Rewind to 10th Grade

Training Training Logs
81

A big part of poli-sci (and philosophy in turn) is understanding that there won’t ever be a 100% right answer that beats out all the other ones: you just have to be able to justify your position. It’s why a good paper will provide your position on the matter, provide the opposition to your position, and then provide the opposition to that opposition. Your professor isn’t wanting you to come up with a unique solution that no one else has thought of before (that’s PhD level stuff): you just have to demonstrate that you’ve read the material, understand it, and are able to apply it.

And with you getting all As, that most likely seems obvious to you, but it may be helpful to offer to proof some of your peers papers to get an idea of what different and, in some cases, worse writing looks like. I had a peer that essentially turned in book reports and got Cs in their undergrad. I never realized you could write 7 pages without a thesis statement until I read one of their papers, haha.

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82

Ha, that’s my issue. Can’t quite understand it enough to determine my opinions on it. Oh well, I’ll figure it out. At least I can usually write fairly well, even if my opinions aren’t very well explained. I have a few peers like the one you mentioned, and it makes me wonder how frustrated professors actually get, haha. I think the idea of grading a large number of anything except maybe multiple choice or fill in the blanks sounds terrible.

On a training front, here’s kinda what I’m thinking:

2 days a week, essentially full body (if time allows - we’ll have to see).

Start off with upper body, since it’s a higher priority and it’s not very high intensity, so I don’t think lateral raises and curls will affect what I can deadlift very much. If it does weaken me at all, then at least I can squat and deadlift knowing I can do more if needed, when fresh.

At first I thought I’d do my main press and pull first, then follow up with shoulder/arm fluff work, but after going on a John Meadows kick last night, I’m considering doing the opposite. Hoping that getting a pump with the shoulder/arm stuff first would prepare my joints (really just my right shoulder) even more to press well. I’d also get to cut out a couple warmup sets, which doesn’t really take any time, but still.

Again, I run into the prospect of finding myself weaker on the main press/pull since I’m doing stuff beforehand, but I feel it’d be 1). very minimal fatigue and 2). again, a reminder that I’m getting stronger under fatigue and could probably do better when fresh. I’m good with that.

I definitely want to squat (probably with a SSB. I’ve been experimenting with it lately and while I don’t love it, it’s been feeling more and more natural) and deadlift, but do the bare minimum. I’m thinking of just running OG 5/3/1. 3 sets with a PR set at the end. I’ve never actually done PR sets consistently and really enjoy high rep deadlifts so I’m excited to give those a shot. Very simple and to the point.

Aaaand, people got me thinking of SGHP’s and cleans again. I also want to do those. I really enjoy them. IF (still not sure about them) I added them in, I think I’d also do OG 5/3/1 minus the PR set. Just do the minimum reps required and end it there. I’d still get stronger, and while I don’t think PR sets on Oly lifts for a non-competitive, non-pro Oly lifters are bad, I’d rather keep those numbers low and push on my squats and deads since those are where the real strength is being built.

So, if I did all that, it’d look like this:

1). shoulder/arm pump work

2). primary press/pull movement, probably 3 x 8-12

3). SGHP/clean, 5/3/1

4). SSB squat/deadlift, 5/3/1 w/ PR set

I don’t think that’s too much. Especially if only done twice a week. Even when eating poorly and sleeping little, I’ve never felt that I can’t progress in the gym as long as I’m staying consistent. I should eat better and sleep more, but I can still do fine if I stick with it. Not worried about “overtraining” at all. Checks off all my boxes for upper body strength/hypertrophy and lower body strength.

(Might need to add in some calf work here and there, haha.)

83

First, what’s your goal?

Second, why not do supersets if time is an issue? You can do three solid sets of shoulders between sets of 5/3/1 squats. Do shoulders first so you don’t have to do them after your PR set.

