I’m sure this wasn’t the design but this gave me a small chuckle. At one point or another it happens to the best of us, I’ve definitely watched my spirits sink with my chest a number of times.
Given that you only got 2, experienced significant sleep variation, and had a rough day benching I wouldn’t do it, today at least. Give your body all the food and rest you can until it comes again, then crush it.
Full Body, 5s PRO - c15w3d2
Monday - 25 July 2022
Workout: Daily work, 1425-1450 (25 minutes)
3 rounds of:
a) Sled ground-to-overhead - about 70 lbs - 10, 10, 30
b) Kroc rows - L/R - 65 lbs - 10, 10, 25
Daily work done. The better part of wisdom said to leave the squats at 320 where they are, so that’s what I’ve done. Cheeseburgers tonight, deadlifts and press tomorrow!
Full Body, 5s PRO - c15w3d3
Tuesday - 26 July 2022
Workout: Deadlift & press, 0905-1025 (80 minutes)
Warm-up
Throws + jumps
Begin: 0926; End: 1021; Duration: 55 minutes
Deadlift - 210x5, 245x5 | 285x5, 320x5, 360x5
Press - 85x5, 100x5 | 115x5, 130x5, 145x5
Pull-up - BW - 16, 15, 4
Decline DB press - 2x65 lbs - 18, 17
Cable crunch - 50 - 30, 20
BFP - red - 30
Band pushdown - red - 30
Bulgarian split squat - L/R - 2x30 lbs - 16, 9
Assistance totals:
Push - 65 reps
Pull - 65 reps
Single-leg/core - 75 reps
For everything that was lacking yesterday, I made up for in spades today. The top sets weren’t easy by any stretch, but even though they were hard, the reps were solid and my form was good.
Deadlifts in 31 minutes, press in ???—forgot to clock it. But given that I still had a few assistance moves to finish up after the press sets, I know it was less than 24 minutes, so the pace was decent—certainly no slower than usual.
My right elbow is really talking back today, but I managed to get 16 then 15 chin-ups. I definitely prefer forcing these little aches and pains to heal rather than waiting around for time to take care of it, so I’m glad the elbow isn’t getting in the way of quality reps there.
Daily work and the sled push to follow.
Edit: Two additional thoughts. First, what’s ironic is the fact that I returned to my normal (awful) sleep patterns last night, yet I managed to have a decent day in the weight room. Contrast that against Sunday night into Monday morning, where I slept long, hard, and uninterrupted only to really struggle with the workout. Go figure. Second, as much as I prefer to force my aches and pains to heal, you’ll notice I’m still laying off the HLRs and ab wheel. While my elbow is annoying and I’m able to work through the pain with chin-ups and pull-ups and whatnot, whatever I did to my abs on that rollout several weeks ago was a different animal. In any case, my plan is to see where things stand in another week or so—I’ll probably try reintroducing the harder ab moves at the start of Cycle 16.
Man, do I agree with you here. Working through most of this stuff (intelligently) has saved me tons of training time.
I feel like my squat and bench are creeping up because of this. I worked through three weeks of sets of 8, 5, then 3 on squat. I was forced to lift heavier than I had been and do it for reps. The bar is starting to feel lighter on my back now. Working up to heavy singles on bench has had the same effect.
Thanks for weighing in on that—maybe it’s time for me to consider some templates with JW’s joker sets again.
I’ve also been wondering if the significant decrease in volume I’ve been doing during this cycle is to blame. I actually hit my best reps at these weights during BBB Beefcake, and I carried decent performance into the cycles that followed with a bunch of extra Widowmaker sets, but the past three weeks have been FAR less volume.
I’ve been eating less, too, as a result of the decreased volume—maybe I’m eating too little, that could certainly be a factor.
Either way, I’m fairly certain I’ll be looking to start gaining for awhile again in the next few cycles, so something with higher volume, or jokers, or maybe both (!), might be the way to break the apparent plateau.
Full Body, 5s PRO - c15w3d3
Tuesday - 26 July 2022
Workout: Daily work + hard conditioning, 1350-1405 + 1550-1640 (15 + 50 minutes)
3 rounds of:
a) Clean & press - 120 lbs - 10, 10, 10
b) Pendlay rows - 120 lbs - 10, 10, 25
10 rounds of:
a) Sled push - 50 yds, 135 + sled = 222 lbs
b) 6 alternating lateral squats - L/R - 30 lbs
c) 10 deficit RDLs - 135 lbs
Time: 34:32
Got those rounds done in 8:28 today; not sure it’s a PR, but it felt fast—just really kept pumping those C&P reps this time around, no stalling. Well, not too much stalling, haha.
I’ll edit in the hard conditioning once it’s done.
Edit: The hard conditioning is done. I’m running low on time, buy why on earth did I think 100 deficit RDLs after this morning’s heavy deadlifts would be a good idea!?! I did see some crazy veins popping in my traps with those, and that was new. Wish they were there all the time!
