Week 19: Active Recovery
I just did a fair amount of hip circles, back extensions and static stretches today. I was feeling pretty stiff in the morning, particularly around my knees and hips, and this really helped. I need to adjust my warm-up and get back into stretching now that I’ve reintroduced pistols as they beat me up more than kettlebell work. Or at least they do at the moment while my technique isn’t spot on. When I go back to my flat I’ll warm up with hip circles and goblet squats and hopefully that’ll improve things. I’m determined to give pistols a really good shot this time.
[b] Week 19: High Frequency Bodyweight Phase Day 7
Warm-Up [/b]
Hip circles and goblet squats
Pistol Squats
BW: 10x1 EMOM
Bodyweight: ?
I’m back at my flat for a couple of days so don’t have rings. The pistols started off a bit shaky but I got into a good groove from set three onwards barring a failed seventh rep on my right leg (failed just above parallel).
[b] Week 19: High Frequency Bodyweight Phase Day 8
Warm-Up [/b]
Hip circles and goblet squats
Pistol Squats
BW: 10x1 EMOM
Bodyweight: ?
Pistols felt better today. They really tighten the hell out of my quads though! While training purely with bodyweight sounds nice and neat the most effective way to train will certainly be with a combination of bodyweight and kettlebells. I think it will be good for me to do a solid six week block of bodyweight only while seeing physio/osteo etc about my neck, and then gradually reintroduce kettlebells (especially the swing).
[b] Week 19: High Frequency Bodyweight Phase Day 9
Warm-Up [/b]
Hip circles and bodyweight squats
Pistol Squats
BW: 10x1 EMOM
Ring Pull-Ups
BW: 5-5-5-5-4 EMOM
Bodyweight: 94.9kg
I attempted every minute pull-ups, instead of every second minute, and almost succeeded (although the reps weren’t as controlled as usual). My legs felt quite rough at the start but improved. Bodyweight is up a fair bit.
Day 9 Continued
I ended up also doing 5x20 back extensions and going for a 90min hike. Nothing special but felt like logging that too.
I forgot to mention earlier that for the last 2 days my neck has actually felt back to normal and I haven’t had any headaches. Must just be the time off from kettlebells.
I’m sick today so haven’t been able to train. I have been feeling unwell for several days, but it’s worse today. No big deal, but I felt very dizzy during my warm-up so decided to take the day off. Hopefully things will pick up with a good night’s sleep. Bodyweight was a more respectable 94.1kg this morning.
[b] Week 19: High Frequency Bodyweight Phase Day 10
Warm-Up [/b]
Bodyweight squats
Pistol Squats
BW: 10x1 EMOM
Back Extensions
BW: 3x20
Bodyweight: 94.1kg
I had my physiotherapy appointment this morning and it went very well. I had a pretty brutal massage and my neck feels good just now. I’m also feeling better regarding my cold. The physio advised not training for 24 hours but I figured some pistols and back extensions shouldn’t bother my neck.
[b] Week 19: Summary
Bodyweight: [/b] 94.4kg - not fantastic
Training: Pretty good this week, although I didn’t manage many pull-up sessions (2 out of 5). Pistols were strong though.
Nutrition: Average this week. A fair volume of sugary drink, but otherwise ok.
Hey Furonator!
What is the goal with your bodyweight? You weigh the same as myself. Have you tried the MyFitnessPal ap on your smart phone. Its a great way to track your macros. Only takes a few minutes at a time. I lek to to fill in my details as I eat.
Uncle Bird.
tweet
Birnator! lol. I was actually just going to post about bodyweight goal. I’ve decided I want to start cutting properly again and my goal will be to get below 90kg by the new year. Long term I think around 90kg is probably pretty ideal for me. Yesterday I weighed in at 94.1kg and today I was 95.6kg, but my diet is pretty poor at the moment so I’ve got a lot to play with! I’ve got myfitnesspal but I’ve never properly used it, sounds like a good idea!
Training wise pistols haven’t really caught my imagination and to be honest I’m itching to get back into kettlebell-ing. Basing my lower body work around the double kettlebell front squat and two-handed swing left me feeling mobile and strong. I had a really bad headache yesterday, which I’m putting down to the physio the day before, and today I feel pretty good. I think I should ditch this bodyweight phase and work on gradually re-introducing kettlebell work. I’ll start with goblet squats, as they put minimal stress on my traps/neck (but more than bodyweight) and then I’ll start light swings.
[b] Week 20: Day 1
Warm-Up [/b]
Hip circles
Goblet Squats/Haloes
28kg/10kg: 5x5/5 E2MOM
Bodyweight: I just can’t remember lol, around the 95kg mark.
This was more of a warm-up than an actual session lol, but I think it’ll do me good to ease into it. My plan is to do the above session every day this week, then next week add in 20kg swings and rows and then the week after that go right back to 2x28kg squats and 40kg swings and rows.
