Get some Iron Master Adjustable kettlebells and progress forerver
Glad to hear it isnt a personal problem. I had been doing these for maybe a couple months prior to closures and every time felt as debilitating as the first time even with only fairly modest time improvements.
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@Cyrrex functional strength is a meme tbh. All strength is functional.
@dagill2 yeah they really suck a lot. Apparently 2:00 for 500m is in the realms of ānot awfulā so at least I have that going for me as a starting point.
@guineapig tbf I think if I paired up my set now (16/24/32) Iād be able to progress close to indefinitely. Easier to use a barbell, though.
Wednesday, 1 July
Weighed 220.4 today but that was after some drinking last night and therefore dehydration, so expect Iāll balloon this week.
Just went in to establish a baseline on a few different movements.
Training (Strength)
Warmup
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Limber 11
Pendlay Row
10x20kg (44lbs/empty bar)
5x40kg (88lbs)
5x60kg (132lbs/1 plate)
5x60kg (132lbs/1 plate)
5x60kg (132lbs/1 plate)
Incline Bench Press
10x20kg (44lbs/empty bar)
5x40kg (88lbs)
5x50kg (110lbs)
5x50kg (110lbs)
5x50kg (110lbs)
Deadlift
10x60kg (132lbs/1 plate)
5x100kg (220lbs/2 plates)
3x120kg (264lbs)
1x140kg (308lbs/3 plates)
1x150kg (330lbs)
1x160kg (352lbs)
Incline bench felt weird. Never has felt good, to be fair, but thought it was worth checking out; upper body push variants that force me to use less weight for a training stimulus are obviously of interest at the moment.
Rows were grand. Easy. Bit of odd pain in the right bicep during, but probably nothing concerning.
Deadlifts were OK, all things considered. The opening one-plate set didnāt feel like the empty bar like 60kg deadlifts usually do, and I had to strap up for the 120 (lol) but the top set was around RPE7-8, which isnāt a million miles away from my PB 8x160kg, really. I could have probably pulled four plates today if Iād felt like it.
Future Plans
Iāll be at a gym with an SSB on Friday, so Iāll hit a few of those for shits and giggles. Next few weeks will be spent dialling nutrition and recovery back in while hitting a basic Greyskull LP on a few compound movements.
Probably something like:
Session A
3x5+ SSB or front squats
3x5+ bench press
3x5+ pendlay row
3x chinups
3-way shoulder
Session B
3x5+ front squats
3x5+ bench press
3x5+ deadlift
3x DB rows
3-way shoulder
Time to relieve the newbie gains experience.
After a couple of months of that, Iām going to take advantage of my inability to run 5/3/1 programming as written in order to jump on some Brian Alsruhe style strength & conditioning work, because Iāve been having a hankering to get back on that awful ride. Seems like a good excuse to do it.
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Thursday, 2 July
Not at home, so no weigh-in today.
Training (Conditioning)
Not a ton to write about here. At the in-lawsā and they have a short hill. I ran up it, walked back down, repeat forever.
Probably did like 8-10 sprints. Not a long hill; takes me about 7-8s to sprint up it.
Iāve got the stride of a gazelle. A beautiful, beautiful gazelle person. My body is achieving perfect symmetry right now. Itās that long, lean muscle that Iāve worked so hard to achieve.
Wasnāt a particularly hard session but Iām OK with that. Ramping it up a bit next week with extra row intervals and something else more awful.
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Did you take something?
But I guess good on you man, haha.
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I like to imagine you do this every morning staring in the mirror.
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Positive self talk is whatās up.
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Yer, he had 10 pints of Guinness!! 
Friday, 3 July
No weigh-in today either, but ate fairly light yesterday. Just that what I did eat was child food.
Training (Strength)
SSB Squats
8x25kg (55lb/empty bar)
5x45kg (100lb)
3x65kg (143lb/1 plate)
3x85kg (187lb)
1x105kg (231lb/2 plates)
1x115kg (253lb)
3x3x85kg (187lb)
Fairly pleased with those. Good ROM and only 15kg or so off my PB I think.
Pendlay Row
3x8x60kg (132lb/1 plate)
Incline Dumbbell Bench
8x15kg (33lb)
8x20kg (44lb)
8x25kg (55lb)
Good on the shoulder. A keeper for this training block, I think.
Front Raise/Side Raise Superset
3x12x7.5kg (18lb) DBs
You can actually see my delts in the anabolic gym lighting when I do these.
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Monday, 6 July
Up a couple of pounds today after a fat weekend.
Training (Strength)
Warmup
Limber 11
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press
10x12.5kg (28lb)
8x17.5kg (39lb)
12x22.5kg (60lb)
10x22.5kg (60lb)
10x22.5kg (60lb)
Front Squat
5x20kg (44lb/empty bar)
5x40kg (88lb)
5x60kg (132lb/1 plate)
5x60kg (132lb/1 plate)
5x60kg (132lb/1 plate)
Chinup
5xBW
3x10kg (22lb)
1.5x15kg (33lb) (PR - chin didnāt quite make the bar, but close enough)
Shoulder Superset (3 rounds)
20x face pull at some weight
12x 7kg (15lb) side raises
10x 7kg (15lb) front raises
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Does it feel good to be doing some real lifting again? Ur chins aint bad for a big fella also. Better than ur push ups at least lel
@guineapig the quote function, like everything else on the forum, is apparently broken so Iāll just reply in pieces:
- It does not feel good. It feels hard. Itās also frustrating to have to train around the shoulder. That said, front squats feel good in the sense that I think core/back stability is going to skyrocket with them and the ROM feels like it will give a great training effect despite the relatively low weight.
- Yeah, Iām fairly happy with being able to add 10-15kg to chins on top of my 100kg BW. Iāll be doing more unweighted ones as well and building them up, but I just wanted to hit some kind of PB today.
- Ha, I think my PB is 25 pushups at 240lbs or so which could be a lot worse. With the shoulder fucked, though, I donāt think Iām hitting that number anytime soon. It starts to feel hard around 15 reps now.
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Very true.
I am a good bit better at push ups but a lot worse at pull ups.
Yāall should do a fusion dance to create the perfectly balanced push/pull freaki tall boi
Iāve got a bad feeling youāre right. Iāve been considering using them as a supplemental movement myself for exactly this reason, even though I hate them.
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I like the look of them front squat harnesses that are sold. Not worth the investment because I donāt do em often and can do the full clean grip but if I was to smash em the harness looks relatively comfy for Reps
You could probably use straps (maybe even your shiny new figure 8s) to get higher reps in without worrying about your wrists snapping off.
I can clean grip fine but still not as good as a cushioned harness
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@T3hPwnisher has used the SSB for front squats. I canāt speak to them myself, but it might be a good alternative if an SSB is available.
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I like it way more than my harness. Could never get the latter to stay in place for high rep sets. Only seemed good for a single.
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