WEEK 7
DAY 1: Core Day
TURKISH GET-UP (Initial)
8kg: 10-10-10-10-10
KETTLEBELL SNATCH
8kg: 25-25-25
SIDE BEND
8kg: 30-20-10 (no rest)
Bodyweight: 96.1kg
I’ve added my new goals to the OP. My core is my weakest link so I’ve set myself the goal of 28kg get-up (initial part only) for 20 reps. I’m a long way from that, but thought it would be good to aim for. I also added the goal of 36kg KB snatch for 20 reps as well as the pistol squat goal.
WEEK 7
DAY 2: Whole Body Day
PISTOL SQUAT
BW: 2-2-2-2-2
BACK EXTENSION
BW: 20-20-20
CHIN-UP
BW: 8-8-7-5
BENCH PRESS
90kg: 8
95kg: 8
100kg: 4
60kg: 20-15
SHOULDER SHOCKER
6kg: 10/10/10-10/10/10-10/10/10 (short rest)
PUSH PRESS/BENT OVER ROW/SLDL/SQUAT COMPLEX
35kg: 10-8-6-4-4 (short rest)
This was a great workout. It really grates with my OCD when I do a full body day consisting of a mixture of bodyweight stuff and free weight stuff haha. It just seems wrong to do pistol squats and bench press in the same session.
WEEK 7
DAY 3: Core
TURKISH GET-UP (Initial)
8kg: 15-15-15
SIDE BEND
8kg: 30-20-10 (no rest)
I have some DOMS in my outer quads from the pistol squats yesterday, having taken 5 days off from training knee dominant movements. I’m taking this as a good sign that the pistols work what I want them to work. The get-ups with 8kg are deceptively hard!
WEEK 7
DAY 4 and 5: Rest
I planned on hitting the gym today, but feel quite ill so I’m taking a rest day. Tomorrow will be a rest day too, because I’m busy all day.
[quote]furo wrote:
I planned on hitting the gym today, but feel quite ill so I’m taking a rest day. Tomorrow will be a rest day too, because I’m busy all day.
[/quote]
Good on you. Rest days are underrated.
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Hey Furo,
Great work on achieving your first goal! I’ve been following your log because I like the 20-rep challenge idea for exactly the reasons you stated (ie. nice blend of strength, endurance, mental toughness etc.). I’ve mostly been training heavy with the 4 big lifts for the last 2 years but lately have been wanting more.
I read Jim Wendler’s article on here a little while ago re: his development of 5/3/1 where he basically stated he got tired of having excellent maximal strength but little athleticism in other areas. I believe he said he got sick of “waddling up to the rack”.
I’ve been toying with the idea of going over to strictly bodyweight exercises for a while to improve some of this along with more conditioning (if I remember correctly, I think you said you did something like this for quite a while) but, I haven’t been able to break myself of the barbell habit. Anyways, after reading your log, I’m thinking of running a similar program for a while and see where I get. Anyways, great work!!
[quote]theBird wrote:
[quote]furo wrote:
I planned on hitting the gym today, but feel quite ill so I’m taking a rest day. Tomorrow will be a rest day too, because I’m busy all day.
[/quote]
Good on you. Rest days are underrated.
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Haha thanks! I definitely agree. Hope all is well with you 
[quote]CMdad wrote:
Hey Furo,
Great work on achieving your first goal! I’ve been following your log because I like the 20-rep challenge idea for exactly the reasons you stated (ie. nice blend of strength, endurance, mental toughness etc.). I’ve mostly been training heavy with the 4 big lifts for the last 2 years but lately have been wanting more.
I read Jim Wendler’s article on here a little while ago re: his development of 5/3/1 where he basically stated he got tired of having excellent maximal strength but little athleticism in other areas. I believe he said he got sick of “waddling up to the rack”.
