07/10/20
Bike ride
It was stupidly windy today and two thirds of this was with a headwind. The last third was great but overall it felt a lot harder than it looks from the stats. At one point I had the wind perpendicular to me and my bike was literally being blown off the edge of the road.
This sounds rather terrifying. It’s also the reason why I stay on my own two God-given feet for cardio 
Honestly wasn’t too bad. Just meant I rode nearer the centre of the road. The side of the road was grassy too so wouldn’t really be a problem if I went onto it anyway. Sapped the life out of me though.
09/10/20
Assault bike: 5 mins, 33.6 cals
Superset
Front squat: 2x5x20, 3x5x40
Trap bar deadlift: 2x10x20, 5x40, 3x10x60
Back squat: 10x40
Standing calf raise: 2x10x45
14/10/20
Deload
Bench press:
2x12x20
2x5x40
3x60
3x70
Giant set
Overhead press: 10x20, 5x30, 5x35, 5x40, 3x45
Barbell row: 10x20, 10x30, 2x10x40
Chin up: 3, 2, 2, 1
I noticed when benching I seem to be favouring my left side a lot and when I consciously try to correct it my right side struggles A LOT. I also feel like when overhead pressing there was no stability or tightness. I’m thinking dumbbell pressing will help a lot with both which I was already planning to do luckily.
After this week I’ll be back to gaining weight slowly and really pushing the training. Starting with Monday, split will be pull, push, conditioning, legs, upper and conditioning again on either Saturday or Sunday. Preferred method of conditioning/cardio will be cycling but is somewhat whether dependent. I will be benching twice a week now. I’m looking forward to it.
14/10/20
Bike ride:
Longest ride yet and it absolutely killed me. Set off at about 4pm and all I had eaten was a satsuma, protein shake and chocolate bar so I crashed hard. I expected to and kind of wanted to but it was worse than I expected and I pushed HARD. Like this was one of the most exhausting things I’ve done. No matter what I do my legs won’t stop aching and I’ve been home 15 minutes.
16/10/20
Front squat:
2x5x20
5x30
3x40
3x50
3x55
Back squat: 17x55
Trap bar deadlift: 5x40, 6x8x60
Leg curl: 10x30, 2x20x40
Calf raise: 11, 8x45
Assault bike: 10s on/20s off - 40.8 cals
First good, hard leg session in a long time. From today I’m taking things seriously with the goal of looking drastically different in June 2021 to June 2020. Today is also the first day where I’m not trying to lose weight but focus on gaining.
I will probably lay out my plans in more detail later when I get more time. For leg day though it is 5/3/1 front squat with no PR sets but on the 1s week I want to work up to a good heavy single. Then back squat back off set with the top set then Ben Bruno’s 100 rep trap bar challenge, calf raises and 4 mins of assault bike intervals. I’m most likely going to throw in some leg curls first thing too. The starting weight for deadlifts is pretty light but I want to see what I’m getting into before I get too hasty.
Oh and I totally wimped out on that back squat set today. I’m disappointed in myself.
19/10/20
Single arm lat pull-down:
12x18
13x28 (ties PR)
Drop set: 10x23-9x18
12x18
Dumbbell row: 10x14, 18x28, 15x28
Barbell row: 3x10x40, 12x40
Rear delt machine flyes: 20x21, dropset: 15x21-15x14
Barbell curl: 8x20, ?x10
Concentration curl: RP: 8-5+3 negatives x8
Definitely could have gotten a new PR on the pull-downs but I was really milking the negatives and didn’t realise 13 tied my PR. Dumbbell rows I was doing a bit stricter than before so the weight is down. Barbell rows felt good but forearms are the weak link there. Aiming to push the intensity more now I’m eating slightly more.
20/10/20
Bench press:
2x12x20
2x5x40
3x55
3x65
7x70
5x1x70
Incline dumbbell bench press (1): 12x20, RP: 18-9x14s
Overhead press: 10x20, 8x30, 9x30
Pec deck: 20x21, 12x28
Superset
Cable laterals: 12, 10x7
Tricep rope push-down: 17, 15x28
Leg raises: x8, x9
Rep PR with 70kg is 11 so not quite back to my peak strength there however that was at a time where I was doing lots of plus sets and was very good at reps vs a 1RM. I did 17x60 around then with a 1RM of 80-85kg but have not gotten close since even with a greater 1RM. It’s going to be a struggle to get 100kg by mid December but I’m still hopeful. The singles moved well, technique is feeling better every week and starting this week I’ll be benching twice a week.
Forgot to add: bench warm ups were superset with sets of 10 band pull aparts and dislocations.
