Hope you’re still training and just haven’t had time to post…
Appreciate you keeping me accountable man - it’s been hard, but I’m managing 1 or 2 workouts a week. I feel bad about that, like it’s not worth anybody’s time for me to post those.
I’m really glad you dropped me a line, actually the whole band is supposedly going to try and join me on a modified “v-diet” for a few weeks. We’re going to go on a 1 solid meal per day plan, cycling 4 days on and on the fifth day the guys can eat what they want. I’ll cheat less often than that. Basically I’m challenging them to eat better, we’ll see how it goes.
And if you want, even though they’re sparse and aren’t following a progression right now I can still try and post every workout.
Thanks again skid, good to know I’m missed.
Please do, if it’s convenient for you.
Even non-progression is fine if it’s part of a plan. I’m interested in seeing how someone maintains their level of fitness too. My own process has been to train to a certain level and then either completely abandon it (in one case for 15 years) or get injured and have to build back up. I need some pointers on how to keep what I’ve gained when I choose not to progress.
Nice to hear that you’re having a positive effect on the other members of your band.
Are you finding that training is helping withstand the rigors of the road better?
Training is the one thing that keeps me sane mentally, physically it depends on the day. Some days are challenging enough with loading in and out of venues that I’m exhausted, others I have little to no NEPA - the biggest challenge I have is nutrition for sure, followed very closely by sleep. I just can’t bring myself to train on less than 4 hours of sleep.
Tonight I had a nice workout with a set of adjustable dumbells in the hotel lobby.
The goal was an upper-body workout tonight, and then I’ll do some lower-body work early tomorrow.
Dumbell Row- - - - - - - - 50lbs 3X12
Crunches - - - - - - - - - 3X25
Pronating Rear-Delt Fly- - 20lbs 3X8
Pushup - - - - - - - - - - 1X16, 2X12
High Pull- - - - - - - - - 50lbs 3X8
Bench Press- - - - - - - - 50lbs 3X12
Curls- - - - - - - - - - - 35lbs 2X8
Hammer-Curls - - - - - - - 35lbs 2X8
Overhead Tricep extension- 15lbs 2X12
Pretty simple workout - did the crunches with my feet high up on the wall to isolate the upper abs. That rear-delt fly was the “exercise of the week” in last weeks newsletter. Everything else was standard. I still used big pushes and pulls, but did my first isolation work in a long time with the bicep curls.
I had a good opportunity for a workout today. The whole “working legs early” didn’t happen but I was able to do it tonight the worked looked like this
Back Squat - 135lbs 2X12
225lbs 3X8
Reverse Hamstring 4X8
Inverted situp 4X20
I also mixed in 2 sets of wide grip pullups and some deadlifts at the beginning of the workout just to warm up.
I tried 1 set of calf raises too, but my back just wasn’t havin it after the squats.
I do have some limitations now that I didn’t have a year ago. It seems my posterior chain can only handle so much - I used to feel like I could load my spine forever, I don’t feel that way anymore.
Nice job on the squats.
Thanks.
Okay this is actually from yesterday, but it was about 3am when I got in and I didn’t post.
chest/back
benchpress
warm up with empty bar
135lbs 2X12
225lbs 2X6
245lbs 1X4
wide pullups
3X4
dumbell butterflys
50lbs 2X8
60lbs 1X6, 1X4
Hammerstrength Chinups
90lbs 1X14
180lbs 1X8
230lbs 1X8
That’s all I really had time for, I was stoked to have gym access this week - I think I’ll have it again from saturday thru tuesday. Stay tuned, thanks for reading.
K. Gotta stop reading your log now because you just out-benched me…
Cool that you get some gym time. Make the most of it.
I got to train legs again on Saturday, but I didn’t get to post until now.
Looked like this:
Back Squat
135lbs - 2X12
225lbs - 2X8
275lbs - 1X6
Reverse Hamstring Curl
4X6
Deadlift
315lbs - 2X1
Single leg squats to failure with each leg.
(at this point I was holding on to a weight rack and it took less than 6 reps per leg to fail, but I honestly don’t remember the exact numbers)
Tabata dumbell swings
I used a 40 pound dumbell for the first two minutes, and after I almost blacked out I switched to a 30 pounder.
I’m still trying to train hard, but mentally I know I’m in a bad place - I’m still trying to get myself re-focused, thanks everyone for continuing to read. and thanks skid for continuing to post.
Keep going man, everyone goes through rough patches sometimes, but I guarantee you’ll usually feel better after you’ve worked out.
I think that whatever is going on in my life that lifting/training is the one constant thing that I can count on…just me and the weights. When I feel great then training is just great and when I’m going through shit, training lets me focus all my negative stuff and take it out on the weights!
