Nice ride dude! I’ll have to remember to ask how you’re liking the ridgeline once you’ve gotten some use out of it. Once the lease on my civic is up I was thinking of going that route since I’ll probably get a good deal.
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Congrats on the truck!
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@simo74 Thanks dude! Absolutely happy. Been wanting a truck for a long time, and the timing was just perfect.
@flappinit Never worried about sounding like a douchey frat bro, haha. We’ve earned that. Thanks! And yeah, I had my Odyssey for 13 years and loved it. Married into a Honda family and became a big fan. Just quality vehicles.
@mr.v3lv3t Will keep you posted. So far, it’s a dream.
@Trainforpain Thanks dude!
Totally forgot to mention that today marks 5 years since I blew out my knee. Crazy how the time goes. That event was the catatylst of this log.
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Holy sh*t that’s a lot of work for one day!
So is that 100 reps with 2 x 10lbs dumbbells?
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Or 1 set of 100 reps of 10 second power cleans?!
With pwn, it’s whichever one sounds harder
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@vision1 Just making up for having to sideline my usual work there. I’m big on pushing the body hard when it fails to perform: I find it accelerates the healing process. Something I stole from Steve Pulcinella: “Paleo Rehab”
@dagill2 You got it. 1x100 with the 10s.
Kid woke me up at 0300 because of a bad dream, then dog got up at 0400. Didn’t figure it was worth trying to get back to sleep at that point.
Longest walk so far. 50+ minutes w/45lb vest. My older dog is hanging in there. Mrs says he’s looking trimmer, so it may be paying off for him. Gotta get it in before winter. I’m starting early shifts next week, so most likely won’t be able to get in such long walks, since I’ll wanna get my lifting in.
Breakfast
Chins (various grips) w/rest pause
30+8+8+7
Band pull aparts
40
Band pushdowns
25
BW reverse hypers
50
Standing ab wheel
20
GHR
30
Notes: Cut out the swings for now. My hip is feeling much better compared to yesterday, thanks to a massage from the Mrs, but still not feeling the explosive stuff first thing in the morning. If I’m feeling good later, I might mess around with the kiddo to get in some activity in that regard. Otherwise, things are feeling good, and we got a date night tonight of a good dinner and some walking around downtown. I’ve been eating out a lot recently, and will be traveling again in a week so it’ll be much the same.
Lord help me though, I’m turning into one of those “lean bulk and then minicut” dudes, because with new blood work on the horizon in Jan where we test things WITHOUT the statin, I realize I wanna show up with my best possible results, so I’ll most likely clean the diet up to a stupid degree again for the month of Dec just to show decent results. That said, if doc wants to put me on a statin still after that, I’m gonna ask for a second opinion from a cardiologist. At some point, the fact I have a heart rate in the 40s, HDL in the high 80s and triglycerides in the 40s has gotta count for something when we evaluate blood lipids.
Had some grassfed butter on my toast yesterday. Stuff is amazing. Also first butter I’ve had in months, so most likely no small coincidence there.
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AM WORKOUT (0315 Wake-up by alarm clock: working early shift)
SUPERSETS (press-chin): 90 second rests between last 2 sets
Axle strict press
5xAxle
5x66
3x146
3x166
5+2+1x186 (rest pause)
11x186
Chin (underhand)
3x55
3x80
3x105
3x110
2x3x115
GIANT SETS (dip/DB press OR press/dip-raise-pull apart): 90 second rest between sets
Weighted dips 105/DB press 50s
1x12/failure
1x11/failure
1x9/failure
BtN press 120/dips
1x10/failure
1x9/failure
1x8/failure
DB lateral raise 15
2x14
4x13
Band pull aparts
2x14
4x13
Poundstone curls
129xAxle
Notes: Hips/glute are better, but not 100%. Picking heavy stuff off the floor isn’t the best idea right now, and training so early in the morning I didn’t want to clang and bang and wake up my sleeping bride, so I ditched the log and kroc rows for now and put the Poundstone curls in early. Might come back later today for a part II and get it in, but we’ll see. With my hips junked up, topset was Princess Bride “to the pain” style, rather than worrying about hitting PRs. I pushed as hard as I could, which is where I’ll see growth. On that note, my supplemental work rocked, and I saw growth all around there. My shoulders are really blowing up from this. Loading pin on the dip belt is swinging a bit, which can be annoying, but also adds an element of challenge.
Breakfast before training was 2 hardboiled eggs. Now that I’m no longer in a calorie deficit, I’m starting to lean away from large meals right before training. It made sense before when I was running on such low calories and needed a boost, but now that I’ve got a steady stream of nutrients, it doesn’t seem entirely necessary. These were also organic cage free/free range eggs, as per John Meadows recommendation. I used to say I couldn’t stand cold hard boiled eggs, but I do wonder if it’s because I was eating low quality eggs. These weren’t delicious, but definitely more palatable than what I’ve had before. Plan is to make them the staple this week: trying to include healthier sources of saturated fat and dietary cholesterol. I feel like it’s helping, as everyday I’m feeling more and more like “me”. My forehead looks like a warzone with acne, and I have a voracious appetite, which is pretty much what I remember being.
Cooked a grassfed new york strip steak yesterday and it turned out much better than the ribeye I made. Seems the trick is to season them more than I’m used to.