Maybe I’m not too far off here, because Tanner just posted this over in another thread:
I’ll break through eventually, because I know I’m capable: I’ve already proven that!
Have you done JWs 5/3/1 Building The Monolith before? I just started it yesterday and it features a ton of volume at a very high intensity. I think it could really get the ball rolling for you again and possibly push you further than you’ve ever been!
Deeeeppwaatteerrrr
Edit: and also to add something actually useful- I have found that doing something as simple as an overwarmup single helps me out quite a bit for repping. Not sure if it’s a confidence thing or something physiological that happens, but it definitely helps. That may be why you were feeling better during the jokers into Widowmaker sets.
While I definitely agree with @davemccright about BtM being a good program to look at, it’s just plain heavy as far as squats and DL are concerned. In my personal experience, the accumulation of fatigue throughout the program made EVERYTHING feel way more difficult than I anticipated it to be. I would not say it’s a good program to make heavy weights feel lighter, haha.
I would expect your strength to go up due to some extra recovery after the higher volume cycles. I think Jokers would be a good addition if you’re dropping volume. Volume down, intensity up.
But those are just two variables out of many. You’ve pointed out some tough factors that are probably having a negative impact on your sessions. Luckily, this is training and not a competition. It’s okay to suck occasionally during training.
Full Body, 5s PRO - c15w3d4
Wednesday - 27 July 2022
Workout: Easy conditioning, 0550-0645 (55 minutes)
Weighted vest walk - 30 kg - 15 minutes (to park)
Easy run - 9 laps, about 1750m - 9:26
Weighted vest walk - 30 kg - 16 minutes (from park)
Fasted. And hungry. Despite 1.5 lbs of chicken tenderloins and a bag of mixed vegetables at dinner, followed by granola and cottage cheese before bed.
Happy with the run this morning: a little slower than last week, but I wasn’t pushing at all. My legs had a mind of their own—which felt awesome—and though my HR was in the low 170s by the end, my breathing wasn’t too heavy and I was fully recovered by the time I put the vest back on and headed for home.
Calves, daily work, and The Coyote WOD on tap for the rest of today.
I swear, chicken causes negative hunger for me.
Admittedly, I did a fair number of deadlift reps yesterday, but even so, you might be on to something!
Full Body, 5s PRO - c15w3d4
Wednesday - 27 July 2022
Workout: Calves & daily work + extra conditioning, 0930-1015 + 1450-1515 (45 + 25 minutes)
Towel hop tabata - 4x40/10
3 rounds of:
a) Clusters - 120 lbs - 10, 10, 10
b) CS DB rows - 2x45 - 10, 10, 25
c) Belted CR - 135 - 30, 25, 20
Towel hop tabata - 4x40/10
The Coyote WOD - 20 rounds, for time
a) 15 KB swings - 28 kg
b) 5 goblet squats - 28 kg
c) 3 push-ups
Time: 19:28
Have I mentioned how much I hate clusters!?!
I doubled up on breakfast this morning, so 4 eggs and 4 slices of turkey bacon, but to no immediate relief: That one’s as much a hard conditioning workout as any I do that are actually labeled “hard.” Tried to keep the pace slow and steady, but I think it was more “slow” than “steady.” Got through it in 22:51, which isn’t too bad I guess.
That just leaves The Coyote WOD, which, I’ve now learned, is by Dan John. I picked it because it looked pretty solid, and now I know it’s going to be brutal—thanks, Dan!
I’ll edit that in once it’s done.
Edit: Three things: First, I didn’t really expect a bigger breakfast to make that workout easier—just wished it would have, haha! Second, the ROM on the last 5 reps of the 25 CS DB rows was super-cheat-y—I was really struggling by that point. Third, those cool squiggly veins on my anterior delts were absolutely popping today after the clusters. Between that and the new veins in my traps yesterday, I’m beginning to think all this daily get-heavy-stuff-from-the-ground-over-my-head business might have legs.
Edit 2: Yep, that’s a ball-buster! Doesn’t help that I was really starting to feel my lower body from yesterday’s work (and probably this morning’s, too). Swings were tough by the end, but the goblet squats were trouble from Round 1. Still came in under EMOM, which is decent. HR was up in the mid 170s by the end.
It’s ground beef for dinner again today, but I’m going to try this:
I’m not too clever in the kitchen—luckily that doesn’t bother me too much—so we’ll just call it, “Variations on a Theme of SvenG,” haha!
Oh, i like this. I’m stealing this
Not a fan of this bit though:
Same, it’s on the books for tomorrow. My legs are going to hate me.
It’s not much to look at, but—man, oh man, it is tasty!
For the record, I substituted diced jalapeno for the onion and minced garlic for the garlic powder. It was also a bit cheese-heavy, but I didn’t measure that out—I just kinda went for it. I’ll probably scale that back next time.
Supposedly this recipe serves 4.
I ate the whole thing.
'Cause I squat tomorrow, ya know?
4 what ? Ompa lompas ?
You and @Cyrrex aren’t that small!
