Very late session. Got home today after nearly 14 hours so I was pretty tired, especially since sleep hasn’t been too good this week. Not sure why as the total sleep hours were not that low. Somehow it feels like my sleep lacks quality and isn’t as refreshing as it should be for some time now. Weird.
1 front squats
50 kg x 5 -paused
57,5 kg x 5 - paused
65 kg x 10
70 kg x 1
80 kg x 5 (belted)
2 EMOM front squats triples at 60 kg
between 12 and 15 sets/ rounds.
Lost count and camera died. Felt like 25 rounds though. Stopped as soon as I had to really grind through a rep.
3 kettlebell swings (as little rest between sets as possible)
10 x 10 with 28 kg
Notes:
front squats felt and looked horrible. The plus set was a joke with 10 reps. The belt didn’t help as much as I thought in my joker set with 80 kg.
since I felt like I didn’t accomplish much I came to the conclusion that I need to punish myself with the EMOM front sqauts.
massive glute pump from the swings. Legs and glutes are jelly by now and walking will be funny tomorrow.
I will overhead press tomorrow and will probably deadlift as late as next week. I really can’t dedicate as much time and energy to training as I would like at the moment. I have a lot on my plate and quite a lot of stress. I do what I can to fit training in but I would hope for it to be better. It is what it is though and I will still give it all I can!
Also it is pretty sad and embarrassing by how much I “out-bench” my front squat. If we are talking about rep efforts I even “out-push press” it by a good bit…
I am constantly feeling tired and drained when training
bad effort on the strict press
push presses were easy, just a little problems with stability
let us just hope that next week is going to be better. I am thinking of taking an early deload. I will wait up my deadlift workout and then reevaluate the situation.
So, my time off continues to probably the weekend.
I think I lately bit off a little more than I could chew. I have worked just too much, put too much pressure on myself and had more stress than what is good for me. Training hasn’t felt quite right a lot of times. I am tired all the time. When training I basically only have energy for one exercise because I feel like I am falling asleep right after I am done with this first exercise. My body has given me plenty of signals that it is time to slow down. In relation to training that has been a lack of excitement and effort as well as increased joint pain (knees, elbows and upper back).
Also I am sick right now and even though this does not necessarily have to be connected to increased stress I am quite convinced that it does in this case.
I am kind of good at keeping my head down and just pushing on, if necessary through a brick wall. However I have now decided that I need to re evaluate my priorities.
I will take less shifts at my second job (after all I do have a main job and university studies). I need to take some because I need the money but I also want to have more time for myself and more time for training and studying and the weekends for my girlfriend.
However there is a positive side to this situation. I am nearly untouched mentally by all this stress. As most of you know I was diagnosed with serious depression and anxiety disorder a while ago. My progress has been so good that even great stress does not trigger any of the symptoms I get from my mental health issues. I am pretty proud of the progress I made in this aspect of my life in general. It is not the case that I am not affected by it anymore but I have made incredible progress and have turned 180 degrees from were I have ended up.
Don’t know why I have landed were I did with this rant but it is what it is. TLDR: I am resting up until the weekend because I am sick right now and a little beat up.
Also more lifting related: I am going to change up my program a little. I have made okay progress with 5/3/1 for my front squat, good progress on my deadlift, not so good on my OHP, really great on my bench.
However I feel like I need a change of pace, since I want to shift my focus between the lifts I use and I want to try some new approaches.
The push press is going to be my main vertical pressing movement. Programming wise I am going to follow the advice from @strongmanvinny2 .
I want to increase my front squat badly. I simply have to accept that it sucks and I need to change that. I want to try something that I have never done here, just to find out if it does work.
In week A I am going heavy in the rep range from 1-5 and/ or using very close variations, like paused front squats, wrapped front squats etc.
In week B I am doing dynamic work, probably against bands, in the 10 x 3 or 10 x 2 fashion.
I am pretty excited to try an approach like this. Best case scenario is my front squats “sky rockets”, worst case: I learned something.
For the deadlift: I will switch back to conventional pulling. That means focusing a lot on execution. Program wise I will mimic what @T3hPwnisher is doing and use progressive range of motion.
I would love to hit a 180 kg sumo pull before switching though…
Unsure about bench. I think I am not going to change up what I am doing currently as it works so damn good.
trap bar carries will probably done on the front squat day and I will progress linear for as long as possible.
I am excited to see some new progression, learn new things, get stronger and spice things up again.
Glad to hear that you’re taking the stress in stride with a positive mildest to boot, that alone speaks worlds as to how far you’ve come. Training wise, have you though about reducing the total amount of work your doing? If you’re feeling beat up, you could always do something like the 2x2x2 program where you lift only 2x/week, once upper & once lower, 2 days of conditioning and 2 days of yoga/restoration. I’ve never ran it, but I programmed it for my fiancee when her schedule was tight and it seemed to allow her to keep progressing without getting burned.
Thanks man.
I am sure being more cautious and trying my best to reduce the stress that I am exposed to as much as I can control it will help a ton. I will watch out not to do too much accessory work though.
Ya man, a lot of times when I think I could be overtrained I can quickly recover by making sure I get my 8hrs sleep for a few nights and dial in my nutrition (including hydration).
But sometimes it is always nice to put a little change in your training as well, which is exactly what I’m doing for the next several weeks!
