That sounds like something Socrates would drop on one of his unsuspecting “victims”. I might have that tattooed on my forearm.
3 Likes
17/11/25 - I weigh something but I forget what it is!
LP W2 W5 D17
Deadlifts: 140, 150, 155, 160, 170kg x 5
SS1:
Sandbag over shoulder: 75kg x 2 x 5 sets
Decline crunches: 6 x 5 sets
GS2 (well really 1 but let’s not worry about that)
Deficit deads: 100, 120, 140kg x 5
Sandbag bear hug walk: 50kg x some x 3 sets
Decline crunches: 6 x 3 sets
Finisher:
Chin ups: 4, 4, 5, 3, 5, 3, 3, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 7 (rep every 10 secs) - 66 reps total
10 minute timer.
Had a slight switch around and did the deadlifts solo without any explosive moves or abs, but pushed the jumps and made it count. I just straight up didn’t want to giant set that today, and Brian actual OKs that in his book (he’s not a massive fan of it but it’s “permitted”). I fired my glutes intentionally hard on 60 & 100kg warm ups and oh my goodness they stayed fired up/on the entire time, actually painful, almost close to cramp like, but not, just underutilised muscles firing under load. Pleased with the top set, wasn’t easy but doable, heaviest I’ve pulled for quite some time.
Totally spent at the end of that second giant set, honestly 100kg felt heavy, but that’s just my head trying to hold me back. Those sandbag over shoulder were heavy and I had no pop, out of practice so capped it at 2 reps per round. Probably didn’t help that it’s 1515 and I ate at 0900, did eat a small banana mid point through this session just which did nothing to my BG so that’s cool.
Had zero desire to do this session, funny enough yesterday I was quite excited at the prospect of deadlifting, I’ve heard it said that keenness to do something and proximity to the event are inversely related, that’s definitely in play here. Still stuck my big boy pants, took my pre-workout and got it done.
Decided that in order to finish this program and be “happy” to do each session I’m going to allow myself some leeway - today being the example, no giant set 1, but still got the required work from that GS done, then the finisher was rows, shrugs and ghrs as per the program, well it’s a finisher and my lower back is feeling fatigued so scrap that do something that decompresses the lower back and still hits the lungs and muscles.
Less chin ups that last time though, boo!
Completely random: the pre workout I took had beta alanine, queue tingles, which remind me of my misspent youth and mdma - rubbing my scalp once I’ve taken beta alanine feels delightful.
12 Likes
For the record, I had it protein, fiber, starch and my mom showed me research that has it starch, protein, fiber.
My father was Type II for years, studied it, considered himself an expert, became obsessed with it to the point that he would take five shots a day of two different types of insulin. Would constantly spike and crash, then drink twelve ounces of orange juice, spike, crash, rinse, repeat.
Time in range (which you are working on) is what I have read is important. I am not diabetic but flirt with the glucose levels of prediabetes, hence my interest.
Appreciate your willingness to be a lab rat.
2 Likes
Absolutely, I’m currently audibling (that’s a proper verb right?!) Jordan Peterson’s 12 rules for life and there’s a section in it that talks about people’s lack of compliance with medicine and how people are actually more compliant with medicines for their pets than themselves. So you can only imagine if you can’t even be bothered to take the medicine there’s no way you’re going to change your lifestyle, even if it is to save yourself a slow and painful death.
Questionable even outside of the diagnosis!
It’s tragically sad, human beings seem hardwired to be overreact to threat of immediate danger and completely underreact to real long term risk. You see the same thing in investing - people who “win” at life in general, see the long game and make them necessary sacrifices (another interesting chapter in 12 rules for life) to get the prize.
Yup, does anyone know how long you need to wait between eating the different macros? Like is just eating a mouthful of chicken then plowing into the potatoes good enough or do I need to eat a whole chicken breast, wait 10 mins then hit up the potatoes? (Because frankly that would be a PITA).
Good call, it’s interesting but not exactly necessary, but seeing the feedback and individual response is pretty cool.
I suppose you get to see her again quicker that way 
Haha that would be the perfect bumper sticker for a dietician or diabetic specialist Dr!
The food engineering definitely plays a massive part for sure though, and these days you actually have to work hard to avoid it (particularly in America, I’m still shocked by “sugar free bacon” - it’s just not a necessary label in the UK, I’m sure it won’t be long though).
Being your own lab rats great… Unless you’re a mad scientist!
I’m happy to say my time in range is solid:
But I feel the app is more generous than I would be (designed for diabetics not proper trying to avoid becoming diabetic).
Have you done any CGMing yourself?
2 Likes
I have not done any CGM, had never considered it, but am watching closely now. I have an appointment with a new PCP, first appointment in a while, in just over a week and am interested to see what my A1c looks like after eating like an asshole post Halloween. If it’s not good, I will likely check it out.
My understanding is eat around the clock style in the proper order, so yes - stuff chicken, then potatoes, no need to wait.
1 Like
I’m still shocked by “sugar free bacon”
I do like to point out that this is in reference to sugar used in the curing process: not sugar ADDED to bacon. From what I’ve seen, the UK uses sugar in their bacon cures as well.
