CheekiBreekiFitness's Log

[MarkKO]

I mean my idea was that your 90% single serves as a diagnostic tool, because some problems only become visible by filming yourself moving near limit loads. But once your diagnostic is done, the treatment could be anything really, from more heavy work on the same exercise, lighter work on the same exercise, some variant, another unrelated exercise for hypertrophy etc. It all depends on the diagnosis in the first place.

It's still risky, because that's a load at which a weakness can cause real problems. Usually, you can see a technical problem with most any load. A weak point, less so, of course, although usually they will also be somewhat visible too. But again, a weak point can be brought into visibility perfectly well by other methods as well anyway. Am AMRAP set at 75%, for example, will likely start showing a weakness in the last two or three reps.

I just am rather sceptical of the use of any load at 90% or above in the context of diagnosing technique or weakness because the risk/reward ratio is so bad. Frankly, those loads are largely best avoided most of the time because their utility is relatively low in most cases. People like to do them because they feel strong (I'm guessing) but the impacts on recovery along with the heightened risk of injury makes them undesirable as far as I'm concerned. The deadlift is especially bad in this respect for most people.

I know for myself if I tried pulling a 90% deadlift single every couple of weeks to check if my back had gotten any stronger (which is currently a real issue for me) the first thing I would notice was that my recovery was destroyed and the second thing would be how many more issues I was having with my back.

The issue you're having is certainly one that doesn't need a heavy load at all. It's just a technical issue that is easily fixed by being aware of it. I have a tendency to knock the bar myself, so all I do is start it further away from me. Problem solved. My stance being rather wide for a conventional deadlift also helps, so that's another avenue you could consider.

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

Block 1 Week 6

Pretty good week. Squat and Press are going up, Bench and Deadlift are staying the same. Funny enough I would have expected that after 6 weeks I would start to get fatigued, but TRAC is suggesting that my fatigue is going down, and it's recommending me to add 1 set to each exercise. I'm not going to do it as I'm not a fan of tinkering with volume on a short time scale but I probably could. If TRAC is not wrong, that would suggest that I'm on to something, and I found a good combination of volume/intensity/exercise. I'm not even eating at surplus, just trying to maintain my weight and improve my lifts.

Weekly average weight: 91.3 kgs

DAY 1
Squat 1x148@8 4x8x112.5
DB Incline Bench 10x25@6 10x27@7 10x29@8 10x25@6
Snatch Grip RDL 8x120@6 8x130@7 8x143@9 8x120@6
DB Row 20,15,13,10x32 7'
Ab Wheel 25,25,25

DAY 2
Bench 1x112@9 4x8x85
Front Squat 8x82@6 8x87@7 8x92@8 8x75@6
DB Press 10x23@6 10x25@7 10x27@8 10x23@6
T-Bar Row 10,5,5,5,5,5,5,5x60 7'
Curls 13,12,10,10,10xYellow Band 7'
Lateral Raise 4x12x16

DAY 3
Deadlift 1x185@9 4x8x140
Dips 8x102@6 8x112@7 8x122@8 8x102@6
Chest Supported Row 10x135@6 10x145@7 10x155@8 10xx135@6
Triceps Pushdown 18,9,9,9,9,9,9x30 7'
DB Incline Curl 14,7,7,5,5,5x18 7'
Calves 4x13x170
Ab Machine 3x11x70

DAY 4
Press 1x64@8 4x8x50
Smith Bulgarian Split Squat 4x10x60
DB Bench 10x34@6 10x36@7 6x40@8 10x34@6
Pulldown Machine 14,11,8,8,8,8x80 7'
DB Triceps Extensions 11,10,9,8,8,8,8x14 7'
Cable Curls 22,10,10,10,10,10x25 7'

[SnakePlissken]

Pretty good week. Squat and Press are going up, Bench and Deadlift are staying the same. Funny enough I would have expected that after 6 weeks I would start to get fatigued, but TRAC is suggesting that my fatigue is going down, and it's recommending me to add 1 set to each exercise. I'm not going to do it as I'm not a fan of tinkering with volume on a short time scale but I probably could. If TRAC is not wrong, that would suggest that I'm on to something, and I found a good combination of volume/intensity/exercise. I'm not even eating at surplus, just trying to maintain my weight and improve my lifts.

