Traditional Elk’s training log

Training Logs
1

Been lurking T Nation for a while & decided it was time to start my own log. I’m heavily influenced by the time I spent wrestling, hence the name of the log.

About me

I’ve been training for 8 years, starting when I was 16. In high school, I was playing sports all year round, so training was always second priority. After graduating, I started CrossFit, which I focused on for the next few years. For about the last year, my main focus has been on getting bigger & stronger, though crossfit still has some influence on how I train.

**Recent training **

The last three months, I ran two cycles of 5/3/1 BBB straight into building the monolith. I got my weight up to about 195 (at 5’ 10”). I am now taking a break from gaining (planning ~6 weeks) during which I am running 5/3/1 PR sets with FSL widowmakers. I take almost no rest days, doing some form of conditioning on all days that I am not lifting, & on many of the days I am lifting.

Will update this with more info later if anyone has questions

Todays training

Week 2 day 1 5/3/1 PR sets & widowmakers

Press
3x120, 3x140, 10x160, 12+6+2x120

Superset w/
Band pull aparts 5x20

Giant set
4x10 incline bench (2@135, 2@155)
4x15 chins
4x12 hammer curls

Rest pause 50 dips

Conditioning

30 minute airdyne- 12.5 miles

Notes

Press is a lifetime PR. Previous best ever was 155x9

Dips have been getting stronger as well. Able to knock out big sets to get to 50 with relatively little rest.

This is my second week doing incline bench…pretty much ever. Still adjusting to it, so not too aggressive with the weight. That said, 155 was still challenging by the end.

Overall, I’m excited with how this block of PR sets has gone so far. Last week I hit 200x15 on bench. Looking back in my training journal, a little over a year ago I hit 205x8 on a + set, it’s nice to see the previous 12 weeks of VERY hard training paying off. Conditioning is very high now as well. Really feels like a lot of things are fitting into place nicely.

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Week 2 day 2- 5/3/1 PR sets & widowmakers

Front squat
3x195, 3x225, 10x250, 12x195

Superset w/
Dips 5x10

Accumulate
50 chins
50 band pull aparts
30 Ab wheel

Conditioning

50 burpees for time
3:12

Notes

Been having some back issues since the last couple weeks of BTM so I am front squatting for this cycle. Legs still get smoked from them, & they wear on my traps a lot. Really good to change up movements. Nice to have injuries force changes that end up being so beneficial

Burpees smoked me. I workout in my garage, & it’s the middle of summer in Alabama. Super hot. Just makes it that much more challenging.

Got a long conditioning workout tomorrow. I want to get in some more leg volume & overhead work. Scheming some options for it…

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Got another 50 reverse hypers in before coaching a crossfit class, then another 50 after

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Conditioning

80 kettlebell thrusters for time w/45 lb bells
5 burpees at the start of every minute

Finished in a little under 14 minutes

Then got in another 100 reverse hypers between coaching crossfit classes

Notes

Did this in the gym I coach at as oppose to my garage, so I had AC today. Definitely gives a boost in performance, but the workouts are still just as hard

Workout was a huge shoulder burner. Legs didn’t feel too bad at any point during it, & lungs were burning but not the worst I’ve had. Shoulders got fried bringing arms overhead on the burpees. No doubt the toughest part of the workout

Initial plan was to do 75 thrusters, but threw in a few more at the end since I had some time left in the minute to work with. Should have just went to 100, but I’m sure I’ll come back to this workout at some point so I’ll get to then

Bench day tomorrow. Top set will be at 210. My all time best set at 215 was for 9 reps. Looking to blow that out of the water tomorrow

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5

W2D3 5/3/1 PR sets & widowmakers

Bench
3x165, 3x190, 13x210, 15+5x165

Superset w/
Band pull aparts 5x20

Giant set
4x10 BTN press (2@95, 2@105)
4x15 chins
4x12 hammer curls

Dead bugs 3x20

Rest pause 50 dips

Notes

Really happy with the top set of bench, & how it has been progressing in general. I guess all the time spent hammering dips for the past 12 weeks has paid off big time. 210 never felt like a “light” weight before, & today it flew

Already looking ahead to next week, the top set is at 225. I’ve never done more than 5 at that weight. Let’s go.

Was working out back in the garage today. Couldn’t keep my hands dry at all, which made getting a firm grip on the bar tough. Alabama is under an “excessive” heat advisory all day, so even without doing conditioning today I was completely drenched

Man those chins straight into curls blow up my biceps

No reverse hypers today, but hit some dead bugs to hopefully help my back feel a bit better

In a couple weeks, I start my first year of teaching middle school. Prior to this, I worked in a completely different field, so it’ll be brand new. I’m considering doing just airdyne, dips, chins, & air squats (WALRUS training) the first couple weeks of school. I’ll be adjusting to working out at 0500 as oppose to mostly the afternoon, so it would be a way to almost ease into that without any external loading. I’d be able to keep conditioning high along with a good amount of upper body volume, while having some less “intense” training. Would also give my back a chance to get back to where it needs to be to train the way I want too. Knowing it’ll probably be a more stressful time in life given how school will be, throttling back to WALRUS training might be the move. Gonna see how I feel about it next week before deciding though

