Happy Easter weekend everyone!
Last night I went out for some drinks with my colleagues for a little send off for my director who is moving organizations. I stayed away from the nachos but the Bud Lights were disappearing rather quickly.
Some morning meal prep (750g of ground beef and mixed veggies, chicken and bell pepper, and extra chicken thighs for snacks).
All done and cleaned up by 8:15am.
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Love it!
Happy Easter @littlesleeper mate
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It may be heresy but I stick my avocados in the fridge once they start to soften up. Keeps them in the goldilocks zone for a few days, but as with any fat they become a bit harder to work with when cold.
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04/03/2021
5/3/1 BBB Beefcake W5D4
Deadlifts
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 5
340 x 5
390 x 5
440 x 5
340 x 10
340 x 10
340 x 10
340 x 10
340 x 10
Dips
20
20
20
Facepulls
35
35
35
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04/04/2021
5/3/1 BBB Beefcake W6D1
Bench
135 x 5
185 x 5
235 x 5
275 x 5
300 x 5
235 x 10
235 x 10
235 x 10
235 x 10
235 x 10
These started to get tough as the BBB sets went on, but made it through without too much struggle. A good level of difficulty though.
Chest Supported Row
120 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10
Planks
60s
60s
60s
Split Squats
10
10
10
A good first workout of the 6th and final week of BBB Beefcake.
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Crushing it as per my man. Donāt stop. Keep filling your belly with that glorious beefcake
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04/06/2021
5/3/1 BBB Beefcake W6D2
Squat
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 3
360 x 5
405 x 5
455 x 5 ā felt heavyyyy
360 x 10
360 x 10
360 x 10
360 x 8 ā misgrooved my 8th rep, fought it up and just racked it
360 x 10 ā a very long set of breathing singles
My head was not in this workout. It started out OK, but I made the mistake of checking my phone during the workout. I had some work matters to take care of before the morning, so I found myself tied to my emails/text messages in between sets and just fell out of rhythm. I had been wearing my squat shoes for this entire block, but then today I forgot and just wore my chucks. Not an excuse, just a note to file.
Dips
20
20
20
Chins
10
10
10
10
10
Hip flexor update: Iāve been battling some hip intermittent hip flexor pain for a couple of years now. Not completely debilitating, but can be quite painful at times. I have attributed it to tightness due to having an office job that tends to have me sitting for many hours per day. Massages and some banded hamstring work have seemed to provide me with a little bit of relief but after watching this video and doing some of the tests within, it appears that weakness may be the cause of the pain rather than tightness.
I have great difficulty raising my left knee higher than my hip joint without assisting with my hands, while my right knee I can raise up much higher with less difficulty. I am going to work on some āknee liftsā above parallel in hopes to help strengthen the hip flexor. I believe I saw @flappinit mention some hip flexor raises in his log. If it was you, would you mind sharing a photo/video of the movement youāve had success with? I would love to put this nagging pain behind me!
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Yeah dude.
Iāve been using a kettlebell. I started with just sets of 30, bodyweight, each leg, though. I just hook my toes through a kettlebell - helps to wear chucks or vans and really push the KB on there. I know you have a home gym, and thereās got to be a million ways to hook a 5/10# plate around your ankle, which honestly is better becuase I have to stay in dorsiflexion to lift the weight and if I could just relax my foot, I could focus completely on the hip flexor. This video is where I got the standard of 10% of your bodyweight for 20 reps.
The sitting hurts, but as I talked about in my log, itās just as much the sitting combined with using your legs to push all the time - squats and deadlifts - and never doing the opposite of that. It always seemed to eventually loosen up and go away during squats, but damn would it come back with a vengeance later/the next day.
(the guy talks a LOT, youāll see it in the first minute or so if you donāt wanna watch it all. Heās got good stuff but he never shuts up)
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Ever do those hip raises? My hips continue to feel better and better each day. It occurred to me that using a band looped through itself around your ankle and anchoring it behind you to the bottom of your squat rack or a heavy DB would work really well.
Just curious to see if someone else will get the same relief Iāve had after a month of this, or if mine was just an outlier.
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Yes, I didnāt want to say anything because I thought there was no way they could have worked after just 3-4 days of doing them, but my hip feels fine.
Honestly, Iāve only done a few sets of 5reps of 5s holds at the top each day. By the end of the 5th rep I can barely hold it and my knees starts dropping, so I know that Iām at least exhausting the muscles.
Iām going to keep doing them for awhile to build them up a bit. It will still be a bit before adding any resistance to the movement, but an easy addition if it does help. Fingers crossed this is the answer. The true test will be when I move back to pulling sumo, that is what seems to flare up my hips the most.
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Yeah - obviously itāll take some time, but with how strong you are, itās obviously a glaring weakness if youāre fatiguing like that. Keep me posted.
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It sure is! I appreciate the link and the follow up.
04/10/2021
5/3/1 BBB Beefcake
Press (+X = push press reps after exhausted strict press reps)
135 x 5
165 x 5
185 x 5
205 x 5
165 x 10
165 x 10
165 x 8+2
165 x 6+4
165 x 7+3
Whewee, those were tough. Press doesnāt often exhaust me like this workout did.
