See, I’ve never liked training shortly after getting up. I want good two to three hours at least. Not just to get some food into me, but to loosen up.
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I feel the same about lifting. Rack pulls the other week I coped with because it was light, repetitive and mindless but actually engaging my brain or doing complicated movements is a nono.
I can work all day and train, no problems. Train an hour after waking? Get fucked.
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Don’t forget about your spine. Your discs absorb fluid when you sleep and they’re full and stiff when you get up. You’re at an increased risk of injury on movements that load the spine.
I can actually feel this in the morning. My spine actually hurts in places when I run my warm up lap (if I do that warm up). Squats feel like hell and I need a belt for every set. I can do the exact same workout later in the day with none of those issues.
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Man I was way behind here.
Fill me in, are things good where you’re at.
Thanks for checking in man.
Things are ok where I am, no fireworks, a few minor road bumps, Illnesses, life pressures etc. Still doing my ADHD program (for 2 more sessions), with only very slight modifications on weight where needed.
Plan is to finish these two sessions, squeeze in whatever I can over Christmas, including a fake meet to test maxes (roll on 1-2-3-4), then hit January with 6 months of serious hypertrophy work. 6 weeks of mass made simple, 10 weeks of high volume training, 6 weeks of not too heavily modified Deep Water.
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Great to hear that man, sounds like a great plan all year sorted out, gonna be interesting to see if you can pull that one off.
I’m especially looking forward to Deep Water it looks brutal.
Deep Water is going to depend on scheduling as to how much I modify it. I’m hoping to just modify the schedule slightly to get the work done, it is only for 6 weeks.
And yeah, I’m quite looking forward to seeing what happens. I’ve never really had a concerted push for mass for any length of time, so it will be interesting to see how 6 months of it treats me. Probably doesn’t fit well with the goals of the Transformation challenge though.
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I done told you we were supposed to be getting fat now and skinny later. Now you got it all bassackwards 
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I’m planning to go about this a little different. Fat now, fatter later
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haha Dagill, you doesn’t have to get fat, eat smart and train smart.
Will you do a certain program for 6 month?
Eating smart sounds like no fun.
I’ll do 6 weeks mass made simple, 10 weeks my own high volume hybrid, 6 weeks as close to Deep Water as I can. Then switch lifting to park bench stuff and slowly ramp up conditioning.
Work for today:
Bench: 8 x 3 @ 80kg ss. Some back work
Cable flies: some
Seated Press: 8 x 3 @ 50kg ss. Some back work
Overhead triceps extensions: also some.
Squat: worked up to 95kg x 5
Then: 6 x 8 @ 70kg
Notes:
- Forgot I haven’t moved my training plan/log into my new phone yet, and with no internet access in the gym, I had to make the session up from memory. Think I did ok.
- Felt pretty tired going in to this. Nothing actually wrong with me, just being a bit of a vagina. As such, all the weights felt slightly heavier than expected.
- Between sets of pressing, I did some back work of some description. I was pretty much dodging a big black guy that was doing the weirdest circuit style training I’ve ever seen, and an Indian guy doing the same kind of thing but on different equipment. Between them they somehow used about 15 different bits of equipment so back work was “whatever doesn’t look like it will be used anytime soon”.
- One more session before Christmas and no more programming ADD challenge, genuinely excited to move on, although I was hoping for some “free” sessions to do whatever I want with before I start back.
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Work for today:
Power clean and press: 5 x 5 @ 60kg
Deadlift: 3 x 1 @ 142.5kg
Seated Press: worked up to 57.5kg x 6
Then: 2 rounds of:
- 50kg to fail
- 40kg to fail
- 30kg to fail
- 20kg to fail
- 2.5kg y-raise to fail
- 1.25kg y-raise to fail.
Wendler rows: 3 x 20
Cable rows: a boatload
Cable chest decline fly: a boatload
Walking lunges: 5 x 10 @ 25kg
Notes:
- I’m done with this program, at last. I think it’s been fairly effective, it’s certainly taught me a few lessons on what not to do. I guess we’ll find out come mock meet day (probably 30th)
- I will probably never program a power clean and press again. Certainly not for a while. I did a couple of the presses strict, just to make sure I can still do that standing.
- Deadlift wasn’t quite as easy as I’d expected, but it is the heaviest I’ve lifted in over a year so I’ll take it. Was planning to do the 3 singles as 1 set, but lower back and legs are still feeling pretty tender from Sunday so I decided to be sensible.
- Press PR (the cheat way, I’ve never done a PR set at this weight before)
- Definitely didn’t decide to be sensible on press drop sets. Absolutely fried my shoulders here. Nearly had the bar come down on my head several times.
- Everything else felt pretty good. Getting the hang of focussing on muscles, not movements on the isolation work. Almost starting to like it.
- Probably last session before Christmas now. Might also be a little absent on here, depending how busy this gets.
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I have my fat/skinny timing all screwed up too. This year I competed in mid March. I was DONE dieting just as my wife and the rest of the world decided it’s time to get ready for summer swim suit season. So I ate what I wanted until I felt it was time to get lean again and started trimming up in November. Hopefully this time I’ll just stay lean until June and then enjoy my summer and then enjoy food and hoodies next fall.
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You do “fluffy” a little differently from the rest of us though.
For me personally, I actually haven’t got a good reason for why I allow myself to stay fat. I’ve just typed out a few and yet none of them ring 100% true to me. Something for me to think about.
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I find comfort in routine so meal prep rings true with me. And there’s a bit of an addictive personality soothing thing to trying to make the scale go down. Think that’s why I struggle to put on size. I like to see the scale go up but then there’s the negative emotional reaction to seeing the body fat go up as well. Just gonna keep plugging away.
If I’m honest, I’m unclear on what end goal will bring me happiness, which makes it tricky to aim for. I know that the process brings me joy in some areas, but I’m still very fuzzy on what my “end goal” is.
Hey man… that’s not a bad thing as long as the process brings you joy. Being present in the present is a good goal in and of itself
I agree to a point. The main way lifting is going to impact my life is health, both mental and physical. And I already tick both of those boxes, as much as I’m ever going to, just by showing up. I think it would benefit me to have a specific goal to head towards and achieve but I have a hard time finding one that really lights a fire under me.