Superset 1-
OHP- 65/75/85/95lbx5, 105lbx11, 85lb, 1x14, 1x11
Chin-up-6x6, 3x5
Alternating between reverse/front lunge and cossack squat- sets of 10 on the lunges, sets of 6 on the cossack squat
Trying to get close to failure feels ridiculously hard.
Superset 2-
BB row- 95/115/135lbx5, 155lbx13, 115lb, 1x12, 1x13
DB OHP- 30lb, 1x10
Push-up- 5x12
Did a mixture of lunges, dead-bugs, leg raises, etc for anywhere between 5-10 reps. Didn’t really have a plan.
Brought the weight down on the row so that I can focus on form more.
Got ~5 minute rest again and did much better except for the OHP. My shoulders felt too sore to do them, so I did push-ups instead.
DB curl- 20lb, 3x15
Face-pull- 90 reps
Cossack squats didn’t cause any pain. I think the knee is healed, but it’s very weak or has some sort of scarring that causes this sensation that I can best describe as tearing wet tissue paper. I’ll start doing really low weight front squat and a bunch of lunges to get it stronger. I’ll also need to do some research into exercises that focus on building knee stability and strength.
I hurt something around my trap/neck area doing those one-armed OHP. It hurt while sleeping and occasionally when I sit for too long. Had no impact on lifting until deadlifts though. Got some pain from 285lb onward, so I think it has to do with the amount of weight that is pulling down on it.
Stopped at 345lb because of the pain + grip weakness + not really being focused.
The TnG sets became a struggle for similar reasons. Had to stop at rep 5 on the last set to reset grip. Gip + conditioning issues made this a struggle.
Superset 2-
Front squat- 45/95/115/135/155lbx5, 115lb, 4x5
Pull-up-9x3
Dip-9x5
Quads are very weak now- 155lbx5 felt a little tough. Planned on doing 5x5 with the 115lb, but knee felt a little tight on the fourth set so I decided to stop.
Pull-ups really easy-going to do fours from now on.
OHP- 65/85/95lbx5, 105lbx3, 115lbx8, 95lb, 2x10
Chin-up-8x6, 1x5
Alternating between reverse/front lunge and cossack squat- sets of 10
Push-pressed the last rep of 115lb. Going back down to 110lb.
Now my right forearm is in pain! I had a bruise on that forearm that refused to go away for weeks. It seemed to be finally healing up a bit, but now it’s back. It’s likely the source of the pain.
Going to take the next two days off lifting anything to give the forearm some actual time to heal. Will just walk at the gym probably.
Thought about what I wanted to do today and decided to do WOD Murph.
I had no idea what to expect on the first mile run since I haven’t run in over a month and it’s been a very long time since I did a straight mile.
Used the 12 min mile pace on the treadmill just to see how it goes. Felt effortless besides for my ankles- they started to get sore near the end of the mile. I don’t think I even sweated from this- good to see that giant set style work-outs are indeed great for building general conditioning.
Knew my upper body strength is bad so I had to do the WOD Cindy style breakdown of the bodyweight stuff. Thought I paced myself generously with 45sec-1 min rests between each “set”. Was not that bad for the first ten sets… then things fell apart on set 13. As always, my push-ups died. Had to take a six minute rest so that I have some movement back. Took my time afterwards and got through it.
Somehow also ran the entire second mile. Same 12 min pace. Did not feel difficult conditioning-wise. My upper body felt like jello though and I’m pretty sure I’m going to get shin splints + horrible ankle DOMS tomorrow.
This took somewhere around 75-80 minutes. Not great. I really need to strengthen my horizontal pressing strength. Set 13-20 of the bodyweight stuff took way too much time and that was entirely because of my bad horizontal pressing strength.
Was fun though. This is a good WOD.
Forearms started to get painful again, so in hindsight this was not the right thing to do for “recovery”.
The days off helped the deadlift. Everything except the 405lb and the TnG sets felt very easy. The trap/neck pain is still there. Felt that it hurt more on the second/third rep, so did singles on the 375lb and 405lb. Felt no pain, so I think I’ll keep doing this until the pain goes away.
The 14 rep set felt miserable.
Edit- I think it is a good sign that everything EXCEPT my lower back felt exhausted from this. More reason to be confident in my deadlift form.
Superset 2-
Front squat- 45/95/115/135lbx5, 155lbx7
NG Pull-up- 3x4, Pull-up- 1x4, 1x3
Push-up- 3x12, 2x6
Push-ups died. I’m guessing that I haven’t recovered fully from Sunday?
Knee feels ok.
Knee didn’t feel pain during the cossack squat. Knee feels slightly painful right now though, so I don’t know what’s going on with that. We’ll see how it feels when I front squat again.
Two mile treadmill walk with 20lb of rice shoved into a backpack.
Got blisters as I increased the speed. Sweat a whole lot. I think I need to buy thicker socks.
I expected my traps to be sore from this but didn’t get any soreness anywhere.
