Prep Circuit x 1
Squats, EVEN longer pause 4x4 @ 205lbs
Assistance Circuit x 3
Cardio Circuit x 3
Took a while to get into the groove this afternoon. I had to make my peace with the increasing suckiness of paused squats. Had to rest/pause a few sets–the lengthening pauses really sap my concentric strength.
Really got into the assistance work, powering through PR-territory RDLs and split squats.
The cardio circuit involved an air bike sprint of 30 sec. I subbed a bike sprint of 45 sec with the resistance cranked up. I always, always lose steam around 35 seconds. I yell at my legs to “KEEP GOING!” Despite my best intentions, my legs just can’t keep pumping at the same speed and slow dramatically. It’s just like running the 400, or what I remember of it, the agony of urging on an increasingly aching and resistant body through the last 100m.
Eternal Warrior–Week 7, Day 2
Prep Circuit x 1 w/weighted vest
Bench even longer pause 4, 4, 4, 4 @ 175lbs
Assistance Circuit x 3
Cardio Circuit x 3
Loaded DB Press stretch x 3 min
I was drenched in sweat, red faced, and panting by the end, my shoulders on fire completing the final circuit. I enjoy this style of training, the style that involves minimal rest and no time to think. Waterbury’s 10x3 for Fat Loss was similar in that there was just about no downtime. Thinking is what gets me into trouble; there’s a parallel to real life in there somewhere: sometimes it’s best to just jump in and go than try to plan things to perfection. Or something.
Happy with my pressing strength. I thought, for sure, I’d need to rest pause some bench press sets, but managed to push through in straight sets, even with today’s extra long pauses.
It’s raining outside. And cold. And windy. Not sure how I’ll get the final 2800 steps in. But I’ll try.
Oh my…I think the rain’s letting up.
Steps: 9200
Weight: Dunno
Cals: 2100
EDIT: The rain DID let up, ended with 12, 500 steps
Prep Circuit x 1
TBDL, EVEN longer pause 4, 4, 4, 4 @ 245lbs
Assistance Circuit x 3
Cardio Circuit x 3
Each circuit ends with 2 minutes of cardio. I use a stationary bike. Today, I decided I wasn’t puffing hard enough, so I increased the resistance. Goodness me, I may actually be getting into shape.
About a week ago, I started shooting for 12k steps per day. Today my weight was 172 and, dare I say it, I looked leaner than I can remember. So far, walking appears to be the biggest difference between last year and this year, allowing me to eat way more food, feel better, and maintain my strength.
The thought of extra long paused TBDLs had my svelte new self a bit nervous, but I powered through without needing to rest-pause any sets. Barely. I don’t even want to think about next week and extending the pauses further.
Doing family stuff this weekend, may sneak in Barbarian Day tomorrow afternoon. This sums up my feelings about that:
Week 7, Day 4 Barbarian Day
Preparation Cycle 1
Shoulder halos 3x10
*Sled drag w/80lbs, plus weighted vest, plus 30lb DBs @ 1 mile
Shoulder halos 3x10
I added 10lbs to the sled. The difference was subtle, catching up to me roughly a third of the way through. Had lots of problems with the screw-lock DB collars coming loose and had to make a number of short stops to tighten them. Not sure what else there is to do.
Not as physically wrecked as the past few Barbarian Days, though this is still far from easy.
I intentionally ate an extra large dinner last night, enjoying a gyro and fries with my family. Oddly, I still wanted Greek yogurt and protein powder when done, so I indulged there, too.
I slept well last night and feel fantastic, looking forward to tackling the next week of lifting. Hoping to make it below 172. If I land below 170, I think I’ll start adding some calories back in.
Weight: 172.8
Cals: More than normal, didn’t count
Steps: 13,850
Prep Circuit x 1
Squats, LONGEST pause 4x4 @ 205lbs
Assistance Circuit x 3
Cardio Circuit x 3
Squats were brutally hard. Not sure if I’m weaker/under recovered OR the preposterously long pauses fatigue the hell out of the fast-twitch fibers. I think it’s the latter as my legs were shaking all over the place by the second rep of each set and I lost so much concentric strength each rep, having to rest pause every set to get the reps in.
