Pretty disappointed with this - I was smashing reps a month back using a 110 TM so I thought 115 would be fairly comfortable, but it just felt off instead. I could have ground out more reps but I knew they wouldn’t be clean so I didnt bother.
Think there are quite a few factors contributing to the poor performance, so hopefully it’s just a blip. I think I’ll go with 110 as the starting TM, based on how that most recent cycle went, and assume everything will kinda catch up.
Weighed in after that last workout at 13st 4.8lbs, waist measured 89cm/35in.
Also just uploaded my starting t-ranformation pics. Didn’t get a chance to do them before going away for New Year’s so those were taken this evening which is a different time of day to normal - not particularly comparable with other pictures I’ve done as a result, but it may help with the competition element…
Oh, and a happy new year to anyone and everyone reading!
Edit to add: I keep a tally chart of workouts done in the year which I’m sure I got from a Brian Alsruhe video some years back. Last year I got 155 total (counting gym workouts only, not running), which is about 20 more than the year before, and a nice 3x per week average. I’m quite pleased with that, but I know that to really make this work over the long term I need to try and make that an actual 3x per week, rather than having gaps here and there that get caught up at other points.
alt s/s pushups - 6, 8, 10, 10, 10
(took c. 22.5 mins total)
To clarify the above: squats are done every single set, but I’ve only written down the workings sets here (main 5/3/1 sets + BBB sets).
Seated jumps are done immediately before these as I work through the squats warmup and main sets, until I hit 10 total reps.
Pullups and pushups are then done after immediately after the squats, alternating between the two each set. These carry on throughout the entire workout though.
Finally, between the main and BBB sets I take a minute rest (which includes time taken to change weights as needed). On the warmup sets I don’t time my rests but I imagine it shakes out to about 45s, so only a little less.
This workout went pretty smoothly - the first couple of BBB sets left me feeling a bit gassed so I was a little worried about how I’d be by the last set, but I seemed to get into a groove as it went on and finished them out without too much issue in the end.
alt s/s KB rows (L/R) - 10 @ 12, 16, 20, 24, 24 ea arm
alt s/s Ab wheel (kneeling) - 3, 4, 5, 5, 5
(took c.24 mins)
This was OK - I looked up alternatives to med ball throws (as I don’t have a med ball, or space to throw one around) and found a video of someone doing these overhead banded ‘slams’ so I thought I’d give it a go but they felt pretty weird so I don’t think I’ll do them again.
Bench press was fine - I’ve found in the past I can handle relatively high weight on bench for reps (vs 1RM), so next cycle I might bump up the BBB %'s, but for now I’m sticking with the standard 50/60/70% and I’ll see how it feels in a few weeks.
Rows were no problem, but doing the reps on both arms definitely slows the whole thing down. Ab wheel was painful as hell though - I feel like I’m still sore from when I did them nearly a week ago, which I think highlights how little direct ab work I’ve done in the past few months.
40m total/30m running. Covered 4.24mi/6.78km in total per Strava - got out about as far as I have done previously but then finished about 100m short of the starting point.
Super windy this morning, to the point I could feel it behind me on the way out, pushing me along, so I knew it was going to be tough going on the way back (and it was!). The current goal with these runs alongside BBB is to just maintain the fitness/ability to run for this long, rather than to push the distance/time further.
This went badly. I had a little trepidation coming into this workout, regarding how I’d handle the deadlifts, due to having done poorly on the TM test and my legs being generally fatigued from squats and running, but this may have ended up being a self-fulfilling prophecy…
First few sets of deadlifts were fine, but then on the top set something went in my lower back (right at the base of my spine), and that was the end of that. After feeling sorry for myself for a couple of minutes I gingerly unloaded the bar, and then finished off the assistance work as a quick superset.
I had put my belt on for the last 2 sets, and thought I might using a slightly higher hip position as a result so most likely I just got out of position at the start of the pull, probably with hips too high and a rounding of the lower back.
I have put my back out before and this doesn’t feel quite so bad as previous occasions so I’m hopeful it won’t set me back too far. Started on ibuprofen straight afterwards to try and get on top of it. Early indications are that I can squat if I stay upright and really try to open my hips up, and I can even still hinge OK if I do it with a staggered stance (to do my shoe laces for example). This is just with bodyweight though so we’ll see if it can handle any load at all.
I’ll try and do tomorrow’s OHP workout as normal and see how that goes - hopefully I don’t aggravate things by arching to much during the press. I’m slated to do KB swings as well but that will be skipped; I’ll probably just try out various other movements to see what feels OK and what doesn’t, and then re-evaluate from there.
I’ve come up with a few ideas already (which I think points to a fairly profound change in mindset compared to when I’ve had injuries in the past and everything has just unravelled), but I can’t really act on anything until I can asses how bad it is and what I can still do. By the weekend I should know though, and be able to get back to it next week, in some shape or form.
