Okie doke, took a stab at some of the new CT stuff today. Who knows how long I’ll actually stick with something, but I certainly needed today’s kind of back to the grind.
I don’t know how much is cool to write down, since it’s a paid program, but I’ll kind of hit some high points:
I did 3 plates on the wide hammer press for 7, which is decent for me, and 245 in the close grip bench for 5, which is pretty good for me.
I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but today was pretty enjoyable and I’m still lifting 4+ times a week so it’s likely all ok. I do know I improve when I follow a program, but I’m at least maintaining in between.
My son went on an hour walk with me and the dog, which is the most time he’ll ever spend with me, so that was a big bonus on the day!
My daughter has had a bit of a cold the last couple days. She fell asleep all yesterday afternoon and her fever broke, which was great, but she didn’t sleep at all last night… so ol’ TfP didn’t sleep at all last night. We watched some shows about whales, so I’m an expert now.
Once the hateful sun finally arose, I figure an old-school lactic acid-producing, vomit-inducing, leg workout was the way to go.
Lying Leg Curls
Some warmups
95/10
110/10
125/8 + 95/6 + 65/10
Already could tell u wasn’t going to be strong today
SSB Squats
Today was a tale of two squats: my motion felt smooth and natural and I was getting really low; every lbs felt x 10, though.
45/6
135/6
225/6
315/4 - toast!
225/10 - I should have pushed this a little harder.
Belt Squats
My wife joined me for these. She’s so cute
1pps/20 x 3
RDLS
185/8 x 3
BFR Leg Extensions
4 x 15ish
I’m really enjoying the BFR stuff, so I’ll probably give it a little more attention for a bit.
That was it! I’m ludicrously off whatever plan I was supposed to be doing at this point, so we’ll just totally bastardize the wise one, @T3hPwnisher, and say it’s intentional chaos. I also like to pretend Epicurus personally told me I should watch tv and eat ice cream.
After the gym I watched Loki with my son, which he loves, and now the Bengals are on. If I could get the NFL to wear Marvel-themed jerseys, we wouldn’t have any tv conflict!
Today I did a pullathon with a heavy set and a backoff set. It was a ton of rows and then a few curls.
Not listing it all out, but highlights included 4 plates a side on the HS row for a couple sets of 12 and 3 plates on the T-bar for sets of 14-15.
It was kinda fun, so that’s good. I’m mostly keeping a split where everything gets hit once, sometimes twice a week, but there’s not much plan after that.
Today I did a “gap” workout - fun concept. I just did a whole day of assistance work, basically. It’s almost like an arm day in that you’re in the gym, but nothing is hard. It’s unlike an arm day in that there is no gnarly pump.
Gap workouts/Dealer’s Choice make so much sense. Let’s get all those things we didn’t get this week. It’s almost like a workout cheat meal: we get all those things we kept promising to ourselves that we didn’t deliver on. OR the opposite: a workout greens smoothie, where we blast ourselves with all that nutrition we DIDN’T get. I suppose both are about breaking from the baseline.
It’s seriously the most freeing concept. You had something similar, I believe, where you were just sticking all the jumps and cleans and stuff into conditioning workouts. Here’s this stuff I want to do, but it doesn’t fit, but I can work it here and it serves a purpose.
Heck, that was pretty much today’s workout for me and the genesis of so many of my conditioning workouts. And I did it with Deep Water too, where it prescribed 3x10 “skillwork”. Daily Work functioned like that too for me. And I did a “fun run” the other day where I walked with a weighted vest and stopped and did bodyweight squats at the end of every block. There’s always an opportunity to pick up the missing pieces.
I think that’s where “play” is a lost art (and I’m guilty myself). There’s a lot of white space between the preplanned sets and reps ramping toward a predicted outcome and doing nothing, and we’ve got a pretty large bag of tricks we can dump into that space. Playing doesn’t have to end when sports/ puberty does.
That’s as risque a joke as I’m comfortable making; had to pat myself on the back a little.
Seated Leg Curls
Some warmups
85/15
100/12
115/10
130/8 + 6 forced reps (me just pushing the machine arm) + 20 partials
Great pump here. I actually started cramping a little. Not to be a total shill, but thank goodness for the Surge.
SSB Squats
Chains for all sets. Good God these chains are disgustingly heavy. Sixpence None the Richer got us through.
