Easy Strength Round 4 Day 13
Dan John Snatch Complex- 45lbx5, 85lbx3, 105lbx1
Flat Bench- 160lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 255lb, 3x3
Chin-up 3x3
hanging leg raise- 1x5
4 total laps of KB farmer’s walk with 40kgs. 1 min rest between.
Walked outside for about 25 min or so.
Feet are in danger of getting blisters, I’m going to try walking outside to see if it does better there. Shoe and socks are probably crappy for fast walking.
The squats are indeed probably too heavy- speed feels noticeably slower but the muscles are straining way more than 235lb, but it doesn’t actually feel heavy and it does still feel powerful. So let’s keep at it for a week and see how things go.
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 14
Dan John Snatch Complex- 65lb, 3x5
Flat Bench- 160lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 255lb, 3x3
Chin-up 3x3
hanging leg raise- 1x5
10 minutes of one arm KB overhead carry with 20kg
Did 7 laps. Rushed for the last one.
30 min treadmill walk
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 15
Dan John Snatch Complex- 65lb, 3x5
Flat Bench- 160lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 255lb, 3x3
Chin-up 3x3
hanging leg raise- 1x5
10 minutes of suitcase carry with 12kg.
Did a total of 16 laps. Never put the KB down aside from when I had move my phone to the other pocket. Alternated hands every 2 laps.
Walked outside for a little over a mile.
Had to do some errands after lifting, so only had time for a mile walk.
Jogged for about 38minish Saturday. Did nasal breathing only, but that keeps my HR at about 150 on average. Not recommended based on what I read online + conversations with ClaudeAI unless I plan on actually becoming a runner, so I’m going to go strictly in zone 2 HR next time.
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 16
Dan John Snatch Complex- 45lbx5, 85lbx3, 105lbx2
Flat Bench- 160lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 255lb, 3x3
Chin-up 3x3
hanging leg raise- 1x5
10 minutes of suitcase carry with 28kg.
Alternated every lap. Got in ..7 laps?
30 min walk outside
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 17
Dan John Snatch Complex- 45lbx5, 85lbx3, 105lbx2
OHP- 135lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 235lb, 3x3
Chin-up 3x3
hanging leg raise- 1x5
10 minutes of double KB front rack carry with 28kgs
Did 4 laps. Took long rests because double 28kg carries aren’t easy for me.
30 min treadmill walk.
My quads felt quite a bit of strain + bar speed wasn’t terribly fast on Monday’s squat. Legs are taking a while to adapt to the increase in walking and the jogging, and this is no longer the kind of work that Easy Strength wants you to do. So I dropped the weight. 235lb has the speed that I’m looking for, but the quad strain is still there, just less pronounced.
People took all the benches RIGHT as I finished the complexes, waited for about two minutes, then said fuck it and did OHP instead. Chose 135lb arbitrarily. Felt pretty darned easy once I got into the groove. This is pretty cool because this is a huge PR for me- I’ve never strict pressed 135lb for reps quite this cleanly before IIRC.
Easy Strength with Oly Lifting complexes for warm-up works.
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 18
Dan John Snatch Complex- 45lbx5, 85lbx3, 105lbx2
Flat Bench- 165lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 235lb, 3x3
Chin-up 3x3
hanging leg raise- 1x5
10 minutes of one arm KB overhead carry with 20kg
Did 6 laps.
30 min treadmill walk
The bench felt ok. Last rep felt a bit tough.
Starting to come to the thought that paused squats worked better for improving leg strength and size because they force me into better form. The squats don’t feel great atm from a movement pov.
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 19
Dan John Snatch Complex- 75lb, 3x5
Flat Bench- 165lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 235lb, 3x3
Chin-up 3x3
hanging leg raise- 1x5
4 total laps of KB farmer’s walk with 40kgs. 1 min rest between laps, 50 second between half laps.
30 min treadmill walk
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 20
Dan John Snatch Complex- 95lb, 3x3
Flat Bench- 165lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 235lb, 3x3
Chin-up 3x3
hanging leg raise- 1x5
6 total laps of suitcase carry with 16kg. No rest aside from switching hands every lap.
30 min treadmill walk
Felt tired and sore today. Didn’t want to go lift, and it showed.
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 21
Dan John Snatch Complex- 65lb, 3x5
Flat Bench- 165lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 235lb, 3x3
Chin-up 4/3/3
hanging leg raise- 1x5
The bench felt a bit hard today. The back squat felt great- back to how 235lb felt two weeks ago.
10 minutes of suitcase carry with 28kg.
Alternated every lap. Got in 6 laps. Went slow and easy.
30 min treadmill walk.
I felt really tired and sore everywhere on Sunday, so probably didn’t go into this feeling well rested and recovered.
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 22
Dan John Snatch Complex- 65lb, 3x5
Flat Bench- 170lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 245lb, 3x3
Chin-up 4/3/3
hanging leg raise- 1x5
2 laps of single arm KB front rack carry with 28kg.
30 min treadmill walk.
The weights feel heavy, and the carry felt hard too. So this is probably more systemic fatigue than the weights actually being heavy. I think.
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 23
Dan John Snatch Complex- 65lb, 3x5
Incline Bench- 155lb, 3x3
Front Squat- 135lb, 3x3
Pull-up 4/3/3
hanging leg raise- 1x5
2 laps of waiter’s carry with 28kg.
20 min treadmill walk
Lots of people early in the gym today, so had to make due. Wasn’t confident that I can do 165lb or 170lb incline bench, so did 155lb. That was a good choice- these weren’t easy. Power cleaned the bar and did front squats. Same thing there, wasn’t confident that I can easily clean more than 135lb. Turns out that I probably can- these felt pretty easy, but very stiff and robotic. The actual front squats felt easy and smooth.
