alek’s log

[alek]

12/15/21 [128] 195 Week 14, Day 2
Pause squat
345 x 1 @ 7.5
320 x 2 @ 7.5; PR
270 x 4 @ 7,7,7

Comp bench
225 x 1 @ 7
230 x 1 @ 7
235 x 1 @ 7.5; e1rm = 259
240 x 1 @ 8.5,9
225 x 2 @ 8.5

Paused deadlift
370 x 1 @ 7
370 x 3 @ 8; PR
275 x 4 @ 6,6,6

T-bar row
It + 25 x 10,10,10

Session RPE
7.5

Notes
Good session today.

We did Christmas yesterday, and I got two new toys for lifting/health. One is a set of Stoic knee sleeves, which I used for the first time this morning. I like them—they remind of “knee savers” catchers sometimes wear in baseball. I like ‘em.

Second is a Garmin Vivofit 4 to track my steps as a proxy for activity levels. As @broseph will appreciate, as far as smart devices go, it’s pretty dumb, which I really like. It doesn’t get phone calls, texts, or other communications from my phone, and I’ve turned off all the other settings that would otherwise make it smart. I want it to track my steps, and communicate that number to my phone—what’s funny is some of the reviews of it complain that it doesn’t do a lot of smartwatch things, which is how I knew it’s what I wanted. Works pretty well, and it’s not terribly obstrusive.

Got a couple more PRs today. For the paused deadlift, I did the top single, and got ready for a triple at 340. When pulling the first rep of the triple, I thought it was a little heavy and that maybe the single really fatigued me; on the second, I thought about not doing the third, but decided to do it since it was only one more rep; and the third went fine although I was surprised at the slowness of the rep. I sat down, watched the video, and decided that it moved fine after all. When stripping the weight off to do the back off sets, I saw the 25 was still on the left side, and I thought to myself, “Did I leave the 25 on this side?” So I checked the other side—the 25 was still on that side, too. I tripled 370, not 340. Derp…







Bro work at home
Seated DB Press
30’s x 15, 5,5,5, 5,5

Alt DB Curls
30’s x 20,20,20

I forgot. I also got another set of Cap dumbbell handles so I can have two pairs of different weights at a time.

Also, walked 12,000 steps my first day wearing the garmin; that’s a lot more steps than I thought I’d walk, considering it was a “normal” day.

[JohnHelton]

Regarding your mistake that led to a PR. Sometimes I feel like I get so cautious/methodical with regard to pushing myself that I'm cheating myself of gains. I think that caution comes with age. My daughter will YOLO in the gym all the time if she isn't held back. I think that is true of a lot of young lifters. I'm the opposite. I remember awhile back making a similar mistake as you on a heavy squat single. And it moved great. I'm trying to be a bit more aggressive now, but it isn't easy.

[alek]

Regarding your mistake that led to a PR. Sometimes I feel like I get so cautious/methodical with regard to pushing myself that I'm cheating myself of gains. I think that caution comes with age. My daughter will YOLO in the gym all the time if she isn't held back. I think that is true of a lot of young lifters. I'm the opposite. I remember awhile back making a similar mistake as you on a heavy squat single. And it moved great. I'm trying to be a bit more aggressive now, but it isn't easy.

Yeah, I sometimes to often find it hard to balance the building and testing of strength. I know you should probably do both, but I’ll also usually get super frustrated if I’m not as strong as I think I should be, which is why I’m doing these “easy” rep PRs.

[alek]

For the bitching I do about my Y, I do need to show gratitude for the fact that as a member of the Y, I can go to any other participating Y and train without having to pay any day fees or anything like that. I’ve yet to go to one that doesn’t participate in the “Y Away” program.

For what we pay for the membership, that is a gigantic perk.

[augeleven]

I didn’t realize that was a thing with the Y. I need to find out if my Y does that

[alek]

I didn’t realize that was a thing with the Y. I need to find out if my Y does that

It’s definitely a cool thing about the Y—among other globo type gyms, too. One or two have had caps on how many times per year you can go as part of the Y away program, but that was a couple years ago. I don’t know if those same ones have the caps anymore.

I called the one I’ll be going to next week about hours and such, and they have never had a cap on how many times I can visit.

[alek]

12/17/21 [129] 194 Week 14, Day 3
Deadlift
405 x 4 @ 9.5; PR

Dips
Bw x 5
Bw + 15 x 5
Bw + 20 x 5
Bw + 25 x 5
Bw + 30 x 5 @ 8,8,8

Chin ups
Bw x 5,5,5

Straight arm pulldown
44 x 15,12,12

Triceps pushdown myo
44 x 10, 5,5,5, 5

Session RPE
7

Notes
I may have had another rep in me on the 405 deadlift, but my goal was 4. I loaded up 365 to try to a 6rm, but about at my knees with the first rep, I said, "Screw it."

