I’m back. Felt ill enough that I had no desire whatsoever to train till yesterday. Gave myself one more day off to really get that desire back.
Giant set-
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 pull-up
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 dips
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 reverse lunges
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 hinging
The pull-up and dips felt pretty challenging and I really felt my heart beating hard during this. I think it’s due to the remnant of this illness, because this felt way harder than before.
Did the lunges while holding two 8kg KBs to work with imbalances. This obviously played into why this felt more challenging than normal.
Double KB squat with 16kg-1x28
Double KB OHP with 16kg-1x13
30 armor-building complex with 12kg KBs.
Took ~7:41. Did these nice and slow. 2 reps, then 5 deep breaths in between. I didn’t want to challenge myself today and this seemed to work fine.
I did the giant set on Saturday. Didn’t do anything on Sunday.
Today-
Giant set-
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 pull-up
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 dips
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 reverse lunges with the 8kg KBs.
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 hinging
Lunges feel a lot better. This didn’t feel that bad. I think last Friday felt challenging because I didn’t do anything for a couple of days + lingering cold.
Double KB squat with 16kg-1x28
Double KB OHP with 16kg-1x13
30 armor-building complex with 12kg KBs.
Took ~07:01.
3 reps, then min 5 deep breaths in between.
50 total KB rows with 16kg.
Started to feel fatigued by the rows. Interestingly this got me feeling really angry. I had a horrid weekend and it felt as though the pent-up emotions from those two days peeked out a bit.
Giant set-
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 pull-up
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 dips
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 reverse lunges with the 8kg KBs.
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 hinging
Double KB squat with 16kg-1x28
Double KB OHP with 16kg-1x13
Feeling sleepy for some reason. Nothing else due to laziness.
Edit-
Worked for like 2 hours and didn’t feel sleepy anymore.
5 standing ab-wheel negatives.
Basically start from standing and roll all the way out and try to maintain tension throughout. Felt pretty hard.
20 rounds of-
15 KB swing
5 KB squat
5 push-up
Didn’t really time myself. I had dinner cooking so I did 5 rounds, checked on dinner, did another 5 rounds, and so on. Roughly slightly less than 20 minute though.
Left forearm felt pretty tired. I don’t get why this feels so hard.
Yesterday-
Double KB squat with 16kg-1x28
Double KB OHP with 16kg-1x13
Went to bed way too late the day before so I didn’t bother waking up early to do the giant set.
Today-
Giant set-
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 pull-up
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 dips
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 reverse lunges with the 8kg KBs.
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 hinging
5 full extension standing ab-wheel negatives.
Double KB squat with 16kg-1x28
Double KB clean and press with 16kg-1x13
Tabata KB swing with 3 jumping burpee in between rounds.
Left forearm sore.
My glutes feel VERY sore. I honestly cannot recall feeling my glutes sore from KB swings and I thought I always did swings correctly.
The squats feel really easy and I don’t feel the weighted lunges in my glutes, but I think they’re clearly doing something.
Today-
Giant set-
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 pull-up
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 dips
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 reverse lunges
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 hinging
Giant set-
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 pull-up
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 dips
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 reverse lunges
Recon Ron pull-up program week 11 hinging
Finally had time to construct a sandbag. I initially thought about putting 100lb of sand into the filler but decided that it would be a hassle to move so I just taped up the 50lb bags of sand with duct tape, put them into the filler bag, and then put that into the sandbag.
I think I made the right decision. 100lb felt very difficult to pick up. It’s a combination of being really weak with picking up objects + lacking form. But I still thought that a 100lb wouldn’t be too bad and it turned out to be really bad.
Ended up doing 10 squats with the 100lb sandbag and 5 real ground to shoulder. The biggest issue right now is that my forearms and hands feel beat up after some 30 minutes of toying around with the sandbag.
I also attempted to press the 100lb bag and utterly failed.
5 one-armed KB press with 24kg.
