@boilerman Dude, that’s such awesome news with the little one! You’re raising him right. That’s a legit concern with the liverwurst: good that you’re looking out like that.
@QuadQueen “Condiment” is a great way to describe it. Definitely something to compliment the meal, rather than comprise it.
@TrainForPain Hell yeah brother! Always appreciate your kudos. I’m in a fortunate spot in the middle of America to have quite a few competitions around me at least.
@burien_top_team Happy to discuss dude. This is just something I do on weekends or if I’m away and not training. I still want to start my day with SOMETHING physical, and I want to get blood flowing and my muscles loose. If I have a timer, I’ll do tabata intervals where I do prisoner squats on the 20 and push ups on the 10, but absent a timer I do 15 squats and 10 push ups alternating. If it’s a weekend, I just do rounds of these until my wife finishes putting in her contacts (typically 3-5), but if I’m traveling I’ll do a full Tabata workout, if not greater than 8 rounds. Just a little activity to start the day.
AM WORKOUT (0410 wake up via alarm)
PHYREXIAN DREADNOUGHT Phase 2, Week 2, Workout 2
30 minutes EMOM
Round 1: 3x220lb axle zercher squat from floor
Round 2: 3x117.5lb dips
Round 3: 2x60lb NG chins
Repeat
Finish w/16x405lb trap bar lift
BREAKFAST
Spend remainder of day destroying/building a deck, with a Tang Soo Do class thrown in.
Notes:
Life is busy right now with the construction project, so keep it on the quick. Zerchers felt really strong, which caught me off guard but I took it. Dips were solid. Chins are falling apart again. The trap bar lift is amazing; that’s twice as many reps as what I started with. My pulling is growing well while my pushing is struggling, which makes sense because I weighed in at 80.8 kg this morning, and I tend to get better at pulling as I get leaner because my mechanics improve.
STILL gripping the handles in the wrong spot on the trap bar, but I corrected early enough that I could get those 16 reps.
Training is going to be a little iffy with the holiday, construction and family visiting, but I’ll get what I can in. I’m getting in a lot of activity as it is.
I talked about how yesterday was the anniversary of my decision to change myself, and what’s ironic is, by weighing in at 80.8kg, I’m actually 1lb heavier than I was when I was 14, which, on paper, makes it look like I barely changed since then. It’s amazing how much the scale DOESN’T tell. But while discussing scales, I was holding at 82kg for about 3 weeks and then finally had this breakthrough, but the entire time I’ve been getting leaner and leaner. This is a good data point for my upcoming comps: give myself 4 weeks so my body can spend 3 weeks unf**king itself and then actually start dropping weight.
Sign of life. Been putting in 12-13 hour days building this deck. Working shirtless the whole time, no sunburn: just a VERY dark tan. Another one of those weird benefits of carnivore. This became the weirdest deload ever. Still got to Tang Soo Do today. The 1 week diet break has also been a clutch move. I’m not eating off menu: just eating MORE than I was before, and I’m already ready to get back to lean eating when we’re done, but at the same time, I’m burning a LOT of energy with this construction and sun exposure that I’m not too concerned about the impact one way or the other.
Got a pretty solid way forward for phase 3 of Phryexian Dreadnought at this point.
I imagine things would be going MUCH faster if I had his skillset. Right now, Chaos is the plan AND Brute Force and Ignorance are the only things carrying me forward, but that WAS handy when it came time to pry all the boards out of the old deck.
Primarily because they were screwed in rather than nailed…and stripped, so that was a great workout.
I had heard this before, and put this to the test yesterday. Spent 2-3hours in the direct sun shovelling wood chips/mulch into the gardens and around our planted trees. This would have most certainly resulted in quite the burn on my shoulders, but instead I’m just getting nicely tanned.
Bring on more weird benefits! Day 17 on the diet now. Whether it is diet related or the “base” tan I had was good enough, either way, happy to not be applying aloe to sore shoulders this morning!
So much good stuff to catch up on. I stayed off social media for most of my 3 weeks away. Just didn’t have the desire to log on, which is exactly what I wanted.
Loved reading this
Did not love reading this
Liked reading this though
Good to see you are still training hard and living happy my friend.
It’s always interesting to me how this happens when I’m away - initially it’s a decision, but then it becomes preference - and how weird it is initially to reconnect to it after a vacation.
@boilerman Getting your nod of approval for my approach is all I need! Always been envious of those that are handy. My father-in-law has been clutch through this process in that regard, but, in turn, he’s been very appreciative of my ability to apply brute force where needed. As Minsc said: “You point: I punch”.
@littlesleeper Man, that’s outstanding to hear you’re already seeing that effect so quickly into the diet! I imagine that speaks to the generally positive healthy place you came into it from. Didn’t have to undergo a whole lot of healing: could just jump right in and reap the benefits.
@wiseman83 The most prevailing theory I’ve heard is that saturated fat and cholesterol are important in providing a protective quality to our skin, and their prevalence in the carnivore way of eating ensures a high degree of that. I remember from The Complete Keys to Progress that Vitamin D is received from the sun by heating up the oils in our skin, and those oils don’t get produced without that adequate fat intake, so there’s something there. The science is way above/beyond me, but it’s at least an understood phenomenon.
