DCR - Can you believe how much I am in heaven?

[DCR]

7/9/22

Echo Bike x 12:15, 4.10 miles

[DCR]

7/10/22

Squats 45x10 135x6 225x6 285x2 305x1 325x1 295x1 265x3
Bench Press 45x10 135x6 225x6 255x3 270x1 290x1 300x0 230x6
Stiff Legged Deadlifts 205x3,2,3
Lying Leg Curls 100x6,6,7
T-Bar Rows neutral grip 90x10 95x7 forty five degree grip 95x10 100x5

Spotter on the surprisingly easy 290 single challenged me to just go for 300. Don’t regret trying; was fun actually.

[DCR]

7/12/22

Squats 45x10 135,225x6 285x3 310,325x1 295x1 265x4
Bench Press 45x10 135,225x6 255x3 275x1 290x no idea because spotter stole my rep 235x6 also stolen although claimed by a hair
Stiff Legged Deadlifts 207.5x3,2,3
Pullups (wide neutral handles) x7,6,6,5

Two reps stolen by two different spotters, both of which I almost certainly had. Fuck this session.

[DCR]

7/14/22

Squats 45,135,225x5 255,285x3 315x1 185 x5s x5r
Bench Press 45,135,225x5 255x3 275x1 160 x5s x5r
Lying Leg Curls 60x 5s x10r
T-Bar Rows 60x 5s x10r
Seated Arnold Presses 30s x3s x10r

After shaming myself with the new and accurate title of this log of futility, today I backed off the stupid top singles @10 and hit gimmes, with the real meat being the 5x5 after. That sucked, even with the light weights.

[DCR]

7/15/22

Echo Bike x13:00

[DCR]

7/16/22

Squats 45,135,225x5 255,285x3 315x1 187.5 x5s x5r
Bench Press 45,135,225x5 255x3 275x1 162.5 x5s x5r
Pullups straight bar x5 neutral handles x3,3,3,3 Working on getting full extension on the eccentric and then pulling legs slightly forward on the pull.

Incredibly hung over.

[DCR]

7/19/22

Squats 45,135,225x5 275x3 300x1 190 x5s x5r
Bench Press 45,135,225x5 250x4 265,275x1 165 x5s x5r
Snatch Grip Stiff Legged Deadlifts 135 x5s x5r
T-Bar Rows 65 x5s x10r (switching grips)
Seated Arnold Presses 35s x2s x10r

Continuing this unexpected trend of being an adult, I dropped the top squat single after considering that three plates in fact is not a “gimme” rep for me. Would I ever fail it? No… but, my form in getting it is quite different from an even 300 or less, and I knew/know that. That weight controls me, not the other way around. For now.

[DCR]

7/21/22

Squats 45,135,225x5 275x4 305x1 192.5 x5s x5r
Bench Press 45,135,225x5 250x4 275x1 167.5 x5s x5r
Snatch Grip SLDL 137.5 x5s x5r
Lying Leg Curl 65 x3s x10r
Pullups (wide neutral handles) x5,5 bad sets, fucked up looking back at log; fixed x3,3. Trying to keep feet a bit forward on way up and straight down on way down, full extension.

[DCR]

7//3/22

Squats 45,135,225x5 275x4 305x1 195 x5s x5r
Bench Press 45,135,225x5 250x4 275x1 170 x5s x5r
Pullups (wide neutral handles) x4,4,3,3

I’ve finally settled on my pullup form from here on out: feet about a foot forward on the way up, feet straight down on way down with full body tension, full extension and pause at the bottom. These were hard af but felt great.

My right knee was pissed at me this morning and I could feel its anger building when I locked out my squat warmups. I tried to address it by squeezing the shit out of my quads and hams, locking out with intention with my glutes, and avoiding snapping the knee into place. This all led to a massive thigh and glute pump the likes of which I haven’t had in a very long time. Amazing what happens when one actually focuses rather than going through the motions.

The above also helped tremendously with my incessant hip shift issue.

[DCR]

7/25/22

Squats 45,135,225x5 255,275x2 295,315x1 197.5 x5s x5r
Bench Press 45,135,225x5 255x2 265,275,285x1 172.5 x5s x5r
Snatch Grip SLDL 140 x5s x5r
Seated Arnold Presses 40s x2s x7r

Tried a wider squat stance due to my knee still being a cunt. Not sure if it helped or made it worse.

I have to split these sessions up. They take forever. My “programming” is so fucking dumb.

[DCR]

7/29/22

Squats 45,135,225x5 255,275x2 295,315x1 200x 5s x5r
Bench Press 45,135,225x5 255x2 265,275,285x1 175x 5s x5r
Pullups x5,4,3,3,3

Supersetted bench volume work with the pullups.

[DCR]

7/31/22

Squats 45,135,225x5 255,275x2 295,315x1 202.5 x5s x5r
Bench Press 45,135,225x5 255x2 265,275,285x1 177.5 x5s x5r
Snatch Grip SLDL 142.5x 5s x5r
Seated Arnold Presses 40s x10 45s x4

Supersetted bench volume work and the SLDLs.

[DCR]

8/2/22

Squats 45,135,225x5 255,275x2 295,315x1 205 x5s x5r
Bench Press 45,135,225x5 255x2 265,275,285x1 180 x5s x5r
Pullups x5,4,3,3,3
Lying Leg Curls 70 x3s x10r

Supersetted the bench volume and the pullups.

