Mattjp's Training Log

Training Training Logs
281

Thursday, 19 July

Back up to 210.2 today. Assume it’s because I wound up having to grab a wrap from the shop by work so I had 200ish grams of carbs yesterday.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates

Bench Press
Forgot my notes about what my 5/3/1 TM and stuff was so just did 3x5
Three rounds of: 5x60kg

Assistance
Yates Rows: 3x5 @ 60kg
DB lunges: 3x5 each leg w/15kg DBs

Conditioning
EMOM: 100ft bag carry (4x25ft)
Heaviest bag was 25kg so while I was pretty out of breath by round eight or so, it wasn’t overly taxing. Going to bring a couple of belts and I can tie together the 25kg with the lighter bags for next time.

Diet

Lunch
Chicken salad

PM snack
Chicken salad again

Dinner
Beef-stuffed peppers & veg

Evening
Shake

282

Friday, 20 July

Back down to 209.2 today.

I’m kind of in the middle of nothing, programming-wise, so I thought I’d take a run at the deadlift day of the program I got from Brian Alsruhe/Alpha to see how long it would take me and how awful it is.

Surprised myself by being able to actually do the full workout and it not taking two hours. Definitely awful and not fun, but doable at least. It was 1h15m from the end of my warmup until the end of the day, which is decent; I was definitely taking longer than 90s between giant sets so someone with better conditioning (aka me after this) could easily do this in less than 60m.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Bear Complex (8 reps per exercise)

Strongman Conditioning
EMOM for 10m:
3x burpees
100ft loaded carry (4x25ft)

Main Giant Set
10x deadlifts @ 90kg
10x arm-supported leg raises
8x KB snatches each hand @ 8kg

8x deadlifts @ 105kg
10x arm-supported leg raises
8x KB snatches each hand @ 8kg

8x deadlifts @ 120kg
10x arm-supported leg raises
8x KB snatches each hand @ 8kg
On a normal 5/3/1 day I’d have wanted 10 at this weight so to get eight while already tired was pretty OK with me.

Assistance Giant Set
Three rounds:
16x above-the-knee deadlifts @ 100kg
14x Kroc rows @ 25kg
10x situps

Conditioning
15 rounds:
3x squat cleans, 20s rest
Did about five or six. Conditioning finishers in this program are described as “optional” but I intend to do them. However, I’ve never done squat cleans before and they didn’t feel right. I’m pretty sure I could have finished this if I knew what I was doing, haha.

All in all I can see this being a fucking horrible 12 weeks when I start running it properly.

Diet

Pre-workout
Jam sandwich in lieu of having eggs or cereal in the house

Post-workout
Shake

Lunch
Chicken and salad

PM snack
Chicken and salad

Dinner
Fishcakes with hollandaise and veg

2 Likes
283

Monday, 23 July

Hit 210.2 today, but had a pretty good-sized cheat meal at a Thai restaurant on Saturday night so I expect it to drop off. I was 208.2 on Saturday morning, for reference.

Had a pretty bad day of lifting today, but it could have been worse. Running a deficit and ate especially poorly yesterday (low cals, low protein) so it shouldn’t be a major surprise.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Glute drills

Deadlifts
1x60kg
5x110kg
3x125kg
3x140kg :frowning:
I was aiming for 5-6 but my legs just gave out here. This is equal to my three-rep PR, but I really thought I had more in me so pretty disappointing. Good excuse to look at experimenting with my deadlift setup for the next cycle.

Assistance
20/15/10 DB rows @ 35kg
45/35/30s plank @ 15kg
20x35 and a 45s weighted plank are both PRs. Who cares about compound lifts when you can set weighted plank PRs, right?

Conditioning
8/6/4/2 reps: KB swings/BW manmakers/KB snatches/box jumps
Done just under 10m. Hated it. Will try adding sets of 10 to kick off next time.

Diet

Lunch
Chicken, egg & salad

PM snack
Chicken & salad

Dinner
Beef ribs, corn cob & green beans

Evening
Shake

Totals
2,027kcal
204g protein

284

Tuesday, 24 July

Down to 208.8lbs this morning but that was pretty much the high point of the day. Terrible lifting day today; everything felt heavy. I suppose running a 800-1,000kcal deficit and doing conditioning will do that to do.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates

Press
5x40kg
3x45kg
1x50kg

Assistance
8x chin-ups, 6x chin-ups, 3x weighted chin-ups @ 5kg
3x5 DB lunges each leg w/2x 17.5kg dumbbells

Conditioning
30s KB snatches (left)
30s hollow rocks
30s KB snatches (right)
30s rest
Made it just about into the fourth round before I had to tap out. Hollow rocks are hard!