Doing the straight arm pulldowns and tricep pushdowns with a pause/squeeze at the bottom and a slow eccentric is really terrible--I'll keep doing it.

[broseph]

[alek]

Thanks!!

[alek]

After rereading the RPE Megathread and listening to the latest BBM podcasts, I’ve decided to try an emerging strategies block using the RTS logging app.

I’m thinking I’m going to try something like:

Let x be 1 @8.
Let y be 3 @.87x
Let z be 5’s @.87y

For example, if I squat 365x1@8, then the triple would be at 365*0.87 and the 5’s would be 365*0.87*0.87.

Increase x when x @<8
Increase y when y @<7.5
Increase z when z @<7

Day 1
Comp Squat: x,y,z
Comp Bench: x,y,z
Pullups/Lat Pulldown
Bro Work

Day 2
Paused Squat: x,y,z
Pin Bench: x,y,z
Sumo DL: 5’s @6
Horizontal Row
Bro Work

Day 3
Comp DL: x,y,z
Weighted Dips
Weighted Pullups
Straight Arm Pulldowns
Triceps Pushdown
Bro Work

I’ll see how it goes for about 8 weeks or so. I might do mini-tests every three weeks or so to gauge effectiveness.

[Hardartery]

I'm curious how the RPE equates to your 1RM. Not as a criticism or anything, just trying to get a handle on how you are defining/using it to understand what the effects are in your training.

[alek]

I'm curious how the RPE equates to your 1RM. Not as a criticism or anything, just trying to get a handle on how you are defining/using it to understand what the effects are in your training.

So far, I’ve found that an e1rm’s generated by singles and doubles at rpe 7 or 8 have been slightly higher than tested 1rm’s by a few pounds, but it’s always pretty close.

In general, I’ve found using RPE to be helpful with a couple things.

By trying to maintain worksets of 4 or more reps around rpe 6 or 7, I’m able to increase weight on the worksets consistently over time without grinding myself into the dirt or causing so much fatigue/stress that I’m not able to train effectively at my next scheduled session. For me personally, I’d say this is far and away the biggest plus to using rpe. I’ve had issues in the past with trying to add weight to the bar every session, which would end with me grinding heavy worksets, getting really fatigued, and then program hopping.

[ETA]
I should say that I want to increase the weight on the worksets every session, but by waiting until a workset @7 feels @<7, I still get good quality, whatever that means, work in and I have a non-decreasing weight on the worksets.
[/ETA]

The other helpful thing pertains to the 1rm’s. By doing the singles and doubles close to failure, I’m able to see if my top end “strength skill” is going up or not.

With that said, my biggest fault with respect to training is consistency over the long term. I can usually work consistently for 4 months or so, but then I have usually switched things up to the point where the work I’ve just put in is squandered. For example, this same time last year I went from essentially the same training approach I’m using now to a bodybuilding/hypertrophy/non-specific approach. That normally happens when I approach lifetime pr levels and don’t quickly improve on them. I’ve trained long enough to not get new 1rm’s all the time, but not long/smart enough to be smart enough about it.

[alek]

12/20/21 [130] 194.8 Week 15, Day 1
Pin squat
375 x 1 @ 9.5; PR
335 x 2 @ 8; PR
315 x 3 @ 8; PR
295 x 4 @ 8; PR
275 x 6 @ 8; PR

Press
145 x 1
155 x 0,0

Chin ups
Bw x 7,7,4

Seated row
50 x 15,15,15

Triceps pushdown
60 x 10,10,10

Session RPE
6

Notes
At the away Y, and it has super narrow benches for bench press; I figured I’d try for a press PR, which didn’t happen.

Got a bunch of pretty easy PR’s on pin squat. I had forgotten how much I like doing it.



Bro Work at Another Gym
I went to a Club Fitness with a nephew of mine later in the evening—he’s not really my nephew, but he’s the son of a good family friend, and he calls us Uncle Alek and Aunt Kela—to do what he does and get the bro work in.

[alek]

Earlier Posted ProgramShow

After rereading the RPE Megathread and listening to the latest BBM podcasts, I’ve decided to try an emerging strategies block using the RTS logging app.

I’m thinking I’m going to try something like:

Let x be 1 @8.
Let y be 3 @.87x
Let z be 5’s @.87y

For example, if I squat 365x1@8, then the triple would be at 365*0.87 and the 5’s would be 365*0.87*0.87.