Do you use the Heart Rate section when you do TRAC? I even own a heart rate monitor, but I'm so impatient I have a hard time sitting for a full 2 minutes, standing for 2 minutes and doing that whole thing.

Probably why I never saw any good use in it.

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

Pretty good week. Squat and Press are going up, Bench and Deadlift are staying the same. Funny enough I would have expected that after 6 weeks I would start to get fatigued, but TRAC is suggesting that my fatigue is going down, and it's recommending me to add 1 set to each exercise. I'm not going to do it as I'm not a fan of tinkering with volume on a short time scale but I probably could. If TRAC is not wrong, that would suggest that I'm on to something, and I found a good combination of volume/intensity/exercise. I'm not even eating at surplus, just trying to maintain my weight and improve my lifts.

Do you use the Heart Rate section when you do TRAC? I even own a heart rate monitor, but I'm so impatient I have a hard time sitting for a full 2 minutes, standing for 2 minutes and doing that whole thing.

Probably why I never saw any good use in it.

I only use the subjective questionnaire (soreness, tiredness and motivation to train roughly). I always thought that the heart rate variability part was too tedious, although I technically do have something to measure heart rate and blood pressure. Also, although I didn't research much into HRV, I heard that some people (including Jordan) were skeptical about it's predictive power. Maybe I should spend a few hours reading up on it to see if it would make me buy into it, I don't know.

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

Two thoughts about trying to make RPE work better for me.

The first one is about ramping sets e.g. protocol 5@6 5@7 5@8 5@6 with a top set of 5x100. So I would take the percentages on the RPE chart and take 3% jumps between sets, resulting in something like 5x93 5x96 5x100 5x93, but I would often overshoot the top set. So now I have been taking much larger jumps, say 5x85 5x92 5x100 5x85 and this works much better for me. Sure, I'm not sticking to the protocol but if it works it works. Either I'm not very resistant to intraset fatigue, or my RPE chart should be customized significantly, or something else.

The second one is about weekly progression. I think that I used to take weekly jumps that were too large say 2.5 kgs for the bench and the squat, and things would be OK for a few weeks and all of a sudden I would crash out of nowhere. So I have been trying conservative weekly jumps, say 1.5 kgs for the squat, 1 kgs for bench and 2 kgs for the deadlift, and being stricter on the RPE rating, mostly by filming the singles counting the amount of time spent on the concentric with a stopwatch. For instance, in the case of the squat and the bench if I spend more than 2 seconds on the concentric of the 1@8 then I would consider this an overshoot and not increase the weight next week. Deadlift is a bit slower. You could say I'm doing poverty velocity training, and you would be right in some respect.

I'm sure those things are completely obvious for people who are strong and skilled at RPE training but they weren't for me at first.

[SnakePlissken]

Two thoughts about trying to make RPE work better for me.

The first one is about ramping sets e.g. protocol 5@6 5@7 5@8 5@6 with a top set of 5x100. So I would take the percentages on the RPE chart and take 3% jumps between sets, resulting in something like 5x93 5x96 5x100 5x93, but I would often overshoot the top set. So now I have been taking much larger jumps, say 5x85 5x92 5x100 5x85 and this works much better for me. Sure, I'm not sticking to the protocol but if it works it works. Either I'm not very resistant to intraset fatigue, or my RPE chart should be customized significantly, or something else.

