Njorvi's Log

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Njorvi
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Njorvi's Log

#1

Post by Njorvi » Wed Apr 18, 2018 11:22 pm

Stats
Age: 23 Gender: Male Height: 6’0” Weight: 212lbs

E1RM
OP 185 BP 300-315 SQ 330-370 DL 500-520

The first time I started working out was after I graduated high school, I was about 250lbs and looking to lose weight. I went on a 1-1.4kcal diet and spent about 2h a day doing high rep low weight isolation exercises with dumbbells at home. I lost close to 50-60lbs in roughly 2-3 months and ended up skinny-fat. I started stronglifts after that for a few weeks before I quit lifting.

The second time I started lifting I started around 180-190 and either cut or maintained. I think I did SL for a few weeks than switched to SS. After I stalled, I think I tried TM and made no progress, so I quit.

My current bout of training started after 6 months without working out when I was around 170lbs. I started to gain weight slowly when I was eating only around 1.5kcal a day, and ended up deciding it was time to work out again. This time around I did my own programming, loosely based off of SS, but with less squats, more DL and PC volume, more bench and press volume, and weighted chins 3x a week. I dirty bulked and got up to around 235lbs in 4-5ish months. My lifts were low 300's SQ, DL around 405x5, and upper 200's bench. I decided to stop gaining weight as I was getting really pudgy and wasn't progressing anymore.

Ended up spinning my wheels for a few months with with my poor attempts at programming. I was making no progress, may have got over-trained a few times from too much intensity (I took most sets to absolute failure), and I think some lifts may have regressed. Irritated my shoulder doing heavy singles with bad form on bench, and other high intensity work with poor form. Finally started to figure out how to program, and started making decent progress and lost some weight.

This bout of training has been going on for a bit over a year now, doing mostly my own programming. I use a fairly narrow grip on my bench due to shoulder issues. I don’t use a belt for any of my lifts. No real reason for this, and whenever I read about when I should start using one, the common opinion seems to be when you need it. I've never felt I needed it.

I’m currently trying to cut, but cheat on my diet to the point that it’s more akin to maintenance. I'm quite comfortable with my weight at the moment, so it's hard to really get myself to show restraint around good food.

My pressing movements seem to be moving up a few pounds each per month. My DL is going up about 12.5lbs a month. SQ’s are kind of on the back burner at the moment, but I’m thinking of starting try to train them seriously again soon.

I’m not particularly interested in competing in any sport at the moment, but may try strongman in the future. My primary goal with training as of now is to build a good strength base.

I’m open to any suggestions, comments, critiques, questions or advice. I’m still quite new to lifting, so feedback is always appreciated.

April 7
Morning Workout
Carries 1:05s on 40s off, 5 rounds
Jog 40:00 min
10min Circuit: PsU x10 SSJ x5 PU x5 MC x10 Bu x5 JJx30, 5 rounds +PsU

Evening Workout
IBP 205 6, 6, 6, 6, 6
DC 50 7, 7, 7, 7, 6

April 8
DL(straps) 440 3 405 5 400 5 390 5 DOH 335 8, 8
Next DL Session => 445x3 410x5 400x5 395x5 340x8 335x8
DL felt good, form held up quite well. Triple was ~RPE 8 I think, although I’m still quite new to using RPE.

April 9
Carries
Jog 4.8km 27:49 min
10min Circuit: PsU x10 SSJ x5 PU x5 MC x10 Bu x5 JJx30, 4 rounds + up to SSJ

OP 160 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 Density Block@130 5, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Holds 125 R 45s, 45s, 45s L 45s, 45s, 45s +5lbs
These are static holds done from a rack, and are like suitcase DL’s.
Leg Raises (LR) +30 15, 14, 12 DC 7, 7, 7, 7, 7
1-Arm Dumbbell Rows (1DR) 90 10, 10, 10
Shrugs (SH) 270 12, 12, 12 245 22

April 10
Carries
Jog 30:00 min
DC 50 8, 7, 7, 7, 7
Bothered something in my foot, taking time off jogging and circuit til better.

April 11
BP 260 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 210 8, 8 => 265x4 260 4x4 210 2x8
DC 50 8, 8, 7, 7, 7

PSQ 310 3 280 5 275 5 270 5 245 8, 8
BPCr.* 95 + Sit ups (SU) 90 18+20, 16+17, 16+17
*I don’t remember what these are called, but they’re crunches done on a bench while holding the barbell in a locked out BP position.
SH 275 12, 12, 12 245 22
Dumbbell Extensions (DE) 20 12, 12, 12

PSQ had sloppy form, not sure if I hit depth on all of them. May drop weight or change programming. Started doing some triceps assistance work to see if it could help get my press movements moving again.

