That was a heck of a travel leg day. Nice one!
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@alex_uk - Nice to have you with me, brother! Here’s hoping you find that mojo sooner than you think.
@shaneinga - Thanks, my friend! I’m back home now—I’m just calling the whole week “Travel Pause” because I’m off the SST schedule and whatnot—but travel or not, it was absolutely:
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Travel Pause - Day 5
Thursday - 13 June 2024
Workout: Conditioning, 1645-1705 (20 minutes)
5 rounds of:
Assault bike - 12 cals
Air squat - 10
KB swing - 32 kg - 15
That’s all. Swapped in air squat reps for some swing reps because I’m already stiff from this morning’s work and then sitting all day.
That said, if I’m really gonna do this bodybuilding thing—even just in the short-run—I need to start paying attention to my step count: I much prefer these “a bit harder, a lot faster” conditioning workouts, but walking matters.
It’s a fine line to walk (haha!), though, because I think that’s ultimately what killed my failed run of Easy Strength for Fat Loss earlier this year—the work wasn’t impossibly hard or anything, but I got fed up with the 45-minute walks pretty quickly.
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Travel Pause - Day 6
Friday - 14 June 2024
Workout: Push, 0430-0540 (70 minutes)
Warm-up
Begin: 0441; End: 0534; Duration: 53 minutes
a) Bench - 135x12, 155x10, 175x8, 195x6, 135xf (20)
b1) Press - 95 lbs - 10; 85 lbs - 10, 10
b2) Upright row - 50 lbs - 10, 10, 10
c1) Single-arm DB press - 25 lbs - 12L + 12R, 12L + 12R, 12L + 12R
c2) Skull crusher - 2x25 lbs - 12; 2x20 lbs - 12, 12
d) DB lateral raise - 15x8 + 12x10 + 10x12, 15x8 + 12x10 + 10x12, 15x8 + 12x10 + 10x12
e1) Push-up 15, 15, 15
e2) Dip - BW - 10, 10, 10
Fasted.
Holy I-can’t-feel-my-triceps, Batman! That was wicked.
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Travel Pause - Day 6
Friday - 14 June 2024
Workout: Conditioning, 1555-1620 (25 minutes)
5 rounds of:
Assault bike - 12 cals
Single-arm DB bench - 2x35 lbs - 8L + 8R
Clean & press - 65 lbs - 6
So this morning’s “Single-arm DB press” was supposed to be “Single-arm DB bench,” but I didn’t read the description carefully. (These also include a static extended hold on the non-working arm, which adds a nice twist.) Decided to work those in here, just to see how they feel—and “not bad” is the verdict, though I might be able to bump up to 2x40 lbs and still hit 12 reps well enough during the actual superset.
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Travel Pause - Day 7
Saturday - 15 June 2024
Workout: Conditioning, 0940-1015 (35 minutes)
(2/3) Jimmy WOD - AMRAP, 20 minutes
Deadlift - 265 lbs - 5
Pull-up (strict, various grips) - BW - 7
Push-up - 9
Rounds: 5 + 12 (6 full rounds in +0:32)
Fasted.
Piss-poor mental effort there—the individual movements were okay, but I wasn’t pushing myself to transition between them quickly enough.
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Morgan S.'s Summer Shred - w1d1
Sunday - 16 June 2024
Workout: Conditioning, 0740-0810 (30 minutes)
(Modified 2/3) Jimmy WOD - AMRAP, 20 minutes
Squat - 235 lbs - 5
Pull-up (strict, various grips) - BW - 7
Push-up - 9
Rounds: 6 + 9 (7 full rounds in +0:57)
Fasted.
Better mental effort today, pretty happy overall—the hardest part was the bar digging into my sunburned traps from too much of @ChickenLittle’s “yardio” yesterday.
So “Morgan S.'s Summer Shred” is the cheesy marketing name for the bodybuilding clinic Mrs. SvenG is doing at her gym. Morgan S. is a coach there and an NPC Wellness competitor in her own right. I’m transitioning into this programming for the next several weeks because it’s an interesting change of pace, I get to piggyback on the coaching my wife is getting, and it’s not often we get to do things like this together. (That said, I still haven’t convinced her to get up with me at 0-dark-thirty to knock out the lifting work during the work week. Can’t really blame her, though—I can barely convince myself to do it!)
I’m not ready to give up the barbell for deads and squats, though, so my thought is to have two of the “off” day conditioning workouts consist of deadlift- or squat-based WODs, kinda like Jimmy here. I’m thinking I’ll still push the sled, too—though probably with lighter loads for longer distances. And I’m going to need to make step count a priority somehow…
Yeah, I’ve obviously still got details to figure out, but I guess we’ll just see how it goes!