Diet

Lunch
Chicken, salad & egg

PM snack
Chicken breast salad w/50g peanuts

Dinner
Chicken teryaki things, chilli paneer & veg

Evening
Shake

Totals
Approx. 2,000kcal
Approx. 200g protein

285

Wednesday, 25 July

Down to 207.6 today.

No workout owing to driving lesson.

Diet

AM snack
Peanuts & protein bar

Lunch
Chicken, egg & salad

PM snack
Chicken & cheese

Dinner
Turkey salad

Evening
Shake

Totals
Approx. 2,151kcal
Approx. 234g protein

286

Thursday, 26 July

Another pretty meh day, kicked off with a weigh-in at 207.9.

Today I did a fairly half-assed workout tbh; I wanted to work up to a max on squats but it didn’t pan out.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Glute drills

Squats
8x20kg
5x40kg
5x62.5kg
3x77.5kg
2x92.5kg
1x105kg
1x112.5kg
The 105 felt super-easy and I was pretty confident here, but this felt extremely high so I set up my phone to film another.
1x112.5kg again
A little above parallel. I’m not competing so whatever but I didn’t see the point in working up weights beyond this.
3x100kg
5x80kg (paused)

Good Mornings
5x20kg
5x30kg
5x40kg
5x50kg
3x60kg

Conditioning
Bring Sally Up squats @ 40kg
Practically impossible. Switched to a 16kg KB to do Goblet Squats and that was also practically impossible.

Diet

Lunch
Cod fillet & salad

PM snack
Chicken, cheese & nuts

Dinner
Some kind of beef and vegetable concoction.

Evening
2 scoops Gold Standard

Totals
Unsure, but sub-2,000kcal and <50g carbs I’d say. I wonder why my workouts have been so bad recently…

August Training Plan

After this weekend I’m going to spend the three weeks before my holiday running through the first wave of Alpha’s program. All three waves are similar in structure and exercise selection so once I do the first three weeks I’ll know how I’m doing all nine.

Also I really want to drop this extra 7lbs and begin putting on good weight from a place of only chubbiness rather than fatness.

I’ll need to a) know what kind of weights are reasonable for new exercises I’ve never done before e.g. Good Mornings and b) how to plan and execute the giant sets in a small gym. For example I know that a giant set of deadlifts/leg raises/KB snatches involves a trip upstairs between exercises.

Going to err on the lighter side for the weights and see how the AMRAPs pan out, then use that to determine how to proceed when I run the program properly.

The program uses a % of true 1RM rather than TM. My current 1RMs or approx 1RMs are 125/80/160/55 so I’m going to knock off 5-10% and run the first three weeks that way (110/75/150/50) and see how it goes. If a 6+ set results in six grinders I’ll know to keep it there; if a 6+ set results in 15 reps then I’ll know it’s on the low side.

Perversely looking forward to it.

1 Like
287

Monday, 30 July

I was meant to hit the gym today but my parents stayed over this weekend and their flight was cancelled last night so they were here this morning and we had to sort stuff out before I went to work.

I was considering doing T/W/T/F rather than M/T/T/F this week anyway given that I need some recovery from a very late night with my dad. I’m actually generally alright hangover-wise, but yesterday he woke up at 5.30pm, had a drink of water and immediately threw up. Fun times.

Down to 206.6 today. May have lost a bit of water weight but still moving in the right direction.

Diet

Lunch
Chicken, salad and egg

PM snack
Chicken and peanuts

Dinner
TBD but likely some sort of chicken

Evening
Shake

1 Like
288

LOL Atta Boy!!! He should have gone for the hair of the dog.

1 Like
289

We drank the whole dog, I think. A bottle of Jameson was opened and drunk at 3am.

290

Tuesday, 31 July

As expected, a bit of a spike back up to 208.6 today as I got some water weight back. Definitely did minimal damage on what was effectively a cheat weekend, though, as my parents are happy to keep things quite low-carb which naturally limits intake… well, until you start drinking.

So today was the first run-through of my @Alpha program, though I have done this particular day before just to see if I could. Once I complete the first wave I’ll know how to run the giant sets in my gym. Then, it’s holiday time before coming back and doing the full 12 weeks.

