MarkKO's Training Log

Woke at 243.6 lbs, fairly noticeable lower ab bloat that’s probably the pack of Anzac biscuits I had for dinner. Definitely not hayfever. The slight cold I had last week didn’t go away, it just hid and decided to jump out again Monday night. Decided to stay home today because I’m not much use feeling this drained plus inhaling a heap of sawdust isn’t going to help my congestion.

Since I’m home alone today what better to do than take some photos in my undies and post them online? Figured I may as well, this is two weeks in to no tracking calories at all and eating by feel and eye. Food choices are the same though.


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Looks like you are attracting all the kittly Katy out can stand

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Lmao love the pussy photo bomb

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That’s Lola. She’s an RSPCA rescue Mrs KO brought home and she fit in immediately.

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Not going to pretend I have read everything from the last 6 months but the bits n pieces I did read were classic Mark: ridiculous work ethic and the constant, consistent improvement towards your goals. Good to see you are still embracing SHW life and didn’t weaken your resolve when the abs well and truly disappeared!

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Oh also wtf are you really doing a cabinetmaking apprenticeship?? Like kitchens mostly or what?

I’m a furniture maker by trade, bit different but pretty similar.

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Why have abs, when you can have carbs

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I’m yet to work out what abs are actually good for! Chicks love chests and arses and dudes only care if their arms are bigger than yours.

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Being able to bend over and tie your shoes without holding your breath is always a plus to not having a beastly gut

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Buy slip ons, eat pizza.

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I always laugh at this, and you (@MarkKO) made me think of it haha

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Woke at 245.1 lbs, massively less bloated than yesterday. Still feeling pretty off but better than yeaterday. Staying home again so I don’t make myself work. I’ll see if I train later depending how I go.

@Irishman92 very few kitchens. We do a lot of corporate fitouts, quite a bit of office furniture and a fair few showcases. We did some work at ADFA not too long ago, an auditorium I think.

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Decided to try training. I figure worst case I could just bail. Tried to see if I could go in earlier but Jake was busy, which is the one bummer about Ultra. The hours are pretty limited (1630 to 1930 mostly, and 0600 to 0700 but that really doesn’t work for me so I don’t count it). I saw Ascend Strength and Fitness were running a free one day trial, so I figured I’d give it a crack. It used to be the Gold’s where I trained when I started this log and is just up the road. For a one off how bad could it be?

Turns out I set my expectations too low. The new owners did a good job, and did a lot more than just rearrange the old Gold’s equipment. For starters, they got a squat bar. Also a power bar, and calibrated plates. All are Goliath, same as the ones at Ultra. They also got two new power racks, with proper safety straps and nice multiple grip pullup attachments. Also a SSB and a couple of football bars.

I ended up signing up. At 22 AUD per week it’s nine dollars cheaper than Ultra, with 24/7 access. I could have gone the 17 AUD per week but that locks in for a year. I’ll go to that after a month or two. I feel kind of bad because I’ll have to tell Jake I’m cancelling my membership with him but I can’t really justify paying more for less.

Todays training

McGill big three, a couple of short empty sled runs

DL, stiff bar
2x5xbar
3xplate
3x2 plates
4x2x302 lbs - first set double overhand
12x302 lbs

The sets at 302 lbs were all with 10 second rests. The set of 12 ended up being rest pause, the cold really made itself felt there. I just ran out of gas way quicker than usual.

Dimel deadlift
2x10x281 lbs - my tongue started aching after these

Goblet squats
3x10x61 lbs

More tongue ache

Lying hamstring curls
3x10x39 lbs - I won’t lie, it was nice to have a proper machine to do these

Pullups
6 wide neutral, five wide overhand - meant to be two max reps trying to match the numbers of the first set.

DB shrugs
2x15x100 lbs - DBs up to 150 lbs. Nice.

All up an hour and 10 minutes

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Woke at 245.6 lbs, definitely more bloated than yesterday. Slept like crap.

Todays training

Chad Aichs lower back stretch, SuperD shoulder stabilisation thing, band work, hand release pushups

Dead bench

Fucked around setting up a bench in a rack. Ascend doesn’t have good benches, but with the help of the manager I figured out a perfectly good solution

2x5xbar
5xplate
3x176 lbs
5x1x203 lbs

Pushups
3x15

Skull crushers
3x8x92 lbs

BB rows
2x12x154 lbs

Inverted row
1x15

Military press
2x6x132 lbs

Bench dips
3x12

Lying leg raise
3x15

All up an hour and 10 minutes not including figuring out the bench setup.

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Are you still having a cold?

Really still trying to figure out how the hell you can progress with such light weights :slight_smile:

I mean bench is about 70% and 5 singles (I know they are deadstop but still)
And a couple of days ago you did 12 total reps with 75% (Prilepin is okay here)
DL is 20 reps with 50%
And a week ago you did 13 (total) with about 75% (again within prilepins chart)
Squat is about the same as DL.
I just can’t understand how you can get stronger with such low percentages.

That program twists my brain Mark.
.

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Dimel deadlifts for tongue gains.

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Woke at 242 lbs on the nose. Looking way less bloated than yesterday. Probably didn’t eat that much yesterday now I think about it.

@mortdk it’s how Greg puts it all together. The primary purpose of the main lift sets is to practice technique. That’s why most of the sets are low reps. Then Greg adds in an AMRAP set here and there and the short rest breaks so we get some practice straining while keeping our technique good. After the main lift we do our supplemental lift, which addresses specific elements of the main lift. All put together this also generates some fatigue, which is what we need to recover from to get stronger. After this, we do our assistance work. The primary purpose of this is to make us grow. This produces more fatigue. On top of this, Greg cycles the loads, sets and reps for our main lifts; varies the supplemental lifts along with their reps, sets and loads; and constantly varies the assistance work in the same manner. This prevents us from adapting to any of it too quickly and reducing the fatigue it generates. It doesn’t look like much on paper, but per session I’m generally moving between 4000 and 8000 kg in under 90 minutes.

TL;DR you don’t need to lift heavy weights to get stronger. You can lift moderate weights well and get bigger instead.

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It looks like the stuff after the main lift is what’s improving your strength. You get a little skill work to stay efficient with the movement and then hammer the usual weak links to bring everything up. It makes sense when I view it that way.

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