I wanted to see where I was. Right side felt easy while I had to push-press on the left side.
3/3/3/4/4 armor-building complex with 14kg.
I can’t wait to get a lot stronger thanks to the sandbag.
10 100lb sandbag squat
5 100lb sandbag pickup
The pickups feel better. I now understand the importance of squeezing and getting the upper body tight. I never do this, even when I’m lifting stuff in daily life. Probably why those always felt harder than I think they should.
5 one-armed KB press with 24kg.
5x6 armor-building complex with 10kg.
Giant set-
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 pull-up
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 dips
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 reverse lunges
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 hinging
The dips feel hard.
1 mile-ish jog with my wife.
I got married recently and my wife really likes how I just exercise near everyday. I got her to do basic calisthenics. Today she wanted to go out on a jog in the morning, so I gladly went shortly after she finished her calisthenics session. I timed it at about ~12 min. Nice and relaxing besides suddenly getting hair in my eye that ruined the relaxation.
12 100lb sandbag squat
And these feel easy now. I need to remind myself to SQUEEZE the sandbag.
10 100lb sandbag ground to shoulder, alternating between left and right side.
This felt good. The movement feels a lot better overall. It’s definitely tiring. I want to be able to do all 10 without really stopping. My biceps feel sore.
Giant set-
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 pull-up
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 dips
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 reverse lunges
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 reverse hyperextensions off a chair, just for variety.
Dips remain difficult.
13 100lb sandbag squat
Easy. Squeezing feels more natural.
10 100lb sandbag ground to shoulder, alternating between left and right side.
The pickup felt better than yesterday. Shouldering it felt harder.
5 one-armed KB press with 24kg.
6x3 armor-building complex with 16kg.
Set 5 and 6 began to feel tiring.
Yesterday-
Giant set-
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 pull-up
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 dips
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 reverse lunges
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 reverse hyperextensions off a chair
13 100lb sandbag squat
Today-
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 pull-up
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 reverse lunges
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 dips
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 reverse hyperextensions off a chair
Dips feel considerably easier when I do them after the lunges. Now I get to say that the pull ups feel hard! I have to pause after rep 11 consistently right now. This weak power tower forces me to use virtually zero momentum, whereas I was able to do more of those ‘flowy’ pull-ups by around this week previously.
15 100lb sandbag squat
10 100lb sandbag ground to shoulder, alternating between left and right side.
Had a hard time picking the sandbag up today. Actually had it slip out of my hands and my arms once or twice.
5 one-armed KB press with 24kg.
6x3 armor-building complex with 16kg.
Yesterday-
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 pull-up
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 reverse lunges
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 dips
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 reverse hyperextensions off a chair
Today-
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 pull-up
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 reverse lunges
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 dips
Recon Ron pull-up program week 12 reverse hyperextensions off a chair
1x4 chin-up with ~40lb in backpack. 4x5 chin-up with ~20lb.
5x10 push-up with ~20lb
5x15 squat with ~20lb
I wanted to go heavy and found the chin-ups far too difficult. So back down to 20lb I go. Felt ok. Not great. I lost strength expression with the chin-ups or I’m fatigued or I gained weight. Probably gained weight and lost strength expression.
Recon Ron pull-up program week 1 pull-up
Recon Ron pull-up program week 1 squat
Recon Ron pull-up program week 1 dip
Recon Ron pull-up program week 1 hinge
Done with 4kg in backpack.
Trying something different for a bit.
0 150lb sandbag pickup.
Wow, 150lb feels a lot different, and harder, than 100lb.
It doesn’t help that weight is distributed drastically differently between the 100lb and 150lb bag because it’s really 3 50lb bags in a single bag. It’s a lost longer and a lot looser.
16 100lb sandbag squat
10 100lb sandbag ground to shoulder, alternating between left and right side.
This felt a lot better today. I should start timing this to give myself more urgency.
10 50lb sandbag press.
This feels a lot different and pressing the KB and it overall feels harder because of how unbalanced it feels.
