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Obviously don't go over board, but it's better to be more rested than more fatigued IMO, especially if you're a hardgainer.

I usually take just another rest day and then go to the gym if I'm very tired. It doesn't make any sense to push through fatigue only to get more and more and more run down to the ground. If you do it, you're going to need a deload at some point.

plan on getting back into making squat PRs

1. better preparation and recovery (improve hydration pre, peri and post workout, don't lift fasted, get a meal in before the first session of the day, full seminal stores during the week, dont wear out knees using the TM, etc)

2. reduce CNS stress (backsquat and front squat heavy only 1x a week: that means heavy triples, doubles and singles - only one day a week no more, cut down on the powercleans a lot- 1x week and not excessive intensity/volume -  they seem to fry my CNS, ditto on the deadlifts)

3. add volume, my backsquat loves volume  (lots of sets of 6+ reps, stick in the 80-85% range of 1RM)

there are studies out there but i really don't wanna turn my log into a discussion on the merits of abstaining lol

finding myself seduced by the lure of new lifting gear..

exhibit 1.. grey pendlays (i have the whites but they're ugly and i had the heel modified to be lower for when i was a lowbarer but apparently these only have a 0.75" heel? So if i'm after a much bigger heel than my current ones, 0.75" might not be enough anyway)





Cost: ~$115

But then i'm also considering the ristos which have a legit 1-1.25" heel and would be ideal for olympic lifting




These cost $115

And finally a cheapo pair on ebay which goes for around $90





Or I could buy something more expensive and hope it's good enough to last a lifetime etc..



adidas powerperfect ii for ~ $160

Oh and I forgot, another pair I came across..



The AWF pair for $110. The heel looks pretty high on this one too

Honestly I can already do a pretty nice deep upright front squat with my current shoes. If i get one with a bigger heel i might be able to go slightly deeper but it wont help my front squat much. But the reason i'm entertaining new shoes is because i'm hoping a higher heel will help my highbar backsquat to become more upright deep.

Training
TMWU 300m, 02:26
FS 2x107.5 (didn't have a 3rd), 2x110 (PR), 0Fx117.5, 0Fx116
BP 6Fx80.5, 6x77.5, 6x75

TMWU 300m, 02:46
HBBS 2x100, 2x1x107.5, 4x100, 3x97.5, 6x92.5, 3x90
5x30m sprints

ABZ - cable crunch 3x5 (+3.75kg from last time, great burn, my abs still feel warm minutes later lol)
       - plank test - got an easy PR of 1 min before it got challenging. So that means i've improved core strength since i haven't done planks in months. Good to know that the ab work i've been doing is paying off!

FS notes:
I had heard but not known until now but these heavy RM attempts really do fuck you up for subsequent lifts. In hindsight instead of that 2nd heavy single i should have attempted a lighter 3RM PR instead. Or even if I had attempted 116 instead of 117.5 in the first place I would have got it. That's another thing, best be realistic and admit a ceiling of 5kg gains per month. So I should try 1kg, 1.5kg, 1kg, 1.5kg jumps over 4 weeks instead of trying for weekly 2.5kg ones as I have been til now and failing them.

Next friday I will attempt the following PRs hopefully with no failures:
106x3, 111x2, 116x1

If I make the above PRs, then the following weeks I will add 1kg or 1.5kg alternating.

Failed 116kg. I lean fwd out of the hole and it makes it difficult to lock the lift out. My question is this - if I had a higher heeled shoe, would I have got that lift? Mine have a heel slightly lower than 1/2". Suppose I had a heel around 1" - would that put me in a position to make that lift rather than to fail it?

HBBS notes:
I stumbled upon a nice little trick I hadn't seen mentioned anywhere else - I thought to explicitly instruct my hips to go forward on the descent. This combined with finding that feeling of sitting between the legs makes the entire thing feel very much how a front squat feels at the bottom. Which is good. Additionally I found by taking a slightly wider stance than usual, I could really stretch out my legs, so much so, rather than being limited by hamstring strength as usual, I felt the tension entirely on my quads.

