Becoming Canis dirus - SvenG's Training Log

Training Training Logs
2654

5/3/1 for Hardgainers - c17w1d5

Thursday - 08 September 2022
Workout: Deadlift, 0525-0700 (95 minutes)

Indigo-3G - 0500
Surge - 0530-0637

Warm-up only (no throws)
Box jump - 24 in - 10

Begin: 0549; End: 0654; Duration: 65 minutes
Deadlift - 135x5, 175x5, 215x5 | 255x5, 290x5, 330x5 | (255x5)x5
Dip - 60 - 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
Chin-up - BW - 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
Ab wheel - ramp (19) - 5, 5, 5, 5
Cable crunch - 50 - 15, 15, 15, 15

Assistance totals:
Push - 80 reps
Pull - 80 reps
Single-leg/core - 80 reps

Semi-fasted: black coffee upon waking, then Indigo-3G and Surge as above.

Past-me is really annoyed at that “5+ PR set” because the rep count is so low, current-me is happy I’m not hobbling around because I hurt myself by pushing too far, and future-me is pretty sure it’s the right call because I won’t be laid out on the couch and instead I’ll be lifting again tomorrow.

It is raining again, so I skipped throws today. Ran a deadlift-dip-chin-ab wheel-cable crunch circuit until I ran out of ab work, then deadlift-dip-chin. That doesn’t seem to help with the overall time, but it gets the job done. Warm-up sets in 22 minutes, main work in another 22 minutes, then supplemental in 21 minutes—I was obviously slowing down once I finished up with the core assistance sets.

I did 330 for a 5+ PR set in back Cycle 16, Week 1, and I got 12, so 13 would’ve been the number to hit. Got to 290 and began to worry about my back: it was getting fatigued, but I figured 330x8 would be feasible. Started pulling 330 and made the call to stop at 5 before something stupid happened. I didn’t compromise form and those 5 reps were solid (but tough), so we’ll call it a win. I used straps for the top set, but not for anything else, and all of the supplemental sets felt decent—not too heavy, not too light.

Daily work is all that remains. Lots of back-to-back meetings today, so that’ll probably come much later in the day this time around…

17 Likes
2655

Geez I slack on log reading for a few weeks and I’m hundreds of posts behind! It was fun catching up during my planning period though! Looks like you’re absolutely crushing it and looking supremely jacked! I basically use your log as a cheat sheet for inspiration in my own training so it’s important I stay up to date haha! 5/3/1 Hardgainers seems to be all the rage right now! I definitely have that one planned for the future, but I’m about to go into a cycle of your ol’ reliable, 5s Pro FSL 5x5. Thanks for always inspiring me and many others through your hard work and dedication!

1 Like
2656

Thanks, my dude! It’s nice to have you back—especially when you talk like that, haha!

Seriously, though—thank you. Hardgainers is great, but it’s just one among many such templates.

Can’t wait to see you crush your next cycle!

1 Like
2657

5/3/1 for Hardgainers - c17w1d5

Thursday - 08 September 2022
Workout: Daily work, 1645-1710 (20 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

That’s STILL hard, but it’s done. Lots of pressing volume tomorrow, so time to eat up!

5 Likes
2658

5/3/1 for Hardgainers - c17w1d6

Friday - 09 September 2022
Workout: Press & daily work, 0525-0700 (95 minutes)

Indigo-3G - 0500
Surge - 0530-0637

Warm-up
Throws
Box jump - 24 in - 10

Begin: 0548; End: 0657; Duration: 69 minutes
Press - 55x5, 70x5, 85x5 | 100x5, 115x5, 130x5 | (100x5)x10
Pull-up - BW - 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
Decline DB press - 2x65 lbs - 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8

Wendler rows - 90 lbs - 20, 20, 35
Alternating DB snatches - L/R - 50 lbs - 10, 10, 10

Assistance totals:
Push - 80 reps
Pull - 80 reps
Single-leg/core - 0 reps

Semi-fasted: black coffee upon waking, then Indigo-3G and Surge as above.

That was a crap-ton of work, and my upper body is pumped to high heaven. It’s also feeling pretty trashed right now.