I’ve been toying with the idea of going over to strictly bodyweight exercises for a while to improve some of this along with more conditioning (if I remember correctly, I think you said you did something like this for quite a while) but, I haven’t been able to break myself of the barbell habit. Anyways, after reading your log, I’m thinking of running a similar program for a while and see where I get. Anyways, great work!![/quote]
Thanks! I’m really glad that my log has helped in some way. Yeah I really love bodyweight and kettlebell stuff, I think they are hugely under-rated. I really feel that if you train correctly you can make similar gains in size and strength compared with barbells, but you can also improve your conditioning and feel way less beaten up at the same time. I know exactly what you mean about breaking the barbell habit - I was terrified that I’d lose all my progress when I stopped training with barbells, but having taken a year off them and gone back to the gym for this log and can say with confidence that you shouldn’t lose any gains.
I have never run 5/3/1 but I have the first edition ebook and that has a bodyweight-only assistance template which might be a great fit for you. He does it like this:
One last thing I really like to do with bodyweight exercises, and which I’m going to go back to soon, is doing on-the-minute sets. On of the authors on this site covered on-the-minute sets in an article entitled “Things I’ve stolen from CrossFit” or something like that. I feel that it works perfectly with bodyweight exercises as they don’t take it out of you in quite the same way as heavy lifts and you don’t have to be so worried about your technique. That is my number one recommendation for an easy way to build up work capacity.
Sorry for rambling on so much. Good luck with your goals!
As mentioned above I am taking today as a rest day, but I thought I would write down some reflections on this training log so far.
I can happily train every day with bodyweight or kettlebell exercises, but need usually 2 rest days per week with barbell lifting.
Pistol squats and barbell reverse make my knees feel better, deadlifts don’t affect them and barbell squats make them feel bad.
My lower back problem is deep seated and needs to be taken care of - no one should get shooting lumbar pain from pistol squats!
Ramping is probably better than straight sets for heavy lower body lifts, but takes a very long time.
Greasing the groove worked very well at rapidly improving my pistol technique over just a couple of days.
Weighted chins (which I was doing before) seem to be more effective than bodyweight chins for increasing reps - I need to go back to doing them.
[quote]furo wrote:
[/quote]
Sorry if its mentioned somewhere before, but what do you mean my greasing the groove? Im about to attempt pistol squats myself, although Im not sure if I will be able to do it with my super-long legs and somewhat inflexible ankles.
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[quote]theBird wrote:
[quote]furo wrote:
[/quote]
Sorry if its mentioned somewhere before, but what do you mean my greasing the groove? Im about to attempt pistol squats myself, although Im not sure if I will be able to do it with my super-long legs and somewhat inflexible ankles.
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Greasing the groove is an idea from Pavel Tsatsouline which is basically to practice a movement many times throughout the day to increase technical proficiency. I only did it for 2 days, on the 11th and 12th of July (at the bottom of page 1 of this log). I could only do 1 rep at that point and had the days off, so did 25 sets of 1 rep throughout the day.
I had at least 15 minutes between each set to completely rest before I did my next set. It worked wonders for me at getting me from being able to do one shoddy rep to being able to do a few smooth reps. I’d really recommend it for once you’ve cracked your first pistol - few things work quickly in training but this really seemed to.
I think I’m a similar build to you - 6’2" with proportionally long limbs - and that wasn’t a problem, but the ankle mobility probably will hinder you as the joint is put through a huge ROM. The good thing is that doing pistols will improve your ankle mobility, once you can do them.
Good luck! I’m sure you’ll be doing them in no time.
WEEK 7
DAY 6: Chin-Up Day
CHIN-UP
BW: 8-8-8
NEUTRAL GRIP PULL-UP
BW: 6-5-5
Bodyweight: 95.5kg
I didn’t feel up to much of a workout, so just did this.
Tomorrow I’m off on holiday for 2 weeks. I’m taking my 28kg kettlebell so will do plenty of lower body work - pistols, snatches, swings and get-ups. I’ll keep the upper body work light - rows and push-ups.
Enjoy the holiday dude!
[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:
Enjoy the holiday dude![/quote]
Thanks buddy!
I’m back from holiday and had a great time.
I didn’t do much training, but did a lot of thinking about training (I’m pretty obsessive in this regard).
