Practice:
1990s, headspins, headsprings, barrel mills, swipes, getting back into all of it.
Style stuff, was able to longer than I remember.
Right, I said I would wait until the end of the cycle to get back to power moves with bboying. But here’s what happened:
Last week:
Deadlift: 14x305 (compares to previous bests) - easy squat assistance
OHP: 12x135 (compares to previous bests) - difficult bench assistance - worked up to sets with 135
Squat: 4x285 (clear PR for 1-5 range) - easy deadlift assistance + 2 easy sets of GMs
Bench: 13x160 (not bad, but clearly lower than previous 14x160) - difficult assistance - 15 total sets, about 10 near failure, with DB bench, BB OHP, and DB row
This week:
Deadlift: 13x320 (clear PR)
OHP: 5x140 (doh)
Since I didn’t go into the gym feeling like falling asleep standing up and this week’s deadlifts went well I feel like I overdid upper body assistance. So the new plan is:
5/3/1
power moves - every move, every session
easy BBB
conditioning
5 days a week. After taking out the unneeded assistance work I will have time to practice.
Practice - various power moves that I could not even touch
Just went home right after, this was another day where I couldn’t even hit an HSP.
I should have been able to hit at least one rep. I got 4x285 last week. So it looks like it’s not just too much upper body assistance. Thing is this has happened in a previous cycle where the last workout just sucked shit. Cycle 27 I hit 14x160 in week 2, but only 7x170 in week 3.
So I think the problem is actually that I need to start leaving more reps in the tank. Up to now I’ve been hitting PRs by stopping right before failure with no reps left. So forget all that shit I wrote yesterday. I’m just going to start leaving 2-3 reps on every top set like Wendler says to.
Edit: Oh yeah, and cut 10% off squat max to reset.
Not sure why everything fell so much. Eating’s been usual ~400/300/150 carbs protein fat, might be sleep
Bench press
warmup
3x95
5x130
3x150
3x165 - made sure to let this set be easy.
Practice:
1990s
Few good ones.
Barrel mills
Nothing but singles.
Headflips
Only got up to landing one-arm headsprings.
OHP
5x10x95
Pull-ups
8 6 7 - made sure to leave 2 reps on every set
Biggest lessons from this cycle to apply to next cycle is start leaving reps in the tank and practice bboying every day - once I take time off I lose the feel of my moves and they’re all shaky and shit >_<
Overall better than yesterday, still not at where they used to be.
Footwork, toprock
This is starting to get more fun as I don’t feel so awkward anymore while practicing it. I’m also getting the conditioning and skill to do footwork to the beat, which is something that headspins and deadlifts just will not teach.
Practice:
1990s
At one point, felt crappy. But I sucked it up and kept practicing, which turned out well. The key to the move didn’t change; it’s still just as simple as get my weight focused on TOP of my spinning arm. Not to the side, not any dumb shit, get on TOP of that spinning arm. Best was a 1-7/8.
Barrel mills
Best sets were doubles from freeze, singles from coindrop.
Headsprings
I remember that it helped a lot when I took time off from going for the headflip to instead go for lots of easy headsprings. So that’s what I did today, hit 25 of them within 5-10 minutes.
Squats
5x10x155
Felt the exertion headache coming back on after the last set. It was poking its little head up as early as this most recent bench day, but now it’s starting to get serious. From my past experience, my notes are:
BBB squats are most likely to cause it
This isn’t something you can get rid of with five minutes on a lacrosse ball
Bboying doesn’t seem to ignite it - after a week of doing power moves with no lifting it was gone
Once it gets started, decent lifting is impossible
So I’ll show up to practice bboying tomorrow, push all the lifting back a day, and not do any assistance for the rest of the deload.
Best one of the day. Improvements over last clip:
Slightly faster swipes, less impact on the ground, and more turn on the 1990.
Monkey flips
I herp derped on these. I couldn’t even get up into a handstand. I ended up spending ~45 minutes on swipe > 1990, which is a problem since I normally plan for all my power practice to take an hour, so I guess it makes sense these wouldn’t be optimal.
Headspins
Also, did not do my best, had like one spin where I felt it right and hit a double.
Footwork
CCs - needs to be faster
some other stuff, turn on a song and play around
Noticed a decrease in appetite when the assistance was removed. Likely not a good sign, especially given the coincidence with poor practice performance.
Overhead press
(how do you warm up for deload OHP I’ll never know)
5x60
5x75
5x90
Practice:
1990s
Some solid spins, hit a 1-3/4. Quit when I could feel myself starting to get tired though.
Barrel mills
These were way worse than usual.
Headsprings
Also bad.
Still felt like doing something, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I just called it here so I did a bunch of assistance work:
Bench ~ 5x10x115
Pull-ups ~ moderate difficulty sets up to 30
Dips ~ 3x10
Just wanted to work the muscle so that’s what I did. Nothing difficult or crazy.
Focused on getting at least ~6hrs sleep each night this week and my body just started deflating. Like once I get decent sleep I feel better but my body stops holding on to whatever shit that accumulates in it. No change to diet whatsoever and lost 1-1/4" off my waist in two weeks just by making sure I go to sleep on time.
Training later tonight. Last night I felt fucking dead before going to the gym, I literally pulled myself into the squat rack in a half-asleep stupor. I feel much sharper today.
