Now that is the face of a champion, nice pulls mate
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@simo74 Thanks a bunch man. I used to deadlift exclusively with a mouthpiece and for whatever reason haven’t done that lately, so it’s been interesting seeing the expressions I default to.
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Christmas workout:
Overhead press
150 x 3
170 x 3
190 x 4
Last set super-set with chin-ups x 10
Band-resisted overhead press
97.5 x 9, 10, 9, 7
Super-set with chin-ups
Bw x 10
15 x 10
30 x 10
Bw x 10
Giant sets:
Dumbbell flyes: 35s x 3 x 12
Lateral raises: 20s, 15s, 10s x 10
Axle curls: 80 x 3 x 10
Good gains on strict press. Lots of good eating and girlfriend time the rest of the day.
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That is a good looking session!
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@Friedrich Thank you! It was a good way to start Christmas.
Friday:
Squats
350 x 3
405 x 3
450 x 3
320 x 15
Felt a little rundown and my quads were surprisingly a little sore during squats. 450 felt like a ton as a result, but I’m happy I hit 3 deep reps without any back issues.
Sunday:
Bench press
225 x 3
260 x 3
290 x 5
JM press
170 x 3 x 10
190 x 10
Super-set with axle curls: 70 x 4 x 10
Lying dumbbell rows: 115s x 3 x 8
Behind-the-neck press: 95 x 3 x 12
Once again, felt a little rundown and places that I wouldn’t expect to feel sore were lighitng up under the bar (triceps in this case).
Good weekend sessions, but I’ll put extra emphasis this week on upping my sleep length and quality for recovery purposes.
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Happy New Year. Over the break, I strict pressed 200x2 and failed a 575 deadlift. Just one of those days where couldn’t break it off the ground. I’ve been neglecting rep work for my hamstrings and I always notice an immediate performance boost in the deadlift after doing RDLs or that 20-rep squat/deadlift super-set I tend to do, so I hit RDLs with 315 for 3 sets of 10 afterwards, followed by 2 sets of 10 barbell shrugs with the same weight. Rather than my upper traps getting sore, it’s more my lower traps and general upper back area that still feel it 2 days later.
On Saturday I also did a 5-minute jump-rope round followed by a 1 mile solo run, a brief break while I waited for my girlfriend to gear up, and then a 3 mile partner run. Have also been getting in that 5 min rope round every morning before work.
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Bench press
245 x 5
275 x 3
305 x 3
First set last: 245 x 10
SSB JM press: 180 x 3 x 10
Super-set with axle curls: 80 x 3 x 10
Lying dumbbell rows
80s x 20, 10
305 was tough for the final rep, but I locked out. Still marks a 5 lb gain. Upper back is still extremely sore merely from doing barbell shrugs and, surprisingly, my shoulders and pec-deltoid connections felt uncomfortable while benching, which tells me my upcoming deload is going to be here just in time.
My bodyweight continues to hover at 203 as of my last weigh-in, making this the most modest mass gain phase I’ve ever done. While I’m a bit softer than the summer, I still have defined abs and a fairly slim waist. That’s OK with me, as I’m still making progress under the iron and I’m not willing to cut back the cardio and boxing training. I’m also enjoying going carb free until lunch time and before bed too much; simplifies half the meals for my day.
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Attended first boxing session of 2026 at the new gym location yesterday. Much bigger than the old spot, which is super nice. No more dealing with overcrowding when trying to skip rope or claim a heavy bag. Did rounds on the heavy bag, weighted shadowboxing, ab exercises with a med ball, and then partnered up to take turns parrying and blocking just the jab (high or low). Finished with more ab work.
Gotta reiterate just how much I’m loving this much space after the cramped old gym.
In other news, I made my first homemade batch of bone broth overnight after running out of my Costco supply and I’m never going back to store-bought broth. This was stupidly simple to make and I got to use my leftover $5 rotisserie chicken carcass instead of throwing it out. Will definitely make some beef and lamb bone broth later, but the chicken broth is delicious.
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I feel this way about lots of things. I make granola and ice cream for my kids. It’s so simple and tastes so much better that the crap from the store. Plus I can control what goes in it.