The second one is about weekly progression. I think that I used to take weekly jumps that were too large say 2.5 kgs for the bench and the squat, and things would be OK for a few weeks and all of a sudden I would crash out of nowhere. So I have been trying conservative weekly jumps, say 1.5 kgs for the squat, 1 kgs for bench and 2 kgs for the deadlift, and being stricter on the RPE rating, mostly by filming the singles counting the amount of time spent on the concentric with a stopwatch. For instance, in the case of the squat and the bench if I spend more than 2 seconds on the concentric of the 1@8 then I would consider this an overshoot and not increase the weight next week. Deadlift is a bit slower. You could say I'm doing poverty velocity training, and you would be right in some respect.

I'm sure those things are completely obvious for people who are strong and skilled at RPE training but they weren't for me at first.

If you're making weight jumps week-to-week and crashing suddenly, wouldn't that indicate it's your Time To Peak? Mike T has said some people's TTP is as short as 3 weeks. When I was trying to do ES I found my squat and dead always crashed on the 5th week and my bench and press on the 4th week.

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

Two thoughts about trying to make RPE work better for me.

The first one is about ramping sets e.g. protocol 5@6 5@7 5@8 5@6 with a top set of 5x100. So I would take the percentages on the RPE chart and take 3% jumps between sets, resulting in something like 5x93 5x96 5x100 5x93, but I would often overshoot the top set. So now I have been taking much larger jumps, say 5x85 5x92 5x100 5x85 and this works much better for me. Sure, I'm not sticking to the protocol but if it works it works. Either I'm not very resistant to intraset fatigue, or my RPE chart should be customized significantly, or something else.

The second one is about weekly progression. I think that I used to take weekly jumps that were too large say 2.5 kgs for the bench and the squat, and things would be OK for a few weeks and all of a sudden I would crash out of nowhere. So I have been trying conservative weekly jumps, say 1.5 kgs for the squat, 1 kgs for bench and 2 kgs for the deadlift, and being stricter on the RPE rating, mostly by filming the singles counting the amount of time spent on the concentric with a stopwatch. For instance, in the case of the squat and the bench if I spend more than 2 seconds on the concentric of the 1@8 then I would consider this an overshoot and not increase the weight next week. Deadlift is a bit slower. You could say I'm doing poverty velocity training, and you would be right in some respect.

I'm sure those things are completely obvious for people who are strong and skilled at RPE training but they weren't for me at first.

If you're making weight jumps week-to-week and crashing suddenly, wouldn't that indicate it's your Time To Peak? Mike T has said some people's TTP is as short as 3 weeks. When I was trying to do ES I found my squat and dead always crashed on the 5th week and my bench and press on the 4th week.

Good question, I was also thinking about this. What drove me to my conclusion was this RTS video because they recommend 1% jumps (so about 1.5 kgs on the squat, 1 kgs on the bench and 2 kgs on the deadlift). As opposed to the larger jumps that I was taking before. I'm assuming that there is an interesting interplay between the size of the jumps you take weekly and the time to peak. Also, it's been close to 6 weeks that I've been running my block and so far no crash, squat is still going up.

[SnakePlissken]

Two thoughts about trying to make RPE work better for me.

The first one is about ramping sets e.g. protocol 5@6 5@7 5@8 5@6 with a top set of 5x100. So I would take the percentages on the RPE chart and take 3% jumps between sets, resulting in something like 5x93 5x96 5x100 5x93, but I would often overshoot the top set. So now I have been taking much larger jumps, say 5x85 5x92 5x100 5x85 and this works much better for me. Sure, I'm not sticking to the protocol but if it works it works. Either I'm not very resistant to intraset fatigue, or my RPE chart should be customized significantly, or something else.

The second one is about weekly progression. I think that I used to take weekly jumps that were too large say 2.5 kgs for the bench and the squat, and things would be OK for a few weeks and all of a sudden I would crash out of nowhere. So I have been trying conservative weekly jumps, say 1.5 kgs for the squat, 1 kgs for bench and 2 kgs for the deadlift, and being stricter on the RPE rating, mostly by filming the singles counting the amount of time spent on the concentric with a stopwatch. For instance, in the case of the squat and the bench if I spend more than 2 seconds on the concentric of the 1@8 then I would consider this an overshoot and not increase the weight next week. Deadlift is a bit slower. You could say I'm doing poverty velocity training, and you would be right in some respect.

