Alex_uk: 40 years in the making

Training Training Logs
3973

25/11/24 - PM

45M W1 B1 D4

Strength
SSB front squat: 20, 60, 80, 100, 120kg x 5
S/s
Hollow rocks: 10 x 5 sets

Felt slow and achy coming in (got a cold and generally a bit run down) thought that might improve as I went along, it didn’t. Top set felt pretty crappy - I wasn’t even intending that to be my top set, was thinking I had one more but 120kg was it today. Still 20kg more than the first time I did this in 45M, can’t complain too much!

Volume
SSB front squat: 75kg X 5 x 10 EMOM

Breathing was a challenge then eventually legs started to feel it.

Finisher:
Lying db curl: 7.5, 10kg x 12, 12.5kg x 10, 10kg x 11, 7.5kg x 12
OH cable ext: 20, 30, 40kg x 12, 30kg x 15, 20kg x 16

Gross. Done.

7 Likes
3974

Pretty much all we do (this emergency placement included siblings that were slightly older/not babies), with our own kids still reasonably young we want to safeguard them, unfortunately some kids come into the system with horrific trauma and that comes out in ways that could be very damaging to those around them, babies still show trauma but they can’t do so in a way that poses any risk to our kids.

We’ve had a couple come at 3 months and be here for 12+ months as well. Very difficult to say goodbye, but so far on those longer occasions we still get to see them and know how well they’re being loved and cared for and that’s the best outcome for us.

Thanks, I bet that’s great and crazy as well, must also be pretty heartbreaking when they go!

I train in a fairly small garage, I am however an equipment fiend, which makes it easier, but if you ever wanted to throw some ideas around to set up any of his bigger programs let me know.

I’m still a couple years off yet myself!

5 Likes
3975

27/11/24 - PM

45M W1 B1 D5

Strength:
Inc BB bench: 20, 60, 70, 80, 90kg x 4, 100kg x 3
S/s
Hanging leg raises: 8 x 6 sets

Volume
70kg x 4 x 10 sets EMOM

Finisher:.
Lat pulldown: 40kg x 15, 80kg x 15, 100kg x 10, 80kg x 12, 60kg x 20
Floor press: 60kg x 15, 80kg x 10, 90kg x 8, 80kg x 10, 60kg x 15
BB row: 60kg x 15, 80kg x 10, 90kg x 8, 80kg x 10, 60kg x 15

Absolutely blowing after the finisher. Slightly disappointed with the top set on inc, but this was pretty much back to back with rest enough to change plates and sip water, plus I wasn’t sure where I’d be strength wise on inc, not trained it much and not for a long while, so did more build up sets to figure it out, definitely room to grow on this one. Hitting 120kg by the end of this run of 45m would be decent.

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Sweat turin is still there, even in November!

7 Likes
3976

28/11/24 - evening

45M W1 B1 D3 (out of sync)

Farmers: 60kg per hand - 65 ft, drop, turn pick 65 ft return x 10 EMOM

Wide grip pull-ups: 4
S/s
Hanging leg raises: 5
X 10 EMOM

Teddy bear squats: 50kg sandbag x 6 x 10 sets EMOM

Really had to force myself into this, dark, cold and wet, end of a long day, but the perfect opportunity because of the space at the station and this is my drill night. Just kept talking to myself, along the lines of: do today what others won’t so tomorrow you achieve what others can’t. Yes cheesy and it wasn’t that exactly phrasing - but just reminding myself of why I’m doing it, because, as per usual, I have very little motivation, but I want the results more than momentary comfort.

Today I achieved a lot of sweat…Tomorrow I might achieve DOMs.

Form was on my mind with pull-ups were nearly all dead hang until fatigue hit me then there was some stretch reflex and momentum. Farmers were solid, but hard blowing, teddy bears also focused on form again until fatigue and lung capacity had me widen stance and lower the bag, but before that I got a quad pump, and a slight hamstring/glute strain.

Solid session.

8 Likes
3977

Celebrating a win.

Over the last probably 6 months, my blood pressure has been up, I looked over my medical records and for as long my records go back my BP at the GPs has been 110/70 (clearly not suffering with white coat syndrome). I monitor it at home regularly since I’m on trt.

Anyway I’d thought initially it was work on stress (and that’s definitely a likely contributing factor, but that hasn’t particularly gone away so it’s definitely not the main factor), but also thought it might be related to higher end haematocrit, so started taking naringin, and to potentially counter high sodium I started taking potassium, fast forward a few weeks nothing changed.

Well I’d put up with this for too long and ignored some significant elephants in the room, because the elephants are some of my favourite vices

  • Coffee + caffeine, I could easily drink 10+ cups a day as well as energy drinks and I’d even got a pre workout with 300mg of caffeine. I’ve always drank similar levels and not had any impact on BP before in case anyone is wondering.

  • Nicotine - when caffeine no longer has an effect where do you turn? Nicotine obviously. (In my defence and I blame @Chris_Shugart for this 50 Hits of Nicotine)

  • And finally my diet, not the best in the world, not quite vending machine chicken samosas but way too many frozen pizzas, and sugar, and junk carbs…ok maybe it was worse than vending machine samosas.