The assistance and cardio circuits were terrible as always. I’m pretty sure the duration of the cardio increases by half next week. Ugh.
Weight: haven’t stepped on scale since Fri
Steps: 12,000 +
Cals: 2100
Eternal Warrior–Week 8, Day 2
Prep Circuit x 1 w/weighted vest
Bench LONGEST pause 4, 4, 4, 4 @ 175lbs
Assistance Circuit x 3
Cardio Circuit x 3
Loaded DB Press stretch x 3 min
Not much to say. It was hard? Had to rest-pause the last two sets of bench press to hit the target reps. Five second pauses are long af.
I’ve been thinking about how to make the final push for this T-ransformation challenge. I’ve cut out about 25 grams of carbs, almost unintentionally, over the last week. Beginning next week, I’m going to add two thousand steps by getting up a tad earlier and going for a 40-ish minute walk. I may cut out another 25 or
so grams of carbs after giving the extra walking some time to do its magic.
Weight: 173.8 (clothed, so probably sub 173)
Cals: 2100
Steps: 12,000+
Prep Circuit x 1
TBDL, LONGEST pause 4, 4, 4, 4 @ 245lbs
Assistance Circuit x 3
Cardio Circuit x 3*
I reread the plan today at work. This week, week 8, calls for a deload of sorts by removing the cardio circuits. Silly me, not reading the plan, had been doing them all week. For the sake of symmetry, which matters to me, I completed the completely uncalled for cardio circuit today, too. YOLO!
Block two included long pauses on the day’s main lift. These pauses were hard, and became increasingly so, each week. I ground out the last couple of reps today, but didn’t need any rest-pause reps. I’m pleased with this. Next week begins a month of ramping to 6, 4, 2, and 1 RMs. It’ll be interesting to see how much transfer there is after two months of slow eccentrics and pauses.
The preparation and assistance work for block three look extra terrible. It begins Monday.
Week 8, Day 4 Barbarian Day
Preparation Cycle 1
Shoulder halos 3x10, alternated with bike sprints
*Six circuits of:
-Chinups x 6
-Swings x 12
-Dips x 10
-Lunges 10/leg
-Med ball slam x 10
-Trap bar carry x 120 feet
Shoulder halos 3x10
Called an audible today, as barbarians are want to do. I woke at 3:30am yesterday to make the trip to Lake Erie. I caught a few walleye, but got home too late to do the traditional mile -long sled pull without offending the neighbors.
It has been raining in Central Ohio the past few days, my driveway is wet, and the grass is long. Instead of the long sled drag, I subbed in an indoor variation of the Fiready metcon day, in my basement, where the humidity was approximately 7-thousand percent. It was sufficiently terrible, more strenuous than the sled, but shorter duration–hopefully a wash in the end.
Weight: 171.6!
Cals: 2100 (but like 1800 yesterday, too tired to eat)
Steps: 3500/12000 (so far)
Prep Circuit x 1 w/weighted vest
Squats, Ramp to 6RM, each set supersetted with jump squat
*Assistance Circuit x 3
Cardio Circuit x 3
This was horrendous, probably the hardest single workout I’ve ever completed. The preparation circuit upped the number of lunges and squats AND included depth jumps. Then, moving to the squats, each set began with jump squats.
The cumulative fatigue from this made the squats far more taxing; I was only able to ramp up to 205x6, the same weight I was squatting for sets of five WITH five second holds. My legs shook with the strain, even with light weights, but it seemed my hips and glutes were working extra hard, not my quads. Interested to see what happens as I ramp to 4, 2, and 1 RMs. I imagine I’ll adapt?
The assistance circuit was hell on earth: front squats to back squats to partial squats. I knew failure was close, but was unable to pinpoint the source of the strain–probably because everything in my lower body–and core-- was struggling against a relatively light load.
In any case, I’m fried. Gonna eat a bit extra tonight and, hopefully, sleep like a baby.
Eternal Warrior–Week 9, Day 2
Prep Circuit x 1 w/weighted vest
*Bench Ramp to 6RM, superset with speed DB Press up to 185
Assistance Circuit x 3
Cardio Circuit x 3
Same thing happened as yesterday. The longer prep circuit (50 weighted pushups) plus plyo pushups, plus speed DB Press led to accumulating a good deal of fatigue; by the time I benched, I was weak as a kitten, albeit an eternal warriorish one.
