3/21/14 - Friday
Toprock, nothing else. Give my shoulders a chance to recover while also learning how to actually dance.
3/22/14 - Saturday
Cycle 29, Week 4, Day 2
Squat
warmup, w/e
5x120
5x155
5x185
Deadlifts
5x10x205
Pause deadlifts
2x5x115
Practice
Planche drills
Couldn’t match last Saturday’s performance. I definitely did better than I would have if I didn’t take it easy Friday but after doing these I felt like going straight to sleep. Like my muscles just stopped working.
Went home and napped for 2-3 hours.
Right so this upcoming cycle I’m getting rid of all “drills”. No planches, no one-arm handstands practice. I’m either lifting or practicing actual moves; skills.
Also, Friday is an off day. No “style” work, no “drills”, not even “correctives”. Fridays, I take time to recover physically and mentally.
3/23/14 - Sunday
Measurements:
Weight: 181.5
Waist: 34-1/2
Chest: 42
Hips: 38-1/2
R bicep: 14-3/8
L bicep: 14-1/2
R thigh: 26-1/8
L thigh: 25-1/8
Overall increases; likely due to the fact that I spend a lot of vacation time just sitting around. When I’m at school I end up walking a lot.
Did not train today, got no sleep last night and felt like shit on Saturday.
As for how I will train this cycle, the main thing will be reducing the time I spend busting my ass with power moves and putting more focus on recovery. My best sessions don’t last two hours, they last 15-30 minutes. As for food, I’m going to let my appetite be the judge. Every morning and every night I will allot one hour to eat as much as possible. I’ll track macros for myself just to make sure the ratios line up (eg don’t go into the dining hall and eat 40 donuts and no protein), but as for the absolute amounts I won’t be picky. I mean, I’ll still be tracking my measurements to make sure I don’t suddenly blow up to 40" waist; that would be embarassing.
3/24/14 - Monday
Practice,
1990s
best: 1-3/4. Did well for going a week without doing these.
Swipe > 1990
Got it, not too hard. But swipes are too heavy and clunky, 90 doesn’t spin enough.
Ignore the guy in the background >.>
Also hit swipe > headspin; it’s even easier
Monkey flip > handhop
One good set. Harder than I remember.
Footwork
Really an art by itself
3/25/14 - Tuesday
More practice moda fuaka
Barrel mills
Shitty. Couldn’t even touch it from a coin drop, best was some doubles from freeze. Paid big for going all spring break without these
Headflips
Got closer to a good, no-luck, no arm assisted landing.
Headspins
wooooooooooooooooo
got a double
Footwork
Will be spending much more time on this. Helps with conditioning, style, creativity, and I’m going to see how things go if, when I get the signal to stop practicing a power move, I stop practicing that move. A famous bboy once said “After an hour, your power goes sour.” It seems about right.
3/26/14 - Wednesday
Cycle 30, Week 1, Day 1
Deadlift
bar
3x135
3x185
5x220
5x255
17x285:F - Felt absolutely dead today. I don’t get enough sleep and midday naps don’t even begin to make up the difference. I’m going to make Tuesday an off day as well as Friday, so I can come into deadlift and squat day fresh.
Couldn’t even hit an HSP. Went home right away to sleep.
3/27/14 - Thursday
Cycle 30, Week 1, Day 2
OHP
bar
5x95
5x110
14x125 - My best ever with this lift is 10x145. Loss, but not that much.
Practice. Shoulders felt a little shaky at first from lifting but I knew I had it in me to practice so
1990s
Consistent 1-3/4s. Cool.
Swipe > 1990
Was too tired to practice it much. But the two attempts between warming up to the motion and being too tired to even hit a swipe were pretty much on par with what I wanted.
Monkey flip > handhop
Regaining consistency here. Right hand plants directly behind right foot, left arm shoots directly overhead.
Bench press
10x115
3x10x125
10x115
Oooh, this was tougher than I remember.
Pull-ups
9 5 3
3/28/14 - Friday
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Decided to eat much less today since I didn’t train, just a lot of protein and fat. My logic was that it would be hard to sleep if I ate a ton of carbs and didn’t train.
Saturday edit: I found that my appetite for carbs was much higher, go figure. Also, I slept well. I really would like to eat a shit ton on off days but I have had nights before with gym closings or holidays when I have training day energy intake without training. I have had nights when I would stare at the ceiling until 3 AM.
