I feel ya man, it can be fatiguing trying to write stuff out without sounding like a total pessimist. Heal up dude.
1 Like
Logging training when itās going bad is hard. I struggle to motivate myself to do that as well but on the other hand it is a great way to vent and get some of the frustration out of your system (for me it often turns into a pointless rant).
More importantly there is a huge benefit to logging these times. To look back, analyze and learn. To get some input from others to points you arenāt seeing yourself right now in your frustration.
Training has up and downs. The ups are brief and glorious, the downs are painful and seem to take forever to get over. And then you have the times in which you are just treading water. Those are the bulk of your training. They donāt feel special, you might not feel like you are progressing, but they are the bread and butter of doing this for the long run. This is something that MarkKo explained to me.
1 Like
Agreed 100% however, I try to remind myself that this is the value of the community. āAtta boysā are nice when things are going well, but the value is trouble shooting when things arenāt.
2 Likes
Absolutely agree! Iāve gotten so much invaluable input through logging crappy episodes of trsining or feeling shit.
2 Likes
Indeed, sometimes you have your nose in your own failures or session and donāt see the big pictures.
Plus other can tell you what was wrong or not with the vids!
1 Like
Cheers mate! I bouldered yesterday and found a really nice relaxing beta on a problem Iāve in the past just muscled through. That was neat.
I agree. But I donāt feel as if it is going bad, just that I canāt really train as intended. Not really frustrated with it, itās just transient. Iām not saying anything definitive, but as far as doing things go I tend to either do them wholesale or not at all. Logging intermittently, while on the table in theory, does not seem like a conceivable reality. Might surprise myself.
True, I donāt think Iām doing anything stupid though 
Although, maybeā¦
Mark is a very smart brutalitops. Despite Paul Carterās fall out of grace, he did have some wise words put into text. Among them was this:
80% session ā This is what most sessions are. It is getting in, getting the work done. You didnāt hit a PR, but you didnāt feel like shit either. This is what the majority of your training sessions should be like.
ā Paul Carter, Base Building p. 19
I really want to start recording my climbing but Iām not too happy about including strangers without their consent 
4 Likes
Those Paul Carter and MarkKO quotes are echoed by plenty of other smart, successful lifters. Iād quote Dan John here, but I feel Iām starting to turn into a cliche there.
2 Likes
Iām starting to think you are Dan
Wouldnāt be a bad aspiration.
1 Like
Yeah man I bet. I love when I go to the gym determined to complete a boulder problem that skunked me the previous session and proceed to just walk right up it. Itās like, āokay, yeah, Iām getting betterā in real time.
But did you orbit it?
1 Like
Wouldnāt it have orbitted him or someone else?
Classic
1 Like
TouchƩ, good sir!
1 Like
If you have After Effects itās super easy to blur faces. I know because I figured out how to do it and Iām woefully incompetent with AE and Photoshop
1 Like
Appreciate the tip. Might look into that, another aside is just remembering to ask friends to record. Iām on my phone a lot, but not in a social media sense so itās a habit Iād have to curate (i.e., consciously think ā in the moment ā āoh yeah, recordā).
1 Like
Wednesday 2020-11-04
| Exercise | Set | Reps | Weight | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Bench | -6 | 10 | Bar | |
| -5 | 8 | 45 | ||
| -4 | 6 | 60 | ||
| -3 | 6 | 65 | ||
| -2 | 6 | 70 | ||
| -1 | 4 | 75 | ||
| 0 | 1 | 80 | ||
| 1 | 6 | 70 | 120-150s | |
| 2 | 6 | 70 | ||
| 3 | 6 | 70 | ||
| B1. Decline Bench | 1 | 6 | 60 | 60s between antagonist sets |
| 2 | 6 | 60 | ||
| 3 | 6 | 60 | ||
| B2. Barbell Rows | 1 | 15 | 60 | |
| 2 | 15 | 60 | ||
| 3 | 20 | 60 | ||
| C1. Dips | 1 | 20 | bw | 60s between antagonist exercise |
| 2 | 15 | bw | ||
| 3 | 10 | bw | ||
| C2. Lat Pull-down | 1 | 9 | 2x30 | |
| 2 | 10 | 2x21.5 | ||
| 3 | 14 | 2x21.5 |
Meant to do 4 reps on my -2 set, oops.
| Exercise | Sets & Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| D1. Press (btn/log/db) | 3x8-10 | 45-60s |
| D2. Push-up | To failure | |
| D3. Lat raises | 3x12-15 | |
| D4. BPAs | 3x20 | |
| E. Machine Incline Press | 1x99 | 57/18/24 |
Good quick session. Should be possible to add some ab-work to this. Was glad to be able to do this back work without aggravating my elbow. Straps and conscientious hand placement helped.
Shoulder is iffy today on the day after. Wondering if the dips are the culprit or the decline bench. Will continue and see if it perpetuates.
2 Likes
As a follow-up to this, to create some room for healing Iāll do
- U/L/U/L (main lift inspired)
- 3-4 work sets on the main lift in the 4-6 range
- Less heavy might be good for the tendons
- First hit 3 sets for 6 reps and then add a final set
- Triple progression?
- Maintain āskillā with āheavyā weights by doing that single at ~90%.
for a while.
Hereās my weight trend for last month
it ended up being too aggressive. I ended up going from
21 Sept
6th Nov
This has set of all kinds of unwelcome thought patterns, and it went from āthis is fineā to āOMG, SO NOT OKAYā without very much tangible advance notice. To be clear, I had signs (mentally) that I was not entirely comfortable but the signal strength was unwavering so I kept at it. Then one day the signal went from 2/10 to 11/10
Iām not going to spiral out of control here, I still have made progress with regards to what I can and cannot eat but I wonāt be able to continue gaining right now without causing myself even more adverse sides. Iāll be eating a bit cleaner and continuing to move and itāll clear up in two-three months if experience is any guide. Then Iāll simply have to resign to adopting a more piecemeal approach to digging myself out of this hole that Iām in.
Still waiting to get referred to the eating disorder clinic. Had an appointment with a doctor today as a preliminary screen to evaluate what instance within our health care system will be best equipped to help me out.
4 Likes
I feel you mate. I also spiral out of control too easily, so now I shy away from bulks. And yeah, 4 kgs in less than a month is way too quick. It would mess me up big time as well mentally and in terms of eating habits
1 Like
Haha yeah, well, hopefully this time Iāll learn. Or rather I very much intend to not make the same mistake again. Iāve done this mistake in the past. Fortunately it shouldnāt take too long to clean up so I can have another go and continue my fixing of mental habits. I just donāt view my current state as a good starting point to continue down that path. Iām setting out to reduce the number of things that detract from my mental health and I know that feeling as if I look good isnāt that far away. More or less just 4 kilos 
I guess you and I are fortunate here, being fairly active, we donāt have to constrain calories too much when we want to lean out. The activity level takes care of that.
1 Like