I did the glute circuit as a finisher to my main workout. Today was front squat day, so I had the grand idea to do the aerodyne as the conditioning part of the hip thrust circuit to hit my quads extra today.
Yeah, went about as well as you’d imagine lol. Absolutely gasping for air on the aerodyne and quads were screaming. I took 50 mg of oxandrolone pre-workout and that always seems to give a bit of an extra pumpy pump. Felt like I was walking on stilts after each round getting off the aerodyne.
I think I’m going to try to keep the fat mobilization work as a finisher to my main workout and avoid doing them on an off day. I might just dump one of my accessory lifts like I did today with eliminating Bulgarian split squats. My groinal region wasn’t feeling it today and I didn’t want to push it with heavy-ish split squats and the hip thrusts/aerodyne.
On front squats, I had the same crazy blackout experience I’ve had for the last week when unracking on set 4 of a 5x5 for 275. I felt very good sets 1-3 and set 4 I almost collapsed in the rack. I told the kid at the front desk to just let me die if I’m on the floor - when it’s my time, I hope I just drop dead in the squat rack.
I walked around for a few minutes, put 225 on for set 4 and felt absolutely fine for a set of 5 with a 2 second pause at the bottom.
Set 5, I loaded 275 back on and did it perfectly fine without any blackout. No idea what is going on. I dropped the sleep supplement several days ago. Maybe there was still some residual effect. I’m going to keep plugging on the program and see what happens. I don’t ever have this blackout feeling doing heavy deadlifts, so sort of strange.
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I haven’t had a cardiology exam recently. I’m going to give this a couple more weeks to see if it goes away on its own. If it doesn’t, I’ll go see a doctor.
Thanks for the article link. It prompted me to think about the mental stress in my life right now - basically off the charts. I think I’ve maybe underestimated how that is impacting me when I pile on more stress with regular heavy weight sessions.
I avoided anxiety medication for almost a year and tried everything to manage, but nothing worked. I haven’t fully dealt with the root cause, so everything is just a band aid at this point. I finally was just mentally exhausted from the anxiety and went on fluoxetine (Prozac) about two months ago as a last ditch effort to try to help manage the anxiety symptoms. I’m now realizing that can cause dizziness so that may be my cause.
Side bar on fluoxetine/anxiety: The second week I was on it, my anxiety went through the roof to the point of being near zero productive for almost a week besides going to the gym. It was crazy. I almost bailed but the doctor said to stick with it as that can happen. It subsided and for sure it has now helped bring down the major anxiety peaks I was getting. But certainly not a magic pill at least for me. Just helps take the edge off a bit.
I have a new found appreciation for how much poor mental health can impact people. I never fully appreciated the impact on daily life until I started dealing with it myself. It can be absolutely debilitating.
Low intensity day today just to get the blood flowing to aid recovery for tomorrow’s weight session.
Since I enjoyed the aerodyne yesterday so much, I did a Tabata aerodyne today. I get a ridiculous quad pump from that thing. The pump feels awesome. Arnold was right lol.
I did some band pull aparts. I do these almost every day as preventative maintenance on my shoulders that are held together with dental floss. Seems to help keep them from getting angry.
It’s sunny and 75 outside today, so it made total sense for me to walk 1.5 miles inside on the treadmill this AM. I’m getting the lettuce trimmed later today and will go for another walk outside after.
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Absolute struggle today. I’m pretty sure my nervous system is starting to revolt. I’ve been lifting fairly heavy for months with some occasional deloads, but I think my body is saying no mas.
I’m doing fairly heavy front squats or trap bar deadlifts every other day, so I’m hammering my nervous system hard 4 times every 8 days. There’s only so much stress the roids I’m on can cover and it seems I’m at that limit right now. It doesn’t help that my sleep has been very poor the last several month due to a ton of mental stress aka mid-life crisis.
The block I’m on is the hardest of the progression for me. It’s block 4 of 10 (8 days per block) and is 80% intensity for 5x6 on the main lifts. I’ve never done this much volume at this intensity and absolute poundage.
I’m going to battle through this block and see how I feel for block 5, which ups intensity to 85% but drops total rep volume to only 30% of the previous block (30 vs 9).
I did the hip thrust/conditioning circuit as a finisher and it was a battle to finish. I had to use the David Goggins strategy of just make it through the next one second, then the next second, and so on. It worked today.
Just a crazy burn in my glutes with the super light hip thrusts after doing heavy trap bar deadlifts and heavy (for me) high pulls. I did the rower as the conditioning to stay with the pulling theme for today to give my quads a break from the aerodyne.
I’ve been playing with hip thrust foot position and have figured out that staying only on my heels and turning my toes/knees out hard really squeezes the glutes. Getting a pump in my ass is a new feeling. I’m sure I haven’t discovered anything new here.
I’m thinking about my next program and I think I’m going to give my body a break from heavy loading and try the Dan John 10,000 kettlebell swing deal. I’m going to start working in kettlebell swings a little bit to start prepping my body for that. 500 swings at once sounds like a hamstring pull waiting to happen for my glass-like body.
