Week 1 - Day 1
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
165-3
185-5x3
Paused Bench
45-10
87.5-4x6
SLDL
135-3x8
Fall outs
3x10
Like normal, things are weak as crap following a meet. My quads and lower back are lit up like crazy today.
Week 1 - Day 1
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
165-3
185-5x3
Paused Bench
45-10
87.5-4x6
SLDL
135-3x8
Fall outs
3x10
Like normal, things are weak as crap following a meet. My quads and lower back are lit up like crazy today.
Week 1 Day 2
Squat
45-10
135-5x6
Legs were still lit up from Monday so such a light weight was more painful than anything
Pause Bench
45-5
85-4
100-4x4
Leg raises from rings
3x10
Fat man pull ups
3x10
I got gymnastics rings for a great price and tried them out last night. The leg raises from rings were killer. Just bracing myself on the rings was hard.
Week 1 - Day 3
Sumo deadlift
135-2x5
225-2
245-2 add belt
267.5-2
BO BB rows
95-3x8
SSB Box squats
50-5
122.5-3x3
Pull ups
3x5
Fall outs
3x10
We got our reverse hyper yesterday. It’s in about 6,000 pieces so it should be interesting to assemble.
Below are some of the photos from Provincials two weeks ago. There is a local company (Loaded barbell collective) who started offering this service several years ago for a small fee. I gather they take thousands of pictures and sort them by day and weight class and then you can order your own. I bought some a couple of years ago but they are getting much better. The first time were good but I love how they do them now. There is less emphasis on the actual lift and more on the lead up to it. It’s like an essay in focus and determination. It’s been fascinating looking at my own and other peoples pictures and the variations in how we gather ourselves to perform.
Week 2 - Day 1
This was Monday night but I neglected to log until now…
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
165-3
190-5x3
Paused bench
45-5
90-4x5
Banded tricep push downs
3x25
ss with
weighted swings
3x12
We’ve been working on the reverse hyper. Once it’s together it looks pretty straight forward. However, the only instructions were an exploded view of the parts in teeny tiny type so there were a few missteps. We still have to attach the handles and tighten the end caps on the pads. You can’t really tell from the picture but it is a seriously large piece of equipment.
Week 2 Day 2
Squat
45-10
140-5x5
Paused Bench
45-5
100-4x4
Ring leg raises
3x10
Plate raises
25-3x15
In between sets of everything we were futzing with the reverse hyper. We can’t get the pin to seat properly in the adjustable leg part where the pads are. The holes don’t line up properly so the pin won’t drop in and tighten. We’re going to get a drill bit for steel and burr out one side a bit to widen it. Years ago when I bought my rack I had a similar problem and just drilled it out and over 8 years later it’s going fine.
Week 2 - Day 3 (Friday night)
Sumo Deadlift
135-2x5
225-5x2
This felt oddly heavy
BB Row
100-3x8
SSB Box squats
130-5x5
Neutral grip pull ups - 7
I shut it down after this. For some reason my right side upper abdominals were kicking off and even the pressure created by doing pull ups was not good.
On the bright side, the reverse hyper is together and fully functioning.
Week 3 Day 1
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
175-3
197.5-4x3
Paused Bench
45-10
95-5x4
Standing tricep extension
30-3x15
SLDL
135-10
145-10
155-10
Week 3 Day 2
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
145-5x4
Paused bench
45-10
95-3
100-3x5
tng bench
95-12
Leg raise
3-10
Plate raise
25-3x20
Week 3 Day 3
Conventional DL
135-2x5
190-8x3
BO BB rows
105-3x8
SSB box squats
50-10
135-4x5
Last sets went extra wide stance. I like these but find them very challenging for such a light weight
Pull ups - 5
Started getting the sharp pain in my upper right ab so I just shut it down
changed to
Standing single arm overhead db press
25-3x12/side
All of this was superset with digging out our Christmas decorations. We’re putting them up on Sunday. I can’t bring myself to do them any earlier and they come down January 2. Once I started pulling stuff out I started reorganizing and sweeping and stuff.