I’ve made my training plan for the coming semester: it’s an amalgamation of a performance-oriented routine and an aesthetics-oriented routine as both are weighted equally for me as goals. Each day is based around a “performance” exercise that I have a 20-rep goal for, but the rest is more hypertrophy based. Really pretty similar to what I’ve been doing so far. I’m also going to go back to on-the-minute training as I’ve had great success with that in the past, and it is an extremely efficient way to get a large volume into a shorter session.
My diet over the past 5 weeks has been less than perfect - for the first 4 weeks I was at home and my nutrition was acceptable, but I ate more carbs than I would have liked to (a lot of bread). Then over the past 2 weeks on holiday I ate even more carbs. However, I actually think this has been awesome for me. I’ve only gained 1kg and my appearance hasn’t really changed and I think that I’ve (accidentally) reverse dieted and given my metabolism a really nice boost. Now I’m going to start counting macros again, and see if I can achieve the same results as before the holiday but with more carbs.
Anyway, that is enough rambling for one day. I’ll resume training and logging properly tomorrow.
Thoughts continued.
So long-term my push goal is 20-rep handstand push-ups (free-standing, head to floor only). My long-term pull goal will be 20-rep neutral grip pull-ups and my lower body goals will just stay as they are currently - pistol squats, 28kg snatch and 28kg get-up (initial only). My aim is to achieve these by my graduation in June of next year.
WEEK 10
DAY 2: Pistol Squat/Legs Day
KB REVERSE LUNGE
40kg: 12-10
DOUBLE SWING
2x20kg: 5-5-5-5
PISTOL SQUAT (BOX)
BW: 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1
SINGLE LEG HIP THRUST
BW: 20-20
Bodyweight: 95.2kg
This was a great workout. All sets were done on-the-minute and I got a really nice pump and it felt like good conditioning too. My weight has stayed the exact same and my arm and thigh measurements have gone down a bit, which is worrying, but I think I look about the same in the mirror. Not sure what to make of that - hopefully the measurements will return to normal soon. The pistol squats to a box seemed more challenging than the standard ones, so that is good.
Welcome back buddy.
Can you do a handstand?
Im thinking of adding some gymnastic moves to my routine such as the handstand, planche, L-sit and ring work.
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[quote]furo wrote:
I’m back from holiday and had a great time.
I didn’t do much training, but did a lot of thinking about training (I’m pretty obsessive in this regard).
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Lol I know what you mean.
[quote]furo wrote:
2) Long (long long long)-term my 20-rep “push” goal is handstand push-ups, and I think the time has come to start practicing them (but my priority is still the bench goal)[/quote]
Aw shit yea. You’re gonna be like a fucking ninja god when you can do that lol.
My training partner has started training handstand pushups against a wall, and he’s already up to 10 the sonofabitch. He does only weigh 180lbs though, and he’s got good overhead strength obviously.
I tried some myself. You’re in for a bumpy ride I think haha! They’re tough for someone our size. I think you’ll make good progress on them though. Just keep at it day after day and you’ll get there one rep at a time.
[quote]theBird wrote:
Welcome back buddy.
Can you do a handstand?
Im thinking of adding some gymnastic moves to my routine such as the handstand, planche, L-sit and ring work.
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Thanks Bird! I can’t do one yet lol - like I said it is a very long-term goal. I’d love to add in more gymnastic work too, I’m going to do front lever progressions on my core day.
[quote]csulli wrote:
[quote]furo wrote:
2) Long (long long long)-term my 20-rep “push” goal is handstand push-ups, and I think the time has come to start practicing them (but my priority is still the bench goal)[/quote]
Aw shit yea. You’re gonna be like a fucking ninja god when you can do that lol.
My training partner has started training handstand pushups against a wall, and he’s already up to 10 the sonofabitch. He does only weigh 180lbs though, and he’s got good overhead strength obviously.
I tried some myself. You’re in for a bumpy ride I think haha! They’re tough for someone our size. I think you’ll make good progress on them though. Just keep at it day after day and you’ll get there one rep at a time.[/quote]
Haha yeah I’ve tried them before and failed miserably - they will take a long time haha. I’m not sure how to work towards them - whether I should master a free standing handstand first or work towards doing full reps against a wall then worrying about balancing later. Thanks a lot for the encouragement, being a ninja god is the goal haha!