Alex_uk: 40 years in the making

Training Training Logs
602

Absolute winner here. Especially if, like me, you can happily eat the same 2 meals everyday for a week. Just make sure it’s delicious, or you’ll resent it. In normal circumstances, I plan my entire week ahead of time on myfitnesspal, then put it straight onto a Tescos order. Takes about 15mins thinking time, plus maybe an hour prep/cooking every week.

My routines been all kinds of screwey recently, and its shown me just how bad my decision making can be when I haven’t planned and prepared. 2 foot long subs plus cake, a large macdonalds meal with extra burger and mcflurry and 2 double protein shakes with a pint each of whole milk is probably not ideal nutrition.

603

I was actually looking for your log thinking it had been a while and was about to post one of those morbid “anyone know if Alex died of corona” posts.

1 Like
604

Despite my journal being filled with insane hedonist eating, I’m actually pretty ok with monotonous eating, think my meals will mostly revolve around turkey mince (Sheppards pie, chilli, occasionally lasagna) and then roast on a Sunday with a curried leftover Mondays and maybe something easy/lazy for Saturday nights like fish fingers, chips and mushy peas.

Which I reckon means I can hit some decent macros, (lean mince plenty of beans and tomatoes in the chilli, loads of veg in the Sheppards, roast and curry all fairly decent as well) and not spend more than £30 on a week’s worth of dinners for 4.

Lunches I can go with jacket potatoes with tuna mayo or beans on toast or the odd sandwich and that’s all fairly clean (no veg/fruit but if I get a decent breakfast and dinner, with a banana thrown in somewhere for good measure should be ok).

Breakfast I’m going back to overnight oats which is just oats left in yogurt overnight with frozen raspberries and cinnamon, I always add a couple of scoops of unflavoured whey in.

Outside of that snacks will be either preworkout bananas and whey blended, protein shakes or nuts.

Also going back to drinking green tea or water (green tea should hold caffeine withdraw off), because a) I realise my coffee drinking costs me around £15 per week (that’s only home drinking not Costa etc), b) it’s probably not healthy to drink quite as much coffee as I do.

605

Haha jokes on you - I’m alive!

606

Yeah - its like taking a 14 month hiatus to drink and do “other” stuff has a detrimental effect on my gains brah.

18 months of constant gym and I’m as big and strong as I’ve ever been. Pushing for the big 250 dead lift, and a clean 100kg log.

2 Likes
607

Yea, your rate of progress has been great, looking forward to seeing how you get on at your comp!

608

That’s pretty tricky man. I budget myself £30 just for myself for food (albeit without relying on protein shakes at all) and even then i have to think carefully. My meat bill comes to about £20 just for myself. I’ll happily take any hints or tips.

609

I don’t do stiff leg. I do RDL’s which have a soft bend in the knee.

I consider that a different lift than my recommendation. I don’t do those so I can’t say how they feel by comparison. RDL’s done after a lay off from training are horrible, though.

610

My stuff leg deadlifts aren’t stiff legged, I kept a slight bend in the knee, I just try and keep that constant. I don’t really know if that’s SLDL or RDL or something totally different, but I know what I mean by it. Definitely lights my hamstrings up the next day.

611

If you’re keeping a neutral spine throughout the movement then you’re doing an RDL. If you’re allowing your spine to flex then you’re doing a hybrid of RDL and SLDL. My understanding of stiff leg deadlifts is that the legs are pretty much locked straight. No, thanks.

The crippling soreness comes from taking time off and then doing 3x10 on those.

I have to second @simo74’s recommendation to run uphill. My hamstrings and hip flexors are sore after my hill sprints; apparently it’s been awhile since I’ve done those.

1 Like
612

Week 6(/8) day 2

Conditioning: bike ride to shop, angry walk back, handlebars broke, which was irritating because the return was supposed to be the harder more “money” part of the conditioning, but time meant no other option additional conditioning.

Gs1:
Pendlay row: 60, 70, 80 X 5, 90, 100, 110, 120, 125kg X 1
Football bar bench: 60, 70, 80 X 5, 90, 100, 110, 120, 125kg X 1 - knew that 125 was there last time so nice to confirm that - 130 might be there as well wasn’t super hard.
Hanging leg raises: 5 X 8 sets
Burpees (actual proper burpees): 5 X 8 sets

Gs2:
Pendlay row: 100 X 8, 5, 5
FB bench: 100 X 8, 5, 5
HLR: 5 X 3 sets
Burpees: 5 X 3 sets

Etsots:
Ohp blue band + 30kg 10 sets 5 mins.

Bench was good, didn’t really feel like training today, been a hectic day and pretty tired so nice to hit a PR. Paused DL definitely had more affect that I’d realised, may not have been DOMs central but I had to reset position every pendlay (i.e. stand up!) Because my hamstrings were feeling it in a way that pendlays have never made me feel before!

Weight was up again this am, so no worries there, diet hasn’t been overly high cal so the other day must have been dehydrated or something. Cleaning up the diet well so far… Like 3 whole days without a pizza or burger, only a few chocolates.

7 Likes
613

Do you like the football bar? We have one at my gym, but I’ve never really given it a real fair shot. What benefit do you find?

614

There’s something about gym toys that helps keep stuff interesting.

2 Likes
615

in terms of the stress and blood pressure raising effects of hard conditioning, I think this counts :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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616

I haven’t honestly given it enough time myself, plus I’m quite bad at figuring out what actually works, benefits of being weak, everything works!

I personally feel it in tris and I fail off chest so they might not be ideal for me, but it gave me another option for conjugate style - plus it’s a toy to play with! (I bought it for doing rows primarily, and it’s definitely good for that - ironically not used it during DH!).

2 Likes
617

Yea for sure, bit like my eating I can do long stints of training with no changes but DH is definitely “fun” with all the different varieties - much like food and mixing it up with junk that I don’t need!

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618

Haha yea probably! I was power walking and ended up bashing my legs on the peddles a couple of times - blood pressure raised! Fortunately I’m a chill person so the angry part was mostly tongue in cheek, a vague inconvenience at worst, and hopefully a minor fix on the bike!

619

You burn more calories walking than you do riding a bike any way.

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620

That’s the key!

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621

This is true, but I’m generally just after the cardio, I’m one of those people that is widely hated - I have to be very intentional to gain and even maintain weight, calories are never much of a concern!