Holy confronting leg day, Batgirl! SEVEN front squats EMOM at near body weight, then BSS, RDLs, and other accessories?! My piddly 4x7 on the trap bar today now looks like a warm-up! 
Between your tiny size and probable leg mass, I’ll bet your thighs account for, like, half your body weight! Hahaha
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And you thought “Quad Queen” was just a clever name… 
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I assumed your screen name had a basis in reality, but after reading that workout, it’s starting to sound like an official title 
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Give me my crown damn it!! 
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My phone has no emojis with crowns around thighs
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6/13/22, Monday
Swimming
- 24:36, 900 m / 0.56 mi, 1:1 breaststroke : freestyle
Very slow, but it felt good to swim a half-mile again. Evidently, Saturday’s lifts exactly targeted my swimming muscles - my pecs and shoulders were on fire! I still stand by swimming as the best workout after deadlifting - at around 300 meters, I could feel my spinal erectors loosening. I’m now sore all over (feels good!) but everything is limber and mobile.
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6/14/22, Tuesday
Bench press
- 45 x 20
- 95 x 8
- 125 x 4
- 145 x 2
- 165 x 1
- 185 x 7
- 185 x 7
- 185 x 6
- 185 x 5
- 160 x 8
- 135 x 12, supersetted with
Plate-loaded rows (lbs/side)
- 45 x 8
- 70 x 4
- 90 x 4 x 9
- 70 x 12
Kettlebell curls
- 25 x 8, 9, 10
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6/15/22, Wednesday
Power squats
- empty x 15
- 1 pps x 10
Deadlifts
- 45 x 15
- 135 x 8
- 185 x 4
- 225 x 3
- 265 x 1
- 305 x 1
- 335 x 1
- 355 x 1
- 365 x 1
- 365 x 1
Short on time, equipment was initially in use. Still very happy with this session, and I left the gym refreshed and energized.
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6/17/22, Friday
Rower - 5:00, 1,061 m
Decline bench press
- 45 x 20
- 115 x 5
- 145 x 4
- 165 x 2
- 185 x 2
- 205 x 5
- 205 x 5
- 205 x 5
- 205 x 4
These hurt the elbow/forearm, might have to ditch them.
Pulldown machine
- 110 x 10
- 125 x 10
- 140 x 10
- 155 x 10
- 170 x 10, supersetted with
Standing DB OHP
- 45 x 11, 11, 11, 12
Hammer Strength high to low rows
- 70 lbs/side x 2 x 16
Pec deck - 100 x 13, 13, 13
Rear delt deck - 100 x 12, 12, 12
DB curls - 27.5 x 8, 8, 8
DB single triceps ext - 27.5 x 10, 10, 10
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6/18/22, Saturday
Treadmill
- 35:00, 2.15 mi, 0 - 6.0 incl
Stepmill
- 10:00, 34 floors
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6/19/22, Sunday
Rower - 5:00, 1, 095 m
Trap bar deadlifts
- 70 x 15
- 160 x 5
- 210 x 3
- 250 x 1
- 300 x 1
- 320 x 4
- 320 x 4
- 320 x 4
- 320 x 4
- 320 x 4
Low-speed, high-drag today. I knew 4 x 8 w/ 300 would drain me so planned to do 4 x 5 w/ 320. Even that felt like a reach. Maybe it’s the humidity, maybe it’s the 2 weeks’ of diarrhea (yuck, TMI! haha). Whatever, I did 20 reps.
Smith machine Bulgarian split squats
- 25 x 8
- 45 x 4
- 60 x 2
- 70 x 7
- 70 x 7
- 70 x 8
Finally, a Smith was available after deadlifting. Yep, as I suspected - this one exercise better addresses a current need than two from last week (front squats and single leg press.)
Single calf press
- 90 x 4 x 13
Hanging leg raises
- bw x 4 x 11
This morning, I weighed 200.2. I’m happy with that; my net loss from a January 2021 is 10 pounds. My next physique goal is to drop to 195, maintain it, and reassess what to do next.
My lifting goals are more or less a constant - conventional deadlift 405, work to benching 225 for reps, eventually push press my bodyweight then 225, front squat a lot - 275 then 315. More immediately, I need to get the elbow tendonitis fixed. Weight loss and deadlifting, thankfully, are goals I can work towards right now.
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6/21/22, Tuesday
Swimming
- 23:49, 900 m / 0.56 mi, mixed 1:1 and 1:2 breaststroke : freestyle.
