Axle Clean and Strict Press away
5xAxle
5x136
5x151
5x171 (out of the rack…killed my spirit to do so, but I can FINALLY clean again, and I didn’t want to push it)
50 total band pull aparts accomplished between sets
SUPPLEMENTAL/ASSISTANCE
10 rounds of
5x136 Axle clean each rep and strict press
10 dips
5 chins
Accomplished in 19:30
PROWLER
1 round of low handles w/50lbs loaded
1 round of high handles w/90lbs loaded
1 round of backwards drag w/140lbs loaded
Time: 19:30
POST WORKOUT SHAKE
Poundstone Curls
220xAxle
Notes:
Today was a good “proof of concept” day. The biggest limiting factor of me running Hardgainers was finding a spot to run the prowler that allowed for my “o’dark stupid” workouts. This MOSTLY worked. I timed it, and it’s a 3 minute drive to the spot I run to, so honestly about a “rest time interval” to get there, which is clutch. It’s MOSTLY quiet, BUUUUT there is a fishing dock there, and just my luck: some dude pulled up in a pick up truck with a boat to go fishing as I was doing the backwards drag. There’s MORE than enough space there that it SHOULDN’T be an issue, but dude turned his truck on me, blinded me for a pro-longed period with his high beams, then drove his truck INTO MY PROWLER PATH just to roll down his window and say “I was curious what you were up to. That noise scared me! So…working out?” I replied “YES!” with the appropriate amount of frustration, to which he got indignant and said “Oh, well I’ll get out of your way then” and drove off. You can’t make this stuff up. On the plus side, that means I can probably get in a little more prowler work without interruption next time.
Big highlight was being able to do cleans with the axle again. My forearm/bicep is really coming along. I was still pretty tentative though, and after succeeding with 151 and knowing my plan was to clean each rep of the supplemental work, I didn’t want to push my luck and took 171 out of the rack. Violates my principles, but chaos is the plan.
That supplemental/assistance circuit worked out well. Went with effectively 2 minute rounds, and would rest for the remainder of the round before starting again. My Dungeons and Dragons background comes out with Jim’s programming, because I’m a total rules lawyer. I got in 50 chins and 100 dips this way, and I picked only one movement, BUT I also got in 50 cleans by doing it like this, which “doesn’t count” for the assistance work…but let’s be real, it counts. Solid metabolic effect. And still meeting my 20 minute timer. Really digging that.
Just because time got away from me, I settled on Poundstone curls as a finisher. Also, Mrs opted to sleep in this morning, so I didn’t want to be crashing weights for hardcore conditioning at the end, but it was a little weird for me to finish the workout not totally gassed. Granted, the prowler work did a solid job there. I would just do the run, load the plates, and move on to the next. I’m still on that super long parking lot, so I’m just pushing all the way down and coming back.
On that note, I’m really glad I figured out a way to bring low handle pushes back into the rotation. They’re just a different animal, and they make up stupid strong. Next time, I need to start out wearing the harness so I can bring that in as well. I’d throw it in at the end, but I wasted time fussing with it before ultimately deciding to just go with reverse drags.
The Poundstone curl performance today was a testament to the effectiveness of Surge, because WITHOUT it in my system, those curls were tough. However, I think that also speaks to it being a good idea for me to limit my usage of it. I imagine the injuries I accumulated were a result of being able to push FAR beyond my normal limits. It’s good to have a governor.
Will get in TABEARTA later, and maybe some remaining daily work.
Totally forgot that I planned on getting jumps in as well. I’ll need to be better about that.
I’m getting blood lipids taken tomorrow, so I have to fast starting at 1930 tonight. I’m more writing that so that I remember, because my mornings are so auto-pilot these days that I’ll make and eat breakfast otherwise. I may choose to sleep in and just do TABEARTA in the morning, so that I’m not spending a ton of time NOT eating, or I might make tomorrow a weighted vest walk day.
But while I’m rambling, fleshing out plans for the remainder of Hargainers. I’m loving the supplemental/assistance circuits idea I’ve come up with. I feel it’s blending a lot of good ideas together. In that regard, deads were seeming a touch anemic as just 5x5 FSL, but now I have the idea of including that IN a circuit and I imagine it’ll be pretty awesome. Right now I’m leaning toward Deads, weighted dips and then perhaps chins, shrugs or some sort of row. For the lower body, part of me is thinking of something really diabolical and ending the workout with 100 KB snatches or something like that. I dig the idea of something STUPID high rep at the end to really put the hypertrophy kiss on the workouts. Since it’s just 5x5 FSL, that means the rest of the assistance work already has to be in the 20 rep range to get me to the top end of 100 reps. Another thought could be 5 deads-20 burpee chins-repeat. Trick would be to not go too light on the burpee chins. I also thought about 100 walking lunges afterwards. But, in general, just going to make this terrible.
Bench will, once again, just be kinda lame. I DO think I wanna bring back incline DB benching, and then I can just turn right around and do some rowing with those dumbbells and call it good. Otherwise, I could try to speed through the main work so that I have time to do something nasty for the assistance work.
My appetite is through the roof. I missed my calling a a 308er.
I love how people want to have a conversation in the middle of your training to answer a question that they have already worked out the answer too. I think it is cool that people want to say hi and better than them ignoring you and then complaining about you behind your back. But it seems like the better way to handle this would be to observe without interrupting and then say ‘Nice work buddy, enjoy your workout’ as they drove past without stopping you.
