Atlas13 Burning the Boats

Training Training Logs
2236

Classic cafeteria style serving. We get butter some days. Generally I can find some fatty meat to chow down on, and then maybe a salad or something along those lines. I’m not anti-carb, and generally include a LOT of carbs in my diet, but the calorie density of ship food can be pretty mind boggling. Just how it’s prepared, which is really why I want to avoid the carbs. I just think there aren’t many “healthy” carb options on the ship, though if I do need to throw them back in I will probably rely heavily on fruits.

But for the next few months, everything’s going to be a little bit of just adapting to whatever is going on, so I guess it’s my chance for a little “chaos is the plan” lol

4 Likes
2237

Dude.
Can’t directly address everything i just caught up on here but:
Freakin awesome.
The squat PR, the dr stories, the direction on training, the flyback after 2 months (lmk what that’s about sometime - i flew back after 5 mo on a 7-mo deployment. Best 2 months of my life)

Ill just add that the hybrid training will really come in handy if you’re ever saddled with a 3yearold on your shoulders while hiking up a mountain to a hot spring in iceland… like i was today.
:rofl:

Oh and holy shit kilimanjaro… thats a freakin awesome idea. A little harder than carrying a 2yo I imagine lol. Looking forward to hearing about it someday!

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2238

I did this for a bit earlier this year. Deadlift went up actually! I think the constant tension of RDLs works wonders, for me at least.

1 Like
2239

Really, in a LOT of cases, one of the best things you can do to build a deadlift is NOT deadlift.

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2240

21aug24
Lat pulldown: 175x13+, 145x12+, 145x9, 115x14

Cable row: 145x8, 130x11, 130x10

Bent over db row: 50x12, 50x10

Upright row: 55x20, 55x20, 55x20+

Cable curl: 110x9, 90x12, 90x8, 70x

Incline Db curl: 20x8, 15x lost count, 20+

Conditioning: 30 min run

Notes:

  • for this back day, going to do a double progression. I think that’s what it is called anyway. As in I have a specific rep range for each set, and will increase when I hit target reps for that individual set, regardless of the other sets. Read about it the other day, never tried it before, seems fun.
  • Really liked how this worked out. Taking all the sets to/near failure just has my muscles shot so quickly. Biceps were dead halfway through the cable curls.
  • Whole workout takes 45 min, moving at a good clip.

Plan is to lift 5x a week, and conditioning 4-5x a week. This is a lot, especially while switching to a carb depleted diet, and I am certain it’s going to run me into the ground in terms of recovery. BUT, that takes a time to happen, and I think I can manage this volume for a month or so before performance drops, which lines up perfectly for my surgery. So strategic here. Milk some crazy training while I can, and then use my forced deload to recover from it. Being smart while being stupid lol.

@jdm135 nothing exciting about the two months. Originally detailed had me staying a bit longer than my PRD, me boss basically reached out and said “this guys going to shore tour when he is supposed to.” So that bought me back a few months!

@Stormblessed fingers crossed I get the same result! Having never training them heavy before, I feel like I can expect something out of it! Did you use a belt on it? For some reason a belt on RDL seems wrong to me lol.

@T3hPwnisher completely agreed, as evidenced by my deadlift being the strongest to date while not deadlifting at all lol. But, I do think some heavy hinge is necessary, just not necessarily a floor deadlift. Honestly, wish I had access to a trap bar underway, I’m really coming to love that thing.

And just like that, back to the sea.

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2241

I always go no belt. I agree, doesn’t feel right on RDLs. Can’t get the bracing right in that position and it just ends up uncomfortable

1 Like
2242

Conditioning: 1 hour treadmill walk. 30lb pack, 3.0 mph, 3 degree incline.

Notes;

  • this was super easy, HR below 120 the entire time, breathing through the nose. Really just trying to add some movement into my days since I’m much more sedentary underway
8 Likes
2243

23AUG24
Squat: 315x3, 315x3, 315x3, 315x3, 315x3, 315x3, 315x3, 315x3, 315x3, 315x6

Single leg curl: 35x17, 35x15, 35x13

Leg extension: 160x12, 160x11,

Superset:
Cable crunch: 60x25, 75x18, 75x15
Hanging knee raise: 5, 5, 5

Conditioning: 45 min treadmill walk. 5 degree incline, 3.3 mph

Notes:

