Glad to hear you say you are feeling more positive. Hopefully with the job change starting this week, I will be saying the same thing too.
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I am definitely rooting for you, buddy! In any case I think it’s great that you have the necessary level of self observation and sensibility to notice the effect the situation has on you and in turn the effect you have on your loved ones because of it and then furthermore the courage to take action and follow through on what needs to change.
There’s so many examples of people’s home lifes tanking because of their job situation and them either not noticing, not caring or not having the genitals to do something about it. Setting a good example my man.
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Felt under the weather today. Maybe coming down with something? I sincerely hope I am not. The candle has been burning on both ends lately.
1 oh squats
4 x 6 @ 70 kg
2 power jerk
5 x 3 @ 107,5 kg
Elbow played along really nicely today.
3 front squats
3 x 5 @ 117,5 kg
First set all 5 with two finger clean grip 2nd 2 reps, 3rd 3 reps.
4 bent over row (doh)
3 x 10 @ 95 kg
5 hollow holds
2 x 45 sec.
Notes:
- training is providing a vital stress relief right now
- everything moved easy. Well front squats didn’t necessarily but they also remain front squats so they are kinda always hard.
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Here we go: It’s surprisingly difficult to map out a concrete description of my training plan since it’s custom made and changes on a weekly basis.
This off season has been all about bringing up my static strength, which is my main weakness and also I didn’t have much equipment available to work on other goals. The last few months have been spent on that. In more detail: I’d say my off season consisted of two macro cycles: A and B
A followed my last comp. It was spent working with lighter weights and improving power, hypertrophy and some muscular endurance, as well as going through a body recomposition (diet). Unluckily I hurt my lower back in that phase.
B was spent on improving my static lifts by focusing on 1-2 lifts at a time for each mesocycle. First was the deadlift, then log and squat, then overhead press. Each cycle is about 8-12 weeks long.
During those cycles the lift in focus is trained with very high frequency (3-4 times a week) and mixed intensities. To account for that, the other lifts are being trained on the back burner with medium frequency and low intensity but assistance lifts are being kept and trained at reasonably high to medium intensity to account for that.
We did kind of a fatigued peak at the end of those cycles, which allowed me to establish new maxes but it wasn’t a full on comp prep and some left over fatigue was kept for most of these.
In general Paul likes to utilize a high frequency (I always train full body), 4 times a week.
Does that help to shine some light on the planning side of things? If not, please feel free to ask more questions.
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This just further accentuates my preference for high frequency with athletes seeing your results
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For me it is an eye opening revelation to train this way. I have never trained that way before and now have been doing it for so long that I feel I couldn’t go back, haha. Definitely showed me what my body was capable of in a good way. Including more extreme stuff, like deadlifting 4 times a week, which would probably be deemed excessive by 14 out of 15 coaches.
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Another addition to that is while I can train others in that way I could absolutely not coach myself with that frequency. For example looking at my current cycle I could not bring myself to drop the deadlifts that low intensity wise, which is absolutely necessary for the big picture.
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That’s great, thank you!
Of course the high frequency jumps out, but I didn’t see the way some lifts were toned down while 1 or 2 were emphasized. That seems smart! I can see how it’s mentally tough to deadlift light or focus on RDLs just as you were feeling strong, but it’s interesting to see an extended “rest” with light practice for one lift while something else is pushed.
Periodization and long term planning seems so complicated, until you actually see it play out. Do “this” for awhile, then do “that.” Easy!
Are you in the beginning of a “C” macrocycle now? Are you back to focusing on hypertrophy and body composition with all the assistance lifts? Or is this just a short recovery period after you last peak?
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This one is the key aspect to that approach but it can freak you out mentally. Which is why I wouldn’t dare to coach myself this way.
The latter. I would say this is the introduction to my power jerk peak. Assistance is never fully dropped because as with the fatigued peaking, we need to have the big picture in mind as well and not only the short term boost.
