@QuadQueen The Golden Apple. But don’t think you can slink into Omaha WITHOUT me treating you if you come by.
@wiseman83 Very much appreciated dude! And at least ya’ll have roo meat!
Another great weekend. Slept until about 0730, got in my squats and push ups was still full from dinner last night, which was perfect because the Valkyrie didn’t feel like making breakfast. I suggested she go take the kiddo out for some donuts and I was able to walk the dogs for a little over 2 miles. Very Dan John-esque: a simple morning workout, some green tea, and then a walk.
Fast continued until lunch, wherein I had a small ala carte’ teriyaki chicken from Panda Express. Still wasn’t hungry, but was out with the family and figured some protein wasn’t a bad idea.
Got home from chores, set the smoker to work, did some backyard clean up, restored my Ironmind gear, loaded it up to do Grace…and didn’t do it. Was honestly just the last thing I wanted to do. I think this contest prep has gone on too long: it’s been too specific and I’m getting burnt out. But, in turn, I’m allowing myself to just not do things if I don’t want to do them.
Meanwhile, dinner/meal prep went awesome
Some piedmontese beef back ribs on the left next to some pastured eggs, on the right is a smoked roast from a white tail I took home last fall. On the bottom is a piedmontese grassfed bavette and a piedmontese center cut ribeye. Kiddo loved the ribeye and bavette: didn’t care for the deer. I enjoyed both the ribs, the eggs, and a few servings of everything else, and now have a great amount of meat for the week.
Valkyrie made some peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip caramel cluster cookies. I’m excited about having those tomorrow.
Axle clean and press away w/116, 10 minute EMOM
2-3-5 Strict
10 of 8 strict/2 push press
2-3-5 strict
10 of 5 strict/5 push press
2-3 strict
SSB Squat against doubled light bands
3xBar
1x115
4x175
17x125
2:15 hand from bar, pull up every 30 seconds
ASSISTANCE
3x10 standing ab wheel
12x115 kroc row
31 axle shrugs against average bands
100 axle Poundstone curls
50 band pull aparts
Dip/push up/reactive slingshot push up/slingshot/metal catapult push up dropset
35 overheand band tricep extensions
Neck work
BREAKFAST
Moderate walk w/both dogs
Notes:
I like what I came up with for pressing work today. Had to swallow a lot of ego, get the weight light, and get the shoulders nice and pumped. Felt good on me. My right hip is still screaming at me pretty good: gonna need to start rolling it out. That’s the band aid solution: I’ll have to eventually get smart about taking care of it in general. It made the cleans suck a bit.
That hip came to play in particular with the SSB squats. I’m keeping the soft belt on for the remainder of the training cycle to keep my back warm. These were VERY high effort. Lotta result with a little bit of weight.
Hang from bar continues to improve. Grip is getting strong. I’m not being great about consistency with this and my throws, but it’s getting where I need it to be.
Forgot to set up for GMs, but with the hip aching, it’s probably a good thing. Used it as an opportunity to do the rows instead. Also, that dip push up dropset was money. Easy way to get in a lot of work in short order without putting too much load on my body.
Weekend nutrition really worked out well. That big meal on Saturday, fast most of Sunday, big meal again in the evening was nourishing and my performance seemed strong.
Walked the dogs a little longer, and going to try to make 2 a days a regular thing with the new puppy, so good to see some activity.
Should be getting a carb up meal tonight, which is good, because I missed it last week. In-laws are coming into town on Thurs, so schedule will hit a little chaos.
2:20 hang from bar, pull up every 30 seconds
75 KB swings w/57.5lb bell
2.71 mile walk at 3.1 mph pace w/80lb vest
90x270lb reverse hypers
BREAKFAST
No walk w/dogs (started to rain)
Notes:
Training motivation is really low these days. Pretty much every time the alarm goes off, I ask myself what I have to do today and if I can move the workout. This one is always tough because it’s so anti-climactic, but it’s also the best gift I give myself each week, because as I sit here, my hip pain is gone.
Hung from the bar to start the workout because it took some pressure off my back/hips. Going into swings right from there was interesting, since my grip was fried so I couldn’t manhandle the KB. Still had some hip pain on some of the swings, but by the time I got to the hypers, it was gone.
Really focusing on trying to move with a purpose during that walk.
It was sprinkling just a touch during the workout, but by the time I got home and had breakfast, it turned into full on rain. Should pass by lunch, so I may take the dogs out then, and a post dinner walk for the boxer before we head out for sparring at Tang Soo Do.
I’ve been bad about getting in my daily throws.
