Overdue update - hit chest today. Started with incline bench at 135. Easy. 155. Easy. 175 for 5? Easy. Let’s try 185. Got five easy. What? Let’s try 205. 2 easy. Ok, so incline PR for reps at 185 and weight at 205. Wild what happens when your body has what it needs to get stronger.
Good workout. Weight is 233. Need to drop to 215 again.
Training is going great. Feeling great and lifting more and more weight.
A couple highlights, incline bench got 10x10x175 and seated OHP got 2x10x135.
Weight is 241…. But, uhm, I look leaner maybe?
I bought a new house and will be moving into it in next 4-6 weeks, after we finish renovations. The neighborhood has a pretty good size hill that is .5 from bottom to top. I’ve been eyeing it for some time and found a buddy who is willing to try some farmer carries with it. Tentatively scheduled for Wednesday morning, I’m going to throw my 40lb weight vest on and put fat grips on my 52.5lb DBs and walk up and back down. I really have no gauge to know if it will suck or not. So, if it doesn’t, we’ll do it twice and with more weight next time.
Making good progress so far.
Jan 1 
March 1
Just set a lifetime PR. Seated OHP 1x175lbs. Slow grinder from nose to forehead, but smooth up after.
Saturday - 13x5min rounds of grappling
Sunday - Leg day
Zercher Squats
10x135
10x185
5x225
2x3x275 - Heaviest I’ve gone since tearing MCL in November. Felt pretty good.
Leg Extensions
5xAMRAP
Med Ball Squats
10x150lb ball
10x150lb ball
10x150lb ball + 40lb weight vest
Weight was 249 last night and 245 this morning. I woke up feeling leaner than I’ve ever been. Thinking it’s caused by lots of sushi and bbq over the weekend. I ate at least 50 rolls Saturday night and had 1.25lbs of brisket and pork belly Saturday for lunch. Yesterday was lobster for lunch and Thai food for dinner. Going to try and stay low sodium/carbs for rest of week and hit the diet much harder into last 2 months of challenge.
Monday
Chest Day! Switched it up after 6 months of straight bar for pressing/rowing, now using cambered mix grip bar (55lbs)
Mid Incline Bench
10x145
10x165
5x195
2x3x215 - PR with this bar and heaviest I’ve pressed in maybe 5-8 years??
Edit: this also had an additional 2” rom to hit chest with bar
Arms
Fat Grip Tricep pull downs and Bicep Curls
3xamrap
Feels good hitting some PRs again. Glad to see some progress after so long. Also, fasted until 3, when I ate 6 eggs for ‘lunch’, then ground beef and cheese for dinner. Weight was 239 this evening.
Tuesday - knocked out 1.5 hours of nogi class. Rolled with a former college wrestler and purple belt. He’s kicked my ass since I started last year and would submit at least 5 times a round. Felt pretty good tonight. We rolled for two rounds and I swept him twice. He did submit me once each round, but I made him work for it a bit more. Absolutely exhausting. Spent an hour with a completely dry mouth, try to suck in as much air as possible.
Took yesterday (wed) off, as joints were hurting.
Thursday- Rolled for an hour half this morning. Good rolls and feel like I’m advancing in technique quickly as things begin to ‘click’.
Not sure what’s happening with joints, but it’s been going on for about 10 days. Could be higher estrogen or just effect of lifting heavier weights and training in some form every day.
Monday
Had a busy day, but snuck to garage around 10pm to ‘do something’.
Seated camber bar NG OHP
5x3x145lb
Lateral raises
3x15x20lb
Honestly, the OHP was harder than anticipated. With the neutral grips, the center of mass is thrown off. First rep was easy until the descent. Second rep, fairly easy, until the descent trashed my shoulders and triceps. Third rep was pretty challenging and the descent made it impossible to go for a fourth. Sets 2-5, I used a slow negative and tried to control the weight, but it wobbled a bit.
Regardless, I like this. It’s hard and uncomfortable. Exactly what my shoulders need.
Tuesday
Tried to do 30/20/10 DB Thrusters and pushups. Sadly rep 27 of the thrusters tweaked my back.
Might try a chest workout tonight. We’ll see. Diet was very low cal yesterday and today to make up for no activity.
Haven’t trained anything since last update. Back was pretty tight, so mostly stretched and focused on diet. Friday, I played some pickleball… it was pretty tight but manageable. Played again yesterday (Monday) and felt really good. I’ll get some BJJ today and likely a chest workout in.
Weight has dropped down to 234 in morning. So trending right way finally.
On another note, if you’re not CPR trained. Spend the time to get it. I reluctantly did it awhile back and ended up using it yesterday. Next to the pickleball courts were a group playing basketball and a guy had a seizure and was choking on blood. I did 5 minutes of compressions before he came to and EMS arrived.
Holy cow dude, good on you! Way to be a hero.
@T3hPwnisher I don’t know about that. Just right place at right time. Oddly, my buddy and I were supposed to go to BJJ, while our wives and kids were at the park. Last minute we decided to go to park instead. So… instead of choking people for a few hours, we did the opposite. Serious side tho, we weren’t going to go to the park… our wives gave us the night off to go to class and get dinner after.
It’s an odd feeling. I was so resistant to the training when I did it, but now I’m convinced everyone should learn. It’s just too easy, with such huge returns when you need it.
Chest workout
Incline bench w/ Neutral Grip Camber Bar
2x10x145
8x165
8x185
5x195
3x215
1x235 - My 11 month old daughter was watching and had to show off… what the hell threw a PR on and went for it
Finally can bench my weight again. Albeit, with a 2” camber for extra ROM and on incline. I won’t push PRs for awhile and focus on 3/5/8 rep range.
100 pushups
100 triceps extensions
Wednesday
Didn’t have a ton of time to get workout in… so, around 1pm
Fat grip straight arm pull downs
5xamrap
3pm
Same as above
Post dinner
Superset
As many reps as possible doing cable row and fat grip straight arm pull downs. Once I fatigued, I forced myself to get 10 reps, then lowered weight. Took about 15 minutes before i was pulling 30lbs and useless. Was quite painful after a bit, but kept going no rest.
Dinner: my wife made chicken curry which the family ate with rice. I just poured more coconut milk in and drank it. Pretty much just fat and protein.
Friday
Snuck away for an hour of spontaneous open mat. First time back in two weeks.
Shoulders
Seated OHP
5x6x145 on camber bar
Cable OH Press
5xamrap
Dinner
Been busy and haven’t had time to lift. Just been nailing diet.
Wednesday
Incline bench - cambered bar
10x145
10x145
5x5x195
Cable flies
3x15
Felt strong today. Didn’t push a Single rep PR and kept to the plan. Looking forward to next session pushing triples.
Weight was 237 after dinner today. Probably down to low 230s, I’ll weigh myself on Saturday morning.
Feeling good, surprisingly better each week. Going on 6 months of treatment, 4.5 with locked in protocol.
I did skip leg day, simply because I’ve been in office this week and back is hit or miss.
I swore I posted my back workout from Thursday…?
Basically did 20 sets of 20 from all the angles of cable rows superset with 20 sets of straight arm rope pull downs with fat grips.
Saturday
Pull ups
25
Seated OHP with Camber Bar
2x5x145
3x3x165
Cable OHP
3x20
Tricep pulldown
50
Ordered a belt squat machine off Temu. To my surprise it arrived and it’s pretty awesome. Made by Syedee.
Belt Squats and Leg Ext
10x20
Messed around with leg placement and spotter arm. Good workout, but more of a calibrating session. I’ll hit legs again tomorrow.