I don’t like doing anything during deadlifts, though. :slightly_smiling_face:

84

If nothing else, if you cannot figure out how you feel about something, just pick A side and argue it well. Did that a lot.

85

Stronger/bigger upper body and improved conditioning/endurance. I felt like I would be approaching those well - running 3 days a week and performing upper body work first on my two lifting days.

I was going to. I was going to do 2-3 shoulder movements and a movement for both bi’s and tri’s, and would’ve supersetted all of those (giantsetted?). Then I was going to superset my main push and pull movement. That’s basically what I’ve been doing on my upper body day and it takes about 35-40 min. on average. If I add in 6 sets of lower body work (3 on Oly lifts, 3 on squats/deads) after that, I’d say my workout would take maybe 75 min. or so, which I think I can afford to do.

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86

MONDAY, 02/17/2020

Run: 1 mile

Time: approx. 10:00

Didn’t time myself, but from looking at the kitchen clock it took around 13 min. to do a pretty quick warmup, run, and cooldown walk, so I’m assuming I was around 10:00.

My fastest mile ever was 5:00, so I’m a ways away from my best. I was running A LOT to get to that speed, so I don’t expect to reach it again, and I’m fine with that, but I’d like my mile to get to anywhere from 6:00 to 9:00. 9:00 is the slowest I’ll allow myself once I’ve begun training regularly and if I can maintain that throughout my life I’d be happy.

TUESDAY, 02/18/2020

Lift: upper body & SSB squat

2 rounds of 15-20 reps of: rear delt raises, laterals, DB curls, & skullcrushers

Held each contraction for a couple seconds and had a pretty slow negative.

Second set was: 10lbs for 20 reps on the rear delts and laterals, 20lbs for 15 reps on the curls, and 35lbs for 20 reps on the skullcrushers. Had planned to do 3 sets, but after 2 I felt pretty pumped up and also just didn’t want to do anymore so I stopped. I don’t like this type of stuff.

3 sets of 8-12 reps of: DB incline press & seated machine row

Heavy set was 42.5lbs (heaviest DB weight I have, gonna need to get more soon) for 9 reps on the bench and 135lbs for 12 reps on the rows.

These felt good - I feel like tiring my triceps out beforehand left my chest in control on the presses, which I’d kind of intended on happening. Still felt my biceps a lot on the rows but my ability to get a MMC with my lats is slowly improving.

SSB squats:

20 reps w/ empty bar (70lbs)
12 reps w/ 80 lbs
6 reps w/ 95lbs

5 reps w/ 100lbs, rest 2:00
5 reps w/ 115lbs, rest 2:00
10 reps w/ 130lbs (PR set)

No clue if that’s good (for me) or not. I could’ve probably gotten 20 but I was tired. Haven’t been sleeping well lately.

I set my 1RM’s as 185 for squats and 225 for deads. Just didn’t know where else to put them and I didn’t want to test them. I think those are good numbers for me for now. Not that heavy, but I’m just getting into it again so that’s fine. Used an 85% TM, and am just going to do the very basic 5/3/1 plan for those two movements.

Overall, decent workout. I liked the squats and the presses/rows. I just don’t enjoy pump work but since normal benching/pressing/dips/chinups bother my shoulder, I feel like it’s my only option. And it’s not bad to have bigger, stronger arms and shoulders, I just don’t enjoy training them this way and I’ll probably always do the bare minimum, haha. Oh well, at least I can blame myself when my arms are still small.

87

Forgot to add that I’m not adding in any Oly lifts for the time being.

Desire to lift is very, very low. As of now, I simply want to begin making it a habit in my life again, so I’m doing basically as little as I can. We’ll see if what I’m doing for now works out. I think it can.

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WEDNESDAY, 02/19/2020

Run: 4 x 400m

Planned on doing 8, but I was 1). exhausted after 4 and 2). had to take a crap extremely bad, so after I ran inside to take care of that, i needed to shower and get to class. Maybe I’ll make them up later. I really hate sprints. Can’t believe the 800 was my best event. Distance is fine - it sucks but I can always just keep putting one foot in front of the other, but having to sprint, stop, and start again kills me.

