Press was good again. I repeated sunday’s workout, as I didn’t train yesterday, so had a bit of a recovery boost, and wanted to align the rest of my program for the block. Survived. Pressed 80x2…which I was Not expecting. 1 rep away from the goal for this block already is a bit silly…not unhappy about it.
Deadlift was fine. 10 is a lot of reps. One more day of 10 reps, then it will drop for the last two sessions, but not by much. I’ll be happy to have this 4 weeks over with .
Accessories were great. Progression on all of them again, the gifts keep on coming, with an all time PR every single week on those curls. Highest weight I’ve ever used on this one is 50kg, for 2…no plans to change anything here, will continue to ride the 8’s until it’s impossible. Never ridden single leg leg curls for any length of time, and each set I do I understand why . Still cruising up the loads with the leg extensions, so keeping those as bipedal for atleast this block, 7 more sessions with those remain, would take me to 75kg…I’ve never gone that heavy on this one before, should be fun.
Diet continues to keep me feeling Tip Top. No energy issues in training, or outside of it for that matter. I’m only hungry for my first meal of each day, but I’m certain that’s just a habit that hasn’t receded as yet. Need shares in an avocado farm…eating one everyday for the MUFA’s and soluble Fibre, mostly the MUFA’s, pretty sure those are what are keeping my energy levels so stable and consistent. Zero signs of any performance impact, if anything performance continues to improve. IMO work performance has improved also. I’m never particularly bad in this area, but I’m just not getting any brain fog, and no early afternoon fade, so there has been very little internal fighting lol. Jury is still out of course, not even at the end of the 3rd week yet, but I feel pretty bloody good. I’m cognizant of the fact that the few extra carbs I put away on the weekend at the AA meeting has probably kept me going. But I intend to have some more carbs once per week or so, inspired by @T3hPwnisher 's method, so that will interesting.
Hadn’t been following along, but exciting to see your foray into nutritional changes are going well. The experience you’re describing from reducing carbs mirrors my own. More stable energy and better cognition. Also far less “food noise”. I no longer fixate on when/what my next meal is going to be. I eat, and then I live, and then I eat again. Hope it continues to go well for you.
The funny thing is, if left to my own devices, I wouldn’t do the carb meal once a week. I genuinely prefer to go without it. The only thing that compels me to do it is to have my wife and kid make the meal. I love what they make, and I’ll always eat it, but when I’m traveling or the wife and kid are away, I won’t go and eat/make carbs for myself. Just enjoy the meat and eggs too much.
We’ll see. I’m not craving those carbs at all. I’ll experiment further. But i like the idea of keeping them in once per week for a family meal.
Press:
20x10
20x3
40x6
40x3
60x1
65x6
65x3
65x3
65x3
65x3
65x3
65x3
Chest Supported DB Rows:
44x8 pb.
44x6
44x7 - 97lbs
Low incline DB bench:
31x8
31x8
31x9 - 68.3lbs
Hip Marches: Each leg. Using a kettlebell.
4kg x 6
4kg x 6
Copenhagen Planks:
2x10 seconds each side.
Notes:
Press was awesome. Could Feel the fatigue from yesterday of course…but the sets kept coming with no loss of speed throughout the 6 back offs. Good, because that the volume benchmark, and I’m sick of 65kg . Finally can move it up again.
DB Rows continue to be the surprise packet. Very hard now…but we keep finding reps.
DB Inclines begin today. Twice per week. Felt weird at first, then it was like cuddling an old girlfriend - It feels nice, but it feels wrong. I’ll learn to love them. Goal here is to Get the 40kg DB’s in the air this block. I’ve never been good at this one, and a result never put in the time to become better. That time is now.
Last two accessories are for my hips. Or rather, to try and address my hip shift preventing heavy squatting. It’s not that I Can’t squat, but anything over 90-100kg the hip shift happens, and gets worse as the weight increases. I didn’t notice it while bring the squat back up a couple months ago, but after a few weeks in the 120-125+ territory, I felt it, and started filming from the front…and there it was, and it was Quite pronounced this time. Lol. So, before we squat again, we fix that shit.
Copenhagens…new to me, and WOW. Wasn’t expecting that kind of difficulty . Looked easy. Wasn’t. Can feel the left side Badly lacking…2 sets of 10 seconds today. We build from there. I could have started with my Knee on the bench instead of the foot, but we ain’t taking so easy roads.
But getting leaner by the minute it feels like at the moment. Feels like I’m cheating with the combination of losing fat, still gaining strength, and Full of energy constantly…
Bulgarians were ok. Right leg was all over the place. But that’s why we are doing them. Was ok by the end.
Press was great. 8 singles with 80kg is progress. 2 more reps over the previous session. The trigger for progression is 10 singles, OR a triple with the weight on the 5th set. I’d like the triple, but it feels a ways off. On the best sets today, i think i could have the double again, but no further. Multiple doubles would also trigger the progression. Its a marathon though.
Accessories were completed…leg extensions were hard! Leg curls get Hard fast when using a single leg. Weird.
Press was difficult. Some residual fatigue hanging about, been a hard few sessions concurrently, so needed an easy day.
Pullups were ok again. Same reps on the top set as last time, but this time I opted to pull a rep from the back offs, but do an extra set to get more work in. Right Elbow was a little sore.
