@atlas13 Hah, that’s the dialect my brain was communicating with right after doing that super-set.
Axle clean once and press away
110 x 5
130 x 3
160 x 8
185 x 5
Last set followed by 12 pull-ups
Axle clean and press every rep
140 x 3 x 8
Super-set with pull-ups x 3 x 10
Incline dumbbell press
80s x 12, 10
Dumbbell curls
35s x 4 x 10
Reverse hyper
200 x 3 x 10
Overhead band pull-aparts
2 x 20
Haven’t pressed the axle in a while and totally forgot it’s 25 lbs lighter than the barbell. Got to 160 lbs and thought things felt abnormally light before I realized it wasn’t 185.
Made bicep curls harder via a tip from John Meadows about not hammer curling the weight partially up, but supinating the wrists at the very beginning of the movement.
Signed up for sparring on Tuesday. Brought back cleans to add a conditioning element to press day for that reason. Also happy to report that my shoulders have improved enough to press with a straight bar again. A little discomfort in the right still, but big difference from before.
Eggs are still out at Costco. I don’t want them bad enough to go hunting for them at other stores even though I probably could get them if I tried hard enough. Bought plenty of steak at Costco yesterday to make up the difference.
Did about 30 minutes of walking on Monday, along with stretching and foam rolling. Body felt beat from weekend training. Besides soreness, neck is tweaked from pressing overhead.
Yesterday was sparring. BIg focus going in was to relax my shoulders and take deep breaths between rounds. I sparred coach Gabriel again. Technically these are intro to sparring classes, hence why I’ve only gone against coaches. Now that I’ve completed 3 of these sessions, I can do member sparring from now on, which I’m highly anticipating.
Round 1
Felt my jab falling short right away because I’m so used to light partner drills. Quickly course corrected and within seconds I was landing to his face at will. Popped him with jabs, crosses, left hooks, and upper-cuts; this was my most effective round at this gym yet when it came to displaying an offensive variety. My cornerman coach commented that I was looking “very technical” as he gave me water. My guard was a little too low though and I could still get more reach from extending my shoulder more.
Round 2
Right away I started throwing longer jabs with my shoulder rolling into my cheek and I heard my corner coach yell out “That’s it!” One right hand that caught my headgear twisted it, obstructing my vision, and I had to adjust. From then on, strikes kept shifting my headgear and I was fighting it for much of the round; it kept blocking my vision and breathing. Although my technical gameplan went out the window from here, my conditioning prep at home and emphasis on staying loose had worked and I was feeling good between rounds unlike last time.
Round 3
I couldn’t see where his punches were coming from well because of my loose headgear but I could see his head so we both landed good shots. We were both all offense here. He started going lower to the ground and I was hitting the top of his head, so I shifted to uppercuts more, which he did a good job blocking. Was surprised when the round was over because I’m used to 4-minute rounds at home. Hopefully with member sparring I’ll get a chance to do a lot more than 3 rounds.
Watched some other gymgoers spar and then went over to the heavy bags to get a round in.
Came home and immediately went out to Heart Attack Hill, sprinting up for 3 rounds and doing a shadowboxing round near the top at a steep incline after each sprint.
I also resized my headgear so it’s much tighter. There was a lot I didn’t utilize because I was so distracted by it. Can’t wait until next time.
Went to boxing on Wednesday for a standard partner drill and bag work day. There was sparring going on in the ring behind us and one young teen walked away with a bloody nose. Also watched 2 of my coaches spar pretty hard, the twins. Afterwards they both happened to be adjacent to me when my class was using the heavy bags and the 3 of us were by far making the most noise in the gym with power shots.
Did a light mid-week maintenance workout yesterday after work:
SSB box squats
Worked-up to 330 x 5, 350 x 5
Giant sets:
Weighted decline push-ups: 105 lbs x 3 x 7
Lying dumbbell rows: 80s x 15, 12, 12
Dumbbell palm curls: 80 x 8, 8; 50 x 8
Took those curls from Paul Carter: simply take a single dumbbell and have it hang with palms underneath. Makes light weight feel incredibly heavy. Noticed I started gripping the 80 pounder like it was a grenade ball curl, as it has rounder rubber end portions compared to my other dumbbells, so knocked it down to the 50.
Left IT band is still a bother sometimes. It was better the last time I did heavy squats, thankfully, but the other night I noticed it hurting from falling asleep on my left side and I also feel it if I sit down too long. Felt it ever so slightly on box squats, but it barely registered. I don’t think foam rolling it hard is the answer, as that just hurts without the “but it hurts so good” feeling of other areas. The massage gun does feel good, though.
Spent most of Saturday sick. Had it in my mind to do squats, but decided to give myself a rest day instead. Ate an extra large Round Table pizza throughout the evening.
Congestion and cough were better on Sunday. Still felt low energy and under the weather, but went ahead with the plan:
Yukon bar squats
470 x 2
Drop-down to 410 x 7, 320 x 8
Lying single leg curls
290 x 3 x 10
During the work-up sets I put 410 on my back and did what felt like a max effort rep. Just felt heavy as hell. I walked away at first, figuring I’d better call it there and get some lighter work in, but then tried 405 again with a belt and it felt much better, and then I ended up surprised at how light walking out with 470 felt.
Still, left a reserve rep or two in the tank to promote recovery and cut-out all the drop-down sets below 320.
Then went on a 4.64 mile run in the evening, broken up with a little walking to use a store restroom, for 55 minutes.
Picked up a Rumble Roller. It doesn’t feel difficult or extreme at all, just like a nicer massage than my standard roller, but my girlfriend reported that it felt like a torture device on her frame. The spikes are fairly soft, as I went with the standard blue original vs the stiffer black.
