ActivitiesGuy Log III: StrongFirst Kettlebells & Deadlifts

Monday 8/28

Front Squat

2x135
2x145
2x155
2x165
2x175
2x185
2x195
2x205
2x215
2x225

Deadlift

2x135
2x225
2x315
2x405
2x440

As regular followers/friends know, my training has been pretty unstructured for the last few months…er, years. Basically just “go to the gym and squat or deadlift, then do it again” for awhile. But now that I’ve moved, got a home gym all set up (when I was home this weekend, my dad gave me some extra change plates to compliment all the bumpers that I just bought) and things are about to settle down for me & my wife after the hectic couple of months, so it’s time to get into something semi-structured. I laid it out above, but the basic plan is:

Monday - Front Squat
Tuesday - Conditioning
Wednesday - Back Squat
Thursday - Conditioning
Friday - Deadlift
Saturday - Yoga/Run
Sunday - Yoga/Run

Should be a good deal.

4 Likes

Tuesday 8/29

Back Squat

5x135
4x165
3x195
2x225
1x255
1x285
1x315
1x330

Abbreviated workout tonight. I had to cut the grass after work, and my in-laws are visiting and got here a little earlier than expected. I’ll survive.

2 Likes

Wednesday 8/30

Back Squat

2x135
2x165
2x195
2x225
2x255
2x285
2x315

Power Clean

1x135
1x145
1x155
1x165
1x175
1x185
1x195
1x205
1x215

3 Likes

Just curious man, your training style is unique. What does a typical day of eating look like for you? Do you count calories or just eat as well as you can?

I’ve seen your log mentioned a handful of times lately and totally understand why after giving a scroll - nice work on everything! I’ll stick around if that’s cool with you :stuck_out_tongue:

Also, thanks for reminding me that I have a kettlebell and love using it.

I counted calories for a year or two when I was 23-24 years old. At the time I was a just-finished-playing-college-football-on-the-offensive-line 240ish pounds trying to shed some excess poundage. I got all the way down to 190ish with lots of running and calorie counting. I haven’t counted calories since then, but oddly enough I think it’s a good thing for everyone to do for at least a short period, if for no other reason than it gives you a better idea of how many calories are in things and a general ballpark idea of what you eat in a day. I ate semi-Paleo for awhile in my late 20’s, and still eat Paleo-ish, but I’ve relaxed those a little bit (FWIW, I never went full Paleotard but I do think there’s a lot of merit in basing most of your meals around meats and vegetables).

A typical day of eating is about like this:

6AM - coffee

7AM - smoothie: milk, spinach, frozen berries, protein powder, creatine, gelatin

12PM - usually a sandwich/wrap and another cup of coffee

4PM - maybe a little snack on drive home to fuel up for workout (protein bar? apple?)

7PM - dinner always has protein, starch, and a vegetable. Last night I had two links of organic mild Italian sausage with roasted potatoes and broccoli. Tonight we’ll grill some bison burgers and probably roast another head of broccoli. Other common dinners are “salmon / potato / asparagus” or “shrimp in pesto and zucchini noodles” - but there’s always a protein and vegetable, and usually at least a little starch.

9PM - snack, most often 4-5 ounces of full-fat yogurt with some frozen fruit stirred in

2 Likes

Sure thing, man. Appreciate the compliment. I don’t profess to be a particularly high-level competitive athlete, but I do think my training shows that “regular working guys with limited time” can achieve a fairly respectable level of strength with minimalist programs if they’re consistent and working hard.

2 Likes

Any thoughts on moving from strength towards hypertrophy? Would be curious to see how it panned out with your minimalist approach.

That’s great man! Dropping 50lbs is no joke!

So it seems like to me your overall calories are not high and you eat a big piece of protein for dinner?

This is nice to see, it seems like you are getting a shit ton stronger eating healthy but definitely eating more along the line of “normal” eating. Meaning you are not stressing about and just eating as it goes. Much more of a sustainable way to eat that’s for sure! I’ve been trying to figure out how to eat, but I think eating a starch/protein/veggies/fat in each meal (3 meals a day) is probably a good way to start off and not stress.

Well…I’ll be the first to say that I’m no expert on the subject, but I’m in the school of thought that these two things are not nearly as mutually exclusive as they’re often made out to be. By “moving from strength towards hypertrophy” I assume that you mean “stop being such a lazy-ass that never does more than three reps at a time and start doing sets of 8-12 reps” to which my answer is…no, I don’t think that I will, haha.

One of the interesting observations from my time doing this is that I feel that I recover very well from this sort of low-volume, high-frequency training. I surmise that introducing higher-rep sets would make that recovery more difficult. If there comes a time when I can only train two or three days per week, perhaps I would do that, but (at least for now) I much prefer training 20-30 minutes every day versus training for 60-90 minutes three times a week.

Basically, that’s about right. If I had to guess my daily caloric intake? Probably 2500-3000 depending on how much cream I’ve dumped in my coffee and how big my pre-bed snack is.

Also, I dropped about 50 pounds when I was at my lightest (and running 40-60 miles per week), but I’ve regained some of them (not that I’m complaining) now that I have shifted back to a lifting-centric fitness approach. I’m probably in the mid-220’s right now, although I would like to peel that back to 205-210 and see if I can get those abs a little more visible.

1 Like

I dig it, this is something I’ve had to remind myself of recently. Keep on keepin’ on!

Thursday 8/31

Deadlift

5x135
5x225
5x315
1x405
1x435
1x470
1x525

KB Farmers’ Walks

6 sets x 100 feet x 44’s

Light weight, but I did these with very little rest (just long enough to strip 1 set of plates from the deadlift bar each time) so my grip was pretty shot by the end.

1 Like

Haha no, I genuinely was not implying that, was just curious if you had a different type of plan going forward since you had hit both your deadlift and squat goals. And I absolutely agree, with size comes strength and with strength comes size for sure.

How have I never heard “Paleotard” before?

I’m flipping through my mental rolodex for any and all Crossfitters so I can use this term ASAP.

Friday 9/1

Deadlift

5x135
5x225
5x315
1x405
1x435
1x465
1x500
2x535 (rep PR)

I’m pretty sure that this is my first time pulling over 500 for more than a single.

5 Likes

Killing it man. I really like your training style and nutrition. If you are in my log and see me copying you, take it as a compliment.

1 Like

@littlesleeper: much obliged man. I’ve enjoyed our chat over in your log, and likewise I’m impressed by your strength and progression. One of the best things about this community is finding like-minded people working for self-improvement and using that as motivation to keep grinding.

3 Likes

Saturday 9/2

Bikram Yoga (90 Minutes)

Great job. Good looking lifts.

1 Like