The assistance work was hard, though nothing like yesterday’s transcendental experience. The cardio circuit called for a minute battle ropes, which I don’t have and won’t buy, so I spent a minute slamming a med ball instead.
The world got kinda grayish and my ears rand for about 30 minutes afterwards.
Every once in a while, an exercise experience is so horrible, I get mild anxiety just thinking about it. This is one of those times.
BUT…I’ll be back again next week. Same time, same place.
*Prep Circuit x 1 w/vest
**DB High Pull supersetted w/TBDL Ramp to 265lbs x 6
Assistance Circuit x 3
Cardio circuit x 3
The prep circuit now includes 50 weighted pullups, a huge increase from last week’s 30.
Once again, the fatigue from the prep circuit and explosive movement, the high pulls, carried over to the deadlift–I simply didn’t feel strong. I have to imagine that this will improve over the next three weeks; on the other hand, it’s kinda cool ramping to a situational max while fatigued and not handling actual max weights.
Weight: 172.2 (a recent low)
Steps: 12,000+
Calories: 2000ish
Week 9, Day 4 Barbarian Day
Preparation Cycle 1
Shoulder halos 3x10, alternated with bike sprints
*Six circuits w/weighted vest of:
-Chinups x 6
-Swings x 12
-Dips x 10
-Lunges 12/leg
-Med ball slam x 10
-Trap bar carry x 120 feet
Shoulder halos 3x10
Audibled again today. It was raining this morning, so I skipped the sled drag, put on my weighted vest and ran to the basement. Because of the vest, this was way more awful than last time, probably nearing the limit of what I could complete without lengthy breaks.
At the moment, I almost look forward to doing more mile-long sled drags.
I saw 170.4 on the scale yesterday, which is probably the lowest I’ve been in about a year. While the challenge ends in a couple weeks, I have until June 10 to be beach ready–that’s when vacay starts.
Weight: 171.2 (today)
Steps: 1000/12000 (still have time)
Cals: 2000ish
Prep Circuit x 1 w/weighted vest
Squats, Ramp to 4RM @ 225*, each set supersetted with jump squat
*Assistance Circuit x 3
Cardio Circuit x 3
I made some headway into understanding why I’m so much weaker than I thought I would be: first of all, jump squats are taxing af and the fatigue accumulates pretty quick. I made bigger jumps this time… didn’t matter. I didn’t quite hit 225 x 4, the third rep was sketchy, so I called it a day. The second reason is that my waist is, apparently disappearing; I took my belt in a whole notch–three total since beginning the Eternal Warrior.
As an odd side note, the squats, while wimpy, feel much more technically solid, whatever that means.
I came back for round two, sweating with trepidation; it was as awful as I remember. It was so bad in fact, that I lapped up the subsequent cardio circuit as a mere light refreshment after a heaping serving of suck.
Eternal Warrior–Week 10, Day 2
Prep Circuit x 1 w/weighted vest
*Bench Ramp to 4RM, superset with speed DB Press, up to 200 x 4
Assistance Circuit x 3
Cardio Circuit x 3
I didn’t feel as drained by all the prep work–50 pushups, speed DB presses, and plyo pushups–until the final set or two. I can live with benching 200 x 4 in my new svelte-yet-weakened state.
Speaking of svelte: the scale read 169.4 this morning, which was incredible, my lowest in almost a year. Last night I ate a little less than I guessed at in my log entry above, totaling 1900 cals or so. Then…
I slept terribly. Like unbelievably bad. This happened to me last year when I cut cals low. I absolutely do not recommend. Since this Eternal Warrior Plan is, in my humble estimation, no joke, maybe this is a sign to cycle calories via refeeds or cheat meals? So this is exactly what I’ll do…
Tonight, I’ll eat a bit MORE than planned and take note of what happens.
Hoping for a restful evening.
Weight: 169.4
Cals: 2300 (per MyFitnessPal)
Steps: 12,000 (2000 or so rucking with a weighted vest)
