Been decently active recently, much better than the start of the year. Didn’t lift yesterday but threw a frisbee for a bit, got 11k+ steps, and ate way too much bbq.
I got a new battery for my weed vape and thought it wasn’t working so took a big rip of it before lifting, naturally it was working pretty well. Little higher than I wanted for a lift session but it ended up being solid upper work although my initial bench session was more rushed than it should’ve been.
Shoulder warmup, light triceps work
BP: 135 x10, 205 x 5, 255 x 8, 265 x 8, 295 x 7
Trap DL: 290 2x6, 1x10(belt)
Axle rows: 3x10 50 (just to keep moving, did them nice and slow)
Pound stone curls: 101 or 111
Tricep pulldowns: 35 3x15
Lat straight arm pulldown: 35 3x10
Pull-ups: 1x6
Rope tbar like rows: 80 2x10
CGBP: 185 3x10
Not exactly in order and some stuff was supersetted but pretty close. Nothing super impressive but got a decent amount of work in, bench felt decent, not the strongest I’ve ever felt but decent volume at decent weight. At 60/70 I forgot how many curls I’d done, so I reset back to 60 just in case, I think I actually did 111 but I need to learn to count better because these suck.
Got an early afternoon session in, I’m pretty fatigued at this point, I went from ~2 days a week to ~4 days a week to ~5.5 days a week in like 3 weeks so I’m not quite conditioned for this yet but that’s coming along, tried to keep rests to essentially nothing during this session. Stopped moving a few times but not many.
Shoulder warmup, 50 jumping jacks
Face pulls: 3 x 10
Axle OHP: 150 2x8, 1x10
Band lateral/front raises: 3x10
Hang cleans: 135 x 10, 155 x 8, 165 x 6
SL RDL: 3x10
Band Pull throughs: 3x10
BSS: 3x10
So, my legs are pretty tired and a bit sore at this point. I think the 5x10 @ 205 3 days ago is taking a toll along with the significant increase in overall activity. Felt good to do the single leg work, my balance is getting better and the movements are feeling more effective. Will probably start loading these in the next few weeks. During my warmup jumping jacks I could feel my delts were a bit sore from benching yesterday, they felt fine doing the actual work but i’m definitely pushing myself at this point. OHP felt strong, cleans felt strong and got the heart rate up. I have a strong desire to push intensity on cleans but have no real reason to do so, I’d feel better being able to do 5x10 @ 155 then 5x3 @ 225. Was planning on doing a few pullups but my back and biceps are trashed from yesterday.
Tomorrow is an off day from lifting, I can’t find enough parts of me that aren’t fatigued/sore. I’ll either go for a short jog or do some yoga and fit some pullups in throughout the day.
That was the goal but I definitely took a few breaks
Rotation varied a bit but was something like:
Lat/front raises
BSS
OHP
SL RDL
Cleans
Pull throughs
Face pulls
Tried to rotate based on bodypart and effort I needed to put in. Turns out no matter where you put Bulgarian split squats, they suck. I’m not too concerned with strength at the moment otherwise I’d be giving myself much more time before OHP, at least
Biceps, especially the right one are pretty sore, so I’m leaving pull-ups alone for today. Jogged 12 minutes in my neighborhood, legs didn’t feel great but lungs were pretty decent after the first few. No desire to push things here but will keep trying to go once a week or so and gradually build up stamina.
Nothing too interesting here, the 5x10 sets continue to suck but they are probably getting a bit easier despite increases in weight, I think i’ll continue upping the weight by 20 until I can’t get 5x10, imagine that will be around 265/285. At that point I’ll either up intensity (6x8 @ 245) or drop down and up volume (6x12 @205) and start progressing from there, my conditioning is improving greatly, which is nice. Hip is a bit sore from all the work i’ve been doing to the lower body, need to keep an eye on it.
Raises/facepulls continue to be maintenance work without really pushing anything, every time i’ve tried to go heavy on raises i’ve ended in pain so i’m likely to add more volume than intensity here. Wasn’t actually planning on doing any pressing today but a friend had been using the axle so I just grabbed it, set a mental goal and hit it, the last few reps were pretty rough but figured it was a quick way to get some volume in.
No, I think I’ve been 3 to 5 times this year. At some point I believed I was less motivated because I wasn’t in the gym. Then I went to the gym a few times and realized I just wasn’t motivated to lift, so stopped going and just did the bare minimum at home, the motivation has returned the last 3 or 4 weeks though. Always trying to figure out ways to sustain it.
Maybe you could try to find a competition near you to kickstart things? I’m not sure exactly when you’re relocating. My co-worker recently committed to Cornell for grad school, so it’s interesting to hear from a couple people moving to Ithaca around the same time
Yea, I’ve thought about that and definitely haven’t counted it out. I don’t really have any desire to compete in powerlifting but it might light a spark for me, who knows. Strongman seems way more fun but I’ve literally never trained for it and sit down most of the day, would very likely hurt myself. Maybe I’ll see if there is a Strongman gym in Ithaca or one of the surrounding towns that I can at least drive to once a week. Hopefully find a good PL one, if not.
What field are they in and do you know when they start? I am confused about why my gf is starting in July but apparently it fits the vet school schedule??
Powerlifting also isn’t super compelling to me either. Yeah, maybe you’d like Strongman. Having never trained for something means there’s nowhere to go but up.
I know nothing about vet school. They’re in a STEM field for a PhD, which starts end of August at most schools.
Even though I find powerlifting a bit boring, I wouldn’t be opposed to trying out a meet at some point. I was going to make a fool of myself at a Strongman competition last year, but COVID ruined that plan.
Booked a mover, probably going to get scammed as I did it when I was stressed out my mind and rushed through the process. Work has been annoying and a lot, I sent my resume in to another job that a friend recommended me for, hopefully hear back from them soon. The dog, who has had cancer for 1.5 years and has been doing great is finally hitting a wall, stomach is messed up, appetite is severely diminished, limping pretty regularly, my gf is doing everything she can to keep him happy for as long as possible but it looks like the end is finally coming, which is killing me. He’s also seemingly losing his control of his bladder slowly, so if I get up in the night to pee I take him out, which is hurting my sleep schedule. Plus, my grandpa who is like 92 has been in and out of the hospital and I think my family is finally going to move him into assisted living. Not been a great week.
Sorry to read about all that man. Hope you’re doing alright. Sometimes you have to train the pain away dude. Nice session considering the circumstances
I’m sorry to read that things aren’t so great right now. Totally get it when you mention deadlifts having that effect. You have a couple months left in your current spot, but hopefully things are on the up soon and that the move will be a positive reset for you guys
