Velvet's Lifting and Other Fun Stuff Log

Training Training Logs
2261

4/1/22

God is a Beast - W6/D4 - Bench

GIANT SETS (chin - bench - core)

Over hand pullups:
5x9

Axle bench:
50x10
120x5
150x5
170x5
190x5
170x5
190x5
210x2

Band oblique crunch:
x10/side

Ring pushups:
x50 rest/pause

SUPER SETS (axle - band)

Axle overhead tricep extensions:
60x3x10

Band pushdowns:
3x10

Kroc row/Kelso shrug dropset:
90x13/6

CONDITIONING

Tabata high handle trap bar pulls w/150lbs

End of the leader for this program. Just in time before I quit lifting altogether, need a change of scenery here. Going to skip the anchor in favor of starting up a different leader. No harm no foul there as far as I’m concerned, I don’t think I have any big PRs to hit on anything right now.

3 Likes
2262

4/4/22

7th Week TM Test - Squats

SUPER SETS (jump - clean)

Box jump:
3x3

Power clean:
45x5
115x3
135x3
155x3
175x2

SUPER SETS (squats - core)

Squats:
45x10
135x5
185x5
205x3
235x2
265x5

Incline standing ab wheel:
5x5
1x11

ASSISTANCE CIRCUIT

Slant board squats:
95x5x8

Dips:
BWx5x10

Chest supported DB rows: (2)
70x5x8

CONDITIONING

Tabata front squats w/25lb DBs:
x8-8-8-8-8-0-6-4

I’ve made some decisions on my approach to lifting for the upcoming bit of time. For starts, I’m going to drop the cleans from my squat/deadlift days in favor of using them in a conditioning workout mid-week. I don’t want to abandon them, but I want to cut down on the contents of my workouts and follow the 5/3/1 programs a little closer. Conditioning happens to be part of those so, win-win.

Days are going to look like this for the most part. Main work, followed by an assistance circuit, didn’t do it today but there will be a burner set, then conditioning.

I’m looking forward to this, because, the assistance is just whatever I feel like doing from a list of PPL exercises for like 3-5 rounds depending on what I’ve got for time. No need to think about it, they all work, just grab and go. Those slant board squats pumped the hell out of my quads today.

Burner sets will be things like Poundstone curls, Kroc rows, lateral raise dropsets etc. Things that suck basically.

I’ll be including a 5-10 minute conditioning workout to cap off each lifting session. I’m sick of trying to be creative, so I’ll just keep the same workout for a while until I actually need to change it up. Opted to hop on the Tabata DB squat craze and that sucked, especially after all the squats I had already done. Kept the DBs racked for three rounds, at my sides for two more, then had to set them down and take a round off for my shoulders to heal before I finished it out.

5 Likes
2263

4/5/22

7th Week TM Test - Press

GIANT SETS (chins - press - core)

NG chins: (widest to narrowest grips)
BWx5x10

Axle clean and press away:
50x10
80x5
100x3
110x2
125x3

Landmine twists:
35x5x8

ASSISTANCE CIRCUIT

Axle reverse lunges:
80x5x5/leg

DB bench:
70x5x5

T-bar row:
90x5x10

CONDITIONING

Tabata front squats w/25lb DBs:
x8-8-8-8-8-8-8-7

A little over ambitious on that top set. A solid triple, but not the set of five that I was looking for.

Assistance circuit was on the money again. While I definitely made some progress with lift/body part focused assistance, I hate that style of training the most. I’ll circle back because it’s effective, but these circuits are a better fit for me mentally. Still hate them, just less, haha.

Conditioning predictably sucked. Got 4 rounds with the DBs racked, then held them at my sides the other 4. Shoulders/arms were failing me on the later sets, and finally dropped the DBs on the last set without enough time to re-clean and get that 8th rep. I’m not sad about missing it.

4 Likes
2264

4/6/22

Conditioning

Snakehandler Mass

Front squats: 135x3
Football bar vipers: 75x4
Burpee chins: x5

15 rounds in 30 minutes

Well, that was delightfully awful. Thanks for the evil genius @T3hPwnisher!

Only had 30 minutes available due to work reasons, could have made it through the 50 but I was just surviving through the last 10 minutes as it was. Left forearm was glad to be done with the vipers.

Got 5 rounds done in about 6 minutes, then each round took more and more life out of me. Getting up from the floor on the burpees was the biggest hit, rep 4 in particular.

Side note: I’ve got some rugged IT band syndrome going on these days. First handful of squat reps are just mean. Guess I should probably stretch or something.