Long story short I immediately took action against all 3 elephants (part of me wanted to do one thing at a time and figure out what’s the biggest cause, but the reality is changing all of my habits is just going to make me a healthier individual).

Diet is now pristine, everything is single ingredient and made by me, apart from protein shakes.

Coffee/caffeine has been maximum of 2 per day (I love coffee and I’m not intending to stop altogether - just enjoy it properly) and I’ve been taking this as a proper maximum that’s the limit not the prescription. In lieu of this I’ve been drinking decaf green tea, and I drink a ton of that, which should be a good thing, I’m also more hydrated, and drinking some more water as well.

No more habitual use of nicotine either!

Results:

Previous, recent reading:

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This morning:

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If anyone is wondering about the pulse I’m currently suffering with a touch of man flu/mild cold so I’m assuming that’s pushing me slightly higher, plus the first reading was likely done lying down in bed, this one sat upright.

11 Likes
3978

Congrats, man! This is great news.

Are you celebrating with a Black Friday T-bar row machine purchase?

2 Likes
3979

Seriously awesome!! You did the work and now you just gotta stay the course. Way to go!!!

1 Like
3980

Way to come up with a plan and (most importantly) execute dude! The results are all you.

1 Like
3981

02/12/24 - AM

45M W1 B2 D6

Strength
Banded deads red bands: 60, 100, 120, 140, 160kg x 5
S/s
Goal post sit-ups: 8 x 4 sets

Volume
Banded deads red bands: 100kg x 5 x 10 sets EMOM

Finisher:
Chin ups*: bw, 5, 10, 15, 10, 5kg, bw x 5
Dips: 10, 20, 30, 35, 30, 20, 10kg x 5

Absolute beast of a session, almost tapped out at 140, but thought I was being a pussy, I was. EMOM was disgusting, the glute pump was actually visible in my Turin:

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*Chin ups are done on the inner handles of this bar:

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Don’t like training early, don’t like doing deadlifts early, but no excuses, just work and blooming good work at that. As I crumbled to my knees during the brief rest of the EMOM, I contemplated quite how much I hate this, it’s irrelevant, but interesting, and I’m not loathing all of it, just the hard stuff where I sweat and get out of breath…

8 Likes
3982

Good stuff. These are the Brian Alsruhe masters program sessions right?

Edit: I see your writeup a week or so back. Keeping this in my back pocket. I like programs that are higher in frequency but have short sessions.

1 Like
3983

Thanks I’m really pleased to see the intervention worked so quickly…

(And no unfortunately not on the t-bar - if I had space it would already be on the way!)

This is definitely important, I have a habit of taking action in the short term, getting the results and then backing off, I’m getting to the age where I can’t get away with it anymore.

Yup, funny we usually know what the problem is, it’s rarely a lack of knowledge holding us back, execution is usually out downfall.

Speaking of which:

PWO I had 2 bananas and 50g of whey. Followed up shortly by this:

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(I’d already eaten one drumstick)

@decimation it’s worth noting I’m struggling with losing weight - as in I’m trying to gain and really struggling and actually losing a little bit, just eating single ingredient foods - and I’m probably eating somewhere near 200g of nuts/nut butter a day.

It’s fantastic for that, takes some focus to keep the times down but it’s great, I really gel with Brian’s programming and it takes most of thinking out of it for me (apart from my modifications this run through - we’ll see how successful that is).

8 Likes
3984

03/12/24 - PM

45M B1 W2 D7 (part 1)

Strength
Swiss or football (which has the slanted axle sized grips) press: 30, 40, 50, 60, 65kg x 3
S/s
Hanging leg raises: 8 x 5 sets

Volume
That bar, press: 55kg x 3 x 10 sets EMOM

Fin.

Got this done in 15 mins with the intention/hope to come back for the accessory work after a few meetings at work.

Joy about the above is no need to get changed, no sweating with low reps of OHP and freezing garage.

8 Likes
3985

06/12/24 - PM

Slightly inconsistent at the moment, need to be more disciplined in getting sessions in.

45M W1 B2 D9 (day 8 is owing)

Strength
SSB squat: 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 150kg x 3
S/s
Plate halos: 20kg x 8 x 5 sets

Volume:
SSB squat: 120kg x 3 x 10 sets EMOM

Finisher:
Lying db curl: 7.5, 10kg x 12, 12.5kg x 12, 10kg x 12, 7.5kg x 16
S/s
Seated OH cable ext: 40kg x 12 x 5 sets

Very narrow grip pull-ups: 8 x 3 sets

@TrainForPain - better be a quarter of an inch right here!

As mentioned above I’m slacking in getting sessions done, not massively but not hitting 4 per week regularly which is where I want to be. I was procrastinating before this session, clocked myself doing it and flipped to autopilot and just got dressed and did this.

