If you wait until you need a deload, you waited to long. Play the long game and don’t be afraid to back off. I’ll take at least two days a week and only walk, even if I feel I could get in a workout that day. It may feel like I’m losing progress in the moment, but I know it’s actually driving long term progress and overall health. (Not that I’m an expert or anything; just an older dude trying to keep it up).
On the one hand, that workout was a missed opportunity: I could’ve gone heavier on almost everything. On the other, the reps were slow and controlled, and the MMC was fantastic.
Sunday - 02 February 2025 Workout: Conditioning, 1130-1150 (20 minutes)
Burpees + KB swings - 32 kg - 25 + 25
Assault bike - 10 minutes
Fasted.
Deloading this week, which will mean cutting stuff in half (or something like that). As it was, I got 6.1+ kilometers and 126 calories in 10 minutes—probably couldn’t sustain that pace for 20 minutes, but I made the most of the 10 minutes I had!
I’ll be going for easy 5s this week, kinda 5/3/1 TM testing style. While 285 moved well enough, I’d probably go with 265 for a TM because the bar was slowing down a bit and I could feel my sticking point kicking in as I came out of the hole. Still really happy with how all of that went, though.
EMOM, 8 minutes
Clean and press - 95 lbs - 5
Towel hop - remaining time
3 rounds of:
a) HLR - 6
b) Alternating spiderman push-up - 6
c) Cable crunch - 50 lbs - 6
d) Seated calf raise - 190 lbs - 6
Fasted.
Glad I decided to do the clean and press variation during this deload: Now I know I couldn’t do 15 minutes of that at 95 lbs!
Also took the opportunity to reintroduce full-on hanging leg raises (versus the cheat-y knee raise variation I have been doing). Here, I think 6-8 reps will be a good starting point as I move forward.
Ego got in the way and I pushed for 255: Got all the reps, but I probably should’ve racked it after 4 and I likely hit the Simo scale on 5. As it is, 235 would be the TM—start too light and whatnot.
Rest of it was pretty good, nice and easy. Overhead press felt particularly great: Poverty weight, but the reps were super-solid.
Happy with that! Deads were easy 5s for sure, even 300. Well, okay, maybe that top set wasn’t strictly easy, and I’d probably go with 285 for a TM, but it was strong and smooth. Probably easier than my squat top set on Monday and far, far easier than bench on Wednesday.
That said, 65 lbs for one-arm rows is probably a bit heavy, even for just 5 reps: Either too much body english or too little ROM for my liking.
Daily work later, and then just tomorrow’s work before I’m onto Block 2.