Oh lol! I really liked her debut album
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DW W4D2
Shoulder warmup
Pull-ups: 2,8,6,6,5.5
BB row: 225 4 x 10
Clean pull: 185 3 x 10
Planks: 70,65,45
Crunches: 3 x 20
10 workouts left!
This day is just rough after deadlifts, I imagine any day would be but my grip is absolutely shot, so I strapped in for pull-ups but my back was still heavily fatigued for them. Didn’t use straps for rows but they were tough. I still think I’m maybe going too heavy on clean pulls, watched a few clean videos and my technique probably isn’t improving pulling relatively heavy at high reps, I really don’t understand technique work at sets of ten, in general but I digress.
Planks are absolutely getting better which is nice, slightly less dread going into them.
Have a dog date setup in a bit then will do either KB work or a peloton.
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Winnie is becoming a good dog, she was the 2nd best dog at the hangout (of 3). Went on a hike too, wasn’t strenuous but I’m pretty exhausted.
In other Winnie news, I’ve recently learned she’s awful at licking things off her nose, when intentionally put there (she cleans her nose of dirty very easily), which I find pretty amusing.
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Thank you, Winnie
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I believe in you Winnie.
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That’s awesome dude! I found it very difficult to put on weight while running deepwater the first couple of times. Looks like you’re hitting the sweet spot!
I’m sorry if you already wrote about this, but are you planning on moving on to intermediate after you finish this up?
Looking jacked too, dude. Your bench day is ridiculous with the weight you’re throwing around.
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Thanks!
Don’t think you’ve asked and I don’t think I’ve actually written down my plan here but I don’t plan on running intermediate right now. Possibly in the next gaining phase I’ll run beginner and intermediate back to back but I’m planning on a cut after this is over. I mostly ran this to get myself into good lifting shape and to convince myself I have enough muscle to cut, been successful in those regards.
Not sure what I’ll do for lifting on the cut, might try something by Stronger By Science, might just do my own thing and up the conditioning, plans will be more firm shortly
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DW W4D3
Shoulder warmup
Reverse hyper: 50 3 x 10 (waiting for a rack)
Strict press: 135 10 x 10
Lateral raises: 25 3 x 10
Ez curl: 70 5 x 10
Back extensions: 3 x 20
Crunches: 3 x 20
Last rep on press got stuck 60% of the way up, my body decided standing on my toes would help lock it out, which it did lol. Good enough.
On rep 7 of set 8 something popped in my neck, it’s tightening up pretty quickly now. took some ibuprofen and will try to keep it moving, the left side has been tight as shit so it’s not a total surprise but definitely made the rest of the workout more shitty. Bench tomorrow shouldn’t suffer to any significant degree, so we’re keeping on.
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Sounds like an awesome plan man.
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DW W4D4
Shoulder Warmup
Bench: 245 3 x 10
CGBP: 195 2 x 10, 1 x 12 (had a guy spot, figured I’d push a bit closer to failure)
Incline DB: 60 x 10, 70 2 x 10
Dips: -82 15, 15, 14
Pushups: 7.5, 6, 6
Planks: 60
Crunches: 5 x 20
This was a weird one. It started by me waking up in a haze, with my neck sore and stiff as shit. Took a couple of painkillers and walked around my house and watched 10 minutes of TV before realizing I should probably do something. Decided I’d just go to the gym and see how things felt. Halfway there I realized I had no food or caffeine in me, only my normal supplements and water. Grabbed a Rockstar Zero on the way. So, to be clear, I went into my last of 4 consecutive days slightly injured and without any real sustenance (ate a lot last night, at least). Not normal for me.
Then, after my second set of bench being altogether too hard, even with a 2 minute rest, I realized I’d added 10s to the 2 45s instead of 5s, so I was doing more work too. Shitshow lol
Needless to say, this didn’t hold up.
Strength actually felt pretty good, the neck was a bit tender on the flat bench, had to really stabilize at the bottom to not feel a tweak. Was just deloading the bar to move to incline when two people took it, was a bit annoyed but I actually liked the dumbbells more, might just transition to that for the last 2 weeks. Could probably do 75s across. It hurt a bit during dips and when I was straining doing pushups. Final kicker came when trying to hold it steady during planks, just too much pain for the squeeze so I opted to do more crunches (hands next to, not behind the head), instead. Not perfect but fine.
Glad I got through this, bench is feeling strong, even if nothing else is. Going to get some food in my belly and see what conditioning I can do that doesn’t make my neck more sore.
Less than 2 minutes of rest incoming for squats on Friday!