April 12
IBP 195 8, 8, 8, 8, 8

BOR 275 5 270 5 265 6 260 7, 6 255 6 250 8, 7
DC 50 8, 8, 8, 7, 7 DE 25 9, 10, 8
LR +30 15, 14, 14
Holds 165 R 30s, 30s, 24s L 30s, 30s, 25s

April 13
Carries
OP 145 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 135(density block) 5, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 5:40s
OP went much better than expected, looks like it may start moving again. Last time I did 7sx6r was on March 24 at 140lbs, with the 20r density block at 130.
My foot is feeling a bit better, will probably try to start jogging again tomorrow.

SH 275 12, 12, 12 245 24
DC 50 8, 8, 8, 8, 7
DE 25 10, 10, 10
BPCr. 95 + SU 90 16+20, 20+20, 14+16

April 14
Carries
Jog 10min foot still irritated
BP 270 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 210 8, 8
BP felt good, lower RPE than expected.

RDL(straps) 335 5, 5, 5 330 5
DC 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
DE 25 11, 11, 11
LR+30 16, 16, 15

April 15
Carries
Jog 15min
IBP 215 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Holds 190 R 15s, 15s, 12s L 15s, 15s, 15s
SH 275 12, 12, 12 245 24
DC 50 9, 8, 8, 8, 8
DE 25 12, 12, 12 +5lbs
BPCr. 95 + SU 90 20+20, 18+20, 18+22

April 16
Carries
Jog 20min
OP 150 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 Density Block @ 135 5, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 5:29s

PSQ 300 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2
DC 9, 9, 8, 8, 8
DE 30 7, 7, 7
Lat. Raises 20 10, 12, 11
LR +30 17, 16, 16

April 17
Carries
Jog 25min foot still swollen
BP 245 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 210 8, 8

CU +80 5 +75 5 +70 5 +65 8,5 +60 7, 7, 6
Feeling a bit beat up, so I skipped accessories. Going to take a day off from pressing. Back feeling a tiny bit irritated, I think I was hyper extending a bit on some of the accessories.

April 18
PSQ 260 3 280 2 300 1, 1 315 1, 1 260 5, 5, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
PSQ felt good, will probably increase something for next time.
SDC 9, 6, 6, 6, 3
Did my curls seated to try to avoid hyper extended my back, helped a bit, but lost reps. Last set I got something like a cramp right were my abs and ribs meet, so I stopped the set. Sometimes get this doing suitcase holds, fingers have also started cramping for the past few days, so skipping holds for today.
SH 275 12, 12, 12 245 24
BPCr. 95 +SU 90 19+22, 16+20, 16+20 +5lbs for BPCr.
Last edited by Njorvi on Tue Apr 24, 2018 10:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ChrisMcCarthy1979
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Re: Njorvi's Log

#2

Post by ChrisMcCarthy1979 » Thu Apr 19, 2018 1:59 am

Welcome!

What exactly have you done to your foot?

Njorvi
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Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 29

Re: Njorvi's Log

#3

Post by Njorvi » Thu Apr 19, 2018 7:05 pm

ChrisMcCarthy1979 wrote: Thu Apr 19, 2018 1:59 am Welcome!

What exactly have you done to your foot?
Hi, and ty for the welcome.

I'm not sure exactly what I've done to my foot. It's swollen right along where the toes connect to the rest of the foot, and only hurts if I go up on my toes. As such it doesn't bother me for any of the main compound lifts, only for jogging, some conditioning stuff like burpees, and when I go up a bit on my toes cheating my shrugs.

I think I've just strained the joint a bit. Hopefully it isn't a stress fracture, although I don't think it hurts enough to be one, and it only hurts when I go up on my toes, otherwise it doesn't hurt at all. Another possibility is that it's related to me starting to take creatine in the last few weeks, and I think I read somewhere about someone getting gout from it, so it could also be that.

For now, I think I'm going to stop jogging entirely for a few days, and only do strict shrugs to see if it improves at all. If not I'll probably go off creatine and see if that does anything.

Njorvi
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Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:52 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 29

Re: Njorvi's Log

#4

Post by Njorvi » Thu Apr 19, 2018 7:17 pm

April 19

Carries
Jog 15min

IBP 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
These were a bit harder than I expected. My bar path and form overall definitely need work, although this is the heaviest weight I've ever IBP, and for more reps and sets than I've done at this weight.

Lat. R 20 12, 12, 12

DC 9, 9, 9, 8, 8
Went back to doing these standing, but made sure to brace to support my back. My back seems to be fine, bracing better seems to avoid irritating it.

