12/2/2017 - 192lbs
That weight reading is pretty impressive after conditioning/track day + clean eating.
Will cut grass today and do some mobility stuff ahead of tomorrows workout.
Edit: started Carbolin 19 today. Ordered 2 bottles and will take 3 caps/60mg per day. That’s 40 days worth.
12/3/2017 - 192.4lbs
Warm-up
Good girl/bad girl, 90/90 active hips, open shoulders, bear to cobra, band dislocates, bottoms up kb presses and goblet squats
Beltless Hi Bar Back Squats
45x2x5, 95x5, 135x5, 165x5, 205x3, 225x3, 185x5x8
-with-
Hand Release Pushups
5x15
Spoto Bench Press
45x5, 135x5, 180x3x10
-with-
T Bar Row
45x10, 70x10, 80x10, 90x10, 100x10 + 80x10 + 55x10
Leg Curl
90x2x15, 80x15
-with-
Hanging Straight Leg Lift + Hanging Knees Up
3x10 + 10
Decline DBs Tri Ext
27.5x5x20
-with-
DB Curl
22.5x5x20
More progress with the squat. The 225 over-warmup was snappy and fine on the hip. The last 2 sets of 185x8 were the best ones. Worked on keeping my knees forward on the way up to use my quads and keep upright. Felt fantastic. All good stuff. Feel good and getting stronger in the right positions.
12/4/2017 - 189.4lbs
Track Run
Warm-up
Leg swings, quick quad, 1 lap walk
1 Mile Run (submax): 6:25
2 lap walk
This was a very comfortable run with speed and power still kicking into the last turn. I planned on a leisure 7m recovery type run, but I settled into a pace a bit quicker. Next week may be a sub 6m PR attempt. Current PR is 6:07.
12/5/2017 - 190.4lbs - Off day
Will go for a walk and do some PT stuff tonight. That weigh in is good. That’s after not eating enough yesterday and a run. Score.
12/7/2017 - 192lbs
Warm-up
Open shoulders, bear to cobra, hips, 3 way rc’s, bottoms up kb presses and goblet squats
Bench Press
45x2x10, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 245x2 (paused), 200x5x8
-with-
Seated Rows and Hyper Ext Rear Delt Flys
Beltless Hi Bar Tempo + Paused Squat
45x2x5, 95x5, 135x3, 175x10x2
-with-
Dips
10x10
Suitcase Carry
65x3x100 steps
-with-
Stir the Pot
2x20, 1x30
Glute Bridges
25x100
Bench is grooved well at the moment. That paused double was snappy. Flew through the 5x8, only the last set did reps 7-8 slow a bit. Squats were not comfortable today though. Hip and knees are a little buggy. Nothing terrible though. Pressing on. Deload after next week.
12/8/2018 - 191.8lbs
Warm-up
Good girl/bad girl, open shoulders, active hips, 3 way rc’s, bottoms up kb presses and goblet squats
OHP
45x2x5, 75x5, 95x5, 115x3, 135x3, 145x2, 115x5x8
-with-
Chins
5x10
RDL
45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 215x3x8
-with-
Paused Incline DB Press
60x15, 60x14, 55x15
Single Leg Press
X15, 110x15, 120x2x15
-with-
Laterals
12x20, 15x3x15
Single Arm Band Pressdowns
50 reps
-with-
Single Arm Band Curls
50 reps
-with-
Hanging Leg Lifts & Knee Lifts
50 reps
Disclaimer: Whining forthcoming.
Everyone in my house is sick except me, and I don’t feel real good either. Mostly fatigue at this point, but probably about to get sick. Next, my lower body is banged up, especially knees and right hip. Need a deload. Depending on how I feel Sunday, I may skip week 4 of 8’s and deload. Also, I need to adjust my lower body total volume down. Apparently I can’t handle the 5 submax working sets. May go back to a AMRAP type set, then 1 or 2 down submax sets. Then cut back assistance too. I’ll reassess this weekend. The hip is the main issue, so still seeking the resolution for it. Not going to get depressed over this shit. I’ll figure it out like always.
sick! also great job on those 200’s.
Is this sub 6 effort going down soon? If so, crush it!
Hopefully if there’s a decent weather day. I’m a fair weather runner. 
