Week 5 and the past few weeks....

Alright you may have heard me mention how bar speed in your training can help your strength levels. If you have done any smart reading like Josh Bryant book called Bench Press the Science. A great read for anybody advanced in there training that wants to improve that lift. Something he harps on is CAT. Compensatory acceleration training. If you want to dig into a article on the science behind bar speed and how it does work, give this a go.
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/speed-kills-2x-the-intended-bar-speed-yields-2x-the-bench-press-gains/
Bench-Press-Science-Josh-Bryant 

The take away from the article is maximum acceleration of the bar during the concentric portion of the lift yields the best results compared to normal bar speed when it comes to strength gains. Now the catch is NOT going to failure during these sets..see a common theme here, I'm always going on about. If you want to maximize your strength try these three simple principles.
1. Maximize your bar speed during your heavy sets, but stop short of failure by 1 or 2 reps on ALL sets.
2. Never train to failure on ANY of the big lifts. All out balls to wall attempts, busting veins, turning purple you get the idea. Leave it for a competition or every couple of months once you have peaked.
3. Listen to your body, take a deload when your driving the body into the ground.

K so what have I been doing for the past couple of weeks. Busting my ass in the gym lifting tons of pig iron that's WHAT!! As week 3 progressed my body was sending me signals that I needed a deload week. The weights just felt heavy and my drive to train was spiraling steadily downhill. But I still managed awesome numbers in all three lifts. Top sets where squat 380 x 2 RPE 9, Bench 330 x 2 RPE 9 and Sumo DL 485 x 1 RPE 8.5. I was very happy with these numbers but my body was telling me to ease up.
Week 4 was a deload week and I even skipped any deadlifting that week. Kept my max squat to sets of 10 with 225 and benched with feet up and lighter weight. Ended the week with a 3 day backpacking trip. Lots of walking with a backpack, sweating my nuts off and generally having a awesome time with the other half in the wilderness. 
I was a little apprehensive going back into the gym for my first leg workout after this trip but I was surprised how well it went. Had some awesome leg DOMS for days after but it still went well :). All my workouts felt better overall after taking the deload. Did my squat workout on Tuesday and when I hit the gym on Friday for my deadlift workout, during the warm up my legs quickly told me fuck you not today. So I used the foam roller and did light sets of deadlifts with my hex bar. Getting home after that I set myself into a nice hot bath. By Saturday afternoon my legs felt way better and I decided to hit the gym again and attempt my deadlift workout. After not deadlifting for two weeks I actually felt confident I could crush this workout. Legs were sore but not enough to say stop and as the deadlift workout progressed I knew it was going to be good. My top set was programmed for 445 but it was easier to just throw on 25's and make it 455 for this one. Went against my own advice for this one and did a AMRAP set leaving 1 rep in the tank. Managed to crank out 7 reps which drives up my estimated 1RM!  
This week coming up is sets of 3, time to turn the heat up a little. Some feedback on the RTS training app. Every morning I strap my heart rate monitor on and do the orthostatic heart rate test and enter the results. During week 3 it was telling me to cut back my training load and my body was telling me the same thing, which I found very interesting. This heart rate test is a valid way to help track your training along with entering your training loads. Overall very pleased with this tool and will keep using it moving forward. 
BE the example gym rats!!