Weight: >160 (over 160 but under 160.5) (+>.5)
Waist: 31 1/8 (+3/8)
Chest: 39 5/8 (+1/8)
Hips: 36 1/4 (-1/8)
R bicep: 13 (0)
L bicep: 13 1/4 (0)
R thigh: 24 1/8 (0)
L thigh: 23 1/8 (0)
And now the good news.
Warmup
~10min
Complete with grunts and liberal usage of expletives
Mill>headstand
~90min
Got five perfect ones in just under 90 min, so consistency is going up (however slowly). Going slow helps. After I got five perfect ones (which was my goal) I felt spent so I moved on.
FAHS
2. Yes, two.
Got a 2.5 turn on the second one, which was my goal for by the end of this 10 cycles. I know it was a 2.5 because I ended up facing the opposite direction and it sure was a LOT longer than a 1.5 turn.
Coindrop
~20min
Still got it with these, just takes a while to warm up with them. I went so fast in a set of mills from these that my right foot was tingling, like when you flail your arm really fast and your hand hurts.
Deadlift
3x250
3x285
5x320 - Beats 5x310(21,2). Since I’m still recovering from last week’s GMs this isn’t a “peak”. But it’s still a PR given the same circumstances in hitting 5x310 last cycle.
Clean
5x215 - Beats last week’s 5x210.
5,4x205
5:Fx195 - Fell back when I caught rep 6. Good thing it was only 195.
4x195
LDL
11x265 - Beats 11x255 from week 3 last cycle.
6-7,8x255
7:Fx245 - not so much failure as knowing that if I locked it out my grip would slip, and the gym manager has been really tolerant to me about dropping weights but I don’t want to push that patience.
7x235
9x225
Breakdancing
Neck was sore so I didn’t waste energy or time with mill>headstand or FAHS, focused right on figuring out 1990s, a decision which paid off well.
1990s, ~70min
Flat hand helps. Got a few 3/4s and even a 7/8 spin. All this time I’ve been spinning on the tippy point of my palm heel and just flopping around doing 1/2 spins. But flat hand lets me put my strength into keeping myself balanced while spinning.
Overhead press
3x110
3x125
6x140 - I figure this beats last week’s 7x135. The 1RM calculator puts this at the highest my OHP has ever been, a whopping 168 if I dare report it openly.
DB OHP
4x65s - Felt a lot more stable, like I might have had 5, but didn’t want to risk it.
6,4,5,4,4x60s
Dips
7x+55 - (PR)
5,4,4,4x+50
Anti-dips (Pull-ups)
8,4,5,3 x BW
Breakdancing
Mill>headstand, ~90min
CANNOT do these while “amped up”. Calm down, take it slow and only then will I get a perfect one.
1990s, ~30min
More 3/4s than yesterday, getting better. Push the hand down so as to spin on the palm, not the fingertips.
Mill>headstand
~155min
Got 7 perfect ones, virtually all others landed in a frog freeze. I was right, taking it slow and focusing helps with this move.
1990s
~30min
Got one spin that was just under a full turn. Getting better.
Squat
3x195
3x225
3x250 - I set this same PR in 19,3. I think I know what’s wrong but I don’t want to say what it is until I try it next week.
Front squat
3x210
5,5,4,4x195
Light squat
9x200 - Beats last week’s 8x200 (for what that’s worth)
9,8,8,8,8x190
Pull-ups
4+1x+25 (did 4, caught my breath, squeezed out one more)
6x+10
6xBW
I did a couple neutral grip pull-ups after these. They felt much more natural, and I felt more of the strain in my upper back. So I’ll do these neutral grip from now on.
Mill>headstand, ~60min
Got 7 perfect ones, virtually all others were completely w/o foot-floor contact. I still have to take my time resting between each one to get re-focused though, which is why it took so long to just get 7.
Marginal growth probably from the extra sleep I got, and staying at home instead of walking around at school.
Breakdancing:
1990s, ~90min
Got a full turn. Nice.
Barrel mills, ~60min
But I’m doing them right this time. Not nearly so bad as I thought for the first session. Did some mill>headstands in between to keep myself accountable, make sure I was still doing the cues properly. Could’ve practiced more but I’m doing heavy deadlifts tomorrow and I didn’t want to risk hurting myself.
Deadlift
5x265
3x300
3x340 - #4 slipped out of my hands JUST before lockout. I squeezed the bar as hard as I could, I dried my hands on my sweats, but that #4 just hopped out and away just in time. So it’s official: grip is a weak point.
Overhead press
5x120
3x135
2x150 - Wanted 4 to undeniably beat 4x145(21,3). But then again it IS a new weight.
DB OHP
4x65s - No PR. Honestly didn’t feel like I had #5 in me at all.