Increase x when x @<8
Increase y when y @<7.5
Increase z when z @<7

Day 1
Comp Squat: x,y,z
Comp Bench: x,y,z
Pullups/Lat Pulldown
Bro Work

Day 2
Paused Squat: x,y,z
Pin Bench: x,y,z
Sumo DL: 5’s @6
Horizontal Row
Bro Work

Day 3
Comp DL: x,y,z
Weighted Dips
Weighted Pullups
Straight Arm Pulldowns
Triceps Pushdown
Bro Work

I’ll see how it goes for about 8 weeks or so. I might do mini-tests every three weeks or so to gauge effectiveness.

A couple things:

My wife and kids had been sick on and off since Halloween, and they finally got me just as we left for holiday travels. I trained only that one day--last Monday--because of the funk and holiday hecticness. We just got back into town this morning, so I'll pick up training tomorrow.

I've been thinking more about what I plan to do at the start of the new year. After more rumination and listening to podcasts, I think I'm going to change the set/rep scheme a bit. Instead of

Let x be 1 @8.
Let y be 3 @.87x
Let z be 5’s @.87y

I'm going to do the 2's, 3's, and 5's that I did in fall 2020. So it might look like a top double, 3 sets of 3, and 3 sets of 5--although I think I'm going to do the back off work a little differently. After listening to various bbm podcast episodes, I think the whole "effective rep" thing may not be sussed out quite as much as I thought. They seem to agree with Hanley's hvlf approach that I and others have used for bench--do lots of sets where the reps are consistent in velocity.

So for the back offs, rather than prescribing a specific number of sets, I'm going to do a specific number of reps regardless of how many sets it takes while staying within an rpe target. So for the "3's", I might try to do triples @7 or something. If during the set, the reps start to slow down noticeably, I'll do the next set with one less rep to try to keep all reps at a consistent velocity. So the "triples" might look like 3, 2, 2, 2 or 3, 3, 2, 1 rather than just 3x3. Same for the "5's".

Again, top double @7; 9 reps in sets of 3 or less at consistent velocity/rpe; 15 reps in sets of 5 or less at consistent velocity/rpe.

For loading, 2@7 is around 86%, and I want the triples to be around 80% and the fives to be around 70%. So, what's that for the triples... .86x = .8 implies that x = .8/.86 = .93. For the fives, it's... .86x = .7 implies that x = .7/.86 = .81.

So,

Let x be 2@7.
Let y be "3"@0.93x.
Let z be "5"@0.81x.

Another thing I think I"m going to do is reduce my waist size. Right now I'm around 35.5", and I'd like to get under 34" for various reasons--vanity and health, mainly. Rather than cut in one go, I think I'm going to do an 8 week cycle of the training outlined above without trying to lose weight; do a cut that lasts as long as it takes to go to a 34.5" umbilicus; do another 8 week cycle at maintenance; and do another cut that lasts as long as it takes to go to a 33.5" umbilicus. We'll see how that goes...

[JohnHelton]

I like it. The only issue is judging an @7. I find that much more difficult than >=@8.

[broseph]

So for the back offs, rather than prescribing a specific number of sets, I'm going to do a specific number of reps regardless of how many sets it takes while staying within an rpe target. So for the "3's", I might try to do triples @7 or something. If during the set, the reps start to slow down noticeably, I'll do the next set with one less rep to try to keep all reps at a consistent velocity. So the "triples" might look like 3, 2, 2, 2 or 3, 3, 2, 1 rather than just 3x3. Same for the "5's".

Disclaimer: I might be way off base here but... The only thing that jumps out at me about this approach is that while is seems like you're auto regulating, you're not regulating volume or intensity, just the way you get the reps done. When I'm doing hvlf stuff, if I'm able to keep the reps-per-set high, I usually have gas in the tank to do more total volume. Conversely, if I find myself doing 3's @70%, I know I'm carrying some fatigue and might benefit from less volume that day.

Also,
1) I could be misreading your programming
2) You might not be looking for naysayers
3) I could be completely wrong about the "solution"
-a) and there isn't actually a "problem"
-b) but I'd be interested to hear other opinions about it

Another thing I think I"m going to do is reduce my waist size. Right now I'm around 35.5", and I'd like to get under 34" for various reasons--vanity and health, mainly. Rather than cut in one go, I think I'm going to do an 8 week cycle of the training outlined above without trying to lose weight; do a cut that lasts as long as it takes to go to a 34.5" umbilicus; do another 8 week cycle at maintenance; and do another cut that lasts as long as it takes to go to a 33.5" umbilicus. We'll see how that goes...

This was basically I got down to 33.5". I had more jumps to take (from 41"), and my "maintenance" phases were longer. But the stepwise waist reduction technique works really well for cut goals.

