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Today’s workout finished off the week and based on performance I think it is time to deload. I have definitely hit my MRV (maximum recoverable volume) on chest and I’m pretty close on hamstrings judging by how my Romanian Deadlift felt today. While I suppose it is possible to deload just chest and continue on with the other body parts for another week, I don’t think there is any real benefit for me to do that. Plus, workouts are starting to get pretty danged long with today’s lasting just under 2 hours.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with this first mesocycle. I definitely was pushing close to and in some cases to failure on many exercises this last week. Squats I could maybe have pushed a rep or two more but I am babying them for now. With working out at home, which I love, I currently do not have many options for quads so I don’t want to push to the point where I don’t feel I can do them without risking injury.

Volume went up again this week, despite pulling back on adding sets to chest after day 1. This week had me doing 106 work sets for a total workout time of 8 hours and 11 minutes. That is up 12 sets and 48 minutes over last week and 44 sets and 2 hours 36 minutes over the totals for the first week. That is a 46% increase in workout time and a whopping 70% increase in work sets from week 1 to week 4.

After the deload, I’ll head into the hypertrophy 2 mesocycle. I’ll keep the chest volume the same, maybe slowing the added sets to 2 sets per week rather than 3. I’ll start off back, shoulders, and arms with an additional set or two. Legs I will leave alone as I think they were pretty close to spot on. Hopefully this will get everything to MRV by week 4.

I think my mass phase is going well although my weight is doing its odd “let’s shoot up a pound a day every day for half a week or so and then drop back down a pound a day.” I’ve seen this happen several times over the last couple of years so it doesn’t freak me out (too much) but it plays havoc with my spreadsheet.

Workout

1-Arm Dumbbell Row: 48 lbs x 18, 14, 13

Cable Row: 160 lbs x 12, 10, 9

Close-grip Parallel Pulldown: 127 lbs x 13, 11, 10

EZ Bar Curl: 64 lbs x 14, 11, 10, 8, 8, 7

Cable Upright Row: 53 lbs x 16, 14, 11, 11, 12, 11

Romanian Deadlift: 228 lbs x 15, 12, 10, 8

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