But yeah, in the states, it’s amazing how many people don’t know what actual food looks like. Everything they eat comes out of a box.
1 Like
Didn’t know that (or rather remember it, I guess you explained that last time I mentioned it) I’ll keep an eye out for it, thanks.
In other news I’m really not a fan of influencer boxing, but I am really hoping to see AJ make Jake Paul eat some canvas in December, proper professional fight with not too restrictive rules, with a fighter who’s not too past it, can’t see JP lasting the night - that’ll be the hardest he’s ever been hit.
1 Like
This is how I have felt the last few fights and then actually watched the Tyson fight.
Jake Paul will definitely win - it’s fixed for sure.
2 Likes
That’s definitely a concern, I’m not sure with AJ though, he’s not needing the pay check and he’d potentially damage his opportunity for future fights if he didn’t KO him, he’s been vocal about wanting a fight with Fury, which would be a significant pay day. It’d also be a large stain on his legacy (which isn’t flawless but as a matter of pride you’d still hope he would KO a YouTuber… In the first).
But I’m also aware I’m being intentionally naive in hoping that, and boxing has always struggled with corruption.
I’m going to watch, filled with hope (after all it’s the fight before Christmas), that AJ can get the job done in spectacular style.
18/11/25 - 201.5
Last night I went over to my sister’s for my brother in laws 50th, so buffet for dinner, no berberine and no real sources of fibre, so tested the protein first strategy, ate gammon and pork on its own first (and a fair chunk of each), then ate 2.5 jacket potatoes with cheese, quiche and some cheese potato ball thing and then a smallish portion of the two desserts available (wasn’t going to but my daughter wanted some had both then decided she wasn’t actually in the mood for either, teenagers!) treacle tart and tequila rose trifle… which was billed as strawberry Bailey’s trifle - but mother had apparently run out of baileys and decided to take the potency up a notch (and yes I will occasionally eat something that contains alcohol, just not drink it).
Anyway that was a far too long a sentence just to say I ate meat first then junk and my blood sugar was actually fantastic.
Compare Saturday where I was hosting a conference so ate a pasty (pie type thing) for lunch and then takeaway in the evening:
Circled the two offending meals (the mitigation didn’t do as much as I’d hoped).
Yesterday:
I was actually a bit low before the buffet, hadn’t eaten much and had trained hard.
Really pleased to see those much smaller fluctuations and much lower overall BG levels, I can’t imagine how low and flat those levels will be on carnivore!
8 Likes
I like this phrase.
I’m sometimes accused of optimism bias by the board at work I’m responsible to, can’t help but look at life through a positive lens, well I probably could, but honestly not sure I want to!
Thought I’d really test the protein first strategy (mostly because I haven’t got anything decent in the house), did greek yogurt and whey, shortly followed by a pot noodle, went from 4.8 to 7.9 (and still rising by the look of it), yea food quality still matters.
7 Likes
Absolute fact.
20/11/25 - weight no idea, 5am call out then prayer meeting at 630am then kids to school and work.
LP W2 W5 D17
GS1
OHP: 60, 63.125kg*, 65, 70, 62.5kg x 5
Chins: 25kg x 3 x 5 sets
Plate uppercut: 10kg x 5 e/s
GS2
Split jerk: 80kg x 3
Break to pick kids up from school. 1 rep at 80kg.
BtN split jerk: 70, 80, 90kg x 3
Chins: 5 x 3 sets
Hanging leg raises: 5 x 3 sets
*I knew that felt off balance…1.25kg plate one side and 2.5kg the other! Felt exhausted coming in, had a pre-workout again and just forced myself out, told myself it’s only a pressing workout shouldn’t be that hard!
Switched order of the giant set and went for the pressing first, then skipped from 65 to 70kg wanted to be a little fresher for hitting that, then dropped back to 62.5kg just to get that final set, could have dropped it there, but wanted all the sets here.
Heavy weighted chins for low reps - I was a little bit intimidated, particularly as I’m still carrying fatigue from the amrap 10 mins of chins the other day, they absolutely blew up my back again, painful, but the good type, whatever my programming looks like after this I think I want to include these on a weekly basis, they feel, instinctively, like they’re making me more awesome, and bigger back is part of the plan!
GS2 was a mess around with kids, and split jerk feels super awkward, it’s probably not something worth doing once every 3 weeks, something that needs either to be practiced properly or not at all.
Absolutely spent by the chins portion even 5 at body weight felt hard.
The BtN split jerk was pretty cool, so much more natural feeling, but I suspect that’s just stability from weight being behind and on traps not hands, the split itself was probably no more effective than a push press.
I’ll have a slight problem going past 95kg on this movement, the roof isn’t high enough for full size plates, and I’ve only got 5kg left in 1.25kg plates.
Good session all this considered, no need for a finisher (plus between various tasks like picking kids up and helping the wife with babies I think this spanned 2 hours).
12 Likes
Both capital and debt compound, in the same way both good and bad decisions also compound. Apparently Einstein said of compounding “He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn’t, pays it” and Jesus said “Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” Seems to be a principle in large, not just finances.
