I would agree that there's great utility in taking a lift to actual failure just to discover your current true limit. If I recall, the 365 looked great and easy. Similarly with your squat, you've put up singles that looked hard but to my eye looked closer to 90% than 100%.

However, I'm not personally worried about you not having tested those maxes at this time. You only recently came off a prolonged deficit. If you still haven't gone for some excellent max out PRs by, say, the end of the year, then I will fully endorse shaming you.

Indeed.

L'existence, c'est bon. LVP.

put some weight on the bar ffs

If I had to choose one assistance exercise for the DL it'd be RDLs. Not an easy movement, but even when you don't do them perfectly and you get excessive knee flexion, it's still a boss movement. Ultimately it's a DL with a concentrated eccentric portion and a way to develop a stiff and rigid lumbar.

Weak point training kinda dumb cuz if you do the movements properly there's no real weak points.

8/21: 192.0

Brother-in-law smoked 75 pounds of brisket at my place, beginning Saturday night into Sunday morning, for a BBQ competition (he ended up winning the popular vote). Fair bit of drinking and eating Saturday night, obviously ate a few pounds of smoked meat, cornbread, and other fixins' Sunday, and had a few floor bourbons during my fantasy draft Sunday night. Again, few ragrets.

A
OHP (Cycle 9, 1s, 160 TM): wu, 5x120, 3x135, 1x162.5, 1x175 PR (9.5), 4x152.5 (9), 6x145 (9.5), 9x127.5
NG chins: 8xbw, 8xbw+10, 8xbw+15, 8xbw+20, 8xbw+25, 8xbw+30
DB Pullover: 4x10x85

B
DB Bench: 5x8x90
Facepulls: 8x15

C
Dips: wu, 8xbw+25, 5xbw+45, 3xbw+70, 3xbw+80, 3xbw+90, 2x3xbw+105
DB Hammer: 4x11x35
Bayesian Curls: 4x12
Upsidedown KB Press: 4x8

Misloaded the bar with my initial single (should have gone 1x152.5, 1x165, 1x175, but put on 162.5 instead of 152.5 because I'm a ****wit), so I just skipped a single and put up 175 straight afterwards instead. 180 may have been there. Good pump on the other stuff; this day in particular is one of my favorites because I'm starting to like pressing heavy-ish + high volume everywhere else.

T minus an hour and change until ECLIPSE. Should be 85-90% here.

8/22: 190.6

A
5/3/1 Squat (Cycle 9, TM 280): wu, 5x210, 3x240, 1x265, 1x290, 1x305 (~9), 7x265 (9), 7x250 (9), 7x225

B
RDLs: wu, 3x8x185
Upsidedown KB Press: 4x8

Good day squatting; happy to get 7 reps at 265, and the 305 joker rep was easy enough. The last rep or two at 250 bent me over a bit more than normal, but other than that no issues.

I was planning on some medium intensity volume deadlifting, but my SI is usually (and was this morning) a bit tender after OHP, so I figured discretion was in order. Did a bunch of light sets of RDLs and worked up to sets of 8 at 185; I think they look ok?

Hard to tell from the angle but it looks like you're rounding your upper back in the RDLs. Which is probably fine from an injury risk perspective but you might be missing out on some training effect by allowing that to happen.

not seeing that at all.

If anything, too much knee bend, but kinda hard to tell with the plate in the way. Might just be good levering.

squats look pretty good.

Rephrase: not rounding during the movement but not being in extension from the unrack onward. I'm basing this on how his shoulders appear to be in front of his body.

One of the problems I've always had with the movement is not keeping my lats properly engaged, which does tend to lead to upper back rounding on later reps. Once I get to real weight, I'll probably strap up, which will hopefully mitigate the issue somewhat, as will being more conscious of engaging my lats during the movement.

8/23: 188.0

Treadmill (4.0/2.0%): 45:00/3.0 mi
HLRs: 4x8xbw
Pallof Press: 4x12
Farmer's walk (100 lb DB): 3x30secx~100ft
Upside down KB Press: 4x8

Perfectly k day. SI feels 90%+, got a lot of sleep, diet solid.

75lbs of brisket sounds great! Hope you ate $1000 worth!

DT,

Protein was provided to all competitors, gratis, by the main sponsor of the event, so luckily I didn't have to eat any cost this time!

8/24: 188.0

A
Barbell Bench (Cycle 2, TM 230): wu, 175x5, 195x3, 220x1, 235x1, 255x1 (8.5), 220x7 (9), 205x9, 185x11
Hammer Strength Row (Single Arm): 6x10
One Arm Cable Row: 6x12

B
DB Incline Bench: 5x9x70
Machine Rear Fly: 6x12
Single Arm Lat Pulldown: 6x12

C
Upsidedown KB Press: 4x8

Pretty smooth single at 255; felt like I pretty comfortably had a double if I'd wanted it. Work set at 220 was similarly smooth, and I probably could have gotten 8 with a bit of a struggle. Took the backoff sets both to 9.5. Everything else was tough without being soul crushing. Nice upper back pump.

8/25: 188.0

Weight remaining steady on what I'm pretty sure is a deficit, but w/e, I'm looking good and feeling good otherwise, for the most part. Battled a bit of brown magic/bloating this morning before and during lifting, which seems likely to be related to some combination of the 'tine, the 'tein, and the 'ffeine, but I worked through it. Nice to get back to two dumps before 8 am, though.

