Begin...The Rest is Easy

No lifting the last two days but

Yesterday:
14k steps (exactly lol)
Leg raises
Shoulder work
20 min yoga

So far today:
11k steps
45 min peloton endurance @ 152 watts

Realized I was taking the exact same bike class as a week ago about 3 min in but decided I didn’t care and beat my average by 1 watt. Legs were feeling a bit sore today, didn’t have much pop in them but got the work done.

Partner’s parents are getting into town shortly, so I will be busy with that but hopefully I’ll have enough time to get to the gym a few times.

Official weekly weigh in is on Thursday morning but I woke up 3.4lbs lighter today than yesterday, at 257.2, some bloat definitely came off. Good news.

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Got in a quick leg session in

Hip abduction: 70 x 15, 110,130,150 x 10
Hip adduction: 70 x 10, 90 3 x 10

Shoulder stuff
Front squats: 135 2 x 5, 185, 225, 275 x 5, 295 x 4, 315 3 x 2
Pull-ups: 3 x 6
Leg press: 200, 380, 470 x 10, 520 x 20
Face pulls: 70 3 x 15

Not the most impressive session but good enough. Brace sucked for the FS but got a hit better with a slightly wider stance. Tried to be as explosive as possible on leg press, felt good. Overall legs weren’t as tired as expected after 3 hours on the bike over the last week.

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60 min “power zone endurance” peloton @ 153 watts

1 mile walk

2 rounds all sets of 10
Band straight arm pulldowns
Face pulls
Rope hammer curls
Meadows row

Did all of that without a break, pretty gassed at this point. Need to get some food in me.

Peloton was primarily zone 2 for 30 min, zone 2/3 for the next 25, then with 4ish minutes left I realized I could beat my old PR (not that it means much, this is like my 4th ride for this length) if I pushed pretty hard. Ended up beating it by 1 watt lol. Drank a big thing of water and a mixture of carbs, zero cal Gatorade, and water during this ride, think it kept the energy up. Cardio is already vastly improved, still work to do though. Will try to get a better back session in this week but I’ll be busy

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30 min peloton @ 189 watts

Shoulder workout
Lateral raises: 20 3 x 10
Band upright rows: 3 x 12
Kneeling landmine press: 45, 55, 60 x 10
BPA: 6 x 10

Weekend was full of mediocre to bad food choices, imagine weight bumped back up to 260ish but we’ll see later this week. Activity levels are pretty high right now, been averaging 13k+ steps for the last 6 weeks and have been hitting the peloton for longer efforts the last 3 or so, lifting is taking a back seat but I think I’m doing enough to not regress while (hopefully) getting my joints a sufficient break.

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Off yesterday, plan was to yoga but I got ready for bed and was in it before remembering, such is life. Got 15k steps though, so staying active.

Today:

Cable flies (low to high): 20 3 x 10
Tri overhead: 80 x 10, 100 2 x 8
Tri bar pushdown: 80 x 10, 100 2 x 10
Pull-ups: 2 x 6
Swiss bar pin press: 95 x 10, 135 x 10, 185 x 8, 205 x 8

2 mile walk

Band pull downs: 2 x 15

Not a ton of work in the gym but the shoulder felt pretty decent and I got out in around 30 min. Was planning on doing a full ROM Swiss bar bench but the rack I was using was too narrow so I set it up so it was maybe 3” off the chest, really have to brace well for this or it gets wonky. Shoulder felt when it got wonky, so a good reminder to work on form. Think the neutral grip was a bit easier on the shoulder so will probably keep something like this in the rotation.

Plan for the afternoon is a 45 min easy peloton and a bit of extra work, if I can squeeze it in.

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45 min peloton @ 128 watts

20 min slow flow yoga

Peloton was sweaty but not hard, so was yoga. God damn humidity is making me sweatier than normal, which is pretty sweaty lol

Weigh in tomorrow and either an off day or I’ll sneak a peloton in.

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60 min peloton @ 148 watts

3/4 mile walk, 100 yard sprint.

100 yard sprint was to beat the torrential downpour, which worked. Winnie was wondering why we were jogging though, I eventually let her open up once we got to the lawn. She zooms.