LTE 65 12, 12, 12
Switching to these instead of DE to avoid hyper-extending my back. These bothered my elbows a bit, but I'm going to keep them and see if they get used to it.

Upped my calories a bit today and didn't do any back, leg, trap, ab or grip work today since I'm doing DL tomorrow.

Njorvi
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Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:52 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 29

Re: Njorvi's Log

#5

Post by Njorvi » Fri Apr 20, 2018 9:57 pm

April 20

DL(s) 445 3 410 5 400 5 395 5 DOH 340 8 335 8
Next DL workout => 450x3, 410x5, 405x5, 395x5, DOH 340 2x8

triple at 445 was about RPE 8. Felt pretty good about the session overall. I let my balance get a bit forward on a few reps, but most were decent. I don't think I was bracing quite as well as I normally do, I'll need to pay more attention to that. Grip was getting a little fatigued towards the end of the double overhand sets, and form overall was quite sloppy on the 335 set.

I was a bit concerned that my last squat session might have been too much and interfered with my DL's, but it looks like it didn't.

I had planned to do an pressing session with upper body accessories in the morning, but skipped it since my grandparents came over to visit. Stopped taking creatine for now to see if it helps the swelling in my foot go down, will probably try reintroducing it after my foot is better, but right now I want to try to get my foot better asap. Swelling seemed to be a bit down this morning, but it might of just been since I had it up overnight.

Planning on running my back and leg programming something like this for a while:

Day 1
DR 90 3x10

Day 2
PSQ 6sx2r ~80%

Day 3
BOR

Day 4
Power/Technique PSQ
Hypertrophy ZS

Day 5
Rest

Day 6
RDL 4sx5r

Day 7
DR

Day 8
PSQ 6sx2r ~80%

Day 9
CU

Day 10
Power/Technique PSQ
Hypertrophy PSQ

Day 11
Rest

Day 12
DL

Njorvi
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Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 29

Re: Njorvi's Log

#6

Post by Njorvi » Sat Apr 21, 2018 1:45 pm

DL videos from yesterday

Last edited by Njorvi on Tue Apr 24, 2018 10:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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iamsmu
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Re: Njorvi's Log

#7

Post by iamsmu » Sat Apr 21, 2018 5:18 pm

Njorvi wrote: Thu Apr 19, 2018 7:05 pm

Hi, and ty for the welcome.

I'm not sure exactly what I've done to my foot. It's swollen right along where the toes connect to the rest of the foot, and only hurts if I go up on my toes. As such it doesn't bother me for any of the main compound lifts, only for jogging, some conditioning stuff like burpees, and when I go up a bit on my toes cheating my shrugs.

I think I've just strained the joint a bit. Hopefully it isn't a stress fracture, although I don't think it hurts enough to be one, and it only hurts when I go up on my toes, otherwise it doesn't hurt at all. Another possibility is that it's related to me starting to take creatine in the last few weeks, and I think I read somewhere about someone getting gout from it, so it could also be that.

For now, I think I'm going to stop jogging entirely for a few days, and only do strict shrugs to see if it improves at all. If not I'll probably go off creatine and see if that does anything.
I had Gout almost twice. The first time was after I was bedridden for 2+ weeks from a blood clot. Long story. . . . The second time was about a week or two after I started taking creatine. My right big toe started getting irritated like it had before, at the first joint at the base of the toe. I stopped taking the creatine, lost the gopher face, and the toe cleared up. It could have been a coincidence, but maybe my kidneys just can't handle the stuff. Either way, it wasn't worth the risk. Gout is so horribly painful, I'm not taking any chances.

Njorvi
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Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:52 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 29

Re: Njorvi's Log

#8

Post by Njorvi » Sun Apr 22, 2018 12:24 am

iamsmu wrote: Sat Apr 21, 2018 5:18 pm
I had Gout almost twice. The first time was after I was bedridden for 2+ weeks from a blood clot. Long story. . . . The second time was about a week or two after I started taking creatine. My right big toe started getting irritated like it had before, at the first joint at the base of the toe. I stopped taking the creatine, lost the gopher face, and the toe cleared up. It could have been a coincidence, but maybe my kidneys just can't handle the stuff. Either way, it wasn't worth the risk. Gout is so horribly painful, I'm not taking any chances.
Ya, I've stopped taking creatine for the past 2 days and the swelling seems to have gone done notably, although I've also been much gentler with the foot as well. My foot never got overly painful, so it probably wasn't gout in my case, or it was very acute. It just seemed odd that it got so swollen when I couldn't really place what I did to it, and it happened so soon after I started taking creatine.