3 Likes
2265

4/7/22

7th Week TM Test - Deads

GIANT SETS (jump - pull - core)

Box jump:
3x3

Trap bar pulls:
150x5
240x5
310x5
360x5

Dip bar leg raise:
4x8

ASSISTANCE CIRCUIT

Band assisted Nordic ham curls:
Purple x5x5

Banded dips:
Red x5x8

Trap bar rows:
150x5x8

CONDTIONING

Tabata front squats w/25lb DBs:
x8 across

Solid and quick workout. Had plenty left in the tank on that set at 360, could have either upped the weight or did more reps but since I’m just getting a TM that’ll do for now.

Hate those front squats so much already. Got 5 rounds racked and 3 more with the DBs at my sides.

2 Likes
2266

4/8/22

7th Week TM Test - Bench

GIANT SETS (chin - bench - core)

Overhand pull ups:
5x10

Axle bench:
50x10
120x5
140x5
170x3
190x2
210x3

Band side bends:
x10/side

ASSISTANCE CIRCUIT

ATG split squats:
5x8

Seated DB press: (5)
30x5x10

Axle curl:
60x5x7

CONDITIONING

Tabata front squats w/25lb DBs:
x8 across - 6 racked & 2 held

Man, my bench has just cratered. Prior to God is a Beast I ended a run of 3’s pro with linear progression back off sets with a smooth triple of 205 followed by 5x5 at 190. Now I’m struggling to hit a single set of 5 at 190 and that triple at 210 was way harder than it had any right to be at this point.

Part of me doesn’t care, because I don’t care that much about the bench and my overhead press seems to be getting better. Part of me does care because, well, it felt cool to be on the way towards feeling actually strong on a lift. C’est la vie.

Conditioning continues to suck but incrementally improve.

3 Likes
2267

Love seeing the Snakehandler and Tabata work my dude! Excited to see how it pays off

1 Like
2268

4/9/22

Conditioning

Tabata front squats w/25lb DBs:
x8 across, all rounds racked

Hill sprints:
5x ~80 yards

Knocked out the squats first thing in the AM fasted, noticeably easier when it’s not preceded by a full workout, but still sucks. Going to up the weight, which means switching to the powerblocks from the steel DBs, so we’ll see how that changes things.

Planned a ~1 mile jog for after the sprints but the rain picked up from a drizzle to a full down pour during my 5th sprint. Can always try to get that in tomorrow before I hang some gutters.

@T3hPwnisher Appreciate the vote of confidence man! I’m thinking the pay off will be me buying some new pants after this summer since my jeans are already pushing the limits of what’s possible, haha.

1 Like
2269

4/9/22

Cardio

~1 mile run

Stopped raining so I got that run in. Felt light on the feet and flew through it today. Wonder if the sprints before hand had anything to do with it.

Makes three short workouts on the day, that’s what’s up.

2270

4/11/22

Pervertor - W1/D1 - Squats

GIANT SETS (jump - squat - core)

Box jump:
5x3

Squats:
45x10
135x5
185x5
215x5
240x5
185x10x5

Incline standing ab wheel:
5x7

ASSISTANCE CIRCUIT

Reverse lunges:
BWx5x8/leg

Ring pushups:
BWx5x10

NG inverted row: (14, middle grips)
BWx5x10

BURNER

Band hamstring curls:
x50

CONDITIONING

Tabata front squats w/30lb DBs:
x8 across - 3 racked, remainder at sides

Solid first workout on the new program. Been eyeing this one for a while. It’s pretty similar to SVRII which I know is a good one, so hoping this pans out. Squats felt… pretty damn good today actually. I’ll take that any time.

Sprinkled some ancillary stuff I’d otherwise skip between sets of supplemental work. Hit some tibialis, calf, and hip flexor raises. Turned out to be a money combo and something I’ll experiment with further.

Had plans to use the weight vest for that assistance circuit but decided to stick with bodyweight by the time I got there. This time around it was the right call since I’m doing more volume than the testing week.

Going to include one “burner” set each workout to torch a muscle. Probably see a 3:1 upper to lower body ratio on those.

Tabata conditioning is rugged. But it’s a pretty perfect way to end the workouts, so short you really can’t skip it, but so brutal it takes everything to just get it done. Upped the weight, and after all the other work this was much harder.

Edit: Also want to toot my own horn a bit that I completed all of this in just under an hour. I thought it’d take me closer to 75 minutes when I wrote it all out.

2 Likes
2271

4/12/22

Pervertor - W1/D2 - Press

GIANT SETS (chin - press - core)

NG chins: (wide grips)
BWx10
+25x3x8

Axle clean and press:
50x10
85x5
95x5
110x5
85x10x5

Landmine twist:
35x8

ASSISTANCE CIRCUIT

SSB good mornings:
95x5x8

Low incline DB bench: (1)
60x5x6

Single arm BB row:
60x5x8

BURNER

Lateral raise:
5x100

CONDITIONING

Tabata front squats w/30lb DBs:
7x8, 1x10 - 3 racked, remainder at sides

Another good workout. Hit a pretty big recap yesterday and I’d just be repeating a lot of what I said if I were to do it again.

