Busy Devil Dog's Training Log

Currently coming back around from a lower back injury. It happened right after a switch to DL’s, so I’ll be going back to PC’s and sticking with them for a while (working back up slowly of course). (DL PR 5x405#)/(PC PR 3x230#)

Squats: Starting back in after my lower back healing. Starting a breathing squat program, working up from 10 reps to 20 (adding 2 reps per week), with 225# to get form and breathing down perfectly before moving back up. (PR 5x335)

OHPress: Definitely overtrained, could barely get 3x175# on my first working set the other day. Will drop to 5x135# for one month, then up to 1x5x155#. I’ll add one set per week until I hit 5x5x155#, then reset to 1x5x165. I’m going this, because I’ve already tried pushing it hard and fast and got nowhere. This go-round I’ll see how the slow/steady/smooth treats me. (PR 3x205#)

Neck: Gotta love the neck work. I always thought it was a little goofy. But, the stories I read about necks saving lives is pretty convincing. The USMC utilizes a weak, but doable, waist/neck-taping if you’re over your height’s prescribed bodyweight. At 260# (usually 240 in the past when I wasn’t deployed and lifting heavily), I’m over the 237# limit. So, the bigger the neck to waist ratio, the lower BF, and it needs to be at or under 18% (based on tapings I recently did 2 months apart, same general activity level, food/water composition & volume, but on one I’d eaten recently and on the other I fasted to include water and taped 18% the first time and 12% the second). Anyhow, I do neck bridges and lifts lying on my back on the bench with a 25# plate on my forehead (with a towel or something between). My neck bridges are currently 3 sets of 50 seconds (started with 3x30sec). I’ve been doing these for a month or two so far, and I’ve gone from a somewhat painful and difficult 30sec set to a laughably-easy 50sec set (1:30 rest between each). That combined with my shrugs currently at a 20x330# work set, I feel a rugged steel brace forming where my neck once was.

Pulls: I’m doing my pulling work right now with suppinated weighted pullups. With these, I’ve started a slow program of my working set being about reps with 60# hanging from my waist right now (I have a record of exact specifics of all these “about” numbers; I’d have to look at my log). Slow & steady is the name of the game for milking the strength portion of a cycle for all it’s worth. On my non-pullup workout day, I’ll do reverse curls. They provide extra grip work, and regular curls were leaving me a little taxed for my day with suppinated pullups and vice versa.

I’ve been reading a lot of the posts on crossfit, and I think this website has some of the greatest discussions on crossfit that I’ve ever read. For and against posters both come across with some great stuff. Here’s the thing. I’m an active duty Marine. Though, I want to be strong. I don’t care about size, if size helps the strength then so be it. But, I am trying to be strong. I’m naturally somewhat of a big guy, and my 3-mile run time has always sucked, ringing in at or over 24 minutes if I haven’t been training religiously for it. I have gotten it down under 21 minutes on several occasions. I was 220-240lbs on those occasions, and I’m at about 260 or slightly more right now. That and being 6’6" makes it rough on my knees.

So I will focus on 1-mile run times and work it in with 1/4mile repeats. I do my strength lifting with some of Brooks Kubik’s methods outlined in some of his books. The training is abbreviated, 2-3 days per week on strength. I will add in several days per week on conditioning as well. I will have my 1-mile days and maybe 2 days per week more crossfit-based. The crossfit is to add in extra metcon without the extra havoc on my knees. So, these crossfit days will need to be varied enough to not do the same thing over and lose the metcon effect but often enough to track my progress in each workout. The way I see it, I will select 5 or 6 CF workouts maybe of my choosing. These coupled with my sprint

So, over half of that last post got deleted randomly as I was trying to submit it. I will continue this shortly. Basically this is an unorganized preamble to my routine once I return from my current deployment. I’ve done experimenting, and resources and hygiene out here make it difficult to follow a regular thing. Basically, 2-3 days a week Dino-style from Brooks Kubik’s literature, 1-mile runs (going for 6minute pace to help my 3-mile time, avoid knee trouble, and not deplete muscle mass all simultaneously), and CF (I’ll pick 5 or 6 so I can track the progress on my times on each of them and still get the metcon effect).