Spent the afternoon yesterday dozing on the couch. Then went straight to bed. Seems to be what I needed because I feel a bunch closer to normal today. DL later today, staying home with the munchkin until the other half finishes work.
Personally when I am sick I take some time off.Although I feel like a bitch for missing workouts I’ve noticed that hard workouts impact my recovery a ton
So do I. The issue comes up when I’m not actually sick but not 100% either.
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Yeah, so no DL later today. Not sure what’s up, but I’m feeling tired AF again. Plan is now
Wednesday: DL, bench
Friday: squat
I’m guessing this whole lethargy is just from having last Friday where I simply didn’t eat (1400 calories in the day) and puked, then training Sunday when I probably shouldn’t have (felt like I do now but dragged myself in nonetheless).
TL;DR when I get a 12 hour gut upset, just because I can eat normally the next day doesn’t mean my system is ready to train. Or I’m soft. One of the two.
I’m considering having a refeed meal tonight to bring myself back to normal.
My logic runs thusly: I’m eating at a reasonably significant deficit, even though it’s maintenance for my LBM. So, it would make sense that replenishing whatever I lost on Friday (vomiting, fever, some dehydration, eating below even my BMR) will take longer than if I was eating more. A largeish refeed meal, especially now my gut feels normal when food hits it is probably going to aid this process, and certainly won’t affect any recomp progress I’ve made (so much the better if I still keep close to my fat target).
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It seems very sensible to me. If your recovery is being impaired by other factors (ie sickness) then it seems pretty logical to increase calories to try and compensate for that, and it’s not like one day in a surplus will harm your recomp
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Apparently I am now less able to pack away the platefuls like I used to. I tried to have a big dinner but at the end of it all I managed to get in was maybe 200 calories extra. Still feel better for it though, and I look a bit fuller.
Feeling vaguely off, but that’s probably because I slept like garbage. Started to feel a little better by the time work sets rolled around.
Today’s training
Agile 8
Deadlift
3 neutral grip pull-ups between first three warm-up sets. Chest to bar first two sets, then widened my grip and couldn’t go chest to bar but chin cleared bar automatically
3x396 lbs, under 6 RPE - first rep double overhand (just) then two and three hook grip
3x451 lbs, 6-7 RPE - hook grip first rep, then mixed because I’d knocked a chunk of my right thumb knuckle and the blood made hook grip slippery
3x506 lbs, 10 RPE
1x561 lbs, 10 RPE
Paused front squats
5x2x286 lbs
Fat Gripz BB shrugs
100 total reps: 25, 25, 20, 15, 15
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Stomach bugs linger. It’s like you’ll be fine, then eat, and feel sick again.
Smart on you for not pushing the workouts.
You’ll be back in no time.
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Yeah, I’m glad I waited till today. DL was harder than I’d have liked, but I didn’t have to leave anything out so I’ll take it.
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I’m jelly, you make your 10 rpe’s look smooth as butter.
I convulse all over the place 
Edit: at half the weight
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It’s because I don’t grind well at all, except maybe on squats. It’s odd, I’ve found I can often keep squatting WAY past the point of what I would normally think is safely possible.
I put them both down as 10 because I knew for sure I wouldn’t I’ve been able to complete another rep.
Decided to train today so I can rest tomorrow before squatting on Friday. Excited, because it’s bench and back to the bar. Quickly became disappointed.
Gut feeling off again today, but was fine yesterday. Just the usual sick feeling on eating or drinking.
Today’s training
Agile 8 plus shoulders
Bench press
Tried my Oly shoes and simpler setup. Definitely promising. Regardless of what happened, the new grip is also good.
25 pull-aparts with rotation between first three warm-up sets
5x181 lbs, under 6 RPE - so far, so good
5x214 lbs, 6 RPE - still OK, feeling my lats a ton
6x242 lbs, 10 RPE - failed the seventh. Angry. Still stuck on seven as a rep PR
Got stupid. Decided to see if it’s just reps I’m shit at today
1x269 lbs, 10 RPE - failed the second. Plain old upset by now
0x297 lbs - in case I needed it, proof that I’ve lost strength at least in the short term with this new setup
Very tempted to jack it in for the day. Had a small internal tantrum.
Calmed down
Dips, 50 total reps: 15, 10, 10, 15
This cheered me up a little.