89

Catching up on threads here and there and whoa, Green Boy got a 1,000 year long ban and Nutty has taken a sabbatical due to possible lying? Man, I missed some stuff.

90

Man, I had no idea this was a thing until you wrote it. Amazing what happens in the training logs.

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Made up the extra 4 x 400m from this morning. Fun!

Part of this is most likely wanting to get out of extra work, but I kind of preferred splitting the running up…I felt like I was able to actually do it with some semblance of “speed” this way, whereas if I’d done them all together I would be moving much slower by the end. I don’t know what’s more important - speed (since this is kind of my “speed” workout) or the endurance from doing them all at once. We’ll see how it goes.

Yeah I’m surprised, but also…kinda not? I don’t really care either way, since even if he was lying he never told anybody that it took anything more than hard work and consistency, but some things always seemed slightly off…was always promising pictures then not posting them, had his profile on here set to private, which just seems weird since it’s a TNation profile, haha. All we can see if it’s public is like, what, your posts? And your amounts of likes?

I do remember one thread where he said there was a Samoan guy at his gym pressing 400lbs and really seemed to want people to tell him that you don’t need to bench, just press, didn’t really find it, then when Flip said he wanted video, just like never mentioned it again or something. I don’t know. That’s all I’ll say about the month old subject matter to my vast log audience, thank you very much everybody!

92

I think you should aim to run them all in the same time. The first few will feel easy, but the last ones won’t. And eight is an awful big number for a starting point.

Nice work at getting them done.

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93

Probably depends what you’re hoping to get out of them. It seems strange to me to do them two days in a row, but take that with a groan of salt as I’m just a washed up wasnt-really

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94

I didn’t do them two days in a row. I had planned on doing 8 x 400m. I did 4 this morning, had to take a dump, decided to finish the remaining 4 tonight.

I’m thinking of maybe keeping it at 4…similar to how I’m just adding a half mile to my distance run every other week (seems like the easiest way to increase distance without killing myself since I’m only running distance once a week), maybe just adding 1 more set of 400m every other week as well. Give me some time to get used to it. Haven’t noticed any joint pain, just some soreness in the front of my calves…tibias anterior or something? Or tibialis? Either way, feeling good.

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95

Ah ok.

I read back your log and it seems like you’re just getting started runnin again. If that’s true I think 4 is plenty to start if you haven’t been running much. I’d also be timing them but that may speak more to my compulsions than the right thing to do.

I too topped out ~5min for a mile. But that was something like 16 years ago.

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Thanks for the advice!

I will start timing, but for now, rather than worry about a time, I just want to go out, do it, and see how I handle it, before I start watching a clock. I definitely will once I’ve worked up to the higher end - once I’m doing all 8 laps, or once my distance run is at least a couple miles, because at that point I’ll stop increasing things and just try to be faster, but for now, yeah, like I said, it’s just about getting back into it.

97

@Frank_C I started putting this in your log, due to the brief IF discussion, but after like, 1 sentence it got too long and personal so I’m putting it in mine. Just tagging you because I feel like you have voiced similar feelings regarding eating.

If left to my own desires, I do IF automatically. I can easily eat breakfast if I feel like it, I just never do feel like it. My mornings are my busiest time and I’m up quite early anyways, so the usual advice of wake up earlier doesn’t always work. I’ve still gained weight though. Super easy to overeat at those remaining meals, especially if you’re actually hungry.

I lost 10lbs in a week a few weeks ago. It was all weight that had no reason being around, hence the quickness. I just wanted to see if I could do it. Ate extremely clean. Haven’t gained it back but I also stopped eating the way I was, because I hated it. I wasn’t hungry at all - in order to get in protein and everything from clean foods, I actually always felt full and never wanted to finish meals. So that was kinda nice - I don’t like feeling hungry (duh).