Week 4 Day 1
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
165-3
185-2x3
205-2x2
175-2x3 Last set to a box
Paused bench
45-5
97.5-5x4
Single let RDL
30-5x10/side
Band face pulls
3x30
Week 4 - Day 2
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
145-3x5
155-5
I did these without knee sleeves. This might not seem like anything but I’ve been wearing sleeves for so many years that even squatting the bar naked knees feels wonky; like my legs don’t know where to go. I think I’ll do my light days like this and see how it feels.
Paused bench
45-10
95-3
102.5-4x3
TNG bench
95-16
Leg raises from rings
3x11
Standing tricep extensions
30-3x15
Week 4 Day 3 (Friday night)
Deadlift
135-2x5
225-2
255-1
285-0 I’m not sure why I was so weak. This was supposed to be a double but when 255 felt like 315 I wasn’t super surprised. One nice thing about having lifted for so many years is that days like this don’t bother me anymore. They happen and I don’t have any meets coming up so I just roll with it. I dropped the weight and did more volume
225-5
235-5
245-3
BO BB rows
110-3x8
SSB box squats
50-5
140-4x5
Fall outs
3x10
Today I finally did some work in our gym I’d been planning for a while. We have three bars and plan to get at least one more. I constructed a rack for our bars to get them off the floor and tidy things up a bit. There should be room for a couple more on there
Merry Christmas ouroboro!
I like the bar rack! I need to do some organizing as well.
Thanks. It was more work than it appears. My platform sits about 1/2" from the stone wall. I scored the bottom three inches of the vertical boards with a circular saw and knocked the pieces out with a chisel. That made the bottom thin enough to drop behind the platform and secure it there. The lumpy stone wall made things problematic.
Week 5 Day 1
Squat
45-10
135-2x3
165-3
190-2x3
210-2x2 belt for these sets
180-2x3
126-30 This was my boxing day shenanigans. I weighed 126 in the morning so I thought I’d see how many reps I’s get. It never felt very heavy but my conditioning was definitely a limited factor.
Paused Bench
45-5
97-5-4x5
Reverse Hyper (first time we’ve actually used this in training as it was our Christmas gift and we were waiting for Christmas)
50-3x20
Leg raises
3x12
The hard work was worth it, it looks great!
Week 5 Day 2
Squat
45-10
135-2x5
147.5-3x5
167.5-5
Sleeveless again and still feels weird
Paused bench
45-10
95-3
105-4x3
DB Pull overs
25-3x10
Standing tricep extensions
30-3x15
Reverse hypers
50-3x30
It’s been about -20C all week and the basement has been cold. It’s an old house with no heat in the basement. The bar is freezing so I dug out some old lifting gloves from way back so it doesn’t hurt to touch the bar. Once I get warmed up I can take them off but that’s not until near the end of squats.
Week 5 Day 3
Sumo Deadlift
135-2x5
230-5x2
Box pulls
230-5
280-5
300-2x5 add belt
SSB Box squats
142.5-5x4
Jack knifes
3x10
Reverse Hyper
70-3x20
Yesterday we went into Toronto to the Royal Ontario Museum because they have a special exhibit on Vikings. The day was a lot of fun but was still cold af.
We went shopping today and I bought, on sale, rechargeable hand warmers than can also double as phone chargers if necessary. They were on sale for $10 each so I got a couple for me and a couple for my daughter. They don’t get as hot as the disposable ones but still warm up quite nicely and work well. Each charge provides 2-4 hours of warmth. Because we walk the dog quite a bit, the cold is unavoidable and I feel it mostly in my hands.
Also, I checked the temperature in our basement, it’s at 9C which is 48F. I guess that’s not that cold but feels pretty crisp when we first go down and start. Warm ups take a bit of time.
48 isn’t too bad, but certainly not warm. It’s supposed to be in the teens here this week, should be interesting. I may have to rethink things. I don’t know about going out there and lifting with single digit wind chills😫
We haven’t had a “real” winter in years down here. Can’t imagine how cold it is up there.