Ok… new year, new you… sort of. It’s not that my training has fallen off, but it’s gone a slightly different direction due to a couple factors.
I’m working offshore half the time.
I opened up a gym back home focused on strength training, strongman, and powerlifting so for half of the time, I’ve got absolutely no excuse not to have the tools I want.
Had some inspiration from Dimitar Savatinov. We hosted him at the gym for a seminar and he was very enlightening and challenged me on a few things. The first and foremost one is that I need to rethink my training patterns and a lot of what I’ve heard. While I’ll still likely have a Conjugate bent to my training, I’ll probably be moving more to a Cube type layout with rep work.
Will be looking to focus more exclusively on strongman which means bringing up my anaerobic work capacity (I’ve been addressing this with a lot of kettlebell work).
Without further ado, here’s yesterday’s workout (which was less than I would have liked because I was training others at the same time and I’m still learning that aspect as well)
Deadlifts: 12 Singles at 385 after warmup
Kettlebell swings ladder sets down starting at 20 reps 90 lb
Reverse Hyper 3 x 20 180
That was it.
Traveled today and will be traveling tomorrow, but hopefully I can get a training session in tomorrow night.
1/23 Rep Day
5 x 3 barbell push press 205-lbs (~80% of my strict press) with no equipment
superset 5 x 12 smith machine rows @ ~205-lbs
seated barbell OHP 3 x 8 135 (wide grip)
JM presses 3 x 12 135
Reverse shoulder fly 3 x 12 35’s
landmine ab work 3 x 10 w/ 25 lb plate
Spent a lot of time warming up because some asshat had finished up in the only rack in the gym and just left all of his weight on the bar. I finally walked up to him after about 10 minutes and asked if he was done with the rack.
Been having issues with tingling and numbness in my right hand. Shoulder must be getting jacked up again. Need to spend some pre-hab/re-hab time on it.
Really happy to spend some time under heavier push presses. I’ve almost completely lost the skill of pushing and needed to get some learning done to groove the pattern. I’m having issues transferring through. My feet will almost come off the ground, but I’ll get very little push in the bar. Any tips would be appreciated.
Don’t know yet. We just opened while I was home this time. It’s going to be challenging and is pushing me to do things that I wasn’t really wanting to do (like 24-hr access). It’s still very small as far as members, so it’s more manageable at the moment. Let’s see how this goes.
1/24 Dynamic Effort Deadlifts- no belt
Had some good feedback from coaching on my form. The long and short of it- with my size (especially in the gut region) I need to utilize closer to a sumo stance for foot placement so I can get into proper position. It’s not quite a snatch grip, but it’s not far from it. These feel a lot better. Still conventional pulls though.
Working sets
10 singles at 335
2 singles at 425
Rackpulls (below knee height)
1 single at 495
3 x 3 at 405
10 minutes on bike keeping heart rate ~120
Since I’m offshore and can’t sleep 7-8 hrs, I’ll do an accessory night separate.
1/25 DE Deadlift Accessory Day
Barbell Rows
3 x 8 275
2 x 15 185
Lower back was feeling a bit taxed so I went to hang on a pullup bar. It felt kind of good, but I also felt kind of light so I decided to make a pullup attempt from dead hang. I got about 25% up and felt a pop (didn’t hear one) in the back of my right shoulder and instantly felt like I had grabbed a low voltage wire. Had to ditch planned kettlebell work and do some rehab work on my shoulder instead.
100 facepulls (light enough to do 20 reps at a time)
Shoulder is better, but not great. Spent rest of my time with a softball on the wall working through my lat and shoulder.
10 min on bike keeping heart rate ~120
Depending on how my shoulder is feeling, tomorrow may just be a full re-hab night. I haven’t been taking care of my shoulder like I should.
1/28 Rep Day Upper Body
Finally able to catch up on my sleep enough to train. Wanted to do overhead pressing, but the gym on the new rig isn’t tall enough for me to do standing OHP. Decided to do bench.
Flatbench
4 x 3 295
1 x 3 275
1 x 5 225
2 x 6 185
Narrow Grip Incline
2 x 6 185
2 x 10 135
10 minutes on stationary bike keeping HR at 120
Accessory night tomorrow!