Ran rounds of press-pull-up-DB press until I ran out of assistance, then press-row-snatch until I ran out of daily work. Cleaned up plates and setup for sled work between the press sets that remained. Warm-up sets in 11 minutes, main work in 14 minutes, finished out rounds with assistance at 44 minutes, then the rounds with daily work at 62 minutes, then final press sets at 69 minutes.

Daily work is done, too, so that just leaves the sled for this afternoon!

15 Likes
2659

Man, I’m jealous of this. Have you always been good at pullups, or did you intentionally train up to this? I’ve never been good at pullups, even when I was in the service and did them every day. Plus I was really light back then. My ape arms don’t help, but I’ve just never seemed to be able to increase the number I can do.

Doing lots of them lately has noticeably increased my lat size though. My wife even grabbed hold of my lats the other night and said “These are new. What muscle are these?” haha

1 Like
2660

Hah! Thanks for that.

I guess I’ve trained up to it… But 10x8 is still very hard for me. And I top out around 13-15 in a single set—I’m not able to hit 16+ consistently yet.

IIRC, I was doing 50+ reps in a few sets as possible for daily work over a period of maybe 3 months or so late last year. I always do them strict, and for those daily reps I used a bunch of different grips (wide/narrow neutral grip, supinated, and pronated) and pushed each set to failure. That never seemed to impede my recovery, and it definitely blew up my back!

In the end, I’m not sure if daily reps pushed my single-set rep count too far forward, but it certainly didn’t hurt. I say keep after it, and you might progress better than I did. Besides, the wife noticing your lats is not a bad thing, haha!

3 Likes
2661

5/3/1 for Hardgainers - c17w1d6

Friday - 09 September 2022
Workout: Sled, 1715-1805 (50 minutes)

10 rounds of:
a) Sled push - 50 yds, 135 + sled = 222 lbs
b) 10 deficit RDLs - 135 lbs
c) 10 CT’s modified French press - 95 lbs
Time: 37:17

100 RDLs at 135 lbs might’ve been too much today—my lower back was cranky during the later rounds, and it’s still cranky now. Not in pain, just a little twingy. But I ate 1.5 lbs of turkey meatloaf for dinner last night, I ate the remaining 1.5 lbs this afternoon for lunch, and I’ve got 1-1/3 lbs of cheeseburgers calling my name now. If that doesn’t calm my back down, nothing will!

Came in over 2 minutes faster than when I did this workout in the last Hardgainers 5s week (Cycle 16, Week 1), so I must not be doing too badly!

9 Likes
2662

5/3/1 for Hardgainers - c17w1d7

Saturday - 10 September 2022
Workout: Easy conditioning, 0525-0615 (50 minutes)

1-pump burpees + 28-kg KB swings - 2x(25 + 25), 25-second rest between
Bike@120-140 bpm - 10 minutes
Weighted vest walk - 30 kg - 15 minutes

Fasted. Usual stuff to follow, including BB curls. I may try to squeeze in tomorrow’s run of The Last Castle just because it makes Sunday easier—we’ll see.

6 Likes
2663

5/3/1 for Hardgainers - c17w1d7

Saturday - 10 September 2022
Workout: Calves & daily work + BB curls, 1205-1250 + 1525-1535 (45 + 10 minutes)

Towel hop tabata - 4x40/10

3 rounds of:
a) Clean & press - 125 lbs - 10, 10, 10
b) Pendlay rows - 125 lbs - 10, 10, 25
c) Seated CR - 210 lbs - 30, 25, 20

Towel hop tabata - 4x40/10

BB curls - 136 (rep PR)

Daily work done. Meant to say earlier that I downed all those cheeseburgers, some sweet corn, a few dark chocolate coconut clusters, and a container of that pumpkin spice Greek yogurt. I woke up with my back feeling fine but I was hungry! Speaking of, I need lunch. Oh, and I could feel my back more than my lats on those rows…

That’s it for now. I’ll edit in the BB curls once they’re done. It’s not looking like The Last Castle is going to fit at the moment, though I’m still not 100% sure what the afternoon will bring.

Edit: BB curls are quickly becoming the most painful 10 minutes of my week. But 136 unbroken in 6:31 isn’t bad (no pauses at the top, either), and I’m back on schedule with those—as promised!

Still not sure what the rest of the day looks like, but if that’s it for today, then at least I’ve finished up with this week’s work!