Happy with the weights and the way they moved, I buried these squats, I probably should have filmed them, but I could feel hammies on calves, so definitely deep, kept stance close as well, so completely different to my regular squat, I have a tendency to widen the stance and revert to a similar pattern to my low bar wide squat when the weight gets heavy on SSB fought that today and still hit what I consider to be a respectable weight. Definitely room to grow on the SSB. Honestly thought it’s a movement that “scares” me, my head dislikes it, presumably because it’s constantly trying to fold you in half and it probably has more of a lower back impact, but keeping it upright and more like a front squat position wise, kept the lower back happy (despite it being pretty angry from my banded deads).

Took a phone call between 120 and 140 then another between 140 and 150, gave me longer rest than usual, but the warm up felt strong, so confident that wouldn’t have stopped me getting it today. Nearly stopped at 140, but again realised I was being a pussy and had to keep moving up.

Finisher torched my arms reps up on the curls, kept the tri work simple, got a pump, but shouldn’t impact bench session. Narrow grip pull-ups done with short breaks, trying them as a new movement, felt it where I wanted to which is a good start.

7 Likes
3986

Ha! Nope. Only curls count.

1 Like
3987

Gratuitous post-wo gun pump photo.

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I did some curls, they were Dr Mike approved ones as well!

11 Likes
3988

Well, nicely done sir. You look insane

2 Likes
3989

lookin swole!

2 Likes
3990

@TrainForPain @ajb5478 - shucks you guys are too kind! (Gotta love some pump and lighting).

09/12/24 - PM

45M W1 B2 D10

Strength
Swiss bar bench: 50, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110kg x 5
S/s
Russian twist: 10kg x 8 e/s x 6 sets

Volume
SBB: 70kg x 5 x 10 sets EMOM

Finisher:
Lat pulldown: 80kg x 15 x 4 sets
Floor press: 60kg x 8, 80kg x 8, 90kg x 8, 100kg x 8
BB row: 60kg x 8, 80kg x 8, 90kg x 8, 100kg x 8

Strength work was spot on, felt strong and fast, top set wasn’t hard but last 2 reps slowed enough to know there wasn’t much to be gained from trying 115kg, that bars awkward, as awkward as that joke you told to the in-laws the first time you met them that was followed by disapproving looks and silence…so yea not going to the absolute limit on these, because it feels like it could at any moment snap my wrist, rotate towards he very sharp square edge and drop lower than the safeties, impaling itself in my head. Apart from that I love this bar. Unique feeling, solid work.

Volume felt too light but that’s the RX and I really worked on feeling it iny pecs (because the strength work just felt like delts and tris).

Finisher, I didn’t back off, because I didn’t need to, keeping the pull-down at 80kg, I strapped myself for this and rows and really got a lot of stretch and ROM at the top of this, allowing my shoulders to “dislocate” as in come out of place and forward, made this super hard, last 2 sets felt like absolute limit, biceps were joining the party heavily by the end.

Floor press was a little sketchy, set the bar too high so always the risk that trying to rack I might miss…

Rows were strapped and cheatier than… something that cheats a lot, I dunno Lance Armstrong :man_shrugging: (reader insert own cheating benchmark - it was that level).

7 Likes
3991

Weight remains 210, not pushed hard, food generally looks like:

Breakfast: 6 eggs 1 or 2 avocados
Lunch: Rice, chicken, peas
If training - 2 bananas and 2 X 50g whey either side of training
If not training: 50g whey 100-150g nuts
Semi regular snack: 3-4 chicken drumsticks
Evening meal: a lot of chicken or beef and veg & potatoes/rice
Pudding: Greek yogurt and berries
Pre-bed: 100g+ of pb mixed with 50g chocolate micellar casein, cinnamon, raisins.

Edit to add: drink on average 6 cups of decaf green tea and 1-2 cups of regular black coffee, plus a couple of pints of water. (Not that this really matters to anything, but a drastic change to my 10+ cups of coffee with semi regular energy drinks thrown in for good measure).

No idea on calories and only just checked weight on PB out of curiosity last night (was 130g last night, so estimated it might average a bit lower), weighed my lunch chicken today that was 150g, so probably about that for the lunch and random chicken snack. Also probably the last time I’ll weight anything.

It’s a fair amount of food, but I don’t ever feel sick or unable to eat the next meal, so there’s scope to push harder on that but I’m not quite so driven to do so right now, body is clearly happy to hold 210 and since I’m thinking to cut next year, I’ll hold and “solidify”.

My thinking for the cut has shifted slightly, I’m feeling like I’m making progress strength wise, pretty much across the board and fairly happy with how I look, but having stalled on the weight gain for a couple of weeks now, and not particularly wanting to push the food up too much more, I might do a brief cut in Jan, 4 weeks, probably 6-8lbs, then 10-12 weeks of growing, probably 5-6lbs followed my another 4 weeks of cutting into the holiday. To be adjusted depending how I look at the end of the first cut, and how well I manage the fluff on the growth phase.

Is that a stupid plan? Am I trying to squeeze too much into too short a time frame, should I just slowly cut for 20 weeks and aim to come in looking peeled? (But probably tiny - I struggle with that psychologically).

5 Likes
3992

No idea about that, but I just gotta say:

:bangbang:

1 Like