Slept until 0658, fasted 40 burpees over bar, then an afternoon remix of yesterday
10 min EMOM.
Original plan was 6s every minute on ABCs: the pace for 30 in 5.
…that fell off.
This was pretty brutal. Start of the deload week.
AM WORKOUT (0438 natural wake up) FASTED
CONDITIONING
EMOM Workout:
Notes:
Something I came up with yesterday before bed. The skeleton of it is pretty dandy. I had room to go up just a bit on the weight for the Juarez Valley stuff. Things were getting too easy at the very end, which is why I went to that final set of 18, getting in all the remaining reps in one go. The ABCs did a great job of upping the suck factor leading into that heavier stuff. Hitting that pace of 5s at the start was a good showing, and I imagine I could have gutted out the final 2 to get a solid 25 to open, but I did want to leave a little breathing room.
Still the deload week, so plan is a bunch of fasted conditioning to take weight off my body while eeking out that last little bit of leanness before reversing course.
Might still do some conditioning on top of conditioning.
Right lat continues to heal.
Your conditioning keeps bafling me.
Do they still make these strength wars? Imagine what an advantage such a gas tank as yours is
@Panopticum Thanks for that dude! I was thinking about it walking into work this morning. It’s definitely been an asset worth investing in. I really appreciate what it’s turned me into.
PM workout was TABEARTA. Glad I got it in: didn’t think I was going to. I was moving fast and smooth on it today, which meant it wiped me out pretty good.
Storm is in the forecast for tomorrow. May be getting in activity via shoveling. Great deload week.
If you name your shoveling workout “Pwn on Ice”
I’ll be forever grateful
Dude: this is just living, haha
AM WORKOUT (0415 natural wake up) FASTED
CONDITIONING
3 rounds of “Armor Bearer”
Armor Bearer=5 minutes of ABCs+TABEARTA.
Got 23 ABCs in the first 5, then 5x3, then 2-3-3-2-3
TABEARTAs were all over the place
Notes:
Didn’t want to do this workout, and had no real good reason not to, so it’s what I did. Still probably the most intense 30 minutes I know of. Like taking my medicine: I’m glad when it’s over. Hitting it fasted is special misery.
Tang Soo Do was canceled tonight, but I may still have some snow shoveling in my future.
Finished the day off with 40 burpees over bar. My legs are surprisingly sore from that Front Squat workout I did the other day: good data point. These helped get some blood flowing.
AM WORKOUT (0440 wake up via alarm)
CONDITIONING
21-15-9 ABCs and Bears
Notes:
Some thoughts: Way forward and just general observations
This is the final week of reduced calories and reduced training, and it had the intended effect: I am hungry in all senses. I’m ready to tear into some hard training and big meals. Current plan is another run of Super Squats, but REAL plan is, of course, Chaos.
Because on the above, I’m still dealing with that pain on my right side. It’s gone from lat to tricep, but still limits my chinning and rows. So this might become a modified Super Squats, but I feel like a program that de-emphasizes deads will do me some good.
I achieved a good level of starting leanness for this. Got the veins in the abs again. There were a lot of lessons learned during my past 2 years of hormonal Hell, and one of the big ones was maximizing the value of nutrition. When my body wasn’t playing right, I had to be EXTREMELY precise with everything I put into it, and it made it that bodyfat manipulation become pretty simple.
And I say all that DESPITE the fact that I STILL won’t count calories or macros. And I’m not afraid to be a living testament to that method now. Even with a terribly dealt genetic hand and other variables at play, there’s a LOT of avenues for success: effort just seems to be the one constant.
What’s pretty cool now is that I’m able to take all those lessons learned and actually apply them to a MORE ideal biological configuration. I’ve equated it to “unkinking the anabolic hose”. There’s been a big build up in my body that’s been waiting to be realized, and now it’s pouring out. That’s honestly one of the biggest reason I pumped the breaks after Super Squats: I was eating even more non-stop than before and it was getting ridiculous. This gave me a chance to settle things back down to a more sustainable baseline to ramp up from.
I really like the strategy I came up with to “undo/prep” for Super Squats, and wish I didn’t have the injury in the middle of it so I could give it a more honest assessment. But, ultimately, I went from 1 big set of a lot of reps with the same movement 3x a week to many sets of few reps with different implements. I was training heavy vs light, had more conditioning, etc. Duality and periodization.
I’ve “forgiven” myself for my LDL issues a few years back, and, once again, applying the lessons learned forward. My heart health is the best it’s ever been and I’m much smarter about how I eat, so I’m allowing myself more red meat into the diet plan. I think cutting it all out was an ok “Velocity Diet” style approach of a blitz toward my health, but now I’m at a point where I have balance.
