Mattjp's Training Log

Training Training Logs
1304

Tuesday, 16 June

Kettlebells didn’t arrive yesterday. Phoned UPS and apparently they were loaded onto the wrong van and will be coming today.

Kind of feel like loading, unloading and reloading a 60kg package is sufficient punishment. Hopefully they arrive early enough that I can start the 10,000 swings challenge today.

Weighed 223.0 yesterday and 223.2 today. Definitely got a little bit of shoulder definition I’ve not seen before at any weight, much less this one. Still not losing as much around the torso as I would want but I guess that’s the old rule of “first on, last off” with fat loss.

At the moment I’m losing around 1lb a week with zero activity, so hopefully adding in the kettlebell work and some steady state cardio will punch that up a tad even if I do have to stick in a small additional meal to support it.

629×297 6.08 KB

You can see that on average since the start of the year I’ve lost between 0.6-0.8lbs per week, but over the past couple of weeks it’s gone up a little to more like 1.2lbs.

Hoping to see a 6-10lb loss over the next five weeks before gyms open, with a view to potentially ending August at around 200-205lbs.

Shoulder feels a little better today. Not sure if that’s down to time, high-rep band work, anti-inflammatories or all three. On Friday I’m seeing a specialist about it.

Training (Misc)

Shoulder Stuff
100 rotator cuff thingies each arm each way
200 pullaparts/100 dislocates (throughout day)

Chinups/Pressups Superset
5x chinups
2x pressups
4x chinups
4x pressups
3x chinups
6x pressups
2x chinups
8x pressups
1x chinups
10x pressups

Hard today, but didn’t rip my shoulder open.

Running
Sacked off in favour of…

Kettlebell Complex (3 rounds, minimal rest, 16kg/35lb KB)
8x single-arm swings
8x single-arm rows
8x reverse goblet lunge
8x single-arm press

4 Likes
1305

I’m kinda confused is UPS good or bad? I mean these companies must be better than like USPS or AustraliaPost where I’m at.

1306

No idea. Based on loading a package onto the wrong van and missing their delivery date, they can’t be great.

But then shit happens. Not like I do my job perfectly every day. I think we’ve had the odd Amazon delivery from them and I’ve noticed no repeating issues.

1307

Here they are about the worst usually.
But I mean it differs obv. the guy who picked up the route I’m recently on is pure quality, haha. He (I think) illegally rang me up from his private phone and gave me his number so that I could write him a message on whatsapp declaring that I’m fine with it if he leaves my delivery under the carport. That happened twice and spared me the huge pain in the arse of picking the stuff up somewhere.
Not sure that’s standard company procedure but I like his style!

1308

Last time I had a kettlebell delivered (38kg), it was a day late because the guy who tried to deliver it on day 1 couldn’t lift it so they had to send him out with a mate the next day. The best part being that on the second day, I saw the van turn up so I met them outside the house, casually walked over, put my hand through the top of the damaged packaging, picked it up one handed and walked off with it. This is barely relevant to your situation, other than I like telling the story.

Your weight loss is phenomenally consistent, by the way. Very impressive.

2 Likes
1309

Which national and/or international company is best where u r?

2 Likes
1310

Probably the postal service. Deutsche Post AG and it’s branches (DPD/ DHL)

1311

Guess I’m going DHL when available then

1312

@guineapig given the delivery didn’t arrive yesterday and now the tracking doesn’t even have a date on it, I think I’ll have to update my answer to agree with @koestrizer that UPS is bad.

@koestrizer not sure about here, but in the UK (at least, on the Isle of Man) MyHermes is by far the worst. They have a gig economy setup where people are part-time drivers but without e.g. the transparency and rating system of something like Uber. I got about 8/12 months of Amazon Prime for free because their drivers were so bad. In Ireland, I’ve not yet noticed a standout bad service so there’s plenty of room for UPS to take that crown.

@dagill2 I hope this is what’s happened and that I can do the same. I still regret not immediately clean-and-pressing my circus dumbbell when I was asked if I needed help with it.

It’s nice to have a reminder that, even if one isn’t T-Nation Strong, being T-Nation Weak is actually Normal Person Strong.

I’d like weight loss to be faster tbh but I can’t complain too much.

5 Likes
1313

Update: kettlebells arrived today, so home gym now consists of:

32kg (70lb) kettlebell
24kg (53lb) kettlebell
16kg (35lb) kettlebell
24kg (53lb) circus dumbbell
10kg (22lb) weight vest
2x red minibands (approx 16kg/35lb each)
Chinup bar

I’m basically a fully-equipped gym at this point.

I kind of want to run the 10,000 swings challenge again, or at least elements of it. Well, “want” is a strong word.

I was thinking of fewer swings, more strength movements in a bigger circuit, though, and getting more of a full-body thing going each day.

Something like a few rounds each day of:

  • 2/3/5 chinups
  • 5/10/15 pressups
  • ?/?/? goblet squats
  • 4/8/12 presses
  • 10/15/25 swings

Not sure, maybe I’m better off just doing the standard program again. I just remember it getting so boring towards the end, though.

4 Likes
1314

Wednesday, 17 June

Down to 220.8 today for an all-time low (except last week’s… incident). I did drink a bottle of wine last night, so there’s some dehydration at play there, but calorie-wise yesterday was very reasonable so I won’t expect a huge bounce back.

Training (Easy Conditioning)

Weighted Vest Walk
About 2 miles or so. A couple of times around the block and the park. Probably like half an hour of movement.

2 Likes
1315

Awesome weight loss Matt quality.
Perfect curve.