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Conditioning day

10 rounds (40 minutes total)
0:00-2:00-airdyne
2:00-4:00-10 dips, 10 chins, 20 squats, burpees in remaining time

Tried to hold 24mph on the airdyne. Lost count on the burpees. First 5 rounds I did 8,9,9,9,5…& not sure after that. Fell off pretty significantly the last couple rounds though. Would guess I totaled somewhere in the mid 50’s

Notes

Had a friend come train with me this morning, so he bikes while I did bw circuit & vice versa. He said it was the most he sweat in years. Still super hot even when working out in the morning

Seemed like a pretty nice way to get in 100 dips & chins, along with 200 squats & ~50 burpees. Sustained a pretty high work rate for 40 minutes as well, so I’m pleased with that

Earlier this year, for about a month I would do a workout like this everyday, then no other training. Was good when life gave me limited time in the gym as I had no warm up & didn’t need to do anything to set up/clean up. It definitely improved my conditioning then, & I might have ever gained a bit of muscle in my upper body from all the dips & chins each week. It’s good to know this & have it in my back pocket as a quick & solid way to train. Still thinking I might be doing that again for a little bit after next week

Resting heart rate was 44 last night. My garmin watch tracks this, though I try not to look at it too often or else I become pretty obsessive about it, & it varies a lot from stress & diet the day before. Not the lowest it’s ever been, but low 40’s is a place I’m always happy to be hanging out at

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7

Conditioning day

Juarez valley front squats (10-1-9-2…6-5) @205
5 burpees + 6 chins after each set

18:20

Notes

Solid training day. Some hard front squats, 50 burpees & 60 chins in under 20 minutes. Garage was HOT this afternoon. Really happy with the effort needed for this one. Front squats & burpees are just a brutal combo. Chins weren’t really that difficult, just added them to get in some more volume. Don’t know if it had a great training effect, but I’d rather do too much when in doubt

Honestly just stoked about the time I got on this. I’ve done the same workout with 185 & only 5 chins per set before & think I was around 17 minutes. So with an extra 10 chins & 20 lbs on front squats, adding less than a minute & a half is super solid

Juarez valley is always interesting. The sets of 1,2,&3 are usually not too tough & almost recovery after a big set, so you can push them fast. But then you face down 7,4,6,5 until you finish & suddenly have 4 very tough sets coming up when you’re already tired. Finishing the set of 3 is kind of the “what have I done” moment

I think I’m going to hit my press day tomorrow. Schedule will shake out better than it would if I did it on monday.

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8

W3D1 5/3/1 PR sets + widowmakers

Press
5x130, 3x150, 8x165, 12+5+3x130
Superset w/
Band pull aparts 5x20

Incline bench 5x10 (2x135, 3x155)
Superset w/
Chins 5x15

Rest pause 50 dips

Notes

Man today was a tough day. Tired, weights felt heavy, & got a headache pretty early into the presses. Was hoping for more, but still a 1 rep PR on press at that weight, so can’t complain about that. Really wanted to make today a “check the box” day, but I had to do my press day today, & that required a PR set, so it had to be done.

Had to call an audible and take the curls out of the incline/chin superset. Didn’t seem to make the chins much easier as I still had to break the last couple sets up

Didn’t feel like there was anything special about the workout today, but just gotta remind myself that a LOT of days like today add up to something big

Got about 75 minutes of lawn mowing to do this evening, so I don’t feel too bad about not having any conditioning on the docket today

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9

I borrowed this conditinong workout (albeit with half the reps on chins/dips etc.) this weekend. It was good and definitely a style of training I like too.

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10

Really enjoying your log so far. Lots of hard work going on in here.

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12

@Sam2 love it. That’s good stuff man. It’s a really solid “base” workout. Nothing fancy, just makes you better all around. I just did another session like this today

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@creative_name appreciate it man. Love to see you getting after it as well

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Conditioning day

10 rounds

1:00 airdyne
1:00 bw circuit-5 chins, 10 push-ups, 3 chins, 6 push-ups, 2 chins

Change shoes then 20 minute jog reaching 2.35 miles

Notes

First round I did another 4 push-ups at the end. That was the goal but realized after 1 round it was going to be too much. By the end I was taking the whole minute just to finish what was above, so it seems like dropping it was the right call

Solid conditioning day while getting in 100 chins & 160 push-ups. I rarely do push-ups, but when I do I always think I should be adding them into the rotation more often

Brother is in town for a couple days & he is a big runner. He wanted to run a bit after the first part so we got the jog in. Another thing that I should probably do more of, but it just isn’t a high enough priority for me to be a good runner so I usually opt for something different

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15

Yesterday’s workout was

Front squats
5x205, 3x235, 8x260, 10x205
Superset w/
Dips 5x10

Accumulate
50 chins
50 band pull apart
15 Ab wheel

Then hiked for a little over two hours with my brother

Notes

Front squats were ok. Couldn’t really hit a groove on them. Felt weaker than when I did Juarez valley a few days ago, but it happens. Top set still was pretty good.

