotten it otherwise. Hit my rep target for 180, and left a rep in the tank on the back-ups. 7 reps with the 100 lb DBs in a PR -- I guess maybe I can move up to the 105s next week and see how that works. Everything else went pretty well; I'm pretty sure my success, such as it was, was due to these scones, which I made this morning with leftover Easter ham. The ham and cheddar combo is anabolic.

Elbows still a little angry from the heavy pull-ups, but I'm heading to the airport in an hour to fly to London, so I'll have five days off from lifting to recover. Going to try to remember to do my frequency push-ups in the hotel, at least, and not go insane eating. Given how ****ty English food is, I suspect that may be possible.

4/28: 182.2

A
SSPT DL Week 1: wu, 12x205 EMOM

B
Squat (light, recovery): wu, 3x5x195
Seated Cable Curl: 4x12
Facepull (seated, light): 6x15
Zottman Curls: 4x12x17.5

Back. Elbows recovered, no SI issues over the last week, and kept the food situation essentially entirely in check while I was gone.

Low start deadlifting, but it felt good; no lower back movement and good form, though given the weight it would have been a concern were that not the case. With it, and the squat, I concentrated on overall tightness (thinking "one piece") for the movement, with special concentration in getting tight everywhere before squat/pull. Mostly trying to develop a pre-shot routine, golf style, with an ordered mental checklist if things to do/think about before each rep. Squat felt the best/most solid and connected it's felt in forever (baby weights aside).

Late congrats on PRs and reintroduction of meat into your diet.

This.

Great work itt.

"With it, and the squat, I concentrated on overall tightness (thinking "one piece") for the movement, with special concentration in getting tight everywhere before squat/pull. Mostly trying to develop a pre-shot routine, golf style, with an ordered mental checklist if things to do/think about before each rep. Squat felt the best/most solid and connected it's felt in forever (baby weights aside). "

All above is super solid move...bold, imo, is hard to understand and muy improtante.

http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/...eed-know-rpes/

REP is basically the same way that PUAs rate women. Everything is a 7+.

I'm probably overly conservative with mine. There are a few sets where I'll have an RPE that is ~10 due to fingers slipping out (can't do another rep if I'm not holding the bar!) or because I did something derpy.

FWIW most people think they have "more in the hole" than they probably do.

Shockingly if you read that article and some of the comments, that is almost exactly what Smolov Jr is on a weak to weak (sic) basis.

As I've done a few hundred heavy sqats in the last couple-ish months, I've seen better results from spending less time jackassing with the weight and more time jackassing before I unrack. Many heavy squatters don't do this, but just about every heavy DLer does this. Just find something that works for you.

And obv PRs are PRs, even if they fall short of your imaginary goals. DF2 had the right idea with his yearly goals when he said something along the lines of: "PR anything (relative or absolute) at any weight in the next 12 months" Pretty sure I failed that last year. 2017 tho!

Thanks, guys.

Mihkel, I appreciate the article -- it was a good read, and useful. I agree that concentrating on #TheProcess over the next few months as my squat continues to improve (hopefully) will likely produce more improvement than neckbearding about whether or not to round up when my percentage target tells me I'm supposed to be lifting xx2.2 lbs of something. If I manage to keep making progress without breaking myself, maybe I'll have fakeb start writing my programs or something.

4/29: 181.4

Walking: 30 min @ 4.2/2% incline (2.1 miles)
HLR: 4x8
Pallofs: 4x12x27.5
Farmer's walks: 3x40secx95 lb DBs

Cooking for a small dinner party tonight; made my own homemade creme fraiche last night for this roasted beet salad. Doing these grilled chicken thigh kabobs, which I've done before and we quite enjoy, and these blueberry bars (which I'll probably top with the leftover creme fraiche). At this rate I might as well just acquire a Scandi accent, join a salsa club and introduce flesh eating bacteria to my thigh muscles.

I made these buttermilk/sour cream biscuits for the minis this morning, and they turned out well. Pretty much every seriouseats biscuit recipe is pretty legit.

Pretty much every serious eats recipe is legit IMO.

Mihkel,

Indeed. The beet salad way a big hit, though I omitted the horseradish due to the preference of a few guests (didn't seem like it was super necessary after having eaten it). I feel kind of ******ed that I never knew how to make creme fraiche before, but so it goes.

Ate a bunch of bread and cheese, had a few glasses of wine with dinner, and a nice big slice of blueberry bar for dessert. No ragrets.