21/10/20
Run: 0.72mi, 6:14 mins
Short on time today so just a really quick run instead of a bike ride. Was as horrible as I remember but this was a half mile and 1km PR at least. I’m going to try and get out for a short run like this once a week.
22/10/20
Leg curl: 12x30, 8x35, 20x45, 17x50
Front squat:
2x5x20
5x40
5x45
5x50
Back squat: 20x50
Trap bar deadlift: 5x40, 6x10x60 (2 min rest)
Calf raise: 12, 8x45
Assault bike: 10s on/20s off - 41.7 cals
Another killer workout. Getting on that bike at the end is tough. The deadlifts are probably only the third worst thing after the bike and the back squats but I’m already dreading when the sets and weight go up.
23/10/20
Bench press: 2x15x20, 8x3x40 (60s rest)
Superset
Hammer strength row: 16, 20, 17x40
Press up: 20, 15, 11
Superset
Face pull: 20, 12, 15x20
Cable lateral: 12, 10, 9x5
Superset
Rope overhead extensions: 13, 9, 7x20
Rope bicep curls: 12x20, 15x20, 13x25
Ab wheel: 3x6
Good upper body session, I enjoyed the supersets and got done quickly. The bench press was supposed to be something light where I could focus on technique and explosiveness but this might have been too light to have much of an effect - it may as well have been the empty bar. Next week I’ll be doing the same with 50kg instead which might be better.
EDIT: actually after thinking about it, I don’t normally move 40kg that fast so maybe I’ve gotten stronger.
25/10/20
Bike ride
Just a very quick easy one, not really worth logging but for the sake of consistency here it is.
26/10/20
Single arm lat pull-down:
10x18
15x28 (PR)
11x23
10x18
Dumbbell row: 10x16, 23x32 (PR), 12x32, 15x20
Barbell row: 4x12x40
Rear delt machine flyes: 22x21, dropset: 18x21-12x14
Barbell curl: 9x20, 15x10
Concentration curl: RP: 7x8-9x6-9x6
Felt strong today. Finally got that pull-down PR I should have gotten last week. Still trying to keep dumbbell rows strict but still blew past my last AMRAP set with 32kg - last time was the 8th September and I got 18 reps, most likely not as strict as today either.
27/10/20
Bench press:
2x10x20
5x40
5x50
5x60
14x65 (PR)
5x1x65
Incline dumbbell bench press (1):
13x22s (PR)
RP: 16-8-5x16s
Overhead press: 10x20, 7x30, 6x30
Pec deck: 15x28, 10x21
Superset
Cable laterals: 16x5, dropset: 10x10-10x5
Tricep rope push-down: 12x35, 15x30
Leg raises: 3x10
Finally a bench PR so hopefully I’m at least back to my previous strongest. Old PR was 12 reps and 11 reps were needed to beat last week based on an estimated 1RM. Next week is an AMRAP with 75kg which will be the real challenge - three weeks ago I did 3x75 at about an RPE 8 or 9.
29/10/20
Front squat:
3x5x20
5x40
3x50
1x60
1x65
1x70
Back squat: 3x70
Trap bar deadlift: 5x40, 7x8x65 (2 mins rest)
Hammer leg press: 20x30
Standing calf raise: 13 (PR), 8x45
Assault bike: 8x10s on/20s off - 42.4 cals
Worked up to a heavyish single on front squats and then an easy back squat set instead of the usual AMRAP. Deadlifts were probably the easiest yet, I was wanting to jump the 2 min rest. Hopefully because I am stronger but possibly just because the squats were easier. I also didn’t do leg curls at the start because the machine has broken. To get some extra hamstring work and because I hadn’t struggled as much as last week, I added a set of leg press which was surprisingly hard. I had to take breaks with my legs nearly locked every five or so reps. Assault bike continues to wipe me out.
I did the same workout yesterday, quads burning, lungs screaming, soul withering. Really need to take conditioning more seriously. I got 51 cals, going to try and bump that up to 55 then add time or switch the intervals to 15 on/15 off
51 cals is a solid effort! But yeah, it’s a great method of conditioning. Weirdly my quads used to burn like crazy and be the limiting factor but now they’re pretty much fine and my heart rate and breathing go crazy instead.
30/10/20
Bench press: 2x12x20, 8x3x50 (60s rest)
Superset
Hammer strength row: 3x20x40
Press up: 22, 15, 11
Superset
Face pull: 20, 12, 12x20
Cable lateral: 12, 12, 10x5
Superset
Rope overhead extensions: 16, 9, dropset: 7x20-5x15
Rope bicep curls: 12, 11, 12x25
Ab wheel: 3x8
I couldn’t bench 50kg as fast as the 40kg last week so it is probably about the right weight for what I want. I had originally planned to go to 45kg next week but will probably stick with 50kg.
