Magick's Training Log v2

10x10 weighted backpack one breath burpees yesterday. I think I had about 25lb total? It wasn’t that hard though I started sweating a lot by set 4-5 when it currently takes about 70 straight reps to get me to sweat near as much, so it definitely must have gotten me warmer faster.

Today-
Back squat-
145/175/205/235lbx5, 265lbx10, 225lb, 1x13, 1x12

So… I realized while loading 175lb that I kept putting 165lb onto the bar the last couple of sessions instead of actually putting 175lb. Opps.

Felt a lot better this time, so I got to push it harder. Last set almost because a set of breathing squats after the 6th rep and I had to sit down on the floor afterwards.

Incline bench- 115lb, 1x13, 1x12

Deadlift- 135/225/275lbx1

Nope again. I’m not going to bother doing this anymore until I reduce the squat intensity. I’ll probably do trap-bar carries.

BB row- 115lb, 3x12 (3 second pauses at top)
Had to take mini-rests on the last set.

10x10 one breath burpees (30 second rest in between)

This. I feel it’s a good conditioning option none the less

Yesterday-
5x5 pull-up with +10lb (2 min rest between sets)
100 burpees

Pull-ups felt strong. I did them all with little pauses at top and bottom.

Today-
Push-press- 95/115/135lbx5, 155lbx7

Decided to push the push-press because it felt good.

DB OHP- 50lb, 2x11, 1x3

Push-pressed rep 10/11 of the second set.

Forward lunge-1x50

With mini-breaks in between.

Flat bench- 95/135lbx5, 155lb, 5x5

Easiest set of 155lb I’ve ever done. Felt my left pec a lot.

Cable row- 3x12

10 sets of-
10 burpee, 5 pull-up

Didn’t need mini-rests for the pull-ups this time, so I suppose I got stronger.

Yesterday-
10x10 burpees with 30 second rest in between.

Too easy; I started to feel fatigue around the 8th set. It’s amazing how continuous work is so much harder than that are ostensibly faster paced work that has dedicated rest in between.

Today-
Back squat-
145/175/205/235lbx5, 265lb, 7/6/6/6

265lb felt way too slow and I mentally stopped at the seventh rep. My legs must be still fatigued from the last session. Decided to do this today to give my legs more exposure to heavier weight instead of dropping the weight down. Rep 1-3 consistently felt good, and then it gradually gets harder until rep 6 is pretty close to a grind.

My left leg is definitely straining a lot more than my right as well. I only noticed this on the 265lb, so there must be a clear strength difference or imbalance going on.

Incline bench- 115lb, 1x15, 1x10

Trap bar carry- 135/225/275lb- one lap, 315lb, 2x half a lap.

315lb feels heavy.

BB row- 165lb, 4x8

This felt surprisingly light and explosive. I honestly don’t know what’s driving the strength increase on the rows.

10 sets of-
10 burpees
10 36kg KB swing
Minute rest between each set.

36kg KBs are no joke. The swings fatigued me more than the burpees did.

4x25 burpees with minute rests yesterday. Hard but not “I cannot feel my legs and I need to sit down” hard I feel after 100 burpees.

Today-
OHP- 95/115/135lbx5

My traps and upper back have been feeling very sore and tight the last two days; probably because of the trap bar carry. This impacted the OHP. 95lb didn’t feel explosive like they’ve recently felt and the 115lb definitely required effort. Decided I wanted to OHP out of nowhere after getting ready and kept at it though. Very odd set of 135lb- almost stuck every time around eye level but I powered through.

DB OHP- 50lb, 10/8/7

Forward lunge- 1x50

Mini-breaks in between.

Flat bench- 155lb, 4x6

I’m realizing that warm-up is almost entirely unnecessary if you’re not working with weights that require intensity.

Batwing row- 3x12

5 sets of 10 2 pump burpee and then 5 sets of 10 burpee with minute rest in between.

2 pump burpees feel hard.

Yesterday-
Pull-up-10x5 (+10lb) (2 min rest)
Did set one-five with a short pause at top and bottom. Didn’t feel that hard so I wanted to start doing pull-ups with just enough ROM to get my elbows fully bent. Did 3 more sets like that with seemingly no effort until things became significantly harder on set nine and ten.

50/25/25 single breath burpees with 30 second rests in between.

These felt pretty hard. 30 second rests aren’t enough to stop me from getting into the exhausted state I am after these things.

