12/13/2021 stream-of-consciousness time:
Just returned from a pretty cool family vacation. One day each at 3 awesome theme parks. Eating mostly garbage, on our feet walking all day, dealing with the kids and nothing else, spending money like it’s water, and one great workout Saturday. No gym trips Friday and Monday (this) morning, of course.
I did manage to consume good amounts of meat each night for dinner, but the all-day nutrition at a theme park sucks LOL! Some people live like this!
I’m WAY behind on work - needed this break from my day job, but I still have 2 or 3 side jobs at the moment and I’ll hop on those after this.
I promised a break from the barbell in January but I still am determined to hit my squat and deadlift goals (Squat should be there in 6 more weeks of traning, deadlift probably 12-16 weeks away.)
That being said my new gym schedule will probably involve Tues-Thursday AT MOST in the gym, the rest at home, and 3-5 TOTAL training days per week.
Since I’ve almost exclusively used the Barbell except for some recent dumbbell fun, I made a list of sensible (to me) exercises without the bar:
Now that’s not necessary for a 2-week sabbatical from the barbell, but thinking about a long-term change I think it’s helpful to open up my options.
In the short term I think the sandbag work is the most directly supportive of my deadlift, though it’s a fraction of the weight it should “make the barbell feel like a toothpick” and that’s what I need!
But the squat… there’s no getting away from it, so after the sabbatical there will be at least one squat-at-gym day per week for a while.
Outstanding lists. If you’re open to suggestion, I wouldn’t rule out the prisoner squat (bodyweight squat with your hands behind your head) as a solid choice, and if pull ups are an option, perhaps burpee pull ups as well. If you can jump OVER an object, burpee over object has been big for me.
For dumbbells, the Devil Press and the thruster are also solid choices for really getting the heart going.
I also want to comment that you told our resident overthinker to always do the opposite of what he thinks is a good idea, and when I did that, I got called an a-hole, so he must like you, haha.
If I were still chasing a squat goal and training 2 days in the gym. I would still leave squat on both days. You can have a squat / bench day and a deadlift / overhead day and still squat on the second day. Just start the session with 3 sets of squats and then get the other work done.
@T3hPwnisher absolutely open to suggestions, especially from you, thanks for those.
And since you’ve been paying attention to that fella, you’ll notice that since the… incident… he has been told everything you said many more times, and eventually showed that he accepted it. To the point of even disparaging the cool whip breakfast. I was honestly wondering if we could lead him to admit he had been too sensitive and apologize, but I think that’s too much to expect lol.
Idk what direction that shit is going now, can’t care either.
@simo74 thanks! Squats, deadlifts, and bench (if heavy) are gym-only for me with my current setup, so what you proposed makes total sense for 2xweek long term.
Here’s 3 reps of me shouldering my sandbag. It’s an existential struggle to get it up and I welcome any technique tips.
I see that the duct tape immediately began to rip making the bag looser. Unsure how I’m going to permanently solve that or if I should. @T3hPwnisher@simo74@boilerman@Koestrizer
I personally do it a bit different than you. I use a LOT more leg drive.
I’ll pick and lap it, load up my legs and explode up like a squat, shove hips through and use mostly leg drive and hips to get the sandbag up to/over my shoulder. Very little arms are used until my glutes/quads are fatigued.
For a pick and carry I will do it similarly to how you did it in the video. Also, I try to keep the bag as high as possible on my chest and keep my arms lower around the bottom of it, and lean back a bit.
Thanks @simo74@boilerman
Lol I tried leg drive just before the video: lapped it, and sank down to the floor - it was pretty funny! I know I have the strength to use my legs, so I guess I should practice that until I get the hang of it.
12/14/2021 Tuesday
10 total bag-to-shoulder. Done as 5 and 5 this morning with baby stuff in between. Must repair duct tape job before using this further - it’s falling open!
3x10 pullups. Sets performed across the day in my office.
That’s it. Squats tomorrow, haven’t decided what.
Speaking of burpees- An easy way to get daily work with probably zero impact to everything else is doing them in EMOM sets. 10x10 EMOM is good enough to get your heart going if you really try to go through each set as fast as possible and it only takes 10 minutes. Do them in the morning and then you get to do a short and effective conditioning workout everyday. Stick some pull-ups into them if you’re a badass.
12/15/2021, Wednesday
SQUAT
275x3 rep PR
185x22 rep PR Hell yeah. the approach to 275 was different - I’m just not scared of it any more. And getting 3 reps was hard due to breathing/bracing but not really due to muscle strength, it seemed.
Superset with several sets of 3 ab rollouts from knees.
Bench Press
225x2 attempt. Got the first rep solid, second rep had a bit of spotter help.
185x3
185x5 Had the honor of seeing a huge old dude built like a wine cask bench 315 for reps. Jeez.
Superset with DB C&P. Worked up to 90lb for a single on each side. Then some 1-arm cleans at 100lb. The cleans nearly crushed me, no way I was going to try to press them up.
Grabbed some empty barbell curls at the end. Lost count, somewhere around 40.
Good session. Bought a gallon of whole milk, pint of heavy whipping cream, 2 tubs of cottage cheese, and 2 boxes of pecans (sugar coated, sorry lol) and hopefully can eat most of that (maybe only 1 box of pecans) in addition to the large portion of chicken thighs I brought for lunch.
12/16/2021
Mile walk pre-dawn holding ~20lb baby
Repaired sandbag, it’s uglier now but seems more robust
6 bag-over-shoulder in just under 5 minutes. These haven’t gotten easier but I think they will make me big and strong.
Have been experiencing some weird sensations in my left pec, posted about it in Injuries and Rehab if anyone cares to comment. It’s like an elf drumming his fingers on the inside of my pectoral muscle (Hopefully the pec and not my heart LOL)
And I think I felt it in my right spinal erector a couple days after Deadlifting last week which has me less worried about my heart, but still… it’s weird.