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Ahah even with having observed the process you went through? Indeed I’d have trouble myself if I don’t write up the weight/percentage before going in… it’s way harder to go light!
Feeling fitter today. Well I did going in.
1 deadlifts (power bar, beltless)
4 x 6 @ 160 kg
2 log lift (clean once)
4 x 5 @ 96 kg
3 vertical jumps
5 x 3
4 floor press
3 x 8 @ 105 kg
5 meadows rows
3 x 10 @ 40 kg
- hip is healing finally.
- elbows felt very good. Making progress here.
- the front squat DOMS were just exquisite…
Too tired for more details.
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Made the executive decision to skip the remaining two sessions for this week. By now it’s clear I am getting sick and it’s the responsible decision. Hopefully that prevents me from getting more sick and/ or for longer. Plus I have exams coming up and want to meet the girl I am seeing on the weekend. No real rest because I have to study and work constantly though. So just eliminating the stressors I can.
Don’t get me wrong I absolutely hate it and am still going back and forth in my head. Hopefully by writing it down, I will stick with the decision.
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Good, this is good.
Don’t worry, pretty much everyone hates deload/skipping days. But it’s for the better. It’s not like you will lose progress or anything. On the contrary, I think this is the right call if you feel sick and next time you’ll destroy these weights with even more eagerness
True mate. Still feels like chickening out of it. Plus it’s the only pleasant thing I do right now during the week. Still I know it is the right call.
Will drink a fuck load of tea now and take ibuprofen and hopefully crush next week.
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I received the results of my blood test from the 5th of March.
My vitamin D3 level is at 11 ug/l (normal range is 20-100). So that is actually very low. Right after that test I started supplementing vitamin D3 at a dose of 10.000 IU daily. Which one doctor found shocking and another found curiously high but not dangerous. She advised to monitor closely if I’m taking a dose like that. The next test won’t be before summer likely.
A friend of mine who is pretty read up on that stuff sent me a calculator which is supposed to tell me how long a certain dose of intake needs to bring my levels up to value X.
According to that it will actually take me more than a year to reach a level of 60 u/l if I keep the dose at 10.000 IU daily. I don’t know how trusted that source is but if he is correct, I should probably up the dose even more. Any thoughts? I was thinking I’ll wait for the next blood test and see if the levels are rising and at which speed.
Other than that thrombocytes are a bit low. That could be coincidence. I already had a follow up blood test and EKG on Wednesday (that didn’t measure D3), so we’ll see if it is a trend. It’s a specific blood test so not that important of a marker for overall health, but all that was measured is in range otherwise.
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11ug/l is REALLY low
Given your body weight and lack of sun exposure, I wouldn’t be surprised if you need that much.
Not a dr, but I asked mine about high dose supplementation. She said that as long as I wasn’t experiencing symptoms and my levels are normal/low, keep at it.
As an anecdote , I was taking 4-6000iu a day, I weight probably less than 1/2 what you do and my levels were still only Low- mid range (very low risk of overdose)
How low? Are you having symptoms? The “diagnostic” range is quite a bit higher than clinical range and doctors generally ignore “technically low” numbers unless the patient is symptomatic. There might also be issues with the test. The coagulant used in the test tubes can sometimes cause platelet clumping, which artificially lowers platelet numbers
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Ever so slightly below normal. No idea what kind of symptoms I should be looking out for. For now I am just meant to check on it.
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You’re probably fine then. Look up thrombocytopenia for a list of symptoms if you’re interested
Also, regarding vitamin d. Mum is wary of supplements and the dr suggested she go to a tanning salon and tan for 8-10min… no shit
If you have access and are wary of overdose, you could cut down o supplement and go for a short tan 
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Yeah well above clinical levels still. Just something new showing up that has to monitored. As it was one variable that was constantly checked for during cancer treatment, I figure doctors are just a bit extra mindful of stuff like that.
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Did you have lymphoma or leukemia?
I think chemo can also deplete platelet count right?
This stuff is fascinating to me 