Modified events day due to the little injuries that reared their heads last week and the fact that I have sparring the next day. Bicep was able to handle the amount of cleans this workout had. I felt an instance of pain on the third and final set of cleaning the dumbbell up, but it was gone by the end of it and I was able to get the keg up fine.
The first set of keg pressing was done right after the last dumbbell set.
I didn’t feel good about my back or my bicep doing heavy farmers’ walks. If I didn’t have sparring, I would probably have taken the chance. Instead I grabbed my heaviest dumbbells and did shrugs followed by a walk around my yard with them before setting them down. Doing some extra trap work since I’m doing less clean reps in general.
Felt a light twinge in my lower back on the last round of dumbbell walks. Dropped the bells and felt fine. Can bend and twist my back with no issue. I’m navigating these shark-infested waters with a steady hand.
For the first 2 rounds, went against the large fellow who has given me the biggest challenge so far. A tall heavyweight in the modern sense of the word who hits hard. Corner coach warned me as such and told me to focus on body shots. I did just that and made a habit of getting much lower than the last time we sparred. I made a lot of his shots miss overhead, others grazed me, and a few hard ones landed flush, throwing me off-balance for a second while I was in the middle of moving, but nothing caught me by surprise. He either didn’t land anything as hard as last time or I was simply experienced enough to know what he could dish out.
Had a plan of catching him with a rising left hook springing up from a crouch, and though his guard was open during the attempt the hook fell short each time. Moving forward with it is something to practice. On the other hand, saw success with my overhand right landing.
I also experienced my first clinches in sparring (besides Muay Thai). He’d move in close and it would just happen. It’s definitely not something I ever look to initiate. I had just reread some of Angelo Dundee’s book and was at the part where he described George Foreman pushing his opponents into position, and without thinking I started doing that in the clinch. Him being big and strong just drove me feral and wanting to pit strength against strength. Corner coach had to shout out at me twice “Don’t push!”
Third round was against someone else who tagged in, the dude I sparred last time. He has experience but gets tired quickly. I myself was more tired than usual come the third round from losing my head a few times the previous rounds and either loading up on punches or engaging in wrestling. This guy came in aggressively (he told me afterwards that he wanted to take advantage of the fact that he was fresh and I wasn’t - fair!) and I got tagged with shots I should have been able to avoid. One made me lose my right contact lens, which is the first time that’s ever happened. Ignored that and after about a minute of finding my groove against him, I started making him miss and landed jabs and straight rights. There was a distinct moment the course of the round switched when I saw one of his rights coming at me like it was in slow motion and I thought c’mon, you can dodge these.
Blew my noise afterwards and noticed a little blood. Front tooth and neck are also a little sore. Nothing too bad.
Going forward: I need to really train being better at in-fighting. I’m too comfortable being an out-fighter against people my size and shorter. I realized today I still tense up too much when throwing punches on the inside. Also need to keep my chin tucked when fighting someone taller instead of raising my head to look at them.
That force on force thing is real. You can use that to your advantage too. It’s just kinda a natural instinct to want to oppose a force, and you can make people waste energy trying to resist you. I’ve used that trick in the handful of grappling tournaments I’ve done recently. But as your coach observed: getting into that trap with someone bigger than you is going to play to their game.
@T3hPwnisher Thanks a lot man. It really is coming along like you said, and while I’ll definitely take heed of my coach’s advice for next time, I’m pleased that I defaulted to the side of being too aggressive for once instead of coming away thinking I was way too nice and timid.
Injured my low back simply bending over to do a home chore yesterday morning before work. Felt it slightly give out but no pain, but then pain gradually set-in by the time I arrived at work. Not an especially bad episode but annoying after all the little injuries I’ve picked up and healed from the past couple of weeks.
Work has a broken treadmill so during my lunch break, I leaned forward to grab the handles and manually moved the track by walking, which is a good decompressor for the low back. Did the same while facing backwards.
Went to boxing anyways. Wore my Cerberus soft belt for support. Skipping rope was a stiff affair, as I had to brace my abs to keep my back protected, but I was able to handle it and making it a harder task is good training anyways. When we partnered up for combo work afterwards, I let my partner know I’ll be moving cautiously if we have to duck under any hooks as a drill, but surprisingly, I felt really good once we were moving. When it indeed came time to duck, I was able to do so without pain. And mercifully, there was no ab work at the end of class. I could have done crunches but would not have attempted any type of leg raises.
Back felt worse again at night. Went on a walk and sent an email cancelling Thursday boxing. This morning, though, I’m wishing I hadn’t, as I could handle it if I’m careful.
Swiss bar bench press
230 x 8, 8, 8, 5
Super-set with pull-ups
Bw x 8
50 x 8, 8
15 x 8
Overhead tricep extensions
35s x 2 x 8
Axle curls
40 x 30
Kettlebell curls
15s x 30
Back is feeling better, but still opted to do a bench workout while I’m healing. Bench is feeling stronger; 4th set is still a real killer. Shoulders are feeling good. Haven’t benched with the straight bar in some time, but I’m enjoying my run with the Swiss bar.
