Noon Cardio: treadmill walk: two miles / 3.3 - 3.4 mph / 1.5% grade
Evening Jiu-jitsu: taught both the first and second classes / no training
Starting the Velocity Diet on Friday. My version is a little different (fewer overall calories and 2x/week strength training instead of 4x). But the basic principle is the same (shakes during the day; HSM at night). Will run it for two weeks to February 1st to see if it helps me reach my end of month weight/waist goal (155 lbs/ <34" waist).
FRIDAY (6 of 12)
BW: 157.6 lbs
waist: 34.5"
BF est. (Navy calc): 20%
DEADLIFT
warmup sets and reps
220 x 5
250 x 3
280 x 6
220 x 20
PRESS
warm up sets and reps
90 x 5
105 x 3
115 x 6
90 x 12 / 5 / 4
LAT WORK Kroc rows
45 x 10
45 x 10
65 x 10
ARMS Fat Grip Barbell Curls
bar x 20 / 10 / 8
Halfway through the 5/3/1 Rest Pause Challenge. Three more weeks to go. Widow maker squats and deadlifts are no joke. Will increase weights by 5 and 10 lbs starting on Monday. Nice to see the needle move a bit on the BW, as well. Day one of the Velocity Diet was today.
Switched things up a little ambience-wise, listening to a white noise track (“beach waves crashing”) while training instead of music (mine or the gym’s). NIce change of pace I’ll probably stick with.
Wow, even if it’s “just in case”, that goal really puts some skin in the game for you. Makes me consider beefing up my own goal. I was thinking I was okay just making the other dads at the pool look bad.
Thanks! It’s taking me all of January to get this “holiday weight” off my bones!
Seeing all time great Lucas Lepri upset (by decision, but still) by relative Australian newcomer Levi Jones-Leary in the European championships this weekend was certainly inspiring in that regard!
Took the Neurotype exam but, because it’s late and I’m worn out from jiu-jitsu, I basically did everything backwards. Too tired and annoyed to run it back, so I’ll just enjoy my Type 1A status for a day and try again later.
FRIDAY (8 of 12)
BW: 158.0 lbs
waist: 34.5"
BF est. (Navy calc): 20%
DEADLIFT
warmup sets and reps
200 x 5
230 x 5
260 x 8
200 x 20
PRESS
warmup sets and reps
80 x 5
95 x 5
105 x 8
80 x 14 / 6 / 4
LATS Kroc rows
45 x 10
45 x 10
65 x 10 (L&R)
These Kroc rows are really exposing my grip shortcomings. Even holding on to the 65s for 10 reps is a challenge by the 7th or 8th one. Will stay at 65 until I can get to 20 reps.
Rest pause them a bit, go 10-12 reps when you drop the weight give it 10 seconds do another couple and then one more 10 second rest.
That could be the way.
Evening Jiu-jitsu: tutored/assisted in first class / live training w/three eight minute rounds in second
After class: Cycle Intervals (6 sets of 30 sec work / 90 sec active rest)
I really need to work on my mobility. I’ve been taking it for granted that my regular jiu-jitsu work would do the trick. But the fact that I do so much more tutoring/teaching/assisting compared to drilling is exposing me in this regard. I was really moving poorly on the ground tonight - especially from the guard. I have a number of drills I did over the years coming up in jiujitsu; probably time to dust those off and add them back to the program.
Starting to up the intensity of my cardio with cycle intervals after tonight’s jiu-jitsu class. May try row intervals after Thursday’s class. Then again, Friday is deadlift day, so probably not a good idea to do row intervals the night before.
Masters compete for five minutes in official IBJJF matches, so I’d like to get my sets up to 10 by mid-year/Transformation 2019 deadline.
Weighed about 156.8 after class tonight, which I’m hoping is a little more indicative of where my weight is/will be. Tuesday is the beginning of my three-day lower calorie, low carb, lower protein stretch (today’s macros were: 1280 calories w/ 113 P 30 C 70 F).
PM Jiu-jitsu training: tutored/assisted in first class, did about five minutes of high intensity drills when one of the white belts lost a partner / three eight minute rounds of Live Training in the second class.
Timing and flow is still very much off. Need to focus on my go to attacks to get back in sync. Not a great time for a two-week break from the mats. But that’s how it goes. I am happy to have gotten ten training sessions in this month, though (first month since August that I’ve made it to the BJJ academy more than five times!) That explains a lot …
SATURDAY (10 of 12)
BW: 155.0
waist: 33 3/4"
BF est. (Navy calc): 18%
DEADLIFT
warmup sets and reps
215 x 3
245 x 3
275 x 4 (double overhand); 275 x 4 (mixed grip)
215 x 20
I felt like my hands were coated in oil during the 275s. Grip was a fight with the very first rep. I think I was so surprised that it threw me off for the rest of the set. Mixed grip reps were fine.