4/30: 182.8

A
OHP (5/3/1): wu, 5x97.5, 5x112.5, 1x127.5, 3x135, 3x142.5, 8x127.5, 9x120, 10x105
Pull-ups (wide): 5x+30, 5x+35, 5x+40, 5x+45, 5x+40
Facepulls: 6x15

B
DB Incline Bench: 8x75, 7x80, 4x85, 6x80, 8x75
DB Pullover: 4x12x75
DB Hammer: 4x12x40

C
Dips: 5x+60, 5x+65, 5x+70, 5x+75, 5x+80
Lateral Cable Raise: 4x12

OHP went well; hit all my targets. Everything from the 127.5 single through the 120 backoff was belted. Weighted pull-ups were tough and continue to aggravate my elbows; may have to go back to NG chins for the next six weeks or so.

Moving up on incline DB was tough; I continue to lag behind EV in the dumbbell arts. feelsbadman.gif. Modified my weighted dip set routine to mirror the pull-up scheme, and it felt good. Probably had 5x90 in me, but wanted to keep it conservative considering I haven't gone this heavy for a while plus my elbows were a little tender. Felt good.

What is your warmup for the weighted pullups? I usually try to get a super-high-rep hammer curl or something for bloodflow plus ladder to 3 or 5 reps before adding weight. Elbow sleeve really helped me with discomfort, even though the original pain source was my low bar squat.

Holliday,

Perhaps you've located the source of the problem, because I do no warm-ups and wear no sleeves. That this issue never really was a concern with unweighted NG or wide supinated pull-ups, and only became one when I added weight, leads me to believe I need to give myself a few weeks off of the wide-grip pull-ups, and proceed with caution (and warm-up sets) when I return to them.

5/1: 181.2

A
5/3/1 Squat: wu, 5x165, 5x190, 1x215, 3x230, 3x250, 12x215, 12x200, 102x175
1 Arm Lat Pulldowns: 6x15
Facepulls (seated, strict, light): 6x15

B
SSPT DL (Week 2): 10x225 (~EMOM)

C
DB Bulgarian SS: 4x8x35

Dead.

Squats felt good. DL looked alright, but I video'd my last three sets, and my lower back, while flat and extended, wasn't braced as rigidly as necessary. May be a fatigue issue from the squat volume, but still something to work on. The pulls themselves felt easy. Worked on my pre-shot routine (set lats->raise chest/set back->push with quads) and it seemed to help, outside from the slight back rigidity issue.

Re: squatting, I felt like I had a few more reps in the tank on essentially every AMRAP, but given my previous issues, stopping when I wasn't sure I could continue with solid form seemed prudent. 12 reps was the goal for each set.

Super jacked powerlifter/soon to graduate from school PT/former college fullback (built like realb but ~5'9", so like twice as tall or whatever) told me "nice form" after I finished my top AMRAP set; made me feel better than it probably should have considering I could literally be his father. #olds.

I would agree with random guy, form looks solid.

Nice

Agreed, squats looking v nice

Thanks guys; the support/advice is appreciated as always.

5/2: 181.0

Walking: 30 min @ 4.0/2% incline (2.0 miles)
HLR: 4x8
Pallofs: 4x12x27.5
Suitcase carries: 3x40secx90 lb DBs

Standard.

Went a bit overboard on protein yesterday (300 g). Going to try to recalibrate to target 225 +/- 15 g or so and treat myself to some more carbs.

Made some simple homemade granola the other day; makes a pretty good dessert combined with raisins, Greek yogurt, berry compote, and chia seeds. Would recommend.

I forgot about your parfait request. Chia seeds are indeed amazing. I also suggest unsweetened coconut flakes.

fakeb,

Had a parfait this morning and forgot your advice, but coconut is going in there next time

5/3: 180.2

A
Incline bench (5/3/1): wu, 125x5, 145x5, 165x1, 175x3, 190x3 (9.5), 165x8 (9), 155x10 (9.5), 135x12 (9)
DB Row: 6x10x95
One Arm Cable Row: 6x15

B
DB Bench: 8x95; 6x100; 4x105 (PR); 6x100; 6x95
Machine Rear Fly: 6x12
Cable Upright Row 4x12

C
Seated DB Press: 3x8x50
Facepulls (light, seated, strict): 4x15

Decided to start tracking RPE for my main lifts (hence the numbers in parentheses). Pretty happy with how everything went; I kind of compressed things temporally because our German overlords were here again today, so I ducked out while they had a few calls scheduled and sped through things. Incline bench felt solid, although 5s day is always a ton of volume, which I suspect may fatigue me a bit for the dumbbell bench afterwards. Didn't get as many reps there as I'd hoped on 105, but there's room for growth I think. Could have probably toughed out another rep in a few of the later sets, but I think grinding out heavy DB bench presses probably has a bit larger potential for injury, especially when it's not my main chest press of the day and I'm already fatigued, so I racked them instead. Plus I'm a pussy.

Added weight on rows; felt tougher, but then I did the first five sets while waiting for the incline bench to open up, so they were a bit less spread out than normal. Truncated the five sets of DB press down to three because I was feeling smoked, and also because I started feeling some slight elbow discomfort (nothing too serious).

Good day, though, all in all.