Close-grip bench press
285 x 5
275 x 6
245 x 7
225 x 10
Kroc rows
125 x 30
Dumbbell skullcrushers
50s x 7
Alt dumbbell curls
50 x 16, drop-down to 15 kettlebell hammer curls with 15 lbs
We went HARD in boxing yesterday, going to failure repeatedly on push-ups throughout class mixed in with max power heavybag rounds. My shoulders felt like they were replaced with kitten muscles right at the point that I reached 315 while working-up. Damn happy I could move 350 for 3. I’m so beat I would have been happy with 1, and 315x3 is exactly what I was going for afterwards.
I will soon give myself a day or two of rest before bench day (it can’t be healthy on the shoulders to keep doing this, I can feel it), but for now I’m enjoying/hating pushing my limits and training under fatigue.
I went through this exact same circus a few years back. These dudes just compare you to averages and wonder why you are different. On the plus side, NOW my medical records say “Patient has an abnornal amoubt of muscle mass for a mid 30s male”, so maybe you will be so lucky, haha
@T3hPwnisher That’s good to hear it was a nothingburger, thanks for sharing your own experience with the doc. Hopefully the scan puts an end to it.
This week is trying to be very busy event-wise. To name just 2 out of several, a co-worker invited us all out to tacos on Tuesday and another co-worker suggested we go out on Friday because my birthday is close in date to another employee’s. Sacrifices have to be made in the interest of selfishness so I cancelled Taco Tuesday to go to boxing at least once this week. There are just too many people asking for my time and I needed to rebalance.
Sunday:
Squat walkout: 500 lbs x 10 seconds
Squats
430 x 8
320 x 19
20 kettlebell pull-overs with 25 lbs
Dumbbell RDLs
125s x 8
Back has been hurting since Friday, possibly from forced reps during ab training in boxing class after going to failure. Woke up thinking I’d have to do belt squats so this was a win.
The older I get, the more I appreciate being able to mingle with others in the physical culture community like on here since I’m friends with nobody in real life who’s a part of that. Respect and appreciation to anyone reading this for being a part of T-Nation.
1-board press
315 x 3 x 4
275 x 7 (Close-grip)
12 heavy band-resisted bench push-ups
Had a pretty wild night out with coworkers last night. The whole bar sang happy birthday. Because I’m me, I ordered steak tartare and a charcuterie board with quail eggs. Also had Orgain protein shakes with me and drank a ton of water. They want to go drinking again next Friday, which I’m turning down to live clean again and go to boxing that night.
At Dave & Buster’s tonight for birthday celebrations with family and didn’t realize there’s a UFC fight tonight. Kickass.
More storm lifting on Sunday, although winds weren’t as insane as last time:
Deadlifts
525 x 3
Dumbbell RDLs
125s x 12, 12
Wide pull-ups
20, 10
Carter curls
35s with Fat Gripz x 10
Super-set with 15 kettlebell curls with the 15 pounders
Went on a night jog last night.
Looking forward to boxing today and tomorrow. It sucks how I’m out of the house for 12 hours at a time and basically have to come home and immediately prepare for work next day, but I’ve made my choices. Stepping out of boxing feels soul refreshing and I would rather do it than have relaxation time at home.
By the time boxing was supposed to start yesterday nothing was happening, the coach who I had just greeted wasn’t around, and there was nobody else in the room except for two guys working the bags, so I put my phone timer on and started skipping rope by myself. 3 minutes later as I’m finishing the round, everyone comes filtering in and the coach instructs everyone to start skipping rope. That pissed me off, but I got over it and took advantage of having to skip rope for a 6-minute round instead of 3. It’s just that this was the coach and room (secondary space from the main gym) that I had my first boring, low energy class with, although I’ve come to find that I enjoy this day when adjacent to other crazy conditioning-intensive sessions during the week.
Did the same fun but odd “sparring” where we have to tap our partner’s shoulders or knees. I’m not sure why it’s the knees and not the torso.
Did a bunch of conditioning after that, including medicine ball slams and burpees, but also some footwork drills using the rope ladders.
Ended with hard rounds on the bag. This class is always small, probably because it’s not in the main room, so out of the 4 other young, skinny guys, my heavy bag work was standing out in terms of noise and making the canvas move. Saw some stuffing fly out, too. Not proud to compare myself to much lighter weight classes but it was impossible to ignore.
Had a nice conversation with the coach after class. He’s a young guy who did kickboxing before and had to stop competing due to a surgery, but wants to get back into competing while juggling a tough schedule of classes and working at the gym. I told him a little of my own story, being much older than him but wanting to fulfill a dream of fighting before I cross into my 40s. We bro-fisted and gave each other encouragement.
@atlas13 Man, I want to do it all: boxing, MMA, Muay Thai, powerlifting, strongman…but I know I need to pick something and focus on it, so yep, it’s boxing right now.
Went to bed early on Tuesday and woke-up early enough yesterday to get a quick, no-rest workout in after waking up: 15 kettlebell thrusters with the 50s, 8 skullcrushers with the 50 lb dumbbells, and 20 alt dumbbell curls with the 50s.
“Breakfast” before training was a miniature hummus cup, a small cup of coffee with organic half-and-half, and a few sips of an Orgain grass-fed protein shake. Light enough that I could go right into training. Hummus is my hack for quick fuel before training or at competitions; it’s so easy to get down, being basically protein and complex carb pudding.
Boxing last night after work was fun. Took turns with a partner catching combos with our gloves and then throwing our own, then finished on the heavy bag.
Ran 3 hill sprints last night followed by a 15-min jog.
