Did WOD Murph today; partitioned and without weights. I did this last in 2019 and I wrote that it took me ~80min. This is the first time doing it while actually running outside.
Finished it today in ~1:02hr. Pull-ups became the limiting factor. Upper back died at around set 7 and it took minute long rests to barely get enough recovery to do a bad set of 5. Everything else felt fine until my abs started to go at around set 16, then the push-ups started to feel hard too.
Huge improvement compared the 2019 attempt though- push-ups felt pretty easy the entire time besides the ab stuff. The stuff I did to improve my push-up strength this year worked. Now I need to figure out a way to improve my pull-up strength.
I think I should also continue doing smaller rounds of pull-up/push-up/squat giant sets. They’re just too simple and effective to ignore doing.
Forgot to mention- my glute and legs felt really sore on the runs. It has to be from the swings. I am a little concerned that the KB swings tomorrow is going to be hard.
10k swing challenge day 3
Did goblet squats.
Took ~18:04
Every part of my upper body and my abs feel sore. Legs felt fine so I went with goblet squats. I honestly have no idea how I did better than last time. I thought I would be a bit slower because of how beat up I feel from Murph.
Forearms and hands are in agony. Did the 50s of cluster 1-2 straight and willed myself to take just a tiny bit rest for the last cluster’s 50.
If I end up with actually having strong grip from this then I’ll be happy.
Did all the 50s straight! Got through the fourth one by counting 10s. I feel it definitely helped mentally to get through the last 12 or so reps of agony.
I get that Dan John made this program because T-Nation asked him to make a program that has 10k swings in it, but so far I think this program is awesome. Everything Dan John said would happen is happening, and I’ve never had that happen in a program before. That’s why I don’t follow programs as written; I’ve always failed to make actual progress when I do so. I suppose I don’t get the intent or spirit behind them.
Tabata jumping burpees.
I collapsed onto the floor after this. I thought maybe I should add more rounds onto this because surely 4 minutes cannot be enough if I haven’t done anything before.
Turned out 4 minutes is just fine! If anything the lack of accumulated fatigue from an earlier workout meant that I could actually push these as hard as I can.
10k swing challenge day 5
Did goblet squats.
Took ~16:49
Finished all the 50s straight again. The last one actually felt less painful than the third one; I wonder if my head just gave up on the pain by that point.
But on the “plus” side I think I genuinely felt a bit light-headed and wobbly after this.
A bit of break then-
1x16 push-up.
20 min phone call later-
6x16 EMOM push-up.
Felt a lot easier than the last time I was doing 16s.
Regard pull-ups. I am currently experimenting with alternating between 7x3 EMOM pull-ups and 1x10 pull-up. I don’t think I can handle too much volume on these when done EMOM style, but then doing such low rep seems to weaken my ability to do higher rep. So then why not try combining both but keep total effort low so that I never feel fatigued?
No place to do inverted rows so that will have to wait until things go back to normal.
Consistently finishing the 50s straight now. Won’t mention that anymore unless I fail to do so.
Felt fairly “fresh” after today’s swings. But I have to be honest- I’m starting to feel anxious about doing these because of the forearm pain. I really want to slow it down and take longer rest but a big point of this challenge seems to be pushing the pace and suffering whatever pain shows up, which happens to be in the left forearms for me.
1x30, 1x20 EMOM push-up
Huge improvement. The 30 reps felt fairly easy.
I’ve been eating less by accident the last couple of days. A couple of days due to not having nuts at home and a couple of days due to some sort of stomach issue after eating out. I weighed myself today and saw 165lb.
Hunger back again today now that my stomach is feeling normal. I see a fairly straight forward path to losing weight even faster- just cut out the daily nuts or avocado. It seems to have no impact on performance given the last couple of days.
I hate trying to lose weight. It is so much easier to stay in a neutral state.
Tabata goblet squats.
This felt ridiculously hard and is the first besides the thrusters where I simply couldn’t keep up. I feel that I actually got pretty close to maxing my heart rate on just the first set, which simply cannot happen with jumping burpees, so my body couldn’t sustain the pace.
I started off doing 13 reps and by set 5-6 I could barely do 6 before my lungs felt like they weren’t working, so I’d pause and barely do 1-2 more before the timer. I got up to doing 10 on set 8 because my inactivity on set 4-6 gave me enough recovery.
Goblet squats also feel a lot harder than front squats. Which I suppose makes sense because the KB is 53lb while the bar is 45lb? I think it has to do with the weight placement though too.
~3.6 mile run in ~33:37
I’ve been getting lazy about running due to the heat. I wanted to wake up early to do this today but lately have been having a hard time falling asleep and waking up early so that didn’t happen.