Njorvi
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Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 29

Re: Njorvi's Log

#9

Post by Njorvi » Sun Apr 22, 2018 12:50 am

April 21
Carries

OP 155 7sx4r Density Block 135 5, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 5:20s
Form was fairly sloppy, overall felt harder than I expected it to.

SH 275 12, 12, 12 245 22
Tried to keep these more strict to keep weight off the front of my foot.

DC 9, 9, 9, 9, 8

1DR 90 10, 10, 10

LTE 70 12, 12, 12
Felt better than last time, shoulders and elbows less irritated, going to increase the weight by 5lbs for next workout.

Lat. Raises 20 12, 12, 12
Did some partials with 30 before each set. Had originally planned to jump the weight to 30, but could only manage one or two complete reps. I guess a 50% increase in weight was a bit overly ambitious.

LR +30 18, 17, 18
Changed form a bit and they don't seem to bother my back now.

Holds 165 R 30s, 30s, 30s L 22s, 30s, 38s
Grabbed the bar a bit off center on the first set with my left hand and missed 8s, made up for it in the last set. +5lbs

I had filmed my last set of OP, but the camera angle was bad. Note to self: IF THE BARBELL IS AT THE TOP OF THE SCREEN WHEN IT'S RACKED, THE BARBELL IS GOING TO BE OFF THE SCREEN FOR THE REST OF THE REP. Oh well, guess I'll just have to try harder to film it next time.

Overall, I think the session went okay, most of the assistant work seems to be progressing, and even though the reps weren't pretty, OP is going up reasonably well.

Njorvi
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Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 29

Re: Njorvi's Log

#10

Post by Njorvi » Mon Apr 23, 2018 9:35 pm

April 22
Only got about 6.5h sleep last night (usually get 8-10). Spent about an hour raking and bagging leaves.

BP 255 5, 5, 5, 5, 4 210 8
Skipped last set of 8 since shoulder was acting up a bit. Form was bad, I think I need to progress my pressing a bit less aggressively.

PSQ 305 2, 2 300 2, 2, 2, 2
These felt okay. Form felt a bit off, but video didn't look too bad. Trying to copy the sort of set and rep schemes used in the Montana method, although I'm probably doing it wrong. I need to go read through Hanley's posts properly and look through some of the training logs of the people following his programming.

BPCr. 100+SU 90 17+20, 13+20, 11+20
The BPCr. are annoying in that I can't really grind reps, and trying to tell if I hit full ROM is difficult.

Skipped curls since last time they felt quite hard and I think I need to let my bi's recover a bit, also planning on doing bent-over rows, so letting my bi's recover for that is probably a good idea. Skipped lat raises and LTE's since my shoulders weren't feeling great and I just wanted to get to bed.

April 23
Got about 7h sleep.

IBP 200 7, 7, 7, 7, 7 27min
Trying to keep workout time down a bit, since it's starting to get a bit ridiculous.

BOR 275 3 270 5 265 5 260 5 255 6 250 7, 7, 6 1h
Got less reps than last time I did it. I think my back was a bit fatigued from PSQ yesterday. Managed to finish in an hour, which is embarrassingly better than usual.

SH 275 12, 12, 12 245 23

DC 9, 9, 9, 9, 9
Felt easier than last time I did curls.

Lat. Raises 20 12, 12, 12
Did some partials with 30's first, got a couple full reps with them.

LTE 75 12, 12, 12
These bothered my shoulder a bit, a may be going too deep on them. Every triceps assistance exercise I've tried seems to bother my shoulders and elbows a bit :evil: . I may see if I can rig up something to do something like pushdowns on if my shoulders don't get used to it.

Leg Raises +30 19, 19, 19

The assistance work ended up taking close to 2.5h. I circuited the SH, DC, and Lat. R and got those done in about 40min, but started to lose steam and procrastinate. I seem to waste the most time setting up and starting exercises, once I actually start I finish it reasonably quickly.

In other news, I've signed up for Crossfit, and plan on doing it for cardio and conditioning 3 days a week. I may have to adjust my strength programming to account for it, but hopefully it wont be too disruptive.

Njorvi
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Age: 29

Re: Njorvi's Log

#11

Post by Njorvi » Tue Apr 24, 2018 10:09 pm

April 24
Got 9.5-10h sleep.

OP 160 7sx3r Density Block 135 5, 3, 3, 3, 3 6:50s
These felt good. Form was solid. Took about 1h

PSQ 260 3 285 2 305 1, 1 315 1, 1
Form was so-so, but better than last time. Hips shoot back a bit.

