Thanks @anna_5588 and @boilerman how’s life with toy both? Anna put on some weight and broke some records yet? Boikerman still eating copious amounts of meat and training like a beast?
life is pretty good. I’m doing a research programme right now and freaking out over admissions stuff. Going to die next semester
yeah… unfortunately it’s not muscle. I’m damn near 49kg now, not exactly pleased
not really. Hit 100kg on squat and narrowly missed 135kg on deadlift the last time I tested. Let’s not talk about bench
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Welcome back!
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Good to see you back posting mate.
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Haha yep, same as always dude
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Won’t get in to the usual back and forth in this, but are you stronger? Yes, how much weight have you gained? Not a significant amount. Do your pictures look the same? Nigh on but you look a bit healthier is all. That’s 100% winning right there.
Thanks for the welcome backs @simo74 @ChickenLittle you both doing well? I’ll try and catch up on logs at some point!
@boilerman glad to hear it, your journal was always inspiring!
Did something about an hour ago, calmed down, ate, showered, laid down in the buff (tmi I know) still sweating, good to be back:
Conditioning:
6:Burpees into wgpu (separating jump and start of pull-ups to ensure no cheating)
10,1, 9,2, 8,3, 7,4, 6,5
10 mins exactly did what it needed to.
GS:
kB swings: 24kg X 5 X 4 sets
Deficit banded DLs: 60, 80, 100, 120kg (plus red bands) X 3
Banded crunches: 8 X 4 sets
6c Burpees: 5 X 4 sets
All done and dusted 30 mins. It’s basically half/two thirds of a dark horse session which time wise works for me right now, I’ll hopefully get full sessions in, still my favourite programme so default back to it.
Weak as a kitten, but we all know who’s fault that is … My parents, it’s obviously genetic and nothing to do with not training properly for about a year. Eating is going well so far but lost my stomach capacity, so fairly uncomfortable a lot these last couple of days.
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are you still doing Dark horse?
Working back towards it if time allows, yes, it’s very efficient so I’d hope I can squeeze most of it in.
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Today:
Conditioning:
Floor to overhead, Burpees over bar X 2, started at 3 cycles per min, dropped to 2 after 2 rounds - 40kg X 10 rounds, 10 mins.
Shouldn’t have been as hard as it was, sweating and blowing by the end of this.
GS:
Weighted chin up: 5kg X 5 X 5 sets
Ohp: 40, 45, 50, 55, 60kg X 1
Ab roll: 5 X 5 sets
Kb swings: 24kg X 5 X 5 sets
Short(ish), sharp(ish), pleased to have ticked off another session, also pleased with my food, intake is good quality is good, small steps in the right direction, now to be consistent.
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I’ll quote this just to give reference to which post initiated this reply.
Dark Horse stuff is awesome… if you can pull it off. You’re smart enough to know we only have a certain amount of fuel each day (physical and mental). I hate seeing guys go all or nothing on here. They either post and train regularly or they stop both. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Someone asked CT about his warm-ups and his response was surprising and awesome. He doesn’t do much - whatever he needs for that day. He highlighted the focus aspect. Many of us lose focus/motivation after a certain amount of time in the gym. I start to fade around the 40 minute mark. So if I spend 20 minutes warming up, my workout is going to become a struggle after 20 minutes. Could I train longer? Yes. Would I enjoy it? No. Do I need to enjoy my training? Yes, at least a little.
As usual, long post to say this: adjust your training according to life’s demands. Life kicking you in the rear? Go train for 20 minutes doing whatever you want several times a day. Just hang on.
Dark Horse (style) is a lot to bite off if you’re under pressure. The workouts can suck leading to a feeling of loathing towards training. Combine that feeling with being pressed for time (even if it’s just mental stress), and it’s a recipe for skipping workouts.
Consider this scenario: you’re slammed all day with various demands, but you’ll have time to train after dinner. Well, you didn’t sleep well enough (or long enough) the night before so now you’re dragging. Would you rather go do a Dark Horse workout for 60-90 minutes or go blow up your chest with a bro style workout that takes 25 minutes?
This may not apply to you. We’re all wired differently. But in my current state with very little stress, I would still rather do option two. It’s just where my mental state is these days.
If you quit training altogether, then I assume you’re dealing with a lot. Taking small steps is a great way to get back into things on a regular basis. You don’t have to conquer the world on day one.
