Yesterday-
Hang power snatch->overhead squat->back squat->BTN press, 3x8 with bar in the morning before heading to my parent’s house.
Felt good except for my right wrist, which doesn’t like how it bends during the BTN press.
Max set of 13 full hang pull-ups before lunch. Pull-up strength is back to normal.
I weighed myself at my parent’s house and weighed 157.8lb. Wow. I haven’t been this light since I started lifting 10 years ago. So clearly those two weeks did have an effect. I dropped too quickly. So I am going to substitute 85% dark chocolate for the walnuts that I can’t eat at breakfast and see how it goes.
Today-
~2.4 mile jog. Started very slowly and then allowed speed to creep up until breathing in with the nose started to feel a bit tough. Legs felt a bit tired afterwards.
I deliberately didn’t time myself because I didn’t care for this run.
10k swing challenge day 15
Did goblet squat and press.
Took ~16:48
I took one minute rests for this but allowed myself 10 second rests between every single strength movement (normally I do 5 second rests for the first 2 strength movement and as long as I feel I need for the third), so overall I did the swings fasters than when I did this at 16:38.
Got through cluster 1-3’s 50s without putting the KB down. Started to fail at making a fist on the third cluster.
superset-
10x10 EMOM push-up
10x3 EMOM NG pull-up.
5x4 EMOM bent-knee inverted row and 1x3 standing ab-wheel before lunch.
The standing ab-wheel ROM isn’t as good as before; I couldn’t extend my arms all the way out, but I think that’s mostly because I’m out of practice.
OHP- 45/75/95lbx5 then,
10 swing challenge day 16
Did OHP with 105lb.
Took ~18:46.
Head felt clear and focused during the lifting today. 10lb less than the last time but that’s ok given the two weeks of inactivity. Felt very good.
Got through all the 50s without needing to put the KB down. Left hand grip started to go on the last cluster.
I’m done with the 10k swing challenge. I know there’s 2 more sessions left but the 2 week hiatus makes me feel that I was on this program a lot longer than I really was. I’m back full time at my home with my rack and I’d like to use it.
Basically going to be doing 5/3/1 FSL type work without % for the time being. I realized after listening to Dan John Youtube stuff and thinking about my lifts I realized that I rarely pay attention to anything besides the weight being moved. I only notice bar speed when it drops dramatically. So, I’m going to do something different- all barbell lifts for the time being will be fast and controlled. If it doesn’t feel fast and in control then I will assume the weight is too heavy. In practice should be identical to what I did before the 10k swing challenge. I hope to keep my weight below 160-165lb and see if I can get back to squatting 3 plates and pressing 1 plate; I think I can.
Hang power snatch->overhead squat->back squat->BTN press, 1x8 with bar
Back squat-
45/95/135/165/185lbx5
Quads not used to the weight. I predict this to feel fine really quick.
At some point in the morning-
9x11 EMOM push-up
5x4 EMOM pull-up
Later-
Hang Snatch x 8
Overhead Squat x 8
Back Squat x 8
BTN pressx8
Note to self-When I write it like the above above, it means I did it like a normal complex. When I write “->” then it is if I did it like the bear complex.
OHP- 75/95lbx5, 105lbx6
The sixth rep felt off because I spent some time after the fifth rep wondering whether I should attempt it or not.
Bench press- 115lb, 5x5
At some point in the morning-
9x11 EMOM push-up
5x4 EMOM bent-knee inverted row
reverse table top holds for 30 seconds every now and then whenever I get bored because I suck at them and I think getting better at them will help.
Oly lifting fun day
Hang power snatch->overhead squat->back squat->BTN press, 1x8 with bar
Power snatch then overhead squat- 55/65/75lbx1, 85lb, 5x1 EMOM
85lb felt sloppy and weak at first but began to feel better until the last one.
Power clean- 65/95/115lbx2, then 135lb, 10x1 (EMOM)
Plenty of power in the power cleaning but body is not used to taking the impact from all the catches. I need more muscle on my legs!
This felt easy once I got into the groove but my entire upper back, and my right shoulder in particular, really does not like it when I drop the bar back onto my back. Same idea with the reverse table-top- I’m sure getting better at these will help.