Trying over warm-ups again. This time going to stay disciplined and never go above 85% of 1rm.
I think it helped on the 110lb. This felt smooth. Failed 10th rep of 110lb. Upper back didn’t feel stable enough.
Superset 2-
BB row- 95/115/135/155lbx5, 165lbx9, 145lb, 1x11, 1x8…? I forget what I did on the 145lb.
Toe to bar- 5x4, 2x3
I didn’t want to use my ab-wheel today.
Hook gripped everything. Had to use a bar with some knurling on it, so I worried that my thumb will die. It didn’t- this went very smooth. Easiest 405lbx3 I’ve ever done. Hook grip also apparently puts my upper body in a position such that the pain doesn’t occur, so that’s good.
Superset 2-
Front squat- 45/95/115lbx5, 135lb, 2x10
NG pull-up- 5x4
My quads are really weak. The second set of 135lb felt difficult. The NG pull-up went fine.
Knee felt ok on this.
Superset 1-
OHP-65/85/95/105/115lbx3,125lbx1, 110lbx9, 95lb, 1x10, 1x8 or 9
Chin-up- 4x6, 3x5, 1x3, 1x4
Toe to bar- 7x3, 2x2
Body felt tired today. I blame going to bed late for the last couple of days for various reasons. I have been feeling tired in the last couple of days so I’m pretty sure it’s the going to bed late part.
Superset 2-
DB bench- 30/40/50lbx5, 65lbx9, 50lb, 2x15
Chest supported row- 30/40/50lbx5, 65lbx6, 50lb, 2x12
Leg raise into hip thrust- 6x5
I really hope I did poorly on the 65lb because of the fatigue I felt today. Otherwise I got stronger on dips and push-ups but got weaker on the DB bench. I took a 5-7 minute rest between superset 1 and 2, so I don’t think the OHP had an impact on this.
Chest supported rows felt difficult, and that’s with a limited ROM because I did this on a flat bench. Eliminating lower body has a big impact.
375lb felt like it took a long time to get off the floor, so I figured the 405lb would suck. Turns out it felt as easy as on Tuesday, so did the triples again.
Superset 2-
Front squat- 45/95/115/135/155/175lbx5
NG pull-up-6x4
My knee got slightly painful after the jog on Weds. That’s why I didn’t do the lunges yesterday. Knee felt a bit tight on the front squats but I felt no pain. Currently feels fine.
The 175lb felt a bit tough- probably close to 75-80% 1rm right now.
Did some DB OHP and various upper back stuff with my brother yesterday.
Walked 3 miles on a treadmill with 30lb in a backpack today. Lots of blisters again.
Upper back did this just fine. Lower body started to feel fatigued.
Got poor sleep today. Been getting restless sleep for the last couple days in fact. I may try ZMA or something similar again.
My hips, especially the left side, felt heavy. 30lb is apparently heavy enough. I’ll have fun with 40lb next Sunday.
Superset 1-
OHP- 65/85/95/105/115lbx3, 125lbx1, 105lbx10, 95lb, 1x12, 1x10, RP then x3
Chin-up- 9x5
Front lunge/reverse lunge/cossack squat- x10 on the lunges, 1x5 then 2x10 on the cossack squats.
Given how I felt going into the gym today, I’m ok with 105lbx10
I now believe doing toe to bars made the last Thursday session suck, because I felt even worse today going into the gym but chin-ups felt fine.
Superset 2-
BB row- 95/115/145lbx5, 165lbx8, 145lb, 5x8
Toe to bar- 9x3
I need to get better at pulling with my back. I pull with my arms on some of these reps and I now know enough to feel the difference.
Skipping a set between 225lb and 315lb turned out to be a bad idea. 315lb felt much heavier than it should have.
I tore a callus on Friday. It healed up ok over the weekend, but it got scratched up yesterday. It started tearing up again and got painful on 315lb, so I decided to minimize the volume and go for a heavy single. I wanted to go up to 455lb or 465lb but I stopped at 435lb because the callus tear got progressively worse. It would be counter-productive to do more or heavier reps.
I will settle with a hook-grip PR. I’m pretty sure I could have done 465lb if I fought through the grind.
Superset 2-
Front squat- 45/95/115/135/155lbx5, 175lbx7, 95lb, 3x10
NG pull-up- 9x4
Push-up-3x10
Planned on doing 5x10 since I got no volume on the deadlift, but I felt a twinge of pain around rep 8, so I stopped.
Been working late for the last couple of days and it’s starting to affect me. Felt like all the energy drained out of me as I drove to the gym and my head wasn’t in it. Went ok in spite of all that. Got a tiny tear at the base of my thumb during the TnG sets. I expect the TnG stuff to tear my thumbs as the weight gets heavier. Not good.
Superset 2-
Front squat- 45/95/115lbx5, 135lb, 7x5
NG pull-up- 10x4
Stopped because I felt a slight pain in the knee. NG pull-up is improving.