Massage felt fantastic, so relaxing and the massage therapist actually spent a good amount of time working my chronically sore areas which was lovely.
Went to a friends house and had a few drinks and used Pepsi’s new full-calorie sprite alternative as a mixer, feel awful, unsurprisingly. Pizza May also be a contributing factor. Anyway, to make amends I went I to this fasted which also felt awful lol
Shoulder warmup
KB swings: 50lbs x 40, 60 3 x 20
Pullups (neutral): 1 x 7
Push press: 135 2 x 5, 185 2 x 5, 205 x 3 (add belt), 225 2 x 3, 245 x 3
DB shoulder press: 55 x 12, 65 x 10, 80 x 8
DB rear flyes: 20 x 15, 25 x 12, 30 x 10
Dips: -40 x 18, -32 x 13, - 26 x 9
Took until 225 on push press before I felt alive, pressing felt decent but I was doing a poor job bracing after unracking, that’s one of those things volume doesn’t teach well. Could’ve probably tripled 255 or 265 but left it alone, trying not to be an idiot. 3 plate push press coming this year though.
DB press was just for volume, felt very strong, back support is nice lol.
Decided I’d do 40 reps of dips in 3 sets while dropping weight, next time I’ll use less assistance and achieve the same.
Owe abs and am going to do yoga, my hip flexors are mad at me.
Afternoon work:
20 min “low impact” peloton @ 147
10 min core yoga
20 min yin yoga
Don’t think I’ve ever done yin before, think there were a total of 4 poses that you gradually work into and hold, liked it more than most classes, hamstrings and lower back got a lot of blood
Hey, I just finished listening to the Samia album you mentioned. It didn’t really grasp me, but a couple of songs were interesting. I like Dream Song the most.
Nice, I’m glad you listened, it took me 3 or 4 listens before I really liked it but I only gave it that many shots because I liked her last album so much. I think the transition from the tension in Breathing Song to the light Honey is my favorite bit.
I’ve been on an Indigo De Souza kick over the last week or two.
Legs
8 min warmup walk
Ham curls: 125 2 x 12
Pull-ups: 1 x 5
Front squat: 135 x 5, 225 x 5, 275 x 3, 315 x 2, 335 x 1, 365 x 1, 275 2 x 5
Leg press: 380 3 x 15
Kb swings: 24kg 50, 30
Didn’t make it in until the end of my work day and had to go grab the dog so I was shorter on time than I would’ve liked to have been. I was planning on hitting RDLs once I got home but my upper back and hamstrings are trashed.
Front squats felt mediocre until I widened my stance a bit which got more parts engaged, 365 matches a PR but I’ve been stronger than that so I don’t really care about it. 405 is a bit off but probably not that far.
Leg press is amazing, nothing makes my legs feel as worked without also trashing other parts of my body.
Belt moved back into the 4th hole, where it was residing when I was 8-10lbs lighter last summer, takes a bit of convincing but a good sign, for sure.
Weekly swings: 180/600
Here is 365. For not squatting that heavy for a bit it doesn’t look terrible but the hips move back too quickly which causes me to get too flat which in turn makes it harder for my upper back to maintain structure. No need for wholesale change but room for improvement
Weight stayed stagnant for the week, I would guess my average morning weight was lower but am intentionally avoiding making note of that, trying to avoid obsession.
Generally, I think I ate better meals but more quantity and had worse snacks (wheat thins, almonds, and peanut butter filled pretzels [delicious]) instead of primarily almonds. Will try to get somewhere into the 281s by this time next week. Leanness still seems to be trending in the right direction, as evidenced by the weight belt.
30 min “low impact” peloton @ 158 watts
Pushed a bit above the recommendations to get the heart working a bit harder, legs were protesting until about the 13 minute mark then were sore but working well without pain. Speaking of, I tweaked something in my back, on the right side, yesterday during front squats. Not anything of real concern but made sleep a little worse last night.
It definitely seems like an album that I could try out a couple more times.
Most recently I’ve been listening to new singles from Hippo Campus and Manchester Orchestra while I impatiently wait for the boygenius and The National records…
Honestly though, I’m still loving a lot of last year’s releases, such as the new Smidley album.
Just did a quick conditioning/arms session. My planned 5th lifting day isn’t really happening, my body just really doesn’t want to lift at this point, so keeping moving and hitting small things seems like a good idea.