Edit: Almost forgot: Happy Father’s Day, fellow T-Nation dads! Keep setting the bar high and leading by example—our families are worth it!
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Happy Father’s Day!
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Thanks, @shaneinga! Same to you.
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If you’ve followed my log for any length of time, you know I drop links to church messages some times, usually Christmas or Easter. I promise I’m not trying to push my views or beliefs on anyone when I link these videos, but I do hope that if you happen to click through and watch them, you find something useful in what he has to say—even if you don’t think or believe like I do.
Anyway, today’s message is definitely one of those, so here it is:
The teaching starts at about 24 minutes and runs through roughly the 60-minute mark.
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This is like a very typical CF workout at my gym. I really enjoy working out like this, and I’ve found it covers all my needs in terms of strength and conditioning. Interested to see how you like it.
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I’m a supporter of this. Will check it out.
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Small world indeed! That’s pretty cool.
Sadly, we’re not in your area. But we do go to one of the NorthPoint partners way up north—Woodstock just had the first hit on the message title, so that’s the one I linked!
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Very cool! Andy definitely has a wide reach. Great message btw!
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Morgan S.'s Summer Shred - w1d2
Monday - 17 June 2024
Workout: Pull, 0425-0520 (55 minutes)
Warm-up
Begin: 0440; End: 0518; Duration: 38 minutes
a) WG lat pulldown - 95x12, 105x10, 115x8, 125x6, 95xf (15.5)
b) BB row - 120x(10+10, 10+10, 10+10)
c1) Cable face pull - 20x(12, 12, 12, 12)
c2) Cable lat pullthrough - 40x(10, 10, 10, 10)
d) DB curl - 25x(7L + 7R + 7L/R)
e) DB hammer curl - 25x(7L + 7R + 7L/R)
f) Pull-up - BW - 5, 5, 4+1, 4+1, 4+1
Fasted.
Progress everywhere, with pretty strict 60-second rests between sets. “15.5” on the last set of pulldowns: Morgan says the goal is technical failure—my form was pretty bad on rep 16, so that’s where I called it. Very happy with pull-ups: No need for band-assist today, rest-pause was enough to get the reps in!
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Morgan S.'s Summer Shred - w1d2
Monday - 17 June 2024
Workout: Conditioning, 1655-1720 (25 minutes)
5 rounds of:
Assault bike - 12 cals
Clean & press - 65 lbs - 12
Didn’t think of it until just now, but I liked adding the single-arm bench when I messed that up last week, so maybe I’ll add some rows on Mondays and some kind of pec movement on Fridays.
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Morgan S.'s Summer Shred - w1d3
Tuesday - 18 June 2024
Workout: Conditioning, 0425-0505 (40 minutes)
5 rounds of:
Sled ground-to-overhead - about 85 lbs - 10
Seated calf raise - 170 lbs - 12
Hanging leg raise - 6
So it looks like I’ve got time for a bit more, and it feels like I’ve got energy for a bit more, but I think I’ll save that runway for a week or two, just to see how things progress.
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Morgan S.'s Summer Shred - w1d3
Tuesday - 18 June 2024
Workout: Conditioning, 1725-1740 (15 minutes)
5 rounds of:
Assault bike - 12 cals
Air squat - 10
KB swing - 32 kg - 15
Done. Tomorrow’s leg day—bring it on!
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Morgan S.'s Summer Shred - w1d4
Wednesday - 19 June 2024
Workout: Lower, 0425-0525 (60 minutes)
Warm-up
Begin: 0435; End: 0520; Duration: 45 minutes
a) Heel-elevated goblet squat + air squat - 32 kg - 10 + 10, 10 + 10, 10 + 10, 10 + 10
b1) DB RDL - 2x35 lbs - 10, 10, 10
b2) B-stance DB RDL - 2x35 lbs - 10L + 10R, 10L + 10R, 10L + 10R
c1) DB sumo deadlift - 2x55 lbs - 10, 10, 10, 10
c2) Bulgarian split squat - 2x35 lbs - 8L + 8R, 8L + 8R, 8L + 8R, 8L + 8R
d) Walking lunge - 2x25 lbs - 2xf (12L + 12R, 16L + 16R)
Fasted.
Did better today, but here I am, still looking for that puke bucket…
The lower back pump didn’t get really bad until the c1/c2 superset—made it through, but that’s when the wheels started to come off.
I’m having a hard time judging failure on the walking lunges: I think I need to go heavier, because I become aware of my lungs failing before anything else—probably because my legs are already numb by that point!
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