Today-
Back squat- 145/175/205/235lbx5, 265lb, 8/3/5/8

I learned that I am no longer taking a deep breath on my squats. It’s not a big deal when the weight is light and I’m fresh, but it really becomes an issue on actually heavy stuff. The second set of 265lb felt so off that I racked and puzzled over why I felt so off. Waited for the dude on the platform behind me to finish his deadlift set and restarted; less than a minute total I guess. I tried my best to do proper reps and it clicked- the mask prevents me from taking a good gulp of air; it is so wet and loose that it actively gets sucked over my mouth when I take a breath!

Actively tried to take big air and ignore the mask on the last set and it felt significantly easier. The lack of air must be making my legs work way harder than they need to.

In any case, this is basically a moral PR. 265lb for sets has always been a wall for me. The last time I ran 5/3/1 I got to 265lb on the 5+ week and I folded after just the 7th fucking rep, and that was with me hitting like 12 reps or some shit on 255lb, so no reason to think I’d crumble on 265lb.

I then went onto the double-progression route but gave up on 265lb again because I was supposed to do 3x8 and bombed on the second set. Again, this was with me already capable of doing 255lb for 1x13 and 1x12, so again no real reason to assume I’d bomb on 265lb.

Now I found that I can (probably) do 265lb 3x8 with a major handicap. This is a massive victory as far as I’m concerned.

DB bench- 60lb, 16/9

Couldn’t use the trap bar so I skipped the carries. Not that I really want to do them anymore, given how sore they made my traps last time.

BB row- 155lb, 2x15, 1x10

10x10 burpees with minute rest in between.
Had to leave early so I chose the quick and easy path.

Yesterday-
10x10 single breath burpees with 30 second rests.

Legs felt like lead for the first couple of sets. Things felt better as I got warmer.

Today-
Push-press- 95/115/135/155lbx5
DB OHP- 55lb, 4x6

Couldn’t find the 50lb. 55lb feels tough; I had to push-press the last rep of set 1 and 3.

Forward lunge with bar- 3x12

My abs got really sore from this.

Flat bench- 155lb, 3x7, 1x4

One arm DB standing row- 50lbx5, 60lbx5, 80lb, 5/12/8

I was looking for a decent weight when I realized that there’s no need to start from 50. 80lb was an ok weight. The actual row didn’t feel hard but I’m pretty sure I was twisting around a bit. I’ll do this with double DBs next time.

10 sets of-
10x burpee, 5xpull-up(various grips)

This felt really hard today. I’m pretty sure it’s because my core felt tired. Took mini-rests for the last set.

I need to go to sleep earlier- today felt like a giant slog because I went to bed way too late.
I’m also getting a deep and perpetual sense of soreness in my pecs now. I’m pretty sure this is because I started actually trying to push the presses a bit.

Yesterday-
15x10 single breath burpees with 15 second rests.

Set 13-15 felt quite tough.

Today-
Back squat- 145/175/205/235lbx5, 265lb, 2x8, 1x6, 1x3
Started to feel a little faint by rep 4 of the third set. Pushed through to two more reps, racked, took a minute rest, and then did the remaining three reps.

Every part of this felt hard. I deliberately took a long time between every rep trying to get a good breath and I was already breathing a little heavy after the 235lb set.

I think it worked though. Legs didn’t feel fatigued during the 265lb sets. Rather, my entire body felt fatigued and my abs hurt. Going to have to try doing the warm-up sets on a single breath next time to speed things along and see what impact that has.

Incline bench- 115lb, 8/8/9 (pause at top and bottom)

Trap-bar deadlift- 135lbx5, 225/315/405lbx1, 315lb, 2x5
The 405lb is a pointless PR. For whatever reason I always failed 405lb even when I was well beyond 405lb with the straight bar. No idea why I was able to do it today and I’m pretty confident that I cannot replicate it at will yet.

BB row- 125lb, 3x8 (short pause at top)

10 sets of-
10 burpees
10 36kg KB swing
Minute rest between each set.

The swings felt a lot better than the last time I did them.

Yesterday-
5x7 pull-up (various grips)
20x5 single breath burpees. Did some sort of bodyweight/prehab movement for either 5 reps or a hold of 10-15 second after every set. The goal was to just keep moving for the entire thing. It felt remarkably effective. I kept my body moving and warm while doing movements that I keep saying that I should do but never make the time for. The best part is that I seemingly feel my body moving better and smoother as I went on. It has to be a mental thing but it felt nice.