  • first time squatting since I hit my 425 PR. It’s interesting how 315 still feels heavy. I can squat the hell out of it, but it doesn’t ever feel any lighter than it did the first time I got it on my back lol. If you asked me based on 315 if I thought I could hit 425, the answer would be hell no. But I did, so obviously I’m not a good judge.
  • I really do dig this single leg kneeling hamstring curl thing.
  • The leg raise AFTER the cable crunches really smokes me
  • Slow easy walk again, got into some audiobooks i downloaded
  • On day 3 of my velocity diet run. Healthy solid meals both nights have been some fatty meat, a few crushed up hard boiled eggs from the salad line, and a very sad lettuce/carrot salad. No hunger to note, which was pretty standard my last run of this diet. Already very sick of protein shakes lol.
  • I am running some supplements along with my velocity diet. Doing the standard fish oil with each shake. Also taking a multivitamin in the morning, vitamin d3 at night, Creatine, and a LMNT stick during my workouts. Definitely meant to buy a greens supplement, but I couldn’t find any superfood and kind of forgot after that.
13 Likes
2244

Snowcones man! That way you get the thermogenic effect too, haha. Good to see it’s carrying you through so far.

1 Like
2245

24AUG24
Press: 155x7, 175x2 (dammit), 135x9 (pathetic)

CGBP: 135x5, 155x5, 175x5, 190x5, 205x3 (4th was moving well, hit a big roll, all of a sudden I was legit pressing the bar at such an angle that it had me sliding sideways off the bench.)

Seated db press: 65x10, 60x8

Back support v bar pushdown: 50x15, 50x15, 50x15,

Single arm cross body rope extension: 20x10, 20x9, 15x13

Conditioning: 30 min run, 5.3 mph. 5 min incline walk cooldown

Notes:

  • fuck all of this. Ship rocking like a god damn cork, damn neat fell over trying to press, and my feet slipped off the treadmill multiple times just do to angle. Like trail running without being able to see the trail. Never seen sea states this bad on a carrier, but I’m over it.
  • If this continues, I’m going to have to cut press out of my program. It being more difficult I can deal with, but with how crowded out little gym gets, and how heavy these rolls are, it’s a legitimate safety hazard.
  • I am being very positive and upbeat around my sailors and coworkers, because deployment hits people hard. So my ranting and bitching goes here lol
  • Just an overwhelmingly frustrating day.
14 Likes
2246

26sep24
Beltless RDL: 135x6, 185x6, 225x6, 275x6, 315x6, 340x6 (PR), 275x6, 275x6,

Hack Squat: 90x10, 180x8, 180x8, 180x8

Single leg hamstring curl: 35x13, 35x10

Cable crunch: 70x25, 70x20, 70x17

Conditioning: 45 min treadmill ruck: 3 incline, 30lb, 3.4 mph

Notes:

  • how was NO ONE going to mention I’ve been dating all my workouts for the wrong month this entire last month? I just noticed lol. Not sure why the gym is always August in my head. Times relative on shift work.
  • I really thought i did sets of 6 last week, but evidently I was doing 5, so hit a weight PR and did more reps on all the sets leading up to it.
  • Fighting to not “deadlift” it. I can feel my legs start to bend as I start to struggle, and I have to very consciously keep them straighter and force myself to pull up with my hamstrings and back vice getting quad engagement.
  • Went a little heavier on the hack squats today. Still hate this machine compared to a leg press, alignment just never feels right. Still smokes the quad, but I can tell that the angle I’m exerting force is not the same angle the pad slides, if that makes any sense.
  • You can tell how fried my hamstrings are after the RDLs by the significant drop in reps on the hamstring curls compared to after squat day.

Slightly deviated from velocity diet yesterday. Not in a “ate more than I should” kind of way, but some minor emergencies ended up keeping me awake for about 38 hours, and I was just working like a madman yesterday. Had one shake, and then had one meal, and then just went into hibernation. Ate more than i usually do at the meal, but still missing 3x shakes. Unfortunate, but was a bit of necessity. I may be focused on the gym, but I am still deployed after all, so the jobs definitely the bigger priority lol.

