Squat
bar x 10
95 lbs x 8
135 lbs x 5
165 lbs x 3
195 lbs x 3 x 5
supersetted with +25 lbs ab crunches (plate behind head) 10 x 5
Leg curls
30 lbs x 10 x 5
Leg extensions
45 lbs x 10
65 lbs x 10
85 lbs x 10
90 lbs x 10
110 lbs x 10
Still trying to plot this out. One of the two rowers was broken and the other occupied, so I did my warmup with the elliptical instead. Brought back the jumps for Squat and Deadlift days. Squats felt good and stout.
The movement pattern of leg curls is always an issue for me, maybe because I have short legs. Also haven’t used machines in years so I forgot to check the “secondary” dial - that means the 30 lbs I did may have been 40 lbs or 45 lbs. I realized that after I’d finished and switched to the leg extensions - where I’m still trying to find my weight.
Left out the “metcon” and “cooldown” finishers. Will start integrating those.
Stairmaster
11:49 minutes / 100 calories Was a little hard to read my image of the display. Maybe 44 floors climbed at resistance level 7?
Incline treadmill walk
2:00 miles / 292 calories / 32:02 minutes
Stairmaster is taking some getting used to - almost as much as the elliptical. I almost never “walk” up stairs in real life - unless I’m climbing one of those insanely long subway staircases, I almost always “jog” up stairs. That said, my heart rate was up above 160 near the end and I was breaking the best sweat I’ve had in months.
Back to Eternal Warrior tomorrow. I think I’ve got the full program built out now.
Warmup Incline treadmill walk
0.60 miles / 85 calories / 10:01 minutes
Pre-fatigue DB laterals
10 lbs 40 /30 /5 Method
Rear delt laterals
10 lbs 40/30/5 Method
OHP
bar x 10
65 lbs x 8
80 lbs x 5
95 lbs x 3
105 lbs x 3 x 5 Supersetted with pullups/chins
+35 lbs x 3 x 5
Overhead farmer’s carry
25 lbs x 40 steps x 3
Cooldown Incline treadmill walk
0.58 miles / 72 calories / 10:02 minutes
Prefatiguing the delts was not a great idea. Pretty sure it made my strength work more difficult. Won’t do that again. Do like the 40/30/5 - just need to do it afterwards. The overhead carries were humbling. Goal was to do 1/4 BW in each hand for 50 steps. Tried 30 lbs (less than 1/4 BW) and couldn’t make it more than about 20 steps. With the 25s, I could at least do a 40+10 rest pause. Long arms do not an easy overhead carry make.
100 minutes total workout time. Not bad.
1698 calories => P137 F50 C118. w/re2 the carbs: In Indigo I trust.
Strength
Deadlift
bar x 10
95 lbs x 8
135 lbs x 5
185 lbs x 3
225 lbs x 1
245 lbs x 3 x 5 (!)
These were tough. I did the final set as three singles back-to-back-to-back, which is how I think I want to approach deadlifts at 80% or more going forward.
supersetted with HLRs 10 x 5
Did these as hanging L sits to toes-to-bar. No way I could do these at my heavier BWs from earlier this year. Final reps on the final set were (!).
Glute-ham raise
BW x 15 x 3
Hip thrust machine
no weight x 15 x 3
Cool down Incline treadmill walk
0.59 miles / 73 calories / 10:12 minutes
Still feeling things out a little with the accessories, using some machines I’ve never used before.
Deadlifts felt very heavy. We’ll see how 5x4 goes when the time comes around. Will definitely do them “Dave Tate style” as a set of singles rather than as a touch-and-go set. With long arms and short legs, it’s not my favorite movement pattern; I’d rather do RDLs or SLDLs. But we’ll see what we can make of it for this program.
Incline treadmill walk
2.0 miles / 292 calories / 32:01 minutes
Very happy about the morning weigh-in. Feeling pretty dialed in. There’s a little stomach discomfort as the carbs have gone up, the fats down, and the Indigo-3G starts to become a regular thing. But hopefully all of this will sort itself out in another week.
Strength
Bench (Swiss bar)
bar x 10
65 lbs x 8
85 lbs x 5
105 lbs x 3
125 lbs x 1
132 lbs x 3 x 5
supersetted with DB rows
50s x 10
55s x 10
60s x 10
65s x 10
70s x 6 x 5
Assistance
Tricep pressdowns
32.5 lbs x 16
37.5 lbs x 16
42.5 lbs x 16
Overhead Tricep extensions
17.5 lbs x 16
22.5 lbs x 16
27.5 lbs x 10 (failure)
Farmer’s Carry - DB Suitcases
50 lbs each x 50 steps x 3
Skipped the 10-minute cooldown because I was getting anxious about time. But it turns out that total workout time was actually the lowest so far (85 minutes today vs. 100 minutes on Friday and Wednesday; 95 minutes on Monday) and would have been perfectly in-line. Ideally, I’m in and out in 90 minutes - including warmup and cooldown. So I’m hoping to tighten things up as I get a better sense of what I’m doing assistance-wise.
Also on that point, I’ve NEVER done a cool-down regularly, but kinda liked doing it on Wednesday. It did seem to settle things down. I’m willing to tighten things up a little (but not shorten rest periods) in order to get that cool-down in. Ol’ Joel Jamieson swears by 'em!
Not a fan of the elliptical for warming up. I’m still too uncoordinated with it. I’ll probably use it - and my inefficiency with it - as a cardio primer, the same way I’m using the Stairmaser/Stepmill, and just warmup on the treadmill and rower.
Bench presses felt fine - the easiest day of the four. I’ve been babying my bench press along (including using the Swiss bar) because of my shoulder injury 10 months ago. I wonder if my strength is starting to catch back up.
One week in and things are falling into place. At 80% of TMs, bench feels good - even light. Squat and OHP are challenging and about right. Deadlift has me a little concerned that I’m going too heavy and maybe need to ease it back 20 lbs.
My carb ups always seem to have a follow-through into day two even if day two is carb free.
I think all is well. I was 152.8 this morning. About a pound less this afternoon after cardio. Light dinner tonight and tomorrow’s weigh-in should be back on target.
Strength
Squats
bar x 10
95 lbs x 8
115 lbs x 5
135 lbs x 3
155 lbs x 1
175 lbs x 1
192 lbs x 4 x 5
superset w/ +25 lbs crunches (weight behind head) 20 x 5
Assistance
Leg curls
30 lbs x 10
40 lbs x 10
50 lbs x 10 x 3
Leg extensions
70 lbs x 10
90 lbs x 10
110 lbs x 10 x 3
Total training time 95 minutes. Didn’t do the cool down half-mile on the treadmill. Feels hard to justify when I’m squeezing in a 95+ minute afternoon workout. I’ve never done cool downs as a regular thing, so even though I like the idea of them, I’m not sure I’m missing out - especially if taking that extra 10-15 minutes is only going to make me anxious and defeat the purpose of “cooling down”.
Ate close to maintenance calories today. 1722 = P172 F61 C93. Did carbs before and after training, none during.
Cardio Incline treadmill walk
3.03 miles / 455 calories / 48:02 minutes
Same old story: weight drops until the weekend and then up we go. And with the extra days off, the weight gain tends to be higher. That said, June is still my lowest monthly average weight (based on weekly averages) of the year at 152.19 lbs (May was 153.58, April was 154.86). So things are moving in the right direction, if slowly.
Would still like to have a big monthly drop. My average monthly weight jumped more than five pounds last year from September to October. Would love to lose half that over the course of July for a monthly average of 150.0 lbs or lower.