Today-
Push-press- 95/115lbx5, 135lbx10

My right knee felt painful as I unracked the barbell. Pain never went away and came every time I dipped for the push-press and to rack/unrack the bar. I’m guessing this came because of the 405lb trap-bar deadlift. I was not stable during that rep and actually took a step with the weight, so I’m guessing that tweaked something in the knee. The odd thing is that the knee felt fine yesterday, so I’m wondering if it’s due to having a load. We’ll see how it feels on squat day.

DB OHP- 50lb, 2x10, 1x5

RFESS- 1x10, +15lb, 3x10
Incline bench- 135lb, 2x8, 1x9
Batwing row- 3x12

50 sets of-
2 single breath burpee and 1 pull-up (various grips)

No timed rest. Started to breathe real heavy by set 35ish(?) and just kept going robotically.

Yesterday-
10x10 single breath burpees with prehab movements.

Today-
Back squat- 135/175/205lbx5, 245lb, 1x5, 3x8
Did first 5 reps on everything with the first breath. This is a big improvement from the last time I attempted something like this with 200lb+, so that’s neat.
Knee felt off but didn’t bother me until the 245lb, where I swear I felt some twinge of pain. Decided to stick with this weight. Didn’t feel that hard overall.

Incline bench- 135lb, 9/9/7
Couldn’t find the 5lb and 10lb plates.

10 sets of-
5 front squat (135lb)
10 single breath burpee
One minute rest between each set.

This felt quite tough near the end.

Edit- power cleaned the bar for each rep. It’s really amazing just how easy this feels now- both the clean and catching it on the thighs. Clearly the key to improving power clean numbers is to strengthen your back squat.

BB row- 135lbx6, 175lb, 4x6

I think the knee is fine but my squat form is getting worrisome.

Yesterday-
Pull-ups- +10lbx5, +20lbx5, +30lbx5, +10lb, 5x5
30lb felt harder than I think it should have. The 5x5 afterwards felt nice and easy. Short pauses at top and bottom.

20x5 single breath burpees with prehab movements.

20 sets is not good for this. I run out of movements that I remember by set 12ish. I also begin to lose count and forget where I am. I’ll do 10x10 from now on.

Today-
Push-press- 95/115lbx5, 135lbx10

DB OHP- 50lb, 2x11, 1x3

Push-pressed last two reps of second set. This felt tough.

RFESS- 1x25

This felt really hard on my left leg.

Incline bench-
145lb, 3x7, 1x3

Forgot that I needed to do 4 reps. Oh well. Didn’t feel hard.

Superset-
Power snatch- 95lb, 5x5
Hang power clean- 95lb, 5x5
Single breath burpee- 7x10
regular burpee- 3x10
One minute rests between sets.

It’s been well over a year since I did snatches. I just powered the bar up with no technique; felt easy. Switched over to power cleans after the fifth set because my shoulders started to feel a bit achy and I wanted to be conservative.

Power cleans felt effortless. It honestly felt like I was just playing with a toy. I’m guessing this is because the snatches require a lot more power than hang power cleans, so my body stayed prime to generate more power than required. I switched over to regular burpees by the seventh set because this was no longer getting that tiring.

Batwing row- 3x12

Knee felt bad during the prehab movement yesterday. Felt ok today.

Yesterday-
Pull-up-5x7
100 single breath burpees.

The pull-ups felt fine. Timed the burpees and got a time of ~6:53. That’s quite a bit faster than my last attempt and this didn’t hurt as much as the previous one. I guess this means the burpees are improving.

Today-

Back squat-
145/175/215lbx5, 245lb, 13/5/7
Did the first five reps of each set except the second set of 245lb with a single breath again. The warm-up squats felt noticeably easier and faster today. I think this is due to trying to do reps on a single breath. I had wanted to do 1x13, 1x12 on the squats and I’m sure I could have. I stopped on the second set because I failed to get 5 reps on a single breath and I decided on the spot that I’d rather get cleaner reps than try to muscle through this.

Knee felt a bit painful on the unracks until the 245lb, when fatigue and pain from the squats overrode what the knee felt.

Flat bench- 125lb, 21/4

Trap bar carry- 135lb one lap, 3x 225lb one laps.

BB row- 125lb, 3x8 (short pauses at top). I attempted 3 second pauses but I’m pretty sure I didn’t hold for that long at the end.