I can easily press the KB with my right hand, but left hand is a bit iffy.
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 24
Dan John Snatch Complex- 75lb, 3x3
Flat Bench- 170lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 245lb, 3x3
Chin-up 4/3/3
kneeling ab-wheel- 1x5
2 laps of farmer’s carry with 40kgs.
30 min treadmill walk
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 25
Dan John Snatch Complex- 75lb, 3x3
Flat Bench- 170lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 245lb, 3x3
Chin-up 4/3/3
kneeling ab-wheel- 1x5
I forget what carry I did.
30 min treadmill walk
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 26
Dan John Snatch Complex- 75lb, 3x3
Flat Bench- 170lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 245lb, 3x3
Chin-up 4/3/3
kneeling ab-wheel- 1x5
2 laps of suitcase carry with 28kg.
30 min treadmill walk
Two weeks of walking in and my lower body- from glutes down to my calves- have been sore and hurting. The squats themselves felt fine, though today did not. Felt slow and weak even on the complex, and felt a good bit of quad burn and slowness on the back squats. Legs are taking a long time to adapt. I slowed down the treadmill walk pace to see if that helps.
Amazingly the bench is feeling pretty great again.
Skipped Saturday’s jog because of said lower body soreness + a minor full body cold. Feeling better now.
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 26
Dan John Snatch Complex- 75lb, 3x3
Flat Bench- 170lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 245lb, 3x3
Chin-up 4/3/3
kneeling ab-wheel- 1x5
2 laps of waiter’s carry with 16kg.
30 min treadmill walk
I’m puzzled. Body is sore, particularly the legs. Squatting don’t feel easy atm simply because of the quad soreness, but as far as I can tell I’m not grinding on the lifts or having a hard time. It’s simply that muscles are sore and tired. Heck, the bench felt like it moved really fast today. It’s just that now I have sore triceps, and felt my pecs straining a bit during the movements themselves.
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 27
Dan John Snatch Complex- 45lb, 3x5
Flat Bench- 170lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 185lb, 3x3
Chin-up 4/4/3
kneeling ab-wheel- 1x5
2 laps of single arm KB front rack carry with 32kg. Alternated each half lap.
30 min treadmill walk
The wheels are falling off with this squat situation. Went with just the bar on the snatch complex out of precaution and… oh boy, legs feel sore and tired as heck. 185lb felt stupid light on the back and legs didn’t strain that much, but then the treadmill walk felt hard, and this is well below what I can do already.
I’m waving the white flag on this. Messed up when I attempted the 20lb jumps earlier and trying to fight through escalating fatigue. It really doesn’t help that I’m working way too much and not sleeping much I think.
At least it seems to be localized to just the legs and not a full body fatigue right now.
Easy Strength Round 4 Day 28
Dan John Snatch Complex- 45lb, 3x5
Flat Bench- 170lb, 3x3
Back Squat- 185lb, 3x3
Chin-up 4/4/3
kneeling ab-wheel- 1x5
2 laps of suitcase carry with 24kg.
30 min treadmill walk
Legs still feeling sore, but far less sore on the complex and the back squats. Now I just feel sore in odd places, and the back squat felt stupid easy besides the soreness.
I think so. I think it’s a conflation of several factors at once-
-Going from paused to unpaused squat vastly increased fatigue.
-Jumping 20lb was a poor idea in hindsight. I COULD do it, but given what Easy Strength wants it was a terrible, terrible idea.
But it might have been ok if!
-I didn’t suddenly increase daily movement by adding 30 minutes of fast walking- I was doing 15min/mile pace or close to it on most of the early walks.
-I was getting good amount of sleep- which I wasn’t. I was getting somewhere between 5-6hr for the most part.
I also wonder if paused squats work but unpaused squat don’t work. I had no problem with it while doing really light paused squat.
And then the minor cold that I got ended up being the feather that broke the camel’s back.
I ended up skipping Friday and Monday’s session. My wife strongly encouraged me to not workout on Friday. It was a good idea- I woke up feeling fatigued and mentally drained and obvious cold symptoms. I probably would have dragged my ass to the gym, feel horrible, then collapse when I got back home. This continued into Saturday. Fortunately I got lots of good sleep and rest over the weekend and I’m feeling pretty better today- aside from much of my body being sore.
Not sure what to do atm. I had been planning on switching programs to something KB based- I’m pretty sick of barbells after near daily barbell lifts- after finishing this run. It’s clear that I need my sleep, or at least to catch up on sleep.
Probably going to use the KB I got at home and to Simple and Sinister for a couple of weeks, then once I caught up on sleep and am refreshed go to the gym to use the heavier KBs. I like the idea of finishing the KB work in 20 min and then walking for 30-40 like how you would do with Easy Strength- I saw the value in walking after lifting and want to continue that to drop more fat.
Hoping to do this for at least 3 weeks? Who knows.
So I started doing Simple and Sinister. 10 EMOM on both the swings and getups with 16kg. Swings felt easy, getups did not feel easy. Body is not used to doing this with this load. Hopefully things get better quicker- I plan on doing this daily.
S&S day 3
16kg, 3x3 chin-up and 30 treadmill walk afterwards. Went every 45sec on the swings.
I went to the gym today- it was supposed to rain… but it didn’t? I did see raindrops on my car window, so maybe it did.
Anyways, doing this at the gym is easier simply because I don’t have to maneuver around in a small space. The 16kg getup is now easier, aside from getting up from the half kneeling position. There’s something really weak and stiff and just bad there.
If I’m going to the gym, then now I’m again contemplating adding some barbell moves in- maybe just every Friday, maybe 3x a week. Jesus. It’s so tempting AND easy to self-sabotage myself.