Family meal was awesome yesterday. Valkyrie made farmer’s casserole, but we discovered we didn’t have a can of cream of celery soup. The traditional recipe is noodles, ground meat (we use 1.25lbs of bison), creamed corn (we use local sweet corn instead), cream of mushroom and cream of celery soup, then top it with slices of American cheese while it bakes (we use white cheddar instead, ideally grassfed). Instead, we had the cream of mushroom soup and cheddar cheese soup (we use the latter for a tuna casserole). We rolled with it, and it was honestly better than the original recipe. And the carnivore in me will appreciate something cheese-based vs celery based. I stopped myself at 2 generous portions to make room for 3.5 of the Valkryie’s oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip and caramel cookies that I topped with some raw local honey paired alongside some fairlife skim milk, and then I had a quarter of a red velvet donut with cream cheese frosting that she got for me from a local donut shop during that donut run on Sunday. Having just that small piece showed me just how much I appreciate my wife’s baking, because this thing was just a blatant sugar bomb. It was VERY good red velvet (moist, not dry), but WAY too damn sweet. But, once again: a very enjoyable and successful meal. Speaking from the food relationship side of things, I used to dread this meal as some sort of obligation, and now it’s something I genuinely look forward to. But along with that, I don’t binge at the meal, but instead just enjoy how flavorful it is, the textures I get that are different from what I normally eat, the love my wife puts into the food, seeing my kid devour their portions, and telling my wife how hard it is to NOT eat the entire casserole and all of her cookies. And speaking from the performance side of things, I don’t observe any negatives from this. My guts will be a little funny for a day or so, but I don’t get the carb sweats like I used to, no bloating, my training the next day has no specific interruptions, and it’s too easy to get back onto the program. I am satiated after the meal, rather than starving like I typically was with higher carb meals, and once I am done with the cookies, I’m done: I don’t find myself trying to scavenge more. Although I DO sneak a few more noodles as I’m putting away the leftovers.
JUAREZ VALLEY Axle Zercher Squats from Floor w/186lb
12-1-11-2-10-3-9-4-8-5-7-6
5x135lb axle dead incline bench between sets
Time: 28:22
Low handle trap bar pull
6x425 (set up issue)
ASSISTANCE
3x10 standing ab wheel
Lateral raise dropset (35x10lb, 35x5, 35x2.5, 35xEmpty Hands)
50 band pull aparts
1 minute low handle trap bar hold w/315lb
BREAKFAST
Short walk w/dogs
Notes:
I was a bit more excited for today’s training. Knowing that the weights were going to be lighter and the workout more conditioning focused seemed to get me energized, along with the trap bar set at the end, which ultimately was a dud. I ended up with 1 more rep in the topset than last week, and honestly could have pushed even further than that, but I knew how hard last week was and figured 1 more rep was enough, especially understanding that “1 more rep” meant 12 reps total. Went from 66 reps of zercher squats to 78, and still got it done in less than 30 minutes.
Tried to focus on standing a bit more upright and locked out on the squats today. I can see how one can cheat by staying folded over while extending the hips. The axle incline benching is still just about right for submax work. And, in general, I was wiped out from this: Juarez Valley is always good for that.
Had a set-up issue on the trap bar: first time I was too far forward, resulting in the weight tipping backwards. Typically I have the opposite issue. I fought on every rep, and after 6 I was just wiped out. I imagine the fatigue I was carrying coming into from the hard Juarez Valley workout contributed there as well. Was content to just shut it down from there: live to fight another day.
On a general positive note: my right hip was absent of pain during the workout today. It flared up a few times at Tang Soo Do last night, but is otherwise doing ok. The Tuesday workout always seems to help.
Tang Soo Do sparring night went pretty well. I got to beat one of the black belts, do some mentoring with a junior student, and square off against the Valkyrie in another match that went to sudden death with her scoring on a hook kick to the head at the end. She advanced to fight the senior student, and took it to sudden death with a body punch getting her 1-1. She ended up getting defeated with a head kick, but held her own well. Was proud to see it.
Stepped on the scale post workout shower and saw 79.9kg. F**k. Gotta keep the food up.
Skipped the workout this morning. Opted for more sleep. This is the second time I’ve done that, and it’s happened both times the day after the Juarez Valley zercher squat workout. I’m going to start thinking of that as a feature rather than a bug: it appears that this particular workout is hard enough that I don’t need to do a follow on events workout the next day. I may run with this going forward until the comp day: have the events day workout be every other week. Should help with recovery.
Sparring at Tang Soo Do was pretty challenging. I went against 2 of the black belts. Went into sudden death on both of them, won the first and lost the second. Not really satisfied with the loss on the second: the strike that they called me on was one I blocked with my elbow but was interpreted as me being struck in the body. But it was at least a good workout.
In-laws coming into town today. I tend to eat well when they’re here. I took the dogs for a longer walk this morning, and may get in some sort of training today. We might do Tang Soo Do tonight. Otherwise, Zenos tomorrow.
Oh yeah, for operation “stop being so skinny”, I crushed it last night. Valkyrie made a bison meatloaf, I asked for 3 sunny side up eggs to go alongside it, she informed me that the grease needed to be drained…and I drained it directly over the eggs. Kiddo and Valkyrie had about half the meatloaf, leaving the other half for me. Put a little grassfed cottage cheese on the side as well. And tonight is breakfast for dinner: my absolute favorite meal of the week.
slightly off topic but have you ever run or looked into any of Brian Alsruhe’s programs? seems like they’d be up your alley . . I’ve been looking at Darkhorse recently
I have! The biggest issue I’ve run into trying to implement them is how long they tend to take to run. Secondary issue is the use of the maximal effort method. Because I’m training so early in the morning, I don’t tend to employ maximal effort, because I can wake up the entire house with a dropped deadlift, haha. Same thing with atlas stones/kegs/etc. My current approach was actually inspired by Brian’s EMOM program (I bought his book), and has morphed into what it is now.