Didn’t do neutral-grip chins because the Swiss bar I normally balance high above to do them from was in use, so I did normal pull-ups. Bicep tendon did not like those with 50 lbs hanging from me. It actually felt more like dispersed forearm pain than localized to the tendon while still similar in sensation, but nonetheless, I lowered the weight to just 15 and got a much fuller ROM due to no pain.
Axle curls with 40 felt fine until rep 20, then very slight discomfort. No tendon pain with the kettlebells.
Axle press
140 x 5
160 x 5
180 x 4 + 3
Super-set with band pull-aparts: 3 x 15
Belt squats
8 plates x 2 x 10
Standing 1-arm dumbbell press
80 x 8, 8, 7
NG chin-ups
15 x 8
30 x 8, 8
Bw x 10
Kettlebell curls
15s x 50
Back was feeling stiff from weekend travel and sleeping on a bad bed, but is feeling great today. Been taking time in the evenings to do banded reverse-hypers, foam rolling, and stretching. At the time of this workout, though, I opted for belt squats based on how I was feeling.
180x4 is 1 rep less than 2 months ago, but my back was feeling better at that time and I weighed more. After racking the weight for a rest-pause, I went at it again and knocked out 3 more strong reps for a total of 7.
Tuesday was a much-needed rest day. Got caught up on meal prep, housework, and stretches that I didn’t do over the weekend while out of town.
This morning, I did a 5-minute jump rope round followed by ab work (crunches and reverse crunches).
Snapped a mirror pic last night. Going to start gaining again soon.
3 rounds on the heavy bag, 5 minutes each. Greater emphasis on in-fighting.
Wore headgear and mouthguard for all rounds.
Ran out of eggs and bone broth. I am prepared. There’s a huge chuck roast in the freezer that I thawed out and cut into steaks. Had some for breakfast and during my work lunch. Probably a good thing to cut down on store bought broth honestly. I’ve been thinking about all the extra microplastics and PFAs those cartons are liable to have.
Also, RIP to my Pixel 6 phone. It got crunched in a van door just now at work and it’s totaled. That mirror selfie in the previous post will be the last picture uploaded from it.
Yukon bar squats
320 x 15
Super-set with kettlebell pull-overs: 30 x 20
Swiss bar bench press
235 x 8, 7, 7
Super-set with bent-over dumbbell rows: 115 x 3 x 8
Kettlebell curls
15s x 50
1 rep improvement on the back squats. My back held up, which was a win considering how many little tweaks it’s gone through the past couple of weeks. Still doing high rep curls for bicep rehab. Bicep has been feeling better.
Did a 5 minute jump-rope round this morning, 55 push-ups, and 60 crunches before work.
High incline dumbbell press
80s x 5 x 8
Super-set with NG chin-ups
Bw x 10
15 x 8
30 x 3 x 8
Giant set:
Heavy band chest flyes: 3 x 15
Overhead skullcrushers: 35s x 3 x 8
Kettlebell preacher curls: 50 x 8, 10, 12
Upper-back got wrenched while carrying a load of Costco groceries after it was already feeling iffy before, so I did this bodybuilding workout, which was fun as hell and super restorative. After a rough night of painful sleep I’m feeling loads better.
I’m slowly going to ramp up the calories and enter a gaining phase with quality calories and a more modest amount of carbs than years past.
Romanian deadlifts
315 x 3 x 8 + 8 shrugs after each set
Sandbag squats
200 x 2 x 10
Power cleans were done to test how my bicep felt. It hurt while doing 160.
Deadlifts had some misses due to a mental block. I’ve had a lot of little back tweaks lately and have been slacking on hamstring work so they kept involuntarily getting shutdown before the bar broke off the floor. When the bar moved, it moved well; 470 felt light. I’ll have to build my confidence up again with some posterior chain base building.
My left lat area has been injured since last week with varying degrees of regression and improvement. Another item in a long list of recent small injuries, but I’m glad it’s muscle rather than disc, joint, or tendon. Quality of life is much better than a low back injury, but still experiencing difficulties bending down or finding the right sleeping position.
Right bicep has been feeling pain-free; it’s only when I test it by doing known pain triggers like axle cleans that I feel anything.
Went to boxing on Monday. New coach for me, as I never come on this day. Young guy, mostly a good session. We did shadowbox sparring with rotating partners, bagwork, and medicine ball training. The end was lame, though. The coach’s friend joined him as an assistant coach near the end and he shouted at a kid who was slacking on the exercises, who grinned. After a moment, he then hurled something at the kid as a joke, who then silently doubled over in pain and stayed like that for the remainder of the class. It looked like it hit his groin. They both went over to comfort him. Seemed like they all knew each other, but it was a total distraction and ruined the disciplined vibe of the class. It felt like I was in high school again.
Giant sets:
Swiss bar bench press: 235 x 3 x 8
Lying dumbbell rows: 80s x 10, 12, 12
Belt squats: 8 plates x 10, 12, 15
Seated Arnold press
80s x 4 → drop-down to 50s x 8
80s x 6
50s x 10
Super-set with reverse-hyper single leg curls: 2 plates x 2 x 15
Hammer curls
35s x 3 x 10
Already feeling a little stronger on the bench press from slightly upping my calories before training, but was too tired to do full sets of 8 overhead pressing the 80 lb dumbbells afterwards.