10 rounds for time-
10 single breath burpee
10 kb swing (36kg)

This really sucked. Started just keeping my eyes closed out of exhaustion around the fourth set. Completed it ~14 minutes.

Went swimming yesterday and didn’t do burpees simply because I forgot about them until I was taking my shower. I thought in my head that I’d do them after doing some work and promptly forgot as I got engrossed with work.

Today-
Push-press- 95/115lbx5, 135lbx10

These are feeling more powerful.

DB OHP- 50lb, 12/12/1

Push-pressed rep 12 of first set and then rep 9-12 of the second set. These push-presses felt like the hardest overhead pressing I’ve ever done. Definitely have the muscle and strength to push through even when I’m feeling really fatigued with this movement now.

Forward lunge - 1x10, +20lb DBs, 13/12

Couldn’t find any open benches to do RFESS on.

Incline bench-
145lb, 3x6, 1x7

Hm, forgot that I did this last time. Not sure if I could have replicated this though. I did the first two sets with an Eleiko (I’m assuming their weightlifting one) bar. These feel very unstable compared to the other random bars in the gym- my wrists feel a lot of strain and it’s like I’m having a hard time keeping my wrist straight. Something similar happens to a lesser degree when I overhead press with them. I don’t know why. I managed to steal a random bar when the dude next to me finished benching and that felt significantly better.

The actual act of pressing these felt easy though. It’s just hard to concentrate because I keep thinking my wrist is going to suddenly buckle and the bar will drop on me.

Batwing row- 3x12 (3 second pause at top)

These feel hard when I really try to hold 3 second pauses.

10 rounds of-
10 burpee
5 pull-up (various grip)
One minute rest between sets.

This felt much better than last time. So much so that I allowed myself to increase ROM on the pull-up and come close to a real hang, so it ended up feeling so much worse near the end.

Pull-up strength feels much improved.

Yesterday-
Pull-ups- +10lbx5, +20lbx5, +35lbx5, +10lb, 4x5

Shouldn’t have gone up to 35lb. Upper back is pretty tired.

10x10 single breath burpees with various movements.

Felt pretty pleased with myself.

Did 5 pistol squats with a 10lb counterbalance. First two reps looked like garbage, then I got used to the balance and sank down deep. Very fun.

Sorta held a frog stand for like 10 seconds without losing balance. Sorta because I used head for added stability.

Did 5 “sort of” standing ab wheel rollouts. Starting position was a mix between kneeling and bending over.

Best part is that I found that I can do these in between 10 burpees with no apparent issue. I think that’s cool.

Today-

Back squat-
135/165/195/225lbx5, 255lb, 3x8

Held my breath for the first 5 reps of set one of 255lb. Up to 4 reps on the rest. This feels significantly harder than taking a breath between each rep. Felt like I did good reps overall.

Knee felt fine too.

Flat bench- 135lb, 16/9

Superset-
Front squat, 155lb, 10x5
Single breath burpee- 10x10
One minute rest between each set.

I think my shirt was practically soaked through in sweat by the end. Did all of the front squats sets on a single breath until the last set. I think the thought of this being the end made me give up more quickly.

I tried power cleaning the bar up first and did a rep with 135lb. Catching the bar while dropping it felt tiring so I decided to do this in the rack.

BB row- 135lb, 2x20
Rest pause on the second set. Felt very tired on the second set.

10x10 single breath burpees with various movements yesterday.

Today-
Push-press- 95/115lbx5, 145lb, 4x6

RFESS- 1x30, 1x20
Alternated between legs with 30 second rest in between.

Incline bench- 125lb, 13/10/2

10 rounds of-
3 power snatch with 105lb
10 single breath burpee.
One minute rest between sets.

The snatches became a mix between muscle snatches and power snatches at some point. Never had any real problem with doing them though.

Cable row- 20/12/15

This really burned my rear delts.

Many parts of my body feel sore and tired right now. I’m honestly surprised at how my legs are operating fine in spite of how sore they feel. In the last my legs would seize up and fail if they were this sore.

Yesterday-
3x8, 1x5 on pull-ups (various grips)

This felt horrible because my upper back and arms felt very sore and inflexible.

10x10 single breath burpees with various movements.

Highlight- Did 5 standing ab-wheels with slightly limited ROM- got my arms out but not all the way. Still a win; pretty sure I couldn’t get the ROM I got today before.

Lowlight- Fell on my ass while doing pistol squats on the right leg. I think this is because I was doing them straight this time, whereas I alternated last time.