OHP - 10 @ bar, 5 @ 27.5, 32.5, 36.25, 5 x 10 @ 21.25
(42.5 TM)
KB rows (L/R) - 10 @ 12, 16, 7 x10 @ 20 ea arm
(took c.24 mins)
Was moving pretty gingerly this morning, but low back felt OK once I got going on the above. The only real issue was bending down to pick up weights, and then sitting down on the bench for the OHP with the bar in my hands (doing the actual movement and then standing back up seemed OK).
Obviously a very slimmed-down workout compared to what was originally intended but I’m not risking anything at this stage, and I’m just glad that I got something done.
Although this morning’s workout shows I can do some stuff ‘normally’ I wouldn’t be confident pushing the weights even on this right now. As such I think what I’m going to do is pivot away from what was planned in the short-term and instead focus on something else so I can still see some improvement (and maybe get a good result for the t-ransformation challenge), but just in different areas.
Specifically I think this could be an opportunity to attack my postural issues, which I know has negative knock-on effects elsewhere. I’ve tried running the Neanderthal No More program from this site before (written some years back by Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson) but have previously found myself being distracted by other shining things I wanted to chase instead. Now though, with serious limitations on what I can do, this seems like a good option.
I’ll still need to modify the program, at least in the beginning - for example I don’t see myself handling snatch-grip deadlifts right now - but I’m sure I can come up with other stuff to work on to fill those gaps (maybe this will be the time I learn to pistol squat). I think the key thing will be making sure the daily work is actually done daily.
Diet-wise I think I’ll just seek to maintain for the time being (given I won’t be pushing intensity or volume on this program, but also don’t want to cut calories and hamper recovery from the injury). If and when the back is healed I might then look to shed some fat, again to try and come up with a good finished result for the t-ranformation challenge. That’ll be something to reasses in a month or so though I think.
The next couple of weeks at least are just about painkillers and avoiding aggravating the low back any more, so I can then progress to fixing it.
Decided to do an all-out arms day here, as I figured that was the least likely to affect the low back. Tried for Meadows-like sequencing which I think I managed OK, and my arms were certainly pumped by the end!
Low back was still petty tender and I was moving slowly and being extra careful when picking up weights from the floor etc. I had to do the BB curls super strict to make sure I wasn’t using any body english and putting strain on it, which was fine but made the movement a lot harder (which probably shows I’m normally as strict as I should be).
Interestingly there was notable relief after the chinups, which I’m guessing is from the effect of deloading the spine for the duration.
Snatch-grip deadlift - 3 x 8 @ bar, 8 @ 25, 30
(1m rest) (20X0 tempo)
ITB stretch - 5 x 15s ea side
BB step-ups (L/R) - 10, 12 @ bar, 25 ea leg
(30s between legs) (20X1 tempo)
Superset:
Dead bug twist - 2 x 15 ea way
(1010 tempo)
Side hip thrust - 2 x 10 ea side
(1010 tempo)
Different style of workout this, with the stretches in between etc. Low-back is showing a marked improvement already which is really positive, but I still took it really easy on the deadlifts, starting with the bar in the rack and then reducing the height on the next couple of sets until I was starting from the regular height.
Big issue here was timing however - I cut out 1 set per exercise apart from the first one, and reduced rest times, and yet I still got back in the house about 10 minutes later than I wanted to. Not really sure if anything can be done about that because there are quite a few exercises to go through, with prescribed tempos, rest times, and stretching times, so there’s a limit to what can be changed without the whole thing being a bit meaningless.
Banded external rotations - 3 x 12 @ green band
(1010 tempo)
Dip shrugs - 12, 10ish on rings, 15 on bench
(1m rest) (1010 tempo)
High-to-low cable woodchop - skipped
Feeling like a broken record now but I think I’m going to have to change program again. Once again this just took way too long to get through, finishing a good 5-10 minutes after when I wanted to, and I didn’t even do the final exercise…
On the plus side my low back has improved way quicker than I ever expected it to - certainly quicker than it did when I injured it previously. It might be that I just noticed it happening and shut it down more quickly this time and didn’t do as much damage. I can still feel it when I move in certain ways, but it’s not sore all the time and I seem to be able to do most things almost entirely normally (though I do still take care bending over, and ensure I brace etc.).
I’ll do the remaining 2 days from this program as prescribed, to see how they pan out, and even if I do switch it up again I can keep doing the daily work from this program alongside whatever else I land on.
I feel like I could probably pull off any ‘normal’ program (e.g. 5/3/1 again), doing everything as usual for the upper body and probably light stuff for the lower body too. Anything that loads the spine (e.g. squats and deadlifts) would then just need to be taken carefully, and maybe just build up little-by-little over the next month or so. I obviously don’t want to do anything stupid and set myself further back, but it really doesn’t feel like it’ll take long to make a full recovery anymore.
30m total/20m running. 3.11 miles/4.98km total covered.