Try it out for a couple of weeks. If it buries you, go back to OG or do the in between stuff as upper lower spit.

1 Like
1316

Have you seen the walrus training stuff from wendler. It looks kind of similar to what you’re describing but without the “wave up” of the swing challenge

1317

@mortdk thanks, though my perfect curves are of course what I’m trying to get rid of, haha.

@burnur rings a vague bell, but I haven’t read any of the books in forever (boom boom) so can’t remember too much.

Thursday, 18 June

Weighed in at 222.8 today after rehydrating from Tuesday’s wine. Still decent.

Got a really weird/painful twang all down my tricep today (just while walking around) and shoulder/tricep has hurt since. Made pressing the 16kg (35lb) kettlebell super fun.

Seeing the fella at hospital about it tomorrow anyway and doubtless will be put in for an MRI to find out what’s going on. I have a feeling some kind of tendon is in the wrong place or doing something fucky at the very least, even if there is no actual soft tissue damage.

Training (Conditioning, I Guess?)

Circuit One
10x24kg (53lb) kettlebell swings
1 chinup
15x24kg (53lb) kettlebell swings
2 chinups
25x24kg (53lb) kettlebell swings
3 chinups

Circuit Two
10x24kg (53lb) kettlebell swings
1x32kg (70b) goblet squat
15x24kg (53lb) kettlebell swings
2x32kg (70b) goblet squats
25x24kg (53lb) kettlebell swings
3x32kg (70b) goblet squats

Circuit Three
10x24kg (53lb) kettlebell swings
1x16kg (35lb) kettlebell press each arm
15x24kg (53lb) kettlebell swings
2x16kg (35lb) kettlebell presses each arm
25x24kg (53lb) kettlebell swings
3x16kg (35lb) kettlebell presses each arm

Misc
10x32kg (70lb) kettlebell swings
50x24kg (53lb) kettlebell swings

So doing the high(er)-rep swings with the 24kg vs the 16kg isn’t that much harder, in a strength/physical sense. Again, mostly mental, and I think that having done 5x100 with 16kg has primed me well.

However, the shape of the handle on the Rogue one takes a LOT of getting used to. It’s a little narrower, and there’s less area to grip overall which means my hands are a bit angled and/or smushed together - and I don’t even have big hands!

1 Like
1318

Update: tricep/shoulder now pain-free. Looks like the Pwnisher/Alpha method of just telling hurt body parts to do one works pretty well.

2 Likes
1319

Friday, 19 June

Weighed 221.7 today.

Got an X-ray and saw a specialist and a physio today. MRI will be happening, but given the situation not for a while. Doc said I’ve probably got some torn ligaments but there’s no rush.

Physio said the usual stuff about wrapping yourself in cotton wool. In fairness to her I did basically say “look I’m a bit stronger than most people and I’m not going to stop doing stupid things so tell me what stupid things I can do” to which she said basically don’t overhead press heavy or indeed at all.

Generally meant to take it easy on the training front, but let’s face it: I’ve got a two-year-old log on T-Nation and I can’t bench two plates. Pushing myself too hard in the gym is hardly a problem I’ve been contending with.

I will humour her and the wife by not lifting anything overhead for a couple of weeks. Everything else seems to be on the cards, though I’ll probably shy away from adding tons of weight or leverage to my pressups for that time as well.

Going to see the physio again in a few weeks, and gyms open a few after that, so hopefully it’s basically hunky-dory by then.

3 Likes
1320

Gyms reopening in 10 days, apparently.

Really haven’t got my money’s worth out of these kettlebells, but they’ll be handy for conditioning days when it’s pissing down and I don’t want to walk to the gym.

Guess I’ll just do some kind of 5s linear progression for the summer to get strength levels back as I relearn movement patterns.

Thinking to run The Krypteia until the end of the year to continue to slim down a bit and then get hyooge in 2021.

3 Likes
1321

Start the countdown … 10…

1322

Saturday, 20 June

Weighed 222.0 today after a cheaty Indian last night.

Training

Warmup
Various band things, with the addition of physio-mandated outward rotation exercises.

Strength Circuit (3 rounds)
10x24kg (53lb) swings each arm
2/3/5 chinups
10x24kg (53lb) swings each arm
5/8/12 pressups
10x24kg (53lb) swings each arm
3/5/7 32kg (70lb) goblet squats

Finished the final round with an extra set of 10 swings per arm to make it an even 200.

Done in just under 30 minutes. Wasn’t doing it for time but wasn’t exactly taking luxurious rest periods either. Would be a good one for an old-school @Alpha style ‘Insert’ if done for time or 3m on 1m off for 24m or something.

Shoulder feels decent. Bit of a twinge after pressups but incredibly minor.

3 Likes
1323

Monday, 22 June

Weighed 222.2 today which is pleasing. Not necessarily the actual weight, just the pattern.

Found myself surprisingly busy today and unable to fit in any work until 5pm, so hit a quick circuit.

Training (Strength)

Warmup
Band stuff. Hit 100-150 outward rotations throughout the day.

Giant Set (wearing 10kg/22lb vest)
1/2/3 chinups
2/3/5 32kg (70lb) goblet squats
2/3/5 pressups (these are harder than when I had intact shoulder ligaments)
2x50 metre (165ft) sprints

Kettlebell Swing Dropset
15x 32kg (70lb) kettlebell swings, super-short rest then
30x 24kg (53lb) kettlebell swings, super-short rest then
50x 16kg (35lb) kettlebell swings

4 Likes