I know what I said but…
Slept very well these last nights and that alone worked wonders. After one week of not lifting and 2 weeks without deadlifts I felt good enough to go in today.
1 sumo deadlifts
2 x 120 kg
1 x 130 kg
1 x 140 kg
1 x 150 kg
1 x 160 kg
1 x 170 kg
1 x 180 kg - PR!!! PR. PR. PR.
2a banded front squats
10 x 3 with 40 kg + band tension
2b ab stuff.
Mostly 5 reps of kneeling ab wheel roll outs
Notes
I wanted this. Badly. Really wanted to finish this training cycle with this pull.
I am glad that I train alone with no one to see. I psyched myself up by going up and down and repeating over and over “ich hab das… ich hab das”, which is the exact translation of “I got this”. The funny part about is that it doesn’t really make sense to say it like that in German.
Not really happy with my form on the PR pull. My abs gave out and my positioning looked pretty ugly My SI-joint seemed to get a little aggravated. I really hope that I didn’t hurt myself. We will see tomorrow. No pain during front squats after.
Dude, if you hold form on a PR you didn’t go heavy enough.
Well that might not be absolutely true, but I break form on every PR lift, just get that damn weight moving.
Thanks man. This has been a looong time goal which I set about 2,5 years ago. I formulated my goals as 2 plate bench, 3 plate squat and a 4 plate deadlift. Ironically I thought that I would reach the deadlift first. Well, that wasn’t the case…
Haha, you are welcome to do so. . I actually communicate so much about fitness related topics and read all my information about sport and fitness in English. As a result it is actually sometimes easier for me to talk about this topic in English than in German. I think that let to “I got this = ich habe das”. I am unable to really translate why this is funny but in Germany you wouldn’t say it like this to express “I got this” you are more likely to say “Ich schaffe das!” which would more translate to “I will make/ accomplish that”.
Anyway, I am really stoked about that pull and the weird psych up, during which I must have looked even more like a lunatic than in my regular psych ups, did obviously work
1 close grip bench press
75 kg x 3
85 kg x 3
95 kg x 9
2 slingshot bench press
105 kg x 1
120 kg x 3
3 HS row machine
4 x 10 with 2 plates per side
4 push ups
BW x 8
10 kg x 8
+20 kg x 7 - PR
BW x 10
5 45° chest supported row
40 kg x 10
50 kg x 10
5 HS low row machine
1 plate per side x 20
Notes:
was pretty dehydrated coming into this, which is a stupid mistake
just didn’t have it for the plus set. Bar moved slow, weight was heavy…not the end of the world though.
slingshot set was more difficult than it should have been but after that plus set that was to be expected
happy about the push ups. To knock out 7 clean reps with a 20 kg plate on my back at this point of the workout isn’t that bad, considering that I weigh about 112 kg/ 246 lbs at the moment
Since early july I have not executed a back squat. Also the prefix ‘high bar’ has probably not even been used in this log because I can’t remember the last time I did a high bar squat.
1 high bar anderson/ pin squat
80 x 2
100 x 1
105 x 1
110 x 1
120 x 1
130 x 1 - PR (obviously for the movement since I have never done it but also for high bar squats in general!)
2a high bar anderson squats
3 x 100 kg x 3
2b bulgarian splite squat with 10 kg plate overhead
3 x 5
2c kneeling ab wheel roll outs
3 x 5
Notes:
anderson squats are hard but they seem like a great tool to work on positioning, bracing and overall tightness.
really suprised myself there. I didn’t think that I would get close to 130 kg. I thought more along the lines of 100~110 kg. Also everything today was done with absolutely zero psych up, only focused on execution.
will post a video tomorrow
this was one of my very late work outs after a terribly long day at work, so I am extra happy about my success.
Early workout before work because I have to work a little later today. Not used to training early in the morning anymore but good to throw it in every once in a while.
1a axle push press
6 x 5 with 71 kg
Dropset immediately after the sixth set:
66 kg x 8, 56 kg x 5 (only resting to change weight)
1b bent over barbell row
2 x 50 kg x 10
2 x 60 kg x 10
70 kg x 10
2a standing one arm db press
25 kg x 8
22 kg x 10
2b close grip lat pulldown
2 x 50 kg x 15
2 x 60 kg x 12
2c face pulls
3 x 20
Notes:
pretty strange feeling to train so early
shoulder got mildly angry. I attribute that to training in the morning and probably the new push press volume.
weight for the push presses was pretty easy, strength wise
dropset was okay. Didn’t cut loose completely because I first need to get a little used to this and I forfot my wrist wraps and my wrist got annoyed
Video from the push presses (1 set and the drop set):
Picture from the 1 meter pizza I ate at our company’s christmas party tonight. I wasn’t even really full after thath, which disgusted some of my co workers
My SI-joint seemed to get a little aggravated. I really hope that I didn’t hurt myself. We will see tomorrow. No pain during front squats after.
. I actually communicate so much about fitness related topics and read all my information about sport and fitness in English. As a result it is actually sometimes easier for me to talk about this topic in English than in German. I think that let to “I got this = ich habe das”. I am unable to really translate why this is funny but in Germany you wouldn’t say it like this to express “I got this” you are more likely to say “Ich schaffe das!” which would more translate to “I will make/ accomplish that”.
