I knew this was going to be a challenging workout, and lo and behold, the workout delivered. It was challenging, but damn did it feel good at the end. I was able to hit just about all of the numbers that I’d wanted to hit and more importantly at the RPEs that I’d wanted (approximately speaking).
It’s interesting to see how the workouts get more and more challenging each day. Which is to be expected given weights are just going up linearly, but it’s nice to see that I’m still able to hit relatively high volume on the AMRAP top sets (+10 on every top set, thus far). I’m hoping I’ll be able to keep this up for some time to come. That said, I’m definitely dealing with some serious knee pain in my left knee after this workout. Going to have to do a serious amount of rehab/PT work to see if I can bring the inflammation down and make the knee feel good for the next workout.
Here’s the breakdown:
A1. Low Bar Squat – 3×5/5/5+ @ 265lbs
- 45x10x2
- 95x5x2
- 135×5
- 185×3
- 205×1
- 225×1
- 245×1
- 265x5x2
- 265×5+ (10 @ 8 RPE)
B1. Bench Press – 3×5/5/5+ @ 165lbs
- 45x20x2
- 95×10
- 135×5
- 165x5x2
- 165×5+ (11 @ 9 RPE)
C1. Conventional Deadlift – 3×3/3/3+ @ 275lbs
- 45×10
- 135x5x2
- 185×3
- 225×1
- 275x3x2
- 275×3+ (12 @ 8 RPE)
I’m considering how to move forward once things really start to get challenging (near the 315lbs range on squats). I started to consider alternating Squats and Deadlifts, rather than squatting 3 days per week. Given the condition of my knee, this might be the perfect kind of respite between squat sessions, but not sure if I want to do that yet.
The other consideration is the simple fact that squatting and deadlifting in the same session is a significant challenge, which I probably won’t be able to keep up for very long. Specifically with the higher volume approach I’ve been using. Granted after 6 weeks, I’ll start alternating deadlifts and hang cleans, which will provide this break, but I’m beginning to think I’ll need to start alternating the 2 a little sooner than expected. Just have to see how the next couple of weeks end up going. As long as I can hit the requisite repetitions each workout, there’s no reason to make any drastic changes to the programming.
Ramble on Fitness 