I heard about this product. Honestly, I don’t think we’re far off from the point where being big, strong, and fit is more a reflection of financial status than discipline. It’s a helluva market to get into.
Notes: Got some video of it. This was a great workout. No rest between anything. Intent with the chins was to climb up to 20, but it was taking too long to get all the reps, so I just abandoned reason and did things until they sucked. Really getting my confidence back with the log.
Axle curls
1x100
Notes: Didn’t bug my shoulder like last time. Small victories.
Band pushdowns
1x50
Kroc rows
1x25
General notes: Woke up at 195.4. Legs feel like I got hit by a truck, which is kinda nice for a change.
Dang, are people really so lazy that they have to get that to help them eat less? That being said, I wouldn’t mind having some electronic aid that helps with nutrition partitioning and caloric management(adjust it up and down).
Notes: 20 was the goal, but once again the SSB crushed my lungs. Just makes me want it more. Everything was feeling well this time at least. I’m on the fence on if I’ll stick with this weight next week or add more. Can’t really make a bad decision. I think I need to bring in a backoff set like I used to. Maybe paused squats.
Reverse hyper 230
4x8
superset w/
Standing ab wheel
4x8
Car deadlift simulator
5x1plate
5x2plates
5x3plates
1x4plates
1x5plates
10x6plates
Notes: This felt awesome. I love this movement for how hard you can push it. I might’ve been able to eek out another rep or 2, but I could tell that I was compromising my technique. I’m getting back to some old PRs on this one.
Got video of the squats and car deads. I’ll be uploading them later.
General notes: Woke up at 196.0. Diet has been weird the past few days due to long work schedule.
Conditioning workout looked very cool. I like to watch these videos as it gives more insight into what somebody is really doing. Great addition to every log in my opinion.
Couple questions to the log conditioning training: Does this count as a regular upper body workout or purely as conditioning? Wouldn’t this kind of conditioning hinder your progress on your main upper body workouts? Like in aren’t you getting sore from this stuff?
Thanks man; I am glad you appreciate the footage. I get a little hesitant shooting such long videos because I imagine most folks don’t have the desire/attention span to sit through the whole thing, but I’m happy to know that some out there are appreciating them.
As for the question; this was just a deload workout, not something I regularly do. It was a way for me to still get in a decent amount of volume on the lift (55 reps on the log vs my normal 50) while keeping the load light and easy on my body. I wouldn’t use it as a way to get stronger necessarily (at least, not directly), but it improves some qualities related to that.
That having been said, I don’t get sore from this type of workout. It’s pretty rare for my upper body to get sore in general actually. Usually, my joints will get beat up before my muscles do. But even then, muscular soreness doesn’t hinder my training. The squats that I did yesterday were performed when my legs were incredibly sore. With a decent warm-up, it can get worked through without much issue.
And then to continue down this rabbit hole, this type of conditioning workout can actually be a good CURE for soreness. Since the load is light, it allows you to get blood flowing through the limbs and help with the recovery process. Ideally, you’d pick something without an eccentric, but that can’t always happen.
glad to see your training is going good
i have been dealing with health issues,having trouble mentally dealing with how my training is going
gets depressing reading about other peoples progress
starting to look more at the mental aspect of training
It’s a rough time to be sure. I wrote about it a little in this training log early on. I’m hoping those issues get resolved dude, and that your look into the mental aspects bodes well.
Gosh, time sure passes fast. I still recall when you first created this training log, dang. 6 months for your ACL to mostly recover. I feel almost grateful that my “injury” is such a minor one.
Hah, well if ever want time to move slower, just rupture your ACL, because those for 5 months felt like they took FOREVER, haha. Time is whipping by again though. It’s why I’m really big on stressing to people not to freak out about injuries; it’ll all pass eventually. Lifting is SUCH a long game that a few months are just a blip on the radar.
That being said, I still kinda wish I injured my lower body instead, childish, I know. It’d be a good opportunity to bring up my ‘lagging’ bench/overhead press. Well, at least I ain’t nothing serious.
Notes: Felt the serratus thing again, but stopped the set, took a breather, and got back into it.
General notes: Woke up at 194.4 Got a real gnarly calf crap in the middle of the night. Woke up screaming. My wife, in her infinite compassion, sweetly asked me “Jesus, did you dislocate your shoulder again?”. Calf is a little tender, but it’s my ego that really hurts.
For me it really is the other way around. My joints rarely get sore but my muscles do get sore very much, even from workouts were they shouldn’t. If my joints get more sore than usual I know that it is time for me to consider a deload.
This seems to be true for me as well more often than not. I have been experimenting with this a lot lately.
I am a big believer in active recovery and am sure it works. Due to time constrains I can not so as much of this as I want to/ need to.