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20 min recovery peloton @ 108 watts
Boring but got a touch of sweat going, hip and lower back are sticky, neck is still very stiff and pretty sore. Think the neck is in a better place than yesterday but recovery is moving pretty slowly, still planning on squats for Friday but may push it one day if the neck isn’t cooperating.
Lost a couple of lbs in January, barely drank, got in better lifting shape, and averaged 10k steps a day. Good enough, shooting for roughly the same in February.
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DW W5D1
2 minute rests
DL: 210 3 x 10
FS: 195 10 x 10
Split squat: 28 3 x 10
Crunches: 3 x 20
Lying back raise: 3 x 20
I am so happy to be done with this, still on the nauseous side of things. My hip, neck and lower back have all been painful over the last few days but eased into it nicely, hardest part was keeping the brace and upper back structured. Laid down between sets 8 and 10. There were probably a few rests that went a touch over 2 minutes but I pushed to the limit.
Going to regain composure then treat myself to a double meat bowl from chipotle, probably not a lot else in the plans for today as the current “feels like” temp is -14
Winnie checking on whether I was dead or not
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Hell yeah bro, killed it!!!
We’ve really been lucking out on weather lately. It’s supposed to get up to 40 in the next few days, haha.
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Seriously, I took the dog for a walk at like 3 pm and my nose hairs froze but I think this was the first time this winter where’s been this cold (I left during the snap freeze around Christmas) so far. Pretty sure we had 3 weeks of days like that already this time last year.
Which one of these last 2 years has been closer to normal for you?
Definitely last year if I’m remembering correctly. This has been a very abnormal winter, especially where I am. Almost zero lake effect and warm.
By this time we’re usually hanging in the teens/low twenties and have had substantially more snow. The last winter I recall that was like it’s been this year was in 1998 or 1999?
That’s what I figured but hoped against haha.
We’re far enough away to not get any meaningful lake effect but we have almost no snow either, maybe 2-3 inches and it’s been getting blown about so much that it seems like less. Will almost certainly melt by next week.
These are from today
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DW W5D2
21 min treadmill walk
Pull-ups: 8,7,6,6
Rows: 225 4 x 10
Clean pulls: 185 2 x 10, 1 x 8
Shrugs: 185 4 x 10
Planks: 65,60,55
Crunches: 3 x 20
Didnt get chipotle yesterday and didn’t get enough food in general, felt it during this workout. My legs just kind of stopped pushing during the clean pulls, so I just did a high pull for the last few reps, those don’t count though. I also realized rows were off the menu for today but not until I finished them…
Got ground beef and sweet potatoes finishing up now, need to eat hard to finish this week. Fatigue is definitely catching up.
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20 min peloton @ 178 watts
Was a climbing session, did it to try to get blood in the legs. That definitely happened but my legs were screaming the entire time so I may have pushed a bit too hard, good excuse to eat in any case.
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DW W5D3
Shoulder warmup
Push press: 155 10 x 10
Lateral raise: 25 2 x 10, 30 x 10
DB curl: 25 2 x 10, 30 3 x 10
Back extensions: 3 x 20
Crunches: 3 x 20
Didn’t fall asleep until about midnight last night but somehow managed to sleep until 9:45, body was definitely happy for it. Got up, took the dog for a long walk, went to the store, and then hit this. Going for a walk/hike in a bit to get some steps in.
Genuinely think this was easier than week 1 when I had roughly double the rest, my neck was a little sketchy for the first few rounds but it loosened up, should be close to 100% for the strict press next week. Lateral raises weren’t actually included this week but I kept them in anyway.
Legs are sore as fuck, that ride definitely dug me deeper into the hole so I’m eating hard and will do some stretching tonight
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DW W5D4
10 min walk
Shoulder warmup
Bench: 245 3 x 10
CGBP: 195 3 x 10
Incline: 155 3 x 10
Dips: -76 18,12,15
Pushups: 8,6,4
Planks: 3 x 60
Crunches: 3 x 20
Got to the gym a bit before 8 and finished around 9, did this fasted like last week which works fine until the end when I just run completely out of gas. The dips forward were just an absolute slogfest.
The things preceding the dips were better than that but also pretty rough, I probably got closer to 3 min rest on 2 of the close grip sets but everything else was honest and hard. My triceps really get hammered by the push press and struggled to recover in <20 hours. I think I set a new PR for fewest pushups I’ve ever done in a set lol
Despite the roughness of this workout I’m pumped I finished the week pretty cleanly and am looking forward to finishing this program off. Need something less stressful on the books for the next phase.
Will do a couple conditioning sessions between now and Friday which is one of two sessions I’m worried about next week (strict press).
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