I know I need to clean up my eating - I don’t care to have a six pack (though I sure wouldn’t mind!), but too much extra fat will make it harder to be strong at certain things and hold back my conditioning goals, and is also just plain unhealthy, but I really like food. It’s like the only thing to do for fun in my town - go have a burger or pizza or something. And with a big family, there’s always a holiday or birthday to celebrate.

I’m considering trying to just eat a preplanned meal all 3 meals, every day, but giving myself the option of 1 breakfast (most likely a weekend) and 2 dinners (most likely Friday and Saturday nights) of whatever I feel. I don’t eat out most weekend nights anyway, so it wouldn’t even happen much, but if my buddies come to town or something I want to be able to have a burger with them, or eat a piece of cake at a birthday dinner.

I value my health, but I also don’t care to be so stringent that I am unable to enjoy certain things. Maybe I shouldn’t get enjoyment from food - some people say that, but I do and I’m fine with that. Just need to find a healthy balance.

Jim Wendler posted this on his website’s blog, in the “Can’t Do Dips?” article. I liked it. Bolded the part that I enjoyed the most.

Question: I am a fat ass and can’t do a proper dip. Just had a quick search but can’t seem to find anything in terms of progression building up to dips. Any ideas?

Answer: There have been good suggestions, the Slingshot being (at least in my experience) probably the best. Only thing that kind of sucks is getting that thing on my forearms; it takes forever to get on sometimes. Maybe I have huge forearms? I don’t know. HOWEVER, don’t get too wrapped up in doing dips just to do dips - meaning there are a ton of great movements out there you can use for assistance work and still be awesome; close grip bench, football bar bench press, any dumbbell pressing movements (flat, incline, standing), triceps pushdowns/extensions, push-ups.

And I know you are being facetious and self-deprecating but be wary about your internal voice i.e calling yourself a fatass. We here, on the Jim Wendler forum, are really only concerned about your putting your best foot forward and kicking ass. And I should point out that your “best foot forward” is not “giving it the old college try”. I believe we all deserve better effort than “working pretty hard” in whatever we are doing. Give more of yourself to less things - things that actually matter.

I have said this numerous times to people but from a dude’s point of view, I’d rather have a “normal” or “chubby” girl that works hard, is smart and funny and trains balls out…and lives and really loves life rather than someone that is so damn caught up in diet, their bodyweight and is all consumed with appearance. Having pride in your appearance is admirable but no one wants to hear about your stupid diet, your meal prep, your workouts or smell your whey protein farts. If you’ve never been out to eat with these mongoloids, here’s what you can look forward to:

“Is there gluten in that?”

“I’d like the Surf and Turf but no lobster. Or steak. Or any of the sides you have available. Just a boiled chicken breast and something green.”

“Is the pubic hair in my soup organic?”

And with women that really matter (the ones that you actually want to spend quality time with) - they think the same way about dudes.

(I’m appying the bolded section to myself, not a girl, though I agree with his opinion.)

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98

Makes sense. Do you think you’ll do any races this year?

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Maybe. The Y in town holds a race every July - 5k, 10k, and half marathon. I did 5k’s all the times for XC in high school and did the Y’s 10k once. Considering doing it again.

Whether I do the 5k or 10k depends on where I’m at. I have 5 months or so - I could probably be able to do 6.2 miles without much trouble by that point if I’m consistent.

If I add a half mile biweekly to my distance run I’ll be at 6 right around that time of the race, so my time may not be amazing but I could finish.

Now I think I’ll plan on doing it!

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100

I meant the time it takes to complete the 400m. It’s called a pace. Start with 70 or 80 seconds and speed up as you get better. It’s not timing in the sense that you’re trying to beat the clock. It’s actually a good way to run consistently. I think it’s better than going balls out and running your first 400 in 60 sec and your last one in 120.

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