Spike hardcore energy drinks are still amazing. I’m down to 1 energy drink a day and 1 cold brew coffee, which is still oh my god so much caffeine, but there’s a fair chance I have some manner of attention deficit disorder and I’m merely self-medicating.
My legs are STILL sore from that EMOM Juarez Valley front squat workout I did on Tues. I need to remember that. Definitely some magic there.
Dan John is still a genius and I keep re-discovering it. Level changes are game changers. Putting things overhead is a game changer. Combining them is THE game changer. All work workouts where I go from a burpee into putting something overhead have been just fantastic. Please steal this idea.
I really need to try these Spike energy drinks that you speak of. I’m currently down to one Monster a day and then 4-5 cups of coffee at work. That’s from 2-3 energy drinks plus the coffee. It’s a lot, and something that is concerning to me, is that it still doesn’t keep me as focused as some other people. Typically I just get hot and sweaty.
I will say that I don’t really “feel” the effects of energy drinks: I just drink them because I like them. I went cold turkey off them for a week while I was on my pre-Christmas cruise, and didn’t really notice anything. Which, on the plus side, showed me I’m not an addict.
The other thing that shows me I’m not an addict is, if I’m ever wanting an energy drink, and all that’s around is Monster Ultra White: I won’t have an energy drink, haha. Can’t stand that flavor.
I appreciate how Spike doesn’t make my face tingle though.
Blue Raz is my favorite, but I’ve enjoyed all the flavors.
Finished the day out with 40 burpees over bar at an all time fastest time of 2:20.
Have to comment on caffeine and ways to ingest it. If you’re getting into coffee/espresso drinks (especially iced) I have loved having an espresso maker that uses the capsules. Really good espresso, and it can be blended up with some milk / protein powder/ honey (ice or all hot) to great results. Much better than you get at Starbucks. In fact, self-discovered recipe is a shot of espresso (or 2), a spoonful of nut butter, some raw honey, a scoop of chocolate whey protein, and either a bit of water or milk of your choice to fill out the volume. Blend it up. So good. I usually do this iced but works great hot as well.
Okay, that’s enough for my long winded coffee talk.
I appreciate that man. In truth, I’m not a fan of most coffee and have been pleasantly delighted to find ONE cold brew coffee I actually enjoy that’s produced by Monster and only has 10 calories. Most other attempts have been failures, haha.
Yea but once that door is opened you’ll quickly be a pour over snob who only drinks single origin coffee beans ground fresh for each cup. I’ve seen it happen. Start saving up now; it’s not a cheap hobby. 
Got to tell you that your take on this and the results you get from not tracking was a massive influence for me also ceasing to do this. Stopped doing it months ago when transitioning to a gaining phase and it’s been a revelation. I don’t regret the couple of years I did do it as it really taught me the value of tracking nutrition but gone are the days when I don’t eat an extra couple of eggs because I’ll go over my fat macros. Don’t plan to change when I go back to a dieting phase either
@antiquity I feel like I have a demonstrated track record of NEVER doing what is expected, haha.
@aholding88 Dude, that’s so huge to hear. Means a lot that I could help in that manner, and I’m so happy to hear that it’s working out for you. For some folks, counting is amazing. For others, it’s destructive. It’s all about finding what works.
AM WORKOUT (0435 natural wake up) FASTED
CONDITIONING
30 Min AMRAP of:
Add a rep per round
Made it through a full 11 rounds and timed out on the burpees of the 12th
Notes:
Good end to the deload week. My quads have felt like they’re full of lead since Tues, and this was a nice way to get a little bit of energy back. Didn’t absolutely gas myself, but was still feeling the hurt, and I got to put a lot of reps overhead. I liked the confined space of this, although I hit my garage door motor a few times.
Tang Soo Do tonight and probably some sort of short conditioning effort. Weekend ahead, then back to gaining. That said, feeling an annoying minor illness creeping up, so I gotta keep tabs on that. Super Squats while sick hasn’t been great to me.
I have been pulling back on my caffeine a little bit but I am taking Hot-Rox now and that has close to my daily dose already in it.
I like your points about not counting macros or calories. I have been taking the same approach. Never could get into the calorie counting thing. So much easier to focus on highly nutrition dense foods (different then nutrient dense). I am still struggling to get the rest of the family to eat right - my wife got on me because I told my son who is prepping for track season (running 6 days a week) he can’t eat pizza everyday for lunch and he needs some protein and veggies.