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Training Training Logs
1

…But I don’t want to spend a lot of money.

griffin

Hi folks, after being nudged this way by some other posters I’ve finally decided to start a training log. Thank you for taking the time to read my log - all feedback/encouragement is extremely welcome by the way!

Background:
In short, I used to be pretty active (OCR, parkour and lifting) but things haven’t exactly gone to plan the last couple of years (especially during lockdown) and I’ve found myself in the worst shape of my life. Weight has increased drastically, my knees hurt, I can barely do 6 pushups without getting winded, jogging makes my achilles explode, my lifestyle is attrocious and I’m all round pretty grumpy.

Stats:

  • Age: 32
  • Height: 176cm
  • Weight: 112.7kg

Goals:
—Short term
re-establish some fundamental habits to improve my physical and mental wellbeing. To do this, I initially aim to define and stick to a plan with at least 90% compliance for 4 weeks. A compliant day is only counted if I have not deviated from my plan at all that day. After 4 weeks I intend on reassessing my situation and revisiting my goal definition. I will push myself but only when I feel like it as I want to learn to love the process again.

—Long(er) term
This needs some further work but essentially I would like to drop down to 80kg (I just feel better at that weight) and enter an Spartan Sprint (or Super) in the age group category by end of June 2021.

Training:
I’ll be using a 3 day A-B split (AxBxAxxBxAxBxx) based on the Bondarchuk Complex. I’ll also be working up to adding in some loaded carries (inspired by Dan Johns 5 fundamental movements).

Equipment is quite limited so I’ll have to be creative and manage my expectations. All I have in my flat are a set of dumbbells, a doorway chinup bar, some resistance bands and a kettlebell.

—Workout A:
Mobility work: leg swings x10 ea., hip flexor stretch 30s ea., squat stretch 30s, band dislocates x10
A ) Vertical jump, 5x3, 30-60s rest
B ) Reverse lunge, 4x8-12, 60-120s rest
C1 ) Pushup/dip progression, 4x6-10, 60-120s rest
C2 ) 2 arm bent over dumbbell row, 4x6-10, 60-120s rest
D ) Calf raises, 3x8-12, 60-120s rest
Conditioning: Dumbbell stair climbs, 4x60s, 60s rest

—Workout A:
Mobility work: leg swings x10 ea., hip flexor stretch 30s ea., squat stretch 30s, band dislocates x10
A ) Dumbbell high pull from hang, 5x3, 30-60s rest
B ) Dumbbell Romanian deadlift, 4x8-12, 60-120s rest
C1 ) Dumbbell overhead press, 4x6-10, 60-120s rest
C2 ) Neutral grip chin-up, 4x6-10, 60-120s rest
D ) Cuban press, 3x8-12, 60-120s rest
Conditioning: Dumbbell stair climbs, 4x60s, 60s rest

Diet:

  • 3 meals a day
  • “No S Diet”: no snacks, no second helpings and no sweets.
  • No takeout/delivery food
  • Calorie free beverages only
  • Supplements: 1g Ashwaghanda, 4000IU D3 and a multivitamin

Lifestyle:

  • 7 hours sleep/night
  • No caffeine after 3PM and “normal” strength coffees only (1tsp instant or single espresso shot).
  • 30 min walk/day
2 Likes
2

Welcome man. Quick question straight out the gates: what is OCR?

2 Likes
3

Mobility:
As per plan

Lifting:
A) Vertical jump, 5x3, 30-60s rest, bw - 3/3/3/3/3
B) Reverse lunge, 4x8-12, 60-120s rest, bw - 10/10/10/8
C1) Pushups, 4x6-10, 0 rest, bw - 6/6/3/2
C2) 2 arm dumbbell row, 4x6-10, 60-120s rest, 20kg - 10/10/7/7
D) Calf raises, 3x8-12, 60-120s rest, bw - 10/6/7

Conditioning:
Stair climbs, 4x60s, 1 min rest, bw - 60s/60s/60s/60s

Comments:
I feel somewhat embarrassed posting these numbers but I have to (re)start somewhere. I was unbelievably gassed by the end of this - absolutely no work capacity! I’m also being super conservative with certain lifts due to fear of injury.

Summary:
Day: 1
Training: ✓
Diet: ✓
Lifestyle: ✓
Compliance: 100%
Weight: 112.7kg

4

dagill2 - How do I quote other posters? It’s been so long since I last used a forum!

