Front Squat Holds - Zombie Grip
135 x 30s
185 x 30s
225 x 30s
275 x 30
275 x 20 x 4
Went with the zombie grip here after @oldbeancam brought it up. This wasn’t noticeably harder than holding with straps as I had done in my previous workouts. Still a great variation regardless.
Back Squat All sets belted, and going deeep
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
275 x 3
345 x 2 x 10 (10min EMOM doubles)
Reverse Lunges SS/ RDL
145 x 12/12, 12/12, 12/12
Hanging Leg Raises SS/ Back Extension Ab Halos (Halos pulled from Alpha’s Youtube vid)
15/8, 10/8, 10/8
I do these every day before squatting. I do 3 sets for 30 seconds with 315 for front squats and 405 for back squats. My body is then PRIMED to squat. The “heavy” weights I use don’t really feel heavy on my back/front after that. Maybe it’s just psychological though lol.
That’s some big boy weight you’re walking out in a front rack!
I do like the movement, and like you said, it does feel like a great primer.
07/18/2017
So I decided to go outside and play around with some implements. First nice, sunny day we have had in awhile and I’m dead tired as I was at a wedding last night and there was an all-you-can-eat/drink, pizza/beer bar that I took full advantage of. Needless to say, I was a little sluggish at work today and didn’t feel like under-performing in the gym.
It’s tougher to gauge a shitty day when you’re tossing around awkward objects that you don’t play with that often.
Trampoline
~5mins
Medley - 3 Rounds
550lb tire flip x 4
155lb Fire Hydrant Carry x 10 yards
145lb Stone to Shoulder Carry x 20 yards
Then amidst the dying, I figured this was a good chance for me to finally drill holes in all of these tires I have at the back of my property. Currently they are just holding water and creating a breeding ground for snakes and mosquitoes. There was a dead mouse in the one tire, so this was necessary.
I had previously drilled holes with just a drill bit, but the small holes get so easily clogged with debris so I used a hole saw blade and cut a couple 1 1/2" holes in each of the tires keep water from accumulating.
There was a bunch more tire flipping and a few more atlas stone picks, but nothing crazy. Then I jumped on the trampoline for another few mins.
Now that you’ve started @brady888 's programming, do you have specific goals in mind now that you’ve seen what it is about? (I may have missed it, glossed over it, or simply blacked it out.)
Thanks for popping in with the question Desposito. Things haven’t changed that much from my original training goals (get stronger and continue ‘looking like I lift’), just some of the movements and set/rep schemes are different than 5/3/1.
We’re still focusing on strength movements, but also adding things like single-leg work and handstands to the mix to keep the variety. And he has me actually making use out of a lot of my equipment that was collecting dust like my axle, log, and SSB.
I am, however, planning a little 4-week cut starting next Friday (with already 2 planned cheat days within it - open bar wedding and a drunken fishing derby…man I love summer) as I’ll be taking a week off work to go to the cottage. Wouldn’t mind being 4-5lbs of fat lighter at that point.
I went from ~203lbs to ~207.5lbs in the past 2 months after the challenge finished, so we will see if any of that happened to be muscle…beer-and-pizza-induced-gainz.
I love how physique drives us. It sounds like you’ll go into this looking like the statue of David and come out of it all puffy and round with no ab definition lol
I do this to myself fairly regularly. I don’t plan it; I just have some good streaks where I eat clean and look good and then destroy it with things like a hot dog bar and keg pool party!
I forgot to mention that this morning marked the first morning of YOGA!
I picked the idea up from @kleinhound’s log and downloaded the “Down Dog” yoga app that runs you through different sessions. My wife was interested as well, so this morning we both went through just a little 10 minute beginner session.
It felt great, and boy did it ever exemplify how tight my friggin’ hips are. Wow. No wonder I have lower back pain. The plan is to do 10-15min in the morning 5-7 days/week. I’m sure as we get better and get used to it we might up these times a bit, but for now I think it should help with mobility and just getting going in the mornings.
I’ve been slacking-off a bit, but for a while every morning upon waking I ran though the sun salutation while doing BOX breathing. It’s so invigorating.
SUPERSET Log Clean (Once) and Press
65 x 5
95 x 3
155 x 3
185 x 3 (all strict up until this set)
185 x 3 x 2 (push press)
185 x 6 (AMRAP, push press)
So I meant to stay 1 rep short of failure on these…but did not. The last one was a grind and I tweaked my upper back (near my left shoulder blade). Hurts in inhale…I’m an idiot.
(luckily I’m late on this write up and spoiler alert my back feels better already)
Clean Grip High Pull
45 x 10
95 x 8
135 x 10
165 x 8
185 x 8 x 3
SSB Squat
This is the point when my wife notifies me that we need to leave in 10 mins to go to a wedding…hmmm.
Ok how can we condense my squats but still make them suck?
135lbs x 50reps
All one set, obviously breathing squats, but bar was never racked. This sucked. I had the number 50 going into this set but at around 25 I tried to convince myself 30 was enough…then ok let’s grind 40…oh shit we’re this close, let’s take it to 50…I think I was sweating through the entire wedding thanks to this stupid set.
July 24, 2017
#Day 1 - Lower
Jumps Bar Hangs
Front Squat Holds OMG BEST THANG EVAAA @Yogi1
135 x 30s
185 x 30s
225 x 30s
275 x 30s
315 x 20s x 3 ← Admittedly, these were tougher than one would expect. I haven’t tested my front squat 1RM in some time, but would estimate it to be in the 365lb area.
Back Squat
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 3
345 x 3 x 8 (E1.5MOM)
Ab Wheel
15, 15, 15
Woke up this morning at 206.6lbs and looking a little tighter than I recently have. I’ve been hovering in the 207.5lb area for awhile now. So we will see how quickly some fat drops off being a little more restrictive on what I’m eating.
I’m currently not doing anything but every day that I “try to recover/heal” and don’t feel any better makes me want to say “F it” and start squatting again. If/when I do, I might do something similar to this.
It’s called the Two Plate Special and I got it from Steve Shaw when he was writing for Muscle & Strength. His original plan was for bench but it can be expanded to other stuff. I’ll probably start with:
3 x 5
3 x 10
1 x 20 or AMRAP (whichever comes first)
I’ll start with 135 lbs (hence the two plate special)
All sets are done in that order with the same weight. If you hit your goal of 20 reps then you add weight the following week. I was using this approach on bench the last time I hit 300 lbs. I didn’t expect to match my lifetime best after doing lower weight and AMRAP sets but it seemed to work out. My best set on squats was 235 x 20 which is supposed to be close to 390 lbs but I’ve never made that conversion in real life.
After 235 x 20 I had to grab the rack as I nearly blacked out. In the following days every fiber of my quads/hams/and all the other little muscles between the pelvis and knees were sore. It was a great feeling (after the fact).
Band Pullaparts Handstands (against wall) ← these are starting to feel a bit more natural, which is cool. A lot less pressure against the wall, and I’m able to move my feet off the wall for a few seconds before either slamming back into the wall or flopping my feet to the floor. Looking forward to progressing with these.
Landmine Multi-Grip Rows (widest grip)
90 x 15
135 x 15
160 x 15
185 x 15
160 x 10
135 x 10
90 x 15
Bench Press
135 x 10
185 x 5
205 x 5
225 x 5 ← 3s negative on this set only
245 x 5
275 x 3
295 x 2
315 x 5 ← Almost certain this is a rep PR, so YAY!
225 x 12