Swings + pushups, 5 min amrap:
25 swings
10 pushups
Made it through 5 full rounds and 12 of the swings in the sixth round, just finished the swings for that.
Then did
Tricep pushdown: 35lbs x 20
Tricep overhead: 35 x 10
Poundstone: axle x 100 (sad noises)
Tricep pushdown: 35lbs x 20
Tricep overhead: 35 x 10
Finished with 50 consecutive swings
Holy forearm pump, haven’t done poundstones in a minute, those things blow but the pump is unparalleled. Did the circuit from completely cold, was actually moving a bit faster toward the end, felt good.
Need to get in a walk or two and maybe some yoga/stretching tonight.
Knocked out 25 swings last night, in addition to these today.
Not enough but better than nothing. Going to lift tomorrow but probably not much else, going to get close to a foot of snow. Diet has been good until today which wasn’t great but not horrific either
I hope you like it! Don’t feel like you have to check it out though. I also love Not Strong Enough! It’s been on repeat for the past few days. I’m so excited for the record.
@Bagsy I’ve listened to it a few times, like it overall, feels a lot like foxing in parts. In Poor Taste is my favorite followed by Here Comes the Devil
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Heavy bench day
13 min walk
Kb swings: 60lbs 30, 15
Bench: 135 2 x 10, 225 x 10, 275 x 5, 315 x 5, 335 x 3
Pull-ups: 1 x 7
Slingshot bench: 365 2 x 3, 1 x 4
Close grip: 225 2 x 10
Incline db: 80 x 8, 90 x 7, 100 x 6
Facepulls: 50 2 x 20
Hammered bench today, going to be sore. Got a spotter for the last set of slingshot and barely eked out another rep, hit the hook on the way up but made it. Will do lots of pulling tomorrow to help offset this work but I’m happy with my strength right now.
Went and got some wings and drinks last night, was fun and tasty but I’m feeling it today, got in and went hard anyway.
Back
Shoulder warmup
Band face pulls: 3 x 20
KB swings: 50 4 x 25
Hang cleans: 115 3 x 5, 165 2 x 5
Rack pulls (below knee): 225 x 5, 315 x 5, 365 3 x 5, 435 x 5
Pull-ups: 1 x 5
Reverse hyper: 50 x 15, 100 2 x 8
Db Row: 80 3 x 10
Hammer curl: 30 2 x 10
Db curl: 35 2 x 6
Owe abs and pull-ups.
Did this with a headache, fatigue and dehydration was also working off of a handful of cashews for fuel. Just put down 5 eggs , 2 tortillas, and some yogurt though so that should be sorted.
Hang cleans felt 10x better than last week, staying light seems to be the only reasonable path forward. Rack pulls felt 10x worse than last week, I was in a different rack and I was either going to be higher or lower than last week so I went lower, made these absolutely miserable. Feel like they are super effective though so I’m happy with the work. Everything else felt good.
Have a doctors visit tomorrow afternoon and will probably just take the rest of the day off after and get my push press in.
Had a disjointed day, started slow, had a meeting, had a dr’s appt, went to the library, went to the gym. Bad for work, good for getting life things done. By the time I made it to the gym I was hungry and tired though, so I did what I thought would be the minimal effective dose.
Shoulders
Shoulder warmup
Facepulls: 3 x 15
Push press: 95 x 5, 135 2 x 5, 185 x 5, 205 x 5, 225 x 5
Assisted Dips: -40 x 20, - 34 x 15, -22 x 10
Will do some conditioning tonight too after I finish some work things and get the dog.
Finished 2 books in the last month. Klara and the Sun (Ishiguro) and Great Circle (Shipstead), enjoyed both quite a lot and decided I immediately wanted to read another Ishiguro so checked out Never Let Me Go as well as Good Omens by Gaiman. I’ve seen the latter’s TV show but don’t think that will impact my reading of him, I’ve started another Gaiman book but never finished one, excited for it.
Dr. took a very quantitative approach to our first meeting and said roughly “based on these things I think you are X, Y, and Z therefore I think you should take something like this, this, and this, what do you think?” After years and (probably tens of) thousands of dollars fucking around with our stupid system I am delighted with his approach so far, the medicine changes will be a shift in paradigm, one I’m hoping works well for me.
My forearms and grip are hurting, might need to figure out a pattern to knock out more swings over the next few days before giving them a bit of a rest.
