Look Like/Perform Like Log

A bunch of complexity descended on me this week, including an emergency dash abroad to visit a seriously ill friend. Fuck cancer. So it’s not been the liftingest of weeks, although I did manage to walk 12km a day over the weekend. Thursday’s class, which went off just before the dash, was really good though; challenging, intense, sweaty, and full of terrifying professionals in that “big city open class” way. I skipped modern on Monday to deal with fallout from the dash, and it turned out Lisa chose that class to stream on the web…so…

Anyway, at last back in the gym this morning. Did a Z1 pressday. Warmed up with Cunningham exercises and jumps, started loading up the squat rack when some idiot showed up and wanted to go first for “just” 10 sets of 3x bench. So I went off and did leg presses (3x8, 220kg afap), dips, more jumps. By then rack was clear, so worked through the prescribed lifts at MTW-5kg. Did 3x10 60kg decline bench presses as an add-on and only got 4x4 80kgs conventionals, not surprisingly after the extras. Noticed an absolutely stunning older lady doing a massive kettlebell workout…I’ve heard of yoga milfs but not kettlebell ones (kettlebelles?). Makes me think about adding some kets back to my workout.

Tomorrow…is Thursday, which means ballet class. Central also runs a gaggle of classes on Sundays, and I’m really tempted to swap my usual Sunday lunchtime workout for a third class but I think that would be conditional on getting weights back to frequency first.

Second bit of depressing Gym Dickology today: there’s this older, south Indian looking fat guy kind of wandering about with two 14kg bells, not exercising. just standing about, trying to look as if he was in charge, looking at his watch. I was kind of hoping a trainer might descend on him and point him to some actual exercise, but that didn’t happen and he spent most of my workout staring at me with real hostility. what’s your problem?

Sunday workout time. Z1 pullday. Kicked off with the usual warmup including the whole round of jumps and jumpsquats. Did the prescribed lifts - only realised after a couple of sets that I’d done that thing of going straight to MTW on the snatchen, decided to keep going grunt. High pulls and deads were as good as ever. Did the 3x8 leg presses @220kg for speed. Other add-ons: pullups. 3x10 incline bench felt pretty good so I did another set and the pump convinced me to do some more - 3x4 70kg and 3x2 80kg.

And I decided to add loaded carries back in, so did 10 farmers up and down the gym for about 20m with a brace of 30kg dbs. Then stretched out. That felt good, and tiring. Tonight’s challenge would be modern class…of course.

Modern didn’t happen; it’s kids’ intensive week. (Also, I missed Renato’s Bastard Mode on Thursday and took another class on Friday, which wasn’t anywhere near as scary/challenging.) Back to the iron; today was a Z1 pressday. Jumps, back stretches; 70kg OHPs and push presses 8x3, 120kg squats 8x3, then the new! chest fest with 4x10 60kg incline bench, 3x4 70kg, 3x2 80kg. Leg presses 3x8 @220kg afap. Farmers’ 10x with 2x30kg dbs.

thought: 2.15pm is a weird time to be in the gym but it does make it easy to blast through with high intensity and not need to negotiate access to the goddamn squatrack. only a few other weirdos in, lifting heavy.

second thought: I can feel the farmers’.

third thought: either I’m drowning in cortisol or I’m getting a shitty cold.

It was the shitty cold. A real fast breaking virus - from sniffles to sleepless feverish sore sinus pain and headaches in three hours

Despite shitty mccoldpants, did the Z1 pullday today. Didn’t bother with the add-ons, but did do a full round of stretching. Weird; I have a cold and therefore my turnouts are sore and tight. Mostly pleased to have just played through the pain and gone.

So I went to Brazil with my shitty cold. Now I’m back, so it must be time to lift some large metal objects. I decided to make this the much delayed fourth week in cycle two and hit the MTWs. Got into the gym and found…someone with one set left in the rack. :yum: So did the usual stretches and jumps.

Then: Push presses 75kg, 8x3. This was basically fine. Forgot to do the +5kg kicker on the 7th set, so came back for a 9th at 80kg. Overhead presses, well, I’ve decided my form sucks and I keep turning them into push presses, so dropped the weight to 65kg and concentrated on getting 8 quality sets of 3. Squats at 130kg felt strong and so did the 135kg 7th set…kind of tempting to make it 140. Added some more weight to the extra incline bench presses, 3x10, 65kg, and then only got 2x3 of 85kg. Still need to dial that in.

Dips, leg presses at 220kg. 10x farmers’ with 2x28kg dumbbells ('cos the tall black guy who’s always doing something weird with a swiss ball was doing it with the 30kgs). Finished up with turnout stretches because today is a class day! In general; a good strong workout that left me sore. Also, I think I lost some fluff over the trip.

Goal, meanwhile. Get the frequency up. Back at the beginning of this log I managed something like 13 workouts in 16 days; it was gooood.

Had to go to two conferences this week so Tuesday and Wednesday blocked off. Monday night was modern, though, and Thursday was a full two hour ripper of a ballet class. So back in to for an MTW pullday. Felt knackered so just did the prescribed lifts.

Yesterday was pressday. Felt strong, moved weights.