My breakfast lately has been 4 eggs in bone broth with some egg whites added in along with lime or lemon juice, hot sauce, and citrus garlic seasoning. What started off as drinking just the broth when I had COVID last year turned into “Hey, I should add egg whites for more protein”, then “Why not add a whole egg as well?” to 2, 3, and now 4 eggs.
Also, I finally found out what’s been making me so nauseous every morning: the extra-strength fish oil capsule taken before bed. Now I’m thinking maybe morning nausea wasn’t just part of the game when I was bulking, it was this all along (I generally feel perpetually not great when going above 220 lbs so I was just sucking it up without attempting to diagnose anything). I’ve also been taking fish oil before bed for 20 years and don’t recall this being a thingwith me. Going to cautiously reintroduce it back into my diet early in the day and use the lesser strength krill oil caps I have if I take anything at night. I’ll make Flameout my next fish oil purchase too.
Glad it’s Friday. I scheduled 2 boxing sessions in the middle of the week in anticipation of going out for a crawfish and seafood dinner Friday evening with coworkers, but they canceled. Fine by me - I’m going to bench this evening.
Bench press
315 x 1
335 x 1
350 x 1
315 x 4
275 x 7
250 x 8
225 x 9, 7
Dumbbell rows
115s x 10, 10, 10, 10
350 flew up. I was shocked at how light it felt compared to how heavy working up was. Performance boost was notable due to boxing on Tuesday and Wednesday instead of Wednesday and Friday, giving my shoulders more rest. Enjoying it while I can because I definitely want to box on Fridays more.
Squats
460 x 5 + drop-down to 410x4, 320x8, 225x8, 135x8, and goblet squats with 50 lb kb x 10
20 single-leg curls with 3 plates
Mostly rested Sunday. Just got in some walking and sunlight from doing errands and ate a lot of food. Considered Sunday my cheat day and had an exceptionally greasy pizza slice and half a giant chocolate chip cookie from the Costco food court. Upon coming home, I spontaneously decided to do a set of 20 curls with the 35s + Fat Gripz, then dropped-down to 15 lb kettlebells x 35. Just felt like putting this carb bloat to use and really feel a pump.
Today before work: 20 burpees, 50 total band pull-aparts
Forgot my bone broth mug with the 4 eggs at home, but I have bone broth, eggs, and egg whites in the office fridge. Just lacking the seasoning and big mug size.
Went on a 30 minute jog Monday night. Right ankle has been bugging me and culminated in it being painful to walk before I went to bed, but it was better after a night’s sleep. Skipped any morning workout to be safe so I could make it to boxing.
I managed to be on-time for boxing after going to the store once I got off work to get my dad his favorite ice cream for his birthday and dropping it off to him. Worked with partners for most of the session. One person would stay behind the bag and tag with foam noodles while the other would evade and move in to throw combos. Sidenote that I don’t like the pool noodles or feel like I benefit much from them. My partner was a small teenager and he commented he was getting beat-up by the bag when I was punching it, but luckily I switched partners to someone a little bigger when we moved on to donning body armor and having our partner evade and throw combos to the body before switching roles. Ended class with push-ups.
Went to bed early again that night and managed to get in a no-rest fasted workout in the morning before work:
20 burpees
15 thrusters with 50 lb kettlebells
5 dumbbell skullcrushers with 50 lb dumbbells
8 skull crushers with 35 lb dumbbells with Fat Gripz
12 heavy band tricep pressdowns
40 second dead hang
30 band pull-aparts
Hah, thanks for catching that, I wish I did a 40 minute dead hang. Meant 40 seconds.
During my daily lunch break walk yesterday, I went down the route that has the pull-up bars and I did 21 reps before heading back to the office.
Got to work with a tall partner in boxing, which I want to do more of. Simple drills of parrying the jab and countering with our own, or throwing 1-2s and blocking the 2 that’s going to the body. Switched partners and did the shoulder tag sparring. I paired with an older guy whom I’ve gotten to know a little and have a good rapport with. We were REALLY moving and getting into it and we cracked some smiles because it was obvious we were working harder than some of the other trainees around us. He was out of breath after we finished but I appreciate that this guy works hard during drills; he masks his fatigue well while partnered up.
Upon getting home, I hit the weights AGAIN. I was annoyed I only got 5 reps of skullcrushers with the 50 lb dumbbells that morning while fasted, so after warming-up with 20 burpees I tried again and got 9 skullcrusher reps, but this time with a flat bench, not an incline. Also did more band pressdowns and 3 sets of curls.
First set felt heavy, but I got dialed in and really emphasized channeling power through my legs and got a stupidly easy triple. No missed reps either, which is important to me on the deadlift as I have a history of doing that with deads and regressing. I walked away satisfied with that single but then decided I definitely had more.
Out of 22 years of lifting, this is the first year I’ve done sumo deadlifts on any consistent basis beyond just trying them once for kicks. I just find they don’t aggravate my back, yet carry over well when I switch to conventional. I will switch back to conventional occasionally but for now I’m making these the staple.
It was raining heavy again and there was a lot of mud. Third deadlift session in a row it’s been like that, and deadlifts are the worst lift for rain because I don’t do them under the balcony. Bring it.
Bench press
315 x 1
335 x 1
345 x 1
355 x 1
320 x 3
275 x 7
250 x 8 (Close-grip)
225 x 12 (Close-grip)
Dumbbell rows
115s x 3 x 12
355 felt light, continuing a good trend and 5 lb increase from last week while I continue to slowly go down in bodyweight.
Did this during rain and despite 2 layers of tarps above me the balcony had water dripping down. Was in a bad mood going in and got pestered by rain drops falling directly in my eyes at times, but coming out of the misery and into the house with a good session left behind has me in a different mood entirely, like I left my irritability out there.