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@BethB That’s awesome of you and it sets a good example for the kids, I’m sure. It’s so rewarding to make your own food.
Squats
375 x 5
425 x 3
475 x 1
320 x 17
I felt a little sluggish tonight, but conversely, the weight felt pretty light. Thought about hitting a second rep of 475 but found myself walking the bar to the rack.
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Friday boxing was an especially brutal session. We started with a classic Friday circuit: medicine ball burpees, plyometric push-ups, and lateral dumbbell holds. After burning ourselves out on this, we worked the heavy bag under states of fatigue, mixing in more push-ups along with mountain climbers and squats. It also happened to be the coach’s 50th birthday so we ended by him going around to everyone and giving 50 strikes to the midsection. While waiting our turn we had to do non-stop jumping jacks. Having done squats the day before, my quads, which had been on the verge of cramping all session, totally fell apart after about the first 5 minutes of jumping jacks and I had to stop myself from falling down in some moments. Just an absolutely brutal amount of bodyweight exercises and grinding push-up reps to failure for the better part of an hour.
That all made me feel like I got hit by a train for the rest of the night and Saturday. On Sunday, I got in my first deload workout of this cycle:
Strict press
95, 115, 135 x 5
Against bands: 95 x 3 x 10
Super-set with chin-ups: 3 x 10
Dips: 2 x 10
Super-set with dumbbell curls: 35s x 2 x 10
Reverse hyper single leg curls
8 plates x 3 x 10
Also made some more bone broth for the week, this time with beef. I’m surprised that the chicken tasted better. I believe I did a better job of salting it and the softer chicken meat scraps detached from the bones easier so there were quite a few meat scraps in the chicken broth. Still better than anything from the store.
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Nice facility.
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Deload
Squats
225 x 5
255 x 5
305 x 5
225 x 3 x 10
Stood in a narrow stance to make things harder in order to keep my interest level high during the workout, but not hard to the point that it fucks with the spirit of a deload.
Left shoulder has been in a little pain ever since last week, starting with the bench press workout I did and continuing into the push-up marathon we did in boxing. Nothing major, just something to monitor.
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Squats (high bar): 290 x 20
Super-set with deadlifts: 290 x 20
I am helping my girlfriend move in today (woo!) and needed something fast, challenging, but not body breaking in order to be game to lift the biggest pieces of furniture at her place. This was perfect. The squats were easy, but I felt like death once I started repping out the deadlifts. Was wary about my lower back, which was feeling a tremendous pump and that can cause a tendency to lose tension, but I walked away feeling horrible but healthy, which is a good way to train.
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Strict press
140 x 5
160 x 5
185 x 3
Against bands: 100 x 3 x 10
Super-set with chin-ups: 15 x 3 x 10
Barbell curls: 45 x 30
Not surprised by my performance, as I was quite worn coming into this. Did a lot of heavy lifting during the move on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Monday in particular had me move a massive dresser up three flights of stairs by myself which was especially shoulder intensive. Just did the bare minimum while falling short of 185x5, but I aim to tackle that again this cycle. Went especially light on my biceps as they took on a lot of work the past 3 days.
My right knee has been feeling funny since Saturday morning, before any of the heavy moving began. If I turned around in place, the torque on the knee made me feel a slight buckling sensation, but without pain. By Monday, it felt like there was sustained pressure on the knee and that it SHOULD hurt, but again, no pain. Today, that pressure sensation appears to be gone, but while on my lunch walk I took a hard step and felt a flash of slight pain for a moment. Because of all this, I’ve put a pause on my daily morning jump-rope rounds and at boxing today, I’ll wear an SBD knee sleeve to be safe. Best guess: I stand a lot at work and have been skipping rope every morning at over 200 lbs, so it’s probably just a matter of needing some rest.
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Heavy labor weekend as we wrap-up the move. Got home on Friday evening and set-up to bench:
Bench press
215 x 5
250 x 5
280 x 6 (failed a 7th)
Swiss bar bench press
225 x 10, 7, 8
Super-set with lying dumbbell rows: 115s x 3 x 10
Band pressdowns: 15
Super-set with alternating dumbbell curls
35s x 20
After that, did some moving. Nothing crazy but there were some loaded carries with boxes of books that were a good workout all on their own. It’s why I went easy on the bicep curls earlier.