11 Likes
2664

5/3/1 for Hardgainers - c17w1 - summary

Decent week: hit a small +1-rep PR with squats (270x14), managed 80 reps in all of the assistance categories in each workout, got caught up on BB curls, and didn’t hurt myself deadlifting.

Did okay with food through the week days, but last Sunday was off-menu with Labor Day picnic food and birthday cake for my aunt’s 80th, and yesterday was just a train wreck—the week of horrible sleep and early mornings caught up with me, so I was mentally exhausted, and it’s just to easy to eat crap when I’m tired. We all know I make bad decisions when I’m tired, so I need to buckle down and do better, because early mornings aren’t going away…

3s week starts today, and my goals are:

  • Complete all 4 lifting workouts
  • Hit (at least) 90 reps for each assistance category
  • Complete 3 days of easy conditioning & direct calf work
  • Row something heavy every day
  • Get something heavy from floor-to-overhead every day
  • Eat properly

It’s only Sunday morning and already I’m dreading tomorrow’s squats, Thursday’s deadlifts, and Saturday’s BB curls. Guess things are on track, haha!

Oh, and I’m dreading 90 reps of assistance work, too. I can do the work—10x8 worked pretty well last week, so I’m thinking 10x9 (and then 10x10 in 1s week) will get me to my goal—it just takes me absolutely forever to get through all those reps.

But it is what it is. I’m just gonna have to keep my head down, grind it out, and eat like a beast!

Edit: Yeah, you’re right—that should say, “eat like a NUTRITION-CONSCIOUS beast!”

12 Likes
2665

5/3/1 for Hardgainers - c17w2d1

Sunday - 11 September 2022
Workout: Easy conditioning, 0720-0810 (50 minutes)

1-pump burpees + 28-kg KB swings - 2x(25 + 25), 25-second rest between
Bike@120-140 bpm - 10 minutes
Weighted vest walk - 15 minutes

Fasted.

Didn’t get to The Last Castle yesterday afternoon: rest of the family got home earlier than expected, and we all just crashed on the couch for the evening. Haven’t done that in awhile, and it was far better than working my tail off in the driveway. (But just this once, haha!)

Woke up about 20 minutes before my alarm rang, decided an early morning wasn’t necessary, shut it off, slept for almost two more hours, up shortly after 0600.

Feeling lazy this morning, but finally got today’s easy conditioning out of the way. Daily work and The Last Castle to follow.

9 Likes
2666

This has been the killer of my motivation over the last couple years. If my workouts take too long, I don’t want to do them.

I hit a bad place a couple years ago and had to rearrange my priorities. Training went from #1 to about #4 or #5. Mental health, my marriage, and my kids are more important. My wife is supportive of training and it never really interefered with anything in terms of a time commitment. On paper, everything was fine. But it mentally consumed me and dictated a lot of my decisions. It also stressed me out and I’m kind of a jerk when I’m tired and cranky.

That period is about the time I adopted the Just Don’t Suck approach. I just don’t want to go backwards as I age. It appears I’m doing pretty good so far and I’m giving way less thought and energy to training. I guess these at some of the things that are hard to measure in terms of training success, but I’m happy with what I’ve done.

1 Like
2667

Thanks for sharing that, my friend. And I hear you—loud and clear!

I started this new job three weeks ago, and almost overnight I went from Big Fish, Little Pond with a very predictable schedule and the ability to say, “No!” to Little Fish, Big Pond with A LOT to prove.

It was the right move career-wise. And after lots of discussion with my wife over the nearly 4-month Big Company courting/interviewing/negotiating process leading up to that near-instantaneous transition, it was the right move for our family.

It was not the right decision for ease and predictability of training, however.

Luckily I can identify here, too. Near the end of all those discussions, my wife went so far to say, basically, “This new job is The Right Thing. If all you do is work and lift, that’s okay—I’ve got your back.”

Now, my wife is amazing, and I know that. In fact, I’ve known that for more than 20 years. But that sentiment… THAT blew my mind.

She felt so strongly that this change was ultimately positive, she basically gave me a free pass to work and train and do nothing else.

But I want more in my life than working and training, so here I am, complaining that my workouts take too long!