Also,
1) I'm currently back up to 35"
2) Maybe it's more like 36"

[alek]

I like it. The only issue is judging an @7. I find that much more difficult than >=@8.

Thanks!

For bench and deadlift at least, I think I have a good starting point thanks to the 4rm pr's I did about two weeks ago. Squat shouldn't be too hard.

What'll likely happen as I do this is if the double feels less than @8, then I'll increase weight the next session. When it gets to @8, I'll either stay at that weight until it gets easier or take a few pounds off.

[alek]

So for the back offs, rather than prescribing a specific number of sets, I'm going to do a specific number of reps regardless of how many sets it takes while staying within an rpe target. So for the "3's", I might try to do triples @7 or something. If during the set, the reps start to slow down noticeably, I'll do the next set with one less rep to try to keep all reps at a consistent velocity. So the "triples" might look like 3, 2, 2, 2 or 3, 3, 2, 1 rather than just 3x3. Same for the "5's".

Disclaimer: I might be way off base here but... The only thing that jumps out at me about this approach is that while is seems like you're auto regulating, you're not regulating volume or intensity, just the way you get the reps done. When I'm doing hvlf stuff, if I'm able to keep the reps-per-set high, I usually have gas in the tank to do more total volume. Conversely, if I find myself doing 3's @70%, I know I'm carrying some fatigue and might benefit from less volume that day.

What I'll probably do for the intensity is something like, "if I can do 3 triples @7 or so, then I'll increase weight". Same for the 5's although I like your thoughts about adjusting session volume on the fly. Suppose the 5's are going well, say each one is @6 or so. Then rather than just doing the three sets of five, why not keep doing the 5's until there's a noticeable drop in velocity near the end of the set. Maybe cap the total volume--don't do 10 sets of 5 or something--or maybe not?

Or drop a rep per set until I hit a 3@7 or something... more to ponder.

Also,
1) I could be misreading your programming
2) You might not be looking for naysayers
3) I could be completely wrong about the "solution"
-a) and there isn't actually a "problem"
-b) but I'd be interested to hear other opinions about it

No, those are good thoughts. Last fall, the straight double, triples, and fahves worked well to get me back to within a few % points of all time 1rm's, but I didn't have the smarts to tweak it so that I could continue to progress.

This was basically I got down to 33.5". I had more jumps to take (from 41"), and my "maintenance" phases were longer. But the stepwise waist reduction technique works really well for cut goals.

Also,
1) I'm currently back up to 35"
2) Maybe it's more like 36"

Part of the timing is just arbitrary--the 8 weeks of maintenance training are to get me to try the TRAC logging tool and do the analysis afterwards. I think if I can keep the 8 weeks cycles consistent, then they may give more credence to the review. But I could just be deluding myself. Again.

[alek]

So for the back offs, rather than prescribing a specific number of sets, I'm going to do a specific number of reps regardless of how many sets it takes while staying within an rpe target. So for the "3's", I might try to do triples @7 or something. If during the set, the reps start to slow down noticeably, I'll do the next set with one less rep to try to keep all reps at a consistent velocity. So the "triples" might look like 3, 2, 2, 2 or 3, 3, 2, 1 rather than just 3x3. Same for the "5's".

Disclaimer: I might be way off base here but... The only thing that jumps out at me about this approach is that while is seems like you're auto regulating, you're not regulating volume or intensity, just the way you get the reps done. When I'm doing hvlf stuff, if I'm able to keep the reps-per-set high, I usually have gas in the tank to do more total volume. Conversely, if I find myself doing 3's @70%, I know I'm carrying some fatigue and might benefit from less volume that day.

Also,
1) I could be misreading your programming
2) You might not be looking for naysayers
3) I could be completely wrong about the "solution"
-a) and there isn't actually a "problem"
-b) but I'd be interested to hear other opinions about it

Another thing I think I"m going to do is reduce my waist size. Right now I'm around 35.5", and I'd like to get under 34" for various reasons--vanity and health, mainly. Rather than cut in one go, I think I'm going to do an 8 week cycle of the training outlined above without trying to lose weight; do a cut that lasts as long as it takes to go to a 34.5" umbilicus; do another 8 week cycle at maintenance; and do another cut that lasts as long as it takes to go to a 33.5" umbilicus. We'll see how that goes...

This was basically I got down to 33.5". I had more jumps to take (from 41"), and my "maintenance" phases were longer. But the stepwise waist reduction technique works really well for cut goals.

Also,
1) I'm currently back up to 35"
2) Maybe it's more like 36"

Squatting right now. Just did my 8th set; 4@6. Screw your “regulating volume” idea…

Another 275x4@6.

10th set: 275x4@6

[broseph]

Cap it at 10 sets! Or consult @Allentown about not overtraining hard enough.