I ate really well today, but too much. I had a big salad for lunch (with 400g chicken), a beef sandwich, raisins and nuts for dinner and finally a big fruit salad when I got home. I’m on 12 hour shifts all week so I’ll aim for something similar each day but tapering down the quantities.
[b] Week 20: Day 2
Warm-Up [/b]
Hip circles
Goblet Squats/Haloes
28kg/10kg: 5x10/10 E3MOM
Bodyweight: 95.8kg
This was a more worthwhile session - sets of 10 instead of 5. My legs were feeling a bit tight during the day and I got this one really painful spasm in my right knee at one point, but after training they feel good. I think the pistols were a mistake (although I didn’t give them a fair chance) and I’m glad to be using kettlebells again. Also with my planned cut it’ll be good to be using tried and tested exercises.
[b] Week 20: Day 3
Warm-Up [/b]
Hip circles
Goblet Squats
28kg: 5x10 E2MOM
Bodyweight: 95.3kg
Feeling exhausted today - on 12 hour shifts this week. Hips feel beat up. Ok session though, and I ate well today.
[b] Week 20: Day 4
Haloes [/b]
10kg: 5x5 EMOM
Kettlebell Rows (one-handed)
20kg: 10x10 EMOM
Kettlebell Press
20kg: 10-8-5 EMOM
Bodyweight: 94.4kg
Particularly tiring shift today but I’m off tomorrow. Decided to introduce some light upper body work, and it felt pretty good. I’m happy with the density of the rows, and worked hard on my scapula positioning. Presses were more challenging than I anticipated, but that’s to be expected in hindsight.
[b] Week 20: Day 5
Goblet Squats [/b]
28kg: 3x10 EMOM
Kettlebell Rows (one-handed)
28kg: 5x5
Bodyweight: 94.1kg
I was really exhausted today, but got some work done.
[b] Week 20: Summary
Bodyweight: [/b] 94.9kg - too high
Training: Trained like a pussy this week lol, was basically a deload. But good frequency and rest periods, and I did a lot of goblet squatting which was my main objective.
Nutrition: Pretty good this week. I had a salad with lots of chicken for every lunch and my dinners were pretty good too.
I’m itching to start pushing myself with training at the moment. I like the idea of kettlebells for lower body and rings for upper body but I still haven’t found anywhere good to hang my rings. My neck doesn’t feel as good as I’d hoped, but it’s certainly a lot better than it was. I’ve been pretty tired over the last few weeks, and I’m hoping to start feeling more energetic.
In terms of routine I think I’ve developed a bad habit of over-simplifying my training and boring myself. 2 upper body and 2 lower body days per week works well and I think I should make sure I don’t repeat sessions within the week. Lower body days are easy: I’ll do kettlebell front squats and two-handed swings one day and goblet squats and one-handed swings the next. For upper body I think I’ll do kettlebell rows and push-ups on day one and ring pull-ups and dips. It’s been a while since I did a run of consistent hard work and so I really need that now. I’ve been coasting recently.
[b] Week 21: Day 1
Warm-Up [/b]
Hip circles
Goblet Squats
40kg: 10x5 E2MOM
Kettlebell Swings (two-handed)
40kg: 10x5 E2MOM
Bodyweight: 94.8kg
I originally planned on doing one-handed swings but my grip wasn’t up to it. The two-handed swings and goblet squats felt good - no neck issues at all and it was nice to be using the 40kg again. My hips were a little tight but I’ll do some static stretching later this evening.
In terms of routine I’ve had some more thoughts: if my strength hasn’t dropped significantly (i.e. if I can do 5x5 40kg rows and 5x5 2x28kg front squats this week) I think I’ll do one upper body and one lower body session per week, and on other days do things like swimming and rock climbing. That will be much better for both athleticism and keeping my interested, and I really don’t see it making much of a difference to my progress either.
[b] Week 21: Day 2
Warm-Up [/b]
Light rows
Kettlebell Rows
40kg: 8x5 E3MOM
Push-Ups
BW: 2x20
Bodyweight: 94.8kg
This was a good session. I was shooting for 10x5 rows, but on the 8th set my form began to suffer and I thought I’d stop there. In any case, I really haven’t lost much strength on them. My shoulders felt a little rough, but it’s been a while since I’ve done these movements so I guess I’m not too surprised.
[b] Week 21: Day 3
Kettlebell Floor Press [/b]
2x28kg: 5x10
Bodyweight: 94.4kg
I was originally planning on doing kettlebell front squats today but my neck doesn’t feel right and I’m actually most worried about the clean into the front squats. Instead I tried out floor presses with my 28kgs and they felt absolutely great! I’m not sure why I haven’t tried these before. 5x10 was reasonably challenging and the exercise felt really good on my shoulders. Naturally it hit my triceps harder than my chest, but that’s fine. I think I may have found my push exercise!
I’m doing long shifts Fri/Sat/Sun so I won’t be able to train again until Monday. Next week I want to get in some really solid training, but this week was a great stepping stone to that.