Oh man, especially following some of the previous chin-up torture I put myself through.
I am sure I could not have reached the 100rep mark with a legit axle. I had to fight my elbows hard to keep them close to my side, they wanted to flare out to employ some assistance from other muscle groups for support!
Thanks for stopping in Pwn, I’ve been really enjoying your log. You’ve been unknowingly inspiring me to lean down and eat more meat. I finally smoked my first brisket (two more in the freezer - just waiting for smoke), and am keeping my eyes open for a George Foreman grill (somehow we lost a couple of kitchen boxes in the process of moving a few years ago - I had two of them before our move!).
This took a little longer to smoke than expected. Only ~5-6lbs (purchased a ~16lb brisket and cut it into thirds). Put it on the smoker ~ 8am @ 225 degrees and brought it up to 160 degrees internal temp, then wrapped it in butcher paper, and finished it up to ~197 degrees before taking it off around 10:30pm. Seasoned with some yellow mustard and Chicken and Rib seasoning from Costco. It was DELICIOUS, even my wife really enjoyed it who isn’t a huge fan of meat in general.
July 21, 2023 Think Big W3D3 Bench - slight incline
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
275 x 3
315 x 1
335 x 1 - I don’t think I had 340lbs in me today, this was very close to max effort
315 x 1
275 x 3
225 x 8
DB Bench
100 x 6
100 x 6
100 x 6
Lying Chest Flys
50 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 10
Meadows Dips - reverse shrug type movement on the dips bars
10
10
10
10
Whew, huge chest pump.
Grenade Ball Chain Triceps Extension on Incline Bench
3 chains per hand x 10, 10, 10
So, I basically covered the description with the long exercise name. But I was laying back on a slightly inclined bench. I had one of those grenade ball grips in each hand, with 3 lengths of chain on each. Fully extended, the chains were completely off the floor. It was a good stimulus, they could make it back for an appearance.
July 22, 2023
So I’ve been getting the itch to try adding in some running to my overall fitness regimen.
Plugged in my Fitbit watch yesterday, and a top recommended app was C25k (Couch to 5km). A targeted 8 week program to hopefully allow me to run a 5k. This may not sound like much to many people reading this, but this will be the longest distance I’ve run since high school. Progress is progress!
Couch to 5k - Day 1
8 intervals of:
Walk 1m30s
Slow Run 1min
This was day 1, so it was a nice slow pace. Calves had me worried on the second interval but they held it together for the remaining run. Right hip flexor was getting tight towards the end. I think it’s clear that this work will be good for me!
Ok you called my bluff. It felt good to get outside for some sunshine and fresh air before gluing myself to a computer screen for the next 8hrs. The running part kinda sucked, lol.
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July 25, 2023 GIANT SET - 3 Rounds of: 1. Chinups, various grip/reps/tempo 2. Seated 1-Arm Row against blue heavy band 3. 4-Way Neck 4. Standing Tib Raises
Poundstone Curls - 25b Axle
110reps
~2hrs later:
TBDL High Handle
225 x 5
315 x 5
365 x 5
405 x 5
455 x 5
495 x 5
Really did not feel like going back to do the main work, the reps felt forced, couldn’t really find “it”, so hit a top set and called it a day.
July 26, 2023
Run:
Week 1, Day 3 Protocol for C25K
8 rounds of:
1:30walk
1min slow run
Improving on distance with these runs despite keeping run/rest intervals constant. Increased difficulty begins next scheduled run.
August 2, 2023 A.M. Week 2 Day 1 - Couch to 5k
6 Rounds of:
1m30s run
2m walk
P.M.
I pulled a workout from Brian Alsruh’e Minimalist Program for tonight. I’m going to be travelling for the next 5-6 days, so I’ll wait until I return to dive into a specific program for the next few weeks.
Strength Giant Set
65lb KB Swing 30s
TBDL Low Handle 315 x 8, 365 x 6, 405 x 4, 455 x 2, 365 x 6, 365 x 6
1min plank
Assistance Finisher
2 Round:
80lbs DBs x 5 Slow RDLs
50lbs x 25 Goblet Squats
20lbs x 6 Reverse Hypers
I’ve returned from a brief family trip to see my mother-in-law’s family. I met several family members for the first time (some traveling from as far as London, England). My youngest wasn’t a huge fan of the plane rides, but fortunately, our flights were not very long.
Playing in the pool, and one hotel gym workout was the only exercise I snuck in while away.
My training focus has been starting to drift a little from pure strength (you may have noticed this with the few “runs” that I’ve sprinkled into my training). I’m looking to make my training a little more well-rounded and try to improve some weak links that I have.
I’ve been listening to podcasts with hosts/guests such as Andrew Huberman, Tim Ferris, Peter Attia, Jeff Cavaliere, and Andy Galpin. A lot of repeated information regarding the importance of using different training modalities in one’s program (strength, hypertrophy, HIT, endurance, cardio, unilateral, etc.) to support physical health. A lot of this makes sense as to why I have an achy knee or extremely tight hips when I’m simply devoting all my “fitness time” to strength focus and not putting enough time into building in some of those other pieces for support. Then you can look at someone successful in the iron game, like @T3hPwnisher, and see the “Chaos” he brings to his training. This provides a much more well-rounded training stimulus than I achieve with my typical training and is consistent with a lot of information I’ve heard from the podcast folks listed above. They even mentioned how effective “exercise snacks” can be, not referring to food, but to daily work that takes a short amount of time, but adds up cumulatively through the week such as body weight squats, pushups, band pull-aparts, etc.
I stumbled on a program by Jason Brown on Elite FTS called “Conjugate for the Everyday Athlete” and it seems to tick a lot of the boxes I was looking for. I’m going to go ahead and run it for the next month or so, with some slight modifications as needed.
Excited to see how this goes. I always think of conjugate as overly complicated for my simple brain. As someone who trains in a similar fashion to you, it will be great to hear how you find it.
Aug 10, 2023 Conjugate for the Everyday Athlete W1D1 Box Front Squat - wave loading 6/4/2
135 x 6
185 x 4
225 x 2
185 x 6
225 x 4
275 x 2
135 x 10
Week 1 I will be keeping the weights on the light side to ease into the new program after a break and use the next week or two to really dial in the weights.
I think the title of the program isn’t necessarily a great descriptor. Jason has changed a LOT from what I would consider the classic Conjugate Method (Westside). For one, he does not schedule the max effort work on a weekly basis, but more for testing every 12-16 weeks.
Aug 11, 2023 Conjugate for the Everyday Athlete W1D2 Turkish Getups
20lbs x 5/side
25lbs x 5/side
30lbs x 5/side
EMOM 8mins
20s AirDyne Bike
10 x 53lb KB Swings
This worked out to ~45s of work and 15s rest as I climbed back onto the AirDyne. Total of 76cals burned on the AirDyne (I’m just going to gauge this as a measurement of progress over the next few weeks).
Aug 12, 2023 Conjugate for the Everyday Athlete W1D3 Neutral Grip Pullups - close handles
BW x 6
+10lbs x 4
+20lbs x 2
+10lbs x 6
+20lbs x 4
+30lbs x 4
Floor Press - using axle
115 x 12
165 x 12
185 x 12
195 x 12.
185 x 12
GIANT SET Seal Rows
165 x 8
165 x 8
165 x 8
OH Tricep Extentions - single DB
50lbs x 15
60 x 10
60 x 10