1/29 Rep Day Upper Body part Deux
Seated military press
4 x 6 135
Barbell Rows
4 x 8 275
OH Cable Triceps Extensions
100 reps chasing pump
Ab work- standing obliques
Hadn’t planned to stay at 135 on the military presses, but have a tendon in my elbow that’s giving me a fit. Figured better to stay on the lighter side and get the work in. Hopefully I’ll get my floss in in the next couple of days and spend some time on my right arm. Between the elbow and the tingling in my fingers, it feels like garbage.
2/1 Nothing f’ing works day
After 2 nights of less than stellar sleep (4-5 good hrs at best) and a 16 hr day, I decided I was going to do a max effort day on front squats to help build my push press (potentially ill advised… but E for effort lads). I’ve also not brought out my wrist wraps because somehow after years of going offshore I can still forget necessary things.
1x5 135
1x3 185 - fingers tingling… aggravating whatever is going on in my right arm.
Switch to Zerchers
1x3 225
1x2 275 abs feeling like they’re not great
Did I ever mention that I’m neurotic about getting a hernia? Never had one, but I’ve grown more neurotic. Also not in my bag- my belt.
1x2 295 abs tingling… called it. everything felt like shit.
barbell rows
4x12 275 not great, but not feeling like the wheels are coming off
spent some time with a 60 lb kettlebell rolling around on my abs. Roll up and down a couple times and then push it up with abs about 10-12 times. Abs felt a little better afterward.
Part B comes tomorrow night… hopefully. If I can get some sleep tonight.
And somehow I missed logging a workout. Falling off already.
Anyhow… after several nights of almost no sleep I finally got about 6 hours last night and that was good enough for me to train today. Lifting heavy offshore is almost becoming impossible at the moment because of the way I have to work and the limited resources. I think I’m going to have to do some bastardized hypertrophy work out here where I can still get a lot of volume at 65 - 85%.
Two nights ago, workout went something like this:
Incline bench
3 x 6 225
2 x 8 185
3 x 12 135
Smith machine OHP (it depresses me to write that)
3 x 6 165
3 x 8 135
then some triceps work. Can’t remember exactly.
Tonight’s venture into a back day:
Barbell rows
3 x 8 315 (minimal english)
lat pulldowns
3 x 12 140
face pulls
3 x 20
dumbbell rows
3 x 12 120
2/7/19- Press your face off in 30 minutes or less day
By the time I got down to the gym, I had about half an hour to actually train before I needed to get back to my room and get ready for bed. I should have been up for a leg day, but that wasn’t going to happen in half an hour. I opted for overhead press instead. Lots less weight so working up and putting up would take less time. However, to OHP on the rig while standing, I have to do it in the Smith machine because that’s the only part of the gym where I won’t hit the ceiling with the plates.
Smith OHP (assuming 25 lb weight for the bar)
Work up to triple of 215
3 x 6 165
3 x 12 115
In the time since my last log entry, I managed to wake up with what felt like a strain in my Achilles tendon and, once again, not sleep enough. I’ve also not had the best food most of the time. The good choices out here aren’t really great, but I could still do better. And more. I need to eat more. And drink more water. I think I’m bringing pre-workout next hitch so I can half-ass manage some energy while training.
Warm up and do deadlifts
4x3 405 no belt
These actually felt good as time went on. Still working on my form since having a coaching session with Dimitar Savatinov. I’m almost in an Ed Coan sumo stance with my arms on the outside so it’s still technically conventional and starting with leg drive down deep. I think I need a lot more reps like this to really groove this feeling. I need to sit down and draw out a program that does three week waves alternating between lifting heavy and lifting lots of reps.
I missed one before coming back ashore. Pretty sure it was a back day. Back on land the 13th.
2/15/2019 Max Effort OHP Day
Got someone new that I’m training that wanted to come check out my gym. As a consequence, I had a lot more volume working my way up.
Max set- 245 for a triple (working leg drive)
Back off sets- 135 for 3x10
Barbell Rows- 3x12 225
Rolling triceps extensions- 3x12 25
OH triceps extensions- 100 reps
I’ve had the chance to use fatbells a handful of times, I really like the feeling of having them ‘center mass’ in my hands. At my gym I flip the KBs upside down to achieve this, close, but not quite the same.