I'm sure those things are completely obvious for people who are strong and skilled at RPE training but they weren't for me at first.

If you're making weight jumps week-to-week and crashing suddenly, wouldn't that indicate it's your Time To Peak? Mike T has said some people's TTP is as short as 3 weeks. When I was trying to do ES I found my squat and dead always crashed on the 5th week and my bench and press on the 4th week.

Good question, I was also thinking about this. What drove me to my conclusion was this RTS video because they recommend 1% jumps (so about 1.5 kgs on the squat, 1 kgs on the bench and 2 kgs on the deadlift). As opposed to the larger jumps that I was taking before. I'm assuming that there is an interesting interplay between the size of the jumps you take weekly and the time to peak. Also, it's been close to 6 weeks that I've been running my block and so far no crash, squat is still going up.

Back when I was trying out ES I think I crashed so hard because I was pretty aggressive with my RPE rating and took pretty decent sized jumps. It's what made me ditch basing my progression off RPE, but I'm wondering if a hard cap like 1%/week makes more sense. Progressing faster by progressing slower.

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

Block 1 Week 7

Another good week. Everything is going up. I managed to fix my deadlift technique (thanks guys for the helpful tips !), and this week's heavy single just flew off the ground. Maybe I'm one of these people that take a long time to peak. Either way I'm not complaining. Skipped some of the work on the last session because I was busy, no big deal.

Weekly average weight: 91.6 kgs

DAY 1
Squat 1x150@8 4x8x115
Snatch Grip RDL 8x120@6 8x130@7 8x143@8 8x120@6
DB Incline Bench 10x25.5@6 10x27.5@7 10x29.5@8 10x25.5@6
Lat Pulldown 10x80 10,10,10,10x70 7'
Pushdown 20,10,10,10,10,10,10x30 7'
Hammer Curl 10,10,10,10,10,10,10x16 7'
Ab Wheel 25,25,25

DAY 2
Bench 1x112@8 4x8x85
Front Squat 8x82@6 8x87@7 8x92@9 8x82@6
DB Press 10x23.5@6 10x25.5@7 10x27.5@8 10x23.5@6
T Bar Row 14,5,5,5,5,5x60 7'
Lying Triceps Extensions 14,8,8,8,8x40 7'
Cable Curl 23,10,10,10,10x25 7'

DAY 3
Deadlift 1x185@8 4x8x140
Dips 8x103@6 8x113@7 8x123@8 8x103@6
Chest Supported Row 10x136.5@6 10x146.5@7 10x156.5@8 10x136.5@6
Pushdown 16,10,10,10,9,9x30 7'
Incline Curl 8x20 5,5,5x18 15,14x14 7'
Calves 15,10,9,8,8x170 7'
Ab Machine 15,12,8,8,7x70 7'

DAY 4
Press 1x65@8 4x8x50
DB Bench 10x34@6 10x36@7 12x34@9
Lat Pulldown 12,6,6,6,6,6x80 7'
DB Triceps Extensions 15,10,10,8,8x14 7'

[MarkKO]

Wait, you hit 150 which you could have tripled but you can get 140 for four sets of eight?! Or is it reps x sets x weight?

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

Wait, you hit 150 which you could have tripled but you can get 140 for four sets of eight?! Or is it reps x sets x weight?

Oops, that was a typo

It was 4x8x115 not 4x8x140

[MarkKO]

Got you. I was wondering.

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

Block 1 Week 8

Yet another good week, all lifts are increasing. I am at the 8th week with no signs of slowing down. Average weight is going up slightly, I think I overate homemade cinnamon buns, which are close to a hard drug as far as I am concerned. This little ES thing is working better than expected. Last session did not have access to the heavy dumbbells or smith machine, so I did 3ct paused bench instead of dumbbell bench and leg extensions instead of smith machine squats. I got a great pump from the leg extensions so I might just keep them, I dont know, lets see. Especially since sometimes the smith machine squats make my knees feel funny.