Left shoulder feeling reasonable too. This cheered me up further
Kroc rows
25x100 lbs L+R
80 lbs to balance of 50 reps: 15, 10
Calf raises 121 lbsx100 total reps: 60, 40
This has not been the best training week. Got shit done, though, and that’s main thing.
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Glad the shoulder made it through that abuse LOL
You just need more time under the barbell, and you’ll crush it. Am surprised you went after a daily max though!
What’s this new BB bench grip you speak of?
My capacity for foolishness is quite high. I went in with very unrealistic expectations and came down to earth hard.
Pinkie a finger’s width inside the ring. Old grip was ring finger on the ring.
It makes me touch lower if I want to keep my wrist above my elbow, which also keeps me tucked. That’s a big part of why my shoulder likes it, that tuck means I’m really bending the bar and keeping my rotator cuff engaged.
That means (I think) I need to really focus on flaring not long after I come.off the chest. Just adjustments. If I hadn’t talked up how awesome it would be in my head I wouldn’t have gotten disappointed. The jury’s out on how much effect being almost 5 lbs lighter than when I last benched has had too.
I keep asking myself how goddamn long it’ll take for my bench to get to the 350 lbs mark.
TL;DR this is going to bug me until I bench next week.
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Here’s yesterday’s work/stupidity.
Watching it now I’m not being a little bitch I think I can see what happened when I went wrong: it looks like I flared too early, nothing else. I think that’s kind of encouraging. It suggests to me that my misses were were because for one reason or another I didn’t tuck long enough, and that my lost strength isn’t as catastrophic as I thought.
OK, so I’m still trying to make myself feel better. I’ll know more next week.
I don’t think your flare is too bad, it is definitely more pronounced the deeper into sets/the heavier the weight gets but not super problematic, imo.
Do you know how much you have lost off your chest circumference?
From what I understand, which is generally very little, is that weight loss generally impacts your bench the most due to poorer leverages.
Edit: Awesome log, I am a fan.
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You and I both.
I’m not sure the effect of bodyweight on bench is entirely linked to leverages. There was a CT article where he talked about it and from memory he talked about your shoulder area being where you lost size quickly with even water loss and that affected his bench. I’m guessing maybe that’s what happened to me.
Not really, no, but when it does happen seems to be when I fail. Just need to be more conscious of having to tuck, then flare and really get my lats good at holding that tuck.
No, not really. Nothing, probably, at least not in the last week or two.
Thanks!
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You really wanted to kill yourself didn’t you?
Still,110 kg x 6 is pretty strong
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That made me smile @stronkfak. I wanted eight! Also 140! I’m usually really good with being sensible, but occasionally I get stupid. Especially with bench and press because I don’t have the confidence I do with squat and DL.
Meh, 110x6 is piss weak as far as I’m concerned. With what I can squat and pull, I need to get to the mid 150s minimum. What really frustrates me is that I feel like there’s this one thing I’m missing for my bench to really start going up but I have no idea what it is.
I feel like maybe I need to bench more.
I was stuck at around 112.5 from March 2015, then I cleaned up my technique and started benching twice one week and four times the next. That took me to 125 in October 2015 and 135 by March 2016. Then I started 531, and I managed a TNG grind to 137.5 around May 2016. After that I started losing weight, also dropped out of my bench groove and I didn’t hit any new rep PRs until around September, and that was when I hit 137.5 with commands. The two things I changed in the month or so leading up was benching after military press and I got my groove back in. The week later I injured my left bicep and had to go to DB bench until now.
So, yeah, it looks like if I want my bench to move I need a buttload of volume. I don’t doubt my military press helps, but I seem naturally better at military so I’m really wondering if maybe I should relegate military to assistance and start devoting two days to benching.
It could run
Monday
5/3/1 sets with plus set
FSL military press 5x5-8
Thursday
5/3/1 sets
FSL 5x5-8
I’m really, REALLY reluctant to mess with any program, and 531 has been so effective for my other lifts. I’m not seeing a bunch of progress on bench at all though. I know bench grows slowly, and is dependent on bodyweight but I have to be honest, I’m not happy with how slowly it’s moving. If I’d been seeing rep PRs keep coming, that would have been plenty even if my max didn’t go up because I’d know it’d be on the way. But falling short of rep PRs I set over six months ago and not seeing a rising max is a hard pill to swallow. I think I’ve hit three rep PRs in the last three months on bench.
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