Saturday - 18 September 2021 Workout: Penance, 1410-1435 (25 minutes)
Cindy WOD - AMRAP, 20 minutes
15 full rounds + 9 reps (finished last 21 reps in an additional 0:34)
I cut the grass, but let myself get too hungry and overate at lunch. (Mostly good stuff, but it’s less than 2 hours later and already I’ve forgotten what, which just shows you where my head was.) This workout wasn’t payback—it was penance.
Another great week. Lifts moved well, finding my groove with the assistance moves, conditioning is coming along. Did okay with food this week: life got in the way Thursday evening so that was a crap dinner, and I didn’t eat with a purpose at lunch yesterday afternoon, so there’s room for improvement. But I ate pretty well overall, I think.
Goals for the week:
Complete all 4 lifting workouts
Continue with 4 days of hard conditioning
Continue with 3 days of easy conditioning + direct calf work
Do 60 devil’s presses with 2x30-lbs DBs and 120 BPAs every day
Eat right
Adding reps to daily Devil’s presses and BPAs this week. Beyond the usual stuff and those adjustments, I just want to hit all my 1s week lifts cleanly and crisply.
Starting to think about what comes after this anchor again; still lots of options, but right now I’m leaning toward continuing this 5s PRO, 5x5 FSL template—kind of a if-it-ain’t-broke thing. I really like that I can push my conditioning in this setup, and my lifts have still been progressing. Anyway, I will definitely be testing my new TMs after this week, so I’ve still got plenty of time to decide.
Sunday - 19 September 2021 Workout: Extra conditioning, 1020-1050 (30 minutes)
Chaos WOD - AMRAP, 10 minutes
a) X devil’s press - 2x30 lbs
b) X thruster - 2x30 lbs
X = 1, 2, …
8 full rounds + 6 reps (finished last 12 reps in an additional 1:28)
15 Devil’s presses - 2x30 lbs
BPA - red - 4x(10 high + 10 mid + 10 low)
Much better than last week. Well, except those thrusters. I hate them. Which is why I continue to do them.
After Chaos, I finished the 15 remaining Devil’s presses as a single set in about 2 minutes; forgot to reset timer, but close enough. That brings daily total to 60 reps. Took 60-, 75-, and 90-second rests between sets of BPAs. Good pump again today—shoulders were still feeling tight from weighted vest this morning.
Mentally tougher than I’d like to admit. Put up all the squats, no real problems. 235 wasn’t fast, but it wasn’t grindy either. Tiny bit of hip shift creeping in, maybe, so I’m going to have to watch that.
Added another 5 lbs to dips, for +60 total. Gonna keep it there for now; I may go back to higher rep sets in the upcoming leader anyway. Those were the easiest sets of pull-ups I can remember in awhile. Really happy with that. Last 2 sets of HLRs nearly had me cramping, but I was really trying to make the eccentric clean. Could definitely feel that.
60 Devil’s presses - 2x30 lbs - 6x10, 30-second rest between
BPA - red - 4x(10 high + 10 mid + 10 low)
Not breaking any PRs today, but not a bad time for squat day. Between squats, sled push, and Devil’s presses, though, my lower back is officially toast. Luckily I’ve got 1-1/3 lbs of 93/7 ground beef thawing for tonight’s dinner—and it’s mine, all mine. I should be good to go for tomorrow.
Poor night’s sleep but good workout this morning. Press was moving well, had to dig in on the top set but was pleased with how it went. First two FSL sets felt surprisingly heavy, probably due to the incline DB assistance, but the last three sets felt nice and easy. Chins went really well today, happy with that too.
60 Devil’s presses - 2x30 lbs - 4x15, 45-second rest between
BPA - red - 4x(10 high + 10 mid + 10 low)
Maybe could’ve had another sub-6:00 time today: I track each trip up-and-back by marking it off with chalk on the top of my retaining wall, but I lost the chalk on 3rd trip, fumbled to find it, ended up running to garage to grab a new piece. Not sure exactly how long that took—too long, in any case—so it might’ve been close. Whatever. Still a good time.
Devil’s presses were very slow and controlled. Had HR in high-160s, low-170s by the end. Feeling everything in my shoulders today. BPAs were tough, but think I’m just feeling the lack of sleep, too.
Onwards and upwards. Breakfast for dinner tonight—a pile of eggs, turkey bacon, maybe some toast or a bowl of those Pumpkin Spice Cheerios. Either way, that’s always one of my favorites!
Wednesday - 22 September 2021 Workout: Extra conditioning, 1040-1115 (35 minutes)
(Home)Work #37 WOD - 12 rounds, EMOM
a) 6 v-ups
b) 6 push-ups
c) 12 glute bridges
60 Devil’s presses - 2x30 lbs - 3x20, 60-second rest between
BPA - red - 4x(10 high + 10 mid + 10 low)
This (Home)Work #37 WOD isn’t bad, but I like the Booty Blaster one better. Anyway, nice clean reps with about 5-10 seconds left before each new round.
Absolutely crushed it. Very happy with how my deadlift is coming along. Haven’t pulled that kind of volume in quite some time. Those FSL sets could’ve been 135 for how easily they came up. Pull-ups, ab wheel, dips—all of it went really, really well again.
Nice job with your consistency. It’s amazing how just keeping your head down and putting in solid work really adds up to big improvements. 5’s PRO + FSL can sometimes feel unexciting compared to ball-breaking workouts, but it’s tried-n-true and always lives up to its reputation.
60 Devil’s presses - 2x30 lbs - 4x15, 45-second rest between
BPA - red - 4x(10 high + 10 mid + 10 low)
Bah! Could’ve done it again—sub-6:00 minute time was totally within reach, but that stupid chalk blew away. Again. Found it quickly this time, but not quickly enough. I need a better system—you know, like just being able to count in my head and not lose track.
Really lost steam during the Devil’s presses, and BPAs were down right hard by the end. Rear delt pump is wicked today; wish my upper back looked like this all the time!
Could feel yesterday’s deadlifts when going to bed last night and rolling out this morning, but this one’s in the books. Everything went well—I continue to just demolish these sets of bench press. Assistance felt good today, but I’m not looking forward to the conditioning workout later: it will either be post-deadlift tonic or post-deadlift torture… Really hoping for the former but preparing for the latter.
60 Devil’s presses - 2x30 lbs - 10x6, 15-second rest between
BPA - red - 4x(10 high + 10 mid + 10 low)
Must need more rest, or more food, or something—no fire for this one today. Got the work in, however, so that’s a win.
Edit: Actually, it’s probably just life getting in the way again—it’s just been that kind of a morning. Kinda funny, too, because it’s only like 3 hours since I killed that bench press workout. Okay, moving on…
Edit 2: Totally forgot to do BB curls earlier, so I just knocked them out. Added 1 rep this week to bring total up to 51. Got 40 in the first set; might have had one or two more, but 40 was my goal. Took about 4 minutes from the time I went downstairs until I got back up. 60-second rest between the two sets.
BB curl - 40, 11
Edit 3: I’m an idiot: at +1 rep a week, it will be almost a year before I get to 100 total reps. So really that should be like +10 reps a week or something. I can add reps to my first set in smaller increments to creep toward 100 straight, but I want 100 total sooner than September 2022. Guess I’ll shoot for 70 total reps next week to make up for this week’s gaffe.