Curious point regarding joint vs muscle soreness. I wonder what it boils down to. So much going on under the hood.
Treadmill
Running 30:00 at 8.2mph
Incline: 1.5
Distance: 4.1 miles
Notes: This went much better than last time. Didn’t look at the clock until 24:00 in. Knee/shin is a little achy, but it’s not at the surgical site. I still hate how much I’m running, but I figure it’s good to stay this conditioned for as long as I can. In truth, my thought process is that I might have taken a hit to my maximal strength and footspeed during this time, but I can absolutely show up to my next contest with better conditioning than anyone else. If someone is going to try to beat me, I’m going to push the bar so goddamn high that they’re going to be crippled for the rest of the contest.
Woke up at 195.4. Wife is running a race tomorrow; we’re doing her normal pre-race food ritual, so cheat meal is going to be paused until either tomorrow or next week.
Notes: This was just about the perfect conditioning workout. The backwards sled drag is a little too heavy, and at minute 6 I had to unload the keg because I wasn’t able to complete the circuit, so it broke down to half of the circuit w/100lb keg, half without. I think next time I’m going to do
(6) Axle Mat Pulls
5x123
5x156
5x246
5x336
1x426
1x516
3x566 (deadstop)
16x426 (touch and go)
Notes: As much as I would like to think that I added 55lbs to last week’s numbers, the real difference here is that I trained later in the day after my third big meal. I think it shows the difference between an AM and a PM workout. Still; awesome to see me moving this weight again, especially on an axle. I had the 4th in me if I was willing to be stupid about it, but still not quite there yet.
Took video of both sets; will uplaod later.
Reverse hyper 230
4x10
sueprset w/
GHR sit ups
4x10
Buffalo Bar Squats
5xBar
5x100
5x140
2x190
1x230
1x280
1x320
DROPSET
5x370
6x320
7x280
8x230
9x180
10x140
Notes: Decided to quit being a no belt hero and actually move some weight. I was avoiding the belt as an artificial means to limit the load on my knee, but it just felt like a good day to go heavier. This felt like back to the bad old days for me; awesome workout, total ball buster, came away better.
Got some video of this one as well.
General notes: Woke up at 193.4. Wife ran a half marathon today, so I spent 2ish hours walking up and down the beach with the kid. Got to eat my cheat meal at Red Lobster; entree’ was pretty tame with lobster and shrimp, but had 3 cheddar biscuits. Also did 2 poptarts post workout.
Treadmill
1.25 miles at 9.2mph
Incline: 3
Time: 8:04
Notes: Didn’t push to distance to 1.5 miles. Gonna blame it on being sick. Lungs just weren’t expanding the way I needed them to. Hit a 6:26 mile though, so awesome.
Well shit, I just read your most recent article and it almost makes me feel a little better for failing my deadlift sets last week. Was taking a first aid course that had me sitting down 80% of the time so that left me feeling extremely off when trying to deadlift later the same day.
That being said, here’s a question on your range of motion progression for the deadlift. Right now, I’ve decided to redo the previous week on both my conventional and sumo simply cause I can’t get the weight up.
For example, for the conventional mat pulls, I got…
Week 1 - 3 Mats
160kgs x10 beltless
Week 2 - 2 Mats
160kgs x1 beltless got on belt, roughly 2 minutes later
160kgs x4 belted short 1-2 minute breather
160kgs x5 belted
What should I do? I was planning on just redoing 2 Mats in hopes of getting all 10 reps of 160kgs beltless or should I just proceed to 1 Mat since I did get the 10 reps after all. I’m pretty sure I should just redo it.
I’m thinking that the size of your mats might be causing significant jumps in ROM, which would lead to the differences you’re seeing. I’ve found ROM progression works better with small changes. My cycle takes 7 weeks, with 7 mats to remove.
With your current approach, repeating the second cycle isn’t a bad idea. Getting the same amount of reps week to week isn’t critical, and there is usually going to be some amount of drop off. You may have also just found the part of the ROM you are weakest at. Despite the fact it’s a shorter ROM, pulling with the plates elevated will eventually reach hit a spot where you are weaker than you are off the floor. You hit the magic part of the ROM where the pull is still far enough that it’s not easy, yet it’s short enough that you can’t use momentum to blast through the pull, so it’s a real pain.
You could also try to make smaller changes by standing on some small weight plates while you lift. For example
Week 1: 3 mats
Week 2: 2 mats, standing on 25lb plates
Week 3: 2 mats
Week 4: 1 mat, standing on 25lb plates
Week 5: 1 mat
Week 6: Either put the plates on the 25lb plates, or just pull from the floor
Week 7: If you pulled off the plates last week, pull off the floor this week. Otherwise, deload
It’s a learning process. Took me a while to get it sorted out for myself.