Peloton rotated between zone 2 and 3, legs felt good, lungs felt good my XXL t shirt was entirely wet 25 min in.

Weekly weight update:
Weighed in at 257.0 this morning for a drop of 3.6lbs. Think my initial weigh in was a bit heavy because of bloat but this is still definitely helped by the deficit. My digestion and hydration are a bit off currently, a lot of stimulants and a shit ton of sweating, partially caused by the 2.5-3.5 hours of cardio I’ve started doing are making it a bit rough to dial in. I’ll get there though.

Diet has been decent since the in laws left, I’ve upped carbs because of the cardio and it’s feeling pretty good. A bit more protein probably wouldn’t be a bad thing though.

Heading out of town Wednesday of next week so I’ll update one day early for that. Only plan before that is a squat day and an FTP test, will probably do a few other things on top of it.

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Alright, tomorrow we’re actually going to the gym. Slept poorly last night but managed to stay active by walking a bunch (13k steps), some abs and did a 20 min peloton @201 watts. Pretty decent effort but legs were tired, excited to see how deep I can dig a few days from now. 2:1 bw ratio (kg/w) or bust

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Leg day

Abduction: 90 x 15, 110 x 12, 150 x 10
Adduction: 90 3 x 12

All of the above were slow and focused, really gets the hips ready for squatting. Think this is saving me.

SSB: 145 x 5, 215 x 5, 285 x 3, 325 x 3, 375 x 2, 395 x 2 (maybe PR), 420 x 1 (sketchy but 5lb PR), 235 x 15

Shoulder work
Various chins: 3 x 6

Leg press: 200, 380, 560, 700 x 10
Split squat (db): 60, 70, 80 x 8

Thought I videoed 420 but didn’t, I somehow used my arm to push off my leg, no idea, wasn’t pretty but wasn’t that grindy. Have a vid of 395 x 2 but my shorts are up my butt, I’ll keep that one for my premium fans.

Went pretty heavy on leg press, half the workout is unloading the damn thing (@atlas13 and @simo74). Was planning on just hitting some pumpy leg extension but it was taken so I did split squats, terrible decision.

Really solid session I thought all the cycling would take something out of me but I didn’t feel it.

I haven’t been eating enough during the day and been eating a ton of shit at night, not as worried about weight increase with it but the quality isn’t going to help me build so I’m going to work on cleaning that up. Actually had breakfast today, eggs and sausage ftw

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My old YMCA gym actually had a few 100lb plates that were only used for the leg press. One of the few times I think they really are useful

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My current gym has one pair of them and they are always on the leg press, makes doing math harder (somehow) but I’m glad there is no expectation I have to unload them

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Had quite a few beers last night for a going away event, not too bad but definitely woke up slightly off this morning.

Back day
Wide lat pulldown: 100, 120 x 10, 140 x 8
Dead hang: 30s, 40s
Shoulder stuff
BB row: 135 x 10, 185 x 8, 225 3 x 8
Reverse hyper: 50, 60, 80 x 10
Seal row, dead stop: 135 3 x 8
Hammer curls: 25 3 x 10
Curls: 25, 30, 35, 40 x 5

Decent back day, didn’t bring my belt or straps so rows were a bit harder than normal but felt pretty good. Seal rows felt weird, think I needed to adjust the setup but just ended up doing dead stop instead and things started clicking, good overall not sure I like them more than a db row though.

Hit 7 on the set of 40 for curls but it was a bit cheaty. Might do a super easy peloton to get some soreness out of the legs but am going to try to take it easy for tomorrow when I hit the FTP test

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Shoulder day

Cable lateral/front raise super set: 20 3 x 10 (10 for lateral raise on each arm then switch to front)
Upright cable row: 70 3 x 10
Facepulls: 70, 90, 110 x 10
Standing (crouched) landmine press: 45, 55, 65 x 10
Rear delt (pec dec): 70 x 15, 80 x 12, 90 x 10

1 mile walk

Decent enough work, got an okay pump. Tried pressing an empty axle and an empty swiss bar but had some pain for each of them so I just stuck to the landmine press. Standing makes it less vertical than kneeling and probably gets the chest more involved than intended but it is still definitely hitting the delts. Good enough, thinking about going to PT for the shoulder though because what I am doing isn’t solving at as quickly as I want.


