Keeping My Head Down, Doing My Thing

How are you liking the lunges Bro? I always struggle with them feel really awkward. Any form tips?

Hey! Thanks for dropping by my log.

Unfortunately I have no form tips for lunges, since mine are all bodyweight alone.

I will say that reverse lunges are much easier on the knees than forward ones, but thatā€™s all Iā€™ve got, Iā€™m afraid.

I saw your log too, and will post a reply there. Welcome to the fun!

2021.6.27

80,8 kg

1625 kcal, 26,3 g fats, 113 g carbs, 229 g protein

Morning ā€” Round 2, Week 1, Day 4: Core Tabatas

Warm-up

Russian Twists
8 x 9

Beach Scissors (3-sec hold at top)
8 x 4 (right side)
5 x 4 + 3 x 5 (left side)

Standing knee raises (alternating sides, focus on contracting abs)
8 x 3

Afternoon: PLP

Day 25: Supinated grip: 9 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 5 (35)

2 Likes

2021.6.28

80,2 kg

ā€” kcal, ā€” g fats, ā€” g carbs, ā€” g protein
Not tracking today ā€” lunch meeting.

Morning: Round 2, Week 1, Day 5: Stappers

Warm-up

As many cycles as possible in 20 minutes with no rest:

10 alternating back lunges
8 Let-me-ins (towel rows)
6 Push-ups

x 9 rounds

Afternoon: PLP

Day 26: Supinated grip: 9 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 6 (36)

2 Likes

2021.6.29

80,1 kg

1553 kcal, 40,5 g fats, 83 g carbs, 214 protein

Morning: Round 2, Week 2, Day 1: Push Tabatas

Warm-up

Push-ups
6 + 6 + 7 + 6 + 6 + 4f + 3f + 4f

Rocking chairs
5 + 5f + 6 + 6 + 6 + 5f + 6 + 5f

Burpees
8 x 2

Afternoon: PLP

Day 27: Neutral grip: 9 + 8 + 7 + 7 + 6 (37)

2 Likes

Iā€™m off on a brutal, six-day, domestic business trip tomorrow: (900 km of driving + ferries + more driving) x 2. The schedule is stuffed from morning to night, so Iā€™m not sure what Iā€™ll get done during that time. So maybe see all of you in six days . . .

. . . failing which . . .

. . . Iā€™ll leave you all with my absolute favourite Simpsons line of all time:
ā€œSmithers, if you die Iā€™ll owe you a Coke.ā€ :wave:

P.S. Try not to burn the place down while Iā€™m gone!

5 Likes

travel safe.

1 Like

2021.6.30

79,9 kg

ā€” kcal, ā€” g fats, ā€” g carbs, ā€” g protein
Not tracking today ā€” travelling.

Morning ā€” Round 2, Week 2, Day 2: Leg Ladders

Managed a quick workout before leaving.

Warm-up

7.5-minute timer per ladder

Alternating back lunges
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9

Alternating 1-legged RDLs
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10

Squats with 3-sec pause at bottom
Count of 8 for each rep
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9

Good mornings with 3-sec pause at bottom
Count of 8 for each rep
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9

1 Like

2021.7.6

81,8 kg

ā€“ kcal, ā€“ g fats, ā€“ g carbs, ā€“ g protein
Trying something new: Iā€™m going to stop tracking macros for a while and instead focus on getting more nutrients from real food than from supplements. Iā€™m hoping that over time this will furnish me with more energy for more NEAT and more conditioning without resulting in too much undesirable weight gain. Weā€™ll see how it goes and make adjustments accordingly . . .

That said, I was ravenously hungry today. Did well at breakfast and lunch, and ate good, healthful food for dinner (J. Kenji LĆ³pez-Altā€™s wonderful and quick recipe for Shakshuka ā€” see YouTube); the summery ProvenƧal RosĆ© and delicious chocolate for dessert, not so much . . .

Morning ā€” Round 2, Week 2, Day 3: Pull supersets

Warm-up

Each superset + rest = 4 minutes

Pull-ups ā€” pronated grip
5.8@9
5.8@9
&
Let-me-ins (towel rows):
12@7
12@7

Let-me-ins with approx. 5-sec contraction at top:
5.12@8
5.12@8
&
Let-me-ups (inverted bodyweight rows) with pronated grip
12@9
12@9

Let-me-ups (inverted bodyweight rows) with supinated grip:
5.8@8
5.8@8
&
Let-me-ins (towel rows) with palms up:
12@8
12@8

Was absolutely exhausted after lunch today ā€” so much so that I went home and slept for 3 hours right after drinking a cup of coffee. Had strangely pleasant S & M dreams . . . wonder what that means? :grin:

Afternoon: PLP

For P & P always explosive up, 1-2-sec pause, 6-sec eccentric; for L always 6-sec pause at bottom each side

Climbing the mountain from scratch again . . .

Day 1: Pronated grip: 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 (15)

Itā€™s always tough starting over after a long break. Strength is there, but endurance drops off quickly and significantly. Itā€™ll take a day or two to get back into the swing of things, but thatā€™s okay too.

2 Likes

Welcome to the club! Itā€™s been working (more or less) for me. Based on @aldebaranā€™s advice, at some point I forced myself to just start moving more; I didnā€™t feel like it, but I did it anyway. Now I find that if I donā€™t do somethingā€”conditioning work, playing with kids, yard work, anything!ā€”I get bored and just donā€™t feel as well.

Iā€™m excited to see where this take you!

1 Like

Also, Iā€™ve picked up burpees as the extra conditioning tool of choice from @ChongLordUno. If you havenā€™t already, go check out his log: Strong and Conditioned (ChongLordUno). You can literally see the fat melting off of him these many weeks. Heā€™s looking like a beast and feeling great as a result of his workouts.