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I decided to skip block 4 with the 5x6 at 80% intensity and go to block 5 in order to drop the total volume. For whatever reason my body seems to be revolting at high intensity and high (for me) volume.
Today was 85% intensity (300lb) for 3x3 front squats and I had zero issue with blacking out like I had previously at 80% with 4 and 5 rep sets. It actually felt somewhat “easy” today.
As a finisher, I did the buh-tocks fat mobilization circuit. The aerodyne should be used as a CIA torture device. It’s absolutely brutal.
Side note: I saw a David Goggins video recently where he said he does an aerodyne for 2 hours(!) at 80-85 rpm. I can barely maintain 70-80 rpm for 1 minute. That guy is a mental and physical freak.
I got bloodwork results. Major changes were SHBG dropped quite a bit due to the oxandrolone and estradiol doubled(!). But free T didn’t go up dramatically, which I would have expected based on my kindergarten knowledge.
I had a feeling my estrogen had jumped as I’ve been feeling highly emotional recently. Physically, I’ve been generally feeling fine from an overall negative symptoms standpoint. I’ll post my bloodwork soon.
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Didn’t have time to post yesterday’s workout. Felt pretty good. Overall volume was low compared to the last block.
I feel so much better doing lower volume. I don’t know if it’s because I’m better built for that or if I just don’t have good work capacity. Probably a combo of both.
I did the hip thrust/aerodyne circuit to finish. I’m now convinced the aerodyne is the most brutal cardio machine ever invented. I guess that’s why there’s always an inch of dust on it when I use it lol. Too hard for people.
I’m spending the next few weeks in the Tampa area. Such a beautiful time of year to be there with 90 degrees and swamp ass humidity. There’s a decent gym I go to when I’m there so I shouldn’t have to modify anything I’m doing.
I’m at about two weeks into the targeted fat mobilization for my glutes and I did body fat measurements yesterday. I took about twenty readings on my ass and it appears I have lost some fat. I averaged about 7-ish mm. I’ve been 8-9m for awhile prior.
My other calipers spots also seemed to drop, but they are all now so low at 1-2mm that the calipers are not very useful for tracking trends. I’m using vascularity as a sign of getting more lean and I’m seeing more veins - especially in my quads and calves. There’s something about seeing leg veins start popping out that is very satisfying. Everybody has forearm veins, but few have leg veins. I feel very “special” lol.
I changed several variables at once so I don’t know exactly what is contributing, but if I had to guess I would bet it was mostly increasing the daily oxandrolone from 25mg to 38mg.
I’ve also been eating more than what I thought my TDEE was at 3000. Probably an average of 3200-3300 - I need to calculate my daily calories I’ve been tracking.
So it appears my TDEE has gone up from when I last calculated many months ago. It’s not surprising as I’ve gained some muscle and have increased my daily activity the last couple months with the better weather in the northeast.
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Worked out at a new gym in Florida today. Instant swamp ass going outside so my warmup was much quicker than normal lol. And I was probably 20 years under the average age in the gym.
Always takes a bit to adjust to a new gym to figure out equipment, etc. Has everything I need which is basically just a trap bar, power rack, and dumbbells.
I’m in Florida for 2-3 weeks so half my suitcase was filled with supplements and bars. I’ll just buy clothes to wear while I’m here lol.
The blackout nonsense happened again when I unracked my first front squat work set at 300. I had to re-rack and walked around for a few minutes. Tried again and was fine for a set of 3 - felt fairly easy. I did two more sets of 3 and had no issues. I have no idea what is going on with this blacking out thing.
I did hip thrusts/rowing circuit for the ass fat mobilization. I think I’m going to up the weight from 30 lbs next workout as it’s getting too easy, but not sure I’ll ever make it to the 100 lb as prescribed in the article.
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I might have to give that airdyne pace a try because off the top of my head that sounds completely manageable (I wouldn’t do it for 2 hours…) as a pace but maybe I’m just completely underestimating that pace. Will report back later
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Ooooookay I tried that 80-85 RPM pace and that is an ass kicker… Im certainly no distance athlete or almost never huff-n-puff from cardio, but He must be in elite shape to maintain that as if its absolutely nothing (cause if youre doing it for 2 hours, it must be to you)
Going in I felt about 60RPM would be leisurely… 1 pedal every second, sounds easy enough
It reality thats about 45RPM for me. Then 60 is actually a pretty decent effort, as you said for even 1 solid minute it got my HR to 145! 80-85 is honestly a fairly herculean effort for 1 minute. That was very eye opening… I might throw one of these 1 minute “feeler rides” on to the end of my workouts just to see how “easy” I can make that minute because wow that was a wake up call.
Goggins is a world class endurance athlete and has a 99.9999999th percentile mentally tough brain. If you’ve never listened to him or read his books, I’d recommend for sure.
He makes you question everything you thought about what you’re capable of - not by a bunch of BS words, but by what he does.
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Felt good today. The lower volume just doesn’t nearly crush me as much. And I think the 2x anabolics that I’m into week 3 of is starting to kick in. For sure I feel a bit stronger than I normally would across the board.