3/29/14 - Saturday
Cycle 30, Week 1, Day 3
Squat
bar
3x135
2x185
5x205
5x235
7x270 - Not sure how this compares. 1RM calc puts last cycle’s 9x260 above everything I’ve done but when the reps get above 4 or 5 that formula overestimates.
Practice
Barrel mills
Better than earlier this week, still shitty.
Headflips
Nothing new.
Headspins
Nothing new.
Deadlifts
5x10x225
Double pause deadlift
2x5x115
Wow, somebody else is breakin’ around here, NICE!
Reading through your log, I’m not sure what’s more impressive - the moves, the 40ish-pound weight gain, or the consistency and time you’ve put in. Nice work!
I don’t work on as many moves as you do - mostly just windmills and variations. I’ll see if I can post a video up in my log.
Maybe I’ll have to start working on more moves. 1990 is something I’ve always wanted to get.
By the way, I was part of the first wave of breakin’ back in the 80’s. I was doing the businessman (windmill with hands locked behind back) into a headspin when I weighed about 85 pounds back in 1986. Those were good times.
AHHH that’s awesome! Us young bucks call windmills with hands behind the back “handcuff mills” :b Thanks so much for coming by to say hi! I’ll be following your log:D your mills are really clean too!
Measurements:
Weight: 185.8 (+4.3)
Waist: 34-3/8 (-1/8)
Chest: 42-1/2 (+1/2)
Hips: 38-1/2 (0)
R bicep: 14-1/4 (-1/8)
L bicep: 14-7/16 (-1/16)
R thigh: 25-7/8 (-1/4)
L thigh: 25-3/8 (+1/4)
Not sure how I gained 4 lbs in a week, even on weeks where my eating as at the max I don’t just slap on 4 lbs.
Training:
Cycle 30, Week 1, Day 4
Bench press
5x115
5x130
17x150 - This definitely stacks up with previous PRs 15x155 and 14x160. Cool
Practice:
1990s
Few 1-3/4s, not consistent.
Swipe > 1990
Nothing new.
Monkey flip > handhop
Learned some stuff to help me improve how often I get into the handstand
OHP
5x10x95
Pull-ups
14 6 5
3/31/14 - Monday
Practice,
Barrel mills
Practiced from standing. Helps to think one step at a time (land, get tense, whip) instead of giving it the “just stop thinking” mentality
Today was weird. Couldn’t do anything after barrels. Some days I can just plant down on my forehead and go for some headflips, but today was not like that.
Considering increasing the weight for BBB. Would that increase my work capacity so I can train more?
4/2/14 - Wednesday
Cycle 30, Week 2, Day 1
Today I had a night exam which left me only one hour to train instead of the usual two.
Deadlift
bar
3x135
3x185
3x235
3x270
14x305 - About two cycles ago I only got 12x305.
Practice - only had 10 minutes
Tried to hit some 1990s, should not have bothered. It takes time to shift gears like that. Should have just played around with footwork.
Squat
5x10x155
Pull-ups
14 5 5
4/3/14 - Thursday
Cycle 30, Week 2, Day 2
OHP
warmup, etc
5x105 (doh, should’ve been 3)
3x120
12x135 - definitely compares to old previous bests 10x145, 11x140
Practice:
1990s
Absolute shit. Was completely out of tune with the feel of the move. Didn’t feel locked down or tight at all and barely spun better than a 1-1/4.
Couldn’t even consider a swipe > 1990. Or monkey flip. Shoulders just felt dead.
Back to lifting:
Bench press
10x125
3x10x135
10x140
Pull-ups
9 3 4 - gym was closing soon, had to be quick
Came to a realization today. While practicing I was getting pissed off trying to think of a new way to organize all my goals:
Get stronger (More strength > harder bboy moves > heavier weight which is also cool)
Better conditioning (aka not get out of breath after some toprock and swipes, which is what was happening today)
Lose fat (lighter body > more strength for bboying > look better which is also cool)
Build muscle (more muscle > more strength for less weight > look better which is also cool)
Get better at six different moves at the same time (which requires practicing every move at least every other day)
Looking back, I made several different attempts:
I tried training 4 hours a day. This didn’t work because I would end up injuring myself often, I wasn’t progressing well, I would find myself doing the same moves for a long time without significant improvement, and I was breaking myself down too much to get any stronger. I was just going for everything: Lifting, bboying, I was trying to chase all my goals. It ended up taking me over 4 months to get mill to headspin on lock and I became very well known at my local chiro.