The bad news is, looking at the video, it doesn't look similar to a front squat. The other caveat which worries me is that it seems to put myself in a rather precarious position if the lift is abortive and must be completed via a squatmorning, because the bar is rather forward. Maybe i'm just not meant to backsquat. Video below.

dessert:

Just what I needed to hear. Starting monday i'll accumulate volume (30-40 at over 80% is a lot more than i'm used to, almost double,  but i welcome the challenge and hope it does good things for me!) and make sure I do a good quanity of acceptable quality reps each workout. Appreciate it as always Lance, legend!  

what lance said. also, it seems kind of weird to go for a 3RM pr, a 2RM pr, and then a 1RM pr. i'd pick one of those three and focus on that for the workout. personally that tends to be 1RM because it's the most fun. but if you've put enough effort in to pr for three reps, what makes you think you'll have enough left in the tank to set a real 1RM pr?

I slept awkwardly from wearing my massively oversized jordan hoody on account of it being very cold the night before and woke up left glute pain I used to have all the time when I had chronic sciatica. Thankfully it's gone today though. Very relieved, it was scary there for a while, i didn't want to relive that nightmare again.

Taking today off on the scheduled conditioning sessions. I'm resting up for the next program starting tomorrow where conditioning days coincide with leg training days. So it's no big deal, i'm just going to delay it a day. Hope it works better this time around.

Training
FS 4x101 (PR), 3x98.5, 4Fx96 (went real deep on the 4th rep and annoyingly caught the pins, had forgot to adjust them prior or i'm squatting deeper now, otherwise I had that rep easy), 4x94, 4x93.5, 5x92.5 (PR)
1x30m sprint (timed it close to 4.5s w/ camera and I also used t0dday's inspired idea of setting a manual interval)

BS 3x90, 2x100, 4x100, 6x95, 5x93.5, 1x97.5, 3x92.5, 3x92.5, 3x87.5
RDL 3x135 (PR), 10x110 (PR)
DL 2x3x105
HIIT tabata sprints, 14 on, 13off, 7 intervals total
ABZ - 3x8 weighted cable crunch (+5kg)
SSAT 10 mins, about 1km lol (my quads cramped had to stop)

FS notes:
Great squat session. Good form, nice and deep, controlled and solid reps, nice amount of volume. Really happy despite making a few fixable blunders like getting caught by the pins. It was very hot today and different from what i'm used to but I didn't mind it. Nice not having to heat up my knees. I don't think i'll be bothering with getting the knee sleeves until get it gets cold again.

I also found I was going rock bottom deep with weight above 80% so I'm putting on hold any thoughts of getting new shoes. I don't need them, I have sufficient flexibility to make do with a small heel. Later if I need to use a different shoe to squat > 1.75bw then i'll rethink it but for now i'm good.

One thing i'll mention is I made yet another technique breakthrough. I took a really close grip of the bar (like 15mm away from the smooth), this allowed my elbows to be pretty much perpendicular to my torso and nice and high, which allowed me to really get real tight, and this helped stay upright and together. The only concern is if I ever fail a rep and have the bar drop suddenly if i could smash my elbows on my knees? that would be bad. But i dont know if that's even a possibility and i like to think the pins would catch the bar before it got to that? I should do an experiment with the empty bar to see what happens.

Total reps above 80% attempted: 25 reps

Conditioning notes:
HIIT session delayed til evening - i went to the park and tried it but it was too hot and i'm not crazy enough to attempt tabata sprints in those conditions

I did run one max effort sprint. I set the interval timer to countdown to 2s before starting, and i took off at the beep, then it beeped again at 4s. At that point i was pretty close to the finish line. So i'm confident that I can get quite close to 4s if i am a)fresh (i definitely wasn't today), b)i finish cutting and push my strength up. Exciting stuff! All i know is, with a 30m sprint eventually under 4s I shouldn't have any trouble playing competitive basketball at a decent athletic level if I ever decide to play again

HIIT was a killer. I didn't like this session. Last time I felt fully recovered for every sprint but this time 2-3 intervals in and i was panting like a dog and 'sprinting' slowly

I'd just like to point out I ran on the TM today topless and last time I tried that I had to stop and pull on a shirt because of my moobs slapping around. But today there was minimal slapping. See guys, cardio/hiit does magic things for me. Even though i've only lost about a kilo of bodyweight, i've lost a lot of fat because of conditioning. I can't explain it but it's magic and happens every time I start conditioning.

BS notes:
No more HBBS nuff said. See next post for detail.