A
5/3/1 DL (Cycle 1, 300 TM): wu, 5x225, 3x255, 1x285, 2x305, 2x330, 6x285, 7x270, 8x240
Seated DB Press: wu, 5x10x55

B
Squat (light, recovery): wu, 3x6x215
Facepull: 8x15
Zottman Curls: 4x11
Bayesian Curls: 4x12

C
Back extensions: 4x8xbw
Upside down KB press: 4x10

Normally I'd do heavy joker singles on 1s day (which is what I did given that's where I am on the other cycles), but I'm starting with a low enough training max that I think I should be able to do doubles for 3 or 4 cycles until I get up to a reasonable level of weight. Grip was the limiting factor for both the 285 AMRAP and the 270 backoff; I'm pretty sure my grip strength should stop being ass over the next few months if I just keep up this routine, so I'll hold off on strapping up for now. I think I got a little better getting my lower back set before the initial reps? Probably still need to work on getting more tension in my hammies (i.e. butt slightly higher) before the pull. Eh.

Added in some lower back extensions, since I probably need to strengthen that area some more, even though I'm sure LBBS hits it a decent amount. Will slowly add reps/weight and see what happens; I felt the SI a bit towards the end of this workout, but more in a "this is getting worked" way and not "oh **** getting out of bed is going to blow tomorrow" way, so hopefully that holds.

I was thinking as I left the gym that I used to think of Friday as my easy day when I was pulling SSPT -- no longer. I still think there was some value to doing it, mostly because it probably allowed me to recover from my last SI pull and concentrate more on squatting, which desperately needed work.

these are cool @6.5 deadlift sets

Are you or are you not aware of what the title of the log is?

8/2: 190.0

Pretty k result given I had more than a few floor bourbons during the fight. And munchies.

A
NG chins: 8xbw, 3xbw+25, 3xbw+35, 3xbw+45, 3xbw+50, 3xbw+55, 3xbw+60, 3xbw+65
RDLs: wu, 4x8x205

B
DB Bench: 3x6x100
DB Pullover: 4x10x90


C
Dips: wu, 8xbw+25, 5xbw+45, 3xbw+70, 3xbw+80, 3xbw+90, 2x3xbw+105
Facepulls: 8x15
DB Hammer: 4x11x35

D
Back extensions: 4x8xbw
Bayesian Curls: 4x12
Upsidedown KB Press: 4x8

Moving things around a bit for the great H&F Pryess Off of 2017. Chins felt good; not sure if +65 is a PR triple or not (I'd guess not), but minimal proximal bicep pain and shoulder/tricep tightness during these was nice. RDLs felt solid.

The rest of the upper body stuff went well, probably because I wasn't pre-fatigued from OHP. SI still feels good and like the RDLs and extensions are giving it an appropriate amount of work.

8/30: ???

Been keeping things relatively reasonable on this trip food-wise; lifted with KC, then went out for some dinner. Just a burger with a side salad and a beer, like we're both EV or some ****.

A
OHP (Cycle 10, 5s, 162.5 TM): wu, 5x105, 5x120, 1x140, 1x160, fx170, fx170, 7x140, 9x130, 11x115
Facepulls: 8x15
Lat Pulldowns: 4x12

B
5/3/1 Squat (Cycle 10, TM 285): wu, 5x185, 5x215, 1x240, 3x265, 3x285 (9), 8x245 (8), 8x225, 8x200

The great Pryess Off was a bit meh; I completely bombed 170 twice (got the second attempt above my head but somehow not locked out, which should be impossible, but oh well) and KC managed to tough up a rep at 170 at around 9.5, so we called it a contest and went onto our volume work. Pretty happy with the volume on my AMRAP sets there; he gave me a few technical press cues (getting my head through earlier) that I think made a difference/were easier to implement on sets lighter than ~PR territory.

Squats went pretty well; he pointed out my form broke down a bit (some knee cave) during my 285 set, so I worked on flaring my feet a bit and keeping my knees out during the entirety of the squat for the remaining sets, and it felt different/probably better. I'll need to remember his power bottom keys moving forward.

I had a great time, as usual, and since I'm in Boston a few times a year, hopefully I can give him a better contest next time. Or we can do bench.

Yay! Glad you two got to lift

It was fun.

He briefly toyed with 25 repping my squat AMRAP, but I think ended up working up to a smooth double (I think?) at 365 and then doing 2x10x285 or something along those lines. Just super smooth and technically sound - very impressive.

He also does OHP reps from a dead stop every time, whereas I do whatever the OHP equivalent of touch and go is, so it's no surprise he's a bit more explosive at higher intensities. After the singles, he just did a bunch of volume at 135-140 (sets of five).

As an aside, I was somewhat heartened to see that he even outsperged me because he brought his own weight clips.

9/1: 191.8

Another first class upgrade on the way home; pillaged the snack basket and drank four rather generous pours of bourbon. Got home around 1 and then had four Costco chocolate chip cookies. This morning was a bit rough.

A
Barbell Bench (Cycle 3, TM 235): wu, 155x5, 175x5, 200x1, 220x3, 235x3 (7.5), 200x11 (9),190x11, 165x14
Hammer Strength Row (Single Arm): 6x10
One Arm Cable Row: 6x12

B
DB Incline Bench: 3x8x80
Machine Rear Fly: 6x12
Single Arm Lat Pulldown: 6x12

C
Lying DB Skullcrushers: 4x12
Upsidedown KB Press: 4x8

Obviously no PRs per se, but rep gains when compared to the last few weeks, so I'll take it. It felt like i pretty comfortably had 235 for 5 or 6, and I just felt like I had a decent amount in the tank for the rest. Plenty of room to grow here over the rest of the year. Incline felt good, too; seems pretty safe to bump my heavy day back up to the 85s and see how that goes.

Domestic first class, the Indiana of the skies.

True, but it's better than the exit row or economy plus.

190+??? Fake gainz.

Kidding, nice work