Today I did a full arm workout and 500 swings (our biggest KB is 55#, so that’s almost exactly what the article recommended). My forearms had an outstanding pump! My delicate poet’s hands got sore, though.
I did the first 100 while writing my folks’ workout on the whiteboard, then the rest in sets of 25 between sets in my own workout, then I had 50 left at the end and trained my team.
These were good! I was a sweaty mess. I’m guessing I’ll improve at them with relative quickness.
My daughter finally got to pitch yesterday. We’ve been practicing a ton, but she hasn’t gotten any innings for most of the season. She did outstanding yesterday. The coach said she surprised him and she’d be pitching a lot more now and gave her the game ball. It was awesome. We talked in the truck about it because I’d been telling her the way to get her chance is to stop running her mouth and just be so ready that when she’s gets a shot there’s no choice but to keep her there… that’s exactly what happened and she saw it play out. Then we played in the pool all afternoon (which is why my swing workout didn’t happen until today)
The dog goes to his specialist on Tuesday, so we’ll see. The kids know he isn’t right and they’re sad. I fed him some McDonald’s cheeseburgers today; in my mind, that’s like doggie morphine, so I eased his pain.
My poor boy had a double ear infection and one eardrum burst. He’s starting to feel better, finally, so now it’s kind of funny (since it’s short-term) that he can’t hear anything because he is usually a little spy picking up every conversation anywhere in the house.
In other news, I ended up with all the winners on my team from that 6-week weight loss challenge at the gym. When I have some time, is anyone interested in a write-up on what they did? If not, and it’s just self-aggrandizing, my feelings aren’t hurt.
I’m perhaps over-practicing my daughter. We just had a somewhat sloppy pitch and catch session. We ended on a handful of solid throws and I’ll leave her alone. I think she’ll get innings tomorrow and Wednesday
I was able to catch an early flight home and lift!
Today was freaking hard. I had considered doing a bunch of low-volume stuff, because I did want to combine a Mountaindog leg workout with all these KB swings, but the challenge laid before me was:
And my training is 90s bodybuilding. So that’s what we did.
I did 25 swings with the 55# KB in between all my sets again. I hit 500 with the GHRs at the end, which was perfect. I’m efficient, so one swing is one kill. My current body count is 1000 (or a week’s work for young CPT TFP).
The actual legs portion:
Lying Leg Curl
40/10
65/10
80/10
95/10
110/10
125/8 + strip the rack up to 50, then 10 partials and a 20s static hold.
Belt Squat
These ruin my quads in an awesome way
1pps/8
2pps/8
2.25pps/8
3pps/8
3.25pps/8
2pps/20
Hack Squat
1.25 reps for everything
-/8
25/8
1pps/8
1.25pps/8 + 1pps/6 + 1pps/6 normal reps
There. Right there. That’s where everything went black
GHR
BW/8 x 2
BFR Leg Extensions
That was pretty terrible.
In other news, the dog (my favorite one) does have an aggressive malignant tumor. There’s nothing we can do but keep him comfortable. He’s got a matter of weeks, up to 6. That would put his demise right on my son’s 13th birthday, which is simply a perfect introduction to manhood. The next day I’ll hand him a rifle and $500, and send him off to make his fortune.
The kids handled the news very well - I’m proud of them. Then I took them and their friend to go see the Flash movie, which they apparently liked. A few more cuss words than I would have preferred, but oh well.
Today was chest and shoulders in between meetings. I had to do chest, then meeting, then shoulders. I didn’t want to split the swings, because that felt like cheating, so I did 2 sets of 50 before I started, then 25s between my sets again.
Body count: 1500.
HS Flat Press
1pps/8
1.25pps/8
1.35pps/8
2pps/6
1.25pps/10 + 6 + 4 + partials and hold
Incline
45/6
135/6
185/6
205/6
215/4
Low Incline DB
65/8
85/8
90/8 + 65/10
Superset (3 rounds):
Cable Flye x 8
Dips x 8
Machine Side Raise
Worked up doing sets of 8 until I couldn’t get 8, then strip the rack back down
Machine Shoulder Press
Worked up doing sets of 8
Back-off set of 12
Rear Delt Destroyer
50/60 + 25/3 + 15/10
Now I gotta try to get down to play catcher so my daughter can warm up. Let’s see!