Anyway the next three weeks will be fucking awful. I wanted to puke in the shower.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Bear Complex (8 reps per exercise)

Strongman Conditioning
EMOM for 10m:
3x burpees
100ft loaded carry (4x25ft)

Main Giant Set
10x deadlifts @ 90kg
10x arm-supported leg raises
8x KB snatches each hand @ 8kg

8x deadlifts @ 105kg
10x arm-supported leg raises
8x KB snatches each hand @ 8kg

9x deadlifts @ 120kg
10x arm-supported leg raises
8x KB snatches each hand @ 8kg
Still wanted 10. In retrospect think I could have ground one out. Regrets. This was a 6+ set so I think a 150kg 1RM for deadlifts makes sense.

Assistance Giant Sets
Three rounds:
16x above-the-knee deadlifts @ 100kg/110kg/115kg
14x Kroc rows @ 27.5kg/30kg/32.5kg
10x situps w/5kg plate

Conditioning
15 rounds:
3x squat cleans, 20s rest
Did this with a power bag, which was probably on the light side because this wasn’t overly vom-inducing.

Diet

Pre-workout
2 fried eggs, oats w/jam

Post-workout
Beef jerky, mixed nuts, protein bar

Lunch
Chicken, egg and salad

PM snack
Chicken and peanuts

Dinner
Chicken (obv) and mixed veg

Totals
Approx. 2,200kcal
Approx. 200g protein

291

Wednesday, 1 August

Back down to 207.2lbs today. Have a wedding this weekend which doesn’t bode well for the weight loss but we’ll see. I’m 13-15lbs lighter than I was at the start of March and mostly a little stronger so it’s not been an unproductive few months, anyway.

Today’s training was a hell of a lot easier than yesterday’s, probably because it didn’t involve deadlifts. Tomorrow is full of squats and lunges though so already dreading that.

Workout

Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates

Main Giant Set
8x chinups
8x kneeling strict press @ 32.5kg
8x lying wipers (each side)
Programming called for weighted pullups, but given that 8x BW chins is pretty much my max that seemed optimistic! Wipers felt fucked lol.

6x chinups
6x kneeling strict press @ 37.5kg
8x lying wipers (each side)

4x weighted chinups @ 5kg
7x kneeling strict press @ 42.5kg
8x lying wipers (each side)

Strongman
AMRAP in 60 seconds: DB clean and press @ 17.5kg
Right: 15x reps
Left: 14x reps

Assistance Giant Set
Four rounds, AMRAP each exercise in 30s w/30s rest after:
Z Press @ 30kg
Lat raises @ 5kg
Band facepulls
After the DB clean and presses this basically destroyed my shoulders. After the first round it just became an AMRAP, never mind the 30 seconds timer, because I wasn’t able to go that long.

Conditioning
This was meant to be AMRAP empty bar presses followed by 100ft bear/crab/gator walks for 3 rounds but the only space in the gym for this was taken up by a trainer and a client doing some shite, so I went home to do just the walks in the driveway but turns out that bear/crab walks on concrete really fucks up your hands. In retrospect I should have just swapped today’s metcon out with another day’s but I wasn’t thinking that clearly. Long story short I didn’t do any conditioning today because I am a terrible person but lesson learned for next time.

Diet

Preworkout
Ham, egg and cheese concoction

Postworkout
2 scoops Gold Standard

Lunch
Chicken, salad and egg

PM snack
Chicken and peanuts

Dinner
Hunter’s chicken w/mixed veg

Totals
Approx. 2,108kcal
Approx. 205g protein

1 Like
292

Thursday, 2 August

Felt terrible this morning but at least dropped to 205.4.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Glute drills

Main Giant Set
12x squats @ 60kg
12x standing weighted crunches
8x burpees

10x squats @ 72.5kg
12x standing weighted crunches
8x burpees

8x squats @ 85kg
12x standing weighted crunches
8x burpees
Had the strength to get way more, but not the energy/conditioning. Next time.

Assistance Giant Set
Three rounds:
12x good mornings @ 30/35/40kg
12x leg curls @ 31/36/38kg
10x walking lunges @ 25kg

Conditioning
Deck of cards conditioning set. Done for 10m and barely got through a hand of poker.

Diet

Pre-workout
Porridge & 2 fried eggs

Post-workout
2 scoops Gold Standard

Lunch
Chicken, salad and egg

PM snack
Chicken and peanuts

Dinner
TBD but meat and veg

293

Friday, 3 August

Down to 204.9 today. Out for dinner this evening and then off to a wedding tomorrow, though, so expecting a (hopefully short-term) spike next week. Let’s call it a refeed.

Workout

Warmup
100 pullaparts
50 dislocates
In a rush today, so skimped on this.

