Today was rough in some ways. I was having problems with sleeping, so i worked all day on about 3 hrs of sleep. But along with that, i was not able to take a lunch break. My breakfast was at 6am and i had my shake on the drive to the shop and supper at 8pm. I had a couple snacks in the day but that obviously doesnt replace a meal.
But i dont mind when this kind of thing happens. Its one of those things in life that i honestly believe makes you a little tougher when you push through and dont complain. Ate a big supper, will probably eat a tad more before bed.
Tricep pushdown x 125 reps
Face pull x 75 reps
Ab wheel x 35 reps
Chest press + side raise + curl x 3 rounds (very little rest, just wanted to keep moving. Didnt track reps but was pushing hard.)
Rb fly + rear delt raise + tricep kickback x 3 rounds (refer to above notes haha)
Dragon flag negatives work
Heavy side bends x 3 sets
“Poundstone” curls x 75 total reps : 33 / 25 / 17
Couple notes :
Workout music was Travis Tritt and a few Creed Fisher songs. Country music is my all time favorite and what i was raised on. Real country too, not the sam hunt pop sounding stuff. Sorry to disappoint ya @antiquity no justin bieber here haha.
I have bumped up the volume on daily work a little bit. Dont have a clear cut reason, but it felt right. My elbows feel phenomenal which is a nice perk.
On my version of poundstone curls, i am using my 45lbs kb, holding it on the horns, thumbless. So basically a real sucky hammer curl. Kept the rest as low as possible, got to 75 reps in 3 sets. Looking forward to not only shooting for 100 reps, but getting stronger on it in general.
Will need to give direct ab work a break for a few days. In regards to the heavy side bends…i honestly feel like they are a pretty ok oblique movement. At the very least, last summer i found they helped me with stability on moving the wheelbarrow around at work. But they are also one of the few oblique moves i actually dont mind doing so theres that too
Post workout :
Cranberry juice and cheese sandwich. It may sound like a funny meal, but its all i wanted to have.
Do you like Sturgill Simpson? Jason Isbell? I really like Johnny Cash and other more Americana-style county or folk country (Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, Guy Clark) but typically not twangy country.
1st off that’s a lot of work, even for a day where things go right, and you’re doing it on a tough day. Takes some grit man, good on ya. If you keep having sleep trouble try passionflower extract. Mild anxiolytic that doesn’t have much risk for side effects and is dirt cheap. Put it in some chamomile tea 30-60 min before bed and you’ll be out.
I hate that we have to use this to differentiate, but we do. Most modern stuff pains me to listen to, so I keep going back to early 00’s and older stuff, or the new oldschool guys - Shooter Jennings, Blackberry Smoke, Whiskey Myers, etc. Hoping to start jamming some of it when COVID lets up and I can start playing bars again. Forever torn between my love of heavy metal and redneck music.
That’s my jam right there. Drives my wife crazy, we aren’t “country” people at all, and I’ll just lose myself in some of those awesome ballads.
May I recommend Chris Knight and Grant Peeples.
Older country, even as far back as stuff from the 50’s is all good to me. I like both the real twangy stuff and the more americana stuff. Big fan of outlaw country too - merle haggard, david alan coe, waylon etc…
I like stuff up until the early 2000’s too, like Dwight and garth, but when it started getting into super poppy stuff i didnt like that. Theres a couple newer guys that i like and they are good, but the radio rarely plays them out here
I will keep that passionflower thing in mind, thanks. I have been having some issues with sleep for about a month now. Kinda think its just stress but idk.
The unfortunate thing is that there are some newer guys who play the good country, but the radio hardly plays it
That’s why I think passionflower would help you. It’s more of a stress reliever than a sleep aid. Just takes the edge off so you can get to sleep, then doesn’t hang you over in the morning like high-dose melatonin.
So i thought i would put out an update here about how things are going.
Training is going good, and i feel like im seeing some gains. With all the tricep push downs i have been doing, my elbows feel great and my tris look more developed to my eye. In general my arms look a little bigger to me.
My bw is slowly creeping up again, but considering my training and increased appetite im not surprised at all. I have no idea how things are going to turn out by the end of this t-ranaformation thing…my family has had many challenges, so i have had some set backs and so forth with training and such too. But it aint over till its over.
Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day, so we will see what we can do. Definitely will do some leg work, and i was planning on testing dragon flags too. I feel like high rep step ups are a good idea.
Woke up at about 4:10 this morning. Somewhere between 4 and 5 is my normal wake up time. Woke up with a headache, so hopefully that wont amount to much…too busy today to deal with it turning into a migraine.
The wife is getting her hair done today, and she is excited about that. We also have to do a grocery run among other many other things.
Tricep push down x 125 reps
Face pull x 100 reps
Skipped the ab wheel cause i want to test dragon flag tomorrow
I have found that my appetite has been increasing lately…may be due to upping my daily work volume and trying to up the volume in my workouts. Hopefully it wont bite me in the butt so to speak.
The plan is to test full dragon flags today, or see how close i am to it. Been doing negatives and tons of ab wheel as well so we will see how things go.
Sunday has sort of become a hodgepodge day so aside from the dragon flags i will be getting reps in of random lifts that i feel like doing. Im definitely doing my kb poundstone style curls too.
It’s amazing how you manage to make life work for you instead of giving up during hardship.
There’s something to be said about the level of personal development of the well respected members on this forum
Regarding your son, have you considered gymnastics?
I was listening to a couple of podcasts and a lot of the coaches/experts they interviewed recommended gymnastics as a way to develop movement proficiency at a young age. Also, gymnastics is cool and fun
Thanks for the kind words anna, much appreciated. I have not thought about gymnastics, but thats probably because i never really grew up around that stuff. The sports we had in school growing up were stuff like wrestling, football and hockey…thats rural canada for you. I would consider gymnastics though.
You can’t argue with the strength of a gymnast. As a macho man with a bit of alpha male ego, it’s tough to think about sending my son to gymnastics, but it would help him in every physical aspect. Something to think about…
