12/20/2024 Friday
It’s been a bad couple days at work, and things at my side job are going sideways at the same time.
Today’s session was ruined and I’d have been better off staying home, because psychologically I couldn’t set it all aside and just be alone with the barbell.
I get up at 0430 in the fucking morning so I can do this shit before work, before shit hits the fan.
I don’t sleep enough as it is.
I started with Clean and Jerk, got up to 135 and as I rack the bar and everything goes dark for a sec - which it shouldn’t even DO at this light of a weight - I realize that, as it goes dark, I’m rehearsing my talk to the crew for later today.
(I don’t typically deal with crew - this is a corrective action that I’m dreading.)
I go ahead and jerk it but my feet barely even split. No worries, this is light weight, but it’s so obvious that I’m just “not there”.
I knocked out a few reps at 135, didn’t even try to go up from there, then did squats:
5x135, 185, 235
And called it a freaking day in frustration.
Now I’m at the office super early so I can give all my freaking bandwidth to my day job.
I didn’t even log about this but something happened last week, it was minor really, but it highlighted the way my day job is creeping in to family time. It disappointed my oldest son and it SUCKED.
I can’t like this post because of this. I hope that everything improves for you! If it doesn’t - I’m a firm believer in family first, there will always be another job. Hang in there!!
High bar back squat with a quad focus, forward knees:
10x135
Strict press:
3x85
3x95
4x110 and failed an attempt at a 5th, it wasn’t even close.
Funny as I’ve said before how I just fall off a cliff with press. Press is like that though, I think, for a lot of people.
Also I’m bringing these reps way down onto my chest, I can’t seem to do that thing where the reps land in the front-rack position. I have no force generation with my elbows out in front of the bar, so to achieve liftoff I want vertical forearms and that means the bar sitting out on my pecs.
12/26/2024 Thursday
Snuck in a super quick session since I couldn’t do anything yesterday. Three sets of 10 BSS holding a 45 lb plate. 10 reps of 95 lb snatches pausing at the knee. That’s it, in and out. The BSS were important to me because my ass was so incredibly sore from just two sets on monday, this is too important for me to keep skipping.
12/27/2024 Friday
Warmed up with snatches
Then moved on to full cleans
Worked up to 175lb for a few reps.
As always my nature is not at all to drop down and catch them, but in defiance of my nature I would catch and then force myself to drop all the way to the bottom - power-clean-and-front-squat I guess.
Whatever. I put in a lot of work, whatever it was.
Clean and jerk: A few reps at 135lb. Not the main course today.
Clean (hook) grip deadlift.
Worked up to 315 for a couple singles. Amazing how a) much strength I’ve lost and b) how much a difference the grip makes. 315 was pretty maximal but limited by the pain of the hook grip on my thumbs.
12/30/2024 Monday
Bottoms-up Front Squat 5/3/1 week:
5x125
3x145
5x165 and DAMN that was a tough set.
Next week’s assignment is to attempt a PR single in the bottoms up. That’ll be fun.
Front squat:
10x135
Back squat with a high bar and quad focus:
10x135
Press:
5x90
3x105
4x115.
3x8x65.
Coach told me to keep my hands farther apart but on strict press, I have no lift-off strength that way. So for the top set I put them closer in and got a better lift than last week.
BSS:
Used an empty bar in front rack position.
3x10 each side with 45lb. Miserable as always.
Effing around:
A set of leg curls, because I keep feeling this cramp in the back of my knee during squats.
Bench press the empty bar just to remember how it feels, haha.
Pullovers (I think I’m doing them wrong).
1/2/2025 Thursday
Holiday update: I hate new years celebrations, because I don’t like fireworks. I don’t like the disruption to sleep, family routines, and especially what they do to my dog and countless other dogs.
We survived the night, unlike a couple unlucky folks a few miles up the highway from me (it’s on the news).
Anyway: 1/1 we did a “hike”, it’s paved and short, about a mile up and a mile back, but a decent hill climb nonetheless, and I had the 40lb toddler on my shoulders nearly 100% of the time. Good training.
1/2 thursday morning, making up for a missed Wednesday gym session:
Snatches:
Worked up to 115lb, then:
20 rounds, every 30 seconds, snatch 115lb.
This was a good strenuous pace. Dropping into a full OH squat each rep of course.
BSS:
3x5x65lb.
Concept 2 Rower:
3 rounds of 60 seconds max intensity, 30 seconds of just keeping the machine on.
I realized, while thinking about cardio, that the motion of a concept 2 rower isn’t unlike the motion of a snatch or clean. So it seems like a useful cardio effort.
Pics to follow of the hike and maybe my new-years-transformation pic. I’m pretty ashamed of how my midsection has inflated.
1/3/2025 Friday @BrandonCrawford I didn’t bother with full cleans and stuck with powers today. I didn’t go any heavier than I usually do but it felt a LOT better and way less taxing. This may be a game-changing concept. The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results, and its been a year and a half.
(Power) Cleans, then clean-and-jerk. Worked up to 165 for a few reps. Backed off and did some reps at 155, didn’t count them.
Then 6 reps (2x3) of push press 135lb.
Then some BTN push press, 6x95 and 6x115.
1/6/2024 Monday
Weekend update:
Spent the majority of Saturday and Sunday at the beach.
Didn’t bother taking photos but both places were postcard-worthy of course
Saturday’s session was pretty lazy, a lot of sitting and a little slow snorkeling. but Sundays session - there were 5 adults and 10 kids total - I was in the water boogieboarding with the kids most of the time, and the only adult to get in the water.
So a good active day. Loads of fun.
Training today:
PR week for the 5/3/1 bottoms-up front squat and the strict press.
BUFS doubles at 135, 155, went for a PR at 175. Now remember that I got 165 for 5 last week so this should have been quite doable.
Got 1 rep at 175 and failed the second rep.
That’s disappointing and so typical for me to just hit a ceiling.
And hell, I’ve front-squatted 225 before. WTF.
Press:
Worked up in doubles, all the way to a double at 125. That was maximal but I’m not disappointed by that.
Backoffs: Press 2x5 or 6 at 95lb, which felt way heavier than it should have, and Front squat, 10x135, and back squat with an upright torso focus, 10x135.
Then BSS, 3x6 per side at 65lbs. And these are SOOO hard as always haha.
The weights I lift aren’t heavy but I can tell you they are skull-busting sessions for me.
I somewhat facetiously used the term “non-responder” recently but for real - what my body responds well to is low intensity volume in general; and calisthenics type stuff in particular.
For example the best I’ve probably ever felt training was Spartan race prep, where I’d run a mile, then do 20 rounds of EMOM pushups, burpees, and pullups, and straight back to another mile run.
I’m not quitting on what I’m doing, just becoming aware of what makes me miserable vs feel good. And conscious that I only have so much time for training in my life, and better be using it for my overall benefit.
Are you me lol? I literally just wrote something very similar in my log. I think we both have the same root issue; trying to determine which kind of goals to chase - the concrete performance based ones like hitting PRs or the esoteric feelings based ones like being satisfied with how we look or feel.
Forgot to log this morning.
Squat doubles up to 225 and felt like my back and knees were made of glass. Maybe just because that’s the first movement I did and it was 5am. IDK. Hated it anyway.
Power snatches, up to 135 and did 4 or 5 of those. Wasn’t counting or tracking.
Fooled with DBs for a few minutes, nothing noteworthy.
Then a few rounds on the Concept 2 rower.