Some reminders as I was working on my hip today:
-Active stretching feels better than passive stretching.
-Use the hip circle.
-Glutes need to be turned on prior to squatting. Hip circle thrusts, hip circle side walks and front walks, and hip circle squats do the trick.
-Hip airplane is something to play with.
-Knee over knee internal active stretch is a good one. Best internal stretch I’ve found yet.
-Wider stance squat feels better on hip than narrow. Gives me ‘space’. Just barely outside shoulder width. Not super wide or anything.
After I got done today, it felt pretty damn good.
12/10/2017 - 4A8’s
Warm-up
Good girl/bad girl, open shoulders, hip circle glute bridges, side/front walks, hip circle goblet squats and bottoms up kb presses
Squat
45x2x5, 95x5, 135x5, 165x5, 195x3, 225x2 ouch, 195x3x8
-with-
Hand Release Pushups
5x15
Spoto Bench Press
45x5, 135x5, 185x3x10
-with-
Chest Supported DBs Row
55x10, 65x10, 75x3x10
Lying Leg Curl
90x3x15
-with-
Captain Morgan Side Planks and Single Arm Planks
x3
Decline DBs Ext
22.5x25, 27.5x25, 40x20, 40x2x15
-with-
DB Curls
Ehhh hip is pissed. Will have to lay off squats for a bit, bc squatting baby weights injured/in pain is just stupid. Upper stuff will stay the same, will just work around lower stuff with pain free work. Also, sick again and out of town again on business. Going to be an interesting week.
12/13/2017 - 4B8’s - 192.4lbs
Warm-up
Open shoulders, bear to cobra, band dislocates, 3 way rc’s, squat hold
Bench Press
45x2x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x2 (paused), 205x4x8, 205x10
-with-
Standing Single Arm Cable Row & Back Ext Rear Delt Raises
DB Glute Bridge
25x5x20
-with-
Dips
10x10
Suitcase Carry
65x3x100 steps
-with-
Stir the Pot
3x25
Still got this crappy cold, but don’t think it hindered performance. Clearly had reps in the tank on 5th set of bench, so took a few more. Bench is going well. No squats the rest of this week, and probably not next week either since its a deload and a good opportunity to heal. Hammering glutes and hammies. Planning to leg press Friday, but we’ll see. Perplexed by this hip thing. Probably more tendonitis. Always tendonitis with me.
Sucks about the hip man. Rest is obviously the best idea, then incorporating movements that don’t bug it. I developed some hip issues when I was deep squatting at the start of my vert journey, found half and quarters were doable without pain, then eventually just utilized those entirely. Surely the best approach is to fix the issue, but if you get fed up and want to move some weight, higher ROM’s (without overloading them more than deep, initially) could be a nice work around & “healing accelerator” if they are pain free. I don’t know enough about your specific hip pain etc, but just a quick 2cents from my experience.
Hope it goes away soon. Hip pain absolutely sucks.
peace!!
12/14/2017 - Track Run - 193lbs
Warm-up
Leg swings, 1 lap walk, other active warmup stuff during the warmup walk
1 Mile Run (test): 5:59 PR (-:08) - Goal Achieved
1 mile walk, stretching
Got it! Goal was to run 4 straight 90s laps, and pretty much nailed that as I was at 4:34 entering the last lap. Kicked it up a notch on the last lap and crossed the line at 5:59. So, 2/3 running goals have been met. So, time to start focusing on the 400 a bit more. Will be doing more 200s and 400s for the next month or so. Hip didn’t bother me on the run.
Note:
After @adarqui post above, and the squat article about depth on the front page, AND @FlatsFarmer love for variations, my squats next cycle may be slightly above parallel (or whatever depth is pain free) pin squats. We’ll see how a week of rest does it. Can’t hurt to do a cycle of a variation anyways!!
Awesome man, congrats!! Knew that would drop soon. You picked it up good in that last lap.
Also great to hear about the hip not bugging AND that you will be hitting more 400’s/200’s. You can still get in some extra aerobic work just by extending your warmup & cooldown if you want. I personally love doing this for a warmup: really light 1 mile, light strides, light 400-800, moderate strides, rest 5-10 minutes just walking around focusing, then hit it hard… Then for cooldown just 1-3 miles very light. That could be too much for you obviously, just pointing out though that longer light/progressive warmups won’t really tap into your speed work, IMHO it just prepares you even more. It’s like long relaxed workups to a bunch of heavy work sets in squat. I always liked to gradually build up over many sets, with lots of rest, before I really got after it.