Main Giant Set
10x BB row @ 45kg
10x bench @ 45kg
10x lying leg raises*
8x plate halos

8x BB row @ 52.5kg
8x bench @ 52.5kg
10x lying leg raises
8x plate halos

6x BB row @ 60kg
9x bench @ 60kg
10x lying leg raises
8x plate halos

*Program calls for Dragon Flags but I’d say Brian is somewhat overestimating my core strength there! Perhaps in 16 weeks…

Assistance Giant Set
Four rounds:
15x hammer grip DB bench press
10x bench dips
20x tricep extensions
Pretty sure my tris are going to fall off.

Conditioning
10m EMOM: 5 burpees, fill rest of the time w/empty bar bench

Catching a flight in about 8 hours, then will pick up the log again on Tuesday.

294

Tuesday, 7 August

Didn’t weigh in this morning but I imagine I’m holding some water and whatnot.

Actually managed to get a weekend workout in at Laurence Shahlaei’s gym which was fun; I played around with a log and a yoke. They had their lifts written on the wall and there’s a lad there named “Fridge” so talk about nickname goals.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Glute drills

Main Giant Set
12x deadlifts @ 85kg
12x GHR situps
30s KB swings

10x deadlifts @ 100kg
12x GHR situps
30s KB swings

10x deadlifts @ 115kg
12x GHR situps
30s KB swings

Assistance Giant Set
AMRAP in 12 mins:
10x deficit deadlifts
10x hyperextensions
10x Yates rows

Conditioning
1 mile odd object carry
Still had the suitcase packed from last night so used that.

Diet

Have to go off for work all day so no idea what’ll happen here.

1 Like
295

Thursday, 9 August

Up to 208.8 today which is pretty sad. On the other hand, I may not be great at fat loss but at least I’m not getting much stronger and I still look like shit…

Was basically forced to eat shit or starve at the work offsite thing over the past two days, so while in retrospect the starve option was the better one I’m probably bloated/watery and should drop a couple of pounds quite easily tomorrow and Saturday.

Anyway, back to the training. Today was basically “shoulder stability day” it seems.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates

Main Giant Set
10x chinups*
10x seated press @ 30kg
6x BW halos (each way)
5x Turkish getups (each side)**

***Rest-paused this with 8 then 2.
**Definitely butchered these. Think I might buy a light KB and practice them because the value of the movement is pretty clear.

8x chinups
8x seated press @ 35kg
6x BW halos (each way)
5x Turkish getups (each side)

6x chinups
9x seated press @ 40kg
6x BW halos (each way)
5x Turkish getups (each side)

Assistance Giant Set
Four rounds of:
100ft waiter walk (left)
10 pushups
100ft waiter walk (right)
10 pushups
Shoulders were so knackered I had to switch to incline pushups then the chest press machine. Bit pathetic.

Conditioning
10/8/6/4/2 rounds of:
KB swings (each hand)
BW manmakers (more like boymakers at this point)
KB snatches (each hand)
Jumps

Diet

Pre-workout
Eggs and porridge

Post-workout
2 scoops Gold Standard

Lunch
Chicken salad

PM snack
Chicken & peanuts

Dinner
Some sort of keto chicken and broccoli thing

Totals
TBD but low carb and low cal no doubt.

1 Like
296

Friday, 10 August

Down to 207.2 today.

This workout was the worst one yet. First one to have killed me. That being said, there is meant to be a rest day between Day 2 and Day 3, but scheduling meant I couldn’t fit it in.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Glute drills

Main Giant Set
8x burpees
8x squats @ 70kg
30s hollow rocks

8x burpees
6x squats @ 82.5kg
30s hollow rocks

8x burpees
5x squats @ 95kg
30s hollow rocks
Have hit this for like 8-10 reps before but had to tap out here today. It’s super-hard to do burpees with 50lbs of fat on you and it’s super-hard to squat when you’re sucking wind from burpees. I suppose that’s the point.

Also, hollow rocks are AWFUL.

Assistance Giant Set
Four rounds of:
8x Bulgarian split squats (each leg)
12x DB lunges (each leg)
8x DB romanian deadlifts
This might actually be the worst thing I have ever done in my life. Midway through the third round of lunges I was basically just falling over instead of lunging.

Conditioning
Like fuck I could do this after that awful AGS. Fortunately I had a driving lesson to attend and barely had time so the pre-built excuse saved me.

Diet

Think I need to start adding a few more good calories in here.

Pre-workout
2 eggs w/cheese & porridge

Post-workout
2 scoops Gold Standard, protein bar, nuts

Lunch
Chicken, salad, egg

PM snack
Chicken and mayo

Dinner
A whole mess of eggs and cheese

2 Likes
297

Saturday, 11 August

Same weight today. Pretty weak on the bench as well for whatever reason. Bit disappointed with it.