Tabata jumping burpees-
Couldn’t push it as hard as I do when fresh so, this didn’t kick my ass as bad as it should.
I haven’t been walking much lately, but I realized that I could actually walk around INSIDE my house because it’s pretty big and I have no one to bother. So that’s what I’m going to do from now on- get 5 min walks in every hour or so and get longer (20-30 min) walks after lifting.
At some point in the morning-
9x11 EMOM push-up
5x4 EMOM chin-up
Later-
Hang Snatch x 8
Overhead Squat x 8
Back Squat x 8
BTN pressx8
Bench press- 95/115/135/145lbx5
Hit the left safety bars on the 145lb. I take this as evidence of my unbalanced descent when the weight feels heavier and more unstable. Good set otherwise.
At this point I realized that today was supposed to be a lower body day. Oh well.
OHP- 65lb, 5x5
This feels easy, so I tried going through the sets with as minimal rest as I can. But I have to note that this feels harder than when I went through that high rep phase about 2.5 months ago when I believe I did this in a single set.
Hanging knee raise- 1x20, 1x10 (I should alternate these with the ab-wheels)
Pendlay row- 65lb, 1x15, 1x10
KB swing- 2x50
Armor-building complex with 95lb barbell- 5x2 EMOM
Better and worse than the last attempt. Managed to press everything but I needed nearly the entire minute to get through the last set. This feels ridiculously hard; almost as bad as the tabata stuff.
I attempted to do this with the 24kg KB and ended up banging my wrists up and finding that I cannot press it. I’m tempted to buy much lighter KBs just so that I can do this complex while also learning how to KB clean.
Edit- I am once again feeling hungrier after dinner than before. Hopefully I don’t find myself in a strange situation where the 10k swing program provided just the right stimulus for weight loss while keeping hunger at a reasonable level, but doing more “traditional” training means I’m going to be feeling starved while weight loss is not as good.
The 10k swing program did nothing to improve my grip strength!
At some point in the morning-
9x11 EMOM push-up
5x4 EMOM bent-knee inverted row
Later-
Overhead squat-1x10
Deadlift-
135/185/225/255/275lbx5
Did 135-255lb as TnG, 275lb as regular because I knew I couldn’t rely on my hands anymore. Used hook grips to see how they would feel and noticed they felt unstable on 255lb. 275lb felt really hard on my hands and thumbs. I went through my log and I’m pretty sure this is the first time I deadlifted this this entire year, so not really surprised.
Form feels a bit messy too. I think I’m doing something in between a RDL and a normal deadlift right now; I think I need to bring my hips down more and get the bar closer.
Back squat-
95lbx5
135lb, 2x10, 1x5
Easy as it should be.
I felt drained and lifeless all day and didn’t feel like doing any sort of conditioning, so I opted for the simplest one. I think this was a good choice; I could move in zombie mode with no worries.
Morning weekend workout that I’d like to make into a thing from now on regardless of my plan for that day.
Power snatch into overhead squat-
65/85lbx1, 95lb, 10x1 EMOM
The power snatch felt iffy here and there but got better as the sets went on. Overhead squat felt a bit rough most of the time, presumably due to yesterday?
Sotts press- 10x5(?) I lost count around set 4-5.
Forgot this exercise existed. Mobility feels worse than when I did these daily last year.
Burpee pullup-10x4 EMOM
Remembered that this existed after reading T3hPwnisher’s log earlier. Chose 4 at start to see where I’m at and saw that I finished with ~32 seconds left, so stuck with 4. I can definitely go faster if I smoothen out the transitions.
Upper back and interestingly right biceps started to get sore near the end.
Edit- got 1x50 push-ups in before dinner to see where I am at. I managed it but it felt a lot more difficult than the last time I tried this. I needed to take several pauses starting from rep 40.
I knew that I had to get runs back in because I noticed my feet calluses started to go away. Given how much pain those things took to grow, I’d prefer to keep them around. Calluses started to hurt shortly after the first mile. I find it interesting that they hurt today when they didn’t hurt the last time I jogged two weeks ago.
Today’s supposed to be 103F, but jogging in the morning felt comfortable.
Pleasantly surprised by my time. I thought I’d have a hard time cracking 30 min because my abs and legs felt tired when I got up. Breathed in with my nose the entire time and lungs felt fine until the last ~0.25 miles or so. Predictably legs felt very heavy and lower back and abs started to feel tight a mile in.
