Well this was unexpected. Work this week has been a pain in the ass, and combined with a couple unexpected life realizations, I was wiped and stressed last night. Wasn’t trying to push the pace, but once I started running, every so often I felt like I could go just a little faster, so I did. Happy with the results.
My calves are so weak. These sets at bodyweight continue to be difficult, which is embarrassing to admit. Tibialis raises could probably use a little weight bump next time.
I needed a win today, and I got it. Had a lot of emotion bubbling up beneath the surface today and as I went into my workout, I suddenly thought, “I can hit 300 today on front squats”. Technically, just going for Jokers isn’t part of the Volume & Strength Anchor (there’s always a PR set), but this is what I needed to do today. There’s was moments of doubt leading up to the attempt, but I just kept reminding myself to trust my instincts. Hit 280, which flew up, and then I absolutely knew I would crush 300.
Rest of the workout was good too. Went with a reverse rep ratio on the clean & press; usually I do 1:5 clean:press, but I did it the other way around just to get more clean practice. Assistance was great too.
When I analyze my life on the macro-scale, I’m fairly content. I’m better off than a great deal of people and don’t have much to complain about. The issue is, on the micro-scale, there’s just a lot of stuff adding up lately and it’s really wearing me down.
Sincerely appreciate all the support, gang. I can honestly say that pulling the trigger and deciding to involve myself in the T-Nation community has been one of the most beneficial experiences of my life. Love it here.
02/04/2021 PART 2
Start time: 1920
Inside temp: I dunno. Room temperature?
Start time: 1230
Garage temp: 6C; left the door open because it was 14C outside!
Bench
worked up to TM PR set; 210x8
Hang power snatch
3x5 @ 110
SS W/ band dislocations, 3x10
Snatch SLDL (3020 tempo)
4x6 @ 225
SS W/ chins, 4x6 @ BW
Kneeling band pulldowns
1x25
45 sec lat stretch
Russian twists (feet anchored)
3x25 @ 25
Notes:
Another win. This block has gotten me so much stronger than when I went into it. I’m kinda blown away. 210x5 going into this Anchor was tough, and this 210x8 just exploded off my chest. Very happy.
Forgot how much I like Russian twists. Great way to engage the entire core.
No, it usually starts warming up around this time. It’ll fluctuate between 5C and 10+C during the day, and barely below 0C during the night, for the next few weeks before trending up. Spring here just likes to start veeeeery slowly and tease us with a couple nice days here and there.
Such a beautiful walk. Sun was beginning to set at the start and had just dipped down at the end. The route I take is down a quite street along a river that runs through the city, and while all the vegetation is brown and dead at the moment, taking this walk in the Summer is going to be amazing.
Deload week next week, then this block is concluded and it’s time for God Is An Olympic Powerbuilding Beast. Volume & Strength is definitely going in the back pocket for dedicated strength work, because I set huge PRs on both lifts I was using it for (bench and front squat).
Since all the cool kids seem to be showing off their food, I thought I’d do the same
That’s been my weekend breakfast and preworkout fuel for the past couple weeks. 280g (roughly 10oz) steak, potato and egg hash with green onions, 3 slices of “Viking bread” (unbleached sourdough rye with no sugar), black coffee, and some horseradish mayo and BBQ sauce for dipping. The meat usually changes; sometimes I’ll bake some fish or fry up some bacon, depending what’s around. I’ve rearranged my meals so that breakfast and dinner are my largest meals, while lunch and post-dinner are lighter and more snacky. It’s the same during the work week, because eating a big meal while wearing body armour is so uncomfortable. Same amount of calories, just divided differently to not bog me down.
Want to try and get some 400-800m repeats in to work on speed and maintaining that speed. I could definitely tell I hadn’t done these in a while. Rest was walking the 400m distance to ensure I was ready to go all out each round.
@T3hPwnisher I’ll continue our dialogue over here.
I mentioned a brief outline of my nutritional approach a couple posts up, but I’ll go into detail a bit more.
I’ll use this week as an example and break it down a bit.
Breakfast: 1/2 cup dry measure red rice, 1/2 cup dry measure brown lentils, 1 cup tomato and beef broth, 500ml whole milk.
Lunch: 2 scoops protein (36g P), 1/2 cup mixed berries, 3 eggs, 2 tbsp PB, enough milk to blend it all up.
Snack: 3/4-to-1 cup greek yogurt, honey, small handful of mixed nuts, couple pieces of varied fruit and veggies
Dinner: same as breakfast.
Weekends are the same with regards to the snack and lunch, but breakfast changes to…
Breakfast: large portion of meat (steak, fish, bacon, whatever’s around), 2 fist-sized potatoes, 3 eggs, 3 slices of unbleached sourdough rye (no added sugar) with butter, 500ml whole milk
And dinner will be flexible. Some type of carb and protein depending on what the wife and I decide. I’m loose with this because I like to be able to eat dinner when my 18-month old does, because I don’t see him much during the week and he likes having everyone there for dinner (social little guy).
As I train hard on the weekends, I’ll also include another snack after my evening aerobic session.
The only real “thou shalts” I have are the 1L of milk, lunch smoothie and yogurt snack. Oh, and lots of sauerkraut. I might even keep doing the rice and beans because it’s tasty and I’m broke as fuck. Meals are all timed the way they are because 1) I have more time in the morning and night to eat a bigger meal, 2) eating a big meal and wearing body armour fucking sucks.