Glute DOMS from yesterday’s session is utterly outrageous today.

Workout

Warmup
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates

Main Giant Set
12x landmine rows each hand
12x bench press @ 40kg
8x Russian twists
30s BW lawmakers

10x landmine rows each hand
10x bench press @ 50kg
8x Russian twists
30s BW lawmakers

12x landmine rows each hand
8x bench press @ 60kg
8x Russian twists
30s BW lawmakers

Assistance Giant Set
Four rounds of:
12x DB rows each hand
8x close-grip bench press
8x DB floor press

Metcon
Pressup stair climb

298

Sunday, 12 August

One of my colleagues had her leaving dinner last night so I had a cheat-ish day going out for Thai food: ribs to start, big lamb curry for the main, some ice cream and Thai pancakes for dessert and three beers. However, I’d only eaten about 600kcal before that meal so I don’t feel too bad about it.

Up to 209.1 today but nice that my post-cheat bloat is under 15 stone these days.

Workout

Recovery
20m elliptical
Just in the gym for the sake of being in the gym. Going forward will do some grip training on my off days as well.

Diet

On the low side today to balance out last night. I did buy a load of steak just now which I have marinating in the fridge; going to swap out my usual afternoon chicken breast for some steak and veg to get a couple of hundred good extra calories in each day. This good-sized deficit paired with Brian’s programming has me a bit run down.

1 Like
299

Monday, 13 August

Weighed in at 208.8 today. Would like a little lower but we’ll see what happens this week. That being said I think I want muscle and strength more than I want abs right now.

Entering the third week of Wave 1 now, which means that by the end of the week I’ll have basically done all the workouts; each subsequent wave is mostly the same movements but with higher percentages.

It’s been fine enough hogging multiple bars/racks actually despite the size of the gym. Only got on someone’s nerves on one day I think, haha.

After my Vegas trip I’ll be running this wave again, hopefully hitting some rep PRs over this first run.

Had a terrible night’s sleep but today went surprisingly OK despite that.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Glute drills

Main Giant Set
8x good mornings @ 40kg
8x deadlifts @ 100kg
15x V sit-ups

8x good mornings @ 45kg
6x deadlifts @ 115kg
15x V sit-ups

8x good mornings @ 50kg
5x deadlifts @ 130kg
15x V sit-ups

Strongman Conditioning
50ft loaded carry (30kg)
Really need to figure out a way to make these heavier; this was essentially worthless. I’m thinking I’ll buy a couple of cheap canvas belts at TK Maxx or something so I can rope the 25kg and 20kg bag together.

Assistance Giant Set
Three rounds:
8x good mornings to pins @ 30/35/40kg
8x Romanian deadlifts @ 70/80/85kg
30s hyperextension hold w/5kg plate

Conditioning
Tabata: TRX rows/KB swing/hollow rocks/KB swing
Just the one round, but would like to work up to 12 mins total. Hollow rocks are still awful.

Diet

Swapped one chicken breast for some steak and veg while adding an extra egg to the pre-workout.

Preworkout
3 eggs & cheese, porridge

Postworkout
2 scoops Gold Standard

Lunch
Chicken salad w/egg

PM snack
Steak w/sprouts

Dinner
Garlic/chilli chicken w/tarker dahl

Totals
Approx. 2,600kcal
Approx. 220g protein

300

Tuesday, 14 August

208.5 today. Somewhat carbier-than-usual dinner last night may be responsible.

Wrote that after the gym yesterday, but changed my mind after seeing myself shirtless last night.

Workout

Warmup
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Flexible Five
Glute drills

Main Giant Set
12x inverted rows
12x Z presses @ 27.5kg
30s L-sit hold*
10x med ball throws

10x inverted rows
10x Z presses @ 32.5kg
30s L-sit hold
10x med ball throws

8x inverted rows
8x Z presses @ 37.5kg
30s L-sit hold
10x med ball throws

*Will change this to weighted planks as I don’t know what letter I was making but it definitely wasn’t an L!

Assistance Giant Set
Four rounds:
60s crucifix hold
8x bottom-up KB presses
15x external/internal rotations

Conditioning
AMRAP in 3m/90s/45s:
Burpees/KB thrusters

Diet

Pre-workout
3x eggs, porridge

Post-workout
2 scoops Gold Standard

Lunch
Chicken, egg, salad

PM snack
Steak & green beans

Dinner
Lamb kebabs & veg

Totals
Approx 2,218 kcal
Approx 197g protein

1 Like