Diet notes:

  • Some slight gastric distress the last two days. I’m thinking it may just be from the sudden change in diet. Not bad really, I’m documenting everything I notice as part of this experiment.
  • Energy levels seem normal for the ship. By which I mean, I’m still lethargic, but no more than usual, and maybe even a little bit less so. I actually suspect a lot of that is due to not seeing sunlight. I take vitamin D to counteract that, but it’s not the same.
  • Again on the velocity/keto experiment I’m doing, I have no bloat. Absolutely none. Which is actually a massive reality, because generally after a few days on the ship I get so bloated that bending my torso becomes uncomfortable. I think the processed carbs and fats the ship uses just don’t agree with me. Cutting them out is already beneficial.
  • Muscles also seem smaller. Part of that is definitely me being fatalistic, but I think part of that is also just glycogen depletion.
12 Likes
2247

not even the number either, whole wrong word :laughing:

1 Like
2248

Along with that, as you noted: the bloat is gone. Just plain old water has left your body, which ALSO saturates/fills your muscles up and makes them look swollen. Focused on salting foods can help. I actually mix salt in with all of my shakes, since food is a primary delivery mechanism for sodium/electrolytes in most cases and, with Velocity, you’re not getting that much of it. Still awesome to see you keeping on.

Regarding the press: any thoughts in switching to the Z press? Doing that, you make the rocking ship a feature, rather than a bug.

2 Likes
2249

@throwawayfitness hey, I know damn well you’ve liked every one of those posts, you could of warned me! Hahahah. Well at least I caught it… with 4 days left in the month…

@T3hPwnisher you know, I’ve actually felt a little dehydrated the last few days. I think I’m drinking so many shakes that I “think” I’m drinking enough, but the shakes really don’t hydrate me the same way water does, if that makes sense. I AM heavily salting all my food, and using some LMNT every day, but I may take a page out of your book and try salting the shakes!

As for the Z press, I feel like I’d be deviating from the goal of the program I’m running. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great movement, but it’s not one where I feel I’d get a lot out of doing a heavy 1-3 reps, it’s just so unstable, and I can’t imagine it getting better with the ship rocking. Great for accessory, and I know some guys make use of it as a main movement, but I’ve always felt it worked better for accessory for me. I think if I do swap out press, I’ll switch to a seated press variation. We have a little chair no one uses that I could easily pull into a rack, and I think it would still allow me to push heavy with less fear of dropping 150+lbs on some poor schmuck behind me lol. Although I am very much still hoping for some calmer seas. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen on a ship this large, but I can’t imagine it’s going to stay this bad. Granted, depending on where in the world we go, it may get worse, but if that happens I’ll have to change A LOT of my lifting plans lol. An irritating factor to play with, but it’s only a few months

4 Likes
2250

I saw a good quote the other day that most athletes are OVERhydrated rather than properly hydrated, so now they’re simply electrolyte imbalanced. We keep slamming water over and over in a quest to hydrate, and since we don’t compensate with electrolytes, we end up doing more harm than good. Instead of downing 2 gallons of water a day, we can get by with maybe 3/4 of one and the proper electrolytes to actually maximize it. That may very well be the situation you’re in.

2 Likes
2251

I feel like that’s a topic I’m going to have to really put some focus work in as I shift to more endurance events. I’m still very much the best of football mindset of drink a ton before and after training, and just gut it out during

1 Like
2252

Absolutely brother! If you nail the hydration game, you’ll be leagues ahead of many others. And I hear you on the sports mentality, except I’m from the opposite camp: “Water makes you weak!” Haha. To this day, I can’t stand to have ANYTHING sloshing in my stomach while I do physical activity. It made using surge REALLY tough for me.

2 Likes
2253

27sep24
Bench: 45x20, 45x5, 135x5, 165x3, 185x3, 205x8, 240x2 , 170x15 , 150x17

Db Inc bench; 75x6 (-), 60x10

Assisted dip: 90x8. 120x10, 120x10, 120x11

Db fly: 30x12, 30x12, 30x12

Conditioning: 30 min run, 5.3 mph.

Notes:

  • this is a weird thing for me to type, but pretty happy with how bench moved today. 205x8 was solid, definitely had a 9th, and honestly may have had a 3rd with 240. Doing that with the crappy ship benches and the rocking, and still feeling better than I did at my gym last week? Makes no sense; but I’ll take it.
  • Different dip machine, don’t like it as much. Has me kneeling instead of standing; different strength curve on the assistance. Gonna get used to it.
  • Run felt great. Light on my feet, nice sweat, easy breathing. Exactly where I want to be for an easy run.
  • Overall, felt great today.
14 Likes
2254

Loved reading about the roll throwing off your bench. Classic.

1 Like
2255

Orders came in. Staying a month longer than expected (or slated too for that matter). Will be missing the holidays. Gotta call the realtor and put a pause on the home search.

Damn.

2 Likes