45/6
135/6
225/6
275/4
I intended to do 8 there, and then maybe a back-off. Halfway through my set, though, it was presented with the Sophie’s choice of finishing or rushing to the bathroom to save my underpants. I chose poorly, and by the time I returned my knees were too cold and stiff to get back under a bar.
Unrelated, in my mind, is I seem to embarrass my wife for some reason. I can’t figure out why.
Belt Squats
These are becoming my favorite. I can absolutely destroy my quads without worrying about my back or elbows and it doesn’t irritate my IT band like the leg press likes to do.
-/6
.25pps/6
1pps/6
1.25pps/20 x 3
Each of these sets required some pauses. It was delightfully awful.
Smith Lunge
95/8 x 3
RDL
135/10 x 3
Was absolutely finished. Kept these really strict and light and felt them all in my hammies, so that was the right thing to do.
Putting my heavy days on the weekends is awesome. I don’t have to move stuff around when I travel, the kids aren’t up anyway, and I have way less of a deadline. Time for pumpkins and volleyball!
You don’t say… I tweaked my hanstring last weekend and haven’t done much since. I know my workouts need tweaking instead of my body, so I’m interviewing different exercises and routines for a position in my workout life.
I’m finally putting my writing degree to good use.
My gym has a belt squat machine, which I’ve used a few times. You’re right, it is awkward at first, but the all-muscle, no-joints prospect is too good to pass up. Each time I’ve used it, I’ve thought, “That felt good, I should make this a staple,” then promptly neglected to use it again.
Same, but I got to a point where the leg days were so bad that the rest of my week sucked. I bought a SSB and started doing belt squats instead of leg press/ hack. That combo is making a noticeable difference in how I feel over the course of the week
I hear you. Squatting and deadlifting each week, even with my moderate loads, wore me out and caused unnecessary pain. Along with belt squats, I need to reintroduce single-joint exercises to my leg days. Just a few sets each of leg extensions, curls, and calf raises dramatically improves my knees.
Stayed up watching the UNC game last night, go Heels, so I was a bit sleepy this morning. Also, I seriously just realized Drake Maye is Luke Maye’s younger brother. That family is a dynasty of Tarheel heroes. My son went with me today, but did his own thing there.
Chest & Shoulders
DB Bench
Did not work up particularly heavy today, but all my reps were very clean.
30/15
50/8
70/6
80/8
90/8
100/8
Bench
Pause on chest - felt pretty good on these. I’m getting to a point where I have to justify any barbell work into my day, rather than it being the default I have to rule out. “Because I feel like it” does count as rationale to do it.
135/5
185/8 x 3
DB Flye
35/10 x 3
DB Rear Delt
I have decided I think these are terrible for folks just learning the movement, and you should start with a machine, then cables, then these. Otherwise it’s too easy to just shrug them and work traps.
20/25 x 2
15/25
Machine Side Delt
I am loving this machine - it’s the only thing that can actually make my side delts specifically sore lately.
70/12 x 3
BB O&B Press
If YDK O&B, U ain’t S.
45/8
65/8
75/8
I slept about 2 hours last night, but had a pretty strong session today. I’m embracing my base plan Mountain Dog lately, after I couldn’t keep up with @davemccright at all on the conjugate program. Maybe I just don’t like a piece of paper telling me what to do right now!
Meadows Row
-/8
25/8
50/8
75/8
85/8
95/8
75/16
Did the lat activation drills before the first three sets. This was awesome. My last were cramping before it even got heavy.
Assisted Pull-ups
These are able to stay real strict and all lat, although I definitely took too much off.
-85/8 x 4
Rack Pulls
135/3
225/3
315/3
405/3
That one was easy, but I jumped to 455 (which someone glued to the pins) instead of 425, so that ended up being the last set.
Seated Cable Row
Pronated wide grip
3 x 10
Reverse Hyper
.25pps/20 x 2
Hanging Leg Raise
4 x 10
This ”stand” had a BOSU ball for the back, so I could stretch my abs at the bottom by kind of rounding my back around it - pretty cool.
I tweaked my hanstring last weekend and haven’t done much since. I know my workouts need tweaking instead of my body, so I’m interviewing different exercises and routines for a position in my workout life.