Do whatever you can manage to fit in to your lifestyle right now, things can (and usually do) change in the future.
On that note, do you know how long you’re going to be on the road for?
In your situation, the most important thing is probably just to get something done on the training front each day or every other day and put any quick progression on the back burner. You don’t control your training environment.
As you’ve likely discovered, the trick is to pick movements that can be done with minimal or no equipment or with equipment that can be brought with you.
A ton of stuff can be done with a combination of Jumpstretch bands and a single kettlebell…
Spent the weekend between Tybee Island in Georgia and Hilton Head in South Carolina…that was fairly debaucherous. I’ll have gym access again this week - look for some detailed reports in the coming days.
This is my first time in front of a computer since Monday. On Tuesday I made it to the gym. Looked like this:
Pullups Wide Grip
2X6
1X4
Cable pulldowns
170lbs
2X8
Hammer-strength Unilateral Military Press
45lbs
1X14
70lbs
1X12
90lbs
1X12
115lbs
1X8
Narrow Grip Cable Pull-Downs
170lbs
4X8
Lying Cable Pullover
70lbs
1X4
50lbs
1X8
65lbs
2X6
Delt Tri-Set (yeah I stole it off the T-Nation front page)
20lbs
2X8 - Front Raises
2X8 - Lateral Raises
2X12 - Dumbell Overhead Press
15lbs
1X8 - Front Raises
1X8 - Lateral Raises
1X12 - Dumbell Overhead Press
Tuesday Night and Wednesday I was out with chills and a fever. Thursday and today have been travel days and I’m snotting everywhere. I opted for the hammer strength machine over my usual standing military press because my back’s been acting up lately.
It’s good to be me :0)
Thanks for reading.
Many days have passed with no news…
Yeah, many days have passed you’re right - I’ve been having back pain but pushing through it - no gym access and a crazy schedule. Many elements have conspired against me but I’ve got a week off. I’m going home for a week and I’m going to train twice a day.
I haven’t given up, but I had about a week and a half where I couldn’t train at all - I’m glad you haven’t given up either. This week will be great - I’m going to do two-a-days and I’ll keep good notes, should be interesting to see how I cope. Monday, I’ll probably only get one workout in at most - I won’t get home till late, but beyond that I’m excited. I hope you’ll read up.
thanks
Glad to see you back. I hope your back recovers quickly!
I never answered your question about jumps. I’m not an expert on jump scores, but for a general population I think that 8 ft is a pretty decent broad jump.
To give you an idea, the top scores in the NFL Combine are just over 11 ft. Lots of the guys jump over 9 ft. Of course, comparing your numbers to NFL prospects might not make much sense.
For vert, I think 30 inches is something to shoot for. I think that is damn good. Of course, people who lift tend to have good verts, so you might find that 30 in is not considered great around here. The 40-inch level is pro athlete territory.
You may want to take all those numbers with a grain of salt though. For testing your own progress all that matters is if you can jump more than last time.
You can find some standards here: Complete Guide to Fitness Testing
the gym at home is a bust - I think it finally went bankrupt but…
new article on the home page
thank you for my holy grail scott abel
2 50-70 lb kettlebells and a full set of jumpstretch or ironwoody bands and you’ve got a workout you can do anywhere in minimal space for months before new equipment is needed. Easily transportable.
Hey guys,
I don’t have time to do a full write up tonight - I’m looking at about 4 - 5 hours of sleep as it is. But things are good again, we had a rough stretch for about a month of tour and I did some damage to my conditioning, but I’ve got a new plan and I’m not alone this time. Another member of the band is “tired of being a fatass” and we working together. (He trained with me last summer and lost 40lbs, he’s since put 30 back on) so we’re going after it hard. We’ve had some tremendous workouts already.
New plan - I’m anxious to share it and some other ideas with you. Don’t look for posts every day - that helped derail me before - it takes too long and I don’t sleep enough, but I will be giving you some detailed posts very soon.
I’ve gotten the suggestions for band and kettlebells - and I know that it would work. I’ll not debate that, it’s just that I haven’t been able to acquire those items yet. I know that sounds crazy, but first off - I will simly not be allowed to add 100lbs to the trailer, so the bells are out. The bands I NEED to get, I just haven’t yet - no good excuse - I just haven’t. But I will :0) and I hope to put them to good use.
thanks for sticking with the thread, and for continuing to read.
I don’t remember if I mentioned Never Gymless by Ross Enamait.
You can buy the book off his www.rosstraining.com site.
Should keep you and your buddy going for a while.