Welcome man. Quick question straight out the gates: what is OCR?

Obstacle Course Racing - Spartan is my favourite!

1 Like
5

Ah, gotcha.

Just select the text and a little “quote” box should appear next to the selected text.

1 Like
6

Mobility:
As per plan

Lifting:
A) dumbbell high pull from hang, 5x3, 30-60s rest, 20kg - 3/3/3/3/3
B) dumbbell Romanian deadlift, 4x8-12, 60-120s rest, 20kg - 8/8/8/8
C1) dumbbell overhead press, 4x6-10, 0 rest, 20kg - 10/9/7/6
C2) Band assisted neutral grip chin-up, 4x6-10, 60-120s rest, Red band - 6/3/3/2
D) Cuban press, 3x8-12, 60-120s rest, 2.5kg - 8/6/5

Conditioning:
Dumbbell stair climb, 4x60s, 1 min rest, 2.5kg - 60s/60s/60s/60s

Comments:
Given that my primary goal right now is to try and establish some semblance of consistency, I’m going to be taking it nice and easy for a while. Cutting back on the caffeine and introducing daily walks are already helping my stress levels.

Summary:
Day: 2/3
Training: ✓/✓
Diet: ✓/✓
Lifestyle: ✓/✓
Compliance: 100%/100%
Weight: 112kg/111.5kg

2 Likes
7

Off day today and generally happy with how things are going, especially with the little drop in weight. Ive found myself drifting towards a 16:8 style eating pattern, having all my meals in the evening. This seems to keep me full throughout the evening when im most prone to binging. Once I’ve survived the first week I need to start thinking about possible next steps.

Summary:
Day: 4
Training: N/A
Diet: ✓
Lifestyle: ✓
Compliance: 100%
Weight: 110.3kg

8

Mobility:
As per plan

Lifting:
A) Vertical jump, 5x3, 30-60s rest, bw - 3/3/3/3/3
B) Reverse lunge, 4x8-12, 60-120s rest, bw - 12/12/9/9
C1) Pushups, 4x6-10, 0 rest, bw - 6/6/5/3
C2) 2 arm dumbbell row, 4x6-10, 60-120s rest, 20kg - 12/10/10/8
D) Calf raises, 3x8-12, 60-120s rest, bw - 11/8/6

Conditioning:
Stair climbs, 4x60s, 1 min rest, 5kg - 60s/60s/60s/60s

Comments:
I’m becoming increasingly aware of my form and have identified a few areas of improvement, e.g.: more scapula depression/retraction on row, less sagging on pushup and more general control with the reverse lunges. I’ll continue as-is for now.

My eagerness to step this up has been dialled back a tad due to work stress. This is absolutely something I need to work on - I hate the headaches and feeling on edge. I might try some mindfulness/breathing exercises tomorrow. Speaking of which, I’ve been considering making mindful eating (maybe 1 meal per day initially) one of the next rules however I’ll only add this when things have settled.

Summary:
Day: 5
Training: ✓
Diet: ✓
Lifestyle: ✓
Compliance: 100%
Weight: 110.5kg

9

I did one spartan (first and only OCR) and was pretty disappointed. All of the obstacle that day were very easy. Anybody who has some basic coordination and can do a pull up had no issues. It was basically just running in the woods with the occasional thing to slow you down a touch. Was this a one off experience?

1 Like
10

I’ve trained for several OCRs but, due to injuries or other urgent commitments, I’ve only been able to take part in two races. The training, racing, community and how it made me feel physically was fantastic.

Most of the big name OCRs are designed to be accomplishable by a large proportion of the public for the sake of commercial prosperity. It starts to becomes challenging when you push your personal limits in a semi-competitive (e.g. age category) or competitive (i.e. elite) category. This is analogous to comparing a walk/jog 10k (almost anyone can do this without training) to one completed in <30 mins (world class). Other ways to up the difficulty include completing a trifecta in a single weekend, taking part in longer races (beast, hurricane heat, etc.) or even wearing a weighted vest. Also, courses vary a lot in difficulty… steep inclines/muddy conditions sap energy quickly and wet/muddy hands do not help the climbing/carrying obstacles.

It’s also worth considering the context of these goals. Right now I have a poor/erratic lifestyle and am probably in the worst shape of my life. Consequently, simply establishing a routine and sticking with it long enough to get “OCR ready” is a challenge in its own right. Of course long term I would like to take this even further but baby steps for now.