I lost count and might’ve swam 50 m more. Regardless, it was 47 seconds faster than last week. I’ll increase the proportion of freestyle stroke laps as I reacquire my sea legs (pool arms?)
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6/22/22, Wednesday
Rower - 5:00, 1,034 m
Deadlifts
- 135 x 8
- 185 x 4
- 225 x 3
- 265 x 2
- 295 x 1
- 325 x 1
- 345 x 1 (mixed grip)
- 365 x 1 (mixed grip)
- 365 x 1 (mixed grip)
- 365 x 1 (mixed grip)
- 315 x 6 (mixed grip)
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6/22/22, Wednesday, Part Deux
Power squat machine
- empty x 10
- 1 pps x 5
- 2 pps x 5
- 3 pps x 4 x 9
Incline chest press machine
- 100 x 10
- 115 x 10
- 130 x 10
- 145 x 5
- 120 x 8
Dip machine
- 140 x 8, 10
Seated cable rows, wide neutral grip
- 100 x 10
- 120 x 8
- 140 x 6
- 160 x 6
- 130 x 15
Lateral raise machine - 50 x 3 x 20
DB curls - 25 x 2 x 12
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Great pulling again mate. Very consistent right now
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Thanks Simon, I appreciate your encouragement. I’m finally finding my schedule groove. It also occurred to me I can deadlift more than once a week, if I want. That’s really fueled my desire to get in more.
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Weigh-in on 6/26/22 - 200.2 pounds.
I neither gained nor lost weight last week. Twould appear I need to decrease calories a little to reach my 195-pound waypoint (weigh point? Haha)
The weekend was a no-exercise deload for me, which worked out for my lack of energy and weekend social obligations (belated Father’s Day dinner, birthday bbq for brother.) I’m still figuring out how best to deload this week and will return to regular lifting this coming weekend.
6/27/22, Monday, deload-ish
Rower - 5:00, 1,082 m
Trap bar deadlifts
- 135 x 8
- 185 x 4
- 225 x 2
- 275 x 5
- 315 x 8 (rep PR?)
- 275 x 8
Hammer Strength chest press, lbs/side
- 45 x 8
- 70 x 4
- 90 x 8
- 100 x 2
- 115 x 8
- 115 x 4
- 90 x 9
Seated cable rows, wider-neutral grip
- 100 x 8
- 120 x 6
- 140 x 3 x 8
Sled pushing
- 135 x 80 ft
- 160 x 80 ft
- 225 x 80 ft
- 315 x 5 x 80 ft, supersetted with
DB curls - 25 x 3 x 14
DB single triceps ext - 25 x 17, 17, 16
Lateral raises - 16 x 2 x 20
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Happy 4th of July!
No weigh-in today; I learned middle last week that I have a GI infection, likely brought on from 2.5 weeks’ of antibiotics in May to cure a savage sinus infection 
It’s nice to learn why I’ve been feeling so lousy.
The doctor suggested it might be C-diff, which is very alarming, so I’m taking this recovery period seriously and foregoing direct exercising while on an intestine-specific antibiotic. After four days and lots of sleeping during this three-day weekend, it feels like I’m slowly turning a corner so plan to maintain momentum. Now for some prose about my upcoming exercise routine:
When I return to exercising next weekend, I’ll return slowly. I’m debating whether to run a pre-written program or continue ad-hoc-ing it for the summer. My real goal remains exercise consistency; what I consistently do is walking, swimming, deadlifting, and various upper-body lifts. Finding or building a program around those has proven successful.
There are a few totally different exercise plans that appeal to me:
- walk-swim-full-body-lifting twice a week with one or two days off
- OLAD plus walking or swimming five days per week, keeping exercise sessions to one hour total
- Washed-Up Meathead (with the modifications I used 1.5 years ago), so 2 upper and 1 lower-body lifting days each week, plus 2-3 LISS days
- alternating lifting and cardio days, with ABCD upper/lower lifting days.
After consistency, my goals are -
- 405-pound deadlift
- lose 10 pounds of fat
- build larger upper-torso muscles
- feel healthier and more athletic
So, yeah, bigger, stronger, leaner. I know I can’t ride more than one horse with a single butt, yet my goals aren’t currently mutually exclusive. I could try each of the above programs for one to three months, depending on the program, and see how they feel. Hmmm… I’m open to suggestions from anyone with the reading stamina to plow through that presumably mundane writing.
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