Saturday:
Squats
335 x 5
385 x 5
435 x 5
320 x 18
After that, went out and moved a bunch more stuff. This one was a solo trip so I lifted what was possible with one person. More loaded carries back-and-forth over the course of about an hour and a half.
Sunday was the big one. All-day move with the heaviest items via 2 people. We managed to get everything out and into the moving van (which my work kindly lent me) except for a massive bed headboard. My girlfriend was just too small to help with that, even with shoulder straps made for moving heavy objects. I had expected this and hit-up a friend the day before, but he was unavailable. We ended up scheduling a moving company to move this piece alone for $50 on Wednesday.
Ended up finishing at 9:00pm and I felt like I got run over by a train by the end of the night. All “good” pain, though. I’m elated that my lower back feels great. It’s my upper-back that’s sore as hell from pulling heavy items into myself when carrying, and that feels awesome. I feel like I should have paid to get an upper-back workout this good.
I’m also feeling a little sick with a sore throat and a light cough, but nothing too bad. Drinking tea and hot bone broth with eggs at work, and I have an entire frozen pizza from Italy in the work freezer for lunch. There are still some smaller items to move out this week but nothing heavy enough that they require two people or a moving van.
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Been sick all week with a bad cough and sore throat. Haven’t been feeling too crummy except for sweating out a fever overnight on Thursday.
Trained on Thursday:
Overhead press
150 x 3
172.5 x 3
195 x 2
145 x 3 x 8
Super-set with chin-ups: 10, 15, 15
Heavy band chest press: 3 x 10
Super-set with dumbbell curls: 35s x 10
Didn’t hit 3 like I wanted and I have an excuse with illness and the fact that I’ve been doing more labor at work, but I still don’t want to be skating on thin ice with these numbers. I want to be able to hit the minimum on a bad day. I’m excited about changing the apparatus for this day to switch things up - maybe an axle clean once and press away, a Swiss bar, a log, or a push press.
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Squats
365 x 3
405 x 3
465 x 3
350 x 10, 10, 8
Called it here with the intention to do hamstrings and abs later, as I’ve experienced back pain in the past if I go straight to deadlifts or the reverse hyper after heavy squats. I think my back would be fine now, with as good as it’s been feeling lately, but practiced an abundance of caution since I’ve been working my body pretty hard between the move and work labor.
Unexpectedly, my left knee start hurting quite badly after a few hours, to the point that I needed to slip an SBD knee sleeve on for walking upstairs. Bending down in particular caused a sharp instance of pain. I took it easy the rest of the night and it feels better this morning, although I’m still going to skip anything knee intensive.
And also, look at that. I’m making time on the weekend to update my log. I want to reduce the amount of multi-day recaps and record things as I do 'em more. It matters to make a statement of discipline and showing myself what my priorities are.
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Bench press
230 x 3
265 x 3
295 x 4
Swiss bar bench
230 x 3 x 8
185 x 10
Super-set with lying dumbbell rows: 115s x 4 x 8
Reverse-hyper single leg curls
6 plates x 10, 15
Super-set with dumbbell curls
35s x 10, 50s x 10
Solid effort, about what I was expecting. Still have an annoying cough, but otherwise feeling better. Kept me up hacking last night until I took a Zyrtec, cough drop, and hot water.
Knees both seem to be 100%.
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Squats: 295 x 20
Super-set with deadlifts: 295 x 20
Standing ab wheel: 8 slow reps
I had inhibitions about doing this since I was still a little sore from Saturday’s squat workout, the squat assistance work on that day was heavier than normal, and my knee was wonky over the weekend, but the siren’s call of how much good work this packs into so little time was too tempting on a busy weekday. Squats started to feel heavy by rep 8 but that stabilized and I was able to keep cranking out reps with roughly the same level of difficulty until 20. Deadlifts were nasty, though, and I had to go take a seat and recover after this was done.
Watching the barrel squat event in World’s Strongest Man has given me a boost with squats lately. Feels mechanically better to pretend that I’m lifting on a fixed path.
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