It’s early days, yet, and we’re still figuring things out. I obviously haven’t given up on pushing myself, and I know there’ll be ups-and-downs, but I’m trying to be conscious of how I spend my time.

I said this on the Sunday before I started, exactly 3 weeks ago:

and so far, I’ve been right. Now it’s just a question of how far I can bend before I break—literally and figuratively!

8 Likes
2668

BTW, please be sure you all read that with the intent with which she delivered it: “Yes, the transition is scary. Yes, it will mean a change. Yes, it will be difficult at first. But don’t worry. We’ll figure it out!”

6 Likes
2669

5/3/1 for Hardgainers - c17w2d1

Sunday - 11 September 2022
Workout: Calves & daily work + extra conditioning, 1115-1205 + 1650-1725 (50 + 35 minutes)

Towel hop tabata - 4x40/10

3 rounds of:
a) Clean & press - 125 lbs - 10, 10, 10
b) Pendlay rows - 125 lbs - 10, 10, 25
c) Seated CR - 210 lbs - 30, 25, 20

Towel hop tabata - 4x40/10

Pwn’s The Last Castle - AMRAP, 20 minutes
a) Farmer’s walk - 25 yards - 2x87 lbs
b) 6 alternating DB snatches - L/R - 45 lbs
c) Farmer’s walk - 25 yards - 2x87 lbs
d) 10 KB swings - 28 kg
Rounds: 8; Time: 20:18

So that’s calves and daily work done, which just leaves The Last Castle. But first, lunch.

Edit: And that’s The Last Castle, done. I absolutely smashed it today—think that might be a time PR for this variation. I had actually started swinging in Round 8 before the 20-minute timer expired!

I think I do an old-man shuffle most times on the farmer’s walks, especially on the uphill trips, but I found a way to move my legs with purpose today and that was probably the difference.

Not sure I’ll ever really get 8 rounds in 20:00 or less, but today it seems possible somehow…

10 Likes
2670

You can do this!

You have honestly been an inspiration for me. When I read your log, I feel hopeful that I can also achieve my lifiting, academic and career goals

1 Like
2671

It sounds like she sees your training as something that’s good for your mental health. She also seems to recognize the need for self care. It’s better for you to be happy and in the gym for a couple hours compared to grouchy and in the house.

My wife is the same way. She understands my needs and I understand hers. We both give each other time to train because it’s worth the investment.

1 Like
2672

@anna_5588 - Thanks for that! You and me: the little engines that could.

@Frank_C - Behind every good man is a great woman. We’re blessed!

2 Likes
2673

5/3/1 for Hardgainers - c17w2d2

Monday - 12 September 2022
Workout: Squat, 0525-0655 (90 minutes)

Indigo-3G - 0500
Surge - 0530-0636

Warm-up
Throws
Box jump - 24 in - 10

Begin: 0547; End: 0651; Duration: 64 minutes
Squat - 130x5, 160x5, 190x5 | 225x5, 255x5, 285x5 | 225x20
Pull-up - BW - 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9
HLR - 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
Dip - 60 - 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9

Assistance totals:
Push - 90 reps
Pull - 90 reps
Single-leg/core - 90 reps

Semi-fasted: black coffee upon waking, then Indigo-3G and Surge as above.

Hah! Yeah, right… I lost the mental battle today, folks: I was lucky to eek out 285x5 this morning, and I straight-up failed the 6th rep. Totally psyched myself out on that set, though I’m not sure why. It was heavy, yes; my body was working hard, yes; but in the end, my mind just gave up.

Did squat-pull-up-HLR-dip rounds until I ran out of squat sets. Warm-up rounds in 17 minutes, main work in 23 minutes, and straight into the WM round, which took another 9 minutes. Finished out with 3 more assistance rounds to hit 90 reps in each category; those took an additional 15 minutes.

The WM was hard, too, but at least my head was in it and I gave it real effort. I’m disappointed in my lack of fight on that top set, but I’m not gonna dwell on it—spilt milk and all that.

I’m in online meetings all day from 1100-1700 with a few half-hour breaks, and honestly that might be more onerous than my top set goal for today. Gonna try to get daily work in before they start, otherwise it’ll be late, late, late before I have a chance to finish out the day…

13 Likes