With 2 cardio days back in the mix I thought doing one shorter run (midweek) and one longer run (weekend) made sense to mix things up a bit. The longer run will be the standard 30m to retain that fitness/ability. I was thinking I might vary the shorter run slightly each week, but not sure yet if there’s an optimal way to do that, or even if there’s any point trying to optimise it vs just going out there and doing whatever I fancy. I’d like to get down to 20m 5k at some point, but it’s not an immediate goal or anything, so I don’t think I need to do anything special on the conditioning side right now.
For this week I opted for a straight run to keep things simple, and just see if there’s any issue with my back. I could feel the impacts of each step so I took things carefully, but I realised at around the 7/8m mark that I was actually running differently to normal, probably from trying to hold back and protect myself, so I moved into a more normal gait and that actually felt a bit better and got me moving quicker.
As a result, unsurprisingly I was beating the intervals on the way back vs on the way out, but I made a mistake towards the end when I’m sure the app told me there were 2 minutes to go, and I was pretty close to my usual 1m mark, so I took a small detour to try and finish at the usual start/finish point, but instead it finished well short of that. Perhaps I just misheard it…
KB deadstop rows (L/R) - 10 @ 12, 16, 20, 24 ea arm
(1m rest)
Changed the name of the log again because I’m bouncing around all over the place… in the end I decided that the NNM workouts were just taking too long, and given my low back improved faster than expected I decided to go back to the 5/3/1 Limited Time template (which served me well a few months back), and just do whatever I can for the lower body until it’s strong enough to train as normal again.
Decided on using the SVR II template for the bench and OHP programming - it’s not a listed option for Limited Time, but the separate templates (WMs, BBB etc.) are given so I figured rotating between them each week like this is probably fine. First session here then is 5’s PRO + PR set + WM, and it uses 3/5/1 scheduling.
11 was a decent result on the top set (gives 85% TM of 72.5, so seems about right,) for the first time pushing bench reps in a while. As usual I stopped when the bar speed slowed right down. Warm-up sets were just done when I was ready, and then 1m rest taken between the main sets (listed above), and 2m rest was taken before the WM. I had hoped to get up to 20+ but I was definitely feeling the effect of the PR set. As before I stopped this once the bar speed slowed right down too, rather than grinding them out.
For the squats I decided to take these slow and treat as a strength movement, rather than pushing reps/speed. I was ‘aware’ of my low back on a few reps, but it didn’t seem to aggravate it too much. Next week I’ll probably either up the weight, or give front squats a go.
It’s meant to be Kroc rows again on this template but I didn’t want to be swinging weight around for the time being, so I went with far more careful deadstop rows instead, which I think was the right call - I noticed on a couple of reps I was actually twisting my torso a bit which again was making me ‘aware’ of my low back.
Ring dips - 9, 6, 4, 3, 4 (26 total)
(alternating each minute)
10m EMOM:
3" FFE reverse lunge (left) - 5 x 10
3" FFE reverse lunge (right) - 5 x 10
(alternating each minute)
Decent session in a short space of time - pushed the reps each set, but stopped at the point it felt like it was going to turn into a grind (similar to how main lifts are done). Doing it EMOM fashion seemed like a good way to get the rest in but keep me moving. Interestingly the dips and rows became a tad easier at the end as the work to rest ratio evened out.
Didn’t load the reverse lunges as still playing it safe at this point, but I could definitely handle something. Right knee felt a little cranky, but nothing major.
40m total w/30m running. 4.26mi/6.82km covered in total.
Got up and did this run a half later than normal as I’ve felt behind on sleep all week. Not sure it helped that much.
It was super windy on this morning, and I really had to lean into it on the way back, and I ended up finishing a little short of my starting point. It was also drizzling a bit which was a pain - it wasn’t heavy but the wind meant it was blowing into my face which was annoying, and there was enough standing water on the road that I had to keep dodging around it, or going up on the verge to avoid puddles spanning the whole road, and my toes got wet…
DB rows (L/R) - 10 @ 13, 18, 23, 28 ea arm
(1m rest)
Using SVR II template again for OHP here - very disappointed though with the reps managed on the top set, and the back-off set. Felt like things were fine at the start of the set but then strength just petered out very quickly.
Deadlifts felt fine, albeit at light weights. I’d got a deal on the chains just before I’d hurt my back, so I thought I’d throw on a pair here to see what they were like but they didn’t seem to do much given the short ROM. This was the lightest pair I got though so I’m sure heavier would work better.
Did regular one-arm DB rows this time around (although still keeping fairly strict, not like Kroc rows) and that seemed to go OK.
Pushups were fine on the first set, and then went off a cliff for the remainder. Chinups were just tough the whole way through.
Went light on the KB swings, but these felt pretty decent so I think I could try a tad heavier next time I do these. Hanging knee raises were OK - I didn’t push the reps on these but just went until I was struggling to get a ‘full’ contraction.
I was really tempted to do something completely different on this session - I just feel like I’m in a bit of a rut (obviously not helped by having plans messed up by the low back injury), and have no joy when working out right now. Plus sleep has been poor so I’m generally feeling tired/lethargic a lot of the time. It all just feels like I’m out of sync and need to do something different to refresh myself, but I have no idea what would work better.