Got some good sleep last night, feeling much better!
Legs deload
Kb swings: 2 x 25, 3 x 30
Front squat: 135 x 5, 225 x 5, 275 x 3, 315 x 1, 355 x 1, 385 x 0
Leg extension: 120 3 x 12
Leg curl: 130 3 x 10
Planks 2 x 45s
Crunches: 2 x 20
Lifting first. All front squats felt pretty good until 385, I dicked around for like a minute straight adjusting the bar, fixing my belt, stretching and ended up barely missing it. If I stuck to my normal routine I think I had it, just didn’t get the hips through. Might post the vid later, failed cleanly at least. Was limited for time so kept it minimal, good for the deload.
Put the last med in the rotation, increased sleeping dose, and moved the one keeping me up in the night to the morning. Seems to be working well, will see how tonight goes. The one that got moved in is 100% an appetite suppressant, really glad I’m not bulking because I’m going to have to learn to eat when I’m not hungry on this unless it wears off at night time, which I suspect it might.
Had a few beers last night, slept from 1030ish-5, not great but not terrible. Pretty groggy upon waking, drove the dog to take a walk around 7 and she vomited all over the back of my car. Hooray.
Bench deload
10 min walk
Shoulder warmup
Kb swings: 2 x 30, 1 x 20
Pull-ups: 1 x 8
Close grip bench: 135 x 10, 185 x 5, 225 x 5, 275 x 5, 315 x 5
Called it there, might do a peloton and some light accessory, might not. Going out for sushi and probably a few drinks tonight.
The 315 x 5 has to be a PR because I don’t think I’ve tried close gripping 3 plates before, even if I have, I’m calling this a PR
She’s got a sensitive stomach, throws up more often than she seemingly should but the gf is a veterinarian and thinks she’s fine and gives her ultrasounds or admits her if not. This dog is going to live longer than she has any right to lol
Had a drink or two too many, 2 days of moderate drinking and mediocre eating have me feeling like trash. Shouldn’t have an occasion to repeat that until the end of may.
Back deload
KB swings: 5 x 25
Pull-ups: 6 (supinated), 8 (neutral)
DL: 135 x 5, 225 x 5, 275 x 5, 315 x 3, 365
X 2, 405 x 2
BB row: 225 x 15
Curls: 25 2 x 10
Hammer curls: 25 2 x 10 (superset with above)
Back raises: 2 x 15
First time deadlifting in probably 8 months, felt like trash. Going to use it for my main on back this next block instead of rack pulls and keep it super low volume, primarily focusing on rep quality. Everything else will stay the same except I think I’m going to start subbing in more posterior chain work on my overhead press day, feel like I’m still weak there.
Decided to only increment the swings by 50, not in any rush to get to any number and as I continue to try to stay in a deficit I’ll have less recovery to give to these.
Went fully off the rails on diet last night, eating was actually good throughout the day, probably a bit more than i needed but with good food but it was my partner’s bday so I bought a pie and ice cream for it and a friend brought over homemade creme brulee doughnuts that were phenomenal, so I had 2 of those and a bowl of ice cream. Combined with the earlier weekend activities I’m not expecting any loss this week but weigh in day isn’t until tomorrow, so we’ll see then.
Shoulder deload:
7.5 min walk
KB swings: 2 x 20
Push press: 95 x 5, 135 x 5, 155 x 5, 185 x 3, 225 x 3, 245 x 2, 265 x 2 (rep PR)
Split Squats (ss w/above): 25, 35, 45 x 10
Dips: -16 x 15, bw x 15
I tried a 3rd at 265 and got pretty close but bailed before it got dangerous. I’ve hit 280 for a single but don’t think I’ve doubled anything above 245 or 255, so this is encouraging. Splits squats were a great movement in between, I always neglect them so this will be a staple in the next block. Dips for 15 at bodyweight is probably a PR, at least in the last 13 years lol. Don’t plan on adding weight anytime soon but it seems like it should be feasible pretty soon.
This is the end of the deload, liked my strategy here and am feeling better physically. Will get some more swings and planks in later today and a lot of walking, it’s going to be almost 50 and sunny. March has been a giant piece of shit so far, @boilerman and I jinxed the weather, so I am delighted for some nice weather.
Made it 8 full rounds and 23 swings in before the timer hit. My conditioning felt shockingly good until the very end, pushups were solid too, but my grip didn’t want to get in on the party. Forearms and hands are feeling it, will do very few or no swings tomorrow in an attempt to get them some rest, well ahead of my weekly pace anyway.
Weekly weigh-in was this morning, was expecting no movement but lost 0.8lbs, to take me down to 278.0. After losing 5lbs across the last two weeks some slow down was expected but I also went off script too much. In any case, I think we can still conclude that doughnuts are both anabolic and a diet food.
Down 7.4 over 5 weeks and 11 for the year, plan is to keep keeping on for the next two months until I hit vacation then reassess.
Kb swings: 20
Goblet squat: 2 (f those)
Front squat: 135 x 5, 225 x 6, 250 3 x 6
RDL: 225 x 5, 275 x 5, 315 2 x 6, 1 x 15 (hard set)
Split squats: 45, 50, 55 x 8
Ham curls: 110 3 x 10
Took my medicine (adderall is the culprit here), ate breakfast and went to the gym. Mistake. Guts were unhappy, I think getting up going then eating and taking meds is going to work better. HR is also elevated as are sweat levels which makes sense. Had 3 or 4 good nights of sleep but a couple of bad ones back to back, hopefully sorts itself tonight.
Lifting felt strong for the most part, plan for main work is 4 weeks as follows: 3 x 6, 3 x 5, 4 x 4, 4 x 3. Im also getting tempted to jump on a program, might try a stronger by science template for a 7 week circuit instead of completing that plan.
In any case, legs are feeling this, that hard set was inspiration from @TrainForPain’s log. It was hard
Alright, plan update. Since my mind gets stuck on ideas I knew this was coming eventually but I’m committing now. My trip to Alaska is the last week of May so I am going to run SBS RTF (reps to failure) until then, starting 2 weeks from today. It is a 21 week program with 3 6 week blocks followed by a deload week, which will map to my trip perfectly. Not sure if I’ll be able to run all 3 blocks but I’ll try.
Nothing super crazy about this program but I want someone to dictate the weights for me. The biggest change of pace will be that this is a full body program where I’ll be hitting upper and lower movements on the same day.
Breakdown is essentially:
Optionally work up to an RPE 8 single before main work
Main 4 x 5, 1 x AMRAP
1 or 2 auxiliaries (supplemental in Wendler parlance) 4 x 7, 1 x AMRAP
Upper back work 2-3x a week
Couple of accessory movements
Weight each session is dictated by the AMRAP sets and whether I hit the target reps.
Plan is to run it 4x a week but might shift to 3 if it gets too much.
I’ve put in pretty accurate maxes except deadlift which I’m sandbagging a bit, theoretically the program will adjust for that.
I’m excited and afraid that this is going to eat my lunch.
Here is what the main and auxiliary lifts will look like for week one
Did nothing yesterday workout wise, got a lot of walking and a free dinner/drinks, so that was nice.
Swings
24kg 12 x 25 in 9:54
Got the hr up and forearms hurting. I was just about out of gas at the end of it. On that note, I’d had 2 handfuls of almonds until I started my swings at around 4:45. Definitely going to need to get eating better to perform/recover in this upcomibg block.