PRESS
warmup sets and reps
90 x 3
100 x 3
115 x 5
90 x 10 / 5 / 3
Rest pause reps were a little disappointing this week (18 total @90 compared to 24 total @80 last week).
LATS Kroc Rows
45 x 10
45 x 10
65 x 14 (L&R)
For all the struggling with the DEADLIFT and PRESS, the Kroc rows were the best I’ve done all challenge. Grip was much better and I was able to up the rep count to 14.
ARMS Fat Grip Barbell Curls
bar x 18 x 10 x 10
Topped last week’s rep total by one. I’ll take it.
Came into today’s workout after four days of reduced calories (<1500 on average), and did not feel especially strong at all. Managed to grind through the work, but I’m blaming the relative accumulated calorie deficit for my rep shortcoming in the big lifts.
Definitely took care of that calorie deficit situation after training! Steak and lobster dinner tonight with Mrs Burien Top Team to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.
More or less snowed in on Monday. So I wasn’t able to make it to the gym until today.
TUESDAY (11 of 12)
BW: 156.4
waist: 34 3/4"
BF est. (Navy calc): 19%
SQUAT
warmup sets and reps
205 x 5
235 x 3
260 x 8
205 x 20
Final reps on the 260s were tough. Depth could have been better, but I’m guessing I was at least at “box” depth.
BENCH
warmup sets and reps
145 x 5
165 x 3
185 x 5
145 x 13 / 6 / 4
The BENCH at 185 was pretty stout. Probably had one rep in the tank left. Probably.
LATS Chins
warmup sets and reps
BW x 10 / 5 / 3
Nice to get ten on the first effort. A combination of strength gains and weight loss to be sure.
ARMS Dips
warmup sets and reps
BW x 20 / 10 / 6
ABS Hanging Knee Raises
BW x 10 x 8
One more session to go with the Challenge. Will be interesting to see what happens with the 290 DEADLIFT PR set on Thursday after Saturday’s disappointing DEADLIFT session.
Reading through 5/3/1 Forever, I realize that I’ve been taking the wrong approach to my PR sets, essentially taking them to failure. I’m kind of glad to hear that since I’ve been considering dropping PR sets from my 5/3/1 work and just doing 5s PRO for awhile because of the stress of chasing 8+ rep sets at 85%, 90%, and 95% of my TM every workout.
Will probably keep TMs at the current level for the first half of the next cycle (5/3/1 Rest Pause Challenge II - 2/11 - 3/29) and see if I’m just feeling a little intimidated by the weight. It’s possible that I’m just nearing a sophomore slump, my first real “plateau” after a year of almost cycle-for-cycle, leap-tall-buildings-in-a-single-bound strength gains.
Then again, I’m also on a modest, but net calorie deficit. So strength maintenance > strength gains right now.
I’ll be out of town on business for a little over a week between now and 5/3/1 RPC II (Hello London!). But there’s actually a branch of my gym less than 15 minutes walk from my hotel. Between that and whatever the hotel’s got, I’m hoping for a deload next week that will enable me to take out my 5/3/1 RPC I numbers as soon as I get back stateside.
Ugh, between the weather and travel, my workout schedule has taken the kind of beating my jiu-jitsu schedule has become accustomed to.
Managed to get to Anytime Fitness Aldgate tonight, about ten minutes from the hotel (my last night in town; I’ve been that busy). Truth told, it took me about half an hour to get there (I always get lost walking in London) and about five minutes to get back.
Just did some deadlifts. I hate not finishing off the final day of the Rest Pause Challenge in proper fashion. But as I keep reading on the forums, as long as I keep working, missing one out of 12 sessions in a workout is not going to matter unless I let it.
No idea on BW or waistline. Probably both a little lower than when I left. I’ve gotten in about 90 minutes of cardio this week, plus about four one-mile walks to or from the conference venue.
All the plates were in kilos, which was surprisingly distracting. Did some volume work with triples to make things easier. 90 kg in plates plus bar weight. A little over 75% of my DEADLIFT TM.
DEADLIFT
warmup sets and reps
235 x 3 x 10
Will probably start a new workout on Monday. Top choice right now is another Rest Pause Challenge type routine - though maybe swapping out the 5/3/1 with PR set for 5s PRO since I’m still trying to lose some lbs. I’ll keep the Widowmakers, though.