[DCR]

8/4/22

Squats 45,135,225x5 255,275x2 295,315x1 207.5 x5s x5r
Bench Press 45,135,225x5 255x2 265,275x1
182.5 x5s x5r
Barbell Rows 135 x5s x5r

Supersetted bench volume and rows. Kept top bench single down because no spotter and drank and smoked at lunch.

[DCR]

8/6/22 (Max Fitness, Baton Rouge)

Squats 45,135,225x5 255x3 275x2 295,315x1 210 x5s x5r
Bench 45,135,225x5 255x2 265,275x1 185 x5s x5r
Snatch Grip SLDL 145 x5s x5r

Lost control of the fucking smooth as shit commercial gym barbell right at the top of the last warm up squat single, and essentially racked it with my right arm. Result: upper back tweaked bad on that side. Rest of the session was a nightmare accordingly; shittiest benching has felt in weeks. Gonna need some chick to put her elbow on the spot and put her weight into it. Sigh.

[DCR]

8/8/22 (Max Fitness, Baton Rouge)

Squats 45,135,225x5 255x3 275x2 295,315x1 215 x5s x3r
Bench Press 45,135,225x5 255x2 265,275x1 190 x5s x5r
Barbell Rows 145 x5s x5r
Seated Arnold Presses 45s x2sx5r
Lying Leg Curls 77 x2s x10r

Supersetted bench volume and rows.

Horrific session. Upper back just inflamed af and not in a good way. Legit made me nauseous. This gym doesn’t have 1.25 lb plates and because the 2.5 lb per session moves on the volume work have been serving me well, I didn’t want to jump in 5 lb increments from session to session. My plan was to stretch each weight over three sessions: 3x8, 6x4, and then 5x5. Didn’t even come close on the squats due to how painful it was. Stupidly jumped right to 5x5 on bench, though, because felt strong despite the pain.

Pressing overhead was idiotic. Writing this while lying on ice packs.

[DCR]

8/12/22 (Max Fitness, Baton Rouge)

Squats 45,135,225x5 255x3 275x2 295,315x1 215 x5s x5r
Bench Press 45,135,225x5 260x2 280x1 195 x5s x3r
Rows 150 x5s x5r
Pullups - close/angled grip x5, parallel wide grip x4

[DCR]

8/15/22 (Max Fitness, Baton Rouge)

Squats 45,135,225x5 260x3 280x2 300x1 315x1 220 x5s x3r
Bench Press 45,135x5 225x3 245x2 250,255x1 185 x5s x5r
Snatch Grip SLDL 150 x2s x3r; switched to alternate grip x4s x3r
T-Bar Rows 45 x5s x5r

Notes:

Made a rule for myself that, aside from bar speed, my top rep must look like my first warm up rep. No deviating in form to overcompensate for a weakness. I of course realize that this should have been the plan going back to 1996. Anyway, I was pleased to find that I could squat 315 exactly as I’d squatted 135.

Benching was a very different story. The impetus for this change was noticing in prior sessions that as the weight went up, my touch point got lower, presumably due to bouncing off the lats a bit. Corrected that this evening and the result was needing to lower the weight materially, but the session felt great. Hoping the correction yields reasonably swift results.

The SLDLs - reminded myself again that the bar must remain over midfoot and therefore necessarily not at all scraping my legs, which have moved back with my hips as I initiate the motion. To do otherwise turns it into a lower back movement with the plates hitting the floor, as opposed to holding hamstring tension such that I barely can get below my knees.

The t-bar rows may have been the 25 most perfect reps that I’ve ever done. For once, a mind/muscle connection throughout. Maybe stick with it this time.

(Slow negatives on all. Really trying to concentrate on hips back. Last two sets were really good. Have to remember hips back at top and keep it slow to be sure hamstrings stay tight.)

[DCR]

8/18/22 (Max Fitness, Baton Rouge)

Squats 45,135,225x5 260x3 280x2 300,320x1 235 x5s x3r
Bench Press 45,135x5 225x2,2+1 235x1 245x0 135,145,155,165x5
Rows 155 x5s x5r

Trainwreck. Turns out the higher touchpoint on bench - which resulted in spasms in my right shoulder the past three days, was not even a little bit the way to go. Shoulder was a disaster, rolled back on the first set of 225 and the subsequent sets were atrocious. I moved the touchpoint back to my usual spot an inch lower and started over with 135. That and the ensuing sets were good. This experiment was a miserable fucking failure.

[DCR]

8/21/22 (Max Fitness, Baton Rouge)

Squats 45,135,225x5 260x3 280x2 300,320x1 225 x5s x5r
Bench Press 45,135,165,185x5 195x4+1
RDLs (fixed) 45,95x5 135 x3s x5r
Bent Rows 95 x6s x6r (strict, hold at top)
Standing DB Press 20s x3s x10r (neutral grip, straight up, shrug at top)

The disaster I’ve made of my shoulder is teaching me things. Had been told by multiple folks over the past few months that my bench was asymmetrical and essentially waved it off. It appears that was correct, because now that the right shoulder issue is forcing me to keep a lower touchpoint and to make sure the right side doesn’t drift up, I’m realizing that I did tend to have my left arm lower and right arm higher. I say that because today it was very clear how much weaker I was on the right than the left when I didn’t permit that to be the case. The (shocking, infuriating) failure attempting 195x5 was all my right side. The left arm could’ve hit 10 more reps.