Time to update the log. MTW pullday on Friday, pressday Sunday. That went: stretches, jumps, 220kg 3x8 leg presses, 6x3 bodyweight dips (someone was in the rack), then 8x3 OHPs at 60kg, 7th set at 65, 8x3 push presses at 70kg, 7th at 75, 8x3 back squats at 125, 7th at 130 (squats felt hella good although I nearly missed re-racking the 5th set), 3x10 incline benches at 65kg, and then 6x3 incline bench presses at 70kg. Skipped farmers because in a hurry; didn’t on Friday though.

Note: beginning to see some improvement in my jumps in class.

MTW pull day. Usual jumps and stretches. Snatchen, 8x3 @ 65kg with 7th set at 70kg. SGHPs, 8x3 @75kg with 7th set at 80kg. Mixed grip DLs, 8x3 @ 125kg with 7th set at 130kg. Pull ups, 8x3. 10x gym length farmers’ walks w/ 2x30kg dbs.

In a hurry; skipped chest extras and leg presses. Big decision. I’ve been in the MTW phase for a while; two more workouts, or jump right to test week?

Got a dose of flu, but still did class. This was a better idea that it sounds - I think I’m beginning to get somewhere in centre at last. At least I was able to note out the barre adage and the centre combination, which I’ve always been too fried to manage so far.

Also, did an MTW pressday today - just the prescribed lifts because I felt so shitty.

Thought it would be time for pulling test day, but still feel a bit shit. Didn’t get anything better than 65kg on snatches (see a week ago), 85kg on SGHPs (ok, some progress), and 135kg DLs for 3x each.

Ballet was last night (been told I’ve done well:sunglasses:), today was pressing testday. OHPs went 3x 60kg, 65kg, 70kg, 75kg, which is good as I deliberately backed off to 60 to fix my form. This sets the new MTW at 65kg, up 5. Push presses went up nicely 3x 70, 75, 80, 85 implying a MTW of 75kg…and so I realised I’d been working at 70kg through the MTW cycle. Doh. So the new target isn’t up at all, but it is up 5 from the current level.

Squats; hit 140kg for 3 and felt like I could probably shoot for more. I think I’ll set MTW at 130kg up 5.

Chest: now this was some shit. Did a 10 set of 60kg incline bench presses, then the same at 65, 70, 75, 80 for 8, 85 for 5. Epic, vast, shirt stretching pump. GRR. Going to set the new target at 75, up 15 since I started the new chest drive.

Dips 6x3, leg presses 6x3 at 300kg, 10x farmers down the gym with 2x30kg DBs. Jumps and back stretches.

For my own reference, as of 2nd December.

MTW (87.5% 3RM)

OHP: 8x3 65kg
Push: 75kg
Squat: 130kg
Incline bench: 75kg.

Back in today. Hit a deadlift 3RM of 145kg, which only just validates the MTW target of 130…felt good though. Also, incline bench 3RM hit 90kg working up from 60. No advance on the snatches or SGHPs though. Did 3x8 220kg leg presses, 10x farmers’ with 2x30kg.

Hello. I remember the original article, with this being an edited version, CT had each exercise ramped from where the previous exercise ended so, for example, let’s say your strict overhead press mtw was 165. You would go through the wave and then start your ramp for push press at 165, find your mtw, do the lifts, and do the same for bench press, starting your ramp where push press ended. I’ve skimmed through your log and it seems you’re using a fixed weight?That certainly would make the sessions shorter, which was my main dislike of this program. It seemed to take forever finding a true mtw. Plus, it looks like he’s cut down a lot of the volume that was once built into the program. I think I remember as many as 16 work sets¡!¡!

Yeah; the post edit version has you do the build up to 3RM on the test weeks in order to define the MTW. Then, you lift at MTW-10 (but with the 7th sets 5kg higher) for the first week, MTW-5 the second week, MTW (with 7th sets higher) the third, and test on the fourth.

This is kind of well tolerated and makes for a compressed, intense workout, but it’s important to get enough frequency. Also you’ve got to get used to not pushing 1RM and not getting the ego numbers. But it will put size on your shoulders and back, and it’s been good for fat loss and work capacity. In some ways it’s a conditioning program with added size.

I should probably @believer423 in

So today is the first day of the rest of your LL/PL cycle! Because after all, who cares about life when we’ve got iron…

This is the MTW-10kg deload week, and a pressday. 8x3 55kg OHPs, 7th set @ 60kg were fast and breathy; 8x3 65kg push presses, 7th @ 70kg felt frankly easy. Charged right into squats at the 130kg MTW before remembering to deload, so did the first set at 130 as the intensifier and then the other 7 at 120.

Incline bench presses - after Sunday’s utterly slutty pumpfest I couldn’t bring myself to back off the weight so I did 1x10 65kg, 1x10 70kg, 3x10 75kg, then a 3 set of 80kg. My T-shirt has started to fit better after that exercise than at any other time:-)

Did 220kg 3x10 leg presses, farmers, and we’re out of there. I’d actually forgotten how fast and conditioning-y the lighter weeks in LL/PL feel.

Monday night was of course modern class and basically entirely a rehearsal for showing next week; we’re off the mirrors and I shocked myself by going first group, first line where there’s nobody to follow. as it turns out I actually know the choreography, even the new stuff we only got two weeks back. Next up: ballet tomorrow night, then let’s see if I can fit in three LL/PLs in the three remaining days.