Have my eyes on a competition in March, Crown the King, Has a Press Medley, Vehicle Pull, Stones and Silver Dollar Deadlift. Hoping with how everything is going that 5.5 more month is more than long enough
Now that moving is primarily done back to eating cleaner, and learning how to cook. Made some Turkey Meatloaf. Since baked Turkey can be kind of dry I looked up a recipe as starting point which used mushrooms to counteract the dryness. Added spinach because its honestly the best vegetable. Will use less onion next time, the recipe said use a whole onion so I got a small one and that still too much. Skipped the garlic since historically garlic isn’t great for my gut. Overall it was ok, the onion overkill kind of ruined the good.
Yesterday I took the lessons I learned from the meatloaf to make meatballs for spaghetti. Breading, eggs, etc… and in an effort to make it my own and add calories I mixed Thousand Island dressing and Blue cheese into the meatballs. These turned out pretty good. Used generic angel hair and generic pasta sauce from a jar since the meatball experiment was the focus.
Weight is stable over 200 right now. Haven’t been exercising discipline and its rough to force myself to eat. My biggest weakness in bulking is that I can literally “forget” to eat even when hungry. Old habit spill over from long gaming marathons in my early 20s. Trying to push myself to do better. The big point is that I am actually recovering from training and making some noticeable gains, so in the end that’s what matters instead of the literal number on the scale.
Whats funny is that’s the solution I came to today. I got so much protein powder lying around too so even at 2 a day I won’t run out for a while. Stocked up a bit right when the pandemic was starting.
I’m using something called protein water right now. Is whey but taste and consistency when mixed is closer to cordial. Creamy whey shakes are pretty heavy on my tummy so easier to chug protein water
I’m chugging whatever it is. As long as all of it doesn’t sit funny in me tummy. Been really useful soo far. Removing a small barrier too chugging down protein goes a long way for me
At least for the moment yeah. Moved to the north part of Ames which makes it 45 minutes one way. Right now not great. I got my membership discounted for this next month since I plan on popping in once a week for Deadlifts, but otherwise will be at Ames Racquet and Fitness. The membership came with my apartment lease so there’s that at least and they have a 24hr facility.
This was the biggest thing I was not looking forward to when we decided on Ames. Love that gym.
So there are 3 facilities covered in my lease agreement. The first one the one I worked out at yesterday small, not tons of equipment suited towards strength minded people. Lots of cardio equipment. 24 hour facility has deadlift platforms, not a crazy good facility. Good enough for when I need to hit up after hours. Checked out the last one today, it is light years nicer than the other 2. Very similar to Fitness World in Ankeny. Its a nice gym but its missing one key thing for me,a sled and place to drag it around. So that got axed even though I offered to do it with my tire sled and the 25lb plates I have at home. Also obviously lack of strongman stuff. I am also reminded very quickly why I don’t like this type of gym setting.
Hamstring Curl 3 x 20 3 Way Calf Raises 3 x 6 /way Side Planks 3 x 15/side
NG Pullups
1 x 8
SSB Box Squats
6 x 2 @ 165
Widened stance and focused more on sitting back instead of down. The bench is probably a little higher than what coach wants but will have to make due for now.
Hamstring Curl
2 x 10 @ 110
New machine. Don’t like this one, they have another one that I will try.
Contralateral Split Squat
2 x 6 @ 35
Pause mid way on each to increase perceived effort.
Weighted Plank
5 x 13sec @ 25lbs
Planks are starting to not feel so miserable to do now.
Pause Leg Extension
1 x 20 @ 55 or 70 IDR.
2 Count pause at the top. First set was far too easy even counting the pauses. So I did a second set which was much closer to the intended perceived effort.
Had to make some adjustments because the 24 hour facility sucks aside from having Deadlift platforms. Plus side I found out about a cool looking gym in Boone, which is about a 10 minute drive west
Lat Pulldown 3 x 20 DB OHP 3 x 20 @ 15/hand Band Pushdown 3 x 20
** Low Incline Bench**
175 x 3
180 x 3
No more swiss bar atm. Was told to work upto an rpe 8 triple with a straight bar. Overshot by a bit. Really strong off the chest, and grind to finish.
Tbar row
3 x 8 @ 80
No rowing machines? weird but ok
Cable Facepulls 3 x 20 DB Hammercurls3 x 20 @ 20/hand Band Dislocations 3 x 10
Strict Press
2 x 3 @ 135
as per usual, I see the numbers and get pretty anxious. “I can’t do that my 1 rm is 135”, even though its not and I did a similar session with 5lbs less last week. Still having a hard time registering all this progress on my overhead strict press… 3 years of paltry progress and then boom lots. I know a lot of it just to do with fixing my gut issue and eating better. It’s still hard to wrap my head around.
DB Low Incline Bench @60/hand; 9, 9, 8
Pause at top and bottom
NG Row
3 x 12 @ 145
Band Tricep PD x 35 Rolling Ext @ 30/hand, 10, 10, 9 DB Lateral raise 3 x 17 @ 15/hand Incline Curls @ 25/hand; 15, 14, 12 DB Rear Delt Fly 3 x 14 2 30/hand