Hit some sets of pull aparts and external rotations between the supplemental work sets.

Holding those DBs in the rack after smoking out my shoulders was a silly idea. Managed to match what I did yesterday (3 rest periods racked, dropped to sides after the 4th working set) so I hit some extra reps on the last round as penance.

3 Likes
2272

4/13/22

Conditioning

Cleaning the Tower

Power cleans with 5 burpees between sets:
135x1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-1

Time - 12:57

Tabata front squats w/30lb DBs:
7x8, 1x11 - 4 racked, remainder at sides

Hill sprints:
5x~80 yards

Hoo boy. All that took a bit less than 30 minutes, and I had to come inside and lay down for a bit.

Took a little spin on @T3hPwnisher’s “Tower of Babel” workout and swapped power cleans in there. That was rough on its own, but I hit the squats anyway.

Came upstairs and noticed it was lightly drizzling outside. I wanted to get the sprints in at some point and I figured there’s no time like the present. Rain was refreshing, and it’s just badass to run in the rain. Sprint is generous terminology here, but I tried pretty damn hard to move fast, haha.

2 Likes
2273

That sounds absolutely brutal! Burpees themselves have a solid element of explosiveness to them, so to pair them with those cleans is especially gnarly.

1 Like
2274

Gnarly indeed! The burpees tend to torch my quads (and pushing muscles), while the cleans hit the posterior chain pretty hard, so there seemed to be just enough recovery to get the sets done. I think you mentioned something similar with thrusters and either swings or snatches a while back.

1 Like
2275

You got it: hip dominant vs quad. Both full body, but different.

1 Like
2276

4/14/22

Pervertor - W1/D3 - Deads

GIANT SETS (jump - pull - core)

Box jumps:
5x3

Trap bar pulls:
60x10
150x5
250x5
290x5
325x5
250x10x5

Dip bar leg raise:
5x8

ASSISTANCE CIRCUIT

Bulgarian split squats:
BWx5x8

Dips:
BWx5x10

Trap bar shrugs:
150x5x8

BURNER

Kroc rows:
70x17

CONDITIONING

Tabata front squats w/30lb DBs:
7x8, 1x12 - 5 racked, remainder at sides

Man, am I looking forward to the bare minimum of training this weekend. Already beat to shit, but, I might be on to something with what I’ve got going here.

Trap bar is what’s up, still not as natural as a straight bar, but I have a lot more time on the straight bar.

Figured I’d hit mid 20s on those Kroc rows, but by the low teens my back was calling it quits on me. Kinda sweet actually.

Seeing more progress on that conditioning workout, but good lord does it suck.

1 Like
2277

It just never gets better! Haha. Somehow WE do while it keeps sucking.

1 Like
2278

4/15/22

Pervertor - W1/D4 - Bench

GIANT SETS (chin - bench - core)

Over hand pullups:
4x10

Axle bench:
50x10
140x5
160x5
180x5
140x10x5

Band side bends:
x10/side

ASSISTANCE CIRCUIT

Paused ATG split squats:
BWx5x5

DB standing press:
40x5x5

Axle row:
160x5x7

BURNER

Poundstone curls:
x123

CONDITIONING

Tabata front squats w/30lb DBs:
7x8, 1x13 - 5 racked, remainder at sides

It occurred to me that perhaps putting a different lift on my Friday workouts would make it mentally easier to do, because bench workouts are just bleh. But also, I’m so smoked by the time I get to Fridays bench is kind of the ideal workout for them.

So, I really anticipated chasing Poundstone curls with Tabata front squats to be a new experience in self loathing, to the point that I was legitimately frightened of the prospect. Turned out to not be as bad as I thought it would be, it just sucked a whole bunch instead.

@T3hPwnisher Man, this has to make us better. I don’t want to find out what’s necessary if that doesn’t cut it, haha.

2 Likes
2279

It’s very Nietzschian dude…and sometimes, I wish it would just kill me, haha.

2280

Haha man, I feel that. Always appreciate your ability to inject philosophy into lifting. And with that…

4/16/22

Conditioning

Tabata front squats w/30lb DBs:
8’s across, all rounds racked

It’s just so much easier to endure the racked position when there isn’t an entire workout preceding it. Somehow it still doesn’t suck any less though.

Going to burn through a few hundred rounds of ammo with some buddies today, hoping we beat the rain. Should be a good time.

3 Likes