Weekly average weight: 91.8 kgs

DAY 1
Squat 1x151.5@8 4x8x115
Snatch Grip RDL 8x120@6 8x130@7 8x143@8 8x120@6
DB Incline Bench 10x26@6 10x28@7 7x32@8 10x26@6
Pulldown Machine 15,10,10,10,5x80 7'
Cable Curl 22,13,12,10,10x25 7'
Ab Machine 20,16,14,12,8x70 7'

DAY 2
Bench 1x113@8 4x8x85
Front Squat 8x82@6 8x87@7 8x92@9 8x82@6
DB Press 10x24@6 10x26@7 10x28@8 10x24@6
T Bar Row 17,7,7,7,7,5x60 7'
Lying Triceps Extensions 15,10,7,7,7x40 7'


DAY 3
Deadlift 1x187@8 4x8x140
Dips 8x104@6 8x114@7 8x124@8 8x104@6
DB Triceps Extensions 17,9,8,8,8x14 7'
Incline Curl 82 reps 12 kgs
Calves 16,9,9,8,8x170 7'
Ab Machine 11,8,8,8,8x75 7'

DAY 4
Press 1x67.5@9 4x8x50
3ct Paused Bench 8,8,8,8x80
Leg Extension 13,13,13,13x40 7'
Lat Pulldown 12,6,6,6,6,6x80 7'
DB Triceps Extensions 15,10,10,8,8x14 7'
Cable Curl 25,20,20,15x25

[Hardartery]

Block 1 Week 8

Yet another good week, all lifts are increasing. I am at the 8th week with no signs of slowing down. Average weight is going up slightly, I think I overate homemade cinnamon buns, w

If you failed to eat all of them, you did not overdo it. Of course, I may have the bias of an addict myself, but still. You don't make them for decoration...

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

Block 1 Week 8

Yet another good week, all lifts are increasing. I am at the 8th week with no signs of slowing down. Average weight is going up slightly, I think I overate homemade cinnamon buns, w

If you failed to eat all of them, you did not overdo it. Of course, I may have the bias of an addict myself, but still. You don't make them for decoration...

The problem is, I did not fail, I succeeded.

[Hardartery]

Block 1 Week 8

Yet another good week, all lifts are increasing. I am at the 8th week with no signs of slowing down. Average weight is going up slightly, I think I overate homemade cinnamon buns, w

If you failed to eat all of them, you did not overdo it. Of course, I may have the bias of an addict myself, but still. You don't make them for decoration...

The problem is, I did not fail, I succeeded.

Mission accomplished then. Wouldn't want to waste any of them...

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

Block 1 Week 9

This week all lifts went down, and I felt more fatigued than usual, so my guess is that this should be the end of the block, and it is time to pivot. I'll skip the last session as I'm kind of tired. To stick to the theme of last week I made blueberry muffins for my wife and kid, but ended up eating 4 of them (getting closer and closer to dat dere sheet cake diet, used by the best strength coaches in the world as far as I understand). I think I need to stop baking things or I'm going to end up in power belly territory.

After running the block report, here are some of the interesting things I picked up:

- the e1RMs over the course of the block follow a similar pattern for all lifts: first a dip in performance followed by a slow increase towards the peak
- from the beginning of the block to the peak e1RM variations were Squat +7 kgs, Bench +2 kgs, Deadlift +5 kgs, SBD Total: +14 kgs, Press +5 kgs. Decent progress. Press responded really well, Squat and Deadlift responded OK, Bench responded poorly.
- I gained about 1 kgs during the block

I make the following inferences (to be confirmed or disproved in the blocks to come):

- Ab work drives both Squat and Deadlift
- Either Front Squat or Smith Machine Squats drive Squat, but they make my knees feel kind of wierd
- Snatch Grip Deadlift drives Deadlift
- DB Bench, DB Incline Bench, DB Press really drive Press and hypertrophy, but do not drive Bench. I think that this is because my Bench is limited by my triceps: when I bench a single, getting the bar off the chest is never a problem, but the last half of the movement is often a grind.
- Backoff work with 30-40 reps at 70% drive Squat, Deadlift and Press but do not drive Bench