Also, date night cuisine was fantastic: had a buffalo chicken slider for an appetizer, which was the first “real” bread I’ve had in quite a while, and it was phenomenal. Then had a bone in porkchop with a bacon/Gouda gravy, asparagus and mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes are the warm fluffy glue that holds the world together. Spent the rest of the evening walking around downtown and found a bunch of novelty shops that sold a ton of nostalgia merchandise: ninja turtle action figures, X-men figures and cards, comic books, cabbage patch kids, pretty much my entire childhood. Bought a pack of random Magic the Gather Cards for $3: still need to open them. Just a great night. Good for the soul.
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Date night sounds really wholesome and lovely. 
Happy for you big man!
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Thanks man! Was good for the soul. We’ve been making a practice of doing these once a month, and they’ve been amazing. Just what we need. Also nice to “eat off menu”. The Mrs commented on how good it is to see me just enjoy a meal. Finding that balance has been helpful.
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I’m curious, are you still teaching your kid TKD?
Not nearly as often. I log it every time it happens. Now that school has started up/resumed our time together is limited, and in truth I’d rather spend that time having fun with my kid than yelling at them to put their thumb in the right spot for the 4000th time. I’ll most likely try to get in one more lesson before I go on another 10 day trip.
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Opinions may vary on this, but I notice a very substantial difference between higher-quality eggs and lower-quality eggs. Color of the yolk is a huge indicator. The eggs I get now have these brilliant orange versus the pale yellowish when I used to get the cheapest eggs. I’m sure that the health benefits overall are probably modest, but the taste difference is quite substantial to me (regardless of how they’re prepared - hard boiled, scrambled, over-easy, poached).
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@activitiesguy I can believe it. It is interesting though, as I’ve found grain fed beef more tasty than grass fed, but the eggs seem to be trending in a positive direction as far as health AND taste goes. Always nice when that works out.
PM WORKOUT with the kid
5 round circuit of
10 pull ups
4 standing ab wheel
10 KB swings
(Kid did 10 KB squats, 10 standing high jumps and 10 KB swings)
25 pushdowns
40 pull aparts
Kroc rows 115 w/rest pause
26+6+5 (kid did a straight set of 20)
GHR 30
Notes: Since I was getting this done while we were all awake, brought the kiddo into the garage with me. They did well enough. I’m less of a form police when it comes to lifting vs TKD: imagine that. Didn’t quite make my heart explode on the circuit or go totally balls to the wall on the kroc rows, as I didn’t need my kid to see that, but still a solid workout. Hip is ok. Not 100%, but good enough. Will do some unweighted walks with the dogs later today.
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AM WORKOUT (0308 wake up, beat alarm by 7 minutes)
Buffalo Bar Squats
5xBar
5x140
3x230
REST PAUSE (12 deep breaths between sets)
13x320
7x320
4x320
2x320
1x320
8x5x280
13x230
90 Second Rest
SUPERSETS (squat-hyper)
Belt squats
20x160
6x160 (technical issues and then quads just quit)
DROPSET
30x125
15x90
15x45
Reverse hyper 360
1x14
2x13
Notes: Whole right side of the body is feeling jacked up. Hip still not playing nicely, and I pinched some nerves in my upper back. Kept the weight on the lighter side to keep things from getting dicey. Squat form was a little weird to overcome the pain issues and had to keep things slow/controlled, which helped make the whole workout pretty brutal. Really digging the sets of 5 on the second drop off: good way to get in some quality heavy work and volume. Just kept going until I couldn’t. I was actually afraid to get under the bar for the set of 230 at the end, which is typically a good sign.
Was running low on time toward the end, so shaved off a set on the supplemental work. Going on a run with the Mrs after work today and will get in the daily work after work at some point.
Breakfast was 2 hardboiled hipster eggs and a quarter of a pumpkin sour cream donut. Post workout I added 90 calories of Skyr to my greek yogurt. I like the skyr more than greek yogurt: might make the switch once I get through my backstock. I’m “supposed” to eat my high carbs today, but honestly, I don’t feel depleted. Between the mashed potatoes I had on Sunday and just the more food in general I’m taking in, I’m thinking I’m not depleting my carb stores as much as I was when I was losing weight. It would be helpful to actually be able to step on a scale first thing in the morning to get an idea of how my weight is trending, but I imagine it’s on the way up, and if I can do that in the absence of carb loads, I may as well wait until they’re needed. I know how to carb up pretty easily, and I have WAY too many carbs in the house to accomplish it. Still just interesting how it unfolds.
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Agree. I buy grass fed beef because I can get it in bulk from a local farmer and out of vague notions of health/ethics, but no doubt there is at least a slight sacrifice in taste vs. grain-fed beef (especially steaks; ground beef is just kinda ground beef to me, but a grass-fed steak is definitely missing a little marbling). Fortunately the “healthier” (more expensive / cage free / pastured / whatever) eggs have generally seemed to offer superior taste.
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Fair point on the ground beef: I do think I like grass fed better in that regard. If nothing else, it SMELLS better when it’s browning compared to grainfed. But when I buy pre-made patties, the grassfed is pretty underwhelming. Needs seasoning. At this point, I actually prefer salmon burgers to lean beef burgers. But get me a fatty chuck burger and we’re good, haha.
8 sets of 5 - you are an absolute lunatic.
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This is kind of an interesting thought experiment: does higher caloric intake, in the absence of ketones, mitigate glycogen depletion?