So, the workout update ...

Monday was a planned active rest day. I opted for a run on the beach, finishing with 8 tabata stair sprint intervals. Good enough.

Tuesday was supposed to be deadlift day. HEAVY deadlift day. As in, I was planning to go for my 1 rep max at least once during the workout. Unfortunately I'm at that point in my cycle when I could tell that that would be a potentially unsafe thing for me to do. So, I ended up just teaching my spinning class (it was a tough one, though, with some high-intensity intervals as well as endurance work) and doing some core work. It was really the core work that convinced me not to go forward with my workout as planned. My low back was feeling tender enough that it was screwing with my proprioception and ability to stabilize my spine and really get my core muscles to fire.

This morning, though, I went forward with a modified version of the workout. I still used "waves" but instead of using a rep scheme of 6/1/6/1/10 I opted for 10/8/4/10/8. The point of the very low rep set in the middle is that it tricks your body into allowing you to use heavier weight on your last two sets--ideally, for your second set of 10 you'd use the weight you used for your first set of 8, and for your second set of 8 you'd use the weight you used for your set of 4.

Even though I wasn't going crazy with the low reps you'll see that I still was VERY conservative in the weights I selected:

superset: sumo deadlift, 1x10x105; 1x8x115; 1x4x125; 1x10x115; 1x8x125; air squats, 1x10xBW; 1x8x10;1x 4x10; 1x10x10; 1x8x20

superset: RDL, 1x10x85; 1x8x95, 1x4x105; 1x10x95; 1x8x105; DB Bulgarian ss, 1x10x10; 1x8x12; 1x4x15; 1x10x12; 1x8x15

superset: snatch grip deads (super light here, to be sure I was really engaging my lower traps): 1x10x65, 1x8x70; 1x4x75, 1x10x70; 1x8x75; 1-leg squats, bodyweight only, but the depth of the squat varied, 10, 8, 4, 10, 8

metabolic thing: KB swings, 30 seconds work, 15 sec. rest 6x using 14 kg

Later, ballet!