Phew! Finally, after 6 years, a family vacation. No work or school. Big cabin (pretty much just a house), deck for sunrises, giant property for the dog, hot tub for late night soak after the kids are in bed, fire pit for the evenings, ton of food.
Got in a workout today after fulfilling my promise to my wife to not spend any time working out until the last day. Just did quick giant set- 10x10 pushups on push-up bars, 10x5 Ab wheel rollout, 10x5 burpee, then went outside in the snow/ice, there’s a 50 yard uphill in the backyard, so I took the dog out and did 10 sprints up, walking down.
I had to cook pork egg rolls for the fam after, but Alfie got to pass out for the both of us:
Not logging my conditioning, really - I do long brisk walks or runs with the dog nearly every day. So I just keep it brief and log my 4x/week 5/3/1 workouts. Overall though, with classes on top of my regular workload I am doing less total work.
Different implements have been king. Just used barbell for WM so far but SSB would give me a different squat each week. Not unhappy with how convenient it is to unrack some plates though for that one set.
Only problem is that the SSB they have at my gym (elitefts) has like a 1.75" diameter on the ends, so the plates can start sliding towards the end of a long set, and the collars at the gym won’t work - they slide on and off with no resistance. It takes a bit longer, but I’ve remedied it by using my wrist wraps as collars, haha.
How do you feel about it? I’m doing much less and I feel like I look the same. That’s actually my goal. I’ve had some struggles this past year and I’ve had to take a look at my priorities. Training had been getting too much attention. I’m happy with the way things are but I feel like I’m in the early stages of an experiment.
I feel as strong as ever, so that’s a plus, but overall, it’s just that I have less time to do physical work and the mental strain has been upped (which you know all about), so it still feels like I’m netting the same amount of “work”, just at a different ratio. Guess I didn’t think about it til you asked - feels good to keep getting the work in despite reasons not to, and feels good to keep a good level of strength and fitness with less time in the gym.
I was just listening to a podcast this morning, apparently, the amount of effort it takes to maintain gains is significantly less that the amount of effort required to make them
Yup, I don’t think anybody ever told me that explicitly but it’s kind of something you notice after years of lifting. Plus, getting back to where you were is pretty easy once you’re fully back into a routine, but the moment you get to that peak level of strength that you were at, everything halts immediately and you have to grind it out, pound by pound, like you did last time.
I’ve worked pretty hard to barely change for years so I’m trying to find the smallest dose of training for maintenance. If I’m not going to grow then I might as well spend less time in the gym.
Just checking in here for the first time in a while Flap. It takes years to get that degree but the time flies, and it’s worth it.
Plus you’ll have shown your kids what it means to buckle down and work really, really hard, and not sit on your ass and just reap the benefits of what you’ve already done.
Great stuff.
Have you exhausted the GI bill already?
Well, I took some classes 8 years ago when I got out and found out recently that you can in fact stop and start the GI bill (I thought it’d run out) so I’m reapplying in time to use it for nursing school in either the fall or the spring.
Only if you’re specifically interested in the benefits an SSB has to offer outside of being easier on the shoulders. If you just want a squat that doesn’t feel like your shoulders are going to pop out of the sockets, which is how back squats can feel for me, you’ve solved your problem.
I occasionally want to offload my elbows but it’s been a hit and a miss. Been trying to get my gym to get a proper SSB (and trap-bar) but they won’t make any purchases while the future seems as uncertain as it is now.