At some point in the morning-
8x12 EMOM push-up
4x5 EMOM bent-knee inverted row
Later-
Hang Snatch x 8
Overhead Squat x 8
Back Squat x 8
BTN pressx8
Back squat-
95/135/165/185/205/225lbx5
Couldn’t do the 225lb rep without stopping and the bar speed dropped a lot afterwards. I think it’s good that I did the set though; I’ve been staying away from actually exerting effort for too long with lower body lifts.
Deadlift-
135/185lbx5, 205lb, 5x5
TnG with straps. The movement felt a lot better than on Friday.
At some point in the morning-
8x12 EMOM push-up
4x5 EMOM pull-up. Last set felt a bit tough.
Hang power snatch->overhead squat->back squat->BTN press, 1x8 with bar.
Did Sotts press instead of BTN press for I think rep 5-8. Felt significantly harder but this seems like a good place to work them in.
OHP- 75/95lbx5, 105lbx8
Solid, but forced, set of 8. Maybe I should go back down to 95lb and rebuild. Shoulders have gotten significantly weaker post two week break. I don’t really understand why since everything else seems to be regaining strength just fine. Maybe the weight loss influenced overhead strength that much?
Bench press- 115lb, 2x10, 1x5
The best feeling bench pressing I’ve done all year.
Kneeling ab-wheel- 2x15
Last couple of reps felt tough.
BB row- 95lb, 2x10, 1x5 (3 second pause at top)
This felt tough.
Juarez Valley thrusters with 65lb and jumping burpees- 10/1/9/2/8/3/7/4/6/5
Done in ~13:06
This kicked my ass. The thrusters felt very challenging for my shoulders.
On a plus side I felt fairly confident with the thrusters. This is good because I’ve never felt comfortable transitioning straight from a front rack position into a press, but I felt too tired to even care.
At some point in the morning-
2x25 EMOM push-up
Second set felt way harder than expected.
1x12 bent-knee inverted row
Power snatch into overhead squat-
65/85/95/105/115lbx1
Didn’t overhead squat for 105 and 115lb. My right knee bugged me during the warm up snatches and progressively felt worse with each set. Decided not to risk failure.
Power clean into front squat into push jerk-
95/115/135/145lbx1
Eh. Power clean felt fine. Front squats felt ok. The push jerks sucked, especially the 145lb. Power and stability is not there at all.
Bear Complex WOD
45/55/55/55/65
Took ~2 min rest between each set.
This felt very tiring. I am convinced it’s because the shoulders got fatigued every single time. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 45lb or 65; shoulder fatigues too quickly.
At some point in the morning-
8x12 EMOM push-up
4x5 EMOM chin-up. Last set didn’t feel tough today, probably because I did chin-ups.
Hang power snatch->overhead squat->back squat->sotts press, 1x8 for everything besides sotts press, where I did x5
Right knee is a bit painful but not at the “injured” feeling level.
Deadlift-
135/185/225/255lbx5, 275lbx7
TnG with straps. Had to reset on the 275lb after the third rep because the straps didn’t feel right and my hands felt weak. I think this is pretty much grip weakness compounded by not being used to straps, but at least I think I’m starting to build a “ritual” with how to use them. My lower back definitely felt fine and I’m getting back into the practice of rolling the bar to me during setup instead of starting the pull with the bar right on my shins.
Back squat-
135lbx5, 155lb, 2x10, 1x5
Each set done on one breaths. I thought about doing 165lb but I think 155lb proved to be just the right weight for this- right on the verge of feeling uncomfortable. Right knee felt fine.
Hanging leg raise to parallel- 5x5
KB row- 2x12
Tabata front squat with 55lb
Started out doing sets of 12 but it felt apart by set 3. I couldn’t keep up.
Bear complex WOD-
45/65/75/85/95
Took as long a rest as needed for each set; ended up taking a 5 min rest for the last set.
This felt awesome. Felt like the most enjoyable work I’ve ever done with a complex. Pressing proved to be less of an issue when I started doing thrusters instead of attempting push jerks. Grip gave out right before the 7th rep of the 95lb; took 5 deep breathes and finished it.