Close-grip bench press
225 x 3 x 8
Super-set with dumbbell rows
115 x 3 x 8
Keg curls
150 x 2 x 12
Haven’t straight bar benched in awhile due to shoulder pain exclusively with this bar and movement. Still felt a little discomfort, but it’s getting much better. Felt like I didn’t have any pop compared to the Swiss bar, though, and 275 was moving VERY slow, so I made a wise call going in with reasonable expectations and settling at that weight. Even on 225, it felt like I was lifting through quicksand.
Lifted without elbow sleeves for the first time since I can remember because I have no elbow pain anymore. Will cautiously test doing kettlebell ABCs soon, as I miss having those as a workout option.
Tuesday boxing was a good endurance workout. After skipping rope and shadowboxing, someone approached me to be his partner. He wasn’t very good at holding pads as he seemed like he was still learning basics, so I was basically doing power shadowboxing from a lack of impact due to him holding them so limply. Because my shoulders were getting a little tired, though, I embraced the suck when I should really offer him pointers next time.
Been watching Roy Jones Jr. more lately, someone whose style I’ve always admired, but I noticed that I was working angles and standing wider a lot more in shadowboxing this time from bingeing his fights before class. I really like his rapid same-side hooks, too; he threw 4 or 5 rapid left hooks at one point. Insanity.
Was dead tired on Wednesday. Culprit is most likely waking up too much during the night to pee. I’ve been taking Biotest P-Well and drink cran + pomegranate juice with creatine as well, but I should make a point to get extra hydration during the early evening to avoid suddenly feeling as thirsty as I do after 8pm. Went to bed an hour early and felt better the next day.
Loaded up the bar with 310 to do the 20 rep squat + deadlift super-set, but my quads had that familiar glass feeling I’ve felt before when I squat heavy too frequently. I could have handily done the 20+20, but I decided to stop the squats at 10 and consider it a deload, as they don’t feel recovered from my last squat workout and I’d like to nip this in the bud while I can. Followed-up with 10 deadlifts, with a plan to deadlift or mat pull heavy over the weekend, something I haven’t done in a minute.
Ending this post with something ridiculous: my new Rumble Roller got torn-up by my cat. I was using it when I noticed pin pricks and some torn rubber when looked at up-close. It’s not totaled, but I’m storing it in my closet from now on. I’m more amused than anything picturing him mauling it. I also have to say that while the Rumble Roller gives a better massage almost everywhere else, my low back feels better after using my regular foam roller, which was my main incentive for getting so into foam rolling on the regular. The Rumble Roller doesn’t hurt it or anything, but I notice it doesn’t make back pain disappear 1 or 2 days out from using it like the regular. Makes sense that the low back doesn’t have as much tissue to dig into so there’s no need for those spikes. So I’m using the flat roller more again, but will still use the Rumble for other areas.
Arnold press
80s x 3 x 8
Super-set with 3 x 12 pull-ups
Incline dumbbell press
80s x 10, 6
Dumbbell palm curls
50 x 8
35 x 8, 8
Dumbbell hammer curls
50s x 8, 8
35s x 8
Lying lat flyes
15s x 3 x 10
Some right shoulder pain on the axle press, but glad I got 3. I think switching to log press is a great idea next week. Not really feeling much stimulus with the palm curls, so going to ditch them.
Yesterday I couldn’t deadlift 530. Brain just kept shutting the attempt down and I didn’t get a chance to strain. It surprised me to check and see that it’s been 2 months since I’ve deadlifted heavy. That’s not a bad thing with boxing being my focus, but I can start getting back into heavy deadlifts with either mat pulls or going lighter than I want to next time.
The 470 I lifted during my work-up set ended up being my top set for today.
Another week of Costco not having eggs. This time, they were out of the liquid egg whites I buy, too. But bought a LOT of red meat and have a fridge full of prepped meal containers for the week.
My parents are in San Diego, and told me eggs were going for $18 a dozen there, and I’ve seen videos of folks clearing out Costco eggs within minutes of getting stocked. Wild time there. I know eggwhitesinternational is still selling, but their prices got pretty steep in light of what’s going on, even with a 15% discount. Curious if you have any farmer’s markets nearby.
You ever get into pulling with straps? Wonder if it would help bypass that mental shutdown.
Crazy. It’s $14 a dozen here at one store, but that does vary greatly by store. The reasonable places sell out in the morning. I’m not minding the change right now after eating 15-20 eggs a day for some time, but I can always go to Costco first thing on a Saturday morning. Sadly, the Farmer’s Market here never has anything like eggs or grass-fed meat when I check it out; it’s mostly fruit and small-batch pastries.
That thinking is spot-on. I pull with straps on the top set for that very reason: not having to think about grip. I used a mixed grip just for the work-up sets.
Same issue down here in Australia, supermarkets are restricting customers to 2 purchases per customer. That could be 2 boxes of 6, 12 or 24 depending on what is left. I often have to do a mid week run to top up.
I thought about getting chickens, but decided the upkeep wasn’t worth it for me after some research. When I get home after 12 hours, I have a limited time to do the chores I already have.
Wanted to share that Jon Andersen complimented my back shot today. That was really cool.
@simo74 Jon is great at social media, as funny as that is to say. Completely ignores all the hate and trolls but still responds to positive comments. I also liked Layne Norton’s good-natured response video to Jon’s clip about ground beef in a bag: as bodybuilders we all do crazy food shit, like bringing chicken breasts in a Ziploc bag in my pocket on an airplane.
Came home from work yesterday and wasted no time getting to shadowboxing:
1 round with breath restriction mask
3 rounds with headgear, mouthguard, and 16 oz gloves on
