Was hoping for a bigger pull than what I ended up with, everything felt fine coming into the gym; 405 moved at like RPE8.5 then 425 wouldn’t budge. I couldn’t quite figure out where to get my grip set up and the last time I pulled sumo must’ve been about 3 years ago. If sumo is harder off the floor but easier at the top than conventional, and I pull heavier conventional + have never missed a deadlift above the knees, I think it’s perfectly fine to just stick with what I’m good at here
Viking Day is still terrible and awesome, planning on doing bodyweight x age squats instead next week as it’ll be on my birthday. Also my last workout as an undergrad
Carb cycling always made a lot of sense to me, if one was going to eat carbs. I’m actually almost finished with Dan Duchaine’s “Bodyopus”, which presents a VERY unique approach to the whole thing. But Justin Harris always had a pretty sane approach to it.
I do have a certain dietary restriction that makes a truly carb-free diet basically impossible, but I’ve had success with limited periods of low carb dieting in the past. I’ll definitely check out those resources, a quick Wikipedia scan for Mr. Duchaine reveals quite a character
Oh dude, there’s SO much about him, haha. Chris Bell was going to make a documentary about him called “The Menace of Venice”, ala Venice Beach: don’t know if it ever got cleared. Justin Harris is just straight up legit: big, strong, and smart as hell. I DO know if some keto vegans out there, but concur that it’s definitely a tricky road to travel.
Conjugate Trial Cycle W3 Dynamic Upper - Sunday Late AM Pull-ups: +25x2x5 Power jerk (Fat Gripz): 165x10x3 EMOM Close-grip incline bench (Fat Gripz): 155x5, 5, 4, 135x6, 5, 115x6 band pull-aparts 5x20 between sets T-bar row: 115x15, 13, 12 DB overhead extension: 60x12, 12, 45x14 Poundstone curls (Fat Gripz): 45x37
New cycle of Even Easier Strength for chins, rotating neutral/pronated/supinated grip every 2 weeks. I’ve been following this method for a few months now and would highly recommend it, it’s been effective and, indeed, easy.
Think I’m going to adopt a mechanical progression approach for supplemental pressing over my next 2 cycles; the benches at my gym go from 60 to -15 degrees (6 increments, perfect) so I think I’ll start high and decrease the angle every week, keeping that 6x4-6 volume.
Dip bars were in use, hence the pencilneckery in my assistance selection; not a huge fan of extensions since I fatigue/pump up too fast. Dips I enjoy because one can count on all the other pressing muscles to keep total volume high, seems a lot more strength-specific than single-joint work. Hardly groundbreaking stuff here.
Presses performed off the chest/clavicle/whatever with elbow sleeves, wrist wraps, and belt on. This is a 5-pound press PR from late last November, pretty happy with how well it moved. Sure didn’t feel fast, but it definitely was on video. Still ridiculous to me how good my bench/strict press is relative to my squat/bench
Added more backoff sets + switched up assistance work some
Pretty great workout, go figure that I finished school yesterday and haven’t had time for the stress of unemployment to sink in yet. Enjoying the mindset while it lasts
This was a fucking awesome main movement, felt similar to a trap bar pull but with a more advantaged start because of the back position. I’ll probably have some bruising on my hams and calves after this, though
Kind of a milestone workout in that today’s my birthday and the last day the school gym is open before I graduate. I think my first workout here may have been when I was running Mag/Ort ~3 years ago, at the end of which I hit 375x2 and failed 385x2; always fun to put things into perspective. Also sadly not doing any proper lifting for up to 5 days after this, might get up to some conditioning at my parents’ place
Birthday squats done in beltless/high-bar fashion. Weighed in at 188 this morning, so not dropping too badly but I could definitely stand to eat more
Deload/Conditioning in Apartment Building Gym - Tuesday PM Pullups: +35x2x5 CoC grippers: Tx5, 1x5, 5, 5, 5 Treadmill ruck: 40lbs in backpack, 2 miles in 35:34 with 3% incline for first ~5-10 minutes
Going to keep working on the grippers once I get back on a proper training cycle
Shins were holding me back on the ruck more than my lungs or even my traps were, anyone have insights on working around rather than through shin splints? I did this wearing my ancient pair of Inov8 barefoot shoes
Deload seems to have done me well, everything moved smoothly and quickly today. On the latter, I kept all my assistance rest periods to 1 minute
Not fully counting that last pull-up, as I basically grinded it up to bar-at-nose then couldn’t get any higher
Supersetting back and rear delts may be a keeper, excellent upper back pump here. I think this is conceptually similar to a Kelso row/shrug in how the pull-aparts help exhaust that muscle group after others are worked by the row
Zercher RDLs have been promoted from assistance to supplemental, power cleans have been accordingly deprioritized and will just be done with my DE upper work now (take push press sets from the floor, my TMs for push press/power clean aren’t that far off anyway)
Crunches are finally heavy enough that I’m feeling my abs + obliques
May need to get knee sleeves back on for this workout soon, things are definitely feeling a bit cranky. Nothing to worry about for now unless it gets worse, my knees have always been fine (bursitis of the right hip is my only real enemy here)
Just realized as I was typing this that I forgot the 10s for the last 2 leg press sets. Truly can ignorance be bliss
Conjugate C1W2 Max Upper - Sunday AM Chinups: +45x2x5 Overhead pin press at nose height against minibands (Fat Gripz): 45x5, 95x3, 135x2, 155x1, 185x0, (bands off), 1, 205x0 (bands back on), 135x3, 115x5, 5, 5 Superset barbell shrugs/DB lat raises: 295x12, 275x15, 12, 10 / 25x14, 20x18, 16, 14 Dips: +10x20, BWx25, 19, 12 Hammer curls: 35x15, 15, 10 +30min walk home due to shit weekend bus routes
Chins felt great today
Bit of an underwhelming session for the max effort work proper, but I got some decent reps in on the backoff sets. Still doesn’t sit quite right being able to full-ROM strict press 205 but not with like ~2 inches off