Stayed up till 3am Saturday watching boxing, of course with babies in the house that means I get no chance to catch up sleep, also ate some treats on the night. Next day sleep deprived me drags around all day feeling tired and demotivated, and with less stable blood sugar levels probably knocking on and making me feel particularly low energy, more poor food choices were made last night.
Result - morning BG of 5.7 (prediabetic). Not the end of the world and only a temporary number, but just an interesting observation of the impact of seemingly small choices, snowballing - easy to see how it ends up becoming a lifestyle. That’s not to say I regret watching the boxing, and I’ll do again next month, but maybe I’ll pre-prep some meals for the next day, and have some nuts around to snack on for the evening.
This morning I figured I didn’t need any more glucose in floating round the system, so opted for 10 eggs and some cheese for breakfast, the cheese made eating the eggs easier to start with (cos cheese tastes awesome) then harder at the end (because when your stomach is full melted greasy cheese isn’t quite so appetising).
7 Likes
Btn split jerks seem to be all the rage these days (now that I know exactly 2 people who do them). What’s that about? I would sorta be worried about dropping it on my head.
2 Likes
What a fantastic post in every way. I worked with a woman who suffered from crippling cycles of depression and anxiety, and the solution that kept her out of the hospital was prepping for the bad times, in exactly the way you lay out for your boxing nights. Decent foods in the freezer to prevent poor choices, which then spiraled her (“I ate an entire cake for dinner”), a couple of outfits she liked to get her to work kept clean in the closet, right down to the underwear, so not doing laundry wouldn’t turn into missed work and a downward spiral - we called these emergency outfits, and she didn’t wear them unless necessary, so they offered a bit of a treat as well. Things that would spiral her upward. Frozen steam-in bags of veggies, clothes she felt good wearing, and so on. Like good-day-her was nurturing future bad-day her.
I’ve never really thought of this in terms of “compounding,” and I really like it. I’ll add the Einstein quote to my collection at work, because I do talk finances regularly, and I’ll also start using it for health, as you did.
Awesome connection, thank you!
3 Likes
@BrandonCrawford suggested it might be an easier thing to learn than split jerks (after somehow managing to reverse split jerk).
Maybe it’s my high risk tolerance, but doesn’t seem any riskier than a BtN press?
Thanks Emily, nice to see my morning rambling was interesting!
That’s a really good way of looking at it and I tried to carry that thought into my workload for the day. I was feeling productive so decided to capitalise on it and get a load of my big tasks that I’d probably not get done in a less motivated day, done - productive me nurturing future procrastinating me…who knows, if I create a virtuous enough spiral I might find procrastinating me procrastinates his appearance entirely!
That’s awesome, sounds like you do a really good job of exploring the lives of your patients and helping them in all the pertinent areas!
3 Likes
Just to be clear, the reason you’re doing jerks is because they’re in your program, not because I said so, haha. I just offered that variation as possibly slightly easier to learn.
Do you feel like your shoulders are getting stronger from having that overload movement? I’m guessing that’s why Brian programs them.
4 Likes
And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice in the Hebrew dialect (Jewish Aramaic) saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick [repeatedly] against the goads [offering pointless resistance].
Acts 26:14 (AMP)
It’s been a week since I stepped foot inside the gym/garage. I’ve been flat out busy, I’m worn out and fairly stressed, with a lot of personal stuff going on, saying this for context, not sympathy.
There was a conversation between @TrainForPain and @T3hPwnisher recently around program hopping and it went back to something a lot of people said in here a little while back in regards to me doing Brian’s linear progress, connecting the dots, but I’ve (finally) decided to drop the program for the time being. (Thanks to all for that conversation, too many of you to mention individually, I am nothing if not slow on the uptake, that and a little bit stubborn).
It’s not gelling with me and with everything going on in life I don’t need the gym to be a source of stress, but a relief from stress.
That’s not to say the experience was wasted. Lessons from the experience:
- I don’t like lots of sets done at very similar weights (i.e. changing 2.5/5kg and going again for 5 sets) - I prefer going for bigger jumps and really being able to top out on the biggest set of the day with less fatigue, then doing back off sets.
- I do not like SSB squats to box, and SSB will not be a main movement (happy to rotate it in a conjugate style but not every week)
- heavy weighted chins are awesome and I want to do more of them, probably weekly
- I have no skill in split jerks, and no particular desire to develop it but I reckon BtN push press will be awesome (@BrandonCrawford yes the overload on the shoulders is definitely a benefit).
- I’m probably not going to giant set things for a while, whilst I’ve gelled with this in the past it makes everything harder, and I’m not in the right headspace for that at present.
Moving forward, I’m going to just go in to the gym and do what I want, thinking I’ll probably pair Deadlift and OHP and squat and bench as main movements for a given day, that means that if I manage just 2 sessions in a week I’ll have covered the big 4, if I do more great, if not that’s enough. Even in that though, I’m not treating that as hard and fast rule, if I get in there and don’t feel like it, I’ll pivot.
How long that goes on for… Until I’m in the right space to do something else, I’ll know when the time comes I’m sure.
It’s hard to kick against the goads…so don’t!
11 Likes