I tried cutting out lifting, to just deadlift and squat with some light BBB assistance. My bboying performance shot up - I got to practice everything at least every other day. This is the period when I hit my first headflip and really started nailing double 1990s, and hit four barrel mills in a row. I even hit a split planche, albeit sloppy and short. But by the end of the cycle, the effect started curiously wearing off - my 1990s came back down to averaging about 1-1/2, I no longer had that headflip mojo, I would psyche myself out of barrel mills and planche drills just became an unproductive boring pain in the ass. Investing the same mental effort and focus into each session, my bboy performance peaked and crashed back down. I would find myself yet again coming into sessions unable to even hit an HSP.
Now, I’m back to lifting. But where before, when I was 140, I could train all day and still recover, it’s different now. When I tried lifting Saturday and Sunday and hitting bboying on Monday and Tuesday, I noticed drive start to drop on Tuesday’s head work and come to a tear inducing crash when I showed up to deadlift day and pulled a weak 17x285. I wanted to sleep before the set, I wanted to sleep during the set, and I wanted to sleep after the set.
The thing is that practicing bboy power moves that I’m really interested in, with the volume necessary to actually build the familiarity to improve with them, will drain me too much to get stronger with lifting. Meanwhile, if I invest all this time into strength (5/3/1), size (BBB), and power moves, then there is definitely no way I’ll have any time or energy left over to build the conditioning I need to put together a full 30 second set that combines my moves with enough to style to make the set an actual dance.
What I’m seeing from all this experience is that I need to devote one cycle at a time to one set of goals.
Raw athletic skills (strength, conditioning)
Bboy specific stuff (power moves, style, putting full sets together)
By going from a cycle of busting my ass hard on basic athletic traits and then putting it away to focus on bboy stuff for another cycle, I will recreate the exact conditions that blessed me with that one cycle I had where everything just came together: double 90s, headflips, barrel mills. 4 weeks is long enough for me to lose the bboy specific skills, yes, but it is also much more time than necessary to re-learn and improve on those skills, especially if I come back to them with a new, by definition stronger, body.
Because how the fuck have I been going all this time honestly expecting improved bboy performance when I’m always in a recovery hole from earlier week’s lifting?
So here’s what I’ll do. For the rest of the cycle:
Lift (5/3/1)
BBB
Other assistance
Sprint
If waist or weight increases, reduce carbs.
Next cycle:
Lift (5/3/1, that’s IT)
Bboy (a loooooot)
The final big question is diet. Honestly I don’t know what to do. Seems like every page on the Internet either says “Eat more pussycake” or “Eat less you fat fuck”, combined with “Take this $300 supplement.” I’ll just keep it high protein and trust my appetite with carbs and fat.
4/4/14 - Friday
Walked.
4/5/14 - Saturday
Squat
warmup
bar
3x135
3x185
3x220
3x250
4x285 - Small improvement over 3x290
Deadlift
5x10x225
GMs 2x10x135
Pull-ups 14, 4x5-6
Sprint - Intervals of running/walking across campus and back. Completely winded. I have fatass conditioning levels.
4/6/14 - Sunday
Bench press
warmup, w/e
3x125
3x140
13x160 - Weaker than last week.
OHP
10x95, 10x105, 10x115, 10x105, 10x95
No special arrangement, just found myself getting fatigued.
DB BP
10x55s, 2x10x60s, 10x65s, 10x55s
DB row
15x60, 15x75, 15x90, 2x15x100
Conditioning; heavy bag. Also, sucking air like a fatass.
4/7/14 - Monday
Conditioning; toprock and footwork. Worked on doing basic steps as quick as possible for ~30 seconds at a time.
4/8/14 - Tuesday
zzzzzzzzzzzzz
4/9/14 - Wednesday
Cycle 30, Week 3, Day 1
Deadlift
warmup
bar
3x135
3x185
3x225
5x255
3x285
13x320 - Beats last week’s 14x305. I think this here might be an all-time best for me.
Squats
5x10x155 - Felt easier than ever. Don’t want to increase weight if I’m still hitting PRs.
Pull-ups
15(PR) 7 5 5 4
Conditioning, footwork, same as Monday. Also did some jump rope.