6/6/3/5/5/2 armor-building complex with 12kg.
This wrecked me. Barely finished within the timer on the second set. Finished the fifth set after the timer, so I took like 40 seconds of rest and barely eked out 2.
50 total inverted rows done off the power tower.
52 push-ups
I didn’t know whether I wanted to do the weighted stuff daily or every other day. Well, I woke up feeling sore everywhere and very tired, so I slept in an extra 30 min and just went to work.
12 110lb sandbag squat
I put the 10lb bag of rice into the sandbag. This felt fine. I’ll try adding the next bag of rice in next week.
10 100lb sandbag ground to shoulder, alternating between left and right side.
Done in ~2:49. Finished this much more quickly than last time based on the feel of it.
10 50lb sandbag ground to overhead.
This feels rough. Lots of little muscles getting fatigued quickly.
5x5 armor-building complex with 10kg
I had to lay down on the floor for a bit afterwards. Doing this after those sandbag stuff hurts.
I’ll do inverted rows and push-ups later.
53 push-ups
53 total inverted rows done off the power tower.
Recon Ron pull-up program week 1 pull-up
Recon Ron pull-up program week 1 squat
Recon Ron pull-up program week 1 dip
Recon Ron pull-up program week 1 hinge
Done with 4kg in backpack.
Every other day it is.
12 120lb sandbag squat
I need to be able to lift a human being who weighs around 120-130lb for A LOT of times sometime late May, so adding weight aggressively to this it is.
The 120lb sandbag felt pretty easy to pick up. I’m definitely getting better at this.
10 100lb sandbag ground to shoulder, alternating between left and right side.
Done in ~2:06
Yup, definitely getting a lot better. I think lifting the heavier sandbag wakes me up and makes this feel a lot lighter.
11 50lb sandbag ground to overhead.
Better at this too!
5x5 armor-building complex with 10kg
Still kicked my ass but I didn’t feel the need to collapse on the floor.
I’ll do inverted rows and push-ups later.
54 push-ups
54 total inverted rows done off the power tower.
12 120lb+4kg sandbag squat
I wanted to do 6kg so that I’m adding more than 10lb. I managed to pick up the sandbag twice but couldn’t get it stable enough to squat, so I tossed one 2kg plate out and rearranged the remaining two plates better. I think I could have done 6kg if I did this. It’s ok, this felt much harder than I anticipated.
10 100lb sandbag ground to shoulder, alternating between left and right side.
Done in ~1:57
12 50lb sandbag ground to overhead
as many rounds of-
50lb sandbag carry to one end of the house, 5 jumping burpee, then carry back and 5 jumping burpee
in 10 minutes.
The bell rang as I did the first set of burpees in the 8th round. I finished the 8th round for completion’s sake. This went from easy to hard real quick. Did 5 rounds each under the minute and fell off the proverbial cliff from there.
I’m finding that 5 minute seems to the consistent point where I start to get really tired with these kinds of stuff. Interesting.
I walked like 9 miles on Friday and did 12 120lb sandbag squat. I attempted to shove 8kg of weight into it and I failed miserably. In hindsight the 9 miles of walking may have played a role.
I don’t think I did anything on Saturday. On Sunday I did 5x5 armor-building complex with 12kg.
Today-
Recon Ron pull-up program week 1 pull-up
Recon Ron pull-up program week 1 squat
Recon Ron pull-up program week 1 dip
Recon Ron pull-up program week 1 hinge
Done with 4kg in backpack.
13 120lb sandbag squat.
The pickup felt easy. The squats felt ok.
10 100lb sandbag ground to shoulder, alternating between left and right side.
Done in ~1:47
6 one-armed KB press with 24kg.
I should be doing this first.
10 EMOM sets of-
2 50lb sandbag ground to overhead, then carry the sandbag across the house and back.
Felt easy. I think the burpees were what made the previous conditioning exercise so difficult.