@simo74 Good to have you back dude! And life could legit not be better. As much as I threw my own personal tantrum for the competition, it’s worked out will with this home construction project.
AM WORKOUT (0410 Wake up via alarm)
PHYREXIAN DREADNOUGHT Phase 3, Week 1, Workout 1
Axle continental and press away (max in 1 minute), 1 min rest between rounds
5x171
6x156
6x156
5x156
5x156
2x156
3x10 standing ab wheel
12x115 kroc rows
50 band pull aparts
20x115 SSB good mornings
100 Axle curls
26 axle shrugs against average bands
6x6 chins (various grips)
5x5 chins (various grips)
20,10 dips
BREAKFAST
Moderate walk w/dog
Notes:
Starting a new phase, as the old competition is dead and I have 2 new ones on the horizon that will slightly alter my approach. Current way forward is to keep the middle day the same (zerchers and then alternate between incline axle and dips, then include chins done in an EMOM format, finish with a max rep trap bar pull), have the first day use a DoggCrapp style squat workout, final day with use Xenos, and then alternate between axle push presses, axle strict presses, and log vipers. Keep that 1 minute style approach to condition myself to perform under those conditions. I dig the thought process here: Monday is a size focus, Wed is a conditioning focus, Friday is a strength focus. Thursdays will do throws and carries, Tuesdays will ideally be walking, Saturdays will include ROM progression pulls and quite possibly axle Grace to get in more axle floor to overhead work, and can use Wed and Sunday to drill the farmer’s hold. Might also do more carries on Sunday.
Walked the weight down a bit today to build up some momentum, since the competition is in 2 months. I’ve got a lot of time: no need to rush. Grappling comp will be in 6 weeks, and this should get in me in decent enough shape for that.
Push press is coming back decent enough. When I focus on being snappy, it’s solid. Ran out of gas hard on the final set there: not sure what specifically happened.
Those SSB squats continue to be awesomely murderous. Pleased I got in those 20 reps.
Finished a little earlier than usual, so got in a lot of assistance work. Really trying to bring back my chins with more submax work, making it a point not to struggle on any set.
I took an unscheduled deload since Wed’s workout. What SHOULD have been a 2 days home project turned into 5+ days of working 12-13 hours a day outside in the sun rebuilding our back deck, which is actually STILL not done yet, but very close to finished. The Mrs has the day off work and is finishing it up with my in-laws today. The previous folks that built this deck did a total DIY job on it, and they adopted “chaos is the plan” before I ever thought of it, because no two pieces were alike. Screws of all types, bolts, nails, etc. My talents were employed by means of destruction, and I took to that well, armed with some prybars and hammers, I pulled boards off both levels (it’s a double deck) over the course of 2 days, then took off stairs, posts, pretty much everything that WAS nailed down. The biggest meathead highlight was when I ripped some stairs out using a pseudo deadlift technique, only to discover they were NAILED into the concrete…which explained why I struggled so much to move them. My father-in-law also marveled at how I lifted the entire deck 2 inches with my prybar when trying to take out a particularly stubborn board. I’ve been working with my shirt off the entire time, trying to maximize my Vitamin D intake, and I have achieved a VERY healthy tan with no burn, which has been awesome.
This deload coincided with a diet break, which has been great for many reasons, the biggest being that I am all too willing to get back to lean rations after a week of eating well. The other thing was that I didn’t go off the rails with the break: simply brought my portion sizes up and brought back in some pork rinds, primarily for the saltiness to help with all the sweating. I DIDN’T fall back on dairy like I typically do to get in extra calories, and I really think that’s been a great decision. I noticed that, with dairy removed, my aggression is back and my general mood/disposition is more positive and lively. It’s not “jerkish” aggression: more just a zest to get after it. I do wonder if the casomorphines in dairy have anything to do with this. If nothing else, it’s a good thing to know about myself. I also know that I enjoy cheese way too much: it’s absolutely a pleasure food, and it’s too easy for me to justify its consumption.
Nah, this is just living. And honestly, it was enjoyable, which is another sign it wasn’t a workout, haha. It was awesome to be out in the sun, putting in work, being with family, and seeing the results of my efforts.
I also really dug my eating style on those days. We’d do a moderate breakfast with eggs and fatty meat, I’d have a light lunch typically of fish (tuna or salmon) and some egg whites, and then a large dinner at the evening before getting in a few more hours of work before the sun set. Definitely just remembering how to be human again.
Thanks so much @EmilyQ ! It really brought me so much joy to feel so useful for so many days. I was thinking about it during one of the flying Home Depot runs in the middle of the project: it’s been physically exhausting these past 5 days, and I didn’t get a “real weekend” since we were working 12-13 hours each day, but I don’t at all feel “cheated” out of my weekend at all: this was a very enjoyable and enriching time with my wife and her parents. A lot of time, I’m out of my element on these projects, because I’m not particularly handy nor am I good at precise stuff (I don’t do well with painting), but being able to actually get put to work was awesome.
Also forgot to mention that I weighed in at 81.7kg this morning, which was pretty solid given the very high sodium meals I had yesterday (Panda Express for lunch and wings from a local pizza place for dinner)