I have become better at top singles, and rating RPE's for them, mostly by forcing myself to film them and time the concentric phase with a stopwatch. After compiling the measurements and averaging them I have established a correspondance between RPE and timing, and it seems to be quite reliable:

Squat RPE 8: 1.5 +- 0.1 seconds ; RPE 9: 2.1 +- 0.1 seconds
Bench RPE 8: 1.5 +- 0.1 seconds ; RPE 9: 2.1 +- 0.1 seconds
Deadlift RPE 8: 2.0 +- 0.1 seconds ; RPE 9: 2.6 +- 0.1 seconds


DAY 1
Squat 1x153@8 4x8x115
DB Incline Bench 10x26.5@6 10x28.5@7 10x30.5@8 10x26.5@6
Snatch Grip RDL 8x125@6 8x135@7 8x145@9 8x125@6
Pulldown Machine 20,10,10,10x80 7'
Hammer Curl 20,20,20,20x14
Triceps Pushdown 20,20,20,20x25
Calf Raise 16,10,9,9,8x170 7'
Ab Wheel 25,25,25

DAY 2
Bench 1x115@9 4x8x85
Leg Press 17,13,10,10x200 7'
DB Press 10x24@6 10x26@7 10x28@8 10x24@6
Incline Curl 28,13,12,10,10x12 7'
JM Press 25,20,18,15x30 7'
Lateral Raise 30,20,20,17x12 7'

DAY 3
Deadlift 1x190@9 4x8x140
Calf Raise 18,10,9,7,6x170 7'
Ab Machine 16,10,9,8,7x75 7'

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

The plan is now to rest a few days and run the following pivot block for 2 weeks

DAY 1
Bulgarian Split Squat 10@6 10@7 10@8 10@6
Trap Bar Deadlift 10@6 10@7 10@8 10@6
Incline Bench 10@6 10@7 10@8 10@6
Cardio 30'

DAY 2
Close Grip Bench 10@6 10@7 10@8 10@6
Leg Press 10@6 10@7 10@8 10@6
Seated Press 10@6 10@7 10@8 10@6
Cardio 30'

DAY 3
Sumo Deadlift 10@6 10@7 10@8 10@6
Belt Squat 10@6 10@7 10@8 10@6
Floor Press 10@6 10@7 10@8 10@6
Cardio 30'

And subsequently run this new block (all hypertrophy work is done with 7' density blocks):

DAY 1
Squat 1@8 + 4x6@75%e1RM
3ct Paused Bench 8@6 8@7 8@8 8@6
2ct Paused Deadlift 8@6 8@7 8@8 8@6
Hypertrophy: Upper Back / Triceps / Biceps / Abs / Calves

DAY 2
Bench 1@8 + 4x6@75%e1RM
Leg Press 10@6 10@7 10@8 10@6
DB Press 10@6 10@7 10@8 10@6
Hypertrophy: Upper Back / Triceps / Biceps / Shoulders


DAY 3
Deadlift 1@8 + 4x6@75%e1RM
Slingshot Bench 8@6 8@7 8@8 8@6
Pin Squat 8@6 8@7 8@8 8@6
Hypertrophy: Upper Back / Triceps / Biceps / Abs / Calves

DAY 4
Press 1@8 + 4x6@75%e1RM
Glute Ham Raise 50 total reps
Floor Press 8@6 8@7 8@8 8@6
Hypertrophy: Triceps / Biceps / Shoulders