Not positive i’ll do the FTP today but i’m leaning that direction even though my legs felt absolutely dead on that walk and there is still quite a bit of soreness. In any case I woke up at 256.8 which is just a touch under 116.5kg.

Goal 1:
Beat previous best of 215 watts

Goal 2:
2x watts:kg, which would mean hitting 233 or better

Goal 3:
250 watt average

Very confident about 1, not very confident about 3. The state of my legs will probably play a big role today but this ride doesn’t really matter that much, I’ve only been riding for a month+ again so putting pressure on this is dumb but I’m doing it anyway.

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Got ansty and decided to go for it, drank a gatorade zero powder mix, waited 20 min then did a 10 min warmup. My legs felt like hell, slow and painful, and my heart was racing, thought about calling it off but I was already in the saddle so decided to go for it. Glad I did.

Plan going in was 215-220 watts for the first 5 min then gradually pick up the pace and finish strong but since I knew my legs were not feeling it I didn’t think I’d have a kick at the end so started higher and tried to hold on. Ended up going out of the gate ~230 and worked my way up to the 240s by the 5min mark, kicked up resistance up a bit there and held on. At the 10 min mark I was working hard and knew the rest would suck but added a few points of resistance. Average was ~250 at this point and I was riding just above that mark, I essentially held on for dear life from there. Tried to kick it up a bit for the last minute and did a bit but was gassed at that point.

Ended up averaging 254 which beats my old mark easily and means I hit all of my goals. My medium term and possibly end goal is a 2.5x FTP, which is slightly different than (watts/kg) because the original test is 60 min and the metrics say the 20 min test (which I did) is only equivalent of 95% of that. At my current weight I’d need to average 306.5, which, no. So, I’m going to keep weight loss tied to cycling progress because that seems miserable. Will test again in 2-4 months when I feel i’ve progressed and have some goals I want to hit before then.

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45 min power zone endurance peloton @ 160 watts

Just wanted to do something to get the legs moving, spent 90% of the 45 minutes in zone 2. My zones have shifted a ton with the increase in FTP, the top of my zone 3 is now higher than the top of my zone 4 was, so that will be interesting when I start riding at higher intensities. That’s for another day though, this felt good, sweaty but good.

Day early weigh-in tomorrow, expect essentially no change at this point but that might change depending on how snacky i get after dinner. Also hoping to get a quick front squat workout in and then i’m flying across the country. Plan is to get right back at it come Monday.

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Leg day part 2

Hip adduction: 90 x 15, 110 x 12, 130 x 10
Abduction: 110, 130, 150 x 12

So good, switched the order and my left groin felt a little tweaky to start.

Shoulder stuff

FS: bar 2 x 5, 135 2 x 5, 225 2 x 5, 275 x 3, 295 x 3, 315 x 1, 335 x 1

Straight arm pulldown: 90 3 x 15

Hack squat machine RDL: 2pps, 3pps, 4pps x 10

Not a bad overall workout let’s definitely felt a little dead and FS never really came together, bar had no center knurling and was a whippy CrossFit bar that didn’t help things. Realistically though I just need to keep the frequency of FS up to grow, the brace with heavy weights is still the hardest part.


Weekly weight update:

As predicted, no movement. 257.0 this morning. Ate most of a pint of ice cream and half of a dark chocolate bar last night so I’m surprised I wasn’t heavier. After dropping 3.6lbs last week I’m not surprised I leveled off, will have a rough run through Sunday but I’ll come back and lock it in. Realistically still a bit ahead of pace.

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Can I just say I envy your ability to eat stuff like this and still trend downward in weight? It is pretty amazing.

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Ha, I get that not infrequently!

I’ve been super active recently and am not eating a ton in the day so I end up backloading my calories pretty hard, somewhat unintentionally. Usually ends up slightly less absurd than this but I consume a lot of dessert adjacent foods.

My excuse for this one was that we forgot Winnie’s entirely made up birthday (July 15) so I ran to the store to get her some toys to mutilate and then gave her the ice cream container to lick/destroy after we finished it. Partner bailed early on her half, so I did my duty to my dog and got enough out for her to get the rest :wink:

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Good hooman.

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can I ask why ?