DB Incline Bench was awesome. 2.5kg added to each hand…and still two extra reps. Significantly stronger than the first session with them. Expected though, such is adaptation to novel movements. Hopefully I can milk that a fair bit.
Hip marches better, and stronger.
Copenhagens are fubar. Left leg is So hard…but that’s the point of them, to sort that imbalance out.
Ended the session early..knee was Sore heading in…and was worse by the end of the deadlift set. It’s come out of nowhere, so I’m sure it’s not injured…just old man things. Haha. Doesn’t feel injured at all, just achey. Only things left to do were leg stuff, and testing both was painful. See how it feels tomorrow, easy enough to finish it then.
Press felt powerless again today, like a day last week, so did a similar thing. One heavier (lighter) top set and a back off set of 5.
Time to feast. Diet still on track, and not put off by anything so far, with a great sign.
Hello squats…Decided to play around today. The imbalance is improving. Plenty of single leg stuff to warm it up, and then got going, and it felt great and balanced the whole way, if not a bit weak. Haha.
Bench…been over a month since I did this properly. Felt ok also, if not a bit weak.
I think squats are back. Just easing them in, won’t be anything crazy or heavy for quite a time. The single leg stuff like bulgarians will stay also (different day). They all felt good. A bit sheiko’ey type thing going on today with the squat/bench/squat thing. Just felt good, wanted to see how regular squat felt also.
Bench was solid. Just getting in some practice.
Accessories were accessorized. All targetting the imbalance.
Lots of warmup stuff before getting going. Everything aimed at making sure my hips and glutes are cooperating.
Deadlifts with a pause, but without finishing the rep…just about holding that position. Felt good.
Bench was ok also. I was Wearing out by the end haha. Not bad stamina for very low carb…they were with two minutes rest breaks, also. So clearly not inhibited.
Deadlifts on the end…full reps this time. Were easy, until the last set…just started to build fatigue at that point. Good spot to stop.
Wanted to get some pullups in, but my elbow wasn’t having it. Good session otherwise.
Bench felt Hard to begin with, but once at that working load, it ironed out and felt quite good.
Squats actually felt really nice. Despite being the horrible paused variety…Zero pain, and No Hip Shift! So things are working well.
Pin Press was different. Fun, even. Basically had the pins set about an inch off the chest. Every rep with a dead stop on the pins, with the load essentially unloaded for a second or so, then Push.
Accessories were great. I was tired at this point, a big day on the road preceded this session, but they moved well. Saw no need to try and go heavier on the rows, just kept the rest time down and got the work in. The Bulgarians were Great also. Up another 5kg on that one this week. I was going to stop after 2 sets seeing that I had squatted also this session…but sucked it up and went the three sets, likely to pay for that tomorrow. .
Great walk today with the white dog…we’ve had them both in a training program,. every Friday one of the girls gets picked at 8am and dropped home around 3-330. They get to spend the day socializing with other pups, pack walking and training in advanced basics, retrieval, stay, leave it, etc.
So when one is away, I do my best to give the other one my full attention for as of the day as is possible. Usually begins with a play session at mum’s with her dog, then a long walk at lunch…Today we hit a milestone. I’d be taking them each to a secluded spot near my house away from roads and where I can sort of keep them boxed in psychologically white they play and explore. We did that again today, except this time, I let her walk home off leash. I left it attached and dragging just in case, but yeah. No leash was held for the whole 800m odd journey. We passed a small dog successfully, and three cars which made me nervous as shit for obvious reasons! But we both pulled through just fine with basic heel/sit/come commands.
I walked 9500 steps in 2 hours, she must have completed 10x that . Now unconscious in the kitchen half wrapped around the nib wall .
The walk did me good, as I’m might sore from yesterday haha. I’ll skip the weights today, and pick them up tomorrow.
Honestly, felt pretty crap today. Everything hurt for no reason. Knees were clucky, took ages to warm them up, shoulders weren’t happy either. Finally felt ok on set 5……then set 6 was like there was never an issue.
Bench was Ok. Felt heavy and slow. Felt best on final set also.
Pullups: Weight in full gear.
107.8x5 - 237.6lbs
107.8x5
Loaded Carry of the day:
30kg KB, 12m each hand, 3 rounds each, no rest, no putting it down.
Notes:
After two weeks of faffing around, basically not wanting to dive into another Overhead Press block with the threat from my elbow, and trialling a sheiko style week last week and remembering why i stopped doing that all those years ago after every session (albeit fun), lasted over two hours….I settled back on board for a third run with Dan John’s EES. Took me right on an hour…much better.
Felt pretty good today, especially compared to yesterday…i did wake up with a runny nose though. But seems to be have MOSTLY subsided. The warrior princess is stil recovering from her virus from last week. Somehow she managed to only miss one day off school early last week, and was good for the most part until saturday night, when the sniffles started up. And today came home from school with a headahce . Hopefully she can return to baseline tomorrow!
Bench felt fine. Clean. Felt MUCH lighter than yesterday.
Deads were a bit weird. I dunno whats going on with them lately, real mental roadblock with them. Everything over 140kg feels like 240kg. This EES thing Should make them great again. MDLGA?
Carries were good. Just some good movement under load there.
.
. Hopefully she can return to baseline tomorrow!