Some remarks about this new block (based on the last block):
- 1 big lift per day, with a single followed by back-off work 75% (last block the back-off work was done with 70%)
- several bench variations (slingshot,floor press) were selected with the goal of strengthening the triceps / upper half of the movement, as it seems to be the limiting factor
- in general exercises tend to be a bit more barbell specific: no more dips, less dumbbell work, more pin / paused / slingshot stuff
- hypertrophy is still done with density blocks, which I absolutely love, most upper back work is done with machines, abs are still trained directly twice weekly
- the pivot will be done at a calorie deficit (-500 kcal) and then the next block at a very very slight calorie surplus (I tend to naturally eat a bit more when training volume goes up anyhow so I never have to "intentionally bulk")

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

Pivot Block 1 Week 1

The fatigue is going down and I feel refreshed. The calorie deficit is not particularly affecting me either, so a very good week. It was my first time doing sumo, and I was somehow surprised that my e1RM is higher than my e1RM for conventional, after doing conventional for several years. I'm not saying that sumo is easier than conventional, but clearly it might be easier for me. I'm honestly tempted to switch to sumo next block. Also I bought a neck harness and I'm going to test it out. I tend to get a frozen neck easily (probably from sleeping in weird positions), so I'm curious to see if training the neck has a positive impact. Either this or I'm going to end up looking like the singer of Cannibal Corpse, I don't know, we'll see.

Average weekly bodyweight: 91.0

DAY 1

Bulgarian Split Squat 10x50@6 10x60@8 10x50@6
Trap Bar Deadlift 10x130@6 10x140@7 10x150@9 10x130@6
Incline Bench 10x60@6 10x70@7 6x80@9 10x60@6
Cardio 30 minutes

DAY 2

Close Grip Bench 10x70@6 10x80@7 10x90@8 10x70@6
Leg Press 10x200@6 10x220@7 10x240@8 10x200@6
Seated Military 10x50@6 10x55@7 7x60@9 10x50@6
Cardio 30 minutes

DAY 3

Deadlift (sumo) 10x140@6 10x150@8 10x140@6
Leg Extensions 20,15,13,12x40 7'
Floor Press 10x70@6 10x80@7 8x90@9 10x70@6
Pullups 5,5,5,5,5 6'
Cardio 30 minutes

[CheekiBreekiFitness]

Pivot Block 1 Week 2

So this week concludes the pivot block of two weeks. I lost about 0.5-1 kgs on the scale with respect to the beginning of the pivot as expected and I'll go back to eating at maintainance/slight surplus, aiming for about 2900 kcal/day with 200g of protein/day. I have now some confirmation that sumo is easier than conventional for me as my sumo e1RM is 10 kgs above my conventional e1RM, and this is after doing the movement for only two sessions, while eating at a deficit. So next block will be sumo for my main deadlift, using paused conventional as a variation. The neck work seems to benefit me, I didn't get a frozen neck like I usually do. I keep it very simple: 100 reps of neck extension and 100 reps of neck flexion, done with the neck harness. Also I have started to add more conditioning, and I like it a lot. I do a 10 minutes conditioning session on my off days, where I pick a different modality each time simply based on what I feel like doing. I'm excited to see how the next block is going to go.

Average weekly bodyweight: 91.0

DAY 1
Leg Extensions 24,20,14x40 7'
Trap Bar Deadlift 10x130@6 10x140@7 10x150@8 10x130@6
Incline Bench 10x60@6 10x70@7 6x80@8 10x60@6
Cardio 30 minutes

DAY 2
Close Grip Bench 10x72.5@6 10x82.5@7 7x92.5@8 10x72.5@6
Seated Military 10x50@6 10x55@7 7x60@8 10x50@6
Cardio 30 minutes

DAY 3
Deadlift (sumo) 10x132.5@6 10x142.5@6 10x152.5@9 10x132.5@6
Leg Extensions 13,10,10,10,10x42.5 7'
Floor Press 10x75@6 10x80@7 10x85@9 10x75@6
Pulldown machine 22,16,13x80 7'
Cardio 30 minutes

CONDITIONING WORK
* 5 squats+5 press+5 thrusters 7' 10 sets 12 kgs DBs
* 5 burpees+10 pushups 9' 10 sets
* 200 swings 5'45'' 24 kgs KB