This kept gnawing at my head so I just ran. It felt hot and muggy and legs felt sore but, gosh, my lungs felt amazing and my legs felt light. I just let myself run at the pace that I can sustain while breathing through my nose, slowing down a bit when I felt tired and speeding up when I didn’t. I started to actually feel fatigued in the third lap but I sped up when I reached the street my house is on.
The current circle is ~1.2mile, hence 3.6 miles.
Felt very good to run in spite of the heat.
Edit- Oh ya, forgot to mention- eating less is always the best way to lose weight if you’re healthy. I haven’t been walking lately because of the heat. I also coincidentally didn’t eat eggs because I kept waking up too late and haven’t eaten my nuts or avocados regularly as mentioned earlier.
And now I’m down like 2lb in a week.
I’m just going to alternate between almonds and avocados at dinner for the time being and see what happens. I can see the finish line. I just have to cross it.
10 swing challenge day 7
Did goblet squat and press. It basically really worked out to- power clean the KB then follow the rep guideline in the program.
Took ~16:36
Took dedicated 45 second rests between each cluster.
I noticed that I couldn’t make a solid fist with my left hand at around rep 30 something-ish on the last 50s. This threw my form off a bit. I think I’m reaching a limit.
10k swing challenge day 8
Did goblet squat and press.
Took ~16:40
Took dedicated 45 second rests between each cluster.
Couldn’t make a solid fist at around rep 40 something. Legs are a bit wobbly afterwards. These feel hard.
10x10 EMOM push-ups.
Edit-
Need to get a tooth extract and have an implant inserted next Tuesday. Dentist says I shouldn’t do any strenuous exercise for two weeks after that. I asked why and apparently it can interfere with the implant sticking correctly.
That sounds serious enough, so I’ll need to take a short break.
Well at least I’ll (probably) be losing weight even better since I’ll be eating less food in this time. Can’t eat solid food for a couple of days either!
5x4 EMOM pull-up
2x20, 1x10 EMOM push-up
Tabata front squat with bar.
Didn’t have time to do the pull-ups at noon so I did them now.
Tabata front squat kicked my ass. It’s been like 20 minutes since I did them and my legs are still sore and I have a deep sense of fatigue in me. Didn’t feel as hard as the tabata goblet squat in that I didn’t see a dramatic drop in reps as the sets went on, but that just meant that the weight felt light enough that I could tell myself “Yes, you indeed can do more reps” and just try to keep going. I don’t think an 8lb difference is causing the drop in performance; goblet squats are indeed different from front squats.
10 swing challenge day 9
Did OHP with 115lb.
Took ~18:40.
Took dedicated one minute rests between each cluster.
Warm-up presses felt really easy from a strength PoV but off from a form PoV, which makes sense since I haven’t pressed in over two weeks.
Another point to say that this program works. Haven’t pressed for over 2 weeks and I felt stronger and “fitter” on the warm-up press and the 115lb presses… And I’m I think a good 3lb lighter right now on most days.
Chose 115lb because that was close to 5rm before I started the program and the 95lb felt really easy. Still, doing heavy presses, or actually using 5rm weight as Dan John suggests, with this program seems like a recipe for injuries. I felt noticeably lightheaded during the OHP starting from cluster 2 if I didn’t get my breath right.
Had to put the KB down for a tiny bit in the last cluster’s 50 to shake my left hand out. Grip started to go on the 3rd cluster’s 50 this time, so this weakness is getting worse. I may not be recovering quickly enough? I dunno how people do 5x a week on this program.
A bit later-
6x17 EMOM push-up.
Began to need lots of mini-rest on the last set. I think that’s an improvement from the last time I used 17.
10k swing challenge day 10
Did front squat for cluster 1-2, then back squat for cluster 3-4 with 185lb.
Took ~20:06
Same thing with the OHP. Haven’t done barbell squats in a while but the warm-ups felt easy.
I am glad that I managed to try out what I originally wanted to do on the program. I now have a solid idea of just how different this program can be depending on how you change the variables.
KB swings with goblet squat and press feel hard because I’m pushing the pace as fast as I can, while KB swings with heavy barbell lifts feel hard because the muscles needed for said lifts get fatigued during the swings. So by cluster 3-4 you just feel tired and you need to urge yourself to move onto the swings again.
I would have preferred to stick with front squats all the way though, especially since I warmed up with them. But the bar started to hurt the skin right above my right collarbone again, so switching seemed to be the best option. Back squat didn’t feel very good because I didn’t warm up with them. Required real effort on cluster 4.
I had no willpower to fight through the usual left grip pain today. Put the KB swing to rest on the 50s of cluster 2-4. I blame the squats.
I’ll do my push-ups soon. Haven’t decided what to do yet.
Edit- 10x10 done as explosively as I can.
