We stayed up late last night, watching “Hadestown” and then having to drive home. Got to bed around midnight, dog woke us up at 0630, I took him to the couch and dosed until about 0830. Ended up skipping breakfast due to schedule, and hit this workout before heading out the door to Tang Soo Do. So despite trying last week, the context is such that this is a PR.
Honestly had a logistic issue to contend with: the mats moved around enough that I was under the garage door motor and kept smashing it with the weights. Cost me some time. In general, this is working how I want it to: I’m getting more comfortable cleaning and being strong pressing an axle. Should ideally carry over to the comp.
As mentioned, an “accidental” coffee fasting day, but since the goal is leaning out, this works out well. We took in another show today, and went out to Texas Roadhouse, where I showed restraint and only got the full rack of ribs (no sauce) with some sour cream, along with a small serving of eggs and cheese salvaged off my dinner salad and the meat and cheese out of my chili. I’ll have a yogurt and Metabolic Drive before bed.
TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR Week 3, Workout 1, Part 1
SSB front squats
4x2x280
ALTERANTE w/
Axle strict press from rack
4x2x193
Chins between sets
Notes:
Chaos is the plan. I have Mon and Tues off work, and I realized that, if I got in my lifting today, I could lift on Tuesday and stretch it out to be able to deadlift later in the day vs speeding through it in the morning. I’m splitting this workout in 2, doing the lifting on Sunday and the carries on Monday. Then will squat and press in a workout and deadlift on another on Tues. Then play around with conditioning and lifting for the rest of the week.
This went well. Squats felt great, knee is happy, hip is doing well, chins were strong. Bodyweight dropping helps. Belt is fitting better.
Got in a 3 mile walk with a weight vest this morning as well, taking the puppy around. I’m able to move faster with my knee healthier.
Been bad about getting in my daily hangs: need to bring that back.
Tonight was the family meal. “American Goulash”, and then a small slice of the Valkyrie’s peppermint cheesecake and 2 of her cookies with some raw honey. Also, I’ve picked up some full fat skyr to continue my experiments with, and some “No Salt” potassium powder, per the recommendation of Jon Heck. …Jon Heck, Jon Anderson, John Meadows, Dan John…what is the “Jon/John” connection here with awesome advice.
Yes, that’s my “Legend of Zelda” shirt. It’s the 40th anniversary.
TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR Week 3, Workout 1, Part 2
3 rounds of 150lb sandbag carries
Pick bag, carry there and bag, run there and back, repeat for a total of 3 times
Notes:
Day off for the holiday, no weigh in, and a leisurely morning. Put away the Christmas decorations, went up and down the stairs a bunch of times, and then got this knocked out during some downtime.
Coming in fresh allowed me to really get in some good picks and runs. Trying to focus more on moving the feet quickly under the load now.
Got in a 1:30 hold tonight. Taking a break tends to allow for better results.
We went out for breakfast, to give the Valkyrie a break. First Watch. Got the “inspired Italian” omelet (Italian sausage, mozzarella and parmesan) topped with some sour cream alongside 2 sunny side up eggs, 4 turkey sausage links, and my kiddos pork sausage from their meal.
For dinner, it was “Cook’s night out” to support my kid’s school, which was Buffalo Wild Wings. Got 3 burger patties with swiss and an order of 6 wings, no sauce/rub. Also had about 1 more burger patty from what my kid left over. Today was the first day I had some legitimate hunger, and I imagine it was because the breakfast was a bit smaller than what I’d do if left to my own devices. Tomorrow, I intend to lift but also employ the coffee fasting, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m also including the Skyr/greek yogurt more regularly with the evening meal at this point. Once again: will monitor and see.
Dr. Robert Cywes did an excellent job of breaking this for me. In a podcast with Robert Kiltz, he asked “You ever have a dog? How many times did you feed it a day? Twice? In between the times your dog was eating, did you say ‘my dog is fasting?’ Or was he just ‘not eating?’
TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR Week 3, Workout 2
AM WORKOUT (0510 wake up via Valkyrie’s alarm)
SSB Front Squats
3x2x280
ALTERNATE w/
Axle strict press from rack
3x2x192+1 push press per set
PM WORKOUT (1330)
(4) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
19x425
ASSISTANCE CIRCUIT
Reverse hyper/standing ab wheel/band pull aparts
3x15x360/3x10/3x33
Notes:
Had the day off work, so slid this into today’s training slot and also broke it into 2 workouts. In between AM and PM, I repaired my fence, that was damaged during a recent storm, so still some decent activity.
I normally spend a little more time in the AM allowing my body to limber up, but I time crunched it this morning knowing that, if I hurried, I could get in half the lifting before needing to get my kid ready for school. Squats were a little stiff and press was a little weak on the first set as a result, but I found my groove.
Those mat pulls felt incredible. Really feeling my old self on them. My left hip felt great going in, and then I felt where it twinges around rep 12. This whole cycle, I’ve been forced to cut those follow on sets off and, in turn, have been doing really awesome week after week, so I may treat this as a feature rather than a bug. I failed on an attempt at 20, but that was more because I knew fighting for it was going to do more harm than good.
Off schedule, so coffee fasted today even with the weight training. With how stupidly cold it is right now, it’s been nice to have the hot beverage.
Weighed in at 85.4kg. 2 days post carb up, and with eating out for both meals yesterday, I’m really in a good way as far as leaning out goes. This week will be a little screwy with nutritional schedule, but I’ll figure it out as I go.
Tang Soo Do sparring tonight. Want to try some new stuff this year, with my knee in a better way.
Our dog is a foster dog in training from the Australian Border Forcer, so there are very strict rules as to what we can and can not feed him. We do not feed our dog treats, We do not use food for any of his training exercises either. I have no idea what other people feed their dogs but I see a lot of very overweight dogs. I love that fact that the industry has coined the phrase ‘treat’ like giving the dog something extra to eat is a good thing. We even use this phrase as humans, ‘I’m going to treat myself to xxxxxxx tonight’ Maybe that also contributes to the overweight humans I see too.
I just figure, if nothing else, from a scheduling standpoint, it’s tough. Unless folks come home from work to feed it lunch, twice a day usually shakes out because you feed it in the morning and then in the evening. I imagine the lack of exercise is a big part of the issue, as people won’t take themselves for walks let alone their dog. They then buy it the cheapest dog food, made of filler and junk and free feed them because they don’t want to research how much food to actually give their dogs.
My wife worked at a veterinary clinic for a while. Dude had a fat dog. The dog food said “1 cup a meal, 2 meals per day”. Owner SWORE up and down he was following the instructions…only for them to later learn he didn’t realize “cup” meant MEASURING CUP, and he was basically feeding his dog a 7-11 Big Gulp’s worth of food per meal because that was his “cup”
This is why Layne Norton has the word “Don’t treat yourself with food: you aren’t a dog”. It made since when food was scarce. Now I like treating myself with a walk…also like a dog…
I think education is a big part of it, you are spot on in that people don’t know how much or what to feed them and therefore end up overfeeding.
People will literally feed their dogs pizza ! If you ask them why they often say things like 'ahh he really likes it" . No idea how you can tell if a dog like sit, but then my dog will literally eat bird shit off the pavement so I guess Pizza would be a massive upgrade.
Though today was a training day, I fasted through dinner, because my schedule is a little screwy. What I did for my dinner was beef cheeks. I smoked them to 165 first, and then braised them in a combination of leftover kalua pork stock and beef stock. Was able to do the whole thing in my Ninja Woodfire. They very well may have been some of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten, and, in turn, some of the most SATIATING things I’ve ever eaten, because I only made it through half of what was on my plate before I find myself legitimately content. COULD I have eaten more: absolutely. But I no longer had any hunger. It’s leading me to believe these things may be quite nutrient packed with all the collagen/connective tissue.
According to my thermometer, I didn’t braise them fully to 202 degrees, so it means there’s room for even more tenderness and breakdown, but these were still quite fantastic to me, and I’ve got leftovers for the next 2 nights as a result.
