Simple break-in week this week to get the nervous system fired up again. Taking a week off last week was so great while visiting family. Very soul-restoring.
The good mornings were supposed to have a 2x12 back-off, but my wife called to say hi (she and my kid are still with my family at the moment), and I’d rather talk to her than do another set.
I also did some rearranging of my weekly training schedule. “Max” strength work is only 2x/week now, while still fitting in almost everything necessary. Strength/power endurance is 2x/week also, with a slightly different progression. The rest of my blocks are all geared towards aerobic endurance and are back to using a (slightly modified) Tactical Barbell approach. A 3:4 ratio of endurance to strength fits what I want far more, and this layout allows a lot more wiggle room in scheduling my training throughout the week so it doesn’t dominate my life so much; training is, for me, about maximizing my ability to live life, not arranging my life to maximize my training. I was creeping towards the opposite again, and I dislike it.
The DB C&J and snatch progression is going to follow the Hungarian Oak Leg Blast, but two sets instead of one; I’ll eventually be progressing up to 2x8 min rounds, which might be suicide, but let’s do something crazy, shall we?
I’ll probably need to add a few pounds to the split squats, and maaaaybe up the band size on the rows. The other superset will be RFE deadlifts and FFESS, and push-ups.
I’m rip-roaring ready for the next block next week. Decided that all supplemental work will be a slight variation on the main lift, but still at the same weight; I’ll manipulate reps/sets (still within the 25-total-reps range) and tempo to make them harder or easier. Main work will just focus on speed and form, while supplemental will address weaknesses (as it should).
Those DB rows were killer. The ROM isn’t that big because 1) DB rows don’t have a huge ROM naturally, and 2) I loaded my handle with 25lbs plates. Still, it made for a great way to overload my back — specifically my lats — and pump it up huge.
Circuit; 1 min between exercises, 5 min between sets, 2x50
DB RFESS (right) @ 25
DB partial laterals @ 25’s
DB RFESS (left) @ 25
DB hammer curls @ 25’s
Notes:
DB power endurance work needed to change, because I wanted something that didn’t have a strict progression to eliminate any stress of potentially needing to skip a session; the name of the game right now is primarily endurance, with a high level of programming flexibility. Training should be physically stressful, not mentally.
That endurance circuit about killed me, but was exactly what’s been missing. We used to do shit like that in martial arts all the time and were fit as fiddles. Progression will be slowly eliminating rest between exercises, then adding a third round during the Anchor block. I had to lay of the floor with my feet in the air after, because I kept getting light headed whenever I’d bend down and stand up again while cleaning my gym.
That speed drill at the start was awesome. I’ve been randomizing the drill for the day by rolling dice and pick one starting variable, and two COD variables. This felt like the ultimate juking drill; sprint and quickly stop, then suddenly cut to one side.
I can tell I’m definitely a strength-based weightlifter and not a speed-based one, because the power snatches felt easy enough, but by golly were they ever slow.
Chins were rough today. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done weighted chins, and it showed. My previous 7-6-5-4-3 pattern was too heavy, so rather than cut the weight I cut reps. I’ll bump reps as this block progresses.
Aerobic endurance session will always be a random swap between running and biking, because of either my kid, or one of my dogs. Our oldest dog, because of his long and convoluted history I won’t get into here, has crazy separation anxiety, and we try not not to leave him alone if we can help it. With my wife not getting home until later tonight, it’s up to me to watch him. I don’t mind, though. I always put the bike on max tension and try to push the distance as fast as possible, so I still get a good workout.
3-point sprint + sharp cut turn into lateral shuffle
1x5 @ 5m + 5m L
1x5 @ 5m + 5m R
SS W/ med ball slam, 2x5
Hang P. Snatch
3x8 @ 110
P. C&J
worked up to 210x1
B. Squat (high bar)
1x20 @ 220
EZ bar pullovers (2120 tempo)
2x12 @ 60
Bench
150x5
170x5
195x5
DB flyes (2020 tempo, constant tension)
3x8 @ 35’s
Notes:
Just a nice, simple workout. That 20-repper of squats, plus the pullovers and flyes, had my upper torso stretched to the gills. Love it.
The C&J was… way easier than I thought it was going to be. I mentally prepped myself beforehand and reminded myself that it was going to be heavy and I needed to respect the weight, and it just catapulted into the air. Good feeling.
This ended up being ridiculously easy for the squats and rows, so maybe I’ll need to use a barbell for those? I want to stick to the DB’s though.
Reason being: I didn’t like how my ME sessions were. I’m hardcore about stripping away the unnecessary right now, and I figured I’d use the gains built in the squat/bench blocks to fuel strength-endurance sessions during O-lift blocks, then swap and do power endurance during my powerlift blocks. Good ol’ periodization. However, again, I wanted to find the simplest exercises possible, and eventually settled on just one: the DB man maker. It has essentially every movement pattern all rolled into one.
SO, one ME session will be 2-3 sets of 50 reps AFAP, then the other ME session will be like the above, where I break the movement down and hammer each piece. The weight was good for the curls and presses, but not so much the squats and rows. Might just have to deal with it.
Bing, bang, boom. Not much to say. I thought I’d be more smoked after not running for a few weeks, but my heart and lungs were fine. Legs were a little slow, though.