I started doing RDLs a couple workouts ago and am easing myself into them since I haven’t done them in a very long time. I did baby weight today for 155 lb for 4x6. My plan is to add a little weight for the next few workouts to find a good working RDL weight that will give me some effective reps.
Right now I’m not sure I’m really getting any effective reps because the weight is so light. I’ve been focusing on form and ROM.
I bumped up the hip thrusts to a whopping 40 lb dumbbell combined with bike sprints - no aerodyne at the gym I’m at while I’m in Florida :(. Absolute ridiculous pump in the bum today. Is it strange that I like how that feels? Lol.
Went for a long walk this afternoon to get some steps in and got caught in a torrential downpour. Actually felt good as the temperature dropped and the rain cooled me off.
I might start a new topic of “Stupid Crap I See In The Gym”. Every day it’s something moronic. Today was watching a “certified” trainer nearly break an 80 year old man’s hip doing step ups that were too high for him and he clearly didn’t have the balance and strength for.
Trainer: “You can do it, it’s just all in your head.” Uhm, what? The guy was about as frail as it gets.
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That split looks interesting/good. Never done a push pull hybrid. Might give it a go soon. I train at home and focus on those same lifts as well. Also include zercher squats to benefit the traps as well. Snatch grip hip hinge variations as well. Various Carries like farmer, zercher and snatch grip overhead Carries as well
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I do snatch grip on as many lifts as I can. Makes it harder and I feel it quite a bit in my upper back. Someday I’ll actually have some traps lol.
I might swap out front squats for Zercher squats next cycle. I messed around with Zerchers a month ago with 135 just to get a feel for it and was way harder than front squats.
Especially snatch grip rdl’s. What a great exercise.
Zercher’s definitely a beast. I recently got an axle bar which makes it more manageable for sure. Not sure if you have access to one.
Think I will start that push pull hybrid next month. I like the concept of it and done EOD especially
I love doing compound leg movements and the hybrid push/pull let’s me do legs EOD if I manage total volume well.
Very true with the lower being hit EOD. Plus traps as well b/w the pulling, zercher squats and even front squats hit em. I have gotten some trap doms when I started using the clean grip on fronts again , lol.
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I’ve been using wrist straps for front squats and it is so much easier on my wrists and I can keep my elbows up much better.
The clean grip just cranks on my wrists too much and the cross arm thing is too uncomfortable on my shoulders due to surgery.
I do something EOD to hit my traps in some way. I’m determined to actually have them visible in a tshirt before I die.
I probably did too much volume today, but I don’t care. Lifting weights/training is the only thing I’ve ever enjoyed the process of instead of just trying to get from point A to B as fast as possible.
I’ve finally realized the A to B mentality is so unfulfilling and ultimately mentally damaging. When you can’t get to B for whatever reason, you are left with absolutely nothing except feelings of failure and inadequacy. The “I’m not good enough” trap. I let this mentality wreck me for years and I never even knew I was doing it.
As I get older, I’m now trying to just be present every day/minute and stop focusing on so much BS nonsense that just doesn’t matter.
I feel abnormally stronger every workout now. Not really a ground breaking observation - but dang as you start to up the dose, these roids are like magic. I should’ve used these in my 20s when I had a chance to make millions at my “job”. But I guess those pesky morals about cheating got in the way lol.
Steroids were rampant during my athletic career. Nobody gave a crap and everyone knew who was using. Many were openly talking about their use. Even guys who didn’t use weren’t all that bent out of shape with the guys who did. It was just part of the culture.
The after the fact hand wringing and gnashing of teeth by the “clean” players after everything became public years ago made me laugh. Why didn’t they say anything while it was happening?
I thought about using, but could never do it. I remember saying to myself - if you make it and you use, what are you going to tell your kids?
I have zero issue with anyone in pro sports who uses PEDs. Especially a fringe guy. It could make or break a career and I get why someone would do it. Just wasn’t for me at the time. But now that I’m old and broken and not competing except against myself, pump me full of this magic juice lol.
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Today’s AM workout was wicked hard. Lower back/top of my left glute was a little bit tweaked and I went for a two hour walk late yesterday afternoon in 104 degree heat index, which was a mistake. I think I got dehydrated and I felt very weak this AM.
I cut the volume short because I had limited time but it was a good thing because I’m sure I would have done the full volume otherwise and completely wrecked myself.
The first rep of each deadlift set felt like I was trying to lift an immovable object. Just brutal. I was going to quit after set 1 but decided to not be a crybaby and kept telling myself one more rep. I made it through all 5 sets but I’m going to pay for that the next couple days.
I sat in a car for three hours this afternoon and my lower back/glute is now revolting. I’m at a hotel the next few days. I’m going to take it easy and do low intensity stuff to recover well for Monday when the squat rack will be calling my name.
According to a sign I saw, I’m at the “world’s most famous beach” lol which could also be classified as the armpit of Florida from my experience. Solid view from my room that walks out to the beach though.
I went completely off the rails for lunch today with this sandwich. Just absurdly huge. Probably 12” wide. I ate less than half. In my younger years I would’ve eaten the whole thing and felt sick for the rest of the day because I was dumb like that.
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Hows your flabby ass doing these days?