Okie doke - I legit haven’t been in the gym for a week. I got sick and then the last couple days I’ve probably been good to go but was just wussy. On the other hand, it was awesome for losing weight and sleeping a lot, both of which are shortcomings for me, so not all bad!
I will get back in there this afternoon, and will do a lot of frequency with low intensity on some of the main lifts I know are coming up in Odin Force, because that kicks off week after next. I would not call a week break in the spirit of the 10k swing challenge, so we’ll call those first couple days a false start and I’ll just start back up now.
I know I haven’t been updating, and not much of one today.
I did full body 3 days over the weekend - really light, just feeling movements. I got 500 swings in per day (and another 500 today) so I’m back up to 2000 after the false start. My forearms and elbows are pretty cranky, so tomorrow might be a break on those.
Today was an upper body day. Everything felt heavy and out of the groove, but that’s what I get for not being real serious the last few weeks. I’ll go upper, lower, upper, lower this week, then jump into Odin Force with @davemccright next Monday. I freaking hate the swings (so mission accomplished), but they’ll come with me for the first half of that program.
Softball ended on a freaking heartbreaker for us this weekend. There were a couple of calls we didn’t like that legitimately changed the outcome of the game, which nobody wants to see, but I didn’t love when some of the parents complained. We’ve won games when the other team had some calls they didn’t love, so it cuts both ways; that’s just sports.
My son wrapped up this season’s acting with two plays over the weekend as well. Benefit to losing in the softball tournament - I didn’t have to make a choice whether to attend his first show or her game; I made both. I don’t know why, but this play wasn’t my favorite. I think the kids were too in “vacation mode;” it just wasn’t their best show. I don’t know which one’s next for him.
Whew - I took yesterday off to rest my elbow/ forearms. I needed it. These swings are smoking me. I guess that just means I have a weak grip. It’s not the elbow pain I get from pressing; it’s more a constant ache/ cramp. It’s right on top if my hand is pronated, mostly on the left side, and actually hurts worse when I extend my fingers rather than close.
Anyway, 2500. These are terrible. Today I just did 10-15-25-50 instead of 25 every set, and I think I preferred that. It made the counting easier, anyway, because every block coincided with an exercise and was just 100 reps.
I felt good today and actually just kept myself light. Whatever I caught last week is still kinda bugging me and really took it out of me. I’m getting a jogging start back into actually doing a program. I tried to do everything right in terms of meal timing and supplementation to really start getting habits back down. I couldn’t lift first thing in the morning today (I’m in charge of getting everyone to camps this week), so it was a lunch timing. I had grits, turkey sausage and egg whites before, Indigo-3G before and Surge Workout Fuel during, and then some leftover smoked pork shoulder (fat trimmed, chill out) and rice after.
@QuadQueen suggested having three go-to 10-minute meals, which was an idea I liked. For me, it’s easy:
Egg whites, turkey sausage, grits
Canned chicken, microwave brown rice, hot sauce
2 scoops Metabolic Drive and an apple
We’ll be doing turkey burgers tonight, though. @T3hPwnisher I ended up getting a Z-grill (basically a knockoff Traeger) instead of the Ninja outdoor one. I’ll send some pictures of what it can cook up, but I’m a huge fan of the wood pellet! It’s a really clean smoke and it lights up/ breaks down really quickly. Summer win right there.
The actual workout was (plus the aforementioned swings):
Lying Leg Curls
Worked up to 3 solid sets of 8. I’m doing better at tempo on these, which irritates my IT band way less
Chain Squats
Just wanted to get back in the groove, and the chains are super loud and I can pretend they weigh twice as much as they do, so they’re great.
Chains for all sets
45/10
135/6
185/6
225/6
255/6
Decided to just hold off there because I hadn’t been squatting and that felt very easy and smooth. Was probably just barely 295 at the top (these were the little chains, so each is 25#).
Hack Squat
Was able to get a good quad pump on these rather than just sad knees.
I went with a really close and low “V-stance,” so I doubled down on the 90s here.
25/8
1pps/6
2pps/10 + 6 + 4
Outstanding news dude! Smoking has been an exciting endeavor for me. I got my beef chuck short ribs in from piedmontese yesterday and a bone/meat saw on the way. This will be the most awesome meal prep ever, haha. Can’t wait to see the photos!