Curling 35 lbs was a victory. No pain. This amount inflamed my bicep tendon last time to the point I could barely move my arm the next day.
Getting used to heavy squats again. Weight felt very light when squatting up thanks to all those heavy belt squats I’ve been doing; it was controlling the descent that felt predictably rusty. Felt good to really blast my legs again, though.
As mentioned before, my body has been feeling beat-up so I’m shifting my iron goals back to powerlifting for the time being. Out of necessity I had already been winding things down by gradually doing away with log lifts, cleans, and most recently sandbag loading and carries. I’ll still do loaded carries once my upper-back is 100%, which feels like today. Being able to do cleans without bicep pain will take more time, but when I’m able to, I’d love to position those ahead of deadlifts once again.
My left forearm is feeling pain now, but only on particular movements. On Saturday, I went on a short jog near an outdoor gym that has battle ropes, and as soon as I whipped the ropes my forearm seared with pain. The other incident was double overhanding 315 for RDLs; forearm couldn’t handle that.
These 7 months of strongman training were invaluable. My shoulders and traps were more filled out than usual at this weight and I’ve learned a ton about being better at log pressing and platform loading. I’ll have a solid foundation to return to when I can. In the meantime, I’m looking around for powerlifting meets in my area.
Shifting gears here, I eagerly opened up my boxing sign-up email to register for sparring only to again read that there is no sparring this week without further explanation. It’s been really challenging to find opportunities to spar. I’m planning on talking to the sparring coach about his master’s team, which I understand is on a different sparring schedule from the regular classes.
Morning:
5 minutes of skipping rope with some high knee intervals
50 kettlebell swings with 50 lb bell
30 crunches
10 reverse crunches
Evening:
20 ABCs with 50 lb kettlebells (first 10 unbroken + 5 + 5)
5 minutes of burpee chins
So glad I did ABCs instead of a regular workout. Saved me a ton of time, made me out of breath, and proved that my bicep and elbows are healthy enough to handle ballistic swings of the bells. I found that really focusing on shrugging up the cleans spared a lot of strain on my elbows. Had a huge arm pump afterwards.
If I remain pain-free, I want to bring back ABCs at least once a week. They’re great conditioning for boxing. Did not time them since just performing the movement was up in the air, but will next time.
Had a great 3-day weekend of leisure and training.
Saturday was largely a rest day at the beach, but I did get in some great ocean swimming on an unusually waveless day. I swam out an appreciable distance (well past the point of losing ground contact) and it ended up being about a 10 minute swim. Since I tend to sink like a stone and have to power through the water to stay afloat, it was a good workout.
Sunday:
Overhead press
135 x 5
155 x 5
175 x 4 + 3
135 x 8, 8, 10, 8
Neutral grip chin-ups
Bw x 10
15 x 10
30 x 10, 10, 10
Band pressdowns: 3 x 10
Super-set with keg curls: 3 x 10
Monday:
Deadlifts
375 x 5
445 x 5
505 x 6
Kettlebell split squats: 50s x 3 x 10
Super-set with reverse hyper single-leg curls: 8 plates x 3 x 10
The 6th rep of 505 came after a rest-pause and was a hard-fought rep. Felt amazing to hit.
On the other hand, my press performance was weaker than expected but it was my first time overhead pressing the Texas bar rather than the axle in awhile and I seemed to find my groove with it in the later sets of 135 by bringing in my elbows and feeling greater tricep activation.
Later on Monday evening, went on a 39:51 jog over 3.28 miles.
@simo74 Thanks man, there’s nothing like grinding out one more deadlift rep.
Recorded two days of boxing (Wednesday and Thursday) on my work laptop but forgot to upload the entries, so will add those in on Monday. As for this weekend:
Saturday:
Bench press
215 x 3
245 x 3
275 x 5
Low incline bench press
185 x 8
205 x 3 x 8
Super-set with bent-over dumbbell rows: 115 x 4 x 8
Overhead tricep extensions: 35s x 2 x 8
Super-set with alternating dumbbell curls: 35s x 2 x 20
Sunday
Squats (low bar)
315 x 3
385 x 3
430 x 4
Drop-down to 365x8, 315x8, 225x8 (high bar)
Romanian deadlifts
315 x 2 x 8
Reverse-hyper single leg curls
6 plates x 20
Getting used to heavier weight again for both the bench press and the squat.
135 x 4 x 10
Super-set with neutral-grip chin-ups
Bw x 10
30 x 3 x 10
Banded tricep pressdowns: 2 x 20
Dumbbell curls: 35s x 2 x 20
Since I only hit 175x4 last week, falling short of 5 reps, I opted to make that session the 3 week and this session my 5. So for overhead press, it’ll be a 3/5/1 this cycle.
Felt stronger across the board in this session and 135x4x10 was a marked improvement from last time.
Got a new phone and used the new camera to take a few shots mid-session.