2 Likes

Thanks for the shout out my man

1 Like

LOL! Thanks for these encouraging words! It felt so good this morning to do a workout and not have brain fog, and also not feel like the tank is empty and Iā€™m running on fumes with no energy left.

I took your advice and just started moving around more this morning too ā€” got a bunch of things done that I normally wouldnā€™t have been able to, so that felt good too. Iā€™m hoping this keeps up for me too.

I think I probably wonā€™t become a wild, bearded cross-fitter like our marvellous @ChongLordUno (whose inspiring log I read religiously and marvel at every day, and to whom I sacrifice some burpees every now and then), but Iā€™m hoping Iā€™ll make my own version of ā€œprogressā€ nevertheless.

Within the limitations I have to work with, weā€™ll see where it leads.

Iā€™m still weighing my portions, but it feels weirdly good not to be tracking the macros any more, if a bit like Iā€™ve cut off an arm. I know you know exactly what this feels like . . .

Thanks again for the kind and encouraging words. Iā€™m looking forward to the journey!

3 Likes

Thanks for the compliment @oldnattychris

Very humbling

1 Like

2021.7.7

82,7 kg

Morning ā€” Round 2, Week 2, Day 4: Core interval sets

Warm-up

Each set + rest = 3 minutes

Leg lifts with hands on chest
12.8@7
12.8@9
12.8@9.5

Hyperextensions with hands under chin
12.8@8 good
12.8@9
12.8@9

Russian twists
12@9 stiff
12@7 much better
12@7 good

Swimmers, stretched before set
12.6@9 stiff
12.6@8
12.6@8

Afternoon: PLP

For P & P always explosive up, 1-2-sec pause, 6-sec eccentric; for L always 6-sec pause at bottom each side

Day 2: Pronated grip: 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 (16)

Never take a 5-day break from pull-ups ā€” the DOMS isnā€™t worth it. :upside_down_face:

4 Likes

2021.7.8

82,7 kg

Dragging a bit today, but got the work done.

Morning ā€” Round 2, Week 2, Day 5: Stappers

Warm-up

As many cycles as possible in 20 minutes with no rest:

10 alternating back lunges
8 Let-me-ins (towel rows)
6 Push-ups

Did 9 rounds at a fairly relaxed pace.

Afternoon: PLP

For P & P always explosive up, 1-2-sec pause, 6-sec eccentric; for L always 6-sec pause at bottom each side

Day 3: Supinated grip: 5 + 4 + 3 + 3 + 2 (17)

Slept for 2 hours before the afternoon workout, which helped a lot. Iā€™m hoping to be sleeping a lot on the weekend while away on a trip to rest and relax!

5 Likes

Appreciate the shout out man. I tried several ways of dieting, and they pretty much all worked but up to a certain point / with their own drawbacks.

With athletes, you donā€™t start by cutting really, because they have lots of work to do already. Too little food would mean less micro and macro that we need to perform.

Honestly moving more is just the human being way lol. I just talked about this the other day with someone who when she dieted hard she had no energy, no NEAT, les resultsā€¦

Look at @ChongLordUno 's progress, and I could cite you many others as well

What are these?

3 Likes

Hey, thanks for the information.

Of course, everything youā€™re saying is right. I think a personā€™s capacity to move also depends on the personā€™s situation, to some extent their age, their general state of health at the time, and any specific limitations theyā€™re working with.

Speaking for myself, it will take me some time to get to a place where I can manage the workload that @SvenG, our ChongLord, and many others here are capable of. 12 months ago, I couldnā€™t even lift my own legs, so even being able to manage what I can now is huge progress for me, and the result of more than two yearsā€™ worth of daily ā€œphysiotherapyā€ in the form of the bodyweight routines Iā€™m doing.

Iā€™m also learning that progress comes in slow waves, and to be more patient with it than I was at first.

They are Chad Waterburyā€™s PLP challenge

but adapted to use Dan Johnā€™s rep scheme

and slower movements (explosive up, slow eccentrics, and for the lunges, a pause at the bottom).

5 Likes

2021.7.12

ā€“ kg

Was away travelling for several days, and spent all of today travelling as well, so I havenā€™t weighed myself in a while. Did manage a quick afternoon PLP workout, though, which felt good.

Afternoon: PLP

For P & P always explosive up, 1-2-sec pause, 6-sec eccentric; for L always 6-sec pause at bottom each side

Day 4: Supinated grip: 5 + 4 + 4 + 3 + 2 (18)

2 Likes

2021.7.13

83,2 kg

To paraphrase TC Luoma, considering the, frankly, Caligulan meals I consumed over the weekend, Iā€™m stunned not to have gained more weight than I have. Maybe my stalled metabolism is finally picking up slowly after all . . . Now all I have to do is keep up the momentum . . . Iā€™m going to experiment a bit with food and more NEAT, and see how my body reacts.

Morning ā€” Round 2, Week 3, Day 1: Push interval sets

Warm-up

Each set + rest = 3 minutes

Push-ups
12@9
12@9
10@10

Military press with hands raised
12@7
12@9
12@9,5

Close-grip push-ups
9@10
8@10
7@10

Seated dips
12@7
12@8
12.4@9,5

This was a good session, which (for me, at least) is tough, considering that you take everything to ā€” or very close to ā€” failure (the goal is to reach failure on at least one set of each exercise in the 6-to-12-rep range). I made progress on every exercise, relative to my last round, so thatā€™s a win for me.

Afternoon: PLP

For P & P always explosive up, 1-2-sec pause, 6-sec eccentric; for L always 6-sec pause at bottom each side

Day 5: Neutral grip: 5 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 (19)

3 Likes