August 5, 2011 Lower

BB DL: 315*5 315*5 315*5
Quadrupled-Up mini-banded DL: 315*1 (105 lbs. dbs off the ground..)
Scapular Depressions: 13, 9
34" Box Jump / Seated Box Jump Superset: 15/15
Paloff Presses: 50*3
KB Stack Plank Transfers (2kg,2kg,4kg,4kg): 2, 2

Deload week for deadlifting after last weeks 400*10 effort.  Decided to try some banded deadlifts.  Obviously they're too long to actually gain tension as I lock out a rep, so I doubled them up....still too loose.  So then I quadrupled them up and anchored them to 105 lbs. dumbbells.  What did I learn? Well, seeing as the dumbbells immediately came off the floor as I lifted, I know I can lockout 525 lbs. fairly easily.  If I can get those first couple inches of it off the ground I should be good. (not sure if I'm serious or not...).   Tried scapular depressions (video below), got them from this article.  I thought they'd be incredibly easy. Whoops.  Decided to do some jump work since I've been busy the last couple Sundays when I usually do jump work.  Supersetted some jumps here. Feels good man.  Finished with paloffs, and then a plank stack transfer with kb's.  Abs are actually sore today, which never happens.

August 2, 2011 Lower Body

• BB Squats: 275*3 305*3 315*1 325*X..wtf?
• BB Front Squats: 205*3 225*3 245*2
• Double Mini-Banded Hip Thrusters: 12, 13, 12
• Pullup Iso-Hold: 6 seconds, 14 seconds
• KB Plank Drag: 28kg*1
• Ab Wheel: 8,9

Felt like a really good session.  Plus I GOT A NEW JOB!!! I can't wait, it's such a relief.  But I digress, getting back to low rep squats here, I did them in the cage instead of the squat rack. I do NOT like doing them in the cage, I can never tell if I'm low enough so I stop too high, then start dropping again, but I've killed all my  momentum by then, as on the 325 attempt here. Back to the squat rack next week.  Front squats went great, added reps on last 2 sets.   Added in hip thrusters with the bands here, I think I need stronger bands though.  I'll post a video of me doing them.  The pullup iso-holds are no joke....I'll post a vid of them at the end here, that isn't me doing them, it's from a great T-Nation article on pullups that I read yesterday. I highly recommend it.  On my  first attempt of the iso-holds my middle back cramped & charlie horsed. Not like one of the muscles..all of them.   Got back to doing plank drags, finished with some ab wheel. Also, either the front squats or iso holds gave me some weird bruising on my biceps. Posted a pic at the end here.