Planks
60s
60s
60s
Chest Supported Rows
120 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10
Split Squats
10
10
10
Axle Curls (25lbs)
100
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04/11/2021
Final day of BBB Beefcake, and saved the most difficult workout for lastā¦
I admittedly had my head in my hands leaning over the table 15mins before this workout in fear of the upcoming deadlifts. Here we go!
5/3/1 BBB Beefcake W6D4
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 5
390 x 5
440 x 5
495 x 5
390 x 10
390 x 10
390 x 10
390 x 10
390 x 10 ā blew a strap on rep 7 and just continued to pull as the bar rolled further and further out of my right hand.
Ok, this was not as brutal as I feared it would be. Still hard work, but no grinders, and not completely destroyed. Iāll take that as both a strength and conditioning win.
Dips
20
20
20
20
Band Pullaparts
35
35
35
35
Now it is time to move into Building the Monolith. This week is supposed to be a deload week, but we will see.
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Just a couple of lifting observations that I thought Iād make note of here.
-
A couple of days ago I went to pick up a chicken coop. We were going to be picking it up and loading it onto a trailer. The plan was to have 8 people there for the lift, but only 4 showed up. The 3 other people attempted to push/lift the coop to get an idea of how heavy it was and decided we needed the tractor to lift one end and back the trailer under it. I decided to try, and shoulder checked the coop to knock it far enough off the blocks that it was resting on to give me a few inches to grip under one corner of the coop. Then I squatted deep, grabbed the coop and lifted the entire side off the ground, tipping it ready for the trailer to be back underneath. Once the others saw this, the 4 of us were about to move/lift the coop around without too much issue (it was heavy but manageable). Ok, finally the point of the story - this isnāt just me bragging: I noticed that it wasnāt only the strength gained from lifting weights that had given me the advantage (as the other men could also lift the coop, once they saw that it could be done), but the instinctive āprotective mechanismā (?) is turned down a lot lower in lifters. We have practiced pushing our body past the limits we thought capable. I think this is a big part of the success of Starting Strength for beginner lifters, learning how to strain and this is why programs like Deep Water, BtM, etc are effective; āgetting comfortable being uncomfortableā. Just a little random ramble for the log.
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My ability to push high rep deadlifts is increased greatly with straps. The last two weeks for deadlift BBB sets I have used straps and they have felt the easiest of all 6 weeks of this past cycle of BBB. I do not feel like grip is limiting, but the ability to just double overhand the bar and pull without worrying about grip has made the high reppers (5+reps) much more manageable. Iām sure Iām getting a little more efficient at them too, but the difference between straps and no straps was noticeable.
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Some brief work before bed last night.
OH Triceps Extensions with Red Mini Band
50
50
BB Wrist Curls - forearms on bench
35
20
20
BB Reverse Wrist Curls
15
13
10
Hip Flexor Raises
5
5
Lateral Raises
30lbs x 10
30lbs x 10
30lbs x 10
5/3/1 Building the Monolith (BtM) Week 1 Day 1
SUPERSET
Squats
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 5
390 x 5
440 x 5
440 x 5
440 x 5
440 x 5
440 x 5
Chinups
10 x 10
Press
45 x 10
135 x 5
160 x 5
180 x 5
205 x 7
Dips
20
20
20
20
20
Facepulls
50
50
Time: 1hr 5mins
A really good session. Top sets of squats were very difficult, but I still didnāt find 5x5 to be nearly as brutal as 5x10 (from BBB). Chinups were mostly done in between sets, but finished the last few sets of 10 while I unloaded the bar and prepared the bar for pressing. It is an annoyingly large number of chinups to complete in a workoutā¦coming from someone who dislikes the movement. Press wasnāt bad, nothing much to comment on here. Chest/shoulders/triceps felt fairly fatigued coming into the dips which made the 100reps take a little longer than I thought it would have.
Over the past 6 weeks of running BBB Beefcake, Iāve felt like Iāve been putting a lot more effort into training, and been fairly consistent with my diet. Strength gains have been displayed already, but I just wasnāt seeing much in the mirror. I believe that is changing. Iām starting to notice myself looking a little bit leaner while hovering between 4-6lbs heavier than when I began the program. My wife was laying with her head on my chest and made the comment āyouāre not as comfortable as you used to beā - not necessarily aimed as a compliment, but I took it as one!
Iām excited for this next block of training with BtM. I am continuing my TM advancement of 10lbs on lower lifts and 5lbs on upper lifts from the BBB Beefcake program, so we will see if I can complete the work as prescribed. These widowmaker sets are going to be interesting.
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Great work dude. Monster effort. Your press programing is interesting here. Youāre going for PR sets on the topset and skipping the FSL set?
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Thanks for pointing that out. I had no intention on changing the program, that was just a product of me misreading the prescribed sets, oops. Those 5x5 squat sets did take a lot out of me, including my reading comprehension, haha.
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It does that for sure, haha. The very first time I ran the program, after day 1 I spent about 15 minutes in the shower staring at my feet and wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into. It was the first program to ever make me want to quit. Deep Water would later go on to make me feel that way every week, haha.
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