6:F,4,4x60s
2x6x55s
Dips
5x+60 - new weight
4x+55
3x5x+50
Pull-ups
9,6,4xBW
Stuck w/doing these palms out instead of switching to neutral. I’m getting stronger as is and I don’t want to do anything to risk messing that up.
Breakdancing
Mill>headstand, ~20min, just to get limbered up for
Barrel mills, ~15min
Got a painless landing, making progress. Force legs wide and straight, whip arms around all the way so they don’t get caught against the ground.
Squat
5x210
3x235
1x265 - Most weight I’ve ever squatted.*
Front squat
4x210 (PR)
4x4x200
Light squat
10x200 (PR)
9,8,9,8,8x195
Pull-ups
5x+25 (PR)
5x+10
5xBW
Breakdancing
Mills, ~30min
Landed one clean barrel mill. It just takes too long to get loose, by the time I was warmed up to roll high properly I literally only had five minutes left to do barrel mills.
*Got it. Last time I got a really good (by my standards) PR of 5x245, it was because I ate some of these awesome cake balls we had at school ~90 minutes before I went to the gym. Today I replicated that except with ~2 T. table sugar in a bottle of water. Looking at how I got 1x255 in week 3 of the past 2 cycles, I know that my sugar high is what got me this PR. I won’t start doing this for every single session (PROBABLY not the right long-term health thing), but I will for squat day because from the looks of it deadlift day is draining me out and I need the boost if I want to go all out on lower body again 2 days later on squats.
I knew I had the strength in me since my deadlift kept going up. I just needed a little energy.
Bench press
5x135
3x155
5x170 - #6 got ~halfway up. Can’t be sure how this compares to other PRs.
BB row
12x190 (PR)
9,9,8,8x185
DB BP
4x80s:F - #5 got ~halfway up. At least I know where I am.
5,4,3x75s
2x5x70s
BB hold
13sec, 10sec x 265
10sec x 245
Breakdancing
Shit, ~30min. Literally did shit. What you see in the toilet? That. Couldn’t get focused at all.
So today was straight dismal. Ironic in this whole week the only decisive PR I got was in squat, the one exercise that I’ve been stuck on.
Changes for next cycle:
-Switch the BB hold on bench press day to something else. When the plates helicopter around it’s like trying to hold on to a 200-pound snake. Sure, getting good at something that’s difficult makes you stronger, but the same argument can be used in favor of Bosu ball pistol squats. Smith BB hold, but with towels, would be better.
-Get on a sugar high before squat day.
-Upper body assistance looks like it’s stuck. I think it’s because I need to do less weight/more reps, I’m probably draining myself out by constantly doing heavy sets of 4-5.
WHOA was there an improvement from last week. I decided to eat 200g protein/day minimum, get more water if I could, and cut out the massive amount of salt I put on rice and spaghetti.
Breakdancing practice:
Mills work, ~2 hr
Focused mainly on barrel mills, and how to get into a roll high on my back, tucked so I can bounce out like a spring and land cleanly. I wanted to get a clean double by today but I wasn’t focused during practice this week so it didn’t happen. But I WILL get it next Sunday.
Breakdancing
Mills, ~60min
Overall more consistent with landing those single barrel mills cleanly, although I’m hit-and-miss in terms of doing it without pain. Going up on the head helps with both goals.
Breakdancing
Mills, ~90min
Mostly barrels. Keep at it.
My goal for OHP deload day has always been to actually be warmed up by the time the session is over. It is only today that I accomplished this goal, as I focused on staying really tight while doing the lifting instead of going as fast as I could.
Mills, ~90min
Too beat up. Give it a break. This has happened before; I get bruised up from practicing a move too often and eventually I can’t perform because my fear of hurting myself takes over my drive to get the move done.
Plus, this is a deload week. I can’t come out of a deload week banged up, or I’ll mess myself up BIG time when I start lifting.
So I’ll give barrel mills a break until Saturday, Sunday, see how I’m feeling. I know from experience I won’t get out of practice if I take a couple days off to recover; it’s worth it anyways to be able to get out of bed and stuff.
Don’t know what I’ll do till Saturday. I could sleep after lifting to speed up recovery, or train another move. I don’t want to practice just for the sake of practicing, though. I’m focused on barrel mills right now.
Breakdancing
Left handstand work, ~60min
The tick in my left rear shoulder that I’m recovering from made me realize how much I’ve been neglecting my left arm in favor of my more dextrous and stronger right arm with breakdancing. So I did what I could to fix that today; mainly left arm handstands against the wall. This sounds like broscience but they really seemed to make my pain spot feel better.
Breakdancing
Handstand work, ~60min
Got 4 handstand pushups in a row, PR
More L handstand work, sick of feeling like my arms are as imbalanced as the “badass psycho” from Borderlands