Oh, training.
Cycle 30, Week 4, Day 4
Bench press
5x70
5x90
5x105
Practice - 90s, barrels, headsprings. Hit a double barrel from coindrop a few times.
Deadlifts
warmup
5x225
5x260
10x295 - Made sure to leave a few, felt weak today anyways. Like my max would have been 12.
Practice - complete shit, couldn’t even hit a swipe.
Squats
5x10x155
Pull-ups
12 8 5
Pushups (throwback)
3x15
The only thing that’s changed since last cycle that would make my deadlift so shitty today is that I practiced yesterday. Last cycle, I left Tuesday and Friday off and my deadlift and squat shot up until my shitty sleep habits caught up with me.
But the other thing is I want to train every day so I can practice every move.
OHP
warmup
5x100
5x115
11x130 - Likely had another two left if I wanted to play dat rest pause rep grinding game
Practice - head still too burnt up to do barrel mills, headspins, or headflips. So
1990s
Consistent 1-3/4s. Got better with exactly where to plant my hands down so I can get a good stable spin.
Swipes
Practiced just plain swipes. Worked on getting my hips higher. The idea is that everything is extended - shoulders back, hips high. Still too slow.
Always too slow.
This is a video from previous, see if you can spot the differences:
Today was a “drift in and out of consciousness for the 30 minutes before going to the gym” day. Don’t know why but I always seem to feel run down on Fridays.
Couldn’t even hit a swipe or HSP, so I decided not to practice. But I still wanted to do something so:
Pushups - 7x15
Lat pulldowns - 7x15
DB OHP - 7x15
The idea is ~100 reps each exercise, just get a pump. Upper body only because that’s all I had time for and who gives a shit let’s be honest. While I understand that I might not be in that “i’m going to do a frontflip off my head” mood every day, I refuse to believe that not being in that kind of mood means I can’t do anything that day.
Squat yo
warmup yo
5x135 yo
5x185 yo
5x215 yo
11x240 yo - had 1-2 reps left definitely yo. What I did was just avoid the rest pause reps I used to do at the end of the set, because those always give me 1-2 more reps yo. This way I can focus on doing the lifting without busying my mind with “Do I have another rep left? Two? How about now?” kind of thinking yo
yo
Practice yo
1990s yo
Got consistent 1-3/4 spins yo, pretty good. Got tired of these fast though yo.
Barrel mills yo
Not my best performance yo but I could hit some singles from standing yo.
Headsprings/headflips yo
One-armed were easy yo. No arm still tough yo.
Deadlifts yo
5x10x225 yo - felt easy and fast like I was just doing conditioning yo
Pull-ups yo
7 7 6 - back probably toasted from last night’s pulldowns yo
Felt solid today yo. I’m starting to notice a cycle that basically goes from me being able to practice hard, feeling mentally sharp, crashing on Friday, just doing a bunch of easy rep stuff, coming back to bboying, up and down.
Practice
Swipe > 1990
Wasn’t at my best. My best performance seems to be during deload week, I remember the last best video I have of this move was from this most recent deload week. Biggest thing is think going UP
Monkey flip
Can’t do these into a handstand anymore and don’t know why. Might be something with my right wrist, which feels weird everytime I go up. Today, worked on powering the legs harder.
Headspins
Also not at the best.
Felt like I could have kept practicing all night long even though my performance was suboptimal.
OHP
5x10x95 - easy
Pull-ups - had extra time for extra rest with these
13 9 8
Probably most reps I’ve ever done with pull-ups. Also keep in mind that I’m leaving 1-2 reps on these sets too by not doing the rest pause stuff I used to do to squeeze out everything I could.
My chest has never measured this big before. I did not change diet AT ALL during this week, slept maybe a bit less but still ~6hrs/night so that wasn’t so different, really don’t know what’s up with the measurement explosion.
Practice - 90s, barrels, and headsprings. Nothing new. Spent too much time on 90s and didn’t have enough energy/time left over for the other stuff, let alone style work which is too bad because I really wanted to get into some. If I want to perform decently on all my power moves I have to get back to forcing myself down to 20 minutes per move, one hour at max being spent on power. It’s so funny because when I was doing headsprings at the end I felt “tired” and “fatigued”, then the guy came in and told me that the gym was closing in five minutes and I effortlessly landed two perfect one arm headsprings. The time constraint, the idea that I only have this much |-| time and have to focus on every attempt is what forces me to focus and perform; I have to make it real and take advantage of it.
Something is definitely shifty with my right wrist. Not in pain but it seems to be the way it is positioned when I practice monkey flips, may want to find another move to do during that time.
Practice. 20 minutes per power move kept me focused and productive.
Swipe > 1990
Solid. Practiced from swipe position, then from standing. Got some sets that were definitely good as ever.
Rollback > side chair (left arm) - new move
To replace the monkey flip thing which seems to be messing with my wrist, and make my left side do something for once. Keep at it. I have a friend that can hit this move, I need to one up him one day with a rollback into a nike.
Headspins
Got some really nice spins. Biggest thing is keeping my ass tight so my legs don’t fall, because once the legs drop that’s how you lose balance and crash.
Style work - had enough time and energy to actually dance. Toprock, footwork, came up with some new steps and worked on CCs too.
