ActivitiesGuy Log III: StrongFirst Kettlebells & Deadlifts

Thanks man. I was surprised how well that moved…I’ve been very stressed at work recently, my nutrition has been a little off (not terrible, but not ideal; often I go a long time, from lunch around 12PM til my workout at 6-7PM, without a chance to eat) and I was worried that I’d lost some strength, but I’m still certainly good for deadlifting well into the upper 500’s based on that pull. Incidentally, something happened on Tuesday at work that really ticked me off, so I probably had a little extra steam on that lift from that alone.

5 Likes

They do say strength is the last thing to go, so nice to know it’s not going to dissapear on you any time soon! We need deadlift goals like you around here

2 Likes

I mean, I know that I’ve been putting in good work (low volume, but good consistent work) so I wouldn’t have fallen off much, but given the cumulative stress of late, it was a major boost to hit that big of a pull (on a day with suboptimal nutrition and high work-related stress level).

Deadlifts are definitely my best medicine.

3 Likes

Thursday 9/21

Front Squat

2x135
2x165
2x195
2x225
2x255

Back Squat

2x255
2x285
2x315
2x345

Preach brother preach!

As T-Nation says, if weakness is the disease, deadlifts are the cure. Great pull man

1 Like

Friday 9/22

Deadlift

5x135
5x225
5x315
2x405
2x435
2x465
2x500
2x500

2 Likes

Saturday 9/23

Front Squat

5x135
5x165
5x195
2x225
2x255
2x285
2x295 (PR)

Back Squat

2x315
2x315

Power Clean

3x135
3x165
3x195
1x225

My brother AND dad were here to lift today (parents live 4 hours away, but came in to visit for a couple things this weekend). My dad just did a bunch of squats at 225; bro worked up to a single at 315 and nailed it easily. Good stuff all around.

5 Likes

Sunday 9/24

3-Mile Run (25 Minutes)

Yardwork (3 Hours)

As a new homeowner, gotta admit that yard work brings a lot of “non-exercise physical activity” to the table. Cutting grass, raking leaves, chopping up fallen branches with a hatchet…took a lot out of me today. Good thing, too - with all the heavy squats and pulls, it’s probably good to use my body and muscles in some other ways.

3 Likes

My parents were absentee landlords for about 7 years or so and had no one to check the house out cause they’re cheap.

It turns out that the renters never once did any maintenance work on the backyard. Leaves and other detritus literally became a part of the soil when I moved back into the area and took a look at the backyard. We had a big tree in the backyard that had big exposed roots. I found said roots covered by a good 2-3 feet of soil when I returned.

IIRC correctly, it took me two-three weeks to clean the entire place up. It took a good three full work-days to gather everything up into gigantic piles and then weeks of filling those garbage bins meant for yard-work and such. It would have taken much longer if the contractor we had hired to do work on the house didn’t also take the time to take those piles personally to wherever you dump them.

Long story short- yard-work is a big pain.

Cutting the grass is easy - just walking around pushing a mower. I like that.

Raking leaves is probably my least favorite (well, I don’t really have a garden that takes much “weeding” or else that would be in the running).

I have a couple trees around so every week there are a couple of fallen branches that I can hack up with my hatchet. That’s just kind of fun.

Nice!

I moved into my new place about a year ago and spent about a week straight raking leaves. Between raking, shoveling, and carrying the bags it was solid conditioning and good outdoors time. Not sure what changed as an adult but raking is now my favorite home upkeep chore, beer helps.

1 Like

Definitely “adulting” at its finest, ha! Mine is mowing.

I just pulled in $1,800 of top soil. Home owning can suck… The greatest moment of my home owning ‘career’ has been the time between when I received the proceeds from my first home’s sale and up until closing of the new home. haha

1 Like

Ha, so just showing how clueless I am: my driveway had these big wooden things (looked like railroad ties) along the one side. I assume that it was meant to help with drainage, but it honestly just pools water there when it rains, so we decided that I should yank it up (which was super fun, to get a giant crowbar/sledge like thingy and haul these things out of the ground). I successfully hauled the things out of the ground, leaving about 6" wide trench between the driveway and the grass, and was asking my across-the-street neighbor who does some landscaping work “Uh, so what should I do about this?” He told me, helpfully “Just buy some top soil and fill in the trench.” Honestly had never occurred to me. Top soil. Of course…uh, what’s top soil?

1 Like

Were they the forms when they poured the driveway? How old is the house?

Ha! I bought a loam 70/30 mix How deep is your trench?

House is ~40 years old. One of the guys across the street (who let me borrow his giant crowbar/sledge thingy) has lived in his house for ~35 years and says they’ve been here as long as he can remember, so that’s certainly possible…

Monday 9/25

Deadlift

5x135
5x225
5x315
2x405
2x435
2x465
2x500

Did some more landscaping work when I got home tonight, before lifting, so I was already drenched in sweat before I started working out. Just worked up to a solid double at 500. Feels good to know that’s there any time I want it.

3 Likes

Tuesday 9/26

Back Squat

2x135
2x225
2x315
2x345
2x360
2x315

Did some more landscaping after work, so again just did a very brief workout on the weights.

2 Likes

Wednesday 9/27

Deadlift

5x135
5x225
5x315
2x405
2x435
2x465
3x500

I’m pretty sure the triple at 500 is a rep PR, albeit not a surprising occurrence for a guy that can pull 600. Nevertheless, I’m pleased given the continued stress at work. Doesn’t seem to be detracting from my training.

3 Likes