Back into it today. A good mate of mine is getting married soon… And we had his bachelor weekend just gone. What a weekend .
Started Friday at lunchtime. Travelled up to the city (Sydney), we had a few rooms booked.
I refrained from too much in the way of shenanigans so I could train Saturday morning. Not my usual session, just went along with a few of the guys and threw some weight around. Made a few new friends after “lifting ridiculous weights”. I didn’t know anyone on this trip, just the groom to be, but everyone was cool.
I just worked up to a few singles on everything… Deadlift felt okay to 200kg.
Then it was onto a harbour cruise at 1030am…lots of food, alcohol, interesting females… And just a good time for five hours!
From there we wandered into Darling Harbour for a bar hop before I Smoke Bombed back to the hotel at 7… drunk as a skunk, and grabbed my stuff and jumped a train back home lol. I was booked to stay the second night, but took the opportunity to wake up in my own bed rather than get up early and get home. Good decision in the end, with the party not getting back to he hotel until 5am . I went home while focusing on hydration… Got to bed by 11pm, woke up a 730am Sunday DUSTY… But no headache, and continued slamming electrolytes lol.
Was still tipsie at 12pm . Mowed the lawn. Walked to crazy doggo’s, then jumped in the pool. Tried to stay active for the rest of the day, then hit the pillow early. Have woken this morning (Monday) feeling Tip Top. Just got back from walking the dogs. Will be training as normal today.
Ughhh! Lol. Second day of hangover. How much did I drink . Then again, I feel more the walking/constantly standing from Saturday more than anything else. 29000 steps, and I never say down on the cruise boat…so five hours of ‘dynamic standing’. Haha.
Day 21 EES:
Bench:
20x10
20x10
70x8
90x5
90x5
SSB Squat:
22.5x5
22.5x3
72.5x3
92.5x5
92.5x5
Deadlift:
70x5
120x5
120x5
Pullups:
106.5x5
106.5x5
Loaded Carry of the day:
Suitcase Carry:
32kg x 45 seconds each hand. Set the timer…swapped hands when it went off. It was almost too long. Lol.
Notes:
Definitely felt a bit smokey…but my joints felt tip top, all that prehab/rehab stuff Ive been pointing away on has really made quite the tangible difference. Was Tired though, so minimum effort for bench - quality over all else.
Squats felt pretty good once warmed up. This week I had planned on pushing the minimum set higher, stuck to that. Felt ok, just again, really tired. Importantly, zero joint issues, zero issues warming up.
Deadlift I kept light because Tired. Back felt ok, it was definitely some kind of strain last week, could still feel it a Little bit. Mostly noticed the general fatigue in whatever muscles I wore out on Saturday . All the little ones you don’t realise you have.
Pullups were boring. Easy. Just in the way of the carries haha.
I used to do alot of pullups back when I weighed about 75kg. Sets of 10-12 on the regular. Made me good at them, and the strength has mostly held pace with the weight gain. Though I kept doing them on and off.
It’s just practice. No doubt you have the base strength for them.
30kg each hand for 75m x 2, 30 seconds rest. Quite the trap pump…
Notes:
Bench was way better today. Expected.
Squats also better. Very much stronger. Starting to feel like they are actually building to something. Didn’t feel a difference between the two loads at all, very solid.
Deadlifts still a bit suss, so kept light.
Pullups were easy again, almost as boring. More interesting with 5kg added.
Decided to carry for a Long distance, as per @simo74 's suggestion a while back. You Really get sick of them by the end .
A long carry really is a mental workout as much as physical. It’s so easy to just stop at any time that you have to fool yourself into keeping going. Now you have a distance to beat for next time.
Pulled the pin early as ran short on time…a dinner I completely forgot about . I made the wife wait while I finished the squats haha. Kind of Smokey anyway today, terrible sleep, woken a few times by bloody dirt bikes.
Bench felt heavy as a result of being tired I think. It’s such an effort lift sometimes. Didn’t push anything today.