1 Like
11

Had my first little slip up today - I cooked up some Crêpe Complètes for dinner and ended up having three followed by a snack on a plain gallette later on in the evening. The rest of October is going to have to be very strict if I am to meet my 90% compliance goal - this won’t be easy as I’ll be celebrating my girlfriends birthday with her family in a couple of weeks.

I also snacked on some candy this evening because I was aware I had already blown it. Whilst not exactly a binge, I need to avoid this mentality of “some minor bad thing has happened so I may as well go crazy”. Food for thought, I’ll have a search through the archives for some tips.

Summary:
Day: 6/7
Training: ✓/✓
Diet: ✓/✗
Lifestyle: ✓/✓
Compliance: 100%/85.7%
Weight: 109.8kg/110.1kg

1 Like
12

Mobility:
As per plan - I’m not going to track this on a daily basis any more as it goes without saying.

Lifting:
A) dumbbell high pull from hang, 5x3, 30-60s rest, 25kg - 3/3/3/3/3
B) dumbbell Romanian deadlift, 4x8-12, 60-120s rest, 20kg - 12/9/9/8
C1) dumbbell overhead press, 4x6-10, 0 rest, 20kg - 10/10/10/6
C2) Band assisted neutral grip chin-up, 4x6-10, 60-120s rest, Red band - 6/6/3/2
D) Cuban press, 3x8-12, 60-120s rest, 2.5kg - 12/9/6

Conditioning:
Dumbbell stair climb, 4x60s, 1 min rest, 7.5kg - 60s/60s/60s/60s

Comments:
Not bad, need to get to sleep earlier so it’s less of a rush in the morning and, as always, form could use some attention.

Summary:
Day: 8
Training: ✓
Diet: ✓
Lifestyle: ✓
Compliance: 87.5%
Weight: 110.1kg

1 Like
13

Nothing to report other than still on track!

Summary:
Day: 9
Training: ✓
Diet: ✓
Lifestyle: ✓
Compliance: 88.9%
Weight: 109.7kg

14

Lifting:
A) Vertical jump, 5x3, 30-60s rest, bw - 3/3/3/3/3
B) Reverse lunge, 4x8-12, 60-120s rest, bw - 12/12/12/10
C1) Pushups, 4x6-10, 0 rest, bw - 6/6/6/4
C2) 2 arm dumbbell row, 4x6-10, 60-120s rest, 20kg - 12/12/11/9
D) Calf raises, 3x8-12, 60-120s rest, bw - 12/10/67

Conditioning:
Stair climbs, 4x60s, 1 min rest, 10kg - 60s/60s/60s/60s

Comments:
Still not depressing and retracting scapula during row and need to ensure full ROM on calf raises. I’m optimistically ticking off today as complete, meaning I’m back up to 90% compliance. Weight down too which is nice.

Summary:
Day: 10
Training: ✓
Diet: ✓
Lifestyle: ✓
Compliance: 90%
Weight: 109.1kg

15

How are you judging compliance as a percent? What’s it a percent of?

1 Like
16

Thanks for your reply!

Non-compliant day = a day where they have been any deviations from the plan.

Compliant day = no deviations from the plan.

Compliance is no. of compliant days divided by the no. of total days.

I picked 90% based on Precision Nutrition’s 90% rule. I did read a study suggesting that your average lifter could skip up to 20% of their training sessions and still make reasonable progress however I didn’t want to start tracking training and nutrition separately.

The only downside is that this approach is a little strict. I’m trying to counter this by starting off with an easy plan and making only small adjustments every 4 weeks or so.

17

My 2c is that this approach also encourages the attitude you see above wherein one missed piece of compliance leads to a lot more because “the days gone anyway”.

1 Like
18

You’re quite right, although 90% compliance over 4 weeks only allows for 2 non-compliant days. I’m hoping that I’m controlled enough not to do so much damage in 2 days that it derails 26 days worth of effort.

I would like to develop the skill of not binging the moment I slip up on my diet however it has been a long running problem for me.

What other approaches can you recommend?

19

I think you should think about changing your metrics then. Maybe do it by meals or just allocate a number of “cheats”. I don’t know what the rest of your approach looks like but in the past I’ve switched cheat days to IIFYM days, where i still hit my macros and calories but don’t care slightly about food quality.

1 Like
20

I want to also track lifestyle & exercise so I will need to think how I can implement it. I will carry on as-is for the time being until I find a way to do this. Thank you!