I call Brian a friend. I actually bought him the Ironmind Axle he uses in his videos, haha. He had come back from surgery, and I wanted him to have something pretty to set PRs on.
Very much appreciate your advice! and even though it’s not boxing, “in the ring” experience is gold. Few folks I know have been in that setting, regardless of specific discipline.
I looked at easy strength and it looks awesome: I’d like to run it eventually but there might be a learning curve for me. WS4SB had me too focused on window dressing in the early part of the prep.
Went with the “newest” version of 531 - the one Vincent D recently published over at elite FTS. Not sure if you’ve seen it, but it’s 531 based off Preplin’s chart. It’s like a combo of Beyond and Advanced 531. I bet you’d dig it.
@TX_iron Very much appreciate those words. Thanks for the shout on the 5/3/1 permutation: the truth is, if you can run that, you definitely don’t need a learning curve for Easy Strength. Dan lays out similar parameters, “No more than 10 reps per lift per day”. One of my big discoveries when running Easy Strength was how much it was EXACTLY like what Jim lays out for main work, so much so that I feel like you could quite easily map both programs onto each other. Definitely excited to see how things go for you. Boxing is just always awesome. Be sure to check out @PowPowPunishment 's log as well: he’s currently undergoing boxing training while lifting.
@ajb5478 it’s worth appreciating that @FlatsFarmer is more referencing a forum phenomenon/meme wherein we’ve had a rash of people start logs with that program only to fall off the forums in the middle of it. @alex_uk has take on the Dark Horse on occasion and live to tell. I ran the press portion of it at one point and ran into the issues I spoke about previously, but dug the idea of it.
@ajb5478 i don’t believe i’ve ever commited to a full program of DarkHorse, but i’ve definitely tried some of the sessions and they’re really, really hard. Definitely a step up in workload from most programs.
Yo, caught up here again. I noticed a few occurrences of “slept in” and compare that to a couple years ago when you typically slept about 4 hours per night.
What’s your typical sleep like these days?
I know it’s different for everyone. There have been times I’ve run on very little, but these days if I’m much below 8 hours average per night for a full week, I feel like crap.
@ajb5478 if you want to run it, go for it, that stands out for me as the absolute peak my strength and physique and decent level of CV fitness.
It is however as noted a hard program and each session if done as prescribed is long, I did all of the mandatory work in the prescribed model but don’t think I did the optional accessory work more than 2 or 3 times throughout the program. I used a timer to keep myself honest, and probably my biggest memory from that time is lying on the floor sweating profusely and hating the noise of that timer going off telling me to get up and do another set (I think the first week or two I allowed slightly more leeway because of just mostly running 531 for years - this is a different animal).
Of course you can sandbag and make life easier for yourself and I know that some sessions I would have gone easier on the 10 mins hard conditioning, maybe some times necessarily, but more realistically probably mental weakness at the time.
It was absolutely the best results I’ve ever got in the shortest space of time, I absolutely intend to repeat it at some point, but I need to be at a point in life where I can commit to the sessions and recovery - I think I averaged 75 mins per session without the optional work and then spent probably a good hour afterwards trying to get back to a normal body temperature, before I could shower (no point showering if you come out sweating still).
TLDR: dark horse is hard and effective, do it commit to it and you’ll reap the benefits, don’t underestimate it.
@jdm135 Healing has been pretty big on getting my sleep fixed, rather than the other way around amazingly. Previously, I was in a perpetual “fight or flight” state, with cortisol and adrenaline always jacked up, and I could barely sleep for 20 minutes at a time before waking up. Getting my hormones fixed meant I could actually get some sleep. But interestingly enough, with a carnivore approach to nutrition, I find I don’t require the sleep quantity I used to before this whole situation. I get in about 6 hours of quality sleep each night on weeknights. On weekends, that may stretch to about 6.5. I’ll remain in bed until my Valkyrie wakes up, and can rest/doze during that time. But before I was healed, I was sleep avoidant. Sleeping was legit the hardest thing I did every day. I HATED going to sleep because I was so bad at it. Now, I’m sleep seeking, and it’s such a good change.
@alex_uk Appreciate you swinging by and discussing!
AM WORKOUT (0425 wake up via alarm, slept in with day off work)
Keeping it quick, because in-laws are in town and life is fast right now, but got this done. The doubles were solid on the pressing. Kept it struggle free, just to keep grooving positive reps. Very Easy Strength. The Zenos keep being magical, because I keep thinking I don’t have it in me, only to find out I am absolutely strong enough to get it done. Each week I progress. This was a hard as hell workout. My hip held out really well, but on rep 9 of the set of 315 you can see it buckle on the first attempt. I am incredibly pleased to hit a beltless close stance high bar 10x315 squat: that is a HUGE turn around from where I re-started this whole process.