Squats still felt good though. The top set felt hard…the video said it was better than last time. I’ll take it. It looked really solid, and I didn’t feel any technique slipping or anything. Nice.
Meant to be a rest day tomorrow, but I may just carry on in lieu of not completing today, should be somewhat of a fatigue saving…
Gotta get back to Lunchtime sessions. Feel better, and more time.
Big weekend with the family just gone. Never got a chance to train, but I’m not upset about it. The body feels like it trained .
Saturday I crammed 4 hours of yardwork, trimming up the hedge that I had let overgrow, tidied up the lawns, weeded the gardens, the whole lot. By 11am I was in the pool. 12pm we were in the car and off to visit friends overnight in the blue mountains. Got one 4km loop hike in that afternoon, then a bigger one Sunday morning before lunch.
Home around 4pm, and completely smoked haha. Pool heater was still keeping things a pleasant 28C in the pool, so we went and sat in that for almost 2 hours to end the weekend! This morning I’ve got DOM’s in muscles I forget existed . Back to work today, and back to training also around lunchtime I think.
Couldn’t get it going yesterday. Gut was messed up from the last couple of weeks of social excitement.
On the mend now…and got some work in today.
Just a primer as when I have 3- days off this stuff, everything seems to complain!
Bench:
20x10
70x8
90x5
105x5
SSB Squat:
22.5x5
22.5x5
72.5x5
72.5x5
Back Extensions:
Bw x 20
Bw x 20
Notes:
Kept it nice and simple and quick today.
Bench felt almost normal…
Squats did not feel normal. Essentially stretching the hips here with pauses in the bottom and what not, rather than worry about any kind of loading. Felt better afterwards.
Finished up with a lot of back extensions. Lower back felt tight before I started, squats helped quite a bit, the extensions opened it up more so.
A bit lax on the ol’ logging front here, lol. I keep a manual diary, and been running a bit ahort on time lately with work commitments, and an O/s trip coming up faster than i’d like!
Lots of bodyweight squat warmups. Mate was already up to 82.5.
82.5x3
112.5x1
132.5x1
140x1
122.5x1
122.5x1
Farmers Carries: Weight Each hand.
40x30m
60x30m
80x30m
80x30m
80x30m
Notes:
Bench was Ok. Heavy Enough without being silly.
Squats were really good…and all i was thinking about the entire time i was benching, and most of the morning before that also. I set a goal to get the SSB squat, using high handle position to mimic front squat loading as best I can manage, of 150kg. 140kg was Not a max effort, but also, i’m not convinced i had a lot more without sacrificing upper back position, which is something i wont do. 150kg was certainly ambitious for this cycle if i’m to be honest. I’m not far off. I MIGHT go again on a single before i fly out on the 15th.
What i always find so wild about this programming, is that i never went above 102.5kg for a set of 5…and those 5’s were never at any point a challenging set, most often feeling like i hadnt done enough that session. I think 125 or 127.5 was the heaviest double? And the biggest single was 132.5.
All but gave up on Pullups this past week. Had some elbow trouble, which still bothers me today…but doesnt seem to affect bench too much. Usually byt the end of the 70x8 set its gone completely. And deadlifts i skipped last two workouts to allow fresh as possible squats. Lol.
Carries are still my favourite thing this cycle.
After my first trip away, i’ll have a two week window before our regular family QLD trip. Will treat it as a bit of a testing block where i’ll play with some other variations, and just work on conitioning more than anything else. Family trip is likely to be just hotel gym stuff…with maybe two sessions at a local PL gym i know, but its a short drive/Uber…so that may or may not even happen - Holidays be for Holidaying.
More importantly than hitting that 150kg goal, is getting to the pointy end of this 8 weeks without any knee issues. And so far, i seem to have pulled that off. Squatted the last 5-6 days in a row, too…ZERO issues. No adductor weirdness, no lazy glute, no hint of any Psoas problems.