ZS 205 8 200 8 195 8 185 12, 12
Form was solid on first couple sets, the 12's were very sloppy.

PSQ and ZS took about 3h combined. Just felt tired overall. I hate zerchers, so I always end up procrastinating a lot with them, but I find they help me a lot with knee stability in the squat, and hit my back and core in a way my other lifts don't. I also imagine that they'll help a bit with stones if I ever do strongman.

Calories were a bit low today. Dinner came back up, so I ended up skipping accessories and eating a bigger final meal, though I'm still probably down at least 500kcal. I think I'm starting to accumulate fatigue.

Njorvi
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Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:52 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 29

Re: Njorvi's Log

#12

Post by Njorvi » Sun Apr 29, 2018 3:08 pm

April 25

BP 265 5sx4r 210 2sx8r 1h 21min

Holds 130 R 45s, 45s, 45s L 45s, 45s, 45s
Increase by 5lbs

DC 10, 9, 9, 9, 9
Lat. Raises 20 12, 12, 12
LTE 80 12, 12, 12
BPCr. 100 + SU 90 15+20, 13+20, 14+20

April 26

IBP 220 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
RDL(S) 340 5, 5, 5, 5
These were easier than last time.

SH 275 12, 12, 12 245 24
DC 50 10, 10, 9, 9, 9
Lat. R. 30+20 6+12, 5+12, 7+12
LTE 85 12, 12, 0
Couldn't get any reps on last set.

LR +30 20, 20, 20
Inc. weight by 10lbs

April 27

OP 165 7sx2r Density block 135 5, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 5:38s
Took 1h 13m in total. Got light headed and lost bar on 5th set. Got it on second attempt.

DR 90 10, 10, 10
DC 50 10, 10, 10, 9, 9

BPCr. 100 + SU 90 14+20, 14+20, 15+20
Lat. R. 30+20 8+12, 7+12, 7+12

April 28

BP 275 5sx3r 210 2sx8r
PSQ 305 4sx2r 300 2x2
Lost balance a bit on the last rep of last set. Had to take a step forward to catch self. I seem to let my knees get a bit too far forward on the descent when I start to get tired and my balance gets forward on the ascent.

SH 275 12, 12, 12 245 22
Holds 170 R 30s, 30s, 27s L 30s, 30s, 30s
Lat. R 30+20 8+12, 7+12, 8+12

Skipped some accessories since I ran out of time.

Foot is far less swollen, going to start running again soon. Starting Crossfit on the 2nd, going to try jogging there and back. May or may not do conditioning/cardio on days I don't do Crossfit. Weight seems to be going down again, hopefully I can sustain this cut long enough to get abs.

Njorvi
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Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 29

Re: Njorvi's Log

#13

Post by Njorvi » Tue May 01, 2018 10:14 am

April 29
IBP 215 5sx6r

CU +80 5 +75 5 +70 5 +65 5 +60 8, 6, 7, 6
These took way to long, close to 2h. They were irritating my elbow a fair bit. I think I'm going to switch these to weighted chest to bar chins and drop the weight a bit to see if it bothers my elbow less.

DC 50 10, 10, 10, 10, 9
Lat. R. 30+20 8+12, 8+12, 8+12
LTE 85 12, 12, 12
These aren't bothering my shoulders or elbows anymore, so I think I can keep them.

LR+40 10, 10, 10


April 30
OP 145 7x7 Density Block 140 5, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 6m20s
Took just under 2h on OP. Was feeling really tired, had no energy.

PSQ 265 3 285 2 305 1, 1 315 1, 1
265 5, 5, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Procrastinated and was tired so took about 2.5h on these.

SH 275 12, 12, 12 245 22
DC 50 5sx10r
BPCr 100 + SU 90 17+20, 15+20, 14+20
Skipped LTE's and lat. raises cuz I was tired.

Tomorrow I only have bench, curls, lat. raises and LTE's planned, so hopefully I can dissipate some fatigue. My sleeps been pretty bad lately since I've been trying to turn my clock around and start getting up in the morning again instead of after noon. Planning on switching a PSQ strength session to belted LBBS session with same rep, set and intensity scheme as my DLs, and adding some 5x5 LBBS @70% sessions in during my next 12 week cycle. If I get my sleep back on track I don't think I'll have issues with recovery.

Njorvi
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Re: Njorvi's Log

#14

Post by Njorvi » Tue May 01, 2018 2:03 pm

May 1
Decided to skip training today to recover, so I uploaded some PSQ videos from training sessions a few days ago.

April 28
PSQ 305x2 S1


PSQ 300x2 S2
Lost balance on this one.


April 30
PSQ 315x1 S2

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