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Hey J, thanks for the post, appreciate that, I’ll definitely keep that in mind, certainly looks like I have an all or nothing tendency, so you’re right something, even just 20 mins of “fun” stuff is better than quitting.
I’m not doing full DH right now, basically 50% of it; even today, which is the easiest of the 4 days, I didn’t do the second half, it’s my favourite style of training so it’s sort of motivating to do and although half of the half I am doing is conditioning that’s pretty important to me at present. Feels like the right place for me training wise - short & effective; hits strength and conditioning and whilst time and capacity are short I’m cutting out the hypertrophy focused elements and the strength skill practice section. Gives me scope for adding the other half in when capacity and time allow and if really pushed in a week I can cut to 3 sessions or cut the conditioning out of a day or two if I really need to keep it short
I won’t be beating myself up for missing days or trying to catch up like in the past and I’ll happily take one of those ultra quick pump days if I think it’s needed, so thanks for planting those seeds!
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Was a struggle mentally to get in today, but took my 9 year old out with me and just got on with it (my son only wants to do chin ups, because he’s good at them, got about 8 dips out of him as well but he wasn’t keen and just want him to have fun out here for the time being)
Conditioning: nah
GS:
BB power clean: 60kg X 3 X 4 sets
Ssb: 60, 60, 80, 100, 120 kg X 5
Ab rolls: 5 X 4 sets
6c Burpees & wgpu: 5 X 4 sets
And just because I wanted to:
Alt DB curls drop into alt hammer curls
10kg X 10/8 X 3 sets
S/s dips x 10 X 3 sets
1 week of training done inside a week, it’s not been easy (physically not overly difficult although I’m wringing with sweat, so not too slack) as long as I can build consistency the speed and weight can improve slightly more gradually.
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Good to see you back man.
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Thanks dude, I’m less active in the forums but I’m here and trying to catch up, and just fine to keep plugging at this lifting stuff!
How’s life with you?
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I’m pretty good mate. I’d say i can’t complain, but i’m British so we all know thats a lie.
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@alex_uk glad to see you back logging. Hope life is good. I seem to recall you and i both tend to get buried under multiple jobs + non-job responsibilities. We weigh the same now!
And @Frank_C are you logging? I can’t find yours. But was thinking about you recently. Hope you’re well and found a way to ease the stress you’d been under.
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I’m not really logging workouts but I’m checking in now and then.
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Yup this happened again, some fairly big obstacles in work and life in general, won’t get in to that here, not because I’m trying to hide stuff (I know Tnations a supportive community) but I don’t want to make excuses. Something that’s really been hitting home for me at the moment is (and I’ll paraphrase pwn badly here) your actions demonstrate your priorities - and my actions haven’t demonstrated lifting as a priority, and that’s fine, but honestly I noticed am impact in mental health (one of the obstacles that I wasn’t going to discuss here) so that’s got to change. The other priority my life hasn’t demonstrated with action is my faith, which I wholeheartedly believe should be my number one priority in life - Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come 1 Timothy 4:8 These things need to change (faith stuff has been and it’s been amazing) anyway that was more than I intended to write about that.
I wasn’t going to log again until I had a decent amount of sessions to log, but turns out I’m already forgetting what I did 2 days later so best start up again and just demonstrate my priorities…
First day:
Bench: 60, 70, 80, 90kg X 5, 70kg X 12, 10, 6
Wgpu/dips: 5/5x 5
Today:
Squats: 60, 80, 100, 120kg X 3, 90kg X 2, 60kg X 12 X 2
Chins/dips: 8/8 X 4
I had a very debilitating back injury a few weeks ago, couldn’t stand at all, couldn’t sit, lying down only, had to crawl hands and knees each movement agony to the toilet, even doped up to the eyeballs. I’d like to say that these weights represent caution, and they probably do very slightly, but really they represent significant decline.
Came across this photo in my gallery looking for something entirely different but was a shock how far I’ve declined:
Easing back in for a week or two make sure the backs good and build some basic work capacity. No idea about weight, don’t care for the minute, baby steps at this point, build consistency, add to it.
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Glad to see you’re back!!
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Whoa. So glad you’re back, so sorry for the debilitating injury!
Also, that pic is pretty epic… dont know how far you’ve declined but if its a goal no doubt you can get there again.
Your cautionary/weak weights are still as bood or better than me on my best day so theres that too!
Welcome back.
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