What are you thinking of doing to improve your 400? I need to join that sub 60 club with you. Petty sure you’ll get there before me!
peace!!
Ah cool man! I imagine you’ll be pleasantly surprised TBH. Half squats can be surprisingly hard yet still very comfortable on the hips, from what i’ve seen with myself (as mentioned before) and feedback from other people.
Variations off pins and such are also great. I’m also a huge fan of squatting off pins, not just (non-pause as a depth check) in some of my videos (lmfao), but actual pausing on pins, and starting from the bottom etc. Lots of great variations. Also if I ever failed a squat, i’d always just remove as little as possible and try to get it back up off of the pins, fun punishment.
Btw, the reversal at half without pins is surprisingly rough - definitely less rebound than deep. Don’t go crazy on the free variation right off the bat. It’s actually less rough off of pins from my experience, can sit really nicely into it.
Didn’t see the article about depth on the front page yet, will check it.
pc!
Excellent advice. I will probably add in a mile at 9 or so or some building 800s. I love walking after my hard efforts. It’s like a reward lol.
400 is going to be tough to get to 59s without racing others, but it’ll happen. Lots of 200s and 400s training will hopefully get me there. I’ll track the times and lay out goals for the sets and reps, just like my weightlifting. If you have any advice, I’ll surely take it! I figure once I can run consecutive 30s 200s and 62-65s 400s, then I can dig deep for a 59s 400, especially in competition.
Also, I’ve noticed, it’s amazing how much faster you can run when recovered from the gym and track. Like, if I did a week of nothing, then hit the track, it’s PR city. Yesterday’s PR was kind of like this. It surprised me I was able to do it in the manner I did. Like, not dying, just heavy breathing. Hell, I have a cold too.
12/15/2018 - 4C8’s - 193lbs
Warm-up
Open shoulders, bear to cobra, and dislocates and pullaparts, leg swings, bottoms up kb presses and goblet squats
OHP
45x2x5, 75x5, 95x5, 115x3, 135x3, 120x5x8
-with-
Chins
4x10, 2x8
RDL
45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x3x8
-with-
Paused Incline DB
60x15, 60x14, 60x11
Single Leg Press
15, 120x2x15, 130x15
-with-
Laterals
12x25, 15x3x20
Barbell Curl
45x100
-with-
OH Band Ext
100 reps
Hanging Leg Lifts + Knee ups
2x10+10
Last 2 reps of last 2 sets of OHP got slow, but good reps. Weight is spot on for where I’m at. Enter 5x5s after the deload, will start at either 125 or 130. RDL continues to go well. Will probably stick with 8’s next cycle and slow down the weight progression. Still beltless on all work. Leg press felt fine on the hip. So did the goblet squats.
Regarding the hip, I had a moment. I’ve been squatting too low for too long. My focus is going to be on continuing to squat, but at a range that’s pain free. My hope is that is right at parallel. Next week, during the deload, I will practice some light pin squats ahead of the next cycle to set comfortable depth.
Another thing, I will only allow 4 quick warmup exercises. I do too much. I will focus on 4 quick movements that last no longer than 5-8 mins. I will keep the bottoms up kb presses and goblet squats because they’re kind of a catch all. Probably will do leg swings, and perhaps world’s greatest stretch.
Next week is deload, then…
Target weights for next 4 week block, 5x5:
Pin Squat: 200x5x5. 210x5x5. 220x5x5 230x5x5
Bench: 225x5x5. 230x5x5. 235x5x5. 240x5x5
OHP: 125x5x5. 130x5x5. 135x5x5. 140x5x5
RDL: 225x3x8. 230x3x8 230x3x8. 235x3x8
Pin squat #s are up in the air, we’ll see how the hip does, but I’m hopeful I’ll be in a good place with healing and smarter depth. Not going to push OHP or RDL hard. I’m staying healthy! Slow steady progress. Quality reps. Hell, I may even make smaller jumps then what’s above. Staying beltless.
Quick gym pic:
Full body is where it’s at. I’m a lifer.
Looking good mate. Numbers moving nicely too.