One mile jog at a 10 minute mile pace on the treadmill.
Decided to do this out of the blue because I haven’t jogged in months. It sucked. Jogging with a wet mask sucks.

Today-

I’m feeling pretty sore in random places and generally out of it. I think this is because I’ve been going to bed very late and doing way more than I usually do in the last couple of days- my body is not recovering fast enough. So I took it easy today. Will continue to take it easy with conditioning parts until I feel better.

Back squat-
135/165/195/225lbx5, 255lb, 5x5

My ankles felt very tight when I woke up today, so I knew squatting would be problematic. This turned out to be correct cause the warm-ups felt bad. Didn’t get tired at all while squatting; probably could have done sets of 9s as I originally wanted to.

Flat bench-
125lb, 18/7

RDL-
185lb, 5x5 (short pause at top and bottom)

Grip felt surprisingly weak. Now that I think about it, it may be because I’m tired.
I need to do these more often- something is very off with my hinge right now.

BB row-
125lb, 3x10 (3 second pauses at the top)

Burpees-
10x10
30 second rest in between.

Yesterday-
10x10 single breath burpees with various prehab movements.

Today-
Push-press- 95/115lbx5, 135lb, 12/9/5

RFESS- 2x25
Alternated between legs with 30 second rest in between.

Flat bench- 155lb, 2x8, 1x9

Power clean- 155lb, 5x1, 5x2
10x10 burpees
One minute rest between sets.

Started this with a bar that doesn’t spin and didn’t have a platform where I could drop the weight, so I went “conservative” and did singles. About 3 sets in I had an Olympic bar and a platform available, so I switched.

Incline chest supported row- 3x10
I planned on doing more sets at first, but I realized that I couldn’t feel my back on the third set, so I stopped.

Feeling a lot better.

Yesterday-
10x10 single breath burpees with prehab movements.

This felt miserable; felt miserable from a willpower to exercise pov.

Today-
Back squat- 135/165/195/225lbx5, 255lb, 2x9, 1x7

Strong sets. Felt good but I really hated the rack I lifted out of.

Incline bench-
125lb, 13/10/(a bit later)2

I stopped on the second set because the seat felt weird. Racked and immediately it fell down by one notch. But I probably couldn’t have done this.

RDL-
185lb, 5x5 (short pause at top and bottom)

Grip felt so much better. Felt good.

BB row-
165lb, 3x10

10 rounds of-
10 KB swing (36kg)
10 burpees
One minute rest between each.

This felt miserable.

Overall feeling back to normal physically.

Yesterday-
Pull-up- +10lbx5, +20lbx5, +30lbx5, 2x10
10x10 single breath burpees with various movements.

The sets of ten felt hard at the end. The rest felt ok.

Today-
OHP- 95/115lbx5, 135lb, 4x5, 1x4 followed by 3 reps of push-presses.

This is a huge PR as I have never done multiple sets of 135lb. Went into each one with real focus and they felt powerful. Consistently hit a sticking point on the fifth rep that I powered through until the last, where I failed. Maxed out on push-presses to compsensate.

Walking lunge- 1x50

Short rest here and there because my legs felt very sore.

Flat bench- 135lb, 1x15, 1x11
Incline chest supported row- 3x10

10 rounds of-
Trap bar carry with 135lb
10 burpees
No timed rest.

This got really hard starting around the fourth set. This feels like an excellent way to get conditioning in.

Yesterday-

Tried doing some muscle ups. Either lacked the strength to press myself over the bar or I don’t know the technique.

Pull-up- 5x10

These sucked. Had to rest-pause after the first set. Feel good up to the fifth-sixth rep and then I tire out. No wonder I feel good when I do smaller reps but suck on high reps.

10x10 single breath burpees with various movements.

Held a genuine frog stand for 15 seconds. Very happy with that.

Today-

Back squat-
135/165/195/225lbx5, 255lb, 2x10, 1x5

Felt powerful today; moved very well. Successfully held my breath for 5 reps on the first two sets of 255lb.

Incline bench-
135lb, 10/8/7

Why did I even do 135lb.

RDL-
185lb, 4x6 (short pause at top and bottom)

Finally starting to feel my left hamstring.

BB row-
135lb, 3x6 (short pause at top)

Forearms felt sore.

burpees-
5x20
30 second rest between each.

This got very difficult. Just trying to get through burpees as quickly as you can is truly an effective conditioning onto itself.