Got a conditioning day coming up today. Not sure what I’ll be doing for it yet

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16

Conditioning day

Kettlebell strict Fran
21-15-9-5
Kettlebell thrusters w/ 2x45 lb bells
Strict chins

5:51

50 reverse hypers

Notes

Had way less time to train than I anticipated, so I went with a quick one that I know is good. Got to loosen my legs up after front squatting & a bunch of hiking yesterday, & got 50 chins in a pretty short time period, so that’s nice

Previous PR for this workout was well over 7 minutes, so this is huge. Normally on this workout I “play it safe”. I normally break the first two rounds of thrusters into two sets, & break the chins into 5-7 at a time, normally three sets per round. Decided today to just go for it. Did all the thrusters unbroken, and did big sets of chins at the start. By the round of 5, I had to break the chins 3 & 2, but I had gone so much faster that it was bound to happen. Pumped about the time on this, &, even more pumped with how I just attacked this with no regard for if I would burn out or not. It payed off with a pretty huge PR, so I’m stoked

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17

W3D3 PR sets + widowmakers

Bench
5x175, 3x200, 10x225, 13+5+2x175
Superset w/
Band pull aparts 5x20

Giant set
BTN press 5x10 (2x95, 3x105)
Chins 5x12 (all unbroken)
Hammer curls 5x8 w/30lbs

Giant set
Dips-chins-reverse hyper-chins
Went 20/15/15 on dips to get to 50 total
Went 20/20/10 on reverse hyper
Did 5 chins between everything

Notes

10 reps of bench with 2 plates has been a goal of mine for a while. Pumped to hit that. This was probably the only cycle of PR sets I’ll run for a while. I rarely do “anchor” programs. But this was a successful cycle & I’m excited with how well the accumulation phase before this cycle set up some big PR’s. Didn’t hit any front squat PR’s, but I spent some time re learning the movement while having a somewhat compromised lower back, so it’s not surprising

Should have video’d the bench. I did it at the gym instead of my house, where there are no safeties. Didn’t get a spotter either. 9 felt close to all I had, but went for another. Slowest rep of my life. Would like to have video to prove to myself I am brave (or maybe crazy) more than to document the PR

Weighing around 192 now. Was ~195 at the end of BTM, so I guess the bloat has went away. Didn’t have any goals to lose/maintain/gain weight, but I like being aware of this at least. Resting heart rate has been trending down since finishing BTM

Got a few conditioning days coming up where I’ll get to think about what comes next…

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18

Conditioning day

35 minutes airdyne- 13.85 miles

Slower pace than I held for 30 minutes last week, but this was around 15 minutes after waking up this morning. Getting one “long” ride like this in ~weekly~ has been good. Might be able to sneak in a quick kettlebell workout later, but not worried if I can’t

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19

Second conditioning workout today

5 minutes ABC’s w/ 2x45 lb bells

24 rounds

Notes

Coached all morning then helped some people move most of the day. I got home and was already sweaty, so figured why not hit this. I’ve been staying away from most kb movements with how my back has felt, but went for it today. It’s felt fine all day so that’s a good sign

I’ve done this workout a few times before. Previous best was 23 rounds. At some point, probably my next gaining phase, I’m thinking about doing these daily. Really like the idea from @T3hPwnisher

The ABC’s really just blow up everything. I was grinding out presses towards the end, legs felt like jelly, upper back was fatigued on cleans, yet the worst of all is the lungs being on fire. It’s really just too good of a workout (in such a short time) to not be doing more frequently

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That’s a monstrous showing for stepping back into it dude! Daily ABCs have been good to me: hope they treat you the same.

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21

Conditioning day

20 minutes of “cluster bomb”

3 kb clusters w/2x45 lb at the start of each minute
Burpee chins with remaining time

Total of 61 burpee chins

Notes

Traps were sore & shoulders fatigued pretty quickly in this one. The ABC’s yesterday seemed to have a really solid training effect, & made this workout much harder. My weather app also says it “feels like” over 100 degrees outside, & my garage was even worse. Made this workout that much more challenging

Looking back at my notes, last time I did this workout I did 50 for time & finished in 11:57. Wasn’t even close to that today…but I know the effort was there. & I know I haven’t lost fitness since then, as all my lifts have increased & other conditioning workouts have improved. Felt like I entered “survival mode” pretty early on this one

Had a new idea for what to do the next couple of weeks. I could start 5/3/1 krypteia. First 6 weeks are a “ramp up” phase with FSL 5x5 as the supplemental, then it starts 2 cycles of BBB. Could be great to give me an easier start as I begin teaching, then when I’m ready hop onto BBB, which has always been my go to hypertrophy program. Would still be cramming a lot of work into sessions as well. The lifting also gets capped at 45 minutes, so I could finish the lifting, clean up, then hit 5 minutes of ABC’s all in an hour. Still thinking through some options, but this is one I like right now. Most likely will choose between this & daily airdyne/kettlebell/bodyweight circuits

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