1/14/26 - My return. Completed widowmaker wave.

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Before running this template, I was basically doing a mixture of calisthenics and light barbell work. Very unorganized. Despite that I seem to have made good progress on my first 2 weeks back on a real template. What surprised me the most is how quickly my body composition seemed to change. I look dramatically more pumped up, ESPECIALLY my legs. 

My lower back was beat up on my last deadlift day. Thinking back. I had the same exact problem the last time I ran this routine. Instead of swapping to a new template like I normally do, Im going to swap out the Widowmaker set. Maybe a straight AMRAP to near failure will work. For context, the WM is done in sumo form and I want to keep some form of sumo pulling because it's functional for my daily life and I really enjoy it. 

The squat top set + widowmaker is surprisingly easy to recover from and imo, the bread and butter of this routine. That can stay as-is. 

My bench and press are responding amazing to this routine. Im putting up higher top sets than last time. 

As for pulls... I do my chinups after the heavy leg work... so they are much lower than normal. Im used to putting up double digit sets these day, but under fatigue, I struggle to reach 10. My horizontal rowing also took a huge step back. I believe I worked up to 185 for working weight last year, but my best set was 135x10 last week. Ouch. My Kroc row is also substantially weaker. I think I worked up to 95lbs before but now im struggling with 75. 

Aerial practice has been good overall, but im not as explosive or as coordinated as I could be because I do them after these intense lifting sessions. The lower back fatigue is also impacting me negatively here. Despite that, I feel like i make progress every session. My form is solid everywhere, I just need to stop being afraid to keep my hands off the floor. Incorporating some drills might he helpful here. I also want to start learn other tricks so I can have a movelist to work with. 

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