5x one per arm EMOM armor-building complex with one 24kg KB followed by one more set about a minute later.
I wanted to do 15 EMOM sets and quickly realized that wasn’t doable. Ended the first EMOM set with like 18 seconds left, then ended the fifth one with like 4 seconds left. A lot of that was learning how to do the movements but, frankly, upper body is way too weak for this- had to push-press and the clean felt harder than I honestly thought it would be. Cleaning a KB feels way different than cleaning a barbell or a DB.
So I decided to switch to doing 3 sets of 5 EMOM to get the same amount of reps in… then realized that I bruised my forearm and wrists because I’ve never cleaned a KB before and apparently 24kg is too heavy a weight to learn with. Lightly swollen and hurts to type; we’ll have to see what the damage is in a couple of days. I decided to stop to prevent any more damage.
Wanted to salvage today so I did this instead-
15x5 EMOM devil press with 15lb DBs
This achieved what I wanted to do today- a light session to get blood flowing with different movements.
Weighed myself in the morning at 161.8lb with clothes on! I was 163lb about half a week ago with clothes off!
I am now the lightest I’ve been since I did that cut in 2020. Even I feel that I look quite small in the mirror now.
Didn’t want to run because the weather outside is disgusting.
chin-up- 1x18, RP, 1x4 (not from full hang)
I’m noting the full hang stuff because my daily pull-ups are done as full-hangs. Shouldn’t have done the RP sets. Upper back felt done.
Push-up-1x50
I wanted to see how hard a set of 50 feels now. Felt really easy up to 32ish when my upper back started to feel tired, probably due to the chin-ups. Chest and arms started to feel fatigued at around 43. So, again. great improvements. Last time I did a set of 50+ I started to feel this kind of fatigue from the high 20s.
Tabata goblet squat.
I felt completely done on the last set and just couldn’t continue on anymore.
Do any of you non-competitive sport gym rats wonder why you torture yourself for the supposed sake of health and vanity, especially when there are supposed to be less painful ways out there? I wondered that after this.
10k swing challenge day 11
Did goblet squat and press.
Took ~16:38
Took dedicated 45 second rests between each cluster.
Started to fail at making a fist on the third cluster. Left grip strength is getting worse and worse.
I’m back. Tooth extraction and dental implant sucks. I suggest everyone take good care of their teeth and wear mouth guards if your dentist notices that you may be clenching your teeth too much.
I lived off a diet of scrambled eggs, milk, EVOO, and V8 for the last two weeks and pretty much stayed glued to my work chair. Didn’t see any weight loss, so I figured I was eating enough for my activity level.
10k swing challenge day 12
Did goblet squat and press.
Took ~19:16
This felt pretty hard. Usual left grip weakness culminating in starting to fail at making a fist by the fourth cluster. Needed mini-rests for every set 50s.
Worst part was that I started to feel light-headed and exhausted from the swings. Needed longer and longer rest between the swings. Body is definitely deconditioned.
10x10 EMOM push-up.
I needed mini-rests at the top for most after set 5. Pretty sure this is just more deconditioned muscles.
17x6 EMOM jumping burpees and some movements from the GMB elements program afterwards to move the body again.
Went easy with the reps. Did what I wanted it to do. I’m getting headaches from this though and I don’t know why; I figure it’s due to the low calories from the last couple of weeks and the need for my body to get used to things again. Bought all my usual foods but somehow left the avocados on the checkout counter. It’s not a big deal besides that I’m going to have to go grocery shopping again.
Lots of my body felt sore after day 12, particularly my hamstrings and hips.
The amusing thing is that, even during the two week long rest, I never felt good. Now, that may be because tooth extraction and a shitty diet sucks, but my body and legs felt heavy. More anecdotal evidence that being physically inactive is just horrible for your body. I felt so good the last couple of months, provided that I went to sleep at a reasonable time.
7x3 EMOM pull-ups before lunch.
10k swing challenge day 13
Did goblet squat and press.
Took ~18:42
Usual left hand weakness and mini-rests on cluster 2-4.
Not much faster, but good news is that I didn’t feel the light-headedness and sense of exhaustion I felt on Tuesday. Felt pretty fresh after the rest after each cluster. I think I’ll be back to my previous pace by a week from now.
10k swing challenge day 14
Did goblet squat and press.
Took ~17:09
Massive improvement; way faster than I expected tbh. Got through cluster 1 and 2’s 50 without putting the KB down, but my hand left hand couldn’t make a proper fist on cluster 2-4 50s.
8x13 EMOM push-up.
These felt much harder than I thought they’d be; needed rest at the top for set 6-8 and I barely got through 8. I’m surprised given how easy the 2x20 yesterday and how I’m nearly back to normal with the swings.