Axle Deadlift (3" axle)
2x8x80kg (180lbs)
8x100kg (225lbs)
5x120kg (250lbs)
3x140kg (315lbs)
2x150kg (340lbs)
0x160kg (365lbs) - my straps weren’t big enough for this so it was a bit of a struggle. Pretty sure I had the strength for that 160kg but the straps kept slipping. Still though, tough going - basically a 2" deficit pull on a bar you can’t grip.
SSB Squat to Box
3x3x25kg (55lbs) + two red bands per side
5x3x45kg (100lbs) + bands
2x3x65kg (145lbs) + bands
Face Pull
3x15x45kg (100lbs)
Lat Pulldown
3x12x75kg (165lbs)
Yoke Run Approx 10-12m (35ft ish) each way
50kg (110lbs)
70kg (165lbs)
90kg (200lbs)
110kg (240lbs)
130kg (265lbs) - this is where it began to feel heavy. Had a decent amount more in me but no point grinding out a shitty, staggered yoke PR.
Overate yesterday so decided to justify it with a session today. Went to the hotel gym, which isn’t bad as hotel gyms go – dumbbells up to 30kg (65lbs) and a rack with an oly bar.
I was tempted to deadlift, just to be able to rep out every weight plate they had (130kg or so) but decided against it given I’m planning stones/farmer’s tomorrow.
Training (AM)
Lat Pulldown
3x10x45kg (100lbs) with wide grip
3x10x60kg (135lbs) with chinup grip
Strict Press
8x20kg (45lbs)
2x5x40kg (90lbs)
2x5x50kg (110lbs)
5x52.5kg (115lbs)
8x55kg (120lbs) (PR)
Pretty happy with this. Here is a quote from two weeks ago:
Strict DB Row
3x15x30kg (65lbs)
DB Bench Press
12x18kg (40lbs)
10x25kg (55lbs)
8x30kg (65lbs)
Achievement unlocked: benched the heaviest dumbbells in the gym.
Misc
Some curls and tricep extension things for the breakfast buffet arm pump.
Back home finally. Didn’t get a chance to train a third time in Leeds because we went out for one beer after work. The Aussies reading should understand that but for any Yanks, one beer is 4-8 pints.
Training (AM)
Warmup
3x8 lunges with empty bar
Air squats
Core stuff
It’s not too bad because none of them were heavy. We’re basically focusing on ingraining the new movement patterns of wider-stance low-bar back squats rather than pushing any amount of weight - that, I save for the PM pump work.
Went in with the Mrs for session number two today. Kept it light (or low-volume where I didn’t) because I’m doing some log cleans tomorrow and I don’t want to totally wreck my hips (or have them remove themselves from my body and leave the gym, @simo74 style).
Weighed in at 238.4 at 05:30. Happy enough to keep weight the same if I’m still getting stronger, but at some point I’ll run myself into the ground training this much and will have to dial everything back.
Obviously something is going alright because last week I saw a colleague I hadn’t seen for over a year and he said he didn’t recognise me because “I don’t remember you looking like a bouncer.”
Training (AM)
Warmup
3x12 inverted ring rows
3x15 face pulls at some weight
Log Clean 30s rest between reps, focus on upper back tightness and smoothly getting to front rack
10x1x45kg (100lbs)
10x1x50kg (110lbs)
8x1x55kg (120lbs)
6x1x60kg (135lbs)
Incline DB Bench
15x15kg (35lbs)
10x20kg (45lbs)
8x27.5kg (60lbs) My barbell bench might not be moving, but my DB bench variants are well on the up and up.
DB Hammer Curl
10x10kg (25lbs)
10x12.5kg (30lbs)
10x15kg (35lbs)
Yeah, makes sense but I’ve heard both ways. That said, seems hard to imagine that if I added 10kg per side to my DB bench that my BB bench wouldn’t move at all.
I’m becoming more arsed about barbell bench now because wedding things mean that I might not get the chance to compete in the strongman shows I’ve lined up, but I could probably squeeze in a PL meet to sate the desire to compete.
Wednesday, 11 September
Down to 237.8 today despite poor planning last night before seeing IT: Chapter Two leading to a McDonald’s.
Training with this strongman PT lad in the morning is really odd. We keep everything super-light (as you’ll see) but there is a good amount of volume; I did 20 deadlift sets today. However nothing was above like 55-60%. I’m sticking with him for a while yet to see what the method to the madness is and will probably chat to him about it too, but we’ll see how it goes.
Training (AM)
Warmup
3x20 superman dead bug thingies
3x15 inverted rows
Intended a sled-focused conditioning session but a surge of energy and speaking to a mate about his squat led me to destroying legs instead. That McDonald’s came in handy.
This is my first time doing low-bar back squats in forever, my first time doing a serious barbell back squat of any kind in a few months and the first time in years I’ve done so in flat shoes. Probably the first time ever I’ve done them to depth as well!
Really pleased with how it went. Weight nothing to write home about but it felt smooth and I think I’m on the way to not having an awful squat, touch wood.
Training (PM)
Warmup
3x20 dead bugs
3x10 air squats
Squat
2x10x20kg (45lbs)
3x8x40kg (90lbs)
2x5x50kg (110lbs)
2x5x60kg (135lbs)
5x70kg (160lbs)
5x80kg (180lbs) (belt on)
3x90kg (200lbs)
3x100kg (225lbs)
3x110kg (250lbs) (RPE8ish - called it here as I was starting to fall forward a little but happy technique-wise overall)
Leg Press
3x25x150kg (330lbs) (I don’t know why the fuck I did this)
Seated Leg Curl
3x15x45kg (100lbs)
Leg Extension
3x30x36kg (80lbs) (I don’t know why the fuck I did this either)
Good thing I work from home and don’t have to walk anywhere tomorrow.
Going to keep up this mad block of training for another month or so then take a deload towards the end of October. After that I think I’ll revert back to a more normal program with the aim to turn some of this volume into top-end strength and drop some weight.
Just the one training session today. What a treat.
Training (AM)
Conditioning
10m elliptical
10m EMOM: 100kg (225lb) sled push and drag back over ~10m/30ft
Tabata Battle Ropes. Tabattle Ropes!
Forgot to weigh in today, but waistline is up an inch since 3 months ago. Oops.
That being said, I’m filling out the top half of t-shirts a lot more than the bottom so not the end of the world. Now that I’ve built a smidgen of muscle, maybe 2020 will be the year I actually lean out…
Anyway today I did 30 sets of squats because I’m stupid. Of course, it’s a lot easier to do stupid things when you can’t move much weight.
Low-bar Back Squat
3x8x20kg (45lbs)
5x40kg (90lbs)
5x50kg (110lbs)
5x60kg (135lbs)
5x70kg (160lbs)
3x80kg (180lbs)
3x90kg (200lbs)
8x100kg (225lbs) Low-bar PR for sure. This might be an all-time eight-rep PR, but if not it’s damn close. Might have had another one or two but it was my thirtieth squat set of the day, so happy enough to call it there.
Went in today for a quick session to see where bench TM was (still shit) as well as set a TM for Z Press.
Looking to put more structure into training going forward so I’m going to ask coach if for my next month we can do an U/L split Mon-Thu focusing exclusively on squat and bench technique. I’m only going to do another month with him and I want to get those as fixed as possible.
After that I’m going to move back onto something more linear and see how much strength I can realise by the end of the year.