@simo74 Yup. I do poorly with obvious questions in general, but shine some high beams in my face for 3 minutes while I’m trying to pull a prowler and then park your goddamn truck in the middle of my path so you can ask me one and I become a downright a-hole, haha. The lengths I go to so that I DON’T have to deal with people and they STILL come find me…
PM WORKOUT (1620)
TABEARTA
20 standing ab wheels
40 reverse hypers
25 pushdowns
30 GHRs
Neck work
Notes: TABEARTA was actually pretty tough today. May be experiencing some fatigue accumulation. Darndest thing.
The question or comment I get a lot from tradies or people visiting neighbours when I am walking up and down the road with my sandbag on a Saturday morning is “that looks heavy”.
No sh$t sherlock. I literally am beet red and look like I am going to burst a vein in my neck when I carry it. I usually just say ‘it is’ and then go back to trying to breath.
Dude I shit you not with this one:
I was doing one of Brian’s mental conditioning challenges with a keg carry years ago and a neighbour came out to offer me his handcart!
@bjiral I appreciate that sentiment dude. Nothing will ever be perfect, but I like the direction I am taking this. Trying to blend Mass Made Simple into Hardgainers.
@Koestrizer Hah! That’s a total “Jesus in the desert” kinda moment there. In the middle of a mindset challenge, someone offers temptation.
@TrainForPain Yeah, I saw that the Surge challenge protocol was having folks use 3 doses a day and was curious if I was missing out on anything with my conservative approach, but it definitely seems a little goes a long way. My insulin sensitivity is WAY jacked up. I am frequently finding myself sweating after many meals, haha.
@cyclonengineer In fairness, I never went above a single dose BEFORE training, but concur: it doesn’t take much. With you and I being brothers in low-carb arms, I imagine even moreso.
AM WORKOUT (0545 wake up via wife’s alarm) FASTED
TABEARTA
Notes:
Had to get a 12 hour fasted blood lipids profile this morning, so I slept in and just hit a bare basics. I felt like week 1 of the program worked out best for that. I have Tang Soo Do tonight, and might get in some burpee chins or daily work or something, but otherwise, I got SOMETHING in. I also packed a TON of food for after the blood draw, and now that it’s done I am tearing through it.
Got in 49 burpee chins in 5 minutes. 50 in 5:07. Good chunk of daily work, now waiting on Tang Soo Do. Still building the airplane as I fly with the program; thinking I will chew through bench mainwork THEN hit up prowler and see how much time I have remaining to figure out upper body assistance
Bench press continues to be a source of ennui. Chunked through the main work so I could get to the prowler in a timely fashion. Contemplating just doing a run with incline at some point for the sake of something different. The 1 minute rests added some challenge. All that said, 5x5/3/1 is the right prescription for sure on this program. I know Jim liked that with Building the Monolith as well.
Adding the harness to the prowler work is a fantastic move. My intention was to use it with 140lbs, but I was moving too quick through the workout and forgot to load extra weight. Something for next time, but I wasn’t lacking in punishment from this course of action. I like how this scales in difficulty while the weight increases. Starting with the low handles is a great wake up call.
Had a few courses of action mapped out for upper body work based on time availability, and burpee chins won due to high speed/low drag. So I think, moving forward, I’m going to make this a weight vest exercise. I can pre-load the vest and throw it on as soon as I get back. Be an easy way to scale and make this progressable. I dig how burpee chins are fitting within the prescribed assistance parameters: 100 push ups and 100 chin ups. I still would like to get in some DB incline benching, but it’s always a question of logistics.
Still didn’t get in the jumps. Need to break that habit. I’m at least getting stuff like that in during Tang Soo Do.
Still working out the gameplan for tomorrow. PR set deads needs no intro. 5x5xFSL I’m figuring out how to rope into a conditioning circuit with upper body to turn it into a complex. Got a few plans there. After that, I’m debating between 100 walking front rack lunges OR the death march
I actually dig how the death march would continue to reinforce the motor pattern of the deadlift that day. I’m a little miffed at how I’m not giving my quads enough love compared to if I did some lunge type movement, but there’s always conditioning avenues. In fact, I can quit being such a martyr about that and realize that TABEARTA is getting me some reps and, if I really want, I can get in some ABCs or something else like that instead. Still doing everything I can to “rules lawyer” the assistance work on this program.
Continuing discussions about “this program”, I’m not even a week in, but so far I dig it. BUUUUUUUUUT, I can see how this program could really fall flat for a trainee who doesn’t have a background in pushing themselves. I loved “the puzzle” that Jim presented by leaving it so open for me to play with. “20-30 minutes of prowler? How BAD can I make that? 50-100 reps EACH for assistance work? Oh game on!” But absent that psychosis, you could easily just walk with a prowler for 20-30 minutes and do 50 flat DB benches with the pink dumbbells, some curls (of COURSE it’s curls) and some crunches and say “this program sucks”. And really, most folks just don’t do the prowler work anyway. But if you actually seek out the misery in this program, it rewards you. And godDAMN does it make you hungry.
This is really impressive Pwn. Your combined strength and muscle endurance is extremely good. Hitting this weight for one set of 5 is solid but to do it 5 times with only 60 sec rest between is So Next Level.
That’s it I am definitely throwing this hat in the bin. LOL
@SvenG My brother in misery! We’re no good for each other, haha.
@simo74 You are the ultimate hype-man. Thanks for always being in my corner.
Got in TABEARTA along with all my daily work. It’s a good day. Deadlifts tomorrow. I’ve got the low handle trap bar set up for main work and a follow on plan for the axle for supplemental. I feel like that might be a good solution going forward. Also had a surf and turf burger of bison and shrimp, which is a fantastic meal before deadlifts. Or any time.
