RTS Week 12 - Day 4

2nd Mesocycle

Week 6 of Mesocycle, Week 2 of Intensity Phase

OHP 

165x2 @ 7.5

185x2 @ 8

205x1 @ 9

220x0.... missed

205x3 (push press)

Chins

BWx6

45x3

90x4 (PR)

100x3 (PR)

45x5

35x5 (pullups)

Close Grip Incline

185x3

225x2

260x2 (PR)

Facepulls

2 sets high reps

Farmers Walks

120/120 x 60 yds

120/120 x 80 yds

120/120 x 60 yds

Notes

Chins.  I'll start with the positive - huge chin PR's.  My chinning strength the past 4 weeks has skyrocketed.  I'm loving it.  Weighted chins have become one of the most satisfying lifts for me.  It just feels bad-ass to slam my chest to the bar with a bunch of weight hanging off my waist. 

I'll admit that my progress on these has really surprised me.  The obvious factor contributing to the chin strength is the weight loss.  I'm down approximately 23 pounds.  Every week I can feel a little more pop.  Further, relative strength isn't linear.  Five pounds in weight loss doesn't equate to a straight 5 pound increase in chinning ability.  It's definitely more.  How much more, I'm not sure.  We see this sort of thing play out all the time in powerlifting.  Light lifters have higher relative strength as compared to the big guys, but big guys obviously have higher absolute strength.

The next big factor attributing to the chin strength is a strong back.   I've done one heavy back movement for years: bent barbell rows.  This is the penultimate back strength movement.  I'll talk about all the reasons I think they are awesome in another post.  

Finally, I've gained strength.  The weight loss obfuscates this somewhat in a discussion of chins. But, considering the PR's of late in all the other exercises, I'm confident a significant portion of chin progress can be attributed to good old fashioned strength gain.

Incline.  Technical PR on incline.  I didn't focus on these too much this mesocycle, so I'm fine with a solid double.  I like them more for development.

Overhead. Last but not least... I missed the PR attempt in overhead.  It didn't bother me at all.  I pulled 545 pounds last night.  My lower back is sore as fuck. Definitely not optimal to try to hit a new overhead max with a destroyed core.

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So, that wraps up the mesocycle.  A bunch of fat burned, a bunch of PR's set. I feel great.